1/1 LowViz Lurker

http://home.comcast.net/~teckmanfs/Temp/4.JPG After seeing the comparison I like the banpresto shoulders and head sculpt better. They seem just the right size. And I think the toynami leg joint should start at the middle of the white portion of the nosecone. It would make his arms seem less gangly. (I'm looking at the lineart now) The one thing I do like better though is how the knee caps are movable whereas on the banpresto they are fixed. Ah if they could just make the banpresto in similarly large scale with the same proportions and sculpt in higher quality and with moving kneecaps that would be good. Toynami: I think it would be better if the legs were pushed lower down to make the valk taller and also to not have the nosecone tip touch so low down. (I think the tip of the nosecone should reach to the top of the kneecap) I think the only reason the lineart has the intake almost touching the chest plate is because of deformity in the battroid mode lineart. (ie tiny short nose when in battroid mode, and long and sleek when drawing fighter mode. If in 3d, I bet the nose would be much less stubby) Maybe they could add a little ratcheted sliding mechanism on the swingbar? (sort of like the 1/72 yf21FP which you can push up or down so the upper body sits 'higher') Anyway, wherever the the two bulges at the side of the nose are, that is where the leg attaches itself to and these are a little lower down from the two round circle things. The banpresto cheats and puts the leg joint lower than the bulges are, making itself a bit too tall, but its nosecone tip reaches about as low as the top of the kneecap so it balances out. My advice would be to put the leg joint at least lower than the circle bar thing so it doens't have the "longish arms" look. The thing about vf1 is that because it doesn't have flat feet like other later ones, it should have a "tall" look to it. (think of a chic on high heels) Edit: After looking it over again I think I am comfortable with the nose touching lower than the top of the kneecap if it means the fighter mode looks good. I think I just got used to battroid mode not having the intake section almost touching the chest plate. (I hate that) I still think they should try to put in some kind of sliding mechanism to choose how high you want the chest to sit so the nosecone doesn't dip so low in battroid mode though... Could you show some pics of it being transformed? And some other modes?

Why does it say it will be 1/48 in scale when the title clearly says 1/60?

Question: Is it skinny or does it look bulky like the bandai? The CAD drawing makes it look skinny in battroid.

That what's I thought when I first saw macross plus and how Sharon Apple was represented as a box with a single camera eye. (she would be some kind of hal type AI that doesn't trust us)

Buy what I can afford, and if I can't get it all, I just prioritise. If I get time to panel line and apply stickers (remember you got to cut them out and shave the crap off them too) then I apply but most of the time I get lazy. For me the look of the valk makes a difference. When I display something I want a team of battroids with varying eqiupment (at least 1 strike, 1 super, 1 gbp, 1 naked etc) so that they look good with each other. I think the tv max and milia super are my fave to display next to each other because in the show they were rivals and it reminds me of the arcade sequence in the show. I like the blue they used for max. One of the reasons I liked that the CF was released is because to me when you display stuff from a show you want a good cross section of things that were in it. The CF just look good near a 1S or 1J because they are so common and identiftyable. You see them get shot down, explode, or as random guy in the background so it adds to the scene. (that there is more happening in the background beyond the main characters.) It's also why I tend to like the green Qrau color vs the DYRL purple Qrau grunts. Green or brown for a grunt is so much more suitable. All those complaining about "trying to keep up" should be happy there is a wide range of different types. Because in the show, vf1 valks were everywhere and they were the workhorse of SWI - at least there aren't pink pecker squads in sdf macross. (is it because this color is associated with royalty or elite status in some cultures? That's what I heard from someone talking about the release of DS Lite pink) I might end up getting an alaska base color scheme if they ever get around to it.

