Graham

Just for those of you who are not sure what tubes I am referring to. Graham

Here's a larger scan of the text. Graham

A few months ago, there was a thread where we discussed what is the function of those two tubes on the underside of the YF-19's chest. Some people thought they are chest guns, while others (me) thought they might be part of the transformation mechanism to lock the mecha together in fighter mode. In the end, there was no evidence either way to reach a firm conclusion. I personally dispute the chest gun theory, namely because no chest guns are mentioned on the Macross Compendium, which is the most accurate and official English language source of information on the YF-19 and a direct translation of Japanese source material. I couldn't find the old thread, so thought I'd start a new one as I possibly have some new information. Yesterday, after a couple of years of procrasinating, I finally broke down and purchased the Hasegawa YF-19 model. On the instruction manual, I was surprised to find what appears to be some lineart of the underside of the YF-19's chest area , which looks to be drawn by Kawamori and has some writting perhaps explaining what the chest tubes are. See pic below. Perhaps Renato would be good enough to translate, so we can end this mystery once and for all. Graham

Wife? Uh yeah, I seem to remember having one of those. Last time I saw her she was under that stack of Yamato cartons over there, next to the pile of unbuilt Hasegawa's Graham

Heh, I can just picture it, with no new Macross toys to spend their money on, hoards of MWers will be emerging pale and blinking from their homes into the sunlight for the first time in 5 years to actually get a life and spend their hard earned money on.........gasp........girls instead of toys! Graham

I agree with Sebastian, as the Macross OVA was aimed at fans, not the general anime watching public, a mass-market toy was pretty pointless and the fans (us) would have been better served by a larger scale 'collector grade' perfect variable version. Of course, I'm preaching to the choir here . While the PVC 1/100 VF-0S would be better than no VF-0 toy at all (just barely ), most of us here wanted a larger scale perfect variable version from the beginning.....sigh. Graham

It's true that the market was saturated by VF-1 toys from Yamato, Bandai, Banpresto and Toynami, but Macross is not just about the VF-1. Most of us here want large scale perfect variable VF-0A/D/S, SV-51 and VF-19FP toys. There's a distinct lack of these in the market at the moment. Graham

Bah. I'm not a chubby chaser, gimme nice slim asian women like Grace Park anyday. Graham

Actually, I was thinking about this today and wondering if HG preventing Yamato selling in the international market has really hurt Yamato's sales or not? Even if Yamato had been able to sell in the US and elsewhere at the lower prices they proposed, the toys are still not cheap mass-market toys by any means and so would not really appeal to the casual toy buyer. It's my opinion that Yamato's transforming Macross toys are only really of interest to Macross and RT fans. And let's face it, if those fans who are hardcore enough to want to buy Macross toys (i.e. most of Macrossworld ) will always find a way to get them regardless of any interference by HG or not. And we all know, it's hardly difficult importing Macross toys through online stores. Graham

Photos ASAP please. And I thought the YF-19 FAST packs were not sold at this WF due to the manufacturer being unable to get a licence from BW in time? Graham

So Kawamori DOES have the final say on his toys. I don't think Kawamori has the final say on all Macross products, but I know that he certainly did on some of the Yamato Macross toys, such as the 1/48 series. Graham

I remember the VF-17D in VF-X2 used a recharging beam gunpod instead of a standard gunpod as well as having a big beam bazooka type weapon, but I forget if the VF-22 in the game had a standard shell firing or beam firing gunpod. However, in the Dynamite 7 OVA, Gamlin's VF-22C was animated as having a beam gunpod IIRC and the forearm guns fired cannon rounds, instead of being beam weapons like they are on the YF-21. Not sure if this was an animation error though or official. Graham

It's already more than 10 years since the start of Macross 7, as the first episode aired in October of 1994. Macross 7 may be the exception to the norm. There is speculation that Bandai pretty much permanently has the license for Macross 7 transfoming toys (or has an extremely long-term license), due to their being a major sponsor of Macross 7. This has never been confirmed though. However, the impression that I got from Yamato when they were still talking to me was that the license for Macross 7 transforming mecha toys was still tied up. Although to be honest, I never sensed a great deal of desire on Yamato's part to venture into Macross 7 toys. Graham

I guess with a huge company like Bandai, they could afford to pay extra for the license, just to stop Big West complaining that they did nothing with it. Graham

Just like JsARCLIGHT, I grew up in the 70s, so the 12" figures (known as 'Action Man' in the UK), will always have a soft place in my heart. Never got into the 3 3/4" figures in the 80s. These new toys look awful. I think if I was still a kid I would have enough taste not to want them. And heck, they all look like they should be carrying a skate board or boom box . Graham

Not really a model builder, although I have bought many Macross kits (both plastic & resin) over the years. I used to be into transforming Macross kits, but the aforementioned problems of paint scratching, loosening joints and fragility, combined with the increased availability of Macross toys over the past 5 years, has turned me off transforming model kits. For me these days I like my toys transfoming and my model kits static for display. Graham

IIRC, my Macross Dynamite 7 book does show Gamlin's fighter as being a VF-22C. Have to check again when I get home. Graham

VF-11BFP all they way. I love the pilot sculpt. And of course the metal reinforced hips take away all the worry when playing with or transforming the toy. Graham

Glad you like the 1/65 VF-17 toy, it's one of my favorites as well. Yes, a bandai VF-22 toy would be cool, but don't hold your breath waiting for one . As for me, if Yamato stops making Macross toys, I'll probably just buy more old Macross plastic model kits and resin garage kits and commission sombody to build them for me. Graham

So to get back on topic, in the case of the YF-19 specifically, it maybe that Yamato's license to make Macross Plus transforming toys has already expired and they have chosen not to renew it. Or it could be that Big West was unhappy with Yamato's treatment of the license, i.e. their snails pace at making a YF-19FP and Big West decided not to let Yamato renew the license. A third possiblity, is that upon expiry of the Macross Plus transfoming toy license a third company offered a better price to Big West and bought up the license. This could potentially be good or bad news, as some big companies such as Bandai are rumored to sometimes buy a license and then just sit on it without making anything, just to prevent other companies from getting he license and making money. Graham

Big West (as well as many other master licence holders) does not grant just one all-encompassing master toy license to only one toy company. This is a common misconception that many people seem to have. Toy licenses (especially in Japan) are a complex issue. The master license holder (in this case Big West), will often sell licenses to several different toy companies in order to generate more revenue and also increase the across-the-board exposure for their anime property. Toy licences can also be quite specific, i.e. a toy license may just be granted for a specific scale or a specific type of toy (transforming, non-transforming, SD etc), or even for a toy made of a specific material. This is why there are often multiple toy companies making toys from a single anime at any given time. So for example lets take the VF-1. BW might grant a license to Banpresto for PVC Gashapon Figures, while at the same time giving a licence for 1/60 and 1/48 scale ABS and die-cast transforming toys to Yamato and at the same time sell another license to Bandai for 1/55 scale ABS and diecast transforming Valks. Toy licenses often are granted for a specific duration as well. In the case of BW toy licenses, I think they are for 2 years and then renewable should both parties be willing. Graham

Strange, given that the 1/100 VF-0S should have fewer parts and be slightly more simple than a perfect variable transforming toy, I would have thought that getting it from sculpt to prototype should have presented less problems than normal. Graham

I dunno, probably the only recent Yamato Macross items that haven't really sold well have been the 2 x Q-Raus. I guess the YF-21FP didn't do too good either as it's still pretty easy to find. Most of the 1/48 toys seem to have sold pretty well though (sold out in many cases) and I think sales of the VB-6 have been ok. While Macross Zero may not have been as poplar with fans as Macross Plus, it seems like Yamato are not giving it a chance to see if the toys would be popular and sell well. I still hold that if they release decent VF-0 & SV-51 toys, they will sell well. Of course the one surefire hot seller would be a nicely sculpted YF-19FP, but Yamato seems to have lost sight of this. I completely agree with Howard about the license and approval issue though. When I was still close with Yamato, one of their biggest complaints was that since the 1/48, Kawamori had become much more anal about approving the toy sculpts and often reject the sculpts several times, require time-consuming resculpts before giving final approval. The problem is made worse because Kawamori is an extremely busy guy at it sometimes takes up to 2 months to book a 30 minute appointment with him just to get his comments on the latest sculpt modifications. Graham

Great box mock-up and yes, it does look better than most of Yamato's efforts. Well, as Yamato seems to be moving away from the Macross toy business,and no other company seems interesting in taking over, I guess it is up to us fans to create those items that we want. Graham

Heh, nearly the whole set of SHE Macross kits up on Yahoo Japan Auctions if anybody has ¥400,000 to spare . Graham