aceoftherebellion

That looks so damn cool, now I'm even more bummed about not having been able to preorder one of these... Whoever else gets theirs, take lots of pictures for those of us less lucky!

How did it break? I've had good luck with repairing joints with epoxy glue, if you have all of the parts still

On the VF-1A, some of the markings read "011". On the VF-1S, they say "001". That's it, as far as I can tell.

Over in the 'what's next from Yamato' thread there's a quote from Mr. K about some of the things he'd like to do, which included a revised YF-19, but it was still phrased in vague 'what if' terms, including a line that they'd need permission to do so first, which implies to me while there's a will for it, there's no plans in motion for it at the moment. Makes it sound like it could be a little while yet on that front. Then again, if there's one thing Macross toy collectors have, it's patience!

Aha, that explains everything. Thanks for clearing that up!

Wasn't the SDF-1 just a repackaged Takatoku with nerfed gimmicks?

Really? Both the battle pods are good. Their Destroids, considering they were only $10 at retail originally, still hold up well as the Nousjadeul-Ger though it is a tad skinny. The Bioriod, Invid Scout and Invid Shock trooper all look good (I know, not Macross), though the two Invid could use more articulation. The only two that weren't great were the non-transforming VF-1 and the only semi-partial transforming Hovertank (also not Macross.). I still have everything they made from that line except for the VF-1, Defender and Spartan.

Maybe for the price, but I'm not generally very impressed with their 7 inch vehicle line. They were the best on the market (and still are for some designs) just through sheer virtue of being the only things on the market but other than that, I find them pretty 'eh'. I agree that a lot of the Southern Cross and Mospeada stuff was pretty awesome, though.

Yeah, I always thought that was a kind of neat coincidence. Even more amusing is if you go by the 10 meter height Macross 7 claims for the Zentreadi rather than the actual size they seem to appear onscreen in the show, even the little Zentreadi G.I.Joe style figures actually work out to be in the ballpart of 1/60-is, only a little bit smaller than the Miria figure that came with the Queadluun. Definitely not perfect, but it's not like Macross ever tried very hard to keep mecha scales consistent with each other anyway, especially with the Zentreadi, so I couldn't be happier with the scale of these things.

Mostly I'm just happy that they exist at all, and manage to blend in reasonably well with toys made 20 years later. Matchbox didn't do much right by Macross, but I tip my hat to them for these guys.

In this reply I dramatically demonstrate the trouble with growing your collection faster than you make room for it. Before you ask 'how do you see the screen' the simple answer is that I don't. Fortunately, mechs are far more interesting to look at than most things I could be looking on the computer, so I guess we can call the whole thing even.

As far as I've heard, the only gundam merchandise that's failed to make a splash were specifically kits from Age, and that's mostly because Age itself didn't seem to go over so well. They're about to release a new MG Nu Gundam, which would be no less than their third model kit of that one mech in that scale- I doubt they'd be doing so if they didn't expect it to sell; they are in the business of making money, after all.

I didn't know there were design sketches for a VF-4 super pack, that's badass

That's what I'm afraid of. All everybody ever does is make fun of Luca, now all the sudden they have to "complete" the squad. I'm wondering how many people don't actually like the character/valk are still going to try to buy one just for completions sake.

Good question. How many people do we have registered here?

Let me put it this way. My main hobby for the last 12 years or so was building Gundam Models- and of course, other mechs. Glue, paint, all of that traditional modeling stuff. I had stayed away from Macross models in general for most of that time simply because there was such a lack of availability for much of the franchise in any sort of consistent scale. I specifically did not buy any Hasagawas because I never saw much point of a model kit of a transforming mech that doesn't transform. To date the only macross models I've built were two of the old Imai kits, and before I started collecting the large-scale prebuilt toys I would have never even given the Yamato kits a second look, simply because unbuilt toy =/= model kit.

That said, is there enough demand for this? Probably. Mecha modelers don't tend to care if we've built a robot before, since each new kit provides a new angle on any given mech. For an absolutely perfect example, how many RX-78-2 models are there? Or the Zaku? The VF-1 is pretty much in that same bracket- if they make it, we will buy it.

Bandai models aren't really meant to cater to the same group that buys Yamato toys, though. Even Yamato's kit version is still just an unassembled version of their toy, still designed and geared towards toy specifications. It's really not quite the same thing as a strait up model kit. And the fact that it's smaller is actually a nod in it's favor- 1/60 is a very uncommon scale for aircraft models, while 1/72 is quite common. Scale modelers tend to be very scale conscious, so that actually matters. In otherwords, this is really meant more to compete with your Hasegawas, not your Yamatos.

It seems to me that it's meant to be a successor to the old Imai kits, and I for one am excited about that.

Really, if we're talking about fixed angles anyway, wouldn't it be considerably more simple and cost effective to just glue the gundam stand itself in whatever fixed angle is desired? All of the extra effort seems a little unnecessary, considering how relatively cheap these stands are in the first place.

Not to bump an older thread or anything, but have we heard any new word on this whatsoever?

Here's one- I know you can get a fold-booster with YF-19 fast-packs separately, but where the YF-21's fast packs ever made available individually?

Absolutely amazing! Especially with these materials and this level of quality, mad respect to you! This was awesome to see!

I'd also like to thank Xx-SKULL-ONE-xX! Everything arrived safe, quickly, and as described. Awesome person to deal with, would absolutely recommend! Thanks once again!

Releasing it on Christmas? Interesting. I wasn't aware Yamato made Valkyries out of coal...

I hear very good things about Nippon-Yasan, who happen to have some of the recent VF-1 reissues are pretty reasonable prices. I'm thinking about getting myself a DYRL version Roy VF-1S later this month from them, in fact.

It entirely depends on the materials used. Many 20 year old transformers are notorious for undergoing catastrophic material failure simply because of the plastics used, and my understanding is the toy makers have no real way to know how well a plastic will age until after the fact, I.e., when material breakdowns begin to occur. It's really just one of those things.

These breakage issues sound a lot like the old gold plastic syndrome from transformers... It's a shame they have so many issues with holding together. I only just got one recently though, so even if they did produce a renewal type I think I'd stick to the one I've got, at least for as long as it stays in one piece.

Late to this, but I did see! And they look amazing, exactly everything I was hoping for. I can't wait to get my hands on a set of my own, pun not intended!

How is it that every photo of this thing makes it even more beautiful than before? That shouldn't even be scientifically possible.