AcroRay

I dimly recall back in the 80s I had purchased a couple of heavy or light Missile Regult plastic kits and built them as standards, because I couldn't find any standard-version kits. They were just the standard-type kits, with an additional sprue of parts for the launchers and alternate hardpoint. Toynami's missile-types have the weapon hardpoint replaced with the missile launcher mounting, and its very thoroughly glued tight. You could probably mod it to be a standard, but you'd have to do some cutting & painting.

I believe a couple of months ago, Daisuke indicated that they were completed but waiting in China for shipment, pending more preorder sales. They have to be paid for before they're shipped, which requires enough preorder sales. The deal is usually half-down for manufacturing, and the remainder before shipping. You have watched Macross, haven't you?

Lots - big & little, diecast or plastic or vinyl, Macross and Orguss and Dorvack & others...

W00t! Yay! They're here! Uh-oh! I'm broke! Hope it takes a couple of weeks for BBTS to get their's, or my preorder is sunk...

Takatoku 1:55 VF-1S Super Valkyrie [recent Bandai re-issue]. Essential. No Macross toy is more fun.

CD Japan has them.

I've got one each of the 3 Regults so far (standard, heavy, DYRL). Variations of a design so early at the outset can cause buyer fatigue, certainly. But on one hand they are probably very much in a position where they have to maximize profit off of the first design to re-invest in the line for later, new product. They've likely made a bet that due to a long history of demand for the underserved Regult and the relatively cheap price of the products, people would be much more willing to purchase them even if the are initially only a short series of different styles of the same product. But, Mechapilot77, it's unfair to consider you or purchasers like you to be a 'problem'. I mean, there's only so many resources many collectors have to spend on a particular interest. Some collectors simply don't need every variation of the Regult, even if they're relatively cheap. Those are just the challenges of developing product - even the best of products - and the decisions on investing in when, where and how to sell them. Personally, I would probably only get one or two of the various styles of these myself if they weren't just within the range of what I can spend, and spaced out rather evenly over time. If they all came out at once, I'd probably only be able to get one or two and be forced to pass on others unless they remained available for a long time. It's a gamble Toynami has made around a number of factors. Sometimes that's all you can do. But, d4mning the company and all its staff just because some of their latest product is stalled is unfair and, frankly, indicative of some serious ignorance. I've got a lot of friends making livings in the independent segments of the toy industry, and it just personally burns me up when some people vomit up crap all over message boards about folks like that. It's rude and very tiny-minded.

Gosh, I hope they do this around the end of the year, after I've got freelance checks from a dozen football games, Soccer finals and a couple of basketball games in the bank. Summer's too dry a time for HLJ sales!

Toynami must know how to do their jobs to some extent if you're so enamored by their product that you're inspired to flame the whole company and all its staff so rudely for depriving your poor little self of their products. Jeeze. If you're so disgusted by the sandbox, then just get out and find something else on the playground to play with. The next North American exclusive Macross product is made and sitting in China, waiting to ship to a country where there just isn't enough Macross interest to make the minimum order... even though you can preorder the things all over the place and they've been pushed to every retailer who might even be remotely interested. Who's fault is that? And how stupid would Toynami have to be to launch into even more Macross products for a market that isn't quite interested in the last inexpensive, nicely made one that 'fans demanded'? I think that sadly says more about the Macross hobby here in North American than it says about Toynami. It says the reality is that Macross/Robotech fans in North America are organized and vocal enough to make their demands heard, but not anywhere nearly as populous enough as manufacturers and importers hoped would justify new products. Unless you're making Lego-mates, PVC superhero figures or have Hasbro's credit line, it looks damn tough to be a toy company in North America trying to make or sell Japanese robots.

A late-added "Very nice!". I like the camo. Very futuristic, yet intuitive. Great work!

I got my preorder in. Pony-up, gang!

Wow, that's some pretty serious eraser collecting there, Totoro! (Sorry I didn't respond to this earlier.) Really something to see. Thanks for the pictures and the exhaustive details! The sculpts on these little guys & gals are really amazing. The Super Real Type ones make beautiful small sculptures in their own right - if they were usually bent and contorted into unnatural poses. The medium-sized Spartan that was included in the collection I obtained was bent, and I boiled/heated & reformed it. The adjusted pose lasted for several months, but then slipped back into the drunken tilt it started with... :-( I got a couple of those SD decals in a couple of Gundam erasers a friend sent me during the same period the Macross ones came from. Never got any of the Macross SD's unfortunately. That Nosjadeul-Ger is up to something objectionable, I think!

