Aegis!

I was more disappointed by Yamato's choice of scale for the VF-0. I'm guessing that they want to a wider gap between the "low end" Macross toys and the "high end" toys. With that in mind, a small scale, parts swapping VF-0 is acceptable to me. If the reviews are good and the price is right I'll get one.

That´s exactly what I think. Agree %100.

Now you are re just being an a-hole lol

oh, excuse me... I'll add that to the list, let's see.... lame.... drama queen.... and a-hole...

I guess I do deserve that for wanting a toy that looked like that cool model, but was substantial like the earlier Yamato YF-19. I mean only an a-hole would want that.

mmm...Ok....I think you´ve understood everything the wrong way DrClay

I really don´t know why you react this way all of a sudden , up until know I thought you were more tolerant and everything , as far as I´ve been on this board I never saw such an spectacle from you.

Why all the whining and bitching all of a sudden ? you really think everyone is against you ? isn´t that a bit paranoid ?

Let me tell you this , no one is trying to make you feel inferior so stop acting so stupidly , there´s no reason to throw crap at everyone.

I personally respect your opinion, and if you´re happy with what I have to say , you´re in your sole right to express it , no one is forcing you to think like the rest of the members but you have to see things clearly.

All Graham does is get info from Yamato , he´s either allowed to unveil that info or shut the heck up if he unveils tha info without authorisation the he doesn´t get any info anymore so what would you do in he´s shoes ? stop getting any info for the rest of your life and make a few persons happy or keep obeying Yamato´s orders in order to keep people informed at a slower rate ?

If anyone is to blame then that´s Yamato , not Graham , not any of us here on the forums so please stop whining , really.

As far as I understand Graham has no power over what he can talk about so he´s not keeping all the info to himself just so you can feel like crap.

I´m not trying to change your opinion on Graham or your ¨enemies ¨ but at least you have to know that it ain´t directly Graham´s fault.

As I said , just forget about Graham´s scoops and concentrate on the hobby mags like the rest of the consumers and then the desperation will vanish. Wwe won´t gain anything by pressuring Graham cause Yamato is just passing through a paranoid state (for solid reasons).

Links don't appear very often, and when they do, it's usually links to here or porn sites.

SO ? where are they ? post them already ! <_<

Just joking

OK , I´m cutting my veins here for some Battroid pics 

Awesome Enigma , specially considering it´s a 1J which doesn´t recieve much love from customisers nowadays

that's funny because I cut off a nice chunk of my ring finger this morning, really, just got back from the ER, everything is back on and I will put up some battroid pics in a few hours. Watch out for broken glass under snow cover!!!!!!!

Now , that´s a weird coincidence , I also cut a chunk from my left index finger at a BBQ. (never ever volunteer to do the damn salad ! ).

I loved the Battroid pics , the enigma paint scheme makes the 1J look like a militarized killing machine.

yes and the VF-0 was made from scratch hence the fact that a lot of us wonder why we hear of the Vf-0 before the YF19.  BTW wasnt Yf19Fp announced before the plans for the 0 were?

Why would Yamato want to expend their resources on an old OVA that's over a decade in its tooth when they can cash in on Macross 0, which is "in" and "now", immediately?

Maybe they just ran into severe engineering problems and had to start from scratch more than a few times.

Because no matter how "in" and "now" macross zero is, the VF-0, physically, is a re-tooled VF-1. By comparison, the YF-19 is something new and fresh and dare I say it, far sexier than a VF-0.

yeah , the VF-0D is sooooo much like a VF-1 they should just repaint the 1/60s blue and call them VF-0Ds

...aaaaand once again , another Macross World thread succumbs to the rage of the wild fanboys.

I can´t believe people would actually waste almost 2 pages on frickin die-cast <_< , that´s just , well ...lame.

