The Old School Otaku Lounge

My article wen't live for Gunpla101.com involving that big push of Gunpla we got in the states when Gundam Wing became popular.

https://www.gunpla101.com/gunpla-first-came-america/

DKop wrote:My article wen't live for Gunpla101.com involving that big push of Gunpla we got in the states when Gundam Wing became popular.

https://www.gunpla101.com/gunpla-first-came-america/

Not bad, a nice personal reflection!

There's lots of little things about that time that aren't obvious unless you were 'in the floating world' before Toonami Gundam Wing. Bandai had been trying to get Gunpla mainstream since the early '80s via their 'gray market' import partner Pony Toy-Go-Round. That partnership, and the Mattel 'Shogun Warriors' deal led to the birth of Bandai America.

When the Toonami event occured, the HGUC line was in its early days. The HGUC RX-78 Gundam was one of the leaders of the line, but it had a dirty little secret: The core fighter parts were omitted from the kit as well as any reference to it. This was to prevent reverse importation back to Japan, as no TRUE Gunpla fan would want a 'hobbled' kit like that. (see also 'English only' DVD releases and hard burned English subtitles)

Bandai's whole Gundam Invasion plan died when the contract to air Zeta Gundam on CN/Toonami somehow got bitched up. Product vanished from shelves.

Here's the sad thing. The MAIN driving force for Bandai was the promise of huge profit margins on existing molds. The retail price for all those American Gunpla kits was almost double the Japanese RETAIL price, without the many middlemen, the large distribution chain taking bites all along the way. That $14 Gundam was nothing but gold for Bandai.

(and here's a hint for the future: Bluefin today is doing the EXACT SAME THING with the EXACT SAME MARKUP as Bandai in '00)

I'll refrain from even mentioning Doozy Bots at this time.

The problem was, not only did the kits cost too much (to my eyes at least) but the whole concept and infrastructure for the idea of 'build a plastic model kit' was gone, vanished, destroyed. What is still seemingly strongly supported in Japan, the corner hobby store, just plain no longer exists in America.

Wanting to build a model kit has to be, somewhat, a learned and encouraged thing. You have to see people doing it like a father or older brother or your best friend. There has to be positive re-enforcement like a kindly hobby shop owner with the display case where a well built kit can be displayed for all to see, or even local contests. This is how you get the bug.

Bandai tried to push the kits as 'build an action figure' which isn't a terrible idea but very limited, as often there weren't really any 'bad guy' robots to fight, and really, I'm not sure kids actually 'play' with action figures like we did back in the old days, the before times.

(aside: Bandai had imposed their 'All robots are Gundam' edict not that long before the GW Toonami event. This cuts way down on having obvious foes for the hero robots to fight)

And I'm all over the place now. Never mind. Bandai continues to not have a clue how to work in America and they'll make the same mistakes over and over.

(did ya hear? Bandai America will no longer be making Power Ranger toys. insanity.)

I had a similar comment on Facebook when I shared my post on the Gundam group im part of. He mentioned about there was a hobby group for Gunpla fans in the 80's, but it was so quiet no one really knew. Animag and Animerica had ads for Gunpla in their issues from small hobby stores running mail orders to get the stuff from them when they imported them, but that seemed to only appeal to those who a) knew about Gundam and b) liked to build model kits. It wasn't until Wing and how Bandai marketed these Gunpla kits on TV that kids and their parents can go to any major retail chain and pick one up off the shelf. To me that's when Gundam made its big mark was because of Toonami, and people that know Gundam that in their 20's or 30's will say that they got into Gundam because of Gundam Wing being on Toonami.

