jenius

I think we need to consider who owns what and what the relationships are here. It was my understanding that Toynami only distributes the Popbox figures... not actually owns them. It's like the old Bandai SDF-1 that was distributed by Matchbox. Did Matchbox make it? No. Did Matchbox own it? No. Did Matchbox have the rights to distribute a toy that someone else made all over the world? Yes. I *think* it's the same case with the Popbox figures (and feel free to correct me if I'm wrong). *IF* I'm right, that would mean Toynami would have one more person they'd have to pay (and let's be honest, Popbox does great work but it's not like they've been ultra speedy on the production of products so that's one more delay to incur) and Toynami would have had to create a toy around a sub-company's product that is quite large. Now, with Toynami's established group of fans complaining in most places that their products aren't worth $79.99 we're now asking them to create toys where the action figure alone retails for $79.99. If that action figure is that expensive how much more would we expect to pay if it was bundled with a transformable bike??

Deimos, what's up with the blank 1/48 VF-1S? Is it just a real world custom? On my monitor it looks a bit off... like you stripped an LV1, added a white VF-1S head to it, and then somehow bleached the whole thing. My brightness setting is probably all f'ed up making it look odd but do tell about that custom.

If memory serves, Tatsunoko also went to bat for HG regarding the license debacle. Don't ask me to go find quotes, it's been far too long, but it was my understanding that HG had this mercurial agreement that no one could validate but HG claimed existed and Tatsunoko agreed about. Big West was then left being the big fish in a small pond with all the strength in the world just short of actually being able to kill the HG/Tatsunoko alliance. Big West then went to its licensees and forbid them from doing business with HG (understandably) and HG then went and forbade those companies from trying to get their properties into the US (and other countries... but primarily the US) without HG approval. Mac+ made it to the US when HG was its weakest and because it wasn't viewed as any sort of competition for Robotech products... but when the toys came out HG suddenly changed its mind. Then when HG tried to broker a deal with the Macross toy manufacturers BW once against stepped up and forbid it. I think that's a case of two items obviously unrelated to either the current Robotech series or even the Robotech model franchise in such and obvious and clear way that HG doesn't see it being worth the financial efforts to force them to change their names/sites. Most consumers aren't going to relate the Robotech Pool Cleaner to the Robotech transformable aero-space fighter of cartoons.

Judging by the vast size of the pictures you did post, I would venture that you can't post the others because the file size is too large. The site doesn't seem to indicate a max but I've found the bigger the file the harder they are to attach. Try usin' a software to shrink the size down a bit.

at *least* could have made them 1/6 scale? I would still buy it if it were 1/6 scale but I'm happy they went smaller than that. I don't collect 1/6 figures.

Rightstuf emailed me and said they're expecting to get more on 2/19 so it looks like all might not be lost just yet.

Real world logistics aside, I think the diver mode *looks* great in the MPC form. You don't have the visual issues with the landing gears or the slightly arched back from fighter mode and the MPC has enough points of articulation where you can pick some very nice static poses. MPC Diver mode also helps hide the weak shoulder joint since the diver looks silly with an arm completely out-strecthed (something MPC's have a problem doing), it looks much more natural with the arm bent at the elbow (something the MPC does well). The modified diver mode with the arms back and the wings out also looks very nice on the MPC. Basically, the MPC looks (again, just looks, not talking true functionality) great in all modes except fighter... and if you're lucky even the fighter mode can look pretty good. Eh, we all know I'm biased to like any Alpha/Legioss toy though.

Armo-Diver mode could have a few reasons for existence. With the Beta in space you would gain more points of propulsion than fighter mode and have a smaller target area than battroid mode. Honestly though, if my memory serves "diver" mode is pretty much just for take-off and landing whereas a modified diver mode (arm back, wings out) is used for the equivalent of the VF-1's Gerwalk.

I just replaced a VF-1J Hikaru's BP8 with one from a Focker VF-1S and there is absolutely no difference in color, looks dead stock. Some people have sworn though that their VF-1S is different from their VF-1Js so my only guess there would be that different reissues might have slightly different color to them.

