Yamato 1/60 Regult w/ pilot

[Valkyrie addict]

pssst!! I doubt that block of resin is fully detailed and mechanical...

I bet the Moscato 1/72 model kit, which was 1/3rd the price of what Yamato is asking now is a million times better

by the way, the 1/60 Q-rau failed because it was a piece of sh!t, it has almost no articulation, it can't be posed and can barely stand, a lot of fans put up with it with the hope that the master of all repaints Yamato could spend a few bucks on green paint and release the TV Q-Rau which was what everyone wanted

10 years later, Yamato has the odacity to re-release the 1/60 Q-Rau along with the new 1/60 v2 line at an incredible marked up price for a 10 year old piece of sh!t toy, OR COURSE nobody bought it

[arrow]

It still is cool thought to have it in 1/60 scale. I could never justify paying that but cool for it to exist.

[macrossnake]

Wow, this thread made me go from "OMG! FINALLY! THANK YOU, YAMATO!" to "F*&K OFF with your web exclusive bullshit and model kits. I'm out." I have been a loyal fan of this company for years now, and their latest moves have been pretty much a series of kicks to the faces of collectors. I love my Macross collection, but I'm royally fed up with all this "exclusive this" and "model kit" that nonsense. I'm not one to "rrrrrrrrrrrage" normally, but seeing this stuff just really frustrates me to no end. First Bandai screws us over with their constant web exclusives, then Yamato continues to explore this same path. These things are expensive to come by at normal retail, never mind having to use a third party to acquire them at an even more marked up price due to the ridiculous limited nature. I buy Yamato TOYS because I don't want to assemble, paint, etc. model kits. And yeah, I bought my Milia and Max Q-raus at full price. And I would do it again if they made more enemy mecha.

It is 1/2000 SDF1 event all over again... Only it is worst this time. Just as SDF1, Regult or many enermy mechs are in many Macross fans' (1/60) wish list for years. Now many dreams are shattered...

In the coming months, a smaller scale, less details mass production version of SDF1 Toy is going to be released.... However, I believe the chance that Yamato do a 1/60 mass production version Regult is very slim.

It is because this 'expensive' kit is already a 1/60 scale. I can't see Yamato will make a cheaper mass production version (in the same scale - 1/60) to anger all the (1/60 expensive kit) buyers in the near future.

Edited May 15, 2010 by macrossnake

[regult]

it seems most of us are really pissed off at Yamato for web exclusivity. At this point I think it should be obvious to everyone this is the way of the future, if Japan's economy doesn't flourish soon, there will be increasingly more web exclusives (And to Japan market only). Of course not everyone is cursing at Yamato, as I said, I am wondering who on Earth would pay 40,000 Yen for this resin kit, is anyone here getting it?

[Cent]

Actually I would say it is better (to me and most fans who can't afford it) if Yamato don't make the figure at all. How human psychology perceive happiness is not always on linear scale. I would be very happy if Yamato make a Regult within my budget. But I would be happier if Yamato never make the Regult in the first place if it is priced out of my reach than not able to own one paying a reasonable amount. Given that I believe my budget on Yamato toys is above average and most fans would follow the same human psychology. By applying utilitarianism principle to aggregate the amount of happiness of all Macross fans, it seems not having a way too expensive Regult is better than having one.

So by that line of logic, anything you can't reasonably afford is decreasing your utility... And thus you are constantly pestering Porsche to either make things cheaper for you or not produce at all right? Well good luck on that endeavor.

[eugimon]

man, some people are so spoiled. You know what, we're not entitled to every little thing. If you can't afford it, it's your own damn fault and not the fault of a company who is making a niche product for a tiny niche fan base.

I just can't wait till the usual suspects start hurling insults at people who do actually go out and buy it. "HOW DARE YOU HAVE MORE DISPOSABLE INCOME THAN ME!!!"

