Arcadia 1/60 Super VF-1J Max & Millia Release

[Zx31]

1 hour ago, easnoddy said:

The Bandai HMR color scheme are canon from episode 27 Love Flows By (final battle against the Bodol fleet).  At the time the entirety of humanity was on board the Macross so the super packs were likely custom tailored to their valkyries. 

However in episode 30, Viva Milia, they launch their valkyries from Earth without super packs (using booster rockets).  Once in space they have the standard green packs attached like all the other valkyries.

Good memory

 

[Chronocidal]

Yeah, given the "outstanding quality" of the rest of the animation in that episode, I wouldn't use that as any kind of standard to judge anything by.  None of those individual screenshots even match each other let alone the other episodes where they're shown.  

I don't really mind the white colored tips on the boosters, that goes nicely with the schemes.  The random white panel on the bottom of the legs though just looks out of place, and for no reason other than animation mistakes.

Edited April 14, 2017 by Chronocidal

[Mommar]

I think the one up in the right corner is irrefutable proof that both Yamcadia and Bandai have got Max and Milia's 1J's totally wrong.

[spanner]

1 hour ago, David Hingtgen said:

Yamato/Arcadia, match Hasegawa:

(except for the red-tipped RMS missiles, which I'd love to have...)

they are the model kits yes? not liking those red tipped missiles.. yucky poo's! the three individual weapons stations on each wing is cool though!

1 hour ago, Zx31 said:

Good memory

 

LOL! the original animation was so poor and inconsistent eh!  

[erizai]

10 hours ago, David Hingtgen said:

Yamato/Arcadia, match Hasegawa:

(except for the red-tipped RMS missiles, which I'd love to have...)

Color looked so crisp... if the actual one as good?

[chyll2]

That is a Hasegawa 1/48 promo/marketing pictures.

[no3Ljm]

Now thinking of PO'ing Max's 1J two for a future custom one.

Edit:
Quick question on Max's 1J blue. For members who have both TV Max's 1J and 1A. Is it the same blue color as his TV 1A? Thanks!

 

Edited April 14, 2017 by no3Ljm

[sh9000]

Max's 1A is a different color blue than his 1J and 1D.  

Damn, goodbye Yamato white, hello Arcadia pink.

[no3Ljm]

Just now, sh9000 said:

Max's 1A is a different color blue than his 1J and 1D.  

Damn, goodbye Yamato white, hello Arcadia pink.

Thanks sh9000! Really appreciate it. But can you tell how big is the difference? The 1A is kinda covered with armor and I'm just basing it on the head and he's on far right. Can you post a pic of the 1J and 1A heads only if it's ok. Thanks! 

 

[sh9000]

3 minutes ago, no3Ljm said:

Thanks sh9000! Really appreciate it. But can you tell how big is the difference? The 1A is kinda covered with armor and I'm just basing it on the head and he's on far right. Can you post a pic of the 1J and 1A heads only if it's ok. Thanks! 

 

Max's 1J is a little bit darker blue.

[jenius]

I don't think the 1J should be a different blue, probably just a factor of not being the exact same batch. 

[no3Ljm]

18 minutes ago, sh9000 said:

Max's 1J is a little bit darker blue.

Thanks sh9000! That really helps. So I assume it will be noticeable once 1J and 1A parts has been mixed and matched. Hmmm. 

 

[Lolicon]

Cameras are also better at differentiating tiny color gradients than we can. So slight differences in color that the camera can pick up might be imperceptible to our squishy meatbag eyes. 

If you own a V1 VF-27, you can probably see slight differences in the greens used. But take a picture and holy crap it looks like Bandai used wildly different green plastics. 

[Lolicon]

Look what showed up for sale! 

https://order.mandarake.co.jp/order/detailPage/item?itemCode=1063024442&ref=list

https://order.mandarake.co.jp/order/detailPage/item?itemCode=1045701890&ref=list

[spanner]

1 hour ago, Lolicon said:

Look what showed up for sale! 

https://order.mandarake.co.jp/order/detailPage/item?itemCode=1063024442&ref=list

https://order.mandarake.co.jp/order/detailPage/item?itemCode=1045701890&ref=list

oh what a surprise...  

