Nani?!

Looks like it's tampoed to the max. Awesome.

No one's been singing bandai hymnals and praise wishing for their second coming to put the evil yamato to eternal damnation and gnashing of teeth. It's hopeful optimism as a MACROSS fan that one of the biggest toy manufacturers in Japan is entering the fray interested in creating stuff we're interested in. Whether they know how to make valks and will ultimately make something that makes a difference is to be determined when this sucker comes out. Bandai has the benefit of a clean slate as far as RECENT Macross Toys. I haven't followed any of their toy's development process and I have no bloody clue as to how much it can change and so the only thing we all have to go by is the stuff they created for that other anime. Stuff that, whether we care for or not, were endowed with a decent dose of quality. And as much flak as you say Yamato gets for their slight deviations from proportions (which seem objective most of the time anyway) they also have people who praise them without hesitation and give them free passes as well. Anyway.... lets get back to the bloody toy and it's fugly canopy hinge now, can we?

Ah... I'm getting these. Hikaru, Focker, Max and Millia... make em and I will come.

Well put, I agree. I also agree with Graham that it's beneficial for us to have options, and this situation it's been beneficial indeed. In this case, I choose dynamic poseability for a non-transforming valk. Whatever money I have, I'm going to put it towards the 1/60 yf-21 and vf-1 and any upcoming Macross Zero product... hopefully the vf-0d.

8 years ago is the 1/72 era for yamato. Nippled, tab 2 breaking, fat legged, can't hold a proper gerwalk pose yf-19, one legged, plastic cutout canopy heatshield, not to mention the hinges under the wingroots, vf-11b floppy mess, only one pose poseable battroid mode, yf-21, One / Seventy Two. It's a good thing your joking Graham... Sadly, half the people here will actually rally around that nonsense and feel encouraged to add to it like so: Pfft~~~ What a Yamaturd.

I think the CAD's get as scrutinized as they do because it's probably the only phase where fan's comments have any chance to be heard before things are set in stone. It's a minute chance to begin with, sure, but it's a chance. The fact that they also fail to portray a complete picture (the objective wow-factor of a valk in the flesh) is also a major factor. All the comments I've made about the CAD, I still feel the same way about the final product. I still think the sculpt of the 1/60 vf-0s is spot on AWESOME. I still think the tail fins of the yf-19 are a tad small and wish the gullet was even smaller (my opinion), and I still think the legs of the yf-21 are a bit thin. What I am learning to do from either side of the spectrum is tone down the concern and take into consideration the OVERALL wow factor of the toy that although will not completely erase those gripes, will neutralize them enough to where they don't matter much.

Nope. They just want a piece (or more in the future) of the growing pie, IMO.

Guys, it's all good if you're going to talk about what you think looks off on the prototype or not, but wtf is "Bandaide" & "Yamaturds?" Don't turn this into some "Sony : Microsoft :: Yamato : Bandai" war because honestly, it's gay. Shin isn't a "bandaide"... I know this for sure. I had a couple heated discourses with him regarding the business decisions of yamato (in the "silent-treatment-Macrossworld" era) and their quality (which was shotty then) of their products and he's defended them vigorously... And Eugimon is clearly no "Yamaturd".... He's had a retarded shoulder vf-0 for an avatar for a good while. (Although, he seems to have a shorter leash for bandai ) Stop the fanboy labeling. It's retarded. It's good competition, indirect as it may be... and unless bandai f's it up totally, we can only benefit (however minute) from the slight drop of sweat that will go down yamato exec's brow. As for the prototype: That hinge is... disgusting... It needs to go. I understand it might be because of the breaking point right there but c'mon... yamato solved that problem in the yf-19. With everything else however, (ie the big crotch, the head shape, antennae length, loose limbs) is still early to tell. The crotch needs to lock up, knees need to be set in place and the head is looking up, with the antennae a little forward. posting a pic of battroid comparison for reference: IMO, apart from the ghastly cockpit hinge, the sculpt is not all that bad. We've (well not me , but Mwer's ) cut more slack to yamato with the slight deformities that come from materializing kawamori's anime magic. ...... but the hinge has to go.... sorry...

Opinions are like A$$holes... some good for lovin, some just full of sh*t. Life... oh well.

Complaints are a part of life as much as water is. Everyone partakes in it to some extent and unfortunately many fill theirs with blind bitchy rage rather than logical arguments, and some do so at a higher frequency than others. Everyone has tipped that balance between logic and emotion in favor of the latter and again... some more often than others. The thing is, just as some people here are blindly opinionated against Yamato, likewise, there are some people here that are blindly opinionated just the same against an opposing opinion. Since everything is written and saved in forums, passing complaints that would in the real world only last as long as the breath of air that was used to utter them, linger longer and are heard by more people. The choice is always there and far easier to take to completely ignore posts that you discern is going in a direction that to some, is beating a dead friggin horse. The funny thing is... so many of us choose not to.

