[flaccideagle]

Quote:

Originally Posted by trebleshot

From my understanding, the Japanese toy market has a much, much larger adult collector segment - which is why stuff like SH Figuarts, Encore, and Masterpiece exist at all. I do believe we are also headed in that direction, but I think we're still years, if not decades, away from reaching it.

In my opinion we're already there too. We just have a different taste, more focus on movie and comic merch than animation and model kits, perceived value, and a different price range, under $100. There's a lot of other factors at play on that, like profit margins and scale of production, that combine. I don't think it's that much bigger anymore, their market is definitely in the higher-priced items you mention, but also, they buy far far less per year on average and specialize a lot more than us yanks do. As for who buys more, adults or kids, one look at the playground shows far more iPads than Marvel Legends figures, to me.

NECA, Mattycollector.com, Marvel Select, Sideshow- these are all geared and marketed towards adults. People outside the US collect these too and have as much trouble (if not more)than Americans do getting Japanese imports.

The Japanese market gets skewed as well because so much of it is exported to other countries. At my local comic shop in Spain, it is far, far easier to get Bandai chogokin than it is to get any Marvel Universe figures. And the ones that do show up are around EU30-40 a piece (That's a little over US$40-50 each) so it's a tough call: 3.75 MU Spider-Man figure for $40, or a Bandai Super Robot Chogokin for $50. You can see why they might be more popular with some folks: diecast amazing figure vs. average action figure .

I think in a sense some Japanese collectors focus on one thing a lot more- say, vintage 80's Transformers, or Ultraman vinyls- and don't stray for decades, as well as skew towards the edges (a lot of 18-25 year olds, and over 40 year olds); while American collectors tend to be 18-25 and stay in for a few years, are more interested in new products and then get out; or are older (30+) and this crowd seems much more into vintage items. They specialize, we tend to get a little of everything. The vast majority of collectors I met in the early 2000's of comics and Star Wars are completely out of the hobby, while the vast majority of specialist Japanese guys I know and buy from, they're still collecting and have no intentions to stop, partly because they're only getting one or two things a year for many years, so it's not as a moneypit as it is to try to get everything all at once like many US guys do; or they collect only one line and are hardcore true completist, and don't collect anything else (for example, one guy I buy from for almost a decade now, he himself only collects for himself Megatron toys, no other TFs.)

It's also worth noting in some countries in the 70's and 80's, cartoons for kids was almost exclusively Japanese shows translated. So the 25-40 aged crowd wouldn't have the same nostalgia or desire for Spider-Man or Superman figures that I have as an 80's American youth with Superfriends or Spider-Man & His Amazing Friends on the air every day. Someone from France may have the same connection to Grendizer, and Mazinger is like a national icon in Spain. So it's not just Japan buying this stuff, but America, Brazil, France, etc and not so many exporting the US stuff anymore. It's like combining fans of G1 Transformers, He-Man, and Voltron all together- obviously those numbers will be bigger than say, Marvel Legends collectors.