Graham

Here's some pics of the white & blue YF-19. As promised, Yamato have definitely tightened up some of the joints in battroid mode and the toy no longer feels like a floppy mess, unlike the original Macross Plus colors YF-19 toy. The main improvements are where the wings join to the hips. As you can see from the pics, both wings can now hold a horizontal position in battroid mode. I left the wings like that overnight and they hadn't drooped at all by morning. Another improvemnt is the locking of the shoulders. On the original YF-19, when you angled up the shoulders, even glancing at them the wrong way would cause them to drop down. On this lastest version, the shoulders lock very positively in the angled up position. The small shoulder flaps aslo feel much tioghter and don't pop out all the time. Likewise, the arms and leg joints also seem a bit tighter. Graham

Yay lived through Sad Sniper EX for the first time in 4+ hours of trying! Only got a 'C' & Brera escaped, but at least I didn't die. Graham

Not the special melee, the special where you fire your sniper rifle. Most of the time it never seems to do anything, just swing your rifle around and shoot at empty space. Graham

Damn, Sad Sniper EX is hard. Been playing it for several hours, played umpteen games and died everytime (E grade). Only ever got as far as the VF-27 one time and then died, as I only had a smidgen of life left. Trying lots of different tactics. Quite tricky to avoid getting hammered by the missiles from the first wave right at the very start. Tried a tactic at the start of the game of breaking lock and running away to the edge of the map and sniping at long range. Worked great for one game for the first two waves, but I swear the bastards learnt, as the next few games they followed me at once rather than hanging about near the middle of the map. The special attack, triangle + circle seems especially useless, as 90% of the time, it doesn't even connect and seems to be aimed wildly off target (am I doing something wrong?). Graham

Who wants to take bets on what's going to be the next new VF in the VF100s line after the VF-19. My bet is on the VF-4. Although I'd be over the moon if it's a VF-17D/S. Graham

Not going to hunt one down, but I quite like the colors of that Family Mart version. Graham

Will be all over the VF-19S/F/P if they make them. Graham

And a two-seater cockpit with slightly reshaped canopy. Graham

Hah, yeah free sample baby.........not in shops yet! Graham

Got mine yesterday, but still in the box. No time to open it yet. Abtually, it's still at my office.

I still don't see any doors for the rear landing gear on the VF-19Kai. Maybe Bandai decided to forego landing gear?

I still don't see any doors for the rear landing gear on the VF-19Kai. Maybe Bandai decided to forego landing gear?

Is the skill you list as 'Hayase', the one that people have been referring to as the 'Misa' skill in recent posts or is that something different? Graham

Yes, it can. Here's the pics I posted back in the old thread on August 12th, before it was closed for becoming too long. The way I do it, is I first lock one leg armor in place, then put the gunpod in it's normal place, with the gunpod connector in its normal hole, then lock the other leg in place. Easy. Graham

If you are doing it correctly, i.e. angling ang wiggling the wing root pegs to get them into the holes, you don't need to use force. Graham

Can someone please translate what are the 4th row of special abiilities? The FAQ I printed out ages ago only translated the first 3 rows.

On 90 hours now. Completed 96% of the game (I think), with 'S' grade on 91% of missions. Sad Sniper EX is a bastard. Just started it. Can't even get through it yet. Keep dying & getting an 'E'. Even in fighter mode using boost and evading, I keep getting wiped out by the missiles from the large Vajra. What mode do you guys use for this mission? The sniper riflle seems useless & if you transform to battroid to melee attack, you get hammered by missiles or the large Vajra beam cannon.

Yes, I got it ages ago, probably when I was only 60% to 70% through the game. Can't remember what I did to get it though.

If I came upon one of these metallic finish versions in a toy store, I'd probably buy it, if it wasn't any more expensive than a regular version. The idea of a fixed fighter mode actually appeals to me for zooming around the house. No need to worry about floppy or misaligned parts or bits fallling off all the time. Not going to actively hunt one down though, but if one does cross my path for a reasonable price, well.............. Graham

Found one shop selling random tape-sealed boxes today. So I picked two at random, just to see what they are like. I got Mayor Milia's VF-1J from Macross 7 and the VF-19F also from Macross 7. These are quite small and quality is quite gashapon-like. They are not glued together, so if you are going to be playing with these rather than just displaying them, you may want to glue them, as some parts may fall off or can get knocked off. Of course at this size and with gashapon-level quality, the locking pegs are not really that secure. For example, on the VF-1J, the legs have two small rectangular holes, that attach to small rectangular pegs on the bottom of the VF. The attachment is not that secure so I will likely glue the legs on. The gunpod too as well. On the VF-1J, the canopy, tail fin assembly and movng wings appear to be ABS. All other parts, such as the nose, legs and gunpod appear to be PVC. On the VF-19F the wings, tail fins, cannopy and part of the main body appear to be ABS. The legs, nose etc looks to be PVC. The VF-19F measures about 7.3cm long and the VF-1J is 5.7mm long. The gunpods are unpainted, so that means Milia's VF-1J has a red gunpod and the VF-19F has a blue gunpod. Paid HK$35 each (approx US$4.5 each). Way overpriced IMO. Doubt I will buy more. Graham

How does one get the VF-27 again? I think I have all the mecha accept Battle 25, the VF-27 and Roy's VF-1S without FAST Packs. We really need a pinned FAQ. Graham

Just discovered the insane fun that is the Extra Missions. Graham

Kinda ambivalent about Bryan Singer as a director. The only films of his I sort of liked were 'The Usual Suspects' and the recent Tom Cruise movie 'Valkyrie'. Really not sure who would be the right or better director for this, as there are so few good genre directors now. A pre-titanic James Cameron would have been a good choice IMO, but now........!!!!!!!!????? Graham

Is it confirmed that those metallic VF100s VF-25 are non-transforming? First I've heard of it. Graham

For Macross or other favorite shows/groups etc I always buy original to support the creators/artists and damn the cost. For stuff I may like, but which is not my favorite, I will sometimes go the rental/download/pirate route, but with the caveat that if I really like it, then I will buy the original. Graham