Graham

They screwed up the color of the flight suit badly on the prototype. It looks really gay. Hopefully, there is time to change it. Not sure if the production run has started yet or not. I'm usually their go to guy if they have any questions. They don't have an in-house expert, although the Japanese Macross production manager is now (usually) pretty knowledgable. Graham

That's great Uxi & Bri, thanks. Basically, something that clearly shows the color of the front of the flight suit. Graham

URGENT - need a few screen captures from Macross 7 of the VF-11C flight suit, preferably where the colur of teh flight suit can be shown clearly. Graham

Heh, so c'mon own up, how many of you spent the whole movie trying to spot Neytiri's nipples? Graham

Smoke, or grety tint finish was actually discussed last night. Graham

Guys, just removed the non-shoulder related info at the request of our patron. Sometimes they are a little sensitive about what I can/can't say. I think most of you have read it anyway by now, so no big loss. However, anybody repasting the removed info into a post will have the post deleted ok, so don't. Graham

Good catch David, I will mention to Yamato. A VF-0D would be at least 60% new tooling if not more. Graham

So, I had a dinner meeting with Yamato last night and I kicked butt and took names. The main topic of discussion was the shoulder pin issue and I took great pains to ram home just how much of an issue this was. Other items were also discussed. Here’s a point-by-point summery of the main points of discussion and the decisions reached: - Shoulder Hinge Issue Yamato did not know that some VT-1 toys were supplied with knurled pins. The VT-1 toys were supposed to be supplied with the smooth pins. Somebody at the factory screwed up, either intentionally or unintentionally. There was a big meeting at the factory over this last Friday and apparently it resulted in somebody from the factory getting fired. I mentioned that many members had been waiting months for replacement VF-1 shoulder hinges from OverDrive. Yamato said they will as quickly as possible make available to OverDrive a large number of white shoulder hinges with smooth pins. Also some of the cream color shoulder hinges for use with the VT-1/VF-1D will be made available. Hopefully, these should be available with a few weeks. Replacement shoulder hinges will also be made available through an alternate source. Please PM me for details. For the Hikaru VF-1J with GBP-1S Armour set fiasco. All I can say is this is stupidity on Yamato’s part. There had been no reported cases of the first run of VF-1J Hikaru’s cracking, so Yamato assumed they would be OK. I explained to them that even sitting in storage or display and not being touched, the knurled pin will stress the plastic of the shoulder hinge and cause it to crack. Yamato sincerely apologies for this and promise greater availability of spares through OverDrive and elsewhere (see above). Yamato say they will revise the metal parts checklist and add extra steps and take greater care during the manufacturing process to insure that only the smooth pins are used in future. Yamato will look into changing the shoulder hinge design when they get back to Japan. I’ve told them the plastic needs to be thicker. They will look into it. I will follow up with them about this in a few weeks. You will be happy to hear that I was told the VF-1S Hikaru and VF-1S Fokker reissues that come with the flashlights are new manufacture, not old stock and Yamato say they have the smooth pins. (posted edited and some info removed at the request of the big boss). Graham

Experten, who previously went by another name (who's name eludes me for the moment) also sold transformable YF-21 and VF-22S IIRC. And on Yahoo Japan auctions, they have soold for 95,000 yen. Graham

So I heard Dollhouse was cancelled by Fox after the end of season 2 right? I'm honestly getting reluctant to start watching any new sci-fi shows, espcially those by Fox if they are going to prematurely cancel them all the time. First Firefly, then Terminator SCC and now Dollhouse. Really, it's just seems not worth bothering to invest my time in a show and get to like it, if its just going to get cancelled. Graham

If it has the shoulder pins that are smooth on both ends, it should be fine, unless you handle it like a 300lb ham fisted ogre. It is supposed to have the smooth pins, but these days you can never be too sure. I'll check mine when I get home tonight. I think I've got it in Battroid mode in my display cabinet. Graham

I'd love to see the standard grey VF-0D as well, which should be an easy one, since they already have the mold from the blue VF-0D Shin type. I hope all gunpods are painted from series 3 onwards. It's wierd that they only painted the VF-25 and Hikaru's VF-1A gunpod in series 2. Graham

Great, keep em' coming guys. Graham

Many years ago, I spent a great deal of time studying the VF-17 line art, animation, 1/65 toys, 1/144 pla-models and 1/100 garage kits and came to the conclusion that there is very little storage space available in the VF-17's shoulders for the micro-misiles. I reckon the total is either 2, 3 or at most 4 micro-missiles per launcher, which would give a capacity of either 4, 6, or 8 micro-missiles per shoulder, but no more than that. The VF-17 has always been more of a gunship than a missile fighter IMO, given its extremely heavy gun armament (gunpod w/beam adaptor + wrist/elbow beam guns + chest beam guns + head lasers). Graham

Yes, the more pics the better. The last time I asked for pics last year, I got sent a grand total of 2 pics, which hardly goes a long way towards convincing Yamato that it is an epidemic. Well, we still managed to get them to change to the smooth pins...........or so I thought! Graham

That's 'Figure Oh' magazine from the middle or early last year. I've got that issue. I think it's been posted here before, but no harm to post it again. Graham

And just to reiterate, as long as your VF-1 has the smooth pins, it will be fine. Graham

I'm getting the impression that Bandai hates the VF-171, or is just not aware it exists, or just doesn't think it would sell. There has been absolutely no news of a VF-171 model. Likewise, there has also been a deathly silence regarding a VF-171 in any of the many Macross F toy lines. Graham

Aren't the Wave 1/100 VF-1S Battroid, 1/100 VF-1S Fighter and 1/100(?) Destroid Monster kits also coming out in this year? Graham

If I can have a pic of the crack, that would be great. The more evidence I have to show to Yamato, the more chance that I might be able to get spares for everybody. Graham

Can't believe this thread is at 8 pages. It must be the most uninteresting thread ever. I mean do people really care if others have a package in the mail? Well, I guess they do, but I mean.....yawn! OK, I have a package in the mail.........zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz! Graham

Will try, but getting parts out of them even for me has been like getting blood out of a stone. Graham

I don't recall hearing of any breakages with the smooth pin. Am I wrong? Anyway, Yamato's HK based production manager will be visiting the factory in China on Friday and will discuss the pin matter with them. Also, Yamato's big boss from Japan will be in HK next week, so I will again raise this matter when we have dinner. Graham

Need a replacement right shoulder for my VF-1J that came with the GBP armor. I should probably go and check my older V2 1/60 in my display cabinet. Graham

I think we've been lucky (in a way) with the VT-1 seeing no breakages, but just beacuse I'm guessing that few people actually bother to transform it. I know I've certainly never trasformed mine. It sits in fighter mode (its best looking mode) IMO) all the time. Graham