jenius

RT.com charges actual shipping through UPS ground IIRC.

The "rock on" tiles are specifically designed for Yellow Belmont.

I dunno, I thought the moment you got named you were no longer a CF... 'cause you could be referred to by name. If you have a distinct valk that's even less CF.

The Beagle toy is just CAD. The likelihood of that thing becoming an actual toy before the end of this year, with Toynami being involved, seems impossible. There's also still a possibility it will never come to be and Toynami will just stick to the toy they've already designed. I'm not going to preorder the Cyclones or Ride Armors until I've seen a picture of one in the box... which at this point I'm pretty sure won't be until next year.

Wow, take a look at the back of the knee on the CAD. That's a very interesting looking joint area.

didn't you make this same thread yesterday? I think people also responded to you. There's also an existing thread for a Yamato parts and exchange service.

CAD looks good but it's going to have balance issues. The line art always gave the soldiers fairly oversized boots and it looks like Beagle is going for a more realistic look.

I'm checking out Overdrive when I get home from work. Thanks SR for the pics and the info! Any chance they'll be going out and getting some green and reddies to sell too? I guess I'll have to ask in my email.

Why would future Alphas cost less? I think Toynami is just sticking to their normal pricing structure. We've just been all so beaten up by Yamato's and CMs pricing structures it seems like a miracle. All MPCs so far have been $79.99... this is just the first one we think might be worth it! That said, the MPC Alphas have been retailing for $59.99 in most places for a long time now so I wouldn't be too shocked if that becomes the norm.

SR, your Blue MPC is number 14K?? That blows my "hidden inventory" theory out of the water! Also note, the first 3K of Scott's MPC are different from the last 12K. As you noticed, the biggest difference is the color of the chest intakes.

This makes more sense to me than the GNU line but still, that'd mean Yamato vs. the model industry and inevitably people would just talk about how much better detailed the Hasegawas were.

Well we know they're not going to make more than 15K of the MPCs... what we don't know is how many MPCs they've already sold. It's been so long since they were issued though... My old theory was that Toynami held onto like 5K of each one and would only offer them as giftsets with the MPCs and then there'd be another number of MPC betas that were sold separately for people who already owned one of the first 10K Alphas that got sold. If I were Toynami, that's how I would have done it (or some number variation there of). EDIT- IIRC someone said they had an alpha in the 11K region though so if Toynami has more it'd probably be only like 3K more (again IIRC). Something else to consider, and something someone else brought up before, Scott shows up in TSC with his blue Alpha which means we might see a Blue Alpha TSC MPC at some point (with Aoshima improvements I'd presume sans shoulder missile). If it were the exact same blue paint scheme though that might irk a lot of people...

You gotta also figure that Toynami did make some money off Aoshima even if Aoshima isn't sticking around for a Tread. That money reinvested into the Beta project might have helped drop prices lower. Their initial price point always seemed more like an excuse for why things were taking so long rather than a truthful estimate of cost.

I imagine something will be done to meet the need of the many people in your boat. Toynami would be a fool not to have something to be able to sell you at some point. Still, it takes them forever to put out anything so you might be Alpha-less for like a year. ... there still might be more blue Alphas in their warehouse somewhere just waiting for a Beta release...

I really wouldn't mind if that were true... that's 3x $80 less I'd have to spend (or ALMOST enough money to buy a CMs Legioss Tread). Even if Aoshima isn't coproducing I wouldn't be too terribly surprised if some day some deal gets worked out for repaints. It makes too much sense for everyone involved especially if they learn what NOT to do the first time around.

I'm not sure if the shadow Beta shows up in the assault in Reflex Point. I do know it is shown before that in the Synchro cannon episode VERY fleetingly. I think you see a combined Shadow Alpha/Beta losing altitude and exploding in a cut scene. Tommy Yune and George Sohn later refuted that story though. I would think it makes sense Aoshima cancelled the deal after that quality control debacle but George said they were simply changing factories. Time will tell....

Hey, the 1/100s are up fo preorder too! April release, $10 each for the fast packs (Wave 4), $25 each for the super/strike valks (June release, Wave 5). No GBP. http://www.bigbadtoystore.com/bbts/menu.as...2&company=1

It's hard to tell if the Aoshima hands are improved. They feel and look a little different but I didn't have the balls to give them a thorough working. The plan is to release the Beta as the Aoshima Tread following the MPC Beta release. If you get in Aoshima Legioss you should be able to get the matching Tread... you'll just have to wait a lot longer than everyone else. The good news is, Aoshima might find more things they want tweaked and you might get a better Tread. The bad news is Aoshima might use a different factory and you might get a toy that's crappy in all new ways.

Right now everything seems premature. Do let us know when you have more info though!

I still think Toynami has at least a few thousand blue Alphas they didn't sell originally. I may have asked this before but what's the highest number Scott MPC anyone on the board has? All of mine are numbered 1-4000.

Not mine but there's a vintage Taka that looks to be in good shape and very complete (planes and missiles off sprue but otherwise everything looks to be there) on eBay right now in the US with a BIN of $350.

$80? They must have fixed all their problems with Aoshima then.

What about Rob AKA Samurai Monkey? Isn't he in Japan? He offers valks for sell occasionally, he might have the ability to help us out too. I think it's a wee bit early to try to make arrangements. Wake this thread in six months.

Can't click the link right now but maybe I'm wrong. I know the box for Maia's MPC was definitely new so maybe we actually are going to see some releases this year. With George Sohn grousing about Aoshima not returning the Alpha molds maybe not...

Hmm... coulda sworn I've seen those fast pack boxes before... maybe at SDCC 2007?