Yamato's Upcoming 1/60 VF-0A

[David Hingtgen]

Paging Anasazi, line 1...

[Lonely Soldier Boy]

Look on the bright side: This means Devin can make option stickers to customize your 0A's!

[Dobber]

Is there anymore info out there................ Graham......................... on whether there will be a separate release with the Ghost booster? The pic from the hobby show showed a VF-0A painted differently than this release.

Chris

[kensei]

I know that the rear half as well as the front half of the conformal fuel tanks can be removed to fit the missile pods on top of the righter, but I am really wondering how they can fit on the Ghost.

[Batou]

Is there anymore info out there................ Graham......................... on whether there will be a separate release with the Ghost booster? The pic from the hobby show showed a VF-0A painted differently than this release.

Chris

I second that. I'm drooling over this, but I'm not plunking down my hard earned money until I know how they're handling the ghost release. I don't want to find out you can only get it as a combo pack after I've already bought a 0A and I don't have room for two of these badboys ...

[Nani?!]

I second that. I'm drooling over this, but I'm not plunking down my hard earned money until I know how they're handling the ghost release. I don't want to find out you can only get it as a combo pack after I've already bought a 0A and I don't have room for two of these badboys ...

I think it's safe to say that the ghost will likely be sold as a seperate set. Given the VF-0S also uses it in the anime as well as the 0A, it's the most logical & likely scenario. The yf-19 fold and fast pack set will also be sold like this.

[kensei]

That would be great, cause I want a Ghost to display on it's own.

[Scream Man]

if it is also a solo display piece, does that mean the supports that attch to the plane will retract/be removable? And it will have landing gear?

Thats actually kinda cool....i might even go for one myself then

[Graham]

I've asked Yamato about landing gear on the Ghost Booster, but I'm still waiting for a reply.

Graham

[kensei]

It would be great if that was the case, it would serve as a great independant display piece, and people might buy it just for the fact that it can be it's own separate entity in the Zero line, not necessarily cause they have a Zero.

Only then would it justify the equivalent cost of a 1/48 FAST Pack, if the details were that good.

Edited September 24, 2006 by kensei

[ruskiiVFaussie]

yeah landing gear for the Ghost baby!!!

[Dobber]

Graham, is the VF-0 in the Ghost display just a one off custom? I really like that paint job.

Chris

[Graham]

To me, it looks like an inpainted resin sculpt, or one just painted with primer. I haven't asked, but I hope it's not the color they have chosen.

Graham

[kensei]

Ah Graham, forgot to ask a long time ago, what was the story behind the change from 1/100 to 1/60 perfect transformation long ago? Can you tell us now about it? Like in the future you will be able to tell us the story of the 1/72 YF-19 FP??

[Dobber]

To me, it looks like an inpainted resin sculpt, or one just painted with primer. I haven't asked, but I hope it's not the color they have chosen.

Graham

I'm refering to the 0 not the ghost. I really like how the VF-0 looks in this picture. Much more subtle tones than the standard VF-0A release which I also like. But, if they are going to release a 0 in this paint scheme I'll hold off and get this one instead. picture is 3rd post down.

http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?...0081&st=260

I understand that the Ghost and weapon pods are unpainted but the zero is painted different than any other zero we've seen from Yamoto and I really like it. Any info would be appreciated.

Chris

[aaajin]

nothing to see here! sorry

Edited September 25, 2006 by aaajin

[Scream Man]

so its release day! Anyone....?

[ikhii]

Man, I hope it will pop up soon end of this month in the market. And also with the Ghost coming side by side with it... hahahah... anyway, why does Yamato need such a big box to put the plane, it can be as small as the plane and multilayer to put the assesories. That would be great.

Edited September 25, 2006 by ikhii

[Graham]

so its release day! Anyone....?

Supposed to be today!

Graham

[David Hingtgen]

Going a little OT but: Yamato seems to have no concept of "folding/disassembling" things in the box. They want it to be 100% "opened and exposed". What, does anybody actualy go into a shop, open the flap, look inside, and impulse buy a $150 valk they didn't know existed until it was on the shelf? They could have them in sealed plain brown boxes and it wouldn't affect sales. Especially anyone who imports--we all buy them sight unseen anyways.

