jenius

I agree, nobody really got screwed by this screw-up. I doubt anyone (Tam or Joel) had actually put an order in with Toynami for tons of cases of these things. Neither one will probably be placing their orders for quite a while from now. Then, when you consider the fact Toynami has never even come close to hitting an initial release date, they would both have even more time to change orders around. The only thing that sucks here is that Joel and Tam have a bit of egg on their face for putting something up that had the wrong price and those things happen. This is nothing as shady as when Toynami upped their production run figures on the first MPC VF-1 series after preorders had already been taken. "Lots of diecast and only 10K made!" That was a bit more of a debacle. I didn't even preorder this Beta at the $79.99 mark for that very reason. I want to see a complete fact sheet about what it comes with, which ones are being made, and what features it has before I agree to purchase it at any price.

I found my overdrive response in my spam email and went ahead and ordered. Looks like it will be more like $260 shipped via EMS and that works for me! I don't mind being a guinea pig for people, I'll let you know how the service got was and how quickly the item was delivered. I was searching around through SR's pictures and found one that totally hits a pet peeve of mine. Before I think it was Yamato's first YF-19 toys that were the worst offenders but check this out: I really hate it when a fighter that isn't supposed to have gaps in it when you look from below or above has gaps... having gaps that huge is a real turn off . If there's any doubt that the legs will be stuck way out in combined mode this should really put a fork in that. Seems to me like you just straighten the legs out so they don't come back together and then park the Tread in between 'em.

LOL, not trying to get into more of a pricing debate. The $280 price, which seems pricey at the moment, may prove to be more the norm with a dollar dropping in value and the green and red ones being harder to get was all I meant to imply. Not that you were wrong in some way.

Yeah but with the weakening dollar and the exclusivity of the green and red there's a good chance some of this might prove quite pricey. Then again, much like we bank on Toynami products getting cheap quick too, there's gotta be a similar phenomenon that happens in Japan with toys released there. Maybe a few months after each release they'll be available at much more reasonable prices... although I find it hard to believe that'd happen to the greeny being a website exclusive.

The part about Toynami giving people the wrong price?

The good news is, I got one of every Alpha very shortly after release at a typical savings of about 30% or more. I remember I bought the Shadow Fighters for $55 shipped on each and I think it was maybe six weeks after release... not bad for something that would have been $90 shipped preordered just about anywhere. The other good news is that something that expensive ought to be packed with features... time will tell. Roger says "No." George Sohn said "yes" up until the NY Toy Fair but Roger says that while at Toy Fair George admitted that he was wrong again and Aoshima would no longer be releasing the Beta as a Tread in Japan. Personally, I find that whole debacle retarded and think it's a win-win situation if Aoshima just orders like a couple thousand of each Tread variant (sans Shadow since they didn't release the Dark Legioss). Have those made at the same time as the Toynami version and boom, easy money for everyone.

Saverobotech said it was slightly smaller than the Toynami (the Legioss that is). If they're billing it as 1/48 it should be the same size or slightly larger but as you've already noticed, the CMs seems to be quite wonky when it comes to scale... We'll know for sure in a few weeks though since the CMs is due to hit the streets at the end of this month if I'm not mistaken.

Over-ride hasn't responded to my email

Wow guys, now we're arguing the comments of my PM, which was meant to take the argument out of this thread entirely. Uh, stop. Gingaio, the point was "I don't care what this guy does, may do, or is capable of, I buy toys." I suppose my word choice wasn't PERFECT but it was not meant to be an indictment of George Sohn on every thing i listed he *could* be guilty of that I would not care about. If anyone had a problem with how it was meant to be taken I would think the fact I even retracted on the lightest accusation and backed down from calling him a blatant liar and instead called him "habitually wrong" should clear that air. I think there's a problem with this logic and that problem is Aoshima. it appears the molds were changed and the design improved. Would Toynami go back to making an Alpha MPC the old way now?

Wait, does that just mean Gingaio's mother is Mexico?

What if I said "He can murder, rape, and pillage all he wants, it's the toy I'm buying." Would you contest that I had called him a murderer, a rapist, and a pillager? No, I'm saying however crappy a person he is doesn't hold much affect on whether or not I like Mospeada toys. Sorry Vermillion01! Okay, well my point's been made and you're determined to be a smug ass. Clearly, you can't be swayed and cheers to your resolve.

No, I don't, as I explained to you in the PM. Besides, did I really call them cheats and thieves? No, I said George Sohn is a liar but perhaps I should be nicer and just say he's habitually wrong. If I can smoke a cigar without losing sleep over Castro's running of Cuba I can certainly buy a Toynami product without losing sleep over George Sohn and his amazing knack for never getting anything right. You were right though, it was an entirely dumb conversation but until proven otherwise, I stand by my belief that it's just as dumb of you to be so certain it will be $150 because George Sohn's agreeing with someone saying "I'd pay $150 for it" as it would be for anyone else to believe it will be less. Any implied insult beyond that I'll leave up to your perception but that was the point I've been trying to make. Once we all know for certain a price, feel free at that time to gloat and trumpet your right-ness for all to see should it be $150. Until then though save us all the ultra smug attitude and if you need to address me specifically do it in a PM. The seams are on the prototype to make those missiles possible but we haven't seen them yet... just like we haven't seen the landing gears. My guess is that they're either not there or Toynami is still debating on having them as a feature. Look how frequently CMs shows all those missiles popping out as if it's a big selling point. You would think if Toynami had them they'd be following suit. They're in the episode with the Synchro Cannon when Rand/Ray gets all angry on the blonde male Invid/Inbit.

