1/1 LowViz Lurker

Proto, even if a person's boss is like what you mention, will it change the fact that some people will not stop complaining? Like in those responses about the repaint of masterpiece prime as ultra magnus, even fans will hold thier fave company (that they wish to do well) in the highest possible scrutiny and they are the nice ones. Some of those people have lots a money but just want to voice thier disapointment to let it be known they will not support a move if it means by supporting it they don't get something better. All those people who bought the masterpiece prime on clearance will probably have no incentive to want masterpiece ultramagnus due to feeling like they got something better or more desirable for cheaper and that the newer masterpiece is somewhat less special and recognisable (as well as disapointing for not being what people imagined it would be) than the more-recognisable prime character. It's a case of fans actually being more anal than non-fans and having high standards which leads to the fan being nitpicky as the bar is raised higher and higher and expectations get bigger. A good company knows how to listen to its customers and provide what they want. Like when microsoft brought out the xbox, they asked what do gamers want? Rather than just going ahead and thinking for them and taking risks. So now the hardcore fan has the best online service and is willing to pay the high cost if they get the quality in return. They are hardcore gamers because they spend almost thier entire life playing and are not afraid to spend wads of cash to support thier hobby (more than the casual gamer). For example in the online gaming market there are 3 main groups identfied: 1. Hardcore gamers (most devoted and the backbone that keeps online service profitable enough to exist. The "early adopters" and first to get something for thier enthusiasm) 2. moderate gamers (bigger than the first group but laid back) 3. mass market gamers (aka the horde. Massive, but unaware; like the noobs on this forum, who once in a while come on to ask questions and don't differentiate macross from robotech) http://www.informit.com/articles/article.a...=31444&seqNum=4 The first group (the hardcore) is the most demanding due to the amount of money they throw behind their interest so they have a right to complain when they get something worse than what they have experienced before. (due to the demand rising constantly for bigger and better things.) The second are those who don't devote as much but have money to spend. (a potential market to be exploited when a company wants to expand to appeal to as wide an audience as possible) The third is the biggest portion of the pyramid and outnumbers the first group easily but has not caught on yet - but it is believed they might become more important over time. This may be analogous to the international robotech fan who might be interested in having access to the higher grade macross toys since they would be adults today (not reliant on thier parents for money, able to afford the big and expensive toys like masterpiece prime) and have no alternative but the 1/55 stuff from toynami and still pay huge amounts for these on ebay. This is why I highlight them as hidden potential. If enough are interested and have the money to back up thier enthusiasm this could be good for yamato once the 1/48 reaches saturation in thier original market. Similarly to MS with xbox, (aiming for the hardcore) Yamato have done a pretty good job since the 1/72 and come a long way imo and it just seems like they outdid themselves with vf0 by making it even more refined than the vf1. Which is why I think the cost for all the detail is justfied, this is what a fan wants. But like I mentioned about fans being more anal than non-fans, complaints will always be there as people get used to wanting the bar raised higher and higher. (greed from being spoiled as you mention) Back to my example of the complaining fans over the Masterpiece ultramagnus: most of them that did have something positive to say almost wanted to buy the new release out of pity as opposed to being excited for the product. "If I buy this maybe it will keep the more expensive masterpiece line alive and we get future releases even though I am pissed he does not have his armor.." So they were hoping (like fans do that want to help) that every little bit counts and doing thier part might encourage new releases. It's just a different perspective of looking at it: 1. some people will use a boycott method to show thier disatisfaction, almost like punishment for not meeting expectations for a "masterpiece" level toy in relation to the price asked for it and what the fan deems it is "worth to them" enough to want it at the original price set. 2. others will buy out of sympathy hoping the money made from it goes towards more of what they want in future (for example I wanted to buy the Qrau at its expensive price as a show of support for more enemy mecha as I like the non tranformable macross stuff too) In the end you will always have the group in the 1 category so long as you continue to browse forums. Rather than getting sick of these people, I say just let them complain or ignore them rather than using the ultimatum: "don't like it? Don't buy!" I see people say that but it never works. The most it does is start a flame war between the first group (hardliner punishment group) and second group ("I don't want the company to stop making things of this line, so I will buy everything to keep the company alive and be thankful for having it" group) who will play softball (create excuses to lessen the damage on image) and never ask the hard questions.

I wonder if theEnd eventually get repaired and upgraded too?

Well there is an old saying: Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I think one of the things I liked about eva was how it broke from the usual mechanical robot to a more organic one and made the characters themselves the focus of the story. The demons/angels were just the commercial half to make it cool, and it was as much about the neglected kid with the shyness problem as it was about the fighting in the show. I think that is one of the reasons I can like RahXephon because it goes into depth about why the characters/people are the way they are, and you can't wait to see what happens to them in the next episode. Sure the execution wasn't perfect (but I actually understood the show from first viewing unlike akira which I had to watch 3 times) but like all good things money might be why a show can't live up to expectations. If you were to show a new anime fan macross and they criticise how crap the animation looks and laugh at you for hyping this series up so much to them, what difference is there here? (and people criticising fans of eva?) Maybe this is a question we should all ask ourselves? As a fan of macross I can readily admit it is not perfect even though I gravitate to that type of show and have my own bias. So like with music I just let people see the beauty in things for themselves. To me Eva introduced enough change in the robot genre to make mass audience pay attention to a normally tired genre. Love it or hate it, I can see why people would talk about it so much as if it was the only thing they watched at the time. Although I prefer my yamato and macross, eva gets points for originality. I kind of think BGC were "cooler" though (the organic boomers, and thier sheer brutality and the horror of some of them like the dobermans) because I grew up in the 80s and can apreciate all the themes in scifi/horror they were using at the time. (blade runner, aliens, terminator etc. Maybe eva is like the newer generations' BGC? ie it started out as just small hardcore audience, then gradually became popular through word of mouth and then into the mainstream? Then the antihype people came along ten years later to attack it.) This happens alot in game recommendations. I like a certain type of game like Daggerfall/morrowind/oblivion and post my thoughts and create an apreciation thread about it to nonfans, and then the crtitics who play it and don't like it, (or don't like the hype associated with it) start to attack and scrutinise it with a magnifying glass. Even though it started out small with only a few people acting as a dedicated vocal minority who play it, it then entered the minds of masses and somehow became overhyped to increase its profile so that the only way was for it to come back down again. (so then the really anal critics will focus only on how crap the graphic engine was, the bad animation, sounds, bugs, but forget the good things that were the reason it was a cult classic like freedom to move around anywhere, open ended gameplay, the original skill-based level up system that seperated it from other RPGs at the time.. etc)

I like them in fighter without them. Some of the fighters look light and when you add the weight on thier back it beefs them up to make them look crude: power through brute force (like the massive space booster on the Glaug) rather than being efficient. But in Battroid Mode (especially the arm and leg armor) the extra armor might mean the difference between life or death since you are not going fast in this mode and up close it might increase defense. The strike Cannon adds more offensive ability to the battroid and looks mean. At close range you are doomed! Gerwalk mode: same as battroid mode. A bipedal chicken-legged robot with some meat on its body (arm and leg armor) and more variety and choice of weapons to make it look more dangerous. (like the difference between the regult and glaug.) Glaugs having that big cannon above it and generally looking more offensive. (two arm cannons like Qrau) As for other optional stuff like the atmoshperic booster (VF11 in macross plus) it makes the machine look like it was merely upgraded due to being initially weak, rather than just having power inside. (YF21 or Qrau for example which look compact but still look powerful without fast packs or upgrades whether it is in space or atmoshpere) Mr March brings up good points about manueverability in space and how the fast packs would aid it and I agree with this. However I also believe some machines may strike a good middle ground by being good for both environments. The ones that look weak like the vf11 might look really good with fast packs, while others that are initially beefy or chunky like the yf21 still retain a nice space age look to them without the extra accessories and weapons. (maybe it depends on whether the mecha relies on energy weapons more, so it might not need to carry so much stuff with it?)

