aceoftherebellion

Two of them, one in each of the color variants Matchbox did. I still say they go amazingly well with the yamato/bandai/arcadia macross offerings

Can you make the image smaller please?

Why I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about, ahem...

I remember the Gobots being much smaller, like Matchbox car sized.

Most of them were smaller, just slightly larger than the average matchbox car, but they also had a few larger toys based on the Scale Robo/Machine Robo DX/Big Machine Robo lines, which were about the same size/quality as the medium range transformers. People rip on them, but they're actually quite nice toys. The build quality and materials (diecast, rubber tires, etc) as transformers at least.

But before I accidentally derail this thread with too much transformer/gobots, why don't I go ahead and add a shot of my current macross setup just to be fair. I don't think I've shared this image before, but apologies if I have and just forgot...

...and of course I would upload a thumbnail of my own picture... shhh you saw nothing.

This is just amazing, man. I've done some random manga scanlation work but to do a whole novel, that's on a completely different level. Just reading the first part of it, I can already tell you did an amazing job not only translating but translating into readable text, which is even harder with full-novel translations. You, sir, are a gentleman and a hero, and I salute you as I read this.

THANK YOU

NICE G1 collection! In my opinion (as a child of the 80's) the ONLY Transformers.

Thanks! I've actually got a couple more on the way, but I'm really happy with what I've been able to find. I also collect from the movie line and the recent stuff from Prime, but I have to say just the material quality alone on the G1 stuff, I'm apt to agree. Large chunks of diecast? Rubber tires? AWESOME.

Snuck a gobot in there

Not one, but two

So does G1 jetfire count as macross here? I've been focusing more on building up my G1 collection lately, but the old Takatoku standby is definitely one of the centerpieces of this collection.

Something about the VF-1, it's classy no matter what you put it with.

I always glue, sand and paint any model I do 'seriously' anyway, so that's what I expected anyway. Frankly, I tend to find that bandai robots always benefit from glue anyway, even if they're meant to be designed so it's not strictly necessary. I will definitely keep that in mind for the shoulders, too. Especially during final assembly after everything's painted, I'm betting that's gonna be absolutely critical.

Everything I see about this kit makes me think most of it's flaws are the result of being aimed at people who primarily/exclusively build Bandai's gundam models, which tend to have many of these same issues- especially transforming kits. (Almost every zeta gundam kit I've ever built screams to mind...) That crowd seems to be something of a minority here, so I'm not too surprised to see this kit going over poorly with so many Macross-heads. Personally, I'm still looking forward to getting my hands on one of these to see what I can do with it, but I'm betting it helps a lot to know what you're going in for.

VF-2SS, Metal Siren, Any one of the various M7 badguy valks, Ghost X9. Then I would be happy forever. That's all I truly need to see.

I've said before that even if they do a v2 YF-19, I probably wouldn't buy it because I'm happy with the YF-19 I already have, and I'm still sticking with that, but I am SO HAPPY to see Arcadia pickup the baton and keep going with it here that I'm going to celebrate this along with everyone else.

YEAAAAAAH!!

I've been saying all along that all we were doing was circulating baseless rumors anyway and that we needed to wait for more information. I'm just thrilled that this information is something so very sweet.

/Singly manly tear

It's beautiful...

Another great episode, guys! I'm very amused to hear that I wasn't the only one really pushing for the Valkyrie II to win in that facebook contest...

This is a day late, but I want to point out that Cybergundam was already called out for just posting rumors and has no more information than anybody else. Don't take his post as anything other than idle speculation.

I don't think we've heard anything from Bandai except for the RVF-25 and the Canon Fodder 171. I'm still waiting to hear about that Vajra toy they promised, too...

We all buy a lot of Bandai toys until we find out more about what's going on with Arcadia, probably...

My best advice is to go googling for some good tutorials on the best way to do this. Clear stickers don't perform as well as waterslide decals, but sealing them under a clear coat should definitely help, especially if you take the time to trim down the sticker's border. Best of luck to you with this!

Yes, actually! Generally speaking a clear-coat will help stickers to stay adhered, and it can even help disguise the edges. That's also why clear coats are virtually required for water-slides, for that matter. If you can apply a proper clear-coat, it will almost certainly help.

The problem I have with the 'yamato is secretly bankrupt' theory is really that there's no evidence of it whatsoever. I can't even dig up information supporting that searching in Japanese. I did see something suggesting that Yamato's site might actually be down as a result of hacking/vandalism, but I can't confirm that and I admit that my language skills aren't really good enough to say for sure that's what I was reading one way or another.

I will say that from what I saw, 2chan is about as confused about all of this as we are, though.

Jenius- All of those theories would make 100% perfect sense and be the most likely if this were an american company, but in all the time I've watched Japanese toy companies/Japanese business practices in general, it's very different from what I understand the business climate and culture to be like overseas. Maybe that's a misunderstanding on my part, but shuttering buildings and changing names to dodge creditors does not seem like the sort of business practices I'd expect an overseas firm to employ. If that were the case, it's likely that they would have filed some sort of legal protection/some sort of bankruptcy claim that could be found pretty easily, and that doesn't seem to be the case at any rate.

It's still far too early to be jumping to conclusions- any conclusions, including those that might seem like obvious possibilities from a business standpoint. We simply don't have the information available to start making assumptions like that.

What's Valkyrie mode?

I'm going to assume it's when you spend all of your disposable income on variable fighters and spend most of your free time on a macross message board.

Usually battroid, but I'm a bad man that likes to play with and frequently transform my Valkyries, so all three modes tend to see a lot of shelf-time

Looks fishy to me. I last time I saw prices that randomly set was a shady smoke shop...

If Arcadia does release Macross transforming toys, I hope they include waterslide decals. Especially if they're not going to print major markings seen in the anime, like the 17's UN Spacy kites. I'll pay a few extra yen for the the decal sheet. A few extra yen are not going to affect my buying decision when we're already talking $200+.

I really dislike the included stickers.

Yes and please. I cannot stand peel and stick stickers and never use them. A sheet of waterslides would be an absolute godsend as far as I'm concerned. Keep the sticker sheet too for those who prefer it, but a second set of waterslides for each release would be lovely.

Yamato really is bankrupt, OMG!!!

http://articles.marketwatch.com/2008-10-10/news/30694744_1_bankruptcy-protection-nikkei-securities-holdings

WELL PLAYED, SIR. WELL PLAYED.

Honestly thought, this really shouldn't be a surprise. I agree that it's sad to lose the Yamato name, but that's just sentimentality. We knew Yamato was turning over to Arcadia. The Yamato site going dead isn't really a reason to panic. Especially given that it's been down for all of what, a day now, for all we know a server blew. That said, this changes absolutely nothing. Why would a company that's already announced that they're turning over to a new title that already has it's own website keep the old one? It's expensive to keep a website running. It probably really doesn't mean anything one way or the other.

We're all assuming the worst because of a lack of announcement or press releases, but this isn't a big US based company like Hasbro that makes a new press release every week. It's a smaller company in a different corporate climate. They're not likely to make an announcement at all until they have something to announce, and even then it's likely to show up in a magazine or an event or something before we even hear about it. We really just need to wait and see.

I knew it had to happen sooner or later, but it sure does feel like the end of an era.