TheLoneWolf

19 minutes ago, jvmacross said:

Oddly enough, this particular set was re-released as part of the merch that was sold during the Healthy Wings Macross concert held a few years ago...

Do you know if the card quality was improved on that set?

On 7/1/2022 at 6:32 PM, azrael said:

And what about streaming? Not that I stream anime (or watch any anime these days...) but ya know...streaming is more prevalent in the West...

^^^ this so much.

While it's great that Big West is tending to their aging Western fanbase with these physical releases, I'm really hoping to see some growth in the fanbase. GenZ isn't interested in physical media and Big West's social media presence is practically non-existant. It'll be amazing to see what could happen if Big West made Delta available on streaming, combined with more social media engagement.

10 hours ago, xrossfire said:

Hi @TheLoneWolf, any idea what's the worth of this official Animage deck? Thanks!

An opened official set recently sold for $80 on eBay and an unopened set is still sitting on eBay for $64, so it's kinda hard to say.

Personally, I wouldn't pay more than $40 for an opened set and $50 for a sealed one. Like I wrote before, it's a cheaply made set. Even the picture quality on them is meh.

My guess is that these are new molds. It makes sense for Bandai to produce new molds for a potential VF-25 continuation through the WWM banner.

Lolicon, thanks for sharing your intial impressions with us. I just wish they could've been better.

I noticed that same thing last year when I bought a VF-1D DX from LP. Their eBay listing was around $50 more expensive than their direct site. So I bought it from their direct site; aside from a dented box due to zero padding, no complaints here.

I'd honestly be shocked if the US got short-changed for these first couple of worldwide releases. Big West is making a big push for their worldwide campaign. If Bandai isn't making enough to meet global demand, it'll be an embarrassing homecoming for Big West.

If these first couple of releases end up being shelfwarmers, then I can see Bandai lowering their production runs on subsequent releases, but that wouldn't be until next year at the earliest.

My guess is that Bandai's not going to release anymore 1/48's until they have a better idea of when they'll be able to release them worldwide. And like Noel said, Delta's keeping them busy as is.

17 hours ago, Lolicon said:

Bandai vs Yamato. Which do you prefer? 

I prefer the orange of the DX, but the white landing gears of the Yamato. But since the landing gears only affect 1 mode, the DX comes out on top.

And yes, the lack of a sitting Minmay with the DX is annoying.

Love your work on both!

That's pretty much it. Studio Nue and Haruhiko Mikimoto (who was never part of Studio Nue) provided the story and designs.

Tatsunoko Production and Artland provided the animation the series. Notably, Artland blessed the series with quality animation (eg: Booby Trap, Countdown). Meanwhile, Tatsunoko didn't even use their own in-house animators. Instead, they farmed out their work to subsidiaries, like Star Pro, who did inferior work (eg: Virgin Road).

To be fair, Tatsunoko's inclusion appears to be a last-minute arrangement, so their own animation teams might've been committed to other projects at the time. And since SDF Macross wasn't even one of their creations, there's less incentive to assign good animators.

6 hours ago, Stranger said:

You really think they'll sell badly? It just seems that HM-R did decently overall and now we have all these pent up demand. Pl;us, original series stuff is the most popular stuff.

Absolutely. All of the past Destroids have sold poorly, Yamato's 1/60 Destroids included. Even with sales and discounts, they'd still sit on the shelves for a little while before finally selling out. IIRC, the HMR Monster could still be found on sale in 2020, several years after it was released.

Don't get me wrong, I love the HMR Destroids and have bought every single release. But most Macross fans seem to (ironically) consider the Destroids as a luxury, not a priority.

Smart move on Bandai's part. Better to only have one SKU that sells like crap instead of two.

14 hours ago, jenius said:

So most likely not "off limits" but would BW need to pay HG if the UN Spacy kite appears on merchandising?" It does feel like NUNS, SMS, Xaos, etc. have been a way for BW to move away from the kite whether inspired by HG or not. 

Man, what I wouldn't give to review Big West and Harmony Gold's contract. My guess is that the "Macross" mark and UN Spacy kite design will be rolled up into a flat licensing fee, with royalties paid to HG on each item sold. Separating the "Macross" mark and kite design into individual fees could be problematic for HG, as Big West and Bandai could simply remove the kites from their toys in order to avoid paying HG. To which HG could object that the toys aren't faithful representations without the kites. It'd just makes things more complicated than necessary.

14 hours ago, jenius said:

It does feel like NUNS, SMS, Xaos, etc. have been a way for BW to move away from the kite whether inspired by HG or not. 

