yamatos roadmap........so secretive.....

[calvin]

I have to areas in my life that just really get to me, one is waiting for new macintosh upgrades(for my job) and two waiting for yamato's release info!!

it really made me think why? does yamato feel that by not telling the public(fans/consumers) what its release roadmap is: what the next two+ years are in detail that somehow they will create a buzz of rumors that will somehow keep us going? I just wish they would say: here is the plan, we are going to release these items and this is when, if it changes we will post it for all to see? both apple and yamato seem to have a desire to create a rumor type hype by being so secretive, anyway just curious about this kind of marketing(which is bad) and just frustrates the fan/consumer. secrets are for goverments not toy makers, if this is yamatos way of keeping the competion guessing I have news for them there is no competion so just tell us about the future!!!

p.s. any rumors or facts would be helpful( big smile, w/ evil grin and scary laugh!!)

thoughts?

[calvin]

sorry for the spelling errors

[Valkyrie Nut]

well there's the YF-19 FP at the start of next year. we should also see some Mac 0 toys as well in 2004 and ive heard they'll be doing the Monster too

[MicronianDevil]

We should also have enemy Mecha next year too.

[UN Spacy]

In the future there might be a DYRL SDF-1 (with a heavy emphasis on the MIGHT) and (drum roll) 1/48 Macross Plus' Valkyries. B) B) B)

Not to mention the highly anticipated Quadelunn Rau........

[identityno]

With Apple, that is just how they have always done things— Steve Jobs started that. He likes to keep everything secret and suspenseful, and then he loves to make a big giant show out of it when he unveils the new, awesome thing. But for Apple, it certainly does work, and has always worked. Those people that go to his keynotes and unveilings /always/ leave with something on order. Apple's marketing is based around hype— that is what the whole mystique of the company is built on. This is the reason why we have about ten Apple rumor sites. It is a double-edged sword, though, as you never know if the computer you just bought will be totally out-dated within a few months' time. Also, Apple is a company that really does have competition, so there are additional reasons for secrecy. Yamato does not have much to compete with in terms of other Macross toys, but they do compete with Hasegawa (which makes awesome-looking stuff), and, to a greater extent, every other company in Japan that sells any kind of toy that targets the adult market (Gundam mainly, I imagine). Most people aren't totally Macross-centric, so they have all kinds of things competing for their dollar, and Yamato is but one of them. That said, I think it would be good for them to be a bit more up front with their plans. They could make small news releases that inform their customer base of what they are working on, and just leave out release dates (or give false release dates that are actually farther away than the real release dates, which would prevent canibalized sales and also make people happy when they think they are getting stuff early). It seems to me that this would work better for Yamato than the secretive approach. But companies, for the most part, just do things like this because that is simply the way businesses /do/ things. The business world isn't known for being non-conformist with their strategies and practices (aside from the videogame world, which operates almost entirely differently for some reason).

[Lucifer]

YAMATO's going to make the MAX low viz VF-1, the Millia low viz, Hikaru Low Viz, Roy low viz, and the EXCLUSIVE low viz special package FAST packs.

then after that, yamato will release a NEW line of VF-1's...

1/48 hello kitty

1/48 no-color

1/48 vf1a battledamaged

1/48 vf1s battledamaged

1/48 v1aMAX battledamaged

1/48 vf1aHIKARU battledamaged

1/48 vf1aCF battledamaged

1/48 vf1dMAX battledamaged

1/48 vf1dMILLIA battledamaged

1/48 vf1J HIKARU battledamaged

After the succesful line of their VF-1 toys, yamato is going to PLEASE us with their awsome line of FAST PACK VF-1 's with battledamage, releasing the never before MAX & MILLIA battledamaged pack.

..AND

...since we keep on spending more than ever on their ever repetitive vf-1 's, they'll show us how much they care about us, releasing the (WOW!!!) 1/48 LOW VIZ battledamaged..WOO HOO!

oh but that is not all!

no no!

It's X-mas time! and what not better way to celebrate 2k5's coming with the never ever released VF-1a X-mas on macross city special valk??

...yay

[Lucifer]

..DId i forget to say i'm sick of having my room full of f-1's in all living hell colors avaible??

