Will Bandai take over Mac toys production?

[newca]

Although there are still some 1/55 series in the market, no anything really new from Bandai since...when?

I don't know how the Bigwest copyright system run, if Yamato keeps poping items up, then Bandai can't get a hand in? Or just becoz those very-well-selling Gundamn thing, so Bandai doesn't want to make any new other toys?

I'm not that extreme, but a toy market without Bandai's competition is not good IMHO

[bandit29]

I heard Bandai is making a brand new line of Macross toys since the 1/55 resissues sold so well...

[robokochan]

That is very interesting. I sincerely hope that Bandai does finish up their line up. I would love to get my hands on the GPB, VE-1, VT-1 And Strike.

I have heard similar rumors here in Japan about the possibility of Bandai releasing the rest of the line. Nothing solid, but we may see some more Bandai Valks in the near future.

ROb

[Graham]

I heard Bandai is making a brand new line of Macross toys since the 1/55 resissues sold so well...

That's sarcasm I hope.

Maybe in some parallel dimension the 1/55 reissues sold well, but they definitely didn't do too well in this one, hence the line being cancelled before it was finished.

Graham

[BoBe-Patt]

That is very interesting. I sincerely hope that Bandai does finish up their line up. I would love to get my hands on the GPB, VE-1, VT-1 And Strike.

I have heard similar rumors here in Japan about the possibility of Bandai releasing the rest of the line. Nothing solid, but we may see some more Bandai Valks in the near future.

ROb

Rob, that's the sweetest news I've heard since they released the super valk. Yes this is not solid news but this news is better then no news right?

[UN Spacy]

I heard Bandai is making a brand new line of Macross toys since the 1/55 resissues sold so well...

WHAT!?!?!?

[Nightbat]

I see Sarcasm is understood only by them who use it

[zeo-mare]

i take it that there is little if not any chance of seeing the elint and GPB any time soon as a reissue

[Aegis!]

HAHAHAHAHAHA how naive.

It´s obvious that we only need a little sparkle here to get fully sized fire.

Dudes it´s only a rumor at best , there are no sources , there is no evidence. In fact as graham said:

Maybe in some parallel dimension the 1/55 reissues sold well, but they definitely didn't do too well in this one.

Graham

If anything I just hope Bandai would woke up and put their minds into doing some new valkyrie toys , anything really , like Macross Plus valks or Macross Zero , who knows.

I´d be happy with a Fix figuration line dedicated to Macross.

[zeo-mare]

I´d be happy with a Fix figuration line dedicated to Macross.

i would love a line like that and can already envision it, if they did i would hope it to be like the GFF line and focus on some of the lesser known, seeing some VF-X or Macross II Fix valks would be awesome.

chris

[Graham]

I'd also be happy with a GFF line of Bandai Macross toys, even if transformation did require extensive parts removal & parts swapping.

Heck, I'd even be happy with non-transforming GFF Macross VFs, as long as Bandai sold them as a two-pack including both a Battroid & Fighter mode, with perhaps Gerwalk mode being possible be combining parts from both the Fighter & battroid figures.

Just think how nice Macross GFF would look with all the Tampo printed markings that Bandai likes to use for GFF figures.

However, it ain't gonna happen folks. Bandai hates Macross. Macross doesn't make money for Bandai. Bandai loves Gundam. Wake up and smell the roses dreamers. There won't ever be a Macross GFF line or Macross MG or PG kits for that matter. Anybody who thinks there will be is just deluding themselves. the best we can hope from Bandai is just reissues of the old Macross model kits every 5-10 years.

Graham

[EXO]

If anything I'd be happy if another small company took over the Macross product. Not any company, something like Aoshima or something.

[Graham]

Anyway, even if by some miracle Bandai did decide to release a line of Macross GFF VFs, you just know that they would be stupid and release umpteen dozen VF-1 variants first. And of course, they wouldnt sell that well, as everbody is sick of the VF-1, which would lead Banadi to conclude that Macross doesn't sell and cancelling the line before they could get to the interesting stuff like the VF-5000, VF-4, Mac Zero Valks etc.

I'm not being cynical, just realistic.

Graham

[Renato]

The way I saw it was that the market was flooded with VF-1's at the time, so Bandai's old designs lost out to the newer Yamatos. Bandai then decided to hold off the rest of the reissues. Now that Yamato has ended their VF-1 releases for a while Bandai might be thinking that it's time to bring out the rest of the 1/55 line.

They can't be that stupid and think that the Elintseekers, etc. are not gonna sell.

Or can they..?

[EXO]

Anyway, even if by some miracle Bandai did decide to release a line of Macross GFF VFs, you just know that they would be stupid and release umpteen dozen VF-1 variants first. And of course, they wouldnt sell that well, as everbody is sick of the VF-1, which would lead Banadi to conclude that Macross doesn't sell and cancelling the line before they could get to the interesting stuff like the VF-5000, VF-4, Mac Zero Valks etc.

