jenius

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.

VFTF1 makes a point I tried to make in another thread about the cost of oil. Americans are fond of citing the cost of oil as a global epidemic when it's really just localized to America. I think he gets a little off course when he starts discussing what's going on with the actual cash but that's a higher end economic debate (I think it's not really a supply issue with the American dollar, it's a demand issue caused by no one wanting to buy our debt after the mortgage backed security fiasco). One point beyond any debate is that the American economy is not doing so hot. I know next to nothing of the Japanese economy but that seems to be more important for us Macross collectors. Has the yen been devaluing lately on its own (I know it's gone up about 20% in comparison to the dollar so I imagine the yen is still strong). If the yen is fine then oil prices shouldn't seem nearly as bad to the Japanese. If Japanese consumers still have disposable income than Macross manufacturers still have people to make toys for and we can keep leaching toys away through our importing.

A bit off topic but I think the poster in the background of the Yamato gashapons shows the chase valk... but it's not one I immediately recognize.

go to anymoon.com and do lots of reading MPC = Masterpiece Collection

I liked this episode much more than the 4th one. We've seen dates in Macross before but I definitely wasn't getting a rehash vibe from any of it. The vibrating scene was a bit much at first but after that it was a fun exploration and character development tool. One thing I don't get, they always do such a good job of showing the women and their crushes but how come the men never seem to like anyone? All the men ever seem to do is get startled or embarrassed. I imagine they just treat things that way because the boys are supposed to be young and awkward while the women are already more mature at that age (uh, I only mean sexually aware by mature)?