[macblo]

Kamen Rider usually focuses on selling its roleplay toys and action figures and Super Sentai usually focuses on selling the Mecha but I'm not sure what type of toy Ultraman focuses on selling. What usually sells the best for that series?

[Kiwami]

Vinyl figures I assume. They're cheap yet sturdy figures for kids to play with and they're almost always integrated into the DX toys. Hell, for quite some time the vinyl figures actually were the gimmick, they used them in the shows as "Spark Dolls".

And even when the gimmick changed to cards they had that cross sell going on where the vinyl figures came with their respective cards you could use with the DX toys.

I don’t know what sells better, the DX roleplaying stuff or the vinyl figures, but I do think these figures are kind of unique to Ultraman, since even though Kamen Rider and Sentai do have them as well they only do them for main characters, and the figures are not really integrated into the rest of the toy lines.

[Matrixbeast]

Ultraman always seemed pretty big on the vinyls.

[macblo]

I guess it makes sense given the whole "monsters are people too" thing the whole series seems to have going for it. They also seem to reuse monster quite often, something that I'm not at all bothered by.

[ZeoRangerV]

Yeah, it's gotta be the sofubi/vinyl toys. Pretty sure Ultraman was a cornerstone of the market on those.

[Sunred]

Vinyl toys primarily considering Ginga's ranger key equivalent were vinyl toys. And then to the scale toys enthusiasts the vehicles.
Role play toys not so much compared to sentai and riders.

[Spiteface]

As everyone else says, the vinyl figurines.

It's also interesting to me that Ultraman celebrates its monsters more than the two big Toei franchises. Unless it's something like a Shadowmoon, you don't really see villain toys for them.

[macblo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spiteface

As everyone else says, the vinyl figurines.

It's also interesting to me that Ultraman celebrates its monsters more than the two big Toei franchises. Unless it's something like a Shadowmoon, you don't really see villain toys for them.

I find that pretty interesting as well. Ultraman handles a lot of things differently compared to Kamen Rider and Super Sentai. A less black and white view on monsters, a smaller amount of their titular Hero, Ultras from past seasons appearing a lot more frequently in show, even the show itself is so different compared to Kamen Rider and Super Sentai.

[Dr Kain]

I'm so surprised and saddened that Bandai seems to make every monster from every Ultra series in toy form but they won't do the same to Rider or Sentai.

[ZeoRangerV]

Obviously I don't live in Japan so can't verify this, but I assume Bandai's devotion to making Ultra kaiju is because they're just far more iconic than Rider/Sentai monsters domestically, much like Ultraman himself is as a hero.

Ultraman has 50 years of history where they constantly bring back the "favourites" to keep them relevant even when they look extremely dated. When Sentai or Rider bring a villain back its usually part of a poorly put together crossover that places little focus on them.