[arbit]

Millia's red scheme is really going to bring out the pink in the Arcadia white. 

This will be the pinkest valk of all.

[Roy Focker]

Too late for me to get excited about them.   Took them way too long.

[sh9000]

If prices for Yamato Max and Milia go lower, I might just buy an extra set of those to display in Fighter mode instead.

[Froy]

1 hour ago, sh9000 said:

If prices for Yamato Max and Milia go lower, I might just buy an extra set of those to display in Fighter mode instead.

Thinking the same.

I don't like the coloring Arcadia has been using. I won't mind to pay a little extra if the prices lower close to the Arcadia releases.

[David Hingtgen]

6 hours ago, arbit said:

Millia's red scheme is really going to bring out the pink in the Arcadia white. 

This will be the pinkest valk of all.

That's my worry.  Simply being near red parts, will catch some reflection. 

[Cowboy17]

6 hours ago, David Hingtgen said:

That's my worry.  Simply being near red parts, will catch some reflection. 

at this point, ill take what I can get. Sure beats trying to buy one for mad cash on Yahoo Japan

[David Hingtgen]

It's a tough time for us Jenius fans:

Milia's---too pink!

Mirage's---not pink enough!

[ChristopherB]

Arcadia has introduced a new trend this year for them, something that was primarily an issue with Bandai.  Where they release one version, and then later an improvement like what happened with the VF-25 renewal.  Not to mention the HMR line where we have two VF-1S Roy, two VF-1J Max, three VF-1J Hikaru (1st, 2nd, GBP) in a relatively short amount of time.

Not sure if Arcadia has decided that is a good business model and have started to imitate Bandai.  For example, they released the 1/60 VF-1S Roy and I think in July 2017, the VF-1S Roy Premium Version will be released.  Fortunately, with regard to the VF-1S Hikaru we learned of both at the same time, so people were able to make a choice.

At least in Arcadia's case, the difference between versions is purely aesthetic, as opposed to some of the Bandai VF-25 that had design flaws.  Some people will be happy with the regular version, other people will want the top of the line, and a few will want to buy both versions.  For my part, the premium version is the only one I want or need.

So, my concern for the future VF-1J Max & Milia and beyond will be when we don't know if Arcadia will also release the premium version.  I would hate to keep buying the regular version, just to find out a few months later the upgraded version is being released.  Hopefully Arcadia is going to give us notice of both versions at the same time so we can make an informed choice.

[Chronocidal]

Yamato used to be decent about this sort of thing, and announce multiple versions at the same time, like with the initial release of Roy, the Roy strike bundle, and the stand alone packs all within two months.

With this, they're just shooting themselves in the foot by proving time and time again that people shouldn't buy the first release, because a better one will come out later. 

I know I wouldn't have touched the Arcadia Roy and Hikaru stand-alone releases if I'd known they'd put out bundles with fast packs later.

[mechaninac]

5 hours ago, Chronocidal said:

I know I wouldn't have touched the Arcadia Roy and Hikaru stand-alone releases if I'd known they'd put out bundles with fast packs later.

Which would become a non issue if Arcadia would just release the damned Fast Packs as a separate stand-alone accessory purchases, ditto for the GBP, like Bandai has been doing with nearly everything they've produced from their Frontier and Delta DX lines; alas...

[jenius]

But Bandai hasn't done it for HMR. Arcadia said there was a licensing issue around the individual release of strike parts. 

[Chronocidal]

They did with the first series of Hi-Metals, but no one bought those back then, and now people are buying up the old web exclusive sets to equip their naked HMRs.

I don't really want to speculate, but I'd love to know what sort of license issue could keep both Bandai's and Arcadia's hands tied, and unable to release stand-alone packs.

I'm honestly getting pretty close to seeing how hard it would be to get a set of packs built up in Shapeways for the HMRs.

[jenius]

I don't think licensing is stopping Bandai, I think they just haven't released many naked valks yet. I think Arcadia is paying through the teeth for the SDF license so they aren't doing accessories standalone because they'd have to charge too much for them. 

