Is Bandai Insane?
 

I went to a Walmart about 40 minutes away from where I live to track down some new figures (Walmart in Union, NJ). On the shelf were 4 6" Cheetaras and not much else by way of Thundercats. One of our forum members wrote in the sightings section a week ago that there were 4 6" Cheetaras at that Walmart! They have been sitting there for a week! Honestly, what 6-9 year-old wants to play with a Cheetara figure?? Why the hell didn't Bandai pack the Tygra with this Cheetara 50/50? I understand that this is the "collector series" but they are just action figures made for kids. To me, collector series figures should be much more impressive. I expect that we will be swimming in Cheetaras pretty soon, meanwhile there isn't a 6" Tygra to be found. Bandai also short packed Claudus, the only real new figure in Wave 2, to one per case! WTF Bandai!?! I'm also curious as to why they couldn't release the entire Thundercats team at once instead of spreading them out over 12 months? They did it with the 4" wave, why not the 6"? The 8" Classic Collector Series I believe was a success since I rarely see them in stores anywhere but Bandai decided to cancel them. Again, I don't understand the thought process. Finally I'm concerned about the idiots at Cartoon Network. The show has been gone for some time now and no one seems to know when it will return. That will be bad for toy sales. If the toys don't sell and the Thundercats line suffers we may never see the Wilytwins in 6" form and that would really be a shame.

I think they need to refine their packing strategy a bit, but I don't think they're insane. They seem to consider the 6" figures solely a collector line, and figured Cheetara was a fore-sure sell. As for their decision to not release the entire team at once, I respect it fully. Not all people could afford to buy the team at the 6" scale all at once. The 4" line is cheap enough that releasing them all made sense. As for Claudus, considering his little amount of time in the show so-far, I'm not sure kids would be too interested in getting him. However it does suck that he's short-packed, as I was considering getting him (it's doubtful that we'll see him in 6" action figure form).

I just hope that they don't ever short-pack any Classic styled Panthro figures, and that they don't pass-up the opportunity to increase the villain count in the toy-line, most especially with the Classic figures.

Might be jumpin the gun broski, most girls sell out faster due to a higher collector volume than kids. Could just be that area in particular. I'm close to nj and I was VERY lucky to find one cheetara. Always the 4 inch sells out right away near me, her and panthro are desirable. :D

I don't thinks so broheim, the short packed girl figures always disappear because collectors and scalpers grab them first. When a female figure is the whole case though I can see that being a problem because the collectors will buy, the scalpers will buy but then will return the ones that didn't sell, and the kids won't ask their moms to buy it for them so they will just sit and collect dust until the clearance. I may be jumping the gun though since this first batch of Cheetaras didn't ship to everywhere so it's possible that the February shipments will be packed with both Cheetaras and Tygras. We'll see.

I still think they can release the entire team at once. The Power Rangers have 5 or 6 in a team and they all seem to be available. This isn't the 80's where little kids saved their nickels to buy one action figure at a time. Now we have collectors and kids that say "buy me this" and the parent does as commanded.

That's a good idea to do a full team at once. Imagine if they did a box set of good guys and mutants like kidworks did with the mini's back in the 80's! Though in box sets bandai always skips accessories sadly.

The decisions these companies make will give you a headache. Hasbro pulls similar things with Transformers, they'll ship 3x more Bumblebees than any other figure, only for them to end up warming the shelves indefinitely.

Probably because they did not want to hear us bitch about not being able to find Cheetara. Instead, we can now bitch about not being able to find Tygra.

Check out some of the new TMNT figures, vehicles and playsets. How come the Thundercats stuff has to be so cheap? That TMNT playset looks incredible! Compare that to the Thundercat's Lair.

http://www.figures.com/forums/news/1...eir-shell.html

Different toy companies, different budgets, etc. TMNT has had some major presence in toy aisles over the years, where as Thundercats had not. Retailer hesitation likely put the kibosh on anythign overly extravagant.

