Reborn since 1993

Chapter 610 Ignite
Iwamoto Toshi looked up and saw the girl who had opened the collectible Pokémon blind box. She was wearing the student uniform of a Japanese school. She raised her arms excitedly and shook the Pikachu figure in her hand.

The Pokémon blind boxes made by Bandai include basic models such as Pikachu, Squirtle, Bulbasaur, Psyduck, etc., while the collector's models have different shapes, or are dressed in fashionable clothes, and there are also Pokémon poses with different themes, etc.

But the quantity will not be too large. After all, if everyone can buy it easily, who would care about blind boxes!

"Which blind box did you buy?"

"Where did you buy it?"

"Sister, do you want to keep it or sell it to me? I am willing to pay 50,000 yen for it..."

"I'll give you 70,000 yen!"

Surrounded by a group of girls, Sakurai Yuna hugged her collectible figure tightly. Not only the girls, but also the boys were envious when they saw the Pokémon wearing clothes in her arms.

The two women who were competing for the price were obviously working adults. They kept raising the price in order to compete for the collectible figure in the hands of Sakurai Yuna.

Japan is a country where everyone loves anime. Even adults who have started working will still watch anime. There are even production companies that specialize in the adult anime market.

Pokémon is currently on the air, and the ratings are constantly increasing. Naturally, its influence among Japanese female anime fans is also soaring.

Not only in anime, but also in Pokémon-derived games, the proportion of female game fans is far higher than that of other games. In a specific type of Pokémon game released in the Americas, the proportion of female players reached 63%!

There are also counterfeit and pirated goods in other places, but in Japan, as Bandai's base camp, Pokémon peripherals, posters, figures, etc. can only be purchased from Bandai stores.

He saw that the two women had raised the price to 100,000 yen in order to fight for the collectible figure in his hand.

"I won't sell it!"

Sakurai Yuuna hugged the figurine in her arms and said hurriedly. Hearing this, the two women reluctantly looked at the figurine again before leaving. They didn't know how many blind boxes they had to open before they could get a collectible figurine. Even if it was a limited edition, they would be satisfied...

In the rest area, Sakurai Yuna took a look at the "Figure Gift Recycling Store" next to her and wanted to ask how much this collectible Pokémon in her hand was worth, but in the end she couldn't help it, she wanted to keep the figure!

Now blind box figures are becoming a topic of communication among girls at the Nihon School where Yuuna Sakurai is. When a group of sisters get together, the things they talk about the most are Pokémon and figures. If you haven't bought a figure, you can't get a word in!

Anyone who opens a limited edition, collector's edition, rare edition, or other Pokémon blind box will become the center of attention. After school, if someone has a collectible figure hanging on his or her schoolbag, he or she will become the center of attention and the object of envy wherever he or she goes.

Iwamoto Toshi watched Sakurai Yuna leave. He didn't care how much the figure was worth. Instead, he looked at the small shop with a sign that said "Figure Gift Recycling Shop" with a serious look.

Bandai’s store layout allows users to slowly open the blind box after purchasing it, or they can open it directly on the spot in the rest area set up nearby. If they can find a limited edition figure, they will immediately become the focus of the entire place.

The feeling of opening a surprise blind box and enjoying the envious gazes of the audience is no less than catching a 20-pound black carp in public, or buying a lottery ticket from a lottery shop and winning 200,000 yuan on the spot. The feeling of being a saint in front of others cannot be described in words, but it is definitely the highlight of life!

I probably won't forget the feeling I had today for the rest of my life. It was like being the top student in a high school exam or riding a horse through the streets!
Iwamoto Toshio, an old hand, saw at a glance that Bandai's layout was clearly a manipulation of human nature. Anyone with a little vanity would probably not be able to escape this!
However, what concerned Iwamoto Toshi more was the inconspicuous model gift recycling shop. He had seen this thing in another place, the Nihon Pinball Room!
Gambling is not allowed in Japan on the surface. Of course, this is only on the surface. In fact, Japan's pinball rooms are gambling, and it is a project that everyone can participate in. The money that Japanese people spend on it every year is several times more than that in Las Vegas.

In order to avoid those rules and regulations, the prizes won in the Japanese pinball room are just some props, but with the props, you can exchange them for money at the redemption shop next door.

Although this trick is equivalent to taking off your pants to fart, and anyone with a discerning eye knows what's going on, the Japanese still use this trick to avoid gambling risks.

Toshio Iwamoto saw that Bandai's Pop Mart blind box also learned this trick. If Bandai directly recycles the collectible blind box of the figures, wouldn't that be equivalent to gambling?
However, recycling collectible figures through the figure gift shop recycling store next door has nothing to do with Bandai. That is only done by figure enthusiasts and second-hand figure dealers. What does it have to do with Bandai?
Iwamoto Toshi feels that this recycling can also indirectly stabilize the price of Bandai's collectible figures. If this kind of figure gift shop recycles a collectible figure and offers 10,000 yen, then other individual enthusiasts will have to pay more than 20,000 yen to buy it! In this case, the collection value of the figures will continue to increase, and the transaction price will continue to soar, and eventually there will be sky-high price figures trading cases, attracting more people to enter the market to buy figures!
It might even attract gamblers from the Japanese pinball room to buy blind boxes to win big with a small investment...

