Hatsune Miku and Nendoroid

Nendoroids are plastic figures produced by Good Smile Company. They usually depict anime or game characters, and have big heads and small bodies in order to accentuate their cuteness. They feature interchangeable face and body parts to allow for a variety of different expressions and poses. Similar products include Bandai's "chibi-arts" series and Toys Works "Toys Works Collection Nitengo" series. The name comes from "Nendoron" and "android". Nendoron was a made-up term by the heads of Good Smile Company at that time, and was used as an umbrella term for all staff on their projects as it had been difficult to credit everyone working on them.

Summary

The first-ever Nendoroid was sold at Wonder Festival in 2006 and was of the Tsukihime character, "Neko-Arc". Nendoroids have been popular ever since, with more than 100 types of Nendoroids having been made in July 2010. By March 2009, more than 1 million Nendoroids had been sold. A variant of Nendoroids, Nendoroid Puchi, had sold over 3 million in this time. Puchi figurines are even smaller than the standard Nendoroid. The standard figures are approximately 10 cm in height, come with a stand, have adjustable arms and legs, and have extra faces and accessories which are also compatible with other Nendoroids. Puchi figurines are approximately 4 cm tall and usually do not have extra faces or accessories. They are popular because the figurine itself is generally a smaller, cuter version of the character they portray.
Besides the standard Nendoroid and Puchi versions, there are plush toys, keychains/charms, as well as accessories including model-sized rooms where fans can house their Nendoroids.
Currently, there are over 1200 different releases with every month having at least 10 new models on sale. Although Nendoroids are sold in various brick-and-mortar stores, its main sales come from online stores and international fans.
Additionally, while most Nendoroids have a limited sales run, a select few are more exclusively found as pre-order bonuses for games or magazines. While the standard price for a Nendoroid is roughly 4,000 yen, some of the more rarer Nendoroids have been selling for more than 30,000 yen. As such, collectors have a difficult time tracking many of the rarer figurines. The franchise covers over 50 different series from anime or pop culture (for example, Sonic and Kirby), but it is the Vocaloid series Nendoroids, and in particular, Hatsune Miku, that has proven to be one of the top sellers for Good Smile Company.

Hatsune Miku

As popular Japanese pop-culture characters, Hatsune Miku and other Vocaloid characters feature heavily in the Nendoroid series, with Hatsune Miku being depicted in over 50 different Nendoroids alone in multiple different styles (normal, Sakura Miku, Snow Miku, Hachune Miku, etc.). Hatsune Miku is the first Vocaloid to have been depicted as a Nendoroid, coming in at Nendoroid #33. Of the first 100 Nendoroids, Hatsune Miku features five times at #33 Hatsune Miku (normal), #42 Hachune face version, #62 Mikku Miku Kagami (Lucky Star character Hiiragi Kagami cosplaying as Hatsune Miku), #75 Hatsune Miku Race Queen version, and #97 Snow Miku. The celebration of Nendoroid #1000 coincided with the tenth anniversary of Snow Miku, putting her in the spotlight for the celebration. An online vote was taken and her 2019 design was chosen to become Nendoroid #1000, as based on an illustration by artist "-L F-".
Officially licensed from Good Smile Company, the company known as Gift has also released Nendoroid plush toys to varying degrees of popularity.

Continuing Popularity

Since being publicly released over a decade ago, the Nendoroid series continues to be one of the most sold figurine series. Nendoroids typically have a period of two weeks where pre-orders can be made and it is not unusual for popular Nendoroids such as Hatsune Miku or her varying styles to achieve well over 10,000 pre-orders. Websites such as amiami work together with Good Smile Company to help advertise and release Nendoroids to the global market at an inexpensive rate, which further increases the figurine series' global reach.

Links

Good Smile Company (Web Archive)
Nendoroid Official Website
Nendoroid Generation Official Website (Bandai Namco Games)
My Figure Collection
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