Edited May 15, 2010 by eugimon

[crasis]

Wow, seriously? Some of you guys are actually going to defend Yamato for this? SERIOUSLY? I admit, comments like "I wish they didn't make it at all" are ridiculous, but wow. No wonder they get away with pulling this kind of garbage over and over, when their fans will just eat it up. For the record, I could easily afford to buy this regult, but I absolutely refuse to, based on the fact that A) I don't paint/assemble model kits, which is why I always purchased Yamato TOYS in the first place; and B) they are out of their minds with this price and strategy and I simply can't support it. Also, I have been a big fan of the company since the first 1/60 v1 and am very vocal in my praise of their work over the years. I don't think I ever wrote a single negative thing about Yamato until the SDF-1 debacle recently, so I'm not "one of THOSE guys."

I seem to recall a massive backlash against pictures of a proposed VF-0 1/100 scale line awhile back that actually caused Yamato to stop and rethink their strategy with that piece. If more people took that stance instead of bending over, maybe Yamato would look at this differently. But again, I'm just going to get flames and "sarcasm" for this post, so I don't even know why I'm bothering.

[eugimon]

No, I'm not defending Yamato, I'm criticizing the mentality of people who cry and moan over a freaking toy. If you don't like it, don't get it. But just like the 1/2000 SDF "debacle" that sold out well before the cut off date, I'm sure the regults will do just fine.

edit: And I have to laugh, ten years ago Macross fans were dropping a 1000 USD in order to get their hands on a 20 year old toy and bragging about it. Now we're seeing toys that we only dreamed of and all we can do is complain.

Edited May 15, 2010 by eugimon

[regult]

what if the people who are complaining about pricing are those who originally would have bought this? just a hunch

[eugimon]

what if the people who are complaining about pricing are those who originally would have bought this? just a hunch

Maybe, but let's be realistic here. Even out of Macross fans, how many are going to buy a giant enemy mecha? I know people here jump and down and say they will, but 30 people in a poll on a tiny forum representing a tiny fan base?

It's a niche product for a tiny fan community. It's a freaking egg with chicken legs, I just don't see it selling well even if it were priced at 25 bucks and sold at wal-mart.

[ntsan]

I guess this is Yamato's new way of milking money, charging outrageous price for DIY kits

[Vi-RS]

what if the people who are complaining about pricing are those who originally would have bought this? just a hunch

I will get one when everthing is final.

Like Eugimon mentioned before, I paid $1000 for a Takatoku Super VF-1S combo, the only white Takatoku VF-1S, 10 years ago. Now I can get 6 or 7 Yamato V2 in different paint scheme with that kinda of money. In the old days, we didn't even have the whole line.

Now Yamato has pretty much done all VF-1 variants, with some rare variants keep popping out, and they are doing the Regult in the same scale.

Don't you guys think you should show some respect and appreciation instead for this company? Which company ever contributed themselves to do more than 10 schemes of VF-1 in the same consistant scale? Destroids? Q-Rau?

[ff95gj]

It is understandable to do exclusives for items that have no guaranteed sales. The VF-X, the Angelbird, the 1/60 Regult. The Regult sells for 40000yen not because it's a small production run, but more that it's resin kit.

I hate Bandai for selling the Fire Valk fists in a separate set, and sometimes Bandai put should-be-regular-items onto the web exclusive list. But I appreciate Yamato trying to bring on every model in the original show.

[EXO]

I agree. The frustration is the fact that you can't afford all these exclusives, especially when they begin to pump them out at the same time. We had the SDF-1, Max and Kaki TV 1/48s around the same time as all the flood of regular releases. It's a lot different from the times when we use to buy one single 1/55 for almost $800, well I've never done that but... I think the thing that upsetted me was the fact that they didnt say what the price for the 1/2000 SDF-1 was right away. But learning the regult's price at the same time spares you from the blow of dreaming of owning one.

