jenius

I wish GM were doing something like that instead of Lingenfelter... I also think they could have done a bit better with that front fascia although I'm sure their design choices had performance more in mind.

picture quote on the same page? 1 demerit!

Who cares about all that... it can actually HOVER! ZOMG BUY!!!!!

Also, New Jersey was a key location in the movie Bukaroo Banzai. Somebody asked for a pic? This is the best I could do. If it's not exactly what you wanted, I apologize but I'm probably not going to be doing any re-shooting 'cause I made a mess pulling a bunch of toys out and then I had to put them all away.

I'm playing with my 19Kai with the sound booster and display stands and pulled out my Hi-Metal 1J for some group shots. I wouldn't say I handle my toys a ton but they're definitely both stiff still.

Isn't the 1/60 V2 Hikaru VF-1J a magazine exclusive? I'm pretty sure it was and I'm pretty sure it does have shoulder problems (although no one handles the weathering versions so probably nobody has seen one break). The VF-1S Focker V2 1/60 weathered is a newer release (I think) so it should be fine. No word on a Hikaru+GBP weathering toy but it'd be pretty cool and it seems like the weatherings are a good way for Yamato to make some scratch.

I thought the only thing the retool did was make it so that you could apply Luca's armor to Ozma's or Alto's valks. You also can't just "fix" broken. You could... if you lived in Japan I suppose. Meanwhile I had several people on anymoon.com asking me where in the world they could get replacement V2 shoulders because whatever they tried, they could not just fix the V2's shoulders. Sure, Graham came through for a lot of people but that's hardly something Yamato deserves praise for. That was Yamato's third generation toy and many people have ones that are still missing one or both arms without any way of fixing them (which I'm sure we could blame on HG but Bandai has that same obstacle). Broken is a hell of a lot more damning in my book than "I wish the crotch angled out better" or "I wish some accessories that may not have been made if sales had sucked were originally designed to be incorporated into the toy even though there's a good chance I'll never buy said accessories." TONS of people bought the original VF-25 toys, much less purchased the Tamashii web exclusive parts or the GBP giftset so it's not like the problems with the accessories affect everyone who bought the original. When my Yamato's break they break to uselessness. My armless VF-0 playing next to my armless VF-1 reminds us all of the horrors of war but do little to make me feel good about the money spent. The floppy VF-25 in armor though still holds it pose just fine and looks good on the shelf but I wouldn't want to touch it for I know the frustration it will be. Great toy? No. Better than an amrless toy? Yes... and that's the worst example and that's including the fact it does have broken hinges which as of yet don't seem to be ruining it. EDIT - Yes, you could argue that somebody with tools and some elbow grease could fix a toy using a bit of spare metal... but you could also argue a customizer could make a new pilot sculpt and paint it. The hypothetical about the 25% less just seems like a pipedream. Yamato would have to make money from having funded an anime so that cost probably gets washed (or worse). Yamato's track record also disputes any hypothetical about you having any where near as many toys as Bandai has managed with the success Bandai has had. Bandai has way more resources and spreads their toys through different price levels. Yamato hovers right around the "Oh man, I'm gonna have to save all year for that toy" mark and since the economic downturn barely seems to have the mustard to make any new toys at all. I have no doubt we would have gotten twice as good a toy from Yamato for twice the price ($180ish?) but I also have no doubt that toy would sell very slowly in the economy that Bandai did well in (and I'd still be staring at that toy's shoulders every time I moved the arms). I think your hypothetical involves a Yamato with Bandai's resources and in my hypothetical I'm still pinning Yamato where they've been for the last year +.

