NEW Official MPC Thread!!!

[mechaninac]

4. Looks like the landing gears does not help it clear the chest from touching the ground.

I had that same problem at first. However, once you transform the toy back into fighter mode you can do a lot better than the assembly line people did. Just take it slow and try to properly position the hips all the way down their track, and force the nose section and legs down by twisting them against the center section. Try to keep the air intakes from rotating to a flat plane with the center piece (chest/sensor pallet); things will look fine once the whole toy is locked down in fighter mode. Also make sure the rear wheels are properly locked open (right landing gear on mine is specially difficult and takes some force to lock). If you are successful you should get some clearance. After fiddling with mine I was able to get a full millimeter clearance between the lower-most edge of the chest and the ground.

[Godzilla]

4. Looks like the landing gears does not help it clear the chest from touching the ground.

I had that same problem at first. However, once you transform the toy back into fighter mode you can do a lot better than the assembly line people did. Just take it slow and try to properly position the hips all the way down their track, and force the nose section and legs down by twisting them against the center section. Try to keep the air intakes from rotating to a flat plane with the center piece (chest/sensor pallet); things will look fine once the whole toy is locked down in fighter mode. Also make sure the rear wheels are properly locked open (right landing gear on mine is specially difficult and takes some force to lock). If you are successful you should get some clearance. After fiddling with mine I was able to get a full millimeter clearance between the lower-most edge of the chest and the ground.

Well, I still have the problem of the floppy landing gear.

[Shin Densetsu Kai 7.0]

hmm since when have I been bitching the most? There are more people on this board who bitched more about it than I ever have. No I dont have the MPC alpha im just waiting for a good price. Do i intend to pay 80$? hell no. DO i intend to wait like some of the members here? YEs.

and NO i do not know if someone really is trying to sue but if they are; whatever thats them me personally i wouldnt. The company is known for shoddy qc why pay 3000$ for a lawyer for a case you'd probably lose when eveyone knows qc is suspect with toynami, and toynami is offering replacements. Its a lose lose situation., nmo point in suing.. Im not at all surprised people are pissed at the toy. I have 3 MPCs and you all say the quality is better than those. WHich still makes it seem like the toy is flawed. Toynami makes stupid design decisions and such so im not surprised,m while the toy looks good id have to handle one to really see for myself how bad or good it is.

[do not disturb]

while the toy looks good id have to handle one to really see for myself how bad or good it is.

you don't have no hold it to know the truth!

toynami has been suspect from the beginning.

a few members here are fanatics/nitpickers that will find any little flaw and complain about it.....but, on the flipside of the coin, a lot of the members write honest reviews of the +'s and -'s with a toy without all the bitching and moaning. i as well as many, tend to take those peoples opinions a little more seriously.

you don't have to own something to know its no good. if not, then whats the point of having people write reviews on anything at all.

[Pat S]

Well, I still have the problem of the floppy landing gear.

Are you sure you have it pulled all the way forward? There's like a click in point that you have to push it past towards the nose. I'm talking about the rear gear only.

[magicsp00n]

For what it's worth, I got mine yesterday, and haven't found any real problems with it. There were some tense moments transforming it, but nothing broken and nothing floppy, as far as I can tell.

It's a much better toy than the VF-1 Masterpiece line, though I somehow miss the light-up visor.

My only wish is that it could be more poseable, but I recognize the limitations with a transformable toy.

[Graham]

I wonder how much sending out all these replacement toys is going to cut into Toynami's profit margin?

Will it make them too scared to produce the red, green and dark Alphas?

Hopefully, they will greatly improve the QC for any furture varients, as I imagine it would get prohibitivly expensive if they have to send out replacements for each color varient .

Graham

[JsARCLIGHT]

If what people are assuming about toynami's staff and operation is correct (small staff, low profit margin to begin with, barely paying the bills... single crocodile tear) then this whole debacle may kneecap them to a good degree. I can't recall if people made mass returns of the first MPC... from all I heard they just bitched about it. This time around this whole "tons of returns" thing might just kick them were they feel it: the wallet. You can bitch and moan about a company and it's business practices all you want on the internet but only when they start to feel that dissapointment and anger in their financial statements will they possibly try to make some adjustments.

