Graham

I'll get this up on the MW Custom Toy Forums at the weekend. Graham

Tell the Marines they gotta aim for the head. Graham

It's a slightly lighter shade of grey, the UN Spacy emblem on the wing is Tampo printed and it comes with a very nice pilot figure. On the downside, the gunpod is a very yucky shade of green and the FPs are too small (and the wrong shape). As Jolly Rogers said, if your ver.1 VF-11B hips are fine, then there's really no reason to get the FP version unless you are a completist or can't live without the FPs or pilot. Personally, I like it, just for the peice of mind the reinforced hips give me and for the cool pilot as well. Toonz, In case you haven't already read it, I have a review of the VF-11B FP in the toy section here. Graham

How about the one you have listed on the main site? http://www.macrossworld.com/macross/ads/ads_misc_zippo.htm Was this Zippo ever officially licensed by BW? Yep, that'd be the one. Damn.......we have a main site? Graham

A while ago, there was talk of releasing a black (Gucci ) version of the Escaflowne. Maybe that's it. Graham

Not quite. Like I mentioned above, the Strike Valk kit comes with both the micromissile launcher parts. It has an extra sprue for the Strike cannon, but you can still build the Super version. Can anyone else support or refute this? I remember pretty distinctly... Although I can take a picture of the trees tonight, after I get home, to make sure. That's interesting. I thought they were separate kits. Oh well, I'll shut up them. Graham

There's no firm evidence yet that Shin will actually get this VF-0B in episode # 4 or 5, although I suspect he will. And wouldn't it sort of be a demotion (for getting shot down)? I mean, the VF-0D is a more capable design (greater range, payload etc), so getting a VF-0B as his next VF could be seen as a step backwards. Just because this VF-0B was featured in early advertising for Macross Zero back in 2002 doesn't actually mean it will appear in the OVA. Hasegawa might just be making it as a variation kit, because it is easy for them to do so. It's basically just a VF-0S body and wings with the nose and cockpit section of a VF-0D and the head of either an A or D (I forget which one). I presume Hasegawa probably already has the tooling finished or nearly finished for the VF-0A/B/D. Graham

Considering that Yukikaze came 9 years after Macross Plus, it would be more correct to say that the AMMs in Yukikaze look like the missiles from Macross Plus Graham

I think you have answered your own question. The new kit has parts to allow you to build it as either a 'Super' or a 'Strike' Valk, i.e. you can build it with either both the back FPs fitted with micro-missile launchers (Super) or fitted with one micro-missile launcher and the double beam cannon (Strike). With the old kits there were two separate and distinct kits. A Super Valk kit and a separate Strike Valk kit. Graham

That's good, The VF-0B comes with the FAST packs. I wonder if VF-0B is going to be the official designation. If so, Egan will have to change the listing in the Compendium. Graham

Then you know what you gotta do. Go to an indoor range and shoot some .44mag or .50AE without hearing protection. Then you'll qualify as hard of hearing Graham

Phew, that's OK then. Actually, I haven't had time to look at my R2 KB1 DVD yet as it only arrived yesterday. Graham

The variable Resin Garage Kit of the YF-19 by Hobby Base Retppu shows these new type High Maneuver Missiles as being mounted on the YF-19's wings, 2-missiles per pylon. See picture below. However, please bear in mind that this may just be the manufacture's interpretation of how the missiles are carried and may not be canon. Graham

Nice custom, but in future please limit your picture size to no more than 640 pixels wide when posting pics on these forums. Thanks, Graham

I'd love to see this. The toys are really cute. Graham

IMO the rear part of the over the shoulder cannon on the Powered Suit toy resembles the rear part of the Double Strike Cannon on the VF-1. Graham

There's no English subs for the Japanese dialog on the R2 version?!!! Arghhhhh!!!!!! Oh well, I'm gonna have to order an R1 version as well then so I can have English Subs for the Japanese bits, then pop in the R2 disc when it's time for the big fight. Oh well, that means I'll have bought a R1, R2 and R3 DVDs in my quest for the perfect Kill Bil vol.1 home viewing experience.......sigh Graham

Actually, the TIE would only have extremley limited upwards visibility as the are only a few small vision slits on the top. Forward visibility is also hindered to some degree by the canopy framework. Graham

OK, just gonna stick with Hollywood ships for this post. I'll cover anime starfighters in another post. I'm quite partial to the starfighter from the 'Buck Rogers in the 25th Century' TV series from 1979 starring Gil Gerard. Also like the GunStar from 'The Last Starfighter'. The Colonial Viper from 'Battlestar Galactica' is another of my favs. The X-Wing also gets a mention, as does the Y-wing. Never liked the A or B wings at all. Thought the 'A' was too small to be a starfighter and the 'B' too ugly While TIE Figters look cool, they have piss-poor visibility in nearly all directions, so they get no marks from me. The Star Fury from 'Babylon 5' is probably the most realistic portral of a Star fighter, although like many Sci-Fi ships it suffers from poor rear and side visibility. Graham

I'd have to say that the olive color scheme is my favorite, although I love them all. I've noticed the build quality on the boxed versions seems to be slightly better than the blister pack versions. In fact one of my tan suits came with the left elbow joint glued imobile. Luckily I managed to fix it. I don't have the blister pack olive version. I have three of the Japanese 'large box' olive version. Is there a difference? Kanto Hobby had the boxed version reduced to HK$59 recently, so I snapped them all up I've also got one white and two tan.....whoops, guess that means I have 6 not 5. I'm planning on buying one more white as well soon. Now I just need some good bug figures for them to fight. I just wish Kaiyodo would buy the license to make toys of the Studio Nue designed Powered Suits from the 1988 anime. Although the design is very close, I slightly prefer the anime design. Hmm.....wonder how the Powered Suits would look with the gun from this MSiA? Graham

I was originally thinking of buying these, but need to save money this month Anyway, glad I didn't buy them. I saw the Max VF-1A battroid on display in a small hobby shop in Causeway Bay yesterday and it looked like crap. Wasn't really impressed by either the sculpt or the paint job. These seem to be available in branches of UML, but are very expensive. Haven't seen them in Animate yet. Anyway, both my office and home monitor tops are chock-a-block with Macross gashapons, so I don't have space for more anyway. Graham

I may be remembering wrongly (memory's getting fuzzy with age), but there may have already been an official Big West Macross Zippo lighter. Graham

Yep, it was done purely to get a lower rating. I don't mind B&W if the whole movie is in B&W, but to change just a small part of a movie to B&W for censorship reasons is just crass stupidity on the part of the censors IMO. Graham

Personally, I doubt that UAVs/UCAVs will ever completely replace manned aircraft in every combat role. I'm only a layman on this stuff, but there are a few things that concern me about UAVs: - The time lag it takes for the control signal to travel from the operator in his control room to the UAV. Even though it is very short, I would guess that there is still going to be some delay in response, compared to a pilot who is actually 'there'. Reduced situational awareness. I doubt the UAV operater sees nearly as much flying using a computor monitor, compared to a fighter pilot with his nearly 360 degree bubble canopy. Susceptibility of the UAV's control signal to enemy jamming? While I think there is a definite use for UCAVs for reconnaissance/armed reconnaissance and perhaps SEAD missions, I seriously doubt if we will ever see UCAVs in the air-to-air arena. Graham

That's one ugly plane IMO. Is it real or a Photochop job? Graham