Spiral Studios

[Legion1979]

Spiral needs to get the fuck out of the chat, man. The only thing worse than these proces are the fools who pay them.

I really miss the 2000s when companies like Marmit would put out brand new sculpts multiple times a year, beautiful sculpts of classic characters that cost less than $100 and were obtainable as long as you knew where to look. The modern day sofubi market is insane.

[canofhumdingers]

I really miss the 2000s when companies like Marmit would put out brand new sculpts multiple times a year, beautiful sculpts of classic characters that cost less than $100 and were obtainable as long as you knew where to look. The modern day sofubi market is insane.

Yeah I was too early in my adult career to be able to afford many designer vinyls back in their golden age of the mid 2000’s (though I did manage to get some key figures). But it sure would be nice to have a resurgence of those glory days. Marusan is kinda doing it, though I generally don’t like their sculpts as much. And Gigabrain still runs new color ways of existing molds periodically. But it definitely isn’t as good as it was ~15 years ago from a collectors point of view.

But spiral’s releases are just laughable. They’re like Mondo (producing nice figures but making them way too hard to get) but even more ridiculously overpriced to the point of being absurd.

[HeiseiGodzilla117]

Yeah. I'm not shelling out $1000+ on sofubi. No matter how bad I might want it.

[Gojirasaur]

That they sold that high on godzilla.com stunned me.

[Mac Daddy MM]

So, more than a year after Spiral released their not Marmit (I did manage to score one for $125, WAY less than MSRP)... And hmmmm

Looks like what I said has come true. Now we got all sorts of stylized shit being pumped out, at obnoxious pricing.



$250. Three different color ways. Announcement of just 50 per release. Two-hundred and fucking fifty dollars. Now, I'm not saying Spiral is the EXACT cause for it... But damn, does this go right back to what I said before. People who support this are part of the god damn problem.

Now, MM and a few others are worried that because of this trend, Marmit or some Japanese company will raise their prices to match/exceed Spirals because people in America are buying what is perceived to be lower quality/more accessible for a lot more than they are selling their own products for. All of this coincides with a general overall trend of more and more people buying collectibles for properties they are not familar with due to modern internet hype/consumer culture, which is causing MM to be frustrated.

Am I correct in my breakdown?

THIS Is the quote I was looking for!


So thanks, Spiral! Thanks everyone supporting them! Exactly what I feared was going to happen with stylized figures fucking happened.


And before anyone tries going "Durr hurrr. That's just how it is now!" Super 7 is entering the stylized market with figures at just $25 a pop. So you can take your lil bootlicking of Spiral and all these other assclown companies and stuff it.

[gojiwr20]

This looks like a figure you'd find at a game or comic store for like 20-30 at MOST.

[Gojirasaur]

Ridiculous. Toho even looks a little bad granting them a license.

[LSD Jellyfish]

For reference on what that is, it’s a TokiDokiX Godzilla crossover:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokidoki

They are not a Japanese company, and they license out to a wealth of brands. I’m not going to argue that it makes their products inauthentic or anything, that’s a ridiculous stance, but it’s the beginning of a worrying trend. They’re not primarily a toy company. According to their website they are a “lifestyle brand”

tokidoki, which translates to “sometimes” in Japanese, is an internationally recognized and iconic lifestyle brand based on the vision of Italian artist Simone Legno and his partners, serial entrepreneurs Pooneh Mohajer and Ivan Arnold.

I’m not going to criticize people for having their own brand or trying to make money, but you can see this is a completely different scenario than Marusan/YMSF which is basically a small group of people’s entire livelihoods and are historic companies, versus this.

It’s really not a big, big deal, but worth pointing out.

[Gojirasaur]

For reference on what that is, it’s a TokiDokiX Godzilla crossover:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokidoki

They are not a Japanese company, and they license out to a wealth of brands. I’m not going to argue that it makes their products inauthentic or anything, that’s a ridiculous stance, but it’s the beginning of a worrying trend. They’re not primarily a toy company. According to their website they are a “lifestyle brand”

tokidoki, which translates to “sometimes” in Japanese, is an internationally recognized and iconic lifestyle brand based on the vision of Italian artist Simone Legno and his partners, serial entrepreneurs Pooneh Mohajer and Ivan Arnold.

I’m not going to criticize people for having their own brand or trying to make money, but you can see this is a completely different scenario than Marusan/YMSF which is basically a small group of people’s entire livelihoods and are historic companies, versus this.

