1/1 LowViz Lurker

Well if some of them turn out to be true limited edition non-canon VF0 variants it might be a good incentive to get them for a diehard collector. I don't know about you but I still think the 1/48 VF1A LV ver1 kicks ass because of the dull appearance of it and how the stickers themselves can barely even be seen. What they need is a LV like that for CF or 0S complete with weathering dirt. I wonder if they will try to make a ultra rare "only 3 in the world" credit card VF0? Maybe they should have a competition where you design your own squad and have the winning designs appear on a LE sticker sheet?

The head looks cool in the scan. Looking forward to this. I'll probably be getting at least 1 of CF at minimum. Hopefully the magnets won't be put on the wrong way this time.

I don't know about you, but I kinda like how some of the boxes are just plain black with the letters: VF1A, VF1J etc and that is it. It kinda of stands out in the sea of other boxes of stuff. Even if the box was just full of CAD style lineart I think that would be cool. I'm more worried that the boxes have too much empty space than what they look like though. They could cut costs to themselves if the boxes were smaller.

The bandai macross 7 valks are ok to guess. But 1/72, they just have a certain delicateness to them. All it takes is for the thing to drop to the floor and there goes a headlaser. That's why when I put fast packs on my valks, I'm scared that the added wieght if it were to fall my actually result in something snapping if a person were to drop it accidently. Always pays to be cautious.

But I think someone on the robotech forums had the idea first as a custom before the magnets were used for the MPC. Can't be sure, since I'm too lazy to check, but I used to hang out there. Anyway what really matters in the end to me is if the toy is good as a final product though. It can have all the cool features in the world and lot of details but if it has hit or miss QC then I get worried. They are expensive master piece toys and we should expect highest grade quality for them. In the abscence of the 1/48 I would probably be a toynami fanboy. Now I wonder if toynami will try to make a GBP armor for MP vf1. Ripping off each other is good for us the consumer in the end if it means you get the best features from all the competition at the end of the day. In fact if they made high quality bootlegs of the alphas which never broke I would probably end up buying a few.

Although not much of a doll collector, I think these look great. For me the appeal of macross goes beyond just the mecha even though that originally what drew me to it. I guess there are just too many things on the shopping list right now. Tempted to get Stealth and just the other day ended up getting some macross books and milia figures. Shame these are being ignored because they look fantastic and just like in the anime. As a fan I'd buy it, but for some reason I have always been more a mecha freak so the mecha toys have always got most of the attention. But it is good to see that after 20 years the hardcore fans are getting what they want which is really acurate toys, dolls, figures etc of the characters. These look good. Misa, Milia and Roy I reckon should be done next if they get that far imo.

Maybe they can do a limited release if they are scared? Kinda like what they did with CF. To the OP: yeah you need fast packs for DYRL valks. Doesn't look right without the super upgrade. Tv series valks like the CF I don't mind naked as it makes more sense that they would fight on earth most of the time with just normal weapons. FAST pack would just limit how they can fight. (ie imagine fighting as a battroid on the ground using the cover to limit where you can be seen from, then needing to change into gerwalk and then fly quickly to another location?The FAST pack would just get in the way and hinder your ability because you wouldn't really be able to fly in fighter.) In DYRL they ejected the FP in scenes against he zentradi on earth. So they are not a requirment for looking good for all valks, just that if you have a set you can stay true to their appearance in the movie. (where most of the time they are in space) It was only really to the end of the series that the characters used the FP. I personally think it would be a good idea if they re-released the tv CF and have a set of custom brown FP like how they have them for super max and super mila (seriously I would buy a 'super cannon fodder' with brown tv fast packs as a set.)

I read the instructions very slowly and took about 1 hour at first. on average I would say about 3 minutes depending on if I want to take missiles off the hardpoints before transforming, and if I want the fast packs. My main reason for taking long has to do with not wanting to snap off the head laser. It's tricky to fit it through the back. Also I get scared of the backpack hinge. When I fold it all the way in so it sits pressed right down at an angle pointing right inside the backplate, I can see the plastic bend a little. Does anyone here bend it all the way in when transforming to battroid mode, and when you do, doesn't that just scare the poo out of you?

That thing looks pretty cool. It looks like a variable version of the R9 from R-Type. Lots of nice art. (metal slug mech looks cool) I kind of miss the days when hand drawn sprites in games were the norm. There is a certain appeal to it that you just don't quite get when the object is too 'perfect'. Take the animated characters in capcom's marvel vs capcom games as an example. I always thought that when they tried to combine cheap looking 3dish effects in the second game with the handdrawn stuff it kind of had a fake appearance to it like it didn't belong. (ie it was no longer a comic book flat style, but 3d shiny cg forced into it. Ah all this reminds me to go out and buy that Tenjin Hidetaka artworks book.

