jenius

Alright you Robotech nuts, if you're going to say you want Mospeada toys at least use the Mospeada names for those toys. Hmmm, maybe I'm being anal... I would LUV Mospeada toys. Yes, I want a Legioss and a Tread and all the Ride Armors. If ain't Mospeada, I probably ain't gonna buy it. I have a hard enough time just keeping up with the Macross stuff.

In the retail biz they have a theory, for every 10 customers, if 9 have great experiences and 1 has a bad experience you're lucky if the 9 happy people tell 1 person but it's a given that that 1 unhappy person is going to tell many people. Hobby industries have it a bit better because we're doing/buying things we enjoy and we enjoy talking about them so our happy experiences are far more likely to be broadcast than our happy trips to the grocery store. The downside is we're also a little bit more passionate about what we buy so we will scrutinize it more. Yes, sometimes the flaws are small and barely worth noticing (I still don't get why the screws on the 0S display stand attachment piece face forward instead of back) but a shoulder snapping on a Garland or a VF-0 is certainly worthy of a fair amount of griping. The next big factor is price. Naturally everyone expects more when they pay more. That's why you hear comments like "This toy would be great at half the price." Why? At half the price we expect a lot less. So, Yamato charges $200 for a YF-19? What does that do to people's expectations? A paint-chip or a floppy wing becomes a big deal because you just paid a premium to get a toy that doesn't have paint chips or floppy wings. All this is compounded by a sense of powerlessness. Look how many members are now paying through the teeth for BBTS' return policy because that's how little they trust Yamato. They have to. If I buy a Yamato toy from Joe's House O' Import and it's flawed I'm stuck. Yamato isn't gonna take my letter written from half a world away in English very seriously. So, now we get a toy that's flawed and we can't complain to the manufacturer, what do we do? We complain to all of you. Are they really that bad? Obviously that's completely subjective. If you've got money to burn and never handle your valks then no, Yamato is great. If you give your Yammies a good thrashing and are on a budget then they leave a lot to be desired. Personally, I had one BP8 go (I'm thinking it was because that little fin in the back needed to be depressed and I still had it protruding while trying to clasp the backpack), I've received a VF-1J 1/60 with a crooked head laser, I don't know that any of my 1/60 VF-1 toys still have all their screw covers in (I'm pretty sure Yamato only used positive thoughts to keep them in place at the factory), and my brand new 0S has a stress mark on the shoulder after one transformation into battroid. Considering Toynami is the only other company whose products I collect though (other than vintage) I would say Yamato isn't doing too bad. It's really too bad about the VF-0 line... I'm now really on the fence about the Shin 0A and that was a given until the "we didn't know there was a problem" line from Graham's interview.

Couldn't they do it using the same material old telescoping radio antennae are made of? Those things are pretty solid for the distance that this would need to go and i can't imagine it's expensive.

I'm not sure I'm buying this "new computers are too fragile" thing. The USA is a capitalist society, if you're willing to spend enough money someone will build whatever you want. Now, NASA being too poor to upgrade I can see. No one being capable of building a rugged computer is another thing. The marketing alone might be enough for some companies to jump all over the opportunity but I would suspect that integrating today's computers into yesterday's technology would be costly and inefficient at this point in the product's life cycle.

SuperNova looks roughly equivalent to the TV Max and Hayao paint jobs. An all white bird with some splotches of trim. I'm not too impressed. Anything that's almost entirely white is pretty blah to me... hence my avoidance of DYRL schemes.

No, he flies a white valk with brown trim, Max flies a white valk with blue trim (before upgrading to a blue valk with white trim). The brown used is the same brown that CFs use but CFs are brown with white trim.

Yes, clearly it is our fault and not Yamatos.

Add Jenius to the list of people with shoulder problems (albeit, not yet severe at all). I just completed my first transformation of the toy and lo-and-behold, I have a stress mark on the left shoulder: As a precaution I have loosened both screws in both shoulders. Oddly enough, neither shoulder seems any floppier with the shoulders loosened so I'm not exactly sure my backing out the screws will really have any effect.

That's a zero isn't it? Not an SV-51. Wait, was there an SV-51 CF? I'm confused.

Perfect, thank aaajin! It does prove my two biggest suspicions (claspers are too small and the attachment piece requires the screws to face toward the front of the plane). Thanks!

I think he's talking about the Fast Packs that were supposed to be sold separately?

LOL, if you haven't heard of Orguss (and I can't really blame you) then I think there are probably many other 80s mech shows out there that you haven't heard of so there are quite a few more options than just Orguss or Mospeada. Perhaps we should start a new thread where we just pick the possible shows Yamato could be making a toy for? Then, once we know all the options available (I'm sure there are tons of shows out there I don't know exist also) we could start up a poll and see what show most MWers expect it to be. Of course, it'd just be rampant speculation for fun. Hey, maybe we'll get a hovertank!!! As to the 1/60 thing, I'm with you. My 1/60s are a sunk cost now. I've never been very fond of 'em anyway. Still, I'd rather Yamato go on to new things then revisit the 1/60s. Where's my 1/60 Glaug and Regult??

