Oops, Justin did it again — Calling out BAD journalism by jorunalist Justin Ling and Wired.com article "How a Major Toy Company Kept 4chan Online" from March 29, 2023

Oops, Justin did it again — Calling out BAD journalism by journalist Justin Ling and Wired.com article "How a Major Toy Company Kept 4chan Online" from March 29, 2023

Disclaimer:

This piece is, once again, NOT about 4chan, you will not find anything about 4chan here. Go somewhere else.
We are not here to defend GOOD SMILE COMPANY (GSC), rather, we are here to point out all the WRONG FACTS in the March 29, 2023 Wired article written by, yes, that Justin Ling again.

In a follow-up article to his original "Who Owns 4chan?" (https://www.wired.com/story/who-owns-4chan/) published by Wired back on May 26, 2022, freelance journalist Justin Ling [https://twitter.com/justin_ling] is at it again, with a few details in the first half of the article caught by our keen eyes.

First thing first, the link to the new article, "How a Major Toy Company Kept 4chan Online" (https://www.wired.com/story/4chan-good-smile/), and let's be fair for just a tiny-second: it is a good read.

Now, did Justin take up on our 2022 challenge and actually finishes his assigned homework??? A BIG NO, and unfortunately, he failed his new assignments yet again. At this point, we are just flabbergasted by how much "incorrect" information on GOOD SMILE COMPANY (GSC) Justin kept throwing out with none of the editors at Wired fact-check them. At this point, Otaku HQ should be paid by Wired for all the corrections we have to dole out to keep our own sanity in-check.

Alright, first error: it is in the secondary article title, right off the bat.

Documents obtained by WIRED confirm that Good Smile, which licenses toy production for Disney, was an investor in the controversial image board.

What's the problem??? GSC do not "licenses toy production for Disney", they obtain permissions and licenses from Disney, as well as other companies and entities (i.e. anime production committees) to create toys based on characters owned by those companies under GSC's brand or for their clients. GSC make their own plans for the merchandise, and ask for proper permissions and licenses to do so, end of story. This funny line creates the illusion of GSC is dependent on Disney to survive, which is 100% fake news, and we will further elaborate later.

Minus 10 points for Justin's classic mis-direction.

Second error:

Good Smile produces licensed content for a variety of major brands, from major manga series like Attack on Titan to video games like Assassin’s Creed and movies like The Matrix. But Good Smile's largest licensee is, without a doubt, Disney. The company markets dozens of toys and figurines from Disney properties, like Spider-Man, Buzz Lightyear, and Mickey Mouse.

Justin did some of his homework here, we will give him that, but his words as quoted above is simply a pile of "loaded crap". Why??? Disney is a large global company, but just because Disney is large, it does not mean it has the largest share of GSC's merchandise. In fact, if you go through a thorough product count on GSC has ever produced since 2004, Disney-related characters only takes up no more than 5% of their portfolio (and roughly only 10% if you only look at Nendoroid), and that's a fact.

If Disney really stops dealing with GSC from now on to eternity (as Justin indicated that will happen in his article), GSC will not cry, nor they will care much. They will just create something else and make more money, end of story. Making it sounds like a death knell to GSC might be nice for your ego, Justin, but it just shows you have once again not doing your homework PROPERLY. THAT'S YOUR JOB! UGH!

There will be fans who hate the fact GSC will not be able to make any future re-runs for those Disney characters products, and you know exactly who to blame (Justin, or Aki-san for some). But most hardcore figure collectors do not really care, anyway. At most, we might mourn the fact that we might never see another re-run of Nendoroid Stormtrooper or Nendoroid Darth Vader, that's it. Then again, Justin just help jacking up the second-hand market prices for them, making Justin the latest public enemy No.1 for many collectors.

As for whether Disney will completely cut off GSC, that remain to be seen, and certainly Justin Ling will want you to believe so. But I can already give one likely exception: Disney Twisted Wonderland characters for Nendoroid, these are licensed to ANIPLEX and likely will continue with new items coming out, even though GSC handles "everything". WAH HA HA HA HA.

Minus 20 points for Justin's favourite play-with-numbers (and very bad at it, AGAIN).

Third, the last bunch of errors:

In recent years, Good Smile has branched out into content creation, working with various animation and film studios, has opened online wholesale companies in China and elsewhere, and has even sponsored a Super GT racing team.

Yes, GSC has dipped into "content", but you forget to mention they are into mobile games too. Minus 10 points for missing easy-to-find facts.

As for "wholesale companies", that's just yet another completely loaded crap. GOOD SMILE Arts Shanghai is a subsidiary making toys based on China IP and various anime titles, but "wholesale"???? Where the heck you get that information from, Justin????? They have distribution partners around the world, and none are owned by GSC, Justin. The closest thing they have is their domestic logistic business (for managing their own distributions to hobby stores large and small within Japan), and that does not equal to "wholesale", period. Minus 30 points for factual errors.

And, "sponsored a Super GT racing team"???? Aki-san OWNS (or partly owns) the team, "GOODSMILE RACING", since 2008 (and currently known as "GOODSMILE RACING & TeamUKYO"). Minus another 30 points for yet another factual error that are easy to check.

Final score for Justin Ling on this assigment: MINUS 100 POINTS. Why are we not surprised??

Flushing out all these crap just proves not all journalists are equal. Do your homework properly, Justin Ling. As for Wired editors, that simple single word again: fact-check, you bunch of "lazy-bones".

[April 8, 2023 Update] A slap in the face for Justin Ling: GSC released a really short press release on April 7, 2023 on its corporate website (https://corporate.goodsmile.com/ja/news/1852/), denying any "direct" involvement with 4chan. What's done is done, and if you want to hate GSC like Justin Ling, you are free to do so, and we are not here to change your mind, nor we care about your feelings. GSC will be around for years to come and ignore the noise, and that's a fact, whether you like it or not.

With Justin having sour grapes that GSC never acknowledged him and Wired directly, nor GSC "contacting" him about their press release, we certainly will look forward to another crap-loaded GSC article by Justin in the not-so-distant future (and we rather hope you can disappoint us, Justin).

Written by Otaku HQ

First published on March 29, 2023.
Adding official GSC press release on April 8, 2023.

May 19, 2023: Justin Ling Twitter account went inactive after April 20, 2023, and who says we are letting him off the hook?? His "ugly" website [https://justinling.ca/] and his Mastodon account [https://mastodon.online/@justinling].