Graham

NORA SV-51 COLOR NEWS I spoke with Yamato on Saturday regarding the Nora SV-51 and they advised me that the gold markings are here to stay . Actually, not sure if they are exactly gold, copper or bronze, just that they are metallic. I’m waiting for Yamato to send me some good quality studio pics of Nora’s SV-51 as the Wonder Fest pics have very dodgy lighting. What I found out that I didn’t know before, was that when Macross Zero was in preproduction, Tenjin actually worked very closely with Kawamori on the Macross Zero designs and that Tenjin was actually the one that did the color schemes for all the mecha. Kawamori did the black and white lineart designs and then passed them onto Tenjin and told him to convert them into CG and come up with the color schemes. According to both Kawamori and Tenjin, gold is actually the correct color for Nora’s SV-51 markings, not yellow. Regarding Hasegawa’s SV-51 Nora model kit, I was told was that the reason that the Hasegawa kit came with yellow decals for the markings is that there is some problem with producing good quality gold decals (perhaps David or other model kit gurus can confirm this)? Which is why Hasegawa went with Yellow. It’s been a few months since I last watched Macross Zero, so I’m going to have to pop it into the DVD player and pay special attention to Nora’s SV-51, to see if the markings indeed look more gold or yellow. In a way, it’s good that Yamato works closely with Kawamori (and now Tenjin), as it means we get more accurately designed toys. However, on the downside it does mean that the aforementioned gentlemen, sometimes get to mess around with the color schemes as they have final approval, not Yamato. Regarding the base color of the Nora toy, there is still some wiggle-room for correction, so if any MWers want to post suggestions or color swatches for what you think the correct shade of magenta/purple/pink the toy should be, please do so ASAP. Graham

Spoke with Yamato on Saturday morning and they confirmed that the Ivanov SV-51 is still on schedule for release at the end of August. With transforming toys as complex as this, there are always many small design, QA/QC and assembly related issues that need to be addressed prior to the final release. Sometimes resolving these takes longer than expected, hence the delay in release. Yamato are trying very hard to ensure this product is a perfect as humanly possible for the first release. Graham

Although it's difficult to tell anything conclusive from the one picture, I'm betting those new 'Frontier Class' colony ships are huge, probably dwarfing City 7. It wouldn't surprise me if they are close in size UC era Gundam colonies, well lengthwise anyway, if not diameter. I guess as they only have one landmass, they would be like UC colonies cut in half lengthwise. Graham

From the pic of the new VF previously posted, my comments are as follows: - It has an angled chestplate in Battroid mode ala VF-5000 and VF-17. The rear half of the gunpod visible in the pic, looks fairly traditional, i.e like a GU-11. The right hand could possible be a tri-claw, rather than a normal hand (the pic is not really clear enough to tell). The shoulder mechanism looks like it could have a similar transformation to the shoulders on the VF-11. Some type of blade or fin (possibly folded tail fin?) is visible on the right forearm. Or perhaps it is the wing assembly connected to the back and is actually behind the forearm. Possibly an officer or aces model. A head laser or antenna is shown on the right side of the head, It is likely that there is one on the left side as well. Transformation looks fairly standard, possibly a combination of VF-1, VF-5000 and VF-11? Cockpit and nose probably folds under the chest in Battroi mode, rather than having the nose cone between the Battroids legs ala VF-1, VF-0, VF-11 etc. Not keen on the color scheme, although with the lighting in the pic it is difficult to tell. Graham

Tentacle fan service perhaps? Macross meets Legend of the Overfiend? Graham

Hopefully the wave SDF-1 repaint will be more matte. I personally find the original version too glossy. Graham

When I received my 4 sets of VF-0S and 4 sets VF-0A of replacement arms, they came complete with the shoulder ball joint and the hinged piece that screws onto the backplate, so no need to pop the new arms onto the old ball joint. It sounds like from your post that your replacements didn't come with the shoulder ball joint and hinged piece? Graham

Tenjin is actually responsible for these 25th anniversery colour schemes on the Yamato VF-1 and YF-19. The YF-19 looks absolutely gorgeous IMO. Graham

Can we add that to the MW custom toy gallery? Graham

Why are they making this? Graham

Captain Scarlet is voiced by Wayne Forester, a versatile British voice actor who has provided voices for many UK children's TV programs. Graham

From what I've been told, all the major markings will be Tampo printed on the Ivanov SV-51. All the publicity pics are preproduction versions with either no Tampo Printing or only partial Tampo printing. Although this bird is expensive, you are getting quite a lot for you money as it comes with the new style display stand, overwing boosters and full set of missiles and micro-missile pods so you can display it as either # ep 1-4 standard version of ep # 5 boosters + extra weapons version. Graham

Checking with Yamato about the Nora colors. Will let you know as soon as I have a reply. Graham

Capatain Blue has an American accent, Capatain Scarlet definitely does not. Graham

Still waiting to hear why HLJ charged for the arms. From what I'm understand they weren't supposed to, well maybe just a small handling charge, certainly not 1,500 per arm! Did anybody here order arms though another online Japan based retailer, besides HLJ? If so, did they charge? Graham

Nope, the 'F' doesn't stand for 'First'. Graham

Interchangeable pegging..........LOL! I was just reading a Savage Love column about pegging. Whatever turns you on I guess. Graham

The leg FAST packs could really do with 2 magnets each IMO. Graham

For those asking if the replacement arms have the harder ABS plus SBS parts, my only answer is: RMFP carefully! For those asking about the Shin arms, stay tuned for further information. Graham

VF-0 REPLACEMENT ARMS ANNOUNCEMENT Regarding the VF-0A and VF-0S replacement arms which Yamato has recently made available as spare parts, it seems there has been some misunderstanding and miscommunication between Yamato and myself regarding the exact nature of the improvement to the arms. Based on earlier discussions with Yamato, I was under the impression that the shoulder and elbow parts (the grey ABS plastic parts that have been widely reported on Macrossworld as getting stress marks and/or cracking), would be changed from ABS plastic to POM plastic. However, it turns out that this is not the case and any such statements to the effect are my mistake. Yamato spent a long while studying this phenomonen and determined that the stress marks and cracking of the ABS shoulder and elbow parts was caused by the ABS plastic having an adverse chemical reaction with the PVC parts located inside the arm (this is actually what they suspected from the beginning). Apparently, it is a well known phenomenon that PVC can react negatively with and weaken ABS. What Yamato have done on the replacement arms is two improvements, as follows: - 1) They have removed the PVC cup and O-ring from inside the arm and replaced them with SBS Rubber parts, so there will be no chemical weakening of the ABS. 2) Secondly, the ABS parts marked with a red & green circle in the attached picture were previously just regular ABS. After Yamato found the problem, they had the factory increase the hardness of the ABS material. Whether, these two changes will be enough, only time will tell. Personally, I would have liked them to increase the thickness of the oplastic as well, but that is not possible without complete retooling of the affected parts. Graham

The 1/60 is a thing of great beauty. Hopefully, Yamato can hit a home run and release it without any flaws. Graham

Sorry, got tied up at work. I promise I'll write the whole story tomorrow. Graham

End of August is correct at the moment. Yamato is being extra careful to work out all the bugs, hence the delay. So no, the toys have not shipped yet. Graham

Standy by, stand by. Graham

I've been pushing Yamato for ages to make a white YF-19, preferably one of the Super Nova color schemes, either the white with blue trim or white with orange trim. Graham