MacrossMania

MISB collectors don't have this problem. I honestly have to head scratch sometimes. Trying to figure out how collectors get so many long hours playing with their toys out of the box as grown adults. I've found that my imagination, once boundless in childhood, is definitely restricted these days. i tire easily when handling them, not to mention their origami transformations. Still, they do look good on display out of the box.

LOL

Had no idea. Thanks for the info. All the same I wouldn't have bought into the line anyway. Adult collectibles have exploded over the past few years and I can barely keep up as it is.

Thoughts on this? I personally don't need a gigantic 1/24 scale valkyrie that doesn't transform no matter how many light up features it has. And definitely not one that isn't the grail. Curious though.

Popularly understood to signify the nuclear age.

Wow, what a disappointment. And this was one of the few Bandai items I managed to snag a preorder on. Boy do I regret that. I mean the fit and finis is excellent, but come on Bandai, there's more to modern collectibles than that. You need the odd gimmick or two to keep hope alive.

The way Godzilla is portrayed on the big screen he's an avenging angel. He "rises from the bowels of the earth" amid the ash of the nuclear fire storm as a way of chastising all of humanity for its abuses of nature and god's laws. So yea, he's basically a wrathful god taking aim at humankind for taking too many liberties with E = mc2. So both good and bad at the same time.

These are some of the most gorgeous valkyries out there. The cannon fodder still holds up. I don't know what they did. Officially I don't think there was any tweak to the VF-25 design, which I think they had perfected by that point. Still, it looks lean, mean and pretty, and stands head and shoulders above the other v2's out there. Just can't put my finger on why.

This is by far the best Metal Build/Fix Fig out there. It's simply gorgeous. When it came out I did everything I could to get it.

This is pure Macross love. Awesome photo set. And if you don't get why the DX 1/48 is the best one out there, look no further than the gerwalk mode here. Pure badassery IMO.

The only box I'll open. The rest is MISB.

Love the old and new here. Awesome.

Fair enough. I myself prefer Bandai's "tweaking." I see it in the Metal Build line. I thought what they did with Gundam Destiny was just amazing, and time and again they've come through with special little variants of the original design that really pop. That's actually what I look forward to. But I guess when I think about it, I'm more of a design purist when it comes to Macross more than any other line. So I agree with you there. Only thing is I don't mind it so much on the Macross Plus line because I wasn't wedded to it Max+Miria style the same way I was with the original Macross series, which I watched when I was a child along with GI Joe, Transformers, MASK etc. All of them when it first aired (a magnificent time to be a child in this country!). So it occupies a place in my heart that all the rest of the spinoffs never could. Never mind the fact that the storytelling has gradually degraded over time with the franchise. But I digress. Either way, to my untutored eyes, this looks absolutely gorgeous and one I've been waiting for.

This is absolutely beautiful. And with the rest of the DX gang, I'm sure Bandai will knock it out of the park. I don't know what people are complaining about (or maybe it's just high-anxiety anticipation OCD collector-style!). This is definitely something I've been waiting for to complement my DX YF-19. Can't wait.

Dr. Jones was the father, but you can call him lady if you like.

Aw damn!

I wonder if anyone got this, Indy.

Since you asked... And I don't see why the 1/48's are so maligned. Clearly Bandai's 1/48's are not the revolutionary toy everybody hoped for, and truth be told, the Yammie 1/48's really transformed the toymaking industry. It was the first time that CGI was applied, and applied so elegantly. Bandai really raised their game after this. It was only then that the MF toys started making their debut. So yea, I still have to hand it to the 1/48's. Pictured here is the toy that started it all for me way back in 2003. Got it all the way from Japan in a crumbling box with the edges exposed. Sent it off to AFA and it scored a 90, one of only two for the Low Viz in existence. Will always love and cherish it!

Digging this. There's something about obscure toys that I really like. Or even obscure versions of toys. I'm a vintage collector and I have a fair number of Convertors, the trashy second- to second-rate Gobots that never made it to fabled 80's toy lore. They just languished in the dustbin of collecting history, but seem to be gaining momentum these days. Not saying this is trashy, but obviously different from the MetalBuild and Fix Fig lines, both high end.

