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Post by Qball99 on Oct 11, 2005 0:04:43 GMT -5
Hi guys,
Do you guys know if the gundamofficial forums are closed for good?
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Post by Mudrock's Ace on Oct 11, 2005 6:19:08 GMT -5
yep.
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Post by paladin on Oct 11, 2005 10:52:08 GMT -5
Why'd they close in the first place?
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Post by Mudrock's Ace on Oct 11, 2005 16:41:55 GMT -5
poor sales here in the U.S. and a direct order from Bandai.
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Post by 00silvergt on Oct 11, 2005 17:57:33 GMT -5
Ah Gundam...I remember back in the 80's all I can wish for was for someone to import Gundam to the US. Toys. models and the Anime. I had Japanese friends that told me that will never happen since Gundam is purely Japanese. LOL Then the Cartoon Network brings it home in 2000 in the form of Gundam Wing...then the toys and models collected cobwebs in store shelves everywhere and closeouts.
What went wrong? With me, it was somewhat ruined for me when it became American. Even the show became "kiddie" to me. I don't really know why...albeit I still am an avid fan, I have every Gundam Video game released in the US for the 2nd gen platform and still buy models...but it is just not the same!
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Post by zephyranthes on Oct 18, 2005 23:59:36 GMT -5
I agree that Gundam lost some of its luster especially after Gundam toys went into the bargain bin at so many stores here in the US. At the same time, I didn't mind the lower prices for some of the toys and videos while they lasted. Zeta Gundam for example FINALLY made it to the US as a domestic release. I'll always have a fond place in my heart for Gundam despite its loss of interest in the US.
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Post by Ben-Ohki on Nov 2, 2005 8:43:51 GMT -5
Gundam lost its place in the market because Bandai failed to understand one overriding element: they took the Japan (and Asia in general) "icon" status of the name and assumed it was world-wide. It's not. When you think about it, we import-toy collectors make up a small percentage of toy collectors overall.
Bandai made a mess of things by release all sorts of different lines at the same time instead of building up Gundam as property based around one recognizable line-up. At the same time they released Gundam Wing, they were putting out toys from UC. Then they went ahead and released G Gundam and now Seed is airing on YTV in Canada, etc...
You know what I think they're doing? I think they're trying to emulate Power Rangers... only they've forgotten that Power Rangers started out with only Zyuranger and slowing phasing in new adaptations - first keeping the Zyuranger costumes and introducing new mecha from Dairanger, and Kakuranger... and then finally after 3 years of establishing a brand, did they make the switchover to Ohranger footage with new costumes (and the rest is history). Bandai handled Gundam as though it were an established franchise worldwide as Power Rangers is today and thought they could just flood the market with goods and fans would clamour for them... ...only there just weren't as many fans as they thought there'd be.
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Post by zephyranthes on Nov 3, 2005 16:57:33 GMT -5
I agree that Bandai's marketing of Gundam in the US seemed haphazard. It lacked focus. It appeared that Bandai wasn't sure if it should keep the Gundam franchise more on the serious and mature side or the silly and childish side. So we ended up getting the more mature UC material and the kid-oriented SD and G Gundams series on around the same time. Oh well, at least for us Gundam fans it was great while it lasted.
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Post by Mudrock's Ace on Nov 4, 2005 7:58:59 GMT -5
yep, time to pack up and move to Japan.
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Post by heavyarmscustom on Nov 4, 2005 16:13:18 GMT -5
On this note I blame not only Bandai for their lack of interest on the action figure line (bad paint jobs and sub-standard plastics) but i Really blame Cartoon network they had to bring over one of the worst Gundam cartoons ever and then gear it towards kids(7 to 12 year olds) now I love Gundams. and to have this slap me in the face every time I try to show some one in my age range (30's) the new MG Acguy or the PG strike G, I'm putting together they always respond with "is that a kids cartoon." and I have to go back and tell them the history of gundam and that the Damned wing and g-gundams were kids shows but there are better more adult themed gundam shows out there. so I give the finger to the desk jockey in the high-rise building for destroying a beloved animated story like gundam in the US
My two cents clifton PS just got the zeta gundam perfect collection in the mail today!Getting ready for a marathon sit down
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Post by nidaram12 on Nov 4, 2005 17:32:24 GMT -5
but i Really blame Cartoon network they had to bring over one of the worst Gundam cartoons ever and then gear it towards kids(7 to 12 year olds) now I love Gundams. and to have this slap me in the face every time I try to show some one in my age range (30's) the new MG Acguy or the PG strike G, I'm putting together they always respond with "is that a kids cartoon." and I have to go back and tell them the history of gundam and that the Damned wing and g-gundams were kids shows but there are better more adult themed gundam shows out there. so I give the finger to the desk jockey in the high-rise building for destroying a beloved animated story like gundam in the US Gundam Wing was GREATLY responsible for the success of Gundam in the US (and also anime in general imo) and by riding off of its popularity we got tons of toys, dvds, etc. G-Gundam also was a show that filled the need for a good action show on Cartoon Network that kids could get into. I think that both shows are great, but regardless of whether or not you like them, you wouldnt even be able to have this discussion right now if it wasnt for Wing. UC Gundam just wasnt as popular and didnt have as much mass market appeal. We need those hoardes of young "Wing kiddies" because they are who drive the toy market here. We should be thankful that Wing was able to capture that audience as we reaped the benefits of the Gundam merchandise blitz. I also don't know what you guys mean by cobwebs in stores... Wing and G Gundam merchandise sold like crazy here in PA and many other places as far as I can tell. Even all of the UC figures when they were coming out almost every other week. All of this stopped when they started showing Superior Defender and Gundam Seed as the next Gundam shows. We got flooded with SD merchandise (although some of the figs are great) and Seed failed to catch on. Also it didnt help that it was on only once a week instead of every day after school or something. Seed MIGHT have been able to capture that Wing crowd if kids were actually able to watch it at a reasonable time slot. Even though I think the show sucks I think Seed had tons of merchandising potential over here. Anyways, thats just what I think. Im not a marketing exec or anything.