$65 difference then $65 difference now. Good point! And yea, after you laying everything across the table, it doesn't look half as bad as it did intially... I think the big question for myself personally now is that are these things worth it ($$)? They dont seem to look like they're going to go down in price... I guess the whole experience with toys from japan have gone the way I feel about their food (sushi)... Bloody expensive for what you get, overrated and in the end leaves me unsatisfied... huh.... ... I'm gonna go think about this....

Good ol' way to see things clearer, put it all out on the table! Softens the blow a bit relative to prices now... but.... it's still slightly misleading. The 1/48 Supers have inflated in price for a good two years now. When they were first out I bought a vf-1j for $165.99 before shipping costs were applied. 135 to 165 difference is like the BMW 1 series to the 3 series. I still believe if yamato wants to make this series a success like that of the 1/48's or somewhat close to it, they'll have to come down a bit. Here's to hoping there are more stores selling for the 112.99 price point. I'll buy them at that price. No way in Hell for 135+. Yea obviously, and that's why no matter how good they (yamato) get, they'll have a thorn jaming into my side. It seems nowadays they raise price with each new release.... They increase the temperature just enough as we frogs sit in the water wondering if "is it just me or is it getting hot in here?" They might just end up killing the whole hobby in the end. I mean, we're bound to wake up one day and realize how much we can buy with 135-235 dollars... and that we're spending that much for something that'll sit on some display for most of us... Huh...

Stand or no stand, fast pack or not it still doesnt justify almost a 100% price increase. (and the prices I'm mentioning are not the dirt cheap prices everyone is selling their old 1/60's now but the prices they were before. I bought my fast pack 1/60 vf-1j's for $75 + shipping back in the day.) Risen prices of oil (for plastic), inflation (and whatever people list as factors yamato has no control over) still doesn't justify it... and I'm surprised they're raising prices even though they know they'd have to convince many people who bought their whole line of 1/48's already to buy another vf-1 series... I'm sorely disappointed.

I... *long pause* agree... 'bout time the source got blamed and not just the online retailers. If prices are not in the sub-$100 USD for these I'm not getting any. Yamato is out of their mind. Ridiculous.

I agree. It's the same with the YF-19 legs and..... YF 19 doesnt have a delimiter mode.

!!! You mean to say it's ok to like both gundam and macross together?!?! Really though, who started this war against Gundam anyway??

Kawamori expression saying "ma...cross...." was classic~ What would have made it even better is if you put "Gun...damu" instead of "Gundam", But yea, I imagined it like that anyway... freakin hilarious, haha

Always a riot with the humor, EXO. Laughed my butt off.

They'll always be those several hundreds of people with cash for toilet paper lying around that'd rather pay more than wait. It's definitely not reflective of the majority of the market in general and I think yamato has learned that in the past... People will ignore a release if it's unreasonable. Yamato's little light bulbs are flickering on though. They actually started raising the price before they did "more"... even including the first 1/60 yf-19 release. That thing came with nothing. Now it seems all releases come with a stand and the kitchen sink. (VERY GOOD, BTW) I think they want to justify the rising price point and they're easing it in a bit by rounding out the package...all the while making more profit. We all know that a simple weathering paint job doesn't cost that much... But they'll probably charge $20 bucks more for it... Even if they keep the price the same as any other 1/48, just the fact they found a way to sell another frackin 1/48 VF-1S, is $$$ cha-ching for them.

Well rubbing alcohol is hardly what i'd have laying around my valks anyway... I don't touch my stuff unless I'm dusting my stuff with a dust blower so... maybe the occasional monthly transform when I'm bored of a mode... Actually, the low vis looks the best in fighter IMO so I haven't transformed that in ages....

If the Low vis 1 is any indication, the weathering should hold up fine.

Got ya~ Opine away~

but you are taking sides... Which is fine... but why proclaim that you won't and then do it right after?

Save Robotech, I usually make sure that I thank who ever posts pictures first before any comment and your post just indirectly reminded me that I havent this time. I apologize and I sincerely thank you for your service. I always look forward to these upcoming "fests" but I realize they're pretty much meaningless if we didnt have people like you consistently attending and being our eyes and ears. Hurin, Haterist made valid a point, he had an opinion... it's his right. If it offended anyone... let the offended express the resentment. You have an uncanny ability to layout effectively your point and all the evidences needed to back them... but you know and should know by now... with haterist, it doesn't matter. You can point that stuff out to a T, and it wont matter. He'll squiggle his way out, rally his backers and sanctify himself a maytr. So why?? Let him be... His screen names perfectly serves as instruction. Haterist.... Do Not Disturb... Haterist, Dude... whoosaaa~~~

yea, I dont see why this doesn't at least become available like the original low vis was.... It's freakin awesome and it'd be a missed opportunity to artfully extend a product thats been reproduced SO MANY times now. I for one never thought I'd buy a frakin 1/48 after the announcement of the new 1/60 line... I'm wrong again. Sooner or later detailed valks like these should be a more frequent thing especially if bandai brings their A game with their future macross products. Yamato needs to make it's own statement (making it right now with it's recent releases)... The biggest statement I reckon is when they start rolling out with releases free from QC issues right from the get go.