So is everyone going to get heavily into the series and stuff? (I am. I will just consider it an american mospeada sequel ) Robotech to the rescue!! If this takes off like the transformers cartoon did in the 80s do you think that might spark some interest in making a new mospeada with all new mecha in japan? Maybe there are fans in japan who will want to see robotech SC, and then demand a proper sequel? (of course when yamato gets the license to make the alphas/black legious I will of course buy those versions over the MPCs - sorry toynami )

The faults all sound pretty minor when put into perspective and take into account all the improvements. (especially the tampo printing) Do you think they will do the reactive armor and ghost booster now? People are STILL waiting for that? lol Maybe they should start to put down preorders and in 5 years come back and they will be ready to release?

I admit I hacked into the government's computers and from what I learned it was ivanov's clone who piloted the plane. The anti-un were running short on good pilots so they used him as a metal gear solid style "big boss" type original to make new soldiers. Future soldiers will be combination taken from dna samples of deunan knute's father, solid snake, kira yamato, baba fett and max jenius to make the ultimate next gen soldiers to fight off hostile alien races on other planets before the grand empire is created and the protodevlin come back to posess the minds of these soldiers to once again rule over the galaxy.

Maybe bandai are just waiting and biding thier time, kinda thing. Waiting until they get to such ridiculous prices that indicates there is a huge demand that it would make it worth the reissue? I think I would be a chunky munky whore were it not for my pocket taking a pounding with yamato valks. What I would really like (doubt it would ever happen) is for bandai to just make a line of macross models they way they have for gundam. Make them perfect variable, and you assemble them yourself. Give swappable heads like the banpresto, and make it so each major part was detachable, with higher poseability than yamato and then I think they would sell like mad. Huge super posable destroids, pod fighters, Qrau, regult and glaug all in large scale to match the vf1 could come later. Then later do a macross plus or macross 7 line of snap-fit models. Maybe they could even have unofficial variants to release. But with models I think it would be cheaper, and you could afford to get more and complete a set from a range in the series. (you could afford not just the popular guys and designs but all the other stuff) Will yamato ever lose the macross license though? It will probably be another 20 years before another vf1..

What is the official stance on them: are they dark blue with shadows cast on them, or are they black. I wonder if yamato will release a dark blue version and call it stealth ver2? The stealth is so stealthy we can't even be sure it existed or not.

I didn't mind the magic in macross zero that much since it ties in well with the alien technology. (ie the antigravity side) I didn't mind the stuff in macross 7 where we get to see the ruins of the PC (ties back to DYRL and the sunken city) because it fills in some history. (should have been in sdf:macross) But I hope they meld all this together smoothly and present the story in a interesting way rather than leave us hanging or having to guess. (macross zero ending for example - so the alien flower mecha folds, but where did shin go? how did sara create that barrier around her body and levitate down safely? Was that her powers her father taught?) The thing I liked about the levitation idea is that it brings to mind this idea that there are aliens with this kind of advanced ability that can sort of generate thier own anti gravity by themselves, and by reverse engineering how those creatures do it in nature, the PC could have genetically modified or manufactured bioorganic monsters as weapons. So think of the monster in doom that floats (spits out balls of energy from its mouth) and meld this with the story in the game "Resident Evil" of using the monsters as a bio weapon which this race may have wanted to make to replace humanoid soldiers. I like the idea of scientists taking what exists in nature and using it to make semi-organic mecha. It's just that I am very fussy over how it is designed. (I tend to like scary looking stuff because I am drawn to horror) Perhaps what they could do is have for the first time a macross which is darker and more scary than previous ones. Instead of them finding some ancient ruins, they stumble upon old PC labs where they find all kinds of bio-mecha which come to life and have escaped. They would be more like eva type mecha then mechanical and parts of machines. In fact make them more like powered suits with living parts inside them.(the zentradi already had a brain living in a ship in DYRL so why not?) I just think the whole idea of using nature and creating organic parts to make monsters and using them as weapons is interesting. Even the zentradi ships I can imagine as living because they look organic and very 'alien' if you know what I mean. I don't have any problem with monster or aliens, or people tapping into a some magic energy which can't be explained by the characters, (if it fits in with this idea that the PC were very advanced and understood everything) but my main beef was that I want a more dark tone and endings which are obvious and understandable. Like tell me what happened after, what did the characters think after that, was this the reason we were so ready to fight wars in the first place? what happened to the anti-un afterwards and what were the limits of the knowledge they had of antigravity and why we couldn't make fighters or mecha (like in appleseed) with it? etc I'm thinking that perhaps like in full metal panic (ie mysterious black technology) people like Sara (able to create the barrier or lift rocks with her psychokinesis powers) would be able to have a newtype-ish communication with PC machines (like the psycomu system in gundam?) and this would be the next logical step in fighter design but only select people with this power can make use of it? (but in the past scientists didn't know how to tap into the part of the brain that allows a person to use psycho waves to access the alien technology so there was no advancement in this area for a long time - you needed a mad scientists like the one in macross 7 to help understand it)

