1/1 LowViz Lurker

I'd be interested in any macross II mecha in the future. VF2ss and the alien non-transforming qrau red looking thing would be nice.

....and hopefully all this whining = better materials, future fixes etc. Like you guys I don't think it is unreasonable to expect a quality checked masterpiece grade level toy. Yeah it is a toy but we do go after the yamato's for that reason: to get as good as they can make of a mecha that is usually out of the price range of kids who pester thier parents. (ie aimed right at the adult collector) But with aiming at that market you also got to expect that adults have higher standards too. I'm sure there are just as many people who complain about the takara mpc starscream as there are with other recent yammy valks in large scale. You just might not see them if you only hang out at a maross board. The fans are usually the most strict critics. I am a big fan of the mospeada legioss but didn't actually buy one. That doesn't mean I should be happy that I will never get to own one that doesn't have to have problems and that toynami is the only choice for them. We all want that "dream" toy. If it is possible to get it, then better to voice your negative opinions on all the little tiny flaws than just say "ok I accept it is crap but will buy it anyway. Let's move onto the next valk now.." and then have all the releases rushed out without checking them. It's possible to have your cake (a beautifully sculpted transforming mecha) and eat it. (something that feels at least as good as the vf-1) No one said it was supposed to be easy, (they are very complex toys) but that doesn't stop us from wanting it even if it isn't perfect at first. I do agree the complaints threads need to sink to the bottom though. But that will come in time when the "complaints about complainers" also stop repeating themselves and not allowing the thread to sink. 1. someone complains 2. someone complains they've heard the complaints and wish them to stop whining 3. complainers respond to that saying it's thier right to complain. 4. the people who are sick of complaints say not to buy it or else shut up 5. people say they want to buy it, just in some fixed form instead 6. fixed version comes out 7. anti-complainers gain benefits from the improvements along with the complainers In the grand scheme of things, the complaints will die down after a time as people's wallets heal so don't worry. In the meantime noobs who didn't expect the problems will come into the forum and find these threads actually helpful and informative. Thats how I knew about the probs with early toynamis MPCs. For those with no problems, they have nothing to complain about so you won't hear much from them. IT would be natural for these people to think the whiners have no solid basis for thier negative comments. But to that I say: how do you know unless you see it from thier perspective? Freedom to voice the complaint is important if we are to give some useful feedback to yamato so they can at least keep some of the concerns fans have in mind on other releases. Once they get a perfect record (not many complainers anymore for vf-1 these days for example) then things will get quiet. But having said all this, all companies make mistakes: I don't think yamato intentionally seeks to ignore things and deliberately seeks to ruin your life, I think it is more a case of they were not aware of the problem and would have not released it if they had foreseen these probs to begin with. Can they do something about it? Yeah. Will they do something about it? We will all know when reviews for the next releases come out and impressions for them are out. Most of my yamato purchases are informed purchases where I have read reviews beforehand and gathered as much info as possible before deciding to buy anything. In the end yamato will benefit in the long term from any improvements they make themselves thanks to some feedback gained from those with toys that have the genuine problems in them. (whether they be minor or major) So to all those people who say: "I've sworn off yamato forever" I say "give them a chance and read the reviews first" For those who say: "don't buy first releases" I say "not if you want to wait, some people are anxious, may as well let them have the freedom to do this if they want. It's thier money, it won't hurt you" For those who complain: I say "do something about it through a fix, give us a detailed review with pics, and/or show us the problem you have and where the damage is. Some might be more severe than others. It just might be there is a slight trick to locking something in place or something. As an example before I even transformed the monster, I looked at all the transformation guides online first so I wouldn't mistransform or damage certain parts that look complex like the leg and knee section which looks very complicated the first time."

