Beginner guide to start anime figures collection. Most important things to know

What are Anime Figures ?

You cannot just refer to the anime-related character models as "figures" for otakus. But since the word "figure" is used to describe character models for anime, manga, or video games and can have multiple meanings, you should instead call them "Anime Figures. "Any 3D representation of a person or object is considered an anime figure. According to the materials used and the artistic style, each figure creates a distinct category of merchandise and is available in a wide range of styles. Clay, bone, or wood are used to create ancient anime figures. Modern figures are also typically constructed out of plastic or resin.

What is the price range of an anime figure?

If you're looking to buy these products for your activity, you'll probably find that the selection is really broad. The main point is that the majority of these items sold in conventions or large marketplaces are extremely low quality. A confirmed figure collector will likely tell you that the appropriate price is typically $100, and some of you may be very surprised because in anime convention most figures cost less than $20. So we can make a distinction of 2 big types of anime figures.

• Original
• Bootleg

Bootleg figures are probably the most popular among a large target audience who are unaware that the products they are purchasing are of poor quality or counterfeit in China. If you want to start getting anime figure, you should definitely forget this option forever.

In the other hand you have the original figures which are constructed from some Japanese brands such as good smile company well know from being the leader of this market with high quality work and figures. Most of their figure will range between 50$ for small figures (nendoroid) and average 100$ for 1/8 scale figures.

There are several other brand with different quality and range of prices and only authentic figures are referenced in our website, you can also browse for new product and reliable online shop with our search tools available for free.

Picture of a bootleg vs original figure

Where can you buy an anime figures

There are a lot of different online hobby store where you can find them and the price may vary a lot depending on their stocks or transport policies.

You must be aware that new figure are released using pre order system. The pre order period can be very long from 6 month to more than 1 year ! but in the other hand, this is when the price of your target figure is at his lowest point because the manufacturer may stop the production of your target figure, and at this point you can only buy from shop which have a stock but the price will be higher.

This website give you a tool to find the online shop with the lowest price for your target figure, it's still in developement and need improvements but you can search for indexed figures and see where you can buy them. Over 15000 products and their price are tracked.

Be aware of customs taxes !

As these items are more likely to be imported from Japan, depending on where you live, you can be subject to customs taxes in the scenario you are not lucky, it can cost you around 50$. The more value is your items the more you are exposed to customs taxes.

Therefore, a lot of online shop are aware about this issue and provide custom shipping or undervalue their package so you won't have the risk to be exposed to customs taxes. So when you are shopping figures keep in mind this issue and check if this website provide a solution to lower the risk.

Figure maintenance and cleaning

When you finaly ordered and received you goods, you can enjoy how beautiful it is, but don't forget that these items can can dirty easily and it may be difficult to clean them without damages depending on the material.

• Dust is the number one thing you must care about if you want to keep your figure clean. If you want to get rid of dust you may be tempted to remove the dust by having a contact with the figure but that's not a good idea, use compressed air instead
• If your figure got dirty and you want to wash it, you can use differents product depending on the material, but that's another big topic. In general you can just use hot water and dry your figure with compressed air and avoid to touch it with your bare hand, that's actually how you can get your figure dirty.

And the anime figure Journey Continues

To summarize, I would recommend that you always buy original figures because if you buy a lot of bootleg items and then acquire high quality ones, you will want to get rid of your old bootleg figures anyway because you will notice the difference. There are some other specifics you may want to learn about, so feel free to do so with the documentation available on this website; more informative content will be released in the future.