Will Bandai take over Mac toys production?

[eugimon]

Before Gundam Seed came out, I think I would have disagreed with the idea of remaking macross for today's market... but I think with Seed and now with the sequel... a motivated creative team could do a good job retelling the story.

I think even more than gundam, macross' story of a supposed outside threat and the culture clash that comes along because of it, has some very strong ties to what is going on worldwide.

[1/1 LowViz Lurker]

Ah but what happens is people are scared that lucas was able to disapoint fans of star wars with his new movies, so similarly they get scared any mention of a potentially awesome macross remake would rape the franchise of integrity. They apply that example and believe it would be disatrous.

But they should ask themselves this: without cashing in so that the masses know something about the series, how can you expect new toys to be made apart from the overdone vf1s? I think a lot has to do with this whole idea of an high quality toy needing to be a collectors item that only fans should be able to own and not be accessible to the average person. But that attiude is what kinda stunts any potential renewed interest in the old series, if you know what I mean...After a while people move on and forget the franchise and do not keep up to date with anything new. So companies may then guage interest this way and avoid devoted a line of toys for it.

Once the fanbase grows old and dies, so will the franchise unless some attempt at a ressurection of the dead franchise is given a chance.

Imagine if you will, the transformers generation 1 was given closer-to-the-movie quality animation? The bots were given a new look, that doesn't offend fans of the orignal but makes the characters better, a whole new toyline with the same quality of the BT/alternators was done up, and we didn't have to put up with the dated 80s generation 1 as being the only thing to reference for fans of the old series? (I wouldn't watch the old series again but the old movie I would. Even for nostalgia. It hasn't aged well.)

It would be beneficial to both older and newer fans because the older fans can see the original gets back to its roots in story and design, while at the same time the newer fans are not put off by dated look of the old. Apply this to macross and you can see what I mean. The story gets right back to it's roots where the meat of the thing is, a new generation of people can then get into the thing fresh and not have to worry about confusion, (thanks partly to 15 years of robotech conditioning ) and toys would more likely by made because people tend to buy what they know.

I admitedly have bought gundam kits without seeing or knowing anything about the series in the past, but now that I've seen a few series I tend to want to hunt for the models/toys of the things I've seen because of familiarity and knowing them. It's more likely the exposure to the series that makes people want toys after seeing them, rather than just wanting the toys and not being exposed to a series first. VF1s are familiar so people recognise them immediately and because of that we see more attention put to them.

Edited January 5, 2005 by 1/1 LowViz Lurker

[sabretooth]

bottom line is unless there is a biblical upsurge in demand for macross bandai is'nt going to do a thing.

the financial pressure is immense in the toy market, take takara- they are surperb in regards to toy design and execution but they are losing money hand over fist

it does'nt matter who does what with the license, there is simply not enough appreciation of the series to justify the spending of the resources needed for brand new product for bandai to launch the blitzkreig of their marketing and merchandise dept

it hurts to hear but that is the case

unfortunatly

[kensei]

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.

A full feature on VF-X2 would be nice. I reckon you could stretch that story out in 20-30 eps.

[Myriad]

Joke Machines=$$$

[Rick Randy]

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

CHRIST NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!

[bandit29]

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

CHRIST NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!

How about Jakks-Pacific or Matchbox? Would those be better? lol