When I first showed up in Korea, I associated Korea with Japan as being the mecca of giant fighting robot fans. But whenever I went to the store to check some out, I was kind of dissapointed.
Observation No. 1: Korean kids love toy robots. I can say this because every toystore I visited was stuffed from floor to ceiling with fighting robot toys. The problem was that 95% of them were various sorts of Power Ranger series, with the occaisional Kamen Rider or SD Gundam toy. Non-robot action figures aren't nearly as common, and it seems the only thing competing with toy robots is building block toys like Legos. American brands such as superheros, Star Wars, and Ninja Turtles, are basically unheard of. (I just saw a handful of Star Wars vehicles)
Observation No. 2: There are lots of robots, but they're mostly junk. If you like Gundam, you'll be in heaven because there are more Gundam model kits than I ever knew existed. But as far as action figures go they really aren't up to par with Transformers. This is not to say they're all KOs, (which many of them are) but they simply lack detail, lack articulation, and look like crap. The superior toys are Japanese collectors items, but to find those you have to venture into the deepest dungeons of Seoul's electronics market, and you have to pay just as much as you do in the States.
Observation No. 3: Transformers rock. I mean, for all the crap we give HasTak, they really are the best robot toys (perhaps the best toys, period) on the market today. But we already knew this. The only problem is that as far as Korea goes...
Observation No. 4: Transformers in Korea are two steps behind those in America and Japan. For whatever reason Korea is sort of the dumping ground for TFs after they get presented to American markets. When I first came to Korea a year ago, Armada had just been released. You could find them in the bigger retail stores. The smaller mom-and-pop stores (of which there are many) are still stocked with Beast Wars Neo.
So, do I expect anyone to care? Not really. But I thought that maybe it would be neat to see the TF world from another angle, and all of you in Britain can take heart in the fact that, somewhere, there are Transfans even worse off than you.
-J