Graham

While you are probably correct that the HCM Pro line wont be entirely Gundam, my guess is that the first 5 years will be nothing but Gundam. I bet Bandai is just going to release the exact same OYW, Z, ZZ, 08MST, 0080, 0083 Wing, G & SEED Mobile Suits that have already been released as MSiA toys. And of course Gundam fans are gonna snap them up regardless of whether they already own the exact same MS as a MSiA, HGUC, MG, PG FIX etc. Graham

Kawamori is apparently a very busy guy and I've heard that it can take a couple of months just to get a 30 minute appointment with him. Graham

That is not Garfield! The image scared the crap out of my when I clicked on the link for the official site. Graham

It's highly probably that this is indeed a low-end product marketed at people on a budget. However, that is no excuse for the poor sculpt. Poor sculpt or not, I'm still gonna end up buying it anyway though Yes, I'm a sucker for Macross toys. Graham

I always have a chuckle when I hear Americans complaining about their 'high' gas prices. Gas prices here in Hong Kong are about US$1.6 per litre (one of the highest prices in the world) and have been that high for years. You don't know how lucky you are. Also, gas prices in the UK, France and Germany are quite a bit more more expensive than in the US. Not sure about Japan, but I would imagine it is high......Rob? Graham

If Bandai put as much effort into Macross as they do for Guncrap, sorry Gundam, they could make some kickass Macross Toys or models if they wanted too. Still, we all know that Bandai has little respect for Macross and when they do make a Macross toy or model, it's always a half-assed effort, a case of too little too late. Graham

I think it was pretty overrated. In fact I find it quite boring. For similar style horror movies of that period, I far prefer The Omen (1976) and Rosemary's Baby (1968). Graham

Can't you colonial rebels (sorry, US citizens) learn to speak the Queen's English after all this time? It's 'Trousers', not 'Pants'. Pants in British English means mens underwear! And to stay on topic, I say no pleats, but then I wear jeans most of the time and I'm allergic to ironing anyway. Graham

Should be end of this week or early next week. Graham

I find it a bit worrying that there has been no hint of an SV-51 toy from Yamato yet. Mind you, the transformation is pretty complex, so it's probably got Yamato scratching their heads over how to accomplish it, even with parts swapping. An SV-51 toy would involve lots of small joints and hinges. And I bet Yamato would have a real problem with Nora's paint scheme. It probably wouldn't be practical to paint on all those yellow markings as there are so many. And stickers would look truely awful. That basically just leaves Tampo printing, which would work, but from what I understand is quite expensive. Graham

Well, to be honest, IMO they didn't really do too great a job with the sculpt of the 19 or 21, although at least they had perfect transformation I just hope Yamato does plan a larger perfect transformation version of the VF-0A/B/D/S and gets a decent sculptor like Nishikawa-san to do it. Graham

Have you all seen this page.? Graham

But you have to admit, Graham, the bloody Banprestos are better designed and better value than this thing. All you need to remove are the heatshields and maybe hands. And swing bars could be made of die-cast for the VF-0, since there is no other die-cast content in it whatsoever, meaning the whole thing would be light a a feather. That way it would be thin yet strong. It would be a similar deal to the 1/48 swingbar, only one bar for each leg, a la the Banprestos, or even the actual Zero animation. I don't see wh that's not possible. The more news I hear of this, the more disappointed I get. I just want to clarify that my above post is not meant to be in defence of Yamato's poor sculpt of the 1/100 VF-0S. In the past I've been very supportive of Yamato, but a poor sculpt is a poor sculpt regardless of whether or not I like the manufacturer. Personally, I think that even if the sculptor only had access to the line art and CG art reference pics from the Bandai Visual and Big West sites and had access to the DVDs, there is enough source material there to make a nicer looking sculpt, given a halfway talented sculptor (which Yamato obviously didn't use). Note, I'm not talking about the transformation mechanism or function as that is still not 100% known, especially as to where exactly on the nose the legs connect to. My major gripe is with the sculpt. And I still think that on a VF-0 toy of whatever scale (1/100, 1/72, 1/60, 1/48), if the hip bars were as thin as shown in the anime, they would not be strong enough, regardless of the material and they would have to be enlarged. Personally, I'd be happy if Yamato went with a back bar as on the 1/48 VF-1. Graham

Yeah, he does look a bit more buff doesn't he. I guess he's been hitting the weights in the six months since episode # 3 Graham

