When the gong of Bilibili's Hong Kong listing rings, a carnival belonging to Generation Z officially begins. From fan dramas, games, comics, to animation IP derivatives, the pan anime market is directly facing the attention of public capital. Among them, the manual market with animation and game IP as the core has also become a synonym for emerging trends in gaming since the previous imitation, purchase on behalf of others and other models. According to the "Research Report on the Consumption Trends of China's Generation Z Handheld Products" jointly released by Bilibili Member Purchase and iResearch Consulting, the Chinese handmade product consumption market is a steadily growing niche market. The market size was 3.66 billion yuan in 2020, and it is expected to reach 9.12 billion yuan in 2023.
What is a figurine? This word comes from Japanese vocabulary and originally refers to model kits without painting. Under the popularity of the anime culture, it gradually evolved into a character model made of resin, PVC, vinyl benzene and other materials, and after painting and other processes. Generally speaking, figurines with popular anime IPs are sought after by fans, and limited edition figurines not only have collectible value but also appreciation value for specific fan groups.
The global figurine market is developing rapidly
According to the global toy market report previously released by NPD Enbo Yuan, the global toy market size has reached 91 billion US dollars in 2019, and figurines and trendy toys have made teenagers and adults (15 years old and above) the toy consumer groups with the highest compound annual growth rate in the past five years. In the global market, the figurine markets in the United States and Japan have developed rapidly. According to the report of CCTV News, the hand-operated market in the United States once increased by 10% against the trend when the overall sales of toys declined in 2018. For example, the well-known anime "pilgrimage site" Forbidden Planet in the West has seen a growing proportion of hand-operated sales in recent years, which makes the staff of the store who have worked for more than 20 years sigh in interviews. They have never seen hand-operated sales so popular, especially the popularity of Marvel, Godzilla and other IP images.
In Japan, as a crucial part of the anime IP industry chain, figurines have developed rapidly. According to a report by Wen Wei Po, in 2018, interest toys represented by figurines, models, etc. accounted for a market share of 140 billion yen, making them the largest part of the toy market. The creator of the "Gundam" series, Yuki Tomino, even once said, "Nowadays, making Gundam animations is all about selling figurines." This also means that figurines born from anime are a truly profitable industry.