If you can find me a place that sells the 1/60 regular Yamatos for under 45 bucks, and the Super versions for under 120, then feel free to share this info with me! I just bought both of them at a con, which I know I shouldn't have, as most stuff that is sold at conventions is over priced as it is. I actually wanted to get the 1/55 Bandai set with the armor pack, which was also there for 125. I did not want to lug it around with me all day, so I told myself if it was still there before I left, I would pick it up. Not caring about the price tag, I went back, and it was gone. So I saw the Yamatos, and always wanted to pick them up, and seeing as how I had money to spend, and they were right in front of me, I got them. I have no problem paying 45 for the VF-1A because I really enjoy it, the 125 for the Super VF-1J seemed about right to me, though the only real difference between the two is that there is the armor and a pilot. I am still happy I have them, so I do not feel I got ripped off, but as I said, if you know of a place where I can purchase them cheaper, feel free to let me know!
I was wondering if Harmony Gold lift the ban on Yamato would the Valks cost cheaper for US fans? As for me, the Yamato valks are indeed the best representive of the Macross valks...definately master pieces IMO.
I would imagine they would be. When the 1/72 Macross Plus valkyries were first announced they were up for pre-order for $30-$40. Then when HG pulled the plug on them and I had to import them they cost me about $80. Like I said check out the macrossworld.com forums. Because the YF-19 and VF-0 are in 1/60 scale a lot of people lately have been looking for 1/60 scale VF-1s. If you didn't mind used, you probably could have gotten a super for like $60 on the boards. If you were interested in the Super Ostrich or the Elint I think those are still only about $80 or $90 at the most.
You're damn right about them being overpriced, I have $1k+ of Macross loot sitting above my work desk alone. But hey, once you have them you gotta love them, pics don't do them justice.
Long story short they claim the rights to Macross everywhere outside of Japan because Macross was the 1st part of Robotech. What everyone is mad about is that up until SDCC 2000, they were pretty much quiet and hadn't really made any noise, until they saw toycom*(yamato's USA counterpart) advertising the macross plus toys. Once that happened, they gave cease and decist letters out and until all the legal crap was over, yamato could not domestically sell their macross toys. Hence the higher price we pay since we have to get our toys imported. Soon after the whole thing happened, George Sohn left toycom and formed toynami, which was allied with harmony gold to make the MPC(Master Piece Collection series). Thing that made everyone mad was that while toynami could make their toys, yamato couldn't sell them directly to us, and not to mention toynami's MPC was delayed several times as well as priced higher than an import 1/60 yamato VF-1 at the time. Even now the price still irritates nearly all of us. Toynami's toys to me are decent but lets not kid ourselves, they are overpriced. The 1/100 line they have is a sign in the right direction regarding prices It is very hard to even find an unbiased reviewer who can review the MPC line and leave politics aside. The ones I know of who would are Ginrai who had a site called masterforce.org and Jenius who has anymoon.com. But anyways the whole gist of it is that a ton of us see harmony gold as not really caring about the license until someone else came out of nowhere and had new product to come out. Notice that robotech.com did not come out until a while after the lawsuits were made. And if robotech was so damn popular and big, where was robotech.com before then? Why weren't toys made? Why did harmony gold not give a crap until toycom had the idea to bring toys here? With that said, (theres a lot more on the macrossworld forums in their dedicated thread) that is why there is a lot of hatred towards HG. Having met Steve Yun and Tommy Yune, I don't think the blame is on them but rather the corporate guys who run HG. And you can bet that this thread would have never existed had HG not blocked the domestic distribution of the yamato valkyries. We would have had prices equivalent to the japanese price. Broken part replacements. Stuff like that. Notice how the first votoms figures were cheap here when they came out a couple years ago. Remember how when toycom announced the valkryies and stores opened up preorders, some of the prices were $35-44.99. After the whole lawsuit thing went down, we had to pay $80 plus since we could only get them imported.
see i really like macross, and all the toys, i just wished they would release things other then valkeries, or at least not the same valkery over and over again, just more possible. like release more of the macross plus valkeries, and such. and once again i say this. freak'n battle pods.
Well... speaking of Macross toys... My VF-1J Stealth arrived! I haven't even had a chance to transform it yet, but I ove it! As much as i love my VF-0A, this figure just seems so much more solid and sturdy.
For their own good, everyone who buys a 1/48 VF-1 needs to read up on Macrossworld.com about the BP-8 piece. For serious. Go look it up now, before you transform anything. I didn't, and if it weren't for masterful drilling and pinning skills my $200 baby would be ruined. As it is, I know it'll never be perfect and I pretty much don't dare trying to remove its FAST packs.
Curse you guys and your Macross thread!! Thanks to this thread I ordered the VF-1A Hikaru and the VF-1A tan production version. Sure, they were the cheaper 1/55 Bandai versions but at $55 and $35 respectively, I couldn't pass on the chance. Now my Jetfire's gonna have some brothers to hang with.
