What does the prohibition, Jeff Goldblum’s Jurassic Park character, and Bandai’s Star Wars model kits have in common? We’ll get to that in a little bit. But first, let’s take a look at the rather unexpected problem that has arisen.
As of right now, there is no official way for US and European customers to purchase the 1/12th scale Star Wars model kits from Bandai Japan. These are import kits, which means they have been available through sites like Amiami.com, HLJ.com and other prime import spots. BBTS and Amazon could usually be counted on to sell them as well, but at a steeper cost. But Disney — owner of Star Wars — has clamped down on all of that. Sites have been stripped of their kits. HLJ recently liquidated all that it had and has officially released a statement saying they will no longer be selling the model kits after the cut-off date of September 20:
Bandai’s Star Wars kits will need to be removed from HLJ.com as of September 20. Items that have been paid for are not affected, and preorders will also be honored, so if you’d like to order any, now is the time!
This doesn’t just affect the figure kits. The vehicle kits that were accruing a large audience have also been pulled. While the finger has been pointed at Revell — who also manufactures vehicle models for the Star Wars license — as being behind this banning, a statement from the Revell company says otherwise:
We are massively confronted with the accusation that Revell invited Disney as licensor of the Star Wars license to prohibit Bandai selling Star Wars licensed products outside of Japan. This claim is plain wrong because we haven’t and won’t at no time take influence to the business matters of other manufacturers!
The truth is rather that each licensee, whether Revell or Bandai, is only be entitled to sell its licensed products under its own license contract and the countries agreed upon. These license contracts are concluded solely between the licensor Disney and the various licensees. We as Revell GmbH therefore aren’t allowed to sell our Star Wars products in Japan. On the other hand it is not possible for Bandai to sell its Star Wars products in the US and Europe, if these regions are not part of the contract.
Apart from that, we are convinced that a license like Star Wars lives from the wide variety of products and thus inspires young and old. Therefore we see the model kits of the company Bandai not as competition but as a supplement on the market for Star Wars model kits.
So it seems as if Disney has used a legal right to restrict the sales of conflicting merchandise. We who have bought model kits from import stores have been operating under either ignorance on the part of the companies, or some random loophole, which was now been closed.
I’m not a lawyer. I’m just an action figure collector. So the legalities behind all of this ends up being meaningless to me. What I am is an adult action figure collector. And I’m an adult action figure collector that chafes at the often-used designation of “adult collector,” because it seems to imply a status that elevates one purveyor of toys over another. The assumption is that it separates those who “play” with their toys and those who “pose” their toys, that the aesthetics of just a kid who plays with toys is somehow less than the sophisticated “adult collector” who is able to appreciate toys on some higher level.
I don’t self-identify as an “adult collector” because I don’t like the implication, and my inner child doesn’t like it either. I’m a toy collector. Period. Mainly a collector of articulated action figures that tickle my fancy. I’m also a Star Wars fan who is currently loving this absolute deluge of Star Wars action figures that are, or hover around, my preferred scale, which is 1/12th. And I don’t make distinctions between a toy that comes ready-made and prepackaged or one that I snip from sprues and pop together. In fact, there is something both primal and technologically thrilling about pulling a jagged tangle of random plastic parts together into a recognizable plastic interpretation of a character from one of my favorite franchises. In short, I may be an adult who collects toys, but in today’s psycho-crazy world there’s nothing that makes me feel like a kid again more than hovering over a some clipped parts and seeing how they fit together.
And that’s why this entire maneuver is wrong-headed on Disney’s part.
Fans are built in a variety of different ways. Some are weened on the source material. Some come to a property solely because of the toys and reverse engineer a love of the property based on the merchandise itself. And some — heresy, I know — are literally only fans of the process of creation and what comes out the other end. But I like to think that a fan who is curious will spread their interests. This isn’t just about adults. This is about kids who want to have that thrill of putting together a model that also happens to be a toy. That kid won’t just stop with model kits. He’ll move on to action figures and then that will spread to other arenas. Disney’s enforcing a legality is not just taking some model kits out of some adult hands, but it’s strangling an entire generation of brand new enthusiasts.
You take a kid who might not be the most mechanical-minded of people. You put a model kit in front of him with the promise of putting together an action figure of his very own at just the right age, and his head will rewire itself and rise to the challenge.
You take a kid who may not be the most patient of kids. Maybe he has a temper, or he gets frustrated easily. Nothing teaches patience more than a model kit with the promise of a toy at the end.
That kid will want to build more models. But the model kits come out slowly, he’s going to want to fill out this little world. He’s going to want more toys. Hasbro makes toys that go perfectly with those kits, and there’s no doubt he’ll buy what he just made in regular action figure form to supplement his collection. Now the kid’s not only in love with toys, not only grown a bit, but is also intensely interested in the property.
