Forum - View topicNEWS: Anime Collectible Maker Southern Island Goes Bankrupt
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Richard J. Subscriber Posts: 2931 Location: Sic Semper Tyrannis. |
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I'm not too surprised that Southern Island died. I remember when I first read about them starting up. I thought, "wow, hey, I'd like some nice FMA action figures." Then a bit later, I saw the Fruits Basket statue things they'd come out with, and I started to wonder if perhaps the prototypes I'd seen for the FMA stuff might have been fake. Bad products, lousy marketing, and taking on too many projects at once seem to be what killed this company. It's not a sign of impending anime/manga doom, but it's not exactly a good thing either. |
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EmerjeSubscriber Posts: 4791 Location: Maine |
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Where Sideshow is carrying quite a wide range of Medicom figures I wouldn't be surprised if they stepped up to import these if they think the demand is there. Unfortunately there isn't a very good FMA merchandise measuring stick in the US, not for high end items anyway. Seems the majority of the smaller stuff has sold extremely well, but $100+ is a different market all together as I'm sure you know.
I'd be really surprised if they had another year in them. Megaman seems to be on its last leg (and I'm not sure their line had any real legs in the first place), Samurai Champloo was a horrible failure, and Trigun was quietly canceled which is unfortunate seeing as how that was the line that people actually seemed to want. I doubt they can survive much further on Mortal Kombat and dumbed down SOTA Street Fighter figures.
Even when he would post on toy forums with prototypes asking what people thought of what was always promised to be "early prototypes" he'd shoot people down. I mean really, when the people you're supposed to be selling to tell you you're doing it wrong you really should sit up and take notice. Unfortunately he was the type of guy that would rather listen to the lemmings on his forum that would say "looks great!!!" about everything. I really can't stand that type of people, but that's for another rant...
I'm thinking NECA and Mezco? Both seem to be following the Palisades pattern of being a small company in a big industry pulling big licenses from every direction and then next thing you know they're selling off their inventory at cost trying to pay off their debts. Now is not a good time to be a midline toy company, the only two ways that seem to be working is big box, mass retail companies like Hasbro and Mattel which can absorb losses easily, or upstarts that do limited runs of in-house creations like the urban and designer toy companies. There's only so much inventory you can push through Spencer's and Hot Topic without looking like the same products every time. I could go on, but this isn't the place for it.
Yeah, if this one gets passed it's going to make things a lot harder on everyone. I imagine it would sink a company like Yamato or Toynami which thrive on importing and often repackaging Japanese toys. I can understand something like this being passed if it was aimed at children's toys, but not adult collectibles. Unfortunately it sounds like this would be across the board. This is the type of thing that really should be limited to an age range, something that most of the more sought after imports have already made the effort to label as "adult collectible" and "not intended for children" (Revoltech for example is rated 15 and up). I don't expect this to pass, though. There are a lot people in the industry that will fight this along with consumers. I have a feeling the intended age on the products will be key to the argument as well as effect on income/revenue. Hopefully I'm not being overly optimistic... Emerje |
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tekwych Posts: 75 Location: New Mexico |
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| My biggest issue with the TIA at the moment is they do not want to spilt off 'adult collectables' and 'children's action figures' because it would be "to difficult to monitor and leave retailers unsure what is, or is not, 'safe'". I have covered the collectors market and the issues it is facing. If you want more I can point you to the appropriate sites / forum.
BTW, NECA is in great shape and should be around for some time. I expect Sideshow to buy or become a major financial partner of either Medicam or Hot Toys. My money is on Hot Toys as the corporate methodologies are closer. I think people should keep their eyes on Gentile Giant and Master Replicas. Star Wars is drying up VERY fast for both and neither has any other major licenses to fill the void. MR has already been bought by Corgi and I fully expect Corgi to shutter the division early next year, moving the few things still working to other divisions. |
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britannicamooreSubscriber Posts: 2354 Location: Detroit, MI. Or should I say Mt. Pleasant, MI? I live in a hand. |
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| I...I've never been one for figures. I've seen some- both Comic & anime related.
I can sort of see why they look bad...but at the same time I kind of deel they look no different than the action figures here in America after a show airs. Like those Teenage Muntant Ninja Turtles with kung-fu grip and weapons. Just like on the american cartoons there more human looking charcters that look nothing like the charcter from the show. Where they selling these toys at a high price? Did they fall apart? Were they paint with lead? I wouldn't know how to tell a good figure from a bad figure- I rememebr the column here that use to tell if figures were good or bad. (What happened to that anyway?) Could someone explain it to me? Because I really don't see what the fuss is....its just confusing to me. |
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| tekwych Posts: 75 Location: New Mexico |
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| To be honest it is FAR more difficult to produce a figure based on Animation than it is to produce a figure based on 'reality'. Not only are you sometimes the first to attempt the design in 3D but then you must work out details like color and texture. With 'reality' figures there are many little details to fill the large spaces, fabric folds, stubble, dirt and stains, and even the texture of skin or cloth. On an animated figure you don't have any of that, you end up with a large mass of grey surface area or a long dark cloak (in FMA) that, in your reference material, has no detail to because it was drawn dozens of times per minute. The figure NEEDS these little details or it the human eye will see it as wrong but by adding in the little details you move away from the reference work and again the figure looks wrong. Palisades worked really hard to capture in 3D the animation style of Invader Zim and Fairly Odd Parents while Toynami's Futurama attempts to bring Groening's work to plastic. The large flat solid colored Futurama figures must rely solely on sculpt to portray the character and while Fry's hair works great from one or two angles it is VERY wrong from most. This brings your eye straight to the flaw because there are no other details for the eye to focus on.
Again, if your truly interested in figures there are more appropriate sites. I offer a list of manufacture and news sites at Tekwych Talks Toys |
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| EmerjeSubscriber Posts: 4791 Location: Maine |
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That'll never happen. The adult market does not like to be associated with the children's market. There's a gray line there that I think they'd rather see darken up. Having to follow the same safety tests and standards as toys made for kids limits what they can do with detailed sculpts and materials. I'm familiar with TIA and what they're trying to do, they splash it all over their website, but the more they try to pull everyone together the more harm they're going to do in the long run. I don't think we're far from seeing an E3 situation with Toy Fair where the adult collectible manufacturers will stick to major conventions like Wizard World and SDCC to showcase their newest products rather than tied to the February media event. I know all of the sites to talk about toys. I've been talking about toys online longer than most of the websites have existed. 
In all honesty I don't know that much about NECA. I've never bought any of their products and they don't do anything that interests me. Still, people were saying the same thing about Palisades or even Resaurus back in the day and both closed down while still announcing new products. Hard to really say anyone is safe in an unstable and constantly evolving market like this.
I'm not so sure I see that the same way as you. They've already formed a relationship with both, but I don't see them being in a position to buy either, especially where Hot Toys is growing fast. They have a better chance of being merged with other Japanese companies than try to form a closer relationship overseas.
Gentle Giant Ltd would likely just fall back on Gentle Giant Studios and continue to do design work for other companies like they used to if they couldn't stay in the production end. I don't think Master Replicas will go away, Corgi would probably just push their own action figure lines on to them instead since the Corgi name is better known for cars than figures. Emerje |
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