George Sohn speaks out

[Feyd-Rautha]

the new artical in toyfare features an interview with Sohn in which he says...mospeada/new gen. will not be complete without ..

Tadaaa.....a BETA!!!!!

and goes on too say he really wants too make it; and is depending on fans too support the project!

this is some really good news for mospeada nuts...just thought i'd post.

any thoughts?

Edited December 3, 2004 by Feyd-Rautha

[1 VF-1 2NV]

What he's really saying is.... we won't make the thread/beta if alpha sales are a disappointment .

Reverse psychology !

[wolfx]

Who's George sohn? Some toynami guy?

[dyowelb]

What he's really saying is.... we won't make the thread/beta if alpha sales are a disappointment .

Reverse psychology !

ditto

[Feyd-Rautha]

Who's George sohn? Some toynami guy?

head of toynami ..had connections too yamato as well(if i'm not mistaken)

[ewilen]

He was head of Toycom when they were working with Yamato to make Valks under BW's license. When HG objected to the Valks being sold in the US, and no deal could be worked out, Sohn sold Toycom to Yamato and founded Toynami to make Robotech stuff under license from HG.

There's an article about all this somewhere on Valkyrie Exchange.

Edited December 6, 2004 by ewilen

[Myersjessee]

That would be sawweeetttt!

[scand]

Not to sound too negative.. but is sounds like an excuse not to make the beta to me. How's he supposed to know if the fans will support it if it's never made.

I do agree that it would be totally awsome to have one though. though, I would really love seeing some full transforming ride armors in about 1/12 scale.

Edited December 3, 2004 by scand

[Duke Togo]

He sold out, and basically stole valkyrie toy designs to make the Masterpiece line.

[Jolly Rogers]

Not to sound too negative.. but is sounds like an excuse not to make the beta to me. How's he supposed to know if the fans will support it if it's never made.

I wonder if disappointing sales of other Toynami products will take the blame when the Alpha sales went through the roof but everything else went down the crapper and no Beta was ever released.

[Feyd-Rautha]

the suspense is crushing meeeee !

[scand]

He sold out, and basically stole valkyrie toy designs to make the Masterpiece line.

Yeah but in the end it probably worked out for the better. Macross fans got a better valkyrie. I'm having a hard time grasping the idea of a 1:48 MPC. UGHH!.. SHUDDERS..

[Effect]

A beta would be nice but I'd never buy one. I didn't even get a Alpha or one of Toynami's VF-1. I had my Yamato VF-1 Strike from last or the year before last and I'm happy. That's it for Macross toys for me. Prices on both sides are just way to high. Even if I did have a job, don't think I'd be happy or comfortable spending the kind of money some of the others here do.

[bsu legato]

Not to sound overwhelmingly negative, but isn't this exactly what HG has been telling fans since the Alpha was announced? I mean literally, word for word, the exact same thing.

Edited December 3, 2004 by bsu legato

[Feyd-Rautha]

Not to sound overwhelmingly negative, but isn't this exactly what HG has been telling fans since the Alpha was announced? I mean literally, word for word, the exact same thing.

at least it's being discussed in toyfare for the world too see/read.

i think george's choice too bring the issue up is due too a high interest that fans have been expressing..

-example: on rt.com a post about the beta has 700ish hits on it.

..all the other topics only have hits in the teens!!!!! ...that has too be getting too george.

[zeo-mare]

same thing we have heard before, if we buy the alpha they will make it. i hope they do make it i would love to have it

[Shin Densetsu Kai 7.0]

kinda old, i brought htis up int eh MPC thread last week. And plus, hes just rephrasing stuff toynami has told us over n over again.

[Mechamaniac]

Yup, just more of the old..."buy crap product A, and we'll make crap product B" rationale.

[Guppy]

yeah, it should be the other way round. you guys make a GOOD product, we will buy it and then you will have the support to go and make a Beta. Which I am interested to see as it will have to be an original design, unlike every other toy they have made.

[Shin Densetsu Kai 7.0]

me three!!

If he was really speaking out he would be like

"man F**** those b****ng fanboys, man these toys cost SOOOO MUCH to make, I mean those grease stains are love stains, I mean hell if Doogie houser can get away with it in harold and Kumar so can we!! only this is real life baby not a movie!!! You can feel our grease!!, man and like robotech is so awesome and u know rick and lisa live unlike in japan, and irigai narigai is like so authentic and the haters don't know them, man 80$ is cheap compared to your 70$ MPC primes and 20$ alternators...man we got DIECAST, and we are like yea a young company, and yea! yea ! yea!!!"