Also, if you look at the toy companies, Playmates has a very small portfolio of brands, so they can allocate a lot of their budget to their potential #1 line. Where as Bandai has so many other properties that they have to allocate funds to that sometimes money just isn't there to go overboard on a secondary property (Power Rangers will always take precedence over Thundercats in their eyes).

If you believe that a huge toy company like Bandai does not have, or cannot allocate a budget to a toy like Thundercats you are just looking for excuses. Bandai in Japan makes phenomenal toys yet their American counterpart makes simple kiddie toys like the Power Rangers. Power Rangers in America are molded color plastic figures with a little bit of paint on them. So are the vehicles. Everything is very simple and cheap to produce. They are using the same formula with the new Thundercats line. A lot of toy fans are getting increasingly frustrated and disappointed with the progression of the Thundercats line mostly because of the decisions being made at Bandai USA. These days if a toy line has a cartoon on a major network it is going to get retail space. Guaranteed. I know the Thundercats were not seen in Target during the initial release but a month later they appeared everywhere. I do not believe that Playmates has more muscle than Bandai when it comes to accessing retail space or being able to budget a toy line, even a secondary one. When I saw that a small toy company like Playmates can make figures and playsets that look character accurate, have lots of play value and look like fun it makes me wonder why can't Bandai do the same? If you think the Tower of Omens playset is a well designed cool toy and a good value well then you are in the minority.

You're assessment that the toys are cheap to produce is extremely inaccurate. Having interned, worked with and consulted for, various toy companies over the last 13 years, I know exactly how expensive it can be to produce a single figure. I also am painfully aware of how difficult it can be to get retailers to buy into your product.

Bandai Japan and Bandai USA are dealing with two wholly and vastly different markets. They are also catering to very different age groups. You are also vastly underestimating the power of retail chains. This toy line hit in August. Retailers had such little faith in the line at first that they were relegated to very small footprints. With retailer interest, initially, lukewarm at best, it can be hard for a company to justify dumping a large amount of money in R&D for a lien that no one had any idea how it would sell.

Target, who initially refused to carry the line at all, finally relented. But they did not start carrying the line until December, a full 4+ months after it was released. Bandai USA has acknowledged that the line has sold better than anticipated. But even after all of that, Thundercats is still being relegated to small footprints in stores and toy aisles.

Had Thundercats been less successful, or an outright failure, Bandai USA has a myriad of other properties that will still bring in the money. Where as Playmates has no other major property to fall back on if TMNT fails. They made the conscience decision to go the higher end route with their designs. Also, we haven't seen how retailers are reacting to the new TMNT lines or what shelf space is being given up for it. But we do know hat retailers have much more recent data, on how well TMNT toys have sold, to make a more informed decision.

I'm not going to get into a pissing contest over who has the better credentials in the toy industry but suffice to say, I respect your expertise, sadly you are missing my point. It's not about the economics of toy development, it's about design! Bandai is making a lot of bad, cheap-looking toys that are not a good perceived value! A three color plastic Tower of Omens playset for $40 is not going to appeal to collectors nor will it impress kids. Even the Bandai Collector series is nothing more than kids action figures in a slightly larger scale. Can you compare what Bandai is selling to figures from McFarlane Toys, or even Mattel for that matter? Bandai's figures are at least 80% plastic that's molded into the color of the character, there is virtually no paint. I like the 6" figure scale and the overall design is good but in no way are they a value at $15. Bandai is clearly marketing their toys to children and I have run into a few kids in the toy aisles checking out the Thundercats. Some were even crying out "Thundercats, Hoooo!" but none of them actually asked their parents to buy them any of the toys. I think Bandai is making some big mistakes with this toy line and I'm worried because I don't want it to fail. I am a big fan of the cartoon and I hope to see many more figures from both the Classic and Modern Thundercats. If the cost of developing an excellent toy line that supports the Thundercats brand is too much for Bandai then Warner Bros. could always give it to a toy company that would give it the respect and love that it deserves.

Because those are from Playmates and these are from Bandai. Secondly, Thundercats is on CN and written for both fans of the old and new fans. The new Ninja Turtles series is on Nick and they only care about the kiddies, so teh show is going to be childish. Look how dumb Voltron Force is. Look at how badly they have edited Dragonball Kai.

