Graham

More pages from this month's "Macross The Ride" article from the new issue of Dengeki Hobby magazine (Jan 2011 issue). That concludes all the "Macross The Ride" pages from this month's issue. Enjoy. Graham

Will scan in the whole Dengeki article tomorrow. And in the magazine, it is written as "VF-19EF Caliburn". In the meantime, here's scans of two of the pages, including some new Kawamori lineart. Graham

Ah, if the Google translation of the Dengeki 'Macross The Ride" website is correct, that might not actually be a CG pic, but rather a conversion of the Hasegawa 1/72 scale YF-19 model kit, which would explain the discrepancies with Kawamori's sketch. And calling the VF-19E 'Monkey Model', is hardly a complimentary name! How do we go from the original cool sounding 'Excalibur', to fricken 'Monkey model'!???????? Graham

Noticing some differences between the rough Kawamori VF-19EF/ES(?) sketch, the VF-19EF CG pic and older VF-19 (A/F/F/S/P)variants. Initial comments/thoughts: - The rough Kawamori sketch of the VF-19EF/ES(?) seems to have the extended Leading Edge Root Extensions (LERX) of the VF-19Kai/F/S/P, whereas the CG pic of the VF-19EF seems to show a LERX shaped somewhere between the kinked LERX of the YF-19/VF-19A and the more streamlined extended LERX of the VF-19Kai/F/S/P. The VF-19EF/ES(?) sketch seems to lack the vernier ankle ring of the VF-19Kai/F/S/P, but does seem to be an all new type of lower leg, as it also seems not to be the same as the YF-19/VF-19A either. Canards in both the sketch and CG pic look smaller than the canards on the YF-19/VF-19A/Kai. Nice to see that the wing-root lasers are still present on the CG pic, although I note that on the Kawamori sketch, they seem to be covered with some sort of blanking panel(?). The sketch seems to have some sort of auxiliary intake(?) on the LERX, whereas the CG pic does not. The vertical tails seem quite small and seem to be positioned somewhere between those of the VF-19kai/F/S/P and the YF-19/VF-19A, i.e. from the CG pic they appear to be spaced outboard as per the VF-19kai/F/S/P, but not as far outboard as we are used to seeing for those models. The folding main wing is interesting. A new high-speed mode perhaps? The shoulder nacelles are also interesting an appear likely to contain some type of weapon. Anyway, nice to see a new 19 variant(s). I wonder who will get the toy rights? Even if this is a novelization, if it is anything like the monthly Gundam novelizations in Dengeki Hobby, it will have lots of pretty pictures. Graham

Macross The Ride needs it's own discussion thread. Graham

While episode 10 helped to movie the overall story forward a bit, it wasn't particulaly kid friendly for the young'uns. Too much talk of politics to keep my 6 year old's interest for long. It was good to see Commander Fox again, but one has to wonder what sort of army has a Commander doing checkpoint duty. Surely that would be a job for a normal trooper, not a Commander!? Graham

Sadly, I have given up all hope of ever seeing a DX 1/60 scale VF-171/VF-171EX from Bandai. Hopefully Yamato is able to get the Frontier licence sometime in the next 3-5 years. Graham

Getting close to the 300 hour mark! Graham

My PM box is disabled at the moment. Graham

I've always liked the 7-barreled 40mm folding gunpod that the VF-17D/S uses. Graham

Haven't been following this thread closely and have not bought the comic. So, apart from a slight redesign of the head on the VF-1D and VF-1J, are there any other changes? Also, has the VF-1S and VF-1A head been shown yet? If yes, any changes? Graham

