The other day at Super Festival 58, I had a chat with the owner of Marusan. He's a very nice, dapper gentleman, and he clued me in on some breaking news for Marusan. The company is in the process of finalizing a deal with a US distributor to have their figures sold overseas. That will hopefully be concluded within a number of months. As I understand it, the plan is for sales to be through the Marusan USA website, which currently has a few pages of information about the company.
So for all you fans of Marusan's Goji, Hedorah, and other figures - hang onto your hats, cuz the sofubi train is a rollin' westward! Wait, what? Problem with the metaphor? See, it's a hover train, so it will simply glide over the Pacific with its sofubi payload. Du-uh... ^_^
Original reporting: indie + vintage toys, shop visits, interviews, event coverage.
This was the original statement released by Go Hero LLC back in September 2011:
ReplyDeleteGO HERO LLC has acquired MARUSAN USA to exclusively distribute MARUSAN TOYS Inc. in the US and to develop new and classic Japanese character toys for collectors around the world.
We are proud to announce a new endeavor between Marusan Toys Inc. and Go Hero LLC. This opportunity will facilitate the distribution of Marusan products in the US as well as open up licensing possibilities in both the US, Japan and elsewhere. Both companies share affections for classic toys, kaiju (monster), robots and hero characters. This will open up possibilities in vinyl, tin and more. Look for new versions of Marusan classic, new Marusan exclusives, new Go Hero/Marusan collaborations, and new Marusan designs of your favorite characters such as TOHO’s GODZILLA, TSUBURAYA’s ULTRAMAN, TOEI’s KIKAIDA and many more.
“As a collector of Marusan products, I am honored to have this opportunity to collaborate with Marusan. The possibilities of taking some of my American licenses and interpreting them through the lens Marusan is thrilling.” – Steve Forde, owner Go Hero
“Both Steve Forde and Eiji Kaminaga have made amazing toys in their respective companies, I am looking forward to what they create together.” – William Gallagher, previous owner of Marusan USA
“I am excited to combine our talent and skills to create new projects and reach new collectors.” – Eiji Kaminaga, owner of Marusan Toys Inc.
Good info - thanks for posting!
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