[Roy Focker]

I guess this is Yamato's new way of milking money, charging outrageous price for DIY kits

Which makes me so made about it. For the sake of agrument, let say Yamato can't sale a completed/painted Regult for less than $200. That's a price that would still make people upset. We would complain that it's just a Toy. By making it DIY kit they can pretend that its something special and triple the cost. By spending less on labor they charge you more for it.

If there wasn't so many VF-1 toy before the DIY VF-1 you can bet they would have charged $1000 for it too.

[Kicker773]

Sad for consumers, but I guess from a business stand point its a good direction to guarantee business. Make one item exclusive with a huge price tag equivalent to perhaps 10-20 regular items if it was sold in stores. Sad day indeed.

[jenius]

Yamato should have made this a 1/72 kit. Then, if it sold well to the model builders in their favorite scale maybe that would have been an indication of possible 1/60 toy scale sales. Oh well, I still think this thread ought to be in the models section. I would expect it to be full of models fans either thrilled about it or poopooing it... not full of angry toy fans upset about a model being made (although i understand it means a toy version is now unlikely). AFAIK, model fans see some pretty pricey products, I doubt they'll hit as much sticker shock as the toy fans who balk at Toynami's Battlepod costing nearly $30.

[Roy Focker]

I think it is in this section because we all thought Yamato was a Toy Company.

[EXO]

Plus it's more relevant to this line of toys. It's not like we put stuff here by accident.

[Valkyrie addict]

I don't complaint because I can't afford them, I complain because Yamato is using this web exclusive limited excuse to overprice their toys

despite all the bitching everyone does about Yamato QC, price, etc, their Macross line sells well everytime, we at the forums have been pestering Graham to tell Yamato to make enemy mechs, they KNOW people want enemy mechs, they KNOW the Regult will sell well, they KNOW people were dumb enough to pay 2000 for their stupid SDF-1, so of course, they will also mark up this because they KNOW it's something everyone has been longing for

I don't blame Yamato, I blame all of us for allowing this to continue

Yamato has an excuse to always overprice their stuff

1/48 = expensive when released, excuse = perfect transformation (in the beginning had easy break BP8 part and saggy arms on fighter more)

1/60 Zero = the use of CAD design (floppy mess and exploding arm)

1/60 Plus = CAD design, a lot of movable parts for a complicated transformation (floppy mess, crooked gunpod)

1/60 Destroid = small number production

re-released 1/60 Max & Miria Q-Rau with no improvement whatsoever = because there are too many idiots in the world

1/2000 SDF-1 expensive resin

1/60 VF-22S = web exclusive (IT'S A REPAINT, no foldildo or stand)

and now the regult

the regult, which is basicly an egg with two legs, no transformation required, around easy 4 articulations parts

excuse, they decided to use expensive resin again

oh well, I'll be awaiting to hear how quickly the Regult got sold out

[anime52k8]

pssst!! I doubt that block of resin is fully detailed and mechanical...

I bet the Moscato 1/72 model kit, which was 1/3rd the price of what Yamato is asking now is a million times better

Even if John's Regult has more detail, it's still going to cost less because A) it's smaller, B) it's made of cheaper materials and C) because John is a fan who makes these things because he likes doing it and not a large company that has to pay for R&D/Marketing/manufacturing/etc. while still managing to turn a profit.

[bluemax151]

It's a niche product for a tiny fan community. It's a freaking egg with chicken legs, I just don't see it selling well even if it were priced at 25 bucks and sold at wal-mart.

Although it was obviously less detailed and smaller matchbox/playmates already did that cheaper

I cannot say I agree with the "Well, you're just lucky/be thankful they even made one" crowd but I'm seriously curious about what they were thinking about when marketing these.