I try to only handle my VF-25 toys on the areas that have no markings. Graham

From Yamato, we will of course see the 1/60 VF-19 Fire Valk and likely also the Sound Booster, VF-19S and possibly the VF-19F and VF-19P as well (depending on how well the first two VF-19 sell). Then we have the next 1/60 VF-** coming after that. But yes, the 1/60 VF-1 line is pretty much finished. Of course, there will be the occasional reissue and perhaps even the a few new limited edition paint schemes now and then. Before all that there is of course the 1/3000 DYRL SDF-1 and possibly a TV version as well, even if it is only a recolored DYRL version with TV arms (although this is still not confirmed, just a possibility). Yamato are also considering other Macross items, but I can't say anything yet. However, expect something of a slowdown of new products, compared with the past several years. Unfortunately, it looks like the Phalanx is dead. A Minmay Guard paint scheme while nice, is unlikely, as Hasegawa/Model graphix own the rights to that. For Bandai, they so far seem to have shown a reluctance to do recolors, except for the main characters. Note, no cannon-fodder VF-25A yet, no movie version Macross Quarter either, so I doubt we will see a Klan VF-25. We also seem to be at the start of a slowdown from Bandai. While I have no contact with bandai and no inside information, I strongly suspect the Robot spirit VF-25S Armoured is cancelled, along with the propsed 1/100 VF-25 fighter model kit. I'm also beginning to doubt if we will see the Hi-Metal YF-21, YF-19 & VF-19F. Graham

In the anime, it was only Alto's VF-171EX that had the armour pack (extra armor on the chest, lower legs and hips). None of the other VF-171EX had this. This is why the Bandai series 4 VF-171EX (standard) and VF-171EX (Sheryl art version), do not have the armor pack. All the VF-171EX have the missile pack on the left arm, except for Luca's RVF-171EX. Graham

Still in two minds about this show. I'm a huge fan of the comic, have been for years. To be honest, I'm not too keen about the way the show is deviating quite a bit from the comic. Graham Only 2 shows left!!!!!!??????? I thought it was like a 13 ep season or something? Graham

Stories (plural). There is 33 years (so far) of mostly excellent source material to draw upon. Graham

I hated the Versace designed spandex uniform in the first movie. The new uniform does look closer to the original Ezquerra designed concept. At least it looks like black leather,which is what it is supposed to be. This new movie Lawgiver does look reasonably close to the current MK11. Can't wait to see the Lawmaster. Hope it's closer to the comic version than the overgrown Vespa scooter in the Stallone movie. Graham

Sorry, I'm not offering a toy search service at the moment, Just no time to get involved in that. Try PMing HK members Valk009 or Neova, I think they have done that sort of thing in the past, but not sure if they are still active though. Anyway, I think I pretty much cleared out all the 171s from the shop where I bought them. Graham

For those who have read the Juddge Child Quest story, we all know how Dredd feels about moustaches. Graham

Picture of VF-171EX with something else (that I really shouldn't publish photos of). Graham

There's a few minor issues with the pre-production sample, which the factory have said they will resolve. I'm not going to mention specifics, as my sample is only pre-production. But otherwise, this thing rocks and kicks the Wave version's ass(US)/arse(UK) ten ways to Sunday. Fantastic sculpt, super detailed, anime accurate, nice tight joints and easy to transform. Graham

Comments later. Still need more time with it. First impressions are positive though. Graham

New AP article on the Quantas A380 incident here. Graham

Here's a couple of quick pics of the VF-171, that I have on my desk at work. Graham

At work now, but lemme' see if I can remember all that's in series 4: VF-171. RVF-171. VF-171EX. VF-171EX Alto version, with extra armour on the chest and legs. VF-171EX with Sheryl markings. RVF-171EX Luca. VF-25F Alto Super (metallic gloss finish). VF-25F Alto Super with Fold Booster (metallic gloss finish). VF-25F Alto w/Space ver. Tornado Packs (metallic gloss finish). RVF-25 Super Luca. VF-25A Super (cannon fodder). VF-25S Ozma Armoured (metallic gloss finish). VF-25F Macross Zero movie, VF-0 stand-in version (white). VF-25S Klan red version (from Macross Trial Frontier PS3 game). VF-25G Michael with 4 x wing speakers. VF-25 Sheryl white deculture version. VF-25 Ranka white deculture version. VF-27γ Brera with Super Fold Booster (metallic gloss finish, IIRC). NUNS AIF-7S Ghosts x 3 set. Luca's QF-4000 (AIF-7S)Ghosts x 3 set. VF-1A Mihoshi Academy version (same as DYRL Hikaru VF-1A). As well as the complete series 4, I also picked up the following extras yesterday: - 3 x VF-171. 2 x VF-171EX. 1 x VF-171EX Alto. 1 x RVF-171. 1 x RVF-171EX Luca. Graham