VR-052F Scott Bernard Cyclone Ride Armor

"I also went with it out of some admitted snobbery, thinking the Japanese release would be better and keep its value more than the Toynami."

This type of statement is mind-bending to me. If you were a real snob, you'd buy the vintage Gakken to begin with and not even play around with getting the Beagle.

I don't even think you're close to being a toy snob, duke. Is collecting only vintage or only Japanese releases a toy snob? I thought it was being a focused collector.

...If you're looking for value and an investment, then buy a Gakken one and get it AFA graded. Or better yet, take your money and invest in classic cars, property, or orignal Polish movie posters... right now is an excellent time to buy a house or other land in North America. toys just are not going to get you the big bucks, man.

Anyone who's been on the retail side of things, or collecting for more than 10 years will tell you the same thing. toys are just not worthwhile investments. Ask anyone who collected Medicom's Real Action Heroes in the 90's. Tons of cash lost there. You should buy stuff for the fun of it. in the long run, you'll lose money on your collection. While one gokin might hold it's value or make a small increase in price, the vast majority will be less than retail in value, so that one piece that's selling for $50 more than you paid won't justify the 5 others that are now 90% off of retail.

I think with this piece, just like the 1/55 valks and the Alphas before it (the Aoshima/Toynami disaster!), US and Euro collectors will be more interested in the Toynami version, for its Masterpiece box and the ROBOTECH brand, as this is what they grew up with. The head difference is big, but not that big (show vs. line art styles) and most collectors tend to go with "anime" over "line art" styles when deciding. On the secondary market, the ROBOTECH name on the box usually is prefered with the casual collector when you look at what people are buying. And most of the people buying Mospeada and Macross toys on ebay are interested in the Masterpiece box versions, or straight-up uncut minty vintage. Guys like you, me, and most CDXers - people who keep up on the newest releases and compare versions- are the minority in the toy world.

While we've seen an explosion of interest and demand for vintage japanese toys in the last 7 years or so, this is mostly in MISB c-9 or better vintage items, from 1985 or earlier.

I can only really think of two modern gokins that have either stayed at retail or better price in the last 5 years, and that's SOC grendizer, and the Mazinkaisers. I mean that their price has not dipped below retail since release, or they are a little bit more than retail. And the only Toynami piece I can think of that is a worthwhile "investment" would be the Beta, due to the design's troubled toy history, and maybe only in 10+ years time.

I can run down a list of modern toy lines that have gone from hero to zero in the last 10 years, like Star Wars, Star Trek, G.I. Joe, MOTU, LOTR, Modern Microman, Binaltech, DC Direct, Transformers, many, many more... and as always the older pieces in the line from pre-collector times (1985 and earlier) are the ones that get the big bucks, while everyone is trying to get rid of their newer stuff.

In fact, the only toy lines i can think of that on a whole, has steadily gone up in value with each year, is 70's Mego figures and Jumbo Machinders. Both of those are pre-85 and are pretty difficult to find boxed. I'm sure there's others, but I can't think of any that have had a steady increase in price and continued interest from fans.

Modern stuff just doesn't hold its value. Bad economy has lent itself to people liquidating their collections on ebay or craigslist, and I don't see that changing in the next 1-2 years. Plus the pieces holding their above-market price are usually very limited editions or variants, and that usually last for about 1 year tops before - big surprise! - nobody cares anymore. After the initial "gotta have it" vibe wears off, they go back to retail or below pretty quickly. Mospeada has come back into the mainstream of anime fans in the last few years and I don't see it slipping back into the super-obscure realms that once made the collectibles from the show into high-priced, sought after items.

In a few years, Toynami or someone else is going to make a better anime accurate version of the Cyclone, and this one will be worth far less. Buy modern gokins for the joy of collecting, not for investment.

"Especially since Toynami has a (albeit largely overblown) bad reputation it is now overcoming with recent releases"

...their bad rep is 100% not overblown at all. It's justified. Ask anyone who bought their previous Masterpiece Collection figures. And it's going to take a lot more than 3 recent good releases to get their rep back to neutral-standing for many collectors. The Bandai and Beagle deals are band-aids on a large, large cut that still bleeds for many US collectors.

I still prefer the Beagle head too. I took some photos of Stick on his bike and the toy really looks the part. The Toynami version looks more 'Americanized' (with all due respect) let alone the Robotech logo which still gives me the creeps when I remember how three unrelated anime were cannibalised to make a single anime.

As for the box, the Beagle offering is by far superior.