Iwamoto Toshi feels that Bandai's Pop Mart blind box, this industrial chain, is already quite mature and obviously carefully designed. As long as the recycling price of the collectible figures does not collapse, the basic figures can be issued at will, which is even more exaggerated than printing Japanese yen!
Printing Japanese yen requires an anchor, either gold or the US dollar, and it is also necessary to consider market reactions, stock prices, housing prices and other aspects. But blind boxes don’t need these. As long as the market price of the collector’s edition remains stable, the basic blind boxes can be sold well as long as there are still people buying them!

Of course, if Bandai doesn't want to destroy the market in just one or two years like the electronic pet machines, it must be more cautious and control the frequency of cutting the leeks. If it is cut too many times, the leeks will not be able to bear it.

Toshio Iwamoto stayed in the Bandai store for more than half an hour. He saw that the buyers in the store almost never stopped coming in, and the store was always full.

When he picked out a blind box, he saw a man going back and forth seven or eight times, constantly shuttling between the rest area and the store. Every time he made a purchase, he would go to the rest area to open it, and he would leave reluctantly only after his pocket money was used up.

Walking out of the store, Iwamoto Toshio saw that the number of people queuing outside waiting to enter the store to buy blind boxes had not decreased, but instead increased to more than a hundred people.

Standing outside the store, he took a look at the blind box in his hand, then at the Pokémon poster on the door, and finally at the Bandai sign. Iwamoto Toshi turned and left. He knew that Nakamura Suev had a grudge and Bandai could not go bankrupt!
……

"President, I need to tell you that the new project that Bandai is cooperating with Dongling Hi-Tech is a blind box, a Pop Mart blind box, which will completely change the entire Japanese toy market!"

The next day, as soon as he arrived at Nippon Telephone and Telegraph Company, Iwamoto Toshi went straight to Nakamura Wei's office.

After hearing about what happened to Iwamoto Toshio at Bandai's Akihabara store yesterday, Nakamura Sue also showed a look of surprise on his face.

Then he opened his computer and saw the stock price of Bandai, and Nakamura was stunned.

Iwamoto Toshi took a step forward and when he saw Bandai's stock price on the screen, he couldn't help but open his mouth wide. Not long after the Tokyo Stock Exchange opened, Bandai's stock price had already soared by 21%, setting the highest single-day increase in the history of the Japanese stock market!
Of course, this is also related to the fact that Bandai's stock price has been very low in recent years, but Bandai's growth today has not ended and it is still making history. It is obvious that major Japanese investment institutions are scrambling to buy Bandai's stock price, and Bandai stock chips on the market have almost been swept away.

Nakamura Sue looked at the screen and saw the Bandai stock price was constantly rising. Besides being surprised, he had only one thought in his mind: was Bandai's blind box project really given by Dongling Hi-Tech?

"The ratings of Pokémon produced by Bandai reached 17.7% yesterday, setting a new record high.

People from Bandai's animation production department announced that Bandai has decided to make Pokémon anime series! "

"Influenced by the popularity of Pokémon, the Pokémon theme song "Aim to Be a Pokémon Master" album was also released in Tokyo yesterday, with sales exceeding 12,000 albums on the first day!"

"Bandai's Pop Mart blind box was first launched in Tokyo and earned 120 million yen in a single day, about million US dollars!"

“Bandai Marketing Manager Nae Ikezawa announced that after the Bandai Toy Show completes its tour in Japan, it will travel to Siam, Singapore and other places!”

Inside SoftBank, Masayoshi Son was also watching the sudden increase in news about Bandai on TV. The focus of Japan's financial and investment industries today was undoubtedly Bandai.

When no one expected it, Bandai suddenly exploded. Masayoshi Son also did not expect that Bandai, which was previously said by Japanese media to be on the verge of closing down, would suddenly explode like a chicken with blood injected.

"At the opening today, Bandai's stock price surged 21%. Many securities companies including Nomura, including Hong Kong, Singapore and other Southeast Asian investment institutions, as well as Wall Street and other investment institutions, announced an increase in Bandai's stock price and next quarter's revenue expectations."

After reporting the news, Masayoshi Son saw a scene on TV showing a large group of people queuing in front of a Bandai store.

“This is the scene in front of Bandai’s largest store in Osaka. There are more than 400 people queuing up, and the store is completely packed!
But this may not be the peak period yet. We can see that among the people queuing, there are not only teenagers, but also many adults and housewives, which shows that the target audience of Bandai figures is undergoing a huge change..."

(End of this chapter)