New Macross Valkyrie Figure in Jetfire Deco Revealed

One important bit here, by buying this toy, you are giving Harmony Gold money. Just thought people should know since I am reading a lot of "I'm getting this, F You Harmony Gold!!!!" online.

..expects Toyhax sticker sheet.

If you haven't owned any of the kitz concept figures (amazing stuffs btw, I love mine, though it has flaws) then I feel I should point out that the article calls them mo styled, which I agree with. However, they are not mp scaled. More like leader class.

Before anyone gets too excited, the QC on Kitz Concepts figures is spotty at best, and that's with the version 2.0 of their design which I assume is what's being used here.

It lights up?

It's purrty

I fake it with a yamato with armor.. But I know it's not the same and I'd never paint that to mimic anyway...

Probly won't get this but it looks nice

william-james88 wrote:As it turns out, having a third party license out a brand can open up a few options (which we also saw with the MP-styled Gobot toys).

Interesting choice of phrase there Will. Anyone else click on this company's KITZCOMICS section? "Moredore" is the amusing name of the one title that doesn't have some off-brand-looking Combaticon in the cover art. THE WARBOTRON SAGA getting some official fiction? Harmony Gold licensing to this company just makes all their threats over that Jetfire Skystriker years ago downright hilarious, keep checking back to see how long this outfit lasts.

Oh, and I might buy the Red White Valk. I'm actually even more likely to buy the Zentraedi Pod and Dana Sterling, especially if they do other Southern Cross characters with armor. Need to get around to customizing my TitanFall mechs into BioRoids one of these days...

william-james88 wrote:One important bit here, by buying this toy, you are giving Harmony Gold money. Just thought people should know since I am ready a lot of "I'm getting this, F You Harmony Gold!!!!" online.

That's pretty funny. Yeah, something official that says Robotech definitely comes from Harmony Gold.

Should be mentioned that this I only about the size of a Voyager. Might order one. Even if the QC isn't great I only need it to stand on a shelf.

Emerje

Emerje wrote:

william-james88 wrote:One important bit here, by buying this toy, you are giving Harmony Gold money. Just thought people should know since I am ready a lot of "I'm getting this, F You Harmony Gold!!!!" online.

That's pretty funny. Yeah, something official that says Robotech definitely comes from Harmony Gold.

Should be mentioned that this I only about the size of a Voyager. Might order one. Even if the QC isn't great I only need it to stand on a shelf.

Emerje

I've heard various feedback. Some say these toys are stellar while others say the QC is lacking. Then again, we get the same varying feedback for TF MPs.

william-james88 wrote:

Emerje wrote:

william-james88 wrote:One important bit here, by buying this toy, you are giving Harmony Gold money. Just thought people should know since I am ready a lot of "I'm getting this, F You Harmony Gold!!!!" online.

That's pretty funny. Yeah, something official that says Robotech definitely comes from Harmony Gold.

Should be mentioned that this I only about the size of a Voyager. Might order one. Even if the QC isn't great I only need it to stand on a shelf.

Emerje

I've heard various feedback. Some say these toys are stellar while others say the QC is lacking. Then again, we get the same varying feedback for TF MPs.

Yeah, I just watched their official transformation video, it doesn't look that bad and some smaller moving parts are metal so it seems fine. I ended up ordering one, this is not something we'll likely ever see again. $54 shipping is a lot and for some reason they charge shipping with the deposit instead of at release which is very strange, I guess that means I only have to pay $100 at release then.

Emerje

I wanted this until I saw the price tag. OUCH

With a limited run of about 1000, I wouldn't hold my breath for a ToyHax set. However you should be able to properly outfit it with their existing emblem sets.

RodimusPrimeUkraine1 wrote:I wanted this until I saw the price tag. OUCH

I know, right?

Still ...

Up at BBTS now: https://www.bigbadtoystore.com/Product/ ... ils/217476

$260, $26 non-refundable deposit

Too rich for my blood. Specially when the regular Roy Fokker version with all the light up gimmicks is less than $100.

...thinking REALLY hard about this....

Overcracker wrote:Too rich for my blood. Specially when the regular Roy Fokker version with all the light up gimmicks is less than $100.

Fron KitzConcept? Their fastpacks go for $90.....

I've gotten their little chibi one from years ago. It's really fun.

