Beware of Blast

Right time to strike? Here's a summary of what's in your Yamato's immediate future:-

1) Toynami makes progress selling Bandai's Macross valks in the US.

2) Toynami soon to supply Macross Frontier Valks also.

3) Big West, Bandai - Big Fallout.

4) Big West looking high and low for other fund avenues for Frontiers' movie and sequels.

4) Toynami to supply Macross Frontier Valks worldwide.

5) Yamato still uses plastics for crucial parts - refuses to ship parts overseas, citing company's own restricted directives.

Let's hope we're not getting a Yamato and Big West frogs soup. The soup's damn nice but one still feels for the frogs.

The not so great things are:-

1) most of us behave like kids on Christmas with these subpar stuff when in truth we are shelling out at least $100 a pop for these things. They should be treated with a more appraising attitude.

2) Yamato is not changing. It's been nearly a decade already. They are waiting for something to happen. Mark my words.

LOL! That doesn't change the fact that the market is FLOODED with the 1/48 Fockers. And they all have a seam on the face right in the middle, weathered or not.

I LOVE Jean Claude.......I REALLY DO!!! I have seen ALL of his movies. I think.

More than white demoness pubis? You sir, are out of order.

Maybe it's a good thing to be changing stuff in the 11th hour if the result is for the betterment of the product's quality. So far, I get the impression that Yamato didn't even bothered with such nonsense. Maybe it's not worth it for them when the company incurs medical claims and employee revenue in the process. The way I see it, it's better that Yamato and their collective asses get high blood pressure than us. But nah, many of you don't think that way, so the problem persist.

AS A REMINDER NOTHING PERSONAL GUYS it is MW

But it is not hard to me to imagine that Yamato could have screwed up on this ...

Quoted for truth.

Actual product varying from the pic or not, it pays for collectors to be EXTRA careful just because this product is made by Yamato. A lot of us here are just too forgiving and worse - always forgetting the company's repeated mistakes. Please don't be like that. Readers may think I'm anti-Yamato and are biased, which I AM NOW. But if anybody care to know - I was their avid fan once. Despite having limited funds, I'd still bent over backwards to find ways to afford their first releases. I would visit MW for ANY scraps of news of the Yamato VFs development, discussions and eventual release, then hustle to my usual retailer to get a copy when news of the Yamato valks have landed. I'd even overlook their smallest mistakes - however many times they are REPEATED in their subsequent releases and would be back for more. But what I used to feel is a complete turnaround now.

This isn't just about something as small as a screw in a wrong place or a flipped arm FP, but more like being screwed in the wrong ways many times over by them than by other toy companies and not willing to experience it again.

Edit PS:- If Yamato cared, they could've find someone to photoshop that pic for a small fee, for good impression's sake, I know I would. What kills me is that this picture is from a Japanese company from a culture that cares about making a good impression above everything else - maybe to Yamato it's just not important enough. Maybe they thought their target market are kids that would overlook this kind of thing... or maybe they assumed that their customers would be mature enough to understand that the actual product may vary from the picture thingee... and buy one to see.

What I know is that disclaimer about "actual product that may vary product picture" was actually first used by America multinational corporations to cover their occasional unsure or maybe incompetent asses... the Japanese with their Kaizen attitude didn't even bothered to borrow such an excuse - Now with Yamato leading the way, they really do.

More pictures of the White-haired Demoness to wash the filth of the dancing Van Damme from your eyes.

The only things good about this movie are Li BingBing and the fight scenes -in that order. The rest are meh... to preserve a good impression of the show, leave for the loo or smokes when you don't see either one of the two mentioned.

The moment ANYBODY start talking, LEAVE. That's what you get when you have the moolah to be LOTR with an Asian twist, but failed to hire good dialogue coaches and script doctors.

My little gift for those of you who suffered as I did...

Now I have all the original G1 TF. Along the way I picked up some macross stuff here and there. I actually pieced together a Strike Valkyrie within a whole year! Started off with the valk with leg armor, then went to the rest of the armor, then the little minmay figure, then the heatshield, then I won an auction for just the box, styrofoam and sticker sheet, then someone just happened to have the file card and instructions. Man it was a long process but I did it! then I ended up buying 4 other strike valks in box all at once from a member here. So now I have a bunch of vintage macross toys and the new stuff.

That's a wonderful story. To me, 50% of the joy in this hobby is in the thrill of the hunt. It is the hunt that makes the moment of finally completing what you're looking for - holding the stuff in your hands that makes it even more priceless. I suppose part of the reason many of us are collecting actively is because of it.

Doesn't need to take long if you have the dough, all you need is ONE MILLION DOLLARS!

I don't know though. It's a personal choice but I like the more anime accurate one so you don't have to deal witht he armored penis.

Actually, the 1/48 version is not accurate at all. It has no space for leg poseability. The 1/60 has leg room enough for some poses and it at least is well hung. When compared to the 1/60, the 1/48 GBP is a fat guy who's not seen his penis for a very long time.

So, bottom line, Bandai team is using the same cad files from the animation for the toys? so, that means the toys will be extremely accurate? right?

