Protoplast

Listen folks.. I came on to give you guys some business perspectives. I didn't come on to lambaste anyone. I find entertainment when I see geeks or young know-it-alls think that on the internet that by complaining and being self-righteous to protest something, it's going to change anything in the real world. A lot of folks used these ideology they learned from school thinking their text-book can apply in the real world. A college education today is the new high school diploma, it means very little to big corporation. It just means that you know how to fill out a job application and how to read the employee handbook and they are ready to brainwash you to become their robot. I'm being harsh but I like to be straight-forward and get to the point from my POV. I learned while I was a young manager in a mid-size firm that one time we hired all these extra hands to help us build a new IT data center. The kids we hired did a great job, I was very moved by their hardwork and wanted to thank them. I asked me supervisor that we should treat them to a nice lunch like order a lot of sandwiches for them. My supervisor called the cheapest pizza place and ordered 10 pies. The kids were eating the pizzas like starved. I looked at the pizza, it was just thin and yucky looking. I told my supervisor, that ain't good, these pizzas are crap. He said.. "Look, if you want people to work hard for you, you feed them scraps and they will be more appreciative the next time." "You know why people complain and are lazy? Because when you treat them too good and give what they want, they will come back and ask for more."

That small pocket will gradually expand as more fans have 'access' to the quality product. It is not going to be the same person buying the items over and over again multiple times, but many different people. More people you reach = more profit. Otherwise how would the price of things go down in the first place if nobody is there to buy these things? Yeah yeah the macross franchise is dead, but I'm sure people internationally still recognise a valk from thier memories seeing RT. (meaning a hidden potential) Bandai couldn't even get rid of the 1/55 Super VF-1S reissues and you think there are enough Robotech/Macross fans? Anime sells toys, no new anime means no recognition. I think your wrong. Both rich and poor are conscious of price. As mentioned by other members the price of something depends on what it is worth personally to the person buying. This is where your maturity really shows your lack of judgement. Last thing you see rich people do is complain and whine about expensive wine at a fancy diner. If you can't roll with the prices, go roll elsewhere.. If the poor sees high prices, they cry foul, the rich rationalizes and waits for buying opportunities. You just described bottom-feeders.. in your whole paragraph... Again and again.. you dream of this idea that using economies of scale it can help save you money and help make the toys cheaper ideally. Yamato is not in the business of doing that, they don't have the size or the market to do that, that's the bottomline. Many products such as luxury cars use price barriers to prevent the poor from owning them because the buyers want prestige. This is often the case with high end collectible items, they want to be the only ones owning them and don't like sharing. Lastly, people can whine and complain about prices and Yamato won't listen to that. All the listen to is hear from their accountants counting their sales reports. If the report looks good, they meet sales expectations they don't give a

Yamato is doing what Bandai does with Gundam. I've seen Desert Gundams, Full Armor Gundams, and other similar to low-viz coloring Gundams. Yamato's way of milking the 1/48 VF-1A molds.

I don't think anyone would disagree here. But if the option ever comes up that allows a mass release globally and that allows a reduced cost to the consumer (due to increase in efficiency) I don't think anyone will disagree with me by saying yamato would be better off for being able to access that global market. It's like when you buy something from a corner store (versus a big chain) you pay premiums not because the item went up in value (or because you have a lousy boss ) but because the store needs to boost the price to survive and make enough profit. Do you think Yamato's business model is to mass produce and sell cheap? I think they've learned from past mistakes that over-producing certain toys becomes dumping. Re-read my previous posts and think again... No business is in the business of helping you reduce cost, they will do everything to reduce their cost and whatever it takes to make you throw more money down. Yamato are in the business of making a limited commodity. Their new business model involves limited run toys, they will produce and simply fill orders and no over-runs to keep value and prices in check. When a particular model gets more demand, they will perform another limited production run. I understand you but I don't think you understand the business. We're talking about toys.. profit margins are low, how many middle-man can fit in this market? Supposedly you said, an importer/exporter brings the Macross Plus toys into the US and sells them legally here. The toys are already selling for $60-70 abroad, you tackle on another $20-40 the middle man needs to pay HG and shipping the goods, the final product retails for $99, who is going to take the risk of doing this for $5-10 profit with a demand of only about 10-30,000 units? What's the ROI here? Return on investment? They're making pennies on every dollar invested to get the toys here just to get it to you cheaply? Sounds like a crappy investment to me... Businesses would rather sell sneakers or ipod accessories here, more volume, lower costs, and less risky. I think you're being too idealistic, you need to work in the financial industry and see what makes the market tick. Again, you show off this idealistic mentality. Do you think Tiffany's that sells over-priced jewelry cares about selling to you at discount prices? They are in business and well for selling over-priced jewelry and have no problem moving them. The fact is, Yamato being almost the sole producer of Macross toys are making limited volume toys aimed at selling to a small pocket of fans that can appreciate their quality. You think they care about selling to poor students? I don't take it as whining. I take it as you have a bit of maturing to do.. As I've lectured this same rhetoric to kids about your age that work for me. Only poor people complain about prices.. The rich simply walk away from prices they don't like and show up when the prices is right.

Macross has a limited fanbase, without new animation out to promote this franchise, there isn't new interest in Macross. This means any production of goods for Macross will be a *limited* run, unlike HDTV which are hot commodities, any production run is to mass produce to keep costs low and reduce prices to become more competitive than others. Yamato also enjoy the status of being the sole producer as well. Small monopoly. I think the prices are okay for toys of this level. Have you guys seen what Bandai charges for model kits? $130+ for Perfect Grade model kit, which requires less work to produce than a finished toy of the same size and amount of plastic.

