Slave IV

Wow, that's a bit worse than I expected but not surprising at all. Take that and consider how many of those sat on clearance without moving shows us just how low the demand and fanbase for high end talks truly is.

Congrats on getting the best release of the best toy ever! Also congrats on one of the best releases of any Valk ever.

My guess for Arcadia and Bandai for high end Valks (DX in Bandai’s case) are in the low 5 digit range for the most popular releases. Probably most in the mid to high 4 digit range for the less popular releases. I’d be willing to bet I’m very close to correct based on watching the history of these toys and seeing the trends of some models selling out instantly while other very similar but less popular variants shelf warming. Whatever the case, it indicates very low relative numbers compared to top tier popular franchises.

Most (all maybe?) Arcadia releases don’t have tape sealing the boxes.

Exactly! Which answers all the talk of "Why don't they just make this or that or more of this or that?" or complaints of "artificial scarcity". It's the way it is because this stuff just doesn't sell enough to be any other way right now.

I'm not sure prices for old items in the aftermarket they already sold out on matter to them. Again, history has shown that items often go on clearance in the relatively short term but then creep up sometimes to insane amounts when they haven't been available for a while. Any corporate business main goal is to sell whatever they have by any means necessary. I don't know about those other ventures of theirs you mention but yeah, not all ideas are great. Anyways, its all getting old to me and I'm just happy there are Macross.toys to get and if they make.more variations and versions I want, all the better but I'm not counting on them.

My guess is even the third or fourth release of the main hero Valk still sold better than the first release of some of the others, which is why they keep redoing those instead. You know, because making money is their primary objective and the pattern is pretty consistent throughout the various series of Valks.

Usually for niche items with small runs, once the initial supply runs out, prices start going up. That’s why we often see the Valks that sit on clearance that were probably made in less numbers than the main hero Valk to begin with sometimes end up being worth more years later.

Lol, just in general but yeah, goes to strengthen my point.

There are no official numbers but you can make a reasonable estimate based on the market and what resources are available online. It’s been discussed but Macross is absolutely a niche market, at least for the high end Valkyrie figures. The mainstream market for Macross is for idol concerts.

Thing is, like any corporation that is out for profit, the reason why they would reissue something is because it got decent sales numbers and when dealing with a niche that has such low numbers overall to begin with, it means those other items that don’t get reissued or revisited with accessories probably didn’t sell enough to warrant any further attention. Hence we get multiple Hikaru’s and Roy’s before we ever see some other variations.

Love to see this kind of passion put into anything. Thank you for doing so much for this great community of nuts (in a good way)😜

Haha yeah, my hobby room and over half my garage are stacked floor to ceiling. So yeah, lmk! Its the only 31J with a tramp stamp, comes with the elusive missiles, unopened with fancy tamashii nations packaging and made before their quality started going down the drain. What more could you want right?😁 I got some other stuff I'd probably be willing to part with but lazy to dig it out and take pics but if there is any interest, I guess I will and start a proper thread.

Speaking of the 31J Kai, if anyone wants one, I have an extra that I could sell. Just putting that feeler out since I haven’t started a FS thread but I could. I’m on the SS list last time I checked. Edit: just checked again and I guess not since I may have not sold anything here but I have purchased and I think there are people here who can vouch for me. I rarely sell anything which is why my place looks like:

Fine, I'll also post here too even though it also says "Macross" on the box. Ok, I’m messing with my KC Regult now and here’s my initial impressions: Looks fantastic, we all knew that already though. The size and heft is substantial… there is a lot of diecast, especially in legs. The amount of weight in the legs means any sustained flight poses probably won’t work or be a good idea. There is even a warning in the instructions that you should keep the knee joints straight when storing the figure. Not sure what that even means even though they supply a picture, it’s not clear to me but I suppose keeping them pushed in like they come stock would suffice. Good thing there is no flight stand for this thing anyways, lol. There are ratchet joints in the hips, thrusters and feet. They are the loose, sloppy style as opposed to nice, precise ratchets found on better quality toys. Should do the job though. Other joints are friction and have nice tolerance. The head lasers feel particularly smooth. There are at least four separate battery compartments and switches… annoying and possibly to the point where I will never even bother with any of them. Much, much better than their Valks but we all expected that too. Doesn’t feel as good as the HMR and you can tell this is a KC product in comparison to something Arcadia or Bandai would make but still really good and I’m glad I have one. Also glad I didn’t bite on their promotion to get a couple more with the missile packs although I wouldn’t mind picking some up later at a discount if possible. Right now, I’m just glad I have one and look forward to getting the figure that fits inside. Here’s a quick pic with a 1/72ish Valk: Oh, I forgot to take a pic and mention the removable leg panels earlier so here’s a pic showing that nearly useless feature that I still appreciate having: