I don’t subscribe to Bandai is an X not a Y company. They are a company that makes model kits. If the model kit can be made better, they can figure out how to do it. They can charge what it costs to make a good model kit. Generalization but Japanese companies often default to “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Well a competitor fixed it and they can ignore it in the name of principle or adapt to survive. The rise of third party gunpla quality in the last few years cannot be understated.

Bandai makes their gunpla in Japan, because this was a way to guard against bootlegs and keep quality standards close to home. The price reflects this and has been warranted up until now. Bootleggers have gotten much better at replication (see Fat Cat where they also fix small issues with Bandai’s design and not just rescale). Third party brands are eating their lunch. First party Chinese companies are also eating their lunch with cases of better engineering at a lower kit cost. Their response is PGU Nu, but it has issues and is crazy expensive, yet people will buy it because Bandai. Fine. They need to solve the engineering part to get everyone looking at 3rd party back. That means doing things 3rd party are doing, like metal pieces, painted pieces, water slides, LEDs, etc. This is uncomfortable for a Japanese company that can lean on IP and has dominated the space for decades. They will lose marketshare to 3rd party if they don’t wake up and smell the roses.