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Graham

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  1. Graham
    Just spoke briefy with Yamato and was told the TAF schemes are not going to be made into production toys. Graham
  2. Graham
    It seems to be a serialization that's been running in Hobby Japan the last few months. Text with some photos and drawings. Yes, Max factory will be releasing their 'big head' 1/35 PVC Scopedog toys in Commando Vorct colors in May or June this year IIRC. I think there is also a garage kit manufacturer releasing some resin conversion parts, possibly for the Takara plamodels? Graham
  3. Graham
    I'm loving the TV series so far. I'm about half way through the Kummen Jungle Wars arc. I recently ordered and recieved the first three R2 OVAs "The Unknown Red Shoulder" 1985, "Battle Of The Heterogeneous Species" 1986, & "Red Shoulder Document, The Root Of Ambition" 1988. I've watched the first two and they are great. I've also just placed an order with CD Japan for the 5-part OVA "The Defrost". Can't wait for the new TV series to start later this year. Chirico is such a great character. It's nice to see a professional soldier as the lead, instead of a whiney, angsty teenage brat, as is common in many mecha shows. After a few days with my DMZ #02 Strikedog, I've found that the shoulder and hip joints, especially the hips are much looser than my DMZ #01 Scopedog, meaning it tends to overbalance fairly easily. I think I'm going to have to take it apart and see if I can tighten up some of the joints. Poseability is also a bit less less on the Strikedog, as the ankles don't have as wide a range of movement as the Scopedog's and you can't really get the feet flat on the floor with the legs spread wide. Still a great looking toy though. Graham
  4. Graham
    I voted for the X-Wing. While Fett's armour looks cool, the guy was a real wuss, getting beaten by a blind man with a stick. Graham
  5. Graham
    It's only been announced as an accessory set so far, complete with a Vanilla Microman figure. Of course, that's not to say that Takara might not later release it together with a Scopedog, but there has been no official announcement either way yet. Graham
  6. Graham
    I Luv Mylene! Graham
  7. Graham
    Anybody have the CM's red & green Calamity Dog toys? Are they decent toys, i.e. do the have good articulation, tight joints, decent paint job and do the parts stay on, or are they a floppy mess with crap paint job and self-destruct if you breath on them? Also, are they made mostly of ABS or dreaded PVC? Graham
  8. Graham
    Not to try to hijack this thread too much, but I'm just curious as to what bitrate you guys use for your MP3 files? After some experimentation I found that 128kbps seems to offer the best balance for me between acceptable audio quality vs file size. Graham
  9. Graham
    On The Bloodsucker I handled, the limbs were very loose, the backpack wouldn't stay on and the magazine kept falling off the rifle. Also, the surface of the figure showed more than the normal amount of PVC lumps, bumps and depressions, i.e. the supposedly flat surfeces weren't as flat as they could have been. Maybe this was just a bad one and others are better, but I wouldn't buy it. Graham
  10. Graham
    Although I haven't had much time to handle it let, my initial impressions of the Takara 1/18 Strikedog (DMZ #02) are very positive. Articulation is good and the joints are nice and tight with very positive ratchets. The detail and paint job is also very good. It seems Takara fixed most of the issues found on DMZ #01. The head turret is now nice and secure, the visor actually stays up when opened and the antennas are of a flexible blue plastic, so there's not so much worry about them breaking (a second set of harder plastic antenna painted silver are also provided). My only complaint is again about the hand design as the fingers are just not secure enough to hold the big Solid Shooter bazooka and the fingers come off within seconds. I've already super-glued them in place. As others have mentioned, the plastic used in the toy feels more like fragile model-kit-grade styrene rather than toy-grade ABS, but so far on my Scopedog (DMZ #01), which I have had for a couple of weeks seems to be holding up fine. Graham
  11. Graham
    No idea if DMZ #03 comes with any stickers, but I agree that it does look really plain with no weathering and no printed markings. I'm definitely going to pass on it. Although I'd like to have a Round Mover and Solid Shooter, I'm not going to buy another Scopedog, especially such a plain looking one, just to get the accessories. C'mon Takara, release more accessory sets! Graham
  12. Graham
    I usually buy from www.allofmp3.com Graham
  13. Graham
    Votoms is not that popular here in HK and only limited stock is imported and tends to sell at inflated prices. Hardly any shops sell Votoms toys. In fact pretty much the only toy store that sells a decent selection of Votoms stuff is Animate. I should know as I recently went on a big toy hunt around Causeway Bay, Wanchai, Mong Kok, Tai Po, Fanling and Taikoo Shing. I must have visited over 30 toy and hobby shops and apart from Animate, only 1 or 2 other shops had any Votoms stuff at all and then usually only 1-2 items. Graham
