Among others....

Mori making tiny runs is different from Secret Base, how?
Ubiq Damaged, GID Mantis and more.

Meanwhile Secret Base redefines itself with Usugrows that are so sought after.

Oh and the Pushead connection...

Just saying..

here here
when I first joined this board Secret Base were through the roof, now that everyone has a hard on for RXH you can pick up the base at a nice price, I am not ragging on RXH I have my fair share but they are pumping this shit out like there is no tomorrow ....and i fear give it 6 months at the rate they are going and there will be no tomorrow as people will get bored and completists will go nuts......

out of interest, how many RXH joints are released a month roughly? i think its safe to say unless you were literally a millionaire, it would be impossible to be a total completest.

or logang

Well, rhino makes some solid points, liquid does too. Though a lot is coming out fast, most of it's super limited to keep us coming back. But too much too soon can be a pain. Completists? LOL! No offense if you are one, but I don't give a shit about completists, they're nuts in the first place so all I can say to this rapid-fire release attack and completists is "who cares?"

I think someone mentioned "now that these are coming out so fast I can only afford to get the best" or something like that, think it was mondo. That should be our mentality anyway, limited or not why buy something if you don't think it's tops? Why buy it if you only think it's "ok?"

I guess it's each to their own . . . unique vintage, 'interesting' random pieces and commisioned customs just ain't my bag, even blanks and unpainted figs are kinda meh . . . I can very easily pass on 90% of Kaiju, so when a saucy new colourway from I line I do collect shows up dropping a few $$$ more than I'd like to ain't the end of the world!

It would appear RxH is heading for some kinda a meltdown though!



(IMO) Now Secret Base have the webstore established on top of Pusfan, Artoyz and S7 handling worldwide distribution the Flippers have been virtually cut outta the loop . . . I can't see the negatives if RxH were to follow a similar principal! . . . or does Mori prefer keeping it 'locals only'

I see whatcha saying but the 'healthy aftermarket' just means paying big $$$ from JPN locals . . . which everyone is so quick to hate on. The only people benefitting from such small runs are the flippers



It's a balancing act . . . but if yer concerning yerself about what's 'trendy' you're buying for the wrong reasons . . .

I think some peoples problem is that now that price has been set as a standard for that figure.

All it takes is 1 or 2 people to buy it for a high price to make flippers and some other buyers think it's worth that much and continue to sell it for that much, or try to sell it. So you can say "I spent my money, it's MY business" which is true, but it DOES effect the rest of us.

I'm not ragging on you BTW, just clearing up some points I think might have been missed. Like I said before, I think we ALL have done this once or twice.

Yeah, I said, "It is getting a bit hard to keep up with everything, so I'm just picking up the best stuff." I phrased that badly. I've always been selective with what I buy, but now more than ever I'm choosing between quality goods. That's what I meant.

its not the set price as long as everyone else doesnt pay it
and it doesnt effect the rest of us as long as we can wait.

only blame rxh if u want.

if members wouldnt call out other members
giving links to finished bin auctions
no prices "set" at all.

Secret Base and RxH are for the most part apples and oranges. I'm not even sure if they're in the same category of toys anymore. I'd say SB is more "poppy" (with a few exceptions like the Pushead and Usugrow figures) and RxH is more artistic. SB seems to be more about gimmickry/design innovation, and RxH seems to be more about the paint/aesthetic creativity.

So yeah I'd agree with those who have said SB really did itself in with the large production runs. Larger RxH runs, I think, are safer (as long as they aren't for blanks or less interesting designs like the gun metal series) since they're appealing to people on different grounds than SB.

Oh yeah SB also shot itself in the foot with some questionable QC in 2007.

Not sure if that makes sense. The bottom line is SB and RxH are two different breeds of companies.

I still have a decent SB collection, but in the last year or so I haven't been very excited about many new releases outside of the Secreters and Pushead figures.

Well I meant that it's "set" for flippers and people who don't know better or are impatient. Not REALLY set, but they'll start them at HIGH bids or BIG BIN's.

I couldn't disagree more. I think you're fooling yourself if you think there are any major differences between RxH and SB (or even Cronic). These are all basically the same thing made by different people all running roughly the same business model.
These toys are just really awesome, mom & pop versions of Beanie Babies. And they'll all run the same course.

i agree with this (the approach making a new rxh figure and and SB figure are very different). I think it has to do alot with the sculpt itself. you can come up with alot of interesting colorways on an RxH figure as opposed to an SB figure with just and airbrush and paint. pretty easy for someone at home to come up with a cool customized chaos as opposed to a skullbrain - as it would require a bit more thought.