For me I will take a balanced toy over one that is too focused in one area. But for the show I think of them as fighters that can have some kind of humanoid form to allow for the use of giant hand carried weapons. There is just something cool about the robot mode running into battle with guns blazing and hiding behind a building or crouching for cover as if it were meant to do that and not just be some afterthought. There is also a certain grace to robots when it comes to space combat: when the qrau is battling max in the SDF1 and he dodges and strafes and changes modes to avoid all the missile swarms it just makes a lot of sense that the humans would need something like that. Macross did a good job of making use of all three modes and legitamising them in my mind. (where they might have gone to waste in other shows) I remember the episode where hikaru is fighting kamjin in his glaug and he has only 1 arm left and he is nervous about making the wrong moves. They are both battle damaged and the next shot might mean the end. The fact that it was more like a standoff between two skilled "gunfighters" rather than a fast paced dogfight with guided weapons made the battroid seem all the more cool. (if you need stability and accuracy and thought of the machine as an extension of yourself which responds to your own reflexs then battroid mode makes a lot of sense) Another thing that stood out for me about the valk robot mode is that episode where hikaru has to take out the zentradi ship whose crew were spying on the beauty contest. When he transforms into robot mode to explore the ship after he blows a hole in it, that is where I can see the advantage of a machine with some kind of robot muscle to rip apart something that would be risky if you were just in a space fighter. The role of the robot is more than just combat, I just think it will be much more convenient to see and explore things that way if you have some manipulator to move and grab objects (the same way we have to use machine for heavy work) without wasting time. The octos is a good example of an underwater robot where the limbs are useful: they can just pick the AFOS up with the robot arms and it just seem second nature. No need to tie anything together or tow it. Every morning when the garbage truck picks up the garbage bin with robot arm to empty it, it is done for convenience and speed, and to get more work done with less effort and more quickly. The idea for just grabbing the heavy object and shoving its contents in the back mechanically isn't an afterthought. So I liken it to that but for space in that: at any time when there is some junk or large-scale object the arm/claws can be used for something useful beyond what it is intended for. (holding a giant weapon) As for gerwalk: it is a cool transition between air and ground. When a fighter is coming in for a landing it can gracefully skate across the surface and gradually come to a stop to transform into battroid. Or the battroid mode can transform into gerwalk, take off vertically and then go into fighter when the need arises. In space, gerwalk mode would be handy in that kind of situation where there is less need to maintain a high speed to stay flying. With Fast Pack you can still move forward with booster and brake with the feet. Ah... such a cool mode. You also got the advantage that holding a gunpod in your arm while in gerwalk as well as another thing in the other just looks cool. There are tactical advantages as it's lower to the ground than robot mode and provides a smaller profile. In a single seat fighter it's the only way hikaru can rescue his princess while flying away.

I have him. Worth buying. You'll love the hood as it allows you to truly disguise the fact he is a transformer by flipping the symbol over. (ignoring the fact that the autobot symbol also appears on the license plate too )

In an alternate universe and assuming the legal issue weren't there : -the product could be promoted as HG wouldn't try to hide them -if parts snap, you have some support. (MW people can rely on recasters, but what about those who never knew about MW or where to get them?) -more total buyers: Japan macross fans buying valks + international fans buying valks = more total sold yamato macross toys. (maybe it's just a case of getting it out there and people knowing its there? I only stumbled upon them due to chance and talking about toynami ones.) Now I reason that the more of something that is out there, the more seller has to compete to sell it. So say on ebay you see a store overstocked with older releases and they want to clear some space or something. The perception is that this thing is not rare. People will pay a normal price for it. But something that is hard to find? The value goes up, and people are prepared to pay massive amount because of all the hassle they have to go to just to find it. (they may have not had the money to buy it at the time of release but now have to pay more than what it was worth if they buy it later.) This is where I have gripe about inflated price: when the seller knows damn well how hard it is to find and boost the price and only put them back to normal price if news of a reissue is imminent. (there is just an upper limit on what someone will be willing to pay. Nothing to do with quality as qaulity stays the same: a low vis valk is the same quality as a cannon fodder, and the qaulity doesn't really change with time, just demand for one. Nobody is attacking the qaulity of the product which is what one poster was assuming.) If it is due to fuel prices that is totally understandable. As a reaction to the rise, maybe there is some way they can make the boxes more compact or something? (at the sacrifice of presentation)

As I mentioned if only we could buy these local, (no importing) it might make is easier on the wallet. Also when something like the garland fiasco happens for macross stuff, we can get some kind of support and maybe replacement parts or something. I can sympathise with those who always wait for second releases of stuff to avoid the risk of poor QC and this is why I hope yamato at least have the right atitude about making improvements in later releases and stuff. (ie fix the GBP door mechanism, tighten joints, make the backpack piece more sturdy, more tampo printing etc)

Me too. I love that there was tampo printing on the first release. I think the effort was worth it.

Yeah but the stealth is a special ops valk. jk You know in that episode when they used the shadows in the rings of saturn to hide in? Ah that would be great opportunity for the stealth valk to use its black paintscheme to use a sneak attack where the enemy is not expecting one..

