Has anyone else noticed that Chinese toymakers are basically putting out the best products in the boutique/high-end toy-space right now?>SexyIce muscled into TEST/Sentinel's space with a more active release schedule and better value.>Hiya muscling into SHMA's space, same as above>JoyToy dominating 1:18 scale and Warhammer franchise>INart and LPZZ dominating the high-end DC comics/live action spaceThose are just the ones I'm most familiar with due to my own collection, but I'm sure there's abunch more I'm not mentioning, there's a ton of 3rd party options in the DBZ and Transformers scenes that rival or surpass the "official" lines.
Yeah couldn't really you the last time I bought a Japanese figure. Even when they look interesting they are always twice as expensive for half as much and then cost an arm and a leg to ship when they do finally release.
>>11655332>WarhammerFag
>>11655332>there's a ton of 3rd party options in the DBZ and Transformers scenes that rival or surpass the "official" lines.None are making Cybertron or Armada
>>11655332China surpassing Japan in toy industry is pretty much the same story of China surpassing Japan in consumer electronic or automobile industry: OEM becoming OBM. COVID and Trump's trade war really accelerated the process because Chinese toy manufacturers had to invest in their own or other local design team when foreign order declined significantly during that period.
>>11655332A shame in most cases they don't do reissues, once you missed the preorder you have to pay rape prices in the aftermarket.
>>11655332Problem is they are much harder to order. Limited places carry them and some sites are shady and force you to deposit without telling you what the full price will be
In the Transformers space the most interesting and boundary pushing shit comes from both official and unofficial 3P. On the flip side, some of the most safe and boring garbage is also present. Still, there's enough hands in the pot that you get inside-out movie formers, all in one combiners, and legends bots that put larger scales to shame. Mainline and MP have waffled back and forth in quality for more than a decade now.>>11655363They were doing Armada and Cybertron before Hastak circled back to them. The best Armada Starscream you can get is the legends scale from Mechanical Skull and they're now making a Demolisher of all characters.
>>11655464Which ones are hard to order? Honestly I haven't had trouble ordering from 5k toys, bombusbee or ShowZ/gundammit.
>>11655332They're just as bad quality as the rest.
>>11655332Forgot to mention:>Snail-shell BTFOing figma when it comes to anime gooning figures>>11655666Not the ones I've put hands on. Way better quality control than SHF, mafex or Revo.
>>11655332>Hiyaonly company that is actual qualityAll the other companies on your list make toys that are brittle, poorly sculpted, poorly constructed, poorly painted, badly engineered and/or in a wonky scale nobody wants.And despite being of poorer quality than Japanese toy companies, they have the nerve to charge just as much as if their products came out of the first world.
China is great. I want to live there and buy kino toys and get them cheaper and faster and I also want a qt Chinese gf
>>11655671>chinks give better quality control and cheaper production cost to their own slop
My fellow Pokemon collectors will probably vouch with me that Blokees has been making really great Pokemon figures. Tons of poseability, some unique picks (Machop, Scyther etc) and for literally pennies on the dollar (The first two i imported were about $3 each, the larger Scyther ran to about $15)
>>11655671Hyper Bodies are designed by a chinese team
XIANG PINK XIOU CHENG DENG POW DUU WOOO TUTEN FO MAO
>>11655332>Hiya muscling into SHMA's space, same as abovelol, no>>11655671that's not a Figma, fucking idiot
>>11655784>that's not figma it's just GSC!!!!Ok whatever, my point still stands, SS is higher quality than Figma.
>>11655804Funny that you chose Grisa to prove your point. SS do a great job when it comes to simplistic designs such as Aileen or Lustia, but Grisa is a mixed bag. Her hair gets in the way of her arms, her hip joints offer a fine range of motion, sure, but they're awkward to pose and due to her butt sculpt you can hardly sit her down normally. While figma can sometimes nail more complicated designs like Falslander line, most recent 2B and Scarlet from Nikke.And yeah, hyperbody is made by GSC Shanghai, not Max Factory. Different line.
>>11655360>shipping This is a big one for me too, shipping from China to Canada is sooooo much cheaper than shipping from Japan. Especially when I order from Aliexpress, shipping is literally free and they never disclose the full value of the package so my shit-eating government does not get their pound of flesh.
>>11655821It's almost like if he's talking shit because he doesn't buy toys
i like my chinese funwhole!
