AcroRay

The release could go either way. Bandai could mark them up as 'collector editions' in limited quantities, or be just as likely to try to pop them out cheap like the last run with a wider distro. Depends on which buyer segment they think they'll get their best sales at. Some of that will depend on how much cleaning and repair the tooling needs, and what special considerations need to be made if they're standardized to injection molding setups that Bandai doesn't have active in their production lines right now. I'd like to hear what the folks at HLJ might have asked Bandai and been told about the effort. Admittedly, these are a bit below the quality of current kits. But if priced accordingly, I'm happy with a kit tooled up to earlier - even antiquated standards. There is a segment of the hobbyist population that does appreciate 'vintage kits', which I think these qualify as. I would shell out $20 for the old 1/200 Monster kit. Oh - and way to go Bandai with that Destroid Monster test shot at Shizuoka. Why do they always have people set these things up who have no idea how to pose an articulated kit in an appealing way? Thing looks like that poor 'surprise me' kitten from YouTube... Tickle-tickle-BOO! Agh!

I'd buy it, even if it was just the 1/100 scaled up to 1/55. Heck, I'd buy it especially if it was done that way. A classic chunky buddy for my classic chunky Valkies!

It seems close to 1/100. He might be able to squish into the Toynami Regult: (With some irony, I'll note that the Matchbox Zentraedi figure is actually 'made in Japan'...) Today, BBTS sent me notice that my preordered Heavy Artillery version was in-stock and ready to ship. Whoo hoo!

Part of the article is careful instructions for how to pick a couple of favorites and send your choices to Bandai. They're soliciting input, not offering a release schedule - much as we'd hope for one. The Monster at Shizuoka may have just been an example of potential product for marketing purposes, rather than an actual statement of upcoming product.

$400? Screw that. I'm glad I'm not married to the 1/60 format. She's an expensive b*tch indeed.

It's amazing that a company can get so large and complicated that they can actually forget they've got several TONS of metal tooling in their inventory!

I had the 1/200 Monster back in the 80s. Apart from some posing problems due to the lack of poly-caps, I thought it was a great, accurate kit. Notice they've got several of the SD kits on the voting list, along with the Quel-Quallie and a 1/5000 Macross. And the 1/72 Destroid Spartan. The 1/12 figure kits are on the list, too. But I can't imagine why they'd even bother. Those are truly out-dated by a huge array of other modern figure products.

In the June HOBBY JAPAN is an article covering Bandai's plans for vintage Macross kit re-releases. Sure, they've done that several times already. But the article shows a warehouse full of IMAI tooling, including the classic DESTROID MONSTER kit, and offers a poll they are (or will be) soliciting collector input on what kits to release - including the highly sought-after 1/100 ARMORED FACTORY. I've attached copies of scans, courtesy Super Robot Wars Hot News. Page 161 features the kit list on the lower right side of the article. On page 162 the tooling is pictured. The Destroid Monster is bottom center. Its amazing to see all that tooling standing ready to be cleaned up and loaded into the injectors - like a warehouse full of 'Arks of the Covenant'. For years, popular rumor had it that many of these kits had been scrapped. Obviously, Bandai can be said be a bit behind the race on some of this stuff. Hasegawa, and now Wave have been filling the gaps on a lot of these kits in these scales that Bandai has apparently had collecting dust in storage just shy of forever. Still, it would be a nice infusion of nostalgia for this collector to pick up some Imai kits I had missed in the 80s or traded/sold in the interviening decades... (Special thanks to MicroBry for looking over the article and telling me the details!)

Finished off my diecast Takatoku Destroid Defender collection a couple of weeks back!

Are we to expect a review of the Regult from you, then?

Thanks for the detailed photos and the comments, areaseven! I'm hoping to pick up the purple girl's one at some point, for my Valk knockoff collection. (It's like the modern version of Megaro Zamac...

Here are a couple of knockoffs of the 80's Mospeada gashapons, that I got from a vending machine here in the US back around 1990. Both are the same scale, sculpt and quality. Just different colors. (If any of you Mospeada collectors out there want to trade a Ride Armor or Legioss Soldier gashapon for one of these, I'd be game.)

