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Scyla

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  1. Scyla

    Arcadia VF-5000G

    Scyla replied to daBlah!'s topic in Toys

    I think the issue is the scale of operation you are dealing with and some other commenters have already eluded to that. I assume the way Arcadia plans their production is totally different to what Bandai is doing. When Arcadia has decided on a new release they will open orders first and than see how many preorders they can collect from the wholesalers and individual customers. With that number in hand, they will go to an independent factory and book a production slot for as many units they want to produce. Hopefully the timing works out, otherwise the product is delayed (happens fairly often). I would imagine that Bandai doesn’t operate on a batch by batch basis the way that Arcadia does. Because they have so many different lines and IPs they would allocate far in advance the production slot for a given item. Of course they will do a market analysis to get an estimate how much they want to produce. However, after the numbers are set this won’t change anymore. After that they will give the retailers the numbers how much units they can expect which is then sold off at preorder day. Bandai just has to plan their production differently than Arcadia since they are a gigantic company. And they have different processes in place and are not that agile compared to small operation like Arcadia. Bandai's releases are usually never delayed which is an indicator to me that they planned their production lines in advance. Sure they have made to order items for their TWE releases but they also seem to have a predefined upper limit on how much they can produce. To my understanding is that in Japan these items are not a scarce as we believe they are and you are able to go to a store and pick one up. So it is not like Bandai is super off with their estimates (there are notable exceptions like the Metal Build EVA-01 but that got a reissue fairly quickly). Also big retailers like BBTS also don’t sell out quickly so I feel like Bandai thinks their production numbers are good especially since you don’t want to have big warehouses full of stock binding money. It is just that smaller stores focusing on exporting those toys from Japan can’t get enough stock either from Bandai directly or from their middle men. The only thing odd about it are shops like Amazon Japan and AmiAmi ( to my knowledge the biggest specialty goods store in Japan). But here it could be the case of customers with a foreign IP address seeing other (more limited) listings compared to customers from Japan directly. Which has been the primary market for Macross items for a long time now.
  2. Scyla
    Nice Arcee build @tekering. That reminds me that I have to build my own copy of the kit. I really wished Flame Toys would release some female Transformers in their Kuro Kara Kuri line (IDW Firestar maybe?). The better materials would make the more fragile designs sturdier and it would look nice on my display having not just buff robots fighting each other.
  3. Scyla
    New round of preorders for the Sword and Launcher Striker. Release date 07/24. Sword Striker (¥12800): https://www.anime-export.com/index.php?product=76025 Launcher Striker (¥12800): https://www.anime-export.com/index.php?product=76024
  4. Scyla
    Thank you for looking up and sharing the game models @mikeszekely. This line looks like an absolute winner. I would love to get the Starscream mold as Skywarp (love the Animated look) and a Nemesis Prime repaint. Seems unlikely but one can hope.
  5. Scyla
    Given that the ab extension is colored to match the standard Kaen colors I could imagine that MPG-07 will be a standalone release to celebrate the Dr. Yellow train. Given that the other Diaclone trains are mostly not real trains and/or would require extensive remolds I don’t know if Takara will release a full set of Trainbots in alternative, diaclone colors. Anyhow, I got a few Transformers I bought last year that were sitting in a warehouse until now. Here is the good, the bad and the ugly: The good: Nemesis Leo Prime. I really enjoyed this figure. So much so that he is probably my favorite Transformer I bought in 2023. I also got the MP version that is a terrible toy and several magnitudes worse compared to this mainline toy. Sure the lion legs as arm kibble will never not be awkward but he has such a nice transformation besides that. Love how the robot chest panels get inverted and fold into the chest and how the spike on the shoulder spike becomes the lion's tail. And the alt mode is an awesome and realistic toy lion. The bad: MPG Seizan. He is a remold of Suiken with a different train shell and a new head. Out of the box he is not as loose and flimsy as the other arm bot and I like the head sculpt with the faceplate. In the past I often said that these are awesome trains but I'll stop giving Takara credit for that since out of the 5 Trainbots I have none can roll on their set of tracks. I know model scale trains can be super expensive but if you are a train collector I would rather go that route. Terrible, parts forming, kibble ridden, robot mode. An unimaginative shellformer with a terrible arm mode: the Trainbots are the worst toys I bought in a long while and the arms are worse than the rest. The ugly: FoC Gamer Edition Cliffjumper. This toy is just awkward: awkward proportions with his missing lower abdomen, awkward tolerances with his backpack constantly popping off when you want to transform him to his awkward transformation were nothing really comes together. I especially question the decision
  6. Scyla
    Kapow Toys (a UK based collector shop) has it for £280 ($360/€325) but this includes already the 20% EU sales tax: https://www.kapowtoys.co.uk/product/macross-plus-dx-chogokin-yf-21-guld-goa-bowman-machine.html
  7. Scyla
    Rule of Cool? I'm sure there is a scientific explanation for it but my first guess would be because it is a cool looking and fun and engaging gimmick.
  8. Scyla
