Anyone who has been to New York Comic Con or seen people talking about it in the past few years has heard of the giant Goku balloon or the Piccolo statue that made its way into the show floor. This is usually just a small part of Bandai Namco, an entertainment company from Japan that is not only one of the largest video game companies in the world (iron fist series, Eldon Ring), is also one of the largest manufacturers of toys and collectibles, with more licenses than I can list.
At NYCC ’24, I spoke with senior marketing managers Justin Cavender About this year’s NYCC, surrounding activities, Tamashii Nations store in Times Square, and more.
Julian Lytle beat: How’s it going, Justin?
Justin Cavender: Get ready to rock. Everything is going well. We have left a huge footprint here. We offer a little bit of everything for everyone here.
Lytle: You guys take up a big part of the showroom.
Cavender: It’s very neat, but at the same time, everything is its own little brand. It doesn’t look like Bandai Namco anywhere. There is a main stall here, but [the spread] More worthy of celebration Gundamcelebrate blue lockcelebrate dragon ballcelebrate Godzilla and Pokemon.
Lytle: What are the exclusives at this year’s New York Comic Con?
Cavender: for dragon ballwe have Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan Vegetto (Super Saiyan Blue) which is awesome and comes with a cool halo effect and energy ball. Then there is the golden Godzilla-01 figure, which is really cool. There is an OG electronic egg over there, a collaboration between Hello Kitty and Sanrio. Available in all Gundam Base model kits. These are considered exclusive products.
There are regular retail model kits out there, but a good portion of them are kits that can only be bought in Japan or Singapore or anywhere that has a Gundam base. But it would be cool to bring this stuff to New York so you don’t have to fly all the way to Japan to get the hottest stuff.
Lytle: How about it ultraman What is the thing doing?
Cavender: ultraman Very well done. so, The Rise of UltramanReleased this summer, it became a hit on Netflix. This is a good entry point. It’s been around for 60 years, but a lot of people don’t really know what it is ultraman yes. It’s definitely a good thing to be on Netflix and reach a general audience.
We have been redoubling our efforts ultraman at Anime Expo. We held the same exhibition with Ultraman and Emmy The Rise of Ultraman Show up for a meet and greet and photos.
On Saturday, we will be hosting an event at American Dream. We will have real actors wrestling and fighting each other in front of the Bandai Namco store. It will be great. Ultraman and Baltan, and then Ultraman Zero and Ultraman Beria fight against each other. Two games.
Then there is the meeting organized by the organizer Christopher Shawnwhose voice The Rise of Ultraman. So it’s going to be a blast. and then ultraman There was a panel at the conference on Sunday.
Lytle: Will there be any products launched in the future?
Cavender: Yeah, so we have a Vegeta and a Piccolo and then there are all the plans that I can’t talk about. But, you know, we did invest a lot of money dragon ball malaysia. We are on a North American tour. It’s going to the Mall of America in Minnesota. It’s coming to American Dream and the Edmonton Mall in Canada. This is very exciting.
Julian Lytle: Is your 2025 an eventful year?
Justin Cavender: We did it. We always have something new coming out. We are currently taking pre-orders for items that will be available in February and March. We’re always six months ahead of product launch, which is definitely tricky because you have to get people excited about it now. And then we have to remind everyone that it will be available in six months, just like everyone will be excited when it finally hits stores.
There are some really exciting things happening with some IPs that I can’t talk about, but I’m very much looking forward to. We are already in the planning stages for 2025.
Lytle: hope there will be more iron fist figures, but Bandai Namco does some other famous brands like soul caliber even its variants dragon ball Figures from Dragon Ball FighterZ or spark zero?
Cavender: I like where your head is. As of now, no other data has been released iron fist. as a dark souls Fans, I’d love to have some dark souls action figures. Eldon Ring It has been very popular in the past two years, including the Festering Fingerprint fighting figure. Malenia made its debut at the Tamashii Nations event in Tokyo last year. So hopefully this comes out.
i would like some soul caliber Numbers, man. I would rock like a Volvo, Siegfried or Nightmare. Forget it. These will be on my shelf today! Absolutely. But the SH MonsterArts series is one I really like. There are usually a lot of Godzilla characters, but they did this monster hunter. So I do think this opens the door to possibilities for other video games. So, I will like the bosses here Eldon Ring or bosses dark souls Join SH MonsterArts. It’s like pie in the sky.
Lytle: Times Square has one of the only Tamashii Nations stores. Will there be more exclusive products coming this year?
Cavender: Tamashii Nations is great at launching new store exclusives. According to sharing, there will be Rob Pattinson batman with cloth cloak. So this will be a new one, the first one shown is [at NYCC] through the register. They are very good at selling bikes exclusively in new stores. It comes in that beautiful black box. Very eye-catching. This is a nice box.
Lytle: how can we get more kamen rider something, maybe Super Sentai?
Justin Cavender: Tamashii Nation store does sell it kamen rider SHFiguarts, awesome. But marketing toys for a show you can’t legally watch in the U.S. is tricky indeed. It’s a sticky wicket. It’s like the world’s worst secret, all of this kamen rider Fans are clearly watching the show, but how do they do it? It’s hard to meet demand that might not even exist because it’s all so secretive due to piracy and things like that. So until you can have a good partnership with the Japanese people and get streaming to American audiences, I think it’s always going to be an uphill battle.
something like this ultramanHas been around for 60 years. There is now an English dubbed version [Tsuabara Productions] YouTube channel. So, I mean, if possible kamen rider Going that route…Obviously, Shout Factory has been putting out series, but at the end of the day, in America, it’s very niche.
even Gundamwe invested one thousand percent – my mother knew who Optimus Prime was, but she didn’t know what Gundam was. It’s all about that educational article. It’s hard to educate people through a show they can’t watch. That’s how I see it. I’m sure this is a higher level conversation, but objectively speaking, it’s hard to sell toys for a show you can’t watch.
Lytle: Is there anything you want to tell people?
Cavender: Obviously, we can’t attend every session, but it’s exciting. this Gundam base Mobile tourism opens up many opportunities. Going forward, it might not be uncommon to see more of this, you know? Please pay attention [Bandai Namco’s] Announcement on social channel @BandaiCollect. Maybe we’ll take something else with us on the way, you know?
California gets a lot of love, New York gets a lot of love, but middle America is lost in nothingness. Our goal is to do everything we can to bring you a meeting space. Keep an eye out for exciting things. I think dragon ball malaysia The North American tour is another perfect example. I think it’s a great thing to bring the conference experience to all parts of the country.
[This interview has been edited for length and clarity.]