I think you're reading my posts a bit too literally. You can replace the word "argument" with "debate" as we are discussing two different opinions on a hypothetical situation. You have every right to NOT like the VF-27... it's just awkward to say it doesn't represent a solid effort by Bandai because, for whatever reason, you personally aren't a fan. It'd be like saying "George Lucas has never made a good film and before anyone says I'm wrong, I hate Star Wars." It's your opinion, and you're entitled to it, but you kinda have to expect some people are just going to raise their eyebrow in response. The DX-25 could definitely be a MUCH better toy. I think we're all certain that no matter who makes the next VF-25 toy (should we ever get one) that it will improve upon the many flaws of the DX-25. In fact, the DX-27 actually is kind of like a second gen 25 and it's already clear that big strides forward were made. I think that's the case with pretty much all similar Macross toys. All these toys are based on the same design so it's not like there are huge areas to be unique. So each generation of toy (within similar scale and budgets) ought to be a bit better than the last and obviously it's a lot easier to make a VF-1 at this point and nail it then a toy that was never made before. Of course, it also matters how we define "better" and if sales are an indication I think it would have been very difficult for a toy with a higher price point to have performed better in the market than the DX-25 did and I find it unlikely Yamato would have been any where close to the DX-25's MSRP. We also can't say "Bandai doesn't care about R&D and Yamato does" when Yamato has shipped us turds in boxes and told us it was the next big thing. Sometimes companies try real hard and just come up a little short. That's all just my opinion so you can feel free to disagree with me and insist you're right... don't take my defending my position as a vendetta... on these boards more people probably agree with you than me. EDIT- I think you're blowing some of the DX-25's minor issues (which certainly add up) a bit out of proportion. Yes, it's a mediocre toy with a lame GERWALK mode. True, you can't get the crotch aggressively angled in Battroid. Rubbing it does make paint come off. The only time I've seen them break though is when people use the GBP armor so I kind of consider that more a flaw of the GBP and the Herculean effort it takes to get the armor to fit into the wing root. Yes, this is also lame because the toy doesn't seem like it included enough forethought about how the armor would attach. Obviously, this toy is no rock star and I am certainly not arguing that there's no way Yamato could have made a better toy had they been the first to the market with a VF-25 toy. What I'm arguing is that Yamato would have produced a better toy (by MW/adult collector standards) that would have been more expensive, sold worse, might have had potentially game-ending durability issues, and that Yamato would not have had the resources to follow it up in the manner that Bandai was able to by choosing a lower price-point and a more toy-like emphasis. You could be the proud owner of an amazing looking VF-25 toy with no arms kicking yourself for not waiting for next year's release of the same toy with some minor durability improvements AND super parts instead of comparing your DX-25 to the improved DX-27 after having skipped the Tornado, GBP, and Super Variants displayed next to Michael, Luca, and Grace in front of your Quarter with the Konig off to the side and the Robot Spirits line off to the other (and those crappy VF100 permanently stuck in a drawer somewhere).

Yes, the DX VF-25 toys do have issues for sure... ESPECIALLY the armored Ozma. The armored Ozma is kind of a calamity. Yamato's track record on very first releases though is ridiculously piss poor. They've had a few all stars but they've also had SEVERAL releases with full on limb breakage which exceeds anything Bandai has done wrong as far as the DX line is concerned. Sure, there were a couple people who did get a limb to come off a 25 toy but every instance was a case of a broken screw... not the toy breaking. Even when Yamato has revisited designs they've found new ways to make them fragile... that's just kinda special... and the price would again be far more than Bandai charged.