Yamato's release assortments(?) remind me a lot of McHalos and their web exclusive love affair Mattel respectively. Web exclusives aren't much of a bother because of proxy services (or HLJ) but if they seriously can't afford to release anything but a generous amount of repaints of the same VF-1 design to make desired profits I fear for them. At some point you'd think they'd have to tap into something new like McFarlane has been doing with their newer waves that are almost all new sculpts. maybe all these expensive DIY kits are their new primary direction? Even Blue Box Toys(BBi) doesn't participate in the 1/6th or 1/18th market anymore, they've moved on.

by the way, the 1/60 Q-rau failed because it was a piece of sh!t, it has almost no articulation, it can't be posed and can barely stand, a lot of fans put up with it with the hope that the master of all repaints Yamato could spend a few bucks on green paint and release the TV Q-Rau which was what everyone wanted

10 years later, Yamato has the odacity to re-release the 1/60 Q-Rau along with the new 1/60 v2 line at an incredible marked up price for a 10 year old piece of sh!t toy, OR COURSE nobody bought it

Yes, exactly. Thank you! Edited May 16, 2010 by bluemax151

[eugimon]

Although it was obviously less detailed and smaller matchbox/playmates already did that cheaper

I cannot say I agree with the "Well, you're just lucky/be thankful they even made one" crowd but I'm seriously curious about what they were thinking about when marketing these.

Yamato's release assortments(?) remind me a lot of McHalos and their web exclusive love affair Mattel respectively. Web exclusives aren't much of a bother because of proxy services (or HLJ) but if they seriously can't afford to release anything but a generous amount of repaints of the same VF-1 design to make desired profits I fear for them. At some point you'd think they'd have to tap into something new like McFarlane has been doing with their newer waves that are almost all new sculpts. maybe all these expensive DIY kits are their new primary direction? Even Blue Box Toys(BBi) doesn't participate in the 1/6th or 1/18th market anymore, they've moved on.

Yes, exactly. Thank you!

I think there's a pretty defined line between "how dare you make something I can't afford!" and "how dare you criticize X company". I really don't care if people buy it or don't buy it. I've never particularly cared for the Regult and I would never pay more than 25 bucks so I've pretty much written off ever owning one. I'm just commenting on the level of angry entitled rhetoric here. All the baseless speculation and arm chair quarterbacking on how yamato should be running their business.

And I'm not going to defend the Q-rau. I agree with pretty much every criticism leveled against it. But let's look at the destroids. Great sculpt, tons of detail, even a gimmick or two, great posability (given the limitations of the design), decent price point and even that wasn't enough to really move them off the shelves and most major e-stores ended up putting them on clearance to get rid of them.

Even with shows like Gundam it's hard to get high end enemy mecha. Even with transformers, it's Optimus that gets the repaints, the endless minor variations and tweaks while megatron languishes on the shelves collection dust. So if huge franchises like Gundam and transformers have a hard time pushing enemy mecha, just how likely is it that a walking egg that wasn't even the main villain mecha from 25 year old show is going to do well? Especially considering the current global economic situation.

[EXO]

Even if John's Regult has more detail, it's still going to cost less because A) it's smaller, B) it's made of cheaper materials and C) because John is a fan who makes these things because he likes doing it and not a large company that has to pay for R&D/Marketing/manufacturing/etc. while still managing to turn a profit.

yeah... but how much would it be if John designed the same exact regult at the same size, with all the articulations and included the 'articulated' soldier? I know for a fact also that the people that design the present Yamato Macross products are huge fans of Macross and other 80's mech shows. A few years ago people are complaining about how we never get toys like these in this scale but throughout most of Macrossworld's existence there's always been one company that produced Macross toys, just like Hasegawa has always made Macross models. It's just the nature of the present economics and material costs that makes producing things like this at a ridiculous price, and maybe it's crazy for Yamato to even try now, but I rather that they do than not at all.

Also... add the cost of licensing to the cost of producing John's kits and see how "cheap" his kits would still be. No offense to the Cap, I know he's not the one making the argument.