If nothing I think this finally settles the "Does Yamato read our forums" question. The answer? No.

Ah but let's not confuse size and scale here. A 1/35 Legioss would be the same SIZE as a 1/60 VF-0 (again, if memory serves correctly, I'm at the office so much these days I'm forgetting what my toys even look like). Also, it seems Yamato is happy to make large toys and the 1/60 scale works for Macross for everything except the VF-1 so the 1/48 scale was always a bit of an aberration just to give the VF-1 the love it deserves and can't get in a smaller scale. Our members here have proven it's possible, complete with an internal heatshield, so there's no good physical reason they're not doing it. They're not making them for a business reason... and that makes me sad. Eugimon, I love the new avatar.

No way, Alpha needs to be 1/35 to be done right. A 1/60 Alpha? That'd be smaller than the MPC and look how well that turned out. A 1/35 Alpha would also stand about as tall as a 1/48 VF-1 so that'd be cool (I'm just going off memory on that, I think they're pretty similar in size). Since it'd be a Mospeada toy I don't think Yamato would feel pressured into adhering to their Macross line of toys (you know they could care less about Robotech). Still, I think it's more likely two beautiful Norwegian girls are going to walk through my office doors to pleasure me at any moment...

I seriously am shocked that Yamato has no intent to put out the 2 seaters. An SV-51 but no 2 seater 1/48s? Where's the logic?? Still, I'm far more interested about the news of a new series of toys. I'm still not into Votoms, and it seems like there are tons of Votoms toys out there competing (and it sounds like many people prefer the smaller Votoms toys to Yamato's efforts) so it'll be neat to see what's next. It's also a bummer to hear we're getting a 1/48 GBPIII but no new valk to go with it (not even a reissue). Sounds like Yamato wants the supply to dry up for a while longer.

Man, this thread is chaos I tell ya, chaos. Cats and dogs living together, chaos. So now some notes from all over. 1) HG is *NOT* the major force stopping Yamato from importing toys in the US. If memory serves, it was considered but BW said "Like hell you're going to deal with that company and keep the Macross license" and Bandai also raised a similar stink since if one BW license-holder was going to be able to deal with HG then ALL BW license-holders should be allowed to. 2) Toynami does *NOT* have an exclusive Mospeada license for toys. Much like the Macross license, it's entirely possible that more than one company could build products for that series. EDIT - for the record, I highly doubt it's a Mospeada product.

Okay, so I'm starting to handle my VF-0S and my launch arm for the first time and so I thought they'd make a cute marriage... but this is proving quite bothersome. Can someone here confirm my suspicions (all involve the VF-0S in fighter mode): 1) The claws of the launch arm absolutely will not work with the VF-0S (they're apparently too short). 2) The heft of the VF-0S is too much for the launch arm in most extreme positions (my launch arm was sealed so it's brand new tight at the base... but can I tighten it further to deal with this heavy of a toy?) 3) The attachment piece that connects the VF-0S to the launch arm is backward (screws face toward the front of the plane). Okay, Let me know if I'm tripping or if you guys have any suggestions to make this work better. I bought the launchar arms to display my super VF-1 1/60s so I'm not too concerned but I'd like to discuss this on my blog and don't want to go misinforming the world or taking a bunch of pictures of a set-up I was just doing completely wrong. I did check Graham's review and they sort of confirm my suspicions for the moment.

Now that makes me wonder... SV-51? Meh, I wanted 1/60 YF-21 news! LOL, 1/35 scale ORGUSS!!

I think we also actually see Focker in a Fokker at one point as well. I seem to remember him like flying away and dropping a hankerchief or something? I didn't say *I* was insulted by the mispelling thing, I simply stated that someone may be. They would be offended by the statement because it could be read to infer some form of inability, as if the Japanese could never figure out something as complex as anglo-germanic languages or surnames. Now, if you don't mind, I'll be off in the Japanese Engrish thread.

Aren't half the shoulder complaints coming from 0A owners?

How long before a Japanese member takes offense to that comment?

Not so fast... how do you know these weren't like this at purchase? This looks like it might be the kind of thing caused by tension related to the screw... your shoulder could be disentegrating in the box! I really meant to transform my VF-0S for the first time last night to check... hopefully I'll get around to it today. What's going on over at Yamato??? I'm supposed to save this kind of concern for my far cheaper Toynami products! First the Garland, now the Zero

Isn't the super O supposed to be more blunt than the fighters? It's more bulbous all around from the canopy to the wings to the fast pack parts.

Meh, needs some panel-lining and some weathering.