Graham

The Impulse's color changing is not magical. It's actually listed in the specs as having 'Variable Phase Shift' (VPS) armor. However, it's not known at this time if the 'Variable'' just refers to the color changing ability, or whether it actually offers improved protection over regular Phase Shift armor. Anyway, the Impulse's color changing is certainly a stroke of genius on the part of Bandai's marketing department. Having a different color scheme for the Impulse for each different weapon load, is a great way to force fans to buy multiple recolors of the same figure . Graham

But it looks like the head of the Astromech droid would get in the way of the wing folding inward though. Graham

Nope, not toys I think. I'm pretty sure that that those are concept test designs Kawamori made himself using LEGO (or some other similar building block system). Kawamori is quite famous for doing this when he designs a transforming mecha, just to see if his transformation concept actually works in a 3D medium. He even occasionally brings these LEGO mecha to show to fans at conventions. I've seen pics of the LEGO SV-51 and VF-17 that he made. I'm pretty sure there are others as well. Graham

And I'm holding my 7 month old while typing this . Graham

I forget if the name of the ship that the VF-X Ravens special forces squadron uses was ever mentioned in the game or not. However, I don't think it would really be accurate to use stickers for the SDF-1, Prometheus, ARMD-1, or Daedalus on the VB-6, as those are all old Space War-1 era ships and the VB-6 Konig Monster makes it's first appearance (that we know of) in 2050. So it's extremely doubtful that a newer mecha like the VB-6 would ever have been stationed on those old ships. Graham

According to the Compendium, they are auxillary missile launchers, that allow the missiles stored in the arm to be launched when in Shuttle mode. Graham

Aieeeeee........made up gaming stats . definitely, not the Compendium and certainly not official . Graham

And MS mode. Graham

Just noticed, the official Japanese Destiny site now has some color pics of the Murasame. I'm liking the MA mode. Graham

Don't think so, but at least in the opening movie of VF-X2, it does seem to sport pretty strong armor. I had read it in the compendium that it has 2 pin point barriers on the forearms and upper torso. from the compendium: The individual fixed pinpoint barrier shields are located forward and aft in fighter mode and on the forearms when in GERWALK or Battloid mode Eh, just looking at the VB-6 page on the compendium and I can't see any mention of pin point barriers? Graham

It's been out in Japan for a week or two already. Perhaps some of our Japan based members like Monkey-N, Renato or Howard can give you pointers where to find it. Graham

So who's going to be ordering the Konami Trading figs then? Graham

That's a bit pricy for the Retppu kit. I've got two of the Retppu 1/72 VF-11C battroid kits and I paid about US$100 for the first and US$65 for the second (got lucky and found it in a sale). You didn't mention whether you bought the VF-11B (Mac Plus) or VF-11C (Mac 7) version. The VF-11B tends to be a bit harder to find and thus sells for slightly more the the VF-11C. Anyway, they are nice kits IMO. Good detail and proportions. Very back heavy with the FAST Pack boosters attached though. Graham

Don't think so, but at least in the opening movie of VF-X2, it does seem to sport pretty strong armor. Even if it can't use the rail guns in battroid mode, I can't see any reason why it couldn't still use the arm mounted missile launchers and the single barrelled 30mm chest cannon. That's the first time I've heard of the VB-6 having active stealth. The funny thing is although it is called a 'Variable Bomber', it doesn't actually seem to carry any bombs or have the ability to bomb anything . I've always thought that calling it a VD 'Variable Destroid' (not Venereal Disease ) is more accurate. Graham

I've never really thought that the VB-6 is supposed to fight in space. In my mind it has always been a ground-based artillery unit, with Gerwalk as the primary mode. My thinking is that Shuttle mode is used just to get the VB-6 from point 'A' to point 'B' as quickly as possible, i.e. to get from space to the ground fast in a planetary assault. It's not designed for dogfighting or close air support. That would be the role of conventional VFs or in the case of close air support, perhaps the VA-3. As for the VB-6's battroid mode, I've always viewed it as being used only as a last ditch defensive mode in the event that the VB-6 finds it's position being overrun by enemy mecha. While the Gerwalk mode is too slow and ungainly to engage in close-quarters hand-to-hand fighting, the VB-6's sheer size in battroid mode could hopefully allow it to batter smaller mecha into submission. Graham

From the pics, it looks like an unpainted test-shot or engineering pilot rather than a pre-tooling resin sculpt. If I'm correct, then this means that the diecast and ABS content will already be finalised. IMO the Dropship shown in the pic does seem to be mostly unpainted ABS not diecast, although it's difficult to tell with 100% certainty. Graham

This movie is actually pretty old news now. Been follwing it's progress on several movie and horror sites for months. I think we've even discussed it in a couple of threads previously . Anyway, I'm really exicited about seeing it. I'm a huge, huge fan of the Romero Zombie movies. In fact 'Land of The Dead' is one of only three movies that I'm really looking forward to seeing this year, the other two being SW ep III and the Firefly movie 'Serenity'. Roll on October! And sorry Chrono, you just can't compare a Romero Zombie movie to the Resident Evil movie. Romero really defined the Zombie genre IMO and all other Zombie movies are pretenders. Graham

Just be careful of the ankle joints when you transform it. They were very tight on mine and one of the ankles snapped on about the 2nd or 3rd transformation. Graham

That Dropship toy is going to be huge. It's quite a bit bigger than the Space 1999 Eagle sitting next to it, which is itself quite a large toy. Hmm..........from the pics, it looks like just the landing gear struts may be diecast. Definitely going to buy one as I'm a huge Aliens fan. Hope they decide to sell it with some in-scale Colonial marine minatures. Graahm

I think that technically, there's no obvious reason why the railguns shouldn't be able to fire in battroid mode. However, it's just not very practical to do so, as in Battroid mode the 4 railguns can only point straight up. There is no hinge mechanism like say on the Strike Valk to allow the cannons to hinge downward and fire over the shoulder. However, it may be possible that in Battroid mode, the railguns could be used as mortars in the indirect fire role . Graham

Getting it on with Lacus probably, as Kira's mum's spending all her time with Kira

Just noticed that the Yamato 1/12 Scopedog won the annual Toy Of The Year 2004 (TOTY) award over at Toybox DX. Graham

Well, at least it's only his little sister's cell phone he kept. It could have been worse, he could have kept her severed arm in his freezer or something ! Imagine that, bringing out her arm every couple of episodes to gaze at it longingly . Graham

Horray! Any signs of when the three new MSiA releases for the month will be coming out? The Freedom, Slash Zaku Phantom & Blaze Zaku Phantom MSiAs should all be out on the 22nd of this month. Graham

I hope at least some of the Clone Troopers in ep # 3 are going to be actual people in armor, rather than CG constructs. Graham