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MAAS Toys is making Veritech Hovertanks and Red Commander Bioroids w/Biover!


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One thing to keep in mind with MAAS toys is that (at least with one of their designers, but possibly all) their designers design the look and transformation of the toy, but then leave it to the factory to make sure it works with this like how parts tab in together, etc. So, depending on the specific factory, there could be a wide range of quality of the final product.

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2 hours ago, Tober said:

But us beggars could learn to sculpt. :unsure:

Yup

https://www.flickr.com/photos/18239022@N00/albums/72157661114680302/with/32731247335/:

32731247335_0de1148082.jpg

I started off with LEGO as my medium, but nowadays I've started using LEGO as the base and actually sculpting on top of it, hence this little guy:
44964022004_9f4dc2707e.jpg

 

 

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6 hours ago, Tober said:

But us beggars could learn to sculpt. :unsure:

45457527165_0880356e6d_z.jpg

 

This one is hardly line accurate either. Almost all of the official line art is drawn at a low perspective to give an impression of large size - and between that and the animation; there are plenty of liberties taken in the line art, official art and box art to animation.

And also, it is drawn repeatedly in the same way because it is a very un-dynamic design and can hardly strike a pose without some serious anime magic.

Just my casual arm-chair-designer thoughts.

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2 hours ago, Kurisama said:

This one is hardly line accurate either. Almost all of the official line art is drawn at a low perspective to give an impression of large size - and between that and the animation; there are plenty of liberties taken in the line art, official art and box art to animation.

And also, it is drawn repeatedly in the same way because it is a very un-dynamic design and can hardly strike a pose without some serious anime magic.

Just my casual arm-chair-designer thoughts.

Yep, which gives some liberty to the design, and is why I think that one's much leaner design is a great (re-)interpretation. It looks like the head can turn a bit too, which it isn't supposed to, but again, it's their interpretation.

How many times has a 'perfect transformation' SDF VF-1 been refined over the last 40ish years? And it's still not line-art accurate on account of the puffy hands alone. Takara is set to release their third Masterpiece interpretation of Optimus Prime, whose robot and truck mode looks accurate, but the transformation is hectic as parts of the cab move into the legs to achieve it.

Beagle (arguably) produced the best Ride Armor 10 years ago, yet it was the least accurate in terms of proportions or transformation compared to CMs Corp or MegaHouse. They traded proportional accuracy for practicality and it worked well enough for Aramaki to adopt it for his later redesigns (assumed).

The Bioroids don't even transform, but as Captain America implied, something has to give to for them to achieve a decent range of motion. And where there is a will, there is a way.

These are still the best Bioroid kits I've seen in terms of proportion, even though they're not completely loyal to the line-art either.

32503419578_98baf09c9c.jpg 44558485820_b347d6d84a_z.jpg

But I don't make toys, so what do I know... Right? I just buy them.

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9 hours ago, JetJockey said:

I want that hovertank. It can't get here soon enough. I had the original Matchbox toy and was always upset that it was only two modes.

It would have been pretty trivial for Matchbox to add the 3rd mode, the only thing that needs to move is the legs (and rotate the hip armor that prevents it) and movable feet.  Probably $5 more in joints on the toy.  I'm not talking about a fully accurate transformation either...just SOMETHING.  The could have left the main tank cannon and those leg stabilizers off and it still would have been good.

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52 minutes ago, optimuspint said:

Didn’t MAAS toys have some kind of issue on kickstarer with one of their figures recently? 

They did a Kickstarter for the Mayhem Mekanics figures, but I don't recall there being any issues.

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they just put out a january update for their crowdfund "renegade" figure (unlicensed TF tetrajet).  don't expect anything there until way way after CNY.  apparently they are just starting things again relatively recently with a new factory (there is a whole thread of bad jjuju stuff on tfw2005 about what happened between them and the old factory/FP) .  also lots of pledgers didn't pay up seemling....but retailers apparently saved the project pledging to buy enough quantity to save the project (5 guys max on that particular project).  also they are basically doing the work for free in their free time at this point.   its a little bit of a sob story and makes their existence seem rather tenuous TBH.   i am curious how they landed the robotech license with such a small operation.  hopefully all goes well because southern cross/masters robotech never had enough decent toys...