I wonder why they gave this a special name since the Jetfire deco was from the Macross movie "Do You Remember Love."

chuckdawg1999 wrote:I wonder why they gave this a special name since the Jetfire deco was from the Macross movie "Do You Remember Love."

They're targeting their audience.

I was about to make one hell of an impulse purchase.
Even though that thing looks phenomenal, my credit card bill said to me "ENOUGH!"

chuckdawg1999 wrote:I wonder why they gave this a special name since the Jetfire deco was from the Macross movie "Do You Remember Love."

That makes me wonder why we don't get that colour scheme more often

william-james88 wrote:

chuckdawg1999 wrote:I wonder why they gave this a special name since the Jetfire deco was from the Macross movie "Do You Remember Love."

That makes me wonder why we don't get that colour scheme more often

I'm sure it's no accident that a company out of China is doing this rather than Japan or the USA where Hasbro is more likely to say something that would prevent it from happening.

Emerje

Emerje wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

chuckdawg1999 wrote:I wonder why they gave this a special name since the Jetfire deco was from the Macross movie "Do You Remember Love."

That makes me wonder why we don't get that colour scheme more often

I'm sure it's no accident that a company out of China is doing this rather than Japan or the USA where Hasbro is more likely to say something that would prevent it from happening.

Emerje

I don't know about that, what's Hasbro going to do, send a cease and desist for using an illegal amount of the color red?

AcademyofDrX wrote:

Emerje wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

chuckdawg1999 wrote:I wonder why they gave this a special name since the Jetfire deco was from the Macross movie "Do You Remember Love."

That makes me wonder why we don't get that colour scheme more often

I'm sure it's no accident that a company out of China is doing this rather than Japan or the USA where Hasbro is more likely to say something that would prevent it from happening.

Emerje

I don't know about that, what's Hasbro going to do, send a cease and desist for using an illegal amount of the color red?

You're familiar with the lawsuit Harmony Gold filed against Hasbro over their SDCC Jetfire, right? The court dismissed it and Harmony Gold isn't allowed to sue them over it again (and shortly after we got the very Macross CW Leader Jetfire). Seeing as how Harmony Gold has never allowed the use of that particular color scheme on a Veritech/Valkyrie toy and Hasbro basically won the lawsuit over the use of it it doesn't take much reading between the lines to realize Hasbro owns that specific red, black and white color scheme.

Emerje

Emerje wrote:

AcademyofDrX wrote:

Emerje wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

chuckdawg1999 wrote:I wonder why they gave this a special name since the Jetfire deco was from the Macross movie "Do You Remember Love."

That makes me wonder why we don't get that colour scheme more often

I'm sure it's no accident that a company out of China is doing this rather than Japan or the USA where Hasbro is more likely to say something that would prevent it from happening.

Emerje

I don't know about that, what's Hasbro going to do, send a cease and desist for using an illegal amount of the color red?

You're familiar with the lawsuit Harmony Gold filed against Hasbro over their SDCC Jetfire, right? The court dismissed it and Harmony Gold isn't allowed to sue them over it again (and shortly after we got the very Macross CW Leader Jetfire). Seeing as how Harmony Gold has never allowed the use of that particular color scheme on a Veritech/Valkyrie toy and Hasbro basically won the lawsuit over the use of it it doesn't take much reading between the lines to realize Hasbro owns that specific red, black and white color scheme.

Emerje

Still weird that one could own a colour scheme

william-james88 wrote:Still weird that one could own a colour scheme

Wont disagree with you there, but it happens.

Incidentally it was mentioned that Jetfire is just the VF-1 from Macross Do You Remember Love, it isn't. Not entirely anyway. Jetfire is based on it, but also changed a bunch of things itself which is what Harmony Gold had no control over.

Here's the original Macross Figure:


And Jetfire:


The most obvious part on the chest is flipped, Jetfire has a red cockpit/nosecone/whatever, a bunch of stickers were made into red shapes, the visor was changed from green to red and the Macross Figure came with a gray Striker pack for the movie release (not shown) instead of the red Super pack that Jetfire comes with. Hasbro made a lot of changes to the design that are unique to Jetfire.

Emerje

Emerje wrote:

AcademyofDrX wrote:

Emerje wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

chuckdawg1999 wrote:I wonder why they gave this a special name since the Jetfire deco was from the Macross movie "Do You Remember Love."