Go look at how Hasbro sells Transformer jets. You fold the tailfins down, sweep the wings back, THEN put in in the box. And you can use a LOT smaller box. If the original seekers came with their tailfins installed, they'd need a box twice as big. But by making the purchasers spend a good 3 or 4 seconds installing them, they save a lot on box space and shipping charges. And the accessories aren't nicely arranged all around--they're in the corner.

Imagine how small a box you could put a 1/48 Strike VF-1 in if you simply:

1. Fold the tailfins down.

2. Sweep the wings back.

3. Take the nosecone off.

4. Package the FP's and missiles all UNDERNEATH the valk like the instructions and micro missiles and stickers are. Just have a few clearly visible from above to show that they're there. Like a single booster and a RMS-1.

Because that's how Hasbro would package it...

[jenius]

If you're going to do all that why not just package it in battloid form? You could make the box as tight as coffins then.

[aaajin]

Going a little OT but: Yamato seems to have no concept of "folding/disassembling" things in the box. They want it to be 100% "opened and exposed". What, does anybody actualy go into a shop, open the flap, look inside, and impulse buy a $150 valk they didn't know existed until it was on the shelf? They could have them in sealed plain brown boxes and it wouldn't affect sales. Especially anyone who imports--we all buy them sight unseen anyways.

Go look at how Hasbro sells Transformer jets. You fold the tailfins down, sweep the wings back, THEN put in in the box. And you can use a LOT smaller box. If the original seekers came with their tailfins installed, they'd need a box twice as big. But by making the purchasers spend a good 3 or 4 seconds installing them, they save a lot on box space and shipping charges. And the accessories aren't nicely arranged all around--they're in the corner.

Imagine how small a box you could put a 1/48 Strike VF-1 in if you simply:

1. Fold the tailfins down.

2. Sweep the wings back.

3. Take the nosecone off.

4. Package the FP's and missiles all UNDERNEATH the valk like the instructions and micro missiles and stickers are. Just have a few clearly visible from above to show that they're there. Like a single booster and a RMS-1.

Because that's how Hasbro would package it...

IF yamato do all the suggested above, I doubt anyone other than us, the Macross fans, would buy the valks. Im sure the reason theyre packing these babes in fighter mode because it looks good in fighter mode and that's the resaon to attract more people who arent a fan of macross. Also, if they (the toys) were to be packed in battroid mode,...hmm I believe others regard the battroid form as fugly as compared to other cool-looking mecha esp Gundams...xcept for us....again, the Macross fans.

[MasterOfPuppets]

IF yamato do all the suggested above, I doubt anyone other than us, the Macross fans, would buy the valks. Im sure the reason theyre packing these babes in fighter mode because it looks good in fighter mode and that's the resaon to attract more people who arent a fan of macross. Also, if they (the toys) were to be packed in battroid mode,...hmm I believe others regard the battroid form as fugly as compared to other cool-looking mecha esp Gundams...xcept for us....again, the Macross fans.

I think you kinda missed his point though. How many people do you think just walk in the store, notice the Valkyries looking all nicely presented, but with no prior knowledge of Macross and just decides to plunk down $150 for the Valkyrie?

[Graham]

I believe others regard the battroid form as fugly as compared to other cool-looking mecha esp Gundams...xcept for us....again, the Macross fans.

Anybody who thinks Gundams are cool looking and Battroids fuggly needs their eyesight checking and/or some serious time in therapy.

Everybody who has any taste knows that it is in fact Gundams that are extremely fugly and Battroids that are cool looking.

Graham

[Sumdumgai]

Agreed Graham.

Yamato packs that way because they're a Japanese company. Everything is overpacked in Japan.

[aaajin]

Agreed ! Battroid is way cooler than Gundams. That's a fact for us, Macross fans and to some others. But, if you display a gundam next to the battroid in a store, which one would people buy most? I believe with Gundam's soaring popularity based on the recent anime show popularity rankings...which mostly were dominated by Gundams series (there's a thread on this, I believe, not too long ago), its not rocket science to predict that Gundams will sell more. At least, if they (Yamato) display it in fighter mode, with some pictures of battroid modes on the box/packaging, people would then start wonder about the transformation sequence & whatnot and they'll eventually remember watching a small anime serie called Macross Zero not too long ago....and then,

valk-holism

[David Hingtgen]

Exactly.

1. Nobody impulse buys things as expensive as a valk. Yes, you can impluse buy a $15 model jet or Gundam because it looks cool in the packaging, but not something that costs 10 times that. "On the shelf" appearance isn't very important to Yamato's sales. Especially since half of them get imported by people who'll never see them in a store to start with.