I think we´re making a mistake when assuming these toys will be aimed at young consumers , Macross is just not that popular in Japan so young lads will get attracted by it , for them Macross is just an old 20 year old show that dissapeared ages ago , so let´s not assume Yamato is taking charge of the Macross crusade to make it popular in Japan by making affordable toys. That ain´t gonna happen unless BW and SN get to work on a new TV show.

I think Yamato is trying to put a real mass production toy in the market with the idea of selling more numbers of toys instead of limited numbers of toys like the 1/48s (their price tag won´t help when people are not buying them in numbers).

i.e.

cheap toy = more sales with fewer profit per unit

expensive toy = fewer sales with more profit per unit

result = cheap toy wins by numbers

And since the 1/60 were too expensive to be marketed as cheap mass production toys they din´t sell that much hence we now see cheaper mass production toys.

Of course now that they know there´s still a market for expensive high quality toys they won´t stop trying to get money from it so a better version of the M0 is at the very least probable. Though that still doesn´t mean they´re not counting on the 1/100 successs to start developing bigger M0 toys.

I personally wouldn´t rest calmly waiting for Yamato to totally fail on the 1/100 sales and then magically , as if from somewhere they magically got the funds to produce 1/60 (or 1/48 sized if you want to look at it that way) M0 toys.

I will at the very least get the GBP-0 and an OCTOS .

By the read of Grahams post it seems that he does still know stuff. But you know what? WTF DOES IT MATTER TO ME IF GRAHAM KNOWS SOMETING THAT HE WON'T TELL!!! What's the point? to make me feel inferior? I come to this site and type out all my ignorance so that those who know can chuckle to themselves about how much more they know than me?  maybe you're right though, and Graham doesn't know anything until he reads it in Degenki Hobby... but then he's just comming to this site to pretend that he knows more than us? WTF?!

I assume you don´t really know Graham , right ?

I think you´ve taken this the wrong way , he´s in no way trying to make you feel inferior , in fact he hardly posts anything in these boards nowadays , I don´t know how could he piss you off so much if he barely speaks a word.

We have to understand though , that it ain´t Graham´s fault that he can´t unveil some news earlier , if Yamato won´t let him , what can he do ? I personally think Yamato is just playing dirty tricks on Graham , on one side they give him all the scoops but in the other hand those scoops are of no use when he practically can´t unveil them.

One thing is true though , we should relly so much on Graham´s scoops now that Yamato is so paranoid about news leaking out. now it´s just Graham´s business alone , we should really be paying attention to Degenki or something like that.

I´m not trying critisize Graham at all , in fact I think he´s the main victim here , but since his lips are sealed with super-glue and there are Yamato henchmen pointing guns to his head right now making him unable to reveal good stuff as in the old days I think we should just stop pressuring him about news and just concentrate on the Hobby mags like the other %99 of the consumers do.

OK , I´m cutting my veins here for some Battroid pics

Awesome Enigma , specially considering it´s a 1J which doesn´t recieve much love from customisers nowadays

If it's easier on Shawn, why not simply get rid of everything but the forums? News, toys, models, games... it's all covered in the boards anyway.

Cause Macross World isn´t just about toy , models and games.

If people actually looked outside the forums they would realise all the info gathered in the MW main site , of course all they care about is the Forum´s toys section and that´s it. <_<

I don´t mean to sound rude or anything but what´s the point of Graham holding back relevant info in fear of not receiving anymore early scoops if at the end we get to know those scoops in Dengeki Hobby Magazine ? I mean , why does he continue to have links with Yamato in order to know their plans early if he´s only allowed to revealed those news only after we get to know them in Dengeki Hobby ?

I know Graham is making us a GREAT favour but at this rate I think Yamato has lost (rather unjustified) the trust they had on Graham , hence he´s now getting news at the same rate hobby mags do.

Taking this into account it´s rather hard to really plan anything in advance and therefore my bufget gets corrected continuously.

I just use my insticnts and go with what I like.

macross is a current series that does not require previous knowledge of the existing series. by the looks of the animation etc.. it seems aimed at a slightly younger crowd as well. 1/100 cheaper models seemed aimed at the general public and im sure are thought to be more profitable than the original macross market.

