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Today I wanted to talk a little about Nendoroids and how they came to be. I'm sure at least 99% of you knows what I'm talking about, but just to be sure: Nendoroids are a figure line made by Good Smile Company. They're known for their cute looks and possibility to pose them in variety of poses significant to the character they resemble. Over the years quite a few things changed so I'd like to invite you to dig in deeper and see how it started and how they became the figures known and loved by many today!The first Nendoroids spawned in, and they sure look apart from Nendoroids today. They started off a little awkward with far more spherical faces and tinier less proportioned bodies. Inthe first Nendoroid with a recognizable similarity to the ones today started to come out, the Death Note and Haruhi Nendoroids. Side note, 2007 Also brought the first petit set which was for Haruhi. Posing Nendoroids was still quite limited, shapes where little too blocky but the line slowly but surely started to take shape.Withthe real party started. While here and there they still had some of the quirks of the older Nendoroids, they began being more expressive in poses and with the multiple different face plates and some small accessories they now came with, they already resembled their character much better.At this point they started appealing to a larger audience in the figure collecting hobby. They weren't the first popular pose-able chibi's, that title most likely belongs to Pinky's, but they where more expressive and has more similarities to the characters they resembled whist staying cute because of their round shapes.Over the yearsandNendoroids really started to gain more accessories. They went from 1 extra faceplate and something like a weapon to often 2 extra faceplates, a weapon or so, different arms and legs and something significant to the character. Though these year Good Smile also started making more and more of them. Where it started with four in a year it was now at least one or two per month.And thencame around. Although it doesn't look too significant on first sight this year actually meant a whole lot for how Nendoroids are today. It spawned the very first Snow Miku, which is now one of the most successful lines within the Normal sized Nendoroid category.It was also the year Touhou, K-on and Black Rock Shooter started showing their faces at Good Smile Company, which where considered some of the biggest merchandise franchises until others slowly started to take over around 2014(looking at you KanColle).Another change withinwas the introduction of the base design we know today, square with multiple holes. It was first used with Nendoroid Saber Super Movable(nr. #121) and quite a bit later in the year used again for Nendoroid arch Bishop(nr. #132).Inandthe number of new Nendoroids first rose to at least 3 per month in 2011 and in 2012 it became at least 4 to 6. The year introduced Madoka Magica's Nendoroid line and more and more recently-aired series started to get one or two Nendoroids as well. Over these years the quality of Nendoroids grew greatly, and so did their sales. Nendoroids where known for their quite low price and had beaten all other chibi equivalents out of the field. The quantity of each nendoroid made seemed to grow quite rapidly.Although Nenderoid 301~350 ish spawned in, it took untilltill they released Nendoroid 300, Miku 2.0 and one of the most significant changes to the entire line. They box design changed, and the new stand design was for all Nendoroids. More importantly, faceplates got a technical update. They where long known for being a bit stiff. You had to be quite careful exchanging faceplates, especially on the somewhat older ones as they where stiff and tended to break quite easily if you put just a little too much pressure onto them. No more though, as they now work with a neat slide and click system that doesn't require you to remove the joint head anymore at all.And that brings us to lateto now, current time. The new box design got quite some criticism for being far less unique to the characters they came with. Lately Good Smile seems to be trying to fancy them up a little again, prime examples being Devil Homura's(nr. #456) box overall pattern and Hinata Shouyo's(nr. #461) with little shiny volleyball prints scattered over the box. I do personally hope they will keep up this trend as I think it is a step in the right direction.Nendoroids today are more popular then ever before, Good Smile releases about 8 to 10 per month and that doesn't even include any of the many other Nendoroid related products. The newest addition within the Nendoroids family will be the Co-De line. These nendoroids don't really come with any accessories though all the Co-De Nendoroids body parts are mix-and-match-able with each other. I think it's a neat idea though since there's still only a few announced for now time will tell if the line will be successful.Something else that has become quite noticeable lately is that Nendoroids go up in value after release more and more often. A few years back pre-orders and after release prices didn't differ very much, and they could drop to about 2k yen second handed. These days there seems to be a trend that either the price stays the same or the value goes up.And that's about all I wanted to say! There's much more to know about the Nendoroid line and her sister products, though I think I covered the most important chunk of history and basics.For me, Nendoroids are the base of my collection. I love the cutesy look to them and as long as I'll be watching seasonal anime's, I'll continue to collect them. Researching their development throughout the years was a lot of fun and I hope you've enjoyed reading this article as much as I enjoyed writing it ^u^