Would Yamato Be Just As Successful Without Us?

[UN Spacy]

Think about it.

[UN Spacy]

Mods. Can you move this to Toys.

Thanks!

[1 VF-1 2NV]

Us... as in MW. Sure they would. Only because we make just a fraction of the total .

Edited April 30, 2006 by 1 VF-1 2NV

[GobotFool]

without toy fans, sure, yamato wouldn't exist. Without macrossworld? nah...

[EXO]

you just can't start a topic and say think about it... you have to at least put up an argument on why you would think a topic is worthy of discussion, IMO.

As for Yamato being successful due to MW, it's probably the same as asking if anime would thrive without US fandom. Or if the international release of a movie is better than just a domestic release. Of course it's always better to get it out to a wider audience. Any fan of Macross or Robotech with an internet connection, looking for info will eventually find their way here. But it may not be enough to make Yamato take business advice from members as some might think. I never once saw a anyone make the suggestion to make a LV2 or a stealth variant, yet they did and we'll all eat it up. Besides, we can't even get each other to agree on one thing much less make an oversea (to us US based snobs) to company to see things our way.

Maybe its the other way around, would MW be as successful without Yamato. Sure MW thrived back then, but it seems like its become a whole different site since the 1/48s came out.

Edited April 30, 2006 by >EXO<

[Mowe]

Not all Macross fans can understand English, so I assume there must be plenty more other Macross Forums or fan bases around the world (e.g. Japanese, Hong Kong, Korea, Finland?..etc.).

Actually, Yamato is definitely less sucessful without Gozilla and Kensei .

Confucius says: "The MW board is just one of the many Macross pebbles, we might be a slightly bigger rock but defintely not the ocean that Yamato take notice" .

Edited April 30, 2006 by Mowe

[myk]

I'm not sure as to how much our population contributes to their revenue. Unless that can be determined it would be hard to say...

[kensei]

They sure as hell wouldn't with freaks like me and Godzilla...

[1/1 LowViz Lurker]

Well they do make a toy that is for a hardcore fan. Without fans: who to sell to?

I actually stumbled on info about the 1/48 by coming here. It made me into a convert to the religion. Now how much impact it would have is a matter of degree. In the grand scheme of things I doubt it makes that big a difference but when you multiply that by hundreds of people, and sometimes each person buying multiples of the same stuff, that all has to count for something.

Does "US" only refer to macross world? Or yamato valk fans on other toy boards too?

Edited April 30, 2006 by 1/1 LowViz Lurker

[Shin Densetsu Kai 7.0]

I think they would. Remember they are not legally allowed to cater to us, and their sales and demand in japan seem to be going pretty well. I bet macross zero toys were made due to increasing demand in the japanese market, probably had nothing to do with us. If they could sell here then I would be saying differently, but right now they can't.

And remember japanese fans usually just come here for the info, as of yet we literally only have a handful that actually post here, like Howard and maybe a few others. We only make up a small part of the overall "whole", it just seems like there are a ton of us since we all conglomerate into one huge forum.

Yamato has been successful these past years never catering to us, rather to the japaense market because thats all they had, and they stay afloat. So yes I think they could survive without us because technically, they have been all along.

And yes i hope one day they can market here and give us stuff we want, like a VF-2SS, VF-2JA and Metal Siren. Seems to me in the case of Macross II, its more popular abroad than it is in japan.

[Shin Densetsu Kai 7.0]

Have you seen the Frappr Map that Exo put up? There's more pins outside of Japan so in conclusion their lucky to have us otherwise they'll be stuck in an island with HG patrolling it's shores.

Looking beyond what HG's been pushing at their site, even the freaks at robotech.com has taken notice of Yamato. Also, HG has a bigger membership than us, unfortunately.

395225[/snapback]

I'm not doubting that but also, have most/all the japanese fans even joined this site? I mean the only way they would know of the frappr would be if they joined here.

Just a thought.

