About Yujin, Kitan Club, IKIMON and their relationship

Thanks for all this information. I have now updated the Kitan section on TAW.

Hey Dirk.

I'm sorry if you addressed this already but do you know why so many of these NT sets--the one with the bear, the prehistoric skeletons, the whales I just saw in another thread, and the Yangtze and Australia sets (though I realize the latter two may have pending releases) are created as prototypes but not produced/released?

Thank you.
Brett

Brettnj wrote:

Hey Dirk.

I'm sorry if you addressed this already but do you know why so many of these NT sets--the one with the bear, the prehistoric skeletons, the whales I just saw in another thread, and the Yangtze and Australia sets (though I realize the latter two may have pending releases) are created as prototypes but not produced/released?

Thank you.
Brett

As I said before, it is not very profitable to sell such real animal figures in Japan, and there are few customers compared to anime figures. The best sales situation is NTC Nankyoku, it resale 4 times, probably because penguins are so cute, everyone likes them. But But NTC Savanna special edition changed from the original price of 500 yen to 300 yen, it was sold at a reduced price in Japan. So it’s not easy to produce animal figures and the prototypes has never been produced.

Japnese figures like Kaiyodo, NTC and Yujin, on the one hand, old goods are becoming more and more expensive, on the other hand, fewer and fewer new figures never come out, really sad.

Savanna special edition reduced price from 500 yen to 300 yen
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It's quite incredible that they can be produced for only 300 yen! Fashions change and hopefully collecting  animal figures will become more popular again. I can't imagine people will be excited about anime for a long time, but then, that may be my lack of imagination.

I would like these to appear in arcades across the UK and then I would be ecstatic as I wouldn't hesitate about visiting arcades for these.

Indeed. I wonder whether Kaiyodo or other Japanese companies have ever tried to venture out to other countries to see whether they would be successful.

They'd be successful with me!

rogerpgvg wrote:

Indeed. I wonder whether Kaiyodo or other Japanese companies have ever tried to venture out to other countries to see whether they would be successful.

According to the signage at the WF, NTC Yangtze will be on sale in China. At first, this set's base use Chinese, not Japanese usually. Second, Ikimon just only made the prototype, Mona will responsible for sales. Mona is a Chinese company.

Kaiyodo even organized the WF in China, and sold Kaiyodo's figures at the exhibition.

tjjtjjtjja wrote:

Brettnj wrote:

Hey Dirk.

I'm sorry if you addressed this already but do you know why so many of these NT sets--the one with the bear, the prehistoric skeletons, the whales I just saw in another thread, and the Yangtze and Australia sets (though I realize the latter two may have pending releases) are created as prototypes but not produced/released?

Thank you.
Brett

As I said before, it is not very profitable to sell such real animal figures in Japan, and there are few customers compared to anime figures. The best sales situation is NTC Nankyoku, it resale 4 times, probably because penguins are so cute, everyone likes them. But But NTC Savanna special edition changed from the original price of 500 yen to 300 yen, it was sold at a reduced price in Japan. So it’s not easy to produce animal figures and the prototypes has never been produced.

Japnese figures like Kaiyodo, NTC and Yujin, on the one hand, old goods are becoming more and more expensive, on the other hand, fewer and fewer new figures never come out, really sad.

Savanna special edition reduced price from 500 yen to 300 yen
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

I understood this part. I should have been more clear re: asking why the prototypes get made in the first place? But I imagine the answer remains the same.

Thank you again, Dirk. Your contributions here are very interesting/helpful and appreciated.
Brett

Brettnj wrote:

I understood this part. I should have been more clear re: asking why the prototypes get made in the first place? But I imagine the answer remains the same.

Thank you again, Dirk. Your contributions here are very interesting/helpful and appreciated.
Brett

Oh, sorry, I got it wrong.

Any model is first prototyped, then painted, then revised, and then mass produced.
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I think Ikimon still wants to make animal figures, they are affectionate. Junya Sato and KOW are independent from Kitan Club because they want to be an animal figures, but the most important thing for a company is to survive, so first make money-making products,  and then produce animal figures. So the animal prototype has been doing.

Thank you. Rooting for them.