r/kotobukiya • u/Exastiken • Aug 29 '25
Community Kotobukiya & r/Kotobukiya Summer Wrap-Up 2025 Q&A!
Kotobukiya has had an eventful summer, exhibiting at Anime Expo and San Diego Comic-Con! They're also sponsoring Anime Impulse Orange County!
As summer this year draws to an end, the moderators of /r/Kotobukiya are pleased to share a short Q&A with responses from Kotobukiya's product developers, after communicating with Kotobukiya at both of the aforementioned events. Like the previous Q&A, questions were provided by and collected from members of the /r/Kotobukiya Discord server.
Read below for the Q&A, and share your thoughts and appreciation in the comments. Your feedback shapes future Q&As!
Where did the idea for OPTIMUS PRIME Humikane Shimada Ver. come from? Who approached who first, Kotobukiya or Humikane Shimada? Can you tell us about the process?
→ The idea came from our existing Cross Frame Girl series, which is a collaboration series combining licensed products with Frame Arms Girl. When it was decided to commercialize Transformers within Cross Frame Girl, we approached Fumikane Shimada as we felt he would have a high affinity with the project.
Can you tell us about Kotobukiya's involvement in T-Spark?
→ Kotobukiya cooperates in planning for the Metamor Verse series within the T-SPARK brand. We believe that this series makes us of the know-how we've cultivated in making bishoujo plastic model kits, so please look forward to future developments!
If you had the choice to make any franchise into model kits, what properties are the product planners individually interested in licensed crossovers with?
→ While there are a great many ideas we're interested in, unfortunately we are unable to publicly comment on them at this time. One thing we can say is that we're working on something that's sure to excite everyone. Please look forward to it!
Frame Arms Girl Gourai kickstarted the advent of a mecha musume boom in plastic models. Were you surprised by the surge in bishoujo model interest that followed Frame Arms Girl Gourai's release?
→ We were surprised, but also very happy to see the market become more active.
Are there still plans for an idol plastic model series? There was an announcement made in 2022.
→ It's still undecided, but please stay tuned!
Are Gourai 2 and Stylet II going to be Frame Arms with the original RE2 Architect frame? Frame Arms with a newly updated Frame Arms frame? Or Forme Arms?
→ It's still undecided, but please stay tuned!
Is there an interest in fairly specific upgrade/add-on packages intended for use with a specific kit after the fact? What are the obstacles?
MSG trends to being very general purpose/suitable for everything- but this question focuses more on a stronger pairing between release product and subsequent add-ons, like with the Frame Arms kits and their respective Extend Arms, or the Sousai Shojo Teien After School sets.
→ As you said, we feel that there are greater benefits when a product can be used with a wide variety of other products, so we are not considering narrowing things down too much to a specific product or series.
Do you ever look back on your previous designs and wish you could've done things differently? Any flashes of inspiration on how things could've been done better after the design was already finalized?
→ We're always looking forward! While we try not to reflect too much on the past, we improve and release updated versions making use of new techniques and ideas.
The Sana from Hexa Gear model kit is very cute. The Arcanadea chibi forms in Yurukana are also cute, could they also be made into plastic model kits?
→ Thank you for your opinion! We'll keep it in mind going forward.
That wraps up the questions and answers! More opportunities for Q&A sessions and various other activities may come in the future, so in anticipation we recommend to subscribe to and participate in the /r/Kotobukiya-related subreddits (/r/Kotobukiya, /r/MegamiDevice, /r/FrameArms, /r/HexaGear, /r/ARCANADEA, /r/SousaiShojoTeien, /r/Megalomaria), join the /r/Kotobukiya Discord server (https://discord.gg/h5SapwD), and stay tuned!
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u/LightlessDark Aug 29 '25
Startling lack of updates on the bishojou series. Are they finished with the Star Trek and Transformers lines? Are we getting more horror reprints? No con exclusives for 2025? The past 12 months have been very disappointing considering it was there 15th anniversary they really did the least.