JLYC

unfortunately the more i look at the vf-25 kit..the more sucky it becomes. especially after looking at the Shizuoka hobby thread where you can see the Bandai kit and the Hasegawa kit side by side...makes the Bandai kit really looking like a crude toy. I know it's probably not a fair comparison since the bandai is still a prototype and not as nicely painted...but I'm afraid I agree with mwcheng's assessment. From what I can see so far, Bandai is aiming for the mass audience and making something more like HG/HGUC/MG gundam kits than the more modeler-oriented UC HardGraph series. I can only hope that the final product will be alot more detailed.

much nicer than what i had expected from Bandai. The price is a bit on the steep side though. I really don't give a crap about it being able to transform. Would be cheaper probably if they just offered the option to build in either fighter, battroid, or gerwalk forms than developing a transformation mechanism- esp if they're releasing a toy line already albeit in different scale.

thank you very much!! this made my day

3 pages of messages and not even 1 pic of the model put together? common guys...let us poor bastards who are not fortunate enough to own one to at least see what it looks like...

there was indeed a recast VF-4 from SHE sometime ago. i bought one off a guy on another forum last week.

john...very awesome work!!!

the Hase model is definitely better looking by miles. as for poseability i think it's on par with the toy.

it takes lots of marketing, hype, and $$ to keep a franchise alive. look at the successful japanese franchises: kamen rider, ultraman, gundam- they have new stuff, be it TV show, models, toys, miscellaneous accessories, coming out year after year almost non-stop since their inception, pummeling their presence in people's faces and thus gaining new followers every year. macross is just not putting out enough stuff to attract new fans. OVA's nonwithstanding...how many people would actually want to watch a 20-year old anime show?? My 19 year-old cousin already complaints that Macross Plus 'looks old' and refuses to watch it....even though i tried to convince him that although the graphics may not be as 'modern' as naruto, full metal alchemist etc etc, it's a classic. Macross is more or less a niche market now...kinda like Mazinger, Saint Saiya, Fist of the North Star, etc.

err...ya....hasegawa makes the normal battroid, TV strike battroid, and DYRL strike battroid models...and next month the VF-0S battroid comes out i'll be getting the model and not the toy. granted it's a nice toy...but i just want the proportions and detail to be perfect. the model is also 1/5 the price of the toy...so i can buy a battroid, a fighter, and custom make the gerwalk with money left for 2 more battroids to be customed to my own liking....and that's enough work and fun to last at least 1 year. with toys i find that the rush ends too fast.

ditto the panel lines...otherwise it'll look like a toy! nice painting

not bad at all!! however...from the pics both the battroid and fighter don't look as anime-accurate as the VF-1 toys i'm gonna wait for the yamato and hasegawa vf-1 battroids to come out before deciding whether to go with the toy or models.

in many instances these modelers are limited by license as to how many kits they can produce. i know such is the case for five star stories kits at wonderfestival...that's why the production numbers are so small and the prices go sky high on yahoo japan.

LowViz Lurker: may i ask what you do for a living? you write the longest and most comprehensive replies in almost every thread...i think they can add up to a mini novel itself. either you write super fast or you're a journalist or something. thanks.

nice nice any build-ups for reference? probably out of my skill level..but would love to see how it's done

awesome piece of engineering and artwork. i generally don't care for transformable models because usually their esthetics have to be compromised (look at the SHE macross, getter robots, or those gogaigar kits. it's an amazing feat to render them transformable, but they never look as good as their static counterparts). however if a beaut like this can be made...i'm all for it!!

the battlepod looks pretty crap....if you want a good battlepod i'd suggest the 1/72 that's being sold in the model forum now. with a little work it won't be hard to get some articulation into the legs if you absolutely want it.

having built resin and non-bandai models for sometime now....i just recently went back to buidling the HGUC Ex-S. to be honest, i find it more a pain in the ass to build those snap-together bandai kits than anything else. I still remember my first few gundam kits more than 10 years ago...built with cement! the engineering of the new bandai kits are amazing...but i really won't call them models. they're snap-together actiona figures, designed for today's youth who have too little patience for glue and are always on the go...snap snap snap...next MG please!! compared with G-sys or Core-works, the stuff put out by Bandai are just sad....with the kind of cost going into those kits, you'd think they can at least get the proportions right. now the hasegawa...ah...those are models!! to be on topic i have 2 battroids. one built as hikaru DYRL and the other one i'm intending to build as cannon fodder. i'm happy as hell bandai's not the one doing these new macross kits.

says on that ad 'mid 2005' it will be out....

everytime i see macross plus....i think vf-21 is a better plane mechanically. however aesthetically vf-19 is the winner. from the fight between guld and isamu...there was no winner and no loser and the ghost disrupted the fight. vf-19 defeating sharon didnt really say much- isamu just dodged a bunch of bullets and crashed into the mainframe. i have no doubt the vf-21 can do the same. now the fight with the ghost...that's a different story. somehow i doubt vf-19 would be able to beat the ghost. then again we're really pitting 2 very different planes piloted by 2 very different pilots. in reality the UN would be choosing the MACHINE and not the pilot, so the human variability will have to be taken into account.

no need to rush and get a V-0s or any other variations to accomodate the ghost imo. given hasegawa's production history, all variations with the fast pack will probably come out or they'll release one that contain option parts to build either S or A. i'm really glad i didnt get any of the 0 kits neither....i was really hoping for this one which i'll get for sure. guess good things come to those who wait

it's been 1 year since ep 4 was released and still no vol 5 in sight....i hope the project is not being abandoned.

most gorgeous work. do you mind describing or showing how you made the damages? I especially like the ones where the damage exposes the internal mechanics- did you scratchbuild those? thanks!!

highly doubtful. Hasegawa is a fine scale model company first and foremost. If you look at the material and design of their battroids, you'd know they're not even meant to be excessively handled or played with like Bandai gunpla snap togethers. It took Bandai more than a decade in the gundam business to even do something as ambitious as the PG, so I really don't think large variable macross kits would be in store for hasegawa at all, even say they can copy the engineering of yamato toys for the transformation to reduce development cost. besides, most modelers will see no advantage for variability as discussed in another thread. heck, many don't even care much about posability. What I wish from them is larger scale fighter/battroids with more details, such as open hatches or internal skeletons like MG gundams. proportion and detail over gimmicks for me!!

toys = variable models = non-variable Posability/variability in models just don't mean anything to me anymore. As aforementioned it's nearly impossible to transform a model without major chipping. I'd rather have a good looking, well proportioned model, and the hell with variability, which will almost always sacrifice the look in order to transform. similar topic has been discussed about transformable Gundams, which most serious modelers consider to be inferior because they lose proportion and detail. For those who don't paint their 'models' and play with them like action figures, though, it's probably 'cooler'. but what's the point of being able to transform if they look like crap? I'll take a static resin VF-19 battroid anytime over the transformable model/toy offerings, which will never reach the anime lineart no matter how well crafted (including those amazing ones shown in the hobby magazine archives...they're lightyears ahead, but will never be true to BOTH battroid and fighter proportions due to the inherent design which needs anime magic to work)

i think it's called information high