Pokemon are quite a marketing item. It seems where ever their likenesses are placed there is money to be made. Especially if it is Pikachu, the little yellow rat like looking one. Now we are on the cusp of seeing more physical versions of some of our favorite Pokemon.
Meg Construx are planning on releasing more licensed character building sets. They already have the Halo, Masters of the Universe, Alien, etc licenses available in minifigure packages at most retailers. Now they are planning on expanding into the Pokemon world with basic sets such as Pikachu up to more complicated and time-consuming sets such as Snorlax or Charizard.
What is cool about these Mega Construx sets is that they come with a Pokeball, which happens to have the pegs on the top, so you can use the ball as a display base as well.
It is interesting how these building block things go. Lego seems to grab the big movie licenses and companies like Mega Construx go for gaming and such. I see one set of building blocks at stores like Dollar General that feature the Transformers license. I have thought about picking one up to see how their work feels but have not done so yet.
I did pick up a Mega Construx Masters of the Universe He-Man and Skeletor earlier this week. These two seem to be the harder to find figures in the Mega Construx series (series one of that line, I believe). I am a big fan of building blocks, even bought a set of He-Man and Skeletor minifigures from Aliexpress early last year ($0.80 for both, shipped from China, was too good to pass up).
These Mega Construx Pokemon figures look cool and are close to the characters they are trying to emulate. These are not minifigures, instead they are blocks connecting to make the characters.
Source: Nintendo Soup and Mega Construx website
In the local video game store, it is half filled with Pop figurines of all kinds. Someone is 3D printing this stuff and making a fortune!!
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If you don't mind going the unofficial route, you can get most of these much cheaper on sites like Aliexpress. They don't currently have the Pokemon figures but they have plenty of other Lego licensed properties for about 1/4 the price it costs locally. That is if you don't mind waiting weeks and don't care about legality - you just want the set on your shelf.
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I saw that nanoblocks have a bunch of official Pokémon sets. Although I have no idea if they are official or not but they aren't cheap ($15). But Pokémon just sells their ip to almost everyone. Which can be a viable strategy, since whatever they make ends up turning a profit.
I know some of the cheaper unofficial sets are really plentiful here in Korea where they sell them in subways for like 3-5 bucks. They have every ip known haha including pokémon.
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I think, much like video games, the more expensive collector's pieces are going to be more likely to be copied and see bootlegs released. I am guilty of grabbing a bootleg of a game or toy I wanted but could not see parting with $100+ for an original.
I think where the IP owners are messing up is by not licensing out "cheaper" versions once the initial agreement expires. Like Konami and the PC Engine Super CD-ROM version of Castlevania. That version gets $400+ on eBay, used. If I was Konami, I would be producing newer releases, or licensing it out to someone to do, and capitalizing on that interest in the game. They don't and I don't understand why.
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I know at least in Korea that ip's are basically meaningless. Fakes from China are plentiful and small businesses don't care.
Early last year the Korean government raided a illegal Pokémon stuffed animal ring. Leading to over 500,000 stuffed animals seized.
In Japan its a bit better but not much. Ip's in Asia aren't nearly as strong as they are in the United States. Which means companies here take advantage of that. Which could be a small reason why larger companies are a little more afraid to deal with cheaper manufacturers.
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Very much could be. Still, some money from a license getting a second life in the marketplace is better than no money from a license getting a second life in the marketplace. At least, I think so but I don't run a multimillion dollar company either. Lol
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