I'm not being cynical, just realistic.

Graham

I gotta agree... its not that I'm sick of the VF-1s but at this point I've already invested way too much and pretty happy with the 1/48 line to start over... It better be damn good to win me over too. But it seems like Yamato is losing steam on Macross and is ready to branch out to other stuff. Other stuff than I'm happy about too. So I'm hoping for someone to pick up the torch and run with the Macross line. Sure it's not that popular, but there's enough interest in it to be a good investment for a new company to use as they're flagship product to grow on.

[Graham]

They can't be that stupid and think that the Elintseekers, etc. are not gonna sell.

Or can they..?

I dunno, Bandai are absolute geniuses when it comes to marketing Gundam (or maybe they just have the populace brainwashed), but when it comes to Macross, they seem pretty clueless IMO.

Graham

[eriku]

I can see Graham's point on how Bandai probably just wanted to wash their hands of Macross altogether. It's unfortunate, but from a business POV Macross hasn't really been that good to them in the last few years. I think if Macross Zero had been a smash hit then Bandai might have raised an eyebrow and maybe even blew the dust off the sketch pads to draw some toy designs, but as it is nobody is begging for Zero toys, or even really caring if any ever come (besides all of us freaks here, of course). Even Yamato, our seemingly last keeper-of-the-flame doesn't seem to concerned about making Zero toys. Look at the one that they almost put out, even that seemed half-hearted and somewhat tossed-off.

But there's got to be some company out there who is willing to take a chance. Who maybe even has a few Macross fans within. Maybe make a few small runs of some quality toys (expensive, yes, but we'd pay it). Am I dreaming? Sure, a little. But in the weird world of Japanese toys I have learned to never swear off any possibility.

And if all else fails we've always got Harmony Gold to milk the dead horse. They could take MZero, redub it so Shin is Rick Hunter, and make it some sort of crazy 'lost weekend' where Rick and Roy get stranded on an island that just happens to have a large supply of Protoculture. Then they could have Toynami dig out their vats of candy-cane formula and make a new 'Masterpiece' VF-0 toy.

[Aegis!]

Anyway, even if by some miracle Bandai did decide to release a line of Macross GFF VFs, you just know that they would be stupid and release umpteen dozen VF-1 variants first. And of course, they wouldnt sell that well, as everbody is sick of the VF-1, which would lead Banadi to conclude that Macross doesn't sell and cancelling the line before they could get to the interesting stuff like the VF-5000, VF-4, Mac Zero Valks etc.

I'm not being cynical, just realistic.

Graham

I don´t know , somehow people are just obsesive enough to buy their VF-1s as well. Won´t happen I know.

I´d be happy if Hase made aVf-5000 , well , anyone reallly.

But I agree , Bandai just hates anything not-Gundam so they won´t make it if it ain´t a sure winner.

our only hopes right now is our ¨beloved¨ Yamato

[Valk009]

I believe BanDai will renew their license with BigWest if it expires. The cost for it will be peanuts for them and then BanDai will basically do nothing with it, just like what they are doing now

They will then agressively promote their Gundam product and everyone is forced to buy Gundam stuff instead

Btw this is just my own conspiracy theory

[EXO]

I dunno, Bandai are absolute geniuses when it comes to marketing Gundam (or maybe they just have the populace brainwashed), but when it comes to Macross, they seem pretty clueless IMO.

Graham

Well what do you know... this Hershey's Kiss cap works... I can deflect Bandai's Gundam brainwashing transmission... other than that it's just spiffy...

[Graham]

Damn it, I must not be using enough tin foil in my cap, as I've been buying a lot of Bandai Gundam Destiny toys recently .

Must......resist........evil......Bandai........brainwashing .

Graham

[striderhiryu]

i did not belive i would say this but i think that the only way we'll ever see macross merchandise on this side of the planet is via harmony gold. but plesae why do HG still uses robotech as their main franchise? come on. that franchise is way to old and till this day it has not evolved like macross has been doing at japan. if the directives of HG had jus a bit of brain they should send all robotech stuff to oblivion, and start fresh with the REAL macross franchise instead. i don't know, perhaps they should negotiate with big west over the macross license and release macross merchandise legally here as long as it had the quality approval of big west so they could release quality products or even better workout a deal with yamato or bandai and they wouldn't had to pay for the toy designs since they are already done.

but noooo, instead they go their way relesing lower quality products, hell they even don't recognize the truth that they butchered a clasic of animation and have denied many fans the real story behind macross as if the goverment was denying the existance of aliens here, and by the way you must forget the alien stuff i just mentioned.

