Here are my observations, please read them with a slow cheery informative tone in your head
, not the screaming fanatic some of you might picture me as
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Quantity sold at show + quantity sold through e-tailers = total release size.
This is true, the big difference this time is that the show and the e-tailer are the same company in the same country. This is often the case here in Japan where a lot is released at an event or store and then a separate lot is sold online. In the case of RxH regular releases the Japanese release is at a show, shop or by telephone and the US release is thru S7 - both in-store and online. Exclusives in the context of most of the stuff we collect means exclusive to a single retailer. This is the first time for real x head to do a US exclusive this way but probably not the last. I think some people might have interpreted "the limiting at the show then opening the floodgates" in Andy's statement to be implying some sort of shady behavior on someones part, but I don't think thats what he meant. Kirby has been upfront about saying that the size of total release is limited. All the RxH releases so far have been limited except for the Red Lucky cat which was pre-ordered and made to the number of orders.
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Large is not a judgmental description, but a relative one. In the last 6 months or so, release sizes have been substantially larger than in the past.
Total release size IS large compared to the early Real Head releases when (I believe) Mori was painting everything himself. Actually, if you could let us know when he started using a factory, that would be interesting to know!
Moris releases have been slowly creeping up over the last 2 years by 5's & 10's - I think now that the runs are starting to break a 100 that people are starting think of them as large. The first Oni run was actually 100 pieces because that the minimum order size if you go direct to Obitsu for everything. But after that RxH moved to a method (like Andy has discovered with Cronic ) of ordering 100 pieces unpainted and paint a subset of 10 or so himself or by an independent painter (which he still does) and that would constitute a release. I think when the mook comes out you will be able to see this more clearly. Its just a testament to these indie designers to be soinnovative within these constraints and still deliver interest and variety.
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(Incidentally, nearly every pachi-kaiju maker actually does do this full-time. Cronic is the only exception I can think of off the top of my head. Maybe Anaraku, though I'm not 100% sure about him..Blobpus, Secret Base, Gargamel, Charactics - all full-timers.
I am not sure about Anraku either, but Secret Base and Gargamel are companies with stores and staff. Gargamel sells other peoples toys, shirts and art and they basically have a 'factory' in their back room where they paint and do sculpts. Gargamel's Kiyoka does alot of sculpting work for other artists and companies besides Gargamel. Charactics also has a toy store that he runs where he sells vintage toys (and actually does licensed Kaiju - Godzilla hedoran etc so technically is not Pachi). Blobpus is a full-time freelance designer. Off the top of my head I can think no other one man full time toymakers making a living off just their toys out there besides RxH.
thank you for your time.
