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sf648

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About sf648

  • Birthday December 7

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    sf648
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    College Park, MD

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  1. Nippon-Yasan.com just listed the Premium back in stock! https://www.nippon-yasan.com/figures/19852-macross-1-60-kanzen-henkei-vf-1s-strike-valkyrie-ichijou-hikaru-custom-premium-finish-ver.html
  2. Don't forget I'm looking for one too! (of course I don't have a spare scalp to pay)
  3. Sadly I'm in the same boat. I had been waiting patiently for the HLJ listing to leave "order stop", but I must have missed it by going to sleep sleep at 5:30a this morning...
  4. Veef these look great! Would it be reasonable for you to enable them for production in white strong, flexible polished?
  5. I used to think so too, but I had a buddy whose uncle was a professional Pachinko player. He said a lot of it has to do with recognizing loose versus tight pins in the machine and exploiting those. I don't know how that works, but I do know that when I was in Tokyo, some people where clearly doing *really* well at various machines. I love a Macross Fever, but I don't really know where I'd put it.
  6. Ouch. I could use 3 pairs for vf-1s (off-white?). If anyone is keeping a list, please add me to it. -Sandro
  7. 1/60 Roy VF-1S Anniversary Edition 1/60 Hikaru VF-1S Anniversary Edition I haven't even seen either of these offered for sale recently.
  8. I think there's a mis-conception here that stems from circumstances *outside* of the control of Yamato and Bandai. These items are generally designed, manufactured, and sold based on the Japanese economy, and are meant as toys. They are really nice toys meant for posing and display by teens and adults, but they are in no way advertised, marketed, or meant to serve as collectibles. It's the current *bad* exchange rates and always pricey overseas shipping costs that cause them to be seen as expensive collectibles outside of Japan. When I first started buying Macross stuff in the 80's the exchange rate was just about $1.00 -> 250 yen. That would have made list price of the new v2 VF-25 around $56. Which frankly fits what it was manufactured to be -- a toy. Using the lowest 2010 japanese minimum wage that same VF-25 represents about 20 hours work. So a high school student with an after-school job might be able to afford two or three valks a month. I don't think Yamato or Bandai has ever really attempted to claim that these are somehow limited or collectible. I buy these toys to display and enjoy. While I can see being disappointed that they're being re-issued, I still have had and enjoyed my toys for years in the meantime. Currently, I get to look slightly to the right of my monitor and see a 1/100 hi-metal VF-1S battroid poised to take out anyone who dares to sit in my chair. Once I couldn't have imagined a valkyrie toy holding that pose and looking so cool doing it. Because fans continually buy re-designs, we have brand new versions of toys from a show that aired almost 30 years ago. If the toys were never re-done, we'd be paying $1000+ for old, beat-up chunky monkeys. Maybe 30 years from now they'll be selling self-transforming Macross F toys with tiny motors in them to my kids. How cool would that be!
  9. Andreas,

    The side covers arrived today. I'm really impressed with the quality! Thanks a lot!

    -Sandro

  10. Count me in for 1. -Sandro
  11. sf648

    Q-rau

    Good point Exo. That would make 4 possible variations. Red, purple and blue with only color changes, and a modified mold and color for a TV variant. Looking at one comparison of the versions it looks like a smaller more recessed head, different antenna and thicker, heavier legs. Lone Wolf, as far as perogative being the motivating factor for Yamato, please remember that if the Q-Rau's were 50% of the cost, they would probably sell many more of them. This kind of market force is important in making many pricing decisions; while sheer greed does motivate some companies to inflate prices, most are aware that making a good comprimise between profit and price accessibility will sell more units (properly done, this leads to more net gain). The percieved cost of an item is critical to sales. Which is the rationale behind prices like $99.99. It's almost the same as $100.00, but the psychological impact of the extra digit affects many people. I would have expected Yamato to pick Y9,800 or even Y7,800 if it had been feasible; pricing the units at Y12,800 implies that there wasn't an opportunity at under Y10,000. Note: that at Y12,800, I'd expect costs to Yamato to run close to Y2,500 to produce each unit (including R&D, fabrication, manufacturing, Q&A, packaging, shipping and promotion). I wonder what Yamato's production yields are these days, now that they've gotten some experience with manufacturing the VF-1s for so long? -Sandro
  12. sf648

    Q-rau

    Sigh, I tried to avoid chiming in, but.... It occurs to me that people are not really looking at the economy of scale even with in the Macross World. One of the things that helped make the VF-1's cheaper is that with (minimal) re-tooling alot of the development work could be amortized over *every* VF-1 (1/48 and 1/60). Alot of the design work for the 1/48 was probably done during the 1/60th design process. Add to that the fact that yamato gets more sales out minimal changes in the VF-1 line. Notice that the release order leveraged alot of the commanlity in the VF-1. DYRL versions are minimal color changes. Fast Packs required new parts and minor re-tooling of existing parts, but could be leveraged on all VF-1's. TV versions require more extreme color changes, but leveraged the existing molds. VE-1 and VT-1 required more new parts with little potential for re-use. So far we see the 1/48th part way down the same path the 1/60th took, and I'm sure Yamato is watching sales closely to see how far the path the should follow the 1/60th line. The low-viz was an interesting sideline since it required a major color change in production, but otherwise leveraged the existing VF-1A mold. The Q-Rau is a logical choice for the first emeny craft. It's popular (Miryia is a popular character), and it provides 3 variations from a single mold (Red, Purple, and Green). Releasing green first might have cut into sales of the other two. I'd expect Red and Purple to be completely available (sold out?) before green gets announced. The regult has the problem that it would require retooling for each variation (regular, missle, and scout), and might not have the penetration that the Q-Rau has. I'm guessing that Yamato is keeping close tabs on the model/resin market and following trend data found there to help make some of the decisions on releases... So what does this have to do with prices? I'm sure Yamato has put *alot* of time into pricing each of these items. Yes, they know that the Macross fan base is 20-35 (instead of the 8-18 for dragonball z), with more "disposable" income. But they also have to make it cheap enough to motivate sales. Finally, consier that many people here seem to have several VF-1's of any sort (10+ in some cases), and each of us will probably end up with only 1-3 Q-Rau. And figure the average fan who might have only a single 1/60th VF, and will *not* buy anything else...the relative sales potential for the Q' is obviously pretty low, and that leads to high prices (for all of the sunk costs mentioned above). Probably the right things to look at for comparison are things like the figure busts put out by McFalane and others. These painted (non-articulated) busts sell for $60-$300 depending on which character is modelled (and that's from a US company)...
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