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  • Bandai Action Fleet sets – SD Gundam & New Thunderbirds movie

    Posted by JediTricks on July 27, 2004 at 6:56 AM

    Just a quick note, I picked up the 2 vehicle playsets in Bandai’s SD Gundam line, they’re roughly Action Fleet size and the Neo Zeon ship is very reminiscent of an Imperial Star Destroyer (reminiscent like “repaint it light gray and it’s a new class of Star Destroyer” :D). Both have a nice stand, open up and have actual interiors of sorts and even action gimmicks; each set comes with 5 horrid little SD Gundam mini-figures, I dig Gundam generally but these are the kind of chibby I can’t stand, they sorta interact with the ships but could also make a case for interacting with the garbage can ;).

    Also, I spotted a bunch of new Bandai toys at TRU from the upcoming Thunderbirds debacle… er, movie. There was a large $20 deluxe Thunderbird 2 with 3 removable MM-sized vehicles, sounds, and retractable landing gear, a small boxed set with Die-Cast size Thunderbirds 1-5, $10 carded sets of various Thunderbirds vehicles plus FAB1 (which looked awesome even if it was pink so of course was sold out), and 2 $15 playsets each half of the island base with launch facilities for 4 roughly Micro-Machines size vehicles. Packaging on all these Thunderbirds sets was as thin as cardboard gets, but all looked at least a little tempting.

    replied 19 years, 7 months ago 0 Member · 10 Replies
  • 10 Replies
  • Unknown Member

    Deleted User
    July 27, 2004 at 8:32 AM

    please could you post some pics!!

  • Unknown Member

    Deleted User
    July 30, 2004 at 10:12 AM
  • Unknown Member

    Deleted User
    July 30, 2004 at 3:49 PM

    I can’t imagine any stronger argument that there’s a solid buying market for MM/AF-type ships and playsets than the Bandai T-Birds ships and playsets, and all the other miniatures we’ve seen of late.

    The industry supposedly takes its lead from what’s “hot” in the Japanese toy market. In the last year we’ve had at least a dozen great mini-scale offerings of all sorts of sci-fi ships released from Japan.

    I think the status of MM/AF with Hoover has less to do with a viable buying market, and more to do with the egos of those in the organization who still refuse to admit to themselves that the problems with MM/AF have had nothing to do with the willingness of buyers, and everything to with utter mis-management of the design, production, and distribution process.

    Were they to improve these processes in future waves, the sales would become so strong that no doubt the question would come from higher-up as to why the previous waves didn’t do as well. Then, the management would have to admit to others, as well as themselves, that they’d made poor decisions early-on. Perhaps that would be too much for them to accept?

    The best thing that could happen to anxious consumers would be for that entire division to be replaced with new people from the top down. Perhaps then we’d get some folks who would be willing to do MM & AF they way we all know it can be done, deserves to be done, and WAS done in the era B.H.

  • JediTricks

    Moderator
    July 31, 2004 at 12:27 AM

    Aw man, seeing the gimmicks these have on HLJ (the packaging doesn’t show anywhere near as much as it should) now I really wish I had bought some of those Bandai pieces. They’re starting to sell, but slowly because they’re in a terrible location in that store (with the 1/18th cars, good choice TRU manager, what next, a water fountain in the middle of the electronics section? :p).

    By the way, 12″ Tbird 2 actually has 2 retractable containers which is pretty cool. Oh, and the packaging looks pretty much like those shots, except with English text. The Tracy Island set is broken up into 2 sets in the US version.

    The industry supposedly takes its lead from what’s “hot” in the Japanese toy market. In the last year we’ve had at least a dozen great mini-scale offerings of all sorts of sci-fi ships released from Japan.

    I think the status of MM/AF with Hoover has less to do with a viable buying market, and more to do with the egos of those in the organization who still refuse to admit to themselves that the problems with MM/AF have had nothing to do with the willingness of buyers, and everything to with utter mis-management of the design, production, and distribution process.

    Totally agree, great post, absolutely fantastic. What amazes me most about Hasbro is that when they did finally restart the regular-world MM line recently, they mismanaged it right into the ground with awful packaging, terrible paint, weak playset support, and virtually no marketing whatsoever.

  • JediTricks

    Moderator
    August 8, 2004 at 11:33 PM

    Found and picked up FAB1 finally, turns out the carded sets are $8, not $10. The vehicle was designed a little cheap, especially with the slide-up engine and fold-out wings, but it’s not awful or anything. The cockpit opens revealing a sparse interior with a lounge couch in the back and a center driver’s seat with control yoke, I’d say it’s roughly AF scale. The front wheels fold down, a fin folds down from under the trunk, the trunk opens to reveal the jet engine, and the wings fold out from under the car. It’s pretty neat.

  • Unknown Member

    Deleted User
    August 9, 2004 at 1:26 AM

    where did you find the ship?

  • JediTricks

    Moderator
    August 10, 2004 at 2:34 AM

    Same TRU, in Monrovia, CA. They’re starting to run low on the $15 playsets and $8 carded sets (which had to have been replenished for there to have been a FAB1 this time around), that was very surprising since the film itself has done poorly at the box office.

  • Unknown Member

    Deleted User
    August 10, 2004 at 3:35 AM

    All the Thunderbirds stuff I’ve seen at TRU as of late has been on an end cap with the Teen Titans stuff. It’s pretty funny how well it blends with each other. :p

  • JediTricks

    Moderator
    August 12, 2004 at 2:08 AM

    Oh man, I hit WM last night and spied a pallette display full of awful Thunderbirds 5″ figures, die-cast vehicles (in MM size), and a few electronic ships (slightly larger than AF scale), all of them were absolutely putrid, proving once again the superiority of the MM concept. :D

  • Unknown Member

    Deleted User
    August 18, 2004 at 4:35 AM

    Not sure if anyone has seen any of the recent pictures of the AF scale battlestar galactica vehicles…but I think they’re worth looking at.

    Sure looks like a mini fig. to me

    Another one

    Cylon Raider with mini figs

    top view

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