Discussing the Best (and Worst) Figure Manufacturers // Good Smile Company, Myethos, FOTS, and more!

hi everyone and welcome to gwen collects all right so for today's video i'm going to be talking a little bit about the different figure manufacturers so when i first got into figure collecting back in september i really had no idea how figure manufacturers worked or which ones were good or which ones are bad or what a fair price was to pay for figures and i think i made a few poor choices with my figure buying back when i first started so i thought i would make this video as kind of a guide for new collectors and also sharing my experience with the different figure manufacturers so that when you're all pre-ordering your figures you kind of know what to look for and what to expect so uh this is going to be a fairly long video i think so i'm going to jump in as quickly as possible all right so i have my my notes right here i tried to make this video as succinct as possible because i know i like to ramble on so i have my notes here about the different manufacturers that i have experience with for the most part a few of the ones i included on here i either only have like one figure from them or i don't have any but i've heard about them before so hopefully i'll cover most of the like big figure manufacturers in this video i know there's lots that will be left out but hopefully at least these will help you out with some of the bigger manufacturers alright so we're going to start with one of my favorite companies kotobukiya okay so i have quite a few pros for kotobukiya i like them quite a bit my first pro is that they make male figures as a female figure collector i know i'm in the minority but i do like my male figures just as much as i like female figures so it's always nice to see a company that will actually sometimes make male figures instead of just only making female figures so kodobukiya definitely gets a plus there another thing i really like about kotobukiya is often when they'll make a character from a series they'll make multiple characters from the series so for instance i'm collecting the fire force characters they've already come out with shinra and tamaki and arthur and benny are up for pre-order right now and it's really nice to just know like if you buy one figure from a series that you're going to be able to collect a set and they'll all have matching bases and matching scales and they'll all look really nice together on the shelf i also think kotobukiya gets a plus for their really good prices often the kotobukiya figures will be on the lower end of pricing and i really appreciate that they're not always super affordable but often the figures will be more reasonable than you'd expect really nice to see a figure company put out good quality figures for a fair price another thing i really appreciate about kotobukiya is they make everything from 1 8 scales to 1 6th skills and often their 1 6th scales are really great prices for instance my taiga that i have you can probably see her legs right there she's a 1 6 and i think she retailed for 7 800 yen when she came out another thing i really appreciate is that they have a u.s site so for americans and canadians it's really nice to be able to order from america they also often do re-releases i'm very excited to say that i have pre-ordered my grails erin and mikasa that i talked about in my grail video i'll link it above and i'm just really excited that they're doing a re-release of those figures because i didn't expect them to and it's super super exciting that i'll be able to get them now so props to kotobukiya for doing re-releases uh finally i have two more points they have some of the best figure bases out there like all of my kodobukiya figures have had fantastic bases and most of the ones i see up for pre-order also have really really nice looking bases and that is very appreciated seeing as a huge part of figure purchasing for me is whether or not the figure has a nice base finally this is a pro but can also kind of be spun as a con the pro is that the bonus parts that they send with the first prince of their figures are usually super cool but i guess i'll start the the con list here sometimes i find that those bonus parts almost are necessary to complete the figure an example of this is my tamaki that i have i feel like her bonus parts should have come stuck with the character continuing on with some of the cons for kodubukiya the figure quality isn't always quite there it's not always perfect and i think for the more affordable prices kotabuki has a little bit more leeway but i've heard some people not being very happy with their kotobukiya purchases another thing is sometimes i find their faces just look really weird and i know for a lot of people myself included a face can really make or break a figure so sometimes kodobukiya just they try but they miss i think a good example of that is the new yuji figure from jiu jitsu kaizen that they announced i'm still kind of going back and forward on whether or not i want this figure because i really don't like his stock expression all right so that is all i have to say for kodupukia if you are thinking about buying a kotobukiya figure i would say that it's a pretty safe bet to buy one they usually come out great and i've been super pleased with every single kodobukiya figure i own alright so next up i have everyone's favorite alter all of my alter figures have been amazing quality these figures are beautiful and i think that ultra just really nails it with their characters their figures always look great the poses are often awesome the paint jobs are always immaculate and the sculpts are always great i also see a lot of ultra figures on the pre-owned market and often a lot of those alter figures are from like even up to 10 years ago and they're still selling for pretty high prices i would say for being 10 year old figures so i think ultra figures really hold up and stand the test of time so ultra for the most part i think has very fair prices their prices have been going up recently but again like my saber dress version that i pre-ordered i think was 1600 yen and that figure looks fantastic and i think it's gonna be a really nice addition to my collection and honestly 1600 yen for a figure like that i don't think is a terrible price another thing i like about alter is they often also do re-releases the saber ultra dress version that i was just talking about is uh re-releasing for its uh like third release now and it's really nice to see figure companies that realize that people want their figures and then they they reproduce more which is really nice and i appreciate that for sure uh now for the cons for alter i only have a few i would say first that there aren't a ton of male alter figures there's the free figures um that