Mommar

I suppose there's one question. Will this be a P or a stained-P? Because if it's all red again I'm not buying it. If it's the tan color I'm going for it.

Also, too bad there aren't prototype's of the S and F sitting out as well.

I'm gonna have to get one of each. I love the Gerwalk, love the blue color of Michaels (and this V2 B mode is looking sweet too) and I love the Green color plus the look of the radome in fighter mode of Lucas.

Daaaaaamn. Look at that Gerwalk! So glad I pre-ordered one of these. Should be out just in time for my birthday.

Yeah looks like they are selling unpainted version with VF-1A and VF-1J head.

Well that's cool, since I missed out on the unpainted 1S however... where's some effing VF-17 info?

Yamato doesn't do things cheap. I don't mean just price but they hire the best engineers and manufacturers to bring the best representation of the toys. And when there's flaws to the design, they actually fix them and when the toy isn't good enough they do another version. Everytime they try cheap, like the GNUs, they fail. Even if it's never said, they are a prestige format company. And that's what I like about them. They can't be like Bandai that has many tiers and is essentially many companies under one roof. The phalanx has been done for a while, designwise. It wouldn't be cost effective for them to just sit on it if the molds weren't so expensive for the parts needed.

I actually was going to ask about the GNUs. I don't own any. Other than non-transformable what sets them apart from the 1/60 Valks? Cheaper plastics? The molds probably aren't as detailed too or the paint apps aren't as good? I was curious if Yamato could have gone in a GNU (still at 1/60) route with the Destroids to keep the costs down.

first off; the fact that a mass retail kids toy that was part of a popular, concurrently airing TV shows toy line cost you ten bucks seventeen years ago has zero barring on how much it would cost to design and produce a Destroid today.

Further, even if the the Yamato's destroids where significantly less expensive to design than the VF-1, that still only represents a fraction of what it costs to actually produce the toy. The tooling, raw materials and labor required to produce the finished, packaged toy are all very expensive and represent a big chunk of what the toys final price is.

The destroids may seem simple because they don't transform but they don't have drastically fewer parts, less material or fewer paint apps than a basic VF-1 toy. That means they require a similar number of molds, similar quantities of plastic and similar number of man hours to produce each toy. So even if they did save a HUGE amount on the development end it still cost about the same amount on the production end.

And most importantly, the destroids may have had lower fixed cost (Design, tooling, etc.) but they also had far fewer units to spread the cost out over. They made all of 2 destroids in 2 color schemes compared to the Dozens of VF-1's they've churned out over the last couple years.

They also share the exact same legs, thus the same mold. That should offset a HUGE portion of Captain Picards fore-head. And the point is they aren't as fancy as a VF and the perceived value is lower. Find a way to make them cheaper so the barrier to entry isn't as high. It doesn't matter how hard you press your hand through your skull reading this opinions, they didn't sell at the price of a VF-1 and it's because nobody saw them as worth that much. And I didn't even need to use a condescending jpg to express my opinion.

Because R&D represents 100% of a products production costs and things like raw materials, tooling, packaging, factory workers and advertising all just spontaneously generate out of a vacuum.

I already went over the fact R&D on something as simple as the Destroids shouldn't cost that much.

I'm not sure how durable the joints are. The Regult can hold some pretty extreme poses, but the slightest tap and it will collapse down on itself.

See, I just don't care about having a figure go with it. A full-sized Regult with Joints strong enough to hold it up but make some dynamic Regult-y poses in the knees/feet/hips is all I ask. I know that's pretty hard to pull off with such a goofy design and why I'd expect a complete figure to be $200 or so. The Destroids should be $50, they're not that hard to engineer.

What's the fascination with figures you can put in the cockpit?

Include me in on this pricing bandwagon as well.

No doubt the process of designing a toy is pricey. It could have cost them the same ammount to make both a Destroid and Valkyrie. As the consumer we look only at the finished result. A VF is 3 toys in 1. A Destroid is one toy, it doesn't transform and doesn't even have arms.

My argument for why the Destroids should be cheaper is as follows: I own the old Exo Squad versions of the toys from the mid 90's. They weren't fantastic but they're durable and move about like you'd expect any of the Destroids to move. It cost $10. You would think at + $40 more they could make a $50 toy with better plastic/joints. They added that goofy torso that allows the body to shift up and down but it also makes the toys a floppy mess so that added engineering "marvel" is a waste of time and money.

