Official Bandai (Japan) Thread 2.0

[CyberZilla]

Curious, are current MMS figures really worse than the older ones, or is it a case by case basis?

[Legion1979]

Case by case

[Titanus_Rodan]

Curious, are current MMS figures really worse than the older ones, or is it a case by case basis?

The only issue is mainly just lack of paint on some of the figures. My only major complaint is Destroyah should be biggerZ

Other than that I’ve been extremely happy with everything that that they’ve put out.

[Petezilla]

They're $5 children's toys.

Oh come on, even some of the slightly higher priced, larger figures aren't as nice as they used to be.

Well yeah. But even the larger lines like MMS have cut back on paint and even sculpt detail compared to old. Times have changed, not just for bandai either. Compare stuff like the new Alien toys in the US to 1990s Kenner. No contest.

I can't see the point in just complaining and comparing the Ultra 500 stuff to old lines. At least these aren't over priced. They're $5.

The pre-2013 6" Ultra Hero & Ultra Monster Series Sofubi figures were like 3-4x the overall volume, had 3-4x more & better paint apps (they even got painted on the back side!) & were 800 JPY. Compare that to their post-2013 successors, which are 600 JPY and basically nothing more than slightly bigger candy toys - which used to sell for 300 JPY per two-pack. There is no contest anymore. BANDAI's Ultraman vinyls have become absolute sh*t for the price they're asking for them. And the 'kids toys' argument can't be serious, because the old 6" figures were meant to be nothing else.

[Legion1979]

^Yes! Exactly!

[Creature22]

I can’t really support the “it’s a kids toy” excuse because the same could have been said 20 years ago. It doesn’t excuse the increasingly cheap quality output. I think too many of us take kids for granted and think that they will just take and play with whatever is put in front of them. And on the surface, I think that’s how it comes off. But if they had other options, or were aware of how the quality was 15-20 years ago, I guarantee you they’d feel cheated.

[Mac Daddy MM]

Oh come on, even some of the slightly higher priced, larger figures aren't as nice as they used to be.

Well yeah. But even the larger lines like MMS have cut back on paint and even sculpt detail compared to old. Times have changed, not just for bandai either. Compare stuff like the new Alien toys in the US to 1990s Kenner. No contest.

I can't see the point in just complaining and comparing the Ultra 500 stuff to old lines. At least these aren't over priced. They're $5.

The pre-2013 6" Ultra Hero & Ultra Monster Series Sofubi figures were like 3-4x the overall volume, had 3-4x more & better paint apps (they even got painted on the back side!) & were 800 JPY. Compare that to their post-2013 successors, which are 600 JPY and basically nothing more than slightly bigger candy toys - which used to sell for 300 JPY per two-pack. There is no contest anymore. BANDAI's Ultraman vinyls have become absolute sh*t for the price they're asking for them. And the 'kids toys' argument can't be serious, because the old 6" figures were meant to be nothing else.

You sure about that? I can do a WHOLE bunch more comparisons, I totally don't have the entire Ultra 500 line up to Decker and over a 100 Bandai vinyls of the previous line.

[Petezilla]

Well yeah. But even the larger lines like MMS have cut back on paint and even sculpt detail compared to old. Times have changed, not just for bandai either. Compare stuff like the new Alien toys in the US to 1990s Kenner. No contest.

I can't see the point in just complaining and comparing the Ultra 500 stuff to old lines. At least these aren't over priced. They're $5.

The pre-2013 6" Ultra Hero & Ultra Monster Series Sofubi figures were like 3-4x the overall volume, had 3-4x more & better paint apps (they even got painted on the back side!) & were 800 JPY. Compare that to their post-2013 successors, which are 600 JPY and basically nothing more than slightly bigger candy toys - which used to sell for 300 JPY per two-pack. There is no contest anymore. BANDAI's Ultraman vinyls have become absolute sh*t for the price they're asking for them. And the 'kids toys' argument can't be serious, because the old 6" figures were meant to be nothing else.

You sure about that? I can do a WHOLE bunch more comparisons, I totally don't have the entire Ultra 500 line up to Decker and over a 100 Bandai vinyls of the previous line.

