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TheLoneWolf

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  1. TheLoneWolf

    Hi-Metal R

    TheLoneWolf replied to joppewo's topic in Toys

    I noticed that same thing last year when I bought a VF-1D DX from LP. Their eBay listing was around $50 more expensive than their direct site. So I bought it from their direct site; aside from a dented box due to zero padding, no complaints here.
  2. TheLoneWolf

    Hi-Metal R

    TheLoneWolf replied to joppewo's topic in Toys

    I'd honestly be shocked if the US got short-changed for these first couple of worldwide releases. Big West is making a big push for their worldwide campaign. If Bandai isn't making enough to meet global demand, it'll be an embarrassing homecoming for Big West. If these first couple of releases end up being shelfwarmers, then I can see Bandai lowering their production runs on subsequent releases, but that wouldn't be until next year at the earliest.
  3. TheLoneWolf
    My guess is that Bandai's not going to release anymore 1/48's until they have a better idea of when they'll be able to release them worldwide. And like Noel said, Delta's keeping them busy as is.
  4. TheLoneWolf
    I prefer the orange of the DX, but the white landing gears of the Yamato. But since the landing gears only affect 1 mode, the DX comes out on top. And yes, the lack of a sitting Minmay with the DX is annoying. Love your work on both!
  5. TheLoneWolf
    That's pretty much it. Studio Nue and Haruhiko Mikimoto (who was never part of Studio Nue) provided the story and designs. Tatsunoko Production and Artland provided the animation the series. Notably, Artland blessed the series with quality animation (eg: Booby Trap, Countdown). Meanwhile, Tatsunoko didn't even use their own in-house animators. Instead, they farmed out their work to subsidiaries, like Star Pro, who did inferior work (eg: Virgin Road). To be fair, Tatsunoko's inclusion appears to be a last-minute arrangement, so their own animation teams might've been committed to other projects at the time. And since SDF Macross wasn't even one of their creations, there's less incentive to assign good animators.
  6. TheLoneWolf

    Hi-Metal R

    TheLoneWolf replied to joppewo's topic in Toys

    Absolutely. All of the past Destroids have sold poorly, Yamato's 1/60 Destroids included. Even with sales and discounts, they'd still sit on the shelves for a little while before finally selling out. IIRC, the HMR Monster could still be found on sale in 2020, several years after it was released. Don't get me wrong, I love the HMR Destroids and have bought every single release. But most Macross fans seem to (ironically) consider the Destroids as a luxury, not a priority.
  7. TheLoneWolf

