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- Contents -: * It was a great success! Thank you for coming to VOLKS Joint Festival!; * The first test shot of SWS Ho229 is finally getting here!!

It was a great success!
Thank you very much for coming to VOLKS Joint Festival.

It's so cold everyday here in Japan, located in the Northern Hemisphere. But how are you doing?

We have got the New Year 2014 started in peace.

I am very happy that you visit my blog site again this year.
"Your dream is my dream". I'd like to innovate the world of scale model with you all thorough SWS kit and the other products.

Thank you very much for your continued support to Zoukei-mura and SWS kit this year.

As I announced on this blog in the end of last year, we held "VOLKS Joint Festival" in commemoration of the 40th anniversary of VOLKS at Tokyo Big Sight. Here is a report on the event.

It was a one-day event, so time was really limited, but we were surprised that so many people joined in. It became a big and fun event, and successfully completed without incident.

I appreciate very much your participation.

On behalf of VOLKS Group, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Saturday December 21, 2013 We are finally leaving for Tokyo! For Joint Festival! Large-sized buses are going in line on the Tomei Expressway for 8 hours!! Volks Staffs are departing from the Kyoto head office. They have much energy! Cheer up Volks!!	The members of "Virginal Art" who produces Volks original resin kit are on this bus. They usually work in manufacturing sector, but today they are departing in order to hold an event! They are young and full of energy!! Cheer up Virginal!!
Sunday December 22 at 0 a.m. This is the East Hall of the Japan's biggest Convention Center, Tokyo Big Sight. On this huge space, Volks 40th anniversary event is about to take place. As you can see on these photos, Volks staff members did everything from its planning, preparation, to operation.	At 2 a.m. They already begin preparation before dawn. You know, it is 400 km from Kyoto to this site in Tokyo! We bring in as much cargo as five 10-ton trucks for this event.
There is already a long waiting line around the site. It will open soon, everyone!	Look! How huge! Volks staffs who are working hard look like small dolls. It is several hours before we welcome our guests. I still cannot believe this will be a site which leaves its mark on hobby history.
Volks original finished products are being placed on the tables one after another. There are old monsters, figures, latest mecha models etc. They are all colorful with a wide variety of products. You may have some in your collection, haven't you?	Our staffs are busy preparing booths. Volks regularly hold events at Tokyo Big Sight twice a year, but it is first time to hold 4 hobby category events (Dolls, Scale Models…) altogether.
What is this huge booth covered with white cloth? This is the place where the Volks doll owners will challenge that World Records. How many dolls can make a line holding hands? I can't wait!!	OHH!! A big signboard is being set up! I'm getting excited! I regret that this event will end today.
Volks showroom came to this site as a one-day shop. Its selection of goods and the prices are special for today only. At any rate, hobby is fun!	This is the exhibit room called "Memorial Museum" where you can see Volks 40 year history. From among our huge collection of Figures, Monsters, Army and Air Force Scale Models, Dolls, and Train Models, representative products are selected and displayed.
All the preparations are complete for the Memorial Museum where Volks original products for 40 years are displayed altogether. We will keep trying to innovate the world of hobby!!	What is this colorful board? We put all the Volks News we have sent to our customers. We produced them, but we are surprised to see that they contains such a variety of information!
This is a venue for the World Record Challenge. We will try to set a new record for "the longest line of dolls". There are well over 3000 loved dolls gathered from all over Japan! The dolls are going to challenge the record holding each other's hands!	How about this overwhelming sight! Many dolls we sent to our customers gather here today in order to make the longest line in the world. You are all brothers and sisters! You can do it!
