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Bluefin acquired, becomes Bandai Namco Collectibles

Anonymous Fri 21 Sep 2018 14:49:31 No.7166747 View View Reply Original Report

Quoted By: >>7166748 >>7166772 >>7166956 >>7166993 >>7167017

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2018-09-21/bandai-namco-acquires-bluefin-establishes-u.s-toy-company/.137100

>Let's acquire a company and fuck up the market again by controlling all its actions through Japan!

The company is part of the new Bandai Spirits entity that was created in April, that has Tamashii Nations, Bandai Hobby, and parts of Banpresto.

so do things get better or worse for U.S.?

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 21 Sep 2018 14:50:07 No.7166748 Report

Quoted By:

>>7166747
Bet Bandai America closes next year and merges with this

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 21 Sep 2018 15:06:27 No.7166760 Report

Quoted By:

Gratz, burgers. It'll be easier to obtain your pricey asian-sized t-shirts now.

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 21 Sep 2018 15:09:45 No.7166763 Report

Quoted By: >>7167574

>Bandai taking over a North American collectibles company

>Bandai who can't even make a good american P.bandai website

Lol Burgers are fucked

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 21 Sep 2018 15:20:05 No.7166772 Report

Quoted By:

>>7166747
Bluefin sold at a great time, when this economic bubble pops toys will be the last thing I want to buy

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 21 Sep 2018 16:34:17 No.7166837 Report

Quoted By: >>7167577

Bluefin had a hard enough time convincing Bandai Japan that certain stuff was worth selling here, and they clearly lost that battle a long time ago since they stopped brining over Kamen Riders.

Now with BoJ making the decisions directly, don't expect to see them ever again.

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 21 Sep 2018 16:48:22 No.7166847 Report

Quoted By: >>7166968

Probably also means you can kiss the customer support goodbye. I've contacted them twice for issues and had entire new figures shipped out to me.

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 21 Sep 2018 16:52:50 No.7166855 Report

Quoted By: >>7166864

>People thinking this is a bad thing.

Bluefin was a fucking terribly run organization. The only reason they held onto their position was by owning an official distributor license and lack of any competition. No matter how badly bandai manages them it literally can't be worse than they managed themselves.

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 21 Sep 2018 16:58:02 No.7166864 Report

Quoted By: >>7166888 >>7166968 >>7167084

>>7166855
>No matter how badly bandai manages them it literally can't be worse than they managed themselves.

Yeah it fucking can. They very likely won't offer support and just look how terrible the western P.Bandai website is. When has Bandai ever shown ANY competence when it comes to selling in the west?

There is an entire niche industry(bluefin, middleman shops like NY and BiJ) that popped up around addressing western apathy.

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 21 Sep 2018 17:26:45 No.7166888 Report

Quoted By:

>>7166864
>NY addressing anything
Haha.

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 21 Sep 2018 18:28:06 No.7166956 Report

Quoted By: >>7166984

>>7166747
OK this is really good news, IF it works according to plan. They're keeping Bluefin's name and contacts, connections and bridges. Effectively, Bluefin will opperate in the same capacity as before. One big difference is they can probably be more efficiently and quickly supplied product. Bandai will also be able to get quicker access to order info, which could mean more product for limited exclusives that sell out during out-of-Japan distribution. God speed, Bandai. Don't fuck this up!

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 21 Sep 2018 18:35:34 No.7166968 Report

Quoted By: >>7166984

Things will get better.

Bluefin is AWFUL to deal with as they were. People would be lucky to hear back from them for weeks, later shipments of goods, incomplete shipments of good, sudden last minute demands and changes to previously defined terms...

>>7166847
I contacted them once.

They never replied, then randomly about 3 months later a replacement showed up.

>>7166864

>When has Bandai ever shown ANY competence when it comes to selling in the west?

You understand they bought bluefin to use bluefin, not to burn it down, right?

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 21 Sep 2018 18:53:25 No.7166984 Report

Quoted By:

>>7166956
>>7166968

Feels like the same blind optimism that welcomed Mattel taking over the Halo Franchise from Mcfarlane.

>It can't be any worse right?

