Graham

Have emailed Yamato to ask them if the March reissue of the VF-17S is confirmed and whether or not it will have tampo printing (I personally doubt it will). However, Yamato have been pretty slow with replying recently, so don't expect a quick answer. As I mentioned before, I've started using trimmed UN Spacy Kite emblem stickers from the v.2 1/60 VF-1, which I think look much better size-wise on the VF-17S. Personally, I think the UN Spacy Kite emblem stickers supplied with the VF-17S are just too large, even when the clear border is trimmed off. Graham

AAAaaaarrghh!!!! Me too!!!!!!!!!! What a real dick move, trying to force people to buy the whole thing again after such a short time, just with some additional new content and new binders (but still mostly reprint material)..........Grrrrrr not happy! Would much prefer they just released chronical supplements with only the all new material. After collecting all the original Chonicle as and when it came out,I'm not sure I wanna go all through that again.These things are not cheap and take up a fair amount of shelf space. may just buy the first issue, just for the YF-29 and then only buy the occasional issue that has something new of interest to me. Graham

Whoops, my mistake, the renewal is actually a bit darker. Still looks great though and 100% better than the v.1 in every aspect. Looking at the v.1 and the renewal ver sid by sidethe slightly darker color looks much beter IMO. Graham

Err.........you do realize the grey plastic used is actually lighter a lighter shade than the v.1. Graham

How many of you who cancelled your preorders due to the leg colour on the preproduction sample are kicking yourselves now? Graham

All modern toys disintigrate after a few years, so I really wouldn't bother asking about holding value after time.....LOL! (And I bet you think I'm joking!) Graham

I hate the Toynami Alphas, but wow, after reading the review of the CMs Legioss & Tread I would never buy one for the following reasons: I'm all about nice looking fighter modes and it just looks awful in that mode. Doesn't lock together well in fighter mode. Piss poor conection between the Legioss and Tread. I'd never really paid attention to the CMs Legioss before, but after reading the review, it is such an easy pass. Oh well, hopefully one day Yamato may come to our rescue and finally give us all a decent Legioss. Graham

Sounds way too high. Graham

Use the Force, Luke. Graham

!!!!! 5 to 10 minutes tops. Graham

Ha, that last battroid mode comparison pic really shows how astatine is the renewal version sculpt. Graham

I posted pics a few pages back already. Graham

There may well be multiple releases earlier in the year of something. Just wait and see. Graham

I had the Blue and Green and Toynami Alpha toys, bought when they were first released. Parts fit was bad, finish could have been better and both ended up braking in various places. I eventually threw both of them away in disgust. Shoddy, shoddy, shoddy. Do not recommend. No experience with a CM's may try to track one down. Graham

Always assumed the Space Jockey was a gunner, sitting at a big cannon. Graham

The joints are nice and tight. Difficult to say if they are tighter than the VF-25F. I'll transform both the 25S and 25F back to battroid mode tonight or tomorrow and compare joints. They are both in fighter mode at the moment. One improvement I did notice, is that the VF-25S's neck base and neck locked into place very securely compared to the 25F. Unlocking the neck again was a bit tricky though. Had to resort to checking the manual to make sure I was doing it right. I also noticed that when trasnforming back to fighter mode, I had to push quite hard to get the nose cone locked in place. Same with closing the canopy, it took quite a bit of force to get it completely locked down. Graham

Nice to see Death Watch again. I especially liked the female Death Watch member. Although I never realised those Jetpacks allowed such fast and long endurance flight though.....hahah! So far season 4 has been so much better than the weak-ass effort that was the bulk of season 3. Graham

All my life, ever since first seeing Alien (in the 80s on UK TV), I've always throught the Space Jockey was skeletal alien remains. It never once occured to me that it was a space suit! Graham

Yay! what a huge improvement! Graham

That's why I said 'modern toys'. The 1/55 while a great toy for it's time, lacked detail, had minimal articulation by today's standards and big chunky joints. So yes, given it's simplicity is definitely more durable compared with most modern toys. The Bandai 1/65 DX VF-17 is another virtually unbreakable toy, but again, lacks articulation & gimmicks and has big chunky joints............notice a pattern here? LIke many things in life it's a trade-off. The consumer driven trend these days is for toys with a zillion points of articulation, gimmicks up the wazzo, 100% line art accurate sculpt and extreme pose-ability. Unfortunately these features more often than not conflict with the requirement for long-term durability. Unfortuantely, there's no way of escaping that the more small parts you have and the more joints you have (especially small joints), the greater the chance that something is going to become loose or break sooner or later (probably sooner). The fact that modern VF toys are now made in a country where the factories have a reputation for less then stellar QC for production and materials doesn't help either (although this is and has been improving in recent years). But lack of durability aside, do we really want to go back to the days of the Chunky Monkey, with inaccurate sculpts, gunpods that can't attach, no pilots, no missiles, the pose-abilty of a brick and a toy which sorta, kinda, maybe resembles the line art in bad light, if you squint and hold it at a certain angle? Like I said, it's a trade off. I think unfortunately, modern transforming VF toys, no matter made by which company should be looked at a lot, but touched infrequently (even then be prepared that your expensive collectors item may crumble and crack even if left untouched on the shelf ) Graham

Yes I'm sure it will, especially if they tampo on the chest markings, like I am pushing them to do. Graham

Extremely impressed by the VF-25S and also of the VF-25F. Both are great toys, look fantastic in a all three modes and are easy to transform. Bandai definitely hit a home run this time. I have a theory that for both Bandai and Yamato, given the increasining complexity/articulation/gimmicks/features/details/accuracy of modern VF toys, it takes both companies at least 2 generations of toys of a particular model to get the bugs worked out......LOL! Graham

Have you played the PSP games, Macross Ace Frontier, Macross Ultimate Frontier and Macross Triangle Frontier? Or the two recent PS3 demo Macross games based on the Macross Frontier movies? You may like them. Graham It's years and years since I last played Macross VO (never bought XP, just the original version). Cool video though. Graham

Wow, that sucks! I would be seriously upset. Hopefully, you can get it replaced and hopefully it's just an isolated incident. As eugimon said, it's probably just a bad cast of that metal part. Graham

Buy whichever design you like the best. If you like the VF-11, buy the VF-11. If you like the VF-1, buy the VF-1. If you are planning a collection of various variable fighters and having them all in the same scale is important, buy the VF-11, as there are many Macross VFs in this scale. If you don't care about scale and just want a large toy, but the VF-1. In the end it's up to you. Both are great toys. Graham