Nani?!

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.

LMAO That is why I said

EDIT-----> Cause I really am...to a point...just supporting "opinions"

Got ya~

Opine away~

Big props to Ken TOY WAVE

Yes, TOY-WAVE.

I just picked up my second sv-51 ivanov and my first nora today.

Their shipping quotes scared me off a couple times before so I've always been on the fence with them. However, I just got my tax return and I had some cash to either confirm or redeem a long time seller here.

I didnt identify my MW name until after the shipping confirmation was received so I can get a fair review.

Ordering: B

This is one area of his store that I find most perplexing... it's set-up almost as if it's hiding the shipping price until the very end keeping the customer on edge till the very end... I'd recommend he invest in implementing a shipping calculator, with customer location input.

Shipping time: A+

Let's see, I used speed post, and it I ordered it on Wednesday the 28th (paid same day) Got Shipping confirmation on the 29th and checked that it was picked up for shipping that day. I got a missed delivery notice yesterday on march 3rd when I came back from work and I picked it up today the 4th. 5 days till it came to my door step. Taking out the weekend 3 days.

Packaging: A

It was just like Mr. DnD described except the exclamation points, and ummm... the anger... the boxes came in minty shape. Boxes coming over halfway around the world from Hong Kong is a luck of the draw anyway... That's why I purchased insurance.

To be fair I did mention and emphasize that I'm a box guy and I wanted my stuff minty. DND's mention of the bubble wrap not being long enough to wrap around the boxes is true but who are we kidding? Unless it's the massive bubble, bubble wrapping variety, foam peanuts are a much better option... Ken provided both...

A layer of bubble wrapping below, above, between, and just long enough for the sides... supplemented by foam peanuts under, over, between, and on the sides of the package. He also put a cardboard plate over and under for good measure.

Service: A+

Ken has to be up there with Tam at TMP as far as service goes... Nice guy, and in tandem with York Chan (prolly his relative or bro) they have great communication. Everything was done within the advertised time frame.

Full documentation of the transaction is below. Warning, 6 images

It's so easy to burn a seller down for a mistake... but everyone makes mistakes... I really don't get the mentality of the saying "you can get 99.9% of the orders right but if you screw one customer, your store should burn in flames."

I don't know if any one of you ran a business but it's not easy... sh*t happens.

I hope others who had good transactions with Ken voice their satisfaction so we can get this guy back on the SS list.

Hurin & DND,

Did you 2 get it all out of your system now? I would like to say that I'm not gonna take sides...

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~~~

And they're off! Bidding up to $355.00 now. I'm too new to collecting so I have no idea how all the "exclusive" and "limited edition" release stuff pans out. On one hand I want to jump at this thing, and on the other hand my practical side is telling me to play wait out beat out. My gut tells me that they will eventually produce a run of this fighter and it will be available. Roy's too popular for Yamato not to. I hope I'm right. Otherwise those who want it, myself included, may as well bend over while bidding to get one.

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.

But seriously, now that we know that Bandai have the licene, really hope they treat it with respect and do their best to give us some kick ass toys.

Graham

couldn't have said it better~

Love the sculpts. They are so Kawamori. Thanks for the improved picture.

I think that's the best and simplest way to put it.

Graham correct in saying they're a bit exaggerated but that's how he drew the battroid versions of the yf-19 and 21.

If these are going to transform, I want them to look like how kawamori drew them as B-mode.

IIRC, there was a time where Yamato basically cut off contact with Graham for quite a while, possibly because he "leaked" a little too much info. It would be sad to see that happen again. We get what we get. Ask no more.

!!

nice...

simplest of answers shut me up...

it'd be sad indeed...

Right, Gundam has been Bandai's schtick for all eternity...

but there are other properties that bandai had a hand in that other companies have shared and continued to share....

One biggie being the Evangelion franchise.

And it's not up to bandai nor yamato to drive this franchise into the mainstream... that's only accomplished by the japanese and hopefully in the future the international people's tastes and choices in anime. As much as bandai wouldn't care to use it's muscle to push macross into the forefront, neither does yamato even possess the muscle to do so as well.

It's likely that 95%+ of the whole MW community here got into macross because of macross, not because of yamato.

About competition... yea.... I hear ya.