Yamato made the Konig as part of their deal with the VF-X video game license, it was before Macross Frontier. It's possible that the reason the DX Konig is not a 1/100 scale Hi-Metal toy is because of the fact there was an existing and fairly recent Yamato 1/100 Konig. It's not about me vs. you. It's about you against nearly everyone else. The praise for the VF-27 stretches wide and far. It's almost as if you choose not to like it because it proves you wrong. You're still free to not like it and voice that opinion but it puts your whole argument in an awkward light as you are clearly in the minority and your argument is predicated on the majority opinion being wrong. Not at all. The Yamato v2 is 1/60 scale and features all the accessories people would demand from a 1/60 scale toy. The Bandai toy is a 1/100 scale VF-1. Is there a 1/100 Yamato VF-1 toy that you prefer to the Hi-Metal? Also, there's room for exceptions in to the rule in my argument. There can certainly be budgetary considerations. A new Yamato toy aimed at $50 price point would likely be much worse than a $150 version of the toy just as the V2 MSRPs for much more than the Hi-Metal. I would say it's GENERALLY true that future generations of toys made from the same foundation are going to be better but there's obviously lots of variables. For sure... there definitely were some sales on post Ozma/Alto VF-25 toys. The point remains that the initial releases sold like gangbusters. It's been a long time since I saw Yamato move any product that fast but you're right, Yamato sells products for very old shows and Bandai was selling one for a hot new property. I just think there's also something to be said for Bandai's price point and design choices (some of which did prove to be rather unsatisfactory for adult collectors) that contributed to the brisk sales. It's not that you sound like a Yamato freak. I think we agree that Yamato would have made a toy more for adult collectors... which is a great strategy for toys of old shows that haven't been on the air for years. The toy would have looked sexier, been truer to the line art, maybe had more gimmicks, probably had a few more stress marks and cracks after minor handling, and would have cost 50%-75% more than the Bandai. That toy would have sold fairly well by Yamato standards and, with some time, Yamato might have been able to give us a similar VF-27 that again, MW would have raved about (and it would have sold even less than Yamato's VF-27). The point is, while that may be a better outcome for MW it's hardly true of what was better for the world. Bandai's toy was a huge success which is a good thing for Macross. Yamato is running out of resources quick, they would have never been able to keep up with releasing waves of Yamato toys. I still haven't been able to think of a recent non-repaint Yamato offering... just a couple ludicrously expensive models because Yamato can't afford the risk of making those beasts into toys.

What was Yamato's last non-repaint release? I'm drawing a blank. I want to say the VF-11B but that's probably wrong. This is an honest question, not me being snippy. Yes, I could look this up but it's probably not what I should be doing right now When was the last time you saw a Yamato item selling at a modest mark-up online a week or two after release because they were already selling out everywhere? We can definitely get more crazy hypothetical but it loses relevance the more extreme we get. Yamato could never afford to fund an anime but if we wanted to assume that they could afford to do so and thus could have rights locked up early in development and could release a toy at the same time (heck, maybe even earlier) than Bandai did would it have been a better toy? As Vifam pointed out, we're now squarely in a world where Yamato isn't Yamato any more and may be capable of a great many things. For my part, I'm sure they would have released a much more expensive, much less durable toy that would have received much more praise on MW because it likely would have been much more attractive and much more detailed... but given the economic reality of the time I think it would have sold much poorer than the DX toys did (and I suspect the shoulders would have broken off all the Alto releases).

I wasn't implying you have no right to complain about the VF-27. I was just saying that it automatically makes your argument weak when you say, "Bandai needs a pre-existing Yamato toy to make a good toy." then someone says "The VF-27 is a great toy." and you say "Well I don't count that one." It's totally your right to not think highly of it but I'm sure you could see where the argument already seems a little silly. The whole argument in of itself is silly though... obviously any toy in its third, fourth, or even fifth rendition is going to be better than previous versions. Just like Yamato's YF-19 was a big improvement over Bandai's 1/65 VF-19 and Yamato's next VF-19 will almost certainly be better than their previous YF-19 toys. Obviously things will improve as different companies try different things... it's not really about being lazy or cheap it's about having more data to pull from. What I would think the original question is "Would Yamato's first effort at a VF-25 toy, had Bandai never made a VF-25 toy, be better than what Bandai's effort ultimately was?" I have my doubts. As much as MW seems luke warm to cold on the DX 25 it was actually a rousing success for Bandai. It sold really well and even sold at mark-ups which isn't something I've seen from Yamato in a long time. You can probably credit this to Bandai being able to get the word out better than Yamato and having a name that carries a bit more weight. Bandai's success with the VF-25 is probably what allowed the various lines to exist and more DX toys to be made. Had Yamato originally had the license we probably would have had to wait longer for a VF-25 toy that may very well have been more model-like and thus more praised here on MW but it may have only sold at a fraction of the DX and may have been the only Frontier toy we got (with possibly hints that a VF-27 might come out some day). It may also have cost $200 instead of the $110 the DX 25 went for. Remember, Yamato seems to be really hurting without trying to get new licenses so after purchasing rights to MF and developing the VF-25 they'd have to sit back and recoup some cash before their next project whereas Bandai has been able to keep slinging.