<SNIP>

That's my thinking exactly. It looks to me like the 1/100 is going to be sold more of a toy than a collector's piece given it's size and material. They're going to want to sell these to a new audience, not to a bunch of old fogies hanging on to a 20+ year old TV show (though they won't complain if the old fogies buy them too, I'm sure). Collectors who are old enough to remember the original Macross are more likely to have the disposable income necessary to buy bigger, more expensive toys. If you want a wider appeal to a generally younger group, smaller and cheaper is the way to go.

But how many ¨young¨ fans can really afford the $50 OVAs and get attracted to the series , let alone buy $40 toys ($40 per unit).

OK , so for some young little geezer in Japan to finally get interested in these toys they would firstly have to spend $150 on the OVAs alone , then another $40 on the VF-0..mmm...sure , the young japanese lads could perfectly make their parents spend $190 for the whole lot

This is not as much related to younger fans as to the marketing strategy itself.

I´m getting tired of repeating the same argument on various threads so I´ll just quote myself:

they need to release a REAL mass production item so they can sell lots of these toys (instead of the fewer sales seen in the motre expensive 1/48s) and get some profits. Once they´ve released all possible variants they´ll start to produce collector items ala 1/48 , though quite pressumeably in 1/60 or 1/72.

the gap between the 1/60 VF-1s and 1/48s was too small because the 1/60s were not really cheap mass production toys , they were medium range mass production toys , hence they didn´t sell in HUGE numbers and those sales were overshadowed by the release of the 1/48s , so 1/60 sales went down , and 1/48 sales went up but even then the 1/48 didn´t sell in vast numbers and their price tag didn´t help much when their sales weren´t as much as mass production toys , so Yamato was left with the very few 1/48 sales. That´s why they´re now trully trying to porduce mass production toys so they can sell in more numbers.

what gets me is who are they afraid of? Sure corporate espionage exists but who is a threat? kaiyodo and their trade figures? I douibt it.  Toynami? nope not a chance.  Bandai is the only culprit but everyone doubts them at this point unless it has gundam written all over it.  not like toynami is trying to secure a licnse for making  VF-0 toy.  NIwther is bandai...or am i right?  The onyl threat I would see is bandai and they havent done anything publicly talking about macross toys lately.

I agree the have no competion for this so they should take full advantage. Toynami making one ha ha never and Bandai to busy with Gundam to care. The only thing else is the Hasegawa model which does not transform.

I think they´re more afraid of consumers themselves rather than competitive companies like Bandai.

What I mean by this is the simple example of the 1/100 M0 toys , if we were sure that there were better toys coming our way a lot earlier than the 1/100 figures were released then nonone would even think of buying them and all of their effort and monetary investment in the 1/100 figures would just be ruined and they could come one step away from total chaos (financialy speaking).

We could very well assume they´ll make bigger and better M0 toys but...could we really take that risk ? specially concidering they won´t have the financial back-up they´re expecting from the 1/100 figures if we don´t buy them and just wait for something better ...in other words , is Yamato really able to justify (both financially and morally ) the development of bigger & better M0 toys even if the 1/100s sell like crap ? or are they actually counting on the success of those toys to justify the investment on the bigger ones ?

I know the old arguement "don't like it? Don't buy it" and I wish I could pass on this toy, but when everyone passes on it and it's a big flop, Yamato might decide to not produce that other version you're not telling us about... and I will be a sad fanboy.

Well, the greatest way to tell Yamato that you don't like their product is with your wallet. Not buying it sends a stronger message than any whine or rant on an internet forum ever can. Let Yamato pay the price for their lack of vision.

...did that just come out of my mouth?

I don't want Yamato to pay a price for making macross zero toys. if they do, they won't make better ones, they won't make any.... there's a reason why the bigger better VF-0 hasn't been officially announced. If we don't buy this crap now, we won't get the good stuff EVER

Ditto.