2. Battroid mode would allow VERY compact packaging---I've noticed that over the years, more and more of the larger Transformers come in robot mode, probably for that reason. Note that Yamato's first valks came in battroid mode, and had WAY smaller boxes. Just compare the VF-11 and YF-21, with and without FP's.

3. You don't have to go to the extreme I listed--simply sweeping the wings back alone would save a few inches, and folding down the tailfins is pretty minor, appearance-wise.

[lechuck]

2. Battroid mode would allow VERY compact packaging---I've noticed that over the years, more and more of the larger Transformers come in robot mode, probably for that reason. Note that Yamato's first valks came in battroid mode, and had WAY smaller boxes. Just compare the VF-11 and YF-21, with and without FP's.

Was it not MW itself that told Yamato to start packaging the Valks in fighter mode...?

Oh, and I like both Valks and Gundams. Why does one always have to better than the other...

Edited September 25, 2006 by lechuck

[wolfx]

IIRC the only valks that were packaged in battroid mode are the Macross Plus ones and those weren't the 1st. The 1st 1/60 VF-1s were in fighter mode.

I think yamato did the logical thing when things started to break in battroid mode out of the box with the VF-11B and probably not influenced by this forum.

[kensei]

Damn straight with your first point Dave! Just I don't like them fiddling around too much with my valk before they put it in the box, that's that thing.

[Scream Man]

Id prefer it in fighter also. the Valks feel sturdier that way, and Id be more confident in their lack of being broken in fighter.

[vlenhoff]

Anybody who thinks Gundams are cool looking and Battroids fuggly needs their eyesight checking and/or some serious time in therapy.

Everybody who has any taste knows that it is in fact Gundams that are extremely fugly and Battroids that are cool looking.

Graham

The only reason I bought Gundams was because there wasn't a single valk available to me. That's why I went crazy collecting Macross these days. The valk design is something really hard to top. It is such a carefull balance of design and fuctionality.

The only Gundams I'll keep are my 1/60 Zero custom(scale ref for Macross goodness), and two MS 8th team 1/100 models.

[1/1 LowViz Lurker]

Macross is cooler than gundam. But gundam has so many different designs that it is hard not to notice it when you walk into a store. Plus there is generally a lot more characters involved in a gundam show. So they have more range.

But the valk is 'sexier' than most gundam machines imo. Apart from the murasame I don't see many robots that look like they be able to beat a valk in a one on one mecha fight because they are weighted down by having 50 different weapons at once and are too big.

One of my favourite mechas are the transformable ones in the gundam series though. Like the Gaia gundam and the murasame.

If they want to attract buyers I think they should just have display of them in all three modes and just pack the toys in compact space when they are in the box. I think they would benefit only if the collector who cares about presentation made a decision about the toy based on box design and how it looks in a box (who had no intention of touching it). But apart from that I bet the majority of buyers wouldn't care. If squeezing them into a small space means less shipping cost and savings I bet most would opt for sacrificing the presentation.

Edited September 26, 2006 by 1/1 LowViz Lurker

[wolfx]

Macross is cooler than gundam. But gundam has so many different designs that it is hard not to notice it when you walk into a store. Plus there is generally a lot more characters involved in a gundam show. So they have more range.

But the valk is 'sexier' than most gundam machines imo. Apart from the murasame I don't see many robots that look like they be able to beat a valk in a one on one mecha fight because they are weighted down by having 50 different weapons at once and are too big.

One of my favourite mechas are the trnasformable ones in the gundam series though. Like the Gaia gundam and the murasame.

Don't forget the anime and the marketing. Nothing much is done for macross in terms of marketing and it remains to be a niche market. Gundam on the other hand is being marketted constantly and there's always a new anime to support the toys.

Macross 7 tried to make it more mainstream but i don't think it did really well if u based it on fan opinions and even the merchandising. >_<

[kensei]

If you are comparing Gundams to Valkyries, if would depend on which series you are talking about. IN general, Valkyries would top out over the gundams....but some Gundams are quite aesthetically pleasing.

And for goodness sake, Graham, if we get M7 merchandise, tell Yamato to change the VF-11 stripes. Unlike the change with the VF-0A in colurs, I will NOT have pink trim on my VF-11s.

Edited September 26, 2006 by kensei