[Phalanx]

Yeah Shin, it would be nice to see Yamato make transformable toys of M2 mecha but that won't happen anytime soon, but I still have my hopes up high. After all, why should Yamato toys be restricted to just catering to all of the Japanese Macross fans when they can cater to us Americans and increase sales revenue as a result of us demanding that we have toys made of all the VF's we have yearned to see made into toys. Sure, I know that Yamato is still succesfull without us Americans and it's still popular in Japan but if they were to make toys based off American demand, then their reputation and popularity would expand ten fold and their slaves revenue and stock would grow 10 fold as well.

Yamato doesn't care about white and black Macross fans in America!

[eugimon]

just because more of "us" are outside of japan doesn't mean that most of yamato's customer base is outside of japan or even that the majority of macross fans are outside of japan.

it's also incredibly ridiculous to make these outlandish claims that making M@ toys would increase their revenue 10 fold... there's not even that much interest on MW about Macross 2 and even if they were, people only want 1 valk out of the three featured and I don't hear a lot of people asking for those egg shapped enemy mecha.

also, are you under the impression that yamato only makes macross stuff? You might want to look into the company as a whole a it more before you start one of these topic: Yamato Owes US! threads... it's pretty arrogant and condescending.

[Phalanx]

just because more of "us" are outside of japan doesn't mean that most of yamato's customer base is outside of japan or even that the majority of macross fans are outside of japan.

it's also incredibly ridiculous to make these outlandish claims that making M@ toys would increase their revenue 10 fold... there's not even that much interest on MW about Macross 2 and even if they were, people only want 1 valk out of the three featured and I don't hear a lot of people asking for those egg shapped enemy mecha.

also, are you under the impression that yamato only makes macross stuff? You might want to look into the company as a whole a it more before you start one of these topic: Yamato Owes US! threads... it's pretty arrogant and condescending.

395237[/snapback]

No, it's just that I forgot that they make other toys like video game character figures. I was just focusing on Macross stuff thats all since this forum is centered on Macross parnephelia.

[Shin Densetsu Kai 7.0]

just because more of "us" are outside of japan doesn't mean that most of yamato's customer base is outside of japan or even that the majority of macross fans are outside of japan.

it's also incredibly ridiculous to make these outlandish claims that making M@ toys would increase their revenue 10 fold... there's not even that much interest on MW about Macross 2 and even if they were, people only want 1 valk out of the three featured and I don't hear a lot of people asking for those egg shapped enemy mecha.

also, are you under the impression that yamato only makes macross stuff? You might want to look into the company as a whole a it more before you start one of these topic: Yamato Owes US! threads... it's pretty arrogant and condescending.

395237[/snapback]

SO FREAKING TRUE

About time someone said it!

[Nightbat]

Yamato produced how many valks so far?

I'll bet we don't even have 1% here on MW

Don't forget that even though Yamato makes products for various animes

they have to look if a single line is succesfull

No use producing another 15000 figures of an anime that doesn't sell

just because the other lines are bringing in money

Edited April 30, 2006 by Nightbat

[Skull Leader]

This site, for all it's enormity for the english-speaking Macross fan, is but a mere drop in the bucket. Not only could Yamato do perfectly fine without us, we're LUCKY they notice us at all.

[Shin Densetsu Kai 7.0]

Yamato sole intent was to sell outside of Japan did everyone forget that they were trying to sell thru Toycom when Mac+ toys came out in the US? Also the idea that they sell "other products" does not come close to their flagship product in sales otherwise they would have given up from toy business a looong time ago.

395299[/snapback]

I don't think that was their sole intent. They were planning to sell in japan and the USA simultaneously.

[eugimon]

Yamato sole intent was to sell outside of Japan did everyone forget that they were trying to sell thru Toycom when Mac+ toys came out in the US? Also the idea that they sell "other products" does not come close to their flagship product in sales otherwise they would have given up from toy business a looong time ago.

395299[/snapback]

yeah, you're so right... I mean the 4 dozen or so other unique toys that Yamato produces OBVIOUSLY means that yamato is dependent upon the Macross toys they produce! They just spend the time and money to hire sculptures and use factory time to produce molds and ship out all these "other products" just to make people think they don't need macross!

I mean, let's totally ignore that pretty much any of these other properties are current shows with a large, growing and healthy fan base.

Let's do something fun, lets add up all the yamato toys that we own here collectively and compare that number to whats been produced. The numbers speak for themselves.

