Dragon Stars - (Dragon Ball Super figures released in US)

Check it out, they emailed me a reply, and it was exactly what I expected:


tl;dr: They sent me a reply that says that I can't sue them if they end up doing what I requested. If they end up doing it, it was their idea. #America #WeSueEveryoneForStealingOurIdeas

I'm good with that. Make us 5 inch figures! I don't care whose idea it is

Well, not to be dramatically negative, but I'd choose nothing over these, because I won't be buying them.

And there will probably be someone in a meeting at Bandai America in several months who says "There just isn't a demand for DBZ figures in America, we tried ten years ago, and we tried again. Nobody is buying our product and they keep getting sent to discount stores like Ross, just like they did 10 years ago." There ARE collectors. They just keep making things that we don't want. So we keep having to order stuff from Japan, because the American figures suck.

If they'd just make them 5 inch scale with reasonable articulation, good sculpts, and paint jobs that are more complicated than just solid one-colored orange plastic for Goku's outfit, they'd get my money. I'd love to have 5 inch scale DBS figures, even if I skipped the repetitive Gokus and Vegetas that look just like (or inferior compared to) what Irwin and Jakks made 15 years ago. If they produced Goku and Vegeta in their DBS outfits, I'd get them, but only if they were 5 inch scale. Emphasis on the word "scale".

Nine or ten years ago, Bandai America released 3.5 inch figures that were met with very poor sales. They looked like Happy Meal toys. They were so unpopular that we don't even have a checklist on here (I don't think) because not many people bought them or even really remember them, and I certainly don't remember them well enough to make a checklist. I think they were released under multiple names "Extreme Dragon" and "Ultimate Figures" (ironically). They were 3.5 inches tall and no scale was involved I don't think, because I'm pretty sure Perfect Cell and Frieza Form 4 were the same height. Very similar to these, they had "Quick Change" figures of only Goku and Vegeta, and they were kind of cool, only because Vegeta came with a tiny Saibaman and it was funny that we got to see that Goku apparently wears Vegeta's blue spandex underneath his orange pants. They weren't cool enough though, as nobody particularly wanted them (except people wanting to head swap Vegeta to make a Namek Saga Gohan). And despite these being unique, Vegeta and Goku's legs weren't articulated, so that hurt their sales too, in addition to the random size Bandai chose. They also had "Original Collection" which were "Real Works" figure rereleases. They were nice looking enough, though the paint jobs were single colors, but they were 4 inch scale, and Bandai America didn't release any/many of the interesting characters. We only got a bunch of Saiyans, Piccolo, and Buu if I remember right. So most people back then were like "why would I buy these?" And so both of those type of figures ended up at Ross Dress for Less stores at reduced prices as well as I'm sure other stores as well. There were also "Ultimate Spark" figures back then too, and I just remember them being small and expensive, and those didn't sell well either. They were kind of like Soul of Hyper Figuration figures with less detailed sculpts and not very good paint jobs. I think all of the figures were made a transparent plastic and maybe they lit up, so that compromised how their paint jobs looked as well. I vaguely remember Frieza's entire body looking like it needed 1 more coat of paint. Similar to Ultimate Spark in size, they had "Flash Charger" or "Flash Changer" figures which were ok, but again, too small and expensive for anybody to really care. I saw a lot of these end up at Tuesday Morning back in the day.

Long story short, I don't think Bandai America knows what people want.