Bandai release schedule

I spent almost an entire winter assembling the 1/72 FM Falcon (not to mention the mandible surgery...:wacko) and, although I loved every single minute of it, my most frequent though was that many, many details could have been molded on the body, getting the same effect and simplifying the construction.
Anyway, considering the advanced molding techniques of Bandai, I think that their new Falcon could have less part than FM Falcon (with more detail).

astroboy said:

..

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astroboy said:

I just hope it doesn't have as many pieces as the Fine molds. I have zero interest in attaching every single greebly

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I thought that was the idea --- to replicate ILM's kitbashing process and painstaking effort with all the parts and without the deadline : ) Just think of it as a mini SS 5-footer. It will bring about crossed eyes, migraines and backaches for sure but just think about the rewards. I look at those individual actuators in the back -- real ones and not just moulded-on, wow! The biggest problem for me right now is where to get the dough

crackerjazz said:

I thought that was the idea --- to replicate ILM's kitbashing process and painstaking effort with all the parts and without the deadline : ) Just think of it as a mini SS 5-footer. It will bring about crossed eyes, migraines and backaches for sure but just think about the rewards. I look at those individual actuators in the back -- real ones and not just moulded-on, wow! The biggest problem for me right now is where to get the dough

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I'm with you. Give me lots of greebles!

If it's toys you want, get Hasbro stuff.

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Bob Solo said:

I have no evidence, just specualtion, what goes on behind closed doors is a mystery to me. I look at it like this, why would'nt Disney charge a fee for companies using their Property to make millions? $2 Billion of What George Lucas got in return for Star Wars was in Disney Stocks, would he, a Master of Merchandising not want licence fees?

A cheap license fee to cover Lawyers Contract fees would i guess mean that the licence is just to keep tabs on quality control? I doubt it, seeing as Revels FO TIE SF kit is shown flying on the box but has no pilot.. or lower gun pod.

Then theres Mr Flatty and the figures in the US licensing issue, considering we live in a time where we all regularly buy products from all over the world, i see area licensing as out of date, companies should be able to sell worldwide. But what do i know.. What actually goes on will probably always be a mystery.

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There's lots that go on the business world that make little sense to most of us. Several Internet/tech companies that never made any money sold for millions and more--and some never made any money later, either. But models have a sim-bionic relationship with sci-fi. It's in the best interest that models be out there. But the modeling world is small and getting smaller. You can't be Disney/Lucas demanding millions from such a small market. And it can even get to the point that you think there is so little to gotten out of a market that you might as well take nothing and still have control. I don't think the license is free, mind you. And I don't think the modeling world is making "millions" (not in net or profit) off of SW, either. What Disney/Lucas most likely gets, though, is control. That explains the markets, the flatties, the choice of subjects, etc. But as I said, the best evidence we have about a license fee is the price of kits. And I never said in my last post that there was NO fee. I only said that the idea of an astronomic (no pun intended) fee doesn't play out in the cost of the kits.

I know I'm going to want to build this kit as soon as I get it, but I really think I need to finish my ROTJ Boba Fett for the 501st

I can attach greeblies all day long. It's good times! (but I also have a small brain)

Attirex : :lol Thank you for this! This is the post of the day. That was too good! :thumbsup

Lol, thanks. But srsly, if you can't be bothered to attach greeblies, you're missing out on the raison d'etre of building a sci-fi kit (esp a star wars kit).

When I'm building a SW kit (esp Bandai), I like to pretend I'm wearing bell-bottoms and lots of denim, sporting huge mutton chops/beard, tinted aviators, and George is breathing down my neck. MORE. FASTER.

astroboy said:

I remember talking to the guy who runs hobby link japan a few years back. We were talking about the fine molds 1/72 falcon and he said that the overwhelming part of the cost was the packaging. There was so much printed material in it that they couldn't avoid. And that brought it up.

I imagine that Bandai is going to have some pretty nice packaging here with a lot of reference material.

So if they do release a cheaper version at some point, it will probably be the same model, but with more budget packaging

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This has always been the kind of thing where our immediate reaction should be skepticism. I have posted in the past that when I first heard that, I was in the coincidental position of having a brother-in-law who was the VP of sales for a US company whose main focus is doing the packaging for products. They have done a whole range of products. The boxes, the manuals, the stickers, full-color inserts, everything. He even had one his underlings (still, an MBA like himself) work from the pics and description I sent to give us an idea of what his company--US-based and US-produced--would charge. We used a modest figure of 1000 units as I really don't know how many 72nd scale MFs FM sold. They arrived at about $6 a piece. Less if they ordered more than 1000, obviously. That is $6, and they told me it was conservatively high. Now, if you want to compare that to the cost of the pellets used for injecting the plastic, I might agree the pellets cost less than $6. (I don't know what they cost, but I can look at a bucket of raw pellets and think it must be cheap.) By the logic, if you say the packaging is the biggest expense of the product, then fine. (There are many ways to twist things that start out as facts.) But in a more logical sense for our purposes here, we can think the dealer's cost for the kit is $150 or less, and I'll just say $120 here. This kit, with R&D, tooling, pellets, packaging, etc. combined might work out to $100 for FM. We'll even say $80 (though I think it's low). The argument that the "overwhelming part of the cost" is packaging means that packaging is, what, $50? Can my source be so far off? Is it even logical to see that stuff cost that much. By the way, there's another aspect to this. The packaging of that kit is somewhat overkill, and it could have been cheaper by half. So it's like them spending an extra $3 per kit to have nicer, sturdier packaging. The overall impression before you are really even seeing plastic is wow, looks nice. For $3, that's worth it. Not worth the money that probably gets added to the price (more than $3), but worth the $3 investment for FM. As for the Bandai kit, they sell it as a limited kit, which further makes us think we got to have it (I'm in that boat), and the mystery about what happens later scares us. We are more likely to pay the price. (If I knew a regular, non-lighted, ESB ship was down the line, I wouldn't be buying this limited one for $360-400 and they know that.) Throw in what might $20 worth (Bandai's cost) of lighting and extras, and it further makes us think, well that makes sense now. Just like nice packaging. Next up, someone will hear that the overwhelming part of the $360 is lighting.
Mike Todd

