A-kon in Dallas

Well guys, today was the last day and it was really informative, almost all of which I cannot share. I arrived a little before 2, and we had sold out of a lot of things. The figuarts zero Vegeta continued to sell amazing at $35. A very hot seller. I talked to a few of the people buying him as they waited in line to check out and organically learned (in other words, I was just talking to them without any intent in mind and they would mention things) how into DBZ they were, how long they had been collecting, etc. It seems like the figuarts zero figures are a major hit with a combination of factors. For some, they feel that statues look better on display than figures and since they don't play with them, articulation isn't interesting. So age has something to do with it. Many were newer fans of DBZ who are starting collections, and they don't already have ten other Vegeta figures like many of us do. I would suspect DBZ Kai has something to do with newer collectors, and the video games. Many collect many, many, many different collectibles from different shows, because they are fans of a lot of different anime shows, so they just collect key pieces (main characters). So, they are casual collectors of DBZ; they like the show, but they don't obsess over it or have events memorized or anything. Pretty interesting data I accidentally collected, because before this event, I really wasn't sure who was buying the figuarts zero figures, or if they were actually selling well because so few of our members here have them, and many are very vocal about how much they aren't interested in them. I mean, I am actually thoroughly impressed how much better the figuarts zero figures sold at this event than the figuarts ones, but it's also important to consider that they were cheaper, which was a factor. 31 to 37 dollars depending on the character, while the figuarts were 35 to 80 depending on the character. The zeros are really super cool looking in person, as much or more so than the figuarts, but this is largely due to just how much better their ki effects look.

We sold out of the figuarts SS Goku today, and most of the Piccolos. I was actually the only buyer during the entire event that bought any sdcc Piccolos lol. All of the Goku figuarts sold except the last one that had a bit of damage to the box. A few Krillin sold but not many, I think it was a combo of the price being about the same as what you can get him for online and the primarily teenage customer base having a limited amount of spending money (and buying other harder to find items). Plus, you had to consider that if you had $40 and were building a collection from scratch, who are you going to get? Piccolo, SS Goku, Goku, or Krillin? A few Vegeta sold, and I bought 4 since I didn't have any and like it. I don't remember selling too many Frieza or Cell. Most people who wanted to see them ended up buying Piccolo, SS Goku, or Goku because they were so much cheaper. I couldn't resist Frieza, so I got a couple. I would have gotten a couple more, but I am having to be very careful with my money due to lack of work. I just wish Frieza was a bit taller and more lanky like I've Photoshopped him in the past. He's beautiful looking, but not very scary looking next to Krillin. Oh, and since this was the first time I've seen Cell in person, I have to agree with those of you who say his green is too drab. He really needs more vibrant colors. I think he'd sell really well if he was reissued with vibrant colors, revised eye graphics, and other tweaks to the paint job. I didn't buy any, as he was the only figure I just, in general, didn't like. Perhaps they should reissue him and SS3 Goku at a future sdcc with better colors (and redesigned eye paint job on Cell).

I really liked the Sailor Moon figuarts. If my income was better, I would most likely buy them all even though I don't even watch the show. They just look fantastic and remind me of my childhood watching cartoon network. Mercury sold out before I got there today, Venus sold out while I was there, and we ended up with a lot of Mars and Moon left over but I think they brought a lot more of them to the show. Oh, and let me tell you, girls were buying those Moon Wands for $95 without even thinking about it too much. I don't know if it's a girl thing vs a boy thing, but apparently girls really want to pretend they are sailor moon. I can't imagine a dragonball radar selling THAT well, at least to guys, but maybe female dbz fans. I guess on the other hand, if we had more scouters, we probably would have sold at least 20 more. I kind of regret not getting one myself though idk what I would do with it. It was neat seeing so many people wear them at the event. I guess what kept me from doing so is I didn't know what color I'd want and I wasn't sure what I'd do with it after the convention .

