I think Jason gets it. But I will expand upon Boaz's points (rearranged). Reynolds, Jason M. <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I think we can all agree Bandai releases things in waves. Even if something > sold well, if they kept releasing similar types of kits people would get
Boaz MyTurnASpace wrote: > And yes MSV is MSV, the one by > Okiwara in the 80s... AoZ is AoZ, a totally different line. (was the victim even real?) Ok by that definition, you must exclude: Casval's Gundam, Char's Rick Dom, Gato's Gelgoog, Gundam G04, Gundam G05, Char's Zeong. And perhaps even Gundam G-3??? I can't remember if G-3 was one of the old Okiwara MSV's. Now you are left with: MG Gundam G-3, JR's Zaku, Shin's Zaku, Gelgoog Cannon, BT's Zaku I, BT's Zaku HMT, Ranba's Zaku I(*), Perfect Gundam, Perfect Zeong, and HGUC Garma's Zaku and G-3. Hmm... is that ALL? My model list should be comprehensive up to mid-2004. But I could have left something out. (*) Was Ranba Ral's Zaku I even one of the old MSV's? Too bad I don't have access to my references, we are in Europe this week. Now you are left with 11 kits (8 if you exclude G-3 and RR's Zaku I) spread out over 9 years and 10 months. So is MSV a real product line, or a pseudo pattern? Ok I admit it's a half-full vs. half-empty debate. But let me explain why I think it's half empty. Out of the 11, 7 are pure (or almost pure) recolors. E.g. RR's Zaku I is _almost_ purely recolor (the only new part is the oversized heathawk), Garma's Zaku is likewise only different in one surface detail in the head. To be somewhat harsh, there are only 4 non-recolor kits in the MSV "line" consisting of these unique parts: One pair of lower legs (Zaku HMT) One head and Cannon backpack (Gelgoog Cannon) One full pair of legs (PZ) One full set of armor (PG) 2 large hawks (Garma's Zaku and Ranba's Zaku I) The rest are surface details and recolors. The MSV specific parts barely make up to 1 full MG kit. Hardly a real victim if you ask me. By contrast, the non-Okaware MSV include at least 1 full MG kit (in 2 versions Gundam G04/G05) and 1.5 full HGUC kits (Hazel, Hazel Advanced), a much more vital line than your MSV. I might even count S-Gundam, Ex-S, Xeku, Ball Ver Ka and Wing Ver Ka in this "line". That'd shoot your pure MSV line to ether space. > No matter what, there's no MSV line release for over a year since the MG PG > & PZ pair. If you don't like calling it "killed", well as long as Bandai > makes Gundams they can always makes MSV, so fine, "halted". (did the victim die?) I think you can go back in the last 10 years and find many 12-month periods in which this or that major series had made no appearance. One or two years is simply too short to proclaim a fringe series (MSV is surely fringe) dead. E.g. 0079 was "dead" from 11/2003 to 11/2004. For MSV, there was at least one 2+ year gaps in 03/1997 to 05/1999. 2 More such gaps if you exclude RR's Zaku I and G-3 Gundam. That's not counting the 11 years gap from 1984 to 1996. > I wonder what you mean by "die of natural causes", do you mean it ran out > of its lifespan... which I'd object, as there're still many available MSV > model that would sell from okay to fine, considering something like Desert > Zaku, Zaku Cannon and GM Cannon.... Or make a "GM Sniper ver. Ka". Well I'd be the first to line up for HGUC FA Gundam, Zaku Tank, Desert Zaku, Guncannon II and GM Cannon at least. But Bandai is notorious for ignoring my personal preference. You might at well say "Dr. Core's preference killed the MSV idea." You would think Desert Zaku, Zaku Tank and Zaku Cannon be viable business proportions, considering they were good enough to make on screen (ZZ and 08MST), so why did animated MSV failed and unanimated MSV (Zaku HMT, PG, PZ) got MG? A major part is that, I think, which MSV makes it depends less on which ones are "good" or popular design, but more on which ones are cheap to develop (minimal new parts, recolors preferred). Another clue is that the "best" MSV's have already been reborn in recent OSV's. So Guncannon II became Guncannon MPT (0080), Gouf Flying Type became Gouf Flight Type (08MST), GM Sniper became GM GT Sniper (08MST), Dom Prototype became Zaku Prototype (08MST). So I could just as well argue that the OVA's killed your MSV idea. So of the old MSV designs, what remains that can be made with recolors, minor surface details or minimal body rescuplts and yet hasn't been supplanted by redesigns? Nothing exciting, I'd say. Considering even Gundam Prototype (RX-78-1) got the big "no thanks" in the 9 years from July 1995 (MG Gundam) to late 2004 (alledged death of MSV line due to MG PZ, alledgedly). Another argument is that the concept (not designs) of MSV is alive and well in AoZ, Ver.Ka's, Sentinent, and games; and even Astray/Destiny I might add. So neo-MSV killed your old MSV. Or I'd say original MSV died of "excessive maturity", i.e. natural causes. Perhaps more importantly, I think some time around 1999/2000, there was a kind of technical leapfrog in Bandai hobby thanks to PG Gundam and Zaku. After 2000, the MG line saw an explosion of bold new designs (Dom, Kampfer, Gouf, Quebeley, Shining, Nu, Sazabi, Acguy etc) each of these cost not much more than a, say, Desert Zaku or GM Cannon, to develop but reap much higher revenues. So really CAD/CAM technology revolution killed your MSV idea. So let me refer you to Death on the Nile, everyone (but no one) is guilty of the alledged murder. > And I do think the lackbuster performance of MG PG & PZ did killed the MSV > revival. There're revivial on MSV coverage on HJ, etc.. and then it's gone. > Yet surely I don't have a solid figure to justify it, that's Bandai's > business. Likewise I can't disprove it, but so many other things are suspected of MSV's ... let's call it indefinite deep hibernation. -- Dr. Core -------------------------------------------------- The Gundam Mailing List MK-II [email protected] Archives: http://www.gundam.com/gml Help: Email [EMAIL PROTECTED] with this in the BODY: help list