[anime52k8]

yeah... but how much would it be if John designed the same exact regult at the same size, with all the articulations and included the 'articulated' soldier? I know for a fact also that the people that design the present Yamato Macross products are huge fans of Macross and other 80's mech shows. A few years ago people are complaining about how we never get toys like these in this scale but throughout most of Macrossworld's existence there's always been one company that produced Macross toys, just like Hasegawa has always made Macross models. It's just the nature of the present economics and material costs that makes producing things like this at a ridiculous price, and maybe it's crazy for Yamato to even try now, but I rather that they do than not at all.

Also... add the cost of licensing to the cost of producing John's kits and see how "cheap" his kits would still be. No offense to the Cap, I know he's not the one making the argument.

that's exactly my point. John does amazing work, but his stuff is smaller, made from less expensive materials and isn't engineered to be bot a model AND a toy.

And clearly the people at Yamato are fans of Macross, why else would they devote such a large part of their business to making toys for it? But they're still a company, they have to be able to turn a profit form their products while paying for all the overhead a business of this nature has. John on the other hand is just one guy in his gurage making really nice models, he's not running a business and can get away with charging just enough to recoup the cost of making his kit's in the first place.

[hutch]

It's just the nature of the present economics and material costs that makes producing things like this at a ridiculous price, and maybe it's crazy for Yamato to even try now, but I rather that they do than not at all.

THIS

Yamato's testing the market with the 1/2000 resin kit SDF has apparently led to the 1/3000 that we'll be able to possibly purchase sometime soon in toy form.

Given that, it's entirely possible that this Regult kit with soldier may lead to being able to buy the soldier and/or the Regult, albeit with maybe less detail, at some point in the future.

With the number of toy companies that are just going out of business, not producing anything new, etc right now, I'm perfectly happy with what's going on with Yamato. They're at least giving the appearance of trying new things in order to move forward.

[EXO]

that's exactly my point. John does amazing work, but his stuff is smaller, made from less expensive materials and isn't engineered to be bot a model AND a toy.

And clearly the people at Yamato are fans of Macross, why else would they devote such a large part of their business to making toys for it? But they're still a company, they have to be able to turn a profit form their products while paying for all the overhead a business of this nature has. John on the other hand is just one guy in his gurage making really nice models, he's not running a business and can get away with charging just enough to recoup the cost of making his kit's in the first place.

So you're point is that John makes wonderful kits and offers them to people WITHOUT the cost of business. So how does that pertain to Yamato? I understand what you're saying, but I don't see your point. You have heard of the term "apples and oranges" right?

[anime52k8]

So you're point is that John makes wonderful kits and offers them to people WITHOUT the cost of business. So how does that pertain to Yamato? I understand what you're saying, but I don't see your point. You have heard of the term "apples and oranges" right?

my point is that saying John's kits are better while still being cheaper (which is as far as I can tell what Valkyrie addict is trying to say in the first part of this post >here<) isn't a valid criticism of Yamato's regult because they're too completely different situations.

[bluemax151]

And I'm not going to defend the Q-rau. I agree with pretty much every criticism leveled against it. But let's look at the destroids. Great sculpt, tons of detail, even a gimmick or two, great posability (given the limitations of the design), decent price point and even that wasn't enough to really move them off the shelves and most major e-stores ended up putting them on clearance to get rid of them.

Even with shows like Gundam it's hard to get high end enemy mecha. Even with transformers, it's Optimus that gets the repaints, the endless minor variations and tweaks while megatron languishes on the shelves collection dust. So if huge franchises like Gundam and transformers have a hard time pushing enemy mecha, just how likely is it that a walking egg that wasn't even the main villain mecha from 25 year old show is going to do well? Especially considering the current global economic situation.

I agree with you for the most part but Gundam is kind of a bad example because the Zaku II is arguably as popular if not more so than the notorious Gundam itself.

I think you could make a pretty strong argument that Yamato designed the Q-rau and Destroids to fail. So in a way it's really their fault for making it a self fulfilling prophecy.

