VFTF1

I agree with the call for "action figures" - and hope that Kaiyodo makes some Macross figures for us as Revoltechs, which would be the best. I don't agree with the need for 1/18 valkyrie and the like. Pete

Well - I am still going to defend Yamato 1. I don't have ANY movie toys. I had them, but I got rid of them about a week later. Probably had something to do with them looking nothing like the Movie characters. 2. Hasbro has indeed been around longer; but more importantly, hasbro has been engaged in the relatively easy venture of securing the rights to bring over cheap transforming japanese robot toys to the United States. They have never ever ever shown any interest whatsoever in doing something like Masterpiece Transformers - which ultimately was a Takara invention that they also ended up bringing over; albeit with worse colors (MP Prime) or cheesy colors (USA edition Starscream) and with a one or two year delay from the initial release of the MPs in Japan. 3. I am not trying to bad mouth Hasbro here - although even in the sphere of pure TFs I am a fan of Tak-Tomy's work and don't really like what Hasbr does. But of course, comparing Hasbro to Yamato is kind of meaningless, since Hasbro never endeavored to do what Yamato did - make precise, highly detailed, articulated transforming robots. 4. The majority of people who I know that have handled a Valk, but aren't Macross fans and don't actually own them all have the same reaction: a) that thing is unbelievably beautiful, b) oh my God HOW MUCH does it cost?! Most of these people - at least the ones I know - are still at the phase where spending 250 Euro for valkyrie is "crazy" while spending 1000 Euro for 50 crappy Transformers is just standard practice. To me - it is a matter of what you want out of your collection/hobby. I have nothing against people who prefer to buy tons of cheap Transformers - but it's not true that they don't spend a lot of money either. 5. I think people would fork over 180 or 200 USD for a Yamato valkyrie if it were released in the US. Why? Because they are now sold in the US through importers who charge more than that, and people buy from them. Just like I know people would pay 250 Euro for a Valkyrie because I import them and sell them here as well. Would it be great if Yamato managed to land the rights to officially export these, if Macross suddenly gained a million more fans, if the quantity produced was raised, if an official US and EU distributor was announced and if - subsequently, prices dropped by 60 to 80%? Yes. Does this mean that until this happens people aren't going to shell out for these? No. I should never ever ever talk about cars. I don't even have a drivers license Pete

Well shucks - Minmey looks good. I guess it's all a matter of her having the proper photographer around Still, I wouldn't buy it - it is pretty; but the problem is really in those stumps - they are just too unseamly. I know sometimes people also complain about Revoltech joints - but Fraulein series has managed to make super poseable girls without stumpy joints for the most part.... And for the record - no - I don't think she's "too expensive" - I just wouldn't buy her because I find myself unable to fall in love with the doll. I wonder though - if Yamato made a Misa doll in the same scale I would DEFINITELY BUY IT - mainly because what makes life difficult for Mimney is that she has to wear that dress which reveals her stumps to the world. Misa's stumps would be well hidden - and not just by a military uniform; they could make Misa wearing any one of a number of cute outfits (my personal favorite is the one she wore to the premiere of Sho Pai Lon in the episode where Hikaru grabbed her butt:) ) ... and the outfits would cover the stumps. Just thinking about it makes me teary eyed. If Yamato made a 60 thousand yen Misa doll like that - I'd shell out; the review does show that the doll is exceptionally well made. True. Pete

Poor Minmey ...she deserves better than that freekish nightmare doll with stumps all over it :( :( :( Yamato had a nice idea, but they forgot the part where you should try to make an outstanding, revolutionary figure instead of asking a factory in China to pump out Stump-Bitch 3000 and put her in drag... err...or something... As for the Sheryl - wow! That face looks so real that I actually thought it was a real live girl at first. But yeah - the clothes is TOTALLY not her. Still - I'd shell out for it. Dressing her properly would not be that difficult; and getting a deco like that head is priceless. Sadly, I have Valkyrie to buy... Pete

There is a great way around this. I remeber that two years ago, for Christmas, I bought myself the 1/60 YF-19 and I bought my gilfriend a skirt, shoes, and a new vest. I took the digital camera and had her put on all of her new clothes, snapped some pictures, and then, "just for kicks" asked her to hold the YF-19 box with the flap open and smile And now that I think about it, your post only convinces me that these problems should never arise. Valkyrie ought to be photographed with beautiful women after all.... the real problem is getting these girls to agree to have their pictures plastered on forums like this one ... The exchange rate is not going to get any better any time soon. I just pray that it stabilizes and stops fluctuating like crazy...and I think it pretty much has reached bottom...hopefully. In any case - just eat less Grow your hair out Stop buying new socks There's always something frivilous to sacrifice in life for what is truly important This sucks But there is always welfare - and don't worry about the moral implications: if multimillionaires on wall street can get bailouts, then taking some money from the dole to get a Yamato valkyrie isn't the end of the world, nor a cardinal sin. Just be happy and do what you can to get these precious valks and cherish them, wives, wars, world economic crises be double darned Pete

