Are super-articulated figues a fad?

[king_ghidorah]

[Legion]

[king_ghidorah]

[O.Supreme]

[Legion]

[sachiel]

[king_ghidorah]

[Shin_Edda_Robo!!!!!]

[king_ghidorah]

[Hesei]

I have really enjoyed both the Revoltech and the SH Arts lines. Still am, actually! Even looking forward to this 10" one that's supposed to be in the works. But I'm honestly surprised they lasted this long! I wonder if people were more hungry for new kaiju pieces, or if articulation is what drew them into the Revoltech line.

Not sure if I agree on X-Plus's plays with scale are a cry for help. Releasing less figures overall would be a greater indication to me. The scales tell me they're just very successful!

To them as well, didn't think they would last this long! What's it been now? Almost five years since that first Gorosaurus that kinda started it all? Big and pricey, yet they keep coming. I think Bandai is the one that's in the most trouble. If there really are all these issues with the new KG, that's a giant and expensive figure people will be disappointed in at a relatively early stage in the series lineup.

I dunno. I just don't know if we'll be getting very far into the Showa lineup with SH Arts - I think it will fall out of favor before too long.
By the way, what happened to the Revoltech stuff? No more Godzilla or Gamera pieces?

[sachiel]

[Legion]

[sachiel]

[MekaGojira3k]

[Shin_Edda_Robo!!!!!]

[MekaGojira3k]

[Baltan II]

The only reason super-articulated figures may seem like a fad is because most guys among this community (I won't speak for other Godzilla forums because I'm not active on any) seem to be in a bubble of sorts when it comes to the toys they buy. Regardless of the company, size, scale, or type of figure, most of CT collects kaiju. Nothing wrong with that, of course, but it's what you do, what most of you have done for a long time and with a lot of money over the years.

I've been a Godzilla fan nearly all my life but have always collected toys in general, not kaiju alone. I was at the right age to see articulation play a bigger role in more action figure lines over the years, even in lines I don't collect, simply because I paid attention to the market as a whole. There's nothing "fad" about the way toy articulation has improved since the 80s and 90s.

There will be differences in how it's used years from now, due to factors beyond our control such as shifts in worldwide markets, oil prices, which generations have the disposable income to spend on things like toys, etc. US action figure lines used to offer some of the most articulated toys out there but then you look at what cost-cutting and oil costs get you and you end up with abysmal things like the 4" Dark Knight Rises line.

There's a chance that MonsterArts or Ultra-Act as we know them won't exist years from now but it has nothing to do with a "super-articulation fad" and everything to do with shifts in the Japanese collector's market. Godzilla might become unmarketable should something like the Legendary film utterly bomb and send Big G into another hiatus, or Tsuburaya goes under. Bandai could pull a Figuarts Zero and decide that it's more effective to put Sakai's talents to use on 6" PVC statues instead. What I find most likely is that if we don't have SHMA or UA in five years, it's because the toyline has evolved into something else. Some kind of "MonsterArts Micro" line of 4" scale articulated kaiju, in line with the success of the SIC Kiwami Tamashii series. Or perhaps 12"PM Godzilla toys take off and the market to continue that line is much better than sticking with SHMA. It could be as simple as restarting with a toyline almost identical to what we have now but with some unforeseen improvements the way articulated Kamen Rider toys have evolved from Souchaku Henshin in 2000 to the wildly successful SH Figuarts line, the line that inspired SH MonsterArts and Ultra-Act to exist in the first place.

TL;DR - No.

[Godzilla 2000]

[TripMasterMunky]

[MekaGojira3k]

[Jomei]

[Timz]