Very mysterious. Looks like it was blacked in. I think it would be good to have a fient skull insignia or maybe something else. (different from skull squadron) maybe: Ivanov lives on. (had many clones of himself and look-a-likes explaining why roy thought he was supposed to have died )

There is no scale given so its a guess. The presto's were admired for thier sculpt and cheapness, (and I like thier posability) but they fall apart unless you remedy thier loose joints. They are essentially a pocket valk that you can take anywhere. Some have expressed they wish quality versions of them were made. Looks like these are an attempt to try to compete against them (the swing bar and ball joints area giveaway) for those who like the small scale stuff. I personally think they will be nice display near a VB6 monster because of the scale. I'm going to wait for review of them first though. I didn't like the superposables all that much mainly because I like PT toys and also the SP have funny proportion. (looks like the head of these 1/100 is from the SP?) Hopefuly these will be a nice middleground between posability and PT that you usually get from the bigger toys. I guess you could say the SP were more like an action figure with comic book shape for dramatic flair, while the prestos look more like posable mecha. (no screwing around with the shape or exagerating certain features. ie shrinking or enlargment of parts to make it more humanoid) The one thing the banprestos had going for them was the idea of the removable heads that you can swap from A J S, so you could paint a cheap CF and make it custom 1S if you wanted. Or maybe make your own stealth 1J to go with the yamato. The cheapness of them allows for that fooling around with it that you would not normally attempt on a more expensive toy.

Oh er that reminds me: http://www.geocities.com/valken_exs/index.htm ^ any update on this old rumor? What would be great is if first the OVA gets released, (there are still some people who haven't even seen mac 0 yet) then following on from that, (like with Garland and Scopedog) the yamato VF0 brought over.