Curse those wives and their digital camera hiding ways ! On a serious note - I guess this is good news; although my 1A won't be here till December most likely, which means the 1J will come to me around...umm...much much later Still - this is good because supposedly we now have the obligatory Hikaru and Roy mecha out of the way and maybe we can look forward to a 1D two seeter next? Pete

I think it's pretty simple: A truly great anime series (SDF Macross) combined with fantastic design and execution by Yamato. I don't see people falling over themselves to spend 200 dollars on anything that comes from Anim-Morphs....and those supposedly do have magic powers Pete

Screem and Shin: Thanks guys! I've done it now a couple of times. As always with valkyrie - you have to know the sequence exactly and get a feel for how all of the parts jibe with one another. I think I've got the hang of it now. Pete

Wait - just to clarify - there is going to be a reissue of the 0S? Because I'm assuming that there is and it will be around the same time as the VF-25? On the whole, I think the 0S is a nicer valkyrie - I prefer its' design; and if the reissue is durable and more stable and secure than the older ones (although I have an older release which is in tip top shape) then technically I'd say get the 0S since it's the cooler of the two valks. But on the whole - you can get both. One now, another later Pete

Worse- I think they just send run of the mill employees, many of whom are temp and therefore have no vested business interest in doing the job right... Basically - if you pull the head up, the neck comes out and the ankles go in. If you pull the ankles out then the head goes down and covers the neck. If you want both the ankles and the neck extended; then you have to pull his crotch forward like on the Mikhael and Luca picks. That is the engineering of the valk. Pete

Well.. I don't have the skill to do that. I can barely build my snap fit gundams.... DX for me. And big big thumbs up for you - that is not only some awesome modeling, but a wonderful read - full of detail and interesting commentary. Pete

Do you mean the Kai Fire Valkyrie that Bassara pilots? Sadly, Yamato has made no Macross 7 Valkyrie... they don't have the license I think. All we have is the ancient Bandai models from way way back Pete

How would you recommend doing that? I've been contemplating dislodging my battroid's hips for some time now - it's much tighter than the 1/48 since the nose-latch closes over the hip bar and then the swing bar folds over that... (hopefully you know what I mean - I can post a picture if I'm being unclear). To return to fighter mode - to take the hips out of the nose - it's somewhat complex and I'm deliberating what the best way to do this would be without putting undue stress somewhere. How do you do it? Pete

My first 1/48 was the Stealth VF-1J along with a box of Super and Strike Parts. Truly an amazing piece of work. Starting with the VF-1S Hikaru is also a big plus - from what I know, that thing is not easily available, and in a way it is the signature Valkyrie from DYRL. So congrats! Pete

The quality issue is of course dead on true. But note that in the majority of polls taken on the subject, and dispite the griping, the majority of people who have taken part in the polls online here at MW testify that their Yamato valkyrie are perfect, not broken and QC issue free. At the same time, just about each of us (so again the majority) have SOME kind of "horror story" to tell about something breaking and coming in with bad QC. This is something that - to me - has a very simple albeit not painless explanation: Yamato is a young company. Nothing like what they do has ever been done before. Part of what you're paying in that high price is the cost of experimentation - of Yamato being able to "try again." Not everyone will like this - but that's how I see it. I am willing to fork out 220 USD for Ivanov - have a small piece crack, blame myself for not being delicate enough, and fork out another 220 USD for a perfect version. I am also willing to buy 2 VF-OAs and sure enough one of them has an exploding shoulder. My very first Yamato was the 1/72 VF-11B- the legs fell off right out of the box. What did I do? I kept buying Yamato. I did this because I want to encourage the company and its' team of engineers and designers. I think this encouragement has paid off: look at the 1/60 Macross Plus line. Look at the YF-19 - compare it to the old 1/72 YF-19. Think for a moment about a world without a Yamato 1/60 YF-19. Now I'm so used to my 19 and to the technical genius of Yamato, that I don't even give it a second thought: but at one point - this was revolutionary. Think about the 1/48s. Right now, my 1/48s are "those long nosed, chicken handed, chunksters." Why? Because Yamato has brought out the V.2 1/60 V1. But not so long ago, when all we had for comparison were the V.1 1/60 VF-1... the 1/48s were like the incarnation of divinty: it was hard to get your mind around the fact that the thing could actually be made; that perfect transformation could actually be done. This is what we pay for. This is what we root for. This is factored into the price. The analogy to the ferrari is not correct I think; because 1) cars have warranties so you can take them in for repairs, and you usually pay insurance on your car anyways 2) ferraris - even the wildly expensive ones - are mass produced on a much larger scale than Valkyrie 3) Ferraris are designed to work. Yamato has to design Valkyries to be anime accurate to some crazy Japanese guys' vision. Yamato COULD have just said "ah screw the anime" and done a "practical" version of the Valkyries, mass produced them, and taken money. They didn't. They chose to pursue a big dream and do something that no one in the market ever risked. They are asking a high price for their risk - they are asking fans and Macross lovers to share the risk. I do. Pete ps - I think Yamato should hire me as a PR guy sometimes I would do pretty well