  14. Graham
    Thanks, I'll check that out. I haven't gotten around to taking a look at the extras on the CPMs DVDs yet. Graham
  15. Graham
    I forget which was my first toy, it was either the Bandai 1/100 DYRL VF-1A Hikaru or the Bandai 1/72 DYRL HCM VF-1S Hikaru back in either 1986 or 1987. I owned several Macross models back in 1983, long before I ever saw any toys. Graham
  16. Graham
    I just paid HK$780 (US$100) for the Strikdog (DMZ # 02) at Animate. Chirico's Scopedog (DMZ # 01) goes for a higher price now as stock is getting scarce. Animate still has it, but is selling it for HK$980 (US$126). The Scopedog with Round Mover (DMZ # 03) is selling for about HK$750 (US$96) IIRC. Graham
  17. Graham
    Probably going to pick up the Takara-Tomy DMZ 1/18 Strikedog in about half an hour, so my DMZ Scopedog has somebody to fight. Graham
  18. Graham
    I just bought the original Japanese DVD of The Last Red Shoulder and even in raw Japanese with no subs, it's pretty easy to figure out what's going on. Graham
  19. Graham
    I couldn't care less about the Vanilla figure (Micromen suck) but it's awesome we'll be getting the Red Shoulder Custom weapons set, without having to buy a whole new Scopedog. It looks like Takara is taking a leaf out of Yamato's book regarding releasing accessory weapons sets. Let's hope they also release the Parachute Sack, Round Mover, Solid Shooter and some of the other weapons as accesory sets. I wasn't looking forward to having to shell out big bucks for a whole new 1/18 scale Red Shoulder Custom Scopedog and now I won't have to. Graham
  20. Graham
    I also picked up the Max Factory 1/35 scale Scopedog Turbo Custom 2 days ago. I usually avoid PVC mecha toys like the plague, as you never get nice sharp, crisp detail like you do on ABS toys. Also, with PVC the surfaces are never completely flat and the joints inevitably loosen quickly, or more often than not are loose from the box. However, I really wanted a Scopedog Turbo Custom with full weapons, so I decided to take a chance on the Max Factory version. I'd previouly bought the Takara-Tomy 1/48 scale Actic Gear version, but was somewhat disappointed by it's fiddlyness and the fact that it did not include the Solid-Shooter for the left arm or or the shoulder missile pod. I'd kill for either a Yamato 1/12 scale Turbo Custom or a Takara-Tomy 1/18 scale version and while they will likely come eventually, it's probably going to be quite a wait. I've little experience with the Max Factory 1/35 Votoms line, except for MWer Sebastian's Bloodsucker, which I examined while visiting Shanghai recently. Both Sebastian and I were of the opinion that the Boodsucker was a peice of crap with increadibly loose joints, parts that fell off if looked at the wrong way and typical PVC toy lack of crisp sharp straight edges. Anyway, despite the negative view of the Bloodsucker I decided to take a chance on the Max Factory 1/35 Scopedog Turbo Custom. On my return to Hong Kong, I visited the branch of Animate in Sugar Street in Causeway Bay and picked up the last one in stock for HK$240 (US$30.76) Comments: - The big head sculpt is really annoying and spoils the look of the toy, but I did know about this before hand. The right elbow joint is very loose and will not support the weight of the GAT-22 rifle. The forearm always droops down so the rifle's muzzle is touching the ground. The left knee joint is very loose and the left lower leg frequently falls off when handling the toy. The right shoulder armor is not very secure and often falls off when handling the toy. The waist missile launcher attachment peg was way loose and had to be glued in as the missile launcher would just fall off the peg. The front part of the waist missile launcher (the rectangle surrounding the missiles) fell off out of the box and had to be glued on. I doubt I'll be buying anymore of this line. The joints are too loose and the big head really does spoil the look. I'm going to be sticking to selective Yamato 1/12 and Takara-Tomy 1/18 for my Votoms fix. Graham
  21. Graham
    To the top of the head, it's about 15.3cm. To the top of the blue-tipped antenna, it's about 16.7cm. Graham
  22. Graham
    I've just come back from 4 days in Shanghai, I had no internet access. My first time too see this also. Yes, it looks hideous. Notice they have also mispelt "Spirit of Valkylie" on the toys Graham
  23. Graham
    Wadda ya expect, this is Yamato afterall, they of the huge box fetish. Graham
  24. Graham
    Yes, but the CM's Ingram pilot figure is tiny when compared to a Yamato 1/48 VF-1 pilot. Mind you, a Takara Actic Gear 1/48 pilot is smaller even than the Ingram pilot. Graham
  25. Graham
    TV edition is already here in HK, just saw it in Animate today during my lunch break. Graham
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