It’s really not a big, big deal, but worth pointing out.

Don't Temu, Daiso, Miniso, and Teso call themselves lifestyle brands too? They're just retailers, though.

[LSD Jellyfish]

Don't Temu, Daiso, Miniso, and Teso call themselves lifestyle brands too? They're just retailers, though.

Daiso is a chain of 100¥ shops here, not sure if they’ve changed or you’re thinking of something different, but that’s funny.

I think “lifestyle” is just a euphemism of “we make a ton of random shit, and want to be considered luxury” but aren’t.

Anyways, I thought this was funny:

Some stuff in Japan does have some sort of certificate with it, but in general these kinds of things are just ways of making you think it’s more valuable than it is.

Also! I gotta say: I actually do like the figure (SHOCK), but it’s stupidly overpriced for what it actually is. I like it in the same way I like Rat-Fink; it’s overly cartoonish and wild, less generic than a funko pop. But again, overpriced. 150 max.

This+the small batch is making it seem artificially more valuable than it really is.

[Mac Daddy MM]

I'd really love to know where the "collectors" who constantly bitch about stuff like ReActions "being overpriced" are when this shit pop up. The only company producing these types of figures and keeping them in a relative "collector friendly" price is Mondo with their figures, from Urban Aztek to their own brand of "Not Marmits" hovers around the $150 mark, with a $250 price tag on a 12 inch, "famous name" sculptor. Even most Marusan go for $150, with figures of a larger scale (11-12 inches), being a bit over $200 and then a Marusan Biollante at just $300.

So I'm reviving the argument. Someone needs to explain to me how the people that supported Spiral doing this aren't part of the problem and how them actively supporting their shit isn't driving the prices of other shit up because said companies can see these "collectors" supporting shit like Spiral.

"WeLl iF YOu dOn'T lIkE iT thEn DoN'T bUy iT!!!11!!"

Yeah, shut the hell up and go back to being a bootlicker.

[Andagi1]

Don't Temu, Daiso, Miniso, and Teso call themselves lifestyle brands too? They're just retailers, though.

Daiso is a chain of 100¥ shops here, not sure if they’ve changed or you’re thinking of something different, but that’s funny.

I think “lifestyle” is just a euphemism of “we make a ton of random shit, and want to be considered luxury” but aren’t.

Anyways, I thought this was funny:

Some stuff in Japan does have some sort of certificate with it, but in general these kinds of things are just ways of making you think it’s more valuable than it is.

Also! I gotta say: I actually do like the figure (SHOCK), but it’s stupidly overpriced for what it actually is. I like it in the same way I like Rat-Fink; it’s overly cartoonish and wild, less generic than a funko pop. But again, overpriced. 150 max.

This+the small batch is making it seem artificially more valuable than it really is.

I might've bought this had it been a blind box like I initially thought it was, which alongside early 2010s women's bags is what I've always associated tokidoki with. Would've been cool to have tokidoki blind box renditions of different kaiju rather than just three expensive sofubi colorways. If you visit the collab page on their website, there's actually a hoodie demonstrating this.

[Gojirasaur]

Don't Temu, Daiso, Miniso, and Teso call themselves lifestyle brands too? They're just retailers, though.

Daiso is a chain of 100¥ shops here, not sure if they’ve changed or you’re thinking of something different, but that’s funny.

Yes, Daiso, Miniso, and Teso are all brick and mortar shops which market themselves as "lifestyle" brands. Temu is online, but I think they have also tried the same label in the past.

[Mac Daddy MM]

Now I don't know the full details...



But excuse me while I...





Perhaps he should try a defense such as "I AM SPIRAL!" like he does when addressing customer issues.

[Gojirasaur]

Is it true Russo owns KaijuLive as well?

[Mac Daddy MM]

Is it true Russo owns KaijuLive as well?

No idea. I was just told the name on the lawsuit response isn't the same as the guy who screamed "I AM SPIRAL!" at a customer on Facebook... Buuut still. I'm going to still laugh.

[canofhumdingers]

That screenshot is completely illegible. What’s it say?

[Gojirasaur]

That screenshot is completely illegible. What’s it say?

[Gahdzilluh]

Is it true Russo owns KaijuLive as well?

Yes its true!

[shadowgigan]

Ash isn't named in the suit because he allegedly sold his shares. It's all in the lawsuit docs.