Well, let's note that those two Galberos figures are a bad example for the case, because the bigger Galberos you used for the picture already is a (bad) repaint of the original and phenomenal looking release from 2004, plus it comes from the dying days of the 6" Ultra Monster line where paint had already declined a lot. And the smaller Galberos comes from the very early days of the renewed (means smaller) Ultra Monster line, when BANDAI at least put a some material into the sculpts in terms of size. The newer ones seem to get smaller with every new release.

And just for the notes: I own well over 1.000 BANDAI figures. Literally. From the 80's onwards. I know very well what I'm talking about when I said the recent ones are absolute BS compared to what they once were in terms of the bang you're getting for your bucks. Today you no more feel like getting even a fraction of your money's worth. Back in the day it was like: 'Oh wow, that beautiful thing is only $8, but looks like $15!' Now it's like: 'oh wow... that... thing is $27, but looks like $6...'

[Mac Daddy MM]

The pre-2013 6" Ultra Hero & Ultra Monster Series Sofubi figures were like 3-4x the overall volume, had 3-4x more & better paint apps (they even got painted on the back side!) & were 800 JPY. Compare that to their post-2013 successors, which are 600 JPY and basically nothing more than slightly bigger candy toys - which used to sell for 300 JPY per two-pack. There is no contest anymore. BANDAI's Ultraman vinyls have become absolute sh*t for the price they're asking for them. And the 'kids toys' argument can't be serious, because the old 6" figures were meant to be nothing else.

You sure about that? I can do a WHOLE bunch more comparisons, I totally don't have the entire Ultra 500 line up to Decker and over a 100 Bandai vinyls of the previous line.

Well, let's note that those two Galberos figures are a bad example for the case, because the bigger Galberos you used for the picture already is a (bad) repaint of the original and phenomenal looking release from 2004, plus it comes from the dying days of the 6" Ultra Monster line where paint had already declined a lot. And the smaller Galberos comes from the very early days of the renewed (means smaller) Ultra Monster line, when BANDAI at least put a some material into the sculpts in terms of size. The newer ones seem to get smaller with every new release.

The original Galberos release is hardly better.



Let's go ahead and do Tyrant.

And just for the notes: I own well over 1.000 BANDAI figures. Literally. From the 80's onwards. I know very well what I'm talking about when I said the recent ones are absolute BS compared to what they once were in terms of the bang you're getting for your bucks.

So we're just doing the whole "well back in my day" speech.

The figures got smaller, the paint got weaker and sculpts got lesser. But they're still $5. Would I rather have an Eleking that looks like the Max era Eleking Bandai for $5? Hell yeah. But I also know those days are gone. And I was involved in manufacturing long enough (in the US) that you have to cut costs at times in order to keep shit in a reasonable price range. Imagine if these things cost OVER $20 FOR A BANDAI MMS. THAT is some hardcore BS.

Current Spark Dolls/Ultra 500 series figures aren't overpriced and you're getting what you pay for. As Legion so greatly put it a lil bit ago:

I paid twice as much in 2021 for a Bandai Gorosaurus than I did in 1994 and I got a figure that was only half as good. Sad.

Granted, he got the Bandai Gorosaurus when it first came out in the 90s and I, well, I was prolly wondering how dirt was made.

[Legion1979]

I dont know about that Tyrant example. Using an Ultra figure from a very specific time frame (89-91) when Bandai was half assing the paint on toys that had been in circulation since 1983/84 isnt the best way to support your argument.

Ultra heroes with literally no paint on their backs is pathetic at any price. I have old candy toys that cost about the same as the new Ultra stuff that look better than that.

And the whole thing gets even more disgusting when you factor in the Premium Bandai line, with toys that look as nice as what the retail stuff SHOULD look like now, while the more accessible figures can't even touch toys made two decades ago. The existance of really nice Bandai Showa KG and MG toys being exclusive to that overpriced Premoum series after fans had asked for them for decades is pretty sick.

[Mac Daddy MM]

I dont know about that Tyrant example. Using an Ultra figure from a very specific time frame (89-91) when Bandai was half assing the paint on toys that had been in circulation since 1983/84 isnt the best way to support your argument.