I  believe those logos were a direct response to Harmony Gold's claim of the UN Spacy kite. It's too much of a coincidence that Big West replaced the kite after all the lawsuits were concluded in Japan. If Big West had renamed the franchise to Megaroad or Macbeth in America, HG would've had no legal recourse. But that was probably a bridge too far.

On 11/20/2021 at 11:27 PM, jenius said:

Is the UN Spacy kite off limits as being from SDF Macross?

Good question. The short answer: most likely not.

Harmony Gold claimed the UN Spacy kite as a trademark design, which prevented it from appearing on other toys in the US. But now that Harmony Gold is licensing their registered "Macross" mark to Big West, it follows that they're also letting Big West use the UN Spacy kite design as well. Forbidding Big West from using the UN Spacy kite would defeat the purpose of letting them the use "Macross" mark, since the two are intertwined.

On 10/31/2021 at 9:10 AM, masarujasu said:

I am inclined to agree with the first scenario.

There is evidence of multiple shoots for Jetfire at different times, with specimens prepared by Hasbro.

The first being the toy and transformation photography on the packaging, that uses a Takatoku base figure with ridged antenna, sharp nosecone, lined canopy (painted black), painted leg fins, and even a missile in the gun. But the key points are the ovular 'openings' on the nosecone the circular 'openings' on the the hip beside the main intake. They are painted red. I say 'opening' because I am unsure if these are nozzles/thrusters/intakes/sensors in the Macross canon.

Next, the 1985 pre toy fair catalog uses two typical Matsushiros (one boxed) with painted red opening on the nosecone. The one near the intake is unclear. http://obscuretf.com/hhk/images/full/USPRETF1985f.jpg

After that, the pack-in 1985 catalog, the specimens (2) used here are a Matsu/Bandai transitional figure. Clear striped canopy, smooth antenna, stubbed nosecone, Matsu sprue legs, pre-rubsign, (probably Bandai undated stamp). Again, the two openings are painted(?) red. https://tfarchive.com/toys/catalogues/generationone_catalogue/85a_catalog.jpg

The specimen showcased on the TFSource article is not any of the above. The red openings on the nosecone is a sticker that has been applied, so assume the same of the red openings near the intake. This may indicate that on previous examples this was a sticker as well. https://tfsource.com/blog/2018/09/14/collector-interview-72-jeremy-kaufmann/

In the 1985 Sears catalog, https://www.battlegrip.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/sears1985.jpg the Jetfire looks to be photography prepared by Hasbro as the openings are again red and the figure is fully decaled. But this is a different specimen with unlined canopy and a rubsign. Contrast that with the JCPenney catalog that looks like they did their own photography without applying any decals or enhancements. https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EUHx0U1X0AUlW-m?format=jpg&name=4096x4096

My conclusion is that when preparing a figure for a shoot, there are some tweaks done by Hasbro to improve the visual appeal of the figure, I.e. the red details. This is consistent with the authenticated figure from the TFSource article, although it is unclear which specific paperwork this specimen ended up on. And, Jetfire has been photographed multiple times, using the available figure variants at the time.

Amazing, you've done fantastic research into this! I completely agree with your assessment that there were multiple photo shoots for Jetfire taking place at different times.

And thank you for providing sources to back up your theory; it's hard to argue with dated pictures. Have you ever considered doing a comprehensive write-up of all your findings? G1 Jetfire's history is one of the most complicated around and it'd be nice to find everything in one (long) article.

On 10/16/2021 at 10:55 AM, tekering said:

With all due respect, the resolution and clarity are far beyond what DVD upscales are capable of:

Whoah, you're absolutely right, it's not an upscale. It just looks so bad that I thought it was one. 😲

2 hours ago, technoblue said:

As a counterpoint, there is an in-hand review of the new blu-ray over on this site:

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=340685&page=11

According to that review, the set still has some of the new (inferior) sound effects in it.  

Quote

But like I said is not perfect, there are a few sfx that I don't like, specifically the sound of the gunpod of the veritechs, the original sound is way better than the base sound they used in the new mix and I said base sound because they change it, in some scenes the gunpod may sound like a laser weapon and in others like a machine gun(a very crappy one) and in other scenes a combination of both...

And after looking at the screenshots he posted, the SDF Macross video is clearly just an upscale of the old AnimEigo release. You can tell because of the oversaturated color contrast that AnimEigo introduced.

Now that Harmony Gold/Tatsunoko Production and Big West are working together, maybe there's a chance that a future RT: The Macross Saga will be released with Bandai Visual's Blu ray video, which was a true 1080p remaster.

