>>7124069There are currently two primary manufacturers of quality Macross toys; Arcadia and Bandai.
Arcadia is a small company that releases a mix of reissues which were originally produced by an older company (the now defunct Yamato) and some brand new stuff. The majority of their releases have been VF-1 variants, but they've also released a smattering of valks from other Macross series, and a reissue of Yamato's enormous SDF-1 toy.
Arcadia valks are very high quality and well engineered. They emphasize sculpting and perfect transformations. Paint apps are good, with all necessary details being painted (ie UN Spacy kites). Additional details (like NO STEP markings and such) are usually achieved with included sticker sheets, but Arcadia has also started to release "premium finish" editions of their valks. Premium finish valks have every single detail painted. Included accessories are generally pretty basic, usually just a gunpod and some missiles, but the necessary stuff will be there.
So the quality of Arcadia valks are great, the big issue is price. Because they're a small company, Arcadia has relatively small production runs of their valks. Combine that with the complexity of a triple-changing mecha toy and the price tag on Arcadia valks are generally going to be around $200+. Want a premium finish on that valk? You're looking at an additional $100-$200 bucks. A sort-of upside to this is that the high cost of entry means Arcadia stuff generally sticks around in stores longer (unlike Bandai stuff, which we'll discuss next post!). Still, if you want a good valk and have money to spend, Arcadia stuff is worth the price. You can check out a smattering of their current in-stock stuff here:
https://hlj.com/search/go?af=selectmanufacturer%3AarcadiaPictured is a Yamato VF-1S TV with a Bandai DX Chogokin VF-31S.