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO 1504308613309.gif, 2MiB, 300x300

Anonymous Fri 21 Sep 2018 19:01:35 No.7166993 Report

Quoted By: >>7167030

>>7166747
>"Japan's Mattel" acquires Bluefin

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 21 Sep 2018 19:12:17 No.7167003 Report

Quoted By: >>7167066 >>7167318 >>7167364

My greatest concern is that Bandai is gonna make the same goddamn mistakes the last time they tried to launch Gundam in the US in the early 2000s and they're gonna try and target kids instead of people who actually know what gundam is. Bluefin was pretty awful but at least they kept decent stock. I'm concerned new bandai is gonna push HGs as hard as possible and leave everything else to rot.

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 21 Sep 2018 19:25:17 No.7167017 Report

Quoted By: >>7167062

>>7166747
Looks like bluefin is keeping the same shitty CEO too, I don't think anything good will happen

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 21 Sep 2018 19:39:28 No.7167030 Report

Quoted By: >>7167059 >>7167358

>>7166993
What the fuck does this even mean

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 21 Sep 2018 20:20:39 No.7167059 Report

Quoted By: >>7167358

>>7167030
He's just shitposting.

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 21 Sep 2018 20:21:41 No.7167062 Report

Quoted By:

>>7167017
I don't think much will change. I at least hope this makes bluefin less awful for non chain stores to deal with. They are TERRIBLE for small stores to work with.

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 21 Sep 2018 20:30:19 No.7167066 Report

Quoted By:

>>7167003
At this point any domestic Gundam model releases are better than nothing.

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 21 Sep 2018 20:52:50 No.7167084 Report

Quoted By: >>7167136

>>7166864
>When has Bandai ever shown ANY competence when it comes to selling in the west?

Wow it's almost like they just bought a western distribution company to fix that

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 21 Sep 2018 21:27:56 No.7167136 Report

Quoted By:

>>7167084
So can we expect a rerelease of the master asia figuarts?

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 21 Sep 2018 23:36:19 No.7167318 Report

Quoted By: >>7167328

>>7167003
Bandai's problem with Gundam was targeting kids with series that people who actually know what Gundam is liked. Wing was reviled by fans but was a huge success with younger fans in the US. They tried to push UC because of its importance without realizing how much of the appeal of Wing was just the modern, glossy animation and designs, not so much the plot. Its cool that they were so for pushing the UC but they really should've tested the waters with more recent series before jumping straight into 0079.

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 21 Sep 2018 23:40:51 No.7167328 Report

Quoted By: >>7167402

>>7167318
Imagine a generation of children growing up with war in the pocket

https://youtu.be/szdWIQTSVYU

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO bandai cap.jpg, 22KiB, 640x480

Anonymous Fri 21 Sep 2018 23:57:33 No.7167358 Report

Quoted By:

>>7167059
>>7167030
As people have been mentioning, Bandai fucks up a lot. See how the distribution of anime in North America blew up in their faces twice.
Also, Bandai is known for making a ton of chintzy shit like Mattel. Of course, unlike Mattel, their collector toys can be pretty quality.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 22 Sep 2018 00:09:56 No.7167364 Report

Quoted By:

>>7167003
>Bluefin was pretty awful but at least they kept decent stock.

Literally every hobby shop owner I've ever spoken with has bitched about how difficult getting their shit regularly from bluefin was. Especially last year.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 22 Sep 2018 00:35:38 No.7167402 Report

Quoted By: >>7167559 >>7167582 >>7167658

>>7167328
They did air it, though.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkujfuzHVNY

They should've done the movies as a weekly promo thing, then the OVAs to introduce UC to America. If they did Wing, then X/ Turn A, then the 0079 movies, followed by 0080, 0083, maybe Char's counterattack, or taken a break after 0083 to show G and Seed before returning to UC with the Zeta movies I think it would've been more successful. Butt hat's all in hindsight; they didn't know the Zeta movies would be a thing in 2001. The reason I think they should've focussed on the movies rather than the series is due to the movies being more digestable to a new audience that would be apprehensive to watch 20 year old anime. Plus it lets you have more product to show off.

