GDomino

Just relax man. It is just a discussion on a toy afterall so why are you're panties in a knot. Keep in mind that I did not call you or anyone else an expert, nor did I claim myself to be an expert or majoring in economics. I am just asking how some of you guys can continue to justify the added costs of Yamato's toys... If the company is not at fault then are the consumers at fault for wanting quality products (bang for the buck)? I say Yamato is at fault because they do have an influence on the MSRP, being they are a profit driven company like every other company out there, even if they only make a pennies from every valk they sell (multiply that by thousands and that's still enough to show in their margins). They obviously continue to be in business because they have some profits out of it. So is it so wrong for the costumers to complain and be vocal about their disatidfactions. I may not be an economics major but I do know that customer service is still pretty high up there in business plans even though it may not be priority one anymore. Other companies obviously have the same issues to deal with but we don't hear the same excuses over and over and over, most recent one I've heard that's gotten a chuckle out of me is they (Yamato) require more expenses due to their use of CAD during R&D. So going back to the original question, of which none of the Yamato defenders seem to have answered IMHO, why are we the consumers expected to foot the bill for Yamato's R&D? Yamato has been at it for 6, going on 7 years now and I've lost of track of how many first releases they've had but we continue to see the flaws that could've been taken cared of prior to release. Yet they continue to disappoint even though their mostly plastic toys are more expensive than some of Bandai's most complicated toys out there (again bang for buck). Whereas, other JP toy companies similar to Yamato's situations can release pretty good, not so flawed toys at inital release. Yeah I'm throwing in Bandai's SOC line in the mix or even Studio Half Eye. I'll throw in Bandai's SOC Gunbuster or Takara/Hasbros MP Convoy when first released, even though most of you Yamato supporters will just claim these companies "have the financial backing" or "being giants in the industry". All I'll say is "they got there for a reason". Who says they don't fall under the same scrutiny from their consumers/costumers, but they do strive to satisfy them, not just with the mentality of "if you build it, they will come." If anything, I've always hoped that Yamato considers part of those added costs to go to improving their QC and they seem to do it in 2nd-X amount of reissues, BUT they always seem to disappoint in first releases which other companies given above seem capable of doing for a lot of in their initial releases. Heck, I would be more accepting of Yamato's prices if they had SHE's reputation in the industry but unfortunantely they don't, even though they (Yamato) say they use CAD or advanced R&D/design process. They should just come out and say their business plan is wanting to be like Studio Half Eye, relying on their engineering aspects as their selling point and feel are justified in having their toys come close in build and quality, which SHE is known for by the way (expect breakage because of a lot of moving parts and lower quality resin). AND even then, I don't hear of SHE having this much breakage on their toys, {yeah and it's a given that SHE doesn't sell as much toys as Yamato, so it should be expected that there are less people complaining yada yada yada}. Ideally, the people that spent more would be more critical, more vocal, and louder in their disappointments. If R&D, oil prices, currency rates & exchange, shipping costs, and middlemen wanting their share of the profits are the reasons Yamato's valkyries are so expensive, then why do other companies such as CM, Max Factory, Aoshima have toys that come close to being their MSRP and is still somewhat reasonable for everyone involved {again apples and oranges but indulge me}? ....And before anyone else brings it up.... It's Harmony Gold's Fault!

So called "experts" talk about the price of oil going up and is affecting the costs of various toy manufacturing processes and the shipping costs involved. So a few questions; 1) Shouldn't the same costs affect other collectibles, for instance diecasts toys as in the melting/molding of zinc? 2) Is diecast that much more difficult to integrate into designs and is it more expensive than say the plastics, PVC, or whatever special plastic Yamato plans on using? 3) There are other similar sized JP toy companies out there like Aoshima, CMS, Max Factory, etc.. with more obscure licenses yet they manage to keep their diecast and non diecast toys at mostly manageable prices. How is this possible? hmmm...

