Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
An Interview with Bandai America's Cisco Maldonado
408 Plays3 years ago
On this episode, Dave and Erik are joined by Bandai America's Cisco Maldonado! Hear about the latest action figures being produced by Bandai America, as well as what's coming down the pipeline, handheld gaming, and much more!
Follow Bandai on Instagram @bandaiamerica.
Follow us @aic_podcast on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube
Intro and other voices by Joe Azzari
https://www.instagram.com/voicesbyjoe/
Theme Music is "Game Boy Horror" by the Zombie Dandies
Proudly part of the Non-Productive Network
Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast
00:00:02
Speaker
Are you ready, kids? Get your parents' permission, check your mailbox, and grab your shopping cart. It's time for the Adventures in Collecting podcast. I'm Eric. And I'm Dave. Welcome to Adventures in Collecting, where we talk toy news, culture, and halls, along with our journeys as collectors. Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Adventures in Collecting.
00:00:32
Speaker
Hey, everybody. Oh, switching it up. I kept the long pause. Switched up your catchphrase a little bit this week, Dave. I wanted to mix it up for everybody.
Guest Introduction: Cisco Maldonado
00:00:44
Speaker
Well, as has been the case of the past few episodes, we are back again this week with another guest. And I don't know if Dave has a lead-bearing pun waiting for us in the wings here. I don't.
00:01:01
Speaker
I'm going to be more surprised if we have a lead to Barry at this point. I mean, that's fair. That's fair. Because as we mentioned, and if you guys have been listening to the show, we have had quite a few guests on as of late. And this week, this is no different. So an array. Array. A wide array. Definitely.
00:01:25
Speaker
Definitely. A swath, one would say, or one could say. So today, Dave, I think it behooves us to mention that Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball story began as a serialized manga and has been a global phenomenon for nearly 40 years now.
00:01:45
Speaker
which is crazy to think about. It has spawned countless TV shows, films, and yes, of course, toys and collectibles. Joining us today on the show is Cisco Maldonado, Bandai America's Senior Director of Brand Strategy to talk to us about their Dragon Stars line of products, their anime heroes, and so much more. Cisco, welcome to Adventures in Collecting.
00:02:06
Speaker
Wow. Well, thanks for having me on you. And you said my last name correctly. So, uh, who knows? Uh, we're, I like to, to chalk it up to the fact that, uh, I know I'm speaking for, for Dave and I here, we're both really big sports fans. So you get like access to all of these like names from all over the world, whether it's like soccer players or baseball players, football players. So we've, we've, we've had some practice with, uh, the, the linguistics of, of multicultural last
Cisco's Personal Stories
00:02:36
Speaker
names.
00:02:36
Speaker
got it so if I had said my last name was like x-wing at deliciousness or something like that you would you would get it then yes um and I was gonna say Dave the the other thing too is of course pronouncing people's Instagram handles on this show oh yeah that's
00:02:54
Speaker
It's really just more of me trying to guess what you're trying to get across as the Instagram handle. Well, then here's a little Easter egg for you guys. My gamertag is fireproof koala, if that should be your interest.
00:03:12
Speaker
I mean, koalas are very not fireproof. Is that the irony of your name? The irony is I've had several mishaps with actual koalas.
00:03:26
Speaker
And as a result, I have less than the optimal amount of affection for those animals. And over the course of my life, people have just teased me with koalas because I had a negative experience with one. And it grew into its own meme just between me and my friends and those who know me. And so a fireproof koala probably is the most dangerous thing on the planet.
00:03:50
Speaker
because you can only kill them with fire. Wow. Well, I promise you, we will not tease you about koalas. We will not slip koala jiffs into your DMs. You're safe. You're amongst friends here. It takes a village, you know, so. Well, before we dive into the things that are going on with Bandai right now, we start off all of our interviews with this question. What are you currently collecting right now?
00:04:21
Speaker
See, that is, when I saw it, I'm like, man, because in my line of work, I collect everything, right? So it's almost like I have to parse out like, what do I collect for myself versus what do I collect as just part of my craft and what I do, right? So as I was thinking about it, I'm like, okay, well, if I wasn't really doing anything for work, like what would I just sort of be collecting if I really didn't already have it?
00:04:48
Speaker
I actually collect slash design lightsaber hilts. Oh, awesome. OK. So there's these companies out there that like if you give them a drawing or they have like a little online tool, you can sort of mix and match your own lightsaber hilt together and then they'll tool it and make it for you. And so that's what I would be collecting if I didn't already have some already.
00:05:14
Speaker
Now I'm curious, so I actually have one of those. I have an ultra saber.
00:05:22
Speaker
Okay, yeah. From that particular company. I do have a couple of the Force effects lightsabers, which is kind of what got me into it. But I wanted one that was designed after one of my favorite kind of B-list Jedi Council members. I wanted one that was kind of like Kit Fisto's lightsaber. And I couldn't really find a good version of it, but Ultra Sabers had one. So I have a third party Kit Fisto inspired green lightsaber from Ultra Sabers.
00:05:52
Speaker
That's pretty cool. OK. It doesn't say the only lightsaber I have is from Galaxy's Edge, but. Does that get the the what's it called? The the Jedi Temple where you can make your own. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think the first one, the first one was just sort of like an off the rack one. Right. I'm like, OK, fine. You know, because it was like cool looking. And then I wanted to go deep, right, because everyone has like, you know,
00:06:20
Speaker
And so then, I saw one, I think Saberforge made it, I'm not sure, maybe his ethics, it was from the game RomCoda, it had his lightsaber, right? And it's sort of like weathered and it has like the tape around it and that kind of stuff. And so I said, oh, that's pretty cool. And then once I had that one, then I started just, you know, doing my research and try to figure out like, well,
00:06:41
Speaker
Can I just have these made with a machinist? I wouldn't even go to those places, just a guy who just machines tools. And so I said, hey, can you do all these things? And a couple of them said, yeah, sure, I could do it. And as long as they have the drawing and they can use their own creative license,
00:06:58
Speaker
They do that. It takes a lot longer and it's not exactly like off the shelf, but I figured if I were to make one, it would be one that I would have as much flexibility to design the one that I would want, not just picking and choosing from what's available.
