1/55 chunkys vs reissues

[rusted180]

Quick question.. i was searching around ebay.. and i noticed that the origin of valkyries and 2002 reissues are more expensive than boxed takatokus or bandai 1984 dyrl valks, which are in great to mint shape. why is that so?

Only thing i could come up with is maybe demand? Maybe ppl want the reissues more cuz they're superior in quality.. 

Any ideas guys?

Thanks!

Edited March 8, 2019 by rusted180

[nukatsuka]

I agree with the quality but that maybe due to age?  I would think 17 year old plastic is superior to 37 year old plastic?

[rusted180]

Right?? Thats what i was thinking. 

You would think that the older ones would have more value. 

Picture this.. it'd be like the reissue g1 transformers that are discontinued  commanding a higher price than the original g1 transformers..

Ugh!

Edited March 8, 2019 by rusted180

[jenius]

The 2002 has a lot of painted on details that were previously factory applied stickers, they also have swap out cockpit canopies for heat shields (excluding Hikaru's VF-1J). The biggest thing though, the 2002 reissues didn't go through a point where they were worth a ton of money. The problem with buying Takatokus is that many of them have been Frankensteined together from several toys. I've owned lots of Takatoku valks and almost all of them had some evidence of foul play. A truly mint Takatoku will demand more than a truly mint 2002 reissue. 

[rusted180]

Huh... i see.. makes me wonder if some of my 84 bandai boxed ones were molested at some point.. 

Well.. makes sense.. 

I dont know too much about g1 transformer toys...but u think theyve been hacked as well? I cant see how some would go under the cracks and be sold as originals.. keep in mind.. i am aware the tf reissues have slight differences.. but maybe ppl frankenstein those too and box them up and sell em as original.. 

Man.. it's scary out there 

[TheLoneWolf]

Just to add on to what jenius said, I wouldn't be surprised if the 2002 and Origin of Valkyrie lines also had smaller production runs than the the original Takatoku/Bandai toys. Back in the 80's, Macross was on fire and Takatoku and Bandai practically had a monopoly on the 1/55's. But in the 2000's, the marketplace was saturated with toys from Yamato, Toynami, and numerous bootleg 1/55's, so Bandai probably manufactured less of them.

[rusted180]

Whoa.. good point there! Never thought about that. True.. i can see how they would produce less of em.. makes sense.. but im still surprised over the value of the newer ones being more! Sheesh! I guess i better bite the bullet.

[MacrossMania]

I've been wondering this myself.  There is a story attached to them.  Back in the day when the 2002 reissues were first being sold in the United States, Harmony Gold (aka the Evil Empire) reigned in those sales on IP grounds and filed suit against Bandai, alleging copyright infringement as Harmony Gold had the rights to sell them exclusively here in the United States.  Yadda, yadda, everybody knows this by now.   But this may have something to do with the limited production runs and why they are going higher in price.  Although my guess is probably not because nobody's even mentioned it on this thread here so far, so it would have little if any bearing on its value in the marketplace.

I don't think it has anything to do with anything else other than the honestly held belief that newer is better.  Forget the old, the vintage toys.  The quaint charm of the past, those garishly painted boxes.  Those are just trash.  The way it is done now, with improved production runs, superior plastics, etc., is just plain better.  It has a whiff of this self-entitled arrogance if you ask me.

[MacrossMania]

Oh, and it may simply have something to do with bad actors in the marketplace trying to seize or create another opportunity in the marketplace.  It seems to me that a lot of the interest in sales is manufactured arbitrarily.  There may very well be only a handful of vendors in the market who have a boatload of this stuff just sitting around, and wanting to generate interest, and corner an as yet untapped market, start hiking up the prices in the hopes of manufacturing some interest that wasn't previously there.  I see this a lot with the vintage toys.  Once one brand is tapped out, vendors start hawking their wares in another, less known brands in the hopes of generating some interest.  They seem to go down the daisy chain from the most popular toy brands like TFormers and GI Joe, to the lesser known ones like Crystar.  Until even the Crystar ones are tapped out.  The same could be happening here.  I don't think it's any secret that a lot of the third party sellers in Japan and elsewhere in the East (and probably in the West too for that matter), are out to make a buck.  And many of them are unscrupulous.  I bet they'd be willing to generate some interest by artificially hiking up the prices in the hopes of baiting a collector or two, and then watch the market take off.

