Graham

Yep, HCM Pro are ABS, so no warping. Graham

Sounds like your biased hatred for Gundam speaking here, Graham. I don't hate Gundam. I actually quite like some of it (0080, CCA, 08MST, V, F91, Destiny). The rest I don't care for though and some of the fan favorites like MSG and Zeta I consider to be extremely overrated. The thing that bothers more about Gundam heads is not that they slightly resemble Samurai helmets, but rather that they all look the bloody same, with only minor variations . The Aquarion mecha heads, well at least 2 of them look far more like Samurai helmets in some of the pics I have seen, compared to Gundam heads. Graham

This news doesn't bother me too much. In fact I wouldn't be bothered if TRU closed down and went out of business for good. I haven't bought a toy or model for myself at TRU in years. I don't know about in the US, but here in HK, the TRU stores are very overpriced and don't stock the sort of toys I like anyway. The only good thing I'll say about TRU is that their stores have excellent baby sections. Graham

And the gunpod is bent like a banana . Graham

See here and here. Graham

Quite like some of the character designs and as the music is by Yoko (Macross Plus) kanno, it's bound to be good. I'm really not liking the mecha designs at all though. But that's just me. I've always preferred more realistic looking military style mecha like in Macross, Armored Core, Blue Gender, Gasaraki etc rather than the more unreallistic and sillier looking (IMO) Super robots like the Evas, Getter, Giant Robo etc. And as I mentioned in another thread, the Samurai style helmets on a couple of the Aqarion mecha reallly bug me. And isn't it about time to give a rest to that 40 year old cliche that super mecha can only be piloted by young kids. And of course you just know the kids are going to be full of angst! Honestly speaking if I have to watch one more anime where the only person who can save the world is an angst ridden young teenager, that has issues with his parents, and who unwittingly becomes a pilot of a super robot, I'm going to scream. I'll give this series a chance when it comes out, but I'm not too hopeful. Graham

GFF will warp with time, just not as quickly or as badly as MSiA. GFF are still PVC, just a harder PVC than used in the MSiA toys. Graham

It's the Samurai type helmets on a couple of the robots that gets me. I just can't stand robots with heads that look like Samurai helmets. Graham

Yep, that's correct. Simply attaching a set of F/S wings to a YF-19 or VF-19A does not make it a VF-19S/F. Pretty much every part of the VF-19S/F is different from the YF-19. Major differences would be completely different lower leg design with vernier ankle ring, more outwardly placed tails, smaller shield, no canards, completely different shoulder shape with folding flaps on rear shoulders, plus many, many other differences. If you put a set of those F/S wings on a Hasegawa YF-19, I guess you could call it a prototype VF-19F/S, but it would never be a true VF-19F/S without major resculpting of most parts. Graham

I have both the 1/60 GPB with VF-1J set and also one set of just the armor. On both of my GBP armors the front groin peices constantly fall off, no matter which 1/60 I try them on. Although to be fair, I've only tried them on 2-3 different 1/60s. Graham

Oh, nearly anything is possible with enough time, patience and skill. Unfortunately, I lack all three hence the quick super glue fix . Graham

That goes without saying. Graham

Wow, I have no recollection of that mecha at all, but it's probably about a decade since I last watched Gunbuster. Perhaps it's time to dig up my old VHS tapes and see if I like it any better this time round. Graham

While I'm sure the toys will be well designed being from Bandai, it's just a pity I don't like Kawamori's Aqarion designs. I'll pass on these, no matter how well engineered the toys end up being. Graham

It's years since I last watched Gunbuster, so what the heck is a "Sizzler"? Sounds like the name of a sausage! Graham

To be sung to the tune of Dylan's 'Blowing In The Wind'

Use some super glue to glue the hip rods permanently into the nose cone. While you are at it, also glue the front groin armor as well, to stop it falling off all the time. Yes, you will end up with a non-transforming Valk with non-removable groin armor, but at least the toy becomes playable, instead of an expensive display piece that falls apart if you as much as breath on it. Perhaps you can guess I don't think Yamato did a very good job with this toy. Graham

Yep, that's likely very true. I used to hear a lot of compaints from Yamato about the lengthy approval process. Sometimes BW and Kawamori are their own worst enemies when it comes to Macross. Graham

I don't think it's a case of BW not letting Yamato renew the license. More likely, it's probaby Yamato choosing not to pay to renew the license as they figure there is not enough profit to be made. And just which license are you referring to? AFAIK, Yamato had several licences with BW, not just 1 licence. I think it was something like 1 license for the M+ toys, 1 for VFX2 toys, 1 for TV & DYRL toys (actually might have been two seperate liences for 1/60 & 1/48, not sure on that), 1 license for M0 toys. I think each license is valid for a 2 year period. So chances are some license have already been renewed at least once and some have expired and not been renewed for whatever reason. Graham

Seen The Cockpit years ago. Thought it was ok, but again the potato-headed secondary characters put me off. Graham

Looking good so far, but the nose and forearms both need some work as they make it look too much like a VF-1. Graham

I've always thought that BW waited far too long to release a proper sequel to Macross. I mean from DYRL in 1984 to Macross II in 1992, that's 8 years of no Macross! OK, there was also Flash Back 2012 released in 1987, but that doesn't really count as it's basically just 30 minute of recycled song footage from the TV series and DYRL with a couple of minutes of new scenes added. BW really needed to strike while Macross was still fresh in everybody's minds and still popular. A sequel TV series say in 1985 or 1986, followed up by a new series or OVA every couple of years (just like Bandai/Sunrise does with Gundam) would possibly have led to Macross being as popular as Gundam is today, assuming proper marketing and support from major toy and model manufacturers. Macross certainly has the better looking mecha and better music for the most part than Gundam, so as long as the original creative team were retained I don't think it's unreasonable that Macross could have become the Gundam of today. It was certainly popular enough in 1982. In the end though, it was just too little, too late from BW and Macross was never again able to catch up to the Gundam giant. Graham

Another child of the 70s here and I've also never seen any Space Battleship Yamato. But then again, for some reason Leiji Matsumoto's animes have never appealed to me. I think it's his character designs that put me off. Graham

While it looks cool and all, you would just not get me buying something called 'Penelope Gundam'. Graham

I always get the impression, that BW doesn't really care about Macross, sort of like a bastard step child or something. Or perhaps it's just that they are actually quite incompetent and have no idea how to properly promote and market it. As far as I know, Macross is BW's only anime property, so you would think that they would be a bit more active in promoting it. Sigh........it's not easy keeping the faith sometimes. We have BW doing a half assed job, combined with HG trying to block Macross at every step of the way and to top it all off, Kawamori seems to be turning into some sort of nature obsessed tree hugger. Graham