Nope if the poor can't afford something they just don't buy it or they do but sacrifice a lot for it. Whining to thier boss for a raise won't change that they are poor. This isn't about whether the buyer themselves are poor, but what something is worth to them personally. So collectors regardless of whether they are rich or poor can tell what something should be worth by assessing the quality of the product against other similar things they've seen in the past. As an extreme example: If toynami sold you a limited edition toy for $500 and it was made very cheaply you have every right to complain. Maybe when you looked at a photoshopped image of it you were tempted so that led you to make the impulse purchase (assuming you are a rich guy and that amount isn't much to you.) So say a bunch of fans who bought the same item as you discover this thing is a real dud. Really bad QC, the effort put into its making isn't as great as other things they've seen etc and word of mouth spreads that this is a rip off for what you get. The worth of that product then goes down as less and less people desire to own it as the customer may not see value in owning it and cease buying. As another member mentioned: things are worth what the buyer is willing to pay. (maybe the buyer doesn't even care about quality, and only about the rareness of something, who knows? But so long as you have buyers to sell to, you will continue to cater to them so long as you can profit from each sale.) Now please do not tell me that the "whiners" are somehow poor people that don't ask for raises from thier bosses and that it is all thier fault. Just because a toy falls under "collector" category is no excuse for bad QC. When people read reviews they want to know they are gettin the best thing money can buy. What's my point? How does this relate to yamato? Because of the high price of a collector toy, and as fans of the toys, they will always strive to get the most they can for thier money, making sure they can get as much as they can of it. In the case of the yammy, they are not whining about the quality of the toy itself when they moan and groan about "gee yamato you are killing me and putting massive hole in my pocket with all these releases". That is a misunderstanding: they are happy to buy these things else they wouldn't even be here on the forums preordering stuff. They want the "expensive wine" BUT... will continue to complain anyway. What they mean is: this stuff is so great I wish there were some way to get more of it, at as a reduced price as possible (through some kind of local release like scopedog) so they can get more of the product for themselves, while less of the money is wasted on other things. Take shipping costs for example. Many times I have seen the complaint that the boxes are too huge (yeah yeah most of the people complaining do not represent the majority of customers but just let me use it as an example of saving) so they think a great way to reduce the cost across the board might be more compact packaging. In a sense they are not asking for yamato to make less profit, just if it were done in a more efficient way maybe that savings can go towards customers usingthe money towards buying even more toys from yamato thus increasing the amount of money they make in the long run. Or as my other example of selling to US and international fans of macross: boosting thier total number of customers just by making thier product as accessible as thier scopedog and Garland toys. (wouldn't it be great if some company brought over macross Zero OVA, followed by a US release of the VF0, and there were no legal messes with macross franchise? Similar to macross plus OVA which managed to go under the radar?) If this is not possible, that's ok, because as fans they are still going to be there buying it anyway as they have for the past half decade, (just like how people were asking $1000 for a chunky monkey to exploit desperation) but IF it can be helped and they can save, they will go to whoever sells the cheapest. REGARDLESS OF HOW RICH THEY ARE. Because they are fans. See my above example of how a poor guy with average income can save for something if he really desperately wants it. Even though he can't afford it, he will find a way to get it. It has nothing to do with how rich you are! There are people who buy trading cards not as an 'investment' but more because they just want the whole collection for themselves and willing to pay a high price for rare ones so they can "feel good" and they are just normal average people who are NOT rich. Why do they spend so much money on the card? Because it is worth that much TO THEM PERSONALLY and want it for personal reasons. The problem I see is that some people think they are whining in a 'negative' way: that is somehow yamato is doing something wrong by giving fans what they want and meeting