[Starscream Gaga]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kickback

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.

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.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaiRiderRX

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

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?