Graham

MSiA Freedom Gundam Mini Review Articulation: Fairly good articulation. Ver.2 knees and elbows. Upper-arm rotation point. Head can rotate about 45 degrees side to side and also is capable of some small back & forth movement. 360 degree waist rotation. Ankle articulation pretty good and the toy can keep it's feet fairly flat on the ground even with the legs spread. Front and rear skirt armor is not articulated, but as it is made of very soft PVC, it will bend up if you want to do a kneeling pose. Good articulation of the back wings with solid tight hinges, reinforced with thick metal pins so that the wings will hold their pose when open. Accessories: Comes with 2 x Beam Sabers with removeable blades, 1 x double joined Beam Saber hilt (think Darth Maul), 1 x beam rifle, 1 x shield, 6 x hands (2 x closed fists, 2 x gun hands, 2 x Beam saber hands). Finish, Construction & Sculpt: Pretty good paint job, with a bit of overspray in some areas, nothing major though. Toy is constructed of all PVC, except for the POM elbow & knee joints and the main wing hinges. Sculpt seems pretty accurate, although I'm no expert on the Freedom. Beam Saber blades are ABS, so no sagging, limp noodle blades here. Flaws: The only problem with this toy so far is that the left skirt armor does not hold the beam saber hilt securely at all. In fact the hilt falls out with just the gentlest of touch. The right skirt armor holds the beam saber hilt fine. The problem as I see it is that the two halves of the right skirt armor were not glued together tightly enough at the factory, leaving the channel that holds the hilt slightly oversize . Conclusion: I'm pretty happy with this toy. It's a nice looking sculpt, reasonably well articulated (although not as articulated as the Zaku Phantoms or the Impulse). The back wings/guns are well done and can hold their pose in either the full weapons mode, with the back and hip guns pointing forward or the mode with wings fully open. The hip rail guns also open and close without problem. Overall, I'd give this figure a 7.5/10. Graham

MSiA Blaze & Slash Zaku Phantoms Mini Review Articulation: Overall very good articulation. Ver.2 knees and elbows. Mid-bicep rotation point. Head can rotate 360 degrees and also is capable of some back & forth and side to side movement. Excellent waist articulation. Full 360 degree waist rotation, plus can tilt back & forth and side to side as well. Ankle articulation is fairly limited though as the armor gets in the way. All waist armor segments can be raised to horizontal so kneeling pose is not a problem. Accessories: Comes with 2 x arm shields, 1 x beam rifle, with detachable disc-shape power pack, 4 x spare beam rifle power packs for attaching to inside of arm shields, 1 x back mounted double beam gattling pack (Slash only), 1 x beam axe with removeable beam blade, 1 x large beam axe consisting of double bladed axe head w/removeable beam blades, haft section and end spike (Slash only), 6 x hands (2 fists, 2 gun hands, 2 axe hands), 1 x large thruster back pack with opening missile pods (Blaze only). Finish, Construction & Sculpt: These figures are mostly molded in the correct color PVC, so there is not a great deal of painted areas. The paint job on the painted parts is normal to good for MSiA. Construction of these toys is pretty much all PVC, except for the POM knee and elbow joints. No hard plastic used for the weapons, except for the haft of the Slash's double-bladed beam axe. Sculpt seems accurate to the lineart and anime, although I do think the haed sits a bit too high on the neck joint. Flaws: No major obvious flaws so far. Nothing really loose and no parts falling off except for the beam rifle power pack which doesn't attach to the rifle very securely. I'll probably glue it on. My only other minor complaint is that the missile pod hatches on the Blaze's back pack do not open far enough. Conclusion: With good articulation, no obvious flaws, a decent selection of weapons and a nice looking sculpt, I'd give these figures a 9/10.

OK, just got back from my little shopping expedition. Went to my regular shop that I buy Gundam toys from and gasp..........on first glance, none of the new January MSiAs are on display. So I rumage through the shelves and 1 row back manage to find a single Slash Zaku Phantom (Yzak's blue one) for HK$99 (US$12.70). It seems that the shop only received a few pieces of the new MSiA yesterday and they sold out very quickly. So, being somewhat disheartened at not finding the Freedom MSiA I walk to a nearby shopping mall that has about half a dozen small toy shops. First shop I visit also has a single Slash Zaku Phantom only, but selling cheaper for HK$79 (US$10.12). Gah, knew I should have shopped around! Next two shops, nothing. Next shop........yes! I spot the Freedom MSiA, but it is the last one and the shopkeeper wants HK$178 (US$22.80) for it. Hmm.....this is an extremely high price for an MSiA. So, do I do the sensible thing and wait until next week, when more stock will probably come in and I can get it for a cheaper price, or do I buy it now? Heh, heh, what do you think? Let no man accuse me of being sensible . Of course I bought it . Final shop, luck is with me again. They have the Blaze Zaku Phantom (Rey's white one) selling for HK$79 (US$10.12), which I buy. They are all sitting in front of me now in their boxes. I'm just going to break them out and I'll write a quick report after I've had a chance to play with them. Graham

Regular uniform with that oh so lovely, oh so short miniskirt . Graham

Hasegawa could easily relase three versions of the VF-11 to get more use out of the molds, Mac Plus VF-11B, Mac 7 VF-11C and VF-X2 version. I'd probably buy a couple at least. Graham

There's been pics of these in the last few issues of Hobby Japan magazine. I'll try to get them scanned tonight. They look really nice. I'm definitely getting the Lunamaria one. Graham