Ultra heroes with literally no paint on their backs is pathetic at any price. I have old candy toys that cost about the same as the new Ultra stuff that look better than that.

Added in 2 minutes 44 seconds:
I dont know about that Tyrant example. Using an Ultra figure from a very specific time frame (89-91) when Bandai was half assing the paint on toys that had been in circulation since 1983/84 isnt the best way to support your argument.

Ultra heroes with literally no paint on their backs is pathetic at any price. I have old candy toys that cost about the same as the new Ultra stuff that look better than that.

And the whole thing gets even more disgusting when you factor in the Premium Bandai line, with toys that look as nice as what the retail stuff SHOULD look like now, while the more accessible figures can't even touch toys made two decades ago. The existance of really nice Bandai Showa KG and MG toys being exclusive to that overpriced Premoum series after fans had asked for them for decades is pretty sick.

Well, yeah. You got more for your money back then. But unpainted backs on a $5 children's toy of Ultraman is hardly the biggest crime of Bandai when we got stuff like this:


KoTM Ghidorah & Rodan


Anime Ghidorah

coming out of the gates.

[Creature22]

The figures got smaller, the paint got weaker and sculpts got lesser. But they're still $5. Would I rather have an Eleking that looks like the Max era Eleking Bandai for $5? Hell yeah. But I also know those days are gone.

But I think the point to be made is that those days aren’t gone. Bandai has shown they are still perfectly capable of doing great quality figures at reasonable prices, but it fluctuates back and forth way more now than it did in the past. Whether that’s due to increased material cost, penny pinching, or a little bit of both is up for debate. But I don’t think it’s the decrease in quality alone that annoys people; it’s the fact that they know Bandai can do a better job.

[Legion1979]

Yeah those figures suck. They definitely show a clear indifference to the MV and Polygon films. For whatever reason, they're putting real love into the Singular Point toys.

I'm so morbidly curious about how the Battra, Megagiras and especially the Varan figures are going to look this fall.

[Mac Daddy MM]

Yeah those figures suck. They definitely show a clear indifference to the MV and Polygon films. For whatever reason, they're putting real love into the Singular Point toys.

I'm so morbidly curious about how the Battra, Megagiras and especially the Varan figures are going to look this fall.

I don't know, I still say the first SP JJ looks pretty bad.

The figures got smaller, the paint got weaker and sculpts got lesser. But they're still $5. Would I rather have an Eleking that looks like the Max era Eleking Bandai for $5? Hell yeah. But I also know those days are gone.

But I think the point to be made is that those days aren’t gone. Bandai has shown they are still perfectly capable of doing great quality figures at reasonable prices, but it fluctuates back and forth way more now than it did in the past. Whether that’s due to increased material cost, penny pinching, or a little bit of both is up for debate. But I don’t think it’s the decrease in quality alone that annoys people; it’s the fact that they know Bandai can do a better job.

Yeah, they *CAN* do a better job. Especially when it comes to a figure that costs over $20 now. I'd be more up in arms about that more than "Ultraman's back isn't painted." I REALLY wish we'd get Spark Dolls of the Shin Ultraman cast, just for comparisons sake.

[Jomei]

Bandai goodness

[Legion1979]

The granddaddy of all Bandai!

[DirektorSplennic]

Based.

I gotta track one of these guys down. I've been out of the vinyl game for a bit since last Christmas, but Mondo's Pulgasari reinvigorated me. I want me more older Bandais.

Edit: I forgot about the newer Hedorah, so March was the last time I picked up a Bandai vinyl.

[Creature22]

I saw one of the later issues in a shop in Japan (smaller fins I think?) and it looked really cool. Hefty size too. It's really too bad Bandai has phased out the 8 inch scale; they had a very commanding presence.

[CyberZilla]

Man that KingGoji(?) Bandai looks so fun! Just a friendly guy

[Tyrant_Lizard_King]

Just realized we don't have a large scale version of Ultima. So far he's the only Reiwa era Godzilla that doesn't have one.