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Post by mpchi on Nov 9, 2005 16:07:06 GMT -5
I think the show time slot has a lot to do with the franchise failure here. If they air it when kids can watch it, they'll grow to love it, as we all know that Gundam mechs are cool and easy to fall in love with, as long as it was given the right exposure. I never like Gundam Wing and their mech designs, but we can see how popular it became. Kids dig them. G-Gundam has its charm too, regardless being not as serious as a lot of other UC titles. And the toys went pretty well at the beginning with the main cast. But when the market was flooded with tons and tons of 'wacky' sub-character G-Gundam figures(Mermaid Gundam anyone? ) and battle damaged stuff, how in the world do they expect to sell those stuff? While back then, when the cool UC 0079, 0080, 0083, Char's Counter Attack figures first came out, I always have to drive from store to store to hunt down many of them. They sold like hotcakes and I could never find the good ones often (Kampfer, Zaku I, Gyan, Ez-8, AcGuy, Jagh Doga, GP-02, Sazabi, Re-GZ, Gouf Custom...and a lot more). Seed would be a great candidate too, if only the show is aired in prime time, and with good toyline support. The SD show & toys were kind of a joke, at the time when Gundam is already dying in the U.S. They just made matter worse... So unfortunate that now I need to import every MSIA I want to buy, and to make matter worse, the new Japanese ones don't even have panel lines inked in either. At least its cool to have some new Z-Gundam mechs releases.
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Post by 00silvergt on Nov 10, 2005 15:08:21 GMT -5
Drive the market here? Gundam wing? Drive it to the ground, maybe. I don't mean this to be a Wing vs UC or AC vs UC thing, but dude the facts speak for itself. Gundam Wing was the pilot and at the time that we were begging for Gundam to hit the US shores, we took it and all its silliness and uncanny appeal to get female tween/teen audience was simply horrid. No, it wasn't great, it simply lead the way in fact lead it so badly that when the UC stuff finally arrive most US consumers were taken a back, most North American audiences were expecting a kid-like show, but instead got a dose of REAL Gundam, deep storyline and political views and left many things to interpretation which is good and which is bad, human drama. Wing was a bunch of pretty boys playing Pokemon with their Gundams...Undoubtl, this is not the end of Gundam in the US however it will be once concentrated to a selected few as it is was in the eigthites and nineties.
Furthermore, if we are really trying to figure out what happened to the US toy market in general, as in things are really not like it was when we were kids, let me offer this: Video Games.many of us as kids had Atari, Coleco, Intellivision and for the younger ones there was Nintendo and Sega and you older guys; Odyssey and Pong. However, popular these machines were, they were not going to replace the GI JOE with a kung Fu grip on your wishlist. but kids nowadays take action figures as an everyday toy, but the REAL fun is with videogames and videogame machine. Just checkout your own kids, nieces and nephews, friends kid or watch them at Toys R US. Most toy aisles are empty, but the videogame aisle is full of kids...
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Post by Ben-Ohki on Nov 17, 2005 9:04:13 GMT -5
You make a good point: my Colecovision console did not replace my action figure collection either. In fact, I continued to get video games and various toys throughout my youth (and still do actually).
And that's sad. You don't know how depressed I was when I recently was reading a review thread about the Master Replicas Force FX lightsabers and some punk (probably some pre-teen) posted that he felt it wasn't worth it - that he was rather looking forward to an xbox360 this Christmas).... I was this close to flaming his @$$ for his stupidity.
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