To the first point I would say this: I too was initially put off by the extreme high prices of Yamato 1/48s when I first decided to go "valky hunting." Then I saw some pictures and was blown away by the detail and quality. Then, I started considering something else... Yeah - those Transformers at 10 bucks a pop are pretty cheap. How many of 'em are on my shelf? 1...2...3....4....5....1000...1500...2000...2500...hmm.. that's a lot of Transformers. I counted up the figures that I had simply "because" they were labelled Transformers and not because I liked them - this basically meant the entire Armada, Energon and Cybertron line. And guess what? Turns out that instead of 3000 USD worth of crappy Transformers toy, I could have - lo and behold - a high quality top of the line Yamato Macross collection. It's all about prioritizing - it's amazing to see how much money can go down the drain when "all you're doing is buying cheap stuff." It's kind of like with credit card fees - it's "just 50 bucks a month in interest here and 20 bucks in interest there" ... and suddenly you realize that it adds up fast. So - the point is - if you really trully love and desire Yamato valkyrie - take the plunge: give up other stuff - I gave up Transformers that I didn't absolutely want and love, gave up smoking 10 packs a week (now I smoke probably one pack a month), gave up going to parties and drinking lots of vodka, gave up tons of other stuff which was not as important to me as this hobby. It suddenly becomes quite affordable and possible when you just think about how to go about doing it. As to the second question - are prices becoming prohibitive? I would say NO. We're in a time of economic depression, radically fluctuating exchange rates, uncertainty and fear in the market place. We're in the midst of a banking panic. Nobody uses the words "bank run" or "bank panic" or "depression" because they fear that such language will only cause even more panic - and there's some legitimacy in that view - but the fact remains that we are in a depression and in the midst of a bank panic. All of this takes its' toll. Everything seems to be more expensive, and we seem to feel more fear about the future. But looked at with some calm and distance - I owuld say that these high end items are becoming more affordable. The VF-1 1/60 version 2 is priced very very very nicely compared to the 1/48 when you consider that the 1/60 v.2 comes with super and strike parts. Soul of Chogokin figures are just getting more and more amazing by the day. I think if you want to talk about prohibitive pricing - check out SHE's Perfect Transformation Getter Robo. That thing is my dream - it is one machine which actually manages to take on the original anime configuration of Getters 1, 2 and 3 - albeit with slight tweaks; but still an amazing job. There is no way in holy heck that I will likely ever be able to afford that thing. There are many other beautiful pieces that are also out of my reach. Yamato Macrosses are thankfully not amongst them. They are in everyone's reach - I truly believe that. If you are able to spend 1000 dollars over the course of a year on Transformers, beer, smokes, a couple of dates - whatever - stuff that is ultimately dispensible - then you can spend that money on a few valkyries. So - I'm an optimist. I think the Macross market is booming. I think we're fortunate because our favorite anime is getting the best attention possible: a company that has radical aspiration in terms of producing superb detailed products and prices that, while steep, are adequate to the product and within range of all of us. Pete

I have very similar sentiments to yours. People who complain that something in the market is "too expensive" are like Don Quixote - fighting with windmills. If there was a cheaper way of providing the thing - you bet someone would be providing it cheaper. But what really steams me - since I run a retail business - is people who complain and complain and complain about prices and try to hassel with you. This doesn't happen in the USA too much - at least I never saw it happen that much; but in Poland, everybody and their grandmother thinks that a price tag is actually just an offer to negotiate. It's not. Retailers usually work hard to make their prices as low as possible and as attractive to the consumer as possible. So, for somebody to come along and start to haggel and negotiate... It just reminds me of Borat - when he comes into that hotel in New York City; the guy says a room for the night will cost 187 USD, and Borat spits in his hand, holds it out and say "HUNDRED FORTY!" "Nooo...187" I love that reaction - and I love that part because it was so true of Eastern Europeans (before anybody accuses me, I am one - so I can talk smack about my own people ) ... And it's understandable because under communism, commerce was illegal so everything was under the table and there were no open, transparent market prices... Anyways... it's one thing to say -as all of us do about Macross - MAN - THESE THINGS COST ALOT! DAGG! MY WALLET FEELS THE PAIN... But it's another thing to say that they cost too much; as if it were some evil cospiracy. Ultimately - no one is forcing anybody to buy these things at these prices. Pete

