jenius

As a rule, I avoid anime. I do own some good 80s stuff though so I'd say I own like 80% of what I watch and that number will continue to drop with whatever Cartoon Network anime show I happen to catch.

Wow, I'm beginning to think Yamato raped Beware of Blast's sister or something. You guys thought I was agro with my constant criticism of the 1/60... that guy sounds like he's only access to a fertilizer plant away from turning Yamato into a crater. Toys toys toys, I like toys.... and beer. Onto other things, the 1/48 is sturdy as an ox, except for the backpack, the little frilly bits behind the head that hold the back pack down or poke out like a fin, and the hips... but as soon as your aware of any of that the thing is fine. I don't think my car should be indestructible, seems silly I should expect that from my toys.

That's Neova but I think he's out of business. Used to be a member here though with plenty of successful transactions.

Here's another something to consider. I remember hearing before the MPC Alpha was released that Toynami had purchased the molds of the Imai variable 1/12 Ride Armor and the variable 1/48 Legioss. Now, if Toynami had truly purchased those molds you would have to wonder how Aoshima later then re-released both of those models. It would seem to me that Toynami and Aoshima must already have an existing business relationship. Also, Tatsunoko wouldn't have much to gain from playing a licensing game with HG so I can't see anything too surreptitious happening here. I still can't imagine a company busting existing toys and remaking them better... especially the Alphas... but I have a feeling whatever deal has been inked here is mutually beneficial to Nami Toi and Aoshima.

Well.... unless you have the Reflex missiles which do a terrible job of staying attached. In general, I think Yamato is still learning when it comes to making missiles that affix to wings properly but I will say the 1/48 is an improvement over the 1/60. I like posing my 1/60s but they have some problems. 1) The hips don't have anything keeping them in the nosecone so if you're getting too dynamic the leg will just plop out and crash to the floor (this is especially true with the GBP attached). 2) The balance is a bit off, it's not hard to get the toy into a position where it wants to topple. 3) There's a limitation on shoulder movement if you don't employ a mod. 4) the position of the swivel joint at the knee renders it useless with super armor attached.

Original Equipment Manufacturer generally. It's really common in car talk where a mechanic has three options, sell you a piece of crap no name part to get your car running, sell you the OEM part, or sell you an "enhanced" part (like an after-market mod piece). EDIT - just read that Toybox DX article. I'm still really confused as to whether or not these are just part of the 15K run or not. The fact that there's going to be any change at all makes me feel better about the whole limited edition aspect anyway though. If Aoshima got, let's say 5K of each Alpha though, this might be a really cool way for Toynami's product to suddenly be more collectible (MPCs are now limited to 10K) and Aoshima's product to be more collectible (the 5K) and better (different weapons and strengthened joints). Makes you curious though, are they just taking MPCs, breaking them, and then repairing them with better parts??? That seems like more work than just building all new ones.

Do share, am I yamato's batty, a spammer, or an EXO fan? Interesting that in a conversation pitting two Yammy products against each other people would prefer one over the other because they're blind Yamato fans. Rest assured, when that product stops sucking I'll start supporting it.

Okay, so Toynami was having a problem moving MPC Alphas so they sold a bunch of them to Aoshima who then modified them? Interesting. The reference to the hips makes me think you'll be able to angle the legs outward. I wish they would have added a swivel at the knee and a ton of other improvements. It's wait and see time!

So, besides weight/metal (which causes chipping), what does the 1/60 have going for it? Price I suppose. Then you have amputee pilots, useless landing gears, screw covers that flake off, swappable parts including the heat shield, and far less detail.

I still haven't gotten around to my comparison post but I did get this one in just for size:

This is good news but honestly, while I did very much enjoy Orguss, I can't really see myself paying more to have a better copy. I watched it, I understood it, I've moved on.

Go to the website in my sig and marvel at the toys and the reviews... it'd make me happy

OMG, your dog has hands??? What are you doing talking about toys, your dog is the real story here! I had a Jetfire when I was little, then got a Max MPC VF-1J the moment I graduated college. My initial impression was a total let down and then someone told me about Yamato's 1/60s which seemed even worse to me. Eventually I scored some really random great buys off eBay and then found a local collector with a HUGE Takatoku Macross and Gakken Mospeada collection and the rest is history. Several thousands of dollars later I'm really beginning to wonder what the hell I was thinking.

If I'm not mistaken the VF-1 MPC was also going to be 1/65 scale & 30% diecast (which sounds like a kinda cool toy to me). Then Toynami scratched the whole thing, redesigned it at the last moment, upped the production volume, and dumped the thing on the market. The VF-1 is a series of miserable mistakes which I optimistically excused in some degree as learning experiences. What's happening here with Aoshima seems a bit more slimey to me but hey, if everyone here is cool with that I'm definitely cool with being in the minority.

I was up early this AM so I decided to get a Wii. I swung by Kmart about 20 minutes before they opened but apparently they had already sold all their Wiis to people who had been camping at 6am. People are still camping for this thing? Wow, either Nintendo is having production problems or this thing is one hot pancake. I don't really mind waiting though, but I'm impressed.

Precisely. As soon as you start saying "Well, I guess it's okay that companies I do business with don't honor their own promises" you find yourself on a terribly slippery slope. It's easy to dismiss here 'cause we're talking about a mediocre toy at a relatively small price and that's why I'm arguing for the principal. I don't own any Alphas as investments but I bought them under certain pretenses and those pretenses should be honored.

Apples vs. oranges..... FIGHT!

No, you guys are right, Toynami seriously has no obligations here and anyone who bought their products has no right ot expect them to really mean what they say. After all, Toynami did say that the initial VF-1 MPCs would only be 10K and then upped that number to 15K after receiving a bunch of pre-orders (which obviously de-values what the people who pre-ordered before the number change had paid for). F-that, you guys are wrong. People absolutely have a right to be pissed that their collectibles are being devalued by a company looking to make more money no matter how logical that search for more money is. What would people say if Yamato re-released the VF-1A LV1 as a mass production run with a different name? When people say something is limiited they're expected to live up to that, don't be apologists of some sort and give them an easy way out. For my own part, I am far more upset with the principals being pissed on here than anything to do with value. If I tell you something is one of a kind I mean that it's the only one in existence, I don't mean that it's the only one that I'm calling by a particular name.

You musta bought a different MPC than the one I bought. Mine says it's limited to a production run of 15K. Apparently yours has the additional small print that says "In the American market." Making something limited only in a certain geographic area in a society that has things as miraculous as airplanes makes that "limited" term meaningless.

Seconded... Toynami is about to destroy the value of their own products and reputation if all is as it seems. What might be cool is if these are versions of the MPCs without diecast (or less of it) or something.

This may seem like a silly criticism but the destroids here seem more top-heavy than need be (with exception of the rail gun one). I do like the hints of the old destroids in them though.

I think that's a pretty cool idea, except the YF-19 shirt would say Shinsei. Hmm... I kinda want to get a Shinsei Industries polo shirt now to have the ultimate obscure reference going everytime I golf. That said, I also like the first design plenty also.

The partial painting probably renders this thing very difficult to sale. You could always eBay it to find out

I kinda disagree on CAD. Continuing to use Yamato as an example there's the teh sux quality of the 1/72 products vs. the CAD 1/48s. I'd say that's a pretty instant jump in design, quality, and fit. Is it perfect? No. It is the future though and it's a good thing. Companies will still have to make $$ decisions on materials and there will always be issues the computer must not have seen coming (VF-0S' floppy midsection) but as the companies gain more experience they should be capable of overcoming these issues. Pen & Paper makes it a whole new ball game with whole new problems on every new design.

It's all in the economics Fit For Natalie. Yamato has a budget for failure (as all companies do), be it goods that are destroyed in shipping or goods that are unsatisfactory and returned. Yamato also has a name it needs to keep in the consumer's minds and so they rely on fairly prompt delivery of toys (scheduling of releases has multiple variables). The bare minimum amount of time that is deemed necessary is used to pressure test new products because, in today's environment, extensive design testing is done via computer on computer models. So, Yamato accepts that some products won't be up to snuff, accepts that they will spend very little time actually handling prototypes and first-runs, and anticipates that their computerized evaluations would have revealed any significant issues. Sometimes they're right, sometimes they're wrong. I think their audience has also proven to be quite patient which can't be a good thing. Any situation like this is a bit of a gamble but believe me, they've done the math to determine what they feel is the most profitable amount of effort to invest in every step of the process and the most profitable route rarely coincides with the perfect route for the end consumer.