Lynx7725

Ahhh.. most of the GFF and Zeongraphy you mentioned had been out for some times (in some cases years).. I'm not sure what your intent is here.

There is a 2-seater A-10. It's the A-10B. I think there's only one. It was made to test the feasability of producing a trainer version.

That 2-seater looks.. hump-backed. Cute in a way, but also something I'm sort of ashamed to show people.

Man, from the pics David provided, an A-10 cockpit looks really cramped. The foward visibility looks rather limited (no personal experience, of course), it's like looking at a sheer wall of instruments.

Any clear ideas what are the upgrades? The story doesn't really add much details.

That's just Bandai's "Model Line Disease". A Real-Scale line isn't PG, it's just plain old 1/60 scale.. it does not guarantees spectacular engineering like those found on PG, but my understanding is that it's pretty good for its price.

AFAIK, there's only one Real Scale model, but then again I'm no longer following the Gundam plamo developments.

Personally prefer the FSW, single wing version. If landing gears ain't a real issues (you have the docking points on top right?), how about a big ventral fin?

The boxed FSW sorts of look a little too common and not quite right to me, but it's your design, so you get the last call.

The bottom-cap "intakes" gotta go man, it looks like either (a ) plastic shampoo bottle caps or (b ) female pectoral developments. Maybe mount the guns/ launchers there? Bound to give the crew a heart attack the first time they ever fire the weapons though.

Hehe. Thought: Mass Drivers in-line with the engines. That'll be a blast to fire.

No, no, no.

No quad wings, not in those configurations. The first thing anyone will say is "X-wing".

I somehow think you won't like that.

The basic design without wings doesn't quite fit the superiority role.. it badly needs wings. Lemme think about it, but don't let my thinking stop you from working on the design. My thinking tends to take some time to work through.

Oooh! Ooooh!

Chant with me! Ma-ra-sai! Ma-ra-sai!

Yah, but what is the 5K supposed to do? Interceptor? Jabo? Fighter-bomber? Long-range strike aircraft? Trainer? Sightseeing? Just plain flying around?

Gotta give us that info so that we can help with the redesign... At the very least, we can draw inspiration from the existing designs to let you know what we like to see in a particuler aircraft role.

I'm not making excuses for Toynami but the Alpha is a much more complex toy than the (1/60) valk.  When I got my first one I was amazed at how many things had to be pushed and pulled and slid into place all for the sake of both perfect transformation and accuracy (let's not discuss the Shadow Fighter).  I was pulling and pushing and admiring the detail when I broke mine.  It's so close to perfect transformation EXCEPT for that shoulder piece... what's the deal with that???  Anyway, i think just about everyone who gets one is astonished at how great the hands are, just like i did, only to have one fall apart.

The toy is flawed but it is a pretty ambitious effort from a nearly virgin toy company and the ones that come out right kick butt.  Yamato took an easier route and simplified the design and abandoned true transformation.  Yamato has more money, more experience, and larger production volume so, while Toynami has no excuse, Yamato should stab itself in the gut with a sword if it can't correct its glariing deficiencies.

The 1/48s are much better but yes, there are many complaints about them too.  They're said to develop stress cracks with regularity in certain areas, have birth marks, and have logos painted on crooked (that's from this site's various topics from when I was researching whether or not to buy one).  I love the one I have and it's vastly superior to an MPC valk and I would easily pay twice as much for a 1/48 over an MPC but since you're never going to see a yamato 1/48 Alpha there's really no point in anyone comparing the companies in this thread.

I think you are confusing a few issues here, and I think no matter what I say it would not change your mind, but for the sake of discussion I will tabulate my points for discussion.

Your desire not to compare companies is fair enough. As such, I edited out the comparison to Yamato in this post, and will concentrate mainly on the Alpha and Toynami as a company.

First, let's segregate the following:

• The design of the toy
  
• The execution/ production of the toy
  
• The QC practices of the company with regards to the toy
  
• The customer support practices of the company with regards to the toy
  
• The long-term ability of the company to improve on the toy
  

All the above IMO makes up the customer experience with regards to the toy. Now, let's look at each area.

====================

1. Design of the Toy

First and foremost, I dispute your assertion that the Alpha is the more complex over the Valkyrie. The animation design of the Alpha is sweet in its simplicity, and when compared to the Valkyrie's folding torso/ swingbar legs/ fuselage arms design, it is mechanically simpler and in my opinion, better.

The contention is whether Toynami needed to make the toy design this complicated.

Having played with my Alpha for a few days now, I see very little point in having an extending torso, a hidden compartment for the (useless) cyclone, and the "loose" kneecap design. Other than this, mechanically, the design of the Alpha is pretty good -- if the above gimmicks had been done differently, I would say that this is a first rate design. As it is, I have to say that the design had some unnecessary complexity built into it.

