jenius

While I really dislike Southern Cross, and HATE The Masters portion of Robotech (they stripped all the cool aspects of the mediocre show away and dissolved it into a glue to attach Macross to Mospeada) I believe the issue is really one of licensing. Didn't those podcasters (can't remember their names right now) say that Big West owns the rights to all the mechs and designs and that's why none of them appeared in Shadow Chronicles? If Tatsunoko owned it you'd have a chance but if this is a BW issue no dice.

Actually, if Monogram just repackaged Imai kits then YES, Toynami's toys are based off of those kits! The Toynami MPC is essentially the Imai 1/48 Legioss with some minor tweaks. Of course, the similarities are all superficial, the toys are built much sturdier than the models with different materials. Okay, I suppose "much" might be a bit strong given the MPC Alphas problems with falling apart for no good reason. We should also note that nobody here knows anything about the Toynami MPC Cyclone. They showed a prototype that appeared to be based on an old model kit but then they stopped showing the prototype and said they might just import Beagle's effort instead whilst telling retailers that they'd deliver them an MPC Cyclone by year end for $79.99. There's no way the Beagle will only be $79.99 so the speculation now is that Toynami might bring out their own Cyclone and the Beagle but that contradicts their statement from NYCTF where they said it'd be one or the other.

That link doesn't work for me but if you're looking at the Toynami I believe the place to post about it would be the "Mostly Mospeada" thread

The title could probably use a "NSFW" tag.

Exact same molds huh? That doesn't sound promising for rare/exotic!

It got licensed right quick (thus making it impossible for me to get torrents!).

How do you mean an "internal" perspective? How are we supposed to know that Ranka is going to skyrocket? Is that because we're supposed to know she's going to follow in Minmay's steps? Doesn't that thought necessitate us considering it from the "external" perspective where we only know what to expect because we know of the original series? How is it then "skill"ful to use an episode in such obvious fashion only to put a late twist on it? Isn't that what most people consider "lazy"? I do agree, it is skillful to play with a viewer's expectations but I'd disagree that mirroring an existing episode to do that is a sign of skill.

Hey, that's still the only Houquet Ride Armor to date! (for the moment)

Wow... you're actually modding it. A member here once made a mod that gave it a swiveling torso, maybe you'll want to take a stab at that!

I am so friggin' psychic... just you watch. You guys might say "But Jenius... the formula is one VF-1 toy, one Mac+ toy, and one almost never seen valk so obviously it'd be a VF-1, a VF-11B, and a VF-5000" and I say to you, "shut up, I'm psychic!"

That looks like the canon paint scheme to me.

So are we sure there's still going to be a chase with these? Who wants to bet Collection three will be a VF-1S Hikaru, a VF-11B, and a VF-5000? Takers?

I have all my CMs combos in hand and have been having a blast taking tons of pictures with them. I'm hoping to have a really cool all-inclusive posting up on my site in a couple weeks.

Don't worry, I'm not serious... but that's the story I'm making up in my head to be okay with it. It also makes my Christmas themed Green Legioss Red Tread combo look like they both may have originated from the same spot... er.. whatever.

Agreed... but it's not like they didn't see this moment coming. The idea for MacF must have been kicked around for quite some time. It seems they could have prepared something a bit more exciting than more of the same.

Seriously, the news would have been so great if Bandai was making a NEW 1/55 toy to go up against Yamato's NEW 1/60 toy. More reissues of a 20 year old toy? That's not nearly as exciting.

The red tread has both Jupiter and Mars base logos. Maybe Jupiter base met up with Mars Base before attacking Earth and adopted some of their logos -

I'm pretty sure Yamato did a photo-shoot using two right arm armors on one toy. The reason you see the screw is because that armor should be on the other arm (screw should be facing backward so you don't notice it.). I'd say the odds are 99% that the actual production model will come with individual right and left arm armors and when installed correctly the screws will only be visible from the back of the valk.

I assume they're not going the extra mile because only like 5% of all collectors are probably aware there even is a difference and only a percentage of the people who know of the difference would care enough to let that affect their decision on whether or not to buy the toy. The fact Yamato did it is really praise-worthy (although their execution wasn't so hot since the gun didn't hold so well on the TV armors) but beyond that it doesn't really bother me on the other valks.

I'm almost certain the GBP would take a whole new mold... I've heard multiple times (back in 2002) that the GBP mold was lost/ruined. It may just be a rumor but it sure was a popular one. That same rumor also had the mold for the 1/3000 also being lost/ruined. Two sad losses to be sure. I kind of doubt the 1/3000 mold rumor though since Bandai and a dozen knock-off companies made more of them.

Overdrive said the $200 price mark after speaking with reps at a show IIRC...

Yeah, I thought we agreed on "toycrappi" although I did notice one of the hands included with the 1/100s did look suspicious like a heil...

From my experience, there's absolutely no way that anyone at Bandai would have had to 'sign off' on a press release. Press releases are not legally binding in any way so lawyers don't really get involved in their creation and companies almost never stipulate proper press release etiquette in contracts. I think it's more likely that Toynami is waving the variants flag in the same way they waved the Beta around. Five years later we may actually get the Beta but with the chunkies Toynami has no control so it's probably a rather disingenuous ploy on their parts that's 90% hope and 10% expectation. That said, they probably didn't make it up entirely, someone at Bandai probably said something like "We might re-release everything, we might even make new stuff, the sky's the limit!" and Toynami is just running with it.

I think Danth has ample ground to stand on here. Toynami seems more in the business of misinformation than they do selling toys. They've produced more Vaporware in the last few years than actual toys. The only sliver of hope of this being true is completely dependent on Bandai and this being Bandai's goal.

With Bandai selling toys through Toynami it would seem HG and BW are both finding ways to make money together now.... maybe this movie will be one more example of that.