China’s first sci-fi mecha movie released the mecha model once once more “breaks the circle”
The post-80s mecha toy “collection dream”
Mecha model toys were all the rage in the 1980s, and since then it’s been an ongoing hobby for many. Recently, with the release of China’s first sci-fi mecha film “Tomorrow’s War”, the mecha has once once more “broken the circle”, and the e-commerce platform has further evolved into a national trend combination of “national brand car + national brand mecha”. The number of active consumers has exceeded 30 million, and the Chinese mecha market has gradually moved from a niche to a public.
Domestic mech fever
The details of the mecha model show the elements of national style
At the Taobao Maker Festival in 2022, Wuling Hongguang, the “National God Car”, turned into a mecha toy, and the combination of “National Brand Car + National Brand Mecha” attracted enough attention. The designer who made the domestic car into a deformed mecha and gave the character connotation is called Xiaohan. Previously, he and his team had also made fighter jets such as the J-20 and Wuzhi 10 into mecha toys.
In Xiaohan’s studio, the toy cabinet that occupies one wall is filled with all kinds of mecha models, from Transformers to Gundam to Pacific Rim, with different roles and sizes. These are the “standards” for mecha enthusiasts.
Xiaohan is a post-85s generation, and the protagonists of the cartoon “Mobile Suit” Gundam and Transformers are his childhood memories. He believes that the reason why foreign brands have a larger audience is because the added value behind the relevant IP is very high, and it has also experienced a whole generation of precipitation and accumulation, while the domestic industry has just started, and practitioners need to maintain awe , Shen Shen said, “Being a mecha brand is not something that can be achieved overnight.”
“There has always been a shortage of people who love mecha art in China, but there is a shortage of influential Chinese mecha art IP.” Sun Shiqian, a well-known mecha artist in China and director of the Installation Art Department of the Yuanmingyuan Research Center of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, told the Beijing Youth Daily reporter that compared with For the mecha cultures of Europe, America and Japan that have developed for fifty or sixty years, Chinese mechas started relatively late, and the mecha styles and styles that are easy to develop and form systems have been developed almost. The combination of traditional Chinese style and mecha model will become a major direction of the original design of the mecha circle.
Talking regarding some “national style elements” in the Guochao mecha, Xiaohan took out the J-20 “Black Flash” model from his showcase during an interview, and skillfully transformed the fighter model into a character shape in his hand. Pointing to the wings on the back of the characters, he said that there were actually two wings here. Later, referring to the flags on the backs of military generals in Peking Opera, the wings were changed to six.
Chinese mecha market
High-end collectible toys will usher in an explosive period
Ye Lei, who was still in his junior year, loved the two J-20 series he started. One was the “Black Ribbon” that flew for the first time in 2011, and the other had a sci-fi split camouflage paint. He is also looking forward to the launch of a deformed mecha of the “Nanchang” Type 055 destroyer. He said, “The current domestic mecha market is actually mixed, with great differences in workmanship and price, but I still have expectations for future domestic original brands.”
Although it has a group of loyal fans, the mecha culture in the past few years is still in the niche category in terms of scale. Now, that state is changing.
Since the 1990s, foreign IP brands have cultivated a market for collectible toys, including mecha models.
From 2010 to 2019, China’s per capita GDP exceeded 4,000 US dollars, collectible toys entered the growth period, and local collectible toy brands appeared. Since China’s per capita GDP exceeded 10,000 US dollars in 2019, the domestic collectible toy market has ushered in a full-scale explosion period with blind boxes as the main category.
According to the “China Collectible Toys Industry Market Insight Report 2021” released by Analysys, collectible toys such as mechas will relay blind boxes in the future to expand the space of China’s toy market.
In the next five years, the overall growth rate of collectible toys will reach 35%, the market size will exceed 150 billion yuan in 2025, and the core consumer group will exceed 100 million people. Among them, male consumers will contribute the largest increase in this part of the toy market.
Today, the number of active mecha consumers on Taobao and Tmall has reached regarding 30 million.
The post-90s Wang Jinlong is a serious mecha fan. He told the Beiqing Daily reporter that offline channels were the main channel for many mecha users to “enter the pit”, but before purchasing, players mainly learned regarding collectible toys through the information released on the online platform, such as physical pictures, work materials, New product launches and out-of-the-box reviews are what they focus on when they get product information.
Many insiders in the trendy toy industry believe that China’s current stage is highly similar to the US and Japan markets in the 1980s, and high-end collectible toys will usher in an explosive period.
Alloy Mecha
Models are “fired” at high prices
With the growing number of domestic players, some “explosive models” and scarce products have become hard to find, and their value has naturally soared. “The most popular model in the mecha circle is Gundam, and the Gundam of 1,000 yuan becomes 1,800 yuan in one ‘hands down’, and this does not include the cost of accessories such as lamp sets. In addition, relying on film and television animation copyright puppets are famous For a certain brand, the pre-order price easily doubled when it was the most popular, and the circulation price might even reach 5 digits.”
Zhang Jingshan, a post-00s player, told the Beiqing Daily reporter that some people would even imitate investment products in the downstream of the transaction chain and use some monopolistic tactics to create the illusion of a shortage of commodities and inflate prices inflated. In the face of this situation, ordinary mecha players are often powerless and can only watch the price getting higher and higher.