One of the problems with doing a proper perfect variable VF-0 toy, is that so far there is no official lineart from Kawamori of the complete transformation sequence to use as a reference. In fact so far, there is very little lineart at all. Even Hasegawa have guessed about a lot of the details. Although episode # 1 does show part of the transformation sequence, there is not really enough information there for toy designers to be sure of getting it correct. And realistically, there is no way that the swing bars on a toy would be strong enough if they were as thin as they are shown in the anime. Also, a lot of people here on Macrossworld incorrectly assume that Yamato has access to the 3D computer models to help with designing the toy. To my understanding, they don't. Graham

November 2003 Dengeki Hobby. November 2003 Hobby Japan And of course Nanashi's. And IIRC, the booklet that comes with the original Macross Zero episode # 3, R2 DVD has black and white lineart of the Reactive Armor. Graham

Wow, don't check this thread often, so missed the latest pics until now. Gotta say the Alpha MPC toy looks great. I might have to raid the piggy bank and buy more than the one piece I originally planned. Graham

LOL.....yeah it's true Bandai's design team did an amazing job with getting the Z-Plus GFF to transform with so little parts removal, although transformation is a bit fiddly and the toy is quite fragile IMO. Yeah, at this stage I agree a Bandai 1/55 VF-0S Chunky Monkey with big chrome swing bars does sound strangely appealing I don't think people loosing parts is going to be a real problem with the VF-0S though. I mean how can you loose parts when nobody is going to buy the damn toy in the first place But seriously, I remember way back before the 1/60 VF-1 came out, people were bitching and moaning about how they'd loose the nose plug, spare hands, backpack antenna etc, but in the end it wasn't really a problem. I think most people, myself included will just keep the parts in little plastic bags. Heck my GFFs have so many parts, that I have a whole drawer full of little plastic bags containing nothing but GFF option parts Graham

Agreed, the parts swapping doesn't bother me too much, but it really doesn't have a single mode that it really looks great in Graham

I'm still hoping that the final product will have Tampo printed Skulls on the tails and heatshield and Tampo printed UN Spacy emblems on the wing and nose. The VF-0S toy is gonna suck even more if the markings are supplied as Yamato's typical low-quality, ultra-thick stickers Considering that the 1/100 VF-0S is most often compared to a Gundam Fix Figuration (GFF) figure and the GFFs come absolutely covered with Tampo printed markings, it's not too unreasonable to expect this is it? I mean some GFFs such as the RX-178 Super Gundam, Task Force Alpha Ex-S and the Nu Gundam HWS retail for ¥4,500 which is similar to the expected retail price for the 1/100 VF-0S. Mind you, Bandai probably sells at least a hundred thousand (or more) of each GFF, so they can afford to Tampo print on more markings. As fan response to the 1/100 VF-0S seems very poor both in Japan and overseas, I doubt Yamato are going to sell that many 1/100 VF-0S, unless they pull their thumb out and do a major resculpt pronto. It's gonna flop big time if they try to sell it 'as is'. I've always been very supportive of Yamato and they've done some great toys in the past. IMO, the sculpt of the 1/48 VF-1 and FPs and the 1/60 Q-Rau are nearly flawless, but this 1/100 VF-0S is just unbelievably bad. It's such a pity, as in the last year I've really come to love the VF-0. Graham

The 1/100 VF-0S is not really small. Back in the good old days when Yamato were still willing to share information, they did say that it is nearly the same height as the VF-11B battroid. Graham

That's only fan speculation, we don't know if it's true. Graham

I'm begining to think you are right about this being passed onto a newbie design team with little sculpting experience. While from certain angles the toy looks OK, there are IMO so many areas that are just poorly sculpted and not accurate to what little CG art and lineart has been published so far of the VF-0S. Here's a list of where I think the sculpt is poor: - Inaccurate wing shape. Hip area (intakes) too large. Ugly, too large ball joint sockets on the hips. Inaccurate tail fin shape. Tail fins not canted outwards enough. Innacurate cockpit and nose area sculpt. Poorly sculpted, ugly landing gear. Graham

It looks like the 1/100 VF-0S has mid-calf rotation points just like the 1/60 VF-1, which should allow for a slightly better Gerwalk mode. Graham

At least the wings have attachment points for missiles. But what really worries me is that there dosen't seem to be any attachment points for the leg FAST packs, unless they are going to be held on by magnets Graham