Graham

Should still be late November. Graham

Strange POV IMO. The non-canon Valks as well as recent canon Valks such as the Angel Birds have been selling pretty well. Certanly there's not huge piles sitting unsold in warehouses. Yamato didn't really blow a whole load of money to produce them as the cost of the molds (the main expense) was paid for a long time ago. So it's only production and materials cost, plus a small amount of cost involved in development for choosing the paint and plastic colors to use. There is definitely profit being made on them. The more profit Yamato makes, the more it will encourage them to produce other Macross toys, such as those from Plus, Zero and others . Graham

No! Graham

It pushes in to make space for the arms in fighter mode. Graham

Oh, there's about 3 more cool features I can think of that haven't been shown yet. Graham

Beacuse Yamato likes teasing you and revealing the features slowly, one by one, to build up anticipation. Graham

Bigger version of the same pic, showing the upwards hinging shoulders. Click thumbnail to enlarge Graham

The November hobby magazines are out a few days early. Just picked them up. As it's shown in the magazines, I can now reveal one of the hidden features of the YF-19 that I've previously alluded to............. Upward hinging shoulders, to make the battroid more accurate to Kawamori's line art! Also note, the CAD pic of the upcoming Fold Booster & FAST Packs for the YF-19 and the Ghost Booster for the VF-0 (that we've already seen). Not final colors! I'll get a better scan up at the weekend. Graham

I don't know yet. I did talk with them 2 days ago, but I forgot to ask.........sorry! Graham

Hobby mags come out on 25th of each month. Graham

I have a nice comparison photo of the YF-19 Battroid standing between a 1/60 VF-0S and a 1/48 VF-1. Unfortunately, I'm not cleared to show it. Graham

Tail fin markings will be stickers not tampo AFAIK, as you have a choice of Rabbit or Skull squadron stickers. Graham

Bear in mind that at 1/60 scale, that tab is actually a decent size. It's certainly not as small and fragile as the tiny tab on the Bandai VF-19Kai/S/F kits, which is extremely prone to breakage. Different materials as well. Stronger toy-grade ABS on the Yamato, fragile model-grade styrene plastic on the Bandai kit. I wouldn't worry about it. Graham

Actually, the way the crotch-piece folds and is stored in fighter mode, is correct to Kawamori's transformation lineart. The Yamato 1/60 is the only toy to get this correct so far. Graham

I can confirm those hobbystock pics are of the painted resin prototype, hence the large gaps with some parts, which will be reduced on the production toy. Those pics are actually pretty old. I've had them for 2-3 months already Graham

Not really sure about the colors they're using on those pics. I always thought that the chest and shoulder hatches were grey and the blue of the armour more subdued. See Tenjin's art below: - Graham

VF-0A is still on schedule for Sept 25 release. Still trying to clear up what is the exact situation with the 2nd run of VF-0S. Graham

The cover art of the TIAS mac Plus book shows the top part (barrel cover) of the gunpod removed. The Club M 1/72 scale YF-19 resin kit also had a gunpod with a removeable barrel cover, which you can see in the bottom right corner of the instruction sheet below. The instruction sheet also shows the optional wiing weapons. Graham

Saw the Toynami Max VF-1A in a toy shop here in HK. It looked pretty good, but at HK$169 (US$21.66), I decided to pass. If Toynami wants to send me a sample, I'll be happy to do a review Graham

Actually, the YF-19 has more parts and is slightly longer in fighter mode than the VF-0, so higher tooling and design costs. AFAIK, FPs will come as a set with the Fold Booster. Graham

Actually, yes the YF-19 does have the option of exterior wing pylons and that's what those missiles on the TIAS cover are for. Missiles with Pylons - Hobby Base Retppu YF-19 Resin Kit Wing Missiles on Completed Hobby Base Retppu YF-19 (See small Fighter Mode Pic at bottom of page) As for the question of are they coming for the toy, well as usually my lips are sealed. Graham

Who says the Fold Booster is a problem. There's no problem that I'm aware of. Graham AFAIK no, but I'll double check. Graham

Which again, is the same as the Hasegawa kit. Graham

So what's the difference between the D-Stance YF-21 shoulder and the SHE YF-21 shoulder? The SHE shoulder also featured a rotating mechanism to move the shoulder further back and expose the yellow color wing root section in fighter mode. See this pic: - SHE YF-21 Fighter Shoulder I've never seen a good pic of the D-Stance shoulder area in fighter mode. Graham

David, you should know better than to make a statement like that. As someone who has owned both, I can say that original Yamato YF-19 is far from a direct copy of the SHE. There is more different between the two than there is the same. While it's true that SHE did provide technical assistence to Yamato and the transformation sequence is vaguely similar, the two are actually very different and certainly the Yamato is not a direct copy in terms of sculpt, features or transformation. Some of the many differences are: - 1) Yamato cockpit sculpt is a different and incorrect shape. 2) Yamato has front and rear landing gear, SHE has none. 3) Yamato has multiple locking tabs, SHE has none (or very few IIRC), using mainly screw tension for locking. 4) Yamato has the triangular gap where the nose hinges, SHE has no gap. 5) Yamato's gunpod attaches in fighter mode, SHE's doesn't. 6) Yamato's lower legs lack the intricate (and delicate) origami style folding panels of the SHE. 7) Yamato's overall sculpt is quite different, especially in the areas of the head, nose, chest, knees (in fact everywhere)! Many other differences, but as I don't have the SHE and Yamato in front of me, I can't list them, but you get the general idea. It's more accurate to say that Yamato's 1/72 YF-19 was loosly based on SHE's, in the same way that Spielberg's War of The Worlds movie was based on the orginal H.G. Wells novel. Graham