This article is from the official account:Incompatible and Research Institute (ID: buuuxiangji)< span class = "text-remarks">, author: rich diamond, from the head of FIG: animation “Transformers”
On the assembly line of a toy factory in Chenghai District, Shantou City, Optimus Prime’s head was placed on the torso with both hands by an aunt and tightened. From eight in the morning until the sun sets in the evening, she can install the heads of about 3,000 Optimus Prime.
The blue basket next to it is full of the aunt’s work for a week-more than 10,000 fingernail-sized Optimus Prime heads. Other colleagues have similar blue baskets around them, in which the arms and legs of Optimus Prime and Bumblebee are stacked.
This factory can be said to be the real planet of Cybertron, the true home of Optimus Prime.
There is a saying in China’s toy industry that those who win Transformers win the world.
Since its birth in 1984, from cartoons to movies and peripheral products, every time a new Transformers work is released, it has caused quite a stir. The 36-year-old Transformers still has a strong ability to attract gold.
Any child who has watched Transformers cartoons or movies will want to have a Transformers toy that can be played with. Parents who do not want to disappoint their children will walk into toy stores or open mobile shopping platforms.
The key to the problem lies here. Almost not many people care if the Transformers they buy are genuine, as long as they look like Transformers.
On any shopping platform, search for the keyword “Transformers Toys”, and almost all the places of shipment point to Chenghai, Shantou. Even if it is shipped from other places, it will probably match the name of the city on the address bar of the manufacturer of the outer packaging.
In the hearts of the toy factory owners in Chenghai, Shantou, the way Transformers make money is no longer a secret.
The first time I heard Chenghai, it was because of the Chenghai 3C map in Warcraft
Taking advantage of the spring breeze of reform and opening up, Shantou, designated as a special economic zone, began to vigorously rise in the 1980s.
Although Shantou is a special zone, it can be regarded as a remote area compared with Shenzhen and Dongguan, which are adjacent to Hong Kong. However, the Chaoshan area also has its own exclusive advantage, that is, the overseas Chinese all over the world.
The Chenghai overseas Chinese in Hong Kong found a way to get rich for the people in their hometown. They brought back to Shantou the injection molding machine capable of producing small plastic toys, which also buried the mass production of Transformers here. Foreshadowing.
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The foundation of Cybertron was established. Like other manufacturing industries in China, toy companies in Chenghai all started from small family workshops.
Among them came out of the famous leading company Aofei. Although their family did not produce Transformers, their way of making a fortune inspired all the toy factories in Chenghai.
With the phrase “Audi Double Diamond, my partner”, Aofei’s name is enough to write the history of China’s toy industry.
In 1993, Cai Dongqing, a native of Chenghai who had accumulated the first pot of gold in his life by selling toy speakers, saw the popular four-wheel drive in Hong Kong.
With his keen business sense, after returning to Chenghai, he immediately established Audi Toys, which is the predecessor of Aofei Entertainment today, which specializes in imitating four-wheel drive vehicles imported from Japan.
At the same time, Cai Dongqing spent 1.1 million US dollars to introduce the Japanese animation “Four-wheel-drive Kid” and also held four-wheel drive competitions across the country.
At that time, more than 800,000 students and children in 24 provinces and cities across the country joined the four-wheel drive culture. In the finals held at the Xicheng District Gymnasium in Beijing, many sports clubs, Leaders from the Ministry of Education and others all came to the venue to give speeches, expressing their support for this “National Entertainment” and “National Sports” competition.
This imitation four-wheel drive directly led Aofei Toys to overtake a corner. Before Tamiya, the originator of the four-wheel drive in Japan, quickly occupied the mainland market and harvested huge profits.
In 1996, Aofei sold more than 100 million yuan in sales of four-wheel drive toys, grabbing more than half of the country’s market share, and even overshadowing the original version in Japan.
Transformers also came into the eyes of Chenghai people at that time. Some small family workshops opened molds and produced them as in cartoons. The first Transformers toys of Chinese people basically came from here.
Maps are needed for war. Since there are no design drawings of Transformers, the Transformers produced in Chenghai at that time were very rough and had no play value at all. They only imitated the deformation, not the diamond.
In the 21st century, with the development of computer technology, toy factories imitating Transformers ushered in a golden age. Toy factory owners with various purposes are actively involved in this blue ocean, and some want to use TransformersSome people want to imitate Aofei and create another glory.
The underground imitation Transformers industry chain is quietly turning in Chenghai. It wasn’t until July this year that a hot search on Weibo made the secret industrial chain involving hundreds of millions of assets public.
Transformers are hotly searched in this way, even his fans are surprised
After careful investigation, the Shanghai police successfully detected the country’s first case of infringing on the copyright of the Transformers toy brand, and smashed a full-chain criminal gang from dismantling drawings and scaling to imitation production, packaging and sales, and arrested suspects. There were 5 people, and more than 30,000 copies of nearly 30 kinds of imitation products and parts were seized, and the sales amount involved was over 100 million yuan.
At the police press conference, the imitation Transformers produced in Chenghai, Shantou were placed in front of the actual Transformers officially produced by Hasbro, and received the gaze from the camera in the hands of the reporters present.
The most incredible thing is that several models of imitation Transformers produced by this company are even more expensive than the genuine ones.
If it were not for the “genuine” and “fake” notes posted by the police in advance, it is estimated that most people would not be able to tell the difference between imitation Transformers and genuine ones at first glance.
On the Internet, there are more voices than critics of Transformers manufacturers who support piracy. Netizens feel sorry for the pirated toy factory that has been cracked down, and some people make up various jokes to make fun of Hasbro, the parent company behind Transformers.
Police: How to distinguish genuine from fake? Hasbro: It looks tall with alloy, metallic paint, no glue, and lights. Police: What about fakes? Hasbro: I’m talking about fakes…
Police announce the design drawings of Transformers imitated by Chenghai Toy Factory
“His design really shines. The Optimus Prime that was labeled’fake products’ can really be regarded as an unprecedented design in the history of Transformers. Whether it is painting or reduction, you can also find it from the official website. Not such a stunning finished product.”
Netizens analyzed another reason why imitation Transformers has formed such a large scale. “Officially, there is less and less lower limit. From Transformers 2, Hasbro has made toys more and more rotten, and younger and younger. At the beginning, there was sound and light and linkage deformation, and even unexpected Small organ.”
“Up to now, the products with poor quality control are like the domestic imitation products in the 90s. The painting is half painted, and the toys are very good. Looking at the plastic color, they are basically molded in gray. When it’s sold out, regardless of the deformation, the feel and the materials, the tightness becomes a big problem.”
This is a law of ebb and flow, as long as the official returnsAs always, the domestic imitation manufacturers will not disappear.
Due to the tight wind, the bosses of the toy factory temporarily pressed the red button of the Transformers production line. Transformers may have to move back to Cybertron from Chenghai for a while.
On the streets of Chenghai, people post recruitment flyers for toy factories on telephone poles every day.
As the epidemic gradually eased, various places began to resume work. A group of toy factory owners who are grasping the pulse of the times, like new media practitioners, are preparing for the upcoming hot spots. They plan to Make Chenghai great again.
This article is from the official account: phase and not Institute (ID: buuuxiangji) , author: rich adamantyl