Thoughts about Yamato

[shadow strikers]

It has come to my attention that lots of times Yamato has problems with their Macross figures and the problems are not fixed until a claim is filled claim as in this figure has so and so defects well I was wounder why doesn't some one do something about it like tell Yamato to hire a stress tester or what ever its called to test the strength of the plastics and metals in order to improve on their quality. So will someone please contact Yamato to do this in order to stop all these problems from happening because I would assume that with the money you pay that Yamato would consider doing this so people are more likely to buy more of their products.

Edited June 28, 2009 by shadow strikers

[Save]

Yamamto does not sell or has ever sold Robotech figures, but I know what you mean. I actually work across the street from their office and I talk to them often at toy events and I have become friends with some of the staff as well. All I can tell you is they do their best and when they see their is a problem with QC issues they do try to address them, maybe not to everybody's' satisfaction but they do what they can. Unfortunately they can not help buyers outside of Japan directly, which is not their fault.

[Vi-RS]

Yamamto does not sell or has ever sold Robotech figures, but I know what you mean. I actually work across the street from their office and I talk to them often at toy events and I have become friends with some of the staff as well. All I can tell you is they do their best and when they see their is a problem with QC issues they do try to address them, maybe not to everybody's' satisfaction but they do what they can. Unfortunately they can not help buyers outside of Japan directly, which is not their fault.

It's great that you have chance to work across street with them. Adrian, I have sent you pm and payment.

Edited June 28, 2009 by Vi-RS

[shadow strikers]

It's great that you have chance to work across street with them. Adrian, I have sent you pm and payment.

thanks for your comments:P and save don't you work for collectionDX ?

[Save]

thanks for your comments:P and save don't you work for collectionDX ?

No I don't work for collectionDX, but that would be cool.

[shadow strikers]

No I don't work for collectionDX, but that would be cool.

have you tried applying for a job there? I'm pretty sure they provide figures because of the sponsors and best of all you get to keep them:D

[Agent-GHQ]

Unfortunately they can not help buyers outside of Japan directly, which is not their fault.

How is this not Yamato's fault?!

[eugimon]

How is this not Yamato's fault?!

Are you serious?

[Agent-GHQ]

I'm dead serious! Shed some light will ya!

[eugimon]

http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=29850

have fun.

[Agent-GHQ]

I dont want to go through all that posts. Can you summarize it for me?

[Bri]

Short version of the toy issue: wiki

[Vi-RS]

Simply put, Yamato is JDM, anything else is doomed.

[Agent-GHQ]

Tyvm Mr. Bri! And that was well put Vi-RS!

Edited June 29, 2009 by Agent-GHQ

[EXO]

I am just a caveman... living in your world!

[Agent-GHQ]

Neanerthals that can transforms the complexity of these Macross toys are kooler!

[VFTF1]

How is this not Yamato's fault?!

I dont want to go through all that posts. Can you summarize it for me?

Aw - th perfect opportunity to blame Exo just drifted away, kind of like love - sniff...

But the Caveman comment + pic were lovely.

[MaveRick]

lolz

[Vi-RS]

I am just a caveman... living in your world!

Would you one time,

Let Me Be Myself

So i can shine,

with my own light

Edited June 29, 2009 by Vi-RS

[shadow strikers]

Would you one time,

Let Me Be Myself

So i can shine,

with my own light

I'm thinking now this might be crazy but hear me out, Transformers have good quality plastic and you can make them accurate to their character why don't they build macross toys like transformers sturdy, yet so that no one has to worry about quality control and so on you can still make them accurate and so on just built in a different way.

[Vi-RS]

I'm thinking now this might be crazy but hear me out, Transformers have good quality plastic and you can make them accurate to their character why don't they build macross toys like transformers sturdy, yet so that no one has to worry about quality control and so on you can still make them accurate and so on just built in a different way.

unless you are talking about the Masterpiece, the generic transformers toy are just generic toy.

