Character Choice and Marketing
There's a predictable pattern to one of the most common questions I hear from other collectors. "Why won't [company] make a figure of [character]?" I have heard this lament over and over again for a myriad of characters and have lamented it myself at times, but today, let's examine the possible explanation. Why indeed. At the end of the day, it's a market question.
The surface-level reason is relative character popularity. It's obvious that it makes more sense to produce figures of the more popular characters rather than the less popular. Being a fan of a minor or less popular character invariably means disappointment in the merchandising department. I’m not going to actually go into what makes a character popular as that would be a whole essay on its own, but let’s look at the basic causes.
At the basic level, character popularity is predicated on the popularity of the medium. For example, One Piece is a hugely popular series (Japan's most popular manga, in fact) and thus sales of figures for it are virtually guaranteed, even figures of more secondary characters. So One Piece fans are quite in luck; the mad rush for new releases notwithstanding, MegaHouse's Portrait of Pirates series and Bandai’s Figuarts Zero series incorporate a huge wealth of characters, far more than simply the primary protagonists, to include a large portion of the cast. And more are being released all the time. The sheer variety is enormous.
But this is the exception, not the rule. More commonly, the figures of a popular franchise are heavily weighted towards a single character. The most well-known example of this is Vocaloid, where Hatsune Miku gets the vast majority of figures. Considering that there are many other Vocaloids that enjoy popularity, why is Miku favored so heavily? I talked about this specifically in an entry a long time ago, but it was mostly complaints about the lack of variety between Miku figures. Setting opinions on its merit aside, let’s examine the reasons for her overwhelming majority.
I believe it’s because the original, starting popularity of Vocaloid in the first place was due to Hatsune Miku. Vocaloid software predates Miku (the first Japanese Vocaloids were Meiko and Kaito) but its initial release garnered only mild enthusiasm. However, when Miku debuted, it set off an explosion of interest in Vocaloid and almost single-handedly propelled NicoVideo to its current form. In short, Hatsune Miku got Vocaloid to where it is today. As a result of this, she not only remains the most popular Vocaloid (in music) even now, she is also the most recognizable. In general, even those not familiar with Vocaloid will recognize Miku. It’s been said that she prints money, and I don’t think that’s inaccurate-her appeal seems to be almost universal. There are many people who enjoy figures of her who do not even like any Vocaloid music. The cycle is self-sustaining-her great popularity encourages companies to design very beautiful figures which almost always sell well, so more are produced, etc.
Popularity is also influenced by the character themselves-that is, their specific appeal and design. A well-loved character is usually a combination of an appealing personality and an appealing design. I would argue that it takes both to propel a character into figure stardom-and that in some cases a more minor character, that would not have gotten figures normally, may get figures simply because of an especially interesting or appealing design.
Incidences where the primary protagonist does not get many (or any) figures, but other main characters do, can be confusing at first glance. An excellent example (and source of frustration for me) is the great lack of figures of Ikari Shinji of Neon Genesis Evangelion. He is the most central character to the whole story. It seems that manufacturers go out of their way to avoid making figures of him. Only one nice scale PVC has ever been produced of him, and he isn’t even by himself-he comes bundled with his boyfriend Nagisa Kaworu.
It seems Shinji simply isn’t marketable, but why? The problem is the overall attitude most often taken towards Shinji-it’s very much not a positive one, to say the least. I love him to pieces, for reasons which I won’t go into here as that would be an essay all on its own, but the fact of the matter seems to be that most figure buyers do not. At the end of the day, importance to the story is not a determining factor. It is the popular appeal-thus, marketability-of the character that determines it. Thus Shinji gets almost no figures, while both Ayanami Rei and Sohryu Asuka-Langley get literally hundreds. Mari “Illustrious” Makinami, a new Rebuild of Evangelion character, is catching up fast despite having been around for 13 fewer years than the other girls. And Nagisa Kaworu, who appeared for only a single episode in the original series, has a substantial number of figures, more than any other male character I can think of.