demand. Actually it is more like a crack/alcohol addiction: the addict is happy to recieve and be part of the valkaholics anonymous the same way an addicted World of Warcraft player can't stop playing the game at the expense of his health, job, relationship with GF etc He is having heaps of fun. Whenever somebody complain about the cost, whines about the packaging, says that the QC is not consistant (crooked skulls), groans about not enough tampo printed detail, decides a paintscheme isn't thier thing etc, they are expressing their own personal complaints and rating something on based on personal tastes, experiences from other similar products, and judging the worth of something to themselves from the perspective of a fan. (not as an investor) People are not thinking about the monetary value but the whether it is 'worth it' to them. A rich person, a poor person: doens't matter. They will still COMPLAIN if they have personal nitpick about a product. Nothing to do with how much they EARN. You are looking at it from a narrow perspective: that people are complaining about price on the basis of thier income and that they wouldn't complain about it if they had more money from thier boss. WRONG! Even IF you could afford a very expensive product, if there are some issues with it (easy to damage, tacky color, poor packaging) you wil voice that complaint regardless. It is one of the reasons why I hold Alternators to be more valueable than Binaltechs because the "cheaper plastic" doesn't have the scratched paint chipping issues. It does not mean I can not afford to buy the expensive binal-tech but more that I choose to buy the alternators because it holds more value to me personally. (ie I can transform it, bump it, and not worry that it is slowly getting worse over time if I risk handling it) Think of the transformer alternator as the cheap wine that somehow tastes good to ME personally. I have an alien taste bud that prefers it over the expensive wine, so the cheap wine holds more value on my alien planet when to humans it might seem stupid. Whether I am poor or rich I will go with what I think it is worth to me, not on what ebay sellers demand for it, or what I think it should be worth in 20 years or the cost to make it. If an ebay seller sells something to you that you later found out to be a rip-off price, and your friend bought his for half the amount, there is no excuse: spin it however you like and try to 'damage control' it by reminding yourself how proud you are to have been the highest bidder, it doesn't change that you got the shorter end of the stick. This is why people complain that the low vis isn't worth the price asked: it just isn't to them personally, and whether they can afford to buy it or not won't change the fact that they refuse to pay for it beyond a certain limit. (they can afford that price on thier income, but they just won't buy it at the inflated price on principle because they just might not desire it that much. In fact not buying it might be their way of boycotting the seller in the hope that it might drive price down. A rich person might want to capitalise on the rareness of it, but a fan or a rich person who is a fan as oposed to investor, might just want one because it looked cool to them) Quote from an earlier post from you: Now this is where I AGREE with you. But to make it clear: what I don't agree with is that you believe it is only poor people who can't afford the toy who complain about price. This is where I think you are wrong. There are people who can easily afford something but choose to still reserve the right to complain because they may have just have really high standard of what it is they want or the quality of something does not meet the hype of the fan or the standard kept in the past. eg Take what happened with the release of Masterpiece Ultra Magnus. Masterpiece Prime was great, but Masterpiece Magnus was lazy and unambitious attempt to cash in on existing thing. Sure the quality of the toy was there just like MP Convoy/prime, but the personal value to fans wasn't there (just a repainted prime, based on inner robot form) so it loses points in demand from the customer. It doesn't suddenly mean people with this complaint can't afford him, (read these comments here, here and here) they are just selective over what something is 'worth' to them and would rather spend money on something more worthwhile. Similarly the yamato are great quality, but once the small base of fans have bought as many they can and have had thier fill (wanting to move on from vf1) that is when it should expand to others beyond the direct fan and rather than go for a discounted price in a 70% sale, try to expand in a new market like the US and sell to the robotech crowd. (which I believe is the hidden potential due to the vf1 being recognisable mech to both macross and robotech fans)

