NightExtinctionIntro:
It is a common recurring theme, recent Nendoroids tend to have fewer accessories compared to the past. Looking at an upcoming Nendoroid, Wiz, that I was greatly looking forward to, she felt hollow and incomplete. Her only accessories as far I could tell, was a teapot which mind-bogglingly came with no cup (where is she supposed to pour tea??), and a simple plastic ice effect. It got me thinking, how do we determine if a Nenodriod has a sufficient number of good accessories?
Elements of a good accessory:
Personally, I found that a good accessory can be judged based on 4 aspects.
Firstly, the accessory is part of the character that omission would make the character incomplete. Common examples include personal weapons or things associated with the character.
Example: Megumin's wizard staff, Yagami Light's notebook.
Secondly, the accessory while not part of the character, helps enhance the character by supporting their behavior or characteristics. Example: Darkness's damaged armor can either be used to highlight her M tendencies or her role as a crusader receiving battle damage. Moreover, this particular accessory also helps recreate an iconic moment of her in joy from being attacked by cabbage monsters.
Slight NSFW (Jiggle physics)View spoiler
Thirdly, the accessory is pivotal in recreating iconic moments from the source material.
Example: An iconic moment of Komekko wanting to eat a cat (Chomosuke)
It would not have been possible for Komekko to attempt to eat a cat if there was no cat.
Fourthly, the accessory is versatile and can be used with other nendo, be it from the same or different source material.
Example 1: Darkness's cabbage monsters. These monsters can interact with the other characters from the same source material such as them running away or attacking them.
Example 2: Hiei's tea cake stand and table set. These accessories can be used with any Nendos to create an afternoon tea session for instance.
Just like Legos, when the number of accessories increases, there exists a greater number of possibilities limited only by imagination.
A business perspective:
It is to no one surprise that having more accessories would cost more resources to make, R&D costs and production costs for instance.
There could be multiple reasons for a reduction in accessories;
Shrinkflation, where rising costs including materials result in the reduction of the product to maintain selling price and profits.
Profit maximization, where costs are reduced to maximize profits.
Reducing accessories may not affect their profits significantly because of 3 reasons.
Firstly, the lack of available substitutes, as there are no viable alternatives for instance where multiple nendoriods of the same character from different manufacturers exist. This would not apply if one considers brands like elCOCO's Dform+ line as substitutes for Nendoroid. ENTRY #321167
Sunk cost fallacy/Completionist, for instance, if the set for an IP tends to be collected as a whole, there might be less impact on sales even when reducing accessories for latter figures.
Value of IPs, if a character or an IP is highly desired, sales wouldn't be affected significantly by fewer accessories.
The irony is that popular IPs could receive fewer accessories as they are already more desired while less popular IPs would need more accessories to entice purchases.
To conclude, while there may be reasons for unsatisfactory accessories, it defeats the purpose of a Nenodoriod which is the flexibility and creative display.
If accessories are lacking..
I would love to hear your thoughts on Nendoroid accessories as well as which Nendoroid has the best, worst, or most unique, etc.. accessories in the comments below.
It is a common recurring theme, recent Nendoroids tend to have fewer accessories compared to the past. Looking at an upcoming Nendoroid, Wiz, that I was greatly looking forward to, she felt hollow and incomplete. Her only accessories as far I could tell, was a teapot which mind-bogglingly came with no cup (where is she supposed to pour tea??), and a simple plastic ice effect. It got me thinking, how do we determine if a Nenodriod has a sufficient number of good accessories?
Elements of a good accessory:
Personally, I found that a good accessory can be judged based on 4 aspects.
Firstly, the accessory is part of the character that omission would make the character incomplete. Common examples include personal weapons or things associated with the character.
Example: Megumin's wizard staff, Yagami Light's notebook.
Secondly, the accessory while not part of the character, helps enhance the character by supporting their behavior or characteristics. Example: Darkness's damaged armor can either be used to highlight her M tendencies or her role as a crusader receiving battle damage. Moreover, this particular accessory also helps recreate an iconic moment of her in joy from being attacked by cabbage monsters.
Slight NSFW (Jiggle physics)View spoilerThirdly, the accessory is pivotal in recreating iconic moments from the source material.