This brings me to another point, consistent across almost all series, because Kaworu is unusual. The fact of the matter is that male characters are almost always lower in popularity than female characters. More importantly, figure collecting is a very male-dominated hobby-thus, figure manufacturers are needing to play to a primarily male audience. And most of the time, you won’t interest a male audience much with male characters. (The general exception to this is shounen series like One Piece and Naruto, where the kickass characters are almost always male and the fans would generally want figures of them.) Ultimately, the female figure-collecting demographic is a smaller one, and there’s less money to be made off of them. So it is infrequently targeted-why would a company expend the same resources on a smaller demographic?
Making more money is the ultimate and primary goal of any company. The process of making a figure to be sold requires a significant investment of time and resources. A company produces a figure under the assumption that it will make more money than it took to produce it. It’s a simple risk/reward calculation that is the crux of all business and at the core, is the determining factor in whether a given figure is produced.
The risk/reward ratio must be appropriately balanced. For instance, after a long-standing survey held by Good Smile Company, two of the most requested items were a Kaito figma and a Kaito scale PVC. Up until now, the only figures produced of Kaito were GSC’s fairly low-cost money-making darlings, nendoroids (and nendo petits.) The response to the survey has shown that a demand does exist for Kaito figures, enough to merit the production of a figma-a wise choice to lead with as it is less expensive to produce than a scale PVC. However, if sales of this first foray-the figma-are lackluster, that would be an indication to GSC that the demand is not at high enough levels to merit further production in this area. I anticipate a problem here. A great many people have expressed a desire for Kaito figures, but now that the first real release has been put up for preorder, they are suddenly refusing to put their money where their mouth is. They are shooting themselves in the foot by essentially being unwilling to spend an extra 1000 yen or so to get something which they supposedly coveted quite desperately. If the Kaito figma sells poorly, production of any more Kaito figures is unlikely. Interest is ultimately worthless unless backed with money.
It’s this factor above all else that drives the figure market. Even a popular character will get no figures if it is demonstrated that people are unwilling to actually buy the merchandise, whatever the reason. Is it frustrating when your favorite character gets no figures? Absolutely. I’ve several frustrations in this area myself. But, if you consider all the above factors that determine figure production, however annoying it may be that the character is left out, you need never ask “why” again.
The surface-level reason is relative character popularity. It's obvious that it makes more sense to produce figures of the more popular characters rather than the less popular. Being a fan of a minor or less popular character invariably means disappointment in the merchandising department. I’m not going to actually go into what makes a character popular as that would be a whole essay on its own, but let’s look at the basic causes.
At the basic level, character popularity is predicated on the popularity of the medium. For example, One Piece is a hugely popular series (Japan's most popular manga, in fact) and thus sales of figures for it are virtually guaranteed, even figures of more secondary characters. So One Piece fans are quite in luck; the mad rush for new releases notwithstanding, MegaHouse's Portrait of Pirates series and Bandai’s Figuarts Zero series incorporate a huge wealth of characters, far more than simply the primary protagonists, to include a large portion of the cast. And more are being released all the time. The sheer variety is enormous.
But this is the exception, not the rule. More commonly, the figures of a popular franchise are heavily weighted towards a single character. The most well-known example of this is Vocaloid, where Hatsune Miku gets the vast majority of figures. Considering that there are many other Vocaloids that enjoy popularity, why is Miku favored so heavily? I talked about this specifically in an entry a long time ago, but it was mostly complaints about the lack of variety between Miku figures. Setting opinions on its merit aside, let’s examine the reasons for her overwhelming majority.
I believe it’s because the original, starting popularity of Vocaloid in the first place was due to Hatsune Miku. Vocaloid software predates Miku (the first Japanese Vocaloids were Meiko and Kaito) but its initial release garnered only mild enthusiasm. However, when Miku debuted, it set off an explosion of interest in Vocaloid and almost single-handedly propelled NicoVideo to its current form. In short, Hatsune Miku got Vocaloid to where it is today. As a result of this, she not only remains the most popular Vocaloid (in music) even now, she is also the most recognizable. In general, even those not familiar with Vocaloid will recognize Miku. It’s been said that she prints money, and I don’t think that’s inaccurate-her appeal seems to be almost universal. There are many people who enjoy figures of her who do not even like any Vocaloid music. The cycle is self-sustaining-her great popularity encourages companies to design very beautiful figures which almost always sell well, so more are produced, etc.
