S.H.FiguArts Dragonball Z figures!!!

[Anti-Wave Man]

Wow that custom goku is awesome, they even took the blue tie off of Krillin to complete the look. Really cool looking.

 

[Silrian]

Na the blue belt is sculpted on goku's existing one. He does look great though.

I really want battle damaged releases.

I'm actually preparing myself for sdcc ex being an option package and not a figure at all this year.

 

[Anti-Wave Man]

Actually yeah now that I look at it, it is a custom mold isn't it. If SDCC was an option package, it had better be a good one - I've especially always wanted a blue energy ball, about the width of a tennis ball, that could be a charging spirit bomb or big bang attack. Although other things like Special Beam Cannon and aura effects that actually look like the anime would be more important than that to everyone else.

 

[Silrian]

The thing with SDCC is that the interviewed guy, I constantly forget his name, clearly, explicitly stated that they've NEVER released ANY form of exclusive in ANY way. And EVERYTHING except manga Goku, piccolo and gohan is an exclusive in Japan. We all know they see their domestic market as the main deal. Bluefin distributes these normally in the western world, but to the producers, Tamashii, everything's an exclusive.

So whatever they might do, if the sdcc exclusive is a figure it WILL break tradition for them. And I just highly have my doubts whether they're prepared break japanese market tradition, for the american market. I really think they're gonna have issues explaining that in Japan. And for some reason I see them copping out with an option package or something alike.

Either way, this sdcc will change the game. Whether we got nothing, a figure or a package, regardless of what it is, it's going to be a first. That in and of itself is kinda neat, it's gonna be revealing their game plan to some degree no matter what they do.

 

[Silrian]

I will say I won't even be that surprised if there's NO sdcc exclusive this year.

 

[KPman]

The thing with SDCC is that the interviewed guy, I constantly forget his name, clearly, explicitly stated that they've NEVER released ANY form of exclusive in ANY way. And EVERYTHING except manga Goku, piccolo and gohan is an exclusive in Japan. We all know they see their domestic market as the main deal. Bluefin distributes these normally in the western world, but to the producers, Tamashii, everything's an exclusive.

So whatever they might do, if the sdcc exclusive is a figure it WILL break tradition for them. And I just highly have my doubts whether they're prepared break japanese market tradition, for the american market. I really think they're gonna have issues explaining that in Japan. And for some reason I see them copping out with an option package or something alike.

Either way, this sdcc will change the game. Whether we got nothing, a figure or a package, regardless of what it is, it's going to be a first. That in and of itself is kinda neat, it's gonna be revealing their game plan to some degree no matter what they do.

I never understood the big deal with rereleasingrereleasing Vegeta just because of an 'exclusive' label. I think people are making a bigger deal of this than it should be. You think the Japanese market really gives a damn if the figure is rereleased in the U.S.? I highly doubt it.

 

[Big Deano]

You would be surprised how stuck up some japanese collectors get regarding exclusive stuff; I actually heard somewhere that some collectors actually stopped collecting dbz figuarts due to Goku and Piccolo getting rereleased, like wtf? Your figure will still be worth alot of money in years to come, who cares if more people get the chance to buy it? Really annoys me.

But yeah, thats why, because some people are selfish. In regards to SDCC, I wouldnt worry about it; I now believe that the fact that Vegeta would get a new paint job and that sdcc releases are even more exclusive than usual tells me it will be Vegeta, I have no doubt in my mind.

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[SupernaturalAddict]

That's a big negatory. A few years after the line has concluded these figures will eventually bottom out and be worth a whole lot less than they are now. Also, I happen to agree with those few collectors. It is very poor form to "extend" a limited run beyond its original production. It effectively devalues its exclusivity and desirability, especially if it is a low production item.

 

[Big Deano]

What? The value is only so high just now because it has been inflated by scammers; thats not true value. It isnt poor form to reissue a figure due to public demand, marvel etc do it all the time and no one cares. I have every one of these figures, but the difference is that I dont see them as money makers, they are investments for the future and fun for now. I dont see how you could possibly think these figures would go down in value any more than they should, other lines dont, they just increase and reach a ceiling, especially collector lines.

Anyway, thats all I will say on it, im sure we had this argument before and I have no intention of doing it again.

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[Silrian]

I think the problem here is that they started making them web exclusives in the first place. items of this price point and this franchise have a WAY too large market to just be limited collectibles. Except that the bulk of the market is, to tamashii, export. But their not an export company. It's just a massive fail of Bandai/Tamashii themselves for not realising how popular DBZ is outside of Japan.