But instead of all of this, a faceless corporation is deciding that kids, adults, enthusiasts, and collectors can’t build a model. They are literally keeping toys from the hands of those who want them.
It’s legal. It’s business. It’s terribly “adult.” And it just feels wrong.
It would be very simple to just gnash my teeth and rant and rave about a multi-billion dollar company not letting me have a little fun. But while this is about me — everything that somebody is passionate about is about them in some way large or small — it’s more about what it represents. It represents a company deciding that a large group of people, both young and young-at-heart, are not allowed the hassle-free purchase of an action figure model kit — a company whose bedrock was formed by animation.
When it comes down to the basics, yes, this is quite possibly the most frivolous problem a person can have, and I’ll just have to deal with it, move on and find other avenues of getting these items, probably at inflated prices. That’s where that prohibition thing comes in. Despite a national ban on alcohol, people still found ways to get stupid drunk any and every time they wanted; they just paid a little more and went through a little more trouble. While I doubt model kit speakeasies will be popping up nationwide, people are still going to find ways to get their kits. Because like Jeff Goldblum’s character in Jurassic Park said: life finds a way.
But it doesn’t have to be like that. Toys — from model kits and action figures to anything else you think of when you think “toy” — shouldn’t be kept from people that want to buy them. There’s no sense in it, no reason for it, and there’s no possible good that can come from it.
When you write about toys, you end up writing mostly for yourself, but sometimes you want to echo your fellow collector’s thoughts as best as you can. Leave a comment and let your voice be heard if you find this entire scenario as wrong as I do. Maybe someone is listening.
Things seem to be different now, literally just picked up a Bandai Tie Interceptor from Hobby Lobby
I will just continue to buy what I like at whatever the price it cost. And as each day passes, it is less and less hasbro products. Haven’t bought any of the 5 poa line. It is a problem that hasbro brought upon them self. I am going to start passing on hasbro figures and buying the Figuarts, mafex, and revoltech. It’s ok hasbro doesn’t need our money, or they have just always acted that way. Or they had the same attitude as George Lucas, “Star Wars fans will buy anything!”
No, if you happen to be in the US or Europe, you will have to get these items via gray market, at a premium price.
They didn’t say you can’t have what you want, you’ll just have to get it somewhere else or differently. They did not restrict your from getting the items, just how you can get the items.
Instead of complaining, why don’t you put up a petition and send it to Disney?
Actually,if you look on Amazon at third party sellers, the kits tend to stay on the $20 to $25 range, just the other day I ordered an EP.IV Stormtrooper kit and it wasn’t over $21, though I would avoid eBay for these kits definitely
They can and can’t. It gets grey. Technically Disney has no influence on “right or resale”. Or the direct third party importer. This is why nobody has ever gone after this before.
BUT
At this point Disney is a HUGE LUCRATIVE License for Bandai. Bandai’s principle consumer base is in Japan, with Third Party exports being pretty much completely untracked by them. (They really don’t know how much of their direct Japanese stuff we buy over here. They have no way of knowing and have never bothered to check). This is why we see such radical changes to lines that seem to be booming in the west, like SH Monsterarts.
But Bandai really wants good relations with Disney. They want to open the door for Bandai America to grab some North American licenses. They are booming in Japan with Star Wars and Iron Man stuff. So they follow Disney’s whim and bring the specialty export merchants to heel. And Bandai has ALOT of influence over AMIAMI or HLJ. Bandai alone probably comprises 30%+ of their product lines, and probably 40-50% of their overseas sales. Any risk to their supply of all Bandai goods will be met with “Yes Sirs”.
And ultimately this comes down to one of three vendors lodging a complaint with Disney and demanding that they enforce their regional licensing. Revell is the most likely candidate (yeah that statement seemed a little too pre prepped and bullshitty), Hasbro who holds the North American and European Action Figure license. Or Lego who now holds a North American and European license for “Buildable Action Figures”.
LOL. Yeah.
The crows in Dumbo…
“Ise done seen just about evrythang when I sees a elephant fly.”
Uh black mouse in white face…???
Reverse psychology works on you, huh?
This is exactly what i was thinking. Hasbro (not Revell) is most likely the one that asked Disney to enforce the license restrictions.
Disney created a black market with this action ….. the only one to suffer will be the final customers…
Hear, hear. NECA, you make this rockin world go round.
This is exactly like hasbro… and since this bans the 6 inch that out perform the black series,
Don’t think hasbro haven’t had a cry about this as well, It looked like bandai were going to force the black series to compete rather than just be poorly scaled up.
If these still get out into asia ebay should have a good stock.
Disney? Racist? That’s never happened.