If the 1/60 had never been produced and sold well we might have never seen the 1/48s too , though this time around Yamato KNOWS there´s a collector´s market out there and they can sell high quality items to that market. but regardless of this they´ve already invested in the 1/100 M0 toys so if those don´t sell well they´ll definetively loose money and won´t have any resources from which to invest on a perfect VF-0 toy.

I see it this way :

A larger more detailed VF-0 is a safe bet.

What I mean is , before the 1/48 came out , the only thing Yamato had for us were the 1/60 , once they realised there was a true collectors market they released the perfect edition 1/48 toys.

Now that they know for sure there´s a collectors market they really don´t need to test the waters , hence they´re taking a totally different route with this new more affordable M0 line. What is that route ? well , as I said in another thread , they need to release a REAL mass production item so they can sell lots of these toys (instead of the fewer sales seen in the motre expensive 1/48s) and get some profits. Once they´ve released all possible variants they´ll start to produce collector items ala 1/48 , though quite pressumeably in 1/60 or 1/72.

the gap between the 1/60 VF-1s and 1/48s was too small because the 1/60s were not really cheap mass production toys , they were medium range mass production toys , hence they didn´t sell in HUGE numbers and those sales were overshadowed by the release of the 1/48s , so 1/60 sales went down , and 1/48 sales went up but even then the 1/48 didn´t sell in vast numbers and their price tag didn´t help much when their sales weren´t as much as mass production toys , so Yamato was left with the very few 1/48 sales. That´s why they´re now trully trying to porduce mass production toys so they can sell in more numbers.

I dunno if you'd see those.  Yamato only produced the 1/60 VF-1D in a limited run, and that's the only variant of the basic mold that I know of.

VT-1 and VE-1 were varients as well.

True enough.

I stand corrected, but still don't hold out hope for different mold Mac0 toys any time soon.

ahem , I think Graham already confirmed we can expect varaints

What would be of a M0 toy line without having a VF-0D ?

Please note that I said "any time soon". Afterall, look how long it took for Yamato to produce the 1D, VE-1, and VT-1. I think Yamato sat back and took a look at the sales of the 1/60 line and decided it would be worth the risk.

Any variants would depend on the sales of this unit, I think.

Actually how many different variants are there for the VF-0 ? just one ; the 0D.

The VF-0S and A are the same for the exception of the head sculpt and the paint-scheme.

The 0D only has a different nosecone and different wings (with little canards and the side of the intakes).

The GBP-0 is an add-on , not a variant so that shouldn´t count as another variant.

SV-51s are all the same with different paint-schemes.

OCTOS are all the same

Destroid Cheyennes are also all the same.

It´s actually only the 0D which would need some relevant changes , and considering it´s the main character´s mecha it should come out soon after the 0S , probably right after some SV-51s and 0As.

Just a guess here, but I have a feeling that the reason for this smaller scale toys is purely a sales numbers angle.

For the most part Yamato's 1/60 and 1/48 Macross lines are targetted at collectors only.  60 to 180 dollar toys are not aimed at the toy store pre-teen crowd. They are aimed at the slightly older nostalgia/collector base.

This Macross Zero line is being produced on a current theme, a modern cartoon and Yamato needs to use the license to generate s much revenue from the title as they can while still maintaining their reputation as a high quality product company. 

My guess here is that the 1/100 scale toy here is being aimed at the toy store crowd, kids who like the show, parents buying presents for children.  Toys to be played with.  I imagine that the transformation process will be simpler, the price will be lower with the hopes of cashing in immediately on the fairweather fans, the people who are buying stuff because they just saw the show on TV, lower price will mean better sales.

I would bet dollars to doughtnuts that they will also release a high end line, larger scale, more detailed and more expensive.  These will be aimed at the more rabid fans and the slightly older crowd with more disposable income. I would not worry yet, I sincerely doubt that 1/100 scale is the only thing they are gonna do for Mac 0.

