Max Watanabe is the new CEO of Wave?

[Anasazi37]

Saw some chatter about this on FB. It seems legit, but you never know when it comes to news on April 1st. If legit, I wonder what impact this will have on his ability to design and produce high quality Macross kits. He seems to be keeping his Max Factory contact information and his profile says that he's still working at Good Smile, which is interesting. He might be spreading himself too thin. I hope not. I'd like to see more high quality kits. You know, like the 1/20 Strike Battroid VF-1S we've all been waiting for....

[tekering]

April 1st is the beginning of the fiscal year, which is a big deal in Japan.  It's legit.

I'd be ecstatic if his 1:20 Battroid comes to light. 

[Big s]

I don’t know about the 1/20 kit happening or not, but I have a feeling things will just be a bit simplified between offerings of the companies. Something more like 1/35 Votoms handled by wave and the larger ones by Max factory or 1/72 MaxFactory battroids for the wave 1/72 fighter kits. 
I know the people that bought into the 1/20 Macross kits would love to see a battroid, but I’m curious about how well those sold. I have a feeling that if it happens, it will be in small numbers. But I guess we’ll see how things go over time. 

[tekering]

9 hours ago, Big s said:

I know the people that bought into the 1/20 Macross kits would love to see a battroid, but I’m curious about how well those sold.

I've been wondering the same myself.  I spent a lot of time in local model shops, where most of the stock is used (or rather, "previously-owned") kits.  There are lots of big Tamiya aircraft carriers, Bandai Perfect Grade mobile suits, and similarly large and expensive out-of-production kits, as well as a wide selection of WAVE, Hasegawa, Bandai, Max Factory, and even TomyTec Macross VF-1s. 

However, the only 1:20 Valkyries I've ever seen are the ones Amazon shipped to my house.  🤨

I've yet to lay eyes on either of Max Factory's kits at retail, either new or used stock.  They must have been produced in rather limited quantities. 🤔

[Anasazi37]

I keep forgetting that the fiscal year begins on 01 April in Japan. I'm so used to 01 October for my work. I'm excited to see what this partnership/collaboration with WAVE turns into. Hopefully more great Macross kits.

I've maybe seen three of the 1/20 kits show up on Mandarake over the years, so yeah, they seem to be extremely rare out in the wild. Limited production runs is definitely one possible reason why. They were expensive to buy, expensive to ship (even domestically), and Macross is a bit more niche than other franchises. I'm in the "someday I'll actually build the damn things because they are way too awesome to ever let go of" camp myself, and I can't be alone. That has to explain at least a little bit of the scarcity. At least that is what I'll keep telling myself.

[Big s]

1 hour ago, tekering said:

I've been wondering the same myself.  I spent a lot of time in local model shops, where most of the stock is used (or rather, "previously-owned") kits.  There are lots of big Tamiya aircraft carriers, Bandai Perfect Grade mobile suits, and similarly large and expensive out-of-production kits, as well as a wide selection of WAVE, Hasegawa, Bandai, Max Factory, and even TomyTec Macross VF-1s. 

However, the only 1:20 Valkyries I've ever seen are the ones Amazon shipped to my house.  🤨

I've yet to lay eyes on either of Max Factory's kits at retail, either new or used stock.  They must have been produced in rather limited quantities. 🤔

Other than pro builds I’ve never seen one finished. I was thinking maybe due to size, the average person skipped them due to space. I know I didn’t buy any for that reason, but I still admire the kit. I was kinda pushing things just getting the 1/72 Queadluun Rau kit, but I felt that it was worth keeping some gundams boxed up.

[pafy6285]

2 hours ago, tekering said:

However, the only 1:20 Valkyries I've ever seen are the ones Amazon shipped to my house.  🤨

I've yet to lay eyes on either of Max Factory's kits at retail, either new or used stock.  They must have been produced in rather limited quantities. 🤔

The 1/20 valks are under the Plamax line and the same with other Max Factory products, they're always produced in limited amounts (usually to meet preorders and maybe some extra). And considering the size and price (and shipping) of this kit, it's possible that there's just a small amount of preoders made.

[Anasazi37]

7 hours ago, Big s said:

Other than pro builds I’ve never seen one finished. I was thinking maybe due to size, the average person skipped them due to space.

I don't regret having all three kits (Fighter, Strike Fighter, Strike Gerwalk), but they do indeed take up a lot of space. Their boxes are hogging three shelves worth of prime display real estate right now.

5 hours ago, pafy6285 said:

The 1/20 valks are under the Plamax line and the same with other Max Factory products, they're always produced in limited amounts (usually to meet preorders and maybe some extra). And considering the size and price (and shipping) of this kit, it's possible that there's just a small amount of preorders made.

That does make sense. Finding these kits is hard enough, but then if you go looking for the Armament Set, that is even more difficult to find. Especially since you might need two copies to achieve certain loadouts. For some reason I preordered two, and I'm glad that I did.

[Urashiman]

On 4/2/2024 at 1:31 PM, Anasazi37 said:

Saw some chatter about this on FB. It seems legit, but you never know when it comes to news on April 1st. If legit, I wonder what impact this will have on his ability to design and produce high quality Macross kits. He seems to be keeping his Max Factory contact information and his profile says that he's still working at Good Smile, which is interesting. He might be spreading himself too thin. I hope not. I'd like to see more high quality kits. You know, like the 1/20 Strike Battroid VF-1S we've all been waiting for....

