Anime figures are currently one of the most lucrative sources of income for modern anime franchises. From large-scale figures to palm-sized nendoroids, anime figures have become something of a status symbol of a show's popularity based on how many are produced.

These days, there are a wide array of figures to choose from with varying degrees of prices and quality. But the anime figure industry wasn't always so inclusive and mainstream. Here's how it has evolved over the past decade.

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A Brief History on the Anime Figure IndustryGashapon machines from Japan lined up togetherThere's a wide variety of different kinds of anime figures being made these days, and while anime figures tend to be known for their rather high prices, there are a good deal of affordable ones as well. The cheapest ones are gashapon figures -- small capsule toys that can be found lined around most street corners in Japan, not unlike the capsule machines that contain candies and cheap jewelry found in America.

Trading figures typically have higher quality details put into them, but they're decently priced due to being much smaller than most scale figures. Posable figures like Figmas and Nendoroids are within the higher priced range, with some costing upwards to hundreds of dollars. This can be attributed to the amount of care and detail put into the figures despite their small size. More expensive ones also tend to come with additional parts and intricate accessories that add to the price tag.

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Adverstisement feature the SH Figuarts of Anya Forger from Spy X Family

More affordable are often made to appeal more to children and young teens, hence the lower price ranges. One won't have difficulty finding their favorite male character if it's that type of figure. They'll find more difficulty, however, if they prefer collecting larger scale figures. Most scale figures in the early to mid 2000s focused on cute female characters during the period when the moe genre was booming. There were many figures depicting girls in cute clothes, swimsuits, or no clothes at all. Where a popular male character like Gurren Lagann's Kamina would get a handful of figurines, female characters like Nia and Yoko would get twice as many figures -- many of which posed much more provactively than the male characters.

During this time, it was believed that adult women were less likely to invest so much money on things like anime figurines compared to adult male collectors, which was why there was so quality scale figures of male characters were rarely ever found. Just to give a good idea on the disparity between male and female figures, back in 2012 on the official Good Smile Company blog, an employee took a photo of all the available male Nendoroids and Figmas available at the time. There were 33 Nendoroids and 47 Figmas total. By comparison, there were already over a hundred female Nendoroids and roughly around 80 female Figmas.

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The Appearance of Male Figures Aimed at Female CollectorsAdevertisement for Altair's scale figure of Takashi Natsume from Natsume's Book of Friends

It wouldn't be until the 2010s when big figurine companies would start producing all-male figure lines meant to cater specifically to female fans. In 2010, five years after the company was first founded, ALTER founded one of the first male-exclusive lines of figures and named it ALTAiR. The protagonist of Natsume's Book of Friends headed the charge with the first-ever scale figure made in the title character's image. Natsume would also go on to get more scale figures from other manufacturers and even a Nendoroid more than a decade later.

Good Smile Company followed suit shortly after in 2015, nine years after the figure company was first established. Interestingly, unlike Alter which chose to first start with a beloved shojo protagonist, the first figures that headed Good Smile Company's new male-focused figure line-up were Nendoroids of Hinata and Kageyama, the protagonists for the immensely popular sports shonen, Haikyu!! The rest of the Nendoroids and scale figures that were revealed later on, however, all came from franchises that had large female fanbases like the otome game Uta no Prince-sama, and the popular mobile game Touken Ranbu.

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Kotobukiya's ikemen figure lineup collaboration with DC Comics featuring Batman and the various Robins

Kotobukiya was one of the few figure companies that was producing male scale figures from the outset, albeit not quite as often as female scale figures. Over time, the company also started to produce more male figures and the official website now has a tab dedicated solely to male figures. In 2018, the company also started a new line of figures titled "Ikemen series" in collaboration with DC Comics that features the male characters from the DC Universe sculpted to look like anime pretty boys. So far the lineup only includes the male members of the Batfamily and the Joker.

Megahouse started out as a major toy manufacturer owned by Bandai that's been around since the 60s, but it entered the anime figure industry sometime in the early 2000s. Initially, like other big anime figure companies, most of the characters being lovingly modeled into scale figures were female. Like Kotobukiya, however, Megahouse was also producing a decent amount of male scale figures that increased over time, although it only focused -- and still mostly does -- on characters from popular shonen series own by Bandai rather than pretty boys from dating sims.

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Expanding to Audiences Outside the Anime CommunityNendoroids featuring Disney and PIXAR characters from Good Smile Company's official website

After taking a chance on tapping into the female otaku market, many big anime figure manufacturers would eventually attempt to once again broaden its clientele in the next few years. Figurines inspired by popular franchises outside the scope of anime started to appear around the latter half of the new '10s when fandom culture started to become more popular. This included western properties like Marvel and DC Comics, classic Disney films, and even indie games like Undertale.

This venture proved to be successful as these companies steadily grew in popularity outside its homeland, particularly among western territories. Where Nendoroids where once considered a niche collector's item, they have now become mainstream enough to appear on the shelves of popular retail chains like Hot Topic and Box Lunch. With the moe genre not being quite as popular as it used to be, more female-oriented series being produced, and the continued international success of certain western properties, it's safe to assume that figure companies will continue to move forward in this direction.