[Shizuka the Cat]

 

Just to add on to what jenius said, I wouldn't be surprised if the 2002 and Origin of Valkyrie lines also had smaller production runs than the the original Takatoku/Bandai toys. Back in the 80's, Macross was on fire and Takatoku and Bandai practically had a monopoly on the 1/55's. But in the 2000's, the marketplace was saturated with toys from Yamato, Toynami, and numerous bootleg 1/55's, so Bandai probably manufactured less of them.

2002 also marked when the first volume of Macross Zero was released, so Bandai may have wanted to capitalize on the new Macross anime, particularly one set in the past, by re-issuing the chunky monkey. 

Similarly, Macross Frontier TV premiered in 2008... coinciding with the 2008 chunky monkey re-issue. So I think Bandai is using new Macross shows as an impetus for these chunky monkey re-issues.

Edited March 19, 2019 by Shizuka the Cat

[TheLoneWolf]

 

I've been wondering this myself.  There is a story attached to them.  Back in the day when the 2002 reissues were first being sold in the United States, Harmony Gold (aka the Evil Empire) reigned in those sales on IP grounds and filed suit against Bandai, alleging copyright infringement as Harmony Gold had the rights to sell them exclusively here in the United States.  Yadda, yadda, everybody knows this by now.   But this may have something to do with the limited production runs and why they are going higher in price.  Although my guess is probably not because nobody's even mentioned it on this thread here so far, so it would have little if any bearing on its value in the marketplace.

I don't think it has anything to do with anything else other than the honestly held belief that newer is better.  Forget the old, the vintage toys.  The quaint charm of the past, those garishly painted boxes.  Those are just trash.  The way it is done now, with improved production runs, superior plastics, etc., is just plain better.  It has a whiff of this self-entitled arrogance if you ask me.

There's no record of Harmony Gold ever suing Bandai over the 2002 reissues, but Bandai knew that Harmony Gold would nevertheless block their Macross products outside of Japan, so they probably factored that in to their production numbers. But to be honest, the 2002 reissues sold poorly because of competition from Yamato's v1 1/60 VF-1 line and that most people thought the reissues looked like dinosaurs compared to newer toys. You could usually find the reissues selling at half the price of their original MSRP, which ironically brought them down to the price range of 1/55 bootlegs. This is most likely why the later releases, such as the Max & Milia reissues, had small production runs.

 

2002 also marked when the first volume of Macross Zero was released, so Bandai may have wanted to capitalize on the new Macross anime, particularly one set in the past, by re-issuing the chunky monkey. 

Similarly, Macross Frontier TV premiered in 2008... coinciding with the 2008 chunky monkey re-issue. So I think Bandai is using new Macross shows as an impetus for these chunky monkey re-issues.

I doubt Macross Zero had anything to do with the 2002 reissues. Macross Zero was released in the end of 2002, whereas Bandai announced the reissues in the end of 2001. Bandai was probably just jumping on the 2001 Macross bandwagon when they saw all the interest being generated by Yamato's v1 1/60 VF-1's and Toynami's 1/55 line.

[glane21]

Origin of Valkyrie series - the last round of reissues - are the priciest for a few reasons:

- very low production runs due to reissue fatigue from 2002 and modern Yamato product

- Hikaru 1J finally got the swappable heat shield 

- DYRL Super  VF-1A Max and Hikaru had never been done before in 1/55

Too bad sales were low because we may have gotten more first time in 1/55 models had it been able to continue.  They also teased new head sculpts at one point.

[jenius]

It seemed like the Origin line died as soon as BigWest put the kibosh on the Western distribution deal Bandai was working on.

[treatment]

 

It seemed like the Origin line died as soon as BigWest put the kibosh on the Western distribution deal Bandai was working on.

That BW stuff and pretty much Bandai seeming decision to kill that line to start  or concentrate on their HiMetal-line development that lead to the HiMetal-R line.

Low sales in Japan during release, anyway, iirc.

Still a bit irked HLJ cancelled my order on the Max-1A back in the day.

[sh9000]

I wish Bandai reissued more but I’m glad I have all of the reissues still brand new.  I would only get vintage if it was brand new but that is more rare and expensive.