MEDICOM TOY

MEDICOM TOY is a Japanese toy company founded in 1996 by Tatsuhiko Akashi and headquartered in Tokyo. It develops, produces, and sells collectible figures and related character merchandise, with a business model centered on limited releases, licensed properties, artist collaborations, and strong design-led branding. The company is especially associated with BE@RBRICK, a bear-shaped figure platform whose standardized silhouette has been reinterpreted through collaborations with artists, fashion labels, entertainment properties, museums, and other cultural partners. The company's best-known products sit within the designer-toy and art-toy market rather than the conventional mass-market toy sector. MEDICOM TOY's releases are commonly differentiated by scale, surface treatment, licensing theme, collaborator, and edition. The 100% and 400% BE@RICK formats are particularly recognizable in collector culture, while larger formats such as 1000% figures occupy a more prominent display and interior-design role. Its products are collected as contemporary pop-culture objects as well as toys, and scarcity, collaboration design, and secondary-market attention are important parts of the brand's positioning. MEDICOM TOY also operates beyond BE@RBRICK. Its portfolio has included the KUBRICK figure line and other figure projects developed around original characters, licensed franchises, artists, designers, and cultural brands. The company presents itself as a planner and seller of figures and related products, and its official website provides company information and product information. Its public-facing identity is closely tied to Japanese collectible culture, while its collaborations and internationally recognized figure formats give it a global operating and collector audience. The available reference material confirms the company's 1996 founding, its Tokyo base, its focus on figure planning and sales, and the prominence of BE@RBRICK. Detailed public information about ownership, financial performance, executive succession, production locations, and market-by-market revenue is not established in the supplied sources. Accordingly, this dossier does not assign financial figures or additional corporate relationships.

MEDICOM TOY was founded in Japan in 1996 by Tatsuhiko Akashi. From its early corporate identity, the company concentrated on planning, developing, and selling figures and related collectible products. This placed it within a Japanese market that combined character merchandise, hobby figures, limited-edition releases, and designer-led objects. The company's international profile grew primarily through BE@RBRICK, a bear-shaped collectible figure platform. Rather than functioning as a single fixed character product, BE@RBRICK provides a repeatable form that can carry different graphics, materials, licenses, and collaboration concepts. The format's modular scale system—including 100%, 400%, and 1000% versions—helped establish a recognizable collecting vocabulary and allowed the product to serve both as a small collectible and as a large display object. MEDICOM TOY's collaboration-led approach connected its figures with artists, designers, fashion and lifestyle brands, entertainment licenses, and other cultural properties. This approach made the company relevant to collectors beyond the traditional toy market and helped frame selected releases as design or pop-culture collectibles. Limited availability and thematic variation became central to the appeal of its products, although the supplied sources do not provide a complete chronology of individual collaborations or release dates. Alongside BE@RBRICK, MEDICOM TOY developed and marketed KUBRICK and other figure lines. These products broadened the company's presence across licensed characters, original concepts, and collaborative projects. The company's official website continues to describe its activity around the planning and sale of figures and related products, and presents product and company information for its Japanese and international audience. The supplied reference material does not establish a detailed account of ownership, manufacturing arrangements, sales, financial results, executive changes, major legal disputes, or specific campaigns. Those subjects therefore remain unexpanded here rather than being inferred from the brand's prominence or from general knowledge of the collectible-figure market.

• 1996

  MEDICOM TOY is founded

  [1]MEDICOM TOY official websitemedicomtoy.co.jp

  Tatsuhiko Akashi establishes MEDICOM TOY in Japan, beginning the company's work in figure planning, development, and sales.

A high-end designer-toy and collectible-figure brand positioned at the intersection of art toys, licensed character merchandise, fashion, and contemporary pop culture.

• Designer collectible figure

  BE@RBRICK

  BE@RBRICK is MEDICOM TOY's signature bear-shaped collectible platform. Its consistent silhouette supports many treatments, including graphic patterns, licensed characters, artist interpretations, fashion collaborations, and special materials or finishes. The line is commonly identified by percentage-based sizes such as 100%, 400%, and 1000%, allowing releases to range from small display collectibles to large-format statement pieces. Its collaboration structure and limited-edition culture have made it the company's most internationally recognizable offering.

• Collectible figure

  KUBRICK

  KUBRICK is a MEDICOM TOY figure line associated with compact, block-like collectible designs and licensed or collaborative characters. It represents an important part of the company's broader figure portfolio beyond BE@RBRICK, linking MEDICOM TOY to hobby collecting, character licensing, and designer-toy culture. The supplied official reference confirms MEDICOM TOY's figure business but does not provide a complete current catalog or release chronology for the line.

• Collectible figure size formats

  100% / 400% / 1000% BE@RBRICK

  These percentage-based formats are recurring BE@RBRICK size categories rather than separate character franchises. The 100% and 400% versions are widely used as paired collector formats, while the substantially larger 1000% format is designed primarily for prominent display. Each format can carry the same collaboration or design concept, creating a scalable product family for collectors and retail partners.

1. 1MEDICOM TOY official websitemedicomtoy.co.jp