To me it seems weird that the license Revell signed with George Lucas included the model kit action figures. Did those even exist back in the day? So unless Revell is resigning their license to include products they don’t make (for instance, you wouldn’t call a Hot Wheels an action figure), Disney is patent trolling. If Revell is telling the truth, which after it slams Disney and defends Bandai, I believe it is, it seems like Disney is just strong-arming Bandai.
What it boils to, in so far as it concerns me, I’m stuck with the crappy Hasbro First Order Stormtoopers. Sure, Disney strong-arming companies doesn’t seem great, but I really don’t want to build an army of soldiers who don’t know how to hold their guns.
Just finished the Bandai R2 and R5. They’re beautiful and fit the Hasbro 6” scale perfectly. I ordered 3PO and Vader today. Then I saw this article and realized I lucked out and ordered them just in time!
R2D2 / R5D4 cost me £16 inc p&p from Ebay … took less than 10 days to arrive …
I hope that this doesn’t end up affecting lines like S.H. Figuarts/ETC. from Bandai Japan. It’s pretty damn annoying that these things are already as expensive as they are, and could possibly skyrocket even further.
I don’t buy figures from many American companies because there’s NO pride involved in making them. The plastic quality is garbage, the paint/finish is almost nonexistent, and the sculpt work is as little as they can get away with. It’s a minimize cost to them/maximize price to charge us business over here, and I’m not supporting that with my hard-earned dollar.
Shout-out to companies like NECA who make figures with 1000’s of times the amount of detail of a Hasbro Marvel Legends, and charge the same price. It’s nice to know some companies here still give a damn about the collector, and have pride in the product they put out.
Most of American toys are trash besides Japanesse toys, it´s a shame American brands instead offer better prices and quailty do this low things
I thought capitalism was a free market, I mean if there’s no competition then quality is only going to drop.
Also for those that still want to buy exclusive Japanese stuff you can always search for a shipping manager located in Japan, freight forwarder is the correct term I think. I use one to get exclusive stuff in the US and send it to my country. But you’ll need a international CC though.
First of all, that press release by Revell is the most horrific bit of PR I’ve ever read. I get that it was Revell Germany that issued it, but they have partners in the US that could have proofed it, corrected it, and worded it properly. That reeks of something written by the intern that updates their Facebook page once a week (which is where it was originally posted). A rather unprofessional response to an issue that is clearly going to effect their bottom line.
But besides that, has anyone heard from Disney or Revell USA? The Revell USA Facebook and twitter feeds have been inundated with complaints about their Star Wars products. The closest thing they had to a response was pointing people towards their $300 Millennium Falcon (which is actually Fine Molds).
I still think the majority of the responsibility lay at Revell’s feet. Yes, it’s likely Disney enforcing this license, but all Revell has to do is step up and say, “You know what Mickey, we’re okay with those model kits being sold here. We’re targeting the junior modeller, and they’re targeting the adult modeller.” But, while I have no proof (I’m not in the meetings), I’d have to think that Revell is in no hurry to see things change. They make really poor sci-fi models (their only good ones are from Moebius) and why would they self-inflict pressure to make better ones?
It’s simply a silly decision. All this means is that people will buy them from opportunistic EBay scalpers who will raise the prices to extortionate costs. Less kits will be sold overall, and the only ones that will take a hit will be the paying customers and reputable dealers.
Take a look at the RPF forums, and they are full of glowing praise for the quality and accuracy of these kits, and it’s just a shame that we will not get to experience the fun of building them without first paying a fortune to greedy individuals beforehand.
They will block these amazing model kits because they somehow “conflict” with the rights of other license holders apparently, meanwhile Hasbro and Hot Wheels are allowed to sell, side-by-side on the same goddamn shelves, nearly identical miniature ship replicas. You got shit all fucked up, Disney. We not only crave quality which is severely lacking in a lot of the American-licensed products, but also variety. Let the adult fans import whatever they want and be thankful for the extra money we are throwing at you.
The problem is not that Disney is “protecting” Their licensing agreements the problem is that Disney by selling regional licenses to model kit makers is breaking several International Trade Treaties and also is breaking the ban on Kartel and price agreements.
I hope not. I won’t resort to buying gummy plastic hasbro figures with horrible paint jobs.
That’s the thing. The fact that the Revell kits are relatively simple, lower detail models, whereas Bandai kits are massively more detail accurate. For more toy-oriented people, this may not seem such a big deal, but to the scale model community – guys who will spend hours working on details to get something as close to “real” as possible, this is a incredibly annoying. I’m happy there are simpler kits available for junior modellers to get started on, but for a seasoned builder, these have no appeal to me, so I won’t be buying them anyway. Hope these guys can get the issue sorted out.