[myk]

What?

[EXO]

yeah, it should be the other way round. you guys make a GOOD product, we will buy it and then you will have the support to go and make a Beta. Which I am interested to see as it will have to be an original design, unlike every other toy they have made.

I agree...

how about George Sohn shows us where the frick the Beta is suppose to connect, then I'll believe it. So far I dont see any logical connection point. With all it's shortcomings I don't think it that bad of a toy, and I'll support the sh!t out it when I feel like they're not lying to us as they did before.

[whytwolf]

If/when a Beta/Tread appears I'll pick up one of the Alpha's, but with all the negative reviews, I'll stick to my old Imai models thank you very much.

OTOH, if a 1/12 Ride Armor were to come out I'd sell my good kidney to buy one!

Sean

on edit: I can't freaking type aparently

Edited December 3, 2004 by whytwolf

[Phyrox]

Doesn't sound much like news...

But I would get it if it came out. In fact, it wouldn't even need to connect to the Alpha for my interest. The battloid mode and individual fighter would be fine by me. Just fine.

You can hardly call the guy a sell out...what was he supposed to do? Righteous indignation doesn't pay the bills. HG locked the import door, the only thing left to do to bring "macross" toys to the american masses is working with HG.

I'd have done the same thing. I'd like to think I would have produced something better in the end, but he is hardly to be held responsible for all the MPCs probs.

[Californium]

What?

Best reply in any topic ever.

[Cyclone]

Not to sound overwhelmingly negative, but isn't this exactly what HG has been telling fans since the Alpha was announced? I mean literally, word for word, the exact same thing.

The literal answer at every convention that he/other toynami reps/HG guys have stated ever since the Alphas were first announced as the next MPCs.

[VF-19 pilot!!!]

me three!!

If he was really speaking out he would be like

"man F**** those b****ng fanboys, man these toys cost SOOOO MUCH to make, I mean those grease stains are love stains, I mean hell if Doogie houser can get away with it in harold and Kumar so can we!! only this is real life baby not a movie!!! You can feel our grease!!, man and like robotech is so awesome and u know rick and lisa live unlike in japan, and irigai narigai is like so authentic and the haters don't know them, man 80$ is cheap compared to your 70$ MPC primes and 20$ alternators...man we got DIECAST, and we are like yea a young company, and yea! yea ! yea!!!"

huh?

was that some code, where is my enigma machine? can we stick to english please

[Jolly Rogers]

"man F**** those b****ng fanboys, man these toys cost SOOOO MUCH to make, I mean those grease stains are love stains, I mean hell if Doogie houser can get away with it in harold and Kumar so can we!! only this is real life baby not a movie!!! You can feel our grease!!, man and like robotech is so awesome and u know rick and lisa live unlike in japan, and irigai narigai is like so authentic and the haters don't know them, man 80$ is cheap compared to your 70$ MPC primes and 20$ alternators...man we got DIECAST, and we are like yea a young company, and yea! yea ! yea!!!"

Huh huh huh huh, settle down, Beavis.

[Valkyrie]

If Toynami has any business sense at all, they WILL make a Beta. Regardless of the sales of the Alpha. And by that, I mean, even if they were a complete and utter flop (even more so that they already are)

Why, you ask? Simple. Because the Beta is the only Toynami product ever that is GURANTEED to sell well. Hell, even I'll buy one. Because it'll be the only toy ever made of the Beta (excluding the obscenely rare Gakken one, which pretty much sucked anyway). With VF-1s and Alphas, the fans have several models and toys to chose from. But in Betas, there's pretty much nothing out there. In such a severely under-saturated market, anything will sell well.

I can certainly understand Toynami's choice in marketing the Beta they've made thus far though. Everyone seems to think their Alphas are small, blue, transformable turds with $80 price tags on them. The only way they can POSSIBLY sell them is by telling they fans that if they don't, they won't get their Beta toy a year from now. This has always been quite an empty threat in my mind.