Of course I would just love for them to send out a press release with some statement like "we would love to bring robotech fans everywhere more high quality alpha toys and even the promised beta fighter but due to large numbers of exchanges of our wonderful products we lack the funds to finish the line. Please address all complaints and hate mail to the people who were not satisfied with our high quality and well assembled products."

Edited September 2, 2004 by JsARCLIGHT

[Montarvillois]

Uhh....

I would hate to break the bitching party but I would love to see pictures, more pictures like large pictures, small pictures, close ups, with your family, dog, cat. front views, back views, above views, side views of all modes. Little pilot closeup, with, without helmet, sticker sheet, instructions, box... you know, pictures please.

Thanks

[wolfx]

Uhh....

I would hate to break the bitching party but I would love to see pictures, more pictures like large pictures, small pictures, close ups, with your family, dog, cat. front views, back views, above views, side views of all modes. Little pilot closeup, with, without helmet, sticker sheet, instructions, box... you know, pictures please.

Thanks

Me too. From the pictures, I can tell people are afraid to play with their MPCs too much. So far I've only seen generic poses in the battroid/gerwalk mode. Either that, or its not that poseable.

[Opus]

Uhh....

I would hate to break the bitching party    but I would love to see pictures, more pictures like large pictures, small pictures, close ups, with your family, dog, cat. front views, back views, above views, side views of all modes. Little pilot closeup, with, without helmet, sticker sheet, instructions, box... you know, pictures please.

Thanks

Me too. From the pictures, I can tell people are afraid to play with their MPCs too much. So far I've only seen generic poses in the battroid/gerwalk mode. Either that, or its not that poseable.

It's better than a Gakken but still not very poseable.

[Pat S]

It's better than a Gakken but still not very poseable.

How much poseablility do you want? It's about as poseable as that bulky of a robot design can have. Compared to a Gakken Legioss it's a contortionist.

[ewilen]

Sithlord, just want to mention that the poll is seemingly targeted only to people who actually own the thing. I voted before I realized that...

As for Toynami's profit margin, I think it's worth mentioning that their expenses include not only cost of manufacture, but cost of licensing. And does anyone know what the retail markup on the Alpha MPC is?

[Felix]

All right, I finally opened up my Alpha yesterday afternoon after it had been sitting on my desk for about a week. I had read what had been said and was, quite frankly, a little nervous about the quality based solely on what I had read here. After playing with it for an afternoon I have a few tings to say about it.

Let me give you a little background. I teach industrial design, graphic design, and just about any other type of visual design that I am asked to by my department. I have industry experience, and have taught for about eight years.

Given that, I often spend a great deal of time going over new purchases, (I collect mainly Macross, transformers, and just about any other robot that suits my fancy.), with a fine toothed comb. I love to take real world products and use them as teaching aides in my classes.

So, what did I notice about the MPC Alpha…Well, It suffers from a few problems, (some major), and at the same time has a few things going for it. Let me break it down for you.

Problems:

1. The overall engineering of the toy is flawed in that it tries to do too much. It tries to have all the bells and whistles that any hard-core fan would want, but lacked the development time needed to pull them off. I know, I know you are thinking, “It took forever to get this thing out, it is over a year late, and it still has problems.” These things are all true. Yet, to me it feels rushed. Come on, landing gear that is too short? That is a simple problem too fix and yet it wasn’t. This says to me that not enough test samples were run, and that the folks who engineered it didn’t spend enough time revising it. By the way, I was just using the landing gear as an example. Here are a few of others: missile bay doors, locking tab fit, hands, and overall parts fit.

