Graham

As long as the game features elements of Macross, i.e. characters or Mecha from Macross, it is acceptable discussion material for this forum, even it is not strickly speaking a Macross game. Graham

Noel is going. See this thread in the conventions forum, which already discusses the Winter Wonder Fest this weekend. The following MWers will be attending: - 1) baribaru faita 2) Blackaces (Noel) 3) Min 4) Seichi Graham

I predict the next MSG game will feature 20 hours of movie that you have to sit through, followed by 5 minutes of actual gameplay . Graham

No, this forum is for discussing Macross games only. Topics about non-Macross games usually get locked. If you want to discuss non-Macross games, do it in the other anime & sci-fi forum. There are several long running threads there on other games such as the Ace Combat series, Air Force Delta Strike and I think a thread about those MSG games. Graham

This weekend. Graham

Not 100% certain, but I think Hasegawa usually don't have a booth at Wonder Fest. Of course I could be completely wrong. Graham

Looks like a digital image. Never heard of any toy or model of this, not to that one couldn't exist. Graham

There are only going to be 10pcs on sale at WF. As demand is likely to be high, Liquid Stone will be selling tickets for them, which will be drawn by lottery in the afternoon of Feb 19th. So there will only 10 lucky winners. Even if you win, you are still paying ¥30,000 for the toy. Very rare and quite pricey. I'm down for one . Hope I win. Graham

Err.....why not just order it from HLJ, it's in stock. Graham

Ya know what's annoying. I was just looking at my old pics of the 1/60 Destroid Monster prototype and the eyes are actually sculpted onto the toy. It's a pity that the same thing was not done with the VB-6 . I'm not going to show the whole pic, in case I get into trouble, but here's a small partial pic so you can see what I mean. Graham

Heh, does that mean you carry it on duty? Graham

Related to David Carradine by any chance? Graham

OK, so there's 4 of you going. So I want you to all arm yourselves with sharpened pencils (or other improvised non-illegal to carry weapons) and go to the Yamato booth together and start poking them with the pencils until they give you some answers . Poke....."Where's the YF-19FP"?....poke, poke, poke! Ok, you get the idea? Graham

I don't get it. Aren't all "prototypes" a scratchbuild anyway? Why can't they take that "one off custom job" blue white YF-19, make moulds for it and make it in ABS/Die cast? It looks pretty solid to me for a model.....imagine how durable it'll be when its casted in ABS. That Hasegawa custom would make a better mould IMHO. Well simplicity is one thing. But I'm sure we all want something more detailed and articulate ala 1/48. Otherwise we'd all be harping for more Bandai reissues. I don't mind the LS version....but if Yamato has to choose between LS mould and others, I hope they don't get the LS one and close the macross plus franchise forever. What a lot of people don't understand is that there is a huge difference in the design of a toy and the design of a plastic model or resin garage kit. Converting a model design to become a toy, is not simply a case of just injecting ABS into the model molds instead of resin or model-grade styrene, then drilling a few holes and adding a few screws. Sorry, it just doesn't work like that. Generally with toys, you are have thicker plastic walls than with model kits, the locating pins are much bigger and not just used for locating, but actually holding parts together. Then of course, joints have to be more durable and of course, there is the issue of screws and rivets which toys use a lot and the space they take up. You can't for example simply take the Hasegawa YF-19 steel molds and use them to make a toy without extensive retooling. All you would end up with would be a thin walled, fragile YF-19 that would still need to be glued together. Basically, you would have to design the thing from scratch and have all the tooling cut from scratch. Same situation applies with most resin kits,w ith a few differences in that most resin kits use big chunky resin parts that have to be glued together and are made using silicon molds, which deteriate very quickly. Converting a scratch-built custom into a toy is often even harder as athough many of the sculptors are very talented, they often don't understand the limitations of toy tooling (something Yamato used to complain a lot about when searching for good sculptors for variable toys). What impresses me a lot about the LS YF-19 is although it is a resin kit, it seems to have been designed more like a toy rather than a typical resin kit, so if steel molds were to be cut for it, it could be put into production with little to no time spent on modifying parts because of tooling limitations. Yes, of course I to would love a larger scale perfect variable YF-19 with better articulation and more detail. However, I think the LS would be a perfect candidate for a lower cost, smaller budget version, priced somewhere in the ¥4000 to ¥5000 range (similar to GFF pricing). Graham

Probably the Yamato 1/48 VF-1S Hikaru with FAST Packs. Grahanm

The hands have to be removed for fighter mode as well I think. Graham

That blue & white transformable YF-19 as featured in the June 2002 issue of Model Graphix magazine was a one-off custom job, using the Hasegawa kit as a base and would be just as or even more fragile than the Liquid Stone YF-19 IMO. Although the larger scale (1/72) does allow for better articulation. More importantly, the custom, scratch built nature of the blue and white YF-19 makes it not really suitable for translating into a mass production toy. While the Liquid Stone 1/100 may have less articulation (hey it is a smaller scale), what really impresses me about it is that it seems to have been designed with an eye to turning it into a toy. I would think that the relative simplicity of the design and modular nature of the parts would readily lend itself to mass production if Liquid Stone (or Yamato) were to have some steel molds cut and make it in ABS. Graham

Anyway, Noel you know the drill, take lots and lots of pics and use all your deep interrogation methods on the Yamato staff to find out more info about any upcoming Macross toys. . Obviously, the items which are of most interest to MW members are any news of what's happened to the YF-19FP and the Macross Zero toys. Graham

Eh, I thought you were going to the Summer WF, but not the winter one? Graham

I suspect that they wait until they have a large enough quantity of parcels, before they call the post office to pick them up. Either that or they are seriously understaffed and work on a 2-3 week backlog before they get to your order. However, as a customer, if I am paying a premium price for fast shipping, I expect fast shipping. There is absolutely no point in paying extra, if all HLJ does is keep the goods sitting around in there warehouse for a couple of weeks before shipping. this is why I seldom use HLJ anymore. Luckily, living in HK, I'm able to find 98% of Japanese items easily enough. Unfortunately, there's always that 2% of items (mostly garage kits), that have to be bought through HLJ . Graham

Yamato have got to realize that there is a huge demand for a nicely sculpted YF-19. It's been what 5 or 6 years since Yamato released their original YF-19 and these are long sold out and hard to find now. When they can be found, they command pretty high prices, US$200 here in HK. If Yamato put the 1/100 Liquid Stone design into mass production, I'd buy half a dozen at least. I bet many MW members and Japanese Macross Plus fans would buy multiples as well. Given that the Liquid Stone design is fairly small and could probably be made all in ABS, except for screws, the retail price point probably wouldn't be too high, ¥5000 or less I'd say. Another good thing about the Liquid Stone design, is that as it is molded in 3 colors already, it wouldn't require much paint application if made by a toy factory, basically, just the red trim, the green visor and the black canopy frame. Come on Yamato, give the fans what they have been clamoring for for years. Graham

I really wish they would make the mecha in SRW games non-SD. Graham

'Disc's of Doom'.....heh, sounds a bit like my wife's pancakes . Graham

Oh yeah, forgot about Min (sorry). Haven't seen him posting on MW lately. Graham

looking at the pics of the unassembled shoulder and wing in the link I posted, I love the ingenuity of the designer(s), how they have used seperate black pieces for the wing and shoulder stripes rather than having them painted on and how it fits together like a jigsaw puzzle. Sheer genius. Graham