That makes me wonder why we don't get that colour scheme more often

I'm sure it's no accident that a company out of China is doing this rather than Japan or the USA where Hasbro is more likely to say something that would prevent it from happening.

Emerje

I don't know about that, what's Hasbro going to do, send a cease and desist for using an illegal amount of the color red?

You're familiar with the lawsuit Harmony Gold filed against Hasbro over their SDCC Jetfire, right? The court dismissed it and Harmony Gold isn't allowed to sue them over it again (and shortly after we got the very Macross CW Leader Jetfire). Seeing as how Harmony Gold has never allowed the use of that particular color scheme on a Veritech/Valkyrie toy and Hasbro basically won the lawsuit over the use of it it doesn't take much reading between the lines to realize Hasbro owns that specific red, black and white color scheme.

Emerje

I am familiar with it, and that's not at all what happened. Hasbro did not win the case. It was dismissed with prejudice due to an agreement with both parties, which often (but not always) means there was an out of court settlement. While TFWiki claims "Harmony Gold cannot sue over the Jetfire issue again," I think that's a huge jump to conclusions. They definitely can't sue over that Jetfire, there's no inherent reason in the dismissal that they can't sue over any Jetfire. If there are rules about that, they could be in a settlement between Hasbro and Harmony Gold, but they're not part of any court decision. I very much doubt that the settlement restricted what Harmony Gold's licensees could do, and if it did, it wouldn't matter that these are made by a Chinese company because Hasbro could take it up with HG directly. It's reasonable to assume that it does at least in part define Hasbro's entitlements, since we've seen Macross-ish toys since as you note.

Why hasn't Harmony Gold done that color scheme on a toy before now? I don't know, but it's not because Hasbro "owns" that color scheme, because a color scheme isn't a thing you can own. In a legal case, there are standards for infringement like if a consumer can't tell the difference between two products, but that only applies when the underlying material is protected. Toys generally don't have that level of protection. The fact that Hasbro can and does use it does not itself preclude someone else from using it.

Important caveats: I am not a lawyer, IP law is incredibly messy, these disputes are rarely tested at trial. IMHO most corporate decisions in this space are not "what are we legally permitted to do" but "will we be sued."

The main reason I push back on this all the time is that there are deep-seated fandom assumptions about how all this stuff works, and I don't think it's based in fact.

Just in case someone missed it, there is no anywhere on that mech's body nor are there's any Transformers references anywhere. No nor mentions either.

So that means that this toy is completely independent and even if that color scheme is a clear hommage to the G1 Jetfire toy, there is no official link anywhere.
Bandai could paint a Gundam in Star Saber colors without permission and it would be fine. Same thing with a green skinned He-Man in purple shorts.

AcademyofDrX wrote:

Emerje wrote:

AcademyofDrX wrote:

Emerje wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

chuckdawg1999 wrote:I wonder why they gave this a special name since the Jetfire deco was from the Macross movie "Do You Remember Love."

That makes me wonder why we don't get that colour scheme more often

I'm sure it's no accident that a company out of China is doing this rather than Japan or the USA where Hasbro is more likely to say something that would prevent it from happening.

Emerje

I don't know about that, what's Hasbro going to do, send a cease and desist for using an illegal amount of the color red?

You're familiar with the lawsuit Harmony Gold filed against Hasbro over their SDCC Jetfire, right? The court dismissed it and Harmony Gold isn't allowed to sue them over it again (and shortly after we got the very Macross CW Leader Jetfire). Seeing as how Harmony Gold has never allowed the use of that particular color scheme on a Veritech/Valkyrie toy and Hasbro basically won the lawsuit over the use of it it doesn't take much reading between the lines to realize Hasbro owns that specific red, black and white color scheme.

Emerje

I am familiar with it, and that's not at all what happened. Hasbro did not win the case. It was dismissed with prejudice due to an agreement with both parties, which often (but not always) means there was an out of court settlement.

But that's not what I said happened either. I specifically said it was dismissed. No where has there been mention of a settlement and there likely wasn't one since HG didn't get anything they were asking for and Hasbro didn't report paying a settlement out to HG to their investors. By all accounts the suit was simply dropped thanks to HG's poor argument.

I very much doubt that the settlement restricted what Harmony Gold's licensees could do, and if it did, it wouldn't matter that these are made by a Chinese company because Hasbro could take it up with HG directly.