>>11655834I don't? Maybe you are projecting again.
>>11655633Bombusbee don't handle the tariffs for you. Gundamit is refusing to disclose full prices on many items now, and 5k doesn't have inart preorders or hiya for that matter.
>>11655890Yeah I can't speak to the American experience, blame retard-in-chief for that. Why would they take on the tariff expenses for you?Gundammit posts listings before there are really any actual details published, just wait for the full-price to be announced.
>>11655666Not really, Unkval Eliminator is a high quality toy combined with great articulation and rad design, the no reissue policy from Sexyice caused the prices to reach absurd peaks.
>>11656024What a shit toy
>>11655332Aren't all toys chinese or Vietnamese or some other country with lax labor laws? Japan doesnt really make any mass produced toys anymore.
>>11656062You're mixing up manufacturing with designing and producing.
>>11656077China does designing? Or are they just copying and stealing?
>>11656291Yes, China is also designing figgies now. Snail Shell are a good example since they are making characters that they pay the artists to use the design of as well as paying for licenses. There are a few others that are making their own stuff instead of being IP thieves , or doing Chink public domain shit like Journey to the West and RotK.
>>11656291Mix of both. Some, usually independent factories, churn out bootlegs using existing molds or 3D files, or even modify existing files to create somewhat original products. But then you have companies like Blokees, Inart, LPZZ, who get official licenses and design their own products, others like Fury Toys, Sexy Ice that design their own original ideas, and still some like Mety Toyz that design their own products but of existing licenses without the actual licenses.
>>11655332Shame they can't design their own robot figure that isn't just sharp jaggy lines everywhere and covered in greebles like it's some skin disease.
>>11655332They're definitely getting good but I don't think they're better. They're usually 1:10 despite being advertised as 1:12, QC can still be a gamble and most of their stuff is OCs, which isn't a bad thing necessarily but if you're after a particular license then your choices are much reduced.There's definitely some good stuff coming out of China though. Love me some JoyToy.
I'm pretty sure the company who did this Waldo is Chinese. I NEVER buy figures like this, but I saw the accessories and I saw that it comes with cloth clothing and I just had to get it. Grabbed it from Amazon way back. The box has a beautiful Waldo books pattern. Tried to look up info for the company back then and I just assumed it was Chinese because the box info just led to some Facebook page. I have every Waldo book, some are first prints, the soft covers, and the deluxe hardcovers. I just really like the artwork and the fact that it's all hand made. But away, the figure is really good quality and the accessories are all different materials. Would love a new Popeye like this.
>>11656029
Tunshi studios is another Chinese brand no? They made these pretty incredible looking Metal-slug figures. Don't have them myself but I have heard good things.
>>11655332"dominating the high end dc action space" their figures aren't even out yet... LOL
>>11656511shame the girls looks like shitty cosplayers
>rise of chinalol china is failing so horribly they have to pay breadtubers to shill for them.
>>11656599>seething mutt noises
let's see...jap toys are made in chinachink factory worker wages rising is the reason why toy prices went batshit.chinks also keep fucking up QC on jap figures.meanwhile chink toys are great with sharp paint jobs, no breakage, better value and more accessories.it's ALMOST like they are sabotaging the jap toy market for their own gain, imagine the shock.
Exssrion and Earnest Core Craft come to mind, too. The former can be a bit overpriced, but still nice (their Swimsuit Linya especially, I'm surprised there are so few articulated figurines of relatively petite ladies pandering to cute feet enjoyers). ECC's Robot Build series can have some horribly stiff pegs, but Carbe (at least Universal Color, no idea about the Ant variants) is just a phenomenal desk toy if you can get him for the average aftermarket price of 4-5k yen.
>>11655332while the quality is great the scale is awful and they lying about the actually scale
>>11656511Got them all, they have some problems like shitty ankles on most of them, with zero range, fragile wrist pegs that need heating up to change hands, but I still like them. Those are the best figs based on Metal Slug so far. They have a really nice finish to them and present themselves nicely. Quality is there for sure, just few design flaws in first two waves.The best figure in terms of quality and handling I ever had is Sexy Ice Manticora. You really need to feel how those joints move, after this experience other figs feel like trash, and I mean it. I skipped the Mantis because I though it would be just another weird fetish line for gooners, wasn't keeping attention so missed the Eliminators. Now I have regrets. Hope they do reissues someday.
>>11657056