After all this time, all we get is an upskirt shot?

Carumba! Amazing!

It has not been released. Macrossworld member "Maiden Japan" is the designer. I believe Toynami is still hoping to release it. However, it was not displayed at the recent International Toy Fair in New York city. But other new Toynami Valkyrie toys were: http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=29325&view=findpost&p=898020

Very nice! I'm not certain if I'll get all of them, but the two-seaters are absolutely on my wish-list. I think I can live without the GBPS if it doesn't show for a couple of quarters. Oh, my aching wallet! Glaug in June? Just in time for my birthday!

Oh, yeah! Those fit my collection perfectly!

I'd prefer the Mt1st VF-1D, personally. And keep it under $100.

I asked one of my collector friends in Japan how Bandai's Imai reissue quartet sold, and how popular they were. He reports that they were very popular with collectors and builders - especially those who were fans back when the kits were originally released - and sold out at many shops. So they were a success, apparently. Here's hoping Bandai will give us a few more sometime soon! Has anyone heard any news about them?

Yeah! I kind of wondered if my point of reference - being about 28 years or so ago - was at all useful! That was even before that new-fangled "System Injection"!

No - those Destroid kits were by Imai, and are far higher quality than Arii's 1/100 versions of the same mecha. The 1/72 kits are around 7 inches or so, give or take depending on the Mech. The Defender and the Spartan are rather nicely articulated. They just lack poly-caps, and tend to have seams in inconvenient places (at least, if you're used to modern Bandai and Kotobyukia kits). There are details pictures of them, and instruction scans, in the Imai repop kit thread here in the model section. They're also far more articulated than the original series of Gundam kits, as well as more articulated than Takara's /172 & 1/48 Dougram kit series from the same era. There is a rather wide range of quality and articulation across the spread of Imai and Arii's vintage Macross kits. They do feel as though they were being hastily driven through a number of different sub-contractor design firms. Some are excellent, so merely solid. Others can be terrible. I built a huge number of them back in the 80s when they were 'new'.

I hit Daisuke Fukuda up with a PM last week about the Toynami upcoming schedule, and he said everything was on schedule for release. Light Missile Regult on the way. Glaug is in tooling, due at retail in April. More info and VF products to be displayed at Toy Fair next month. Personally, I'm stiking with the Toynami 1/100 VF series due to price, design and availability of variations. Bandai's series is nice enough, certainly, but 1/100 Valks just aren't worth that high a price tag to me personally, especially when they don't actually get played with more than they simply stay on display. (I wouldn't discourage anyone from pursuing them, however.)

Sweet! Very very nice. I love those old kits. They're not too badly made, and they've got a HUGE amount of nostalgia value for me. I've got a Vexar waiting for a build someday, to replace the original one I had back in high school in the 80s.

I've got the Toynami 1/100 Millia with the FAST Pack add-on, and the SDCC exclusive Stealth "Veritech". Both look really nice, although they are a bit fragile. If you're into display rather than play, they'll suit you well. They also look amazing with panel line work, and if you add on all the little decals that come with the FAST Pack kits. Don't pay a huge amount of money for them, though. Careful shopping can net the regular releases for you fer cheap. They're also great with the excellent Toynami Regults, and Yamato's 1/100 Konig Monster. Plastic is a combination of ABS, POM and some PVC poly-caps on the innermost joints. The PVC poly-caps have a tendency to crack once in a while and will make for loose shoulder joints, but a little glue or careful posing will accomodate it. Seriously, if you only pay between $10-$20 for one, you won't feel too bad if it's got a couple of little flaws. That's like cheaper than dirt as Macross toy costs go.

I'm curious if these are the same sculpts used for some of the rubber eraser products. These were pictured in the back of some of the THIS IS ANIMATION Macross volumes back in the 80s. Neptunesurvey, I'm looking forward to seeing your photo!