Yep and some even do it on purpose just to charge you more for support. The fold booster is kinda like the milia figure that came with the red qrau. Sure it might not be the best add on, and you could do without it, but imo the FP would feel a little bare without that booster. Its like you make a trip to the Post office to post something one at a time going back and forth when you could just save effort and post all your letters in one day. The FP is too skinny to feel like it even deserves its own box. May as well chuck in the glowing dildo. I do agree that 19 w FP should be a default set. But going by the old 1/72 tradition, maybe they thought we'd all just buy two yf-19? 1 for the non-fp version. And another with FP. hehe given the price of just one 1/60 19 though, it doesn't sound like a good idea when you think about it. It's actually the fault of design of the 19 itself because the fp are so small. How much detail can something like it hold? The fold booster adds a little extra something to beef up the kit. By the time they get to the vf-11 though, the FP will be beefy. I wonder if that extra beefiness translates to slightly higher cost of the super upgrade kit? (and if the super will also include atmospheric boosters?)

Anyway I just look forward to graham's reviews of future toys. Hopefully he can show us a comparison between first releases and compare them to the newer ones to see if yamato has addressed these problems. The whining will probably die down in time, as these probs are fixed just as you saw with the GBP door mechanism, and the 1/72 vf-11 which had a more sturdy FP version that could be handled. Yamato have always listened to us whiners to improve stuff, so it is like a symbiotic relationship. What's funny is if the anal-retentive and paranoid fans who actually bothered to open thier valks to check for stress had not done so and posted thier findings, the problem of tightness of screws would never be known. The golden rule: The squeaky wheel gets the oil. Customer is always right, provided that the complaint put forward is legit and proof is shown. The problem may not be widespread, but if evidence can show a problem, would you not want to know what that problem is before just wrighting it off as a random yamato basher? I'm sure they exist but not all complaints are just a guy whining about the costs, these are fans and senior members of the boards who are loyal customers for years who have seen better from yamato before. I'd rather have improvements and whine, than settle for less than perfect toy. I think the small stuff are all things that they can fix in later releases so there is no hating from me, just a feeling of wanting the best they can give. Sorta like how a coach can expect more from his team if he trains them extra hard which pushes them a little more to give better each time.

Jetfire classics looks pretty good.

It's the ghostbusters of macross imo.

The extendable head is going to be funny! When they finally get around to it: I will probably reserve roy for Reactive Armor (and leave it in that) and just have shin in fighter mode with all the booster attachments vs nora. I wonder if they'll do non-canon paintschemes? As usual the UN had all the good toys in the end.

Ah what I meant was that if they make the FP seperate for yf-21, the 21 seems to have a tiny bit more beef to its FP than the covers of the yf19. The skirt armor covers half the plane, and houses 2 gunpods. Not as large as the boxy vf-1 fp but just a little bit more than covers on a portion of the leg. Here's what I would want to see for future release: 1.vf-11 stand-alone. 2. FP + booster set standalone (to give choice to those who actually WANT the choice to buy just the fighter without FP, similar to how you have the choice to buy a seperate HD DVD drive for the xbox360 This mean that later if you change your mind the option is still open to you if you bought your vf-11 early.) 3. vf-11 with FP and booster bundle (you get fp and atmospheric boosters) <-- the one I'd be most interested in 4. vf-11 with FP (not the same as bundle, you just get the fp. This would be the equivalent of the 1/48 Super VF-1J TV Milia and 1/48 Super VF-1J TV Max where those two releases had no strike cannon, but in this case you get no atmospheric boosters) This order gives everyone the most choice. So one that doesn't sell in the former cateogry could always be repacked in a new box in a later category. So if say the fast pack by themselves doesn't sell, just sticky tape the fp box to the standalone vf-11 and call it "vf-11 w fp". yf-21: same as above only exchange "atmosphere booster" with "fold booster". Problem: yamato should announce all of that ahead of time so people who never intended to buy stuff don't get the wrong pack. eg you don't want the atmosphere booster, so avoid buying that and wait for the "vf-11 with FP only" set instead of wasting your money. Give us early warning ahead of time so we buy only what we want and not what we don't need. But the advantage of putting the VF-11 with FP last is that it sort of tempts the buyer to impulse purchase the extras. (they might sit and think about getting the bundle if it comes out first and not like the wait. Selling as much as possible and getting the buyer to buy as much as they may not necessarily need is the key. Category 4 is for the real tightasses who even if they wanted all the accessories they can't afford it. So keep this for last. )