I hear ya, but what has everybody up in arms about the whole Zeta Toys thing which I kinda agree with is their version of Unicron was on the whole a better one. The poses were far more dynamic, the sculpt was great, and the transformation was far more intuitive and a lot less messy. I saw an interview with Hasbro's PR crew at a toy event somewhere around the world and they were so impressed with themselves. They claimed it was like engineering a complicated jigsaw puzzle. They had this vast impression of themselves as being consummate geniuses, and here Zeta Toys showed them how easy it really was to create a realistic looking piece with half the transformation involved. It was quite elegant. I think Hasbro knew this. They were on the ropes, and couldn't let a little third party company upstage their efforts with all the heavy PR they poured into this. So they threatened to sue, and the rest is history. We'll see, I'm hoping Hasbro will back down after the dust settles on this one, after they get their money. The thing about the Hasbro Unicron I don't like is it's basically a shell former. Zeta's was definitely not that. The shoulder was actually built from the shell itself, and so were the legs, rather than hiding the legs and arms and conveniently collapsing around it in robot mode. Which was what Hasbro's does. That was the huge difference for me. I see what you're saying about perfection. I don't like to settle either. But I guess for me collecting involves a limited time horizon. Other priorities begin to take shape in your life, leaving you only but so much time to amass as much of what you can. There may be a perfect Unicron in another ten or twenty years, just like Hasbro's latest version is a leaps and bounds above the Armada version, which I also have. But the thing about Zeta was that it took the best of both worlds, an elegant transformation, simple and intuitive and cartoon accurate, rather than some overly complex monstrosity which is what Hasbro's is shaping up to be at this point, and paired it with some really great, dynamic poses and evocative sculpting. That's good enough in my book, and something that Bandai at its best does really well (especially with the intuitive articulation of the Metal Build line, which, although somewhat limited, lends itself to human-like movements with the kind of natural limitations you would expect in a robot). But, it wasn't meant to be, at least not for now. I may be looking at the perfect Unicron ten or fifteen years from now, but may not have the appetite any longer to sink so much of my hard-earned income into these pieces, or may just have simply moved on with my life, taking up other hobbies, etc., and so Zeta as an ideal will have to do for now. Maybe forever.

Yep, really. And I agree with you. After this latest attempt to foil the third parties, I think I'm going to just boycott the Hasbro release. I actually think it's kind of a strange situation. Hasbro has to balance their IP interests against the real world scenario where the third party companies are largely responsible for generating interest in the Transformers franchise, at least from a collecting perspective.

Hasbro just forced Zeta Toys to take down their Unicron over an IP dispute, but they have no problem lifting Bandai's Metal Build designs to incorporate in their Transformers franchise. Hmmmm. It looks great, but I attribute this bad ass look entirely to Bandai's genius.

Am I the only one who thinks this is overkill? The armored parts for the latest valks have become increasingly more absurd. I mean, I get this is fantasy and all, and I am a loyal fan so I hate mentioning it with all the hubbub over the latest releases, but it must be said.

Re MP-44, I may be an outlier on this one, but I'm not exactly impressed with it. If anything, it seems more like Bandai's retooling of Yamato's 1/48's, rebranding it as their own - in this case, Takara choosing to reinvent the Masterpiece line more in keeping with the cartoon aesthetic rather than a retooling of a competitor's take on things. Problem is, with the advances in computer technology that see the cost of CAD design dropping on almost a daily basis, whereas the cost of labor, NAFTA agreements, and the cost of supplies and shipping skyrocketing on an international scale - in short, the cost of global production - this "rebranding" (if you want to call it that) smacks of nothing more than a cheap attempt to get rid of all the frills on any given Masterpiece toy - like chrome pipes and bumpers, which are cost centers no doubt - and replace them with undeniable advances in product design, which is also undeniably cheaper these days, employing as they do far less workers and working to scale at a much cheaper price on the design side given the advances in technology. Masterpiece was originally designed to be a real world counterpart to the cartoon characters which grounded their transformation technology in a sense. Now, that's been completely reversed. I'm not saying it doesn't have a certain charm - it does - but I do find it lacking in that certain higher calling if you will, that "Masterpiece" aesthetic which was almost like a call to arms for adult collectors - the sense that your highest dreams and aims as a closet collector (as we all were as children) could in fact be realized given the advances in technology. To see those same advances turn back the clock, so to speak, seems like a bit of shame to me. Not to mention a cheap ploy to mask the current realities of the global marketplace.

Really love this one. Did they change the mould at all? It looks like in keeping with the typical Arcadia retooling, they did rework it a bit, making it a bit sleeker in parts, but I can't tell with all the telltale gaps Yamato toys were notorious for, especially the SV-51.