If this 'threat' is at all genuine, I'm thinking it's solely because they're trying to win back as much of their money as possible which they've invested in the Alpha project. Becuase they're gonna need it for the Beta.

It will be the first time they've actually had to do all their own R&D. Becuase the Beta will be their first project in which they have NOTHING to copy off of!

So who knows, maybe they're trying to scrape up enough cash to employ the services of John Moscato

Cause at this point, I'd be amazed if they could pull it off on their own...

[Phyrox]

Does anyone actually know how well the alpha MPCs have sold? I guess someone like Kev from VE, or Tam from TMP would have a general notion...

[Montarvillois]

Funny,

I'm currently ready Dan Brown's digital fortess and Da Vinci code and I think this "Beta Thread" thing is a code. If you rearange the letters a bit I think Sohn is telling us:

"bertha retard"

Could it be a message about is wife or is he calling us Bertha retards or worse???....

(ok, maybe I gotta stop reading these books... )

Edited December 3, 2004 by Montarvillois

[Myersjessee]

If Toynami has any business sense at all, they WILL make a Beta. Regardless of the sales of the Alpha. And by that, I mean, even if they were a complete and utter flop (even more so that they already are)

Why, you ask? Simple. Because the Beta is the only Toynami product ever that is GURANTEED to sell well. Hell, even I'll buy one. Because it'll be the only toy ever made of the Beta (excluding the obscenely rare Gakken one, which pretty much sucked anyway). With VF-1s and Alphas, the fans have several models and toys to chose from. But in Betas, there's pretty much nothing out there. In such a severely under-saturated market, anything will sell well.

I can certainly understand Toynami's choice in marketing the Beta they've made thus far though. Everyone seems to think their Alphas are small, blue, transformable turds with $80 price tags on them. The only way they can POSSIBLY sell them is by telling they fans that if they don't, they won't get their Beta toy a year from now. This has always been quite an empty threat in my mind.

If this 'threat' is at all genuine, I'm thinking it's solely because they're trying to win back as much of their money as possible which they've invested in the Alpha project. Becuase they're gonna need it for the Beta.

It will be the first time they've actually had to do all their own R&D. Becuase the Beta will be their first project in which they have NOTHING to copy off of!

So who knows, maybe they're trying to scrape up enough cash to employ the services of John Moscato

Cause at this point, I'd be amazed if they could pull it off on their own...

exactly where I am coming from as well....

[Anubis]

It would also make good business sense in that if they release the Beta, it may encourage more hold-outs to actually buy an Alpha, so they can get the Beta to go with it.

[Mechamaniac]

Why, you ask? Simple. Because the Beta is the only Toynami product ever that is GURANTEED to sell well. Hell, even I'll buy one. Because it'll be the only toy ever made of the Beta (excluding the obscenely rare Gakken one, which pretty much sucked anyway). With VF-1s and Alphas, the fans have several models and toys to chose from. But in Betas, there's pretty much nothing out there. In such a severely under-saturated market, anything will sell well.

Y'see that's the part that makes me nervous....

Granted, that is a stellar reason for them to make the Beta. However, given that they don't have an existing toy to steal their design from, this one would almost certainly have to be actually designed by Toynami.

We have all seen the crap they squeeze out when they try to make copies of other people's designs. I shudder to think about the monstrosity they would create if left to their own devices to design the Beta.

So who knows, maybe they're trying to scrape up enough cash to employ the services of John Moscato

If they had wanted to do that, they should have just paid him and licensed his 1/32 Alpha project from the get go instead of threatening him, and forcing him to quash the project. THOSE would have sold like hotcakes.

I can scarcely imagine how beautiful an Alpha/Beta combo would be if designed by John Moscato....

Thanks to HG, we will never see it.

[Jawjaw]

Bottom line, if the Alpha's do not sell well, neither will the Beta's. I don't know who would be a Beta that has not bought at least one Alpha. Perhaps the Alpha's would be more popular if a Beta was sold but that would be a gamble. Toynami's stance is nothing new. It is the same for any company - "buy our crap and we will make more."

It makes no difference if no one made the Beta before or if a few people really, really want one. Mospeada is just not that popular and Gakken went bankrupt making Mospeada toys. I'm a big fan of the mecha and would love if Toynami made the Alpha/Beta combo. But it wouldn't make since for Toynami to make it for a lose just to make a few fanboys happy. Sad but true.