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NEWS: Bandai Predicts More Gundam Sales, But Lower Toy/Model Sales




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TopGunman



Joined: 21 Dec 2010
Posts: 498
PostPosted: Sat May 12, 2012 5:54 pm Reply with quote
That's a damn shame for the latter, I really wanna get my hands on some Gundam models. I hope this doesn't cancel some releases.
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JohnnySake



Joined: 22 May 2008
Posts: 582
Location: Auburn Hills, MI
PostPosted: Sat May 12, 2012 6:20 pm Reply with quote
So Bandai, who I am assuming is the parent of Bandai USA, is predicting more Gundam video sales but pulled the plug on their USA branch which is partially responsible for those video sales. Ok, that makes sense to me.
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ArsenicSteel



Joined: 12 Jan 2010
Posts: 2370
PostPosted: Sat May 12, 2012 6:42 pm Reply with quote
I generally take news about a Japanese company predict sales of it's products in a press release to mainly mean domestic sales.
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WeirDiE_InC



Joined: 12 May 2010
Posts: 414
Location: The GVRD
PostPosted: Sat May 12, 2012 8:12 pm Reply with quote
Unicorn must be selling that well, huh?
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luffypirate



Joined: 06 Oct 2006
Posts: 3186
PostPosted: Sun May 13, 2012 1:56 am Reply with quote
I think Unicorn sells like 100k copies per volume.

I'm curious as to how many domestic sales they get...but we will never know.
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Fencedude5609



Joined: 09 Nov 2006
Posts: 5088
PostPosted: Sun May 13, 2012 1:58 am Reply with quote
JohnnySake wrote:
So Bandai, who I am assuming is the parent of Bandai USA, is predicting more Gundam video sales but pulled the plug on their USA branch which is partially responsible for those video sales. Ok, that makes sense to me.


Thats...a highly reductive view of things.

The relationship between the various Bandai subsidiaries is not nearly as simple as you seem to think.
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Mawdryn



Joined: 28 Feb 2006
Posts: 240
Location: St. Louis, MO. U.S.A.
PostPosted: Sun May 13, 2012 6:58 am Reply with quote
It's been ten years since that magical time you could walk into almost any department store in the U.S. and buy Gundam figures and kits at domestic retail prices. Those were good times--the likes of which we'll never see again...
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GeorgeC



Joined: 22 Nov 2008
Posts: 795
PostPosted: Sun May 13, 2012 7:59 am Reply with quote
Mawdryn wrote:
It's been ten years since that magical time you could walk into almost any department store in the U.S. and buy Gundam figures and kits at domestic retail prices. Those were good times--the likes of which we'll never see again...


It's been over a half-decade since the domestic US anime industry was healthy!

Yeah, let's see what's happened since 2005!

Oh, only about 2/3 of the companies which USED to license anime have gone out of business or restructured to survive...!

There's really only two companies now putting out anime on anything like a monthly basis -- Section 23/Sentai and Funimation. The rest have dramatically scaled back and stuck to their "sure-thing" niches (Shonen Jump series for Viz, retro for Eastern Star/Disco Tek, and everything else for Media Blasters). Even then, well over half the new shows have to be bought online and it's not like most anime fans are rich kids/adults, either...

If you don't have the TV series and movies selling well then it's kind of difficult generally speaking to sell the licensed tie-ins such as the action figures and model kits.

To begin with, Gundam was never anywhere near as popular in the US as it is in Japan. It's very Japanese and extremely repetitive with its main themes -- and I'm saying this as a fan of at least half the Gundam series I've seen. After the initial moderate success of Gundam Wing in the US -- probably among the worst launch decisions made in retrospect --, none of the other Gundam series managed to do better than half that series' ratings.

I've never completely understood WHY Japanese fans have not gotten burned out on the constant repetition of the basic 1979 series' storyline but I guess the turnover in Gundam fans must be higher than it is for Star Trek fans and they are much less aware of the overall story arcs than Trek fans are of their series. I don't know how you keep any show fresh over a 10-year span let alone 20-and 30-year spans with very few breaks in production unless your audience is constantly changing every 2-3 years and fresh, unminted (less obsessive) blood that's totally oblivious to and doesn't care about previous series' history comes in...

That does seem to be the general case with most media. There are very few shows that engender the loyalty that Trek or Dr. Who have and still have the same fans (and their kids!) 40 years later. Most TV shows have a very limited shelf-life and die off after their initial run.

For instance, Third Rock from the Sun was extremely popular during a good chunk of its original run but now few people give a damn about that series and it's next-to-impossible to find that show in repeat syndication on cable now. The big thing in repeat syndication for the past 5-6 years (at least) has been the Law & Order series...
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