Also, Thundercats has toys for both the old and new series, those turtles are just for the toons and not for the original comics, which are the only things that matter as far as I am concerned.

This. It makes The Third Dimention look like fucking Ronin Warriors.

However, I sorely miss the TMNT by NECA.

I happen to really like the look of the Thundercats figures. They aren't even close to being how simple the Power Rangers line is.

As for the Turtles playset being way better I heard an interview how they said they were going all out on that playset. They said they had compromised on the sewer playsets before and they wanted to change that this time.

Thundercats, frankly, didn't have much to work with playset-wise. The only area they've stayed two episodes in, the tower, was a run down building that was centuries old and was pretty bare in the show. I don't even know why they made the playset at all to be honest.

I have to disagree on that a bit. Most of their shows are for the kids, but they do have some really good shows that have some degree of maturity. Avatar for example.


From what I've read in interviews and such the show should be a little closer to a mix of the old 80s cartoon and the live action movies. They're going to delve into making more mutants than just the turtles again and they've got some pretty good actors in the voice cast.

Same here. They're great. Sure a few missteps, but so does every line. Haven't got any playsets yet.

I'm not digging these overpriced future peg warmers:

http://www.thundercats.ws/sd-thunder...633/#post33966

Voltron Force is an abomination! What a letdown. Even the Lion designs are bad. I was excited when I heard they would be making Voltron figures from the classic show but now they're only available as a web exclusive and they're way overpriced. I still don't understand why Mattel chose to use white plastic on the robot parts instead of chrome. Even Trendmasters did a better job with their versions of Voltron.

It's all good though, the Giants won the Superbowl!

Is the new Voltron show cancelled? While I'm not a huge fan of CGI animation, I think this new TMNT show will be popular with kids and will be shown on the regular without any long overdue delays (new ThunderCats). Also I will admit Bandai needs to step their toy game up!

Voltron Force is by no means an abomination. It's actually a pretty good show, and the lion designs are actually awesome.

As for Dragonball Kai, Nick didn't edit that. It was the producers who released Dragonball Z Kai to edit out all of the fuller from the episodes (and in some cases entire episodes themselves) in order to be more faithful to the original manga. Dragonball Z was extremely close to the original manga, but they did add in a bunch of filler for absolutely no reason other than to take up time. Some storylines, such as Garlic Jr. and Majin Buu, were created just for the anime and never took place in the comics.

These elements were removed so you get more of the action and it's a more concise story that is just about 100% faithful to the original manga.

Well I guess if you enjoy a cartoon about a team of adults who tell a smaller group of kids to stay put while the grown-ups go battle evil and the kids disobey and get themselves into trouble but somehow wind up saving the day every single episode then good for you! (Gee whiz, I have just described Transformers Prime too.) We can disagree on the awesomeness of the Lion designs as well. I think the lions are just okay. I am still waiting to see some Voltron Force toys so maybe the Lions will translate well into figures but until then I am not convinced.

Those Cheetara's wouldn't have lasted a half hour here in East TN.

My opinion on TC is that the classics ones are more for collectors. Personally I passed them because of that 80s look big hairs, tight suits etc...

The new TC the 6'' are very good specially Cheetara and Tygra not liking Lion's head much specially the eyes. I don't have a Panthro yet. It has some bad things like the black pins in the articulations but I can leave with that. Maybe they could have skipped the 4'' line and made these 6'' without black pins.

I don't like the 4'', I'm a 4'' scale collector but I skipped those. Cheetara and Tygra 6'' made me buy this scale because they were 10x better. I understand the need of lauching a smaller scale specially because of the Thundertank. It would have been better to make 2.5'' figures they would be more to scale with the vehicles, cheaper to produce, cheaper in the market etc...

With these savings they could have done the main 6'' Characters perfectly without those black pins, screws showing up, more articulation on cheetara etc...

In fact if they have done a 2.5'' line I would have bought them just to interact with the vehicles much more close to scale even if the detail was lower.

Anyway just my opinion but the 6'' takes 9 out 10 from my side