One thing I notice with anime is they always have some characters with amnesia and it is usually due to these things: -character had its memory blocked from trauma (eg appleseed cg movie when deunan witnessed her mom's death) -character was part of some experiment (perhaps some kind of drug, hypnotism, manchurian candidate style mind control/conditioning etc might have been used to purposely block the person's memory of who they really are - eg bourne identity, M.Bison's psychic hold on his victims used as puppets in street fighter) -person has a split personality This might have just developed gradually as the character conditioned themselves to adapt to thier environment and/or to keep up the image they prefer of themselves in front of the people they respect or admire. eg Lady Hun in Gundam Wing, that smiley kid assasin in Kenshin. Two completely different people fighting for control inside the one person. Anime has many examples of people whose minds were screwed up at the time of the traumatic incident that drove them crazy and only later towards the end of the show do these memories locked away in their subconsious spring back into thier head at wierd times. If in a japanese rpg you have a character who has conveniently "lost thier memory" you can bet it will be central to solving the mysteries in the story. I guess it is so girls can look at them and say "awww poor thing, you must have had a horrible childhood to have had to go through this experience" and this allows us to see both sides of the story. (ie we are drawn to the dark and mysterious half of the character that would normally be hidden if we were not going to go deep into what they are about and why they behave in such a screwed up way.)

Looks really good. I'll be getting one for sure. nice pose, hope it is not due to floppy limb syndrome.

I think Guld was fighting his 'love of fighting' side against his caring side which is why I could sympathise with him becuase there was that struggle from within to surpress his fighting instinct. In the end the zentradi were originally bred to fight. Like certain breeds of dogs you got to watch out for these aliens because they might enjoy or use these instincts and be used to solving things with violence. That's how I see it. Yeah he did bad things but he was a good person for the majority of the time. Certainly no worse than the mad scientist who killed people just to bring his AI to life and let it rule over humanity by controlling all the defenses and hacking into drones. I don't see the aliens as being evil since they were trained and bred to behave a certain way so it is not so black and white. (there is good and bad on both sides - in the end the bad guy was human and trusted, and in SDF:Macross you had an alien equivalent with kamjin so there is villains in both camps) If you note: it does show that he is genuinely shocked at what he did to myung in the flashback so it was almost as if he "wasn't himself" for a moment. Like a person who may be drunk or under the influence of some drug and not in control. He then repressed this memory and locked it away as a way to to deal with the trauma and deny that part of his memory for a long time. However you look at it, from how it was presented, we were supposd to sympathise with him rather than hate him. His death wasn't payment for anything, I just think it was him wanting to "protect" myung like the heroic knight he imagined himself to be. That sounds pretty unselfish and noble to me. To say he "deserves to die" is a bit heartless imo.

I don't think robotech deserves top 10. But Robotech had some good things: I actually like some of the music in NG portion. And the stuff about the zentradi 'evil' music, at the time I thought that this is very fitting for a race of warrior giants out to destroy stuff. Also the drums: the drums for the scrambling bits were memorable. When they rush out in thier planes and the pods are destroying stuff, and you hear the dadadada dum dum brings a sense of urgency to everything. Maybe I just like heavy sounding music. Macross is still preferable since it has way more range and overall quality though. I'm finding it hard to listen to the RT stuff. I guess nostalgia got to them and this has made them include RT. Taste in music I think is something that will always be subjective and a waste of time for these sorts of lists. No one can ever agree.

What about the 70s porno moustache on the pilots in the original MS gundam? I think that is kinda cool (in a retro chic way - although I don't have them, I still think sideburns are cool) now when I watch it. I think that is why Roy was cooler with long hair than when he had short hair. It's not because I think it is fashionable for today but it is like part of the character itself and to change it, means he is no longer roy anymore if that makes any sense. Roy should keep the sideburns and long hair and this should be canon forever.