There is a chance (ever so slight) that bandai can push yamato out of macross entirely...

Mind you... I said yamato will face good competition from Bandai~

I did not say that this competition will continue on for an indefinite amount of time...

But for how ever long that time will be... we'll be seeing some awesome shiet come out of both.

And who ever is left king of macross toys in the end... no matter what bandai's monetary advantage, they wont do it making sh*t toys...

They'll have to earn it... and to that, you have to make stuff that knocks yamato's stuff out of the water...

Anyway, we're really getting ahead of ourselves if we think yamato is going to crash and burn out of macross because of bandai. Yamato has good relations with Kawamori and I'm sure they will always have a major share in Macross products.

Heck, its even likely that the people at bandai will get frustrated that macross toys actually require perfect transformation, and in turn scare them off after their stint with MF... Who knows?

At last some common sense

I bet the 1/60 VF-25 DX chogokin will cost between U$S 170/200. Forget about the idea of a Bandai equally detailed 1/60 VF like the SV-51 for U$S 40. I hope Bandai proves me wrong so I can shut my mouth.

Macross mecha is not about connecting bricks like SOC Godmarz. I'd like to see an "indestructible accurate to the lineart not chunky monkey VF-25" made by Bandai.

All the tiny joints of the Yamato SV-51 were a disaster waiting to happen yet it has proven to be a very solid release.

Just my 0.02 cents for what it's worth.

I don't disagree at all...

Bandai can very much blow this and I'm sure it's almost 99.9% likely that yamato's products will have superior features... but...

it's not a stretch at all to say that it can actually prove to be beneficial for us fans to have bandai and yamato look over each other's shoulders...

It's easy to take sides with whom people view the underdog, but regardless of the sides, I think their (bandai) entrance into the fray will do for macross toys what rivalries did for baseball...

Shin, Thank you for the detailed explanations.

I understand and am aware of what you said. I followed them ever since they entered the market with the 1/72 mac plus line...

That includes the time when they had licensing issues with them to..... when they thought that ignoring MW and Graham was a great idea, to now...

pretty much their Renaissance.

The details of their marketing strategy, the spotted history with MW and it's members, are all clear...

BUT.... (there's always a BUT )

The future trend is internet viral marketing. Maintaining internet community relations. You can argue all you want about what releasing premature info can do to a product from the backlash of fan criticism but on the other end, when done right..... there's NOTHING MORE cost effective and faster.

It's a beast to tame for sure... but if yamato really wants us by the balls.... they should look into learning how to tame it the right way.

Damn the more I look at these... the more I want to start a macross revoltech collection...

I have the evas and they're awesome....

grrrrr.... more.... money.... to... spend.... gaaaaaahhh!

Bandai has sole rights to the frontier line...

Correct, it's not direct competition....

But they're in yamato territory for sure by stepping into macross.

That's competition enough to basically have enough points of comparison for yamato to step up in potentially several, and in the least, a couple of areas.

- If they stack up a good array of accessories for the same price for example, it will in turn put pressure on yamato to reciprocate.

- If they make the same quality valk for 5%, 10%, 20%, of however less, that will again pressure yamato...

- If they include "No duh, why didn't yamato think of that?" features to it, it will in turn give yamato a shot to improve and generate more ideas...

- If they package the bloody thing better, again a dial up in pressure for yamato to do the same.

- Etc Etc.

All they have to do is not make the valk suck like toynami has... they just have to make it comparable....

If they're really smart, they'll even make it in the yamato style but minus the QC issues...

I take it that bandai CAN be that smart... and in the end... it'll in turn only make yamato better...

I understand people's sentiment about the David & Goliath situation here, but in macross territory, Yamato is Goliath.

In the end if Bandai does a good job... we're the one's who benefit.

Allegiance to a single company or a single anime is childish.

We talk with our money... If bandai f's it up and thousands of macross fans talk with their money they'll probably never touch the property for another 20 years.

Question:

When did yamato ever release three different sizes and types of the same thing simultaneously?

We had to wait a millennia till they decided on bringing the vf-0 into 1/60 instead of 1/100... Bandai has the resources to release options... and in turn it'll only make Yamato amp up it's efforts with the competition. It's a win, win for fans in the end.