00:07:14
Speaker
Yeah, and that's kind of like, it's so fascinating because, I mean, clearly, if you're going through the effort to having your own lightsaber machined, I think it's a fair assumption that you're a Star Wars fan. But it's kind of interesting that we've gotten to this point, right? Because that's kind of the whole part of the lore of becoming a Jedi, is building your own lightsaber. Exactly.
00:07:39
Speaker
in one of the newest games in Jedi Fallen Order. I mean, it's a big part of the gameplay mechanics. So I love the fact that there are companies out there that are doing this sort of thing. And then especially that they're not getting squashed. They're not getting cease and desist letters. And they're allowed to kind of live in this galaxy, if you will.
00:08:02
Speaker
Yeah, it's you know, it's it's a started this little, you know, cottage industry of just people collecting stuff, right? I mean, that's what you guys are all about. And it really is about not being shy or hesitant to, you know, to show off.
00:08:19
Speaker
The things that you already have right like i heard from someone sometime like even if we go into it like action figures in general it actually says a lot more about us and it says about the figure right it really is a reflection of ourselves.
00:08:34
Speaker
based off of what we collect and display, right? So it's like holding up a mirror.
Career Journey and Insights
00:08:40
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. So getting into now the business end of things, tell us about your relationship with the toy slash collectibles industry and how you found your way to Bandai America.
00:08:52
Speaker
Wow, so how I found my way to Bandai America. So I've been in entertainment most of my career. And at a business school I started at Disney and in the home video days back when, you know, before DVD and like people were buying like VHS tapes and the Lion King was like everywhere and that kind of stuff. And I got in very, very early and I stayed with Disney for a couple of years. Then I moved over to Warner Brothers and I did the home video stuff there. And I did a lot of the
00:09:20
Speaker
new to dvd theatrical releases so if you have like the dark night on blu-ray and most households do i was part of that team that sort of put everything together right and i'd always been a comic book fan and so i guess.
00:09:37
Speaker
a good 10, 15 years, maybe 10 years ago when DC Comics was officially moving from New York to LA on the Warner Brothers lot. I just, I like, that's my opportunity. And so I talked with folks and all this stuff and kind of goes along with it. And before I knew it, I was working at DC Comics.
00:09:55
Speaker
And basically, I was managing the DC Comics brand for all the different affiliates in the world, basically saying, you know, Batman would do this and not this, and Wonder Woman has her lasso on this side, not that side, and just, you know, working on the films and the movies to make sure that we were telling the right stories that would fit each character.
00:10:14
Speaker
and so I had a pretty good run with that and then we just have new opportunities and Through a friend oddly enough that we used to work with that Warner Brothers I saw this opening at Bandai or something very very similar, right? And I had never really been like a super anime fan, but I had watched a couple, right? But I had never really read any of the manga and stuff so I was the casual fan if you would really define it that way and
00:10:39
Speaker
And I met with the folks, and they liked me, and I liked them, and I saw some of the stuff that I would be working on in the future. And it just seemed like the right time to sort of not make a complete left turn, but sort of detour a little bit. Working in a space where the fans are just as vigorously enthusiastic about the property as comic book fan, right? So it was kind of the same song, but a different dance.
00:11:08
Speaker
And I've been here for a little over a year now. So I started, I actually started right before COVID hit at Toy Fair in 2020.
00:11:18
Speaker
That was our first media event, actually, was Toy Fair. We were there. So you mentioned in kind of your history, and by the way, like super cool, like getting to work with all those properties and kind of, you know, it's very, very, very cool background that I think probably gives you a lot of help in what you're doing now, like you had alluded to.
00:11:41
Speaker
But as a as a casual fan and you know, Dave and I are both Dave, you would say that you're a casual anime fan at best. I'm probably just a hair more well versed than you are at this point. I would say a bit more than a hair. But yes, I am I'm quite casual. You mentioned that you had that that casual background. Were there any of the properties that you work with today? Like did you have a personal history with with really any of them?
00:12:10
Speaker
Yeah, actually. And it's funny because, and this is one of the things that we discuss at work all the time. What is the future of anime? What is it? Is anime really what anime is? And I almost say it as two sides of the same coin because what people see as anime today
00:12:35
Speaker
is not what they saw anime was five, 10 years ago, even though the content's the same, right? Easily Dragon Ball, yes, it's anime, but it's such a mainstream, the way that it came along, the way that it sort of entered its way into like Western culture, that a lot of people just sort of see it as animated content, right?
00:12:54
Speaker
And so as i was growing up as a kid you know i love watching the cartoons as much as any other kid but i stumbled on some of the old classic anime right and this was like longer form content and i think my. My first real exposure to it was like robo tech like the macro saga right and for the first time.
00:13:15
Speaker
Like they continued like i love like the super friends right like if you miss like the third episode like nothing's gonna change right but for something that has like seasons and like dozens of episodes like it's a continuing storyline that really struck me as as a kid and even growing up and.
00:13:34
Speaker
remember thinking like wow there's like consequences to this story like people die you know and I felt sad for some of the characters or I was actually like emotionally invested in watching the next episode and I and I think it really it struck me that like wow there's this great piece of storytelling that's sort of also a for lack of a word a cartoon right and and that got me aware of
00:13:58
Speaker
The power that animated content can really have that's outside of a movie. Anime is a behavior. You go to the movies. It's an event. Anime, it's a behavior. It's something that you do. Some of these things go for hundreds of episodes, and it's a time commitment. So you just can't dabble in it.
00:14:16
Speaker
And so I think as I'm working at Bandai now, and I'm becoming more of the hardcore fan just by way of researching and watching some of the stuff that I'm working on, I have a much deeper appreciation for the content that I grew up with as a kid.
00:14:31
Speaker
That is a really, really good point. I never really thought about that, but thinking about it now, I'm 33 years old, so I was right in the target market for the United States' launch of Pokemon when that anime came to the United States, and also when Dragon Ball Z premiered on Toonami. And I'm trying to think, really before then,
00:14:58
Speaker
That probably is my introduction to long form storytelling like that. I've never really thought about it like that. And before then you had you had my generation where like literally unless you knew somebody who had access to stuff you like the only thing you saw was Akira and like Ghost in the Shell and some Miyazaki stuff like and so that's where my kind of
00:15:28
Speaker
what I know is.
