I actually went and did a bit of homework because I was curious about sales comparisons. So a normal funko pop is $10 but a normal price for one of those 1/8 scale resin/plastic models is about $90USD from the big names. Funko pops actually had their best year last year, pulling $227 Million in sales, no small feat until you take in labour, materials, transport, advertising, and (probably their biggest expense) IP licensing. That one company I used earlier was Kotobukiya, one of many companies that makes "official" (IP is bullshit) figurines and their revenue last year was $744 Million USD (¥8.02 Billion).
So like, they are probably just a fancier funko pop but the capital behind them is somewhere between just-under and multiple-times an order of magnitude more, all of which is specifically targeted at anime/related media products instead of funko pop's big tent for any individual item of each companies' products. And this is also before we get into consumption habbits of people who buy either product.
All this to say it is the unfortunate market inevitability that brought anime studios to shill to this type of guy. The kind of guy who would not only buy several $90 figures of some fictional 14y/o but would also attempt to peer-pressure others into his cucked headspace. I lost track of the argument, ngl, but anime titties ≠ funko pops.
I actually went and did a bit of homework because I was curious about sales comparisons. So a normal funko pop is $10 but a normal price for one of those 1/8 scale resin/plastic models is about $90USD from the big names. Funko pops actually had their best year last year, pulling $227 Million in sales, no small feat until you take in labour, materials, transport, advertising, and (probably their biggest expense) IP licensing. That one company I used earlier was Kotobukiya, one of many companies that makes "official" (IP is bullshit) figurines and their revenue last year was $744 Million USD (¥8.02 Billion).
So like, they are probably just a fancier funko pop but the capital behind them is somewhere between just-under and multiple-times an order of magnitude more, all of which is specifically targeted at anime/related media products instead of funko pop's big tent for any individual item of each companies' products. And this is also before we get into consumption habbits of people who buy either product.
All this to say it is the unfortunate market inevitability that brought anime studios to shill to this type of guy. The kind of guy who would not only buy several $90 figures of some fictional 14y/o but would also attempt to peer-pressure others into his cucked headspace. I lost track of the argument, ngl, but anime titties ≠ funko pops.
the anime business model is INCREDIBLY fucked