Assuming that Figuarts are aimed at an adult-collector audience, then perhaps sales are going to track more closely to how much that audience is enjoying the show in question, at least for current-series stuff.

I've enjoyed Drive enough (and I think it's improved greatly of late, although I'm also not caught up), but my toku-watching friend has been... not remotely enthusiastic. Gaim's ratings were apparently relatively low, but I get the sense it was a critical success with grown-up Rider viewers. It would make sense for that to translate to sales of adult-collector toys.

(The only reason Figuarts-as-adult-collector things is a question my head is I don't have a clear sense of how expensive they are, relative to people's income, in Japan.)

Can Chaser's busou arms be on his rider form?

I can't wait for this and Mach Deadheat.

Gaim and Drive have had the same number of standard retail releases though, so that's not exactly indicative of them matching their figures to the enthusiasm of the fans. Gaim has had considerably more exclusive releases (13 to Drive's 8 thus far) but not only did it have way more characters to begin with, the toyline has been going for a year longer.

I mean, I'm not saying audience reaction doesn't have any effect on what figures Bandai releases, but it probably doesn't have that huge an effect on at least the ones for the series that is currently airing. You get the sense that they plan these out in advance too much for that anyway.

I hadn't intended to suggest that audience enthusiasm for the show impacts corresponding Figuarts releases, but rather sales. Thus, the Gaim Figuarts being relatively scarce, and (some of) the Drive Figuarts having sluggish sales.

Ah. That makes sense. I wouldn't be so sure though, I've read that the scarcity of Gaim products is more due to the fact that they were understocked, based on Wizard's underwhelming sales. On the other hand, since Gaim sold fairly well, Drive has been more readily available. So it's not necessarily about the series' popularity, other factors are at play. Gaim figures may also be more scarce since almost two thirds of them are web exclusives, which naturally means they are made in more limited qualities.

Looks like he jumped out of the show. A must buy for me.

I guess Bandai's logic when it came to Chase was that they figured Rider Chaser was just an upgrade form for Chase (which it technically is) and wouldn't sell as well, but didn't realize that the suit would be featured as prominently in the show as it was. Essentially, another Zangetsu Shin situation.

Although this release is all the more baffling when you consider that Kivala got a retail release this month and she's just a one off form from a movie.

I know, right?!

I can't help but wonder whether Bandai will use the sales of Kivara/Kivala/Kiva-la as a basis for a decision on Kiva Base Form.

I write it down every time the whole "Why is Kivala a retail release when XYZ isn’t"-discussion comes up, but I’ll do it again.

First, what Talisman said: They plan releases from an ongoing show in advance. And they have to make a plan on which figures to sell in retail and which not. And even popular characters end up in the Web Exclusive-lineup, because they are not the main character or don’t seem to have the potential to be popular enough. That can go wrong, and it did with Gaim because they couldn’t respond to the popularity of characters that even changed their script in the show. Like Baron Lemon Energy who ended up as a con-exclusive and later lucky draw-item.

Another thing is: Web-Exclusives aren’t that hard to obtain in Japan, and that’s all Bandai cares about since Web-Exclusives aren’t meant to be sold outside of Japan in the first place. They’ll sell Chaser to the people who want him, get their profit and that’s it.

And regarding Kivala and her appearance in stores rather than the Web-Shop: I think the answer is pretty simple, it’s the design. It’s so girly and stupid that magical girl or anime fans in general who have no idea about Kamen Rider might like it enough to pick it up. Metal cleavage to the rescue.