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Kaiju Paint Party 2018 Sales Day Snaps & Mark Nagata's Take on the Chinese Buying Market


(Above snap via @quackmaxx)

A selection of images for the recent "Kaiju Paint Party" concluded at Design Festa Gallery in Japan, along with a heartfelt impressions from Mark Nagata of Max Toy Company of a phenomenon happening on the toy-scene in recent times - something that I've suspected and heard in very hushed whispers about, but not seen in person, nor "heard" openly ... until now.

A sharp salute to Mark for sharing in his most recent newsletter, which I had seeked permission to repost/quote here in this post.

Scroll thru for peeks and words about the exploding China toy-buying market.


MARK NAGATA: "Well back from a week in Tokyo and our Tokyo Paint Party ! I never know how these events will turn out, but we had a great, steady turn out all day on Saturday for the painting portion. Many first time trying out the airbrush or just seeing these types of toys!"


(Above: Sunguts setting up his sales table display)

MARK NAGATA: "Sunday was a sales day and we had a mad rush the first few hours ... I'm not sure what i should say about this .. haha... as many of you may (or not) know, the Chinese market is currently where many of the sales are coming from. A lot of the sales are not from fans directly but middlemen (or women) who take a picture of said items and either send to customers or post them up to some web sites in China for sale. They wait for an order and than swoop in to buy. The problem with this new way of buying involves language and cultural issues."




MARK NAGATA: "We had a VERY small space to sell and only could let about 5-6 people in at a time and let them have 5 minutes to buy before asking them to leave to let the next group in. But because of the whole process of picture taking etc many lingered much longer waiting to make their online sales... anyways several refused to leave or tried to sneak back in, ahead of others waiting in line. I think thats sorta normal for them but clashes with Japanese style (ie waiting in line and not jumping ahead etc)."


MARK NAGATA: "I've been in this business almost 20 years now and in my opinion this type of buying can not sustain the toy market. While the short term there is profit to be made ( for some toy makers ), without a direct connection between Artist and Fan, I feel there's a big disconnect. If you're looking to make long term fans this won't help. Besides the lack of connection, the fan in China ends up paying 2-4 times the retail as well.

Whats the solution ? Haha, I don't know ... but to me the whole system is messed up, but I know, it is what it is. I think it helps if a Artist can go to China to make in person connections but you will still run into the same online brokers ( ok flippers ) But to be honest I'm at the end of my toy career and it will be up to the younger toy guys to weather these trends.

We will do another Paint show next year 2019 ;-) ... For me showing people how to paint was the Fun part ;-)

Mark Nagata" (Instagram / Twitter)





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