I regard Yamato valkyrie toys as pre-assembled and highly articulated model more than a toy. The yamato valkyrie is much more sturdier and solid then any model kit, but they are not as robust as most generic toy. People who never deal with model kits before will find them very fragile.

It's like the 1/72 Bandai HCM valkyrie and 1/55 valkyrie toy. HCM as what it called, High Complete Model, these are much more fragile than the 1/55 toy and HCM were aimed for adult collectors.

When you have more articulation joints, more parts to make it anime accurate, it's going to be fragile.

If you have built the 1/72 scale Imai complete 3 modes transformable VF-1 valkyrie kits, you will find out that the shoulder hinge is much more fragile.

I bet Yamato could make their toys more robust by sacrificing articulation on shoulder and reinforce hip joints with swing bar, but will you bite that?

[eugimon]

Have you ever seen a Transformers jet? Blegh, no thanks.

[shadow strikers]

Have you ever seen a Transformers jet? Blegh, no thanks.

or at least Yamato can use one of those super plastics used in factories and so on it will make it more durable

[anime52k8]

or at least Yamato can use one of those super plastics used in factories and so on it will make it more durable

Not really. Back when the v.2 1/60's first came out and the cracked shoulder hing thing first came to light a lot of people were suggesting they change the plastic to make it stronger. Graham took that to Yamato and they flat out said they had considered it and the improvements were only marginal at best.

Using stronger plastics alone will in most cases not provide enough of an improvement to justify the added cost. The only way to avoid breakages is to design parts more robustly, but you can only make things so robust and still maintain good posability and aesthetics.

Going back to the transformers toys again, those toy's are built robust enough to handle rough handling by small children and both articulation and aesthetics take a huge hit as a result. Most transformers are frankly bricks. They end up being big and chucky and often have limited articulation. aircraft tend to be the worst, ones that have convincing aircraft modes often lack any form of articulation in robot mode, and the ones that have good articulation end up looking more like robots lying face down with a jet strapped to their backs when in alt mode.

The only transformers toy that compare to yamato products at all are the MP seekers. Those look much better as jets and have better articulation but they're also not nearly as robust. And even then they're still chunkier than a yamato Valkyrie.

[Omegablue]

It has come to my attention that lots of times Yamato has problems with their Macross figures and the problems are not fixed until a claim is filled claim as in this figure has so and so defects well I was wounder why doesn't some one do something about it like tell Yamato to hire a stress tester or what ever its called to test the strength of the plastics and metals in order to improve on their quality. So will someone please contact Yamato to do this in order to stop all these problems from happening because I would assume that with the money you pay that Yamato would consider doing this so people are more likely to buy more of their products.

There are BMW's, Mercs, Alfa's and even Porsches out of the box that break down within weeks. Nothing is perfect. Yamato is constantly working on their products, and considering how they reissues re-releases with the problems fixed, is a sign that they are trying. Yes it's frustrating considering the amount of money we pay. And the same thing happens with Xbox's that over heat. I'm sure Yamato is well aware of their QC issues, cause at the end it's costing them money. But sometimes, the smallest things just slip, especially when products have to shipped to pay salaries. Hey, who remembers the Merc A1, that damn thing kept flipping in the air in corners. They had to call them all back, and after 4 years they figured out the problem!

[logos]

It's like all Manufacturing nowadays. If you don't want to risk getting burned don't buy the first run. There is so much pressure to get it out the door that there is usually never enough QC done. Yamato's really no better or worse than everyone else. Even the almighty Bandai is pissing people off here with the problems on the VF-25 and it's super packs. ie. Crappy paint, parts that don't want to stay clipped on, etc.

Personally I am just glad that Yamato is now offering a replacement parts program through Overdrive.

[Radd]

All I know is that I have about 20 Yamato toys, and not a single one has broken on me. I don't treat them like a 12 year old would treat his Transformers, but I don't treat them like museum pieces or even model kits either. Yes, there are issues, but it's not the "Yamato toys always come broken right out of the box" scenario some make it out to be.

