S.H.FiguArts Dragonball Z figures!!!

[crisis]

It's arguable that Vegeta has kinda always been stronger than Goku. Had he arrived on earth any earlier, Goku wouldn't have stood a chance. Many times throughout the series, Goku must rely on power-ups to win temporary or otherwise. Had it not been for the Kaio-Ken then Vegeta would've dominated their first fight through & through. Vegeta at the beginning & middle of the Android/Cell sagas was stronger than him. Vegeta has had more experience fighting throughout his life than Goku. Then we have Vegeta getting several licks off of Beerus where Goku at SS3 could barely keep up. I'm sure there are other examples but these are just off the top of my head.

 

[TBlake]

Oh, cool. Are you going to paint the head black?

Pretty much.

 

[Darth Zangetsu]

It's arguable that Vegeta has kinda always been stronger than Goku. Had he arrived on earth any earlier, Goku wouldn't have stood a chance. Many times throughout the series, Goku must rely on power-ups to win temporary or otherwise. Had it not been for the Kaio-Ken then Vegeta would've dominated their first fight through & through. Vegeta at the beginning & middle of the Android/Cell sagas was stronger than him. Vegeta has had more experience fighting throughout his life than Goku. Then we have Vegeta getting several licks off of Beerus where Goku at SS3 could barely keep up. I'm sure there are other examples but these are just off the top of my head.

Good points. I would argue that Vegeta is stronger in the Anime until Goku has to survive 100X Gravity on the way to Namek. That gives him a huge boost. In his fight with the Ginyus Vegeta is the only one who can see that Goku is moving to dodge the ki blasts. Everyone else believes he is standing still and the blasts are going through him. And by the end of Z as a series, I would argue they are close in strength. Goku has begun to realize the SSJ3 is not a viable form while he is living. It drains far too much energy too fast. Vegeta enraged against Beerus is probably the next level of efficient SSJ.

 

[naarliichaarlii]

Good points. I would argue that Vegeta is stronger in the Anime until Goku has to survive 100X Gravity on the way to Namek. That gives him a huge boost. In his fight with the Ginyus Vegeta is the only one who can see that Goku is moving to dodge the ki blasts. Everyone else believes he is standing still and the blasts are going through him. And by the end of Z as a series, I would argue they are close in strength. Goku has begun to realize the SSJ3 is not a viable form while he is living. It drains far too much energy too fast. Vegeta enraged against Beerus is probably the next level of efficient SSJ.

Haha its like ssj3 isn't even a thing anymore. There have also been points where goku has held ssj3 for a substantial amount of time. I'd still say goku is stronger than vegeta, but vegeta is the more skilled warrior. So it's kind of like one has talent while the other has power.

 

[azim.khan]

Broly and 17 late to the party [emoji16] good god Broly is huge!

 

[Darth Zangetsu]

Haha its like ssj3 isn't even a thing anymore. There have also been points where goku has held ssj3 for a substantial amount of time. I'd still say goku is stronger than vegeta, but vegeta is the more skilled warrior. So it's kind of like one has talent while the other has power.

True. And Gohan is technically stronger than them all. Mystic Gohan was manhandling Buu when SSJ3 Goku and Gotenks could not. While I love parts of the Buu Saga, I always wanted a Saga where they fought Broly. I wanted to get a clear picture of the power structure there. Where does he rank? I mean we see him dismiss their Normal SSJ forms. And he beats up adult Gohan who was a SSJ2 at the time. So how would he react to SSJ3 or Vegeto? Would Mystic Gohan stand a better chance?

 

[JUN10R]

 

[wolvie9]

Nevermind

 

[Silrian]

Very nice setups guys! Especially like the black Azim!

This is a great point, Last year at a con my friend wanted to buy a Figma Kirito but the dealer wanted 250.00 and for a long time the price was crazy, fast froward a year and they are reissuing him in like 2 weeks. It's nice when a company does this, reissues figures with insane secondary market prices for easier access to late to the game collectors like myself. The only company I could imagine people freaking out about doing this is Hot Toys, having many early releases myself I'm ok with updates or "2.0's" but straight up reissues, this site would explode, climbing prices on the higher end stuff already has some Threads in a fit. Point is I would love DBZ reissues I just won't hold my breath.