That’s sort of how I heard it–Bandai’s “only for sale in Japan” products shouldn’t have been made available to non-Japanese customers to begin with, but the sites selling them did anyway, and now everyone involved (the third-party sites, Bandai, Disney) is just trying to get things back in order. Not doing so leaves one or more parties in violation of an exclusive distribution contract, and can result in getting sued.
So it looks like the only thing harder to find than Bandai Star Wars model kits will be a discussion about the matter that doesn’t immediately devolve into knee-jerk into a “Man, F*CK DISNEY AND HASBRO!” fest.
Screams of racism to me
Absolutely not, demand is a joke. Lets check the X-Men figures that are coming up….oh no X-Men huh?
Remember all that love for Disney and the MCU. Enjoy Spidey in it.
Cruel world and sucks for real fans. I hate DIsney owning my favorite properties because when a company is this powerful…you guessed it, fans are screwed.
I was wondering about Fett…now I know. Prices will go up to us USA guys.
Yep, I’ve been following this story since I first noticed the kits disappearing on AmiAmi. I love the Bandai kits, and the Episode 7 models look like some of the best yet. I definitely want the X-Wing, Stormtrooper, and BB8/R2 sets, and I will get my hands on them one way or another, whether Disney wants my money or not. I’m sure many other collectors will as well.
I hope they can work out a new licensing arrangement so that these kits can be readily available to fans worldwide, because in terms of quality and value, they’re arguably the best Star Wars line ever made.
Has it been mentioned yet that the revell kits are garbage?
And I don’t mean that they are for kids whereas bandai kits are for adults.
Bandai kits are also for kids. They go together like the most rewarding puzzle ever. A puzzle that turns into a deadly accurate snowspeeder when it’s finished.
A lot of items say “only for sale in” a certain region, so I’m sure it’s enforceable. If it’s a small ebay seller or whatever, I’m not sure they’ll do much, however for large stores, they can easily punish them by withholding stock.
I understand what the article is saying, and I had a similar reaction way back in the day when Yamato tried to sell their Macross Plus valkyries domestically and got shutdown by Harmony Gold. But Bandai paid for a license to sell in a different region, and someone else paid for the license to sell in the US. I’m curious what the author’s thinking is on stuff like 3rd party toys, where there’s clearly a demand but also clearly an infringement of IP and no licensing costs paid. At what point is it ok to sell a toy because of demand, ignoring (and not paying) the licensor? (I realize Bandai paid the licensor in this case, but only for distribution in a region, presumably if they wanted distribution elsewhere they’d have to pony up more cash).
🙁
Amiami, Hobbylinkjapan and other foreign import sites have either removed or are in the process of liquidating their current stock and will not be putting any new models up for anyone in the US to order. Those of us who preordered the Boba fett model kit still have him shown in our preorders, but he’s no longer on the site.
It sounds like Disney is just protecting their licensing agreements, if you’re Bandai or Revell that’s exactly what you would want. What I can’t get around is how Disney can enforce this as it’s not Bandai that’s exporting them, but “3rd parties”.
Is it actually illegal for a store to sell an item overseas, when the stores themselves have made no such agreement with Disney to keep it domestic. I really don’t see how Disney can dictate who the stores can sell to. These import shops should think about banding together and pushing back, because it sounds like this would effect their business.
I hope not. The samurai are amazing. Never bought SW figures until those came out. Thought everything else was just cheap junk if listed under $100. Oh well there are always ways around it. If they are banned I wont be buying the american garbage.
Sorry, I’m confused: Does this just affect sites like Amazon, or will foreign sites like amiami no longer be able to ship them to the U.S.?
Right now it doesn’t appear to. They’re still listed on all the import sites.
Does this effect the sh figuarts line as well?
So basically if you’re in the rest of the world you have to buy the Hasbro junk.
NO FAIR!!!
I have recently gotten into the model kits because of this site and the reviews. And the building helps with my at times crippling depression and anxiety, helps keep me focused in a productive way. I’m not too pleased that they are doing away with this. I pre-ordered the forthcoming Boba Fett from Amazon, hoping it’ll still ship, it’s not scheduled to ship until Oct sometime, so I’m not sure what’s going to happen since the cut off is September 20th. This is bad news.
The amusing thing is, whenever I’m told I CAN’T have something, then I start to want it, start to wonder what I’m missing out on, start to seek it out. I had only bought one Bandai model kit, and hadn’t even had the time to assemble it, but the embargo (and this article) now make me want to put it together, and order the others that I didn’t pick up.
I sure wish they’d ban diet and exercise.
Totally agree with you, mate. I know I’ll be getting them elsewhere, a bit more expensive, but I’ll get them for sure. These companies should find a way to meet our needs, that’s business, after all, fill demand with offer.