I wrote this based off the information I have known and have on hand from my first hand accounts getting into Gundam at that time in the early 2000's. Now with Bluefin using those same practices putting kits in some retail stores and in hobby/comic book stores, you can easily go out and get them for that mark up price. I know why its high, and it kinda makes sense for stores to turn a profit as well as the distributors. I like that there is a resurgence for Gunpla again after all these years, and introducing people to Gundam all over again is pretty exciting to see happen. I feel like i'm doing my part in getting people interested in them by me volunteering at Atlanta SciFi Expo this weekend and helping out where I can, and even doing a panel about how Gundam was marketed in the states from what I know. Thanks for reminding me of DoozyBots, I should bring that up in my panel, and if theres time ill show that whole damn pilot for people to laugh at. I almost even forgot about it when I was working on it, and I still got time to fit that in if I can.

There's clear evidence that Bandai has messed up trying to get Gundam in the states time and time again, but I think it can be done if you get someone Tom Kalinske-esqe that can stand up to them and say "Your way of promoting Gundam in America will not work, Let us do it our way." Gundam on TV now does help but it's not the same impact because there's no need for kids to watch TV anymore since everything they watch is online and theres no drive for kids to sit down in front of a TV screen at a certain time to get what they want.

I'll try to not bog down in retail theory

The problem with what Bandai did in the '00s (and Bandai America did NOT want to deal with Gunpla. OTOH they did a terrific job with the MSiA toy line, taking it places Bandai Japan never dared go) and what Bluefin is doing now is, by overpricing the kits they end up reducing the market.

Let's take a 1,000 Yen Gunpla. Or even one of those awful 600 Yen Gundam Wing kits. This was one of the ones brought over, right?

https://hlj.com/product/BAN77149

600 Yen, call it about $6.00 USD by today's exchange rate. Ow. we're back there again I see. sigh. Anyway. That's MSRP, or the price it's expected to sell in a store. HLJ as you can see puts a bit of discount there, but even then $6 is not that bad a price even for that kit.

That $6 price in Japan allows for profit for the retailer, the many hands in the distribution chain and Bandai. I have no proof whatsoever but I suspect the WHOLESALE price, that is Bandai's cost plus profit, may be as low as $2 USD. If one could buy direct from Bandai (you cannot, in Japan. It's not allowed) selling that $2 kit you paid for at $6 would be a HUGE markup and plenty of profit. But even if it was American style Distro (that is, either direct from the maker or with only one middleman in between), the cost being $3 for a sell price of $6, that's perfectly normal.

So what did that kit retail for on Toys R us' shelf in '00? I think it was about $12 USD.

Now, those kits came direct from Japan. Even with making an English instruction sheet to pack in, the cost (and this is just supposition lacking firm proof otherwise) was still $2 USD.

Which means they LIKELY were selling that kit to TrU at $6 or even $8, to retail at $12. That's a HUGE markup and giant profit margin with near-zero work (and yes of course, there's translating and marketing and shipping and all that, but that all is little added value like tooling up improved parts or adding special weapons or such like. OTOH the removal of the Core Fighter parts from the RX-78 was a devaluation, getting less for your money), a business model Bandai enjoyed in the early Power Rangers days.

In other words, Bandai was lusting after double to triple profits from 'old' product that had expired it's shelf life in Japan. Because America is made of money and besides, we're USED to spending double the 'real' price of model kits,even ENJOY it as sales observed at SDCC and Pony Toy-Go-Round 'prove' it.

If Bandai had sold their kits with the MSRP being 1 Dollar = 100 Yen, so a 600 Yen kit was $6 at TrU, they might have had success for years.

And again, I note that Bluefin is running down the same failure road. A 2500 Yen kit is a pretty big investment at $25 USD. Slap a $48.99 price on that and suddenly you lose all the impulse buying fans.

Blah blah blah. Retail.

Speaking of the model kit angle in anime fandom of the 80s - the kits were out there, and I know people bought them, but I didn't know a lot of model kit builders myself. Matt Murray kit bashed a lot of stuff for various movie projects. Bill Mayo in South Carolina had an "anime modelers guild" that put out a newsletter of tips and interesting kit artwork and photography, but I don't know that there were more than ten or fifteen active modelers in his group. We had some kits in the early years of the AWA art show, but never more than a few.

