Graham

Ah, if it's released today, I can get my review up then. Graham

Wow.....fantastic work so far. I definitely want pics of the finished custom for the MW custom toy gallery. Graham

Guys, I need some more submissions for the custom toy gallery. I'm sure I've seen a few VF-1A DYRL Kakizaki 1/60, 1/55 and 1/48 customs in the past, so where are they? Also, Sebastian, didn't you do a low-viz 1/60 once? Also any 1/72 Yamato Macross Plus customs? Jaw Jaw, I will get your 1/55 pics uploaded soon, probably at the weekend. Graham

Guppy & I found the Bandai VF-1A Cannon Fodder reissue for only HK$150 (less than US$20)! Five years ago, who would have thought you would be able to buy a brand new 1/55 for so little. Graham

The missile pods on the back do open and close. It's only the hip pods where you have to pop off the closed covers and replace them with the open covers. Graham

I think the IRST on the F14D is a fairly old look down system. AFAIK, on the Eurofighter the IRST image can be displayed on the HUD, so the pilot doesn't need to go heads down. And combined with the helmet mounted sight, off-boresight targeting, low radar cross section, direct voice input, excellent defensive systems, super cruise and low radar cross section makes the Eurofighter an excellent dual role (air and ground) machine (well, at least it will be in it's full-up Tranch 2 or Tranch 3 configuration). I'll have to check all my literature on the Eurofighter, but I think all versions, both single and dual seat retain the cannon. However, I know that some versions of the French Rafale have deleted it. I think the 2-seat M (marine) version doesn't have it), but I need to check. The VF-0 also has other advantages over the VF-1, such as an active stealth system and the leg mounted atmospheric FAST packs with micro-missile launchers, meaning in an atmosphere the VF-0 carries more missiles than the VF-1. Graham

Yup, I've also been saying this in several other threads as well. The F-35 has crap rear visibilty. Having good rear visibility is another lesson that aircraft designers seem to forget between wars. Graham

Yes, chances are that 99% of the time a pilot will not need his cannon in air-to-air combat. However, it's nice to have it for that 1% of the time when it is needed. And let's face it, crap happens! And a cannon is useful for the CAS role. After other munitions have been expended, a cannon can still be used to strafe ground targets. Graham

Phoenix? Wrong thread? nope , he´s right. The VF-0 is called VF-0 Phoenix , it was named that way since M0 was first announced. Actually, I'm not sure the name Phoenix is official. Yes, it was mentioned very early on, on the Compendium IIRC. However, the name has not been published anywhere else since AFAIK, and even the Compendium no longer uses the name Phoenix. Graham

There will always be dogfighting. People having been saying for decades that air to air combat will all be at beyond visual range (BVR) with missiles. Sorry, it usually doesn't happen that way. Most often rules of engagement are so strict that positive ID at visual range has to be made first before firing. A gun will always be needed for both air-to-air and and CAS type missions. Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it. The thing is that if the F-35 has an internal gunpod, then it's missile or bomb payload gets cut in half (AFAIK). It's going to be a crap poor CAS plane if all it has is only one bomb to drop when the ground pounders call for help. And of course if the F-35 adds external pylons to carry more weapons, then stealth goes out of the window. I've said it before and I'll say it again. The US is placing too much emphasis on radar defeating stealth. There are big improvements being made with other sensors, especially completely passive (non-detectable) sensors such as Infra Red Search & Track (IRST). We are going to be at a stage soon (if we are not already), where a fighter with a state of the art IRST system, i.e. Eurofighter will be able to find, track, lock on to and fire missiles at another fighter at long range even from head on and even if the other fighter is not using afterburner. Thus the benefits of the F-35s or F-22s radar defeating stealth will be largely negated. Graham

Battroid. Graham

Slightly bigger scan. Graham

Sebastian, I have mentioned before that the toys will feature some ABS, they are not all PVC. Also, Yamato told me that the leg connnectors are being made smaller (they know they look ugly). Also, the shoulder armor will be elongated as at the moment it is too short. Remember this is not the final sculpt. BTW, I've just updated the magazine section with scans of the new Hobby Japan (6 pages) and the Dengeki Hobby (4 pages). I've also updated the custom gallery section. Check out the update section. Graham

And here's a page from the new April Hobby Japan, with a first look at the Hasegawa SV-51. Graham

Guys, here's the pics of the Yamato 1/100 scale VF-0S 'simple transformation' prototype from the new April 2004 issue of Dengeki Hobby magazine. Gotta say I think the front landing gear is extremely ugly, which is a shame considering it's a detachable peice, so IMO they could have sculpted it much better. Also, IMO the tail fins look a little small and the shape of the wing trailing edge is not exactly correct. Graham

Gundam................what's that? Graham

All I will say is that you have to take what you hear from sales reps at trade shows with a grain of salt. However, it is true that the M&Ms won't be released without FPs. Not going to comment on the other stuff though Graham

Maybe old news, but I just saw this news from Janes: - AIR FORCES NEWS FOR WEEK ENDING 20 FEBRUARY 2004 US Air Force to buy STOVL variant of fighter The US Air Force (USAF) will buy the short take-off variant of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and upgrade a portion of its 30-year-old A-10 Thunderbolt II fleet in order to bolster the service's ability to provide support for ground forces, according to senior USAF leaders. [Jane's Defence Weekly - first posted to http://jdw.janes.com - 13 February 2004] Personally I can't see the lame duck F-35 being much good in the close air support roll. I think it would be much better for the USAF to invest in upgrading the existing A-10 fleet or even having new A-10s built, with perhaps improved modern instrumentation and avionics. Graham

Will try to add Jung's custom 1/48 CF and Kurt's custom Enigma to the gallery tonight if I have time. However, I have a magazine update to do as well, which takes priority, so we'll see. Graham

OK, just uploaded the public debut of the Macrossworld Member Custom Toy Gallery. Please check it out and let me know if there are any broken links or other problems. Lots more custom toys to upload, but it's 10.30pm here, I'm knackered and I haven't eaten dinner yet! Oh, also finished my extremely late Yamato 1/60 VE-1 & VT-1 review as well. I've been a busy boy. More updates tomorrow. Graham

I'm not a Gundam fan and I dislike most Gundam TV series. However, I love Victory Gundam. It has a great story, characters, action and music. I also love all the mecha designs, both good guys and bad. I have all the toys, except for the big electronic V-Gundam Beam Rifle. I'm hoping that one day Bandai will release a GFF V2 Assault/Buster toy. Personally I rate Victory Gundam far higher than original MSG or even Zeta. IMO, it's certainly much better than SEED. Graham

Ya mean those squat little ugly round things. Nah, nobody would be interested in seeing those, at least nobody with any taste. Ducks for cover. Graham

PM me if you have a submission and I'll give an email address to send the pics to. I'll make sure to include some submission guidelines when I create the page tonight. Graham

Well, I've just searched through the 8 pages of the Toy forum and found 6 threads with custom toys, so I'll start with those and we'll see how it goes from there. Graham

At the begining, I'm just going to be searching through old posts and saving any pics I find, which I'll then resize as needed. As I mentioned earlier, if anybody wants to help me search, I'd appriciate the help. However, for future submissions, I'd like say a minimum of 6 pics (2 per mode) and a maximum of 12 pics (4 per mode) to keep it manageable. Pics should be no smaller than 600 pixels width and no larger than 1000 pixels width. I'll also need a thumbnail of each pic, with a width of 100 pixels. Graham