Graham

Zinjo, Could you give a breakdown of what VF lineart is in the bluebook please? Graham

SCOOP - NEW MACROSS FRONTIER LINEART BOOKS!!!!!! 2 new Macross Frontier lineart books by Movic have been released. These were completely under the radar, as I at least had never heard anything about them before. There is a Red book and a Blue book. Publisher's links below: - Macross Frontier Blue Book. Macross Frontier Red Book. Both books are A4 size and about 160 pages each. They are full of lineart and only lineart, nothing else. The Blue book apparently features lineart of the male characters and mecha. The Red book, which I was able to buy features lineart of the female characters (50% of the book) and locations (50% of the book). As with prevous lineart books by Movic, the art is only printed on 1 side of every page. So that means even though the book is about 160 pages long, you are only getting about 80 pages of lineart. Still, it's a damn sight more lineart than has been published previously. Cover pics attached below, as well as scans of 3 sample pages from the Red book. Haven't been able to find these listed on Amazon Japan or HMV Japan yet. I came across these during a hunt around Mong Kok district today. Unfortuantely only two shops had them. One shop had both Red and Blue books, but was closed, so I could only stare at them through the window. Another shop only had the Red book which I bought. Graham

Yes they. They slide in so they are flush with the bottom of the backplate for Gerwalk and Battroid mode and then you slide them out to clip the shield onto for Fighter mode. Graham

Excellent work Gubaba. Highly appreciated. Very interesting that the VF-24 was a joint General Galaxy & Shinsei project. Graham

Sorry, no matter how you transform it, the wings are always slightly upturned when viewed from the front or rear. Graham

Yes, the shield does attach better in fighter mode on the DX, compared with the model kit. The shield does not lock onto the hands exactly. While the hands do support and position the shield, there is also a sliding piece located on the underside of the back plate, that has two tabs that slide out of the rear of the back blate for fighter mode. The hands go into the shleld and the shield then clips onto these two tabs. In the attached photo, you can see the two tabs I'm referring to. Graham

I have no problem getting the shoulder pieces to sit flush on mine. I think it's may be affected by the angle of the chest plate. Graham

No, I posted a top view pic of the Fighter modes of the YF-19 next to the VF-25 a few pages ago. I later posted a top view pic of the VF-0 next to the VF-25, as apparently the VF-0 is 1/60. Graham

We already have a 43 page thread on the upcoming VF-11B just a few topics below. Any news should be posted there. Anyway, I think it's safe to say those pics are old news. Graham

Just picked up a Defender. Absolutely amazing toy. IIRC, the next release is supposed to be the Phalanx. Graham

On the slim chance they still might reply, I've emailed Yamato to asked which ver.2 VF-1 (if any) have POM shoulder joints. Graham

Havn't had this happen to me yet, but then I still haven't played the Macross missions yet. Graham

I only have room in my display case for one scale of VF-1. I’m still trying to decide if I should stick with the 1/48, which I’ve invested quite a lot of money in and which currently fill two shelves of my display case, or should I change to the new ver.2 1/60 VF-1? Changing to the new 1/60 would have several advantages. It would free up more space so I could make room for some other items like the Yamato Destroids. It would also mean that the majority of the toys in the cabinet would be a consistent scale. At the moment, my display cabinet is arranged as follows: - 1st (top) Shelf (SDF/DYRL Shelf) = Yamato 1/48 VF-1 toys. 2nd Shelf (SDF/DYRL Shelf) = Yamato 1/48 VF-1 toys, plus Yamato 1/60 Q-Rau, Wave WHAM SDF-1. 3rd Shelf (Macross Plus Shelf) = Yamato 1/60 Macross Plus toys + Macross Plus Doyusha’s & Macross Plus GN-U. 4th Shelf (Macross Zero Shelf) = Yamato 1/60 Macross Zero Toys. 5th Shelf = Macross Model kits: various Hasegawa, Wave & Bandai kits. 6th (bottom) Shelf = Misc. Stuff: Takara 1/18 & 1/48 Votoms, CM’s Patlabor, Bandai Dragonar, Toynami Legioss. I’m planning to clear out the miscellaneous non-Macross stuff, to make room for the Bandai Macross Frontier toys. Putting my 1/48 VF-1 in storage and changing to the 1/60 would give me space for the Destroids as well, which I have no room for at the moment. Another advantage of switching to the 1/60 is that the two-seaters are coming, something we will never get with the 1/48. It would seem a no-brainer to switch, but I’m not completely sold on the 1/60 VF-1 yet. While it’s overall a great sculpt and locks together much more solidly than the 1/48, not to mention the FPs are much more secure, there’s a few things I don’t like about it. 1) The pilot being a little too far forward in the cockpit, the mirror finish on the canopy, the fiddlyness of getting the hip bar in and out of the nose hatch during transformation, which is can be a real pain in the ass. Apologies for the long rambling post, but basically, I’m just wondering if anybody else has is space limited and has already or has plans to retire the 1/48 in favor of the new 1/60 ver.2? Graham

