1/100 Koenig Monster confirmed (Dengeki Hobby)

[Neova]

kind of off-topic....

just an FYI, but yamato frequents these boards and discussing prices only sets MRSP's for them and retailers a like.  meaning if you say you're willing to pay $150 for something and others agree, yamato will sell it for $150....even if they had plans of selling it for $100.

if no one says a thing regarding prices, yamato has no choice to be fair when setting the MSRP as well as the retailers.

i.e. the GBP armor is $15-$20 (MSRP in japan) but because so many people here said they'd pay more...its now being sold for $40 by e-tailers and retailers all around.  the same thing happened with the 1/48's and the same happened with the q-rau.  i just thought i'd say something(again) cause were kind of dooming ourselves when we dicuss prices of up and coming products. 

its like me walking into a car dealership and saying i'd be willing to pay exactly this much for that car without knowing how much it really cost.  i mean, what kind of deal you think i'm gonna get if i show the salesmen all my cards?  the car is worth 10K but i said i'd pay 15K.  what do you think the dealership is going to charge me?  10k or 15k? 

well thats it, i got flamed before for saying this and i'm willing to get flamed again.  but realize its just more logical to say nothing regarding prices rather than saying, i'd pay this much for something? how much do you think it would cost?  or even making a comparison to something that already exists. 

my point is, why help any company charge as much as it can for something?

Well....I won't flame you....but I will respond.

I really doubt price discussion on this forum affects prices set by the market. E-tailers try their best to make a marginally fair profit from their toys and by the way I see it, almost everybody has ABOUT the same price, plus minus a few dollars. Yamato spies this board to check out how much they should sell their wares? Urmmm....highly doubtful.

Your GBP armor example....is flawed. Did you expect to get similar prices as Japan's retail price? I'm not surprised that it becomes $40 after shipping, import taxes etc. Well...i don't know how much are dealer's prices, but i doubt the extra $20 added on top of Japan's retail price is made by the e-tailers and retailers. Those probably go to costs of bringing the thing in in the 1st place.

My 2 cents.

AFAIK, most sellers charge either x % or x $ on top of thier cost. I bet some dealers probably buy at near retail, ship it back to the USA then have to account for their time and expenses, thus higher prices.

Most etailers haven't sold a single product at full retail prices but if you can show me a 20 USD RETAIL price in Japan, I bet I can still sell it cheaper before shipping. The GBP was last listed at 3800 YEN in Japan retail ~ 34.20 USD at current exchange rate of 110 YEN to 1 USD. I'm selling it for 30 USD preordered.

Japan has the highest prices for toys I've ever seen though.

BTW: Yamato, I'll pay 30 USD 2800 YEN for the 1/100 VB-6 when it comes out.

[Aegis!]

kind of off-topic....

just an FYI, but yamato frequents these boards and discussing prices only sets MRSP's for them and retailers a like.  meaning if you say you're willing to pay $150 for something and others agree, yamato will sell it for $150....even if they had plans of selling it for $100.

if no one says a thing regarding prices, yamato has no choice to be fair when setting the MSRP as well as the retailers.

i.e. the GBP armor is $15-$20 (MSRP in japan) but because so many people here said they'd pay more...its now being sold for $40 by e-tailers and retailers all around.  the same thing happened with the 1/48's and the same happened with the q-rau.  i just thought i'd say something(again) cause were kind of dooming ourselves when we dicuss prices of up and coming products. 

its like me walking into a car dealership and saying i'd be willing to pay exactly this much for that car without knowing how much it really cost.  i mean, what kind of deal you think i'm gonna get if i show the salesmen all my cards?  the car is worth 10K but i said i'd pay 15K.  what do you think the dealership is going to charge me?  10k or 15k? 

well thats it, i got flamed before for saying this and i'm willing to get flamed again.  but realize its just more logical to say nothing regarding prices rather than saying, i'd pay this much for something? how much do you think it would cost?  or even making a comparison to something that already exists. 

my point is, why help any company charge as much as it can for something?

I kinda agree with you.

I´ve seen examples of this happening , not exactly now cause Yamato no longer shares interest in these boards anymore but in the past they used this forum as guide to plubic expectation.

Of course you´re wrong in one point , and that is the fact that etailers prices are not set by Yamato but by the etailers themselves so their prices have nothing to do with Yamato. Though , I would agree that in some way Yamato (used to) use this forum AND their own studies on the demographic of japanese macross consumers to set their Japan retail prices and so get the most of Japanese fans AND etailers.

I would like to assume that the Q-rau was an example of this (of course I could be very wrong) as the actual price wasn´t announced until the very last moment , Yamato COULD easily have browsed through the hordes of comments on the Q-rau and picked up those that commented on how much people would be willing to pay for the toy and made a consensus with the retai price japanese consumers would be willing to pay. Afterall , I don´t see how japanese consumers (specially old fans) could have any difficulty on paying whatever prive tags Yamato put on their toys.

Edited May 7, 2004 by Aegis!