The owner of the mecha shop, Wang Cheng, has bought Transformers and other mecha models since elementary school, and has placed thousands of mecha models at home. He feels that the current mecha circle is not as “technical” as it used to be. In the early years, Wang Cheng would discuss the appearance, material, production details, etc. of the mecha model with several close friends in the mecha circle, and exchanged experiences. Everyone had a very “iron” relationship and had a passion for mecha. Later, he found that the wind direction was gradually changing. More and more people in the mecha circle focused on the price. We media and manufacturers took advantage of the situation to publicize. Model A is regarded as a financial management tool and comes in with the idea of making money.
“Transformers in the 1990s used to cost 200 yuan and 300 yuan, but now they are at least 10,000 yuan.” Wang Cheng told the Beiqing Daily reporter that this kind of skyrocketing value because of rarity is understandable, but some mecha models have hype. Suspected.
Wang Cheng said: “For example, a new mecha that was released in December this year has gone from 10,000 yuan to 50,000 yuan.” He said that many alloy mecha models will be sold frantically and encounter “explosive models”. , The shopkeepers engaged in the mecha toy business cannot buy directly from the manufacturer at the original price, and need to buy at a high price from the so-called agent or scalper, which can only be paid by the player in the end.
Mecha consumer group
Post-80s “revenge consumption” for feelings
The Beiqing Daily reporter learned that there are two main consumer groups for mecha models: one is the post-80s generation who have regained their childhood dreams, and the other is Generation Z (born 1995 to 2010) known as “Internet aborigines”. people).
Li Yuanhao, who was obsessed with Transformers at the age of 6, bought his own Transformers model following 32 years. Later, he found the complex structure of the mecha toy, which stimulated his interest in exploring and playing, so he took his 4-year-old son to relive the 98-episode animation of the old version of “Transformers”. Li Yuanhao, who is regarding to put together the characters of Transformers, said with a smile, “This is a debt owed when I was a child.”
Li Yuanhao felt that he was not only paying for his feelings, but the assembly process of Transformers also greatly improved his and his son’s hands-on ability.
Unlike players born in the 1980s, for Generation Z players, mecha models no longer need to be obtained by “retaliatory consumption” when they grow up. Wang Jinlong came into contact with the Gundam series of anime when he was in high school and “entered the pit”. Today, he collects his favorite mecha models on an entire wall of his home. His collection includes well-known models of the Gundam series and various types of mecha models such as the No. 0 and No. 1 machines in “Evangelion”, and the models will be “collected” according to the role.
Wang Jinlong said that when encountering a particularly popular mecha model, it is not available in stock at all, and it takes several months or even years to get the goods following booking. “A mecha called ‘Huanglong Baiqi’. I waited until 2016 to get the real thing in 2018. After I got it, it was really cool. I like it. I don’t feel anything following waiting for a long time.”
Mecha characters have become the main characters of many cartoons, such as mini-spy team, steel flying dragon, etc., which are loved by young children, which has led to the trend of younger mecha toys.
After Zhang Jingshan came into contact with the anime “Macro Fortress” at the age of 14, he began to fantasize regarding his “mecha world”. He has always felt that the mecha contains a complex. Because he grew up in a teacher’s family, his parents strictly controlled him. Zhang Jingshan did not have the space and funds to pay for his hobby until college. “At present, I have bought a dozen models of mechas.”
Zhang Jingshan feels that the most amazing thing regarding mecha is that it becomes a bond that connects people’s emotions. When playing mecha together, I can feel the connection between friends.
During college, because there was not enough space in the dormitory to store the mecha models, Zhang Jingshan would sometimes store some of the mecha models at his friends’ houses. Friends cherished those models more than himself, and would try to “hide” them to prevent them from being damaged by cats at home. , he said, “I was very moved at that time, and I felt that we were so ‘similar in smell’.” Because the mechas carried their infinite imagination regarding the future world.
(In the text, Xiaohan, Wang Cheng, Li Yuanhao, Wang Jinlong, Zhang Jingshan are pseudonyms)
Outlook
Domestic toy consumption has huge room for growth
“Pacific Rim” with mecha as its main selling point has achieved a high box office of nearly 700 million yuan in 2013, when the overall Chinese film market has not really exploded; in “Pacific Rim 2”, a lot of Chinese elements, indicating that the popularity of mecha culture in China is not low, and there is sufficient space for development.
In the past two years, variety shows with technology as the main element have also emerged, which has lowered the audience’s acceptance threshold for mecha culture to a certain extent.
According to public information, “Iron Armored Ambition” and “This! Variety shows such as “Iron Armor” have been widely praised following their launch, and they have scored more than 7.7 points on Douban, which has more than 660 million Internet hits so far.
“Tomorrow’s War”, which is being shown in theaters this year, is called “China’s first sci-fi mecha cool film” because of the outstanding design of the mecha and the robot, the smooth action and fighting, and the excellent audio-visual experience.
According to research statistics from consulting firm Euromonitor International, the average household toy spending in China in 2018 was 268.5 yuan, compared with 2,153 yuan in the US market and 829.5 yuan in Brazil.
This means that domestic toy consumption has huge growth space, and this part of the space is first filled by collectible toys.
This version of the article / reporter Zhu Jianyong intern Sun Zhe