My view is different. If they can avoid stuff like the broken tailfins of the earlier releases, make the joint nice and tight, find a way to have the upper torso click together, and generally avoid the problem with easily breakable pieces...I will gladly pay the price. There is no anger or hatred behind that statement. I love yamato and want them to succeed and take my money. It is just as I am not angry at those who want to buy early because they can't wait. You are welcome to do it and if you are happy, don't let us stop you! But don't stop the valid complainers from letting others know and warning them of thier experiences. These can be helpful and just as informative as the positive posts. Nobody is denying there are people there with good 19 without problems. This thread is for people with the problems. There probably are lots of people without the problems, and maybe the complainers are a vocal minority, but even if they are, that's $200. That means no way of getting replacement since you are not in japan to be able to go anywhere for support. This thread hopefully will try to weed out the yamato haters (complaining for the sake of it) from the people with genuine problems so it is easy for those with the breakages to voice thier concerns about the toy. Imo We should have a seperate thread for "impressions", and thread for complaints where genuine evidence can be shown of parts breaking off. The ones who have positive experiences can post pics of thiers in the impresions thread, the complaints can go in here. It would then give the members of MWB a "choice" as to what they want to filter out. If they don't like to read whiners and complainers they simply go into the "impressions thread" and not the complaints thread. Not all complaints are non-valid ones is all I want to say. Doing it that way will mean there is a chance that the complaints guys are not drowned out by the positive experience guys. We are not saying your experiences are BS, just that those with complaints are NOT BS either. And you got to put yourselves in thier shoes too.

It's a bit like the Qrau for me. I bought it to show support for enemy mecha. but I can understand people feeling like they were ripped off in some way. When it comes down to it, toys ARE just heaps of plastic. Normal people must think you are crazy for spending this much money. *Sigh* I hope that when they get to the vf-11 we get the atmosphere booster with the FP bundle instead of fold booster. I actually do think it is a good idea to include fold booster with the FP because the FP are so simple compared to the FP for the vf-1. Eventually you want everything you saw in the show. What is strange is how come the underarm weapon was not thought to be made for the 19? I think Fold booster + fast packs + the underarm weapon would have lessened the burden a bit for people. At least with the 21 you get two gunpods and beefy skirt armor.

