Where is China and Japan?

I saw somebody write about when the Chinese and Japanese get interested in vintage it could have a big effect on the market. I was wondering though given the interest in Western pop culture and Japan having Takara and Popy why there is n't already a significant Chinese and Japanese collecting community? Or is there and i've just missed it. Is it related to vintage toys not being widespread in China / Japan in the 80s 90s?

There are certainly some Star Wars collectors out there with some exceptionally high quality collections.But I know what you mean everything certainly seems to circulate around the European and American markets.I think most of the stuff (which was manufactured there) was exported.

Although China obviously manufactured millions of the figures I don't believe they were actually sold in China at all (maybe someone will come on and correct me).

Japan does have a solid Star Wars fanbase, both The Phantom Menace and The Force Awakens are in their top 20 highest grossing box office list. In terms of the vintage line the 'amount' that was released there was far smaller than we were blessed with. If you have a look at the Takara and Popy toy lines you'll see the limited pieces they got.

I've sold quite a few Action Force figures to China. The interest seems to be in the Series 2 multi- jointed GI Joe style figures.

I think that there are lots of other lines to collect for in Japan. Im not sure about China, but ive been to Japan quite a few times, seen lots of vintage Japanese toys eg Ultraman, Godzilla, kaiju vinyl toys, more modern toys. Ive never seen that much Star Wars vintage for sale by comparison. The popys I have bought have been a fair bit cheaper than on ebay etc, perhaps there are more different vintage items to collect, more choice, possibly more nostalgic to a Japanese collector. Dont know if this helps! Cheers

There's a dedicated Star Wars store in Tokyo called Star Case that caters for vintage and modern.
The range of stuff that is in there is staggering.
Star Wars promotions are also big business and exclusive items on soft drinks and food stuff is more than here in the UK.
Yahoo Auctions Japan is also home to just as much stuff as there is on eBay.

I've spent quite a bit of time in China over the past 13 years. The original trilogy didn't get a cinematic release over there in the 70s/80s so was only available on bootleg later on. There's very little interest in China in Star Wars - it's mostly seen as childish and poorly written. I honestly can't see there ever being significant interest in the vintage toy line in China - certainly not enough to cause any kind of spike in the cost of collecting.

Yep, as said, in China the demand for SW is much weaker than the rest of the world. The OT never had a theatrical release. I'm not positive the PT did either. It's mediocre performance in China is what eventually kept TFA behind Titanic and Avatar globally. Rogue One had a big opening, then I believe it had a record 2nd weekend drop. The interest just isn't there on a large scale.

Ian