Yeah I know . I put it down to a mixture of old age & sleep deprivation. Plus a few sites listed the release date as January 22nd, so I didn't really think they would be released so early. Damn, never believe anything you read on a website . Graham

Stupid me, I went to the shop where I normally buy my Gundam toys yesterday, and they had a load of Bandai cartons just in. But as none of them were obviously marked as containing MSiA, I didn't bother to hang around. I bet they did contain the new MSiA...I should have asked . Oh well, only an hour and a quarter until I can get to the shop again . Graham

Heh, perhaps Lucas will treat us to some Wookie rap Graham

Modern riot armor (which my company sells among other things) is light enough that it doesn't hamper mobility too much. Yes, you can still run in it, even with full arm, thigh and shin protection. I'm not talking about ballistic (bullet resistant) armor. A full suit of that like an EOD bomb suit for example is far too heavy to run in. Yes, if you are unlucky enough to be down on your back on the floor with 10 or more zombies all over you, you are probably history. However, the use of armor is more to prevent an accidental or suprise bite when you are grappling with or plowing through a crowd of zombies, or if one suddenly jumps out at from you from behind a door. If he latches onto your forearm with his teeth, all he is going to get is a mouthful of plastic armor, rather than your flesh. The result being, you live and do not have a nasty infection which would turn you into a zombie. Looking at the Romero Zombie movies, it seems that the most common areas for bites when in melee combat with zombies are the lower leg, forearm and neck, so even some light padding on these areas could prevent potentially lethal bites. Graham

Bet you always play with your Monster as well right? Graham

I'll see if I can find them today then. Graham

Does the VF-0D kit include a color guide for painting it as a standard grey VF-0D, instead of Shin's blue version? Grahan

I don't think anybody is really bashing Hasegawa's Macross kits. We all acknowledge that they are fantastic kits and light years ahead of the old badly proportioned and poorly detailed Arai and Imai Macross kits. Even though I'm primarily a toy guy and couldn't paint a model kit to save my life, I still own several Hasegawa Macross kits that I had built for me and proudly display them together with my Macross toys. They are great eye candy, but as a few of us pointed out, they are not 100% accurate to the line art in a few areas (although a damn sight more accurate than all toys ) and Hasegawa has added additional non-canon details. But in the end who cares as they look great. I think Nanashi's point in mentioning this first of all, was just to make people aware that although they are great kits, they should not be regarded as the 'be all & end all' in accuracy. This is not a critiscm, as afterall they are just the sculptors interpretation of the design, incorporating Hasegawa's desire to give the Valks a more 'real aircraft' feel. Anyway, let's just hope that with the release of all major Macross Zero fighter variants, that Hasegawa has not given up on Macross kits. I know I would be all over a VF-17 and VF-11 kit if they released them. Graham

'Macross Digital Mission VF-X', the first VF-X game released for the Playstation in 1997 did not feature the VB-6. The ship the main character launched from in this game was called "Valhalla III (VCV) Stealth Attack Variable Carrier Vessel" In The 2001 Dreamcast game 'Macross M3', the carrier vessel used by Max & Millia's Dancing Skull squadron was called the "Algenicus Special Forces Cruiser". However, to the best of my knowledge, no name has been given for the carrier vessel used by the VF-X Ravens special forces squadron in the 1999 Playstation game 'Macross VF-X2'. Graham

I've got both of the VF-X2 gamebooks and I have not been able to find the name of the ship written so far. The scan of the ship was taken from one of the books. Graham

And here's the only pic I know of that actually shows the pop-up missile launchers in shuttle mode. Graham

And the transformation..... Graham

And another page........ Graham

As requested, here's some VB-6 lineart. Graham

you mean, you can actually see the missile when it open? or you can see the missile when you hold it open? mine is all glued down in the inside where the hinges are located. The two pods have to be pulled open by hand. Once you pull them open, you can see the missile (the cylinder with the rectangular indentaion on the front). On my VB-6, the pod on the left arm is a bit loose and hangs partially open. Graham

When you open it, the little cylinder you see with the rectangular indentation on the front is the missile. Lots of missiles in Macross have those rectangular indentations on the front. Graham

OK, here's the only lineart pic I have of the ship that the VF-X Ravens are based on in the game. Sorry, I've no idea what the name of this ship is. It may be written in Japanese, perhaps Renato could tell us? Graham

Kawamori showed his Lego SV-51 at a convention back in 2003 or 2004. I forget the name of the convention, but there were pics floating around on Macrossworld previously. I just tried to do a search, but wasn't able to find them. Perhaps somebody else will have better luck. I've definitely also seen a pic of Kawamori with his Lego VF-17. It's in either the VF-X2 gamebooks or perhaps the Mac Plus movie book. Or more likely now I think about it, it may have been shown in the 'Macross's Fastest Liftoff!!' (Macross 7 Preview) TV program. Graham

While you're doing that, do you mind scanning the koenig monster lineart if you have time? I've seen it here before, but nothing comes up when I do a search. A few months ago I had the chance to buy one of the VF-X2 books for next to nothing (Y10, I think!!), and I said "Maybe later". I kick myself everytime I remember that. Ow. Heh, never ever pass up the chance to buy a hard-to-find piece of Macross merchendise when you see it for a cheap price. I've made that mistake many times myself and always regretted it later when I decide to go back and buy it, but find it's already been sold . I'll try to remember to scan the VB-6 lineart pics tonight after baby goes to bed. Graham