2. This brings me to the second problem I have with the Alpha, and that is its overall complexity. Here is a little analogy for you. Bandai, for all intents and purposes, has an unlimited amount of time and resources to produce a product. (When was the last time you complained about Bandai taking too long on a project? Never, because it won’t matter. Bandai will finish when it is finished. They don’t rush because they don’t have to.) They also produce very well designed and high quality toys. Some might argue the best in the world, and they would have a case to do so, but they still don’t get it right every time. (Do I need to mention the SOC Gaiking?) Now look at Toynami. A small company, fiscally limited, and under the gun of fan pressure trying to design and produce as high a quality toy as Bandai. To me that spells disaster. I understand the want to make it better than the last incarnation of the Alpha, but I for one could do without all the bells and whistles. Just give me the basics. The Gakken did, and it is a marvelous toy. Is it completely accurate? No, but do you care? Would you rather have had a smaller Gakken like toy that didn’t make you sweat when you played with it? Me too. The way I look at it Toynami broke the first rule of design: Keep It Simple Stupid.

3. Materials are always a big issue when designing anything. Here, Toynami both hit and missed. (I’ll talk about their hits below.) As for misses, the use of metal for metals sake is not a good idea. It is hard and expensive to mix materials, and over the long run causes more problems than they are worth. (How many of us have and old Valk whose chest plate no longer matches the rest of the toy?) Differing fading, and shrinking rates aside placement of the metal components is strange. Would the arms be less floppy if there was no metal in the forearms? Next is the issue of plastic choice. If you have ever paid close attention there are about a dozen different plastics that are used in the making of toys. Everything from rubbery PVC to brittle and rigid ABS, and each one has a different price point. Sacrificing some of the metal for a higher quality plastic would go a long way to fixing some of the problems people are having. (Like the weird sticky hands. And, on the same note, why didn’t they just use the hands from the super pose able? They looked good, and there were a bunch of different poses. Shut up you perfect transformation snobs…)

4. Finally, the paint, and its accompanying sloppiness, is a simple problem to fix. In most cases I have seen, it appears that all that was needed to fix this problem is to allow the painted parts to dry longer before assembly. Again, this might be an issue of the company trying to rush the product to market, or it might be a problem with the manufacturer. (And if this is the case Toynami needs to make a phone call to their manufacturer.)

Enough with the Problems now it is time for the stuff they did

Correct

1. Enthusiasm for a project is always a good thing. I can look at the MPC Alpha and tell the folks who designed it loved the project. I can just here them saying, “let’s add the missile bay doors, and retractable landing gear, and….uh….let’s make it so we can make a Beta later to hook it up to…” I love to see my students to talk like this, and it is great to see a company roll the dice on this kind of enthusiasm.

2. Innovation is always a welcome thing in the world of design. How many of us really grooved on the tailfins that slant out, the cockpit that opens like the one in the show, the way the canards fold back, and the cool pilot figure that doesn’t look like a peanut. Let’s face it there are some things that really got done well. Not to mention the box, the instructions, and the really nice stickers. All in all the graphic design is very well done. (Which makes me wonder if the toy was designed by graphic designers instead of industrial designers……Hmmmmm….)

3. I mentioned that there is some good materials use. From a design point of view the metal in the feet is a good use of metal. Keeping the center of gravity low in a toy that stands up is a good thing. Not to mention it doesn’t need painting. Good call here.

So, the question now becomes, how can the next one be better? Well, in order to answer this I want to say two things, one to us as fans and one to Toynami.

Fans:

Give them a break, and let them have the time they need to fix the problems. (Even though most of them should have been fixed before the Alpha hit the shelves.) I know I have waited forever for a new Alpha and this one is close. I feel like it is in its infancy and needs to grow up. Unfortunately, this version of the Alpha will have to grow up before our eyes, but let’s give it a chance to do so. Remember, like Yamato, Toynami is a small company of a few individuals not a giant behemoth of a company like Bandai. (Which makes the price of the MPCs not seem as bad to me as the price of the SOCs.) Think of Toynami as a small local toy store, and Bandai as Wal-Mart. (How many small local toy stores are there in your area now? Also, this makes the price not seem as bad.) Finally, I think that any company that wants to make high-end robot toys is to be commended for even trying. It ain’t easy…

Toynami:

You have got customers who really want you to succeed. We want these to be good, nay great. We want to buy cool robot toys that do what they are supposed to do. Don’t shut us out, listen to us, don’t get defensive, and try to remedy the problems. I guarantee you will sell a lot more product if you do. (Remember what is said about flies and honey…) Simplify, I know that I can live with fewer bells and whistles if the core product is improved by their elimination. Also, don’t give up. I like the enthusiasm for the projects you have done. I have all of the MPCs and I will say that while the first VF-1j was weak the last YF-1r was a worthy competitor that I enjoy very much. (Fans if you don’t own one it is really cool and pretty high quality. Especially done up with Blue Roses decals.)