Personally I don't think it's that bad that things look a bit sci fi. Take the variable glaug for example. The zents had thier original glaug with that distinctive cockpit they like from the tv series. When you see that distinctive canopy on the variable version you can say that logically the aliens are sticking true to thier design. They are probably more likely going to fight in space so it makes sense there would be variable mecha closer to what they were used to using. While the humans get variations on thier atmoshperic variable fightters. (ie note the short wings of the vf19 compared to the yf19) Some look good for space, (massive guns that just wouldn't be practical on earth gravity) others look good for atmoshere. (based on what the current tech is from the real world) Ain't variety great? Like the space use vf19 the vf2ss is just a design close to what the human used (vf1) but with all that stuff like FAST packs (extra cannon and micromissiles and armor) added on to it that would not be needed if they were on earth. A ship that floats in space a lot would probably be using fighters more for space while the guys on earth would care more about aerodynamics. It may be the reason the zentradi were less fierce fighters on earth compared to space because they are not used to fighting in the atmoshpere and their mecha like the Qrau are meant for space combat. (thus the explanation for rounded shapes over the humans' aerodynamic streamlined stuff)

I must confess that I love brainless action anime and am a little biased. So I don't have as much attachment to anime as 'art'. When I watched ninja scroll I loved that it had a very predictable story and along with Street Fighter II: The animated movie, all I care for was how cool the fighting was. It's kind of like people who only choose to watch a specific genre like horror, sci-fi, or kung fu movies. I thought macross had that element of cool factor due to its mecha design as a kid and really the story was just the excuse to base around having these robots battle against each other. Same thing with yamato: I liked the idea of the dogfights in space against aliens, and will gravitate towards shows like bebop and outlaw star and anything with action, fighting, mecha, and lots of explosions. When people criticised gundam wing and say how crap it is (and thier opinions are valid) I was just sitting back and enjoying the fireworks and not taking the show so seriously. (same with G gundam or Dragon Ball Z which I enjoyed for the ride mainly) I just think a show doesn't have to be a work of art to be enjoyable if you are a fan of the specific genre. Like fashion though, once in a while you got to try something different and go beyong the boundaries and this is what I think shows like Gits and Eva achieve. I like that they add an element of depth to a normally tired genre. I grew up watching movies like Rocky, the rambo movies, diehard, (this is why I liked the main character in ninja scroll, he kinda acts like a 'bruce willis' for anime) highlander, anything with arnie in it, star wars, aliens, predator, robocop etc so I think these are ingredients in a show that I like: guns, mindless violence, (any fight that ends with violent 'creative' deaths like in ninja scroll or samurai champloo but not too cheesy with overreliance on super moves) explosions, robots/mecha (giant, transformable, combinable, powered armor or any combination of the above) war, tits (I think hentai has some great story and imagination put into it compared to porn, look at black bible for example. You can totally watch this for its story) twists, (to keep you coming back for the next episode because it is so gripping) mystery, (something that makes you think and analyse over and over again on repeat views to get more info) ...and in general is epic enough to be worth watching for 50 eps. (macross 7 didn't have the same epic feel that the orignal series had and felt padded with filler imo. If they ever do a new series I would prefer it be more like the original or like macross plus) I will probably get around to watching LOTGH though even though I like the brainless stuff. I think how stuff is animated is also important because I tend to prefer a more stylised action than realism. (take the battroid dogfights in macross plus and the inhuman manuevers you see in a newtype mech fight in Char's Counterattack for example. (ie seeing people dodge the multiple bit attacks) Although shows like Gundam 8th MS team are cool for physics, I have always felt that newtypes are the 'jedi' of the gundam universe and the universe is meant to cater to them. So it would be like preffering the old jedi saber duels (slow fighting) from the OT over the PQ (everyone including old men with walking sticks become ninjas) just because of nostalgiac bias if you know what I mean. I like speed. So yeah anything with the above ingredients I will end up watching. I think popular doesn't always mean it is a masterpiece of art. Just that fans have a common interest and spread thier apreciation of a series to others and this is how something becomes classic to fans of that series when there is enough hype for it.

That's interesting. I liked the original Aquarion despite the flashy colors (its a super robot after all) and wish this "tight joints" improvement had been present in the original release. Now I am tempted to get this mass-produced version. Looking forward to hearing people's review of this toy. It's the big ass cannon that does it for me. One thing that drew me to aquarion wasn't so much the story but the robot design. (plus I like the vectors: like something out of a gradius shoot em up)

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) 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. So one guy buying a chunky munky for $1000 may be a poor guy who just saved up for it and is more desperate for the item vs a rich guy who just bought it on impulse but doesn't care that he paid lots because he has money to burn. That doesn't mean the rich guy likes to waste money (in fact I would argue they are more tight ass than the poor guy sort of like the "Mr Burns" scrooge stereotype from the simpsons )...just that the rich guy is more probable to be the immediate target for the product first, and then when the few rich guys have had thier fill and bought all they can stand, the price then goes down to reflect the gradually-less demand, thus opening the product up to a lower group.(but more numerous than the first group.) I can see some people are getting offended at the thought of the possibility of valks available in other markets. But I just don't understand where this anger comes from. I don't know why people get so angry. I sense you are offended at the thought that yamato valks being available in other markets means instant doom or something? Assuming HG never existed and macross toys were locally released, would you complain that prices are too low to profit? I think that is up to the company to decide based on the demand for the item which can change over time. (see ebay prices rise for things that are hard to get) Now I don't necessarily want them to flood the market, just to see what it would be like if macross toys were locally released like the other stuff they've done. (I know, its wishful thinking) Now I personally don't think it is that much to pay for yamato valks ..BUT I personally believe that people have a right to ask the question, given what other types of toy they might have bought of similar level of quality. (take all those diecast toy people for eg ) I'm against censoring discussion on price since I like to come to the forum once in a while to check on prices myself and love the competition. It's obvious there are lots of people on this forum who just want the best deal they can get regardless of how easily the cash flows so they go with whoever offers the best prices, best customer service, and ships quick. It's human nature to be greedy whether you are poor or rich. What old guys got to realise is the potential to expand and grow a market. Like what happened with the game industry when sony came in and drove the cost to develop games down as cd medium allowed for more space to store bigger games and at a cheaper price (more efficient) for the third party companies. What happened is nintendo still kept to its cartridge medium which was inefficient (unless you used compression) and costly to the developers. But the more expensive option meant nintendo lost a lot of support from valued third parties who wanted the cheapest alternative and dreamt of epic sized programs to realise thier dreams. (eg squarsoft leaving nintendo to work on playstation to bring thier final fantasy franchise over) What resulted was mass exodus from one platform to another platform when people bargain hunted for a better deal to stay competitive with thier rivals. It's not about them being poor, just wanting the best and using common sense. But anyway it is no use speculating on how profitable or how risky something is, until such time that releases of yamato valks in other markets do become reality to find out. It's never gonna happen though, so we all deal with it in our own special way. No point crying over spilt milk.