Solution: -be more selective only buying what you really want (leave the non-canon stuff for "obsessed collector") -save up (there is no race - treat it like saving up for a masterpiece prime or master piece SS - quality vs qauntity.) The solution doesn't mean you have to quit altogether. Just think of all the poor people who had to pay $1000 for a chunky munky. I actually like that there is a lot of releases because now there is more choice beyond DYRL valks. Yeah some people are getting sick of vf1, but having different paintscheme is more exciting than just reissue imo. And just when the YF19 is coming out...that's got to be the worst time to quit. I feel more sorry for all the people waiting for this (years) than those complaining about prices.

Super Stealth. But not for realism reasons, just that it looks damn intimidating in battroid mode like the black 17s and black vf22. (macross 7) And those black hands: they remind me of darth vader. But the grey vf0A, maaaan that looks nice. It's a tough choice. I can't wait till yamato finally get to vf11 cannon fodder. yum Because there was a black or a dark blue valk in the tv series, the "stealth" might actually have some legitimacy.

This is why it's important to sell off you old stuff before it loses value. I bet if people had known the yf19 was going to come out, they would have already offloaded thier 1/72 while it was still going for good price from collectors. (remember collectors might be the guy who buys your old stuff at a high price too, not just an evil fat ugly kid out to rip people off by selling them at an inflated price ) The trick is to buy stuff you actually want rather than trying to get everything. By very selective about what you like. (for me it is tv series valks. I love my super max 1J and tv cannon fodder, thanks yamato! I think if you were a lucky guy who got a low vis and need cash to buy more valks, I would sell the LV to a collector and use the money towards something else) One of the reasons I don't bother posting a gallery is because I don't really havea huge collection of valks myself, just very enthusiastic about the ones I own. (it's not some olympic event - people say "catching up" as if it is some race) Prices for things will fall down as newer stuff comes out. I bet people who were fans of 1/60 or 1/72 would be happy that they could get a bargain due to some other person wanting to upgrade to something else and selling cheap. It is funny though that some people complain about yamato flooding the market with too many of the same thing, when only a few years ago people were worried about a macross drought. You can't please some people..

hehe well with all the excitement of the yamato stuff you can forgive us for being a little distracted. I mean....the yf19 for crying out loud. All we pretty much need to know is if they succeed in beating the banpresto. Remember though there are not that many fans here of that to begin with so don't expect huuuge reaction. (banpresto falls apart and needs a bit of modding to hold together. It's more an acquired taste. But if this beats MPC then it is a win for those who want smaller scale at decent price) Unlike chunky munky I don't see many galleries where people dedicate to the banpresto because of that. I was hoping when they get to 1/100 destroids and other mecha we see some interesting galleries of it. (ie teams of valk with destroids etc)

They should just make a non-transformable papercraft beta kinda like what they did for masterpiece prime's trailer before the announcent that a real one was going to be done. But seriously I am happy if they focus on making a genuine effort to do nontransforming mecha like destroids in 1/100 scale or maybe a glaug with glaug booster for space. I need some for putting near a koenig monster. Mospeada can wait. Small scale cheap stuff will be low risk.

Looking forward to reading it. Might also want to compare it to the masterpieces and chunky munky in terms of posability etc. I love side by side comparisons in reviews.

Also I think Louie might turn out to be a mad scientist, remember how he mentioned he wanted to create a robot society to replace humans? Maybe he get injured in a battle and (a bit like briareos in appleseed) has his brain hooked to a cyborg body and forces everyone to become like him? The military fund his projects in the interest of using his inventions but he turns against them at the last minute for forcing him to make weapons of war which he was against in his younger days. (he was plotting all along) Rick hunter will of course come in as a "hero" with the zentradi clone army (modelled after britai) and .... it is up to scott and a few others to save us from rick hunter's army of clones (who then turn against rick to kill all humans after thier mind control wears off through minmay's music) by making a deal with good invid. (well it would be a good twist for once to see aliens as the good guys. Because every past war has seen the humans as the ones correcting the aliens.) The best thing to do would be to get all the characters from every past war involved and it all ends in a cataclysm. (like a big epic where there it is told by a survivor from the war and there is nothing left like in those post apocalyptic movies. By killing off characters and technology from macross they can then focus on new mecha. "Reflex weaponry" will then become some kind of legend. With the few invid survivors deciding that they don't want to evolve to our level "cuz we are evil" and instead go beyond humanoid type shapes. Maybe an alien equivalent to newtypes? heheh just kidding! )

