All Activity

New book from Hobby Japan coming Nov 28 - Macross Mechanics Autumn 2025: https://www.amazon.co.jp/-/en/dp/4798640093/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3IN918X0Q6RFC&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.pJVX9BI0iRabw5lwWXDmKzqQpIuLOyXheZyCAEKj7tLcZo_LjB-j76xrCkJuN46rM-phtJUaj8Wy47mW67iK3jVooXK4-x8961bbDNBYFNo8ZE2LWhkUObLPV2GMs8bQQbnNV6bKj-d6QSP92VBbX2UKa3OA687itxHercg3lMX50OTjTX_ljaQjb2dTnS_hfb-kSeFX5pSoMCn8hYFAJpvKoKi9PwDqsNlKmTt5G_0.eAzgiHTb69ZeEuFE_Jg-M2vqNtRbiyqZDrjfckZYsC8&dib_tag=se&keywords=マクロス+本&qid=1760384842&s=books&sprefix=マクロス%2Cstripbooks%2C87&sr=1-1

Star Trek is a big franchise with a well-established multi-generational fanbase, so there are always going to be at least a few fans willing to tune in and check out any new project no matter how obviously ill-considered. That there will initially be an audience is guaranteed. No guarantees are made with respect to the size or continuing existence of that audience after the first few episodes. Well, no... no it doesn't. After all, it'd be a spinoff of Star Trek: Picard and that series was neck-and-neck with Star Trek: Discovery in the race to be the worst-rated Star Trek title of all time for most of its run. It was only saved from winning that race by being shorter and going all-in on fanservice in its third and final season. Trying to build a new series around a character whose development in the prior series was one of the most harshly criticized aspects of its story and a ship that was also poorly received for its unnecessary redesign and overall aesthetic is probably not a winning strategy. We already have a series about the Enterprise exploring the cosmos, though. That's Strange New Worlds. Concurrently running two different shows with the exact same premise is probably not a winning strategy either. Variety is the spice of life, and the Star Trek franchise is big enough to accommodate more than that one type of story. Strange New Worlds and Lower Decks are both very well-received on average. Not always. TOS didn't have one. DS9 only got one in its fifth season when Nog came back for sophomore year field study. ENT's eager young ensign was also the most experienced person on the ship by a huge margin. PIC didn't really have one either. Enterprise wasn't Uhura's first assignment even as a cadet on training rotation in SNW either. It's really just TNG's Wesley, VOY's Harry, and DSC's Tilly. Lotta -y's. I guess that makes those know-it-all fresh-outs a pack of Y's guys. 😜 Lower Decks's whole premise is seeing these space adventures through unjaded eyes, since the senior staff (and Beckett) have seen it all before. They're still good and experienced at most of what they do, because they've still got four years of Academy training plus mentoring and training from more experienced officers. Even people who are in their final year at the academy don't really stretch credibility IMO since they've got years of training under their belts (e.g. Tilly, SNW Uhura). It's more of a problem when you've got characters who've never been and have no training (e.g. Wesley, the Prodigy crew) or have been in Starfleet for all of five seconds (the Academy cast and the Academy cast) out saving the galaxy and never attending class.

Yeah, I had varying levels of leg lock on the couple I got, and it was never consistent. The tabs were pretty shallow, and it wasn't hard to knock the legs loose on any of mine. For all its failures, that is one thing I don't think the 171 ever had issues with. I can't say I ever had the issues with the Yamato 17s' feet that I did with the VF-19s', but I also had even less desire to display a 17 in gerwalk than I did the 19s. Mine seemed to hold up well-enough in battroid, but I never displayed them that way for more than a few minutes at a time. I'm probably a bad judge of 17-related stuff in general, I was just happy to get a solid fighter mode to display. Yeah, fair, I guess I was never a big enough fan of the 17 for the issues with the Yamato one to bother me? I thought it looked good enough, but it did have the same kind of weird backpack issue that the DX YF-21 has. It was always one of those designs so firmly planted in the "impossible anime magic" category that it was never going to really look like the animation. What I guess is kind of funny to consider.. have you looked at the old Bandai 1/65 versions? They were far more limited in articulation and features, but I'm starting to think they got some things right that neither of the more modern takes have figured out.

