Just reported in Japan. Looks like no one but bandai will be making Tsuburaya kaiju as toys. I think this will hurt a lot of the small companys that produce ultraman merch. It also kind of sucks.


TOKYO, Jan 21, 2008 (Thomson Financial via COMTEX) -- Japanese toymaker Bandai Co will take a 33.4 percent stake in Tsuburaya Production Co, the creator of the popular television series "Ultraman", the Nikkei reported on Monday without citing sources.
Bandai, a member of the Namco Bandai Holdings Inc group, will purchase the stake from TV commercial producer TYO Inc for some 900 million yen, the business daily said.

Bandai will also acquire the exclusive rights to produce toys and other Ultraman-related merchandise.

The company aims to increase sales of these products from around 6 billion yen at present to 10 billion yen in three years, the report said.

Suffering from poor earnings, Tsuburaya Production came under the umbrella of TYO in October 2007.

(1 US dollar = 106.84 yen)

This seriously blows. I still hold out a glimmer of hope that Bandai will let a few others produce toys without charging an exhorbitant amount in fees. Doubtful, though.

I wonder if this is the reaction to the markets.
Fearing a slowdown, they buy Tsuburaya.

I think there might be a little bit of misreporting going on here. There's no way that all of the non-Bandai toy licenses are just going to evaporate. I don't think this is going to affect the yearly mountain of Ultra-merchandise put out by X-Plus, M1GO, Medicom, and fill-in-the-blank.

I think that Tsuburaya took a big financial hit after their battles with Chaiyo over the Ultraman license, so I guess this shouldn't be much of a shock.

ironic this happens now since I just started reading the fantastic book on Eiji Tsuburaya. I thought there was supposed to be a new Ultraman show coming out?

I do have to agree that it's part of the market. Hell, the Japanese company that I work for made more money this year then they have in their 10 year existence and what do they do to ring in the new year? The fire everyone in my office and decide to close it down go figure.

I think the only thing that I'd worry about is the quality of the Ultraman line. While Bandai does do some nice pieces they tend to be more cheap and mass-produced than anything. Guess we'll know more by this time next year!

You think so? Even though items like the ultra kaiju are mass-produced for kids at a 700-yen price point, I think they're pretty impressive.

I also don't see how this development would have an impact on quality.

I have a feeling you're right, Roger. The kinds of goods that M1go, Butanohana, Yamanaya, etc. produce are vastly different than what Bandai puts out. It's that whole "cutting off your nose to spite your face" idea. It would alienate a good number of ADULT collectors. As for quality, the cheapo sofubi is pretty good considering it's cheapo sofubi. I'm kind of partial to the Ultraman S.O.C.s as well.

What's ironic is that's how Tsuburaya got into the trouble with Chaiyo that it did; looking for outside investment.

Tsuburaya has been struggling to get bigger broadcast distribution for a while amidst the turmoil with Chaiyo. The plus side of Bandai jumping in is that Bandai has Mega power as not only a toy manufacturer but as an entertainment company as well especially in the US. This could mean old and newly developed versions of Tsuburaya's vast library of content, characters and intellectual properties could come to life in new exciting ways as TV shows, live action and or animation not just abroad but here in the US. That's something to be pretty excited about!

ran into this in-depth article about tsuburaya's legal win over chaiyo but didn't realize until the very end that it was written in 2007. what's happened since? did the bandai buy-in mentioned above in this thread have any effect? why is it that we in the west still ended up with the chaiyo ultraman dvd release if the legal matters were settled so many years ago? odd that tsubu/bandai didn't release the superior versions immediately afterwards.

as underhanded as chaiyo was, i'd still love to see some of their janky, misappropriated productions:

I agree. Bandai will not be the sole makers of Ultraman toys.

Bandai 500 yen series. They downsize the figures from 7 inch to 5 inches. A total of 24 characters will be release on June 29, 2013.

heres some more