Back in the days of physical store Power Anime 2.0 (Mitsuwa), some strong influencers swung by to share their passion with Power Ranger Keys we had in our Gashapon machines from the legendary Gokaiger series. The video shoot wasn’t as clean as their media today as it was a bit more organic, but great to see the interest in not only the product, but the experience of doing Gashapon in LA. I would later go on to work for Bandai America and officially represent Gashapon through the Bandai Import Collection brand, and MMPRToys would go on to be juggernauts in the Power Ranger influencer space working constantly with our lead Power Ranger brand team.
YouTuber Megumi Sakaue featuring our store in 2014. Thank you so much for this time capsule. Sounds like everything was a tad expensive? Fans loved it!
Japanese YouTuber swings by my store’s 6th incarnation that was open between 2012-2014 in the West Los Angeles Mitsuwa Marketplace on Venice and Centinela.
The store features some of those outstanding eyecatches including the 6 foot Mazinger statue bought by ATS in Japan, and the official BANDAI Gashapon machines.
As books and DVDs were the bread and butter of the previous stores and at this point now pretty much extinct, trading cards were a new focus we used to capture that repeat clientele. Thankfully, Bushiroad was making a bigger move in the industry at the same time and we road on the coattails of Card Fight Vanguard and Future Card BuddyFight. Both are fresh, appealed to a mid-teen, young adult audience, and didn’t carry the baggage of the popularly known rowdy Yugioh crowd. This video features a young group of tournament players that would go on to be legends in the card scene in both tournaments and on YouTube (shot out to NexusCorp.)
At only 400 ft. x 400 ft., the anime focus was on genuine Japanese figures popular in Japan, not just features popular in the US. This meant carrying PreCure before they were on Netflix, Anpanman, Ultraman, and Kamen Rider.
Power Anime alumni included Paulo, Jason, Juan, and Britney for all they put in. Special shot out to William for his help in our final months.
It took me a while, but I finally got it up. I am using some commercial music for this compilation video (love that GO!!! by FLOW), so its currently not available for viewing in Japan due to licensing restrictions.
This is a compilation video of my booth management of Anime Expo 2017 for Bandai America Inc in promotion of the Banpresto World Figure Colosseum Sculpting competition. In addition to promoting the figure line, we also promoted previously released figure collections, the Gashapon machine experience, and the premiere release of the Convention Season exclusives of the Dragon Ball Super Dragon Stars Figure collection.
Goal: Actively promote new products with a heavy focus on social media networking by organically appealing to influencers of various interests.
Focused audience: – Figure Collectors – Series fans (Dragon Ball Super) – Tactile retail experience (Gashapon Vending Machines) – Toy sculptors and designers – Cosplayers – Video Game Fans
Activities included: – Arena photo Op – Cosplay Rock Paper Scissors competition – Figure Giveaway – Meeting the influencers (Kay Pike, Cos-Painter/Streamer, VampyBitMe – Streamer, Erik Sosa – renowned digital sculptor) – Exclusive figures (Dragon Ball Super Dragon Stars action figures) – Dragon Ball Super ‘Spin Battler’ product introduction and competition
A big thanks to all that were involved including convention staff and event organizers, DS Arts for booth construction, the BANDAI America business unit teams, the influencers, the fans, and deep down, most importantly, the volunteers who offered their precious time to run this gigantic booth experience.