Assuming most people don't have a problem with the actual price of the toy (given how some people on MWB have 1/48 VF-1 valks in the double digits ) is there hope that (even if these are minor) problems like breaking arms (ie garland for megazone 23) will eventually be addressed in later runs? The reason I ask is because if yamato say that the problem doesn't exist in japan, (and the us fans have no way of knowing) what incentive would there be to take the risk early on? I'm just assuming that yamato are not at fault and that they are "just as surprised" about the problem as people who found the toys with stress marks or had stuff break on them with little force applied. And that like the 1/72 hip breakages that happen after a time, these problems will be fixed later. That is my greatest fear: you end up having to buy extra pieces for replacement the same way some people have to send thier busted early xbox to microsoft and end up paying for shipping or having the "fixed" unit break down again. As a result not many people like to be the reciever of a dud, regardless of whether it is anyone's fault because it ultimately means more risk for them. Because of shipping, (and because of experiences I've had where the system broke down after 1 year warranty and had to pay more to get a replacement) I tend to think waiting is the best choice because it means you get the benefits of fixes. But if these fixes never come (in later runs of the yf-19 since the japanese don't have the probs for yamato to take the claims seriously) I may as well just buy the yf-19 right now. But if they do admit to the problems and announce publicly that they will improve on the first release, it makes more sense for us Importers who live outside japan to wait. So what I want to know is: have yamato acknowledged our complaints? And in your personal opinion having seen stress marks on yours and experienced the dangers of broken tailfins in early vf-0 etc, would you recommend waiting? (when the review for the "yf-19 with fast packs bundle" is ready I will be looking for comments about any kind of improvements - I really do want a non-crooked gunpod release, just as we got less loose nosecones for vf-1) For me it's a case of: "You can charge me a high price, but I hope to get as good a yf-19 as I can, selling any earlier runs off to get an improved one without any issues." It's more me than yamato. (as I see no reason to own everything in a line, or multiples of the same thing from different runs. Only stuff that interests me. My reasons have to partly do with: not having much space, tight budget, and generally being a tightass rather than because "I am angry" and didn't expect to see a few nitpicks in these early runs because of some assumption that problems like fragile areas that crack or stress wouldn't occur at all) It's an important question to me because if the release is limited run and nobody buys the first run, (yamato then interprets this as "demand for it is low" and don't bother with a second release for a looooong time) it might risk making the toy more rare and the price goes even higher as scalpers see an opportunity to take advantage of the yf-19 being hard to find anymore and gouge even more! (look at the people who try to find low vis for example. I don't want to be in a situation like that for the 19) It's not about value for me, as I understand that they are expensive otherwise I would not have gotten into the vf-1. It's more a question of: "how far can we push yamato to give us slight improvements over time so the toy is as close to flawless as we can get it?". If we assume there will be no improvements, then better to just eat the cost and get the 19 now than to wait. But it is $200 which for some is a "risk" if they have set thier expectations higher than normal (as a result of it being more expensive than 1/48 vf-1)

Yamato's vf-1 is better than toynami's vf-1 MPC. Even though the yamato has little diecast, it is generally considered a better toy. Sorry if that came off fanboyish, but even fans of robotech who own the mpcs were complaining. (similar to how fans of yamato's vf-1 are complaining about thier QC for the yf-19 with regards to crooked gundpod etc) It's not as black and white as we like to think. They both have hit or miss releases. Yamato generally had crappy stickers. Toynami had better stickers. Yamato can't offer support to the US, toynami can. Yamato generally has decent sculpt in the toys (using CAD ever since the 1/48) while toynami tend to make thiers deformed. (massive shoulders and skinny legs on the 1/100. Skull emblem that sticks up when it doesn't need to and is not canon to macross.) Yamato have better posability because of the light material. Toynami gets floppy because of weight. Yamato have big ugly boxes. Toynami have good boxes worthy of displaying on a shelf. Why can't we expect both of them to improve? (ie fix the chicken hands yamato. use less cheap material toynami.) It's for thier own good to want to improve. Not just for our own benefit, but for future customers who will see the quality and become a convert and eventually a big supporter.

Improvements made to the alphas would be good. Just make it all plastic so I can pose it, make it cheaper than the limited editions and I would buy it. Didn't they gradually improve the vf-1 mpc by the time they got to ben? I want them to gradually improve on the alphas until its safe to buy. Transformer alternators have complex transformations, good tight joints without fear of stressing them, beefy man hands, authentic sculpt that passes as a model kit, and great posability. Weapons can be held firmly, and the price isn't too bad even if you are not a fan of transformers who wants to collect everything, and just casual buyer of toys. *Sigh* although it might seem like we are whining, it's just hard for us to go back once you've had something so good. Like how I can't get used to playing my games in Standard defination in non-prgressive scan when I have been playing them in HD. Normally people expect things to get better over time. I still hold out optimistic hope that they do (Toynami's 1/100 vf-1 second releases for eg) but without some type of place to whine about these problems, we can't let them know what keeps us up at night. "The squeaky wheel gets the oil" as they say.