[Sundown]

Maybe its the other way around, would MW be as successful without Yamato.  Sure MW thrived back then, but it seems like its become a whole different site since the 1/48s came out.

395196[/snapback]

Deeep....

[Godzilla]

Yamato sole intent was to sell outside of Japan did everyone forget that they were trying to sell thru Toycom when Mac+ toys came out in the US? Also the idea that they sell "other products" does not come close to their flagship product in sales otherwise they would have given up from toy business a looong time ago.

395299[/snapback]

yeah, you're so right... I mean the 4 dozen or so other unique toys that Yamato produces OBVIOUSLY means that yamato is dependent upon the Macross toys they produce! They just spend the time and money to hire sculptures and use factory time to produce molds and ship out all these "other products" just to make people think they don't need macross!

I mean, let's totally ignore that pretty much any of these other properties are current shows with a large, growing and healthy fan base.

Let's do something fun, lets add up all the yamato toys that we own here collectively and compare that number to whats been produced. The numbers speak for themselves.

395373[/snapback]

oh you're talkin' about those high priced vinyl figures that they put alot of time and effort by hiring cheap chinese labor to do it for $1.50 a week. as opposed to having CAD designers that they hire into Macross products.

395387[/snapback]

Just FYI on China, it may cheap wages but their cost of living is damn cheap. I lead 3 different teams in China as we "outsource". I will spare you the details of the specifics. Let's say I am a manager in the US that has to talk to China and pull double shifts. Anyways, I *heard* that my people get paid USD $500 per month. I kid you not. We technically run a sweat shop but it has air conditioning since we run a lot of computers there. Anyways, that equals about USD $6000 per year. Considering that I took out one of my teams for dinner once and it cost me less than USD $20. I bought 9 dishes for 6 ppl including me.

Sorry to derail the topic...

[eugimon]

what do you think computer companys make more money on? The uber expensive 2000 dollar computer or the 60 dollar cable?

The 60 dollar cable.

It's all about production costs and volume. Yeah, the 1.50 toy is cheap to make. yeah they sell a grip more of them then the 1/48s... Gee, wonder where they're making their money from?

Instead of just spouting the typical BS why don't you all try backing up your claims?

[eugimon]

blah blah blah.

please provide proof to back up your claims.

you have claimed that:

yamato wanted only to sell Mac+ to America -false

yamato only sells macross toys -false

majority of yamato's customers are outside of japan -false

and please, apple manufactures the ipod and licenses out music from a third party through itunes. not the same thing.

Edited May 1, 2006 by eugimon

[Shin Densetsu Kai 7.0]

Yamato sole intent was to sell outside of Japan did everyone forget that they were trying to sell thru Toycom when Mac+ toys came out in the US? Also the idea that they sell "other products" does not come close to their flagship product in sales otherwise they would have given up from toy business a looong time ago.

395299[/snapback]

I don't think that was their sole intent. They were planning to sell in japan and the USA simultaneously.

395321[/snapback]

OK but who has the biggest consumer market Japan or the world? They know that weren't gonna survive without some fans outside of Japan so why even put out full page ads in the US toy/hobby magazines? All that investment was of course in vain from a marketing standpoint but it was calling card none the less. It helped Yamato generate sales of it's products and to undervalue our part as being non-factors, this statement isn't directed at you when I say this, that's ignorant.

395343[/snapback]

The world market is bigger but the larger target audience/main/market is in japan. I'm pretty sure yamato/toycom was just marketing the valks in the USA because at the time they could, and wanted to make some money outside of japan and in japan simultaneously. Same thing with Votoms. I'm guessing Votoms, Ideon, and such were all selling more in japan than they did here. Lets face it, to me we are a 2ndary market, we get what is primarily targeted to the japanese, and what yamato usa thinks could sell good here. If not, if we were the intended target market, we would be getting USA exclusive stuff, a majority of stuff that Japan would not get simply because it would sell more here, or so we think.

I mean if macross plus toys were meant to be sold primarily to us, I doubt yamato would have even sold them in japan while the whole fiasco went on. Simply because in that view, japan would be the 2ndary market and would not make as much money.

