Toy companies helping dads relive childhood
The Yomiuri Shimbun
Many young fathers are finding themselves wrapped up in '80s
nostalgia, spending time with their children as they recall their
own youth with reissued plastic models, board games and
radio-controlled cars.
These twentysomething and thirtysomething dads are happy they can
finally buy the collectors' items they could not afford during
their childhood.
Toy manufacturers are jumping on the trend, quickly reproducing the
toys and taking the opportunity to make new customers of both the
fathers and their children.
===
Nostalgia right on track
One such toy is Spacewarp, a winding, spiraling, track that can be
assembled to create a variety of courses on which a small, metal
ball is rolled down. The toy, a hit product for Bandai Co., sold 1
million sets in 1980.
In February, the company reissued the toy in three sizes, including
one priced at about 10,000 yen. By October, the toymaker had
shipped 200,000 sets, far exceeding initial expectations. The
successful revival is largely thanks to fathers in their
mid-30s.
Based on market research conducted prior to production, Bandai
rightly predicted that men who could not afford the toy when they
were kids would be highly motivated to buy it.
It was rare even for Bandai, the country's largest toymaker, to
reissue hit toys aimed at men who were boys in the '80s.
But that age group has turned out to be a boon for the toy
manufacturer, with its Mazinger Z toy robot--based on a cartoon of
the same name that aired in the early 1970s--proving to be a major
hit, with 1 million units of the so-called superalloy toy robot
sold since it blasted into toy stores in 1997.
With the success, Bandai last year released a series of model
trains, superalloy Doraemon figures and popular board games from
the '80s. The response to the toys, according to the company, is in
large part because of the retro chic associated with the goods.
Many of the men also said their wives stopped nagging them because
the toys allowed them to spend time with their children.
The company said it intended to expand its line of products geared
toward adults to include new toys as well.
===
(Remote) controlling the market
Last year, leading plastic model maker Tamiya Inc. released its
first electric radio-controlled car in 20 years. The RC car was a
hit with men in their late 20s and 30s, who remember how popular
the toys were in the '80s. Following that success, it released
other RC cars in June. Twenty years ago, an RC model car cost
upward of 30,000 yen, but due to lower prices for parts, some of
the reissues are priced at about 20,000 yen.
Meanwhile, "mini yonku" four-wheel drive model cars, targeted at a
generation a bit younger than the RC model car fans, also have been
very successful. Since April, Tamiya has released limited edition
sets of five mini yonku models every two months, the first two sets
of which sold out completely.
The popularity of RC model cars and mini yonku among children has
waned as children have more toy options now. Behind Tamiya's
decision to revive the RC cars lies a strategy to expand their
customer base by attracting young fathers with the nostalgic toys,
then reaping the benefits when the children latch on to the
hobby.
In December, Tamiya will release the final sets of both the classic
RC cars and mini yonku. In spring, the company is set to unveil a
new lineup of RC cars. The toy manufacturer is planning to market
the new products as "much better than the existing models" and
target the two generations of fans whose hearts it has won with the
retro series.
===
Break out the plastic
The sales of plastic models based on the popular science fiction
anime "Gundam" series also are propped up by men in 20s and
30s.
A group that assembles custom-made Gundam models can even be found
on the Internet. While many men look upon Gundam with a bit of
nostalgia, some are just too busy to put the models together
themselves, so they buy them preassembled.
"We try to meet any kind of order, be it tricking out the Gundam's
legs or making his arms look really massive. Sometimes we have to
make parts by hand. And we don't [ship the models] if they have
smudged paint," said the group's leader, who calls himself
Papamodeller, taking pride in the high level of work by his group,
the Netmodellers.
The majority of their Gundam plastic models are priced between
100,000 yen and 150,000 yen. The group's regular customers include
a number of doctors and managers, as well as salaried workers. The
group receives on average one order every three days, so each
customer has to wait for about six months before receiving his or
her Gundam, even though the group's 15 members split the
orders.
"Those 40 and under don't have any major experience shared with
each other, such as a war or student movement, so they see their
adolescence through products," says culture critic Risaku
Kiridoshi. "Due to social development, our culture has been divided
into many segments, and people in one generation can find its
common denominators only from the environment in which they grew
up.
"The environment is embodied in classic toys and cartoons and
anime. It's quite natural that they are glorified years later. It's
like the feeling you get when you want to pop into an old oden
[Japanese hotchpotch snack] stall in a back alley," he said.
As for toy manufacturers, Kiridoshi, 41, said: "Manufacturers have
an idea, befitting a low-growth era, that it's safer to make the
tried and tested, rather than new products with an uncertain
future.
"As the younger population dwindles, they need to attract both
parents and children to get each household to continue to buy their
products."
(Nov. 18, 2005)
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