i can think of off the top of my head but there aren't a ton of male figures and my other gripe is that while alter remakes some of their figures some of their other more like obscure figures like uh chitanda from huoka they skyrocket in price so much and they never get a re-release i know they're more like niche characters so that's probably why but it is definitely disappointing when a character you love doesn't get a re-release and then the aftermarket price just keeps going up and up especially because older figures hold their value that that price is just going to keep increasing and it could be a little bit it can be a little bit of a tough pill to swallow when you see a figure you want for like five hundred dollars when it retailed for under a hundred but what are you gonna do i guess that's the hobby right all right so on to the next figure manufacturer i'm going to be talking about and it is my ethos so a few pros about my ethos is their figures are just insanely beautiful i don't think anyone can argue that often their figures are amazing the bases are absolutely incredible and the quality is always top notch additionally the prices that my ethos charges for their figures i think are so fair for the quality that the figures are this judith cost me 200 canadian dollars and in my opinion her sculpt and everything is just so worth 200 canadian dollars like i think that is a steal for a figure that is this nice and i've paid more for less nice figures um a few cons for my ethos that are pretty minor and if you're really into my ethos figures then these shouldn't really bother you all that much but one issue i have with my ethos is i find they often make figures for kind of obscure ips uh as someone that likes to know the material that my figures come from it can be tough to spend money on a figure from a series you don't know and my ethos mostly makes figures from series that i don't know often from like mobile games and other chinese media which is totally fair since they're a chinese company but it is kind of tough when like you want to get your favorite characters and the company doesn't produce them when they do decide to do japanese characters like say the uh hatsune miku that they're coming out with that is insanely gorgeous uh they made it a china exclusive so yeah that is a little bit frustrating especially if you're not comfortable using like a proxy or something the exclusive figures can be a little bit a little bit tough all right so i'm going to be talking about good smile company next and i know good smile company sells a lot of uh different kind of like manufacturers under good smile company so i'm gonna talk about good smell company as a manufacturer first and then i'll talk about a few of their uh like i don't even know how to describe it if they're like partner manufacturers i don't know exactly how it works but that's how i think i'll talk about it so starting with good smile company first i think good smile company just makes really good quality figures this aaron right here is a good smile company figure and i'm super happy with her she's beautiful honestly everything about the figure is beautiful so i'm really happy with uh the quality of all my good smile company figures additionally good smell company has some really great lines such as their nendoroids for nendoroid fans which i know there are a lot of and figmas if you're into kind of like posable figures and stuff that's always a great choice they also have a really affordable and really good quality pop-up parade line so if you're interested in figures but maybe you're on a tighter budget i know we can all relate to being on a tighter budget especially right now so pop-up parades can be a really good way to get your favorite characters for a much more reasonable price than buying scales and you don't really have to sacrifice much for quality also in my opinion their scale prices are really really fair and they're often really well done scales so that is awesome and one other thing just like kotobukiya good smell company has a u.s site so again for all the reasons that having a us site for cotabukio is a good thing it's also really nice for canadians and americans to be able to ship from good smile us one grape i have with good smile company and a lot of the like preceding uh manufacturers that i'm gonna talk about is that they'll often only make one character from a series and then just never make any other ones which is kind of annoying like i have this beautiful air enough figure but no other food wars characters to go with her and they barely make male figures which is another con so it kind of sucks my akari kawamoto figure my absolute grail one of my favorite figures in my collection i highly doubt i'm ever gonna get a matching hina or any of the other amazing characters from march comes in like a lion because it's not very popular and that figure was kind of just a random character that they made my other issue with good smile company and it it occurs with a couple other companies too but i have a pet peeve of when they put figures up for pre-order more than a year in advance i really don't understand that honestly like why why would i pre-order figures that are coming out like at the end of 2022 like to me it just doesn't make sense and i find it weird for them to ask you to commit to a figure so far in advance continuing on to chara annie or kara annie i still don't know how to say it um i love the figures that chara annie makes characters for they always look beautiful and often like they're characters that i love like the tiger wedding version that's coming out the holo that i have uh they they're making a really cool looking mega min that they just announced uh just a lot of really cool figures i really appreciate the figures and just the sculpts and poses that chara annie does i think are just killer on the flip side uh chara eni is kind of known for their subpar quality their paint jobs aren't always that great and they often uh they often don't quite look like the prototypes when they come especially the faces on the figures i've heard and even my holo is a little bit less nice i think than the prototype looked but it's all right uh my other great with chara annie is i don't think their quality at all meets the quality of like ultra and my ethos their prices are so high even higher than companies like my ethos and alter so i don't really know where tara annie gets their pricing from but i honestly think their figures are always way too overpriced all right continuing on we have a figure company that i don't have any figures from yet but i will be getting one very soon um we have freeing so i know freeing is a favorite from a lot of people due to their bunny figure line so i guess as a pro for freeing um they have their one fourth scale