Ah note the super hero pose and how the background has changed to suit what the mech is doing? Looks like it is powering up to do a "G gundam" type power move.

I doubt the quality sucks, but just in case: yeah I will await the uber detailed reviews before plonking cash down as usual. I wonder what those people who got to handle the toy thought of it?

I got that impression too. I was hoping they would do the alternate colors of the gbp from those model kit boxes. The one with "Ben" in the list, don't you mean kakizaki? I think it should be a thing where he is limited quantity (but not limited edition) Nobody likes him.

Sh!t that looks pretty cool. You should do a Macross Doujin. that's one of the reason why I kind don't like the yf19 massive boob in battroid mode. In anime it looks good, but if you think about it, is it really practical to have it jutting out like that? The yf21 at least looks like it would hold together in a battroid brawl. Very compact and things are hidden into its body rather than having stuff stick out like that.

But they are all really colorful and stuff from a distance.

Maybe in space it doesn't matter so much. The fast packs on the vf1 are ejected when entering an atmosphere so I imagine they might have some atmopheric version of those boosters with the cannon. Dude I really need to dig up that picture of the big ass Cannon that the vf11 was holding in macross 7 somewhere. Let's just say it was BIG! And about the wide look of the fighter mode, I always thought it suggested power but just in a different way, maybe that it can roll a little better in space because of it or something. There are other things that bother me: the Qrau should be dangerous because of how big the backpack is. What if it falls back? But who cares about safety in wartime? We are talking about a a series with a ship that transforms into a giant robot at the expense of squashing people into gooey mess after all.

Looks good. I think it would be good if you gave it a bit of a dirtier, weathered, "star wars OT" look to it though like it has been through some fights.

I've decided I might actually end up buying at least three. This depends on whether the ghost booster comes out, and Armor. I would want 1 valk for each variation I can display it in just like the 1/48 vf1s. 1. one naked 2. 1 with ghost booster in fighter mode 3. wearing armor Then if they release the two seater I will definately get that too.