Popularity is also influenced by the character themselves-that is, their specific appeal and design. A well-loved character is usually a combination of an appealing personality and an appealing design. I would argue that it takes both to propel a character into figure stardom-and that in some cases a more minor character, that would not have gotten figures normally, may get figures simply because of an especially interesting or appealing design.
Incidences where the primary protagonist does not get many (or any) figures, but other main characters do, can be confusing at first glance. An excellent example (and source of frustration for me) is the great lack of figures of Ikari Shinji of Neon Genesis Evangelion. He is the most central character to the whole story. It seems that manufacturers go out of their way to avoid making figures of him. Only one nice scale PVC has ever been produced of him, and he isn’t even by himself-he comes bundled with his boyfriend Nagisa Kaworu.
It seems Shinji simply isn’t marketable, but why? The problem is the overall attitude most often taken towards Shinji-it’s very much not a positive one, to say the least. I love him to pieces, for reasons which I won’t go into here as that would be an essay all on its own, but the fact of the matter seems to be that most figure buyers do not. At the end of the day, importance to the story is not a determining factor. It is the popular appeal-thus, marketability-of the character that determines it. Thus Shinji gets almost no figures, while both Ayanami Rei and Sohryu Asuka-Langley get literally hundreds. Mari “Illustrious” Makinami, a new Rebuild of Evangelion character, is catching up fast despite having been around for 13 fewer years than the other girls. And Nagisa Kaworu, who appeared for only a single episode in the original series, has a substantial number of figures, more than any other male character I can think of.
This brings me to another point, consistent across almost all series, because Kaworu is unusual. The fact of the matter is that male characters are almost always lower in popularity than female characters. More importantly, figure collecting is a very male-dominated hobby-thus, figure manufacturers are needing to play to a primarily male audience. And most of the time, you won’t interest a male audience much with male characters. (The general exception to this is shounen series like One Piece and Naruto, where the kickass characters are almost always male and the fans would generally want figures of them.) Ultimately, the female figure-collecting demographic is a smaller one, and there’s less money to be made off of them. So it is infrequently targeted-why would a company expend the same resources on a smaller demographic?
Making more money is the ultimate and primary goal of any company. The process of making a figure to be sold requires a significant investment of time and resources. A company produces a figure under the assumption that it will make more money than it took to produce it. It’s a simple risk/reward calculation that is the crux of all business and at the core, is the determining factor in whether a given figure is produced.
The risk/reward ratio must be appropriately balanced. For instance, after a long-standing survey held by Good Smile Company, two of the most requested items were a Kaito figma and a Kaito scale PVC. Up until now, the only figures produced of Kaito were GSC’s fairly low-cost money-making darlings, nendoroids (and nendo petits.) The response to the survey has shown that a demand does exist for Kaito figures, enough to merit the production of a figma-a wise choice to lead with as it is less expensive to produce than a scale PVC. However, if sales of this first foray-the figma-are lackluster, that would be an indication to GSC that the demand is not at high enough levels to merit further production in this area. I anticipate a problem here. A great many people have expressed a desire for Kaito figures, but now that the first real release has been put up for preorder, they are suddenly refusing to put their money where their mouth is. They are shooting themselves in the foot by essentially being unwilling to spend an extra 1000 yen or so to get something which they supposedly coveted quite desperately. If the Kaito figma sells poorly, production of any more Kaito figures is unlikely. Interest is ultimately worthless unless backed with money.
It’s this factor above all else that drives the figure market. Even a popular character will get no figures if it is demonstrated that people are unwilling to actually buy the merchandise, whatever the reason. Is it frustrating when your favorite character gets no figures? Absolutely. I’ve several frustrations in this area myself. But, if you consider all the above factors that determine figure production, however annoying it may be that the character is left out, you need never ask “why” again.