Think of how much stuff we beg for but never get. We seem to wonder why the stealth valk, lowviz II, and green GPS were made; stuff that we never really asked for. Yet in japan, amongst their various BBS's, perhaps they have it differently, perhaps those kinds of repaints were in demand. After all yamato can't legally market stuff to us, so why waste the money in doing so? It'd be nice, but it ain't happening. Now if they could market to the US, I bet we would be polling the hell out of color schemes and we'd have represenatives coming here tallying what we want, and eventually getting stuff catered to us, like a REAL low viz II, stuff like that; color schemes more popular here than in japan.

And I'm pretty sure yamato put a lot of effort into sculpting the scopedogs and Ideon/Zeroymer/Escaflowne. Yamato was around before macross was here folks, just turns out Macross made them more popular.

[1/1 LowViz Lurker]

Stealth is probably for those who were miserable that they couldn't have the credit card valk.

Camo is probably for those who felt they were sick of the vf1a cannon fodder, and wanted a new plain military paintscheme mecha as opposed to anime mecha scheme. Really I think the concept of it is nice way to keep milking vf1 for the collector and keeping 1A alive. (I thought 1A CF was going to be the last 1A evarr!11 What happened there?)

Now I know kakizaki isn't the most popular character in macross, but yamato should start releasing this one day (not now, god forbid our poor wallets and the number of new things they have already released, but later down the track) just for fan reasons. Battle-damaged Kakizaki limted edition.

Edited May 2, 2006 by 1/1 LowViz Lurker

[Fortress_Maximus]

just because more of "us" are outside of japan doesn't mean that most of yamato's customer base is outside of japan or even that the majority of macross fans are outside of japan.

it's also incredibly ridiculous to make these outlandish claims that making M@ toys would increase their revenue 10 fold... there's not even that much interest on MW about Macross 2 and even if they were, people only want 1 valk out of the three featured and I don't hear a lot of people asking for those egg shapped enemy mecha.

also, are you under the impression that yamato only makes macross stuff? You might want to look into the company as a whole a it more before you start one of these topic: Yamato Owes US! threads... it's pretty arrogant and condescending.

395237[/snapback]

SO FREAKING TRUE

About time someone said it!

395249[/snapback]

AMEN! And no I do not think Yamato would notice if we the entire MW community stopped buying, there are more buyers in Japan than on MW. Just my ten cents.

[bigkid24]

Okay, first I'm going to respond to the topic's question.

No, Yamato would not be as successful without out us...meaning the USA. They wouldn't be bankrupt or anything but as a whole I'm sure their sales would not be as strong. Even if we only make up 5% of their consumer base there is no executive on earth that would not be happy with increasing sales 5% without much effort.

No, Yamato does not cater to us. Technically they can't sell to the US but distributors can and do. Yamato sells to distributors. Distributors sell to us. We still fatten up Yamato's bottom line.

Japan's consumer base is basically Walmart and the US is TRU. Yamato is going to listen to Japan first because they'll get more sales out of their own country probably.

Yamato sole intent was to sell outside of Japan did everyone forget that they were trying to sell thru Toycom when Mac+ toys came out in the US?

395299[/snapback]

I think this has already been refuted. As far as I know, Yamato is a Japanese company while Toycom is the US branch. It wasn't the company's intent to merely sell to the US. It was their intent to sell their product through their US subsidiary to the US.

yeah, you're so right... I mean the 4 dozen or so other unique toys that Yamato produces OBVIOUSLY means that yamato is dependent upon the Macross toys they produce! They just spend the time and money to hire sculptures and use factory time to produce molds and ship out all these "other products" just to make people think they don't need macross!

I mean, let's totally ignore that pretty much any of these other properties are current shows with a large, growing and healthy fan base.

Let's do something fun, lets add up all the yamato toys that we own here collectively and compare that number to whats been produced. The numbers speak for themselves.

395373[/snapback]

Actually, I wholeheartedly believe that Yamato was very dependent on Macross. I don't know the whole history but the first time that I've really heard of them was with their Macross line. They got a license that the owners enjoyed and that they could milk. I think Yamato would have been more successful if they had started with the VF-1 rather than M+ valks. Think about the line. They make one VF-1 sculpt and produce a ton of variants. The initial investment yields huge revenue over the course of the entire line. This is basically the same formula they are following for their Votoms line with the Scopedog.