line most of their 1 4 scales are bunnies but they do make a few other 1 4 scales of characters their bunny figures are super popular and just super cool and nice quality i do really like the bunny figures and there are quite a few that i would like to add to my collection once i have a little bit more disposable income uh some cons of freeing though are that they really only make bunny figures now they have a few scales here and there but for the most part they've put all of their eggs in the bunny figure basket additionally i think that they keep raising their prices on bunny figures and they just get progressively more expensive with every release and it's starting to feel a little bit like a money grab additionally i'm not really a huge fan of the barely get bunnies i'm going to do a gwen's hot anime figure take here and say that no one really wants the bare-legged bunnies everyone wants the ones with stockings but the only reason the barely good ones are selling is because the stocking ones are super expensive on the aftermarket so an example of this is like the aqua and megumin that they re-released the bare-legged version i guarantee you if they would have released the bare-legged version and the tights version nobody would be buying the bear-like version because the tights are just better and like the price difference really there is basically no price difference i believe between the bare legged and the tights so there's only like two bare-legged ones that i've seen that i actually preferred and that was the uh i think it's gibral i haven't watched no game no life but i think it's the gibral bunny figure i actually think the titleist one looks better than the one with tights and i also really like the momo bunny next up we have a bit more of a wallet-friendly company um taito or tato the title prize figures are super nice and i think tato makes maybe a few more like a little bit more pricey i know there's a sakura miku coming out that looks really nice uh i think it's like an in collab with a different manufacturer but potato for the most part makes their prize figures and in my opinion i think they make the best prize figures out of any company uh especially their like seasonal miku line i think they just look they look fantastic so i would highly recommend taito if you're looking for some really nice prize figure prize figures on a budget all right next up we have a fun one i don't own any figures from this company but i thought i would add them in here just because just as kind of a warning because i don't think i've ever heard a good story about a fox japan figure um so if you don't know what fox japan is fots japan i'm not really sure if you can like say it as like a a word or not but we'll call it thoughts here um fox is an interesting company uh they use a different material for their figure i think it's called pvcl i can't quite remember i'll put it on the screen but they use a much more brittle material for their figures and then on top of that they also package their figures very interestingly often wrapping them in bubble wrap instead of using a bubble packaging anyway this combination of poor material choice and poor packing leads to many many many many broken figures so many in fact that if you search thoughts on like the the anime figures subreddit or something all you get are just picture after picture of broken figures or leaning figures or literally anything it's pretty much just always a horror story it seems with that company um it's gotten so bad that solaire's japan literally says if your fox figure comes broken that's your problem like if even solaris japan just knows like this ain't it i don't think amiami even sells fox figures anymore because they're that bad so if you're interested in getting a fox figure which i know if you're a fan of miss kobayashi's dragon maid you may want one i would highly highly caution against buying a figure from fox there's literally no pros but there are many many cons uh the other thing is these figures break all the time and most of the time in transit before you even open them up and they are horrifically overpriced like some of these figures are over 200 and they come broken like it's actually absurd i don't know how this company has stayed afloat this long making figures this poor quality but yeah do not buy thoughts just just don't even consider it the last manufacturer i wanted to talk about is union creative so from my experience my limited experience with my misato figure from union creative i've been really happy with the figures that i've gotten i really really like misato i feel like her paint job is beautiful the sculpt is really nice i just think a lot of their figures especially the prototypes look really really good but from what i've heard online it can be kind of a toss-up with um union creative sometimes their figures come out really really nice uh for example their trick or miku is a really really cool figure um but a lot of the time their figures can come out not quite looking like the prototype to the extent that people aren't really happy with them so union creative is kind of one of those companies where you you take a gamble all right so that is my experience and knowledge about a lot of the figure manufacturers i know there's a ton more like aquamarine which is now i think out of business um furu a lot of other ones uh i know i didn't talk about everything but hopefully i covered the bases on some of the more basic figure manufacturers and you'll all be able to kind of take something away from this video that will help you inform your choices moving forward i know coming into this hobby there's a lot of information and sometimes it can be hard to decide especially with scale figures when you're throwing around quite a bit of money it's always good to make informed decisions on your figures and i wish you all the best with your ordering figures and i hope that this video has inspired you to maybe branch out and try some other companies or maybe you'll stick to your favorites let me know if you agree with what i said in this video or if you have anything to add i'm always learning and i always want to learn a little bit more about the hobby so if you have any experience with any of these manufacturers or if you disagree or agree with anything i said please let me know in the comments and i will be looking forward to reading all of your figure tips all right i hope this video wasn't too long i know i can ramble on so i'll hopefully like condense it when i'm editing but thank you all so much for watching and i will see you all very soon bye [Music] you

Channel: Gwyn Collects

Views: 29,286

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Id: dynTsl_4n8o

Length: 21min 34sec (1294 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 31 2021