Personally; I think all of these complaints miss the apple for the tree...or...um...something like that.... I think each and every Vaklyrie should come with a diorama of some sort. It could even be cardboard. The original 1/72 VF-11B came with a cardboard desert diorama. That was really cool. A stand and a diorama would really go a long way in improving my Macross experience. It would be nice, for instance, if a box of GBP armor for the new 1/60s came with two or three "hangar bay" dioramas, if the fighters came with "space" dioramas and so forth and so on. I think that this is a better way of improving the offer than hagling over a milimeter here or there.... just my opinion.. Pete

Ta-Da: Everyone happy now? Pete

I've transformed mine quite a few times and done a fair amount of posing with that evil right arm in battroid mode and no stress marks or breaks. Looking forward to my VF-1A Hikaru which is soon to be on its' way! Yay! Pete

If you're listening Bandai: 1) Lights and soungs on that VF-25G Mikhael Custom with a little Ranka figure (I want to press a button on the Gerwalk mode and have it belt out Ranka's song). A little stand for Ranka would also be good. 2) Carrots. Lots of Carrots with cute little Ranka advertising stuff about how the carrots love me yeah. Include this with the Chogokins. 3) Ranka skirts and dresses in variou sizes; and boots too. I really wanna get my girlfriend those boots. Don't leave it all to Cospa - have at and make some clothes too. 4) Singing Valkyries. Each VF-25 should be able to belt out songs and have flashing lights when activated - also include lots of optional glitter. This I command! Pete

Another anime I am slowly getting into. Three things caught my attention: Revoltech Yoko and... I forgot the other two Yoko is enough Will happily plop down to watch this eventually when I get the chance. Pete

Well - when talking about prices, and for that matter economics, valuation and all value-terms like "quality item" or "expensive" are subjective designations. There is no point in trying to convince someone who thinks Macross is too expensive that it's not - because "expensive" is in the wallet of the beholder, so to speak. My point was to try and demonstrate something entirely different: If you run a toy production company, and you see these Yamato people making these Macross variable fighters and selling them for around 200 USD each, and you - running a toy company, knowing how much R& D costs, knowing how much productions costs - figure to yourself - dag - I KNOW that I could make those things for 25 cents per item - or "dag, I know I could make those things for 20 USD per item" - basically; you know you could make those things relatively cheap - then, seeing the prices for which they are selling you would conclude that there's plent of money to be made in it - and you would enter the market. Profits - especially extreme "unwarranted" or "too high" profits for companies actually serve customers in the long run - because whenever a market exists with a sufficiently high profit margin - this attracts other firms to enter the market in the hopes of taking a part of that profit. This abstracts completely from whether one individual considers something "too expensive or not" and of course it would be pointless for me to try to "convince" people that Macross isn't expensive. my point is simply to say that this is not necessarily a bad thing for us as fans - in the long run - for the reasons given above. Pete

I just want to make one important point about landing gear, necks and other concerns: Do you guys remember the "screw problem" on the version 2.0 1/60 VF-1S? Remember that? Picture after picture after picture of how it seemed that the strike parts for the arms were not differentiated - and how therefore there would be this big ugly screw visible on one of the arms from the front? To this day - these pictures are STILL on the official Yamato instructions for the v.2 1/60 VF-1S. But guess what? They are NOT on the actual figure. The strike armor for the arms does not have the screw problem - all is well, all is lovely, all is fixed. I'm guessing that the necks and landing gear on the DX will have the same story going for them. We might even end up with neckless pictures in the instructions and ugly landing gear in the instructions - but these glaring problems do get fixed. I hope Pete

Yeah - it's like writing a sequal to Hamlet or something - just...better reinterpret the original... In fact, NGE - due to its' intense psycho-analytical nature - pretty much begs for re-interpretation every once in a while... I liked that picture of the EVA 01 from the art book a few pages back - the 02 with the horns and german flag colored arms was a bit meh... But if the movie comes out on DVD (no chance it'll be in theaters in Poland), I will get it an enjoy it most likely. Pete