Example: An iconic moment of Komekko wanting to eat a cat (Chomosuke)
It would not have been possible for Komekko to attempt to eat a cat if there was no cat.
Fourthly, the accessory is versatile and can be used with other nendo, be it from the same or different source material.
Example 1: Darkness's cabbage monsters. These monsters can interact with the other characters from the same source material such as them running away or attacking them.
Example 2: Hiei's tea cake stand and table set. These accessories can be used with any Nendos to create an afternoon tea session for instance.
Just like Legos, when the number of accessories increases, there exists a greater number of possibilities limited only by imagination.
A business perspective:
It is to no one surprise that having more accessories would cost more resources to make, R&D costs and production costs for instance.
There could be multiple reasons for a reduction in accessories;
Shrinkflation, where rising costs including materials result in the reduction of the product to maintain selling price and profits.
Profit maximization, where costs are reduced to maximize profits.
Reducing accessories may not affect their profits significantly because of 3 reasons.
Firstly, the lack of available substitutes, as there are no viable alternatives for instance where multiple nendoriods of the same character from different manufacturers exist. This would not apply if one considers brands like elCOCO's Dform+ line as substitutes for Nendoroid. ENTRY #321167
Sunk cost fallacy/Completionist, for instance, if the set for an IP tends to be collected as a whole, there might be less impact on sales even when reducing accessories for latter figures.
Value of IPs, if a character or an IP is highly desired, sales wouldn't be affected significantly by fewer accessories.
The irony is that popular IPs could receive fewer accessories as they are already more desired while less popular IPs would need more accessories to entice purchases.
To conclude, while there may be reasons for unsatisfactory accessories, it defeats the purpose of a Nenodoriod which is the flexibility and creative display.
If accessories are lacking..
I would love to hear your thoughts on Nendoroid accessories as well as which Nendoroid has the best, worst, or most unique, etc.. accessories in the comments below.
Comments22
Yeah, I was suprised they didn't changed Anyas height a little.
ITEM #549399 is a little shorter than Shinichi and Kaito Kid nendos. Not much, but you can see it. Even if dimensions on mfc show the same height. Can't say if Haibara is shorter too, I don't have her, sadly.
I don't need a lot of accessories with nendos. Something important for character is good, same with faceplate.
I have issue with how they make some of them. ITEM #772300 is a nightmare. Arms are falling all the time if moved a little, bangs on the sides too.
With regards to the podium being unshaded, take my thoughts with a spoon of salt, but perhaps you could try applying shading with for example tamiya weathering kit. I'm looking into seeing if it's possible to shade some of my prize figures with a weathering kit in the future too.
Planning on just repainting the thing entirely (want it to be a more reddish brown w a glossy wood varnish kinda finish), but yeah I think my friend uses those when painting her gunpla??
Pretty sure she's recommended them to me before, so they can't be too bad lol. If that doesn't work for your prize fig repaints tho going with a solvent like Mr. Super clear and chalk pastels usually does the trick for figures
Partially unrelated: but this (ITEM #330985) takes the cake for worst nendoroid i own in my book. Lackluster faces, soulless empty expressions that don't match anything but some weirdo's interpretation of NES sprites, minimal accessories (but at the same time at least they're important ones for the character.)
Lack of parts, generic faceplates, and just any of the power this character can display. Big IP, but forgettable release.
Boo, sir, boo! ;D
it sucks looking at so many nendoroids i want to get today, and i say to myself… really? that’s it? wondasho miku for example.. ITEM #1618647 it costs nearly twice as much as any nendoroid i own, but the only accessory is.. a plastic bit for a preorder bonus. the pompoms are cute, but they’re just a hand swap.. it’s a bummer!
honorable mention to ITEM #547826 ‘s flimsy, thin plastic blink trail…
bnomiko • 20 days ago • #130539916View spoilerHide spoilerI wrote an article about my accessory woes with ITEM #1585927: BLOG #58985 - in the end I resorted to making my own mini dolls, since instead of the much more interesting rag dolls of his friends we got a STICK as one of the accessories. Yes, a plain, ordinary, wood stick, that was used for about 5 seconds in the show (and then presumably tossed in a fire somewhere).
I mean...
vs.
The Stick has to be one of the worst accessories ever.That is a sticky situation but you did a wonderful job turning it around with the DIY dolls. You can truly call that Nendoroid your own accompanied by its own story.
DevilsGambit • 20 days ago • #130539889View spoilerHide spoilerVery interesting article!
In my opinion, the nendoroid I own that best fits an example of nendoroids sort of 'golden age' (where the accessories/faceplates etc weren't lackluster) has to be BOTW Link DX ITEM #542378
He was, at the time, the same price as a standard nendoroid now with 3x the accessories. If he were being released now (not referring to the re-release, I mean made and released new rn) he'd probably cost twice as much as he did and be limited to the GSC online shop.
There's so many current nendoroid I can think of to point at when referring to how lazy they've become as of late but I'll just try to pick the 2 that made me go 'wow really':
1) Helltaker Cerberus "triple" set ITEM #1464622 View spoilerHide spoilerthis one. This one specifically, was the thing that made me go 'they can't be fcking serious'. I'm not really into the franchise nor do I intend to collect any of it's nendoroids, but even I find this appalling. It's the most abhorrent display of laziness, just packing up 3 of the same figure and charging $200 for it. The least they could've done is added a unique faceplate/set of arms for each nendoroid, but no. Just slap three of the same fig in a box, hike the price and rake in the money. That's disgusting. This isn't specifically related to accessories, but that's largely because there were none. Just 2 acrylic 'effects' - there wasn't even any extra stuff in the DX version aside from a ~unique base~ (wow -_-). Again, disgustingly lazy.
2) Ace Attorney Phoenix + Edgeworth ITEM #1243352 ITEM #1243353 View spoilerHide spoilernot nearly as bad, but I was personally bummed out by these cause I wanted them to be good so bad. First of all, nearly all the accessories are small, have no detail (the podium is a solid piece of unpainted/unshaded plastic like bruh) or acrylic. Second, we got three faceplates at least (nothing short of a miracle, by current GS standards) but none of those included feature any of either characters more iconic or trademark expressions (except for maybe Miles smug smirk and Phoenix's nervous grimace) instead those are being sold separately in a face swap bundle. Again, I'm not as salty about these two because it's not as bad as it could've been, but still a good example of GS latest trend of purposely releasing a pretty bare bones product and then going 'oh you want more versatility? Here's a seperate thing you can pay for to get 2 whole extra expressions'.
I like nendoroids because they're compact and versatile; you can pose and style them in almost any way you want. They used to be the "poor man's" figure, so to speak. A fraction of the price as a 1/7 and often times with just as much flare. Now some of them cost just as much as a scale figure with half the personality, it's like unless you really like that specific character or IP why bother. If they're going to increase the price, the least they could do is not skimp out on the accessories; but that seems to be the theme of this hobby as of late.BOTW Link DX defintely deserves a mention for the abundant accesories it has.
With regards to the podium being unshaded, take my thoughts with a spoon of salt, but perhaps you could try applying shading with for example tamiya weathering kit. I'm looking into seeing if it's possible to shade some of my prize figures with a weathering kit in the future too.
PawzTheDrFoxFan • 20 days ago • #130538885View spoilerHide spoilerI'm just happy that ITEM #1779022 came with the classic mekara beam and a little gema, and ITEM #1781685 is at least getting a little woodstock and an alternate base, but i wish they had more accessories tbh. I probably won't be getting any more newer nendoroids after this unless they re-issue the luluco nendoroid (or maybe if i decide to grab a lucky box for chinese new year hoping for overwatch nendos to gift to my sister as a late Christmas present lol)While it is not ideal, Snoopy rement accessories could help. browse.v4.php?c...
RevelcaChan • 20 days ago • #130538735View spoilerHide spoileri bought yamada too!! it'll be really sad if they'll never make ichikawa... i'm a little more hopeful tho after they announced gojo from my dress-up darling lately.
and I know what nendo are u talking abt!! ITEM #1326030It slipped my mind, but maybe the plush was just to be more story-accurate given their height differences. I remember when Yamada was announced, I was wondering how height differences get illustrated with Nendos given that they are more or less the same height.
Also, that was the exact Nendo I was thinking of, couldn't find it scrolling through the thousands of Nendos.