[Dat Pinche Haro!]

we still might have hope...i'm sure BW will still release a Macross Zero movie...and hopefully that will revive the Macross franchise enough for Bandai or another toy company (aside from Yamato) to produce high quality Macross toys or model kits...I would still love to see a variable kit of the VF-0 by Bandai...but that's wishful thinking for now...maybe one day the people of Japan will get tired of gundam and Bandai will have to move on to something else or they'll lose all their assets And what better series to start stuff off with than Macross! and other great series like it!

[eugimon]

I'm also somewhat surprised that Bandai decided to jump the macross bandwagon... it seems like yamato is carving out a pretty nice market with their macross toys, you would think bandai would notice and try to cut them off.. revive that macross 7 line and produce some high end stuff that could compete with the yamato stuff.

And I would LOVE to see a PG VF-1 kit... drool.

[LORD KUNGFU]

Macross toy design and production will be taken over by Kenner and Applause.

[Escaflown4]

As Graham said, Bandai is a corporate company with only one thing in mind "$$". They only focus on whatever brings in the biggest source of revenue for them. The only reason they even made the reissues was the fact that the originals were selling through the roof prices on ebay. They first released Hikaru's VF-1J to test the market. The first production batch sold extremely well that they decided to release the rest of the line. That's when they literally flooded the market with VF-1 valkyries to the point of saturation. Once Bandai saw sales plummeted, they immediately pulled out. This is all business 101 here. They just wanted a slice of the market. Did they do any research prior to selling the valks? Probably not much, otherwise they would have known that the most desirable valks were the ones they didn't re-release. As far as business mind goes, Macross is something they rather stay away from since they don't any potential $$ in it. Pretty much any rumors of Bandai re-releasing the valks are just......rumors.

[Dat Pinche Haro!]

Macross toy design and production will be taken over by Kenner and Applause.

i thought those companies didn't exist anymore

[EXO]

i did not belive i would say this but i think that the only way we'll ever see macross merchandise on this side of the planet is via harmony gold.

Hush you!

Joons were better valks compared to an MPC. HG Macross products are bootlegs... say it with me... BOOTLEGS. $20 toys in $60 boxes. I don't even like the way those boxes look. And no, I'm not bias. If they made $60 toys in $20 boxes, I'd spend my money on them. hell I'd pay $120 dollars if they made $80 toys in $40 boxes... and I'd throw away the boxes.

[striderhiryu]

bootlegs¡¡, ripoffs¡¡, copias piratas¡¡ and anything else.

what i meant was because if japanese valkyries were released here their prices would not be much high.

still one question, why many companies have lack of vision?.

and why can`t the japanese see that macross is way cooler than gundam, in my opinion if it wheren`t for the gundaniom alloy the gundam pilot would have died several times unlike the main characters of macross.

but if bandai supported macross in the way they do it for gundam then they`d be forcing big west and studio nue to release several macross series on a regular basis and suddendly it would be the same case with gundam, same plot with different mechas.

[newca]

we still might have hope...i'm sure BW will still release a Macross Zero movie...and hopefully that will revive the Macross franchise enough for Bandai or another toy company (aside from Yamato) to produce high quality Macross toys or model kits...

I hope too. Do you remember what happened after the Movie of Patlabor: Wasted Thirteen----The all new 1/35 MG Patlabor series was born! So let's just cross our fingers~

[Escaflown4]

bootlegs¡¡, ripoffs¡¡, copias piratas¡¡ and anything else.

what i meant was because if japanese valkyries were released here their prices would not be much high.

still one question, why many companies have lack of vision?.

and why can`t the japanese see that macross is way cooler than gundam, in my opinion if it wheren`t for the gundaniom alloy the gundam pilot would have died several times unlike the main characters of macross.

but if bandai supported macross in the way they do it for gundam then they`d be forcing big west and studio nue to release several macross series on a regular basis and suddendly it would be the same case with gundam, same plot with different mechas.

I agree with you that Macross is definitely much cooler then Gundam. Question is why would Bandai want to waste money mass advertising Macross around the globe. Macross still needs alot of promoting to reach those that have no clue what it's about. I doubt Bandai would want to waste their time and resources to do that since they already have an established huge fan base for Gundam.

[bandit29]

I said it before and I'll say it again: Macross needs a new full length (26 or more episodes)TV series before Bandai will even consider pushing Macross again. Macross Zero wasn't enough since its an OVA. That's out of the mainstream, for fans only.

With the anime market becoming more global, Bandai couldn't even market Macross outside of Japan since we have the whole BW/HG fiasco. Why would Bandai(toy division) want to get involved with that mess when they can just keep on with Gundam and other toys.