    I'm usually checking these boards on the weekends but I notices much less traffic (i.e. new posts) on Saturday and especially Sunday. So if you want more impact I would say the Monday to Friday is the way to go. I would say it fixes some of the issues. I’m a bit frustrated that it doesn’t seem to be included with regular Kaen which will be released next month since the toy is already a heavy parts former so why not go all the way. However, this whole set is already a huge disappointment for me, so I don’t think this will do much for my enjoyment of the set anyway. Maybe a 3rd party company will give MPG Raiden a new skeleton (like New Age Devastator for example) that will fix more issues once Kaen is released but we will see. [edit:] The real question is: why doesn’t Kaen form more of Raiden's torso anyway, instead of consisting of 95% hip kibble?
  9. Scyla
    Me too: I'm still debating if I should get a Metal Composite Z Plus because, even if it is a old release prone of yellowing, I love the gunship look of this variant of Gundam suits.
  10. Scyla
    Anime Export: https://www.anime-export.com/index.php?product=75697
  11. Scyla
    The cutoff for the smiley faces is a tad odd given that Space Police 2 has already printed microphones for the officers which is not that different from the hairdo on the Ice Planet figures but I digress. I guess the author had to make a cut somewhere. It’s just not the point I would have chosen. My favorite Minifig from that era is probably the Spyrus robot with the transparent helmet: I guess I should buy the book to encourage the author to do volume 2.
  12. Scyla
    I would be super interested in a book about "my" classic Lego Space themes which I would describe as the visor era from Futuron (1987) till Exploriens (1996). But since the cutoff date seems to be 1992 I assume it stops at Blacktron II and Space Police 2? This seems an odd split to me. I have no nostalgia for the visor-less "classic“ Space sets from Lego so for me a book covering 1978 - 1988 and another one for 1989 - 1996 would make much more sense to me. Do you know why the era for the book was chosen to cover these 14 years? I know it is pretentious off me to demand of the author to cater to my nostalgia it just makes no logical sense to me. How well does the book cover the Futuron - Space Police 2 lines? Or is the focus on the Classic Space sets?
  13. Scyla
    Yay! I'm happy for those who look forward having the dub on the BluRay but for me the English dub by U.S. Renditions was the worst part of M2 (I assume that’s what we are talking about).
  14. Scyla
    I got invoiced for the VF-19 Kai by HLJ. Very odd choice for the yellow tinted canopy glass. I don’t remember the VF-19 ever looking that way.
  15. Scyla
    Even with the tail, cow ears and horns I think this is the most human looking Mai Shiranui statue I’ve ever seen. More pictures here: https://www.bigbadtoystore.com/Product/VariationDetails/263730?o=1
  16. Scyla
    Thanks @mikeszekely I appreciate your insight in the Hasbro Pulse situation. I just to add one more thing and then I will be quite about the whole situation. I feel this is a case of a major corporation trying to mimic small scale operations that have a closer link to their customers, like other Kickstarter-esque endeavors and companies liker Arcadia, and terribly fail. Why not clearly communicate where the stock is coming from and how much is available. Is it more than a 100 units? Why not try to sell it to the people who missed out like the Taiwanese collectors or Zavvi? Is it only a couple of units? Why not sell them off in a charity raffle or auction and donate the earnings to a good cause? Supposedly, there was some charity angle to it but it was phrased quite vague. The items were hidden behind a $50 paywall, there was no real time to react to the announcement, the sale started add an inconvenient time, not every member got an email, etc. It feels like they tried doing something for the fans with the right intentions behind it but it failed because they are a multi billion corporation. I am super salty because I was one of the Zavvi customers whose order was cancelled so maybe it was not a big deal to others. And that is all I have to say about it.
  17. Scyla
    @MKT Out of all the Metroid games I played (and I played most of them) the only one I didn’t enjoy was the first one on NES. Just like many of it contemporaries it is has a lot of novel ideas but is so raw and limited by the technology of the time (and the players has a different mindset too). So if you enjoyed Super Metroid I can recommend Fusion and Dread which are direct sequels of Super Metroid and encompass Samus' story quite well. While I haven’t played it the AM2R unofficial remake of the second game would be a good add to the list as well. The Metroid Prime trilogy is awesome too and it still baffels me to this day that Nintendo managed for all its major franchises to not only to translate them into 3D games but also made most of them best-in-class versions (or found studios that could do it for them) were so many other game developers failed.
  18. Scyla
    Bummer. As one of the supporters that were "scammed" bei Zavvi that sent a mail to Pulse that Zavvi cancelled my order it hurts a little that Hasbro doesn’t think about those people first… …especially when miraculously additional stock shows up of a made to order item… …I feel like at this point it sounds plausible that that Hasbro just didn’t sent all the orders to Zavvi… …the more I think about it the angrier I get.
  19. Scyla
    Can you see if Victory Saber is still available (in Europe)? I don’t want to spend €50 for nothing.
  20. Scyla
    Wohooo backed!!!
  21. Scyla
    Also available at Anime Export for the low low price of ¥199800 (pay now): https://www.anime-export.com/index.php?product=75183
  22. Scyla
    Don’t say that! I might have to buy it now.
  23. Scyla
    I'm watching this 7 hours Metroid retrospective on YouTube and since most of the games are retro now I thought this thread was a good place to post it. It is also an interesting rundown on most of Nintendo's past consoles and an iconic, beloved character and a long lived series that was never super successful:
  24. Scyla
    @mikeszekely I am as puzzled by the rock Armorizers as you are. They probably wanted to to Rocklords but thought kids won’t play with robots that turn into sphere-like objects and thus they are now vehicles.
  25. Scyla
    Haha, sorry I meant "content". A Freudian slip maybe?
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