I do think there was an entire group of people putting anime kits together just because they liked the way the kits looked, without any regard to the shows the kits were from.

Had to go looking for this, but here's a Zaku on the cover of Fantasy Modeling issue 4, 1981.
Model kits seemed to be a part of the role playing game/ham radio side of fandom, which I guess by its very nature wasn't as social as the side of fandom we were involved with at the time, which was more of a "let's pile into somebody's mom's car and go to the anime club meeting and hook up a bunch of VCRs together and copy each other's tapes and go to a convention and show anime to people" kind of thing. It's tough to build model kits when you're never home.

Oh yeah, forgot to mention that Bryan Powell down in Florida bought a model kit store a few years back and I guess he's at the tip of the spear when it comes to trying to get people into building model kits. Curious to find out what his customer base is like. Oldsters? Kids? Parents?

I'm putting that image in my panel material for Sunday at Atlanta Sci Fi Expo, I appreciate the source!

davemerrill wrote: ↑Tue Feb 27, 2018 5:40 am Speaking of the model kit angle in anime fandom of the 80s - the kits were out there, and I know people bought them, but I didn't know a lot of model kit builders myself. Matt Murray kit bashed a lot of stuff for various movie projects. Bill Mayo in South Carolina had an "anime modelers guild" that put out a newsletter of tips and interesting kit artwork and photography, but I don't know that there were more than ten or fifteen active modelers in his group. We had some kits in the early years of the AWA art show, but never more than a few.

I always loved seeing model kits and dioramas on display then. I think with Gunpla (and other anime-based modeling) making a comeback, it'd be nice to see art shows and galleries come back as well, with a modeling division.

davemerrill wrote:I do think there was an entire group of people putting anime kits together just because they liked the way the kits looked, without any regard to the shows the kits were from.

This was me. I used to build a lot of model airplanes as a kid and when I first saw anime model kits at 'the anime store', I thought they were cool and bought into them. I probably built several Gundam models before I ever got a chance to watch Gundam at all. The fact that the kits were multicolored and snap together already gave them an advantage over building planes and such. Mom was happy, too, because I wasn't leaving a mess all over the basement.

davemerrill wrote:Model kits seemed to be a part of the role playing game/ham radio side of fandom, which I guess by its very nature wasn't as social as the side of fandom we were involved with at the time, which was more of a "let's pile into somebody's mom's car and go to the anime club meeting and hook up a bunch of VCRs together and copy each other's tapes and go to a convention and show anime to people" kind of thing. It's tough to build model kits when you're never home.

I don't doubt that either. My guess is that the kits themselves were hard enough to come by that most modelers would probably be exhausted just from hunting down tapes and scripts to have to then go through the hurdles of finding kits (and quite literally, paying for the pleasure). But then again, model people are weird (model train people are the weirdest) - after a decade plus of Gunpla, I'm getting back into what I'd consider 'general modeling' (still airplanes but some cars, too) and I think most of the people in that hobby would rather spend the time on the actual kits themselves (assembly, painting, dioramas, etc) and researching what they need to make the kit a specific way if they're doing any customizations and don't really spend a lot of time on 'the hunt'.

When I got into it in the 90s, it felt like it was much easier to be into Gunpla; even though it wasn't as mainstream and walking into Toy 'R' Us or the hobby shop, many of the anime-specific shops had model kits and conventions typically had a vendor or two that had at least some models. Sure, Gundam Wing and everything outlined in the article brought a lot more of this to the forefront and you could find kits lots of places. But I think, in a way, saved the local hobby shop. Many hobby shops now have decent Gunpla sections in them, and Gunpla folks meet for weekend build meetups the same way the aircraft folks do, and generally, I think wider Gunpla availability has helped the modeling hobby immensely (if we can take my anecdotes as evidence).

It's funny - when people get on about how local comic shops have mostly spurned manga and the customers it could bring in, my experience with the local hobby shops has been the near opposite.