VF-1A Grunt

1/350 is the common scale for model ships. I’d love to see Prometheus and Daedalus in that scale.

It’s funny how the bullet hole locations kept shifting around from one scene to the next!

It looks to me like there’s a heavy dose of anime magic used in the transformation concept, as shown the Macross Mecha Manual line art. If you look at the Color Code Transformation Guide on that page, the yellow parts of the “back” with the pink vertical stabilizers just sort of fold away and disappear in Battroid mode. I don’t think there would be a practical way to replicate that in toy form. I love the elegant look of this design, but I think it uses a lot more creative license than the VF-1. This is a fantastic model and a great job of cleaning up what was clearly a challenging resin kit! I love the color scheme, and great photos too!

It’s at the end of Episode 1, when Hikaru comes under fire while flying with Roy, loses control, and starts falling towards the city. He changes to Gerwalk, and that’s the first time you see bullet (laser?) holes on the top of his VF-1D. After he crashes through the buildings and stands up in Battroid mode, the bullet holes are on the chest plate.

I’d love to see a new Destroid Spartan!

I got a notice from Hobby Search that the Regult Scout is available for preorder again, due for release in late July. I was slow and missed that one in the original release, so I’m glad to see it being rerun.

I’ve always wanted to build a diorama with a couple brown VF-1As defending a city street with a group of Regults rounding the corner at the other end of the block. I envision having one Battroid crouching in a huge bomb crater in the street with another taking cover at the corner of a building. I never thought the Hasegawa Battroid would have the flexibility to do those poses, but the Plamax model definitely looks like it could. Can’t wait to see them release the -1A.

I just had the thought that they may be reluctant to offer the VF-1D in 1/48 because they would feel obligated to include special figures for Hikaru and Minmay, which they haven’t done before in that scale. I’d personally just like to see it come with two TV pilots, but I’m sure many fans would expect the special characters.

The original 1/72 transforming VF-1 kits were done by Imai, later acquired and reissued a couple times by Bandai. I have a VF-1J Max Type from Imai and VF-1D, VF-1J Millia, and three VF-1As from Bandai. I’m not sure under which owner they were marketed through Revell. I should have a couple of those Revell kits somewhere, but I’ll be honest, I didn’t take good care of them as I preferred the Japanese kits. Arii made 1/100 transforming VF-1 kits. I have one that was issued by Revell in the Robotech Changers series. The Revell instructions say “MACROSS, Tatsunoko Production MOLDED BY ARII, JAPAN” on the front page. Interestingly, it’s Roy’s VF-1S in the correct scheme, labeled as “VF-1S Battloid.” Revell didn’t market the 1/100 kits in funky paint schemes like the 1/72 kits.

That’s fantastic. Can someone explain the decals used in the video, with the backing that peels off after the markings are set in place? I haven’t seen that before. Looks kind of like a wet version of the old dry transfers that you rubbed onto a model. Thanks!

Since it’s a new year, I’m going to wish for a Hasegawa 1/48 scale VF-1D in 2024. It seems like a reasonable idea, since it only involves tooling about 20 new parts to add to the VF-1 kit. I'm not sure how well the 1/72 version sold, but I assume it did ok since they reissued it with added box artwork.

I’m going to have to order a couple of the Max / Kakizaki version to do some cannon fodders 1As. I really like the look of these kits, and I appreciate them including a pilot. I’m still not sure why Hasegawa has never updated their older kits to include a pilot when they reissue them. Edit: I just noticed that this new version is due to arrive in June. I’m hoping to be in Japan around then, so I may just pick them up while I’m there. Definitely taking an extra suitcase!

Yes, that’s the artwork for the 1/48 version. One of my favorite kits to collect! I’ll probably never build them all, but I might have to get one more…

I completely forgot about that discrepancy on the box. I recall looking at it years ago and discovering the same thing. A number of Japanese vendors, like Hobby Search, label the product listing as Vermilion Platoon, maybe because they translated their English listing off something in the instructions? I’ll have to look at my kit later today. I’m guessing there was something in the original show or a book that referred to it as a platoon. It would make sense to me that Hikaru would have been promoted upward to command the squadron after Roy was killed, and the other two stayed with him, because it was all the same squadron. But I think all of this is kind of like anime magic in the artwork. There’s no real, correct explanation because the creators didn’t think it through in that much detail.

