Spiral Studios

[canofhumdingers]

See, the thing is, I don’t really think the Spiral statues are particularly overpriced (can’t say the same for the sofubi they’re making). But look at the exclusive version of 2019 Burning G for example. It was $2000. It’s HUGE HUGE HUGE (check out the YouTube reviews). It has a really impressive light up feature. It comes with all the parts to make the regular version or the “Mothra blast” version with those insanely huge wings. Its made of resin and has a crazy amount of fine detail. I really doubt there’s a huge profit margin on that statue. Heck, I’m almost surprised they can even make a profit at $2000 on that one.

But it doesn’t matter that I think it’s a “fair” price. It’s still way too huge and expensive for me to every consider buying it.

[Leunames]

They're the first company to really introduce the premium statue collectors market to the Godzilla franchise, and vice versa. Off the top of my head, the only wide spread retail release of a "premium" Godzilla statue that I can think of was Sideshow's 2014, which isn't exactly the best sculpt.

I remember speaking with Spiral's founder over fb messenger in July 2019 (while I was actually in my hotel at Gfest, ha). I had seen a mention-no pictures yet-on some Thai facebook group about a massive licensed Ghidorah 2019, larger than any commercially released Ghidorah-of any version/year-ever released. I collect KGs so my interest was immediately piqued and I asked how large the wing span would be and he mentioned in excess of 55" wide. My jaw literally dropped...you don't have any KGs even remotely that big from any of the Japanese makers.

I didn't know anything of the premium statue market at that time. I did some quick research, looking at the big makers (prime 1, sideshow) and they were routinely $1k-$3k, depending on the size, character, if it's a battle scene etc.

Once the Spiral Ghidorah was formally introduced, i remember thinking the price was actually less expensive than I thought it would be. I knew I was committed when he mentioned the 55" wide wing span but price was obviously a concern.

Anyway, my point is that $1k, $2k, etc. for these statues are just right in line with those dictated by the premium statue market. The hordes of Marvel and DC statues of every conceivable character are testament. Before Spiral, the Godzilla collectors and the premium statue collectors didn't really intersect beyond that 1 release from Sideshow. If you were a Godzilla collector and wanted something in large format, you either had to get into garage kits or were in with x-plus gigantics, and even with x-plus gigantics for the Godzilla license they've only released 1 non-Godzilla character across Showa/heisei/etc. since the line began in 2011/2012. Two if you count Gigantic Kong from the monsterverse.

To top it off, you now have people who are not primarily Godzilla collectors buying these statues as well. I remember watching one youtube review of the Spiral Ghidorah and the guy was a premium statue collector first and foremost. You could tell not because of all the comic statues in the background but because he totally butchered the pronunciation of "Ghidorah" throughout the entire review. He's not into Godzilla enough to know how to say the name correctly, but he's in to statue collecting enough that he didn't blink an eye at the price.

[Mac Daddy MM]

To top it off, you now have people who are not primarily Godzilla collectors buying these statues as well. I remember watching one youtube review of the Spiral Ghidorah and the guy was a premium statue collector first and foremost. You could tell not because of all the comic statues in the background but because he totally butchered the pronunciation of "Ghidorah" throughout the entire review. He's not into Godzilla enough to know how to say the name correctly, but he's in to statue collecting enough that he didn't blink an eye at the price.

As I said before.

Part of the god damn problem.

[InfiniteHollywood]

To top it off, you now have people who are not primarily Godzilla collectors buying these statues as well. I remember watching one youtube review of the Spiral Ghidorah and the guy was a premium statue collector first and foremost. You could tell not because of all the comic statues in the background but because he totally butchered the pronunciation of "Ghidorah" throughout the entire review. He's not into Godzilla enough to know how to say the name correctly, but he's in to statue collecting enough that he didn't blink an eye at the price.

As I said before.

Part of the god damn problem.

I have no dog in this fight and haven't watched the video, but I wouldn't necessarily go labeling someone as not a "real fan" just because they don't know how to pronounce something. I'm about as big of a kaiju fan as there is and have been for decades but I rarely if ever have conversations about these things with other living breathing humans. Almost all of the classic monsters had different pronunciations of the names back in the day either through bad dubbing or just general different interpretations of the names. Sometimes kaiju names I've only ever seen written and in my mind they sound one way, which may not be correct.

I remember the first time I went to G-Fest, years ago, hearing a bunch of people talking about various different monsters and hearing what is now generally accepted as the "correct" pronunciation of a bunch of names and they all sounded pretty weird to me because that's not how I had grown up hearing them and/or heard them in my head.

I mean for Ghidorah as an example:

For decades the name was GEED-RAH in the US.
Then it became GEE-DOR-AH.
And now I often hear people say GI-DI-OR-AH.

The latter of which sounds bizarre to me, but is usually the most common in modern day kaiju circles.

Anyway, just a thought on the names/pronunciations.

