On the Souten no Ken merchandise market, assembled and painted resin statues of Kasumi Kenshiro circulate, sometimes with very fine craftsmanship that can be reminiscent of productions by major manufacturers like Kaiyodo or Volks. However, many of them are not official products; they are unofficial garage kits, manufactured and sold outside of licensed distribution channels.
Details
What is an unofficial garage kit?
A garage kit is a figure sold as a kit of resin parts to be assembled and painted by the buyer, as opposed to industrial figures ready for display. There is a parallel production of so-called unofficial kits, generally from Asian workshops, that reproduce characters without holding a license from the publisher. These pieces are distributed by online resellers and on marketplaces, in limited runs and under frequently changing names. Some replicate existing sculptures (referred to as “recasts,” copies made from a mold taken from an original piece), while others feature original poses.
How to identify them
Several clues help identify these productions: the absence of an official manufacturer brand or catalog reference number, a vague origin statement (often “foreign product”), the lack of Japanese instructions, sales in bundles or at prices significantly lower than those on the official market, and fluctuating availability. The quality of finish varies greatly from one specimen to another.
It should be noted that these kits exist in a gray area with regard to the rights of the work’s rights holders and, where applicable, the sculptors whose work is reproduced. The two Kasumi Kenshiro statues shown below illustrate this type of production, with visually appealing pieces whose origin and status nonetheless remain undetermined.