I have a lot of bandai's stuff... I dont think it's any stretch of the imagination to say they got the skills to make it just as well as yamato's recent efforts.

Wow!

Thumbs up!

If they didn't care about the international fans, why would they give Graham, a "representative" of the non-Japanese fanbase, all the inside info and pre-production samples?

I didn't say they didn't care about us. I was basically saying "you know we're here and we're many, acknowledge and assuage our thirst with but a droplet of water!"

I said their policy of "no exclusive info & pics, or even tidbits until we release it to a japanese mag" gives the impression (phrase I used is "they act as if") that they only cater to their japanese base.

Graham's inside info is meaningless if he's not allowed to share it with anyone until the the inside info is "outside info."

It's the reason why people here say "stop teasing us!"... and it's not like the "quick movie trailer-esque" teasing either with little snippets of info that we can savor over... it's simply Graham saying "I saw it and it's doooopppe!"

Which, if you plug in the droplet of water analogy I stated above, is like Graham appearing atop a cliff, raising his hand high with an ice cold bottle of water, gulp it down and announce, "Wow, THAT my thirsty friends, was awesome!"

That kinda annoys me that there may be some yamato employees spying on us or silencing people. Eventually the news is going to come out, and the vast majority of us are not going to be able to buy the various hobby magazines that the information appears in (it's all in japanese) so I don't see how it can harm them to release it the info when those same mags don't even appear in shops outside japan anyway right?

I just think it's kind of pointless to silence you know what I mean? What difference would 1-2 days or even an hour getting the news earlier make? Come on yamato enough games. It's a VF-4 isn't it? Isn't it?

Yup!

I dont mind the spying and peeking into the forums... because it's not really... they have every right to come in here and see what fans are talking about front and center.

They also have the right to withhold information until they deem appropriate to release but it's the overly paranoid dealing with it's international fans that bug me. I guess it's a japanese thing??... really dont know for the life of me...

A tiny supplementary news and info or different angled picture just to give that extra bit of incentive to make fansites feel a skoshi bit exclusive... I can't believe they dont see the potential for further hype and fervor it can generate. Not to mention all the uber-cool fan relations props they'd get from us.

Obviously they think the stuff they give out now is perfectly adequate... and despite knowing that the international market is a big one for them, they act as if the japanese fanbase is the only one they have to cater to.

why tell us then? Just to tease us? Just to poke our insatiable fanboy toy lust with your sharpened stick? evil wretched man, you with your shiny toys.

hahahaha

I remember actually clenching my fist and saying "damn you Graham, damnnnn yoooooooouuuuu!"

but come to think of it... if I were in his shoes.... shiet..... pfff~~~

poke poke poke poke poke poke .......pause for evil laughter..... poke jab poke poke jab poke~~~

sometimes you get things cheaper on ebay... believe it or not. I got my Power Loader for $225 shipped when they go retail for $300 plus shipping. But it's ok... DnD has as much hate as I do, and that, I can appreciate.

Totally~

If you're patient enough and have a knack for timing, ebay can be the most inexpensive (& decent) source.

Ebay has been very good to me so far.

* * * Knock on wood~

Seriously. I've watched both. I hate the VFs in Mac+, and the back story for the three main characters is just retarded. I stand by what I said, Mac2 is better than Mac+

$#q#d^fugw$@^*tdgwg%wxrw!!!! You're kidding right??

I've championed and respected every opinion in the name of free speech and debate but I fear you've set a boundary I cannot cross~

Sincerely.... good luck rallying support.

I like the sculpts of the GNU, no doubt, but the articulation seems to be sub par compared to the revoltechs.

With these smaller non transforming figures, I think the look and variety of the poses is a priority higher than the accuracy of the sculpt.

Looks like the articulation will be kick ass too.

must buy for me

Photos from Winter Wonder Festival 2008. Thanks to MWer: SaveRobotech.

Stop worrying about the stickers guys. This is not a final production version.

Graham

stickers??? Stickers are so yesterday~~

After the beauty such as the SV-51? Why are they even still around?

Why wont they just establish a standard of tampoing all the important stuff on there?

including kites and skulls and numbers, the whole schabang.

With bandai in the macross mix now, I think it's an excellent time to do so.