[Phantom Stranger]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kiwami

Oh boy, I hope they don't bite off too much here. Because I don’t really know anyone who was like "I need SHMA's with lights and sounds!" in the past. People are happy with what they got.

Also the price is not helping. I'm not usually someone who slaps Tamashii with the "Overpriced" tag, but double the price of a usual SHMA just for lights and sounds is... not good. Plus I know people who want this design in SHMA-form, but not like this, that'll stink for them too.

And of course, the fourth Godzilla figure this year. I really hope all of these sell well enough so that we can get something else than Big G himself.

Well its not the first time they've done a $200 MA. Honestly surprised it's even this price, since it looks like the general MSRP for most MA has went from around $64-75 to $77-85 as the norm, if '54 and GMK are anything to go by.

And yeah, I'd like to see something not Godzilla. Anguirus would be nice, or another Rodan. Hell, another Gamera. However I also know that Godzilla is one of the few monsters to sell...at least in Japan. And even some of them end up as exclusives, like '64 and GMK.


If I may go on a tangent, something that hasn't been brought up yet in any of these threads is that Kaiju movies don't have that large of a fanbase in Japan. Everything I've seen in the last few years indicates a very passionate but niche market place, odd as that may seem.
Even Shinpei Hayashiya has stated that in his opinion the future of Kaiju films is in the west. They just don't so as well as they did.

To me, it seems like Bandai is aware of the larger market in the west, which is why a lot of stuff gets general releases from bluefin. However it seems that in terms of what gets made is from a predominantly Japanese view. It wouldn't be the first time Bandai has done something like that. For all the broadening they're doing right now, it's mainly with license from western franchises, rather than flaunting their own.
I cannot think of a better example of this than their Sentai line, which was clearly influence by current series. The only divergence was with Zyuranger/MMPR, which in itself only happened because Akibaranger influenced it, and importing of Tyranno and Dragon was high, leading to a full team. But that's about as much effect it had. Bandai never put forth an effort in making something with PR in mind outside of that incident. No Megaranger for In Space, Timeranger for Time Force, Go-Onger for RPM. But we got Overdrive because Boken Red was in Akibaranger.(Not to mention characters never adapted, which probably killed the line, but I digress.)

My point with the wall of text is that I feel the MA line has had similar treatment, that same narrow focus. But its hard to argue with when Godzilla actually keeps selling. They could be opening up more, I know '54 and GMK were highly desired outside of Japan. But that's still Godzilla, and there's still a great imbalance of Showa representation in general.
Now, if they do get around to other Kaiju, Anguirus I think be the most desirable G-related monster outside JPN, though I'm willing to bet Baragon would get a release first.