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

It might be possible with a bit of modification. The base of the stand has a screwed on plate covering the bottom, with I guess a weight inside for stability, I dunno, I haven't disassembled it yet. But it looks like if you unscrew the bottom plate, you could probably drill some holes in it to rig up some sort of wall attachment. The arm should be stable enough, as it has several screws which you can adjust for tension. Graham

The locking bolts on the 4 grappling claws are just molded on detail, they don't move at all. The 4 grappling claws are only hinged where they join at the base. Also, the grappling claws are not really used to hold the Valks, as they do not clamp closed very tightly. Basically the grappling arms are just for show and for providing a little extra stability to the Valk. The main point of attachment is the clip which attaches to the underside of the Valks and plugs into the vertical strut on the base. On most of the Valks, except the YF/VF-19 and maybe the Q-Rau (dunno, I haven't tried the Q-Rau yet), the clip snaps over the Valks, hip bars. Basically, it's a squarish or box shape plastic clip with two 'U' shape cut-outs that go over the Valks hip bars. I'll try to take some pics of the clips tonight as I know I'm not explaining very clearly. Graham

Awwww , that´s so cute , he´s already interested in the valks , Graham you surely have some very hairless legs BTW Ha, that's my wife's leg in the background. Graham

October 22nd, great that's a week before my birthday! That means I should get it from CD Japan in time to watch on my Birthday Graham

I would not treat a model kit as cannon though, especially one which is a fan made scratch build or conversion. Graham

I'd like to be able to read what it says in the second photo, under "History of Art". Looks like the front landing gear is not attached, which makes me think it's a fan custom. IIRC, the front & rear landing gear was glued in on the YF-19. Graham

That's interesting. I've also never heard of or seen that before. I'm wondering if it is legit or a fan custom? It's never appeared in any of the hobby mags AFAIK. Graham

Another potential problem is that the clip for the VF-11B attaches very firmly to the hip pegs and requires a bit of force and twisting to remove. While this is not a problem on the steel reinforced hip joints of the FP version, I'm worried it could cause breakage on the original 'weak hip' version when removing the clip. Graham

Downside is that the stand comes with 8 different attachment clips to fit the various Yamato Valks, however, the clips are not marked to show which is which and although they are all slightly different, the photos in the instruction manual are not very clear. Still, it's not exactly rocket science to figure out which is which Also, you need to use the clips to make sure the Valk is firmly attached, which is another reason why you can't do an upside down 1/48 Valk w/FPs. Unfortunately, neither the 1/72 YF-19 or 1/48 VF-1 can fit their gunpod on the stand in fighter mode. Graham

Very sturdy and stable and quite heavy as well. I don't think it's gonna work with an upside down 1/48 w/FPs tho, well, at least I'm not risking my BP8 to try! Graham

And with a 1/48 VF-1S Super Focker. Graham

Here's the stand with the VF-11B FP. Graham

Here's a pic of the stand with the 1/60 VT-1 and Zentradi baby in the background. Graham

Sorry the pic is not very clear, I had to scan it from the Macross Plus Game Edition game book. Unfortunately the DVD player on my stupid Hong Kong coumpter won't play region 1 or 2 DVDs, only region 3, so I can't grab the pic from either my US or Japanese Macross Plus DVDs Perhaps somebody else can get a better version of that image. Graham

To prove once and for all that the weapons pack is not part of the arm, I give you this picture. Graham

I don't think it was a dramatization. I'll have to watch that episode again, but I thought it was just Akiko having a flashback to that incident as she explained what happened in the past with Stephen & Ray. Graham

The article does mention that 'Land' will be a post-apocalyptic type movie, with survivors living in walled cities, so I'd expect a significant Zombie threat. On the other hand, I remember reading an interview with Romero several years ago where IIRC, he said that in the 4th movie, which would be set 1 or 2 decades after Day of the Dead many of the Zombies would have decayed away, so the Zombie threat would be reduced. Guess we'll just have to wait and see. Anyway, Romero is the man, so I'm sure he won't disappoint. Graham

If the auction is just using stock pictures from Yamato's website, rather than a pic of the actual product in it's original packing, then it's a safe bet that they don't actually have the item on hand yet. Anyway, it should be out sometime later today in Hong Kong. Graham

Well, the Cinescape article mentions a budget of 20 million, so it aint gonna be that big Anybody know what the budget for the Dawn remake was? Graham