I must say, if you can scrape up $600 for the estimated cost of two Monsters - I would like to hear how you can do it. When your bills outweight your income, there is not a lot you can do. But that pmpin sounds interesting. I'll have to watch "American Pimpin" a few more times to learn the trade.
For those trying to compare the cost of a local non-transforming toy to an imported transforming toy, it makes no sense. The transforming toy has much more R&D in it, more parts, and a much more technical assembly process. How do you think all those screws got put in place on your 1/48? Then you have to MSRP along with high shipping fees. I'll agree that Yamato's are expensive in general, but so are a lot of other different high detailed toys. You have to remember that Yamato's market (Japan) is pretty small and Macross is not the most popular show. If Yamato could export and get big chains like Walmart, Target, and TRU to buy then everything would be different.