Grant White wrote: > It's been noted by several sources that the US toy market is on the decline, due to gadgets like cellphones and games consoles alongside kids increasingly wanting to look older younger. Various major toy stores are having to close down branches, including Toys R Us. Bandai have mentioned it as one of the many reasons the MSiA line was pulled- an already weak line in a weakening market.
That may explain why, suddenly, there is a Toys 'R' Us store being set up here. The Asian Market went through a similar decline a few years ago - but it's the collectors and the hardcores who propped it up, and their kids who follow in their footsteps. In the case of the Gundam franchise, we (in Manila) ended up having to rely heavily on the Gundam Caravan concept, especially when there are no Gundam cartoons being shown. It's interesting, as the net effect is a building up of gundam fans among the children, while the hardcore fans are serviced more by specialty shops, rather than the larger toy chains. This division is most seen in the division of how model kits and action figures are distributed - SEED kits and figures are in all the big chains, but HGUC and MG usually go to the specialty stores. GFF figures surprisingly have a strange crossover - it depends on which GFF it is. The next step planned is how to get the kids to "graduate" to building model kits in the serious sense. It's already happening, but right now, it's in its infancy. We're actually happy that Gundam SEED came out, since it serves as a great anchor for the kids today. and with more gundam kits being bought, the more that Bandai has confidence in the local market, and availability of new stuff goes up, as well. -------------------------------------------------- The Gundam Mailing List MK-II [email protected] Archives: http://www.gundam.com/gml Help: Email [EMAIL PROTECTED] with this in the BODY: help list