Molded on detail would limit the level of accuracy they could achieve. Undercuts on pipes and parts that were planted on the original would either have to have VERY complex molds (if it's even possible at the level of detail on the falcon) or sacrifice accuracy by eliminating undercuts so they can get the pieces out of the molds. You could always buy the old MPC facon... ;-)

I know it's a bit of an interruption of the Falcon love going on righ tnow, but I just realized I'd never gotten back with the FM/Bandai TIE Interceptor size comparison. It is a lot closer than the X- and Y-Wings in some respects, curiously not in others...

The wings:


Bearing in mind the FM had the wingtip cannons molded on, versus separate parts with the Bandai:


But the size difference between cockpits seems proportionately greater:


...I don't know whether that's an optical illusion.

So yeah. Just wanted to toss that up for the sake of more info to help people choose.

--Jonah

Dedalus5550 said:

The packaging of that kit is somewhat overkill, and it could have been cheaper by half. So it's like them spending an extra $3 per kit to have nicer, sturdier packaging. The overall impression before you are really even seeing plastic is wow, looks nice. For $3, that's worth it. Not worth the money that probably gets added to the price (more than $3), but worth the $3 investment for FM. As for the Bandai kit, they sell it as a limited kit, which further makes us think we got to have it (I'm in that boat), and the mystery about what happens later scares us. We are more likely to pay the price. (If I knew a regular, non-lighted, ESB ship was down the line, I wouldn't be buying this limited one for $360-400 and they know that.) Throw in what might $20 worth (Bandai's cost) of lighting and extras, and it further makes us think, well that makes sense now. Just like nice packaging. Next up, someone will hear that the overwhelming part of the $360 is lighting.
Mike Todd

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mktodd said:

Molded on detail would limit the level of accuracy they could achieve. Undercuts on pipes and parts that were planted on the original would either have to have VERY complex molds (if it's even possible at the level of detail on the falcon) or sacrifice accuracy by eliminating undercuts so they can get the pieces out of the molds. You could always buy the old MPC facon... ;-)

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How many Mike Todds are on here? I always thought mktodd was Mike Todd? Crazy!

Attirex said:

Lol, thanks. But srsly, if you can't be bothered to attach greeblies, you're missing out on the raison d'etre of building a sci-fi kit (esp a star wars kit).

When I'm building a SW kit (esp Bandai), I like to pretend I'm wearing bell-bottoms and lots of denim, sporting huge mutton chops/beard, tinted aviators, and George is breathing down my neck. MORE. FASTER.

Click to expand...

Toadmeister said:

I'm with you. Give me lots of greebles!

If it's toys you want, get Hasbro stuff.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

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If I may explain myself, I just don't want to pay someone hundreds of dollars because a kit has 900 tiny greeblies that could be scratch built better anyway.

I would like them to offer a "model builders edition" without any greeblies so that not only can I make them myself and make the model truly my own but they could then also sell it to me cheaper!

just a thought:$

My first name is Michael, but as far as I know, we're not related.. He DOES have a great name, though. I know I wasn't married to Elizabeth Tailor... Don't know about Mike...

Cheers

Inquisitor Peregrinus said:

I know it's a bit of an interruption of the Falcon love going on righ tnow, but I just realized I'd never gotten back with the FM/Bandai TIE Interceptor size comparison. It is a lot closer than the X- and Y-Wings in some respects, curiously not in others...

The wings:
http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/...odels and miniatures/DSC02492_zpsdpmw0zth.jpg

Bearing in mind the FM had the wingtip cannons molded on, versus separate parts with the Bandai:
http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/...odels and miniatures/DSC02493_zpslcjeiy2g.jpg

But the size difference between cockpits seems proportionately greater:
http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/...odels and miniatures/DSC02494_zpsmgtnc68y.jpg

...I don't know whether that's an optical illusion.

So yeah. Just wanted to toss that up for the sake of more info to help people choose.

--Jonah

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Thanks for that. I recently got the Kessel Run Kits TIE Defender (the old REL kit) and I was contemplating using a Bandai TIE cockpit ball to replace the resin one that came with the kit (which I assume used the FM kit as it's basis). Someone else did this mod and it looks good but maybe SLIGHTLY too big. I wasn't sure how big a FM kit would be in comparison.

Chris

My first name is also Michael. The plot thickens. My "great" name is actually my first and middle names. My last name is Anderson--not quite so James Dean-y. And I was Liz's 9th and 32nd hubby, but that's a whole 'nother talk show.
Mike Todd

kokkari said:

How many Mike Todds are on here? I always thought mktodd was Mike Todd? Crazy!

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I'm Todd Michael. Hello Mike Todd

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No, I'M Michael Todd Michael and so's my WIFE!

The hull and sidewall greeblies will be pretty much the same as the Y-Wing piping. All molded separately. Bandai can easily do slide injection on the same sprue as traditional injection so this won't be an issue.

But if you think the kit will be hollow like the Fine Molds Falcon? This thing will have an internal armature just like the 1/2 BB-8, and that alone will help jack up the price.

If it has the typical Bandai internal dense armature, the built of the underside lights could be a little more complicated...