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I'm not sure how true all that is. I've seen that Fire Bomber is generally revered as a classic band in japanese pop culture, while general macross awareness has spread to girls through frontier and delta music. Mecha hobbies like gunpla, armored core gaming, has been getting popular with japanese girls as well. Had they priced this thing dirt cheap to the point of seemingly subsidized like some main character starter gunpla units, this could have been the gateway drug to DX Macross collecting for a lot of new people with a little nostalgia bait marketing. A one and done super robot looking display piece of a legendary front man should in theory be an easier sell to casual new fans, than something like a whole rainbow airshow military attack team. Instead of not having domestic fans, there seems to be a lot of japanese fans refusing to buy it. Their criticism is the same as we have here. The fans want the full sound force, as seen just above, and accessories like sound boosters. What bandai has shown though, is consistently declining QC, non commitment for accessories and completing rosters, and now, worst of all, fleecing their customers with sky high pricing on a barebones item under the guise of inflation. Unfortunately for them, they miscalculated and priced it out of demand and affordability, while over supplying as if fans are mindless moneybags. Very few bought into their insane pricing, causing the never closing PO listings to reveal the slow sales. Then they reinforce their noncommittal status by rolling out the half baked 17 with no ability to wear a super pack, building a very serious wait and see audience, because it's very clear a hypothetical storm valkyrie and sound boosters would be just as screwed, if those ever even had a chance of being made. The sound force collectors then see no reason to start a new collection when their yammie/arcadia actually has a sound booster already. The backfire keeps compounding because all the retailers want to clear inventory and get into panic clearance. This being so new, would never sell for a loss, so now with a still profitable price drop, everyone can see as plain as day, the insane fleecing behind the MSRP. PO buyers are burned and pass the sour mood onto the wait and see buyers, reinforcing the whole price drop watching game. To really execute themselves and their M7 plans, they surprise drop the anniversary Kairos for cheaper than this thing. Formerly limited, they retail release it this time, so everyone rushes there, only to realize its a small production run, so the panic buy compounds. Now none of the small budget fans have money spend on this, no matter how cheap it gets. Seeing these sales, speculation for the fate of Blazer Valk sets in, stopping the last of the collectors from wanting to even start this set, so it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. Thus sales of of this will continue to be worse. At this point, everyone is familiar with how bandai interprets their sales numbers. They are going to say nobody likes toys anymore, and toss out the perfectly good molds because their storage is not profitable, and instead, sink funds in some meme worthy collapsing investment bubble again. Crypto, VR, metaverse, NFT, AI, DX Chogokin Labubu, you name it, they've done it. It makes it pretty hard for fans to buy into this product line with bandai's attitude being like this. Story of bandai's life. I cry everytime.

Nice! I've been punting Soundwave around... It's just a matter of time before I cave.

So I picked up my first two Star Trek sets this morning! Hoping for more...🤗

Sharon Stone

The Moderoid kits are up for preorder at a number of places like Good Smile, HLJ, Hobby Genki, etc.

Phantasm

Jared Leto is in MOTU film. Now that is alarming

I pre-ordered the two-pack set

It wouldn't make sense if Hedorah was the villain. Would not mined if he was.

i want the sound force

From a signing at Hollywood Amoeba Records

Just about done trashing the bug. I was afraid I might've gone too far... ...but the client is apparently pleased. 😅 Fabulous panel lining! 😍 Never seen those flame effects on the legs before. Cool decals.

You know the really funny/stupid thing.. this is essentially the exact same mistake Yamato made: spending a mountain of money developing a line of toys so niche that they really didn't even have enough of a domestic market to turn a sustainable profit. Bandai could easily milk the market for all it has to offer if they focused on something there is an established domestic demand for... but no, they just want to chase a market that is likely even smaller than the one Yamato targeted, because apparently they're just completely certain Macross 7 will be profitable this time. In a market where it never originally aired, and is probably the most mocked in the franchise as a whole. But what do I know. I'm not one of Bandai's market analysts. Maybe they just know history better or something.

Lol. Nice! I caught some dungeness yesterday and we had some with our turkey today.

Message sent to you with photo of it

I will. It has the same image as the blue Macross bag I have

The Yamano what? Can you show a pic?

Has anyone figured out if these kits are 1/12 scale, close to that size or waaaay smaller?

I got the Long Haul kit (I forget the designator). I wish they'd make a kit with only their more articulated arms for Bonecrusher, Mixmaster, and Scavenger, as I'd jump on that in a heartbeat. Bonecrusher and Mixmaster, especially, could use those arm upgrades.

cdjapan listing: https://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/BCQA-26 10000y --- add/edit: A-On Store link and some sample details of the First-Run LEs for the 15400y option: https://a-onstore.jp/shop/macross-plus/#first-ver @Seto Kaiba might just be interested in the artbook goodies as potential additions to the M3 site...

I'm happy with my first issue and won't be double-dipping, but It's a great figure, and there's an excellent argument to be made that it's the best official, and perhaps just simply the best ever, version of the character in toy form. That said, as mentioned earlier in the thread, while his bot mode is nigh perfect (needs better shoulder engineering), his vehicle mode is definitely his weakest and could use some work. But it still stands as one of the best figs thus far to come out of the SS86 subline.

Just to clarify, the VF-31B is not a Master File variant. It's an official setting variant that IIRC was first mentioned in Great Mechanics G's Spring '16 issue. We've never seen it (as far as we know), but it's one of two variants mentioned as the mass-production "standard type" VF-31. Per Kawamori, the VF-31A/B types that Xaos has are the same in all respects as the ones that will eventually be delivered to the Brisingr Alliance NUNS. It's unclear if the VF-31B is meant to be a tandem cockpit training version of the VF-31A similar to how Master File describes the VF-19B and VF-25B, or if it's an improved single-seat production type like the VF-11B. Weird that this makes the third different explanation of the Siegfried's origins though. The TV series materials say it's a modified VF-31A, the Master File says it's a separate VF-31 based off a prototype, and the novelization says it's derived from the VF-31B. Macross Delta's cast is just too big for the length of the series. Macross Frontier had 25 episodes, and the important main and secondary cast amounted to nine characters: Alto, Sheryl, Ranka, Ozma, Michael, Luca, Nanase, Grace, and Leon. Macross Delta had only one more episode than Frontier but its core cast was more than twice the size at 21 people. You had the five members of Delta Flight, five Walkure idols, Ernest Johnson, Roid, the six Aerial Knights, King Grammier, Prince Heinz, and Berger Stone. The story was simply not long enough to give most of them more than the absolute minimum of development.

There's a very good chance we aren't seeing any other 19 variants if prices are dropping off that fast.

wow might have to get this.

I went for the Bernard