That's the main issue I had with the old Yamato 17 and 19. The ankles had a hard time holding up the weight of the toy in battroid and occasionally I would find they toppled over on their own even in a very neutral stance. I've had to resort to propping them up against a wall so I don't find them collapsed later.

Probably because they help fund his new Macross stuff.

This, so much!

As I recall the locking mechanism was highly particular. But when it's in place those damn things won't budge, even when you want to transform it. On the other hand, Yamato's pall jointed ankles are the biggest flaw with both the 17 and 19. I don't recall what the fix was.

So I got my $180 Amazon YF-21 and it's a good 'un. Straight head laser, whole canopy, and although a wing flap fell off I'm just going to put a drop of super glue on it and call it done. I doubt very much Bandai will make "bent" flaps for this thing. I haven't transformed it yet and don't know if I ever will. Fighter mode is where I leave the majority of my Valkyries. The exceptions were my Yamato VF-1J because it was dirt simple, and my VF-31C Siegfried because the engineering and care of assembly made a complex transformation pleasurable. No other model has come close. Finally, as to the model itself, I'm so glad I got this dirt cheap. It isn't worth anywhere near its retail price, and with the god-awful Super Parts you can see Bandai was phoning this in from 1,000 miles away. We waited 30 years for this? Lord knows they could have kept the idiot Delimiter Mode and included a Fold Pod in its place. Now what may be a surprising sentence: I'm very glad I have this. Macross Plus is my favorite Macross series, now given our current world more than ever, and I had considered my Full Set Pack YF-19 the best 19 available. I had a Yamato VF-22 Gamlin as a fill-in for Guld's 21, and the two just never meshed together. It was more than the different colors, it was the design choices of each as far as shapes, details, plastics, and so on. Plus, unlike many others on this forum, I rather like all the tampoed details and callouts. Reminds me of JASDF F-15s and F-4s with their monstrous amount of stenciled placards. You should see the decal sheets for their models. Ye gods... And so this YF-21, flawed and overpriced it may be, is a great companion piece for the Chogokin YF-19, and it looks like they are indeed from the same place and time, if that makes sense. And I do like that, both perched on the same YetiStand (sniff.) I have a Yamato VF-11 on there too, with a nice decal sheet printed by the great Anasazi37, that I'm going to get to apply and that should bring the "feel" of the 11 up to the 19 and 21. I doubt very much we'll ever see a Chogokin 11, and I have no faith whatsoever that Bandai wouldn't stuff it anyway.

That’s a great idea. I also have one that came in the 4 pack with that Ashura Temple I’m working on. The Bat-Shu triplets.

If they were that concerned about the writer's strike (I doubt it), they should have held off on the season until the strike was resolved.

They don't lock that well, at least on my copy. Try lifting the plane up without cradling the legs and see if you can swoosh it around without the legs dropping. The tabs that click into the legs from the backplate in fighter mode aren't deep enough to hold it. To be honest, it seems like those pegs are meant to help you line things up properly rather than a locking mechanism. Anyway, I pulled my Yamato VF-17S from its box and it's gone all loosey goosey on the ankles. Is there an easy way to tighten these up? I don't think stuff like Kiki's will help since these are metal on metal joints.

https://variety.com/2025/film/box-office/tron-ares-box-office-opening-weekend-roofman-kiss-of-the-spider-woman-1236544376/?fbclid=IwY2xjawNZzhRleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFOSjg2aGRUT3F1N0NuNTRqAR4EtzY0s8D0Fmr-tMSsxGiNd3fgu5O6nJEjWnyRiEFzg_OkR3M2npZEM-4Vxw_aem_tcV0x2-lUihbaLpD6H2ugg According to Variety, the film didn't do well upon its release. I think it was kind of expected; neither of the previous two did, but this one was even worse than the first (by a few fractions). But what can you expect from it, and its plot? Besides, this kind of makes a sequel impossible in the short term, as they wanted. I think if they're going to do something like that, I hope it's a TV series with at least 8 episodes, to close Leto's arc (who is as dull as the Joker). In fact, Leto was charging a pie and sugarcane juice to be able to make this movie, because it's really bad.

