Not new sculpt, but Necromon is in my top favorite sculpts. Finding a painted one is pretty hard so I'll just have to settle for these blanks. (GID customized)
Someone in another thread said that Mori chooses to largely ignore his global fans. I'm a relatively new collector so I'm not entirely sure if their statement is accurate. I know I have personally found it very difficult to purchase anything directly from him, but is this the case for most of those based outside of Japan? If this is true does anyone know why and for how long he has limited his work's availability?
Back in 2008 or so, Super7 used to sell RxH directly to US buyers. S7 and Mori had some sort of distribution deal. That ended for whatever reason. One would get emails from S7 announcing RxH for retail.
I don't think the absence of current options for buying RxH direct is for lack of effort on Mori's part. As part of the distribution deal, S7 and some of the other major designer toy stores attempted to establish a US distribution network for new RxH (which died out in 2008-09). There were also a couple of efforts to make direct sales of RxH via an English language website, but they were not able to do this on a continual basis. Lulubell also sold RxH into 2011 or so. I've never really asked anyone directly about why these avenues for distribution ended, but my general sense is that the coordination of international distribution was too difficult to sustain for RxH. I also suspect that language and buying practices made it challenging for him to fulfill international mail orders. On top of this, the 2008 downturn killed the market for retail RxH right at its peak, and seemed to have left RxH with lots of back stock from late 2008 (you could see it available in his store for several years afterward, and many of them were cannibalized for later releases). So I think he was hesitant to dive into any distribution arrangement that would require him to produce anything in large quantities. Runs were a lot smaller in 2009 and after, and eventually went into the current system of in-store-only micro runs (which is basically production on demand). Just my speculation from what I've seen over the years. Like I said, I think he and others really tried, but it never worked out. RxH's current system seems sustainable for him, so if I were in his shoes, I wouldn't be that eager to start the international shipping game again.
Wow, thanks for the information guys. Sounds like it was relatively easy to come by RxH stuff stateside back then, which is crazy to think about given how difficult it is now.
I always got the impression that RxH was a very locally minded business despite the amount of international festivals Mori attended. I think the language barrier was always a big pain in his arse, and once he gained enough home grown devotees, there wasn't the same impetus to sell overseas anymore. His Japanese fans provide him with enough to make a good living out of what he's doing, so why complicate matters.
To add to the conversation, Mori is so grateful to his American fanbase, especially in the age when you could get his pieces online either through Super7, Lulubell, RxH USA, etc. So he would look forward to DCON to give his American fans an opportunity to get some pieces, especially when all those other avenues closed. So when he announced he was done with DCON, he knew he still wanted to do a show for 2019. As for 2020, his business is hit hard with COVID, and he's getting by doing domestic sales, and the idea of doing US online sales is practically out of the question with EMS suspended.
I don’t personally buy the whole “difficulty of shipping overseas” angle, not in 2020 (setting aside covid19 for a moment). He’s a savvy guy, international commerce has gotten easier by leaps and bounds in the last 10 years. And he’s clearly got enough understanding of English to deal with Disney and Nickelodeon for licensing tmnt and marvel releases. However I can understand how the economic downturn affected things for him. That’s understandable. And yeah he has chosen to keep it local, I thats his right. But he *was* so grateful to his American fan base. I just don’t think that is true anymore. Which stinks. But hey, more power to you guys who manage to collect RXH in 2020, you’ve got more passion for it than me (and disposable income if I had to guess)
I definitely agree with you with it being easier these days. There are definitely ways to make international shipping possible for sure. This is all assumption but, I'm sure there's a level of, "This just isn't worth the effort" and it's easier for him to dig his heels and just continue doing what he's doing, the same way he has been. If he could have it his way, he would just deal with his customers locally. Although he's grateful, I don't think he feels indebted to his US fans. A good example is his collaborations with Skulltoys and Atom A make it to the states. moguranoana and ichibanboshi.toy host international lotteries of RxH product, so it's not too out there to consider sales internationally, but whatever he's thinking, that's on him. I believe the TMNT release handled by Unbox Industries which has a Japanese Department, although Mori did oversee the entire project. and the Marvel release of Ghost Rider was exclusively domestic, handled by HKDS STORE. Most of the time, licenses vary between US and overseas which prevent the international sales, same thing goes for anything Marvel / Star Wars by Bandai or Medicom, but if there are more official Marvel products by RxH, it's another reason opportunity to get sad.