Hasbro doesn't have a particularly strong record of protecting their IP in China. Limiting it to 500 outside of China (though they've since removed that wording and added another 888 figures to the run) is probably a low enough run that Hasbro likely isn't hurt by it anway. Also I'm not actually sure how involved Harmony Gold is here. Since it's a Chinese company selling primarily to the Chinese market I don't think HG's reach goes that far, they may have only licensed out the Robotech name character names and nothing more.

Why hasn't Harmony Gold done that color scheme on a toy before now? I don't know, but it's not because Hasbro "owns" that color scheme, because a color scheme isn't a thing you can own. In a legal case, there are standards for infringement like if a consumer can't tell the difference between two products, but that only applies when the underlying material is protected. Toys generally don't have that level of protection. The fact that Hasbro can and does use it does not itself preclude someone else from using it.

I feel like this isn't so clear cut. For example companies can own colors in specific cases. As for why Harmony Gold hasn't used it before, well, there's really no benefit to them doing so since it isn't a Robotech color scheme (now that I've actually compared the one from Robotech to the one for Jetfire).

Important caveats: I am not a lawyer, IP law is incredibly messy, these disputes are rarely tested at trial. IMHO most corporate decisions in this space are not "what are we legally permitted to do" but "will we be sued."

The main reason I push back on this all the time is that there are deep-seated fandom assumptions about how all this stuff works, and I don't think it's based in fact.

I just base what I say on the information available, I try not to guess too much myself.

Emerje

Are these not Jetfire colours?

https://anime-pictures.net/pictures/get ... y-vf-1.jpg

william-james88 wrote:Are these not Jetfire colours?

https://anime-pictures.net/pictures/get ... y-vf-1.jpg

That's more of a pale orange-red and it's missing a lot of the usual VF-1 and Jetfire markings. Not to mention Minmay being plastered on the back.



Emerje

Emerje wrote:

william-james88 wrote:Still weird that one could own a colour scheme

Wont disagree with you there, but it happens.

Incidentally it was mentioned that Jetfire is just the VF-1 from Macross Do You Remember Love, it isn't. Not entirely anyway. Jetfire is based on it, but also changed a bunch of things itself which is what Harmony Gold had no control over.

Here's the original Macross Figure:

IMG_4103.JPG

And Jetfire:


The most obvious part on the chest is flipped, Jetfire has a red cockpit/nosecone/whatever, a bunch of stickers were made into red shapes, the visor was changed from green to red and the Macross Figure came with a gray Striker pack for the movie release (not shown) instead of the red Super pack that Jetfire comes with. Hasbro made a lot of changes to the design that are unique to Jetfire.

Emerje

Thank you for sharing, I was just going to mention there were differences but when you see them side by side there are quite a few. For all the Macross toys I have I don't think I have any that represent the DYRL layout.

Hi, I got this email today.

Is this a scam or legit? Thanks.

customer_service@kitzconcept.com
To:
customer_service@kitzconcept.com

Wed, Sep 7 at 10:00 PM

Dear Customer,

We are so grateful for your kind support! All 1888 units of our limited VF-1S God of Flame have been sold out within a few days. We are overwhelmed and sincerely appreciate all of you for supporting us.

In response to the tremendous requests from fans who were unable to place their orders, we have decided to release an additional 800+ units to fulfill their demands and more importantly, spread the joy of owning a VF-1S God of Flame to even more Robotech Macross x KitzConcept fans.

For loyal fans like you, who have successfully placed their orders within such a limited time, we would like to send you a free special gift along with your order to show our gratitude.

If you understand our decision on an additional release and would like to receive the special gift, please kindly reply to this email. It could be as simple as —“Ok, noted”. We would love to hear from you and send you the special gift.

Also, it will be very kind of you if you can quote your order number when you send the reply.

Thank you again for your support. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions regarding this arrangement.

We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Kitzconcept Ltd

Yes, that's accurate, they are making more

william-james88 wrote:Yes, that's accurate, they are making more

Thanks Will.

But I meant this part "to receive the special gift, please kindly reply to this email. It could be as simple as —“Ok, noted”."

Did anyone else get this email? Is the reply and gift a scam?

Yes, I got the email, too. Sounds like they want to do something special for the early orderers since they originally said this would be limited to 1000, but then added an additional 1688. I'm not expecting much, maybe an art card or some Jetfire stickers (minus Autobot symbols). I wonder if now being up to 2688 produced is enough for ToyHax to bother doing stickers sheets?