Well, there it is. As a teacher what grade would I give the MPC Alpha if it had been designed by one of my students? As it stands right now about an 80%, but that grade can go up with some work. It can also go down with apathy………..Sorry this is so long.

[Myersjessee]

Nicely stated.

[Godzilla]

To Mechanimic: Thanks I did some fancy transforming/ positioning. Talk about a 1 mm clearance. I mean it is enough to see that little gap there.

To Pat S: Yes you were right I did not pull it forward enough. I was being careful at the time and didnt know if I should pull more forward for fear I would snap it. They are more sturdy that I thought.

After looking over my Alpha last night, I do not have a buyer's remorse on this at all unlike the the ones when I bought the Rick Hunter MPC at the time. Of course I did not buy these at full price though I regretted I cut from 4 to 2 on the preorder after the complaints I saw from everyone. As to the Gakken, I have them thanks to a MWer who sold them to me. I will be doing a comparision later when I get the time prolly this weekend. I will take pictures side by side. To tell you the truth, I like this Alpha. It aint that bad of a toy but due note I have the post 3000 issue. I feel bad for those missing parts to the head and things breaking.

Still price sucks. I will plan on getting more of scott at a discount still. Yes there are some flaws but very minor.

[Felix]

Nicely stated.

Thank You

[macu5454]

All right, I finally opened up my Alpha yesterday afternoon after it had been sitting on my desk for about a week. I had read what had been said and was, quite frankly, a little nervous about the quality based solely on what I had read here. After playing with it for an afternoon I have a few tings to say about it.

Let me give you a little background. I teach industrial design, graphic design, and just about any other type of visual design that I am asked to by my department. I have industry experience, and have taught for about eight years.

Given that, I often spend a great deal of time going over new purchases, (I collect mainly Macross, transformers, and just about any other robot that suits my fancy.), with a fine toothed comb. I love to take real world products and use them as teaching aides in my classes.

So, what did I notice about the MPC Alpha…Well, It suffers from a few problems, (some major), and at the same time has a few things going for it. Let me break it down for you.

Problems:

1. The overall engineering of the toy is flawed in that it tries to do too much. It tries to have all the bells and whistles that any hard-core fan would want, but lacked the development time needed to pull them off. I know, I know you are thinking, “It took forever to get this thing out, it is over a year late, and it still has problems.” These things are all true. Yet, to me it feels rushed. Come on, landing gear that is too short? That is a simple problem too fix and yet it wasn’t. This says to me that not enough test samples were run, and that the folks who engineered it didn’t spend enough time revising it. By the way, I was just using the landing gear as an example. Here are a few of others: missile bay doors, locking tab fit, hands, and overall parts fit. 

2. This brings me to the second problem I have with the Alpha, and that is its overall complexity. Here is a little analogy for you. Bandai, for all intents and purposes, has an unlimited amount of time and resources to produce a product. (When was the last time you complained about Bandai taking too long on a project?  Never, because it won’t matter. Bandai will finish when it is finished. They don’t rush because they don’t have to.) They also produce very well designed and high quality toys. Some might argue the best in the world, and they would have a case to do so, but they still don’t get it right every time. (Do I need to mention the SOC Gaiking?) Now look at Toynami. A small company, fiscally limited, and under the gun of fan pressure trying to design and produce as high a quality toy as Bandai. To me that spells disaster. I understand the want to make it better than the last incarnation of the Alpha, but I for one could do without all the bells and whistles. Just give me the basics. The Gakken did, and it is a marvelous toy. Is it completely accurate? No, but do you care? Would you rather have had a smaller Gakken like toy that didn’t make you sweat when you played with it? Me too. The way I look at it Toynami broke the first rule of design: Keep It Simple Stupid.

