The Asian Market for 8" format Action Figures

[Mister Kennedy]

If it's not blind boxed or $150, they don't care.

[GUYx1]

Too true. I just wish they could spend less time refining a character to death and make new 12" figs. How many $100+ 12" batman, Terminator & Alien figures can a person buy? I know Ironman is going to to be the same thing after awhile.

[samurainoir]

For what it's worth, when I was in Japan this spring I saw absolutely none of the modern 8" US released figures in either the primary market (eg. TRU) or the secondary market (none at the many toy and comics stores I visited in Akihabara, etc). Although I could imagine that the POTA and Trek stuff might sell pretty well if available, I saw nothing. As for US superheroes, forget it. Sure, Batman and Superman are well known, but the majority of Japanese (even comic and toy geeks) are likely unfamiliar with more secondary DC characters like Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Sinestro, etc. I'm sure that the number of Japanese comics fans who read US superhero comics and are familiar with the lesser known characters is far, far less than US comics fans who read manga.

That's understandable. Other than the handful of Marvel figures that Medicom(?) made, it seems that most of the North American characters that get that high end treatment in the 1/6h scale are Movie-likenesses.

There was that burst of X-Men toy-love in Japan in the nineties, but that was based on the animated tv show. Love me my SuperDeformed banks, keychains and plush UFO catchers.

Ten years ago, I noticed that Spawn had infiltrated the Japanese marketplace. Not sure if McFarlane Toys is still a presence there now.