Graham

LOL, read this after I made my post. Keith, get out from under that damn rock Graham

A live action Transformers movie is either gonna be increadibly silly or err.............increadibly silly. I'm not saying that just because I dislike transfomers, but I just honestly can't see how the heck the concept could work in the live-action format without having a huge 'giggle factor' attached. Sorry, I just think it would be impossible to watch with a straight face. (Edit in) Just to add, I'm not trying to bash Transformers (honestly). I can understand people's attraction to the cartoon, toys and comics, even if I don't like them myself, but I just can't see any director beeing able to pull off a live-action version. I will admit to not being a total Tf hater. I did watch the Tf movie at the cinema in the 80s and enjoyed it and even own it on bootleg DVD (the only peice of Tf merchandise I've ever owned). Graham

Considering that this is a 13 year old movie that every serious mecha fan and his dog has already seen, unless you have been living under a rock for the past 13 years, I don't see what the big deal is. [yawn]F91[/yawn] Graham

Yep, the SV-51's wings fold for stowage in the Auerstadt Submarine Aircraft Carrier. According to the Macross Compendium The SV-51 is stored and launched vertically from the submarine in pressure-resistant capsules from underwater. The Compendium also mentions that the Auerstadt only rises to the surface to recover the SV-51s. Although the length of the Auerstatd is not listed, I would presume it is probably not long enough to feature a runway on the deck. I would guess that the SV-51s land back on the sub in Gerwalk or Battroid mode. However, landing in fighter mode could also be a possibility as the SV-51 is the only VF that is capable of VTOL in fighter mode according to the Compendium due to it's lift fans. Graham

Yamato makes a huge range of figures from many different animes. Graham

IIRC, the cockpit internals on the Max Q-Rau are a different color, beige I think. Graham

It's the VF-0S with the VF-0B head. Incorrect, the VF-0A head is different form the B/D head. Basically, the VF-0A is a single seat VF-0 (same wings, body and nose as the VF-0S), just a different head. Graham

So far everything looks good from the pictures. The only negative in my book is the clown feet. I can live with them, but I'm not sure why they made them so big. The only reason I can think of is for stability in Armo-Diver and perhaps Armo-Soldier modes. Of course pictures don't tell the whole story and what looks to be a promising toy, could still be ruined by loose joints, conecting pegs which don't hold together and parts which constantly fall off (hands?). Hopefully Toynami have done their homework and will deliver us a kick-ass toy. Graham

holy smokes! and i thought they were expensive here! HK$198 works out to roughly US$25.50. Not that expensive. Graham

Sorry, I've no idea what's coming from Yamato. They don't talk to me anymore Graham

In the side on view picture, the weapons pack looks plenty big enough to store the internal weapons IMO. However, in the front view pic the opening panels/covers do seem to have shrunk. Perhaps the animators simply wanted to emphasise the size of the weapons in this scene by using perspective to make the covers look smaller. Anyway, I'm convinced that the weapons are NOT internal to the battroids arm and the pack attaches to the YF-19's standard forearm by simply sliding over it, thus allowing it to be jettisoned once the weapons are expended or the pilot wishes to transform. I do not think it would be practical to have a special forearm modied just to fit this pack. Graham

Here's some pics of some of the Yellow Submarine 1/144 Valk kits with launch arms: - YF-19 w/launch arm. VF-4 w/launch arm. VF-17 w/launch arm. Graham

I briefly owned the Yellow Submarine 1/144 YF-19 with Launch Arm for about two weeks. Never built it and ended up giving the kit to somebody. I don't remember much about the launch arm, but I do remember the YF-19 had a horrible nose sculpt. The two hybrid sensors on the sides of the nose were about three times as large as they should be. Graham

I still say that the second pic is probably an animation error rather than the weapons being internal. In the first pic, the unit looks big enough to store the weapons. Or looking at the second pic again, I think that what we are seeing as the weapons pod opens is shadow on the surface of the YF-19's forearm, rather than a hole in the forearm Graham

Lot's of them in TRU & UML in Hong Kong. Don't see anybody buying them though. The manufacturer should hire Kawamori to do the cosmetic styling and the toy should have lots of IR firing weapons, allowing two bots to fight, then I might buy one. Sorta off topic, but did any MWers buy the Kawamori Aibo varient? Graham

The YF-23 is such a beautiful, sleek plane, it should have won the ATF compettion on pure aesthetics alone As they say, 'if it looks right, it probably flies right'. I still say the F/A-22 is too blocky and chunky looking. I want to see fleets of 23s filling the skies. Hell yes to a FB-23 varient! Graham

Yep, Saturn first. Graham

I bought one stand for HK$198. And the box is pretty small, less than half the size of a 1/60 box. I don't have the box on hand, but I guess it's something like 8" x 5" x 5" (just a rough estimate). Graham

Hasegawa VF-22S is definitely still available in Mong kok and Tai Po. I just bought one last week. I've seen the VF-19A in some shops also, but can't remember where. Graham

Many of us had hoped that there would be a new Macross TV series directly after Macross Zero and Egan Loo (unintentionally?) mislead us for a while by posting a statement on the Macross Compendium saying "Next series in the works". However, the next series turned out to be nothing related to Macross Personally, I felt that Egan should have modified his statement right from the begining to say "Next non-Macross series in the works". I mean the Compendium is the only official English language Macross website, so when a statement appears saying 'next series in the works', it's only natural for most people to assume that as the statement is on a website devoted exclusively to Macross it refers to a new Macross series. So anyway, Kawmori is probably very busy on the new series ''Sousei no Aquerion", which is a half year long series due to start this fall and IIRC features an environmental theme and combining (super?) robots. Graham

I'm still pissed that the M3 opening movie was not included on the 20th Anniversary DVD. Anyway, IMO the DVD is worth getting just for the 'Macross 3D' footage, which is not available anywhere else. Graham

I'm wondering why the line-art for this weapons pack never appeared in any of the Mac Plus books or Design Works? It would be cool to see what a Full Armored YF-19 looks like. Perhaps this weapons pack would be part of it. Graham

Thanks for the pics. I'm guessing in the second (middle) pic, the animators made an error when they were painting the cell and painted the weapons pack the color of the arm instead of dark blue. Graham

I really like the look of the prototype green Alpha battroid (sorry, Legioss Armo-Soldier). The head looks great to me. However, for some reason the picture of the red battroid makes me think it looks like it's made out of LEGO Graham

Could somebody please try to snag a clearer higher resolution screen grab of that side view of the weapons pack from Macross Plus ep # 2, as I can't do it on my computer. Thanks in advance. Graham