[shadow strikers]

All I know is that I have about 20 Yamato toys, and not a single one has broken on me. I don't treat them like a 12 year old would treat his Transformers, but I don't treat them like museum pieces or even model kits either. Yes, there are issues, but it's not the "Yamato toys always come broken right out of the box" scenario some make it out to be.

same I handle my figures with care and transformer them once in a while

[thankheaven]

I guess im one of the very few that have never had any problem with a yamato product. I have 11 Yamato VF's and none have ever been broken or damaged and i do transform them pretty often. Only problem i had was the somewhat floppy wings on Ivanov's SV-51 and thats all. So i can't say i understand all this but i do respect that people want the best when they pay so much.

For me though Yamato is more of a display toy or as i like to call them finished pre-built models. Though i do transform them i mainly display my VF's don't play with them so much so for me looks is the most important thing and i could live with a few QC issues if it meant it still looked great in my opinion.

This is why i didn't get the Bandai DX, its sturdy as hell but for me it simply doesn't look any good and its not something i want displayed on my shelf.

That being said i have never had a problem with Bandai toys either, they are prefect in terms of build quality.

Transformers toys on the other hand, oh man have i had problems. Classics Astrotrain fell apart the moment i took him out of the box. Half of my animated toys have cracked and even MP Skywarp have pieces falling off all the time.

And most of the larger TF toys are just one big crappy box full of electronics.

Edited July 1, 2009 by thankheaven

[shadow strikers]

I guess im one of the very few that have never had any problem with a yamato product. I have 11 Yamato VF's and none have ever been broken or damaged and i do transform them pretty often. Only problem i had was the somewhat floppy wings on Ivanov's SV-51 and thats all. So i can't say i understand all this but i do respect that people want the best when they pay so much.

For me though Yamato is more of a display toy or as i like to call them finished pre-built models. Though i do transform them i mainly display my VF's don't play with them so much so for me looks is the most important thing and i could live with a few QC issues if it meant it still looked great in my opinion.

This is why i didn't get the Bandai DX, its sturdy as hell but for me it simply doesn't look any good and its not something i want displayed on my shelf.

That being said i have never had a problem with Bandai toys either, they are prefect in terms of build quality.

Transformers toys on the other hand, oh man have i had problems. Classics Astrotrain fell apart the moment i took him out of the box. Half of my animated toys have cracked and even MP Skywarp have pieces falling off all the time.

And most of the larger TF toys are just one big crappy box full of electronics.

when I said build them like transformers I meant use same materials and tougher plastics will cost more money but it will last longer and you can make small parts out of tough plastics and it wont brake like a hinge and so on.

[Vi-RS]

when I said build them like transformers I meant use same materials and tougher plastics will cost more money but it will last longer and you can make small parts out of tough plastics and it wont brake like a hinge and so on.

It's not a matter of tougher plastic when it comes to production. A lot of people will think if you use the best materials then thing will last much better and in fact it's not the case when you come to production.

First you have to consider the structure, mechanism that were designed in the first place.

Second and the most important thing is the cost, different materials will use different mold and production method.

Last it will come to assembly.

I think Yamato decided to go with the shoulder design to give room for more poseability and what you trade off is the durability.

To make it better you can have diecast metal shoulder joints, but most people won't like it when you suddenly have a piece of die cast joint over there. If you do paint it, people will start complaining that the paint is cheesy and it chips off which bring out another issue. It's undeniable since it's a joint that you twist and move all the time so the paint will chip.

Having a great design doesnt mean you will have the best product at the end of the day, and yamato realize that to fix the shoulder I can see the difference now the pin is smaller in diameter and the shoulder is easier to twist unlike the first one which is tight.

Last and most important thing is end consumer, you don't toy around with such an articulated masterpiece.