Discussing Bandai's business plan

[RileyWarfield]

I understand where you are coming from, LeDelmo I do. But companies that manufacture model kits have been doing this for years, regardless of country or background. The bottom line is, as Zeta said. The costs in developing one kit alone is a large expense for the company, and that isn't factoring in the marketing costs for the kit. Now imagine for a moment marketing say the Deep Striker, a kit with a incredibly huge price tag for a Bandai kit as one that can be converted into the S Gundam and Ex-S Gundam. The $200 price tag would double and there goes more potential customers who now aren't going spend four or five hundred dollars on it. I know that this is an extreme example, but these are factors that companies do actually look at before actually selling something to the consumer. The fact Bandai is even willing to make a Master Grade Deep Striker in the first place is a massive risk for them.

[Squee]

From what i've read, the reason they're p bandai is that, although the original MG EW kits didn't do well, they already invested in the rest of the designs to be created for the molding process. By selling them as P bandai, like others have said, it means they can make back some of the money they invested in, without having to put out a bunch of kits that wont sell.

It is very rare for a company to make a kit that can be turned into others. It would be a waste of materials to print the extra parts, especially when it comes to the multi color runners and parts that Bandai is known for.

[RileyWarfield]

From what i've read, the reason they're p bandai is that, although the original MG EW kits didn't do well, they already invested in the rest of the designs to be created for the molding process. By selling them as P bandai, like others have said, it means they can make back some of the money they invested in, without having to put out a bunch of kits that wont sell.

It is very rare for a company to make a kit that can be turned into others. It would be a waste of materials to print the extra parts, especially when it comes to the multi color runners and parts that Bandai is known for.

This is also very true.

[LeDelmo]

But, if they simplified the process they could save money. Instead of manufacturing every kits differently. I.E. Char Zaku 2 and Normal Zaku 2. They could have made a set of runner that include all the parts for both kits or even go as far as to include Zaku 1 parts so they did not need to make a Zaku 1 kit by itself. Which wouldn't normally be a high volume kit.

It would mean they could stream line the manufacturing process for making these kits. They could reuse the templates and simply change the colors for make alternating kits.

I am not saying they would have to do this for every kit they make. But the conversions would be a nice option for those they can't do this way. That way they would only need to make plates for the new runner parts only and sell them as their own thing. These conversions would simply included the needed parts to convert another kit.

The problem is this process would take retooling to do. Which they seem unwilling to do. When they make a 2.0 kits they could have easily gone this route. But they choose not too. They would rather continue making the kits the same way they have always done.

I mean look at the Sandrock EW. Its the exact same model as the P-Bandai one only re-colored and added cover. Wouldn't it be just as easy to simply release the cover as a small kit by itself just like they do with Builders kits?

I mean they could go even father and stop selling these kits pre-colored. "Highly doubt it as the RG line is all about color"
They seems to be trying to walk on a line of Model Kit / Toy Model. When I look at the HG / RG kits all I really see are toys. When I see a MG / PG kit I see scale figures.

Basically, the only reason I see they not wanting to go this route is because than they would need to make all new molds. "Which again they could easily do when they were already making the 2.0's"

But they are more interested in not changing how they operate and reusing what they already have available to them.

The way I see it, Bandai is basically saying they simply don't want to invest to expand the company any farther than it is.

[RileyWarfield]

Ok, LeDelmo I will repeat this once again and add to it. First, simplifying toy/model kit production for a premium product (because that's what Bandai produces) often results in a reduction in quality. Why? Because you have to cut costs somewhere, be it in plastic quality, development time, and so forth. Bandai has a reputation for producing a quality product and that isn't something Bandai will want to risk losing. As for molds? Those steel molds are the most expensive thing in manufacturing a toy/model kit. Bandai isn't going to go messing with those mold and risk damaging them unless they have too.

In regards to Sandrock EW. Yes, that is the same mold. Could Bandai sell the cloak in a separate "upgrade" parts set? Yes, they could have, but Bandai would never sell the cloak or even recolor parts by themselves. Even the Builder's Parts sets feature at least several parts for different kits, but in all grey instead of color. However the sells for the EW kits worldwide were far lower then expected, which resulted in the company taking a loss. In order to recoup these losses, Bandai sold the rest of the EW line in their premium shop.

Now selling Zaku kits with parts for other Zakus. Bandai would never do this, and neither would any model kit company. When you develop a kit, you make one kit. You then would use that mold to make your parts or color variants, these are then packaged as a new unit. Why? It's easier and cheaper to manufacture, market, and sell the product that way. It cuts your development costs down and you don't need to make a new mold, or raise the set price of the previous product. You actually end up striking a happy medium.