Currently listening to Rob Zombie, King Crimson (early stuff), Ash, Crowded House, Black Sabbath and an 80's New Romantic compilation. Oh and of course still listening to Macross Frontier OST 1 & 2. Graham

As a rough estimate, here in Hong Kong, about, I'd say about 20% of the specialist Japanese toy shops received stock by air mail shortly after Christmas. Of those shops that did get stock, probably half to 75% are now sold out. The shops that still have stock are the ones selling them at ridiculously high prices. More stock is on the way by sea and is scheduled to arrive here around January 10. To sum it up, basically very few shops here now have stock left and those that do are selling it at an inflated price. More stock is on the way and will hopefully be sold at a more reasonable price when it arrives. Graham

We've all been bitching and moaning about the tiny landing gear (myself included), since the first pics were shown months ago. Thing is, the toys are out now and no amount of complaining is going to change things. Yes, Yamato makes better landing gear, heck their VFs are generally more accurate overall. However as has been inferred through magazine article translations, Bandai weren't aiming to compete with Yamato in the accuracy stakes. What they were doing was trying to create a Chunky Monkey for the 21st century, i.e. a durable, fun toy, which while somewhat chunky and not 100% accurate to the anime, was rugged and still captured the overall essence of the VF-25. Did they suceed? Generally yes, I think they did. While I think there's a long list of things most of us would like to see improved on the toys, I'm fairly happy with mine, to the point I'm now going to be buying a second pair of Alto and Ozma. As I've stated before, It will probably be a long time (if ever), before anybody else makes a large scale high quality transfming VF-25. I love the VF-25 design and have wanted a toy since the show first aired. I've leaned to love the Bandai toy warts and all and am just enjoying it for what it is. Graham

Even though it didn't turn out well, can you post pics of the modifications you did please. Graham

Each to his own, but I find the 00 mecha designs to be getting progressively sillier as the show continues. That coupled with mediocre animation, boring fight choreography, unlikeable, boring characters, means there is absolutely nothing about the show that appeals to me. Gundam had it's glory days with CCA, 0080, 0083, 08MST IMO. The franchise is way past it's sell by date and should be retired for at least a decade IMO. Graham

Heh, first time I read that, I thought you wrote "I'm Bobby's guy". Graham

Would cutting away part of the flat detailed panel compromise the structural integrity of the upper leg around the knee joint area do you think? Graham

So say you. I give it the vote for joint worst mecha anime of the year, together with Code Gaeas. Graham

Good luck. You are a braver soul than me. Graham

And because somebody asked for it a couple of pages back, here's some shots of the 1/60 Bandai DX VF-25S Ozma type in Battroid mode, together with the Yamato 1/60 YF-21, also in Battroid mode. Graham

Bandai 1/60 DX VF-25F Alto type with Yamato 1/60 ver.2 VF-1J Hikaru. Graham

I'd say slim to no chance. Initially, there were indications that Yamato might be able to get a shot at it after about 4 years, but with Frontier being such a success, I doubt Bandai will let anybody else get it. Heck, after all these years, they are still hanging onto the Macross 7 toy licence, despite not really doing much with the property. Graham