[wmkjr]

36 minutes ago, Chronocidal said:

I'm honestly getting pretty close to seeing how hard it would be to get a set of packs built up in Shapeways for the HMRs.

Would be interesting to see. The only hurdle would be the cost for the packs would probably be more than the cost of the valks. 

[Raya1823]

Any word on a PO date yet???

[jenius]

I imagine Miria will go up in a month since Roy went up yesterday. 

[Mommar]

20 hours ago, jenius said:

I don't think licensing is stopping Bandai, I think they just haven't released many naked valks yet. I think Arcadia is paying through the teeth for the SDF license so they aren't doing accessories standalone because they'd have to charge too much for them. 

But for what reason would a license for a 30+ year old series cost so much?  I know Frontier, and I guess Delta, have both been successful but have we seen some massive uptick in the original shows popularity to warrant the license jumping so much?

[jenius]

It's speculation but either demand (both Bandai and Arcadia bid the price up) or Bandai has the rights and Arcadia has to pay Bandai and BW to release SDF merchandise.

It's also entirely possible Arcadia is very poorly capitalized so they haven't been able to do much of any thing while they scrape cash together one release at a time... but that doesn't explain the licensing comment. 

[Chronocidal]

Looking back historically with Yamato's releases, I know that once the v.2 VF-1 production reached full tilt, we were getting barraged with releases left and right for several years straight, but did Yamato always produce so much so quickly?  I want to say that Arcadia's current production rate is slower like the earlier days when Yamato first made the VF-0 and 1/48 VF-1, but I only jumped into the collecting game around the time the v.2 showed up.

Going slower to avoid oversaturating the market seems wise, but maybe they're just working slowly to build up capital so they can expand?

On the licensing side though, it wouldn't surprise me if Bandai is driving up the cost of Arcadia's licenses just by their interest in the franchise as a whole.  Big West has to be aware of how much money Bandai could dump directly into their pockets if they agreed to give them all the licenses Arcadia currently is holding onto.  At some point, Arcadia might not be able to compete with Bandai's offers.  Heck, just in pure business sense, I'm not even sure how Arcadia still has the licenses they do.  Macross Zero doesn't really seem like a hot property, but it wouldn't surprise me if a lot of the profits from the VF-0s were dumped directly into DYRL and SDF licenses.

[Jasonc]

On ‎4‎/‎17‎/‎2017 at 1:24 PM, Chronocidal said:

Looking back historically with Yamato's releases, I know that once the v.2 VF-1 production reached full tilt, we were getting barraged with releases left and right for several years straight, but did Yamato always produce so much so quickly?  I want to say that Arcadia's current production rate is slower like the earlier days when Yamato first made the VF-0 and 1/48 VF-1, but I only jumped into the collecting game around the time the v.2 showed up.

Going slower to avoid oversaturating the market seems wise, but maybe they're just working slowly to build up capital so they can expand?

On the licensing side though, it wouldn't surprise me if Bandai is driving up the cost of Arcadia's licenses just by their interest in the franchise as a whole.  Big West has to be aware of how much money Bandai could dump directly into their pockets if they agreed to give them all the licenses Arcadia currently is holding onto.  At some point, Arcadia might not be able to compete with Bandai's offers.  Heck, just in pure business sense, I'm not even sure how Arcadia still has the licenses they do.  Macross Zero doesn't really seem like a hot property, but it wouldn't surprise me if a lot of the profits from the VF-0s were dumped directly into DYRL and SDF licenses.

A lot of that is assuming a certain license structure. Many licenses are purchased for a number of years, especially when it comes to a business dealing such as this, where the company has had a longer track record with the licensor. Some of these types of contracts may also have specifics that cover certain things like the number of items the licensee can produce per year, approval stipulations, etc. This is really something that probably isn't worth going into, in regards to why they can or can't do something. there are basics we can draw, like the fact that Arcadia hasn't done any frontier toys, but aside from just a pure speculation standpoint, I personally don't care for the details in all this. Arcadia has done great with what they have, and Bandai with what they have. For now, just about all is covered between the two.