Vifam7

Um, no. This is a model kit. The paneling lining and weathering you have to do yourself.

Weathered version and "OD" version Tomahwaks to come out sometime in the future. Dunno what "OD' means.

Anything is possible. The key I think is to have the Frontier franchise last a while. Which means Kawamori and co. needs to exploit Frontier as much as and as long as possible (movies, sequels, side stories, manga, video games, etc.). The more it stays around, the more different products come out for it. As they say - out of sight, out of mind.

Read my post above. They went back and resculpted the thing. Ignore the photo.

It says at the bottom: With regards to the Tomahawk, a certain person said "We don't like it at all, so we went back to 1 and remade it. Don't believe the image on the posterboard."

Different angle. Shows the landing gears a bit better. Not messed up like some of the earlier pics.

Here's a better pic of the VF-25G

We don't really know if the Mac7 toys sold well or not. Other than the Fire Valkyrie, they did release a VF-19S and a VF-17S. Certainly not the whole range from Mac7 but then Mac7 Valks weren't that popular to begin with.

To me, it's the SoC SPEC Dragonar from Opening Silhouette. The toy is everything that a collector's toy of robot mech should be (IMHO). It's perfect in every way. I can't even recall Gundam getting this kind of treatment.

Well, we don't know about durability yet.

But just because the VF-25 was created using computer models doesn't automatically mean it can easily be made into identical sculpt toy. I mean, sure it was conceived at the sametime but when you start adding gimmicks to a toy there's no doubt that certain things have to be compromised along the way. Ofcourse the difficulty for a toy designer is deciding what to compromise and what not to compromise.

Ofcourse this is all assuming the DX toy isn't appealing to the buyers and/or won't sell well based only on aesthetics. Maybe it will sell well. Maybe this is exactly what the Japanese fans want.

Well it seems that VF-25 model kits are selling well, so that's a good sign. Companies don't operate that way. They don't drop an entire product franchise just because one product line doesn't sell. And every company that wants to stay in business will drop a product if it does not make a profit. Also, in one way a smaller company may be quicker to drop a product than a big company since their margins are slimmer. A big company could absorb more hits than a small company.

Maybe it was to mimmick the DX toy.

That appears to be the case. It looks like the separate super packs will be available exclusively through Bandai's Tamashii site. This leads me to suspect that Bandai eventually intends to bundle the super packs at a later time. I bet they're doing to this to get the plain jane VF-25 out the door as soon as possible and give themselves time to develop the super packs. IOW i think it's a delay tactic.

Whoever pulled out (or put in) the nose landing gear was absolutely clueless.

Ack! No, not like the Toynami. No more visible swing bars please.

I don't know of any stateside dealers who have the kit in stock. Luca's green RVF-25 is not out yet. Probably won't be out til sometime early next summer (just my guess). As for details on the kit itself, I think Jarrod's exhaustive review answers everything: http://macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=27823

The VF-25's cockpit/canopy looks rather small compared to that of the F-15. I'm assuming they're both the same scale. Then again the F-15's canopy is pretty darn big compared to most other aircraft anyways.

Ofcourse every fan out there wants a toy as detailed and accurate as possible. Key words being "as possible". Because it's not just detail and accuracy that fans want. That's where things get a bit tricky.

If you're talking about the "G Dangaioh" series, ignore it! Pretend it doesn't exist. You'll be happier that way. There is a link between the 2 series but it's extremely weak and the G Dangaioh series doesn't exploit it to the potential it has. G Dangaioh had a lot of potential and could've been an awesome series, but the producers utterly blew it. Oh yeah, it has by far one of the worst endings ever if one could call that an ending... I might have been more forgiving of the series if it weren't for that WTF? "ending".

I was talking more about the fans than the company.

Well, like real life combat aircraft, the design will be dictated by what the user wants in order to accomplish its missions and what the maker feels is the best design for such requirements. And ofcourse politics and economics.

Please. It's not about caring. It's about what design and direction they decided upon (however wrong it may feel to some of us). And really, if they really didn't care then why did they bother sponsoring Macross Frontier in the first place?

The feeling I get from Japanese fans is that - if you want accuracy you build a model kit. And that chogoukins are for kids or nostalgia old-timers. This mindset may be related to how Gundam is also treated. Ever since the advent of Gundam and the "real robot" genre, plastic models have been the backbone of its success. Fans themselves seem to snort at buying a "toy". Perhaps the realism of the mecha and the sophisticated stories suggested that (insert anime title) is more adult-like and thus = kids buy toys - adults build models mindset.