Gundam Unicorn

Posted by Creginald Vandercleve on Friday, February 12, 2010
Labels: , , , , ,

I'm thinking I'm the only one here who's a little bit excited about this one.

10 comments:

Unknown said...

"Potential for dashed hopes," (^_^)

1:32 PM
_______ said...

I want to this to work, but I don't have any confidence in the Japanese animation industry. I hope I'm surprised though.

11:46 PM
Creginald Vandercleve said...

I'm a sucker for Universal Century but I feel your lack of confidence, Bomb!

Animation looks good. Mecha action looks good, story is interesting... as long as there is no 'Moonlight Butterfly' or Gundam Horses in this show I will probably be satisfied ; )

10:46 AM
Steve Harrison said...

*sigh*

Old playbooks, old playbooks.

History, people, history! DO YOU SPEAK IT? :)

This is Gundam 0083 redux. Shiny Glossy NEW NEW 'made for America' Gundam.

It may be fun, it may be entertaining (altho since I am a hissy fanboy who believes that Char's Counterattack didn't happen becuase it was totally illogical given what all had gone on...well, I'll go into that later) but I can tell you what it WON'T be.

It won't be the BIG THING that 'opens the door' for Gundam in America because Bandai is so stuck in re-inventing the wheel they have no concept that they've already failed.

Or do you think that ANYBODY, hard core Gundam fans, Old Skoolers and AmeriOtaku alike, have any, ANY interest in one episode for $40 (marked down from $50 on Amazon) on a blu-ray disc?

That sucker is gonna be out on 'torrent minutes after the disc hits the streets.

11:47 AM
Creginald Vandercleve said...

I hear ya about Char's Counterattack, Steve, retconning at its worse -- and I own the frakin' Laserdisc!

Like I said before though, back in the hoary old days of yore $40 of better than 3rd Gen quality *in stereo no less!* would've been considered a deal. And isn't this subbed or dubtitled or some such? And won't the clingwrap just *SMELL* of imported goodness when you crack it open for the first time and imbibe the heady rush of exotic Asian consumer culture?

C'mon, what sort of Old Skool dork wouldn't want a taste of that? : )

But you're right in all other respects: Gundam UniCorn won't get any nibbles from Der NewSkool no-goodniks, despite their Torrenting ways. And if the Tamashii figures aren't exactly burning up the sales charts there ain't no way I'll see carded figs at Target or Wal*Mart anytime soon, either.

Note: Since I like shiny disks I'll be checking Half.com in a couple of months... >: )

1:16 PM
Creginald Vandercleve said...

Dashed hope for a cardboard slipcover...

http://www.amazon.com/question-concerning-gundam-unicorn-EXCLUSIVE/forum/FxFG1XJ86O9DR2/Tx1XQPO5X11TKOV/1/ref=cm_cd_dp_ef_tft_tp?_encoding=UTF8&s=dvd&asin=B00346UX6I&store=dvd

3:17 PM
Steve Harrison said...

So ALREADY they're scaling back from the 'premium' nonsense they were planning?

History.

Recall when Bandai Visual USA started, and they hired Image to be their vendor, and how they went from that beautiful deluxe book with the Patlabor DVDs, then when that crashed and burned like, almost instantly, they went on their own, put out Gunbuster and decided that America really didn't need that bonus extras disc the Japanese version had, and so on and so on.

See, here's how you reduce costs. You do your blu-ray in Japan, make the cover reversible (Japanese on one side, English on the other), then for the American market you make an English cardboard sleeve with all the info and wrap that sucker. Instantly reduced costs of production, sales from the US become pure profit.

But no. no. I'm sure there'll end up being an American packaging and American screening on the disc, thus incurring additional manufacturing costs that they didn't need to incur.

And don't forget, they HAD their own site to sell exclusive from, Dot-anime. Which they SHUT DOWN.

Bandai, you just make my blood boil.

3:39 PM
Steve Harrison said...

You know, I want to apologize for venting. It's just, the constant stupidity, the utter lack of any actual understanding of what has gone wrong before on Bandai's part just makes me crazy, because I really hate that, the constant failure, the near psychopathic 'this time for SURE' mindset.

rargh.

3:56 PM
Creginald Vandercleve said...

No worries about the ranting Steve!

I'm looking at my old Pat Labor LDs right now and remembering. The full color inserts, the Obi, the smell of the plastic as I opened the package and... Sorry, nostalgia is a very worthy adversary : )

I like your idea on cost-cutting measures, 'tho frankly I don't *get* the need for a cardboard sleeve in the first place. Will it protect the silly iMac blue BD 'jewelcase' from getting scratching by getting scratched itself in turn? And when *IT* gets scratched, won't the collectibility of the entire preordered pre-release item be made moot? Maybe a thick, PVC hardcase surrounded by an aircraft-grade aluminum alloy and razorwire, and that packed in foam and shipped in an oversized 'Dorm 'fridge' box...

I just don't understand the need for all of this packaging. Back in the 1980s we bought our Starfleet VHS in a simple slipcase from Suncoast (or at least I did) for $39.99 plus special order fees and sales tax and we LIKED IT! Who doesn't like puppets in space, huh?

Bandai must like running in circles.

4:19 PM
Steve Harrison said...

Hey now, Suncoast didn't impose any special fees on special orders, just wanting a deposit.

And $39.99 for Star Fleet (aka X Bomber), that's rental tape pricing. The vendor didn't intend for it to be mass marketed, and it wouldn't have been normal stock for Suncoast, so they had to special order it from an outside source. I wager you found it in the Videolog catalog that used to be on hand, not the Suncoast Microfiche.

yeah, I know, blah blah but that's how I got the standard play version of My Youth in Arcadia (the Best Films dubbed version) instead of the more common extended play version.

I wish, in those halcyon days, I had the guts and the money to order those Sandy Frank tapes- Mighty Jack, Star Wolf, Message from Space...

9:24 PM

Post a Comment