Bariaburu Faita

http://www.tj-grosnet.com/super_metal.html

(listed right about the GX-04S reissue)

That toy is gona cost a lot: 20790 yen (19800 yen+5%tax).

YIKES.

Between THAT and the SOC Voltes V Bandai is gonna destroy my wallet BIG TIME.

Thats about the same retail price as a fast packed 1/48 VF-1J. I`m guessing it will be worth it as Bandai has shown they put more than enough value into their high end toys

They originaly went for 1,200yen. Nowdays go for about 5,000yen. So $50-60 sounds about right.

I`m looking for the various Jo-han 1/24 and 1/25 Cadillac injection model kits that have been reissued by various kit makers such as Revell. These are to build, so box condition doesnt matter. Kits must be 100% complete, prefer to have all parts on original sprue.

Also looking for back issues of the quarterly publication Modeler's Resource. Issues 54 thru 58. Do not have to be mint, but all pages must be readable. No major tears or water damage.

The Asuka figs I ordered have not arrived yet. Should be out sometime this month. The Tsukihime figs are getting hard to find, are you looking for a specific figure or the whole set?

Just want a confirmation on this particular concept, Phas Shift Armour is resistant to projectile weapons and explosions but vulnerable to beam weapons. Is that right? When Kira was fighting Yzak, the beam weapon went partially through all right, but unlike the GINNs, it had some resistance to beam weapons. When Kira owned Miguel, the beam weapon went through him like butter. Phase shift armour to me seems to offer some resistance to beam weapons.

The official publications state that the phase shift, and trans phase shift armor are ineffective against beam weapons.

Phase shift is only a surface enhancement. If the beam penetrates it the next defense is the actual physical armor, and structure of the MS. In previous shows like UC Gundam the Gundams had better lunar titanium alloys compared to cannon fodder MS. This is probably the case in Seed, although its just speculation on my part.

Why must they released the same ol Ivanov and DD kit again ? Why can't they just do a weapon/booster set for both Su-51 and VF-0 instead.

At least we get some new boxart.

Why did they release VF-1 then separate VF-1 with fast packs? Probably the same reason.

Holy poo!

WTF?! thats not what I wrote

Woah, dont take this so seriously guys. Remember these are all speculations, we could all be wrong or right.

If I were in Yamatos shoes, I would start out with a small, say 5,000unit run of the GPB armor only. Small enough that the average Macross fan on the street will say "Holy poo! Unless I get one now I might never get one!"

If it tanks, and no one buys it, stop right there and cut losses and move onto BGC and Megazone toys. If it sells out, ramp up production and put out a medium sized production run of the GPB and 1J set, say 10,000units.

Once thats done, wait a year or so. Based on reports from retailers, distributors and fans release a final run of just the GPB.

This way, total run of both units is over 15,000 enough to cover development costs and decent profit. At the same time reducing financial risk by not putting all your eggs in one basket.

Haha saw ep2 and laughed at that bit.

Such a whore. There will probably be many Hdoujin mangas made featuring her and the orgasming transformation sequence. Shame we didn't get to see the blue robot in this episode..

What do you mean "probably" Go up to K-books in Osaka and look at the display by the counter on the 4th floor. Not that I regularly shop on the 4th floor, just saying hypotheticaly that if there were any, thats the spot to find them at

Here is a not so surprising development.

1/48 VF-1J Hikarus non fastpack are selling once again, almost gone. The supers are also selling, but not as fast.

Very smart of Yamato to just announce the GPB pack without VF-1J. The retailers who were sitting on dead stock probably are happy.

Is this insider news or things you noticied while shopping for Yamato merchandise?

This is stuff I just noticed shopping around in the Kansai area. Places that had the Hikaru VF-1J in stock before are sold out. And less of the fast packed ones remain.

BTW, why doesn't Hasegawa have any license problem with Bandai? I thought Bandai owns license to all Mac 7 valks.

hard to say, getting inside info from Bandai is even harder than Yamato.

It does seem that Hasegawa has only been releasing M7 kits that Bandai didnt, the VF-22S for example. They have not released a kit of something already done, like the VF-19 custom.

Here is a not so surprising development.

1/48 VF-1J Hikarus non fastpack are selling once again, almost gone. The supers are also selling, but not as fast.

Very smart of Yamato to just announce the GPB pack without VF-1J. The retailers who were sitting on dead stock probably are happy.

Although it is not variable, there is also the Gokigen Seimetsu VF-22 Battroid mode conversion kit for use with Hasegawa's VF-22 model. You can see photos of it in Noel's Winter Wonder Fest 2005 report.

I think ChristopherB has 2 of these conversion kits (lucky devil).

Graham

While luck is a big factor in getting rare kits, ChristopherB takes all the necessary precautions to reduce luck as a factor.

Club-M made a VF-17!?!?!?

Oops, might have gotten some kits mixed up.

What, no one remembers my 3,000yen Club-M YF-19? A couple years back it was not uncommon to see Club-M kits going for a fraction of their original price. Specificaly the 1/72 scale VF-1, YF-19 and YF-21. This was obviously due to the same scale Hasegawa kits being released. The other kits like the 1/72 VF-17 stayed at their origninal price or higher.

Its hard to make out the prices for the various plastic kits, but they look to be in the 2000-3000yen price range which is a bit excessive. If you check mandarake frequently you can find some of them for under 1000yen.

