We’ve heard it as recently as Lucky Star episode 6: the conventional wisdom that explains why, in defiance of all logic and economic principle, items (otaku goods in particular) are produced in lots far below demand. It’s been my frustrating experience over the past four years to observe first-hand the madness involved in procuring said items from their original source (as opposed to obscenely marked-up auctions), a process inevitably involving arcane mail-order procedures (at best), long queues with no guarantee of the item being in stock when you get to the front (the status quo), or the sacrifice of a firstborn child (good thing it doesn’t have to be your own).
I always thought I was alone in my rage against the limited edition machine, but it seems that something has finally snapped the patience of even the most hard-boiled Japanese consumer: Shuraki, the Goodsmile / Red Entertainment figure collaboration project we’ve been reporting on since its inception. If you missed the preorder for the recently “unsealed” volume 3, you’re not alone: I was surprised to find yesterday that Shuraki vol. 3 “Shall” has been panned in reviews at Amazon (months before her release) by disgruntled fans, and not only that, there are dozens of fellow customers registering their agreement by voting the reviews as useful. The same thing is currently happening to Shuraki vol. 1. “The item quality isn’t the issue”, says one reviewer, “I don’t like the way they’ve chosen to sell it.” This seems to be the general sentiment across all the negative reviews, and while Amazon reviews alone are hardly enough to change company policy I’m guessing they’re just the tip of the (2ch) iceberg in terms of discontent with what Goodsmile is doing, and if this trend continues we just might see a change in the release format of future Shuraki volumes. Here’s hoping.
do you hear the people sing?
singing a song of angry men…
Wait…I don’t get whats happening…are people angry because it’s limited edition?
People are angry because Shuraki have been met with a combination of extraordinarily high demand and very limited supply, selling out in preorder in a matter of minutes from when they’re listed.
Unlike some other limited edition items where they make a quantity to meet demand and you just have to get your order in by a certain time to be assured a copy, Shuraki (and most other figures) are produced in fixed lots regardless of demand. This time around the disparity is so extreme that people are angry that it isn’t being taken into account (in other words, angry that Goodsmile isn’t producing enough to give fans a decent chance of being able to order one).
Ahaha, what people would do for figures…
Of course, I am not in the position to say such things, since I skip lunch every weekday to buy them.
And how many people buy them just to sell them?
from what i can tell from Y!JA, quite a few…
I’ve totally felt this way. Mainly since I started collecting Pinky:St figures as they have MANY MANY limited editions and they’re pretty hard to get. Of course this is probably just because I’m located in America and have to go through additional steps to get them. Mail Order figures are terrible for me because I have to find someone in Japan to order them for me. ;_; Or I could wait for auctions and pay so much more. ;_; Same goes for event limiteds.
It’s tough on the fans.
oh.. c’est la freakin’ merde! people should quit with the whining and posturing. Like MD said it’s limited edition for kamisama sake. This industry is inundated with figure after figure after figure and so many more figures- causing my head to spin and vomit acrid bile that it’s a breath of fresh air to have companies making limited quality items occasionally.
FYI i did not get my “Shall” pre-order and I wanted this as much as any1
hey you snooze ya freakin’ LOSE! simple and concise.
Sometimes i wonder, those limited pvcs prices are of nomal pricing, why bother making them so little? Don’t they want to gain higher profits?
I see i see thanks for the breakdown Shingo.
I wanted to preorder that figure too but I thought its too late now. I wonder if this whole fiasco will change that.
I was following all the Shuraki-bashing on Amazon, etc myself ever since the 3rd box pre-orders appeared. Apparently some of them are more pissed off than usual because Shuraki is an entire series of figures, and we can all relate to how frustrating it is to have a missing piece.
Furthermore, some are unhappy that the drama CDs are not being sold separately, forcing fans of the seiyuu (but not of figures) to join in the pre-order madness (or head on to Yahoo Auctions) just to grab em (though they’ll prolly pop up on p2p real soon).
> uinreli – Lots. There’re several listings on YA for people with 2-3 of the same figure put on sale. At one point there were a couple with 5-6. If you don’t mind shelling out an extra 2-3k you can still get your hands on any of the first 3.
Well, to be honest, I don’t care much for the design of these figures, except for the military, pink haired one. I like cute designs, but my ‘blatant moe abuse’ threshold is relatively low.
Anyone remembers the craze when the first batch of the Max Factory Haruhi figure was put on preorder? HobbyStock and HobbySearch were gone before I even noticed the items went up, and HLJ did not fare that well either. Soon after auctions started to appear, with the average price in the 14,000 yen range.
The first batch was 5,000 units, but at least Max Factory implied since day one that there would be additional units.
I really hope that quick re-release of the Shuraki’s figures will be announced since I’ve missed too Shall and Mei Feng, luckily I’ve managed to secure one Akatsuki Mishiro thanks to a friend of mine but the quantity of these figures, given the fact that Action Figures are now a global hobby and not a trend limited to the japanese country, are too low… Does GSC not care about the profits they’re loosing???
I hate to say it, but this isn’t the first time a niche industry has failed to take account of global demand and it won’t be the last.
Someone with a popular culture blog might set the world on fire if he were to track which companies were best adjusting to the international demand for their very limited products.
Just sayin’.
What strikes me the most about this particular case is less that the international market is being shafted (seemingly an existential constant these days ;_;) than that Japan has managed to create a demand so high and supply so low that domestic fans are rebelling against the limited nature of the release.
As far as which companies are best adjusting to international demand, I’d say the early adopters would be Kaiyodo / Organic (due to their distribution deal with Diamond Comics) and to a lesser extent Kotobukiya (due to the opening of their US division). Recently the Goodsmile collective has been making aggressive moves into the international market with official wholesale distributors established in several countries, and I’m guessing it’s only a matter of time before these businesses mature and international releases come nearly simultaneously with the Japanese.
That said, as long as they keep up this senseless practice of super-rare limited editions of popular items they’ll be shooting themselves in the foot no matter where they distribute. -_-;;
I never cared for these figures, but GSC are seriously not my pick of caring figure companies.
I really like what Max does though. They may have limited runs, but they always seem to bring up more than one release (I’ve never missed out on anything except for the Rin Kokonoe, but that was HLJ’s fault, not Max’s).
It’s a very wrong move by GSC, and they’ve lost my vote, though I am still interested in some of the more non-limited stuff coming up from them in the next few months.
Actually, it may be that Alter felt this early and decided to run while they had the best face on things? *shrugs*