if you just don't like the way the figures look then nothing's really going to change your mind about them. the packaging is a legitimate issue, as many of us have gotten figs with some paint damage since there's no protection in the little baggie, but i also like not having boxes so it's not such a big deal to me.

if somebody likes the way the figures look but is just concerned about the cost, then that person has clearly not seen/handled any jp vinyl. they just exude a feeling of quality in person that little (maybe no) western vinyl can compete with, and they're not really all that expensive considering the jp retail on SB figs is under $40 ... it just costs extra here due to the shipping and import markup.

personally I prefer figurs to be bagged with a cool cryptic header card . Makes them more candy-like.

Prevelance of boxes on other type of toys is...a lot of the medicom/western style toys have a more fragile finish due to the type of vinyl and paint. if you shipped say
one of those kaws companions or a medicom Bobafett or a -insert most hated western toy here- loose in a bag it would get damaged as they pieces are heavier and more prone to scrape damage etc. theres also the issue of accessories and elaborate
copyright info etc, so boxes with blister inserts make sense to me.

therews also storage and display issues...most stores like a tidy look. If you had a store and all your product was in header bags...difficult to display and organize stock
as the ' jumble' look is only appreciated by a handful of 'j-centric' collectors who understand the appeal of the 'treasure hunt' aspect of messy stores. This is NOT the case fopr most customers..they just see a pile of cheap crap unless its all neatly arryed on the shelves.

Considering the distance some J-vinyl travels to come to some of us, it's remarkable that there's not more paint damage. I don't mind a bit of wear and tear anyway, unless it truly ruins a figure aesthetically. Many vintage toys look like they were ruggedly played with at one point or have endured many giant monster battles. Part of their charm. I know neo kaiju are works of art but because we still call them toys I usually don't mind a fighter's war injuries.

any paint damage on my JP figs doesn't even begin to compare to the crappy quality of most western vinyl straight from the factory.

poor paint appliction, brittle vinyl, pieces that break off right in the boxes that are supposed to protect them ... unreal.

you mean to tell me you guys dont have the ultraman vs hand carved wooden duck ? please , you call yourselves collectors ? actually , i wouldnt have bought the set but the ultraman came in a bitchin western style box .

Hahhaha!

that made my afternoon ^^

LOL!!!!!!
Time to cough up some $$$$ Skyler!!!! LOL

I think that was a Superfest exclusive, right? I think there are only about 35 of those Ultraman vs. Duck-seijin sets. there are even a fewer number that came in unpainted glow with a petrified wood duck.

Don't buy it! It's a bootleg or "replica", the original came with a muscovy duck and that is clearly a mallard.

I hadn't seen that particular episode but ... um ... I trust Ultraman prevailed? I mean, I know I shouldn't doubt, but giant hand-carved wooden decoys are quite heavy.

Regarding the popular opinion that Japanese vinyl has a real "quality" feel to it:
I have a friend who was checking out my SB and commented on how cheap they felt. He liked the figures, but didn't understand the pricing/hype on them when, to him, they felt cheaply made. And he's in the industry - so it wasn't a novice, or someone who is unaware of the "toy scene".
Anyway, just thought I'd throw that out there. Perhaps we are "hyping" the quality factor to ourselves?

I hear what you're saying...I often wonder this. Is the quality really "better." Usually though I snap out of this and realize that yes, indeed it is...

The difficulty is what do you compare say an SB fight figure to in terms of quality? JP made versus Chinese made?

One off-hand comment: I pack everything really well when I send it because I would appreciate the same...however, I'd be pretty confident in taking a skull bee or whatever and throwing it in a box with NO packing and expecting it to get where it was going with little problem...I wouldn't even think of doing that with many other figures.

I LOVE this aspect of them. All my packaging is in one bankers box...which is awesome.

yep, plus i can huff evo out of them there bags ! which a box is no good for

I display all the boxes and keep all the toys in storage.

maybe they are cheaply made, but perhaps *less* cheaply made than the western stuff? maybe we are all biased, but if we're all honest then it would be a *huge* coincidence if everybody here holds the same opinion of the jp products' "higher" quality when compared with western companies' products.

maybe it's actually a lot more difficult to produce stuff like KR does due to the numbers or whatever (frank might have an idea about this), but we don't take notice because the final product ends up falling short of what we consider to be "high quality" work. maybe the jp companies succeed just by keeping it simple and small and doing a lot of work by hand which wouldn't be feasible if you want to produce 2000 figs. whatever it is that makes japanese toys seem to be of "higher" quality, i hope they continue to do even if it makes the figures a pain in the ass to get sometimes.

At the risk of digressing, I sometimes still have a hard time spending more on a piece of vinyl than a solid piece of die-cast....

lately however, vinyl has been winning!

i like many JP toys cuz they have a sort of soft, luminous look and feel to them. i enjoy the way they feel in my hands, they are a pleasure to touch and inspect. i guess thats my version of why they seem "quality" to me

i certainly can't attest to the difficulties of producing various vinyl, but i really dislike brittle vinyl and so many western toys i've had feel that way - almost like it has a chalky quality.

all in all i guess its in the eye of the beholder ^^

the reality is that all 'micro run' pvc toys (polyvinylchloride) exist because it is the cheapest and simplist manufacturing process imaginable.

the difference between a j vinyl toy and a cchina vinyl toy is basically the grade of vinyl ( the j vinyl is all 'virgin' pellets with longer polymer chains, hence it is of 'better quality' but not strong enough for large size pieces, that is why a blobpus is about the upper limit scale-wise. Also, the j vinyl is made with polished molds. this gives a 'better' lustre to the finish...those are the pluses..the minus is, a piece of jvinyl costs a lot more to make and there are a lot of physical constraints.

Medicom, for example, doesnt use 'jvinyl'..all their stuff is made in china.

another benefit of the j stuff is that since they are relatively small runs, locally produed, there is a better level of quality control..but..if u really look at them a lot of the paint jobs apart from sprays are about on par with chinese stuff.

also, bear in mind, the eaverage J toy u collect is a 'simple' paint..a base color of vinyl and a few sprays..maybe a brush painted eyeball.

al LOT of the 'western' vinyl are lot more complicated with many paints and pad prints on a white base....making it harder to retain consistency.


the evry best quality 'western' toys are actually the 2.5" [expletive deleted]...very high quality machine tooled injected ABS instead of pvc and very very good pad printing.

while u may dislike [expletive deleted] as a figure, they are as good if not better than say bearbricks in quality...due to the fact it is small enough to make a real machine tool mold.

example:

say...a skullbee..the clamshell rotocast mold foor a skullbee prbably costs around 1000-1200 USD to manufacture and polish.

if that same skullbee where to be made as a 'real' machine tool injection mold the coast is around 15,000.00 dollars.

anyways...I could go one forever.


I like both styles of toys myself, as each has unique quallties the other lacks.

but, technically, in the real world, both styles are basically on the level of rubber dog toys...that is the only reason they can even be made by small outfits at all.