00:15:30
Speaker
Yeah, you mentioned Miyazaki. Kids now are spoiled because there's a whole Miyazaki portal on HBO Max. You have access to literally every single one of those films. There was a brief period of time where I think Disney had the distribution rights for the Miyazaki films, and they were kind of readily available then. But even before then, Totoro's as old as I am, and I didn't see it until I was in my 20s.
00:15:59
Speaker
Yeah, I think that was when Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away were out. Yeah, that's right. You know, it really is a, it's a fascinating medium that I think one of the appeals, so if you mentioned like when you first saw Dragon Ball for the first time, like I think one of the reasons why Dragon Ball is so strong is because it really was the first of its kind. If you look at all the other cartoons that were out there that were like action cartoons,
00:16:25
Speaker
It was unlike Dragon Ball, right? Dragon Ball had these pretty mature themes.
00:16:30
Speaker
that didn't really pander to kids, right? It was about consequences and loss and overcoming your fears. And like I'm waxing a little poetic in terms of how significant they are. And yes, there was humor mixed in with it too, right? But that was combined with like visually over the top action and speed lines and battle sequences that like went on probably like way too long, but it made such an impact that no one had ever seen anything like that before. Like I think
00:16:59
Speaker
that was when people for the first time realized this was something different. And then as new people started watching anime, and even now, the door is open. Finding anime is not hard, whether it's Hulu, Netflix, Crunchyroll, whatever it might be. Whoever is in that portal now, whoever has opened that door and can pick and choose, this really is an anime renaissance, I think.
00:17:23
Speaker
that translates itself into everything from merch, to toys, to collectibles, to video games, like you name it. I think it's an exciting time.
Dragon Stars and Audience
00:17:34
Speaker
So with that said, with that expansion and that accessibility that we're talking about coming into play, how did the Dragon Stars line come to be? Well, it's funny. So Dragon Stars has been around for
00:17:52
Speaker
three or four years, a little bit longer. And it really started with taking what Bandai does best, right, in terms of just its exposure to the anime space and the strength that it has just in the technology of making action figures, right? So if you have like a superhero figure arts and Tamashi nations and like 87 points of articulation and hyper articulated detail and all the kind of things like that.
00:18:18
Speaker
I think Dragon Stars was a way to say, how can we make this accessible at a price point where people can discover it, right? And then have an appreciation for it, right? So it's not like it's a little plastic statue.
00:18:33
Speaker
that doesn't do anything, right? And it's not like it's this like $80 piece that is more of a piece of art than anything else and you don't wanna mess it up, right? The trick was to find something that is cool to look at that'll fit on shelf with all the other action figures that are out there.
00:18:49
Speaker
Right, but but really carve out a space in the action figures section That people can appreciate and discover for the first time right because if you look at all the dragon stars that are out now I think there's like 56 57 styles like they're not wrestlers They're not superheroes, right? Every one of them looks dramatically different than the rest Like that is unlike any form factor of an action figure that exists out there, right? And so I think it really made itself a nice little
00:19:18
Speaker
place in the corner of the room that we're starting to own and expand out right that basically says if you want a spot on interpretation from the animated the action figure like that is dragon stars you look at them and you put it right next to an animation cell it looks just like it and it's really really hard to do but we have some fantastic folks in Tokyo and R&D department who you know painstakingly work with the licensors to make sure that
00:19:43
Speaker
we have these, you know, hyper accurate representations of all of our, you know, most famous characters of Dragon Ball. So with that that corner that you mentioned, you know, carving out that, that, you know, space in somebody's collection or even, you know, space at retail, because, you know, you can find these Dragon Star figures both at Walmart, you know, Target, you can find them brick and mortar, you find them on Amazon, you know, at that 20 to 25 dollar price point, depending on the, you know, the figure, not to mention,
00:20:10
Speaker
That doesn't even bring into consideration like the limit break line that the 12 inches, you know, there's there's which, by the way, my my my daughter, she's being I'm introducing her, my my eldest daughter, not not the six month old and introducing the six six month old to Dragon Ball Z yet. But the the the six year old we're we're actually watching Dragon Ball Z Kai. And I have never seen Kai Kai, the redone version of Dragon Ball Z. So.
00:20:39
Speaker
We're watching it together and I'm introducing her for the first time and she has 12 inch figures from You know, you name it every every brand has their line of 12 inch guys whether it's the Spin Master DC guys whether it's the
00:20:53
Speaker
you know, the Hasbro Titan series, and now the Limit Breaker, or the Limit Break, excuse me. So like, personally, I think it's incredible that in 2021, like, she's got these 12 inch figures that all scale with her Barbie figures, frankly, if she wants to, you know, interplay. But like, great sculpts, great art deco on them. And we just, we picked up Vegeta the other day from Target for $14. I couldn't believe it.
00:21:22
Speaker
But with that whole section carved out for this series of figures, and with the success of the more collector-focused, like you mentioned, the SH figure arts line and the made-to-order pieces from Premier Bandai, who is the focus of the Dragon Stars? Who is the target for this line?
00:21:50
Speaker
that is the million dollar question right so on the marketing side which is sort of you know where i practice my craft so to speak um the hardest thing is figuring out the difference between your target consumer and the person who's going to buy it right now to a certain extent like if you're buying for a four-year-old right the four-year-old isn't going to be i want that right because they can't really
00:22:20
Speaker
articulate it yet, right? Once a kid starts asking for the toy, then it gets really kind of muddy, right? And so we know that specifically with Dragon Stars, right? They're great looking figures, got the great articulation, 20 bucks, right? So it's, you know, it's, they're affordable. We find that there's two overlapping segments, right? There is the hardcore Dragon Ball fan who just collects all things Dragon Ball, right? So that person's always going to be there. And then you have people who may be discovering it for the first time.