I haven't figured out how to attach the head yet... I'm suppose to draw the instructions but I didn't get instuctions... lol. All I got was a box with a bunch of small parts. I can't screw the cockpit close until I put the head on, hence the gap.

Rohby is recasting the actual canopy, I didn't want to wait. Clear resin takes forever to cure.

The kit looks good though. All of the white parts you see are the additional parts for the conversion kit.

Just to be a silly nitpick

Why are you calling this a recast when he is producing an original master for the 2 seater parts?

Isnt a recast when you are making an unauthorized copy of someone elses resin production casts? I`m guessing he gave Rohby permission to make casts of his masters.

Howard is macross still in mucho saturation in toy stores there?

The VF-1 are most certainly saturated. You can still find Banprestos, Bandai 1/55, Yamato 1/60 and 1/48 sitting on shelves gathering dust. Only the very high demand ones like the Low Vis, and VF-1A/S Hikaru are sold out. The VF-1S Roy that everyone was demanding a re-release of is easily found.

The M+ stuff is pretty much gone though. Only a couple VF-11FP remain. None really flew off the shelves to start with though, it was more of a slow and steady sale volume.

Howard is it like that all over japan or just the area you are located in? A lot of fans here keep saying "oh yamato's being ignorant oh yamato hates us oh they neglect us now after making money bla bla", so thats why I asked. From what you said, I gather stuff is not exactly flying off shelves.

With that in mind, I can understand yamato scaling back releases. I mean if the market is saturated, the japanese fandom might want a breath of fresh air rather than buy new macross stuff. Who is to say it would sell? To US hell yea it would, but see guys our fandom on macross world, as big as it may seem, is small compared to the whole fandom in japan. And plus they are the target market, not us.

Besides with market saturation there is not really a good chance to make mucho profit. Yamato is a small company why would they risk it? I mean I of all people was DESPERATE for a PV VF-0(you guys reember my polls? LOL), and I would love to see all new retools of all 3 macross plus toys, but realistically speaking, if yamato chooses not to for the time being, I don't blame them. I understand why. Doesn't stop me from wanting the "paper airplanes" but hell thats the way it is. No sense in blaming them for not making stuff we want.

IF they've still got the licenses they procured to begin with, perhaps all this other merchandise non macross is to make profit until saturation wears off(1-2 years?) and then create another resurgence in macross product, considering if a market drought happens inevitably during the time no macross product is released. Don't get me wrong guys, I WANT yamato or hell even bandai to make more stuff, but if they do not I definitely understand. And I understand how a lot of you want the same, it has been a while since a company did good macross stuff, and bandai's lazy ass took too long!

I can speak for the current Macross saturation in the Kansai area, Kyoto, Kobe and Osaka.

I used to live in Yokosuka so I am familiar with the toy market near Tokyo. I would speculate that the retail market there has fewer Macross toys in stock, but the secondary resale market has more.

For more remote areas with less gaijin and fanboy population I would speculate that they have more in stock. Those are the places I have been searching to find Low Vis. And it has worked.

any idea for the release date

on the info plate July 2005... but you know how accurate that might be

Howard is macross still in mucho saturation in toy stores there?

The VF-1 are most certainly saturated. You can still find Banprestos, Bandai 1/55, Yamato 1/60 and 1/48 sitting on shelves gathering dust. Only the very high demand ones like the Low Vis, and VF-1A/S Hikaru are sold out. The VF-1S Roy that everyone was demanding a re-release of is easily found.

The M+ stuff is pretty much gone though. Only a couple VF-11FP remain. None really flew off the shelves to start with though, it was more of a slow and steady sale volume.

If this is the problem they can just sell it as a vf-19A, they already made a 1/100 VFX-2 mech and have the license.

That is a possibility. Although I dont know how far back they got the VFX-2 licence, as I understand it the licences only last for a couple years, and are very specific as to scale and other details.

Two wonderfests ago, when I asked a Yamato rep if they would be making a new sculpt for the YF-19FP, I was told "if we did that, we would have to redo the VF-11 and YF-21" So doing a 1/60 scale would be highly unlikely. If they do it would probably be 1/72 like before. Given how their 1/100 VF-0 is progressing I give the YF-19 1/100 even a lower chance.

Still no word if this is going to be bundled with a 1J?

Well, the original announcement was that there would be both a bundle and a stand-alone pack, but now I'm not so sure.

The info plate makes no mention of a VF-1J set, only a 8000yen GPB pack. Since there are still 1/48`s on shelves here in Japan, maybe they dont want to oversaturate the market with 3 different boxes with the same VF-1J in it? They know full well the dangers of oversaturation.

Yeah, I watched it too. I like it alot, it blows away all the cute girl/fanservice shows that seem to make up 90% of whats on the air this season.

BTW, check your PM, McBride. I send you one source for the show

Meh.

Call me a spoil-sport, but he engineered that thing to look too much like a toy. A toy that you can still easily obtain in larger scale and sturdier for 1/10th the price, mind you.

thats a common speculation. that he intentionaly made it toylike so it could be mass produced at 1/10 the price by Yamato.

Hot babe, but pricy.

This is an interesting development. This IS the larger Atelier Sai hardsuit action figure. The sculptor info is listed right above the price.

Instead of releasing the figure himself it looks like Yamato will be doing it for him. Based on their current policies, I think its safe to assume that there will be no motoslaves unless the action figures sell well.

I think its a good move on Yamatos part. They have a low cost point trading figure to get people addicted, and then offer a high priced upgrade.