Forum - View topicINTEREST: Bandai Namco Holdings Reports Increasing Gunpla Sales Throughout the Pandemic
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LightningZangetsu27
 Posts: 90 |
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isnt this thanks to all these you tube videos and twitch build streams
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notcurlybrace
 Posts: 15 |
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love to see it
i personally got into Gundam early last year and yeah, i spent a lot on it hopefully i spend even more in the future |
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samuelp
Industry Insider
Posts: 2231 Location: San Antonio, USA |
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And the increase in stream watching, and specifically hobby interest stream watching is because? You guessed it, pandemic. So I agree they probably helped boost the popularity even more than otherwise, but it still all comes back to Covid IMO. The good news for them is that these kinds of hobbies tend to stick with you even after the event that made you try them in the first place. Once a gundam fan, always a gundam fan, so even after the pandemic is over they probably will not see sales drop back to where they started from. |
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meiam
Posts: 3442 |
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Two side to that, one side more money more kit, other side is that since there's a lot of new people enjoying the hobby bandai will just use that as an excuse to make more unicorn/RX78/Exia instead a new model that don't have kit. |
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LinkTSwordmaster
 Posts: 381 Location: PA / USA |
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More people with time during the pandemic, more streaming, more watch time... all very good points.
I would also point out though - the build quality of the materials and fluidity of the instructions, as well as the wider availability of shipping & tools is also a factor. I have some aaaaancient kits from the Toonami era of Gunpla, and hooooly..... the difference in quality and detail if you look at an old Wing Zero versus some of the newer ones they've done recently is nuts. The plastic is pretty bad on those ancient builds, there's so many problems I would need to film it and break it down, but only RECENTLY have there been things like the RealGrade TV Wing Gundam or the RealGrade Nu Gundam/Sazabi, or the Gundam: The Origin Char's Zaku II-S that are all incredibly stellar quality and EVERY Gundam fan should probably look into. Especially the Perfect Grade RX-78 that the one MythBusters guy (Adam Savage) just built on his YouTube channel. Shout out to Mecha Gaikotsu on YT - if you wanna see some well-shot Gunpla pr@wn and get a sense for which kits are both FUN to build and actually have QUALITY behind them, they've got some very good coverage. |
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WeirDiE_InC
 Posts: 414 Location: The GVRD |
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As long-time builder, I welcome newcomers into the hobby, even though I feel that the hobby is in a weird place. Internationally, supply hasn't been keeping up with demand, and Bandai's prioritizing of smaller scales and online exclusive have made getting product outside of Japan harder during the pandemic. Modern kits may be fantastic and all, but I hope this doesn't dissuade/spoil new people from older kits and customizing like you would any other scale model.
Also, I think Mecha Gaikotsu is a joke. |
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R. Kasahara
 Posts: 657 |
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I wonder if Kotobukiya, Hasegawa, and other makers also saw an uptick in sales of their model kits. From my experience, Bandai makes the most beginner-friendly kits, so perhaps other companies saw less of an increase (if any), but it would still be interesting to know. |
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#alfrescoCR
Posts: 172 |
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probably the main reason why they're desolving Sunrise as a studio. To make more gundams.
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SpiritSmoocher
Posts: 182 |
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I say funimation acquiring 79 and zeta largely boosted interest in gunpla. Before, it was only those that saw seed, wing, or ibo who really had any interest. The big issue is bandai is choosing to overtly reissue the same models over and over. Sorry for those hoping to get an mg uc collection, but when was the last time they reissued the mg guntank, jegan, marasai, and the o? The mg line has been sort of shelved to p bandai. Also ever since seed and 00 got new mgs, they heavily cut down on the hg restocks. Even for the models they do restock, certain ones like the hguc zeta and cca grunts and the rare mg uc grunt dont seem to be hitting overseas shelves. |
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