This is helpful, thank you. I've not read the Chronicle or Master Files (though I've looked at untranslated scans from time to time) and wasn't sure if there was an official date for when the 24 entered service in the NUNS. If it was contemporary to the 25, that helps give a window to the aesthetic of the head sculpt. I was going to ask about variants, but you just answered that as well. I can guess that it would be reasonable to expect similar load outs to the Frontier era 25s and 171s, with an RVF version and such. I expect details are pretty sparse, but anything else the setting materials tell us about it? I'm getting way ahead of myself here, but already thinking about super packs and such for it.

The legs do lock into place in fighter... If Bandai were going to have a semi-partformer anything to start with the 21 would have been it. The legs already detach for limiter mode so it makes the absolute most sense to make use of that gimmick for a slimmer fighter profile.

Yamato missed that detail back in the day, too. Of course this is just a shrunk version of that but the gunpod did already exist in 1/60 as it does 1/100 now.

Safe to say any fan favourite valks would best be served as bandai's 'emergency' options..i.e.. to be used to raise sticker prices; or when bottom line profits are getting hit; or when sales/interest in the IP are waning... thats why i am NOT IN ANY BIT REMOTELY INTERESTED in bandai releasing any max/milia VF-1J.s in DX format.. hear that bandai!! . . . . but if they do, of course i might see whats the fuss all abt..

I was never happy with my Yamato VF-17S. I thought it was a bad toy, especially when compared to their VF-19S. (e.g. weird gap in the back plate in battroid, legs are too heavy to lock in place in fighter, battroid proportions were also kinda bad, etc). Was intially hoping that Bandai's version would be better, but it has its own set of bad issues. Sadly, I haven't seen any good VF-17 yet, or at least owned any. Now what if by some weird chance, Bandai includes a set of swappable bulkier legs that are only used for battroid mode and make it into an optional partsformer. Would that make people happy? I know there are perfect transformation purists here that would hate that path, but I would be okay with it.

The could have just recolored the Speaker Pod from the HMR VF-19 Kai if they had wanted to include it with the VF-19P Personally, I'm happy they instead gave us a GU-15 gunpod with the HMR VF-19P. Which also means the next VF-19 HMR variation to be released will likely be a VF-19S or VF-19F.

Industrial, basically. Definitely not classical jazz or country. It pretty much covers bands like Nine inch Nails, Ministry and KMFDM as a few of the bigger examples. Some bands are more rock and metal sounding and others are more dance pop or in the case of Ministry, starting out as dance pop then moving to a more metal side of the spectrum. NIN is kinda the mid range of dancy and rocky

You should do a display with the L-Gaim Bat-ahi next to the one from five Star stories

I just noticed you put The Shinning instead of The Shining, but that may actually be even better+more accurate.

All they have to do is greenlight Legacy, with Capt Seven of the 1701-G, and you've got a guaranteed audience. Is it guaranteed to be good? No, but it's got a heck of a lot better shot than what they're doing. "The latest Enterprise out exploring the cosmos". Basic, but we've veered off-track for a while now. DS9 was a great one-time experiment, but when like 3/4 of the shows lately are "not a ship of experienced people out exploring", it seems we've lost the core aspect of the franchise. There's always a cadet or "fresh from the academy" person on board, but when entire shows (don't forget Prodigy, and to a lesser degree Lower Decks) focus heavily on that, and not the people "actually good and experienced at the thing they do" it can drag things down, or stretch believability/plausibility. "Why are the noobs always saving the galaxy? What are the people who are actually supposed to be better at these things doing in the meantime?" ::edit:: OMG, I just realized I basically made an early TNG anti-Wesley post. Well, the sentiment remains...

A white speaker gunpod wouldn't be too far off from Mylene's. Guess they don't have an HMR MAXL very far along, if at all, or they could have used that.