A few things you haven´t taken into account:

1.- Yamato only cares about the Japanese consumers , WE , as consumers living outside Japan are at best the last priority hence they´re aiming for the current Japanese audience.

2.- M0 is not your 12 year old , goody goody , cheap budget saturday morning TV show. M0 is an OVA series , OVA series are not directly aimed at 12 year olds who drive their parents mad so they can have the latest Gundam toy. The OVAs themselves cost around $50 dolars already , how do you expect the pre-teen audience to be attracted to M0 if they can´t even buy the OVAs , let alone buy toys based on the series.

3.- Considering M0 is NOT aimed at the pre-teen audience but rather at the 16-30 range then we can assume Yamato is actually aiming to sell affordable toys in BIG numbers rather than expensive toys in small numbers like they´ve done with the 1/48s. Once they´ve had a success selling lots of affordable M0 toys then they´ll risk their money in hugely detailed more expensive toys.

Why are they doing this now ? because they´ve realised that the 1/60 VF-1 line was a bit too expensive to serve as a mass production affordable line of toys as it actually was more of a middle range quality toy therefore when the 1/48s came out the gap between the two lines was a bit to close and pressumeably the 1/60 sales dropped to quickly for them , leaving them only with the limted number of 1/48 sales.

In other words , once the 1/48s came out the 1/60 died , hence they only sold 1/48s (more money per item yet fewer sales ) which were insufficient for what they needed.

That´s why now they´re making ¨smaller¨ more affordable toy lines so they can sell lots of them and get more money than what they´re getting for the 1/48s (yes they are great but they ain´t mass production toys are they ? ) , and I´m sure they´ll eventually release bigger toys once they´ve reached the point when they can invest in such toys.

That´s of course my way of trying to comprehend this.

I dunno if you'd see those.  Yamato only produced the 1/60 VF-1D in a limited run, and that's the only variant of the basic mold that I know of.

VT-1 and VE-1 were varients as well.

True enough.

I stand corrected, but still don't hold out hope for different mold Mac0 toys any time soon.

ahem , I think Graham already confirmed we can expect varaints

What would be of a M0 toy line without having a VF-0D ?

You know , I´ve been reading this thread a lot and I´ve been thinking about it...

If these toys are gonna be the same size as the 1/72 M+ toys then that isn´t bad at all , considering all the detail the sculpt is said to have (remember it was developed in CAD/CAM). I mean , this is like having re-sculpted M+ toys only they´re actually M0 toys.

I´m looking at my ¨yet unbroken¨ VF-11B w/o FP and I simply adore this toy´s battroid mode , and since we´ve already seen fighter pics then I can be sure I wonñt be dissapointed by that.

Only things I´m worried about are :

- Pliot sculpt (OK , we´ve already seen what they can do by looking at the Low vis pilot , but this is 1/100 though).

- Hands sculpt (will they be similar to the 1/60s ? )

- Stability

Well , what can I say.

I knew Yamato would come up with something radically different for the M0 line ,but I never thought they would go with 1/100 , though I shouldn´t be su`rised given the size of the VF-0.

I have to say , Ipersonally don´t give a crap about scales , they´re all always relative so they don´t say anything about the toy , 1/100 may sound damn small but as confirmed by Graham this toy will be as large as the 1/72 VF-11 and I never saw anyone complaining about the actual size of 1/72 M+ line when it came out.

All I care about is detail and articulation , and this toy seems to have that , but even considering this I´ll definetivelly wait for the inevitable larger versions of M0 toys.

As somone in another thread said ; Yamato is just trying to enlarge the gap between perfect limited edition toys and mass production toys , I think all of the bitching and whining about the 1/60s and 1/48s came up because of their similarities , even though the 1/60s were pretty detailed and articulated they appeared to be unnecesary after the 1/48s release given their not so radically different prices.