00:22:50
Speaker
and they may be kids, they may be older collectors, they may be the collector who grew up with it, who then wants to buy it for their kid, right? So there's like all these intersections of possible segments that are exposed to this that will purchase it, because we have like the sales data, but in terms of who it's actually for, the best that we can do is message
00:23:14
Speaker
out to one particular segment and that message sometimes gets overheard by the people standing next to them. But we don't always know who's standing next to the person we are aiming that communication towards. So it's not really a super clean answer.
00:23:30
Speaker
I guess because you really don't know. You have an idea that this is the person you're going after and then you hope that you reach them. But in terms of who's actually consuming it, that's a little bit tougher, especially at that 20-buck price point. Because once you're getting into the $75, $50 action figure range, for the most part, kids aren't going to be playing with it. It's going to be the adult collector. But if it's within that lower 20 to 30 bucks, it gets a little foggy.
00:23:58
Speaker
Yeah, because I mean, I'll tell you, as I mentioned, we were walking down the Toy Isle. And on our particular target, I'll just call it the Bandai section, I guess, because it's got the anime heroes, the dragon stars. It's got the model kits. It has some SH figure arts figures now. There's some Goku's that are there. When we were walking down that aisle, and it's right next to the wrestlers and right across the aisle from the Marvel Legends figures, really, really great spot.
00:24:27
Speaker
We're walking by like now that she she has character recognition from the show she's like Vegeta. Can I get Vegeta? And you know it was like first of all my heart. I was like she likes it And then second of all I was like at you can absolutely get Vegeta
00:24:45
Speaker
Because when I was a kid, the only Vegeta figure that I could get was the Erwin Toys repackaged release of the early Bandai ones, where it literally had two points of articulation. The arms moved up and down, and it had a removable Saiyan armor. That was it. And they repainted that figure six times to make him Super Saiyan, to make him Gold and Shiny. But I still had a blast with those things, but now,
00:25:14
Speaker
You know, to think that, you know, I'm actually holding, I'm holding the Dragon Star Jiren in my hand right now. I recently picked this guy up. I'm personally like, I'm floored by them. Because as somebody who has SH figure arts figures, like I see a lot of the
00:25:34
Speaker
Um, it's almost like, uh, like transitional, right? So like you, you pop off the hands and it looks like the joints are, the joint system is very similar. Like the way that the pegs are designed, the way that the butterfly joints kind of work, the way that the, the double joints and the ankles kind of work. Like it's like, I don't want to say it's a, it's not fair to say like it's a watered down SH figure arts figure. Cause that's, that's not fair to, to these nor, nor is it fair to the SH figure arts figures, but I, you know,
00:26:00
Speaker
It is its own thing and they're they're really neat and I took some some photos of them today In action and you know that they really at the $20 price point. They really are I think it's a great figure Yeah, no, it's a
00:26:16
Speaker
They're for the value. They're pretty good. And to your point, I think there is a lot of transition factor there, right? And once you sort of get into it, because like, so if you go into retail, right? I'm not talking like Amazon or where you can just click everywhere, but like when you see one of these things on shelf, right? Like they pop out, you're like, okay, this is interesting. And if you pick it up and you're like, wow, these are pretty cool.
00:26:37
Speaker
Right like we wanna know like are they picking it up because it's a cool looking figure cuz they are or are they picking it up because it's dragon ball or is it a little bit of both. And then if it's the latter then is this the first experience they've had with owning a piece of dragon ball. Stuff right and does that mean that if they continue to.
00:26:58
Speaker
have affinity for that property, are they going to scale up? Are they going to go for the higher end version that'll have the different faces and more accessories and all that kind of stuff like that? So I think it's a continuum, but it definitely, I think, can be a starting point for a lot more.
00:27:17
Speaker
Now, speaking of starting points, one of the things that you, you know, I recently had the opportunity to watch you present at the Toy Insider suite suite, which was a lot of fun.
Dragon Ball Evolve Line
00:27:28
Speaker
And you recently showed off the other kind of, I guess you could say entry point into the world of the Dragon Ball Z figures is the evolution line.
00:27:37
Speaker
and the three new figures that are coming to evolution. So like kind of where does now where does that fit in to this whole bigger picture? Because those figures are also super articulated, great detail and, you know, are a different character selection. Right. And you're referring to the the five inch evolve line, right? Yes. Sorry, I said evolution. Yeah. Evolve. Yes. Yes. Sorry. Oh, no problem. The the evolve line, I guess, is
00:28:05
Speaker
I think more for the casual fan, just because they're $9.99 and the packaging isn't a blister pack. It's nice, but it's not like collectible packaging per se. I think those two things together already make it lean more towards younger kids and people just starting to like, here's a cool looking action figure. Not to say that like,
00:28:30
Speaker
core fans and collectors of Dragon Ball, they're not gonna buy these, like they will buy them, right? Like one, they're like 10 bucks. Two, they're actually really, really good detail. So it's kind of a gimme, right? So I mean, universally, anyone who's seen the Evolve line, right? And we have our third wave that's gonna be coming out in just a few months. When they look at them, they're like, wow, these aren't really good. Like they're really impressed that for a $10 figure, the level of detail and articulation and just how solid they feel in your hand,
00:29:00
Speaker
You know, I they're and they're they're selling extremely well, right? But I'm pretty sure most the people buying them are buying them for their kids Yes, there's gonna be collectors doing it But when you go that kind of packaging and that kind of price point you're putting yourself squarely in the mass market That is probably gonna be the majority of the folks who are gonna buy these things
00:29:24
Speaker
Yeah, so I guess that kind of begs the question, you know, Dragon Ball is a property that has 40 years of stories that have been told thus far. So how do you go about deciding which characters are introduced into the line? Yeah, that's a tough one, right? I think it's easy at the beginning, right? So, wed.
00:29:49
Speaker
When dragon stars first started, right? You're like, oh, should we put Goku? Yes, you put Goku, right? At a certain point in time, it's like, okay, how many are we going to release in the first wave? And Lord knows there are plenty of characters in the Dragon Ball universe. So the first couple of waves are easy enough, right? It really becomes a function of how quickly can we make them?
00:30:11
Speaker
and will the retailers take them all, right? Because regardless of how much a retailer loves your product, they're not gonna give you 300 feet of space, right? Like they have other products that they carry too, so they have to pick and choose. So you have to make sure that whatever you're choosing is gonna be something the retailers are gonna understand is going to sell, right? And as you get more and more and more, things get a little bit more challenging, right? And then you have to substitute in waves. So right now,
00:30:42
Speaker
I even forget what wave we're on, but basically we're like, we're in the mid fifties, right? 54, 56 characters in.
00:30:51
Speaker
And for the most part, we've already touched the main characters a couple times, right? Like Goku signed version two, sign four, super sign five, super sign blue, Goku wrote, like there's like eight additional versions of Goku, which is fine because he's a popular character, right? So the first thing we have to look at is, is it gonna be popular, right? Like are enough people gonna understand this is what it is? It can't be just like,
00:31:17
Speaker
Here's Goku with like one red shoe, right? Like that probably wouldn't sell too much, right? Unless it was central to the storyline and that's the one, right? But for the most part, it has to be different enough to make sense, right? And then it has to be, and in the industry, the toy industry, we call it, is it toyetic, right? Is it gonna look like a cool looking action figure? And here's the best example that I can give.
00:31:46
Speaker
If I was working with a property, and everyone in that property wore, let's just say, Stormtrooper uniforms, and the only thing different was the face, well, then you really wouldn't be able to tell one character from the other from far away, so it wouldn't be very toyetic, right? I might release one or two of them, but to release five or six, they're not different enough, right? So one, I gotta figure out, is it gonna be a popular enough character? Two,
00:32:13
Speaker
Is it gonna just look good on shelf and be differentiated right and then three right like are enough people gonna want to buy right because when when you're making these action figures you know the molds to make these things is pretty expensive right so there are you know tens of thousands of units required. In order to like break even on the mold.
00:32:35
Speaker
order to sell them, right? So if you're only going to make like 3000 of them, like it probably is not going to pay out financially, right? And so it's this balancing act, right? And it's a portfolio approach. We'll release a character that might not be super popular, but that everyone loves because it will keep the fans excited. And the other more popular Goku and Vegeta's of the world
00:32:59
Speaker
they will sort of carry the load for this other character that maybe only showed up in one season but has its
Character Selection Process
00:33:07
Speaker
own following. So there's all these different little levers and considerations that you have to put in to figure out what's the best character. And we go through this process on a continual basis. Our R&D folks in Japan, they'll be like, OK, we're going to be releasing two new action figures this season, and it's going to be this one and this one. What do you think?
00:33:30
Speaker
And we have a combination, right? And so I say like, okay, is this what the final thing's going to look like? And why this character? We already have four versions of this character. We have 10 versions of this character. Do we think it's the right choice? Is there another one that we should be doing before this, right? Is there a new show coming out? Is there a new movie coming out that then we can, you know, make an action figure for? So all these things are happening all at the same time. And we got to be thinking 18 months ahead because that's sort of the timeline that we operate in.
00:33:59
Speaker
Wow. It's an 18-month process from ideation to store shelves. Roughly. It depends. I've seen things fast-tracked in 12, 13 months, but everything has to
00:34:20
Speaker
work perfectly from the approvals to the time when the retailers are able to take it in, right? So like your Walmart and targets of the world, they do like their fall set, right? And they have like their spring set. And those are the two main times when they take in new stuff. So depending on when it's ready to ship, if you don't follow one of those windows, you have to wait to the next cycle, right? So that's where you can have that extra four or five month buffer at the end that you just have to hurry up and wait.
00:34:50
Speaker
So I mean now it's again sticking with I know there is way more to talk about them than just the Dragon Ball content but kind of sticking with that just for one more minute here. There now that there isn't any kind of like.
00:35:07
Speaker
I think there's talk of Akira Toriyama working on a new Dragon Ball Super movie, but now that there's kind of a lull in new content outside of maybe video games for the IP, do you guys look at a time like this where it's like, okay, now let's go back and look at some of those characters that...
00:35:26
Speaker
you know, we kind of buried in order to produce kind of the hot characters trying to keep up with the content that was getting pumped out through super and things like that. Like, do you take the opportunity now to go back and like say, you know, like maybe a character that's not, you know, somebody who's involved in the action is heavily like, you know, your Bulma is your Chi Chi is like the kind of the very important characters, but more, you know, kind of in that B tier, you would say.
00:35:55
Speaker
Yes, we have that conversation all the time I I think what what happens is Depending on
00:36:05
Speaker
when content may or may not be coming out, we'll look at our roster and we say, when is it a good time to go into the toy box and sort of dig up one that hasn't either been released in a while, or maybe refresh something, or maybe it's a new deco for a character or a slightly different tool? There's all these different iterations that we can look at.
00:36:32
Speaker
That really is dependent on lots of other things. But yes, we always look at what's available to us. Because if there is a lull in content, then that's our most efficient option to get the fans excited about something.
00:36:49
Speaker
The other thing that I think is really interesting about something that you're doing with Dragon Stars that I feel like not, I actually frankly can't think of any other companies that are doing it at retail on this scale, but Bandai was kind enough to send us out a sample of the tournament playset a couple of months ago. And it is easily the best 112 scale playset available on the market today. Like hands down, like they're, you know,
00:37:18
Speaker
There's really no other competition for it, but it's amazing. And like I said, while there are a few others even attempting to make stuff like this in this scale, what kind of convinced you to bite the bullet and make a 1.12 scale playset? Well, it wasn't my idea. It was our wonderful folks in Tokyo, and they come up with ideas all the time.
00:37:45
Speaker
Originally, they had pitched us this as a more of a higher end display kit, right?
00:37:56
Speaker
And we saw models and mock-ups of it. We're like, wow, this is really, really cool. And originally, it was positioned very much like, this is a place where it was more higher end. I mean, the price one was still like, you're going like $29.99. But we were looking at it, and we're just sort of like, this is kind of, we held it off for one or two cycles. And it wasn't until we actually started putting some characters on it.
00:38:25
Speaker
We, I think we even had it at toy fair and we saw a lot of kids really gravitating towards it. And it became like, this is almost like a play set. It's not a display set, right? We saw that difference, right? And that's where we had this younger audience. And it was when we started thinking about.
