Japan: Two Arrested for Selling Modified Kamen Rider Action Figure

Utopia Dopant from Kamen Rider W

Police recently arrested 35-year-old Shibata resident Keiichi Itō and 36-year-old Sanjō resident Jun Fujita on Tuesday for modifying a S.I.C Utopia Dopant violating Japan's Copyright Act by auctioning a modified Kamen Rider W figure online. Both hope that authorities would overlook the situation since they are not mass producing this particular item online. Japan has stricter laws especially on copyright infringement. Toei owns all Kamen Rider related franchise.

Kamen Rider Eternal

According to the police's announcement, the two men modified a figure into a Kamen Rider W villain character in November without the permission of Toei. The auction ended with a closing bid of a whopping 269,001 yen (about US$3,300) from a male buyer in Tokyo.

The two own a custom shop named kenosyokutaku models that specializes in Kamen Rider figures. Their handsome modified version of the SIC figures are popular with fans. Aside from Utopia they had they also did some custom figures of other characters found in the Kamen Rider franchise from the Showa era to the current series Kamen Rider OOO. On their site, they also show how they customize the figures.

notes from the blogger: Customizing figures has been around for decades, made especially for those toy collectors who are not satisfied with the figures that came from the box. This is also very imminent in toy festivals and amine exhibitions. I saw the duo's website and most of the figures posted were actually better than what was released. Toei should have contracted them to do prototypes than incarcerating them. Well that's Japan for you.

Some of their works below. I appreciate their exquisite work of art.

Kamen Rider OOO

Luna Trigger on Hardboilder

Source: RRR, Yomiuri Online , ANN, JEFusion, Kotaku