I can't remember, but here a link to an old thread discussing it: http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=12111 pic near a koenig monster (handy for scale reasons and to see the gimmicks and details included) http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/uploads/po...-1115564707.jpg

It just would just mean they have access to a bigger overall market. More people buying them will accelerate profits as a larger audience has access to them. If they can't deal directly with us, it adds an extra barrier for someone to find the toys. Why do you think the first thing a newbie on the forum says is: "where do I go to buy valks from?" They want to know where the best place to get these from is as they are not within reach. On top of that you got robotech fans unable to know what yamato toys even are because they can't even speak about other products, so there is no community to help each other out. How would that affect price? The same way there are two different prices for scopedog and megazone 23 toys. As for the quality of the toys: who ever questioned that they were not high end quality toys? (besides the diecast nazis and those who expect chunky munky levels of robustness? ) The ideal would be to have the toynami stuff, but it has to compete against the yamato stuff, rather than people having to grey importer because they are not living in japan. It reminds me of all the hassle I used to have trying to get access to import games for titles that do not get worldwide release. Then having the seller boost the price because they knew it was hard for non-local people to find and get.

Thanks for the pics. These will make a great cheap alternative to the toynami Masterpiece stuff. (competition in vf1 is getting crowded now..)

The cost of the toy isn't so bad for me, but the shipping. If only the legal problem didn't exist, more could be sold, (just repackage them as robotech toys or something) and it wouldn't be limited to a small audience who import and buy in small qauntities at a time. But then I guess part of the appeal to collectors who actually take pride in owning an item that isn't easily had, is that prices for things DO go up at least on the secondhand market. (I feel sorry for all those buyers who paid and arm and leg to get vf1a max)

That seems like a good compromise. Less risk of scrapage on the ground for robot mode. (note for people who are fans of long wings: when the robot bends its knee the wing WILL touch the ground just going by how I have my 1/72 posed. One long straight left leg, and one bent knee for the right leg, leaning against a wall with its gunpod-holding arm bent and raising the gunpod in the air in a relaxed position. Although pushing the 'hip armor' at an angle on the bent knee side will solve that. I also think that, given these are supposed to be hip lasers and all, that smaller wings would actually make it more practical. Imagine all the shaking and instability you'd get from massive long wings when trying to aim at something?)

I think it would be good if yamato made detailed non-posable hands to go with it. (includes the PT hands) Do what they did with gbp. Blocky, panel lined, robotic and detailed non posable hands) but just make them smaller. (not gigantic like gbp ones). Ahh that would be good. Then the gunpod could be massive and the wrist won't shake. Imagine if all vf1 release from now on, had the GBP side parts included and had smaller versions of those robotic non-posable hands along with being panel lined (like the 1/72 macross plus toys, low vis 1) and tampo printed.(vf0) Come on yamato these are expensive! I think at the least, the DYRL valks should have robotic non-posable hands where the tv valks get thier bubble hands. What do you think graham? Small robotic non-posable hands? We finally managed to get them to panel line vf0 so now the next step is them making better hands/wrists and/or including good robotic non-posables. When I look at the lineart, I'm actually ok with the wings now. I think it is just model people who got used to the big wings that demand bigger ones. If like the vf0 there was a cg equivalent to go by as a guide that would be much more helpful than some 2d drawing. (no worry about deforming parts and the problem of perspective making things look bigger and longer than they actually are)

I know it would be easier for me to put in a sig but I'll say it in this thread: my wishlist: (assuming yamato care about what we think on MW for a sec) just give me a tv Hikaru VF1-S (slightly greyish in color) with tv FP. (in the spirit of the tv max and milia super valk pack ie no strike cannon) Maybe as a little bonus we get a Misa and minmay figure to go with it and we can have her in the grip of the vf1 hands as hikaru time and time again rescues her/them in gerwalk mode. I think that is an iconic part of the tv series - where he uses the gerwalk to go in and rescue by holding one of them in ther hand while he is in gerwalk. If they want: they could just release a tv version of the VF-1S with no FP and roy in his tv flightsuit. (just like above but with no FP, and Roy instead of hikaru) So for all those tired of the DYRL Roy reissues, this would sorta be fresh as it appears in the series, isn't non-canon release, (for those who aren't interested in alternate paintschemes) and would be recognisable to lots of people. It's about time they gave us a new 1S release. (enough with the 1j and 1a for a while)