3. Materials are always a big issue when designing anything. Here, Toynami both hit and missed. (I’ll talk about their hits below.) As for misses, the use of metal for metals sake is not a good idea. It is hard and expensive to mix materials, and over the long run causes more problems than they are worth. (How many of us have and old Valk whose chest plate no longer matches the rest of the toy?)  Differing fading, and shrinking rates aside placement of the metal components is strange. Would the arms be less floppy if there was no metal in the forearms? Next is the issue of plastic choice. If you have ever paid close attention there are about a dozen different plastics that are used in the making of toys. Everything from rubbery PVC to brittle and rigid ABS, and each one has a different price point. Sacrificing some of the metal for a higher quality plastic would go a long way to fixing some of the problems people are having. (Like the weird sticky hands. And, on the same note, why didn’t they just use the hands from the super pose able? They looked good, and there were a bunch of different poses. Shut up you perfect transformation snobs…)

4. Finally, the paint, and its accompanying sloppiness, is a simple problem to fix. In most cases I have seen, it appears that all that was needed to fix this problem is to allow the painted parts to dry longer before assembly. Again, this might be an issue of the company trying to rush the product to market, or it might be a problem with the manufacturer. (And if this is the case Toynami needs to make a phone call to their manufacturer.)

Enough with the Problems now it is time for the stuff they did

Correct

1. Enthusiasm for a project is always a good thing. I can look at the MPC Alpha and tell the folks who designed it loved the project. I can just here them saying, “let’s add the missile bay doors, and retractable landing gear, and….uh….let’s make it so we can make a Beta later to hook it up to…” I love to see my students to talk like this, and it is great to see a company roll the dice on this kind of enthusiasm.

2. Innovation is always a welcome thing in the world of design. How many of us really grooved on the tailfins that slant out, the cockpit that opens like the one in the show, the way the canards fold back, and the cool pilot figure that doesn’t look like a peanut. Let’s face it there are some things that really got done well. Not to mention the box, the instructions, and the really nice stickers. All in all the graphic design is very well done. (Which makes me wonder if the toy was designed by graphic designers instead of industrial designers……Hmmmmm….)

3. I mentioned that there is some good materials use. From a design point of view the metal in the feet is a good use of metal. Keeping the center of gravity low in a toy that stands up is a good thing. Not to mention it doesn’t need painting. Good call here.

So, the question now becomes, how can the next one be better? Well, in order to answer this I want to say two things, one to us as fans and one to Toynami.

Fans:

Give them a break, and let them have the time they need to fix the problems. (Even though most of them should have been fixed before the Alpha hit the shelves.) I know I have waited forever for a new Alpha and this one is close. I feel like it is in its infancy and needs to grow up. Unfortunately, this version of the Alpha will have to grow up before our eyes, but let’s give it a chance to do so. Remember, like Yamato, Toynami is a small company of a few individuals not a giant behemoth of a company like Bandai. (Which makes the price of the MPCs not seem as bad to me as the price of the SOCs.) Think of Toynami as a small local toy store, and Bandai as Wal-Mart. (How many small local toy stores are there in your area now? Also, this makes the price not seem as bad.) Finally, I think that any company that wants to make high-end robot toys is to be commended for even trying. It ain’t easy…

Toynami:

You have got customers who really want you to succeed. We want these to be good, nay great. We want to buy cool robot toys that do what they are supposed to do. Don’t shut us out, listen to us, don’t get defensive, and try to remedy the problems. I guarantee you will sell a lot more product if you do. (Remember what is said about flies and honey…) Simplify, I know that I can live with fewer bells and whistles if the core product is improved by their elimination. Also, don’t give up. I like the enthusiasm for the projects you have done. I have all of the MPCs and I will say that while the first VF-1j was weak the last YF-1r was a worthy competitor that I enjoy very much. (Fans if you don’t own one it is really cool and pretty high quality. Especially done up with Blue Roses decals.)

Well, there it is. As a teacher what grade would I give the MPC Alpha if it had been designed by one of my students? As it stands right now about an 80%, but that grade can go up with some work. It can also go down with apathy………..Sorry this is so long.

What about the size of the Alpha? Dont you think its too small therefore its more fragile. You know? Cuz I think I know but does what I think really matter? Toynami can you hear me?!?!

Edited September 2, 2004 by macu5454

[Felix]

macu5454:

The size is fine because it is inscale with their other products. I personally like that. 1/55th seems pretty standard.

[glane21]

I just got one and overall, I like it. To me the quality is no worse than any of the 1/60 Yamatos I've had.

[ewilen]

Based on the pictures we've seen comparing it to Imai's model and the old Gakken 1/55, it's probably closer to 1/48, regardless of what Toynami and HG say.

Anyway, if it is 1/48, that makes the toy more attractive to some (including me, though not enough in my case to actually buy it).

It's a tough call on what they should have done about the size, given that they inherited the specs of the "real" mecha from Mospeada, which was never intended to be linked to Macross. They opted to stick with a common scale, at least notionally, which emphasizes the Robotech continuity. Also, if they sincerely intend to produce a Beta, they have to limit the size of the Alpha or the Beta will be huge.

[rocco_77]

Felix: Thanks for posting your comments.... Well said...

A few pages back, I also made my feelings clear that although the Alpha has some issues out of the gate, that I think some people here could stand to be a bit more objective and not overly critical.... If customer service is accepting returns and/or exchanges without hassle, then I don't see a problem... I know there are more than a few that were disappointed, and there are issues admittedly so.... but the Alpha over all is a pretty good toy... I agree with Felix's grade of 80%.

[Southpaw Samurai]

What about the size of the Alpha? Dont you think its too small therefore its more fragile. You know? Cuz I think I know but does what I think really matter? Toynami can you hear me?!?!

Well, Felix covers that in effect by saying they tried to do too much. A larger size would've allowed for less fragility with all the little goodies they wanted to throw in, but, as has been said, it would've made it off scale from the previous MPCs (if that's really a concern), plus it would make the potential Beta simply HUGE. As much as I would've loved a 1:48 Alpha, the Beta would've suddenly been approaching the size of the BBi 1:18 fighters.

Now...a transformable 1:18 Alpha with a pilot who could pull out and actually ride/wear the Cyclone.... Done right (which means, as sad as I am to admit it, not done by Toynami), I'd be willing to part with a hefty chunk of change for that....who needs a Beta at that point...especially since the Alpha itself would eat up a shelf to itself.

Will try to post some more posed Alpha pictures this weekend...there's this sad little part of me that wants to play with it until it becomes as loose or something breaks like so many people have experienced with their just out of the box versions.

[Kin]

who needs a tlead is the same as... who needs the sdf

[gilermo]

i'm loving the alpha more and more..

it's almost like it's getting sturdier by the day..

and i transform it alot (carefully though..but not as carefull as in the beginning).

bring on the second one!!!

"you call yourself a fighter plane!!!"

[gilermo]

"i was just kidding about your friend back there....."

[eriku]

Great post, Felix, I feel pretty much the same way but would never have been able to state it so well.

About the bells and whistles on the Alpha, when I first took the toy out and opened the missle hatches I had this feeling that I would probably never bother opening them again. I think they add a nice touch, but it's honestly something I could have done without...much like the retractable heat shield, removable nosecone and wingflaps on the 1/48 Yammies. Especially the heat shield, man that thing bugs me.

[JsARCLIGHT]

For those who say some of us are being "overly critical" (some of us read = me) I would have to say that yes I am being overly critical... but it is because A) I had such high hopes for this toy, B) I only like high quality toys (and yes I dislike the 1/60 Yamatos, all the 1/72 yamatos and a slew of other toys) and finally C) some people are more forgiving of crap.

