TMBounty_Hunter

So I just couldn't stop thinking about it and decided to take a look if there's any actual trends or not. Here is as far as I could tell all the Hasegawa cartoon robot releases from the Macross franchise. Years alternate white/grey for easier readability. Red entries I consider irrelevant but they fill the SKU voids. Release dates were initially sources from Hobby Search and HLJ but then at least the year was verified with the Model Graphix Macross Modeling Catalog ~Hasegawa no Tsubasa~ (ISBN978-4-499-23227-2). Hasegawa's own website has a nasty habit of listing the date of the last re-release instead of original release date. After spending an evening getting that together now came the much harder part of deciding what's "New" and what's a re-release/re-box etc. There's about a million ways you could break this down. Adding Super parts probably counts for a "New" kit? Does changing it to a two-seater count? Where do the limited resin figures drop in? You could probably have 10-page long forum threads arguing about this. To keep it as simple as possible I've settled on it needing to be a "whole new machine", kinda like that occasional 新型機!? exclamation in the animes. So for this definition it needs to be either a whole new model of fighter or a substantially different form of it. Taking VF-1 for example we start with the Valkyrie kits, then the Battroid is a whole new kit, and we also count the Gerwalk as a whole new machine since despite using some Valk parts it has lots of newly molded parts that present a new configuration. Super Packs, EWACS, other strap-ons I'm calling decorative and not new machines. So here's the list of what I decided is "New" and the year of original release: 1/72 VF-1 Valkyrie - 2000 1/72 YF-19 - 2002 1/72 VF-1 Battroid - 2002 1/72 YF-21 - 2002 1/72 VF-0 - 2004 1/72 Sv-51 - 2004 1/72 VF-0 Battroid - 2006 1/48 YF-19 - 2009 1/48 VF-1 - 2010 Egg VF-1 - 2010 1/72 VF-11 - 2011 Egg YF-19 - 2012 1/72 VF-25 - 2013 1/72 VF-1 Gerwalk - 2014 1/4000 SDF-1 - 2015 1/4000 SDF-1 Attacker - 2016 1/72 Sv-262 - 2016 1/72 VF-31 - 2017 And here's a bar graph to visualize "New" vs reboxes I'm honestly encouraged by this. The last decade has been pretty solid with every year on average having one new machine and being padded out with 5-6 variants of previous ones. In the end though I still think when new molds are being considered the priority will be given to something shiny and current that can be cross-promoted and in the next year that'll probably be something from the new Delta movie. Though we can always dream of seeing giant dinner-plate sized parts for a 1/48 YF-21...

I'm actually kinda curious how Hasegawa measures up with development and production capacity vs all their neighbors in Shizuoka . It seems that overall Hasegawa much more than any other manufacturer relies on re-releases, whether it's just a decal swap or adding a resin figure. They also don't seem to have any product lines speficially aimed at kids , RC or Mini 4WD like Tamiya and Bandai do. Less diverse lines of products lead to less risk I guess?

Is there really that much profit to be had from Macross models though? Surely Hasegawa has always been doing the math all along. Macross has always been only a tiny fraction of their output and they're still primarily a manufacturer of military and other "traditional" models. If their choice is between making a new mold for some old WWII subject that'll appeal to modelers everywhere vs a Macross design that's only for a bunch of otaku then what's the more financially responsible decision? Plus the VF-1 is probably like 80-90% of Macross related merch out there and they already have that covered. I'm sure lots of people on this forum would love a 1/48 YF-21 and related VF-22 repops, but that's maybe a few hundred sales at most? Going a bit broader in the west going to model shows there's usually a few 1/72 Macross kits entered, maybe even half a dozen to a dozen per show but since it came out I've seen the 1/48 VF-19 only twice. There's absolutely more demand in Japan but really how much? 10k production run? That's on the far low end of typical model runs and some would claim isn't enough to cover the cost of the molds. With majority of those being bought and sitting in people's closet for years and years because we already got mountains of a backlog? If it was worthwhile for Hasegawa then we'd see way more 1/48 YF-19 and VF-19 decal variants since that requires no new molds but we've only ever got one almost a decade ago. Any new mold decisions would also be influence by possibility of cross-promotion and right now there's nothing really happening until the new Delta movie some out. There's really only 3 routes left if you want a company to make a kit: 1. give up and forget about it 2. keep posting about how it's not in any way viable and how it'll never happen to the point where it's a shock and a surprise when it does in half a decade to a decade 3. start a scratch-building project and by the time you're half-way done they'll announce it to spite you personally :P

Coming in February we have the VF-19A "SVF-440 Dullahans" with fast pack and high maneuver missiles: http://www.hasegawa-model.co.jp/product/65870/ As far as re-releases we get 65780 VF-1D: http://www.hasegawa-model.co.jp/product/65780/ EDIT: since the Dullahans are from the Master File it seems people have already done their builds way before the official product