00:38:42
Speaker
How many Dragon Ball characters do people have, right? Most people don't have just one. They order and they buy multiple ones, right? Which then means you got to put them somewhere, right? Now, are you just going to put them on a shelf? Are you just going to put them back in the box? Are you going to put them in your software, like wherever it might be, right? And I think we stumbled on something where
00:39:03
Speaker
Having a set 1 12 scale that is iconic right that shows up not in every episode But enough episodes where everyone knows oh, here's that thing and you can fit half a dozen characters on there That's when we realized that we had something. That's when we said like oh we really should position and market this as more of a younger playset that also can be for
00:39:29
Speaker
your more hardcore fans, they actually want a place to put all their stuff. So that's sort of how it came about, right? Because to create a playset or a display set, lots of things have to happen. It has to work in real time and space. So I can't have like a giant mountain, right? And then not have anything interact with it, right? Like it was a neat little structure that exists in the show that people recognize, that I think all the force is sort of aligned and made for a compelling product.
00:39:58
Speaker
Yeah, and it has great play features too. So one of the communities that we participate in quite frequently through the podcast is the toy photography community.
00:40:09
Speaker
And that thing is, talk about Toyetic, it's not only is it Toyetic, it's photogenic. It works really well, like you said, kind of as this display piece, but being able to swap out the middle tile to make it look like somebody got drilled through the floor, it has these, and you can kind of break things in various stages of, it could be in various stages of disrepair, depending on the amount of,
00:40:39
Speaker
Damage that frankly that goku is probably doing to it. Um, so it's It works really well and it's just it's I wish more More companies would take the plunge and do playsets like that for for that scale because it clearly works and I mean the box that it comes in is Not large like I was surprised when I got it how small the footprint was and then what was actually in there and after I built it I was like wow, this is
00:41:08
Speaker
It's a home surprise.
Success of Anime Heroes and Nostalgia
00:41:11
Speaker
Aside from the Dragon Stars figures, Bandai is also producing the anime heroes line. Yes. So tell us a little bit about that.
00:41:18
Speaker
Well, Anime Heroes was almost like a little spinoff of Dragon Stars, right? Like we knew that the six and a half inch action figure for Dragon Ball was doing really, really well, right? But Dragon Ball is like too big to be contained by anime, right? And so part of our thinking was we wanted to be able to take our expertise and I guess the technology, right, of making a really detailed action figure for like 20 bucks. And how can we take the very best anime
00:41:49
Speaker
and use that form factor to introduce great anime to fans. And so that's sort of how anime heroes started, right? And we started with Naruto and with Saint Seiya. And we started that maybe 18, 20 months ago, and it has been enormously successful. Like, Naruto, we can't keep him on the shelves, and we have like nine characters now.
00:42:15
Speaker
It's done so well that we want to continue to go back to the well. And we say, OK, what is the next IP, intellectual property franchise, that we want to be able to add to anime heroes? And in April, we decided that we were going to release One Piece, right? Because it's the greatest selling manga of all time and arguably one of the big three. So you can't not have One Piece. And it's also doing very, very well. And so we sort of captured this lightning in a bottle.
00:42:43
Speaker
And we're always on the hunt for for new anime, not just the old classic stuff that either might be still going on, but like what's the new hot anime that's happening right now that is still new enough and relevant enough that. Thirteen to 18 months from now, we can put on shelf.
00:43:02
Speaker
before a show sort of either, you know, has already set its course, or is it just starting to crest, or are people just starting to discover it again? So, you know, that's sort of the short log line of how we got started and our overall plan for this line.
00:43:18
Speaker
So that being said, again, going back to the conversation that we had at Sweet Suite last week, you mentioned that there are some new IPs. I think you said that there are three that are going to be joining the line. I know you probably can't reveal what any of them are.
00:43:39
Speaker
You're right. But are there any are there any hints that you can maybe give our listeners to start, you know, start the gears gears going in their brains? Yeah, I guess the only hint I can give it would be like this. And it's the same hint that I gave when I knew one piece was coming out, but we couldn't reveal anything yet. And the story is the same. If you can think of in your head five or six anime properties,
00:44:09
Speaker
that if you were the boss and you had to make action figures for, what properties would they be, right? And if you have those things in your mind, odds are probably two or three of them at the top of your list are the ones we're actually going to release next, right? Like it's not gonna surprise everybody. Once we reveal what our three new properties are gonna be, people are gonna be like, okay, yes, that makes sense, right? It will not be like, why?
00:44:35
Speaker
Like that is such an obscure anime, right? Or it only had like one episode or like nobody watched it. Like it won't be one of those things. It will be either a fan favorite. It will be something that's been around for a while. It'll be something that is just catching fire now, like or mix of all three. So fans will not be disappointed and they will not be surprised. All right. And I'm going to ask you the same question that I asked you at at at the event last week.
00:45:06
Speaker
Are any of these contemporary, current running anime shows, or are they ones that have kind of a historical significance that are no longer running?
00:45:21
Speaker
I would say yes and yes. Give the same answer. But I could easily say the same thing for one piece. Like it's still going like 15 years later. So if someone were to say like, is it contemporary? Yes. Is it historical? Yes. Is it one of the big three? Yes. Like, man, that's just one piece, right? I could have said the same thing for Naruto.
00:45:46
Speaker
Right. So it, and one of the things that is very fortunate, especially now as people are discovering anime, like for the very first time, there isn't really such thing as an old anime just because people are rediscovering it. Right. Like if someone happened on one piece for the first time, like, and there's like. Close to a thousand episodes now. And they're watching, you know, two episodes a day for an hour. I mean, do the math, like.
00:46:14
Speaker
it's gonna take you years, right? So there's always new stuff going on and new content. So we're not so much worried about is something relevant because relevant really is a function of how often are people watching something they've just discovered.
00:46:28
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, we spent the first 40 minutes of this interview talking about an anime that has been going for 40 years. And right now, as we record this episode, has currently reached a stopping point where there is no new content that's been officially announced or anything that's officially on the horizon with a release date. But that line ain't going anywhere.