Between the Macross valkyries and their gashapon sets, I believe, that's where they got their money to pursue the other licenses you talk about to expand their product line as their Macross possibilities were dwindling. I think the timeline of releases will support my claim.

what do you think computer companys make more money on? The uber expensive 2000 dollar computer or the 60 dollar cable?

The 60 dollar cable.

It's all about production costs and volume. Yeah, the 1.50 toy is cheap to make. yeah they sell a grip more of them then the 1/48s... Gee, wonder where they're making their money from?

Instead of just spouting the typical BS why don't you all try backing up your claims?

395442[/snapback]

Don't confuse the amount of money made with profit margin. The computer company will earn a higher return with the cable but make more profit on the computer. If they made that much money of a cable then why not just be a cable manufacturer?

I don't even know what your point is on the $1.50 toy so I'm going to stop here.

[Godzilla]

Actually I cannot believe we are arguing about this. I mean why cant we enjoy the stuff that is coming out. I mean Macross Fans should rejoice instead of arguing that Yamato owes us or something like that. Just enjoy things in life instead of questioning it. Yes there is a time to question it but heck this isnt one of them. So we do or do not contribute to the sales of Yamato? Does it really matter? It seems they are doing fine now. Why else would they be able to sell other anime products. We are blessed (or curse depending on point of view) with 1/48s and other Macross product line.

[Zeta Otaku]

Godzilla, how dare you talk to us about being blessed... the rest of us BUY these valks from Yamato....

apparently you bought two and started breeding them like rabbits... and I know your little secret... that Toynami YF-1R MPC? Your fault... that's what happens when you unsuccessfully try to breed a Yamato 1A and 1J... why the mother didn't eat that deformaty, I'll never know...

kidding aside, I agree with ya 'zilla. Why are people complaining?

[Shin Densetsu Kai 7.0]

Okay, first I'm going to respond to the topic's question. 

No, Yamato would not be as successful without out us...meaning the USA.  They wouldn't be bankrupt or anything but as a whole I'm sure their sales would not be as strong.  Even if we only make up 5% of their consumer base there is no executive on earth that would not be happy with increasing sales 5% without much effort.

No, Yamato does not cater to us.  Technically they can't sell to the US but distributors can and do.  Yamato sells to distributors.  Distributors sell to us.  We still fatten up Yamato's bottom line. 

Japan's consumer base is basically Walmart and the US is TRU.  Yamato is going to listen to Japan first because they'll get more sales out of their own country probably.

Yamato sole intent was to sell outside of Japan did everyone forget that they were trying to sell thru Toycom when Mac+ toys came out in the US?

395299[/snapback]

I think this has already been refuted. As far as I know, Yamato is a Japanese company while Toycom is the US branch. It wasn't the company's intent to merely sell to the US. It was their intent to sell their product through their US subsidiary to the US.

yeah, you're so right... I mean the 4 dozen or so other unique toys that Yamato produces OBVIOUSLY means that yamato is dependent upon the Macross toys they produce! They just spend the time and money to hire sculptures and use factory time to produce molds and ship out all these "other products" just to make people think they don't need macross!

I mean, let's totally ignore that pretty much any of these other properties are current shows with a large, growing and healthy fan base.

Let's do something fun, lets add up all the yamato toys that we own here collectively and compare that number to whats been produced. The numbers speak for themselves.

395373[/snapback]

Actually, I wholeheartedly believe that Yamato was very dependent on Macross. I don't know the whole history but the first time that I've really heard of them was with their Macross line. They got a license that the owners enjoyed and that they could milk. I think Yamato would have been more successful if they had started with the VF-1 rather than M+ valks. Think about the line. They make one VF-1 sculpt and produce a ton of variants. The initial investment yields huge revenue over the course of the entire line. This is basically the same formula they are following for their Votoms line with the Scopedog.

Between the Macross valkyries and their gashapon sets, I believe, that's where they got their money to pursue the other licenses you talk about to expand their product line as their Macross possibilities were dwindling. I think the timeline of releases will support my claim.

what do you think computer companys make more money on? The uber expensive 2000 dollar computer or the 60 dollar cable?

