captain america

For the time being, there's no intention to make the "fridge" cockpit openable to keep costs reasonnable. However... An "upgrade" kit may be produced later on for those who require more detail.

hehehe! That looks kinda like what I'm sculpting

Who the hell cares?

...You mean like this?: http://www.samurai-monkey.com

...You mean like this?: http://www.samurai-monkey.com

I've only ever had contact with Toynami once, and briefly at that; I have no clue what their current projects, policies or wages consist of. I'm sure they'll be able to manage just fine without me.

It's not really an issue of detail: a sculpt is done with a fixed objective in mind. In the case of a toy, you have to take a different approach than you would for a model/model kit. On a toy, you have to think about sturdiness and functionnality: gear bay doors and landing gear have to be solid & over-designed, so do joints. You also have to think about partition lines for the dies, etc. Also, because if the type of plastic used, you can't have very fine detail. I know all about this, I designed toys for a living. Truth be told, you can still make a visually-superb toy, even without very fine detail or high metal content. It's not the materials, it's about how you use them.

Just for the record, neither George Sohn nor Toynami have ever threatened me regarding the Legioss... Or anything else, for that matter: the warning to take down the MW frontpage Legioss update pre-order came directly from the offices of Harmony gold. Apples & oranges. Also, George Sohn had simply called me & asked me to provide an estimate for my services to work on their Legioss project. They passed. That's all there is to it.

Hi guys. Yes, that is my auction. A lot of people have been asking about the Launch Vehicle (LV.) My thought was to put it off until after the X-mas holidays, and maybe come out with a "surprise" kit befor the LV; I haven't quite made-up my mind yet

Have you thought of contacting Rob or myself about your castings? It was my understanding that some of them were a bit rough, and did not meet the expectations of some modelers. If this is the case with your model, please contact either of us and we'll see what we can do to rectify the situation.

Side view. FYI: those who missed-out on the booster kit itself can now order the booster and launch pylon as a set directly from SAMURAI MONKEY models. http://www.samurai-monkey.com

3/4 Rear.

The launch pylon by itself.

Another...

Hi all. I've been relatively quiet of late, but not in vain: I've just finished up some promo pictures of the VF-1 Booster display base, just to give you an idea of what it'll look like fully built & painted. For those of you who would still want to acquire a kit, they are stil available; see the FOR SALE section, or you can order direct: http://www.samurai-monkey.com The one built up in the pics is of the exact same casting quality as the kits you buy... Actually, the kits are a tad better, as I used my somewhat mangled, test-shot parts for the build-up. Initial thoughts upon building it: much better than I'd expected! The high-strength polymer (used for the load-bearing parts) is much tougher than I thought it would be... To the point that I could plop 10lbs onto the mock-up display base without a problem, so it's more than sturdy enough to support the resin booster kit!!! The castings are superbly clean, and all of them fit perfectly and very snugly. The clean-up on the parts is so minimal that I was able to cast, post-cure, clean-up, paint & assemble the launch rail in about a day and a half; not bad at all. Anyway, enough of my heartily biased nonsense, see pics below!

The Gakkens are 20+year-old vintage toys that appeal to the nostalgic fans of the day. Old +rare+fanatc otaku = high unit price. They fetch a lot not because there's a large fan base, but because the tiny fan-base there is are ready to pay big to get them. Competition isn't such a bad thing when there's demand enough to support most of the manufacturers. Besides, Yamato wasn't able to get official distribution to North America, so the little trickle that does get in doesn't make a huge impact: remember, the average Robotech fan doesn't necessarily know about Yamato products to begin with, so Toynami had any competition on their Veritech well under lock & key. As for The New Generation/Mospeada: it's much less popular than the "Macross Saga" to begin with here, and absolutely minuscule in Japan. So even if Toynami have the market all to themselves, the core clientele base is a small one at best, and if they couldn't even move all the Roy 1S, they sure as hell won't move all the Alphas.

Repackaged US Alpha returns sold in Japan? HA! The regular, "non-defective" POSs wouldn't even be worthy of going into a japanese recycling bin; their standards for toys are measurably-higer than the US releases. Considering that the New Generation is about 10 times more popular right now than Mospeada is in Japan, there's virtually no chance of getting half-decent sales orders over there. Considering that the "Macross Saga" segment of RT was by far the most popular of the three, and they (Toynami) still couldn't manage to sell-out the 15 000pcs of the uber-popular Roy 1S( which is a VERY small production run for toys, by the way), I think it's safe to say that you'll be lucky to see the rest of the Alphas released, and you can pretty much kiss any hopes of a Beta toy goodbye.

Nope. The atmospheric Booster only kit is now sold out. The only way you'll be able to get it in the future is as a set with the launch rail... At a revised price.

Right. Each of the 3 components was/is/will be available as a stand-alone kit specially for MWers; basically, to break-up the ginormous cost of selling all three together. That way, you can get whichever kit you want, cheap. The combination kits will be even more limited (maybe 15 kits), and will be somewhat more expensive.

Correct.

Hi guys. What's currently available for order is the launch rail/pylon only (see For Sale section.) The treaded launch vehicle itself hasn't been started yet, and probably won't be available until early in the new year, so as to give people time to save-up for it... And to give me time to work on other stuff. The launch rail ,sold by itself, will be strictly limited to 50, no exceptions. After that, it will only be available as a set with the booster.

Hi Guys. Just wanted to let everyone know that the first set of molds are finished, and the castings are better than I was expecting. There are still 2 molds left to be done, but that should be pretty quick. The box art is also almost finished; the only difference will be that the pic will be of a properly built/painted launch pylon, not the prototype. Just FYI, if anyone is still thinking of ordering one, I urge you to do so before it sells out: the kits are limited to 50, and won't be available separately when the run is finished.

Define "good money"

Hi Guys. I think Nightmare was just being sarcastic; no malicious intentions on his part. On my end, I really don't mind the questions, and I'll try to answer them as straight-forewardly as possible. I would never expect someone to plunk-down money for a product sight-unseen. That's partly why Rob never accepts payment for the models until the masters are done & properly photographed.

Actually.. The launch vehicle has tank treads, not wheels/tires. Four sets. The cockpit for the LV is actually a bubble-shaped front windscreen, and yes, it would most certainly be clear. The driver module is a sort of pod located on the right-hand front, and hard to make out since there's only one view of the whole vehicle. Nevertheless, I would produce an adequate and detailed cockpit... You guys should know by now that I don't do things half-assed