I'm getting older and let's face it, I've seen a lot in my life so far. My time and tollerance of shoddy toys with lots of issues and generally crap assembly quality is very low and I have no quams voicing my opinion of it. I also have no quams against shoving that in Toynami's face. What is this crap about "they are a small company and we have to give them slack?" I own a small business and from my experience we small businesses need to be one step ahead of the big boys just to stay in business. If I told my design teams to just phone it in and we'd "fix it in post" (the battle cry of the big houses) then no one would use us because we would constantly be over time, over budget and have terrible quality. The way my company gets work is by being faster, cheaper and better than the lumbering giants of the industry. Our clients come back to us time and time again because we bend over backward, even sometimes to the point of losing money to keep that one great client, to please them and make darn sure they are happy with our services. It seems to me that the business practices of "small toy companies" nowadays have become "well, let's just release the toy fast and dirty and fix the problems in the following releases". Well that is the way American auto makers played the game back in the '70s and '80s and look what happened to them, the small upstart import companies blew their asses out of the water and they are still playing catch-up to this day. "Accepting mistakes with the expectation of future improvement" is a cop out, pure and simple. I expect excellence up front. This toy was a far cry from excellent to me and I sure as sheep wanted this thing to be great... but the darn thing is just a mess. Gaps, poor paint, loose parts.

The more you forgive the lower your expectations become and the worse the products you buy degrade to. Always have high expectations of things, especially of things carrying unneccessarily high price tags.

We have a saying in the GD industry:

Doctors bury their mistakes, Bad product designers just put it in a flashy box.

[Opus]

I have to give Toynami credit for good customer service. They got my Alpha yesterday and sent out my replacement today. I just hope I don't have to send the replacement back.

[JsARCLIGHT]

Did they send you an email notifying you of the shipment? If they did then it makes me wonder where my email and shipment are because I have not heard dick from them since the original return request was answered.

[Opus]

Did they send you an email notifying you of the shipment? If they did then it makes me wonder where my email and shipment are because I have not heard dick from them since the original return request was answered.

They sent me an email with a tracking number. It may be because I sent them an email yesterday to ask how long it would take. They seem to respond to emails pretty quickly if you use the customerservice@toynami.com address. If I were you I'd send them an email a day until I got a reply.

[captain america]

For those who say some of us are being "overly critical" (some of us read = me) I would have to say that yes I am being overly critical... but it is because A) I had such high hopes for this toy, B) I only like high quality toys (and yes I dislike the 1/60 Yamatos, all the 1/72 yamatos and a slew of other toys) and finally C) some people are more forgiving of crap.

I'm getting older and let's face it, I've seen a lot in my life so far. My time and tollerance of shoddy toys with lots of issues and generally crap assembly quality is very low and I have no quams voicing my opinion of it. I also have no quams against shoving that in Toynami's face. What is this crap about "they are a small company and we have to give them slack?" I own a small business and from my experience we small businesses need to be one step ahead of the big boys just to stay in business. If I told my design teams to just phone it in and we'd "fix it in post" (the battle cry of the big houses) then no one would use us because we would constantly be over time, over budget and have terrible quality. The way my company gets work is by being faster, cheaper and better than the lumbering giants of the industry. Our clients come back to us time and time again because we bend over backward, even sometimes to the point of losing money to keep that one great client, to please them and make darn sure they are happy with our services. It seems to me that the business practices of "small toy companies" nowadays have become "well, let's just release the toy fast and dirty and fix the problems in the following releases". Well that is the way American auto makers played the game back in the '70s and '80s and look what happened to them, the small upstart import companies blew their asses out of the water and they are still playing catch-up to this day. "Accepting mistakes with the expectation of future improvement" is a cop out, pure and simple. I expect excellence up front. This toy was a far cry from excellent to me and I sure as sheep wanted this thing to be great... but the darn thing is just a mess. Gaps, poor paint, loose parts.

The more you forgive the lower your expectations become and the worse the products you buy degrade to. Always have high expectations of things, especially of things carrying unneccessarily high price tags.

We have a saying in the GD industry:

Doctors bury their mistakes, Bad product designers just put it in a flashy box.

JS: I couldn't have put it better myself.

As it turns out, I got to play with an Alpha POS just today, as a retailer/buddy of mine was able to put his hands on some. My own impression, as someone who works in the toy industry, is that the toy was done on the cheap(and I mean cheap!) I wouldn't say that Toynami were trying to do TOO much with the engineering, they simply let the lowest-bidder (manufacturer) run amock and unsupervised throughout production.