(cc @Bardoon, @FSLAR)

I really think it's a mismatch to liken these to hot toys. These are baseline 40 dollar products. Hot Toys/Sideshow are, by the price alone, exclusive items. It's safe to say the majority of EVERYONE who collects any type of figures, is not able to delve deeply if at all into 1/6th, purely because of the price point. The market might be big, but it is an exclusive market in and of itself because of the price point. It's a niche market, no matter how big it is. It's not comparable to the six inch scale which is found at mass market retailers. Even if this line is a collector's line, these are high end six inch toys essentially. It might be 15+ labeled, but it's not as prestigious as 1/6th scale, which is just an entire world onto itself (a world in which I'm writing this very post, I know).

I think, however, that the '2.0 issue' would be an excellent way to solve the reissue problem, they could improve some stuff too. However, latching on to FSLAR's point of us 'missing something', what I think an even bigger problem is, is that the bluefin rep explicitly said they do not want to stray to an imbalanced point when it comes to releases per licence. They've outright said that simply want to keep things within a certain distance of each other in how much attention they give to one franchise, over something else. And that I think might be THE main problem here. It's impractical business. The biggest market should be able to force the most attention toward them, that's normal supply/demand ratio building. But Tamashii doesn't seem to fully wanna give themselves over to that market process.

I think this might be the crux behind all of this. They clearly can't not let the line grow, but they're also clearly holding it back, because they're not making release decisions solely based on market demand, that is just clear as the light of day. They're not ignoring it obviously, but they're not willing to actively make this licence their flagship production focus and that creates an imbalance to the fact that consumerwise it's skyrocketing into mass-market territory, when the line itself is not a mass market line. They're literally catering exclusive collectables to a consumer group that's reaching mass market size.

That's an issue that will smack them in the face no matter how long they postpone making clear cut decisions about it. It's already hitting everybody in the face, you can't ignore the tide of the market. Neither the company, nor we as consumers. It's bizarre that a product's success is now borderline actively making it harder for consumers, as opposed to enjoying the benefits of a successful product.

And then Newman says 'we could use another dragonball' I'm like, what are you talking about dude? You can easily double this line's pacing and you'd make it all back. People would go crazy for it. This would be the best selling high end mid-scale line to date.

Maybe their licence literally has a ceiling on how fast they're allowed to produce? That would explain a lot. Newman did say they don't have a master-licence so they're inhibited from full retail mass production a la hasbro....

 

[dragonballfan]

oalallalala amazing display

 

[FSLAR]

Very nice setups guys! Especially like the black Azim!


(cc @Bardoon, @FSLAR)

I really think it's a mismatch to liken these to hot toys. These are baseline 40 dollar products. Hot Toys/Sideshow are, by the price alone, exclusive items. It's safe to say the majority of EVERYONE who collects any type of figures, is not able to delve deeply if at all into 1/6th, purely because of the price point. The market might be big, but it is an exclusive market in and of itself because of the price point. It's a niche market, no matter how big it is. It's not comparable to the six inch scale which is found at mass market retailers. Even if this line is a collector's line, these are high end six inch toys essentially. It might be 15+ labeled, but it's not as prestigious as 1/6th scale, which is just an entire world onto itself (a world in which I'm writing this very post, I know).

I think, however, that the '2.0 issue' would be an excellent way to solve the reissue problem, they could improve some stuff too. However, latching on to FSLAR's point of us 'missing something', what I think an even bigger problem is, is that the bluefin rep explicitly said they do not want to stray to an imbalanced point when it comes to releases per licence. They've outright said that simply want to keep things within a certain distance of each other in how much attention they give to one franchise, over something else. And that I think might be THE main problem here. It's impractical business. The biggest market should be able to force the most attention toward them, that's normal supply/demand ratio building. But Tamashii doesn't seem to fully wanna give themselves over to that market process.

I think this might be the crux behind all of this. They clearly can't not let the line grow, but they're also clearly holding it back, because they're not making release decisions solely based on market demand, that is just clear as the light of day. They're not ignoring it obviously, but they're not willing to actively make this licence their flagship production focus and that creates an imbalance to the fact that consumerwise it's skyrocketing into mass-market territory, when the line itself is not a mass market line. They're literally catering exclusive collectables to a consumer group that's reaching mass market size.

That's an issue that will smack them in the face no matter how long they postpone making clear cut decisions about it. It's already hitting everybody in the face, you can't ignore the tide of the market. Neither the company, nor we as consumers. It's bizarre that a product's success is now borderline actively making it harder for consumers, as opposed to enjoying the benefits of a successful product.