[Shin Densetsu Kai 7.0]

I'm sure yamato got some interest in these boards. BUt I wouldn't go as far to say they make major decisions regarding what they will do according to what we whine or bitch about. IN fact I think they ignore bitchy comments and just read what they think might be useful. I never thought they had a major presence nor payed much attention to these boards. Maybe some feedback and the like but I don't think they are influenced by this board as much as people like to think. I mean it's kind of like how on transformers boards a lot of people bitch about hasbro and changes come slowly and hasbro still remains. Its the same with yamato. Regardless of all the whining they will keep going. They are dictated by money not by what we say. AS much as I would like to think I do not think we are really that much of an influence to them. AS sales statistics yes but in terms of using this board as a heavy influential tool? I doubt it. Lots of people bitched about the 1/100 VF-0 on these boards and the japanese BBS imode translated and yet that product is not ccancelled. It is still coming out. MAybe we got a slight influence but not much. I don't think it is a case of yamato throwing us to the side, I think we were on the side the whole time.

Of course that is just my opinion.

If the monster was 100$ I wouldn;t be surprised. Even at 1/100 scale being a foot long in shuttle mode, this thing is pretty big. NOt astronomically huge, but big compared to what yamato usually makes.(1/60/72 valks).

[Vectromat]

I just knew people would go off about Stormies (great planes), A-10s, whatever. These aircraft may be relatively heavily armoured but there's no comparison to a ground vehicle. The bulk of the aircraft isn't armoured, only critical systems, especially the cockpit - the rest of the plane is made of light alloy and composites (OK, with the odd bit of steel for spars, landing gear etc). Build a Sturmovik out of Chobham armour and watch it try to get off the ground, you'll see what I mean. Tanks are actually largely made of armour and far more of the vehicle is (nominally) protected against incoming fire.

There's debate in special-interest boards across the entire spectrum about how much influence they have on the relevant industry - from movies to cars to models. I think there was exaggerated regard for fora in some industries early on,

but it's tapered off a lot now that most people involved are more familiar with the 'net. I'm sure any sensible company carries out better market research than relying on the chatter of us obsessive types. Hope so anyway or we really will drive up the price!

Cheers,

Martyn

[Aztek]

I think the only armor on an AC-130, besides the pilots backside, is on the skid plate on the cargo ramp.

[F-ZeroOne]

I just knew people would go off about Stormies (great planes), A-10s, whatever. These aircraft may be relatively heavily armoured but there's no comparison to a ground vehicle. The bulk of the aircraft isn't armoured, only critical systems, especially the cockpit - the rest of the plane is made of light alloy and composites (OK, with the odd bit of steel for spars, landing gear etc). Build a Sturmovik out of Chobham armour and watch it try to get off the ground, you'll see what I mean. Tanks are actually largely made of armour and far more of the vehicle is (nominally) protected against incoming fire.

Thanks for the comments, though I am aware of the issues - I just couldn't resist...! The Il-2 is something of an exception to a rule; if the web-link I posted is correct, then about a fifth of the airplanes empty weight was armour (another source I have puts it at about 10% of the structure), and there are a number of accounts of German pilots expending all their ammuntion and not being able to bring one down.

On the other hand, Il-2s suffered a good deal of rear-gunner casualties as that posistion was added later and not nearly so well protected - in fact, I believe the joke went that the gunner was the pilot armour...!

[do not disturb]

first off, i'd like to thank everyone for showing their maturity and not flaming my butt. seriously though, thanks.

well i can't say everything is posted was 100% true but i KNOW the GBP is $15-$20....and thats retail. don't forget, most of vendors have been doing it for a while and more likely paying wholesale prices....some even wait for stuff to go on sale or it hit clearance which generally means they'll be paying even less than wholesale.

if they're paying retail, they got a friend who tracks this stuff down and you gotta throw the guy some loot for his troubles...shoot, we ain't having fun unless were all gettin some right?

if you got a friend with a shop in HK or something, you think hes paying retail? hes paying wholesale and you're paying wholesale too....plus some extra loot for his troubles. again we all gotta have fun.

if they got a family member helping them out, heck you don't have to "grease" a family member, its all love.

how much do you think a 1A max goes for now? toy-wave got em for $89....you think this guy paid retail? wholesale? or clearance price? my guess is he paid clearance price. most all retailers got them for $120+ why is that? do you think these people paid retail, wholesale, or clearance price? seeing as they're kind of old now, my guess is they paid clearance price too. but so many of us are willing to shell out $120+ for a 1/48 that retailer wouldn't think of selling it for any less. i mean, why would they cut into their own profits?

even if they found them at some flea market in japan for $20, do you honestly think a smart business man would sell it for $40 when they know they could easily get $120? if you found some valks for $20 at some flea market here in the states, how much would you sell them for? $40? $80? or $120? maybe you'll hook up one of your boys but everyone else is gonna pay $120....plain and simple, its your find, so you should reap the benefits. yeah we're all nice guys here but no one here is a total sucker...selling something that goes for $120 for $20? either you gotta be a total retard or the biggest hippie know to man.

look, i'm not saying theres anything wrong with peolpe making money....we all gotta eat right? i'm all about the capitalist society folks. what i don't like doing is telling XYZ company/vendor how much i'm willing to pay for something, basically helping them set the highest possible price on new a product.

like i said before, why would you show anyone all your cards? would you flash someone your cards in a game of poker because you "think" they aren't looking? yamato is looking whether we want to believe it or not, here and all the other macross/robotech fan sites. its in their best interest to have as much info on their consumers as possible, thats how a smart and successful company is run.

[Majestic]

Here's hoping that the next issues of Dengeki or Hobby Japan have destroid and gerwalk pics.

Thanks for the earlier post of near-finished 1/100 kits. I wish there was some good COLOR lineart or model photos.

I can't wait for this thing in toy form.