379276[/snapback] In order for Yamato to bring the toys here, someone gotta pay for the shipment of the goods, marketing, and royalities to Harmony Gold. If Macross was a huge success such as Pokemon, I'm sure the royalty issues would've been addressed. If you look at it from a business perspective: "Is it profitable to import these toys to America, just to satisfy maybe 10-30,000 fans, only?" Personally, I don't see any validity to the complaints by the Macross collectors. Nobody is forcing you to pay these prices, you are buying hobby goods which are less important than other goods. You can rationalize all you want about Harmony Gold, about the toys not worth the price, etc, etc... Worth = Avg price of what others are willing to pay for. You gotta pay if you want to play.. don't get involved with hobbies that you can't afford. Try rationalizing at your current job: - Are you worth what they are paying you? - Are you happy at your job? - Can you afford cost of living with your pay? If you would like to get a raise, you have to answer these questions and raise them to your employer. If they won't give you what you want, you have a choice... It's a free economy.. you have the right to leave or ask for a raise. You may say not everyone have these options.. Ask your employer the same questions, they will do whatever it takes to make a profit for themselves, that's their bottomline. Your bottomline is that you want to make more money to afford new cost of living. If your case is not strong, then it's time to upgrade yourself and become more marketable.. I'm tired of hearing from people that want a raise but does not do anything at their jobs to become more productive or marketable.

I'm actually very tired of hearing people complain about the prices of goods. Does anyone actually understand how the global economy works? How currency value works? Does it come to mind that over the past 10 yrs that the dollar has sank in value continuously against other world currency? Why is that? Well, our government keeps printing money faster than you and I make money. More people borrowing than actually money being brought home and saved. That's the whole idea why prices go up... Now, how do you fix this? You can't ... I would like to see people who complain about prices to go do the same to their bosses.. Ask for a raise and tell them.. the price of goods and services have gone up due to annual inflation and dollar depreciation. I'm sure most of you guys are gonna say, that's not gonan happen or else I'll get fired.. Well, if you and I don't ask, the employers out there will continue to keep wage growth down, below the rate of annual inflation which is about 4% This means, if you don't get a 4% raise every year, you are making less and less each year as it cost more every year to buy the same goods and services. The makers or sellers of Macross toys are raising prices simply to reflect current cost of production and business operations.. You should do the same at your job or be looking for a new job .. ask for a raise or adjustments..

Tribute to Nekki Basara Album Wow, I didn't know this album was released this year. This is a a tribute to the songs in Macross 7 sang by Yoshiki Fukuyama, officially the 2nd voice of Basara.

I think if they air M7 on cable it may actually have an audience. Because it is DVD and it cost money for some folks, the only folks that knows Macross are the old robotec/DYRL crowd thats already in their 30s. I think the new gen kids can accept the singing while battle thing much better, they don't have a Robotech bias. I've seen the new anime stuff and it is just as corny in some instance to the concept of singing in combat. Once you see it in length, the music actually much more authentic than the other stuff playing today.

The best ideas in M7: - Probably one of the most dumbest and most brilliant idea in anime, how Basara's music energy can be used to defeat an unstoppable enemy. - The music actually got progressively better and better, Planet Dance may seem teeny afterawhile but "Submarine Street" is really some good indie stuff. - While people love to hate Basara, he is a lot more confident than Hikaru and not as cocky as Isamu - Gamlin actually a better supporting role than all other Macross chars, he is a lot more down to earth and likeable than Focker, Max, etc. - Nothing compares to Max in the VF-22 Well M7 is one of the best Macross series because it is the only one that makes you jump off your couch when you watch the drama towards the end of the series.

This looks like straight out of the Macross city streets..

Just picked up a set of the new re-issued Predaking giftbox. I have to say one of the nicest re-issues so far, everything look just like the original. Diecast, high quality plastic, properly stickered, and doesn't look like the other cheap re-issues of the past. Very heavy, makes a great pose next to my 1/48 VF-1S or Masterpiece Optimus.

I got a copy of it and played it.. I think they basically took Sexy Beach and DOA:XBV and took it an extra notch with the camera angles and what you have is softcore and borderline hentai material. If you think the DOA girls juggle a lot, Rumbling Rose has these un-natural juggling effects, lots of it. I think the game overall is good, you can get tired of it after maybe a few hours of giggling and laughing at the action. Teens are gonna probably have the most fun. The action is actually pretty good, there are unlockable chars. The graphics are pretty good, I think they actually look kinda similar like Tekken 4, the moves are real easy and yes I agree that playing 2P is a lot of fun.. My gripes about this game is the girls are not really well designed, they are kind of like on the "trashy looking" side, maybe because my preference for more perfected girls like Kasumi, Tina, Lei Fang, and Lisa from the DOA series. You gotta give Tecmo credit, their girl design and rendering is top notch. I hate the fact that the voices are dubbed in English and the acting suck like Virtua Fighter 4. Overall, it's probably the only PS2 title other than Sexy Beach to feature all these scantly clad girls getting dirty.

She's has 3 songs from the Gundam Seed Series, I think my favorite is "Can you feel my love" and "Believe." What do you guys think of her?

It rarely works that way in real life. More isn't better... It's called diminishing returns. I rather have 10 of the best Macross toy ever made than 100 different ones.