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. For example say HG (or assume another company) managed to get the macross plus toys out to the US do you think that would be a good or bad thing? It would be good because now yamato have more overall people to sell thier product to. Understand what I am saying bro? It's all about expansion and getting the item exposed to as many markets as possible. It's not about whether people can or can not afford something but whether they WANT to pay the price. Kinda like how I am not interested in the alpha not because I can not afford it, but because I don't think it is worth the price. (and yes before you start to whine "DON'T BUY IT YOU STUPID NOOB!", realise that I haven't.) Of course I could easily buy something for twice the price I have seen it elsewhere (like some tiny shop that orders a small amount of something) but why would I bother doing that? We would all be happier buying them at the price we find cheapest. (did I tell you the story about how I found an import store that sold banpresto valks for 3 times the price? heh at the end of the day banpresto would have sold more of thier valks from a seller offering them at more normal price and moving them faster in shorter space of time) Having said all this: we are all happy to be addicted to our yamato crack and are not actually complaining so guy please don't take this as us whining. (even though it might come off like that. I've noticed that people are getting angry at the thought that fans commenting on how they are broke are percieved as somehow blaming or pointing the finger at people offering the service/product. That's not what they are saying. It's a great hobby to be in. I'm also into other expensive hobbies too and just as happy to have sold my soul to these as well. ..but that doesn't mean we should avoid all discussion entirely over the prices of things. I agree here with nani: voice your complaints and be honest. I bet half the lurkers come here just for advice on the best prices they can find, after all. Competition benefits consumers.) Ok but what if that toy doesn't sell and the company can't profit selling it due to lack of interest? This is one of the reasons why I think smaller toys (less risk?) with good quality might actually be better since it is in more people's price range. I don't think I would want a transforming toy that reaches a certain size that it becomes too impractical to transform, pose, or display properly due to its weight. (toys are made of thicker plastic aren't they?) I would love to see a better rendtion of the vf1 though. I would end up selling my yamatos if it was so good that it supercedes them and drives thier value down.

And to not offend old school fans they can retain some of the old style of the original. (note the change in roy's appearance in macross Zero? Wasn't a fan of that) Like what happened with the updated astroboy. (kept the design just like the old version) Retain what worked well in the original but also get rid of what didn't, and improve upon that. Despite what fans say, it was not perfect. Tell us more about the mysterious supervision army FFS. Maybe as a filler, put in some flashback episode of global and admiral hayes in earlier days and reveal something new about the anti-un. There are all kinds of extra things they could put in to make it 50 eps like macross 7. I guess what I want is DYRL level of quality but for a tv series.

In summary of the thread: I just want to see something similar to what has happened with other stuff like the Garland and Scopedog. Not have to pay premium due to the need to import. Bringing the costs down means raking in more profit since more people will be able to afford it. The way I see it: Like shopping for bargains during sale time, people will spend money when they see stuff at price they can afford. But the starting price is usually much higher to produce at first so it appeals first to the "early adopter" (who can afford it and is enthusiastic about it enough to pay the price for the company to profit enough) and these people open the gates to the masses as prices go down over time and the cost to make something goes down. The 'sale' price is usually its normal price which all the bargain hunters wait for before shelling out. eg Not everyone I know owns a HD tv, but as production increases and the cost to make them goes down, the demand increases, while the technology gets better and efficiency to produce increases, and companies start to make a profit rather than losing or breaking even, ...that is when more people will own it eventually. where does the demand come from for macross toys though?: I believe it might be with the international RT crowd who fondly remember macross as its robotech incarnation and instantly recognise the vf1 from the old cartoon of thier childhood. But I have a feeling high price (through all the middleman costs) is a barrier unless you are hardcore into it. The more time that is wasted, the less interested people will be and the smaller the fanbase gets as it shrinks over time. As interest dies, profits go down, and then production of that thing is reduced. The secondhand market and collectors will then be able to make a profit if they try to hold onto the toys long enough to be able to demand whatever they want for it on ebay for all the "late-comer" fans who missed the boat. (see my example of the "1/72 yamatos being sold at 1/48 prices" as one instance)

I don't mind children's anime. Look at Astro Boy. That is one of the classics imo. They need to make a good children's sci fi show with all the ingredients of stuff like macross.

Practicality or not that looks cool. If yamato were to make a PT toy I would be pissing my pants. I honestly don't see how it is any uglier than the vf0. And I think the battroid mode looks better than the vf11 battroid mode actually. It's not like macross makes much sense these days anyway . Flying on rocks and people creating force fields around thier body, not to mention the damaged vf0 flying off into space with magic in mac 0 for example. As much as I am a fan of vf1 I think 2 is a good looking update. Same with the VF4. I would like to see an OVA with these. Create a manga then base the OVA on it. If they could make a macross 7 manga based on events inside the macross 7, why not one of events post SW I?