RavenHawk

11 hours ago, Firefox said:

The Sentinel Legioss seems good. Price is a bit too steep though. But seeing the price of VF-2SS despite its quality, it's not totally unexpected.

What do people think we can expect for actual price? I think most of the ride armors were offered by the usual suspects at preorder time for around 10-15% less than the MSRP.

10 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Their manufacturing is all done in China, but they seem to be understandably close-lipped about where precisely MAAS Toys itself is based for obvious reasons.

The one Kickstarter of theirs that I could find gives a location of Louisville, KY.  One of their previous collaborators has a YouTube video posted on their site wherein he gives his location as Maryland.  It's a little hard to tell through the mask he's wearing, but his accent sounds either standard midwestern or New England.  The prices in their site store and on their Kickstarters are all in US Dollars as well.

They would appear to be Americans, though possibly based in different locations and collaborating over the internet (since the modeling is all they do and that's all digital anyway).

If it were a simple matter of taking off for a holiday like the Chinese New Year, you'd expect them to mention it at some point... or do a social media post for the holiday, not just randomly go silent for five weeks and counting starting almost three weeks before the holiday.

I believe that definitely one, and possibly two, of their designers are based in Australia. From what I can tell from various posts, videos, and comments made about conventions, the design team (which basically comes up with the looks of the toys and general transformation guidelines) is in English-speaking countries, and then manufacturing (and final designs and transformation details) are done by a handful of Chinese factories.

1 hour ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Granted, but as long as they're not actively hurting the market for an existing product (e.g. bootlegging) they're still technically grey market rather than black.

Well, gray market goods are generally still authentic licensed products, just not sold through the approved channels (i.e. a Japan-only product being sold in the USA), but I get that that's not your point.

56 minutes ago, captain america said:

No. What happens if you don't take action against someone infringing on your copyright/trademark is that it sets a precedent in the alleged violator's favor: you defend it or you lose it. There are procedures in place ranging from an email, to a form letter and so on, depending on the situation, but they most certainly don't just let things slide.

When it comes to trademarks, that's not exactly the case. The issue isn't about precedent in one specific infringer's case, but rather in weakening the trademark. A trademark that is not enforced can later be invalidated by, potentially, anyone. That is one big companies often will send a cease & desist letter to small infringers, including charities, and then offer to license the mark to them for a nominal fee. It is part of the obligation of policing your mark, as well as insuring quality. Copyright enforcement isn't quite the same situation, and there it can be a matter of not pursuing an infringer on one copyright infringement does not necessarily carry over or benefit other infringers.

4 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

I wouldn't ordinarily credit a business with the level of idiocy necessary to sign a contract without reading it, but MAAS Toys is kind of a fly-by-night grey market outfit after all.  How an indie outfit that lives and dies by the Kickstarter ended up signing a licensing agreement with a company that's death on the whole idea of crowdfunding after two major Kickstarter fiascos is a mystery. 

The situation is odd, really, for more than just the above reasons. These types of companies aren't really even gray market. Their business models are essentially heavily based on (strongly arguably) trademark and copyright infringement, and they get by through (in my opinion) being small enough to not be worth the hassle of pursuing in combination with a degree of anonymity as to their actual ownership. I may be wrong, and maybe it's all just "it's good for our reputation to let you keep infringing", but that seems unlikely due to the potential trademark risks associated with that. I suspect it's mostly just a "you're not worth the litigation expenses". Signing a licensing deal with a more visible company seems risky.

23 minutes ago, Mazinger said:

Did they take umbrage at the suggested changes to the design, like those the came from members of this forums?

Sad if that was the case. 

Seems unlikely. They're experienced at ignoring feedback they don't like.

8 minutes ago, jenius said:

It's probably just being done as a hobby and other obligations are currently more pressing... Life happens.

It's definitely possible, though my understanding is that their team do this professionally, for a living. Some of their projects have been done as a hobby, with hopes of them turning into profit makers, while the rest of their projects are paid for with the full intent of being a revenue stream.

In this case, my suspicion (just a guess, really) is that it was some combination of a few factors. Maybe they did not get the positive glowing feedback that they have come to expect from their more devoted customer base, HG took issue with the crowdfunding approach and so they had to pull everything (which, if it's the case, would be foolish of them for not getting this nailed down beforehand), they jumped the gun in assuming HG was going to give them a license before all of the final numbers and details were agreed upon, or they have legitimately gone back to the drawing board on this and prefer to delete any references to version 1.

EDIT:

Just checked FB, and the pictures are all still up, just silence since 1/15 (as was mentioned). So... uh... who knows?

9 hours ago, jenius said:

My theory on this goes back to the discussion previously about the genesis of the story and how the Legioss developed. The plans for the size of the craft may have been rather fluid for a while as more substantive issues with the plot were tackled. A tiny Legioss is helpful for story elements that involve hiding it so the dimensions may have been shrunk at the last moment as the plane transitioned from burner to hero. Similarly, the introduction of the Tread at the last moment would have had a similar effect, particularly if it was thrust on the story by toy companies who would have wanted the tread to be small enough to be feasibly sold in a like with a Legioss.

That makes sense. I also think that the dimensions were likely fluid during the animation process as well (i.e. "Crap, we forgot that we are putting it on the back of a flat bed in this episode... well, draw it smaller.")

Found a teaser trailer for the anime here, along with a more intelligible synopsis:

https://www.yualexius.com/2018/10/chinese-manga-armored-gull-revealed-anime-trailer.html

 Armored Gull is a chinese webcomic by LAS that covers a wide section of the mecha genre, from mechanical limbs, killer androids, the titular power armor Armored Gull, transforming vehicle robots, wanzer mechs and exoskeletons to put your exoskeltons in all fighting alongside or against each other in the seafaring corporate owned mega fleet of Sigma City. Falsely accused of corporate espionage and treason to the state Gwen Pullan a gifted roboticist is rescued/kidnapped by an anti-corporate terrorist group. Caught up in the bloody slum wars between the group and andorid augmented police, Gwen is given an opportunity to fight back by a mysterious third faction in the form of the Exoskeleton Frame Armored Gull.