[Black Valkyrie]

I wish for HG, MG and VF In Action (I`m dreaming)

[striderhiryu]

I said it before and I'll say it again: Macross needs a new full length (26 or more episodes)TV series before Bandai will even consider pushing Macross again. Macross Zero wasn't enough since its an OVA. That's out of the mainstream, for fans only.

With the anime market becoming more global, Bandai couldn't even market Macross outside of Japan since we have the whole BW/HG fiasco. Why would Bandai(toy division) want to get involved with that mess when they can just keep on with Gundam and other toys.

totally agree with you.

not only a new series but a massive campaign that could allow more people to know about this serie and to be able to get into it. just to see what could get fans into it, do you remeber what was that thing that amaze you or inspired you?. that is a flame that needs to burn again with more strenght.

zero was a series for real macross fans who wanted a more mature approach to the story, but how to get a new generation of fans into it without being another macross 7 and please don`t turn it into a bash, this is only a mention since 7 was more for younger audiences but did not apeal much for us more mature fans.

by the way bandai is quite a big company so why do they fear such a small company like HG, heck they should buy the company and use their resources to promote bandai's own products without any domestic resistance.

the only real power HG has it's that they can use lawers to suit, and thats it. what do they offer? they're afraid of direct competition with bandai or yamato since their products if they were released in the states would be more affordable in price compared to toynamis overpriced MPC figures or super-posables and besides better prices the quality in their products is far better than toynami.

i'm getting off topic here, if bandai was to release new macross products they need first something that will catch the attention of potential customers like a new series aimed for an audience thats not way to young like those who watch gundam yet have the money to burn on their models, i think is between the ages 14-35.

next the series would had to be a smash hit for the general audience so it could catch bandais attention and let them see the comercial potential of the series, like valkyrie figures or models like HG, MG or even better PG.

once the series is proven to be a hit they would need to give the produc line a good promotion, i know that macross will not take gundam place at bandai's side but at least they should give some good support. just think that macross and gundam are the best shows featuring mechas, macross will be second to gundam just like zero is to X, but remember that zero is far coller than X.

[1/1 LowViz Lurker]

I say they remake macross the way certain dead franchises were ressurected in the US. Old cartoons like heman, ninja turtles, (and even zoids which is ancient!) etc. And don't forget recent anime remakes like astroboy which has been redone fresh but still manages to retain the look and feel of the original astroboy.

Before old school fans groan, realise that they could make both old series and new series available for both generations of fans. They don;'t have to favour one over the other. In fact the new series could be a vehicle to help sales and interest in the older series. As an example you can still buy the classic 80s astroyboy tv series on dvd right alongside the newer tv series if you were more a fans of the old and had nostalgiac reasons for wanting to see the old. (Personally I'm not familiar with the pre-80s one)

Then all the money made from the toy sales will allow new movies, new tv series etc to keep going. But the question is this: do they have enough material? Isn't macross something that has new stuff only every 5-10 years?

VF1s are probably the most recognised valk because it appeared in the original tv series. Now that this generation is getting old, it is only a matter of time before interest or knowledge about the series dies out unless a new series is made in the same scale that the original series had when it first seemed fresh.

Although when macross plus came out I think it had an impact on lots of people who probably weren't that familiar with original series, so as a standalone spinoff sidestory thingy, a new fanbase was born because of the series just being easy on the eyes to watch. People who saw macross plus may not even know that zentradi were alien giants or the reason why humans needed variable vehicles, or the whole story behind sdf1, but luckily the viewer didn;t need to be filled in about all the little details about the SW to enjoy it. (But it is assumed you at least know what a "zentradi" is and the fact these zentradi made peace with humans and live amoungst them if you don;t wish to be confused)

Anyway, after they remake the original, they then paste onto it a newer series if they can.

A newer fan of macross can then sequentially watch macross zero, macross remake (without the pain of crap animation turning them away) and then gradually get interested in a new series that way. I see a big generation gap problem when it comes to macross because the meat of what made macross so appelaing is contained in the space war (a good variety of different mecha types appears here) and it is getting too old for newer people to bear watching because of the animations and simple dogfights after being spoilt with macross plus.

Bandai could then cash in on any interest generated from a new series and redo the vf1 line to rival yamato 1/48s and then gradually go onto other valks. sigh, wish this HG thing wasn't in the way or I'd be buying more macross toys (and games) because they'd be far more accessible if the mainstream could catch on and recognise macross for macross instead of as robotech. I'm glad robotech got me into it, but now that the universes have split apart and robo is going to continue with mechs from mospeada, macross should finally be given a life to live alongside robo internationally rather than being hidden and unable to unleash its potential in other overseas markets where I bet kids would snap at the chance to be able to buy toys that are mass produced from the series. (if only they were accessible and not "masterpiece collector items" that cost an arm and leg and happen to fall apart once the box is opened)

Edited January 5, 2005 by 1/1 LowViz Lurker