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Everything posted by technoblue
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I guess that depends on a person's point of view. Myself, personally, I never owned the original Yamato v2 1/60 M&Ms. I did own the 1/48-scale Valkyries, before circumstances forced me to sell my original collection. Given what I paid years ago for my 1/48 M&Ms, this reissue is twice as expensive when looking at hard numbers. Are today's retail prices too high, though? Maybe, but I can understand the reasoning for that inflation. Are Arcadia's inflated prices better than out-of-control auction/scalper prices? To me they are...undoubtedly.
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Arcadia may have the molds, but like jenius noted, we don't know what they paid for them or for the licensing. The company also has internal costs (real estate, other legal fees, marketing fees, employee costs, and so on), so there are other margins to consider, even if you think these don't matter because you don't like the higher price. And this argument that Arcadia is pulling the wool over our eyes by pushing aftermarket prices seems confused to me. Are we talking about the same company? If that were the case, wouldn't we be paying 50000 JPY each for these rare VF-1 releases now? If anything, aftermarket prices are correcting themselves once Arcadia releases a Valkyrie that is in demand. I also think the slightly higher cost helps them pay for their new projects. Today, that would include the announced SV-51. I mean buy what you like. We already have Arcadia admitting that KOs are available. I'm skeptical of KOs given my experience with them in the Transformers space, but maybe KOs are just what Macross needs to get companies the Arcadia and Bandai out of autopilot mode. Who knows? What I do know is I thought I'd never see an M&M 1J reissue, but here we are with two announcements.
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^Can't wait! I've really been enjoying Rebels, and will probably take some time to work through Clone Wars again during the off-season.
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I agree with arbit. Value is in the eye of the beholder. Looking at the numbers, Bandai is giving us less than what we got with the RVF-25 option parts package and pricing the sv-262 parts package with a measly 500 JPY discount. One could say that Bandai does a better job marketing its products to make them appear as if one is getting a better value. I wouldn't argue with that. Also, if I add the price of the sv-262 together with its optional parts, that complete package would just about equal Arcadia's pricing. 32184 JPY with 8% tax included 29800 JPY without 8% tax included HLJ lists the price for Arcadia's VF-0S at 34800 JPY, a difference of 5000 JPY without tax. This hobby is getting expensive, no doubt. It's hard if you are a completionist and like to have one of everything. With the Delta Valkyries, I've decided not to go that route. I'll pick and choose favorites like I did with the Frontier renewals. The only difference is that I'm in a position to pre-order the Delta Valkyries as they are released. I had to play catch-up with a couple of the Frontier renewals on my list.
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I was thinking along the same lines. If we are going to talk about fairness, then we need to realize that Yamato's strategy was unhealthy for its employees, even though it gave fans access to some great deals. Arcadia's strategy, although it raises prices on some very familiar items, is an attempt to reduce the shelf warmers and allow the company to earn money and sustain itself. There are plenty of options today, which I think is great. With Arcadia VF-1 types we are getting more premium releases to go with the standard releases. If Arcadia as a whole ever drifts out of my price range, then there is Bandai. For me, that seems quite fair for luxury nice-to-have toys. LOL! That's a bit dramatic, claiming that a KO company is driving choice in a market that has plenty of options. I do agree that it will be interesting to see what a KO might bring to the table, yes, but I'm not pinning my hopes on anything like Wei-Jang quality. That company released MPP10 (and its variants) to Transformers fans after years of KOs with highly variable quality control. We might get something more like the original KOs. I remember comparing my official Takara MP-10 and MP-25 to the first few Transformers KOs that I picked up out of curiosity. Those KOs were of lower quality, with obvious paint errors. The only thing that my KO MP-25 had going for it over the official version was rubber tires. I don't know, I guess time will tell, but I'm not in a rush to KO Macross toys because of my experience with Transformers.
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Silver lining is, if it ended up being too green, it would be a good stepping stone to a proper VF-17T. All we would need after that is a proper head sculpt, Ray, Veffidas, and the optional Super Speaker Pod thingy.