I\'ve seen those occasionally at YahooJP auctions. I love the totally wild graphics! Roy Fokker karate-kicking the Zentraedi soldier is one of the best! The painted ones are beautiful. They would make great posters - images of a Macross time long past. Did anyone make giant circular Macross menko, like this Gundam one (in my collection)?

Just for the heck of it, I'll note that the Yellow Sub version also comes with a DYRL-style Zentran soldier holding a short rifle. So you get two kits in one!

Very nice! Neat and anime-looking!

That sort of deformation can happen as a result of improper de-molding during manufacture of the parts. So it's not necessarily any problems with the tooling. It usually happens during the head and tail of a manufacturing run. Larger runs of parts are generally pulled and checked at the start and near the end, then discarded. On smaller production runs, the pulls are more limited in quantity, so there's a larger quantity of pieces that might not normally be used. There's less 'fat' to trim on leaner productions, so to speak...

Since LLA was the subject of conversation a little while ago: I have an excellent-quality 1980s Japanese original VHS that I've transferred to DVD. Clean S-video stereo transfer, straight-play with no menu elements and 3-minute increment chapter points...

I have to strongly disagree with you there, Exo. If you'll tolerate me rambling a bit on that point: Vinyl toys in Japan have a history of several decades and literally hundreds of toys, and they've always been at least minimally articlated. Toynami's Regult is a bit bigger than Bandai's industry 'standard' size (used for most of their Godzilla figures), and contains a similar amount of articulation... more, if you give them the credit due for the Regult's ball-in-socket primary cannons. The vintage Takatoku Max VF-1J Battroid I posed my Regult with in one photo actually has 9 points of articulation - a couple more than the Regult and typical of the larger mecha vinyls of the day. Vinyl was adapted by the plamodel hobby back in the mid-1980s for static-pose kits (General Products - a division of the Gainax gang's efforts - was a pioneer in that.) that's still in use today, but it accounts for a significantly smaller segment of the vinyl figure hobby and doesn't touch the quantities of articulated vinyl ACTION figures that are a mainstay of the Japanese toy market. Toynami's Regult is an oddity to North American collectors, but it's a perfectly normal product for the market that Macross originated from. Maybe a little more stylish than the usual mass-market sofubi (maybe more like Toys Dream Project's variants), but 'normal'. The style of design typical of vinyl certainly isn't the same as modern solid-cast action figures, but they're a very different format of toy and a much lower price point - especially at larger production runs. If Toynami's Regult was produced in the huge quantities typical of - say - Bandai's Godzilla vinyls, then it would likely share the $10 SRP Bandai's standard vinyls carry, but would be much higher quality in comparison. As it stands, the Regult is much nicer than Y-MSF's similarly limited-run Godzilla vinyls, and much less expensive. I'd say anyone who had grown up with vinyl toys during their haydays of the 70s and early 80s (like me) would look at the Regult as a modern update of the toy style, without sacrificing the spirit of those toys. That's something I really appreciate about this, and look forward to with the line's future installments. These things have to be made for a very specific group of collectors, and the Regult's strength as a product is that it seems to be catering very well to that niche group and selling through to them - a really vital success in today's collectible toy market. I think it's rather ironic - and I get a chuckle from it - that Toynami's Regult seems to be often pegged as something of an oddity by a collector group where complex, multi material toys costing $100-$200 are the 'norm', but that it fits in quite well as an anime-accurate model in the simple material and low price point that established the property's mechandising sector. I wish there were more of these kind of things! It's just the damnedest neat thing for me I've seen in a while. Bring 'em on!

I'd like to get one and just build it unpainted. Like a test shot!

I do hope the Toynami 1/100 GBPS get a release, especially with the VF-1A variant. Beautiful work!

What does its Battroid mode look like? Very glad to hear you're doing it, but I'll pass, unfortunately. (Too pricey for me.)

When I was messing with mine to test the joints, that happened. Looked like the glue just didn't bind well because of the pre-painted part. Might be useful for mods later, but I haven't had time to explore that possibility yet.

The Glaug was among the top contenders in Maiden Japan's interest poll.

Amazing camo! I could see that totally blending into the cityscapes you usually see in MACROSS! ...But I guess I actually couldn't see it...

Awwwwww, Daddy's mad... but it looks like he can read, anime52k8!