Radd

Ja, that's what I suspect.

Despite not including FAST packs of its own, I wonder if the FAST packs from the YF-21 will fit onto the 22?

Just finished Macross 7, including FotSW, the Encore episodes, the movie, and Dynamite. Going to be moving on to Macross Zero. We'll either finish that in one sitting, or spread it out over a week or two.

Definitely a Fire Bomber concert. Great music, and a flashy light show (if the concerts and opening from Dynamite are anything to go by).

Huh? We're talking about a size chart made up of still images, not throwing a ruler up against the tv every time there's a character on screen. I don't believe it's nearly as extreme as you think. When general measurements for a character are given, it's always safe to assume they are measurements for the character themselves, sans extra height added by hair or worn items. Also, you never take size shown within the animation too seriously. It's far more difficult to keep height consistent in moving hand drawn animation, which is likely put together from the work of dozens, if not hundreds, of artists, than it is to make a consistent size chart for reference.

I thought the sig just had to do with Macross 7 toys finally being a part of Yamato's options?

The best looking MP seeker is still the original release of MP Starscream. So wish they'd release that version with the improvements from the others.

I prefer the yellow, but I'm not that picky and the red is accurate. I rewatched Dynamite with a friend tonight, and Gamlin's VF-22 is definitely much darker. Depending on the lighting of a scene it was either dark green, dark blue, or dark grey for the highlights, but otherwise black. It always struck me as a VF-22 in Diamond Force colours. Still does, going by the animation. Graham, any chance at all that Gamlin's VF-22 will wind up darker for the actual production, or is this a retro-active official colour change like Shin's VF-0A? A darker grey, closer to black, would be fine by me. I'm not holding my breath, of course, just seems odd that they go with a light shade of grey that doesn't match either the animation Diamond Force colours or the art book that shows it as dark green.

I would love to have one, but I just can't justify it for that price. $200 and I'd probably pick up one in Hikaru's colours to make part of my Valk display.

I've a bit of an issue with this size chart. It doesn't take clothing into consideration. Footwear, headgear, and hair can add to a person's apparent height. We do not measure people from the soles of their shoes, to the top of their hair. Milia in her TV meltrandi flight suit without a helmet would be markedly shorter than Milia in her movie Meltrandi flight suit with helmet. A lot of zentradi footwear adds a significant amount of height, what would amount to a couple inches in human scale. At least, the tv series zentran footwear, and the movie meltran footwear. When we have stats on someone's height, these stats usually do not reflect hair, helmets, or the additional height added by footwear. In the case of Britia, with no hair and the "flat footed" zentran movie footwear the difference between his actual height and apparent height would be negligible, but it would be more apparent with Kamjin, Millia, and zentran soldiers. You see?

It's fairly obvious that the Destroids wouldn't sell as well as the Valks, which have always been the stars of the show. The question, in its full context, was "Are the Destroids not selling well enough to make it worthwhile for Yamato to sell the Spartan", to which your response reads that if they were not selling as well as the Valkyries, it would not be worth it to go ahead with the Spartan, or that the Valkyries were selling at minimum acceptable profit to push ahead, so the Destroids would need to meet that to make rounding out the line acceptable. The post I was replying to was saying that the Spartan was unlikely no matter how well the Destroid line was doing. If Yamato stands to profit well enough from the Spartan, and they would if the current Destroids were "selling like hotcakes" as the post had put it, then it should be worth it to them to sell the Spartan. If creating an entirely new mold was reason enough to put Yamato off from selling a toy despite profit far outweighing tooling costs, which was the entire argument, then we'd still be getting repaints of the 1/72 YF-19. If the line is doing "well enough" but still not so hot, it is not unreasonable then that the additional production costs of the Spartan might move their profit margin into an unacceptable range. This appears to be the case based on the latest statements. There's also cost to effort. They wouldn't go through all the effort of producing a Spartan toy that was going to only "break even", or simply make a minimal profit. They're still a business, not a charity. How popular is the Spartan? Good question. It's my least favourite, but it seems to be popular with some people, and as others have pointed out it's the only destroid to be piloted by the show's central character. That usually influences popularity, but I'm not convinced it has in this case.

The 19 repaints are odd. I don't see them having the widespread appeal of, say, the VF-1 "low vis" or "stealth" paint schemes. I'm not big on either of them. They're not bad, just not...I dunno, all that interesting to me. I'd love a 19 repaint, just not those.

I'm not digging any of the VF-19 paint schemes. I know I've seen some before, from hobby magazine scans, that I thought were fantastic. Yamato could put out some really nice ones. I love the VF-22, though. Even if I do think it should be, and would look much nicer as, a much darker shade of grey.