And then Newman says 'we could use another dragonball' I'm like, what are you talking about dude? You can easily double this line's pacing and you'd make it all back. People would go crazy for it. This would be the best selling high end mid-scale line to date.

Maybe their licence literally has a ceiling on how fast they're allowed to produce? That would explain a lot. Newman did say they don't have a master-licence so they're inhibited from full retail mass production a la hasbro....

I would never liken these figure to Hot Toys, ever. Some people did to justify the scalper prices, but that's such bullcrap. There's no reason to defend the scalper prices unless you are a scalper or paid for it. These figures are good, but Hot toys is another league entirely from most figures. The same reason for not being able to delve into 1/6th figures, at least consistently, is indeed due to the price. That's something that will continually sway potential newcomers for the DBZ line, the insane scalper prices.

2.0. SSJ Vegeta could work, they can fix the eyes on the smirk and yelling face, add in crossed arms, boot tips (lol) and maybe an effect piece. Trunks couldn't really qualify, I can't see anything else bar an effect part, or a fix for the sheath peg. With what you said on business...it is impractical. It's not really working for anyone either. Tamashii's ways...just don't make sense at times, they really don't. But on license, as I said with Good Smile, it does seem to be effecting things. Bluefin apparently couldn't distribute the Iron Man 2 Figuarts but were able to distribute the Iron Man 3 ones, while Good Smile has had problems with a few Figmas and Nendoroids recently (Nendoriod Elsa due to Disney problems, Avengers Figmas due to Hasbro/Marvel, for instance), while we have heard that Toei interfered a few times with this line such as no smiling SSJ Goku face, apparently. So maybe that's it, though you could be right about a limit...maybe. I've never heard of limits on products like that, numerically.

 

[lerath666]

broly waits at home! kakkarot is doooOMED!

 

[Angelo2113]

I don't see how "2.0 issue" would solve the problem. I imagine it would be even worse than a simple reissue by making the 1st release obsolete and lose almost all of its value, which is something Tamashii wants to keep intact for their consumers.

 

[Xerowolf]

That's a damn nice collection Xerowolf! I like your Namek Vegeta. I wish I had as much space to display mine as you do.

You should use the spare head (the scouter wearing one) from the legit Scouter Vegeta on your Datong. The face is often the place where the bootlegness shows the most.

Thank you! I was going to do that but I didn't want to mix up my real and Datong. I am curious to see how the fake SS3 Goku looks. I know that I will need to repaint the undershirt area (Why they made it black I have no idea).

I really need to pick up a Cell and Frieza. I am pretty pissed that these figures are so sought after by re-sellers. I just can't spend $150 each for them, I would probably go up to $70 each.

 

[lerath666]

Thank you! I was going to do that but I didn't want to mix up my real and Datong. I am curious to see how the fake SS3 Goku looks. I know that I will need to repaint the undershirt area (Why they made it black I have no idea).

I really need to pick up a Cell and Frieza. I am pretty pissed that these figures are so sought after for re-sellers. I just can't spend $150 each for them, I would probably go up to $70 each.

if you're not in a rush, you can paruse the sale threads on 4chan, and likely get BOTH of them for about 100$ shipped.

just might take a while before someone wants to clean out their DBZ figures again.

 

[Bardoon]

Thanks for recognizing what I said, appreciate it the other thing about honor is their idea about is pretty selfish - they are doing what benefits only them and is not for the good of everyone. The other thing is maybe the Japanese buy into it, but the line in a sense is more so about America. The line almost died in Japan, but America brought back its interest. So why should we be shafted? Why should we have to still go by the Japanese way? The DBZ line has already sort of integrated into America in a few ways, such as how the web exclusive boxes have English, but the regular releases are in Japanese, same with other lines like Iron Man and Sailor Moon.

We've been over FiguartsZero Goku, and I think it was because there was such a gap between him and Trunks, the second FiguartsZero. So there may not have been interest at that time, BUT now, this applies to SSJ Vegeta and Trunks. There's such interest in the line now, and those being re-released again would be great for everyone. The other thing is, we have not heard a thing on the web exclusive re-release policy since then. Bluefin said 'baby steps' or something, but we haven't heard it.