Nope ... real. I expect even more Macross stuff from wave now

[Big s]

34 minutes ago, Urashiman said:

Nope ... real. I expect even more Macross stuff from wave now

I’m not sure if it’s a big Macross thing since Max is known for doing a bit of everything. As far as wave the big ones like Ma K and Votoms and I’ve seen him work on Macross as well. I’m hoping for more Macross, but I don’t think this news is really gonna be a huge flood of Macross kits from Wave. I’m sure they have stuff they were already thinking of releasing.

[Urashiman]

57 minutes ago, Big s said:

I’m not sure if it’s a big Macross thing since Max is known for doing a bit of everything. As far as wave the big ones like Ma K and Votoms and I’ve seen him work on Macross as well. I’m hoping for more Macross, but I don’t think this news is really gonna be a huge flood of Macross kits from Wave. I’m sure they have stuff they were already thinking of releasing.

mhmm ... okay.

Well, the VF-171EX Armored Version and the YF-29 are in the pipeline.

[Big s]

No new Macross stuff from wave for tonight, but at least they’re finally doing a Marshydog in 1/35

[Anasazi37]

4 hours ago, Big s said:

No new Macross stuff from wave for tonight, but at least they’re finally doing a Marshydog in 1/35

Max has only been CEO for three days. I'm willing to give him a full week to settle into the job before I start expecting new Macross kit announcements. 

[VF-1A Grunt]

On 4/3/2024 at 8:17 AM, Urashiman said:

Nope ... real. I expect even more Macross stuff from wave now

I’d love to see a new Destroid Spartan!

[Big s]

34 minutes ago, VF-1A Grunt said:

I’d love to see a new Destroid Spartan!

I need that for sure

[Raikkonen]

Can someone please enlighten me of Max Watanabe ties/relevance to the Macross brand? In model kits, I'm not all that clued on the names in the background. 

[Anasazi37]

55 minutes ago, Raikkonen said:

Can someone please enlighten me of Max Watanabe ties/relevance to the Macross brand? In model kits, I'm not all that clued on the names in the background. 

A quick online search resulted in this short bio, but I'm sure there are better ones out there:

https://fancons.com/guests/bio/5442/makoto-max-watanabe

He's a legend. If you've not seen any of the Macross kits that Max Factory produces under the Good Smile company banner, you're missing out. He's responsible for things like the massive 1/20 Gerwalk and Fighter kits as well as the new 1/72 Battroid kits:

https://www.goodsmile.info/en/product/7226/PLAMAX+MF+25+minimum+factory+VF+1+Super+Strike+Gerwalk+Valkyrie.html

https://www.goodsmile.com/ja/product/36432/PLAMAX+PX09+1+72+VF-1D+バトロイドバルキリー

[Raikkonen]

2 minutes ago, Anasazi37 said:

A quick online search resulted in this short bio, but I'm sure there are better ones out there:

https://fancons.com/guests/bio/5442/makoto-max-watanabe

He's a legend. If you've not seen any of the Macross kits that Max Factory produces under the Good Smile company banner, you're missing out. He's responsible for things like the massive 1/20 Gerwalk and Fighter kits as well as the new 1/72 Battroid kits:

https://www.goodsmile.info/en/product/7226/PLAMAX+MF+25+minimum+factory+VF+1+Super+Strike+Gerwalk+Valkyrie.html

https://www.goodsmile.com/ja/product/36432/PLAMAX+PX09+1+72+VF-1D+バトロイドバルキリー

Thanks.

Yeah, I know the 1/20, but well out of my space and time availability. 

[SteveTheFish]

This is just strange because Max Factory gets its name from Max Watanabe. I assume he will no longer have any work done for Max Factory. It's just strange because he had his own brand going and now he's the CEO of Wave.

[Big s]

20 hours ago, SteveTheFish said:

This is just strange because Max Factory gets its name from Max Watanabe. I assume he will no longer have any work done for Max Factory. It's just strange because he had his own brand going and now he's the CEO of Wave.

He’s done projects with multiple companies, I kinda doubt this will stop him from that. 

[Raikkonen]

On 5/13/2024 at 5:04 AM, SteveTheFish said:

This is just strange because Max Factory gets its name from Max Watanabe. I assume he will no longer have any work done for Max Factory. It's just strange because he had his own brand going and now he's the CEO of Wave.

Aren't model kits designers like in any other design industry where they work mainly freelance from company to company?

[Big s]

On 5/15/2024 at 1:42 PM, Raikkonen said:

Aren't model kits designers like in any other design industry where they work mainly freelance from company to company?

Pretty much. I really don’t think that this news of him being ceo of wave is really gonna be anything big. It would be great if it was, but I don’t really expect much of a change. The guy has done work with many companies after Max Factory became a company many years ago and him being ceo of Wave might get him some extra clout, but I don’t think we’re getting big waves outta wave anytime soon 

[Raikkonen]

19 hours ago, Big s said:

Pretty much. I really don’t think that this news of him being ceo of wave is really gonna be anything big. It would be great if it was, but I don’t really expect much of a change. The guy has done work with many companies after Max Factory became a company many years ago and him being ceo of Wave might get him some extra clout, but I don’t think we’re getting big waves outta wave anytime soon 

Exactly. Hence the recent no show of Wave at the latest hobby fair.

All I'm expecting is another Valk release this year by them.