As far as the relationship with Mori and Lulubell, I think it became an issue of inability to keep up on both sides between travel and shipping. Essentially, Lulubell Japan would travel to Mori’s shop, get product to sell, travel back with it, then ship it all to Arizona where we’d distribute online. Time for traveling back and forth became less and less feasible, while Mori’s local popularity picked back up. Now he’s exploded in a multitude of global areas. For NYCC 2013 Lulubell took a BIG ass box of RxH adults and fighters of different sculpts and eras and releases. I labeled the sale “Shit’s About to Get Real x Head”. We sold four figures that whole weekend. Four. And it took us months to move the rest online. Even at DCon 2015, Mori had a ton of leftovers he let us buy wholesale and put up on the site for peeps that couldn’t make the con, and that took a couple weeks to move. In my opinion, between the inability to frequently travel, and his growing popularity, I think he’s just comfortable with keeping to selling out of his shop. It’s not irregular, especially for Japanese makers, and he’s a very locally centered dude. I also think he felt a bit of disinterest from the American market when much of his product didn’t move with Lulubell for a while, and we had to push it hard. There definitely was a slowdown. And his American convention/pop ups are littered with uncontrolled flippers, which is why he quit DCon to begin with. While it sucks that peeps here don’t have access, so I don’t think it’s out of spite, specifically, to American collectors. He just has his method, and it’s good for him.
This provides a lot of insight, thanks for sharing! Adding to his disinterestedness, I think it’s the examples you gave, plus other things piled on. Like I know he was disappointed at the turn out for Game of Hope in Santa Cruz because the same people in line got to purchase multiple pieces due to the line looping around. I think he’s just content with how things are going. I agree, it’s not out of spite towards the US collectors and it’s good for him. It works for him. Another thing you brought up is flippers and Mori despisessss flipping. So with his local sales, he can pick and choose with his sales method and control who gets a hold of his product. (Albeit, not very well since his weekly pieces always end up in Mandarake, but I’m sure it’s a flipper in Aoto-sheep’s clothing) Any hypothetical scenario of picking up international sales would just add extra work/stress on top of his current workload. But if there ever was an international version of what he’s doing locally during COVID, he could DM his loyal customers for an opportunity to purchase.
Everything posted so far does help paint a bigger picture, and let me be clear as the guy most vocally “against” how RXH chooses to sell- I don’t think he’s doing anything out of spite. I think he’s just disinterested and doesn’t care. And that’s his prerogative. I just think it stinks. I don’t know how things went down at game of hope, generally speaking I can’t fly across the country for cons all that often, so I missed it. As for flippers, the year I did make it to CA for dcon 2018 the rxh line was do full of flippers I decided to skip it. as for 2013-2014 timeframe, I guess real head wasn’t hype again yet to sell out.... and when I hear “Mori had a ton of leftovers he let us buy wholesale” I wonder how good the product could’ve been? If Mori couldn’t sell it, what hope did lulubell have? I do remember buying a Pheyaos man from Mori at a nycc back in that timeframe though, it’s the only real head piece I have ever successfully purchased from realhead- despite traveling to his store in japan once (they were closed despite the hours posted online and on the physical door of the shop) And it’s ironic, because Pheyaos man is a character owned by Onell design, an American company. But whatever. I don’t want to discuss this anymore and bring down the RXH thread for people who are still enthusiastic about it.
@hellopike I don’t think you’re bringin’ anything or anyone down! It’s a RxH thread, and your legitimate concerns, dare I say gripes, are about new releases. And I’m sure you’re far from the only person with this outlook. I just hoped to bring a little more insight as to how I personally think the methods went down. Perhaps “spite” wasn’t the proper word, I just couldn’t think of another way to express that I don’t see Mori tying any negative connotation to his sale preferences. I have the same bummage about BxH not having overseas sales for their toys, so I totally get it! Regardless, and back to the thread! My B for the momentary derailing!
What is interesting is how few OG pieces ever turn up in secondary markets these days. Some, I've just never seen surface in 15 years of looking.
I can't find a Cy'os at all. I didn't think you were bringing it down at all! It was par for the course. I'm about to bring it down with this douchebaggery. https://www.ebay.com/itm/333613760221?ul_noapp=true As most of you wait for your Atom pieces with EMS delays, this guy got his and straight to the bay! Not surprised at all though.
You've got a wider frame of reference than me, but the impression I get is that the rarest releases are often older things with less hype behind them. They've settled into permanent homes, often with collectors who don't post every little thing to Instagram, and nobody's offering stupid money for them. The people who still appreciate a S7 gift fight figure are old enough to be sensible about what things should cost, and the ones used to paying huge markups every time would rather get another adult.
Well said. Just want to add that many of us have been in the scene for 5+ years and definitely had a chance to scoop up plenty of decently priced RxH adults on the aftermarket but skipped out on a lot of it. Hindsights always 20/20 and with the extreme prices resellers are relisting the figures at now as well the perceived rarity of new releases, feelings of regret and a desire to own RxH adults has crept up on many of us (or maybe I'm projecting). It was definitely a fuck up on my part anyway. Once (if) the hype dies down in a few years and adults are back to being resold at retail or less, I wonder how many people complaining about the current market will give a damn about them. The grass is always greener, you don't know what you got until it's gone, the chase is better than the catch etc et al. This isn't directed at anyone in particular but just some random thoughts about the collecting mindset in our community at large.