The Business: On The Decentralization Of A Business Model

I'd been listening to Toy Galaxy videos this past weekend, starting with their four-part history of Robotech. From there I put on their videos for Voltron, and several other anime properties that got the same treatment that the components of Carl Macek's production did.

After watching the second video on the hatchet job that Gatchaman suffered at the hands of Sandy Frank, they made a very good observation, even if it does sound like something that Captain Obvious would say: Now that the originals are freely, if not always legally, available online there is no future anymore for these bastardized knockoffs. The most you will see is the bastardized brands being reabsorbed into the real property as a brand identifier in the target market, such as how Yamato uses "Star Blazers" now for the remake series releases in the West. Expect these to be phased out over time as the original name achieves awareness saturation.

One thing I'd noticed is that the business model behind a lot of anime hasn't changed that much since Year Zero hit in 1997.

Today you don't see the terrible toy tie-ins shilled on TV (well, unless you actually watch cable), but you still see plenty of merchandise pushed to maximize monetization of a property. This includes virtual toys, and anything virtual opens the door to microtransaction fuckery- including gatchpon-style one-armed bandit bullshit. Some of this stuff is fine; most of us remains trash to avoid and consign to the recyling bin.

What I noticed is that it is now possible for small-tiers, indies like us, to play that game and hold our own. I mentioned previously is that the expansion of Print On Demand to include wearable merchandise, and now other home decor things like wall hangings and clocks, opens the door for people with art assets to seriously ramp up monetization of those assets by offering them on merchandise.

In the last week or so, I mentioned that 3D printing is advancing to the point where this is making home-printing of miniatures and small statues possible for indie players. It is a short step from there to providing the data to print the pieces to a widget that the user snaps together into a working item. We already see this in the firearms world, so it is a matter of time before toy designers and model kit designers start cutting out middlemen and sell the rights to print the design at home. (That will destroy Bandai's Gunpla model if they don't adapt fast.)

Once a critical mass of smaller players in the marketplace see what I see and begin embracing it, you'll see a leveling of the playing field that hasn't been done since the days that firearms became cheap enough to mass produce and sell to farmers. "Sam Colt made them equal" isn't just marketing copy; it's a hyperbolized statement of observed fact that the firearm bridged the gap between the common conscript and the noble-born elite cohorts.

At that point, the chokepoint--the strategic location to hold--becomes the distribution of information. This includes trade and commerce as both are heavily reliant upon online networks now, which is why Amazon and the banking sector need to be kept under a harsh and skeptical eye tied to a twitchy hand on a holstered handgun. That said, in this time of danger and crisis there is also opportunity. Be ready to seize it.