Welcome to the board! At first glance, I thought those were just relatively new Jetfire knock-offs, but I can see that they're vintage by the oxidization on some of the die-cast metal parts.

I think you're absolutely right, these certainly look like QC failures. Like you, I also figured that Bandai's excess surplus of Jetfire armor was due to Jetfire QC failures (the armor would've been much easier to manufacture and assemble compared to Jetfire himself). But it's nothing short of amazing to see that Jetfire's QC failures actually managed to survive for three decades and find their way to store shelves. Better late than never?

I'd love to buy one just for giggles, but that ¥20,000 pricetag tho.

Thanks for sharing your findings!

6 hours ago, jenius said:

Is the scale wrong though? Looking at the still from the show, Hikaru looks pretty big in it. Did they ever publish dimensions?

The M3 doesn't list any dimensions for the Fan Racer, so I'm guessing not.

As for the front landing gear, the cutaway lineart shows that there's literally no room for it. 😆 But as others have said, it should've come with plug-in landing gears, especially since it's being packaged with a DX.

On 6/16/2021 at 2:18 PM, Vifam7 said:

Calibre Wings just posted this on their Facebook page.

 

I'm also surprised to see that Big West is now working with Calibre Wings, especially after Noel publically stated that he has no regrets on ripping off the Macross Zero IP and accused Big West of being on a high horse and discriminating against foreigners. And to clarify, Big West's past policy was to refrain from doing business with Harmony Gold's licensees, not foreigners in general. Just ask Manga Entertainment or any foreign convention that's hosted Macross creators.

But if Big West is willing to bury the hatchet with Calibre Wings, then I have no qualm with CW either.

I wouldn't hold my breath on Western Blu-ray releases, it'll be cheaper and quicker to do streaming instead.

These must be interesting times for Calibre Wings. Noel picked a horrible time to piss off Big West by ripping off their Macross Zero IP, now that all new Macross products in the US have to be approved by both Harmony Gold and Big West. Harmony Gold is going to want to play nicely with Big West because they stand to make a substantial amount of new business with them, so Noel may find himself as the odd man out in this situation.

17 hours ago, JB0 said:

I suspect the colors are similarly "mastered for CRT". I've noticed on some recent rewatces that a lot of stuff looks VERY different depending on what display you're using. I've only ever watched the Animeigo DVDs on a picture tube, but some other anime DVDs I was very fond of "back in the day" were completely intolerable on LCD and I had to hook a DVD player to my old CRT to watch them.

I don't think that's the reason. The SDFM Laserdiscs didn't undergo any color remastering, but they still appear more natural-looking than the AnimEigo DVDs when played on a CRT.

IIRC, AnimEigo said that their remaster was predicated on the poor condition of the video masters that they received from Harmony Gold (they weren't allowed to use any materials from Big West). It's more likely that the oversaturated colors that they settled on were the best that they could get from HG's video.

I totally get that, it's easy to get carried away when Marie Kondo'ing.

On 5/17/2021 at 2:19 AM, uzernaem said:

I'd like for someone who has an LD box to share their opinion on the video and sound quality. I have some anime titles on LD and while the majority of them are very good, there are exceptions (for example Evangelion TV series LDs, which were made obsolete by the remastered 2003 DVD release - this is the case of original LD release quality being underwhelming).

@uzernaem I've got all LDs for SDFM and I can't ever go back to watching them after watching the Blu-ray remasters; the LDs are painfully blurry compared to the Blu-rays. While the Blu-rays do have noticable film grain, I'll gladly take that any day over the LDs blurriness that results in fine details being lost. As for colors, it's hard to say which one is technically accurate, as the colors are slightly different amongst all the various LD releases. I don't think there's any color uniformity amongst the DVD and Blu-ray releases either, but the Blu-ray remaster was overseen by Kawamori, so I'll defer to his judgment.

As for audio, it's been years since I last watched the LDs, but I don't remember there being any noticable difference between them and the Blu-rays. Hope this helps!

On 5/17/2021 at 11:18 AM, uzernaem said:

Is the first shot from the LD release? The colors look really rough.

I'm pretty sure that screenshot is from the AnimEigo DVD release. That release was notorious for its oversaturated colors and underscan (eg: Roy's chopped head).

Just curious as to why GRAND CANNON's Macross Toy Releases Thread was unpinned in the toy section. While it's no longer updated, it's still a repository of roughly 15 years worth of prices and release dates that's difficult, if not impossible, to find anywhere else on the internet. And personally, I always felt that this was one of those threads that demonstrated the best of fan dedication and work.