I kinda figured that's where you were going but wanted to make sure I understood by rephrasing. Your argument is very convenient because you also dismiss the VF-27, a toy nearly universally said to have been done right, as not seeming done right to you. This argument quickly gets silly from there as all these toys are based on the same designs sometimes with input from the mechanical designer himself. If you don't see enough variety in Bandai's 1/100 scale VF-1 toy which is substantially different from Yamato's V2 toy it's probably because you associate Bandai with the chunky monkey and are thus not giving them the credit they deserve. Either way, Bandai's Quarter, VF-27, Konig, Hi-Metal VF-19s, and Hi-Metal VF-1 toys are all really solid efforts. The VF-25 was not so hot but c'mon, who's going to argue that Yamato hasn't put out a few stinkers (V1 VF-1, VF-0 with detachable arms, V2 VF-1 with detachable arms, Garland with detachable arms, Konig, etc.). If Yamato gets the license 5 years from now I would expect they would improve upon all of Bandai's releases... just as I would expect Bandai would improve on all of Yamato's toys if they got the license 5 years from now. Sadly, I don't see either of those things happening.

We're in a thread discussing a series of valks that only Bandai can make... how is it you haven't seen any of these valks yet?

Sweet... a whole generation coming up of kids with no imagination of their own

Sounds like a few others have heard similar things to what I've heard. These rumors mostly come from the fact that Bandai has made some appearances at toy shows and the like and have stopped showing off the future of the Hi-Metal line. In the beginning they were hot to trot to show the potential of the line and roll out a bunch of products but now they seem apprehensive and the only new thing we're seeing is a repaint.

I hear Japan's toy industry SUCKS right now. I'm starting to doubt we'll see much mold milking unless the DYRL valks do really well (this was also why Max's 1J was just an exclusive instead of a regular release). If we do see more mold-milking I wouldn't be shocked if all are exclusives. If you were hoping on really obscure Hi-Metal releases you can probably bury those dreams... people have already begun doubting the Hi-Metal series will survive into the Mac+ era (which was its next intended franchise).

Wow, great work.

The box is tiny... I thought it was going to be the box for my VF-19K Hi-Metal stand.

No problem. I'm setting up my photo booth again for another round of shots and I'll bust some of the old toys out for a group shot or two before I put the Konig away. While I'm at it I'm also going to try to find a way to set up my video camera so the lighting doesn't completely screw up the white balance... I guess that's what I get for using such a cheapy video camera though. Anyway, I can imagine a shot that might work for everyone so I'll try to make that happen... may take a few days before I get it online though.

I think that could be easily arranged but what mode do you want to see it in next to these other toys?

Review is up! It's pretty rough so let me know if you see some errors.

I was given a Cayenne as a courtesy car while mine was in the shop and I didn't find it overly spectacular. I did some hill driving and I felt the automatic transmission was in a state of constant shifting. It had a bit of pep to it (obviously I wasn't in one of the baller versions) and an excellent turning radius but overall it didn't strike me as amazingly better than some of the other SUVs I've been in. Then again, my opinion is probably pretty tainted by my general dislike of SUVs.

I did do a review of the VF-25 Tornado release on anymoon.com but it's lumped into my VF-25 mega review. I also have the extra parts but I haven't taken them out of the box to start reviewing them yet. I have so many new toys I need to get through right now and work is very busy. I should have my Konig DX/Robot Spirits review up tonight and then hopefully I can take some more toys out of there boxes and start working on some more reviews.

What is the point of destroid/battroid mode of any vehicle? It probably boils down to the extra dexterity of the hands for close quarters operations... like lifting heavy items or throwing a punch/pushing something.