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+1 I got the opportunity to watch the unsubbed blu-ray with a friend. What I saw didn't disappoint me at all. The first episode was easy to follow, even with the rebooted content, since I'm familiar with the classic series. The second was more confusing, since it appears to add more background for the rebooted elements (I'm guessing). I did my best to simply enjoy the moving pictures. I mean, I picked up a few familiar words here and there, but I am by no means fluent in Japanese and most of the dialogue was lost to me. Given all that, I must admit the art was gorgeous.
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- soldiers of love
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I wouldn't mind another brand new mold, or a v3 VF-1, but I'm also not blind to the fact that if Arcadia went in that direction it would be more expensive and another group of people would complain saying that Bandai is doing it all better. I think Arcadia has found a good niche, and I'm glad they did away with the plain and pack-in-stand packaging. A premium finish version is more valuable to me than any of that. And as long as Arcadia continues to offer standard strike/super pack releases for the Valkyries that have them there will be options. That's a good thing, IMO.
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Okay. The premium finish version will be up for pre-order Monday, Monday, Monday...
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That's a great photo. Gnaw is all, let me help with your hands (nom, nom, nom).
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Arcadia announces Roy's 1S premium finish version. Since no3ljm is creating separate threads for the other releases, I thought I would bump this one with the official news. Thanks to sh9000 for sharing the twitter pic.
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LoL! If Arcadia put the tampo printing on the bottom of the wings, and used those colors for the super parts (which appear darker for Milia's 1J than they do for Max's 1J due to the lighting) then there would be chaos on the forum. And knowing myself, I would still buy them.
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Nice comparison. I could go either way on the Lancer II. Picking up a premium finish Roy is a given for me. I love the rainbow canopy on my Yamato v2, but not the cracking, crumbling plastic. I am surprised we are getting Roy's 1S so soon after Hikaru's, but the announcement makes sense for Arcadia and wasn't totally out of left field. And yeah, I hope it means M&M will have premium finish releases too. It may be a sucker move to get fans like me to buy them at a higher price, but I don't mind.
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When it rains, it pours...M&Ms. I was so bummed when I had to sell my 1/48s. The last two years have been icing on a big Macross cake. I'll not only have Bandai's HM-R versions, but also Arcadia's versions at 1/60 scale. I wouldn't have thought this would happen five years ago.
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Sold out.
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No worries. Arcadia has you covered. They will sell you the option parts and give you a free Valkyrie too.
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Ghost in the Shell Live Action - March 31, 2017
technoblue replied to Mechinyun's topic in Anime or Science Fiction
I saw the movie Friday night. It was good, for a Hollywood adaptation of Oshii's two OVAs. And I can enjoy it for that, but part of me also wishes it had taken some risks to find its own voice while also creating some of its own memorable scenes. Also, Kenji Kawai's music should have played during the opening shelling sequence. Ars wrote a good review discussing Johansson's robotic, blank take on the character. Even with all the other stuff, I have to agree that was the one thing that stood out as being really different in this film. With Oshii's original OVAs, SAC, and even Arise, I never got the feeling that Major Kusanagi was disconnected--even in Innocence where her role was rather unique. https://arstechnica.com/the-multiverse/2017/04/how-ghost-in-the-shell-got-its-main-characters-wrong-and-why-it-matters/- 751 replies
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- Ghost in the Shell
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It's either or for me. The VT-1 is at the top of my DYRL list because the Yamato version is rare, requires fixing out of the box and could just use a decent reissue with no crumbly joints. On the TV side of things , I would love to see Arcadia release the Alaska Base variant, reissue Max's 1A, and then venture into releasing some of the more unique paint schemes like Yamato used to do with the 1/48s.
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I would love to see Arcadia announce the VT-1 after the M&M 1Js, but I wouldn't be surprised to see another Roy announcement either.
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Happy, happy, joy, joy! In for both and will definitely buy a premium set, if available.
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Macross Δ (Delta) - Mission 26 -Finale - READ 1st POST
technoblue replied to azrael's topic in Movies and TV Series
Delta had a lot of promise, for sure. And that promise is what hooked me with the early episodes. I was really hoping that we would see various armor packs and a clever implementation of the multipurpose container on the VF-31. I was also hoping to see some variety with Walkure's holographic, high-tech costumes. They could have taken it as far as Frontier and Plus did with the entertainment, but Delta felt tamer in some respects. If they do give us some Macross Delta OVAs, then I wouldn't mind if they gave us an improved retelling of the TV plot as well as something to wrap up loose ends. I also wouldn't mind two new movies just to take the story somewhere completely different (sort of like the Macross 7 specials/OVAs). -
Missed AmiAmi by a heartbeat, and got the same sold out message that Scyla and GabrielV were seeing when I went to check out. I haven't had any luck with HobbySearch lately, but HLJ came through and confirmation is in, now to go to bed.