While you can plead accuracy as a design consideration, I do believe maintainability is also an issue for transformable toys. As a specific rebuttal, I do not believe the extending torso is necessary for the design, as it is one more moving part to jam up. Unfortunately, the area in concern is where dirt and dust can accumulate and jam up. And once it is jammed up and unmovable, you are stuck in one or two modes -- which detracts from the toy experience.

2. Execution/ Production of the Toy

For me, this is where the MPC Alpha fails. Many of the components on the Alpha feels too weak for what it is supposed to do, and many of the components did not achieve the tolerances required by the design, especially the missile launcher covers.

If you have played with the missile launcher covers, you would know they work.. but they would work better if they had been built with maybe 1mm less width. The added with create more pressure on the covers, causing them to break when a user casually manhandles them.

Moreover, on my Alpha, the rear landing gears are prone to stick in the up position when the feet are retracted, This is due (IMO) to the lack of clearance between the gears and the feet.

I also have what appears to be plastic stress marks on my Alpha. And white on red is very obvious.. Also, the choice of material is probably what's causing the breakage and such when manhandled by users.

Overall, the MPC Alpha appears to be designed by a master designer but converted into production by an apprentice materials engineer. The design calls for very tight tolerances, which apparently the engineering was not able to match... causing poor execution.

Also as a specific rebuttal, the hands are CRAPPY. As a long time modeller, I would have used 1/144 Gundam Plamo hands instead of the rubberly, prone to disintegration hands that are standard. The default hands are terrible and I would replace them at first opportunity. I would NOT trust those hands to stand up to the test of time -- I fully expect them to disintegrate after long exposure to air.

You can say Toynami made an ambitious effort, but I can also say "biting off more than they can chew".... and no, they didn't kick butt because their execution fell behind their design.

An ambitious effort to produce an engineering wonder is an engineering feat, but it may not bring customer value. And as a customer, if it does not bring me my value for money (due to design flaw/ material flaw/ QC, whatever), it doesn't matter to me how much an engineering feat the toy is.

3. The QC practices of the company with regards to the toy

I think Toynami did an okay job with QC. Some of the flaws we've seen would escape a cursory QC glance and are due to material flaws that surface only after repeated usage.

Of course, looking at my Alpha which came with paint chips out of box, and non-closing forearms/ shoulders, it's hard to continue not to damn the QC, but I work somewhat in that line and I can understand why certain things happens.

4. The customer support practices of the company with regards to the toy

Toynami's customer support is good to the point where customers with defective toys have an avenue to get them exchanged at the manufacturers. I think this is good and definitely more reassuring to the buyers.

But to be honest I rather not have to call them at all.

5. The long-term ability of the company to improve on the toy

Toynami did do some improvements on their Veritech line, if memory serves, but Toynami simply has no track record of product improvement. From a quality-of-product POV, I have little to look forward in terms of product improvements, and thus each iteration of the Alpha is delivering less and less value to me as a customer.

====================

That's my POV on the Alpha -- you can also consider this my review of my Alpha. Having said all that, I currently has the Alpha pegged as a "toy" and not a "collectable/ model/ display/ toy" that my Yamatos are.

The Alpha currently gets more play time than my Yamatos, but that's partially because I don't believe it has that long a lifespan either. The Alpha is sadly at the end between a medicore and a great toy.. only the lousy materials is holding it back.

Well, the first two lines seems to be saying that the concept of the GP-01 Corefighter is that of a straight-wing plane. Still working on the second line -- my Kanji's not that great.

i feel like people are somehow much more forgiving too yamato...when in reality..all their offerings have bad Q.C.!

Of course we are. You know why? Because Yamato has shown in its 1/60 line that it is willing to learn from mistakes and to improve the product.

Toynami has only thus shown that it is willing to provide good customer service -- a patch to the problem, not a solution.

As for QC, it's expected for both companies to have bugs. They are getting some gnomes in the middle of nowhere in China to assemble the products -- these workers don't exactly take the most pride in this kind of work. Also remember -- the duds we see are those that pass QC, I wonder how much doesn't pass QC.

I really should do a review of my Red Alpha, but the summary of it is this: Great design, poor execution, leading to many bugs. That's another area where Yamato earn our "trust" so to speak -- their design AND execution tends to be one cut above Toynami.

So yeah, we are more forgiving to Yamato, but that's because Yamato earned it. Toynami hasn't (yet).

