HardlyNever
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They could be left overs from the "second wave" that never came for that game, but they look more detailed than the minis the game comes with. I would assume they are just a separate figures made for whatever reason. "For table top games," even though there is no currently active Robotech or Macross table top game, that I'm aware of. I guess you can just use them for any old table top wargaming. They look decent, all things considered.
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So, myself and many others on the internets believe that Harmony Gold is primarily a money laundering scheme at this point. There is no absolute concrete evidence to support this, but there is a lot of circumstantial stuff that heavily implies that they are/were involved in money laundering. I'm not saying they started out that way; but it is probable that the reason the company continues to exist at all at this point is to launder money for someone (we don't really know who). So we, as Macross fans, of course focus on Robotech and why this company seems so intent on keeping out Macross, and why doesn't X company just do Y, so that we can finally get Macross in the US. But for HG, it isn't about Robotech or Macross specifically; it is about maintaining a reasonable front as a "legitimate" company to continue to launder money. Having the Robotech licence, and trickling out the odd product here and there, is an easy way to continue to look like a real company, at a glance, to keep away the legal authorities. Obviously, if you dig deeper like a Macross fan would, a lot of odd things start to appear. But the people who might investigate HG as a money laundering scheme aren't Macross fans, and so they aren't going to be looking at such a small company beyond a cursory glance. Of course we focus on the Macross aspect on a Macross forum, but there are other considerations at play here.
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No, not that I've seen. You can find really general revenue numbers about some of Bandai's brands that they make toys for (Gundam, DBZ, Macross, etc), but nothing very specific. I haven't even been able to find numbers that are division specific (Tamashii Nations, SoC, GunPla, etc). Much less individual brands within Tamashii Nations. Finding numbers for specific figure releases seems impossible, unless you have insider access. You can look at secondary market prices and get a very rough idea about how individual releases did, but there are a lot of unknowns there. So, as far as I can tell, there is no way we can say for certain how well specific releases sold. I'm not ready to call the line dead, personally. They had a release come out this month; I'm not really sure why everyone is so doom-and-gloom about it yet. I know we'd expect to hear about the next release by now, but maybe they are just working on other things. I'm not saying the line is as healthy as it has ever been, but I'm not sure it's gone.
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Arcadia 1/60 VF-4A ‘Flashback 2012’ Premium Finish & Regular Release
HardlyNever replied to no3Ljm's topic in Toys
Does the pilot look a little bigger now? Looks like a new mold to me, but it is hard to tell (I know it is Hikaru vs... whoever he is in Digital Missions VF-X). The pilot in the current 1/60 one seems to rattle around a bit, so I wouldn't mind a slightly bigger pilot. -
I've actually been saying this for a few years. They aren't competing; they are cooperating. People saying that we "need" to support Arcadia because they compete with Bandai don't seem to see this. I'm not saying we shouldn't buy Arcadia stuff, but I don't think they are really competing with each other. In fact, I'm pretty sure they talk, at least informally, about their release plans.
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They're in episode 14 as well:
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That's interesting, especially if Macross makes it to the EU. We could get a glimpse of what would have happened here in the US, for better or worse. Do you have any links/sources for those? I can't find anything regarding the Macross license in China, and everything for the EU just brings up the UK filing.
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I'm watching Macross Delta for the first time through atm, so (un)fortunately I can kind of answer these. Chuck appears in episode 1 with the rest of delta squad/platoon/flight w/e you want to call them. He doesn't have supers in that scene; he's in atmosphere with everyone else. NVM, went back and looked. You're right, there is a brief scene where he flying in space with Reina and he has the supers (it's only a few seconds). The first time I remember seeing Chuck's supers are episode 14, where they are fixing the city-ship thing. Arad is also sporting supers in that scene. I can't say for absolute certain that is the first time you see Chuck's supers, as the rest of the squad uses them earlier in the show, so maybe he's in the background with them or something. But that is the first time I actually recognized them. NVM, see above.
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I've seen the news that BW secured trademark rights in the UK. That's the only place outside of Japan that I've seen, personally. Is there anywhere else outside of Japan and the UK that BW is working on securing the Macross trademark rights? How do we know how much money they are actually putting in to it? How much is a "LOT," relatively or absolutely speaking?
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Yellowing is the great boogie-man of the toy collecting world from what I can tell. There are 100s of theories about how/why things turn yellow. A lot of them are covered in this thread: For my part, having something (anything really, not just toys) in direct sunlight for extended periods of time will always affect the color. It may or may not turn yellow, but the color will fade or change in some way. But like that thread says, there a lot of ways plastic can turn yellow, including simply exposure to air at all. So I don't think there is any 100% full-proof way of preventing yellowing, other than maybe having it stored in an air-tight, vacuum sealed dark box. And I'm not even sure that would work 100% of the time.
