AcroRay

Saw it at the local drive-in last night! It's a mecha otaku's wet dream!

WAR MACHINE totally rocked. I could have watched him and tin head duke it out with the Hammer-Droids for a whole additional 30 minutes.

I did a custom real-type repaint for my private collection.

I'm going to add some decals later.

Nice! I noticed you went for anime-style, and didn't do any panel line work.

I'm still really tempted to light the eye on one of these!

My heavy missile type arrived today, bringing a huge smile to my face. With those two massive missile pods on top, the thing really has some serious presence on the shelf. And lineart accurate. Sweet!

The missile pods have a lot of panel detail on them, which really calls out for some panel line or detail painting, much more than the previous edition did. It reminds me of the 'anime style' buildup examples on the instructions of the 80s Macross plastic kits, with simple bright paint. But it will say "Paint Me!" to a lot of collectors, IMO.

Really nice fictional history on the back of the box, too. Many nods to classic Macross, as well as serving their Harmony Gold licensor. Obviously branded by necessity, but born from the original source.

Good work, Toynami! I can't wait for the next piece in the line!

I recall dozens and dozens of 'comic-book' themed stuff produced over the years. I've got smatterings of stuff dating back into the 80s and ranging from Marvel Masterpiece to Judge Dredd/2000 AD, to Jim Lee's X-Men, Joe Linsner's Dawn to tiny indie stuff like Chakan the Forever Man and have seen cards produced for everything in between. Could you be more specific?

This might seem like a stupid question, but has this Regult resin model been confirmed in 1/60 scale? If I'm not mistaken, it's pictured next to a 1/60 Valk, but the Regult looks a little big. Does anyone know of an accurate size comparison of a Regult versus a Valkyrie?

Close enough:

Aren't 3 3/4 action figures in general suppose to be 1/18 scale?

If they're representative of a typical human. If it's a Microman figure, for example, then the 3 3/4" figure is actually 1/1 scale. The Matchbox Zentraedi figure I shot with the Toynami Regult is actually the "Micronized Zentraedi" figure, so technically he would be 1/18. But I don't recall any Micronized Zentran troops with scaled-down body armor in the show, so I used him as a 1/100 scale figure. He scales well with the 1/100 Valk toys - much better than the vintage 1/100 Imai "Armored Space Suit" Kamjin plamodel, which is about the same size as John Moscato's 1/72 Kamjin kit.

So, it's "Macross Scale"...

The release could go either way. Bandai could mark them up as 'collector editions' in limited quantities, or be just as likely to try to pop them out cheap like the last run with a wider distro. Depends on which buyer segment they think they'll get their best sales at. Some of that will depend on how much cleaning and repair the tooling needs, and what special considerations need to be made if they're standardized to injection molding setups that Bandai doesn't have active in their production lines right now. I'd like to hear what the folks at HLJ might have asked Bandai and been told about the effort.

Admittedly, these are a bit below the quality of current kits. But if priced accordingly, I'm happy with a kit tooled up to earlier - even antiquated standards. There is a segment of the hobbyist population that does appreciate 'vintage kits', which I think these qualify as. I would shell out $20 for the old 1/200 Monster kit.

Oh - and way to go Bandai with that Destroid Monster test shot at Shizuoka. Why do they always have people set these things up who have no idea how to pose an articulated kit in an appealing way? Thing looks like that poor 'surprise me' kitten from YouTube... Tickle-tickle-BOO! Agh!

May be we should do one lol.

I'd buy it, even if it was just the 1/100 scaled up to 1/55. Heck, I'd buy it especially if it was done that way. A classic chunky buddy for my classic chunky Valkies!

what scale would the old matchbox 3 3/4" zentraedi figure be? if it is 1/100 scale that would be kinda cool.

It seems close to 1/100. He might be able to squish into the Toynami Regult:

(With some irony, I'll note that the Matchbox Zentraedi figure is actually 'made in Japan'...)

Today, BBTS sent me notice that my preordered Heavy Artillery version was in-stock and ready to ship. Whoo hoo!

Part of the article is careful instructions for how to pick a couple of favorites and send your choices to Bandai. They're soliciting input, not offering a release schedule - much as we'd hope for one.

The Monster at Shizuoka may have just been an example of potential product for marketing purposes, rather than an actual statement of upcoming product.

