HardlyNever

I honestly think the enemy mecha are the best part of the line (especially the Glaug) hopefully we'll get more soon. But if you're only interested in destroids, they look good, too.

Just pay 13,500 jpy for a repaint of a Max that you paid like 8,000 jpy for! Seems totally reasonable! And some people wonder why were are considering buying the bootleg M&Ms...

If the KO's are of comparable quality, won't the real-world value of the official originals go down pretty significantly as well? I know some people will always want the real thing, but you gotta imagine that the demand for the real deal will go down quite a bit.

This broke about a week ago in this thread. There is pretty good discussion on the pros and cons, and it seems like most people are wanting to wait and see (at least I am). For my part, I don't have a lot of love for Arcadia, but I have serious doubts about the level of quality on these knock-offs.

I'm definitely in the boat for this. I believe the 1/3000 dyrl sdf-1 is one of the molds arcadia acquired from yamato. I think it is one of their most anticipated releases at this point. The problem is we're in a pretty serious echo chamber on these forums. Just us being here puts us pretty close to the "die-hard" category. How many "casual" collectors are going to put that kind of money out for something much less dynamic than a vf-1? I really don't know.

All those other enemy mecha... Bandai please deliver

I meant it isn't Harmony Gold, specifically, that is stopping Macross merch from being sold internationally.

My understanding is that Big West doesn't allow Macross to be sold outside of Japan, regardless of HG. I could be wrong on that, though. HG might have something to do with that policy existing, though.

AE seems to have some right now: http://www.anime-export.com/product/35274

I've been eye-balling an HMR monster for a while, but in my experience with yahoo auctions (or any online auctions) is that price is going to shoot up a good 30-40% in the last few hours.

I agree this is good news for consumers, but we might be getting ahead of ourselves here. Like others, I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with Arcadia, in that I'm glad someone is still making 1/60 vf toys (that I didn't have the time/money to collect when yamato was around), but I'm a bit disappointed in the steep cost versus quality. For what I've paid (at or below MSRP) for my 3 Arcadia's, I think the quality of construction should be a bit higher and definitely more consistent. If a KO company can make a similar quality product for 1/3rd the cost, I think we definitely have grounds to be pissed at Arcadia (I understand they have a lot of other costs involved, and KOs will always be cheaper, but should it be 3x more expensive?). But I'm also skeptical of how good these KOs are really going to be. This is a design that has known durability issues, even when made by the official license holder, so there is definitely room for something to go wrong here, especially at almost 1/4th the cost. Looking at the advertisement again, the focker release seems to be missing a pilot and option parts (a minor oversight, but it makes me wonder what other parts of the mold they might be missing). Coupled with the limited run these guys seem to be doing, there isn't a whole lot of incentive for them to make a great product for repeat business. I'm really withholding judgement until some gets their hands on one and we get an idea of the quality. I don't think this spells the end for Arcadia if these things are going to break a month after getting them. But they could be great, we'll just have to see.

Are you saying Arcadia might be getting out of the sdf macross/dyrl? line? But don't they have the Yamato sdf-1 mold? Arcadia please...

At those prices, I don't see how the quality could match Arcadia, but I'd love to be wrong. I'd jump at an M&M pair for under $200. Hopefully someone will get the first releases and give us an idea of the quality.

It took me about 5 minutes on the Chinese Taobao to find products using the exact pictures that the Arcadia warning uses. I'm not going to link them here, as I don't know how that kind of thing is looked upon here. The prices are ridiculously low (Like sub $10 USD), so there is no way I'd ever buy them (as it seems WAY to good to be true), but they are out there. Maybe a braver soul would try it, just to see what they actually get. I'd be nervous about even giving out payment info/address, but that is me. Most are marked as KO's, so they aren't even pretending to be the real deal. Edit: Those prices might just be for pre-orders, I'm not sure. I don't read chinese, so I'm going off of a bad google translation, which is a mess.

Since the thread has taken a bit of a shelf detour, I've been wondering what people's experiences have been with weight issues. Ikea lists the Detolf shelf max load at about 8 pounds. Has anyone ever gone much beyond that, especially long term? I don't think I have 8 pounds on any of my shelves yet, but with display stands etc. and trying to push maximum shelf space, I could see how running up to that 8 pound limit could be an issue.

Anyone know what the deal with those figures is? I have no interest in the cockpit, but I'd be interested in those figures if you could get them separately for a non-insane price. Are they exclusive to the cockpit?

They also released these: http://arcadia.ac/products/detail.php?product_id=173 http://arcadia.ac/products/detail.php?product_id=229 http://arcadia.ac/products/detail.php?product_id=175 I don't know what you want to consider those. But I think they are also reissues.

About a year late on this one, still excited nonetheless. My first (and probably last) non-SDF Macross purchase (it kinda counts as sdf right ): Got the display stand as part of the purchase. It's a lot sturdier than I expected.

Really like this one. The monster is so huge! Tempted to get one...

My attempt at a "removable" gunpod strap for the 1/60:

Hey Noel. Yeah I looked for the noob/FAQ thread, but it seems to have disappeared. I fiddled with the gunpod in fighter mode some more and it is 95% straight now. I'm not sure how much the handle is really warped, might have just been lighting/frustration when I was trying to get it straight. I probably won't bother transforming it again until this weekend, so I won't have a pic until then. Even then, it would be really hard to see what I was talking about in a pic, as the bend seems very minor. I couldn't say with 100% certainty it wasn't like that when I got it, as I really haven't had it in fighter mode much. Either way thanks for the reply. I might update with a pic this weekend.

Not sure where else to post this question. Has anyone else had some weird warping of the gun pod grip when left in the gun-grip hand for extended periods of time? I've had the gun held in-hand in battroid and gerwalk for several weeks. When I went to put it in fighter mode, I keep having a crooked gunpod mounted below the arms. At first I thought it was the arms not lining up, but after several attempts, I realized it was the handle causing it to be crooked. I'm at work so I don't have a picture (could post one later, if necessary), but I don't know how much that would help (it is very hard to see). The grip is just slightly warped/crooked; it still fits in the arms in fighter mode and in the hands, but it just has a slight bend towards the middle of the grip. Is this a common thing? Is there any real way to prevent this when leaving the gunpod in hand for extended periods of time?

I actually disagree on this one, and that is part of the problem I have with the "premium" version in general. I actually prefer the UN Spacy kite on most of my FAST packs. Is it 100% anime accurate? No, but I prefer the way it looks like that, and I'm glad I have the option. I actually like some of the customization options I have with stickers, even if it isn't always 100% canon accurate. I guess I'm just saying I hope they don't remove the sticker option for future releases, as I actually prefer that to having everything tampoe'd, regardless of price increase (I don't like that part either, ofc ).

Yeah, I'm of similar thinking. Far be from me to tell people what they should buy, but as someone still interested in collecting some 1/60 valks, this might set an expensive precedent that I'd prefer is not repeated (or at least I hope we'll always get the option to get "non-premium" versions).

A little HMR action scene: