"What does your turnip knife look like?" In 2023, a toy called "radish knife" will sweep the country and become a "decompression artifact" for primary school students. The range is very large, from the most common colored plastic models and luminous models to alloy models that are close to real knives.
"Radish knife", as the name suggests, looks like a turnip. This kind of imitation knife toy made of plastic, the front end of the "knife" is an obtuse angle, the blade part is usually hidden in the knife body, and it can be "unsheathed" with a click. The turnip knife has a variety of gameplay, and online and offline sellers have labeled it as "decompression" and "relieve anxiety and stress". With the explosion of "radish knives" among teenagers, some parents are worried about the safety problems brought by radish knives.
What does the "man behind the turnip knife" think about the controversy and the change this wave of heat has made to his life? The B station UP master "crazy question mark" (hereinafter referred to as "question mark") who was dubbed the "founder of the radish knife" told the Chao News reporter that the creativity was on fire, but the homemade radish knife was mediocre, "I didn't expect it to be popularized to the current extent, the initial version did not include the 'dumping' gameplay, now borrowed from this creative imitation radish knife, the factory price may be cheaper than the box I send express, in fact, the benefits brought by the turnip knife have nothing to do with me, but I have to bear the pressure of public opinion." ”
"Crazy question mark" design "turnip knife". Source: Photo courtesy of interviewee
"I don't know what's fun"
In June 2022, "question mark", who was still studying at a university in Wuhan, Hubei Province, fell in love with 3D printing and purchased a printer for this. At that time, he had just come into contact with EDC products (meaning to carry items with him every day) and would watch various videos every day. "I came across a video of a gravity structure tool review and thought it was interesting, so I started thinking about whether I could design and print a similar product."
From the original comb type to the Q version of the knife type, and now to the radish knife, "question mark" adjusted the proportion of the knife body several times, changed the blade parameters, and he also uploaded this series of processes to the website in the form of a video, but it did not "explode".
The radish knife suddenly became popular in July this year, and the "question mark" released a video about the radish knife on the short video platform. One of the videos, after just one night, exceeded five million views.
"Question mark" bluntly said that his original intention at that time was to make a variety of different structures of Q version knife printing toys, why the radish knife became popular overnight, he still has not figured it out. "I didn't expect this product to be liked by so many people. Aside from the group that likes knives, 3D printing, and EDC products, I don't know where people are interested in it, and I don't know where it's fun. ”
The point of "fun" is not obtained, but the "question mark" clearly feels the wave of doubt. Chao News reporter sorted out that the current safety concerns of parents mainly lie in the fact that students use knives to imitate stabs, buckets and other actions, and they are easily injured by comparing knives to each other. However, in the view of the "question mark", in addition to the malicious rhythm of some self-media, it is also related to the wanton rampant use of "pirated" products.
"I designed it according to the non-regulated knife standard, and I didn't expect that elementary school students would love this product so much. In order to prevent accidental opening, the original radish knife adds interference damping between parts, and there is no action of 'throwing' the blade. These are the features that the imitators added later. "Question mark" said that his turnip knife is relatively conservative from design to materials, but now that "pirated" products occupy most of the market, from the perspective of safety, it is still recommended that minors buy and use with caution.
Online sales of various types of "turnip knives". Source: Screenshot of the online shopping platform
"The money was earned by the imitators"
Chao News reporters searched online and found that short video platforms and e-commerce platforms have a large number of anchors or online stores selling radish knives, with prices ranging from 1.5 yuan to more than 20 yuan, and the number of payers in many top-selling stores has exceeded 500,000.
Many people think that as the founder "question mark" must make a lot of money. The reality is that he now not only lives in a rental house of tens of square meters, but also suffers from the "borrowing" of ideas.
At the beginning of July, the popularity and topicality of radish knives made many customers look for "knives". "Question Mark" spent two months working at full capacity, basically working 12 hours a day, but he alone could not meet the huge demand. During this period, making knives took up all of his time, unable to create new content, new works, and most importantly, the benefits were not as significant as the public imagined. "Due to my limited production capacity, the gross profit per month is about 5,000 yuan, which is still the most 'crazy' two months."
The popularity of turnip knives also made merchants smell business opportunities, and began to compete to imitate production and sales, and sales were not low. In order to protect its own rights and interests, "question mark" began to cooperate with injection molding factories to produce genuine radish knives, and each "knife" was engraved with a carrot-shaped question mark, representing "crazy question mark". However, due to the insufficient protection of intellectual property rights in the early stage, the income he received from it was only enough to cover his daily expenses.
The copyright dilemma of the 3D printing industry
The "question mark" said that in fact, it is not only a turnip knife, in the small commodity industry, "plagiarism" and "imitation" seem to be a very common phenomenon. "As soon as a 3D printed product is released, someone will imitate or copy it. The threshold of such products is mainly in the production and sales channels, and the benefits that designers can get are only a small part of the huge commercial value. Consumers also care more about the product itself, not copyright. ”
The "question mark" told the Chao News reporter that for individual designers, in the face of endless imitations with "involution" prices, they rarely have enough time and energy to defend their rights, and most of them are lost.
The "question mark" said that for most 3D printing works, compared with the imitation of manufacturers, designers face a more realistic problem of how to successfully commercialize the design. ”
"How do you know it's going to fire when it's not produced? So few merchants are interested. But once the fire rises, you are ready to open the mold on a large scale, and the imitation over there has long been on sale. The "question mark" helplessly told the Chao News reporter, "I have to say that the manufacturer of imitation products is a businessman with a keen sense of smell and can control costs."
In many cases, pirated cultural and creative products that are shoddyly manufactured and sold at low prices only need to be simply produced to seize the market that belongs to genuine cultural and creative products. Some people in charge of cultural and creative enterprises said frankly that if enterprises want to continue, they must not only have long-term and stable capital investment, but also continue to develop creative space. If the product benefits are "harvested" by piracy for a long time, it will be difficult for business operations to be sustainable.
Some legal professionals said that after the original creator discovers that it has been infringed, he can theoretically complain to the platform to remove the infringing product and file a lawsuit against the infringing merchant. However, factors such as the high cost of rights protection, the long time, and the difficulty of providing evidence make it difficult for the original creator to obtain corresponding compensation.