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Nippon Yasan is donating some of their proceeds from this week to the victims of this tragedy.
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Generous choice of words
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Assuming you mean the actual Bandai DX super/strike parts (not some old yamato ones), then yes, it should work on the VF-1J. Technically no one has done it with this line, since they aren't out yet. But it is incredibly unlikely Bandai made different attachment points/tabs for the GBP to work with the 1J, then other attachment points/tabs that only work with valks that had the super/strike parts. Like, that would be taking it to a whole new level of scumbaggery, and it would actually cost Bandai more money to do that. So I'd say it is very likely the super parts will work with the 1J.
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Belle foto. Sei Italiano, o solo sito è italiano?
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Unfortunately, HG is far from alone in this kind of behavior. This is an example of people using the letter of laws to violate the spirit of said laws. As far as why someone (probably BW) doesn't do anything about it, I have to conclude at this point that they've decided it isn't worth the effort, financially. They could theoretically throw enough money at this problem, whether that would be lawyers or just buying the rights from HG, to make it go away. But they have decided the market outside Japan isn't worth that investment. At least that's all I can speculate, based on the situation at hand (and how it's been for years). I wouldn't doubt BW simply has a bad taste in their mouth (on a corporate level) when it comes to dealing with western licensing. So they probably aren't keen on the idea to begin with.
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Sums up my thoughts at this point. HG definitely lies about some things, and I definitely don't trust them, but to outright fabricate a license extension is a stretch, even for them. Unless this is some big endgame scheme (unlikely, unfortunately), where the entire company implodes and everyone runs out with whatever they can get their hands on, I don't think they are making this up. But I do think the license might be more restrictive. We'll just have to wait until they have to produce it (or like I mentioned above, someone in Japan might be able to get it before that) and read it for ourselves to get the details.
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Could be, but four years is a pretty long time... We were all getting hyped on a expiration date that was 2 years away, and that seemed like forever. 4 years to read some updated licensing agreement seems pretty dull. I guess this is a case where we should just forget about it for a while. Who wants to take one for the team and force their hand earlier? Maybe do a fan-made Macross interactive adventure game!
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1/48+fp's, 1/60+fp's, 1/72, 1/2k, 1/3k,1/100 and now 1/144
HardlyNever replied to VF-18S Hornet's topic in Toys
Might be the extra hip-joint thing at the gerwalk joint that makes it not as smooth looking. I prefer the DX 1/48 legs. They are big and hefty, with metal feet. Feels great to hold. And I like the larger feet; I think the 1/60 yamcadia's feet are a little too thin (but they look a little better in fighter mode). -
Obligatory IANAL, but unless someone with reasonable ground challenges Tatsunoko or HG, I don't know that we'll ever publicly see the terms. It is a private contract between two private companies (I believe Tatsu is private, I know HG is). It looks like Tatsu is owned by several other companies, so maybe if one of them is public, someone could somehow get a copy of the exact agreement. But I definitely don't know anything about Japanese corporate law, so... I dunno. Anyhow, my point is that there is very little chance someone could compel HG to actually produce the terms for the public record. It would take someone challenging them in court, which I don't know if that is going to happen at this point (or someone could challenge Tatsu in Japanese court). Of course, HG could voluntarily disclose the terms, but I would say that is highly unlikely. It could be a straight renewal of the existing terms, just with a new expiration date, but I doubt it. I really don't want to just take HG's word for it, but I don't see a realistic way for us to learn the truth, atm. Edit: It looks like most of the companies that own Tatsunoko are public, so maybe someone who has stock in one of those companies could request the terms of this agreement. At least they could in the US, but Japan could be completely different in that regard. Maybe someone in Japan will actually get their hands on the contract.
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You can get Hi Metal R and DX Chogokin stuff on US Amazon right now. You just have to pay (another) middle-man fee. But they actually have ok deals on HMR stuff, every once and a while. I'm supposing you mean Amazon would stock the product locally, in bulk, and bring the prices down to basically Japanese prices. It could have happened, I'm just skeptical the high-end stuff would be popular enough for them to do that on an on-going basis. But they trial things like that, so maybe it would have worked out. But we'd only be saving $5-10 dollars on a $200 product. The supply could possibly increase, though, which could be great. Like you said, it is all academic at this point. And I'm all for hating on HG. I just don't think our hobby would have changed that much, had things worked out the way we wanted. It would have just made the media more accessible, at least legally.
