Graham

Looks absolutely beautiful. I love the color scheme. Definitely will make a fantastic display piece. Congrats to Yamato on making this. Graham

I've got both the MAF and MUF guidebooks. There is no lineart of mecha or characters at all. There are only small CG pics of the mecha and thumbnail CG pics of the characters heads (same as in the game). Most of the book is just mission guides. As a non-Japanese reader, the only thing I found remotely useful is that the book tells you how many points you need to get too obtain 'S' or 'SS' grade. Of course at 229 hours into the game, I'm a long, long way from needing that info anymore. Don't waste money buying the book, unless you are an absolute completist. Graham

High end toys/models are defintely the province of specialty hobby shops here in Hong Kong. Thankfully there are still quite a few of these in areas like Wanchai, Mong Kok and Causeway Bay. Although, as ff95gj mentioned, most shops only hold limited stock due to their small physical size. So products do tend to sell out pretty quickly and it's often a case of 'if you snooze, you lose'. Graham

I still get enjoyment from looking at my toys as well as occasionally handling them, but more and more I'm wondering does that really justify the high price tag of these things, especially when there are so many other demands on my hard-earned money these days, such as the mortage, my kid's school fees, the next family holiday, house renovation etc, etc. Graham

While this game looks gorgeous, it will be the first A.C.E. game that I won't be buying. In the 6 years since my son was born, I've barely touched my PS2. I think I've played on it a grand total of 3 times in 6 years!. There's no way I could justify the purchase of a PS3 to myself or my wife. I'm just glad for MAF/MUF (and the hopeful sequel) on the PSP, as gaming while commuting to and from work is the only time I get to play video games these days. Graham

Getting back to the topic of web-exclusives, I think this is an inevitable evil that we are going to have to learn to live with and which will become even more common in the near future. As our already niche hobby becomes even more niche (niche-er?), due to the shrinking fan base and other reasons Renato stated in his original post, I think web-exclusives are going to be the only way that small-to-medium size toy manufacturers such as Yamato and even giants like Bandai can justify releasing anything other than the main hero mecha for a franchise such as Macross. It’s all well and good a toy company wanting to producing a 1/60 toy of ‘Enemy X’ and an accessory set of ‘Weapons Pack Z’, but if the wholesalers, distributors, and retail stores don’t want to carry them, or don’t want to carry enough, then what’s the toy company supposed to do sit on the stock? Dump it at a loss? As much as we may hate them, web-exclusives do allow a toy manufacturer to manufacturer smaller production runs of niche products. As stated by others, the greater mark-up made by cutting out the middle-man allows the company to cover the greater costs of the smaller production run and by taking orders in advance, the toy companies know exactly how many to make, without the risk of ending up with dead stock. Graham

Usually, I'm the same with games - complete and then never touch again, but I've found myself going back to MUF again and again, when I feel the need to fly or fight in a Valk. Definitely a game with hidden depths. Also, now I'm in my early 40s', I'm starting to question my need for toys, especially the larger high-end ones. I've got so many of the things, that my house is overflowing with them and even my private storage is nearly full. And for what? Each one I buy, I transform for a few times, then it goes onto a shelf on in a display cabinet to gather dust and maybe be touched once in a blue moon, to be zoomed around for a few minutes before being but back on display, or worse being packed away in storage. Perhaps just a year or so ago, such thoughts would have been blasphemy to me, but as much as I still love Macross, I'm starting to think why have I spent all this money on things that while nice to look at, hardly get touched/used? Mid-life crisis? Not saying I'm giving up on toys completely, but may stick to smaller/cheaper veriosn from now on, such as selected 1/100 Hi-Metal and the 1/250 scale Macross Fighter Collection. Graham

I'll buy whichever version has the shark's mouth tampo printed on, as I really like the shark mouth. For me no tampo printed shark mouth = no buy. I don't care about having Ranka or Sheryl markings. Graham

I've got the Robot Tamashii Arbalest, both versions of the M9 and also a tan Savage and they are great figures. CAD scuplted, ABS plastic and very poseable. Far superior to Revoltechs IMO. But then, I'm a known Revoltech hater. Graham

While it's difficult to tell for sure given the small size of the picture, the graphics certainly look to be PSP quality and not that of a next-gen console. Graham

That's an extremely interesting observation. I've had a similar thought regarding mecha games and their relationship to mecha toys while playing MAF/MUF. It struck me one day while playing MUF, that games like MAF/MUF are not just mecha games, but in effect give us virtual toys of our favorite mecha, but at a far lower cost in terms of both money and storage space. In MUF for example, we can have nearly every single VF from every Macross anime, that we can fly, fight with, view from different angles, customize the color schemes etc., in a far more realistic manner than simply holding the physical toy in our hand and zooming it around. At 196 hours on MAF and currently 224 hours on MUF, I'm spending far more time with these virtual Valks than I have been with my physical toys and I have noticed my desire to buy new toys does seem to be reduced, (although to be fair there may be other contributing factors to this as well). Something to think about though. Graham

It is supposed to be 1/60 scale. Graham

Yep, bad sales. Both lines are officially as dead as the proverbial Dodo. Graham

Hell yes! First possible sighting of a MUF sequel. Can't wait. Certainlly looks like a possible sequel from the shot of the Tornado. Recently started playing MUF again. Now up to 219 hours. I want full M3, MII and VF-X2 campaigns and mecha in a sequel. But I really, really, hope they resculpt the VF-19Kai/F/S/P. Sick of looking at the incorrect YF-19 style LERX and tails on the VF-19Kai/F/S/P. And yes, FAST packs for VF-17 and VF-19F/S. And cannon shell firing gunpod for the VF-17 please, not a beam gun again. I hate they keep doing that. The beam gun adaptor should be a special attack only IMO, like in the anime. That should be a no brainer. And mecha specific hangers and launch sequences please. Graham

I fear Renato is right on all counts. Graham

The upcoming VF-19 Master Files book really deserves its own thread. Graham

The main body should still be transformable. It should just have a few new parts such as the curved belly plate that covers the head area and possible (not sure), new forearms. Graham

When I met with Yamato last month, I was told that this is the first Valk where they are going to place more emphasis on Battroid mode, rather than fighter mode. This is beacuse the Fire Valk is seen in the anime far more in Battroid mode and they wanted to try to better capture the relative chunkiness of the battroid mode as it appears in the anime and lineart. Graham

IIRC, should be non-transforming VF-X prototype. Graham

Very interesting reveal about the factory satellites.

The ADV dub is painful to listen to. I bought the first 2 disks and then gave up in disgust. Mari is the best part, but even she can't save it.

Is this out already? Way too busy to keep up with MW at the moment.

Deleted the annoying gibberish word in the thread title. Graham

Took my 5 3/4 year old to see it over the chocolate bunny holiday. He enjoyed it. I thought it was OK for a kids movie. Graham

Yes, it's just SMS printed upside down. Doesn't bother me at all, but some people seem to be quite upset about it. Graham