I've noticed in a few othr threads that people say Japan is the collecting capital of the world, with a lot of folks spending small fortunes on bot collections.

So, that begs the question: Are TF's more popular in Japan than the US as a franchise, or just as a toyline, or maybe in some other way?

Is there some place in the world that maybe beats them both?

transformers is definately a hit in japan. toys can be found almost everywhere and the tv series is very popular among children as well as adults.

So then Japan is the ultimate in TF popularity?

It's not that it's only TFs Splendic, it's robots in general. They have Soul of Chogokin, Soul of Popynica, the ubiquitous " " Rangers, Gundam multiseries, plus 5X more other series that I don't bother to try to keep up with. TF are just a small fragment of the whole thing. Then you have the super collector $500 and up 'serial otaku' stuff...

Japan puts our Targets, WalMarts, TRUs, to shame by comparison. There just is no comparison. Buy a ticket and go over to see for yourself if you ever get the chance.

WARNING: You'll end up spending MUCH more than your plane ticket while you're over there though, because you WILL become light-headed the moment you step into a Japanese toy store.

KT

Japan has all the big robot tv series & toys, and I'm jealous.

yup yup. japan is practically a robot paradise.

of course, relatively speaking, tf's are not as popular in japan as the other giant mecha series since the japanese prefer giant mecha to be piloted by humans and for sentient robots to look human.

I don't think it takes a degree in rocket science to figure this out.. sorry, my bad, I shouldn't be sarcastic..

I would say so, definetly more popular in Japan by a long shot. Maybe not up to snuff with gundam, because from what I understand there's some 40 year olds still going at those things.. We aren't the ones making these things anymore, you realize.

Well...the thing is you can't compare Japanese Popularity of TF's over many of it's other properties, such as Gundam. So sure it may seem popular, but it's really jsut a small thing when compared to otehr properties.

So then, relatively speaking, where would you say its bigger?

Exactly! Mecha collectors, fanboys, otakus to the extreme build some of the craziest models life sized mind you that US fans can only dream about! Gundam IMO is probably more popular with older fans, but the across the board it is hard to say which one series is the most popular.

Okay then, so who's #2? What's the second best place to be a Transfan? Hong Kong, Singapore, or the US?