00:46:54
Speaker
Well, you know, I mean, to pull a page from my days at DC Comics, like, oh, when are you going to have a new Batman? Batman's been around for like 75 years. Like, he's not hurting for groceries, right? He'll be doing just fine, right? So the same can be said with the best anime. It's like, because it's classic, it's class per reason, because it's made of stories and characters that really resonate with the fan.
00:47:18
Speaker
And when fans have an affinity and they have an emotional connection to these characters, they're going to want to express themselves as a function of owning those characters. So as long as the fans are there, there's going to be demand for it.
00:47:33
Speaker
So speaking of the fans, we're fans of the work that Bandai does, and a lot of our audience are fans of the work that Bandai does. Absolutely. So when we have a guest on, we like to ask our audience if they have any questions for our guest. And we actually have three questions today from our audience, two of which we have kind of distilled from.
00:48:02
Speaker
a lot of very similar questions and then one very specific one. So, Dave, do you want to kick us off with our first question? Sure. This one is a distilled combination. Is it true that Digimon and Tamagotchi are coming back? And can you tell us more about that?
00:48:25
Speaker
So the answer is yes. Tamagotchi and Digimon are back, right? After like 20 some odd years at Bandai, right? Like we created these things a couple of decades ago.
00:48:36
Speaker
and we are re-releasing them, right? So Tamagotchi's been around the re-release, you know, for three or four years now, and it's kind of retaken the world by storm, and people who grew up with it, they'll be like, oh my gosh, I remember what it is, right? So there's a nostalgia play to it, right? And then we're adding new colors and new shapes, and Digimon's no different, right? So about 14, 15 months ago, we decided to re-release,
00:49:00
Speaker
the original Digimon, so we called it the 20th anniversary edition, right? And it was that same red brick Digimon device that everyone knows. And since that time, we've released
00:49:10
Speaker
almost 14 different colors, right? There's a white, and a black one, and a blue in the dark, and all these things, right? And they've been doing very, very well. And we're going to continue to make more. And just recently, we launched Digimon X, which is sort of like the new evolution of battling for the Digimon device. So yes, so we're always looking to innovate. We're always trying to figure out what's going to be that next great big
00:49:34
Speaker
Digimon move in the future, right? That isn't necessarily tied to any new content, right? Because yes, there's the movies and there's the shows that are currently running on TV and there's like video games. But when it comes to the actual device, it's connected to the property, but it still is a little bit separate because it's really the one thing that started it all, right? So I guess the long answer to the question is yes, they're back.
00:50:01
Speaker
They're not going anywhere anytime soon. I was actually just talking with my boss. We have a Multi-year plan for what's happening next in Digimon. So rest assured there's gonna be more cool stuff to come Yeah, we actually had this I'm actually realizing now Dave. I didn't even tell you about this. We had this really cool moment with the
00:50:21
Speaker
at the panel during Cisco's presentation where there was a father and his son came in and the son I think was five or six years old and he was absolutely fascinated by the concept of Digimon where it was like, wait, I have to be in the same room with my friend and we gotta hold them next to each other? But fascinated in a good way. He was jazzed. He was like, I want this.
00:50:49
Speaker
Which was really cool to see like I was literally Watching I was listening to Cisco talk and I was watching this young man's eyes just like like light like I experienced the same thing. I was talking. He's just like, okay Right. I mean and as a marketer, right? I I really appreciate that cuz he gets it, right? I didn't have to explain Too much what it was like he got it. He's like, oh Okay, like
00:51:18
Speaker
That's different, right? Like there isn't anything anywhere that he's ever seen that can do this, right? And I said, like it's 20 year old technology. It's not like Skyrim. They're eight bit sprites that exist on a on a inch and a half screen. Right. But there is something about it that's just compelling. And that's that's, you know, for 20 bucks, it'll keep you occupied for a while. I was just going to say, even like, you know, like Tamagotchi, like we had those back in the
00:51:47
Speaker
The advent of Tamagotchi. I still have mine. My lime green Tamagotchi from back in the day. I still have it. Still works, too. If you had the green, then I don't remember which color I had. Did I have white? Yes. White and blue? Yep. Yep. Okay. Yeah, mine still work. I actually still have two in mine. The little plastic tab that slides between the batteries to turn it off.
00:52:11
Speaker
Um, I still have the original little plastic tab and that's how I turn it off and prevent the batteries from dying. So request time. I don't know if we're going to have like a bell sound effect or anything there. Probably not, but I might have to add one now.
00:52:29
Speaker
Yeah, you may have to now. So there are lots of requests for characters, as there tend to be, and IPs like Demon Slayer and more from Naruto. So I guess the question would be anything you can discuss as far as any of this goes. This is our opportunity to say like, listen, we hear you. We are not going to be able to likely get an answer for you, but
00:52:55
Speaker
This is what people are asking us for. We're just passing this information along to you. I really appreciate the way that it was asked in the spirit if it was asked, because it's by a fan. It's not like they're just saying, hey, remember Dragon Ball? That was really cool. No, it's different. It's showing that they care about a line that I may actually have some influence in doing something about.
00:53:21
Speaker
as a professional as a fan like that's pretty cool right so i guess i'm all for those kind of questions right because it shows the interest and it shows the passion of the fans that are getting me to get paid to do this which is like pretty sweet gig right so as far as naruto goes yes we will be making more characters right that's just it's doing such a great job that
00:53:43
Speaker
There's no shortage in Naruto characters. We're going to be making more. I've already seen some of the scopes in the models. They look fantastic. Which ones are they going to be? Can't say. That's the tough part, right? But soon, probably in the next four or five weeks, we'll be revealing to some of the retailers, here's what we're going to be planning. And then maybe four or five months after that, Toy Fair. And then we're going to announce our whole line. So Naruto is easy.
00:54:08
Speaker
Demon Slayer is tough just because, if you remember, we're always operating 18 months out, which means that the next three IP that we're doing, I've known that we're doing for a while. Any other work that I was doing before that time may be happening for a while. So if something like Demon Slayer is a new hot property that comes in, I have to ask myself, is Demon Slayer going to be that property that cuts in line?