The yearly plan could've gone:
2000:Gundam wing
2001: X
2002: Turn A
2003: UC movies and OVAs
2004:Seed
2005:Seed destiny
2006: Zeta movies, Char's counterattack

Then by 2007/2009 you can have synergy with Japan and release series around the same time. Losing G is the biggest issue since its so loved in the west, but I feel you can squeeze it in, but I'm wary to keep it right before Seed like how it was because I feel it hurt brand identity here in the US.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 22 Sep 2018 02:47:56 No.7167524 Report

Quoted By:

Well RIP. Guess middle men will be everyone's best friends after Bandai fucks this up somehow

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 22 Sep 2018 03:20:07 No.7167559 Report

Quoted By: >>7167582 >>7167589 >>7167618

>>7167402
Boggles my mind why they didn’t ever even bring over X, it’s so stylistically similar to wing it seems like the most logical choice.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 22 Sep 2018 03:32:31 No.7167574 Report

Quoted By: >>7167579

>>7166763
>Bandai doesn't do P-Bandai in america because of the huge logistical shortcomings
>Buys a distribution company

Doesn't take a rocket surgeon to figure this out, anon. Even you're last two braincels should be able to understand

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 22 Sep 2018 03:33:33 No.7167577 Report

Quoted By:

>>7166837
>since they stopped brining over Kamen Riders

When

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 22 Sep 2018 03:34:57 No.7167579 Report

Quoted By:

>>7167574
>>Bandai doesn't do P-Bandai in america because of the huge logistical shortcomings

Nah, they don't do it because of massive freight costs and tariffs.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 22 Sep 2018 03:37:45 No.7167582 Report

Quoted By: >>7167589

>>7167559
Because it didn't do well in Japan

X would have been a fucking hit here

>>7167402
Turn A is one of my top 3 but your fucking crazy if you think dumb fuck NA audiences would have put up with a show like Turn A

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 22 Sep 2018 03:49:37 No.7167589 Report

Quoted By:

>>7167559
Because they were so dense they didn't realize how much wing's style was a factor in its success. A bunch of companies jumped onto getting NEW animes at the time of the big anime boom adter SailorMoon/Dragon ball z/Pokemon; no one was trying to push 20 year old anime on tv, except Bandai. That's how inept they were.

>>7167582
I hesitated with adding Turn A on that plan, really, and its mostly there to have a series in 2002 in that plan; initially it just went into the 0079 movies after X, but that'd leave a gap until Seed. I could've put G on there but my hesitation with that is that I feel G hurt the brand's identity in the US early on; after that si when we get things like superior Defender and Bandai going too full force with the toy releases because they just wanted to crank stuff out. Turn A narrowly edged it out because it kept closer to tradition compared to G, and also because Toonami was diversifying the kind of anime they were airing, and even if it aired on adult Swim it would've been perfect as early AS embraced all sorts of different anime, too
Also, the plan was mostly intended for TV airing; Bandai could've(and should've) dubbed and released 0079/G/ Zeta/ etc as they did in the real world and released them on DVD, even if they weren't aired on TV.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 22 Sep 2018 04:31:41 No.7167618 Report

Quoted By: >>7167644

>>7167559
X crashed and burned so hard in Japan that they didn't bother buying a 4th cours of timeslots and told the staff to wrap it up in the third which is why we got the rushed ending. That hadn't happened in a gundam series since the original and is one of the primary reason they're fond of doing split seasons now instead of just 4 straight cours back to back.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 22 Sep 2018 05:06:07 No.7167644 Report

Quoted By: >>7168072

>>7167618
>they didn't bother buying a 4th cours of timeslots
That's not what happened.

Jesus, everything you said was wrong

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 22 Sep 2018 05:25:58 No.7167658 Report

Quoted By:

>>7167402
Airing gundam x is a dumb idea so soon after wing, there was no merchandise to support it

https://desuarchive.org/m/thread/13567353/#q13569243

Also derringer is now in a senior management position it seems

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 22 Sep 2018 16:31:05 No.7168072 Report

Quoted By:

>>7167644
X was ended in the 3rd cours. It was planned and being paced for 4 cours. The series was unpopular and its kits were selling poorly so they decided to wrap it up.

What do you think happened?

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Bluefin acquired, becomes Bandai Namco Collectibles