[Tony_Bacala]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Twistaz

I thought bluefin was still distributing their stuff. Is that done now?

Bluefin was bought and absorbed into Bandai proper, but the teams that were Bluefin still run the US wing for PR and conventions, possibly other duties as well.

I am ok with them doing the P-Bandai situation. MOST of these are deeper cut figures that would not necessarily fly off the shelves at retail if they were produced in large quantities. There was a stretch there were everything was going to mass retail and it was sitting.

Right now it seems only the big hitters in core looks go to mass retail, let the average fan snag one and get hooked, then if they want deep cut stuff, pay a bit more at P-Bandai. Bandai can justify making the deep cut items because it's lower run, higher price, and I assume they make more profit per unit selling themselves. If they develop something and it's a dud, they don't get orders AND retailers stop ordering as much over long term.

If this situation keeps the line going, I'm ok with it.

That being said, I think a few of the recent exclusives could have been mass retail. Beast Gohan, Orange Piccolo, HIT, Namek Gohan/Krillin, MAYBE new Tien and Yamcha. These are core looks first version in line, so I would have gone retail with it if it were my call without understanding their actual numbers. The rest, I think good to stay low run exclusives.