glane21

I made this HCM Super Ostrich custom out of the Hasegawa kit and a VF-1J HCM a few years ago. Disassemble the upper body to get the head out. I do remember that the legs are pretty much impossible to disassemble because all the screws are hidden under caps that you would have to pry out, leaving big gouges in the plastic.

From my experience, there's absolutely no way that anyone at Bandai would have had to 'sign off' on a press release. Press releases are not legally binding in any way so lawyers don't really get involved in their creation and companies almost never stipulate proper press release etiquette in contracts. I think it's more likely that Toynami is waving the variants flag in the same way they waved the Beta around. Five years later we may actually get the Beta but with the chunkies Toynami has no control so it's probably a rather disingenuous ploy on their parts that's 90% hope and 10% expectation. That said, they probably didn't make it up entirely, someone at Bandai probably said something like "We might re-release everything, we might even make new stuff, the sky's the limit!" and Toynami is just running with it.

That's what I meant, Bandai must have given them some indication the 'exotics' were in the plans. Pulling that out of their own arses and throwing it out there would not be smart.

Hopefully the initial releases sell well enough to get past the Max and Miriya this time.

The only sliver of hope of this being true is completely dependent on Bandai and this being Bandai's goal.

That's the key. Toynami's not on the hook to produce anything, just distribute what Bandai pumps out for them. I have no great love for toynami but if they can get me 1/55s cheaper then more power to 'em.

Lot of Ostriches and Elints popping up on ebay lately, I suspect some advance warning leaked out somewhere and some folks have decided to cash out to recoup some of their purchase price and pick up a reissue later.

Also, they had to make new molds for the 2001/2002 reissues, look at the upgrades - new heatshield attachment method, forearms resculpted. All they gotta do is the new heads, cockpit insert, wings and fastpacks for the Elint and SuperO. Not too bad IMO. Wonder if they'll leave the noses pointy or blunt them?

Anyway, I doubt they'd tease the 'exotic variants' if Bandai hadn't indicated as much. You don't think Bandai had to sign off on this press release? I'd say they must have.

According to BBTS, TOYNAMI is importing these to the US:

TOYNAMI / BANDAI SUPER VALKYRIES:

Toynami has just announced that they will be importing Bandai japanese

figures to the U.S., and the prices are right! The first two releases are

transforming Super Valkyries from Macross - Max's blue-detailed VF-1A and

Hikaru's Red-detailed one. The best part of these figures is the price -

Toynami will be bringing them over at an MSRP nearly equal to the Japanese

MSRP, so you can pick these babies up for only $84.99 each! Check them

out here -

http://www.bigbadtoystore.com/bbts/search....55+bandai+super

WTF!?!?!

It looked to me like Baltar was actually being physically lifted off the floor by Head Six. I don't think it's physically possible to stand up in that posture he was in. Maybe she is more than a figment of his psyche.

The 02' and 03' reissues are still cheaper than what Bandai's currently offering.

A 2002 Hikaru VF-1J reissue just sold for $64.99 (before shipping) on ebay.

Bandai's Origin of Valkyrie VF-1J reissue is going to cost 8190円, roughly $79.22 before shipping. However much I love the 1/55 design, I can't see any reason why anyone would pay more for the newer reissue when the old one is exactly the same and can be found for a much lower cost. Maybe the new VF-1J one will finally come with a heatshield, but this isn't going to help out the rest of the line.

I assume they will have at least a new box design. 1/55 completists will want them for that.

Wow, never knew there was a Korean knock-off! The original Japanese made one or even the repackaged Singaporean versions are already hard to find and rarely seen around in Hong Kong. This Korean version is a first and I doubt there are any here. Best bet is maybe to try and see if there is some kind of Ebay Korea.

You can read more about it and see pictures of mine in this thread on RobotJapan

http://robotjapan.proboards12.com/index.cg...d=80&page=1

Most of the 1980s vintage toys (I better called them collectibles) were made in Japan. I am curious why you are interested on collecting the 1980s toys NOT made in Japan.

Because the Cotobye is a very rare and unusual piece if you are into strange variants of japanese toys! Most Gakken toys were produced in Singapore anyway. This is a Korean ride armor copy which may or may not have been licensed (but probably not).

I always loved the still suits from the movie the best. I hope this new one uses a similar design.

They may do repaints but to be fair, the all the recolors of the original Garland had basis either from the anime (brown military) or the series sourcebooks - the silver factory color is in one of the artbooks. So any Proto recolor will be purely financial in motive I guess.

My hope is that they are already at work on sculpting the green Hover Garlands , Hurgan, Wildesau, E-X, etc.