$400? Screw that. I'm glad I'm not married to the 1/60 format. She's an expensive b*tch indeed.

It's not far-fetched to say that the existence and knowledge of these molds were forgotten to time.

It's amazing that a company can get so large and complicated that they can actually forget they've got several TONS of metal tooling in their inventory!

I had the 1/200 Monster back in the 80s. Apart from some posing problems due to the lack of poly-caps, I thought it was a great, accurate kit.

Notice they've got several of the SD kits on the voting list, along with the Quel-Quallie and a 1/5000 Macross. And the 1/72 Destroid Spartan.

The 1/12 figure kits are on the list, too. But I can't imagine why they'd even bother. Those are truly out-dated by a huge array of other modern figure products.

In the June HOBBY JAPAN is an article covering Bandai's plans for vintage Macross kit re-releases. Sure, they've done that several times already. But the article shows a warehouse full of IMAI tooling, including the classic DESTROID MONSTER kit, and offers a poll they are (or will be) soliciting collector input on what kits to release - including the highly sought-after 1/100 ARMORED FACTORY.

I've attached copies of scans, courtesy Super Robot Wars Hot News. Page 161 features the kit list on the lower right side of the article. On page 162 the tooling is pictured. The Destroid Monster is bottom center.

Its amazing to see all that tooling standing ready to be cleaned up and loaded into the injectors - like a warehouse full of 'Arks of the Covenant'. For years, popular rumor had it that many of these kits had been scrapped.

Obviously, Bandai can be said be a bit behind the race on some of this stuff. Hasegawa, and now Wave have been filling the gaps on a lot of these kits in these scales that Bandai has apparently had collecting dust in storage just shy of forever. Still, it would be a nice infusion of nostalgia for this collector to pick up some Imai kits I had missed in the 80s or traded/sold in the interviening decades...

(Special thanks to MicroBry for looking over the article and telling me the details!)

Finished off my diecast Takatoku Destroid Defender collection a couple of weeks back!

I actually just did this last weekend. You're right, the Gnus are similar in size to the 1/100 Toynami toys and look much better.

Are we to expect a review of the Regult from you, then?

PM sent offering MISAs in trade for recast parts.

Hah! Funny you've got a Force Commander there. You should put it on eBay. Less than 200 of that particular color were made. (Look for my name on the back. )

Thanks for the detailed photos and the comments, areaseven!

I'm hoping to pick up the purple girl's one at some point, for my Valk knockoff collection. (It's like the modern version of Megaro Zamac...

Here are a couple of knockoffs of the 80's Mospeada gashapons, that I got from a vending machine here in the US back around 1990. Both are the same scale, sculpt and quality. Just different colors. (If any of you Mospeada collectors out there want to trade a Ride Armor or Legioss Soldier gashapon for one of these, I'd be game.)

I\'ve seen those occasionally at YahooJP auctions. I love the totally wild graphics!

Roy Fokker karate-kicking the Zentraedi soldier is one of the best!

The painted ones are beautiful. They would make great posters - images of a Macross time long past.

Did anyone make giant circular Macross menko, like this Gundam one (in my collection)?

Just for the heck of it, I'll note that the Yellow Sub version also comes with a DYRL-style Zentran soldier holding a short rifle. So you get two kits in one!

Here's some links to my crappy panel-lining on one of my Regults

Very nice! Neat and anime-looking!

finally got a CF for the right price but it looks like its a later pull and the mold has degraded somewhat (no, it isnt mold flash. onenose cone half is significantly lower than the other and the bottom nose cone mold parts are slightly recessed)

That sort of deformation can happen as a result of improper de-molding during manufacture of the parts. So it's not necessarily any problems with the tooling.

It usually happens during the head and tail of a manufacturing run. Larger runs of parts are generally pulled and checked at the start and near the end, then discarded. On smaller production runs, the pulls are more limited in quantity, so there's a larger quantity of pieces that might not normally be used. There's less 'fat' to trim on leaner productions, so to speak...

Since LLA was the subject of conversation a little while ago: I have an excellent-quality 1980s Japanese original VHS that I've transferred to DVD. Clean S-video stereo transfer, straight-play with no menu elements and 3-minute increment chapter points...