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- macross delta
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I'm looking forward to the final retail version. I'm guessing that this Forbes sample is a test shot of some sort, and that the niggling issues will be worked out.
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Macross Δ (Delta) - Mission 26 -Finale - READ 1st POST
technoblue replied to azrael's topic in Movies and TV Series
I watched the final blu-ray yesterday. I'm still digesting the series as a whole, but I now understand the criticism of the story. Personally, I was hoping that Macross Delta would improve on the AKB0048 formula (since Kawamori was involved in both productions). In the beginning, it seemed to be headed in that direction, but then it became more of a Macross II (read DYRL-light) story for the second half. One could argue that AKB0048 was simply an echo of Macross Frontier with more idols. What I find unfortunate is that Delta didn't own any of its Macross heritage like it should have done. But don't get me wrong, when compared with other general anime releases Delta is good. As a Macross show it is just okay. I would rank it as the weakest Macross show that I've seen to date. The highlights are the Valkyrie designs, and the first 13 episodes, which benefited from consistent production values and the idea that we were seeing events play out within a living, organic universe. Windermere's terror attacks using the Wind Song and the Var syndrome to disrupt neighboring planets. Things started to go sideways after the halfway point, though. For me it was a slow downhill slide that gained momentum for the last three discs, and totally wiped out in the last episode (which tends to be frantic, but for Delta was frantic and confusing to me). As Archer noted, the Valkyrie dancing is left on the cutting room floor after Hayate learns to "fly" properly. It is established as an important part of his character, and yet it gets thrown out with no explanation. Instead, Hayate was turned into Messer 2.0. It's almost as if the wrong pilot was shot down mid-season. And now that I think of it...that would have been an interesting plot twist: to get comfortable with Hayate center stage, only to see him taken out of the picture and have Messer become the main hero character and overcome his obstacles. It would have been a reverse of what Macross usually plays at with the main pilots--something thematically different. Oh well. It was obvious that the antagonists needed to be fleshed out more, given the complex story of intrigue and missed cultural opportunities that Delta was trying to convey. The whole Windermere/NUNS conflict with Xaos caught dead center trying to protect the individual worlds of the Globular Cluster actually makes for an interesting pitch. Unfortunately, the way the story was told, things slowed down often when the action should have been keeping most of the audience interested. Specifically, NUNS gets a random anime bad "captain" instead of a proper plot to drive the reason for getting involved with the protoculture ruins. I don't think we ever learn why NUNS was interested in the ruins either, other than to outright blow them up for no reason. I mean, you expect NUNS to show up and help Xaos defend against the Var attacks, but why take out technology that they might be able to use? That was confusing. If there was a reason for NUNS to be afraid of the tech, then it would have helped to see it. I mean, even Macross 7 let the audience see the Protodevlin and how they were messing with that fleet (even if some fans weren't into the mech designs). Windermere gets a generic anime revenge plot for hating all Earthlings and NUNS allies, and Roid turns into another generic anime caricature. That was disappointing. There are a few moments where it appeared like they were trying to get the story back on track and give it some depth, though: I'm thinking of the trial with young Lord Heinz, when it seemed like Heinz was actually listening to those on trial, and weighing his options. Or, when Hayate and Freya meet Kassim during one of the Xaos/Walkure stealth missions and Kassim and Freya get to talking about everyday Windermereian culture. Everyone got that dumb merchant to explain their story. The merchant was lazy storytelling personified. Pure rubbish. And that doesn't even get into what happened to Mikumo's character, or the emotional dodge with Chuck's sister, but I'll leave it at that. -
Ghost in the Shell Live Action - March 31, 2017
technoblue replied to Mechinyun's topic in Anime or Science Fiction
I'm really looking forward to seeing this, but the weather isn't cooperating out my way (April Fool's snowstorm) and I have to wait a little longer.- 751 replies
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- Ghost in the Shell
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