Diecast vs paint wear

[LORD KUNGFU]

I agree with your opinion too.

[Drad]

Would you guys be willing to take added durability (cosmetically), increased poseability, and a significant price cut as a result of having little to no diecast metal? I had to make this choice with TF Alts/BTs and went with the alts so far for the above reasons. However, I might still pick up any colorschemes, remolds, etc that are BT only.

I'd get the Alternators to play with and the Binaltechs to display.

The Alternators are mostly plastic and molded in color which means less chance of paint chipping, so you can just transform them or play with them without worry of damaging the beautiful paint job found on a Binaltech. The Alternator shares the same design as the Binaltech, so quality and engineering aren't an issue. You're getting the same toy, and you don't have to be quite as careful with it. The Binaltech, however, wins in terms of appearance and satisfying diecast feel. To me the Binaltechs look more attractive and are closer to the appearance of real cars than the Alternators. The finish is showroom beautiful, not plastic. There's no comparison here. Plus, you get that nice, hefty diecast feel when you pick it up. It just feels good. If you grew up in diecast days, a toy with a good amount of diecast in it just takes you back.

Buy the Alternators for play and the Binaltechs for display. They're both great toys, but if budget demands that you buy only one of them, the Alternators aren't a bad choice even if they lack the diecast found in the Binaltechs. They're cheaper and better for use as toys if you're the type who prefers to avoid paint damage. They may not look quite as nice on display as the Binaltechs, but they don't look bad, either. They're excellent toys that are worth your money.

Edited October 9, 2004 by Drad

[VF-1Guy]

Die cast in a toy isn't a requirement for me. I'm more interested in how it looks. It doesn't bother me that a 1/48 Yamato has next to no metal.

As far as the Alternators/BTs go, I prefer the BTs because of the great finish. The finish makes a BT look more like a real car. I would buy the Alternators if they had the same quality paint over the plastic. In fact, I did get the Silverstreak Alternator since it is painted.

[1/1 LowViz Lurker]

I guess that the sky is blue being a fact isn't anymore since my opinion is that its blue?

Depending on certain factors. What planet and what time of day and how clear from dust the air is.

In after noons the sky is sometimes red. All colour is subjective when you think about it. All it is, is a frquency that our optic nerve picks up and sends messages to our brains. Manilpulate that frquency and our brains tell us the colour has changed. Therefore the sky is not blue all the time based on varying factors like how dusty and what frequency of the spectrum is standing out more. (blue is more noticable upclose where red stands out more from afar) And this factor varies depending on results of other factors.

The sky is blue on earth most of the time. But even then it's just a label we humans apply called "blue" which everyone can agree upon. Of course there are colours we can't see which we've labeled as well, but my point is someone had to come up with the system first to explain it to us all in the first place.

The sky can look red, blue, orange and even pink to people sometimes. A volcanic eruption can change the appearance of the colour.

now this paint fleckling problem you are talking about is typically a Yamato thing. i farted on my VF-19 and some paint came off  So lets just make sure we are talking about Yammie diecast work and not diecast application as a whole.

Admittedly I'm new to toys since playing with them from the 80s so I wouldn't know what advances have been made to avoid the chipping. I guess my main concern comes from posing and balance with specific toys like yf21 where the feet are so small, had the top part of the toy been diecast as well, it just wouldn't be poseable enough. For me, I don't care or can tell the difference when I'm looking at it from a distance, all I want is something that is reasonably cool looking, and won't fall over on a windy day without the feet having to be altered like with the toynami's legious clown feet.

I mean we can't change how the original design has been structured, so in some cases we are going to need to lighten the burden whether the joints are stiff or not. An all-diecast toy to me says that joints are going to weaken quickly than one whose wieght has been lessened. If the price could be lessened that is just icing on the cake, and the original post was assuming that plastic will lessen price.

If good posability like with vf11bs ability to stand at an angle based on the design, are taken away because they wanted to add diecast all over, the poseability and actions it could display doing would be compromised imo. I still stick by this even knowing that diecast gives better finish and is more expensive and ignoring for a minute that diecast could chip. Which is why I said I would still choose the cheaper plastic. (because I'm a skeptic and have assumed an all-diecast toy would compromise some balance than one that is centred with a majority of plastic, and diecast just in places only where needed. Actions that involve having the figure posed in a forward leaning or backward leaning stances would be too risky especially with things designed with small feet.) My need for goood poseability comes from seeing what the thing can do in anime and lack of posability in some toys takes away some of the appeal to me as an adult.

Edited October 10, 2004 by 1/1 LowViz Lurker

[Myriad]

I like my beer out of a bottle and my toys all plastic. Taka/Hasbro has shown the same toy can be made out of plastic and be great. I don't like paint chips, I don't like weak joints but I especially don't like toys that break easily because of plastic and diecast being used together.

I think it is too bad that Toynami doesn't go more plastic to cut down their costs and breakage. Taka Hasbro did it and the cost was cut in half.

[Sumdumgai]

Plastic's nice.