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I'll start with the caveat that when I say "domestically," I mean the US. This may not apply to other (non-Japan) countries. If you look at what is marketed in toy aisles across the US, especially the "high end" lines like Marvel Legends and Star Wars Black Series, you'll notice a disturbing trend of everything falling into a roughly 6-inch size, at roughly $20. Marvel Legends and Star Wars BS are specifically marketed towards the "adult" collector that grew up with those franchises, and the highest quality/cost they will go is about $20-$25. NECA, follows a similar trend. For better or worse, right or wrong, that is what toy companies think the US market wants. If you want higher quality stuff, even for something as "American" as Star Wars, you have to import from Japan. So transfer that to Bandai's offerings in the US. Bandai starting doing "imports" (but they aren't really imports) of some of their lines. When Pacific Rim 2 came out, we had "Robot Spirits" figures out on US shelves, but they were way below the price most Robot Spirits figures are at. We had stuff like the Gypsy Avenger available for just over $20 (it is higher now, because it has been out several years, but it retailed at like $23 at Toys R Us). Their current DBZ Dragon Stars line is $20-$22, at roughly 6 inches (they sell higher quality/price toys in Japan with their SH Figuarts line for DBZ). Their new Gundam Uninverse line, same story. Even when Bandai comes to the US market, they don't try to sell things like they do in Japan, they bring the cost and quality down to meet the supposed "expectations" of the market. Of course you can always find exceptions to this, usually at specialty import shops, and/or places that sell Bluefin stuff. But you're really not getting that big of a discount verses what you currently pay at the online shops like HLJ, NY, AmiAmi, etc. And that is for big names like Gundam. If it were Macross stuff, yeah, I'm pretty sure we'd still be importing. Bandai isn't going to gamble selling a $150 DX Chogokin to a market that is used to ~$20, 6 inch figures.
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Kinda funny how everyone was writing this event off as another propaganda party from HG, then they drop this bombshell. I was going to watch the video today, but now I guess I don't have to . Like most others, I'm disappointed, but not surprised. Like the Toy Galaxy guy said at the end of his last video, HG has spent the last 30 odd years fighting for these rights, do you really think they are just going to let them go without a fight? I'm still waiting for some confirmation from a non-HG party that they do in fact have the rights extended, but I'd say odds are slim they are lying about this particular thing. But even if HG did lose the rights, I don't think we'd have this great Macross renaissance in the west that some people are fantasizing about. You'd still be importing all your toys if you wanted the top-end stuff (look at Star Wars merchandise). There is no way that stuff (DX Chogokin, Arcadia) would be sold domestically. We would maybe get some cheaper version of the HMR line, but even that probably wouldn't happen. We would probably have access to cheaper blue-rays, and older Macross shows would be easier to come by, and maybe have official english subs. But that's about it, imo. The reality is, Macross just wouldn't be a big money-maker in the west, at least in the short to mid term. If Big West or some other company thought it would be, they would be throwing more money at the HG problem. No major company thinks it is worth the investment, and they are probably right. I know that isn't a popular opinion on a Macross forum, but money talks in this case.
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"Heavily" is a pretty subjective term, but since it was included in this animation, I figured it had more a chance than the stuff we've only seen a single picture for. But the destroids, particularly the tomahawk, have definitely had more publicity.
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If you're really asking why not: It hasn't sold particularly well. Nexx is now available below MSRP in several places (part of this is it not having the right pilot, probably). Silvie is barely holding at MSRP, after being on the market for a few years. If we got anything from Mac II, it would probably be just more fairie squadron. The demand doesn't seem to be there for anything that isn't a valk. That seems to be the general problem with HMR right now. Only the valks sell pretty well (at least for the Macross stuff). The regults are the only real exception to this, and even they took a while to get popular. So if I had to put money on the next release, it would be yet another valk of some kind, maybe one of the VF-4 repaints. Non-valks that have been heavily teased are the Tomahawk, Phalanx, N-Ger and Q-Rau. The Tomahawk in particular made it's way to several shows a few years ago, it really looked like it was going to be released next, then seemed to fall off the radar. It did seem to keep changing colors, though... At this point, I wish they would just release the destroids and enemy mech as TWEs. I'd pay a slight mark-up, just so we could actually get them.
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Your most recent Macross or toy purchase! General thread.
HardlyNever replied to Gakken85's topic in Hall Of The Super Topics
Yeah, I was talking about Gunpla in general (this is my first). I did watch several reviews between the ver 3.0 and the origins. I liked the way the ver 3 looked just a little bit more, and it was a little bit cheaper, so I went with that. I won't be handling it much, anyhow. I'm just hoping I can keep this new rabbit hole pretty limited, for my wallet's sake.
