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Post by mpchi on Jul 17, 2012 13:11:20 GMT -5
I believe there can be a middle ground approach on this. Bandai can see how well the previous releases sold already, and adjust the production run to at least twice the amount they are putting out. Even the old chunky VF-25 sold very well and ran out for a while, until the few reissues and recoloring came out (plus the toy wasn't that good to begin with). The VF-25 Renewal was out and gone before I even have a chance to ponder if I want one. But given if it was available at a normal retail price, I would have picked up at least one (and the armor as well, regardless I already have the chunky Alto & Ozma). VF-171EX I really want to have, so I got lucked out and secured one at CDJapan, but still paying quite a bit with no discount and pricey shipping (+$50 than what I would have normally paid, and only because not as many people order toys from CDJapan, and thanks to folks here that gave us the heads up)
I think Bandai's thinking has a valid point, keeping the reputation and cost intact. But now they went a bit too extreme, and now just frustrating a lot of their customers, with a big Macross F franchise that pretty much everyone knows and would love to get a piece of it. Its true that they can keep a reputation with very limited production run, but this also can lose a great deal of customers, like myself on the VF-25 Renewal. When it is so hard and frustrating (and costly) to get something, people will just give up and move on.
Besides, CM's gokin line is far from being dead. Just try to find a Jeeg at decent price. You will need some luck, and that thing already had a reissue...
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Post by quinjester on Jul 17, 2012 14:22:15 GMT -5
Besides, CM's gokin line is far from being dead. Just try to find a Jeeg at decent price. You will need some luck, and that thing already had a reissue... Yes, but compare the volume of releases CM's has put out recently vs. what they used to do (back when their products were clearance city), and also look at how many planned and displayed projects of theirs have simply vanished into thin air. It was a system that wasn't sustainable, which is why they've compressed their remaining capital into short production, super expensive toys like Jeeg that as you say can't be found on the market once they've been shipped. That Jeeg is essentially on the same level as the Bandai DX valks - limited production to ensure the stock sells through. |
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Post by Chen on Jul 17, 2012 15:39:12 GMT -5
The goal of every company is too produce the exact number that is demanded or even more ideal, create one less than demand. Of course no company can be that exact but the procedure is the same for most high end products, from cars to watches. Also Bandai is just the producer and not the IP holder so its most likely they are told to make a specific amount to create artificial demand and interest in the franchise which still has more movies coming. I don't know the specifics but a lot of license agreements have a claus where if the IP holder shares in the profits any unsold or extra stock is a penalty in which the IP holder may have to pay or agree to a cheaper licensing fee. But I agree they should produce more numbers but knowing Bandai I'm sure they will have re-issues at some point.
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Post by mpchi on Jul 17, 2012 17:18:34 GMT -5
Besides, CM's gokin line is far from being dead. Just try to find a Jeeg at decent price. You will need some luck, and that thing already had a reissue... Yes, but compare the volume of releases CM's has put out recently vs. what they used to do (back when their products were clearance city), and also look at how many planned and displayed projects of theirs have simply vanished into thin air. It was a system that wasn't sustainable, which is why they've compressed their remaining capital into short production, super expensive toys like Jeeg that as you say can't be found on the market once they've been shipped. That Jeeg is essentially on the same level as the Bandai DX valks - limited production to ensure the stock sells through. But wouldn't you agree that Bandai is a bit shortsighted or inaccurate in gauging the amount they would need to earn good profit in these recent DX Valk releases? Almost all of us on this board, as well as on other forums had difficulty preordering one. Most HK sellers can't even get any stock to sell. In the end, many of us have to pay more than retail to get hold of one (if lucky) or plain out missing out or giving up altogether. And this doesn't even include buyers that are less informed and check on the sites and stores all the time hitting the refreshing button.  I agreed with your point and Bandai's strategy to limit the production run, but I don't think Bandai did a good job at all to find a good estimate to balance out production run/profit/keeping customers interested, which you seem to be happy with the way it is. As a customer, I don't see why I would prefer to fight very hard to get preorders within minutes or hours (if lucky) of ordering window. Again, not days, but just within hours, and sometimes as bad as 10 mins... It is Macross Frontier, one of the latest greatest anime hit for the past couple years, made by Bandai the biggest Japanese toy giant. It is not 3A Ashley Wood with a very small company and a very niche audience market. It can be limited, sure. But not this limited... |
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Post by xiombarg on Jul 17, 2012 19:49:18 GMT -5
With almost all retail items... they are supposed to get cheaper with the passing of time because they reach a threshold and saturation point, at which point a new replacement "model" gets put into production to generate new interest and supply further demand. Having an insufficient production run doesn't make any sense from a capitalistic stand point, because your production costs are normally lower with quantity and almost every product will make more money by having one item left unsold than it will by having one item less than the actual demand based upon average profit margins being 300% of the production cost.
But more to the point... if Bandai is so afraid of over producing, then they should base their production numbers upon open ended pre-ordered quantities from the consumer, not by setting some limit based upon order requests that were sent to the retail distributers. I suspect this is the real problem, that retail shops have to place their orders with Bandai way before we the retail customer ever see a pre-order (which is completely stupid for this kind of market) and so its the retail shops that don't want to get stuck with extra product and so they order insufficient quantities.
