It took me a while, but the discussion and review of the toys that I picked up while in Shanghai is finally online. Enjoy! And if you know anything more about any of the products or series mentioned in the article (frex, if you’re familiar with “Air Gear”, know where to find cheap Kamen Rider figures online, watched tons of Ultraman in your youth, etc.), do feel free to share. Also feel free to share any camera techniques you have! I tried a little something different for this one — shooting against a white felt background and upping the camera’s exposure to +1.7 EV (bright!) — so let me know if you’re experienced with shooting figures for toy comics or eBay auctions and have any helpful suggestions.
I think I more/less said everything that I wanted to say in the article, but I didn’t go into great detail concerning the prices of toys in Shanghai compared to those in the United States. You can do some comparisons for yourself by looking at the included Toys ‘R’ Us advertisement, but note that (for example) the 20th anniversary Optimus Prime is ¥698 after the Star Card discount. Normally it’s ¥828, making the toy roughly $90 on sale and $110 at regular price. Compare that to here, where even on Hasbro.com you can get Optimus for $69.99 — and you can find him for significantly less than that on eBay. Just pointing out that, in many cases, I didn’t find the assumption that everything is cheaper in China to be true. Yes, bootleg shit was cheaper — much cheaper — but bootleg shit is pretty cheap everywhere. As far as the real deal stuff goes, though, products in China were largely more expensive.
All for now — hopefully I’ll have another feature for you (which may or may not be the lengthier discussion of my experiences in Shanghai; we’ll see) before we’re too far into July. Given my present rate of posting, though, I’d be shocked if I got something up before the end of June. 🙁 Anyway, ja!
Awesome article Wes.
It looks like most of the toys in Shanghai come from Japan.
That kinda reminds me of that scene in “Eat Drink Man Woman” (I highly recommend that film BTW) where two fuys are talking in a toy store and the one guy complains that he wanted to get his grandson something chinese but all the toys are american.
Either way, it’s weird that you can’t find truly chinese toys in China.
But, then again most american and japanese toys are manufactured there anyway. So maybe toys have no nationality at all.
I have to say the “Superchange” toys look adorable, I hope they make their way to the U.S. eventually. And, I hope one of them is a bunny!
I think the Gashapon figures are definitely the coolest features of the article. And, while the girls are certainly cute and sexy, I think the Kamen Rider figure is the coolest one of the lot (I’m kind of a Kamen Rider fan. I even liked the fucked-up U.S. version). It’s currently my computer’s “wallpaper image”.
Still, the anime girl figures are quite an eyeful, and I can’t help but wonder if the Gainax-Girls machine had a Misato figure (my favourite Eva-gal) and if it shared the Rei figure’s special feature. I’ll have to look that up.
Anyway, looking forward to hearing more of your Shanghai adventure.