Gundam plastic model kit factory from China, Dragon Momoko, was raided last September. Since then, the third-party kit maker has yet to make announcements of their status.
Chinese authorities conducted a raid on Dragon Momoko's factory putting all production and product release on a complete stop. At first, patrons of the bootleg maker thought that it was Bandai who was behind the raid. However, it was the local Chinese government who finally took action on the legalities of intellectual copyright of the toys that belonged to Bandai.
Although the grounds for the raid and the shutdown were still not disclosed to the general public, the legal action against Dragon Momoko resulted to delays of project kits which already had hundreds of pre-orders from buyers all over the world. The third-party kit maker promised its patrons that they will be issuing refunds for the pre-ordered kits being held back at the moment.
Netizens are divided in their opinions since Dragon Momoko is a bootleg company to Bandai. This would mean that Bandai may have also suffered from the marketing perspective. Recently, Bandai Gunpla loyalists have been buying Dragon Momoko kits simply because of its very cheap price tag.
Bandai's regular for a master grade 1/100 scale Destiny Gundam is listed at $70.95. Dragon Momoko pricing for the same kit is priced at $36.23. At first, hardcore modelers turned the other cheek with the surfacing of the bootleg kits. However, collectors who cannot shell out $70 found it more practical to buy the Dragon Momoko version – if they would only use the kit for home display and not during toy expos or builder's competitions.
Due to the budget range, Dragon Momoko along with other third-party kit makers, like TT Hongli and Daban Model, slowly crawled its way up to the model kit community.
Dragon Momoko is still in shutdown status. Their Facebook page's last update was Sept. 23. Although Dragon Momoko is known for plagiarizing Bandai, it has made original models like the Testament Gundam that has no Bandai counterpart.
