250px, Volks Akihabara Hobby Tengoku
is a Japan-based corporation that produces
garage kits and
mecha
In science fiction, or mechs are giant robots or machines, typically depicted as piloted, humanoid walking vehicles. The term was first used in Japanese (language), Japanese after shortening the English loanword or , but the meaning in Japan ...
kits as well as the
Dollfie,
Super Dollfie and
Dollfie Dream lines of dolls. The company's headquarters is in
Kyoto
Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...
, with some 30 shops worldwide, and annual sales of about $50 million as of 2008.
History
Volks began as a small hobby shop in 1972. In the late 1990s they produced the first
Dollfie dolls, and in 1999 the first
Super Dollfie doll was created by Akihiro Enku. In November 2005, Volks USA opened their first American Tenshi no Sumika store in
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
.
Corporate structure and products
Volks is organized into three different enterprises. Volks Inc. is the main umbrella company. They operate the Tenshi-no-Sato museum in Kyoto, the Volks Showrooms in Japan, and the Tenshi-no-Sumika shops in Japan, Korea, and the United States. Zoukei-Mura is Volks' sculpting, designing, and assembly department for Super Dollfie. Virginal Art is Volks' marketing and design department with a focus on the hobby market.
Hideyuki Shigeta is the president of Volks Inc. Several sculptors are working under Zoukei-Mura, most notably Akihiro Enku, the creator of Super Dollfie. Artist Gentaro Araki briefly worked with Volks creating the U-noss line of dolls. There are also several designers working with the Super Dollfie line of dolls. The main designer, Mikey, is the daughter of Volks' president Shigeta. Some other notable designers are K. Mayura, Valico, Aone and Ciera.
Volks regularly publish the magazine ''Volks News'' with information about new products from all of their lines.
Volks have created resin kit figures of characters from a large variety of anime and manga, such as ''
My-HiME'', ''
Love Hina'', ''
Neon Genesis Evangelion'' and ''
Oh My Goddess!
, or ''Ah! My Goddess!'' in some releases, is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Kōsuke Fujishima. It was serialized in Kodansha's manga magazine ''Monthly Afternoon'' from September 1988 to April 2014, with its ...
'', along with video game franchises, such as
Shantae. They also have their own line of figures called A-Brand.
They have also created
Super Dollfie dolls based on characters from anime and manga such as ''
Chobits'', ''
Maria-sama ga Miteru
, often shortened to , is a Japanese light novel series written by with illustrations by Reine Hibiki. Originally written as a short story in 1997, Shueisha published 37 light novel volumes from April 1998 to April 2012. The story f ...
''
[ Super Dollfie Catalog 1] and ''
Rozen Maiden
is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Peach-Pit. It was serialized in '' Monthly Comic Birz'' between the September 2002 and July 2007 issues. The individual chapters were collected and released into eight ''tankōbon ...
''. Volks have also collaborated with
Lolita fashion brands like
Baby, The Stars Shine Bright,
H. Naoto, Black Peace Now and Atelier-Pierrot to create Super Dollfie outfits.
[ Super Dollfie Catalog 3]Nana x Black Peace Now
Angelden.net (2002-05-05). Retrieved on 2012-01-04.
Notes
References
Further reading
*
*
*
* Japanese Volks Wiki Article
Bunny Sneezes
External links
* {{official website
Volks USA
official site
category:doll manufacturing companies
category:manufacturing companies based in Kyoto
category:toy companies of Japan