And now we're in a position where this line is essentially limited collectibles, and Sup is right, it IS poor form to rerelease limited collectibles. You're straight up lying to your consumers if you do that. It's 'not done'. But on the other hand they can't ignore the growing mass market appeal of these.

The main problem here is that a japanese oriented company now has a product that's more successful in export, than it is domestically. Yet their structure remains solely focussed domestically. So essentially there's two options: Tamashii needs to stop using Bluefin distributions and simply create a export distribution of their own (might be a business-layman statement). Or we will keep this problem forever and these things will never be rereleased, at least not in Japan.

I still expect the latter. I think we're simply ****ed that DBZ isn't in any way as popular in the country of origin as it is here and Tamashii-Bandai is a domestic-only company that requires an external distribution company to serve export markets.

So either Bluefin needs autonomous rights to rerelease products without them being rereleased in Japan, and hell that's painful for Tamashii to explain to their domestic consumers, I'd imagine at least. Or we're just stuck with exclusive releases that at least get produced on a wider scale for us. I'm afraid this line is simply a 'be there when it happens' thing.

 

[Silrian]

Hell it's flabbergasting to me that this line exists at all. I NEVER expected DBZ collectibles to get a revival like this before I came across it. I admit, I thought the same thing as Krec9 says, that DBZ was a dead franchise. I couldn't believe they actually made a Dragonball movie "adaptation". Let alone that I'd be collecting any newly produced DBZ items.

I hope I'm wrong, but I'd say keep any and all hopes low concerning rereleases of currently existing releases. And that is why I bought ssj Vegeta for a scalper price a year ago and I still don't regret it (paid about 140 bucks total). Even if things do pan out differently, which ftr, I hope (I myself couldn't give a **** about whether something remains limited) I still won't regret it. As long as the quality remains the same they can rerelease the **** out of everything as far as I'm concerned. But that the company thinks differently and deals with differently opinionated consumers, that is pretty usual.

 

[Baneofdemon22]

They keep releasing a bunch of new Dragon Ball Z stuff in Japan that never gets to the west though. Whether it's games, action figures, magazines, DVDs, manga adaptions of movies, books, etc. I say it's extremely popular in Japan. It's Japan's Star Wars. It might just be a figuarts thing, since they have so many lines already over there. I've been following news sites since I got into the franchise, and it seems like everyday something Dragon Ball Z related is announced for Japan. Kids still have Goku on their lunch boxes. If it's like America, they probably get their butts kicked, but still!

 

[Silrian]

Okay well then this whole situation is just ridiculous.

 

[KPman]

That's a big negatory. A few years after the line has concluded these figures will eventually bottom out and be worth a whole lot less than they are now. Also, I happen to agree with those few collectors. It is very poor form to "extend" a limited run beyond its original production. It effectively devalues its exclusivity and desirability, especially if it is a low production item.

I don't know about you guys, but I don't buy my figures as an investment. I buy them because I want them for myself - dont buy them with the intent to sell them later on.

 

[KPman]

Also, we have already had 2 rereleases of Ss Goku, and a rerelease of piccollo. IIRC, Trunks got a second production run early on because of the increased demand. Rereleases have already happened.

Anyway, IIRC, SS Vegeta was initially marketed to the U.S. as being a figure completely aimed to the U.S. crowd. When I bought it initially, I remember the official Tamashii description said Vegeta was made based on a U.S. poll and because of his popularity was a mainline U.S. release. No reason they couldnt rerelease him. However, IMO, Bluefin Tamashii waited too long to rerelease him - they let enough time pass so that the bootleggers made a pretty good knock off.

 

[Silrian]

I literally just repeated that the three manga coloured releases (not the new goku, oddly enough) are normal releases, not web exclusives.

But...what what WHAT!? Trunks got a second production run!?

 

[KPman]

I literally just repeated that the three manga coloured releases (not the new goku, oddly enough) are normal releases, not web exclusives.

But...what what WHAT!? Trunks got a second production run!?

IIRC, Trunks completely sold out several months after the initial release. Then places like amazon put them back up for preorder sometime later on. I'm guessing this was probably a second production run.

 

[Baneofdemon22]

Yeah, I thought both Trunks and SSJ3 Goku got another production run.

 

[Silrian]

I guess it's something they can do immediately after the original production. It can't count as a rerelease in any case, whatever implications that term has for a company, because the interviewed guy was explicitly clear about them never having ever rereleased any web exclusive.

 

[Baneofdemon22]

Yeah, I'm just hoping for that loophole for a SDCC SSJ Vegeta!