That build was for TENGU Modellers event, which is a small but high profile hobby meet, not any kind of industry hobby show. I can't find the tweet right now but it was specifically said this is not an indication of future products. He did do another tweet later of using just kit parts, without proportionally modifying them and the results are nowhere near as great. I really wouldn't hold my breathe for a battroid kit. It would need mostly new molds if we want it to look good and all of them gigantic and it's doubtful that's financially viable. And that's before getting into structural problems. At this point the only thing I'd expect is VF-1D parts, since that needs only one new big mold (B runner), one small (Q1 runner) and new canopy

It really isn't AI, it's just a bunch of upscale and filtering scripts. It really does a disservice to the animation. The original film scan has all the detail you're gonna get out of it. Any amount of filtering you're either removing detail or pulling it out of your ass, both of which are detrimental to the look.

Boxart

Hasegawa repops for January: 1/48 VF-1A/J TV http://www.hasegawa-model.co.jp/product/mc02/ 1/48 weapons http://www.hasegawa-model.co.jp/product/mc04/ SDF-1 Movie http://www.hasegawa-model.co.jp/product/mc05/ 1/72 VF-1J Black Aces http://www.hasegawa-model.co.jp/product/65782/

The text does say 2021, so assuming the calendar doesn't just roll back to start of 2020 as the clock hits midnight, shouldn't be too far away. I was honestly contemplating collecting reference for a scratchbuild the past few months. Usually these announcements come AFTER you start a project just to spite you.

Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

Not sure if this is the best thread for this question, but here goes the necromancy. Does anyone have a comparison good top-down between the Club-M and the Hasegawa kits? The reason I ask is that in playing around with the various lineart I discovered that the Hasegawa manual drawings (and presumably the kit) are quite a bit wider than the lineart in the THIS IS ANIMATION SPECIAL Macross Plus and YF-19 Master File books. Is the Club-M kit narrower than the Hasegawa one and more in-line with the older lineart? What I mean: Hasegawa lineart overlayed on top of the THIS IS ANIMATION lineart and matching for length, you can see the Hasegawa body sticking out quite a lot outside the old lineart

Perfect! Thank you very much!

After doing some more digging and finding the source of the chart which is this page http://www.macross2.net/m3/macrosstechman/tech-zentradiheight.html What's the specific source for this?

Is there a solid primary source for Miria's height? There's 885cm in a wiki, 8.55m in a zentradi height chart floating online, and Macross Chronicle 05 has a vague height chart that look to put her closer to 7.5m. Which of these has the most to back it up?

New kit is another VF-11D recolor On the bright side the Macross Zero Tomcat and Mig-29 are coming back!

amazon.ca has always been a horrible disappointment and only a fraction as useful as either .com or .co.jp If you're in Canada definitely check your local dollar stores for this stuff instead.

Nothing new for October but a whole bunch of reissues: Kaname VF-31F http://www.hasegawa-model.co.jp/product/65850/ VF-1 Battroic http://www.hasegawa-model.co.jp/product/10-2/ VF-1S/A Strike/Super Gerwalk http://www.hasegawa-model.co.jp/product/26/ VF-22S http://www.hasegawa-model.co.jp/product/65765/

Don't know about the others, but Hikaru figure came with FIVE whole pairs of eyes and eyebrows. They do seem to expect people to need the extras.

It's definitely a cultural thing. Most people in the west first experienced DYRL the same was as the TV series - on a tiny screen horribly ruined by analog video. Meanwhile in Japan with the theatrical release it was more like an event. A lot of anime movies were like that even back then with people lining up around corners, premiers with staff and cast present, etc. There's lots of photos from the premiers of the original Gundam Trilogy, Ideon movies, Farewell Yamato, etc with just crowds and crowds of people showing up to theaters after the TV shows built the hype. These were cultural milestones for the people that cared about these franchises, with quite a few of these people now making the decisions of what merch gets made today.

From the Aoshima page - 価格：9,800円（税別） Without tax. HLJ still lists with prices without tax since that only applies to Japanese residents Other sites like Hobby Search and AmiAmi unfortunately started listing taxed prices on their english sites, presumable to make their discounts seem bigger >_>

November release, 9,800 yen MSRP http://www.aoshima-bk.co.jp/special/acks/vfg25g/

The slow trickle of news continues Also on video! https://youtu.be/zrHBJEAN0zg?t=4508

Is that channel completely region locked though? Shows zero videos on my end :\

"New" Kit for September is Qasim Draken III - http://www.hasegawa-model.co.jp/product/65868/ Reissues are: RVF-25 http://www.hasegawa-model.co.jp/product/65828/ Max/Milia 1/72 Gerwalk http://www.hasegawa-model.co.jp/product/65829/