Multi-mode transformation was popular in lots of series and helped sell toys. It may have been Macross inspired, it may have been inspired by shows previous or contemporary but I think it's best summed up as just being the thing to do at the time. Just for the record, Mospeada modes are Armo-Soldier, Armo-Diver, and Armo-Fighter IIRC.

I haven't been checking eBay but Graham told us it was retailing for about $100US in the greater Asia area, shipping should be about $20 from what I understand via EMS so $129 seems to be about MSRP.

$129 shipped is pretty much MSRP. I wouldn't call it a deal but it's not being marked up.

OOh, I smell "Special Edition" DVD in the making!

Oh no.. Mega, get thee to the newb thread at once! Don't take offense to the Newb title either but ya gotta clear up the terminology to participate functionally here (some people are a bit sensitive).

I knew someone would misinterpret that comment. The point was only that the style of the two is radically different... It just seems like it'd look very funny having them fly off into combat together. Edited - my post sounded a bit pissy.

May I suggest... my review? Clicky you likey.

What the heck was the VF-1S doing in Prelude?? Please tell me it was a flashback or something. I have this ultra hokey image of all these Alphas launching with one VF-1 in tow... yikes. Don't' get me wrong, I love the VF-1 but man, that would be horrible.

I think Toynami's "morpher" alphas are practically 1/100 scale. For the record, for little morpher toys the Alphas are kinda cool (much better than the VF-1 morphers)! Better than Gakken's 1/72 series even. Now, if Toynami made an Alpha jokemachine... that'd be the lick. Me and like 2 other people would totally buy Alpha jokemachines... I wonder why they won't make 'em...

I watch as little anime as humanly possible. Honestly, 90% of it just strikes me as bad but if it makes it into Adult Swim I'll watch it occasionally. So, being an anime avoider (save Robotech and the original series, Orguss, and a few other (usually old school) exceptions), I can state that the animation was clearly not up to the standards of today (especially movie standards!). I think RT fans are just thrilled to see the series going somewhere... anywhere... they're less hung up on how pretty it looks or the character designs. It's still very early so many RT fans are still in that childish euphoria stage of "Oh look Scott's back... YIPPEE!"

Ooh hey, it also hints at a Vince MPC Cyclone... sweet. Limiting production to 10K also seems like a good idea.

Agreed, if the neck pitches it does so at the base of the neck where it meets the chest (parallel with the shoulders). That's the area i was refering to in pic26. I think that would work well enough... but if that were in conjunction with a ball-joint head that'd be much better (clearly not the case).

OOOoh I didn't realize this thread had devolved into a good ol' fashion hate fest. Lemme go grab my pitch fork and torch.... Okay guys, I'm back, where's that Yamato... Let's get 'em!!! Every now-and-then, when the hate really starts festering, I kinda wonder if it isn't just all the people who are realizing they spend way too much money on toys (and don't think I'm passing judgment, I'd be included in this group) projecting their anger of their inability to stop onto the company providing the goods. I mean really, if everyone was so incensed about Yamato's prices or Yamato's quality we wouldn't sit on boards and snivel and try to convince people that sniveling is the right thing to do. We'd actually just say "Meh, I'm over it." If you've said in one thread "I'm not going to buy Yamato products any more because they keep letting me down." That's a fair statement, good for you. When you continually post that sentiment you're just posturing or trying to get people to join you to make you feel better about your decision. Anyway, that's my musing today on the self-conscious... and again, it's directed at myself as much as anyone else.

Interesting notes from this picture: 1) The action figure can "hunch" at the waist (lean forward or back) 2) The arms move independant of the shoulder armor so it seems possible that, while the Cyclone's shoulders won't move more than a slight pitch, you still may be able to have the arms posed out-stretched. 3) Is it an optical illusion or does the head seem someone leaned back ever-so-slightly in this pic? If it is then that would bode well... if it's just my exhausted eyes playing tricks on me then the wait continues. Pic 26 is more from above and it definitely looks like there's room for a joint there to make the head lean back. 4) That helmet definitely doesn't come off of the head... what are the odds they'll include un-helmeted heads that we can swap out??

Seems $79.99 is a pretty good bet at this point.

No neck joint would be an utter shame... I'm not going to write it off as not existing until we see a final version though.