This interview is a translation based on the original interview.
TinyFox is a cutting-edge brand that sending cute BJD doll products with reasonable price around world, which has been extremely well received by BJD doll owners around world. Let’s take look the HobbyTerepa's exclusive interview with TinyFox.
■Brand Profile
Brand Name：TINYFOX
Corporate name: Shenzhen Tinyfox Cultural Development Co., Ltd.
Address: Shenzhen, Guangdong, China
Established: 2017
Annual sales: Approximately 10 million RMB
A cutting-edge brand established by Chinese doll lovers・TinyFox
──Please introduce your company.
（*The following interview was conducted with TinyFox's CEO, Mr.Muyu）
TinyFox is an anime and manga-style BJD doll brand aimed at young people, founded in China by company Doll Zone with ten years of experience in the industry.
TinyFox was established in 2017 and before its foundation, it acted as a subsidiary of Doll Zone while participated in the development of Doll Zone's other brand products. Most of TinyFox products are newly developed since the company founded, and TinyFox actually started selling products in 2019.
At the end of 2020, we decided to further develop in the BJD doll industry and made TinyFox a corporate spin-off from Doll Zone. We have hired new people on basis of former members and created teams separately in operations, production and development. We have also updated our product line-up and would like to explore various possibilities by applying the latest technology to BJD dolls.
──What was your motivation for into the BJD industry?
The point was we want to revolutionising the BJD doll industry. Traditional BJD dolls are made from acrylic also high quality, but BJD dolls are expensive to produce due to the labour involved in shaping, polishing, assembly, make-up and other processes, each step will takes long time. Customers will abandon a purchase if they don’t have enough budget.
Our team assembled BJD doll industry developers, veterans and fanatic of truly love BJD dolls. We started developing products with the common idea of making cute BJD doll products that are budget, and friendship for enjoy BJD dolls together.
Incidentally, we have seen customers remaking our doll bodies and creating secondary works since we launch the products, which has also motivated us in our product development. We have seen many photos shows that our dolls have been expressed more cutely than we had imagined. Our team staff really happy to see that, and it gives a great sense of achievement.
──TinyFox's full-set products both have a variety of personality, what are their stories?
The full set of BJD dolls we have produced are all live in TinyFox town. They all have different personalities and each one has her own story. We have also introduced characters background stories when product ready for launch, and we would like to present the TinyFox town story in the form of a picture book or manga if have opportunity, that everyone can get to know our dolls better, please stay tuned it.
──Would you mind tell us the latest products?
We completed the new 1/4 and 1/6 bodies recently, there are many improvements over the old body version and we are very proud of them. We have also released a full set of character products which is apply the new bodys: The latest 1/4 bodys for Koi Tsubaki, Koimi and Shelley, and the 1/6 bodys for little fox and little frog, both products are carefully crafted, hope you like them.
We bringing cutting-edge technology of development into the BJD doll industry.
──How you define the differentiation strategy of TinyFox? What do you think is the TinyFox's core competency?
We want tell more people about the appeal of BJD dolls, and we are taking on various challenges to achieve it.
We have developed various sizes, styles, and different materials bodies for various play method (occasions). We also develop character designs and costume sets to go with them. We focus more than valuable, body movements and free customization are also our persistent points.
On other hand, we also devise improvements and enhancements to the BJD doll product manufacturing process. Firstly, our BJD doll bodies are mainly made of PVC material, just like action figures, that means we build same level of manufacturing and production control as high-quality figure.
In the past, the manual part of making BJD dolls was a complicated process, it involves manual stretching craft. TinyFox replaced the spherical joints into traditional BJD products by MJD automatic working system, which is based on the latest 3D simulation technology.
The manual production process of dolls requires a lot of labor, and latest industrial technology realized semi-automated to cut back spending, that’s why TinyFox able to provide right prices to doll owner. TinyFox is intend to bring new products every month to everyone!
TinyFox development member are all big fans of Japanese anime and manga.
──We feel that TinyFox products are influenced by Japanese anime and manga, Does the development team have fans of the Japanese animation?
(*The following interview was conducted with TinyFox's designer, MochiMochi)
Hello, I'm Mochimochi, a designer in the TinyFox development team. Everyone in our team loves Japanese anime and manga, and I can keep listing my favourite works never endless. We are always exchanging our opinions and impressions of new anime and masterpieces during the working day, take inspiration into work include new ideas from the anime. In terms of my experience, Rumiko Takahashi's Inuyasha was the first Japanese anime work I fell in love with, which I was in fifth grade.
From the season of university, my access channel for anime and information shifted to the internet, during this period I intensively studied Japanese manga masterpieces with my friends, also became addicted to games and had many different experiences. I love the strong Japanese culture reflected in the anime, manga and games, particularly robot and fantasy series with a mature worldview, as well as sports series with passionate characters. What I don't like are works that differ too much from the initial setting. I lose interest in reading them halfway through.
A few years later, I got a job at one of the leading doll manufacturers in China, and in a sense, I believe the Japanese anime and manga had a big influence on me when I was a student.
──When did you come into the BJD dolls world?
First time I learned about BJD dolls when I was in junior high school. At that time, there was a magazine in China that introduced Japanese anime and manga culture, as well as Japanese subcultural content, among these, the 'Super Dollfie Series' by Japanese doll brand VOLKS left a very strong impression on me. At the time, I was particularly impressed by its brilliant display. I wanted to buy one, but my pocket money is totally inadequate, 'having doll of my own' was a distant dream for me as a student. (lol)
──Do you have a favourite Japanese figure company or work?
Our team member also love figures besides BJD dolls, they even set up display shed for figure in company.(XD) Since it’s the same character modeling genre between BJD and figure, so there are parts of them can be used as references.
Recently, I really like the figure from manufacturer “SHIBUYA SCRAMBLE FIGURE”. The finished product explain the realism by intricate structure with gorgeous and wonderful paintwork.
I also think that Good Smile Company's 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica Ultimate Madoka 1/8th Scale Figure' was amazing work. To fans, there is nothing more joyful than to turn your favourite works’ character into an outstanding art, I'd like to challenge with this kind of performance someday.
Thank you for to be interviewed, is there any words for TinyFox doll owners?
Hello everyone! We are TinyFox, a BJD doll manufacturer from China. It's first time and we glad to send message to doll owners around world. Some of you may have already purchased our products through our global distributor. Thank you very much for purchasing our dolls.
We will continue to do our best to provide more budget and cute BJD doll products, hope you stay in touch and enjoy our works!
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