Now we´re getting the good , medium sized , cheap toy line for those with urge for a whole fleet of toys , and I´m sure we´ll get toys for those who want the perfect edition M0 toys , it´s just a matter of time.

I might actually collect both lines , it depends on Yamato´s plans. of course they won´t announce anything about a better toy since that would totally destroy sales for this 1/100 toys , but I´m sure they eventually do them.

Take into account M0 is a new series ans as one it needs to attract a lot of new consumers hence they can´t suddenly make $120 toys to attract a new audience , that would simply scare them away , that´s why they came up with a more affordable , yet nicely engineered 1/100 M0 toy line (to sell lots of them).

1/100 looks awesome so far! I hope it has perfect transformation including a sliding canopy shield.

It's quite refreshing to see Yamato taking a smaller scale, this means Yamato might be considering making diorama sets to compliment for these 1/100 scale valks. I would love to see the sv-51 proped up for take off from a disected portion of the submarine hanger. The future does seem bright.

As far as the stand is concerned, looks good but doesn't hold up to the gun pod request that we all desire.

As detailed as it looks , I doubt that Yamato is even able to make a perfect transformation valkyrie toy at 1/100 scale , though Banpresto seemed to have achieved that in a rather ...dull manner.

Diorama sets ? doubtful , if they haven´t done any for the DYRL and SDF lines I doubt they will do them for M0. Specially since japanese consumers don´tnhave that much shelf space in their tiny little houses.

Just take this 1/100 VF-0 toys as an equivalent to the 1/60 VF-1 , lovely sculpt , nice detail , no perfect transformation , spectacular durability.

Batou, agreed. I'm going to preorder the VF-0 as SOON as VE gets some sort of shipping date.

HOWEVER, more than Zero, and the arms, I WANT a YF-19FP. That sculpt we saw ages ago (kitbash) was simply amazing.

anyone have a pic of that sculpt? I've seen the prototype for the first edition yf-19 and i'm anxious to see what the new one looks like even if it is a sculpt.

Actually the kitbash mentioned has nothing to do with Yamato other than the guy who´s making the new YF-19 is also the sculptor of that kit. I would base any expectations on that kitbash since Yamato is actually making a toy hence there different rules that apply for its development so the design may differ greatly from the one featured by the kitbash.

Hey , what are you guys worried about ?

You think Yamato will only release 1/100 Macross Zero toys ? hahahahaha , yeah right... we know they´re gonna release better more detailed figures in the near future I don´t know why you´re so worried.

These toys are just a more affordable replacement of the 1/60 VF-1s , considering the VF-0 size these toys are not gonna be much smaller that 1/60 VF-1s , so let´s calm down for a second.

As far as I can see from the pictures I think the prototype has enough detail , it looks pretty neat actually , look at the panel lines , the head sculpt and feet inner detail. I think these toys actually have even more detail than the 1/60 VF-1 toys ...I shouldn´t be surprised though , we knew they were using CAD/CAM for the sculpting of these toys.

If some of you aren´t interested in the smaller scale toys then just wait for the bigger more detaiked ones like I´m going to do ; Though I don´t think Yamato will produce bigger scale toys of M0 Destroids so I think I´ll at least get an Octos.

Before the flame war starts once again , Mods please close it down.

It´s hasn´t been nearly 2 weeks since the last M7 thread was posted and we had the last cat fight , so please stop posting this threads.

Retracting my former statement, I am cool with 1/100 as long as it is in the same size neighborhood as the 1/60s.

As someone posted early In think it´ll actually be like a 1/72 VF-1.

Worries aside , I´m 99.9% sure Yamato will repeat history and will probably release another bigger line , posssibly 1/60 or 1/72 of the VF-0 toys with perfect transformation and all the 1/48 Vf-1 gimmicks.

wow , at last they realise how much following this series has.

I hope they put nice extras in the DVDs , like never before seen footage or a bonus episode.

I´m glad I haven´t seen nearly half od the series so I´ll probably enjoy this DVD greatly.

A must buy.