The 60 dollar cable.

It's all about production costs and volume. Yeah, the 1.50 toy is cheap to make. yeah they sell a grip more of them then the 1/48s... Gee, wonder where they're making their money from?

Instead of just spouting the typical BS why don't you all try backing up your claims?

395442[/snapback]

Don't confuse the amount of money made with profit margin. The computer company will earn a higher return with the cable but make more profit on the computer. If they made that much money of a cable then why not just be a cable manufacturer?

I don't even know what your point is on the $1.50 toy so I'm going to stop here.

395924[/snapback]

Thing is they were around before they made macross stuff. Macross just made them bigger in the eyes of the japanese toy collecting community. We as macross fans hadn't heard of them before simply because they never made anything macross until the macross plus toys.

[eugimon]

actually, a lot of times... the cables, higher profit and higher margin once you factor in things like shipping, damage claims and shelving space. And a lot of times, computers are sold real close to cost. why do you think compusa and best buy and everywhere else tries real hard to get you to buy their insurance?

[Twoducks]

Actually I cannot believe we are arguing about this. I mean why cant we enjoy the stuff that is coming out.  I mean Macross Fans should rejoice instead of arguing that Yamato owes us or something like that.  Just enjoy things in life instead of questioning it.  Yes there is a time to question it but heck this isnt one of them.  So we do or do not contribute to the sales of Yamato?  Does it really matter? It seems they are doing fine now.  Why else would they be able to sell other anime products.  We are blessed (or curse depending on point of view) with 1/48s and other Macross product line.

396005[/snapback]

Who says were arguing, I think it's more of an ego driven senseless debate that entertains to an otherwise bland subject. It's all fun & no harm done!

396111[/snapback]

But I wanted to see blood ....

Turning the topic around might be usefull.

Does the Japanese market of Yamato have any say so on their Macross stuff? Are they happy with what they are getting from Yamato?

Could be that Yamato doesn't really need to listen much. The VF-1 is the most famous good guy design ever to come out of Macross. M7 was big in Japan but they aren’t making any 1/48 or 1/60 VF-19’s (and this design could also be milked, look at the YF-19 and all the colour and head changes that can easily be made). The VF-0 is as close as the fan favourite VF-1 without being the same as you can get, so Yamato doesn’t have to risk much.

There is a demand for different colour variants (seeing as how high the Low vis goes for) and the CF must have done good for them to do not one but two colour variants (three if you count the no FP version of he stealth). The veteran molds can still be milked with little losses if things go wrong and the VF-0 opens up another possible milking machine that resembles the engineering of the VF-1 (and is also very recent).

Do Japanese Macross forums speak only of the necessity for more VF-1 variants or do they also want enemies and destroids and different valk designs as much as non Japanese MW users do? Can any member of MW from Japan tell us if Yamato listens to their bitching?

Edited May 3, 2006 by Twoducks

[Ignacio Ocamica]

Do Japanese Macross forums speak only of the necessity for more VF-1 variants or do they also want enemies and destroids and different valk designs as much as non Japanese MW users do? Can any member of MW from Japan tell us if Yamato listens to their bitching?

396124[/snapback]

Two or three years ago Yamato made a poll (targeted to the Japanese market) where they asked which toy was the most wanted by the fans. The Q-Rau was one of the options.

So, yes, they listen to consumers. Japanese consumers. Think of the current releases, Macross, Votoms, Megazone 23. All niche markets (80's shows) targeted to niche consumers: they sell few units of an expensive toy with a high profit margin to high income consumers. Again: Japanese fans that were 8-10 years old back in the mid 80's.

When you start a business, and you think about a possible product to sell, there's two marketing cases you take into consideration. You produce what people are currently demanding or you explore a niche market. Case one, you produce what people like and ask for. Case two (Yamato), you produce toys from shows that were broadcast 20 years ago cause you think there's gonna be demand for that product.

When the founder/ers of Yamato started their business, did they sit back and think: gee, does the world remember shows like Macross, Votoms or Megazone 23?