[Mac Daddy MM]

To top it off, you now have people who are not primarily Godzilla collectors buying these statues as well. I remember watching one youtube review of the Spiral Ghidorah and the guy was a premium statue collector first and foremost. You could tell not because of all the comic statues in the background but because he totally butchered the pronunciation of "Ghidorah" throughout the entire review. He's not into Godzilla enough to know how to say the name correctly, but he's in to statue collecting enough that he didn't blink an eye at the price.

As I said before.

Part of the god damn problem.

I have no dog in this fight and haven't watched the video, but I wouldn't necessarily go labeling someone as not a "real fan" just because they don't know how to pronounce something. I'm about as big of a kaiju fan as there is and have been for decades but I rarely if ever have conversations about these things with other living breathing humans. Almost all of the classic monsters had different pronunciations of the names back in the day either through bad dubbing or just general different interpretations of the names. Sometimes kaiju names I've only ever seen written and in my mind they sound one way, which may not be correct.

I remember the first time I went to G-Fest, years ago, hearing a bunch of people talking about various different monsters and hearing what is now generally accepted as the "correct" pronunciation of a bunch of names and they all sounded pretty weird to me because that's not how I had grown up hearing them and/or heard them in my head.

I mean for Ghidorah as an example:

For decades the name was GEED-RAH in the US.
Then it became GEE-DOR-AH.
And now I often hear people say GI-DI-OR-AH.

The latter of which sounds bizarre to me, but is usually the most common in modern day kaiju circles.

Anyway, just a thought on the names/pronunciations.

This has nothing to do with names. This has to do with people willingly, openly and blindly supporting companies like Spiral that take advantage of fandoms. The fact people are actually excited for and vomiting up over $200 for a Not Marmit that's being produced in greater quantity than any Marmit, with a whole slew of different color schemes, is the problem.

People that support Spiral are just as much a problem and reason why this hobby has been nose diving as the companies themselves that keep doing this.

I imagine someone is going to read this and get their panties in a twist. "Well it's MY money and I want it. So why should you care?" I don't give a flying shit what people do with their own money, but you supporting companies like this is what is killing this hobby and driving prices through the god damn roof. THAT is why I care and THAT is why YOU are part of the problem.

[InfiniteHollywood]

LOL okay. Not sure what all that was about.

I've never bought a Spiral anything, FWIW.

I was merely pointing out that you can't completely dismiss someone's fandom just because they may mispronounce a name that has had a ton of different pronunciations through the years.

[Leunames]

To top it off, you now have people who are not primarily Godzilla collectors buying these statues as well. I remember watching one youtube review of the Spiral Ghidorah and the guy was a premium statue collector first and foremost. You could tell not because of all the comic statues in the background but because he totally butchered the pronunciation of "Ghidorah" throughout the entire review. He's not into Godzilla enough to know how to say the name correctly, but he's in to statue collecting enough that he didn't blink an eye at the price.

As I said before.

Part of the god damn problem.

I have no dog in this fight and haven't watched the video, but I wouldn't necessarily go labeling someone as not a "real fan" just because they don't know how to pronounce something. I'm about as big of a kaiju fan as there is and have been for decades but I rarely if ever have conversations about these things with other living breathing humans. Almost all of the classic monsters had different pronunciations of the names back in the day either through bad dubbing or just general different interpretations of the names. Sometimes kaiju names I've only ever seen written and in my mind they sound one way, which may not be correct.

I remember the first time I went to G-Fest, years ago, hearing a bunch of people talking about various different monsters and hearing what is now generally accepted as the "correct" pronunciation of a bunch of names and they all sounded pretty weird to me because that's not how I had grown up hearing them and/or heard them in my head.

I mean for Ghidorah as an example:

For decades the name was GEED-RAH in the US.
Then it became GEE-DOR-AH.
And now I often hear people say GI-DI-OR-AH.

The latter of which sounds bizarre to me, but is usually the most common in modern day kaiju circles.

Anyway, just a thought on the names/pronunciations.

The point was that he clearly wasn't into the fandom enough to know how to pronounce it, yet he's a "new" type of collector in the Godzilla space against whom the Godzilla-focused only collector has to compete from a price standpoint. He admitted as much in his review video that he doesn't know the correct pronunciation of the name, and just basically pulled something out of thin air. If you're presenting yourself as an authoritative source from which people can make informed decisions about buying products, it's quite easy to pronounce the name correctly-provided you have watched some sort of media that mentions Ghidorah, either dubbed or native language, in some shape or form. There is literally a 55 year window from which to pick any film with Ghidorah in it. I haven't even mentioned the source material of the actual 2019 film itself, which clearly and audibly mentioned the name Ghidorah several times and even had a corny ass joke about pronouncing it as an STD. So I'm going to say that is pretty safe to assume he isn't an actual Godzilla fan. After all, isn't there a credible argument to be made that if one doesn't watch the films enough, yet goes out and buys multiple $1k-$3k items, that one is simply checking off a box, just for the purpose of getting the latest big statue?