[Squee]

I think a better way to look at it is, name another modeling company that does what you want. Its just not done.

[RileyWarfield]

I think a better way to look at it is, name another modeling company that does what you want. Its just not done.

^ This. Tamyia, Revell, Wave, no other model kit company does what you want them too.

[Haides]

Did Bandai actually take a loss on the EW kits? Is that documented somewhere?

[RileyWarfield]

Did Bandai actually take a loss on the EW kits? Is that documented somewhere?

From what I have heard, Bandai did take a loss on the EW kits as a whole. Now whether or not Bandai ever publicly posted that information anywhere is beyond me.

[LeDelmo]

Comparing a small companies to a huge 396.47 BILLION Dollar company like Bandai?

Really?

Again like I said, some here seem to insist of the fact that doing things this way would mean Bandai might not make as much money. But again, There is no reason why they would lose money on doing things this way. In fact they SHOULD be able to be MORE profitable per kit sold, cover a wider verity, simplify manufacturing, use less materials, have less waste, and sell more kits all the while using less shelf space.

I really don't understand what is not getting across. Is it simply disbelief that if this would work than why wouldn't they already be doing it?

[justicebeaver]

Not exactly.

It sounds nice. It does. But look how much the add on sets cost. $5-8 for a mini gun? The same would happen for add-on sets, runners, etc. For bandai to make a decent profit, they would have to sell the add on for a higher price then most would generally want to pay. I truly believe throwing a few extra parts with the astraea and charging $4-6 more for it, plus the profit of the original, gets them to making them and making a continued quick buck.

[Squee]

Did Bandai actually take a loss on the EW kits? Is that documented somewhere?

I asked the representatives when they came to NYCC a couple of years ago and they said that the designs, while selling well in the US do not sell well elsewhere. They do have the designs made up, so they would be used but via pbandai.

[RileyWarfield]

Also, keep in mind that the Bandai we are referring too, which is Bandai Co., Ltd.; is a subsidiary of Bandai Namco. Which for those who don't know means that Bandai Co., Ltd is given an annual budget to work with. This budget is used to, pay employees, utilities, supplies for manufacturing, and so on; and in order to keep costs down the number of items gets cut from the budget. These items include simply not making products, that includes the number of model kits for a give year.

[Rxslinger]

I'm just going to throw this out there. Bandai is a "toy" company. Gunpla is a toy model that anyone can build regardless of skill. That's the reason why gunpla comes with posable joint, and multiple color parts that snap together. They are designed so people with no model building experience can build them. That is the reason why they produce multiple designs of population suits for retail sales. They are a toy company after all. This is the same reason 99% of their kits comes with dry transfers and stickers instead if waterslide decals.

Now as for your fixation on have conversion parts included. I have something for you. First off bandai is a toy company who main target audience is children. if they we're to only produce one zaku chances are it would be chars zaku because he is a main character. Do you honestly think most children would be able to paint a pink zaku green or that most parts would let them for that matter? The answer is no. So by having only one design it eliminates other makes to make money in.

It makes no sense to even sell the extra parts as conversion kits. In some cases the packaging materials will cost more than the part it's self so why do this? A lot of people will just throw the parts away with the runners because they have no use for them. That creates a waste of material. It also makes no sense to sell conversion kit since bandai tried selling conversion kits in the past and it wasn't profitable enough. Even if they decided to make a conversion kit for a existing model it would be sold as p bandai because it would only be marketable to people who paint their kits. The reason why bandai makes models of the zaku f, j, and s (char) is because a large portion of their market children and snap builders who can't or don't paint them. that's also the reason for stickers in the kits.

[Haides]

I asked the representatives when they came to NYCC a couple of years ago and they said that the designs, while selling well in the US do not sell well elsewhere. They do have the designs made up, so they would be used but via pbandai.

Then I just can't understand why, having already made the designs, they decided to release them only in the markets where they didn't sell well and block out the markets where they did. Either they make more money per unit for the few that they sell, or they release them here and actually sell more units. It seems to me that there is a strong chance that the difference would at least even out. I know Bandai isn't stupid, and they most likely have people whose entire job is to evaluate the markets and make risk assessments, but in my admittedly ignorant opinion this just doesn't make sense.

And then there's the precedent this sets. Correct me if I'm wrong, but as far as I know, these are the first kits of main protagonist Gundams that were actually animated that ended up P-Bandai. Up until these, P-Bandai had mostly been reserved for color variants and more obscure kits. Now nothing is off limits for being P-Bandai and that really sucks.