Collectible Anime Toys: Price vs. Perceived Value

A while back Hillsy made a connection(1) that I wanted to follow up on. Now, I agree with what he said about our hobbies: during times like these they act as an (albeit temporary) means of escape. Fact is many of us have been laid-off over the past eighteen months due to outsourcing or an unpredictable global economic ‘adjustment’ (or both), but suffice it to say that these are dark days to lose a job, much less be addicted to expensive, niche-market hobbies.

Hillsy pointed to the price of classic toys and toy lines -especially those familiar to fans of old-school anime- and some of the prices on these items are being adjusted to reflect the current economic market -- from my own observation prices on items produced by Takatoku Toys seem to have dropped significantly in the past six months.

To my mind there will always be the issue of value when it comes to collectibles, and in some cases older toys are literally pound for pound a better value for the money.

As just one example let’s take a look at the Mugen Caliber. To many American collectors-cum-anime fans this toy is better known as Autobot character Roadbuster from Hasbro’s first generation Transformers toy line, but in Japan the series from which “Roadbuster” hails (Special Armored Battalion Dorvack) has a rich history among certain old-school fans. Andrew of CollectionDX cites this as one factor in his video review (2) for the recently-released CMs rendition of the Mugen Caliber, the Mokei version. Whereas the Mokei, as deluxe as it is, easily pushes USD $200, the original (and by due to its age I'd think more collectible) Takatoku version of this toy can presently be found for somewhere around that same price.

Nowadays there are countless such examples of value vs. perceived value to choose from, but the timeliness of its release instantly brought the Mugen Caliber to mind.

Notes:
1. Speaking of buyouts...;
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PsychommuSlamFest/message/17587

2. Price and product comparisons
CMs’ Mugen Caliber Mokei version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oK5q7RjGTwo&feature=video_response

Takatoku’s Mugen Caliber:
http://cgi.ebay.com/TAKATOKU-CALIBUR-ROADBUSTER-MUGEN-MIB-POPY_W0QQitemZ11042435\
7800QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item19b5cdfba8&_trksid=p3286.c0.m\
14