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2 hours ago, Mechapilot77 said:

its a little bit of a sob story and makes their existence seem rather tenuous TBH.  

Ah, there we go... I'd been wondering when that other shoe was going to drop.  

When I heard that Harmony Gold had finally found someone willing to acquire part of the Southern Cross merchandising rights after over thirty years, I was sure it had to be a tiny indie outfit.  I was a bit surprised to hear that an otherwise-competent outfit like MAAS Toys were the fools rushing in where angels fear to tread.  Doubly so when I saw that MAAS did most of its business through Kickstarter, considering Harmony Gold has been dead-set against crowdfunding ever since the embarrassing public failure of Robotech Academy's Kickstarter and the financing scandal that ended Robotech RPG Tactics.  

This latest update explains a lot.  MAAS Toys is having problems with its crowdfunded business model.  They must be hoping that transitioning to making licensed toys for retail would be a more stable revenue stream.  I have a nasty suspicion they're about to join Netter Digital, Eternity Comics, Academy Comics, and Palladium Books as licensees done in by Robotech... which kinda sucks, because I really would like an Auroran.

 

 

2 hours ago, Mechapilot77 said:

i am curious how they landed the robotech license with such a small operation.  hopefully all goes well because southern cross/masters robotech never had enough decent toys...

To be frank, the Robotech franchise is at death's door.

They don't have anything new in development, and haven't for years.  They've lost most of the fanbase through a mix of mistreatment and incompetence.  They've treated licensees rather poorly over the years, and past licensees have largely exhausted the brand's merchandising potential.  They've weathered a string of public failures and scandals recently, and it's public knowledge that their license expires soon and that the license seems unlikely to be renewed thanks to deteriorating relations with their Japanese partner Tatsunoko.  That perfect storm of red flags has whittled the pool of licensees down to mostly just the small-time indie outfits.

MAAS Toys likely got the Southern Cross license for a song.  Previous licensees like Toynami flatly refused to make Southern Cross merchandise because the projected return on that investment was too small to justify the effort.

Many Robotech fans believe that Harmony Gold is back to selling licenses to whoever is willing to pay in order to cash out before their rights expire.

 

 

2 hours ago, jenius said:

The robotech operation is basically two guys in a suite also.

More like two half-men... since neither of them is really qualified to do the job they're doing.

 

 

 

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4 hours ago, Mechapilot77 said:

apparently they are just starting things again relatively recently with a new factory (there is a whole thread of bad jjuju stuff on tfw2005 about what happened between them and the old factory/FP) .

FP? :unsure:

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1 hour ago, Seto Kaiba said:

More like two half-men... since neither of them is really qualified to do the job they're doing.

I think you got the correct answer, but your math was wrong. My understanding is that the Robotech store is literally just Steve, where he does all of the orders, packaging, and shipping. I'd say that equals 3/4 of a qualified person. Tommy, at his job... maybe 1/4 of a qualified person... maybe...

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4 minutes ago, enphily said:

My only real nitpick here is with their statements about how they listen to the fans. In my VERY LIMITED experience with some of the products that MAAS has put out, while they are very active on social media, they also are convinced that they know best. So, they do "listen" to fans who are very vocally praising them, but input which doesn't line up with what they have already decided upon or which is more critical than glowing seems to get ignored.

So, I guess they're a good fit for partnership with HG...

 

(again, limited experience with them, so it might not speak to the specific folks behind this particular project)

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I'm not familiar enough with the design but is hover tank mode really supposed to not be flat along the bottom? It looks like you'll need a stand to display it in that mode but since it's supposed to hover, I guess that's no big deal. In many ways this looks like a reformed Matchbox toy.

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4 minutes ago, 505thAirborne said:

Image result for VERITECH HOVER TANK

Probably a lot of Anime magic going on here, but this is how it looks in the series. 

Their tank mode definitely looks off compared to the lineart.

I know it's a boxy design, but theirs looks less... sleek, I guess. Too much legs just folded under it, not really collapsing into place... the gun/cannon looks too small and just sort of sitting on top, instead of partially nested in place, and the, uh, fold-out hover thingies (sorry) look too small too, or at least too small compared to the rest of the lower leg.