Technically that is a catch 22 in itself.... Granted that if the Macross license is as obscure as some claim it to be and Yamato is the "small company, that really doesn't profit from these expensive toys" (that [again] some people claim it to be) and technically they are the only Mac+ and MacZero toy fix in town; if a first release doesn't sell, is there really a guarantee that there will be a reissue? IMO, it's like Yamato has the fanboys by the balls by saying "we are the only game in town, if you don't buy now, we probably won't be making anymore because the interest isn't there." So you can't blame people wanting to jump on buying a first release because of the fear that Yamato might not be around in the future and you risk paying more later if you really want one (circa 1996 when Macross toys consisted of after market Takas, customs, or fan recasts before the Bandai reissues and Yamato came around). This has been their mentality 6 years ago and it seems to continue to this day.

Here are my thoughts on the SOC Gunbuster... Initially, I wans't expecting much for the toy, because I was thinking that it would be fiddly like Gaiking, Combattler, Zambot and Dancougar, due to them being more complex than the non transforming [action fig robots]. But surprisingly, GB is less fiddly than his older gattai brothers, except for Voltes, and GB is fairly solid. I was also surprised at the heft and the amount of diecast in the toy. It is obvious that Bandai built this toy for the long run, putting diecast in the right places, meaning diecast joints and for parts usually more prone to breakage if plastic was used instead. I like how Bandai kept the metallic color of diecast parts to show-off the improvements to parts that could be prone to damage and I also like how the diecasts are spread evenly all over the toy to give it more balance and to not make it top heavy. This toy is heavy!!! Maybe just as heavy as Dancougar or even heavier because Bandai didn't skimp on diecast. The diecast parts are the upper arms (biceps), upper legs, hip skirt, shoulder joints, retracting wrist joints, upper torso (skeleton chest and red shoulder parts), ankle ball joints, feet (both transforming and non transforming), arm joints in the shoulder towers, and arm joints for the back pack used in the transformation process. It's true you would have to remove some panels that are used to aesthetically improve the looks of the BusterMachines, but that doesn't detract from the overall enjoyment you get by transforming this toy, since perfect transformation is technically maintained if you don't use those panels to make the ships look anime accurate. This toy is an engineering marvel more similar to Aquarion than your typical combiner like Voltes or Dancougar. It is a transformer-combiner, and surprisingly it is very posable, not SOC Eva like, but still has fair posability. It has ratchet joints for the hips, knees, and shoulder joints to maintain poses. It has a lot of gimmicks and accessories - just look at pictures all over the internet! Why pay for SHE's version when this is diecast, it is of top Bandai quality, and is a third of the price??? Sadly this is still not my TOTY because it is complex and the transformation is just that, a tad complex. I like Voltes's simplicity, solidity, posability, and bang for the buck [cheaper price]. Nevertheless, Gunbuster was a pleasant surprise and ranks up there as one of my favorite SOCs and is definitely worth the price of admission.

I'm assuming it is because A) HLJ has other future items listed on preorder like the "mao chao", "hawrin", "knight", and "samurai" types B) the prices HLJ has on its preorders roughly matches the prices on the article posted by wolfx above C) the price for the waffe bunny in the above article is 1575 yen to be released on 9/28, close to HLJ's 1500 yen releasing in September. I'm guessing that the waffe bunny is an armor set for the girl figures, so you would have to buy a set to play dress up. Again purely speculations on my part, don't take my word for it.

HLJ's got it on preorder: http://www.hlj.com/product/KNM12909

I used a gray Gundam marker (GM21), alcohol and cotton swabs. Paint the line (in the groove of the plastic) and go over it with the alcohol swab immediately to thin out the paint and wipe off the ecxess paint. The only paint left should be in the groove. The plan is to decal it up but I'm waiting for custom waterslide decals this place is so famous for... Wonder if the Anasazi 1/48 decals will work for this one? I won't go as far as weathering it since I prefer my Valks to be minty fresh out of the factory...

My review is up at Robot-Japan. VF-0S Review

Voltes V, Mazinger Z, Great Mazinger, Daimos, Voltron Lions, and Combattler... in that order since I grew up with them.

weird... I didn't even know about Mari being there... I just happen to find out about JTAF from a friend and we preregistered yesterday, and now I see this thread. I'll be there Saturday.

I've been away from watching dld anime for a while and have recently started to download off of some torrent sites again... I'm interested in the new appleseed that recently came out only ot find out my codecs are outdated... Do you guys have any suggestions for some good codec packs? last I used was nemo from a few years ago.

USMC back in 1996-2000, Did Comm and was stationed in Okinawa and Camp Pendeleton.

meh... this one from the 2002 Tokyo toyfair is still the best one I've seen... more pics here.

Sweet custom man. Hoorah! You do us Jar-heads proud.

WOW, a Gundam Sentinel translation! Been away far too long... Any word on chapter 13?

WTF?? 藤原 Fujiwara (wisteria fields) 拓海 Takumi (open sea) There are two others with this name... We must all be the same person!

Thanks for those suggestions guys. For anyone interested, here is an intereting webpage that has reviews of some of the recent JP movies, Samurai, Action, Drama, etc... I think I'll be checking out "Zatoichi", "Samurai Fiction", and "Red Shadow" ( a ninja movie!!) next. edit: BTW, isn't (this comedic) "Zatoichi" a remake of the old "Blind swordsman" movies?

After doing my annual summertime anime marathon (I saw for the first time Vandread 1&2, Dai-guard, and Full Metal Panic 1, all within the past two weeks); I realized that I didn't get as much enjoyment from these highly recommended shows as I usually get from watching any mech series (maybe I'm just burnt out from the repetitiveness of mechas, the seizure inducing colors, and the whole big eyes thing heh heh ). So, I've decided to take a break from anime and in the meantime explore the live action side of Japanese films, preferably Samurai movies. I've done the Akira Kurosawa type oldies years ago so I'm looking at the more recent movies. I just bought "Azumi" and "Twilight Samurai" to start things off. These sounded good from their eBay descriptions but I'm wondering about which movies are definite "must sees". Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I have the Ecto1 from Ertl and it says on the box that it is 1/21 despite what most ebay sellers say on their auctions. The Deloreans from Sunstar are also pretty good except I think the folding wheels on the hover car could've been better designed to be more solid instead of feeling like they are just dangling there. I've been collecting diecast bots the past few years and I forgot that diecast cars are really heavy at these sizes. I was amazed at how heavy my box of 2 deloreans and Ecto1 were when they came in a few months back. A satisfying purchase indeed at less than $75....

Nope, Max Factory made this and not Bandai, so not an an SOC....and it doesn't have the GX designation.

Some obscure toys I had and now miss: Bionic 6 Ghostbusters (especially loved the ghouls and their gimmicks) COPS Starcom MASK Police Academy (similar to the the ghostbuster toys with the hidden gimmicks) BarnYard Commandos (funny GI JOE wannabe figures with pigs and sheep) I also remember: MicroMachines Penny Racers Also loved those color changing hot wheels cars when dunked in warm or cold water. And speaking of water, anyone remember those 10-25 cent capsule toys (I believed they were made of some kind of rubber material) that would grow when you soaked them in water over night? Edit: Forgot about Wing Commanders, Silver Hawks, and Thunder Cats.

Amenbo.com still has the DX figures, which include the body armors and weapons the regular figures don't.

Transforming jets are pretty lame to some but that don't stop me from buying expensive ass Mac toys. For the same reason I still buy Transformers, if the toys offer something I want, then I'll get em. In this case I like the design of the figures and their transforming armors... I could careless about overall concept of the anime, story, characters, ewww surfborads, and yada-yada-yada. Heck, I don't even know the story line behind these toys.

Even the board visors have grown on me because they can actually be used as weapons and or as shields.

at this time there has been no word on future exclusives. my wild guess is that if they do make another exclusive it will be Asuka. I got two Reis just in case they don't but I am hoping that they make an Asuka so that I won't have to repaint one of my Rei's (I'll just have a Rei 1 and a Rei 2 heh heh).I just opened mine from HLJ (shipped through SAL, it took about 2 weeks and that in itself is a surprise but I'm still waiting for TC to deliver though). I was thinking about posting some pics but EXO already has some up so I won't bother. AS far as the fig goes, the paint job is kinda shoddy but waddaya expect for a bonus figure for a Manga that MSRPs at 15 bucks? I'm really glad I got one because it goes well with my SOC Eva 00 (just look at EXO's pics). Not as posable as I thought it would be and the ball-joints do tend to pop off quite easily but again pretty damn good for a bonus figure. If you can find one, get one so that you won't be kicking yourself (if an Asuka figure does come out) later on.