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Post by mecha-mania on Jul 17, 2012 22:20:18 GMT -5
if bandai want to make their valks exclusive, then make it a limited run with serial numbers assigned to them, then charge a premium price for it. that should be the right approach.
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Post by quinjester on Jul 18, 2012 12:02:21 GMT -5
I agreed with your point and Bandai's strategy to limit the production run, but I don't think Bandai did a good job at all to find a good estimate to balance out production run/profit/keeping customers interested, which you seem to be happy with the way it is. Wooaaaaah. I never said I was happy with it  . I think it sucks just as much as the next person, and I'm one of the people who would have liked to have had an opportunity to buy a VF-171EX if it had been presented. I'm just saying I understand why they're doing it - from the standpoint of being a customer it's easy to say "WARGH! Bandai is just being stupid!", but there's always a reason for these things. For all we know, the factory that Bandai contracts to build these things have limited production allotments available (are Bandai DX toys still being made in China? Roughly half of the Chinese manufacturing facilities in China have closed their doors over the past few years, putting many manufacturers who produce there into a panic, and putting an unreasonable workload on those that remain). Maybe the entire frontier line is a "filler" production line that Bandai is putting in to keep their allotted production space while they work on other projects; there's no way for us to know without being a fly on the wall at a Bandai Japan corporate meeting, but I'm sure that if Bandai felt there was a reasonable way to produce exactly as many Valkyries as people wanted and not have any left over stock, they'd do it. |
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Post by mpchi on Jul 18, 2012 12:45:56 GMT -5
I agreed with your point and Bandai's strategy to limit the production run, but I don't think Bandai did a good job at all to find a good estimate to balance out production run/profit/keeping customers interested, which you seem to be happy with the way it is. Wooaaaaah. I never said I was happy with it . I think it sucks just as much as the next person, and I'm one of the people who would have liked to have had an opportunity to buy a VF-171EX if it had been presented. I'm just saying I understand why they're doing it - from the standpoint of being a customer it's easy to say "WARGH! Bandai is just being stupid!", but there's always a reason for these things. For all we know, the factory that Bandai contracts to build these things have limited production allotments available (are Bandai DX toys still being made in China? Roughly half of the Chinese manufacturing facilities in China have closed their doors over the past few years, putting many manufacturers who produce there into a panic, and putting an unreasonable workload on those that remain). Maybe the entire frontier line is a "filler" production line that Bandai is putting in to keep their allotted production space while they work on other projects; there's no way for us to know without being a fly on the wall at a Bandai Japan corporate meeting, but I'm sure that if Bandai felt there was a reasonable way to produce exactly as many Valkyries as people wanted and not have any left over stock, they'd do it. Sorry dude. I mistook your seemingly positive stand on Bandai's side on the discussion. On the flip side, seeing how Bandai taking orders for the Tamashii Web Exclusive Fast Packs/Armor Pack for the DX valks, doesn't look like they have too much trouble taking them all or need to cut off preorders early. Which makes me scratching my head even more on the situation. Anyhow, hope Bandai will do something to make the valks more readily available in the future. Though I might be all done collecting them at the moment, and just live with the chunky VF-25s and the one VF-171EX I managed to get.  |
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Post by Lejam on Oct 19, 2012 11:18:13 GMT -5
Product available now. Mine is on it's way for a shipping this weekend .  Aaaaaaah... Pure beauty... |
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Post by mecha-mania on Oct 23, 2012 8:12:28 GMT -5
Just got my shipping notice too, for once i'm able to secure one of these newer valks, but not before paying a premium for it  |
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Post by OzmaLee on Oct 23, 2012 9:08:40 GMT -5
Nice! Didn't preorder though. I'm content with the original.
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Post by Lejam on Oct 23, 2012 9:30:39 GMT -5
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Post by mecha-mania on Oct 23, 2012 10:18:19 GMT -5
Thanks for the headsup Lejam, bought it straight from nippon-yasan.
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Post by Lejam on Oct 23, 2012 13:50:47 GMT -5
Same same : this shop is very good with a strong customer service.
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Post by Lejam on Nov 24, 2012 7:44:46 GMT -5
After some troubles in airport fret system,
here it is ! My best Macross toy overall...
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Post by mojacko on Nov 24, 2012 21:53:54 GMT -5
WhoooaaaH......Skull Leader!!!
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Post by mecha-mania on Nov 25, 2012 7:21:46 GMT -5
Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice! it will look ever better with the strike parts |
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Post by Ben-Ohki on Nov 25, 2012 13:01:55 GMT -5
I must say, this anniversary paint job looks much better than that all-black 25th anniversary job. I really wish I had pre-ordered this. Oh well, Maybe in 5 years Yamato will do a 35th anniversary edition. |
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Post by Lejam on Nov 25, 2012 15:20:00 GMT -5
Will take some pics on daylight.
Yesterday I received an email from nipponasian :
they got plenty in their warehouse...
This is a masterpiece : paint apps, little clear plastic parts, diecast... So much details.
This color version is better than the red one.
Perfect tribute/reboot of Macross Skull Leader.
My preference goes to display in jet mode...
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Post by mojacko on Nov 25, 2012 18:59:30 GMT -5
i totally agreee....this color scheme is totally afr more better than the red one.....im guessing they wont skip their 31st, 32nd, 33rd and 34th anniv without any new stuff.....lolz
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