 

line-art-transport.jpg.30f995c6395feda9449876905af333da.jpg

VHT1-hovertank-render-promo-4.thumb.jpg.5397bc9b90026ebbe32d5b427f85fb61.jpg

 

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25 minutes ago, 505thAirborne said:

Probably a lot of Anime magic going on here, but this is how it looks in the series. 

I'd say not enough anime magic going on there, actually.  Yeesh.

 

Be really interesting to see how this Kickstarter plays out. Smart of MAAS to not simply trust the people telling them there's a rich and vibrant SDC Southern Cross market just sitting there untapped and waiting for them, though I'm surprised HG isn't forbidding Robotech kickstarters outright.

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It might be tough to get the legs to collapse for tank mode. That’s probably why it looks so chunky. The gun is way undersized as well.

In robot mode the legs look a bit clunky and thick. They could add a few millimeters in length to make them look slimmer and have then telescope to tuck in better during tank mode.

For being the first rendition in decades they aren’t too bad of a job here, but not too well either.

 

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Holy hell, that CG rendering is godawful.  Every single shape is wrong.  :bigshok:

Just scrap it all, and start over from scratch.  There's nothing salvageable there.

My enthusiasm for this project just evaporated.  :(

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45 minutes ago, tekering said:

Holy hell, that CG rendering is godawful.  Every single shape is wrong.  :bigshok:

Just scrap it all, and start over from scratch.  There's nothing salvageable there.

My enthusiasm for this project just evaporated.  :(

I hear you, Ted.

So many of the shapes, particularly the thighs have been highly simplified... For reasons I cannot explain, because it offers no advantage from a tooling or transformation perspective. I think there would be ways to play with the lower legs and the boxiness of the main body so as to better harmonize them when collapsed into Flash Clapper (hover) mode. Then again, no one asked me.

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9 hours ago, JB0 said:

I'd say not enough anime magic going on there, actually.  Yeesh.

The Spartas didn't have that much anime magic in its transformation... which was, by standards of the day, fairly straightforward and toy-friendly.

 

9 hours ago, JB0 said:

Be really interesting to see how this Kickstarter plays out. Smart of MAAS to not simply trust the people telling them there's a rich and vibrant SDC Southern Cross market just sitting there untapped and waiting for them, though I'm surprised HG isn't forbidding Robotech kickstarters outright.

... it's being funded through a Kickstarter?

Well, this should be amusing.  AFAIK HG was forbidding crowdfunding of all types.  Strange Machine Games publicly stated the terms of their license forbade crowdfunding when they picked up the RPG license.  If it works out like previous Robotech Kickstarters, at least we won't have to worry about build quality or the lack thereof.


 

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10 minutes ago, captain america said:

I hear you, Ted.

So many of the shapes, particularly the thighs have been highly simplified... For reasons I cannot explain, because it offers no advantage from a tooling or transformation perspective. I think there would be ways to play with the lower legs and the boxiness of the main body so as to better harmonize them when collapsed into Flash Clapper (hover) mode. Then again, no one asked me.

I agree with you both.  This looks like a half hearted attempt or an even less sleek reimagining.  I think they really need to start over.  It's pretty bad...in my opinion.  They really need to get the Sparta right for people to buy into this line.  I don't want to crap all over their work but it's just bad atrhe moment and somehow less aesthetically pleasing than even the Old matchbox Toy.  Maybe they new designer to get some fresh eyes on this..STAT.

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1 hour ago, Seto Kaiba said:

The Spartas didn't have that much anime magic in its transformation... which was, by standards of the day, fairly straightforward and toy-friendly.

I made my own from LEGO and there was one part of the transformation I left out. 

The front of the tank rotates in mid-air while becoming the backpack/skirt of the robot mode.

This never seemed either practical, feasible, or necessary to me.

I'd be ok with this part being left out of the transformation.

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Ugh, that's horrible. I know it's just a rendered version of the wire frame from the OP so I guess I should have been complaining then but seeing it fleshed out just highlights all of the issues with it.

The sad thing is that I am so starved for a toy version of the hovertank that I will still probably break down and get it if it ever gets made. I just probably wouldn't ever display it in tank mode which in the end doesn't make it much better than the Matchbox version.

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8 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

The Spartas didn't have that much anime magic in its transformation... which was, by standards of the day, fairly straightforward and toy-friendly.

I've noticed that before. In this case... they shoulda  cheated just a little bit.

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