When A Toy Supports Hate
April 2, 2023 3:18 PM Subscribe
There have always been questions around the funding of the infamous image board 4chan, given its ties to hate groups and conspiracy theories like QAnon. But as part of the fallout of the mass shooting in Buffalo, it has come out that part of that funding came from Japanese toymaker Good Smile, whose Nendoroid line of super-deformed character figurines are popular around the world and has included characters from Disney and Nintendo, among other franchises.
Unsurprisingly, Disney has declined to renew their deal with Good Smile in response to the reporting.
Unsurprisingly, Disney has declined to renew their deal with Good Smile in response to the reporting.
Nice to be able to say "Proud of Disney"! I hope every single other company follows suit. Send articles to the makers of IP you care about.
posted by pelvicsorcery at 3:27 PM on April 2, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by pelvicsorcery at 3:27 PM on April 2, 2023 [4 favorites]
Archive link in case anyone else is hitting a paywall.
posted by Dysk at 3:32 PM on April 2, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by Dysk at 3:32 PM on April 2, 2023 [2 favorites]
you are tellin me that a company that makes hentai figurines funded the hentai-and-nazis site
posted by Going To Maine at 3:43 PM on April 2, 2023 [18 favorites]
posted by Going To Maine at 3:43 PM on April 2, 2023 [18 favorites]
I am unsurprised. The Japanese right wing is active, often wealthy, and has a great deal of influence and power.
posted by sotonohito at 3:53 PM on April 2, 2023 [8 favorites]
posted by sotonohito at 3:53 PM on April 2, 2023 [8 favorites]
Full disclosure: I'm a longtime collector of Japanese figures and a curator at a major online figure/toy database site. I have just over 200 Good Smile Company (GSC) items in my collection, not including items from affiliated companies like Max Factory, FREEing, and Phat Company.
When this news came out, I was startled, yet unsurprised. As sotonohito implies, the Japanese right wing is everywhere, and often unavoidable. They will ruin your day (and your collections) on a regular basis. On a similar note, the public online reactions from the figure collecting community were mixed, which I expected. Even these days, with greater diversity of content being produced and localized, Japanese pop culture fan spaces in the West still seem to have more right wingers on average than others.
One curious detail about this story is that it seems like GSC wanted to keep this 4chan connection as low-key as possible, and now that they've been found out, they're "in the process of leaving." It's like they knew that this connection wasn't ever a good thing to have public. Good on WIRED for digging into this story, and good on Disney for at least saying that they won't be renewing their contract.
On that note, I can't help but wonder how certain other licensors of GSC's will take this news. In particular, I wonder about Toby Fox, creator of lefty indie game favorites Undertale and Deltarune, which are currently being adapted into several Nendoroid figures. If Toby and/or other licensors drop GSC because of this, I'm totally fine with that.
As a collector, in addition to being startled and unsurprised, I am disappointed and disgusted. Through their products, GSC has raised money for disaster relief and to preserve national treasures. I know they can be a force for good in this world, but their involvement with 4chan, well, ruined my day. I want them to do better.
I have already been taking greater care with what I add to my collection, and now it seems like I'll be looking at GSC figures with greater scrutiny from now on.
posted by May Kasahara at 6:36 PM on April 2, 2023 [27 favorites]
When this news came out, I was startled, yet unsurprised. As sotonohito implies, the Japanese right wing is everywhere, and often unavoidable. They will ruin your day (and your collections) on a regular basis. On a similar note, the public online reactions from the figure collecting community were mixed, which I expected. Even these days, with greater diversity of content being produced and localized, Japanese pop culture fan spaces in the West still seem to have more right wingers on average than others.
One curious detail about this story is that it seems like GSC wanted to keep this 4chan connection as low-key as possible, and now that they've been found out, they're "in the process of leaving." It's like they knew that this connection wasn't ever a good thing to have public. Good on WIRED for digging into this story, and good on Disney for at least saying that they won't be renewing their contract.
On that note, I can't help but wonder how certain other licensors of GSC's will take this news. In particular, I wonder about Toby Fox, creator of lefty indie game favorites Undertale and Deltarune, which are currently being adapted into several Nendoroid figures. If Toby and/or other licensors drop GSC because of this, I'm totally fine with that.
As a collector, in addition to being startled and unsurprised, I am disappointed and disgusted. Through their products, GSC has raised money for disaster relief and to preserve national treasures. I know they can be a force for good in this world, but their involvement with 4chan, well, ruined my day. I want them to do better.
I have already been taking greater care with what I add to my collection, and now it seems like I'll be looking at GSC figures with greater scrutiny from now on.
posted by May Kasahara at 6:36 PM on April 2, 2023 [27 favorites]
Reading the article felt a bit like falling into a William Gibson novel. And not in a good way.
posted by Candleman at 10:15 PM on April 2, 2023 [7 favorites]
posted by Candleman at 10:15 PM on April 2, 2023 [7 favorites]
I have their figure of Michaelangelo’s David (I actually think I heard about it here?).
posted by Phanx at 11:12 PM on April 2, 2023
posted by Phanx at 11:12 PM on April 2, 2023
It's only by luck that I don't own anything they made, because they've released a couple figures of Chun-Li, but I collect Blanka.
posted by Faint of Butt at 8:03 AM on April 3, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by Faint of Butt at 8:03 AM on April 3, 2023 [3 favorites]
A new Instagram challenge: Burn your figurines on there one by one.
posted by aiq at 9:25 AM on April 4, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by aiq at 9:25 AM on April 4, 2023 [2 favorites]
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posted by thecjm at 3:21 PM on April 2, 2023 [6 favorites]