When Yamato's CEO explored the possibility of a 1/60 MKII Monster, did he/she think: no, lets scrap that insane idea cause the overseas market is not going to pay the high shipping cost and we are going to eat dead stock.

Yamato knows there's an overseas market, BUT they only pay attention to the Japanese consumer. Back in the old days they were kind enough to speak to and share info with a BRITISH guy living in HONG KONG (god save the king, insert Graham here)

Graham does not represent the US market nor the rest of the world.

Disclaimer: this post wasn't intended to reply to your post Twoducks, I just used your question to make some stupid brainstorming

[Agent-GHQ]

Very good point!

Do Japanese Macross forums speak only of the necessity for more VF-1 variants or do they also want enemies and destroids and different valk designs as much as non Japanese MW users do? Can any member of MW from Japan tell us if Yamato listens to their bitching?

396124[/snapback]

Two or three years ago Yamato made a poll (targeted to the Japanese market) where they asked which toy was the most wanted by the fans. The Q-Rau was one of the options.

So, yes, they listen to consumers. Japanese consumers. Think of the current releases, Macross, Votoms, Megazone 23. All niche markets (80's shows) targeted to niche consumers: they sell few units of an expensive toy with a high profit margin to high income consumers. Again: Japanese fans that were 8-10 years old back in the mid 80's.

When you start a business, and you think about a possible product to sell, there's two marketing cases you take into consideration. You produce what people are currently demanding or you explore a niche market. Case one, you produce what people like and ask for. Case two (Yamato), you produce toys from shows that were broadcast 20 years ago cause you think there's gonna be demand for that product.

When the founder/ers of Yamato started their business, did they sit back and think: gee, does the world remember shows like Macross, Votoms or Megazone 23?

When Yamato's CEO explored the possibility of a 1/60 MKII Monster, did he/she think: no, lets scrap that insane idea cause the overseas market is not going to pay the high shipping cost and we are going to eat dead stock.

Yamato knows there's an overseas market, BUT they only pay attention to the Japanese consumer. Back in the old days they were kind enough to speak to and share info with a BRITISH guy living in HONG KONG (god save the king, insert Graham here)

Graham does not represent the US market nor the rest of the world.

Disclaimer: this post wasn't intended to reply to your post Twoducks, I just used your question to make some stupid brainstorming

396159[/snapback]

[UN Spacy]

Do Japanese Macross forums speak only of the necessity for more VF-1 variants or do they also want enemies and destroids and different valk designs as much as non Japanese MW users do? Can any member of MW from Japan tell us if Yamato listens to their bitching?

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Two or three years ago Yamato made a poll (targeted to the Japanese market) where they asked which toy was the most wanted by the fans. The Q-Rau was one of the options.

So, yes, they listen to consumers. Japanese consumers. Think of the current releases, Macross, Votoms, Megazone 23. All niche markets (80's shows) targeted to niche consumers: they sell few units of an expensive toy with a high profit margin to high income consumers. Again: Japanese fans that were 8-10 years old back in the mid 80's.

When you start a business, and you think about a possible product to sell, there's two marketing cases you take into consideration. You produce what people are currently demanding or you explore a niche market. Case one, you produce what people like and ask for. Case two (Yamato), you produce toys from shows that were broadcast 20 years ago cause you think there's gonna be demand for that product.

When the founder/ers of Yamato started their business, did they sit back and think: gee, does the world remember shows like Macross, Votoms or Megazone 23?

When Yamato's CEO explored the possibility of a 1/60 MKII Monster, did he/she think: no, lets scrap that insane idea cause the overseas market is not going to pay the high shipping cost and we are going to eat dead stock.

Yamato knows there's an overseas market, BUT they only pay attention to the Japanese consumer. Back in the old days they were kind enough to speak to and share info with a BRITISH guy living in HONG KONG (god save the king, insert Graham here)

Graham does not represent the US market nor the rest of the world.

Disclaimer: this post wasn't intended to reply to your post Twoducks, I just used your question to make some stupid brainstorming

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Wait a sec. Does anyone know the stipulations before Yamato started the poll? I can't believe that the Japanese fans choose a Q-Rau over an SDF-1, VF-4, or another YF-19.