I admit it: I'm a 28 year old toy lover.
No, no need to console me. This isn't a 12-step program. I have no intention of joining one, either.
In my time as an anime fan, I've seen the toymakers crawl up from a bunch of poor-quality plastic pushers to artisans who craft exquisite figures worth keeping in a display case. We've gone from a world of $30 figures that made us yearn for Barbies to a world where companies like
Good Smile Company,
Kotobukiya, and Alter (we couldn't find a website for Alter, sorry) make figures that fans drool over -- and pay $40, $80, $100, or even more to get or import. And where dealer's halls at American anime conventions have responded by stocking their shelves full of these things.
Time was, the only way to get a true quality figure was to hope and pray that a garage kit maker would make one, that you could get your hands on one, and then that you'd have the patience and skill to assemble and paint it. These days are thankfully behind us. Not that it isn't possible to get garage kits, but when you have figures such as
Alter's Bounty Hunter Yoko or
GSC's Black Rock Shooter, why make the effort? The people with too much time on their hands can go back to making their Gundams, while the rest of us can learn skills that might be more productive, or at least have more time for our video games.
And the
Itoshiki Nendoroid (from Sayonara Zetsubou-sensei)? Absolutely
fabulous.
words from jason, 2009-04-12 01:47:24, seattle