Emerje

While I don't have much attachment to Macross, I have to admit that this piece looks very nice. I really like the light up features.

Great thanks! Did you reply?

While I have no connection to Macross, I have to admit that this is a nice looking piece. Also, the lights are a nice touch.

primeisboss wrote:While I have no connection to Macross, I have to admit that this is a nice looking piece. Also, the lights are a nice touch.

I was able to buy it, when I saw that even at that price, you still need to SWAP HANDS for posing. Well, I nope'd out.

TK415 wrote:Great thanks! Did you reply?

I did, they didn't reply back, but they may not have intended to.

-Kanrabat- wrote:

primeisboss wrote:While I have no connection to Macross, I have to admit that this is a nice looking piece. Also, the lights are a nice touch.

I was able to buy it, when I saw that even at that price, you still need to SWAP HANDS for posing. Well, I nope'd out.

I'm so used to hand swapping that it didn't even register with me as an issue.

Emerje

Emerje wrote:

TK415 wrote:Great thanks! Did you reply?

I did, they didn't reply back, but they may not have intended to.

-Kanrabat- wrote:

primeisboss wrote:While I have no connection to Macross, I have to admit that this is a nice looking piece. Also, the lights are a nice touch.

I was able to buy it, when I saw that even at that price, you still need to SWAP HANDS for posing. Well, I nope'd out.

I'm so used to hand swapping that it didn't even register with me as an issue.

Emerje

Great thanks! I did too

Emerje wrote:

TK415 wrote:Great thanks! Did you reply?

I did, they didn't reply back, but they may not have intended to.

-Kanrabat- wrote:

primeisboss wrote:While I have no connection to Macross, I have to admit that this is a nice looking piece. Also, the lights are a nice touch.

I was able to buy it, when I saw that even at that price, you still need to SWAP HANDS for posing. Well, I nope'd out.

I'm so used to hand swapping that it didn't even register with me as an issue.

Emerje

There are way too many pervs on this site to let that "hand swapping" sentence go...

First-Aid wrote:

Emerje wrote:

TK415 wrote:Great thanks! Did you reply?

I did, they didn't reply back, but they may not have intended to.

-Kanrabat- wrote:

primeisboss wrote:While I have no connection to Macross, I have to admit that this is a nice looking piece. Also, the lights are a nice touch.

I was able to buy it, when I saw that even at that price, you still need to SWAP HANDS for posing. Well, I nope'd out.

I'm so used to hand swapping that it didn't even register with me as an issue.

Emerje

There are way too many pervs on this site to let that "hand swapping" sentence go...

I felt a disturbance in the Schwarz, did somebody call me.

chuckdawg1999 wrote:

First-Aid wrote:

Emerje wrote:

TK415 wrote:Great thanks! Did you reply?

I did, they didn't reply back, but they may not have intended to.

-Kanrabat- wrote:

primeisboss wrote:While I have no connection to Macross, I have to admit that this is a nice looking piece. Also, the lights are a nice touch.

I was able to buy it, when I saw that even at that price, you still need to SWAP HANDS for posing. Well, I nope'd out.

I'm so used to hand swapping that it didn't even register with me as an issue.

Emerje

There are way too many pervs on this site to let that "hand swapping" sentence go...

I felt a disturbance in the Schwarz, did somebody call me.

You spelled "Schwartz" wrong. You must have the "down side"...

Back up at BBTS if you missed the first two times:
https://www.bigbadtoystore.com/Product/ ... ils/217476

They're listing the quantity at 2188, which doesn't match the expected update.

AcademyofDrX wrote:Back up at BBTS if you missed the first two times:
https://www.bigbadtoystore.com/Product/ ... ils/217476

They're listing the quantity at 2188, which doesn't match the expected update.

Probably doesn't include the first 500 only available in China.

Emerje

I decided to bite the bullet. I don't know if we'll ever get a true Jetfire again; I love the whole history behind the original toy.

November will probably be a really hefty toy month, geez.

They're preparing the orders for the people who ordered prior to 9/12, got charged the remained due (still amuses me that the deposit was the higher amount). No shipping label or anything yet, but my order page does confirm that as of today its status is "production in progress" which I guess is a bad translation for "preparing to ship".

Emerje

Gave in and ordered myself. Just such a nostalgia hit...