Interesting times - changes at Yamato Toys

[Vifam7]

I'm actually surprised that there has not been any word from Yamato. By now one would think that someone from Yamato would confirm, deny, or say something ambiguous like "we're working things out". If they are going out, I would think something like a "thank you for your support all these years, see you at Arcadia" message would be posted before website closure.

Edited March 5, 2013 by Vifam7

[Gian]

Yamato USA site is still up

[master of macross]

YAMATO OUT OFF LINE....NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[aceoftherebellion]

Yamato really is bankrupt, OMG!!!

http://articles.marketwatch.com/2008-10-10/news/30694744_1_bankruptcy-protection-nikkei-securities-holdings

WELL PLAYED, SIR. WELL PLAYED.

Honestly thought, this really shouldn't be a surprise. I agree that it's sad to lose the Yamato name, but that's just sentimentality. We knew Yamato was turning over to Arcadia. The Yamato site going dead isn't really a reason to panic. Especially given that it's been down for all of what, a day now, for all we know a server blew. That said, this changes absolutely nothing. Why would a company that's already announced that they're turning over to a new title that already has it's own website keep the old one? It's expensive to keep a website running. It probably really doesn't mean anything one way or the other.

We're all assuming the worst because of a lack of announcement or press releases, but this isn't a big US based company like Hasbro that makes a new press release every week. It's a smaller company in a different corporate climate. They're not likely to make an announcement at all until they have something to announce, and even then it's likely to show up in a magazine or an event or something before we even hear about it. We really just need to wait and see.

[Tochiro]

We're all assuming the worst because of a lack of announcement or press releases, but this isn't a big US based company like Hasbro that makes a new press release every week. It's a smaller company in a different corporate climate. They're not likely to make an announcement at all until they have something to announce, and even then it's likely to show up in a magazine or an event or something before we even hear about it. We really just need to wait and see.

Well said. I love the way that people seem to think Yamato OWES THEM AN EXPLANATION NOW OMG11111 whereas Yamato has said they are busy moving into new offices and the website outage is probably a side effect of that. If anything, the fact that the site is dead and not a page with a 'sorry & goodbye' note on it says to me that they are just in transition atm.

Then theres the fact that people seem to think that a company somehow owes them an explanation. Not only does the company not owe us squat, its also a Japanese company - meaning behind the scenes dealings will probably never be revealed anyway. So calm the hell down people and wait. Word will trickle down eventually.

[jenius]

I don't think Yamato owes me an explanation but I'm definitely not enough of an optimist to think Yamato just forgot about their website. I think it confirms the thought that they sunk the ship and the same parties are opening a new company. If you're trying to shake your creditors you don't give them a redirect on your website.

[Lightning]

I don't think Yamato owes me an explanation but I'm definitely not enough of an optimist to think Yamato just forgot about their website. I think it confirms the thought that they sunk the ship and the same parties are opening a new company. If you're trying to shake your creditors you don't give them a redirect on your website.

if they were trying to shake the creditors why bother announcing the name change in the first place. If it were the case, let Arcadia suddenly spring up as Yamato slowly winds down.

Thus the creditor theory makes no sense.

Instead of running around like Chicken Little, take a step back, do a bit of breathing, and wait for a while. Open a deck of cards, play solitaire, that sorta thing.

[jenius]

Did they really announce a name change? I think that was an interpretation of the events. It's also been said Yamato has announced "an entirely new company." You can talk about other companies, you can endorse them, but you probably don't redirect your website to their website unless they're not an entirely new entity.

EDIT - if not creditors? Why else? I have yet to hear a good theory on why you would throw away years of goodwill.

EDIT II - I would love to be wrong... but I'm not an optimist and I am a businessman.

Edited March 7, 2013 by jenius

[Lightning]

I'm not a businessman, I just run freight for 'em. It was just my best guess is all. I think the announcement was in the first couple pages of this thread. It just might be that they wanted to start growing and branching out, and a new name is the start to it. They could just have been lax on the website stuff since it sounds like they're moving everything at once (which sounds weird to me, given how organized everything is out thataway.)

[Vifam7]

I would agree that Yamato does not owe us an explanation. But Yamato's Macross products have a dedicated and loyal following so it's understandable for some folks to be a bit antsy when the information is scant and the future looks unclear.

In anycase, I'm sure we'll all eventually find out something more over the next weeks or months ahead.

Edited March 7, 2013 by Vifam7

[ff95gj]

I don't think creditors are that stupid. Close a web site, they can't find you. Hope life is that easy though.

They must be busy. No one is bothering about the web site if they need to shut it down and move data centre.

[BlueMax]

Concur that Yamato doesn't owe us an explanation. In fact, I would think we owe it to them instead for bringing us fans (generally) high quality Macross stuff for more than a decade.

Of course, I feel a need to know whats next, especially since there are more valks to be made, and also because in a way, Yamato('s products) had been the pretty much one of the pillars of the MW Toy forum since it 1st sold the 1/72 YF-19

[jenius]

I don't think creditors are that stupid. Close a web site, they can't find you. Hope life is that easy though.

They must be busy. No one is bothering about the web site if they need to shut it down and move data centre.

It's not that creditors are stupid, it's that it's hard to argue a new company is a complete and distinct new entity when your old company shares in its assets (ie its website). It would also be hard to argue it's a new company if it exists in the exact same address, keeps the same bank accounts, contracts, etc. Creditors need to stop at Yamato and not then go to Arcadia's headquarters so Yamato needs to work hard to make sure the line between Yamato and Arcadia isn't very blurry.

[aceoftherebellion]

Jenius- All of those theories would make 100% perfect sense and be the most likely if this were an american company, but in all the time I've watched Japanese toy companies/Japanese business practices in general, it's very different from what I understand the business climate and culture to be like overseas. Maybe that's a misunderstanding on my part, but shuttering buildings and changing names to dodge creditors does not seem like the sort of business practices I'd expect an overseas firm to employ. If that were the case, it's likely that they would have filed some sort of legal protection/some sort of bankruptcy claim that could be found pretty easily, and that doesn't seem to be the case at any rate.

It's still far too early to be jumping to conclusions- any conclusions, including those that might seem like obvious possibilities from a business standpoint. We simply don't have the information available to start making assumptions like that.

[jenius]

Here's a controversial thought for you... what if Yamato really did go belly-up... and Toynami bought the mold to the V2 VF-1 toys. Mind... blown. After all, the mold is like 5 years old now and in this scenario it seems possible that Arcadia wouldn't get the SDF Macross license and it'd give Yamato a good chunk of change to pay back creditors with.

[BlueMax]

Well, i got at least 1 copy for all the 1/60 valks (including V1s) that Yamato has put out over the last decade, so unless Toynami comes up with new and solid schemes (think Enigma, gunmetal low-vis), I'll gladly skip all their releases. or more likely... maybe get a couple of those less popular ones when on a massive sale for spare parts

Edited March 7, 2013 by BlueMax

[Tober]

Takatoku went bust didn't they? It didn't stop their VF-1 mold making it's way across the Pacific.

[Duymon]

If Toynami bought the molds for the vf-1 1/60 v2 as peeps speculate, how would the QC be? *shudder*

Edited March 7, 2013 by Duymon

[mechaninac]

The pieces would still be manufactured in China, so unless Toynami were to decide to tell the Factory's personell, specially those in charge of QC, to relax or do away with their criteria, not much would change. But this is speculation of the way-over-the-top variety.

[charger69]

From Yamato to Arcadia. I think it's a really smooth transition in terms of company name selection.

Even if there is a company ownership shift; I think new owners are either really respectful to the old name or are already friends with old owners...

IMO similarly to name change, they will introduce new Macross products in a smooth manner...

[skullmilitia]

You guys are silly, it's all normal to change into another company after bankruptcy.

If anything they are trying to leave the name behind in order to move forward without any stigma attached

by financial institutions. I can guarantee you no Japanese company would ever try and dodge creditors, unlike American business, they have Honor.

[Scyla]

You guys are silly, it's all normal to change into another company after bankruptcy.

If anything they are trying to leave the name behind in order to move forward without any stigma attached

by financial institutions. I can guarantee you no Japanese company would ever try and dodge creditors, unlike American business, they have Honor.

Is it o.k to joke about Seppuku? Because I had a thought on my mind but don't want to offend any Japanese board members.

Edited March 7, 2013 by Scyla

[Mommar]

You guys are silly, it's all normal to change into another company after bankruptcy.

If anything they are trying to leave the name behind in order to move forward without any stigma attached

by financial institutions. I can guarantee you no Japanese company would ever try and dodge creditors, unlike American business, they have Honor.

That's a silly notion, it's not just American's who can be dishonorable. Maybe it's less likely but there are plenty of shady people pulling shady things all over the world, including Japan.

[skullmilitia]

That's a silly notion, it's not just American's who can be dishonorable. Maybe it's less likely but there are plenty of shady people pulling shady things all over the world, including Japan.

Well, when you actually "File" Bankruptcy, your acknowledging all your debts, and paying them off at a reduced settlement.

So it's actually all silly. I haven't seen any evidence that Yamato actually went out of business. They may have just wanted to start over with a Fresh Name.

[eugimon]

You guys are silly, it's all normal to change into another company after bankruptcy.

If anything they are trying to leave the name behind in order to move forward without any stigma attached

by financial institutions. I can guarantee you no Japanese company would ever try and dodge creditors, unlike American business, they have Honor.

lol, what exactly do you think a bankruptcy does? Japanese companies have and do declare bankruptcy to shed debt, even high profile companies like JAL.

[skullmilitia]

lol, what exactly do you think a bankruptcy does? Japanese companies have and do declare bankruptcy to shed debt, even high profile companies like JAL.

Yes, but it's not running and hiding as suggested previously, at least with actual bankruptcy the Debtors get some money back.

[jenius]

I said they were scuttling the company to ditch creditors. This is also known as bankruptcy. It's not immoral, illegal, or any thing else... Just unfortunate. Acadia will be a new company with no recourse to Yamato creditors.

[aceoftherebellion]

The problem I have with the 'yamato is secretly bankrupt' theory is really that there's no evidence of it whatsoever. I can't even dig up information supporting that searching in Japanese. I did see something suggesting that Yamato's site might actually be down as a result of hacking/vandalism, but I can't confirm that and I admit that my language skills aren't really good enough to say for sure that's what I was reading one way or another.

I will say that from what I saw, 2chan is about as confused about all of this as we are, though.

[EXO]

yeesh... so OT and who cares.

We'll just wait to see what happens to start a new thread.