Yeah so long as the toy holds together, snaps firmly in place, has tight joints with materials that can take reasonable amount of abuse, the buyer is only limited to complaints about the toy and not the quality. It means you can still sell your yamato to another and get back a good price for it from another if you weren't happy. But in the case of breakages and damage to the toy from normal wear and tear (just transforming it and having stress marks), it means you can't really feel safe buying one. The high prices I'm not a fan of, but the danger of something snapping and not having a fix for it, is the more worrying thing for me. Fix those problems and they can still make thier big profit, just don't rush it and expect the first buyers to have to suffer because these are your most loyal fans. If you piss them off, they will be less likely to be return customers. The relationship with the customers is important. Even if a product is more expensive than it is worth, if a person feels like they are being taken care of and listened to, that extra peace of mind can still make up for an overpriced product. I'm still giving them a chance depending on how sturdy future runs of thier VF-0, YF-19, and later stuff turns out, but until they get it close to vf-1 in satisfaction then I will be waiting waiting waiting. I'm not an early adopter of things generally, I see more sense in waiting for impressions and reviews before jumping in. Because I take the laid back approach, I have been able to avoid stuff like the toynami vf-1 MPC line and other things and not really let anger take hold such that I would swear off any future products. (if the company shows they are gradually making the improvements, then it's a wait and see thing for me rather than an indefinite boycott)

It's usually a convention that rarer mecha go to the better pilots. It's like an exotic car imported from another country and makes you look unique. Note how in macross 7 ova how gamlin gets a vf-22 in black colours? He has gone up in the world.

Looking forward to seeing this fold booster lit up. And the sv-51. It's going to be ages before I can afford it and it actually comes out though.

You mean the 1/100 didn't sell very well? That is a crying shame. Those are pretty decent little toys. Not the best sculpt (massive shoulders, skinny legs, strange head) but great alternative for the little banpresto valks. (which I still have posed on top of my monitor in various modes.) None of the issues of floppy limbs and it comes with missiles, landing gear etc. I was hoping they would at least get to the FP versions of them. I guess with all the money we are blowing on yamatos and all these new valk releases people's attention is focused on other toys. If they had just released these during the 1/60 yamatos I bet they wold have sold pretty good.

