The biggest part of anime fandom is obviously the shows, but another way that otaku show their devotion is by buying and displaying the latest in toys, figures and other collectibles. While Funko Pop! figures might be pretty popular in the mainstream, this is only the tip of the iceberg of all the merchandise available to purchase. Unfortunately, as cool as some of this merch is, it can be equally as expensive.
In fact, anime collectibles are ridiculously expensive, and the price has only gone up. This stems from a number of factors, including the show in question and the studio behind it, as well as just how luxurious the product is. There's also material scarcity to take into account, along with other factors. Without further ado, here's a closer look at why that PVC figure on Hobby Link Japan is so pricey.
Some Anime Studios Don't Have Huge Merchandising Budgets
For big franchises like Naruto, One Piece and Dragon Ball, their merchandise is pretty ubiquitous online or at any major physical retailer. This is because their studios have the budget to put the various characters into plastic or resin form, namely because of those series' success beforehand. That's why they have Funkos, action figures, statues, busts, FiGPiNs and all manner of other tie-in merchandise. However, in the case of smaller studios, they don't have nearly as much funds to produce vast quantities of merch for their respective shows, especially at affordable prices.
An example of this is the studio Nomad, which got its start by adapting the manga Rozen Maiden in 2004. Since the show itself featured numerous elegant living dolls, real-life dolls were made of the many characters. Their release, however, wasn't particularly mainstream even in Japan, and the already exorbitant prices for these original dolls have skyrocketed online. This is the case for many less than mainstream franchises, as their few products will be hard to come by. Thus, the only real representation for those shows will be $200+ figures or statues, many of which won't be readily available. These items also sometimes have shorter production runs to ensure that they don’t warm too many shelves, which can unwittingly create a scarcity of a popular item.
The Higher the Quality, the More Expensive the Anime Collectible
The higher cost of some anime collectibles is based entirely on how cool they are. For instance, this highly detailed bust of Midoriya from My Hero Academia is literally the anime character brought to life, putting him into a displayable form while making the smallest minutia of fabric emphasized on his costume. Any fan of the series would want something this incredible looking, but all of the high-quality attributes also net it a whopping $5,000+ price tag.
The same goes for Gunpla in the Mobile Suit Gundam series. While these built figures are all made generally from the same materials, it goes without saying that the diminutive and cheap SD (or super-deformed) Gundam will be a lot less detailed and have far fewer pieces than the tower Perfect Grade Gundam models. With the latter, it's a combination of parts, detail, size and even features such as electronic lights and sounds that make all the difference, with Gundam fans having to shell out a lot if they want the best representation of Char Aznable’s Zaku-II.
These higher-end collectibles also typically use the sturdy but expensive PVC material, a.k.a. polyvinyl chloride. Polymethyl methacrylate is typically used as a much cheaper alternative, but the result is a material that’s much more fragile. It can also look as cheap as it is, which is why bootlegs are so easy to scope out and differentiate from the real deal.
Shipping Products Out of Japan Is Ridiculously Expensive
Perhaps the biggest issue in getting affordable anime collectibles to buyers across the world is where these items come from. Since Japan is an island nation, it’s a lot harder and more expensive to get goods exported from the country. Add in Japan’s particularities about shipping and labeling, and it’s simply a lot more expensive and time-consuming to get anime figures out of the land of the Rising Sun.
Once other things such as licensing fees, which may or may not be exclusive to one company, as well as creator royalties are factored in, fans are dealing with an industry that can barely ever be cheap even in Japan. Moreover, the pandemic has made things worse in different ways. For one, production for many of these non-essentials was temporarily halted, resulting in a backlog of consumer demand. Said demand only grew higher with more people binging anime at home, meaning Gundam figures in particular have grown more popular than ever. Thus, in order to get these now much rarer items to their warehouses, buyers had to usually pay exorbitant fees. In other words, the next time the prices at your local anime hobby shop seem a bit too steep, remember all that went into even getting them on the shelves.
