casual otaku need not apply
so, I'm going to rant about shit nobody cares about. you have been warned...
I've been highly annoyed lately with the japanese figure/figurine market. increasingly, companies seem to be doing this thing where they produce ridiculously small numbers of a given run of what are/will be obviously popular releases, and then advertise the shit out of it months ahead of time. the net result is that they're gone in a week or two, assuming they haven't already sold out in pre-order (traversing directly from 'pre-order stop' to 'discontinued' instantaneously on release day).
I dunno if this is a result of the 'warehouse 2.0' push or if it's just companies being lazy or what, but it's pissing me off. it seems that you need to be an uber obsessive otaku who subscribes to all the figurine mags and haunts all the news blogs and get your pre-order in as soon as it's announced or else you don't have a chance. all you need is a creditcard and blind faith because waiting till when you can see real pictures of the thing or (god forbid) see it IRL in a store is an attitude that will get you laughed at. it's like the market is focusing a penlight on only 'serious' collectors and casual fans are left out in the cold.
none of this is helped of course by the fact that there are like FOUR FUCKING STORES (literally) that will ship to the US, and none of them ever have anything in stock. maybe I'm just hypersensitive because I found about a dozen things in the past month that are either already gone or that I can't pre-order. at least I was lucky enough to find one of them at anibos.
I've been highly annoyed lately with the japanese figure/figurine market. increasingly, companies seem to be doing this thing where they produce ridiculously small numbers of a given run of what are/will be obviously popular releases, and then advertise the shit out of it months ahead of time. the net result is that they're gone in a week or two, assuming they haven't already sold out in pre-order (traversing directly from 'pre-order stop' to 'discontinued' instantaneously on release day).
I dunno if this is a result of the 'warehouse 2.0' push or if it's just companies being lazy or what, but it's pissing me off. it seems that you need to be an uber obsessive otaku who subscribes to all the figurine mags and haunts all the news blogs and get your pre-order in as soon as it's announced or else you don't have a chance. all you need is a creditcard and blind faith because waiting till when you can see real pictures of the thing or (god forbid) see it IRL in a store is an attitude that will get you laughed at. it's like the market is focusing a penlight on only 'serious' collectors and casual fans are left out in the cold.
none of this is helped of course by the fact that there are like FOUR FUCKING STORES (literally) that will ship to the US, and none of them ever have anything in stock. maybe I'm just hypersensitive because I found about a dozen things in the past month that are either already gone or that I can't pre-order. at least I was lucky enough to find one of them at anibos.