mister_e

To be fair, they never tried to pass if off as a trailer. Whoever took the picture just got creative. It doesn't really suck for what it intended to be...which is nothing more than a pretty picture to put behind Prime in the box. Saying it sucks as a trailer is like saying a pencil sucks as a baseball bat.

Get just one. Consider it the centerpiece/masterpiece of your collection. I too have all the 1/60's except the VE & VT and I just bought a 1/48 Hikaru VF-1S. But I only plan on buying one more 1/48 (a low viz if I can get ahold of one at a decent price). Also, it sounds like you have MISB-syndrome. I have it too, all my 1/60's are still MISB except for the ones I have duplicates of. The 1/48's do not come sealed from the factory so you can never have a MISB 1/48 anyway....so I went ahead and opened mine.

I got mine (Takara version) this Monday and all I can say is the box is awesome. That's all I can say because I haven't opened it yet. I bought it with every intention of opening it, but once I saw how fast places were selling out, my MISB-syndrome kicked in. Hopefully I can track down another so I can open one. Maybe the Hasbro version will be a little easier to get ahold of once they start hitting retail shelves.

This site is so addictive because nerds crave the attention of other nerds

pics are useless if you don't tell us how you did it

I voted for the 1/48 Hikaru 1S w/FAST packs. I just got my FAST packs today and slapped 'em on my Hikaru 1S. It already looked great, but now it's like 20 times as cool looking with the Strike armor. My only gripe is that the FAST packs are pretty heavy which made posing the valk a real exercise in frustration. I ended up HAVING to put him in a spread-eagle action stance in order to support the weight of the packs. Took me about 30 minutes to find a pose that looked good and could support the weight of the FAST packs without having to lean the valk up against something.

Yep, it's pretty much that easy. One last thing. This may or may not be a big deal to you, but the Bandai reissues have most of the details painted on instead of using stickers. This means the Hikaru 1A is going to have "011" already painted on the right wing and on the fuselage. Hikaru's 1S should technically have "001" instead of "011". Like I said, this may or may not be a big deal to you, I just wanted to let you know before you bought everything .

I never realized that it was stored inside the gunpod like that. How cool would it have been if Yamato could've incorporated that feature into the 1/48? That and if the intake covers actually opened on hinges instead of being removed. I know I'm asking too much, but it still would've been cool .

Yes, this is more easily doable. The Bandai armor just uses a clip-on system and the armor can fit any valk. The real trick is going to be trying to find the Strike armor. It is easy enough to get ahold of the Super armor, however, by buying one of the Super VF-1S reissues. The Strike 1S was never reissued unfortunately. I bet there's someone on these boards that could help you find the Strike armor or a decent recast at least. If you're willing to do a little painting, all you really need is the Strike cannon and you can repaint it to match the Super armor or vice versa. Might want to try the "Sell, Trade and Buy Macross" section of the forums.

Best American martial-artist-movie-star.................(wait for it)....................Ralph Macchio!!!

Yeah, the truck mode suffers a bit more than the car modes in the Binaltech/Alternators line, but man oh man is the robot mode schweet.

Does anyone on this forum know any numbers besides 1/48??

Well, unfortunately it's not going to be THAT easy. A couple of things stand in your way: First, the Stike armor will not fit on the Hikaru 1A. Second, the VF-1S is not the same shade of white as the Hikaru 1A, so some light painting would be in order to match the shade of white as well as painting over the yellow arrows on the head. It might actually be easier to strip the yellow paint from the Roy Strike and paint it red instead. All that aside, the heads are easily swapped out.

Yeah, but he may not have the skills/materials/tools/desire required to build a Hase model kit. I know I don't. Of course, if you do, then Black Valkyrie is absolutely right, the Hase model kits have the best sculpt around IMO, but they don't transform (not without heavy modification at least).

I voted "Sometimes". Usually the wife only buys me toys on special occasions such as my birthday or Christmas. She never picks the toy out herself though, I always tell her specifically which ones to buy. This Christmas, for example, she bought me a 1/48 Hikaru 1S...man I love my wife .

Aha! A whip! I never would've thoought of it .

I was just contemplating whether or not I wanted to try to attach the strap to my 1/48 VF-1S Hikaru and it just occurred to me that the strap seems rather silly. I mean, sure it looks cool, but what real purpose could it serve? The VF-1 can already store the GU-11 on its forearm if a free hand is needed, so it's not needed for that. Also, what material would it supposed to be made of. Certainly it wouldn't be a huge strap of leather, would it? I guess I'm kind of bored, oh well.

At Twinmoons:4 1/48 VF-1 stickers FAST pack stickers At Valkyrie-Exchange: 1/48 VF-1 stickers FAST pack stickers Both sites are excellent and well respected 'round these boards.

What is that, a Frankenstein job? (Kanata67-stein?) Where did the red chest intakes and tailfins come from? A jetfire maybe?

Awesome custom. You have skills.

I keep hearing people mention (in this thread) that the Q-Rau doesn't contain any/much die-cast. How do you know? You don't. Just because the pre-release pictures have shown the toy propped up does not mean that it has no die-cast, you're just assuming. I'm not saying it DOES have die-cast, I'm just saying that unless Yamato themselves say it doesn't have any/much die-cast, don't assume it doesn't. Of course, I will open mouth and insert foot if Yamato HAS released said statement already .

M&M refers to Max & Miria.

You're gonna love it. The only problem I have with mine is that I can't decide on a single pose to leave it in, so I am constantly transforming it and changing the pose and I'm worried that I'll somehow wear it out. This is the most I've ever "played" with any of my toys. The thing just begs to be transformed. One thing though, you're definitely gonna want those FAST packs. The Hikaru 1S just looks wrong without them somehow. I'm still waiting on mine, but I do have them ordered, so it won't be long.

I'm not sure what you mean by this comment. What about the 1/72 scale? Are you referring to the Bandai HCM's or the Hasegawa model kits?

According to what I've heard/read, the 1/48's without FAST packs retail for under $100 US in Japan (according to monkey-nugget in this thread), whereas they typically go for around $130-$160 US at most online retailers.