Yep Mori's (like Cronic, Blobpus, Gargamel, etc) airbrush and paint work is what sets him apart. The SB figures have plenty of potential (especially the SkullBrain) to be beautifully painted, but, for whatever reason, that's just not the way most of the figures are made. They're often nicely designed, but not painted. And that makes them very different from most of the other stuff collected here.

I see SB as always trying to stay edgy/trendy. Hiddy pushes a lot of envelopes and comes up with some great ideas, but I just don't think his figures (for the most part) slot into the kaiju continuum the same way some other pachi kaiju companies do. And that's a big reason why SB figures are more vulnerable to price sensitivity and waves of collector interest. (Of course other figures' popularity also comes and goes, so trendiness certainly affects other modern toy companies.)

I'm not quite so cynical as to think every kaiju company is going to get hit hard when the "trend wave" moves on. I think those that stay steady and even keeled (Gargamel is the perfect example) are going to be around for quite a while. And I think SB can too, if it focuses on excellent figures and doesn't churn out colorway after colorway of new designs. (For example, the Mummy Damaged Brain. I think that sort of thing has put me off more than anything.)

I have to agree. Nothing seminal or groundbreaking here.
Just endless colourways that are hyped over the internet.

yes, SB made small runs... but they weren't inserted here and there like RxH. when SB was at it's peak, there was usually enough to go around. RxH always had a few pesky mini runs that would go for stupid money right after a festival.

i think secret base can redefine itself... their original sculpts just ran their course IMO.

also curious to see if mori will ever come up with another sculpt that interests collectors after the original 4 (after a few years, he's only shot blanks (although i do like the akro and the one eyed gorilla dude), and making minis is cheating )

Liquid sky, pease don't take this the wrong way, but if that's the way you feel, what keeps you coming back here every day?

While it's true that nothing is as well-loved as the original four "good guys," one of those wasn't embraced very well at first. I think all it takes is a good colorway or two for the better post-original figures to take off. Akrokaiser is probably the best example. Almost any Akro released now would sell out shortly with the possible exception of a boring-hue blank. Look at the interest shown in the yellow Jinja-R. It may not be as intriguing of a sculpt as the OG 4 but clearly the right color/paint combo will increase its popularity. Sometimes I think RxH collectors are overly obsessed with the OG Gang of Four at the expense of other fine releases. In defense of the minis, they may be new versions of existing characters, but the sculpt proportions are so right that they don't come across as mere also-rans or fan-gouging at all. I suspect that the remainder of 2008 will serve as a real test case for RxH's direction and viability. I'm optimistic, but think that we collectors have some perspective-adjustment to do. A lot of the recent complaints seem not to take into account what Mori has to contend with to keep the biz going and the quality high. They're more about making things easier on me-the-collector. Part of what feeds my optimism is the general improvement in recent color schemes. 2007 saw an awful lot of blanks and less-compelling dark schemes. I like those but prefer the more colorful approach he's been taking lately. I'd like to think that this means that Mori's energy is on a real roll right now. Sure seems to be.

never said the minis were also-rans or fan-gouging. I also think they are made very well... i'm trying to stay away from those. they like crack

Didn't say you did. My posting wasn't just in response to your own, although you did say that they were "cheating" in the context of the original sculpts versus more recent ones, which compelled me to defend them on the grounds of being very good sculpts on their own. Just riffing on a lot of things being expressed recently. Anyway you're right about crack and that's why I'm not going to shed any tears for missed opportunities at this point. More power to those who camp out overnight at the store I guess.

I should probably stay out of these frustration-threads because they're frustrating. I'm still enjoying the heck out of the hunt and have no problem with anything that Mori's doing. Well, except for three boring Honeborg colorways, but ... money saved.

yeah, i'm not really complaining about anything (just commenting)... he can release whatever the hell he wants.

i have to agree too.
though andy has some very good points
on the difference between both companies -
very interesting to read ur view on it!!!

difference seems to be the hype,
this time not the internet, but the mook.
huge hype about rxh part before it dropped.
long time waiting for it to drop.
sb part pretty much fucked up,
rxh part fucking awesome.
then good working new distribution network,
& mad limited rxh stuff dropping daily.
never seen any comparable hype about anything else.

@ andy: totally agree artistic value should make
the difference if there is any.
also think paintjob of rxh is very artistic,
whereas sb sculpts seem to have higher artistic value.
thinking rxh sculpts have a comic/manga style only.
so its pretty much evenly-matched imo.