[bsu legato]

As far as Yamato insider news goes, Graham had this to say in the "Launch Arm" thread:

Also, unfortunately my main contact at Yamato Japan is no longer directly involved in the day-to-day management of the Macross line, so my access to info is not as good as it used to be. I'm not that close to the guy now in charge of Macross product development

[Agent ONE]

As far as Yamato insider news goes, Graham had this to say in the "Launch Arm" thread:

Also, unfortunately my main contact at Yamato Japan is no longer directly involved in the day-to-day management of the Macross line, so my access to info is not as good as it used to be. I'm not that close to the guy now in charge of Macross product development

Yeah, but Graham's contact is the CEO... The CEO usually knows all, or at least can find out.

[ewilen]

canibalized sales

I suspect this is the crux of the matter. If you know what Yamato's going to release well in advance, you might create a fixed budget in your mind, picking and choosing among all the scheduled items. In effect, the item currently being released has to compete with all the upcoming releases. By withholding information, Yamato encourages people to focus on the current release.

[identityno]

That's what companies do. But I maintain that Yamato could do what I suggested above— have distant, bogus release schedules. If they plan to release a Monster in March '04, tell us the release will be the end of the '04... Until the next trade show, then give us a release date of March. It is kind of reverse-lying. No one is going to quit buying their stuff now in hopes of saving up for the Monster at the end of next year— we will keep on buying just as we are. But when we get this all-of-a-sudden new release date, then everything will change. To top it off, everyone would think that they are the corporate hero of getting things to market way early— good reputation, no other company has such a rep. It also gives them leeway to push things back from their own target release date of March (for instance; this is just a theoretical example) if they need to take time for extra product polishing, and yet still come in before their announced release date of the end of '04— in this case, they still come out as heros and release a better product, to boot.

This would essentially just be what they are doing already— they let everyone know what is next a couple of months before the product will hit store shelves. The difference is simply that we will all know what they have in the kitchen for later on, although no one will know how soon these news products will hit market, so we won't stop buying stuff in the meanwhile.

Good strategy, but companies don't like it. Releasing some good info along with misinformation would be a devious tactic, but, unlike every other devious corporate tactic that businesses use, this one would put the customer ahead /and/ make the company look good.

— Gregory Scott

Edited September 24, 2003 by identityno

[Air Elijah]

Over on Niketalk.com we generally see Nike's upcoming shoes months in advance due to catalogues and samples making the rounds to stores. There are also a handful of people with connections at Jordan Brand that drop info on the upcoming Jordans well before samples are seen. It doesn't hurt business and actually builds hype I think. It probably also gives valuable feedback on what fans think of their plans.

It's weird that Yamato and other companies are so secretive. They would probably have fewer complaints from people if they were less secretive and listened to feedback on products well before release. The Japanese tend to be a bit different though...

[blugts]

Any 1/48 Vf-1a canon fodder from Yamato soon? I like those brown Valks.

[FlyingPika]

1/48 yf-19's, 21's and 11's are comming out eventually, although this has not been put down on paper yet.

But they a long way away

*sigh*

[LePoseur]

Not that this means much of anything but there was a noticeable shift in Yamato's policy after the release of Toynami's MPC. Up until that point we, through Graham, had production model shots and what not well ahead of the toy's release, like well over six months in some cases.

Why this has changed could be any number of reasons...

Yamato was an up-and-comer who needed to generate support well before a new product's launch - now it doesn't have too, or, at least, not as much. (Good reason I believe)

They might have gotten tired of us constantly nitpicking and complaining about their work. (doubtful, but still possible)

and the final one, and I don't really mean this as a slam on Toynami, but early MPC pictures showed a "bandai-style" backpack this was later changed, sometime after the release of the 1/60's pictures/product and the final release of the MPC, to follow the same style Yamato used. In return, Yamato seemed to hold all their pictures of the 1/48 FAST packs until after the MPC ones were released - not to mention the 1/48 itself, news of which was spilled in the forums months before an official announcement (oh and nice cover-up guys, special hat's off to the Captain ). I think Yamato just doesn't want to show stuff when they don't know (or maybe do know) who might be listening.