Wow! This is a huge railway layout created by our staffs. Its theme is four seasons. It recreates Japan's beautiful sceneries on HO scale and N gauge scale. In the work place in Kyoto, people were surprised to see how huge it was, but it looks so small in this site!?	This is "Spring" scene. You see? The Volks head office is recreated in details. Huge hobby shop "Volks Osaka Hobby Square" which owns a building and its total store floor area is 3300 square feet is also beautifully recreated. In this layout, you can find the other Volks offices and stores located in all over Japan. Which Volks do you know?
This is a resting place for our guests. There are a lot of tables and chairs for them to relax and enjoy the event all day to the full. This place will be packed with the guests! I can almost see that.	Preparation for each display progresses steadily. This is a display for the large-sized doll Super Dollfie®. Dolls Parties are well known, being held twice a year at Tokyo Big Sight. This time, the Dolls Party marks its 30th anniversary, so it will be more satisfying doll-event.
This is a special event space for Hobby Outlet. We will offer best buys at special discount rate today. There are a variety of Planes, AFV, Gundam Plastic Models, Battleship Models, Tools and Colors all are sold at anniversary-sale price. There are a lot of things I want to buy!!	The preparations continue. There are enormous kinds of products to be displayed at the Memorial Museum, from small Figures, Mecha Model, Dolls to Scale Models. Once they are put on the tables like this, and will be assembled and displayed.
There are already a lot of guests!! I can hear the chatter of happy people here and there. The event continues throughout the day! Please enjoy every minute of it!	Welcome to Joint Festival from all over Japan! The site is full of over 10,000 guests who come from Hokkaido in the north to Kyushu and Okinawa in the south. Among them there were people who come from Taiwan, Korea, China, Singapore, Germany, Russia, the United States, Australia, Thailand, and from Oman in the Middle East. Thank you very much for coming all the way!!
In this huge space, over 350 people open "individual booth"! They are bursting with ideas, and put a lot of love into making their own goods. I am glad to see the booth crammed with these goods. Many people come here to buy these goods from all over Japan.	What are they doing here? Yes, this is a workshop for assembly of Volks original figure "Charagumin". You can complete a cute figure by assembling colored resin parts! It looks like they are having fun!!
This is a workshop for "Air Brush". You can see how to choose a brush, prepare color and how to spray it. It's easy to grasp the techniques when you see them with your own eyes. They look so serious!	You must know this! This is to make an announcement of the award winners of Volks original-"VLOCKer's" contest. The wonderful VLOCKer's works selected from among applicants throughout Japan have been competing! It sure deserves attention!
Of course, Dolls Party is held together! It marks the 30th anniversary. I can feast my eyes on this beautiful Volks doll.	Oh-oh, this is "Old man's candy store" which is popular in Volks events. Suddenly, I am appearing with a candy wagon and hand out sweet treat for free to anybody. This is unexpectedly quite popular among the guests!!
Wow! Here is such a fashionable booth that offers lunch! This is remodeled car of an old Volkswagen microbus. It smells so good!	We did it!! We set a new world record for the longest line of the dolls! Furthermore, all the dolls who participated in the challenge are Volks dolls! This is a prodigious feat! Congratulations to all the participants who came from all over Japan! And Thank you!
Here, the "Full Metal Uhu" assembled by the divine modeler, Mr. Kobayashi, is ready for a special auction. You want to know the results? Thank you very much. A modeler makes a bit for it at 300,000 JPY!!	"Bingo Game" finally starts! Gorgeous prizes are offered to the winners! The venue is filled with excitement with every one's raised expectations!!

We had a lot of fun, but the event is about to be over.
I made a speech on the stage to express my gratitude to the guests. Thank you for a grand applause.
We, Volks group, will launch full-scale efforts to achieve our goal
"to make customers happy thorough the hobby world!".

I appreciate your continued support for the Volks group.

The one-day anniversary event ends in silence.

And our next events are:

* Saturday January 25, Sunday January 26 ---------- Volks Kyoto Hobby Square Thanks Festa 5
* Sunday March 9 ---------------------------------- Hometown Dolls Party Kyoto 10
* Sunday April 20 --------------------------------- Hobby Round 11
* Monday/Japanese Holiday May 5 ------------------- Dolls Party 31

And so on. We will hold a lot of fun events!
Please come and join in Volks events with your friends!

