Wow I forgot about the economical stuff that happen in Japan. But you know they seem to not mind the many repaints of the star wars sandtrooper. I think they just open preorder for third or fourth with armed or something? What would you have to say about bandai making that choice? It seem weird to me.

Except for Phasma, they're not repaints. And as for why:

They are an extremely, universally popular character/design, and it's a very, very simple design- the FO troopers are literally the EXACT SAME figure, just with a different accessory loadout. No paint changes, no tooling changes. They have to change NOTHING for it but the weapons they come with, which means it is extremely cheap to produce, and they can churn them out and they will be eaten up left and right.

The thing to keep in mind is that Bandai is, on some level aware of the US Market, especially in regards to Star Wars. But due to Hasbro's bullshit, they cannot market Star Wars Figuarts over here.

How he hell did I think it was a figuart? Dumb dumb! *facepalm*

I'd grown accustomed to months without Sentai figure announcements, but a month without a Rider announcement? That stings...! /aigaron

I suppose they're trying to pace their toku releases? That'd probably be a wise course of action. Ultraman, an Ultraman villain, Walther... it's a lot. Maybe they're learning to avoid competing with themselves?

Still a few days left in the month, they may be planning to announce some more Rider stuff between then and now.

Still waiting on J Bandai...

FYI, I did get an order processing email from NY on Orga the other day, so hopefully that will be in hand around this time next week (though everything out of LA's customs office has been processing very slowly the past month, even EMS, so who knows). After next month, I'll be pretty much done with them for exclusives.

Regarding the dearth of toku SHFs lately, at least compared to previous years...has anyone attempted compiling a list of at least Rider-related things (Riders, forms, vehicles, other things) that Bandai hasn't released yet? I know there's several things that have been shown off (other Gaim Riders & forms, Ryuki monsters, remaining Showa bikes, some Drive stuff) and other things we keep waiting on (Kiva, of course, plus J).

On top of different circumstances between now and a few years ago, at the time the Figuarts line was still only a few years old and had plenty of Rider series to plow through, so several releases each month was easy. Flash forward to now, and a lot of big stuff's been crossed off. How many more major releases are left to do? Don't get me wrong, I'd love it if more things came out more quickly (specifically stuff they've shown off), but I guess I can see why there'd be a slowdown in Rider announcements.

About the only thing they could do in that regard is either major antagonists, MOTWs (highly unlikely), and Renewals/Shinkocchu Seihous. Off the top of my head, the only things really left untouched are Movie exclusive Riders, and a few major gaps like Wild Chalice and the Hibiki Riders.


Oh, and Kiva. They have done jack and squat with Kiva. But it's not like anyone cares about Kiva... :p

I have a list of all the riders not release but show off at events if you want me to post it let me know ok.

Huh. N-Y has Decade available. I'd forgotten he was coming out around now.