Sounds like cowboy bebop in macross universe. Could be interesting. I kinda like the space pirates thing in one of the macross 7 ovas. But I would prefer something along the lines of Zentradi rebels who just lived out in the wilderness, and the destroids had to mop up any kind of resistance the giants put up against humans after they got sick of minmays songs. They mixed with humans, learnt how to have sex with giant women built giant boats and fished whales using thier giant bodies. They then created thier own culture and started to attack humans while they were at thier weakest and the humans were almost extinct. They got smarter, trained harder, and learnt how to repair. The tv series would pick up here and that is when the human create a special line of destroids designed to survive out in the wilderness in camo for extended periods of time and weather the harsh environment and the purpose was to use these to try to hunt down the remaining giants who became a problem. Of course at this time humans were scared of giants and didn't know if they could trust the ones who had allied with them so all the people used to fight against them were humans in giant-sized mechas. There would be no mention of minmay, no mention of hikaru, misa or max. All new cast of characters and the series would be able to stand on its own as if it were a new series that had nothing to do with macross. This could then get imported to the US under a new name. The emphasis on this series is mecha with armor, mecha with weight restrictions, and awareness of surroundings, ammo, and type of weapons used in the tactics against the zentradi. (ie close combat is more dangerous for slower destroids that might be poo in a built up environment with little space) Mecha that actually have to trudge through dirt, sand and uneven terrain. Mecha that have to be able to adapt to the use of combined weapons. (a good example is a micron zentradi armed with anti mecha weapons that are hard to hit, teaming up with giant zentradi who can provide better up close defense) Things like staying hidden and taking the element of surprise would be the order of the day and each new ep would be not disimilar to mospeada where it gets to a point where they find the hidden headquarters of the leader of the rebels and that is where the tv series ends. (maybe chuck in a surprise ending and have it so the mastermind is actually a human who believes the humans were meant to die. A bit like that mad scientist/archealogist in macross zero or the guy in macross plus who wanted to create a true AI lifeform at the expense of safety. The good thing about this is it would explain how the zentradi rebels are no longer the dumb brutes of SW I, but trained and hardened and educated to be able to fight humans at our own intelligence level with thier own ability to think for themselves) There ya go bigwest. Now just tie SK to a chair and force him to make us some nice variable destroids (that octos thing in macross zero looked pretty cool, was that a SK design?) and hire someone to do the story because he is sick of macross and hates his fans. Then have yamato release these variable destroids in 1/60 along with SW I era destroids used in SDF:Macross. Edit: I think the best use of destroids would be the post apoc earth after the rain of death, because it would be a time when humans and zentradi are the least trusting of each other. After the bombing by kamjin on the christmas episode and the ramming of the ship into the sdf-1, what safeguards do the humans have against future attempts at kamikaze terror attacks like that? The only way is to have the humans act more racist and fear the aliens. So although hikaru max and the others learnt to get along, there would be all kinds of bitter people who disagreed and this tv series would cover these events. There would be groups that just don't get along with government and be the equivalent of a new anti-un that rises up before eventually being destroyed by the giant rebels. So you got these groups: 1. un (people who learnt to get along and want peace. Consist of humans and zentradi) 2. anti-zentradi people (consisting of 100% humans that want to kill all aliens because of what happened to earth - xenophboic. They don't believe humans should mix blood with aliens since the aliens have warrior genes. They are like a KKK ) 3. new zentradi rebels (took control after kamjin's failure to kill off the humans - these would be smartened-up zentradi. Consisting of a mixture of micronised and macronised zentradi and possibly some zentradi sympathisers who are just getting paid by these aliens to help them) 1 = good guys 2 = pissed off humans 3 = pissed off aliens who want to kill the zentradi who defected as this is considered a disgrace to the alien warrior race But each episode would have people somewhere in between one group and another group. So you might have a zentradi character who has a human girlfriend but also loyal to rebels and has conflicts between helping his friends kill group 2 (pissed off humans) but not want to harm certain humans. (ie the GF who he plans to start a family with and have half alien half human children)

Whether it be major, minor. Whatever. I just hope they all eventually get fixed in later runs. I eagerly await reviews and impressions of the Yf-19 w fp release to hear if there is anything different about them. (if anyone can afford it Graham is probably secretly selling his older yf19 on ebay to get the improved versions lol)

If these hold together well I might consider getting a few. Plastic non-masterpiece transformable alphas at a cheaper price would be good too. (sort of like alternators compared to binaltechs)