The Regult is different and would take more work. The large body and skinny legs necessitates some fancier mechanisms in order to make sure the legs don't become floppy/loose. Plus the Regults were far more dynamic in their movements compared to the stiff, lumbering Destroids. Also, I absolutely don't care about a figure being included or opening hatches either.

Based on what I've heard, as well as the countless amount of destroid sales going on, it is reasonable to say that the destroids are NOT selling well at all. I think that they might have even pulled the plug on the other unreleased destroids as well due to poor sales. With that logic, if destroids don't even sell at a $100 pricepoint, I don't really see how a $100 regult will hold. Maybe it will be better due to its enemy standing, but I can't say for sure....

If market trend shows anything, $100 is a lot to drop on anything, and I, as well as others, would probably prefer to spend it on something that actually transforms rather than a 2 footed sphere

To be honest I feel the Destroids are over-priced. I'm sure there are other people who feel that way too. I'd pay $90 to $100 for a Regult. I'm not going to pay near $500 to build one myself though.

Dude, RIDE variants would be SICK!!!

All Graham said was that he showed the VF-19's from The Ride to someone from Yamato who said they liked the designs. That's not confirmation of anything.

Blazer, yes. Everything else, we don't know yet. You'd think a P would be pretty easy to pull off though so maybe.

I like that white look too, looks a lot like the animation.

Mommar you got an old package rigth?

I sure did. So far I've been lucky with no exploding shoulders. That's twice actually, once for the VF-0A and once for the original VF-1A DYRL Hikaru release.

I got my VF-0A awhile back from them and it was new stock

It might be a crap-shoot then. I got a VF-0A during the last HLJ sale and it was old stock.

Not since the 80's lol

So we'll trend this one towards 'no chance in hell.'

The 25 looks damn good in CF colors. I doubt Bandai would ever make one though. Is there evidence they've ever tried a scheme that wasn't from a hero Valk?

I am liking the look of that Gerwalk mode!

For those into magazines and hobby shows schedules, what would be the next most likely occasion for Yamato to show off prototype pics?

CF18 mentioned WonderFest 2011 on July 24th. Here's hoping.

With S first, they can release the Millia version without making a new mold for the head. Big deal.

Did I say I don't mind a Max color 17S?

It's not Cannon but I love Max and blue Valks so I'd probably wind up with one.

Hey Graham, any idea if Yamato are designing this thing to take into account the fast packs?

I wonder when we'll start hearing grumblings of other VF-19 variants?

This slow trickle of "not-quite" images is freaking murder man!

Had to relearn texturing this weekend ... and Photoshop. Got the nose section going though.

The grey panel lines and weathering look really good. The orange nose makes it appear to be a different material and makes the vernier look a little like a decal though.

$500 is quite a lot for me to plunk down with the shortcomings others mention here.

I might still do it, but the fear of a pre-painted, $200, no-cockpit detail version is giving me added hesitation.

Sure wish we had some inside info on whether they have a cheaper toy version in the works...

I'm going to go ahead and say Yamato aren't going to do it. There are still these model versions around for sale which means not even the die-hards were willing to buy them. Plus, do you ever see any pics with people's customs? Not really, no. Minutes after the SDF-1 was released there were already mods, different paint schemes, photos all over the place. Hardly anyone in our own group has put theirs together yet or has made excuses about other projects. They're just not that excited or else it would already be done. We'd have TV Schemes, DYRL schemes, somebody already modding theirs to look like the scouts. There's none of that. The Regult just isn't popular enough. If it had sold out in an instant and there were pics from collectors up everywhere I'd still say it was unlikely. But with it's cold reception (admittedly it's too damn expensive) I'm going to assume there's zero chance of this happening now.

Spent some time re-rigging the model after collapsing it to basic objects to help w/ the complete rework.

Still some detail work to do and import. Heat shield is off my VF-1S so the there's clipping and I have shoulder joints to try figure out again. These are things I didn't notice until xforming this bad boy

One thing of note, the sensor on the left arm physically swivels around to face towards the hands when in Gerwalk/Battroid rather than being crooked backward near the elbow. Check out the Elintseeker thread in the toy section to get an idea what I'm referring to.