OOOH, is that an actual toy? If it's that far along I'm tempted to take all the horrible crap I spouted about "never in this year!" back!

Do we get to place bets on the second color variant? I'm going with Hikaru's DYRL VF-1A as it's historically a very common FIRST paint scheme to release.

This may be wrong but I thought it was the top of the boot that extended up toward the knee to attach the hip guards. It shouldn't actually affect the height of the guy standing in the boots though like it does in every existing toy.

Since all of this is directed at me, instead of the Beta, I'll go ahead and send you a PM in response. Next time, state your case as to why I'm wrong and why the Beta must cost $150 since I listed reasons why it could be much less. It'd make for a more compelling on topic discussion.

You came to this thread with news no one else was privvy to (an email from BBTS) and then mocked several of us for having taken the BBTS price at fair value (coincidentally, the value of all previous RT MPCs so it's not like it was a crazy number). You place your trust in a man of questionable repute (Toycom?) and who is guilty of repeatedly mistating his company's position. You base your own cost estimate on a trivial matter (the cost of plastic?) rather than more significant expenses like complication of design (1/48 VF-1 is LESS complicated to you?) or other materials used (what if it has no diecast?). If you want to be judged by your words and your actions, I think you should know what to expect. You do alter people's perceptions of reality through your choice of rhetoric. I'll elaborate on my thoughts a bit though so it doesn't seem like I'm just discussing you instead of the Beta. I believe the Beta's price range could vary by a lot depending on decisions likely still being made by Toynami. Here are some variables I see: 1) Production volume. They probably don't even know yet if they're doing 10K of each or some other figure. They probably also don't know what paint schemes they're going to do. Maybe there will be a repaint of Scott which would necessitate a repainted Beta. Are they making 20K or 60K. I have no idea but the price they can asks shifts a lot depending on numbers sold. 2) What percentage of the toy will be diecast? My personal thought is this toy will have to be REALLY light for this to work combined to the rock heavy Legioss. If the toy will be really light without any diecast they're going to have a hard time convincing people it's more than a $79.99 toy. 3) Intricacies of the design. Have we seen a pic with the cockpit open? I think I saw a pick of a Tread with the cockpit open but it was a CMs. I'm guessing though from the slop in various pics the cockpit does open. How does Toynami handle the wheels? Did they take the "eh, screw it" CMs model or did they actually try to do some engineering? We also don't know how they're handling what happens to the cockpit in soldier mode. In some prototypes the cockpit just folds downward, in others it gets concealed within the chest. The BBTS pic showed it concealed... I would pay more for one that gets concealed. So, that should also explain my reluctance to place a bet on this toy. If you told me it was no diecast, snap on landing gears, and the cockpit just folded down in battroid I'd be a lot more inclined to believe it'll clock in at $79.99. If you told me it had diecast, concealed the chest, and had some form of functioning landing gear then yeah, I'd probably expect it to cost more. I will wait and see. I'm hoping for the best combination of price and features.

This was really good stuff. The only thing I might change would be to have it not extend to a moment of Macross F at the end and just end with the ending glory of Zero. Still awesome as it is.

LOL, I'm sure I'll be enjoying that Beta while I'm flipping through all that rare Mospeada line art right? I'll pass. Unlike you, I'll be hoping us fans are made happy by a reasonably priced toy instead of hoping Mospeada fans continue to get screwed by greedy folks with poor business sense.

I just don't understand how your pricing speculation is smart while everyone else's is silly. Are you saying we can't find toys comparable in size to an MPC Beta that cost $80? The posted price was $80 and came from a more reputable source than George Sohn... boy is everyone here an idiot but you! So sure, it ended up being *potentially* wrong but then you talk as if it is *definitely* wrong because what? George Sohn has your back? The fact of the matter is you don't know the final price, no one does, so step off your high horse and wait like everyone else to find out. If you're right, congratulations, but try not to gloat about a toy being more expensive than everyone wants it to be, it just makes you look like an ass.

All Robotech Masterpieces have cost $79.99. Keep quoting twice the size of the Alpha but really it's about the same size of the VF-1. Toynami has long been saying $150 to get people off their balls while they try to figure out what they're doing. All I'm saying is that you have no better idea than anyone else here. George's original quote was $200, now it's $150, maybe it'll be $180, maybe it'll be $100, maybe it'll be $80. If they knew how much it was going to cost they'd tell the people selling it.

' Forgive my ignorance in phsyics but isn't this not true? The star is 8000 light years away right? Or did they estimate it has another 8000 years to live? If the estimate was we have 8000 years to live because of the distance from here I think that'd be wrong. After all, the explosion could have happened 7999 years ago and we just wouldn't see it until tomorrow. I suck with physics though so maybe I've got that wrong.

Well, thank God Toynami has never mislead anyone. Why do you think it's NOT an $80 toy. It stands about as tall as an MPC VF-1 and doesn't have a light up visor. The transformation is pretty straight forward and the only reason I could think of it NOT being an $80 toy is because Toynami keeps complaining about how it'd HAVE to cost a ton without ever giving a convincing reason why.

Roger, did you tell the BBTS guy that Toynami said it'd be $150? From what it sounds like he's just saying "i don't know what the actual cost will be, I'll make the adjustment when we know." This may very well still be an $80 toy.

I'm gonna have my blue one in hand before I figure out how to go about getting a red and green one.