00:54:38
Speaker
Right? And what will be the effect on the other properties that maybe might not have as many seasons left in it, or maybe are planning on a movie, in which case then we're going to release that character when the movie or that anime comes out. So there's all these different things and left turns that show up in a while. So all I'll say to that is, do we have our eye on Demon Slayer? Absolutely. Do we already make some Demon Slayer stuff?
00:55:06
Speaker
Absolutely, right. Is Dena say you're going to come into anime heroes? I think it would be awesome. But the best way I can answer the question is not just yet, just because there's all these other things that are happening. But it's not an impossibility. That is such a good answer. Thank you. It really is.
00:55:28
Speaker
And our last question for the Q&A here, this one is a specific one, and this one comes from at Shima Collection. First of all, thanks for making Saint Seiya figures. And is there any chance we'll see silver saints and or Hades or Poseidon soldiers? Well, thank you for Saint Seiya. Saint Seiya is one of those tricky properties. It never really quite caught hold in the US market.
00:55:58
Speaker
as it did in other countries, right? And a lot of it was just the edits that were made and the music choice. It just sort of, it didn't resonate with the fans at the time. And that's why like in like South America, it's huge and other countries, it's huge. But in the U.S., it has its following, but it's not like super huge, right? We've released...
00:56:19
Speaker
I think six Saint Seif figures, we have a seventh one that's gonna be coming in the fall. We'll be revealing relatively soon. As far as the silver saints and the other ones, we don't have any immediate plans yet. It's not like we don't have the rights to make more, because we do, right? Again, it kinda goes back to the same question, like the answer's not no, just not yet, right? And the question is, you know, does Saint Seif take,
00:56:47
Speaker
Let's just say Naruto hadn't come out yet, right? And we decided Naruto is going to be the next IP. Does Saint Seiya get in front of line of Naruto? Like, ah, I don't know. And that's, and that's just not for me to decide, right? That is for this to decide. That's for the licensure to decide. That's for like band dynamical holdings and all the different stakeholders that go into the business decision-making process. Um, so it's a very complicated answer to a simple question, oddly enough, but I, but I guess for the fans,
00:57:19
Speaker
I guess I can offer this a little piece of solace, right? And that is that I actually read all the Twitter posts and the Reddit chains. And so I know what fans are thinking. And so if enough fans want something and they're vocal enough online, I read it and I know what
00:57:34
Speaker
I can do. So it's like, what can we control? And so if I had the power to do something because fans really like something, that's stuff I can tell the folks who are actually making these things. So it's not like we're in this little glass wall where we can't see out. We kind of know what's going on, and we always want to make sure that we take care of our fans. Awesome. And that wraps up our Q&A. You did it. You survived. Yay.
00:58:04
Speaker
Dave, why don't you fulfill your role as this podcast's James Lipton and bring us on home with our final question. Sure. As previously stated, our final question, it's our final question to all of our guests. What is your favorite and or strangest piece in your collection? It can be one of each or it can be both. I have a very dear friend that I worked with when I was at Warner Brothers and I had worked in all the Harry Potter movies.
00:58:35
Speaker
and part of my job when I was working on these movies was to You know like on the higher end ones like you if you buy this at Target you get the movie plus like a little collectible coin, right? Or you get like this special packaging or you get that sort of that add-on, right? So I was in this account exclusive business and I was a lot of times I would work with this
00:58:55
Speaker
this particular person and she would come to me with different prototypes of how about this kind of package or how about this or this might be really cool right one of the things that I worked on that never made the light of day and there's only one that exists in the entire world I have is this so from Harry Potter it's it's a it's a solid brass snitch right from like the
00:59:19
Speaker
You know, the, the Quidditch games, right? But the snitch comes in two pieces, right? And so when you split that snitch apart in that sphere, it's actually a USB that holds all of the movies. Huh. That's cool. And we tried to make it available, but like, it would be so expensive at the time.
00:59:43
Speaker
And what would the packaging be like? And this was before really digital distribution. And people didn't really watch movies on their computers just yet some did. And were there piracy issues? And all these things made a great idea, just not viable. And so I have the only one that exists.
01:00:07
Speaker
And to be truthful, I don't even I've never even tried to play the movies inside. I don't even know if they're even there. But I have the solid brass snitch that is super heavy, looks awesome, and it potentially has all the movies on there. So I think that that's my coolest collection that I know no one else in the world has. That is an awesome one of one. That is it. That is a really cool one of one. Yeah, for sure.
01:00:28
Speaker
Well, Cisco, before we let you go, we want to say thank you for taking the time to be on the show, for walking us through all of the amazing things that Bandai is working on, that we talked about today. Again, before we let you go, where can we find you on social media and where can we find out more about Bandai?
01:00:49
Speaker
Well, Bandai, you can always go to Bandai.com. You can follow us on Instagram and Twitter, Bandai America. And in our website, they have all of our links. My own self, I'm on LinkedIn. I think it's like Cisco hyphen Maldonado. Or surprisingly enough, and it is funny, as I've been doing these interviews, you know how you always kind of like Google yourself every once in a while? If you just put in Cisco Maldonado and like Bandai,
01:01:14
Speaker
There's enough stuff that pops up there that people can find my social handle. So I have a footprint now. So thanks, fans. Awesome. Yeah. And hopefully this gets added to your Google resume. I'll make sure I post it for all my fans to laugh at. Well, Cisco, thank you again one last time so much for being on Adventures in Collecting. It was my pleasure. I'm glad you could have me.
01:01:40
Speaker
Thank you, dear listener, for hanging out with us today. Subscribe, rate, and review us wherever you listen, and then tell your friends to do it. Thanks also to Joe Azari, the golden voice behind our intro. Our music is Game Boy Horror by the Zombie Dandies. Find more about them both on our show notes.
01:01:57
Speaker
Follow us on social media at AIC underscore podcast on Instagram and Twitter. Stop by and say hi. Show us your toy hauls and share your toy stories. Maybe we'll talk about it in a future episode.
01:02:20
Speaker
This has been a non-productive media presentation. Executive producer Frank Kablaui. This program and many others like it on the non-productive network is distributed under a Creative Commons attribution non-commercial no derivatives license. Please share it, but ask before trying to change it or sell it. For more information visit non-productive.com.
01:02:50
Speaker
you