If it's Gundam, yes. For Mac F, I don't think so. But one can dream.

What I've learned is that Bandai has been doing this for quite a while now. It's all about control.

This area of coordination alone is the one thing that Kawamori (not sure if this is also the case with Studio Nue also) should use to make his life easier - I mean, the man brings his Legos to back-up his design drawings on briefing with his animation team as well as his toymakers!!! Who else except Kawamori (for fear of giving a less than impressive presentation) does that these days?

With CAD, he only need to model once and tweak to his heart content. His contractors could use his file for the animation and toy making - toymaker who find something wrong with the model gets back to Kawamori, they agree to make the changes and Kawamori emails the changed model to the animation team - of course not usually in that order, but the work friction is less.

I chalk it up as a case of individuals moving in the same direction, but at different speeds.

Edited for more direct answer:- It has everything to do with Kawamori. He is like the principal license holder's approver. When Bandai or Yamato translate his sketches and linearts into CAD & protptypes, should there be any compromises, he is the one who signs off on it - Unless someone at Bandai is given equal footing to sign off without Kawamori.

I've been part of this forum for 7-8 years and you know what? Yamato always says that. They do have a new guy on board who we can say is responsible for the Nora SV-51 being good. Yet why wasn't there someone like this when the VF-0 arms were breaking for a reason no one could pinpoint for a while, or when the first run of Ivanov SV-51's came out, or when the Tab B happened 8 years ago, or the VF-11 bust-a-hips 7 years ago? No excuses. Its good they got a new guy now who is stricter, but it took them long enough.

I suggest getting a bandai first. Yamato's are readily available now and for the forseable future. I encourage getting a yamato at some point(either a 1/48 or new 1/60), but to start with, a chunky is a good way to go.

Its also one of the rare toys that will break your kids rather than your kids breaking it.

What Yamato badly need for QC guys are murderers, corpse-rapists & torturers looking for a fresh perspective to their career. Humaniod monsters in supervisory roles that kill people even for sneezing at a wrong volume. Strictness without disciplinary action is akin to a toothless tiger. When it growls, a good tummy rub will bring smiles to it again - and we're back at zero.

Yeah, I'm getting there. Thanks though.

Aren't the Valks all full 3d cgi in the show?

Would have thought Bandai won't actually need that much input from Kawamori to just make a 3d model into a toy.

That is after all, what they do.

The CG models from the show and the CG models for making the toys are very different - the latter also requires part by part drawings which includes drawings of the mechanics, male & female fittings for each part and etc. And they need to come up with it like YESTERDAY. It's not that they don't really need Kawamori's input but it's because their design team can cover that part of his job as well and most importantly, they are always in a rush to take full advantage of the merchandize sale while the show is on air and hot - otherwise, it would be pointless and wasted opportunity. They don't just capitalize mainly on nostalgia like Yamato.

And several pairs of spare underwears! I also treat all my Taka/Bandai 1/55 VFs the same. Just because they are more sturdy than the Yamatos, doesn't mean I gotta punish that durability.

Ya know, back in the day people used to kill or get bent out of shape because of that thing. Congrats on getting that cheap.

Can you find out what is the cost threshold that one shouldn't exceed in order not to get taxed? Sometimes it helps if you can get seller to underdeclare the value for you. But not too low though, the customs are not stupid.

A gurren fan photo-shopped colours the Revoltech Final Form Gurren Lagann..bad ass...

WTF!!! It's like GL's humped an SIC and this is what you get! Bad Ass, how does he fight without impaling himself first? This will take some getting use to.

I said could because you never know if Beagle is using the same Chinese factories as Yamato, eh? But don't go into that - I REALLY want Beagle to succeed.

Wait for Beagle's version. It could kill them all.

Delicate!? Delicate, my fat, hairy ass! Anybody ever broken a 1/48 swing bar?

Not saying it's never happened, but I've never heard of it.

1/48s are far tougher than people give them credit for.

Heh, I think I shocked Mwer Solscud recently, with how roughly I transformed a 1/48.

Graham

Anyone with a budget to get only one 1/48 at a time, will be appalled at how you transform them. Graham, you might want to check your valks at the stress points for hairline cracks and stressmarks on the plastic. People generally transform their Yamatos gently because of the wear and tear that will happen eventually to their valks, due to Yamato's love for the use of plastics and their piss poor infantile and antiquated transforming methods.

I too have multiples of some of Yamato's VF designs, but I transform them all gently because I want them to last a very long time.

While it's true that in order for Yamato to move from development to production, approval to the changes requested by the licensor (BW) must be completely met, the scenario is very different for Bandai and Big West.

Bandai may entertain a few changes here and there...but they are not without their own design team. If in their collective opinions their CADs and prototypes are accurate, when it comes to it they'll blow Kawamori off if his changes disrupts too much of their schedule - because they can.

Question:- Are you all gonna paint it, or leave the armor be?

It's not that white is not nice (actually it's my favorite color) it's just that the monkeys don't suit the new tux.