No, I don't think a pod would really be more "popular" than either the Destroids or the Q-Raus but wouldn't the smart thing to do then in a "bad economy" be offering something really cheap as a Yamato shop exclusive? not something really expensive? Maybe they'll do both? I mean this is kind of contradictory to what Graham had mentioned about their conservative ambitions for this year. I suppose maybe Bandai has forced their hand by moving into the Macross and M7 licenses.

[anime52k8]

I think you could make a pretty strong argument that Yamato designed the Q-rau and Destroids to fail. So in a way it's really their fault for making it a self fulfilling prophecy.

really? please make that argument then, because I can't see how that would be the case.

[pondo]

Okay, toynami just made a 1/100 toy regult for $25 that people are happy with. Why the heck can't yamato do a 1/60 version of that for under $100?

[EXO]

my point is that saying John's kits are better while still being cheaper (which is as far as I can tell what Valkyrie addict is trying to say in the first part of this post >here<) isn't a valid criticism of Yamato's regult because they're too completely different situations.

Ah, I see. We're on the same side of the argument. I misread your first reply to Valkyrie Addict. My fault! (blame exo!)

[VF5SS]

1/60 VF-22S = web exclusive (IT'S A REPAINT, no foldildo or stand)

Yeah you're totally wrong. All three VF-22S were widely available and the VF-22S features new parts and is not just a repainted YF-21. The Fold Booster (you look really immature by continuing to echo the stupid pet name) was not included with the YF-21 and I didn't expect them to throw it into the VF-22S. The stand is pretty insubstantial since the original Sv-51/YF-21 stand is terrible.

[Tober]

Has any reason been given as to why they are using HD Resin instead of a more typical injection plastic like the Fan Jet? If it's a kit why are they charging so much? Or is it partially assembled like the SDF-1? At least the unassembled VF-1S was less expensive than the toy.

Is it known if it will be using color resin or just they matte gray in the preview pic?

So conflicted

[EXO]

No, I don't think a pod would really be more "popular" than either the Destroids or the Q-Raus but wouldn't the smart thing to do then in a "bad economy" be offering something really cheap as a Yamato shop exclusive? not something really expensive? Maybe they'll do both? I mean this is kind of contradictory to what Graham had mentioned about their conservative ambitions for this year. I suppose maybe Bandai has forced their hand by moving into the Macross and M7 licenses.

Maybe Yamato is using these expensive kits to make possible the more affordable versions to the masses. It's not like they miscalculated the 1/2000 by mass producing it and having it sit on the shelves. Maybe they thought that 100 pieces sold to hardcore rich collectors was a safer bet than outright manufacturing it. Then they were surprised by how fast it sold out. Having a kit out there for people willing to shell out the bucks to produce smaller actual toy versions for regular collectors (assuming that the price will be affordable) is a win win for fans, but not enough to stop people's griping. A few years ago Graham stated that Yamato had no interest in producing a Macross toy. I'm glad they changed their mind. And if they had to do it in such an unorthodox manner then so be it.

I bet you anything if the economy and manufacturing prices were similar today to 8 years ago, we would have never seen the 1/48s. Producing something at that scale back then at an untested market seems like it's a bit more of a gamble. Of course it was the success of the 1/48s that allows the production of the similarly sized valks toys (size not scale) that don't have as much schemes to milk. If it was done today we'd probably see a resin 1/48 scale valkyrie as web exclusives. I'm waiting for the 1/32 resin version. LOL.

But back to the regult... I'm going to try hard as heck to get the 1/60 version. Hopefully, with it's success Yamato will choose to go with a 1/100 scaled mass production. If anyone got the Toynami vinyl version, then they know that that would make a pretty good size toy. If they did I'll would probably get a bunch of those to stand next to my Bandai Hi-Metal VF-1 collection... I just hope they have the license to produce enemy mechs at that scale. If not I hope Bandai does it.