>>9585941Your observations are pretty much on the spot. It's all about risk management now and Kaiyodo of all places rarely takes risk. The era of prices where anything can make a profit is over. I think QB was around when Revos were 3000 but still. To distribute items at retail you need to produce a certain amount and if the target group isn't as big, companies need to cut corners somehow. Or jack up prices.
Selling exclusively cuts out the middle retailers so profits are greater in simple terms. Then yeah there's the original characters approach. I think the figma originals are in the same concept, they're in swimsuit or underwear and can have add-on clothes. Then there's Dark Advent, the plastic models which clearly cuts out assembly and most paint costs. Those seem to be the viable options. And getting an IP just to test one figure I'm sure is waste of money. Or you have figma and Sentinel figures for niche stuff, way overpriced in most eyes because they sell less but cover IPs others don't. But even then those IPs don't seem that niche but in action figure numbers they are apparently.
>>9585985Assemble Borg. Different genre, probably caters to a larger group but it's not sustainable anymore even for cheaper production and higher prices. Known properties at least they know a certain number of people will buy them.