...about the GP01A?

http://data.4channel.org/m/src/1106411178609.jpg

It says "4channel.org" in a file titled Leech.png... I take it you're not supposed to link it directly.

something tells me there is no difference between any of them when it comes to bugs, it has not been that long since the red one was released on the market and from what i see the blue and red are about the same in terms of QC.

chris

It's all a matter of timing. The first two production runs of any products are likely to be buggy; this is because, in business operations terms, I would at least want 2 runs to be ready to meet potential consumer demand.

It's at the 3rd production run that they tend to start fixing bugs. Remember, this is material production, not IT applications, so there is some time lag involved. This is in general, not specifically aimed at Toynami or any company.

IIRC, the Yamato 1/60 line also had a similar pattern to this -- their initial releases had issues with the leg pegs, which they took some time to fix but was eventually released.

Of course, this is assuming that the company is willing to spend the money to fix the molds. Given the Yamato released more variants of the VF-1 than Toynami ever would release variants of the Alpha (and thus more in Yamato's interest to get the mold right), I also think it's highly unlikely that Toynami would fix any of the bugs.

I say it's about time. If it means I get a great Rx-78-2 instead of a GM Sniper II, I'll gladly accept it.

Uhm, sorry man, I think you are crazy. I rather get the MG GM Sniper II rather than yet another 78.

Siiigh. All those HGUC 0080 MS releases, and I've yet to see any of them translated to MG other than the Kampfer and the Alex.

Are the postmen actually to be blamed?

You might want to check with Sumdumgai (sp?) about his experiences with his Q-Rau and the postal service...

Whats more is that they really arent that far apart Structurally

The Spartan is VERY different structurally from the other Destroids.. take a close look at the hips, arms and legs.

You *can* do a conversion set I guess, but it would probably be out-of-scale with the rest of the conversion sets.. but I let the others who has actually handled a conversion kit speak from experience.

Actually, I prefer it to be a "D". C'mon, it's a picture of an idol, sometimes little details such as whether it's a "B" or a "D" should be left to the imagination of her captive audience.

Personally, I'm just waiting for the first person to bring up that stale old Engrish image again.

Sigh. I hate this kind of endless repeated juvenile humour. If anyone brings that image up here, please at least be creative enough to come up with something a little more original.

Do I sound jaded, cranky and irritated? Post that image and you will see what jaded, cranky and irritated is.

Okay okay, back to topic. I think it's a nice touch on the studio's part and it's good to see where that stupid name came from. Nice to know.

EDIT: Speeling.

The Future Floor Polish trick is fairly well established; although I have not used it personally, it has been stated here that it is successful in restoring scratched canopies to full shine.

Do a quick search for these, if the full topic is not available here, I'm sure some of the older hands would pop by to comment on this.

That Dropship toy is going to be huge. It's quite a bit bigger than the Space 1999 Eagle sitting next to it, which is itself quite a large toy.

That... thing.. is about the width of a chair, as compared to the chair behind it. I guesstimate the dropship at about 12" to 18", which is considerable.

The APC looks to be at around 9" to 11", again, considerable. If these are the actual sizes, you might need to clear some shelf space.

At 1/48, these are almost ideal for any sci-fi wargames, and should be fairly popular with gamers...

Looks good.

You might want to cant the dorsal fins out a bit, current looks a bit strange sticking straight up, but slanting them might not achieve a good look, so maybe just a temporary tweak to see how it looks.

It doesn't look very predatory, but as long as it shoots down fighters, I'll use it.

EDIT: Just noticed the side profile makes this look like a bird-of-prey (the nose has a slight hook to it). Might want to emphasize this a little.

Oh hohoho, I won't mind visiting this deck with a friend of the opposite gender.

If you like SST, you might like this if you have not seen it before.

Mongoose Publishing

Well, there is one CD cover (I have the Son-May version I think), with the words "Priss and the Replicants" done in red paintbrush style. Think that might work?

Also, depending whether you have ICQ or other IM stuff, leaving some room on the right of the wallpaper may be a good idea. I tend to have my wallpaper with room on both left and right so that the main subject won't be cluttered by files or the IM bar.

Hmm sorry to say this, but these two are overused images, so I honestly not very enthusiastic about the whole thing.

I believe there is already some discussion on the comics situation in the locked thread above. Can we please consolidate Transformer threads into the same thread?

Thanks in advance.

One simple answer: oxidation.

Uhm Vinnie, which degree do I need to take to know all this?

I have no doubt that Toynami opted for cheap plastic that yellows easily. The only real way to prevent yellowing is to lock your toy in a vault that is flushed with inert gases and bury it underground.

Of course, there is the alternative solution of launching it into space, where the concentration of oxygen is sufficient low that oxidation is less of an issue...

EDIT: Of course, UV would still be a problem, but I guess a orbit around Pluto should be sufficient to retard the process sufficiently...