As a rule of thumb, manufacturers in china want to get through production runs as quickly as possible; they don't give a rat's a$$ about quality; they just want to get the stuff out as fast as possible, get paid, and get some other banal item out just as quickly, etc. The plant managers "pocket" most of the money, and hire the absolute cheapest workers they can. They'll litterally hire someone wandering aimlessly at a train station. "You, you, and you. Come with me, I have work for you" bellows the foreman on his quest for cheap labor. You then have assembly line workers who, just the day before, were janitors, now building toys on an assembly line for the first time....Aaaah, the beauty of cheap, commie labor

In the end, the factories do this because it's in their best interest to make money. The true blame lies with Toynami for approving the production samples, and/or most probably NOT adequately supervising the production of the merchandise they paid to have done. You REALLY have to watch the factories like hawks, or they'll turn out garbage by the truckload the second your back is turned... And just as quickly sell extra units on the docks for cash to a shady guy in a pickup truck. Why do you think there's such a flood of "cheap" toys coming out of HK?

Alas, whether Toynami will keep making money with their flawed business plan depends on how much longer people are willing to pay top dollar for sub-standard merchandise, It may work for now, but I have a feeling that it'll run its course pretty fast.

[jwinges]

ANybody good with CAD software?

I was just thinking that if we could get someone to donate a poor or broken alpha we could part it out and use the CAD software that e-machineshop.com provides for free to re-create the toynami alpha how it should have been from the start.

We could:

1. Make it bigger

2. Remove the dicast parts that should have been plastec

3. Add dicast or metal parts the should have been there in the first place

4. Create better landing gears for greater clearence

Or better yet Make a Full metal Alpha!

Save the parts online and create a parts list and instructions then we can all order the parts ourselves.

Probably a lot of work but can you imagine the look on Yun's face when we create a better alpha.

Edit that...Just looked at their pricing...Yikes

Edited September 3, 2004 by jwinges

[Hiriyu]

Well, I've had mine (#2894) for about a week now, long enough to form an opinion and make some observations. All in all, I'd say that I'm satisfied with what I bought - though I'm neither underwhelmed or overwhelmed by the product. This is my first Toynami toy of any type.

Here are the slight issues/gripes I have with mine, none of which have made the MPC Alpha a make or break proposition for me:

1) "Opus' disappearing o-ring" in right arm - oddly enough, this made no difference and arms are not at all floppy.

2) Chest-piece hinge broken on one pivot before removal from box - a bit of a pain, but nicely and completely repaired by building up the area slightly with Elmer's glue.

3) Paint on nosecone not completely flush/inline with paint on fuselage sides.

As for the positives:

I really like the overall sculpt. Though it can't compare with fan works like John Moscato's beautifully over the top rendition, it compares favorably with any of the old Gakken toys (I own or have owned every Alpha toy Gakken ever made with the exception of the smaller 1/72s). In comparison with the old Gakken 1/55 two and three mode versions, this thing is actually quite amazing. In no way though, would I consider it to be the structural equal of the old Gakkens, particularly the beefy 1/35s.

I also like the overall weight of this toy, though I'd agree with others in that the placement of some of the diecast parts could be questionable - namely the intakes and lifting arm covers. In terms of diecast usage and placement, as stated by others as well, I find these quite comparable to the Yamato 1/60 line - You either like it or you don't. Personally, I don't mind.

The transformation mechanism(s), though fairly complex compared to any of the older Alpha toys, seems to work pretty well though in some cases can be kind of frightening to the user . Namely the leg, fuselage, and wing extension and retraction. Once you have a feel for it and the parts have unbound a bit, it's not really an issue, but there were a few heart-stoppping moments for me the first time around.

The landing gear are of course kind of silly and small (microscopic even), but I think that most people's complaints about these, and some other parts on the Alpha as well, have been the result of not using them to their fullest extent (pun intended ).

Lastly, I'd like to mention the pilot figure and little folded-up ride armor. These, in my opinion, were nicely executed and are overall a nice touch.

[eugimon]

we had a toynami guy come through our store the other day and he asked how the alpha was doing...

I wasn't there at the time, but a friend of mine told him of the various issues we've all scene.

now this guy, who works for toynomi, freely admited the crapiness of the guys they got to manufacture this thing (he blamed crappy molds) as well as low quality materials used to make it.

so really, nothing else needs to be said, even toynami admits they make crap.