Was this supposed to be a sequel of sorts to the first CGI movie? Because it was pretty clear in the manga and in the 1st movie that Briareos was a black guy before he got Cyborged. Now all of a sudden he looked like Onimusha pre-cyborg. Definitely a continuity problem there.

Can you post pictures of the Box conditions here?

Pretty easy when a terminator is meant to perfectly infiltrate in every way into human society to complete its mission. For all we might actually know is that the original husband could of been killed and the T-888 took its placed....she did think that her husband was acting a bit odd but blamed her work and being away for his behavior.

But the T-888 did whatever was possible to actually complete it's mission and when finished, he didn't need to play the sweet hubby role and killed her.

Except that he would suddenly weigh 600 pounds! Guess he had to keep her on top during the McLovin'.

I got the impression that they were hinting at romantic feelings towards Cameron from John, the way he was looking at her after he put her chip back in. Then they promptly blew her up, of course.

WTH! How come I never see those other toys in the shops?! I'd kill for that Invid. And the articulated Ray in similar scale to the CM..........never seen it before.

The Invid and Ray (Rand) are both from the US Robotech toyline. You can get them on ebay pretty easily.

Can anyone post a comparison pic between the MH Ride armor and Yamato Garland both in Bike mode? They are supposed to each be 1/15 scale and I want to see how the rider sizes match up with Stick vs. Shogo. Better yet, put Stick on the Garland and snap a pic as well.

The Proto-Garland is definelty a sweet figure. Dead-on details to the line art and the shoulders show no QC issues. Carefully comparing it to the original Garland toy, you can see that there is not a single shared piece. It is an entirely new sculpt even if the changes are hard to detect (like the shapes of the forearms and upper legs that I would have expected them to reuse are even slightly different).

And I think that's great because it shows that Yamato was willing to put in some serious work to produce the Proto-Garland even after the issues with the first one may have been a potential sales problem. And that means they may be willing to do more new sculpts like the Green grunt hover-Garlands from Part II . Here's hoping.

Weathered 1/48 looks like a Wonderfestival exclusive

http://www.yamato-toys.com/event/200802/

Which characters were Series 2?

I like the show ok despite it's many faults. I also liked the little promo during the SuperBowl where the Terminator endokeleton came out and beat the snot out of the FOX football robot, that was funny.

There are at least 5 versions of the large SDF-1 toy out there:

1. Original Takatoku release - Brown outer box, green inner box and tray. Arms feature launching springs and comes with 2 sprues of tiny plastic valks and a ghost fighter to launch from them.

2. Taiwan Bootleg of the Takatoku release called "Macross SSF-1" with bootleg quality - also has the launching arms feature and sprues of ships.

3. Bandai/Matchbox release in Matchbox Robotech box but figure has Bandai mark on foot - No arm launchers

4. Bootleg of the Bandai version that is identical to Bandai quality but has no manufacturing marks on the foot at all. The box is larger in size than the Takatoku box, and is blue with a grid pattern and features a picture of the Takatoku version (with launchers) with 2 drawings of valkyries flying around it. Has Macross written on box in English. This one was released in Europe I believe. No arm launchers.

5. Unknown manufacturer release called "Space Battleship" - I do not own this one but have pics of it. It does not have the firing arms like Takatoku.

#5 is the one your friend has.

That is the Hergoss Walkyrie HF-1S , a 1/55 knock off released in France, made in Macau. It is a good quality bootleg with some mold changes to the wings,tailfins, nose and head lasers. Good catch.

Um lets see, do you ink directly over your pencil or do you say use a lighted table and transfer to a new page? I'm thinking about trying out the latter.

And wow thats an expensive pen.

I ink directly over my pencils. Rapidographs can be pricey but check out eBay. I got a $100 set there for $25 brand new.

Wow your work is totally what I see in my head when I sit down to draw and then I get distracted. Whats your inking process?

I use a Rapidograph pen for inking. Is that what you mean?

Still available for commissions if anyone is interested.

Custom Hikaru cell:

You have all seen this on Macross World Right?

That was my custom from about 8 or 9 years ago. The valk was real, the box is a total photochop, didn't exist. Sold the 1D to a collector in Japan for about $350. Ah, the memories.

The idea that they are enrolling John in school is friggin ridiculous anyway. They know what he will need to do in his future and the skills he will need. What the hell is he supposed to learn in highschool to help that? I need to learn how to write a theme paper so that I can defeat Skynet! Totally goes aginst the mindset of the characters in T2 which this is supposed to follow. Sarah should already have taught him all the tactics and weapons training he needs. I can stomach small plot point issues but following him in his teen school adventures seems to be a major point of the show. dumb