I'd compare Good Smile Company more to Tamashii than Bandai itself. Bandai has multiple divisions I think, but Tamashii is basically action figure (Figuarts, D-Arts and MonsterArts), statue (Figuarts Zero), and only now branching out into new products like prop replicas (proplicas), and chibis/trading figures (Tamashii Buddies). GSC also is sorta like that with Nendoriods, statues, and how they handle the Max Factory Figmas and statues (getting exclusive things on there and being highly associated with Max Factory) but yeah, you're right about the mentality. It's not like GSC hasn't had issues though, some of their products had licensing problems recently. But they work to fix their problems; if Tamashii had a similar issue with Nendoriod Red with something else, they may not have bothered.

Good points all around. But keep in mind, Tamashii is still an umbrella organization UNDER Bandai. They OWN Tamashii Nations and they created it as a "collector line" with Figuarts, MonsterArts, etc. as you pointed out. And no matter what, they will HAVE to answer to the Bandai executive management. I'm sure the people in charge of Tamashii have some sort of independence, but at the end of the day, they have to answer to their Bandai bosses. That's why I made the Bandai/Good Smile comparison. You are right, the Tamashii "mindset" is more like Good Smile, but Tamashii has to answer to the Bandai executives that I'm sure are those old school Japanese businessmen that have been around for decades. Bandai has been around since 1950 and merged with the video game maker Namco to become Bandai-Namco in recent years. That's a lot of layers of management I'm sure!

So while, let's just say that Tamashii is PUSHING DBZ and wanting to do MORE. The Bandai upper management might be putting the squash on those decisions because of their viewpoint of the DBZ line when it comes to costs, profits, popularity, marketability, etc. And because Japanese culture is very much "elder-based", I don't know how often those Tamashii managers are going back to the Bandai bosses and saying, "Look, we told you months ago DBZ's profits have increased, take a look at the Broly sales, can we do more releases because we can guarantee profits with our character choices?"

Hopefully the Broly sales and the Western attention has caused some sort of rustle with Bandai and Tamashii's management. Maybe not with the Figuarts, but you see they've obviously amped up the Figuarts ZERO upcoming releases as well as launched the new Figuarts ZERO EX line starting with THREE DBZ characters. Same goes with Tamashii Buddies which is a new line and has STARTED with DBZ characters. It might not be what we all want (more Figuarts ). But it's a start, right? And hopefully it paves towards the Figuarts' direction soon.

 

[Silrian]

I don't see how "2.0 issue" would solve the problem. I imagine it would be even worse than a simple reissue by making the 1st release obsolete and lose almost all of its value, which is something Tamashii wants to keep intact for their consumers.

I don't take people who buy these things for their monetary value into account when I form my opinion, sorry. I also don't think it'd make much difference if they rereleased something or gave it an upgraded release. The value of the former would fall anyway. But maybe hot toys collecters can chime in on this, but plenty of companies do it and the few people that wine because they suddenly own something that's worth less... yeah sorry, uh this isn't about your freakin mortgage, pension, car or a milion dollar comic book. I just don't care about this attitude. These things aren't relics or gold bars. They're action figures with a retail price lower than what you pay for a hip new pair of pants around here. Don't buy this stuff for its value, buy stuff because you wanna own that stuff. That's where I come from. Feel free to disagree. Sorry if it feels demeaning to some, but this isn't a freakin diamond exchange. I prefer some more perspective. If you're gonna rerelease something anyway, might as well improve it. Simple as that in my eyes.

To boot, for diehard collectors the 2.0 version would be worth getting, as you could tell one release apart from the other. Whereas a simple rerelease would solely devalue the product... As soon as they release a new ssj vegeta, the old one will start to skydive in price, doesn't really matter what they do. They will release some form of ssj vegeta at some point in time (unless tamashii's 'totes cra-cra' ) and then you can kiss your 600$ scalper paycheck goodbye.

As far as I'm concerned the sooner, the better.

 

[nickshaw2814]

In case people still need Broly or another one lol B&N has some. This code works for 15% off - E4B8B7J. User posted on Rangerboard but thought I'd share here

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/p/toys...=4543112910479

 

[Silrian]

@Bardoon somehow I can't see Bandai executives going "Oh you wanna produce more of your best selling (<-fact) line? No we don't think so.'...

If anything I could see Tamashii being more reluctant than Bandai, because of their reputation toward non-dbz collectors...

 

[Silrian]

Why am I able to add reputation ONLY to myself...?