Thank you very much for coming. Volks celebrates its 40th year in business.
We held the Joint Festival with all our might. Did you enjoy it?

I'm afraid there might be some inconveniences, but please forgive us out of consideration for our passion!

We appreciate your continued support for Volks!

160 staffs that were selected from the Volks group managed the Joint Festival.
We are looking forward to seeing you at the next event!

Until that day,
"Good-bye! Please take care!"
Volks Group Staffs

The first test shot of SWS Ho229 is finally getting here!!

Now, the soul of the gifted Horten brothers revives!
Finally, the time has come for you to add the Luftwaffe Monster Bird to your aircraft collection!

Now, return to the origins of the Scale Models!

We, Zoukei-mura, put our modeler-spirit into the plastic model kit.
This 1/32 Horten kit is the next SWS new item.

The SWS Horten kit is the ultimate plastic aircraft kit developed with the spirit and all the techniques of Zoukei-mura Development Team.

It's not a simple model kit that has been developed to be assembled. It is a kit that you can feel like you are recreating a real aircraft while assembling it.

Furthermore, you can learn the aircraft's usefulness, structures, mechanism and even the reason why it is organically constructed.

And, in the process of creating the kit, you can actually see why and when this aircraft was developed.

The goal of the development of the SWS Horten kit was set to faithfully return to the origins of Scale Model. Then, the development did start.

We want a Horten like a real aircraft!!

And one day, the long-waited first test shot of SWS Ho229 is finally getting here.

We opened the box with shaky hands, and inside it!!

"Wooooow!!!"

Right, at first, a bunch of airframe's parts from the test shot!
We remember the days we repeatedly tested them.

We checked each part in a hurry, and a test assembly of each part was conducted by team members in somber atmosphere.

"Unexpectedly, it's a compact airframe! But, the design was done by a genius for sure."

A member says to himself.

As you can see in these pictures, the accuracy of this first test shot was acceptable.
It is a moment we recall everything; it started by gathering information at Smithsonian Museum, in the USA, then, we analyzed the structure of the aircraft, recreated the parts, depicted its mechanism, and had hard moments during this so long period when we faithfully transposed everything in the molding design.

We have come this far finally!

It seems that something like a relief heals our hearts.

But we cannot relax yet! The real production process of the plastic model is just starting from now!

We cannot relax our attention here. Towards the final finish, we must reflect this delicate workmanship in the metal molds. As a matter of fact, from now, we start to work on a bunch of difficult tasks.

As for the details of this first test shot, I will make a report on the next blog.

Please do look forward to that!

It's so advanced! It's beyond common sense! This cutting-edge design of the Horten might drop a hint of the future military aircraft!
No, it did predict the trend of future!
Through SWS development method, we recreate this unique aircraft as a kit. As we returned to the origins of the Scale Models, we make this ultimate kit!
Please look forward to it!

A series of photos will reveal the details of
SWS 1/32 Horten kit on the next blog soon!!

The last resort of Luftwaffe "Ho229 Horten"

For Luftwaffe fans, I strongly recommend that you should buy this SWS Horten.

It will win your heart!
Please take care of yourself until the day of its release!

Hideyuki Shigeta
President, Zoukei-Mura

↓ Please don't hesitate to use the submission form below ↓

Luftwaffe Heavy Fighter 1/32 Do335 is also diligently under development in order to make one of the best SWS kits!!
This will be a breathtaking kit too!! Look forward to it!!

PS. What is the relationship among the 3 companies, Volks, Zoukei-mura, and Virginal Art?

ZOUKEI-MURA was originally established and run as a factory branch to produce the master samples of the original items for production planned by the Hobby sales company, Volks Inc.
Recently ZOUKEI-MURA has started developing and selling its original items like the SWS kit, SRS (HO-scale train models), etc.

And Virginal Art is a company for manufacturing all these items.

It means that these three companies in the Volks group are mutually related, capitalizing on one another's strength from planning to manufacturing, sales and after service.
We are looking forward to your continued supports.

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