[shadowgigan]

To be fair, I’m not sure if any western fans are correctly pronouncing KG’a name, if we’re going by the Japanese pronunciation.

[Leunames]

To be fair, I’m not sure if any western fans are correctly pronouncing KG’a name, if we’re going by the Japanese pronunciation.

Yes, but we've moved well beyond that since no one pronounces Godzilla the correct way.

[Mac Daddy MM]

To be fair, I’m not sure if any western fans are correctly pronouncing KG’a name, if we’re going by the Japanese pronunciation.

Yes, but we've moved well beyond that since no one pronounces Godzilla the correct way.

IT'S GOJIRA, YOU MORON!!!!!!

[LiamNeesons]

Lol I’ll jump in here. I pronounced it GHI-DOR-UH when I was a kid just sounding out words. When I first heard someone say GEE-DRA, my mind was blown.

[king_ghidorah]

No one is “part of the problem” for buying this stuff. Get off it already.

[Mac Daddy MM]

No one is “part of the problem” for buying this stuff. Get off it already.

Spoken 100% as a person that sounds like part of the problem.

[Legion1979]

How is this a productive or mature discussion? While I agree with MM that the Godzilla collectors market has changed to an absurd degree and that items have gotten crazy expensive, I don't think getting angry and telling people they're part of the problem because of how they choose to spend their money is really the way to go here.

[LiamNeesons]

The high level of gate keeping in here is hilarious.

[Mac Daddy MM]

Boy, I see I'm getting some people out of the wood work. Call me a gate keeper all you want. Honestly, I don't think you know what that word means if you thinking pointing out the main issue going on with this hobby (and not just in this fandom, either) is gate keeping.

You've yet to explain how I'm wrong. And I am more than willing to listen.

People willingly supporting the problem is part of the problem.

[shadowgigan]

Boy, I see I'm getting some people out of the wood work. Call me a gate keeper all you want. Honestly, I don't think you know what that word means if you thinking pointing out the main issue going on with this hobby (and not just in this fandom, either) is gate keeping.

You've yet to explain how I'm wrong. And I am more than willing to listen.

People willingly supporting the problem is part of the problem.

You’re wrong because you’re attempting to identify a “problem” that doesn’t exist. And you are having an outsized reaction to it.

No one is “part of the problem” for buying this stuff. Get off it already.

He just hates Spiral man. I don’t even know why we bother responding.

Added in 7 minutes 7 seconds:

People that support Spiral are just as much a problem and reason why this hobby has been nose diving as the companies themselves that keep doing this.

What are you talking about? This is preposterous. How is the hobby in a nose dive? The hobby is arguably in better shape than it ever has in the past.

[Mac Daddy MM]

Boy, I see I'm getting some people out of the wood work. Call me a gate keeper all you want. Honestly, I don't think you know what that word means if you thinking pointing out the main issue going on with this hobby (and not just in this fandom, either) is gate keeping.

You've yet to explain how I'm wrong. And I am more than willing to listen.

People willingly supporting the problem is part of the problem.

You’re wrong because you’re attempting to identify a “problem” that doesn’t exist. And you are having an outsized reaction to it.

So let me get this straight for a second. There's no problem in this company charging $225 for a not Marmit. A not Marmit that is...

1. Not pain in the ass to get in Japan.
2. More widely available
3. Multiple color choices upon announcement.
4. Costs nearly $100 more than a harder to aquire figure that this line is chasing in on?

We all know what Spiral did. They did an Ebay search for Marmit prices. Saw how much they go for on aftermarket and just priced this thing at that.

THAT'S not a problem in your eyes?

He just hates Spiral man. I don’t even know why we bother responding.

It is very cute that this is your default response. It might actually carry some weight if it wasn't you that made the initial announcement and hyped the not Marmit up, even claiming that the price for it would "please us." If I'm doing this only because I hate Spiral, you're doing this only because you love them. I mean, didn't you yourself say you're good friends with the higher ups in the company in the other thread?

Are you getting paid to do damage control or do we just have another Narutu65/TAS situation here in blatantly ignoring the arguments presented.

What are you talking about? This is preposterous. How is the hobby in a nose dive? The hobby is arguably in better shape than it ever has in the past.

This is you on Page 2 of the other Spiral thread.

I thought marmits were super expensive lol, shows what I know. Is it just the Desugojis that go for so much?

Which is it? Do you know how this hobby works or not? Because everything I'm sensing here is just damage control/blatant apologist behavior because you know/are friends with the people at the company.

[Legion1979]

All of this over some silly niche figure few are going to buy and life will go on once it's released.

[canofhumdingers]

All of this over some silly niche figure few are going to buy and life will go on once it's released.

Screw that! No-holds-barred cage fight death match!! Who’s with me!!