jenius

Just because a new scale comes along doesn't mean you need to junk the old! 1/72 would be smaller second generation toys. They'd be slight improvements based on feedback from the first generation. They'd also be slightly more basic thus making them cheaper to manufacture. Since they'd be cheaper to make that'd make it less likely a few bad releases would sink the manufacturing company. It would also free up the manufacturer to take more risks. The benefit of the smaller scale isn't to make the same super deluxe toy but scaled down, it's making a slightly less deluxe but at a scale that would allow a more complete universe. The counter argument would be "We don't care, we'll just keep paying more and more!" which was the path everyone was on before Yamato shuttered its doors. The problem is, when both Yamato and Bandai have tested the less deluxe waters they've failed. My deduction would be that the demand for Macross comes from adults with lots of disposable income who care more about features than they do price.

I guess a nice compromise might be if Arcadia became a model manufacturer and built models (not overpriced HDP kits) in 1/60 scale. Still though, 1/72 works so much better for the Macross universe since so many things are very large. If 1/72 had been the scale of choice we might have actually gotten Regults and Glaugs.

Here's the problem with your logic: 1) Yamato 1/60 VF-1 2) Yamato V2 1/60 VF-1 3) Bandai 1/60 DX VF-25 4) Bandai 1/60 "renewal" DX VF-25 You're already going to buy all these valks again. What was Yamato's future plans? Renewals of all the valks you already owned.

I would whole-heartedly disagree with the notion that 1/60 is about as small as you can realistically expect in a PT VF-1. Bandai got extremely close to doing it at 1/90ish scale. The real problem 1/60 scale is that it doesn't work for Macross. It works for the VF-1 but that's it. It's too big a scale to ever get anything Zentraedi or just about any of the VFs that came after the VF-1. I think that's how Yamato helped back themselves in a corner. They were selling huge toys so now they had to make them super deluxe and price themselves out of the range of a good chunk of the market. I've been lobbying for a 1/72 Macross universe for a while now. I think it makes a ton of sense.

Again, this is pure speculation. I think it will be hard for Arcadia to get the SDF:Macross license (so VF-1). I also think Bandai might snap up the Mac+ license since Bandai has toyed with making a YF-19/YF-21 a couple times so they have some desire there even if they've never pulled the trigger. This is why I don't think the VF-1 toys that are RAGING in popularity and after market value are good bets for long term holy grails. If Bandai gets the license for SDF: Macross we'll see a DX VF-1 and the V2 VF-1's value will plunge. It won't tank as hard as the V1 Yamato 1/60 VF-1 but even if the DX VF-1 were crap it'd be one more toy to help tap a bit of demand. This makes the 1/3000 Yamato SDF-1 a pretty good bet for grail as I really doubt Bandai would produce one after the Quarter's lackluster sales. I think Arcadia will get the Mac7 and Mac0 licenses. What that does to the VF-4 is anybody's bet. The VF-4 is another pretty good bet for grail status.

I'm going to hope my wife misses the advertising so I could take her to the movie under the pretense that this is a war biopic mixed with a love story... like a "Pearl Harbor" movie that doesn't suck balls. I figure she owes me one after making me watch "The Reader" anyway.

I suspect we'll see new anime before we see any sort of movie. My fingers are crossed for a Macross The First animation although I'm sure some members would rather not. It makes sense from a toy perspective though (but less so from a BigWest perspective). At any rate, someone mentioned HG sold the live action rights to WB. Usually those sorts of things are leased and revert back to the original owners if the lessee doesn't produce something in some specified time frame. As for seeing a VT-1 reissue, I'd bet against it. The VF-1 mold is now 5 years old and the Macross license will be VERY hard for Arcadia to get if Bandai is at all interested. Of course, I always assume Bandai would be interested and I could be totally wrong there.

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say it's because they wanted to do something that might sell well instead of something that competed with already good Hasegawa products or something that even Hasegawa had the business sense to say 'there's only like 20 dudes who want to buy that."

No, I was getting back on topic.

Good point. What toy will be Yamato's holy grail? From the looks of the secondary market prices right now it's going to be the VF-4G or the 1/3000 SDF-1. I think the CF VF-1J will always be second fiddle to the M&M VF-1J toys. Will the LV VF-1S be the hottest property since it's technically a Focker release or will it always be luke warm since there are two other more canon-looking Focker VF-1S toys.

I still think there needs to be some reconciling with the rage of how hard the preorders are to get for Bandai toys with how high the MSRP was on Yamato toys. The mark-ups we're paying to easily get Bandai toys from the scalpers (again, talking about current releases, not three months later) tends to still make these toys much cheaper than Yamato MSRP. "Yeah, but I used to wait eight months to get Yamato toys at 25% off or more!" Proving that Bandai's methods make sense.