The MP seekers have a very limited range of articulation due to pieces getting in the way. This is particularly bad with the hips and waist. Quality-wise, they're comparable to Bandai's DX toys. Better on the detailing, actually much better on the detailing and paint apps, than the DX VF-25 toys, which fall way behind the other two companies in that regard. I like the seekers well enough to own all three, but I don't like them as much as either the DX toys, or Yamato's various Macross toys. The poor lower body articulation really hurts how much fun they could otherwise be. If it weren't for that, I'd say they were hands down better than the VF-25 DX toys, speaking strictly as far as judging them as a toy goes. As it is, the MP seekers are definitely nicer looking, again speaking strictly quality-wise and not discerning between preference for either design, but not as much fun as the DX toys, which are much more poseable. I think the Yamato toys are the best of the three. Of course, I've never had any of the QC issues that others have experienced. So all I can say is that my Yamato toys tend to be much nicer looking than either the DX or the MP Seekers. Definitely much more poseable than the seekers. Yamato toys do tend to have more fragile bits, like thin antennae poking out here and there. The kind of details sturdier toys tend to leave out entirely. I would agree that the MP seekers are more complicated than the VF-1 toys, but less complicated than some of the later model VF toys like the SV-51 and the YF-19. Complexity is not a straight across the board comparison, as the different models of VF are all different in that regard. Bandai's VF-25 is not horribly complex, about the same as the MP seekers. About as complex, yet easier to transform, if that makes sense. The transformation is more elegant. Yamato has a broader range of VF designs released, some more complex than others. The VF-1 transformation is pretty simple and straightforward, though. The 19 can be tricky. More difficult than the MP seekers, for sure.

That VF-22 looks pretty nice, but Gamlin's VF-22 in Dynamite 7 was a much darker shade of grey. Closer to black. Would be awesome if Yamato were able to make Macross 7, or at least Dynamite 7, toys now. I'd love a VA-3 and a VF-5000. Neither as much as a VF-4, but I'd get at least one of each. Probably two in different colours since they're so unique.

I love the 1/48ths, but realistically I would not be able to buy nearly as much in that scale. However, a 1/48 VF-4 would be a dream come true.

I don't know about that. As I said, I regularly play with my toys. I do not treat them like museum pieces. Despite that, none of the 18 Yamato toys I've bought has broken. The only one to come with any sort of QC flaw was my 1/72 YF-21 FP edition, which has one of the gunpods glued shut.

That could be the case, yes. They have at least sold well enough for Yamato to push the Tamohawk, Defender, and the Phalanx. I know that early on, I believe it was shortly after the Destroids were first announced, Graham mentioned that the Spartan was unlikely. I was curious as to whether his most recent post on the matter was repeating that, which was likely based on Yamato's sales expectations before the toys hit the market, or if he had heard anything recently, which would be based on how well they've actually sold so far.

What does that have to do with the price of eggs? Unless you're suggesting that Yamato's Valkyries aren't selling well? Er, yes, we know this. Sorry, but if that logic held water Yamato would still be trying to peddle repaints of whatever the first 1/72 Macross Plus toys was, and nothing else. If the other destroids are selling well, Yamato stands to profit from the Spartan, even if development and production costs would cut into that. So, it's pretty clear that if the destroids were selling like hot cakes, they'd be eager to release the Spartan despite this. The Monster would be unlikely in any case. It's size would raise production costs, the cost of the end product. Most people would be put off by the price, and most of the rest would be put off by how much space it would take up. It's amazing that Yamato is releasing an SDF-1 Macross in the scale they've chosen, though that would be a much better bet than a Monster. No, the sad truth of of the matter is that the Destroids probably aren't selling well enough for Yamato to push ahead with the Spartan.

Unlikely? Have the Destroids been selling poorly?

You, too? Man, I was considering starting a thread asking about that. I can *sometimes* see the front page of their site. Everything else gives me errors.

I'm an odd variant of the third group. I only buy one of what I want. I open it and play with it. I definitely do not treat my toys as if they were museum pieces, though I do treat them well enough that I have not a single broken Yamato. On the other hand, I'm a bit OCD about keeping all the boxes. When it comes time to move, out comes the boxes and everything goes back in like some crazy all-Macross reverse-Christmas. Like I said, I don't buy doubles. Also, I've no intent ever to sell a single piece of my collection. Except maybe my old 1/55 Bandai reissues to make room for Yamato toys, and more of Bandai's Frontier toys. And my old Yamato 1/60 Elintseeker and Super-O to make room for the new ones. I'm sure those will go at a loss despite their condition, but...well...the new ones look so much nicer.

Macross would have to get really bad for me to lose interest in the shows I love from it. I thought Macross II was mediocre, but it got nudged over to non-canon status to make way for Plus, which was awesome. I think 7 could have been a lot better, but I enjoyed it. Enjoyed Dynamite 7 a lot more. I though Zero was pretty good, if rushed in places. I loved Frontier, though I would have enjoyed it even more without the overuse of anime stereotypes.

You're not following the logic. The baby blue VF-19A first appeared in VF-X2. The VB-6 Koenig Monster first appeared in VF-X2. There are several fighters which made their first appearances in VF-X games. There are fighters which appeared in other Macross shows prior to their game appearances. Yamato can make toys of those that appeared first in the VF-X games, and in the shows they have licenses for. They cannot make toys of fighters which appeared in the VF-X games, but made their first appearance in Macross 7. Yamato can make a 1/60 VF-11 because it appeared first in Macross Plus. They cannot make a 1/60 VF-17 because it appeared in Macross 7 first. They could not include VF-22 parts with their 1/72 YF-22 FP edition because the VF-22 appeared in Macross 7 first. Understand the difference?

Eh. Like so often, I think people are seeing from it what they want to see.