>>10638696They are subsidized. Bandai, a mega corporation is willing to leave money on the table for these as part of a much greater scheme.
Bandai is propped up by Gundam. They basically have a license to print money by being its distributor. Japanese males have it hard coded in their DNA to like and buy Gundam even when they don't. This leaves Bandai with lots of extra money that can be used on other ventures.
With 30MS Bandai asked theirselves, "Well, okay, what if we just sold people a part of a figure set and sold the other parts separately? Could we make even more money over time by continuing to sell modular pieces to people who already buy parts for the sake of customization?"
Let's take a look at my favorite 30MS, Luluce. She's 2530 yen for her base kit. Then, it's 880 yen for her bear legs(Option Parts Set 3). Well, that's only half of her bear armor. An additional 660 yen is needed for the right to bear arms in the form of Option Parts Set 5. Now, unlike a Kotobukiya kit, you can't even dress her down into a nonarmored form unless you also have Body Parts S03 for another 880 yen and an additional Arm andxLeg parts set (also 880 yen).
Now if you combine everything that's roughly 5830 yen, which ends up being roughly around the msrp of a mid range Koto kit.
But let's look at those prices again. 880 yen for an option part is 34% of the initial cost. Each piece gouges the consumer hard in terms of value, but given the low cost of plastic it's just the way things are. 880 yen is like what, a lunch you've already paid for eaten and forgotten about, right? But over time it really adds up.
I love the 30MS line but after doing the math would argue that the price is comparable and ends up coming in a lot more boxes. So there's kind of this illusion that they're cheap when, to get a comparable experience you end paying around the same.