On my 17S it's pretty easy to go through the paces but even so, the end result in each mode is just kind of... meh. It's fun to pose but it's not MORE fun to pose than the 171 and fighter mode just doesn't come together any where near as well as the VF-19 toy does. The VF-19 is amazing, it's definitely a high water mark for Yamato with the VF-4G and V2 VF-1 not being far behind. I don't think anything Bandai has done compares to favorable to the VF-19 which is one of the reasons I hope Aracadia does fill that "super deluxe" niche.

Well I should have qualified that comment with the fact I don't find either one particularly fun to transform. I've transformed my 171 more times now though and I'm starting to get a feel for it. The 17 is a little simpler but on the 17D some parts were so stiff I was frightened to move them... especially given the fact the 17D literally cost more than twice my 171 (got the Super Parts bundle).

I think the 17 actually comes together worse in just about all modes than the 171 does. If the 171 didn't have those TERRIBLE detachable wings It'd be very easy for me to call it a better toy in all respects. I look at my 17 toys in fighter mode and I feel like just about every part of them needs to be massaged to get all the lines to match up perfectly. I don't seem to have that problem with the 171. My 17D was also so tight I've vowed to never transform it again, way too much of a PITA.

I want to say that it was T-REX that did both the 17 and the 171 but that's not going back and checking any emails so read it with uncertainty. I don't recall anyone ever name dropping to me who worked on the renewals. Conjecture: I've been spreading the conspiracy that Bandai was going to swoop in and grab Yamato's Macross license so they could produce a DX VF-1. I think it's pretty likely given the success of the Frontier DX toys and the ongoing popularity of the VF-1. I would love to believe the VF-1 model being built is a test bed for a future DX toy. Along those lines, I very much hope Arcadia does enter the PT Macross toy market. I think we'd all benefit greatly from them continuing to do built-to-order super deluxe toys. The 'super deluxe' toys help keep Bandai honest. I think what you're going to see though is Arcadia being relegated to the least popular Macross series. Really itching for a VF-0D? It's my guess that or a VF-0 V2 is your best bet for where Arcadia would first jump back into the market. I also wouldn't expect a limited Arcadia Macross line is going to help convince Bandai to go crazy with their production numbers so don't expect that headache to go away.

Kickstarter!

Problem with that logic is that the same team that developed the VF-17 for Yamato developed the VF-171 for Bandai. My sources have been wrong before so what I say shouldn't be taken as fact although I don't write it unless I believe it. Why is my praising of Bandai odd? The renewals are AWESOME and were priced at like 14,000 Yen. What isn't to like about that? The fact some people couldn't get them? Yeah, that sucks, but most those people didn't try until the toy had been out for months.

I bought the Odon Gift-set and the LRS parts separately with very similar thinking to yours. I also spent a lot! Since everything has been out of print for a little while now your options are shrinking quick at that price range. Your goal should definitely be a DMZ. I could sell you a beat-up but perfectly displayable DMZ-01 for less than a hundred. Do some shopping around and if you're interested PM me. If you're not into gimmicks and just want something to put up on a shelf in some dynamic poses, and you can get over the big head, the 35 Max line fits the bill.

Diecast and POM are great for toys, not models... Unless you want really expensive models.

Bandai's renewal Frontier toys are awesome and very competitively priced... Oh the horror of that being the future of Macross toys. I would love to see competition but Yamato ran themselves out of business so our recent boom years are the aberration not the norm.

If you owned an exclusive license to 1/60 scale toys and BigWest sold someone the rights to a 1/58 scale toy, how would you feel about that? Bandai also helps sponsor new Macross so I don't think they're to be trifled with.

I got yelled at for spreading rumors but I can tell you they had the plans to build a (redacted) but then decided that a (redacted) would sell better. Then they shuttered the business so both designs were going to migrate to Arcadia but from what I understand Arcadia has been unable to secure any licenses to transformable toys. Hopefully this means Bandai has been securing more licenses so we'll still get toys but just from a different company.

Yamatos are definitely toys, it's no matter of opinion. It's a transforming vf1, that's why you're seeing the comparisons. If it didn't transform you'd see more model comparisons.

Yeah, it almost looks like they made the strike cannon the exact same size as the missile boom.

So many Yamato V2 comparisons. I think we all agree that the super parts are too small, I think we might disagree on HOW too small they are. Yamato actually went a bit big with their's, and they went WAY big with their arm armors. You might say that Bandai is off by the same margin but in the other direction and since super parts are meant to be SUPER it's easy to argue a bit bigger is a bunch better. Nosecone shape is really tough to judge in that pic above because it looks like the fit was poor in the landing gear area.