I could be wrong, or thrown off by Hasegawa’s marketing, but my understanding is that Vermillion was a “platoon” in Skull Squadron (Hasegawa calls it Vermillion Platoon on their 1/48 VF-1J/A kit). A fighter squadron is about 18 aircraft, as I understand it, so it would make sense that Skull would consist of several smaller units, called “flights” in the real world, I believe. U.N. Spacy in SDFM seemed to have mixed up ranks, where Hikaru was a Sergeant (normally not a pilot rank) and then a Lieutenant. I seem to recall that he was a Sergeant when he first started flying after his basic training. Then he was promoted to Lieutenant and had Max and Kakizaki assigned to him. It was always a little odd that (I think) he had his special white VF-1J from the beginning, but it makes sense from the show’s perspective, that you need the main character to stand out visually.

If you zoom in on the Milia figure, you can see irregularities in the way her hair and the markings on the front of her suit are painted. Hasegawa’s product photos are always very impressive. In cases like this, it looks to me like the body parts may be unpainted plastic that has been clear coated with decals applied. I’d have to see what the parts look like to see if the base colors match the way this model is decorated. In most cases though, I think they just have really good painters.

That looks very cool! I preordered one from HLJ. I’m sure they’re going to produce a TV version, since they label this one as the movie version. They seem to be pretty systematic with that, like they did with the SDF-1. I’m still curious why the Regult Scout is already listed as discontinued at HLJ. I wonder if it didn’t sell well, even though it’s sold out everywhere. The Large / Heavy Missile variant briefly said the same thing yesterday but is now back to saying in stock in 3-5 days. I just successfully backordered the Small Missile version, which restocked a day after I ordered it. I hope they make the Scout available again soon.

The Heavy Missile Regult box art is really fantastic! I just ordered two, along with back ordering two Light Missile kits, since I was slow to buy those. I’m surprised HLJ shows the Recon Scout version as discontinued already. I missed that one too - been a busy year and just didn’t get around to it. It’s available elsewhere, so I can get it (for about double the price), but I’m regretting not buying one when I saw them in hobby shops in Tokyo last month.

As mentioned above, decals can be a big drawback with older kits. They can tear or disintegrate, depending on their age and how they were stored. You can help save them by coating them with Microscale Liquid Decal Film. It will help hold everything together. Just be aware that it will thicken the decals a bit, so you may need some extra clear coat to help hide the decal edges. I love the new Hasegawa and Wave kits, but I think there are some neat old models too, like the ARII Zentraedi capital ships that no one else has produced.

I’m really glad to see that Jasmine is still in business making those PE sets. I have more VF-1 models in both 1/72 and 1/48 than I’ll ever be able to build, but I want to try out the Jasmine parts on at least a few of them.

Oh man, right after I just found and brought home a new old stock 1/48 Angel Birds kit from Japan! I’ll probably order another one or two because the red and blue decals in the kit I got look kind of pale, like they may have faded, in comparison to my 1/72 kits.

We just moved, hopefully for the last time, and are settling into our forever home. I’m hoping I can find my Cat’s Eye kit somewhere in all this stuff! I hope it survived the heat of many summer moves. Looking forward to finally building some more models after many years of not wanting to move anything built up and fragile.

The rough Google translation. Cool to see that the Zentraedi figures will be movable so they can be posed standing or sitting. Not cheap though! [WF2023s semi-new work Part 1] 1/72 Regult cockpit & Zentraedi soldier (TV version) 1/72 Regult cockpit & Zentraedi soldier (reconnaissance type) ¥13,000 each It is a set sale of cockpit interior parts for Hasegawa 1/72 kit and crew seated and standing figures (fully movable). #WF2023S #Macross #Macross 40th Anniversary #Macross Modelers

Here’s a photo from the Macross Modeler group on Facebook showing the small sprue with the PV parts that were missing from the Phalanx kits released earlier this year. The member posted in June saying that he waited 3 months to get them from Hobby Search, who sent them out to customers who had ordered the kits. He mentioned that he bought two kits but only received one replacement sprue. The top part is for the neck and the two square parts fit inside the missile hatch hinges. Here’s a photo of the same sprue inside the Phalanx kit that the Yodobashi staff member opened up for me.

I’m about to fly home. I’ll post a photo of the parts when I get a chance. If you’ve assembled the Phalanx head and missile covers already, then your kit fortunately had all the required parts. The original release in 2015 was fine, it was the re-released a couple months ago that was missing the parts. Some people on the Facebook Macross Modelers group posted about how HobbySearch and a couple other online dealers had to send them the missing PV parts sprue after the issue was identified. I’m glad that Wave corrected it for at least the latest kits they’ve produced.