Looks like there are a handful of chapters here: https://note.mu/weibocomic/n/n22e69371a0d9

2 minutes ago, M'Kyuun said:

Never heard of 'Armored Gull', but that bike looks cool. Transformation is reminiscent of the Garland, but differs enough in both modes to be its own thing.

Hopefully the manga, and potential OVA, will become popular enough to get some toy treatment. I also like transforming bikes, so this would be nice.

I hope so too. Scrolling through his Twitter, it looks like he's done a fair amount of pretty cool looking transforming designs.

I'm just surprised. It seems like there are 40+ chapters of this manga/comic released... but I can't find them anywhere, except for a couple download sites with broken links. Can't find any official site, let alone print copies.

Is anyone familiar with "Armored Gull"? I believe it is a manga (well, Chinese, not Japanese, I think), and possibly there is an OVA in the works, but I really can't find any information on it out there.

I came across some images from it while looking for other things, and started searching for what they were from... and that's about it.

Lots of gorgeous (in my opinion) artwork out there, some people mentioning having read the books, but nothing else that I can find.

I did come across the Twitter of someone who says they are the artist, with some nice artwork and some cool computer animations too:

4 hours ago, jenius said:

Just the Tlead, the Legioss was always part of the show but it was originally a burner vehicle, getting used and blown up then others found later.

Sorry, I guess I misremembered. I thought the plane at that point in time wasn't transformable, but just a somewhat generic fighter (and a burner vehicle, as you said).

21 minutes ago, Mazinger said:

Crazy, if anything I'm the opposite, I always saw the jets as superfluous to the bikes.  I'm only getting into the Legioss and Tlead now even though as a kid I had a red triple changer.

For me, I absolutely LOVE the bikes, and it's all about the bikes for me. That said, I do like the Legioss and TLEAD a ton. I had sworn off collecting anything other than bikes a while ago... but MOSPEADA is kind of the exception when there's a toy that really strikes my fancy. Depending on the final pricing, I'll likely pick up one of each of these.

As a side note, Aramaki once said in an interview that they designed the show around the bikes and that was what they really wrote all of the original proposals around. The toy companies were telling them that they needed some planes too, due to the success of Macross licensing, so they basically went back into the office over the weekend and worked out the Legioss and TLEAD in a rush overnight for a pitch in the morning, just to keep the potential advertisers happy.

Actually, Duke from their G.I. Joe crossover line is probably a better example of the synthetic human with a people suit on.

5 minutes ago, slide said:

HAH! I was being completely facetious! that's awesome!

I was pretty sure you were, but couldn't help it. 

Just now, slide said:

When will they make skin-suits so you can dress them up?

They make them for the 1/6 scale ones, just not the 1/12

Ooh, you got the test body one. Very nice. Congrats!

I don't know what I'm looking at... but I like it.

I have a few resin model kits. They pop up online fairly regularly, though I think they're recasts of older resin kits mainly.

6 hours ago, lechuck said:

Aliens Dropship

THIS! Especially with a transforming Armored Personnel Carrier that can fit inside of it or, alternatively, combine with it.

15 minutes ago, jenius said:

Lol, how did you get your E=X to stand on its own securely enough to display?

Haha I cheated. It has a white Pretty Armor figure stand supporting it.

21 hours ago, VF-Zer0S said:

No it definitely helps, Thanks for the response. I was just digging the color scheme more I guess on the Factory color as I plan on waiting on the Proto Garland from Arcadia. I’m hoping they drop a factory color scheme in future but I’ll pay more and get the Arcadia. All the reviews I’ve seen just make this an easy choice.

I definitely like the color scheme too. It was the second Garland I got, after the Yamato Proto Garland.

I honestly would be surprised if Arcadia ever got around to that color, since I don't recall it being in the movie, but you never know. Still, if it's one or the other, the Arcadia is just a better quality figure.

4 minutes ago, tekering said:

Oh wow, KFC's "Ditka" is gorgeous!

 

 

 

If only the quality control was better than the usual KFC crap-show, he'd actually be a great figure...  

Looks really impressive. Would love to see a side shot and get an idea of the under-the-fusselage kibble.

4 hours ago, VF-Zer0S said:

How’s the durability compare between the two? Cause I found the factory color $70 cheaper than the Arcadia and I was wondering if the durability issues were resolved with the factory color scheme

I didn't take new pics today, but found these that I posted when my army color first came in a few months back. The factory color has the same build quality and revision to the break-prone swingarm as the army color. So, it's improved, but still something you have to be careful with.

In my particular case, the Yamato is definitely floppier, so a little better than what you see in the pics since I fiddled with the shoulder magnets a bit, but still nowhere even as close as cleanly locking into position or as durable as the Arcadia. I have all of the Yamatos and I have two of the Arcadia. To me, the Arcadia is a significantly superior product; I really just have all the Yamatos because I wanted to finish out my collection of that line and because I liked all the different color schemes.

Does that help, or was there something else you were looking to see?

4 minutes ago, VF-Zer0S said:

After a week of debate I don’t know which garland to get. The Arcadia or the Factory paint job Yamato. Anyone got a side by side pic? I know the Arcadia is better but the size and color sell me hard on the factory paint scheme. 

I have both. What are you looking to see? It's identical to the regular Yamato Garland, except for the color and included figure.

5 minutes ago, danth said:

So what's with the clip on the back of the Legioss's forearm? Is that where the Tread attaches?

Saddle bags