    Hi-Metal R

    TheLoneWolf replied to joppewo's topic in Toys

    Smart move on Bandai's part. Better to only have one SKU that sells like crap instead of two.
  8. TheLoneWolf
    Man, what I wouldn't give to review Big West and Harmony Gold's contract. My guess is that the "Macross" mark and UN Spacy kite design will be rolled up into a flat licensing fee, with royalties paid to HG on each item sold. Separating the "Macross" mark and kite design into individual fees could be problematic for HG, as Big West and Bandai could simply remove the kites from their toys in order to avoid paying HG. To which HG could object that the toys aren't faithful representations without the kites. It'd just makes things more complicated than necessary. I believe those logos were a direct response to Harmony Gold's claim of the UN Spacy kite. It's too much of a coincidence that Big West replaced the kite after all the lawsuits were concluded in Japan. If Big West had renamed the franchise to Megaroad or Macbeth in America, HG would've had no legal recourse. But that was probably a bridge too far.
  9. TheLoneWolf
    Good question. The short answer: most likely not. Harmony Gold claimed the UN Spacy kite as a trademark design, which prevented it from appearing on other toys in the US. But now that Harmony Gold is licensing their registered "Macross" mark to Big West, it follows that they're also letting Big West use the UN Spacy kite design as well. Forbidding Big West from using the UN Spacy kite would defeat the purpose of letting them the use "Macross" mark, since the two are intertwined.
  10. TheLoneWolf
    Amazing, you've done fantastic research into this! I completely agree with your assessment that there were multiple photo shoots for Jetfire taking place at different times. And thank you for providing sources to back up your theory; it's hard to argue with dated pictures. Have you ever considered doing a comprehensive write-up of all your findings? G1 Jetfire's history is one of the most complicated around and it'd be nice to find everything in one (long) article.
  11. TheLoneWolf
    Whoah, you're absolutely right, it's not an upscale. It just looks so bad that I thought it was one. 😲
  12. TheLoneWolf
    According to that review, the set still has some of the new (inferior) sound effects in it. And after looking at the screenshots he posted, the SDF Macross video is clearly just an upscale of the old AnimEigo release. You can tell because of the oversaturated color contrast that AnimEigo introduced. Now that Harmony Gold/Tatsunoko Production and Big West are working together, maybe there's a chance that a future RT: The Macross Saga will be released with Bandai Visual's Blu ray video, which was a true 1080p remaster.
  13. TheLoneWolf
    Welcome to the board! At first glance, I thought those were just relatively new Jetfire knock-offs, but I can see that they're vintage by the oxidization on some of the die-cast metal parts. I think you're absolutely right, these certainly look like QC failures. Like you, I also figured that Bandai's excess surplus of Jetfire armor was due to Jetfire QC failures (the armor would've been much easier to manufacture and assemble compared to Jetfire himself). But it's nothing short of amazing to see that Jetfire's QC failures actually managed to survive for three decades and find their way to store shelves. Better late than never? I'd love to buy one just for giggles, but that ¥20,000 pricetag tho. Thanks for sharing your findings!
  14. TheLoneWolf
    The M3 doesn't list any dimensions for the Fan Racer, so I'm guessing not. As for the front landing gear, the cutaway lineart shows that there's literally no room for it. 😆 But as others have said, it should've come with plug-in landing gears, especially since it's being packaged with a DX.
  15. TheLoneWolf
    I'm also surprised to see that Big West is now working with Calibre Wings, especially after Noel publically stated that he has no regrets on ripping off the Macross Zero IP and accused Big West of being on a high horse and discriminating against foreigners. And to clarify, Big West's past policy was to refrain from doing business with Harmony Gold's licensees, not foreigners in general. Just ask Manga Entertainment or any foreign convention that's hosted Macross creators. But if Big West is willing to bury the hatchet with Calibre Wings, then I have no qualm with CW either.
  16. TheLoneWolf
    I wouldn't hold my breath on Western Blu-ray releases, it'll be cheaper and quicker to do streaming instead.
  17. TheLoneWolf
    These must be interesting times for Calibre Wings. Noel picked a horrible time to piss off Big West by ripping off their Macross Zero IP, now that all new Macross products in the US have to be approved by both Harmony Gold and Big West. Harmony Gold is going to want to play nicely with Big West because they stand to make a substantial amount of new business with them, so Noel may find himself as the odd man out in this situation.
  18. TheLoneWolf
    I don't think that's the reason. The SDFM Laserdiscs didn't undergo any color remastering, but they still appear more natural-looking than the AnimEigo DVDs when played on a CRT. IIRC, AnimEigo said that their remaster was predicated on the poor condition of the video masters that they received from Harmony Gold (they weren't allowed to use any materials from Big West). It's more likely that the oversaturated colors that they settled on were the best that they could get from HG's video.
  19. TheLoneWolf
    I totally get that, it's easy to get carried away when Marie Kondo'ing.
  20. TheLoneWolf
    @uzernaem I've got all LDs for SDFM and I can't ever go back to watching them after watching the Blu-ray remasters; the LDs are painfully blurry compared to the Blu-rays. While the Blu-rays do have noticable film grain, I'll gladly take that any day over the LDs blurriness that results in fine details being lost. As for colors, it's hard to say which one is technically accurate, as the colors are slightly different amongst all the various LD releases. I don't think there's any color uniformity amongst the DVD and Blu-ray releases either, but the Blu-ray remaster was overseen by Kawamori, so I'll defer to his judgment. As for audio, it's been years since I last watched the LDs, but I don't remember there being any noticable difference between them and the Blu-rays. Hope this helps! I'm pretty sure that screenshot is from the AnimEigo DVD release. That release was notorious for its oversaturated colors and underscan (eg: Roy's chopped head).
  21. TheLoneWolf
    Just curious as to why GRAND CANNON's Macross Toy Releases Thread was unpinned in the toy section. While it's no longer updated, it's still a repository of roughly 15 years worth of prices and release dates that's difficult, if not impossible, to find anywhere else on the internet. And personally, I always felt that this was one of those threads that demonstrated the best of fan dedication and work.
  22. TheLoneWolf
    Oh snap, that'd be great!
  23. TheLoneWolf
    I don't think the trademark would necessarily have to be re-assigned or amended for Big West. Harmony Gold can simply create a $1 perpetual license for Big West and collect a small percentage of royalties from any products sold. Big West will probably reciprocate in the EU when it comes to Harmony Gold over there. But we'll see. ^ This 100% Lol, sorry, but I just don't see that happening. When Yamato released their 1/15 Garlands, the prices between the Japanese and US versions was negligible. And the same thing occurred when MegaHouse released their 1/15 Ride Armors in the US and Japan. Niche products are usually going to be expensive. But the big gain here is that Bandai, Arcadia, et al will now be able to offer customer support to any properly licensed products going forward. Customers will no longer be at the mercy of whichever import retailer they bought a lemon from. Overall, I'm glad that these two companies have finally come to an agreement, there's far more money to be made by working together. The only losers here are all the law firms that Harmony Gold used to send out those lovely cease & desists.
  24. TheLoneWolf

    Bandai DX VF-31

    TheLoneWolf replied to UN Spacy's topic in Toys

    Yellowing primarily affects white plastic. Your VT-1 shouldn't have any yellowing because it's beige, not white. Like jenius, I don't think styrofoam has much of an impact on yellowing or else it'd be nearly impossible to find any boxed white toys from the 1980's. Moreover, I find it hard to believe that those boxed toys from the 80's were all kept in optimal storage conditions for three decades. My belief is that the quality of the batch of plastic used is the greatest determining factor, bearing in mind that many different batches can be used within the same toy line; temperature plays a secondary role. While direct sunlight will yellow all plastics, regardless of quality and temperature.
  25. TheLoneWolf
    Not really. Most, if not all, European countries had signed on to the Berne Convention by the 1970's, which requires signatories to acknowledge international copyrights. Wait, what are model kits doing in a 1/55 thread?
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