Let's see, other than that, despite selling tons of stuff, packing all of it up took us a long time. Open figures in the cases were put up starting around 3 I suppose, but we started putting up everything a little after 5 and didn't have the truck loaded until after 8:45. I kept track of my hours (since I'm used to doing so-- self-employed) and I helped them 22 hours over the course of 4 days. I'm really tired lol, I ended up staying at the con until after midnight most nights going to things and taking pics of cosplay people, so I'm exhausted haha. In total, I've had probably 5 hours of sleep a night on average. It was a whole lot of fun and I'll miss it. I actually wish that people dressed like this everyday; it made people watching actually interesting, made showing up to work a positive experience, and was such a creative environment.

As far as future products are concerned, I'm not allowed to reveal any info at the moment, but I do think that I've developed a very good relationship with the guys at Bluefin, and that perhaps we can figure out ways to... I don't know... help each other out? I'm not really sure how things would work.

Something interesting I found out is that Bandai Japan does look at DBF, and they look often. So if you think that discussing things here is completely pointless, I am (extremely) delighted to say that it's not! Bandai is watching .

Well, since I can't talk about anything I heard, I can tell you guys stuff I said. Since they knew I'm the owner of this site, they asked me about the international market, and so I told where most of our members are from. Perhaps the feedback I gave them will help our Australian members get better (cheaper) access to the figures, so you aren't paying about a hundred more than those of us in the US. I mentioned Israel, which was a surprise to them (and to me as well, I never knew there were so many fans in Israel until I saw the data analytics for visitors to this site). I mentioned that there are many people wanting a Yamcha in orange gi from DBZ because a larger articulated figure has never, ever been made of him as such. He's basically the only character in DBZ who is in like 200 episodes (probably) who has consistently been skipped over by every major company. There's an AB Yamcha that exists, but as y'all know, it's ugly and the legs don't move. There's the Unifive posing figure, but it's like 3 inches, and, again, the legs don't move. I mentioned that there are Tien fans (almost everybody likes Tien who likes DBZ it seems) and he needs to be made because he basically has the most diverse poses and moves of any DBZ hero. I mentioned that fans would like it if there were DBZ monster arts figures of the really large monsters like Hildegarn and Oozaru. Let's see... what else... I said that the scale needs to be more consistent. I saw in their promotional catalog that the average figuarts figure is supposed to be 7 inches tall. Well, I think they need to change that thought, because children and little characters need to be small and scale well with everyone. I personally think that is what makes the Sailor Moon characters so tempting, because they are all scaled perfectly with each other (well, we'll know in a few months, because Jupiter is a much taller girl, and I hope the figure is much taller than the other girls). Can you imagine how poor a Chibi Moon figure would look with the other girls if they scaled her up to be closer to the 7 inch goal like they did Krillin? Her head would be huge compared to the other perfect girls and she'd be way too tall. That's the sort of thing I think they should change about their plan for figuarts.

I'm too exhausted to even get up and unzip my bag lol. I came home at about 10, ate my second meal of the day, and then been tired ever since. He was $80 at the event and they have him for $60 plus shipping on their website. They were great and gave me a discount for helping them out.

I just did the calculations and I spent 22 hours helping them and 18.25 going to panels, a dance, the cosplay contest, etc. over those 4 days. If I go to another one of these in the future, I think I will skip panels for the most part as they can be really boring. The real experience is in roaming the halls, looking at the cosplay, and talking to people. If bluefin wants me next year, perhaps I will work diligently on a Yamcha costume (or just buy a yellow suit) as I'd like to participate in the cosplay more than I did.

Well, it's great to hear they check back on this site! Hopefully you and this site as a whole can build a working relationship with them for future releases ^ _ ^

Also, why so many Figuarts? Saving some for customs?

Wait there is a reason to think that Bandai is wacthing, or Bluefin? It is a huge distinction. I don't understand you got 8 SHF and many doubles too?? you are usually cheap, what are you going to do with those?

Thanks for sharing your experience at the Con. Felt good reading about it. I myself would like to volunteer someday and work for them; doesn't matter if they dont pay me (well, some kinda compensation would be nice)

Hey you might get offered a job like pwnstar from sideshow, I believe on his 2nd volunteering he got offered one. Anyways thanks bran for sharing info and doing this! I would've gone but I live down south Texas where nothing happens haha.