But OVA sidestories like macross plus do flesh out the history a bit and allow a glimpse into the future valkyrie technology that would later be use in macross 7 like using fold booster. (we do have a triangle of love, the music being an important part of the story, and some new stuff to add into the macross timeline - things that happened after SW I) Just because it is not a tv series, doesn't mean it doesn't stay true to the expectation of the creator. He could still supervise if another person took control.. Remember this wasn't even supposed to be part of macross. Look how good it turned out. I just don't understand why he would NOT want to make robots that transform into planes (something already done in macross) to be a part of the macross universe? Bigwest were right on the money on this one. Just comes off to me as: "I hate those macross fans so much, I will deny them any future macross show,ova,movie" etc You know like that elitist "Comic Book Guy" on the Simpsons? I just think it is a waste of potential. Although I like the main gundam core stories about the newtypes, those "realistic robots with realistic physics with realistic characters" shows are my favourite. Stardust Memory shows us what an ordinary skilled ace can do when taking into account the limits of the robot being used. And having the various types of robots work as a team (the chunky and heavy ones with the ability to snipe an escaping shuttle) is far more interesting to me than a single guy who can use his psychic power to foresee a future event and get out of the way before the bullet is even fired. Or just fly anywhere and be everywhere at once because the machine being used by the prepubescent kid hero is the only thing in the war able to perform those things. I guess my love for those other gundam stories, is similar to what drew me to mac+: little details like the way the bullets fire and arc under the gravity over long distances, the G forces, the way the dogfights and battroid fighters are handled, (rogue zentradi scene where the powered armor gets owned by the bayonet at close range) and how the characters pretty much have to fight the whole world. (getting past the satellite lasers, fighting an AI controlling a battleship, the general pace of the in-close fighting and using cover behind buildings and taking advantage of every mode. etc Don't ask me how they would do it for the destroids, but if 8th ms team could add the realism of needing specialised roles, (uising various weapons to deal with each unique situation and taking the environment into account) and macross plus could provide the fast pace and stylistic fights, then that is close to the kind of thing I'd like to see in a sidestory macross. We got it with zero, but what would be interesting is if they could bring the ingredients of what made all that work into something to do with destroids and valks (in a team situation with some wearing GBP, some in destroids, and some in transformable mecha (similar to octos) to fight in, that would be great. You can still have all the stuff you were talking about, just amidst this setting of war and destruction. It might just be a simple thing like giants in a big city taking control of a town and the destroids have got to deal with it, because the place has limited space to fly around in and there is a lot of anti air weapons. So they got to go in through foot to deal with the problem. (a "black hawk down" for macross?) They pulled off something like it in SDF:Macross where kamjin had a team of zentraid go and steal the machine that converts the aliens back to giants. So yeah something like that would be easy.

It was pretty obvious they would do it eventually though don't you think? How hard would it have been to put FP on the toy? This is why I wish yamato wasn't secretive because if you know ahead of time, people can plan better what they want to buy without being stuck with a huge hole in the wallet buying the one they might not have bought had they just known what was around the corner.. But I do kinda like the idea that for people who don't like the fast packs they at least have the option to not buy it. (save money?) For the majority of fans.. it just seems "more complete" when you have everything and every combination of things to go with it. I hope they make it clear that for future releases they let us know if you can get everything in a set before release of the standalone. Eg: "VF-11 will come in both FP and non-FP editions". Thank you. *goes to save money for the FP edition and knows not to buy the standalone edition* This is kinda funny: I remember how people were saying how much of a rip off the Toynami 1/100 toys were because of the lack of included fast packs with the toys. I'm surprise not many Toynami fans have made any smart ass comments about the price of the FP set for yf-19. As far as i'm concerned quality or not, both fans get ass-reamed on the prices.

I like the symbolic name better. Makes it sound more apocalyptic.

Veritas: ^ Maybe because people might end up actually buying them. Never underestimate the power of the fanboy impulse purchase. Previous examples: you don't have to be a fan of the toynami brand to want to buy a toynami alpha. Just a fan of mospeada and the mecha in the show. But not being a fan of the toynami alpha doesn't necessarily mean people are not actually buying them anyway. (when they go on discount - but only because they love the mospeada mecha) Same deal here: people think the concept is a little stupid, but they love starwars and might just get it for alt mode and see the tf gimmick as the little bonus icing on the cake enough to actually buy the thing. The bottom line being that people = consumer whores. People buy all sorts of stuff they know they don't need, and more of it gets made because you keep buying it. Another example: As much as we all hate the papparazzi for spying on celebrities, and people say "shame shame shame! give people thier privacy", who keeps buying the magazines that feature the photos for people to gossip about? Someone's supplying it the food it needs to survive, (in this case people actually buying the gossip entertainment magazines, sort of a guilty pleasure), otherwise how can it continue on?

Does it just light up suddenly or gradually glow from dim to bright back to dim again like some christmas tree lights I've seen? I would prefer a gradual glow but it's not going to be a big deal.