I don't get Bluefin either, but it still exists and is worth talking about.

Oh you kids and your lack of a business model understanding ;)

Power Rangers popularity in the United States is booming again because of Power Rangers Samurai and to an extent Power Rangers Megaforce. Add in a nostalgia boom with the popularity of Jason David Frank and his massive advertising of his upcoming cameo, and I'd dare say that the "Mega War" could be the most watched episode in Power Rangers since the 90's.

S.H. Figuarts are created as "high-end action figures". The whole idea is that you have a figure with as much humanistic movements as possible. Just about any position you can put yourself in to, you can put that figure in to. The "Kamen Rider" SH Figuarts sell decently depending on the popularity of the character. Obviously, current Kamen Riders are not near as popular as the older ones (shoot, even going back to OOO there's plenty of "sold-outs").

Let's move to "Super Sentai". The first releases were Shinkenger, which was a very popular Super Sentai show both in Japan AND overseas with the aid of fansubs. Don't kid yourself, many Western people put Shinkenger near the top of their "Favorite Sentai" shows. What happens? Everything but the 483503498 versions of ShinkenRed are sold out and go for ridiculous amounts on Ebay.

Now let's look at something else. DekaRed. He's actually not as easy to find as you might think. DekaBlue and DekaGreen are available but for close to the $100 mark which many state just isn't worth it. DekaPink and DekaYellow are still pre-orders at various places. Why is this important to note? Because Dekaranger was SPD, which has a cult following to it.

Jetman. Another popular Super Sentai but not very watched because of lack of decent fansubs. What's the result? Red and Black often in discount bins because they're not selling.

Boukenger still pre-order so we'll see how that goes.

But don't kid yourself - SH Figuarts Zyuranger was done specifically to target the Western audience during the 20th Anniversary of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. The more the retailers want these figures to sell, the more guaranteed money is given to BoJ. Remember - BoJ doesn't get your money if you buy the figure. They get their money if the retailer orders the item for re-sale at their store. So the more demand the retailers have, the more "successful" it will be seen from BoJ.

Bluefin is simply a Western distributor. They were smart and gobbled up the Western rights on this. The Zyuranger releases were intentional. To think that BoJ simply went "lalala HEY RIGHT NOW IS THE PERFECT TIME TO RELEASE SOMETHING WITH NO ANNIVERSARY IMPLICATIONS FOR US AND WE'LL DO THE WHOLE TEAM AND LET'S THROW IN KIBARANGER FOR S'S AND G'S!" is simply blinding yourself to the pessimistic belief that a Western audience has no influence on an Eastern-made product.

Deka Red was incredibly easy to find at one point though. All of the reds bar Gokai Red have had their prices slashed or been readily available months after being released.

It's been a whole year since Deka Red was released now, if he was still easy to find I would imagine Bandai are doing something very wrong :lol

and lets not forget bluefin themselves at NYCC this past year stated that power rangers is one of the main brands they are focusing on in the western market along with dragonball z and megaman

Where did anyone say that the Zyurangers weren't influenced by the PR anniversary? In fact, the opposite was said. In fact, nobody is saying there is no PR influence at all, I was saying the first post I replied to was wrong in implying that PR season popularity is the main (or only) reason for releases. Which it is.

Either way, you're using import websites and import toys to judge how successful the figures are. We don't know what the success of the Figuarts are in their home country, where they are general release, so you can't judge their success based simply on imports. There's not a proper way to accurately judge it. On Japanese stores, Red Hawk and Black Condor aren't any cheaper then the male Dekarangers (and Dekagreen and Dekablue are found from $40-70, no BS "$100") or other exclusive characters such as Juzo, but that's still not a good measuring stick. Finally, You're also putting way too much emphasis on things like fansubs viewers. That is a minuscule percentage of Sentai watchers and an even smaller percentage of collectors that will buy the Figuarts. Not to mention you're flat out wrong and exaggrerating in many cases. Super ShinkenRed and ShinkenRed are still found for $30 on eBay or even less sometimes, while Kaoru is $60 tops. And, as said before, Dekablue and Dekagreen are at most $70 on eBay and cheaper if you go to the right websites, which is a similar price to Black Condor. DekaRed is no rarer then Red Hawk at the moment and goes for similar prices.

Also, lack of decent Jetman fansubs? What? Grown Ups in Spandex have a great one of every episode of the season.

Why is that a surprise or particularly noteworthy? They're 3 of the most popular series that Figuarts and D-Arts are covering, except Pokemon, which I'm sure means they have to go through Nintendo as well, which is notoriously difficult. Why would they focus on importing things that won't sell?

Another interesting thing is that with the exception of the two Jetman (who owe their release to both Akibaranger and Gokaiger), and Ryuranger (who gets away with more because he's coming alongside Kibaranger), everything that's come out has either had or is going to have a Power Rangers equivalent.

There's been a Akaranger proto sitting around for a year now who is a character who you'd think would get out sooner that's been sidelined in favour of previously unseen characters. Not only that but SRC Sun Vulcan Robo, a figure that from as far as I know was seen when the SRC line started, seems to have been shelved indefinitely.

Sure there are probably other reasons behind it too, but it's something worth thinking about.

While this is very true, they didn't finish the series until Red Hawk was out. I don't necessarily agree that caused them to end up unnoticed like Kickback's suggesting but the fansubs are still pretty new.

It makes perfect sense really.

Why release figures only a small number of collectors will get in Japan and America, when you can release figures you know will get a wider audience in both countries.

But aren't the later seasons also the ones more popular with fans? Super Sentai has been going on a long time, are the really early ones too old to the point where very few current Sentai fans have watched them, even in Japan? That's always what I assumed from the fact that Gorenger (in the movie), Battle Fever J (which was also a Christmas special) and Jetman were the only pre-Zyu that got proper Gokaiger tributes.
Although Gorenger still gets lots of attention for being the very first, which is why it gets PBM! and was the first full key set released and is (eventually) getting a Figuart.

Oh, OK, I only got into PR/SS late last year, so I didn't know.

I guess popularity is a hard thing to guage sometimes on a 37 year old show. While Gokaiger did a pretty good job of covering all the bases in its episode run, it undoubtedly paid more attention to the newer shows. The pre-Zyu stuff could be REALLY popular in Japan, but its probably easier to do the bigger tributes with props/characters they still have and shows the audience remember. While there'd naturally be adults watching, the main audience probably know much more about Magiranger and Dekaranger than they do Battle Fever or Liveman.

Jetman's tribute was a big deal because as far as I know it was the first time Gai was acknowledged to have died canonically.

Did i say it wasnt? Im not disrespecting or discounting the work they do. I just hate generalisations.

Anyway, personally if i was Bluefin id stick to niche characters at a con, release on of the core 5/6 then youre sabotaging people that want a full team but arent attending. Hell, id do an MMPR yellow with female frame and maybe a skirt.