Trivia / S.H.Figuarts

• Development Hell:
  • Quite a few, depressingly enough. Gosei Knight was revealed in mid-2010 and finally announced for release ... in April 2012. As a web exclusive. Some don't even get that far, such as the Kamen Rider Saga prototype that was shown and then shelved for reasons unknown.
  • The DBZ sub-line in general, particularly Vegeta, Son Goku and the effect parts.
  • Anything Sentai related nowadays due to Tamashii discontinuing the line. Figures include the remainder of Jetman, Rio and Mele, Dekaranger SWAT mode, the rest of Gorangers AND Baseball Mask plus many others. But they are trying again with a figure of Zenkaiser and an updated Gokai Red for 2022.
  • This appears to happen quite regularly; something will be shown at a Tamashii event and then either disappear completely after it, or pop up months later with almost no foreshadowing. It's probably based on potential market demand.
• If a Kamen Rider series has a lot of Riders, expect them all to appear at shows. Don't expect them all to release. Saber has a huge cast, and still hasn't released Durendal despite releasing Sabela for him to go with, while Revice has yet to have its bike for the Rider to ride release or Destream despite the show's family theme and the fact that the rest of the Igurashis have been released.
• Dueling Products: Occasionally, with Figma (the most prominent comparisons being the Kamen Rider Ryuki/Dragon Knight, Accel World, Jujutsu Kaisen and Chainsaw Man lines). When it comes to live-action western properties, MAFEX.
• No Export for You:
  • In the early days, anything that is a Tamashii Web Exclusive, including the Tamashii Festival Expo sets. Unless you're willing to use a middleman service, that is. Subverted later on when Bandai Spirits started opened localized Premium Bandai shops, including the one operated by Bluefin in the US.
  • A special aversion: to promote the airing of Power Rangers Samurai, Bandai had the SHF Shinken Red and Shinken Gold sold in Toys R Us retailers; and yes, they're being sold in the original packaging and labeled as Shinkenger figures rather than being repacked and called Samurai figures. (Although, according to rumor, there is some resistance from the higher-ups in Japan to having the rest of the team make it stateside, presumably because the others are Web Shop Exclusive, and to prevent reverse-importing.) Finally averted for the other 4, but as part of a Power Rangers Samurai San Diego Comic-Con exclusive set which gives them metallic colors.
  • Averted with Black Condor which Bluefin managed to release stateside, with Akaranger released months later.
  • The imported figures of Red Hawk (Which now comes with English manuals and packaging for the western release) from Choujin Sentai Jetman don't include the Jet Winger accessory from Hikonin Sentai Akibaranger, likely because of some rights issue with the show.
    • The same goes for the imported figures of Tyranno Ranger and Dragon Ranger (released stateside as the Mighty Morphin' Red and Green Rangers) and Kiba Ranger (released stateside as the Mighty Morphin' White Ranger) as they do not have their "Powerful Rangers" belts and colors nor the Akibaranger logo respectively.
  • Thankfully averted for Ptera Ranger. She's a Tamashii Web Exclusive in Japan, but is a standard release in the US (since, of course, she's also the Mighty Morphin' Pink Ranger).
  • The MCU Figuarts (featuring characters from Iron Man 3, Avengers: Age of Ultron and Captain America: Civil War) are Japan-only, due to Hasbro's monopoly over 6" Marvel action figures and their friendly relationship with Takara Tomy, Bandai's biggest rival. Same with the Star Wars SH Figuarts, and oddly enough too, the Figuarts ZERO figures of Anna and Elsa (Despite the fact Hasbro has nothing to do with them until later when they got the toy rights). Again, to get them, requires a middleman or special online shops.
    • Recently averted as Bluefin announced that a special release of the SH Figuarts Iron Man Mark 6 armor will soon hit the US, with a Hall of Armor display included!
    • The reason why later Marvel SH Figuarts are just now being released in the US was due to adding extra stuff in the figure sets to differentiate them from Hasbro's Marvel Legends line, like adding the aforementioned Hall of Armor displays for later Iron Man SH Figuarts and flame effects for the Doctor Strange one. However, this also has a con- because of these additions, their prices jacked up as well, with some of them almost costing by a hundred dollars!
  • Currently, the only figurine franchise that's part of the Figuarts line not being released by Bluefin in the US are those connected to Pretty Cure.
  • With the exception of Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan, certain Tamashi Web exclusive figures based on characters from the more obscure series are not available on localized Premium Bandai stores in Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand^note Localized stores in those countries are operate on the e-commerce site Shopee, as opposed to operate on separate websites like other localized stores, forcing third-party shops in those countries to pickup the slack.
• Screwed by the Lawyers: The Amazing Spider-Man figure released as part of the Spider-Man: No Way Home series lacks an unmasked head sculpt, which the Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man and Integrated Suit Spider-Man, the figures it's intended to go with, do not. While it was announced with one, it was taken out of the final release, seemingly because Bandai couldn't come to an agreement over use of Andrew Garfield's likeness.
• Show Accuracy/Toy Accuracy: For western media, Bandai will usually be working off concept art and trailer footage, and if that changes or they misinterpret something, it will be fairly noticeable. A prime example is the Spider-Man 2099 from Across the Spider-Verse, who has a figure noticeably paler than he appears in the film (along with a more gaunt face), due to Bandai seemingly assuming he'd be pale based on the lighting of some trailer footage, when he's meant to have tan skin.