I wish I was there guys. I could add soooo much. So Matt is right. Bandai America used FAO as their test market. I saw Go Lion, Combattler and all the other first wave at the Chicago FAO in Feb. 1982. They were all basically their Japanese Yen price converted to Dollars, so a 7000 Yen chogokin was running $70. Now do the math of 250 Yen to the Dollar and see the profit margin Bandai was hoping for. Remember, these were sold directly to FAO, so no multiple resellers as in Japan.
I firmly believe ‘Godaikin’ was a suggestion of Shingi Uchino (I might have misspelled his name) of Pony Toy go round/ Uchino international. Pony Toy was the ‘gray market mule’ for Bandai as they stumbled to make America work for them post-Shogun Warriors. And yes I believe that Bandai used Mattel as their mule to test the waters, then they launched their utterly misguided Battle of the Planets line…featuring Gatchaman II gokin.
I lost all of my Godaikin after my…well, mistake. Had to sell them and I got Pennies on the Dollar. Matt, never give up your Tetsujin. Never. You will have sellers remorse to the end of your days.
Chogokin 50th. I laugh at how they feature so prominently a Macross Valkyrie. They passed on Macross so Takatoku made (and then soon lost) a fortune on it.
I wish I was there guys. I could add soooo much. So Matt is right. Bandai America used FAO as their test market. I saw Go Lion, Combattler and all the other first wave at the Chicago FAO in Feb. 1982. They were all basically their Japanese Yen price converted to Dollars, so a 7000 Yen chogokin was running $70. Now do the math of 250 Yen to the Dollar and see the profit margin Bandai was hoping for. Remember, these were sold directly to FAO, so no multiple resellers as in Japan.
I firmly believe ‘Godaikin’ was a suggestion of Shingi Uchino (I might have misspelled his name) of Pony Toy go round/ Uchino international. Pony Toy was the ‘gray market mule’ for Bandai as they stumbled to make America work for them post-Shogun Warriors. And yes I believe that Bandai used Mattel as their mule to test the waters, then they launched their utterly misguided Battle of the Planets line…featuring Gatchaman II gokin.
I lost all of my Godaikin after my…well, mistake. Had to sell them and I got Pennies on the Dollar. Matt, never give up your Tetsujin. Never. You will have sellers remorse to the end of your days.
Chogokin 50th. I laugh at how they feature so prominently a Macross Valkyrie. They passed on Macross so Takatoku made (and then soon lost) a fortune on it.