Every little bit counts. He must have thought you were spying on him. For me it was the other way around: someone wanted to show me how awesome the MPC was and I was looking at the pics of this from Rtech, and another guy recommended the yammies. I did a bit of ebay window shopping looked at the 1/60 and 1/48 versions, came to MWB and looked for reviews and impressions. Then decided the 1/48 owned when I got my first one. Because I came in late, I didn't go through all the hassle of earlier version which had loose nose cone and stuff so it was like the perfect time for me. (I had just bought macross on dvd, and watched the old rt dvds and was feeling nostalgiac at the time) Then after hearing about macross zero I was eager to see this just after seeing the whole macross tv series on dvd. I just hope that in the future yamato valks don't get too rare and hard to find for the noobs and prices are kept sane so more people can get them. There are probably going to be people asking "what's a yamato version like?" in future and wanting advice on what to get. I would recommend the 1/48 as a good first purchase and to skip 1/60. They are very detailed and although expensive they are worth it if you are fan of the valks in DYRL where they have the strike cannon. A battroid is considered naked without this upgrade because it is less well equiped for space. If you like the idea of upgrading a valk to a super valk then yeah it is worth getting, but if you are happy with just an atmospheric fighter then that is good too. (I actually like my CF to be without fast packs) Some of the higlights are that the covers are removable to show the details inside, and they feel weighty due to the diecast. One of the things I like about them is how you have individual micromissiles which you can remove. Something I wish they had done with the 1/60 qrau. The next choice would be to get a second valk and equip with GBP. My goal is to try to at least get one of each type: 1A, 1J, and 1S and then equip with fast pack and/or GBP. (and maybe find another low visibility ver.1 to keep mint as I love this color) My main focus so far was on the tv valks as they bring back memories from the show. (ie max and milia full equiped with fast packs fighting side by side in battroid mode in thier distinctive colours, the brownie CF which get blown to bits, the fat hands which are not available in DYRL versions etc) Although I like the 1/60 scale and the proportions in battroid mode, I love the details on the 1/48 and am a fan of the swing bar used to transform it over the removable legs. No loose joints, or floppy limbs, lightweight so it is easy to pose, and more detail (robot hands looks cool despite being a little unstable when holding the gunpod) all outweigh the 1/60. 1/60 is a good scale to get if you want to try to collect everything but for me the gimmicks in 1/48 make it a more attractive purchase if you are hardcore fan of the vf1. I only hope we get a future set of macross plus valks with similar level of detail to the 1/48 and 1/60 VF0.

These pics are good. The 0S looks good in all modes. It's a shame there are issues on some of them. Yamato should include nail polish in all future releases.

Plus had some great mecha fights. I hate to say it but for mecha shows I watch them for mecha more than story. (that doesn't mean I can[t appreciate a good story when one is in it) I think one of the reasons I like full metal panic is how the characters can be serious and relaxed so there is a good balance of action, a bit of comedy (type of aimed at the specific audience that watches this kinda of show) and the story is decent enough to want to know more about the mystery of the technology. Some of the mecha fights are really well done and there is a sense of the character genuinely able to overcome a challenge due to his knowledge and skill rather than having super powers. (the reason I like batman as a hero than superman who is a super hero who can do anything) To take an example in a lot of fighting anime, or a hong kong action flick, the focus for watching them is the thing the people are doing in them (the stunts, the clever trash talking and building up to an event, the danger of them not coming out alive etc) more than the meaning behind why they are doing them. When hikaru tells minmay he may not come back and this might be his last mission, there is a grave sense of doom. The seriousness of the mecha half of the show was taken right out of macross 7 and you felt like the tone changed completely when they brought in this super duper basara character who could do no wrong. I don't like shows where there is very little sense of danger and that success isn't determined much by a characters skills but by thier uber powers. (rahxephon for example didn't feel like a robot show due to the focus on the characters) I think ever since evangelion there is this pressure to bring in lots of religious symbolism into a genre that doesn't necessarily need it. And from then mecha shows got married to magic (floating rocks, energy barriers the protect you, pilots tapping into a "force"-like ability etc) and it was ok to focus just on this aspect of the show. But I think there are two types of fan: 1. side story fans (macross zero and plus had a focus on the mecha as much as the "music solves everything angle" that is common to macross. This is the equivalent to those who liked gundam 8th ms team for its attention to details and how it took focus away from newtype super aces winning wars single handedly cuz "they are special") 2. character fans (ie think of the difference between full metal panic! Fumofu vs FMP. The comedy and lighter tone in the former is why you would watch it more than action) If they can make a series that gets the best of both worlds (light comedic tone + serious action sequences) then I will like it. I love the side stories but for me SDF:Macross gave us a reason to reflect on humans and thier behaviour. There were bad guys, (kamjin) misguided people (misa's dad), heroes (max), and people in between (the people on board the ship) and it felt like there was a bit of everything. Sad moments were when kakizaki died (reminding us this is a war and consequences for screwing up) but light hearted moments as well. (Mostly from Roy who was laid back and kind of balanced the show) A good mecha show is one that everyone will watch and not just mecha fans. What I would suggest is that they try to make a tv series or a 13 part ova that is much more like what the original tv series was (a big epic struggle to win against seemingly impossible odds) more than seperate bits and pieces that only focus on 1 thing within that world. The original tv series may not have had the beautiful action sequences of plus (the opening scene in the ova with the rogue zentradi is one of my faves) but it had all the ingredients of a good show. You didn't really have to be a mecha anime fan to watch it. The mecha action and war were just the backdrop for the love triangle between the three main characters. You can still have your "pop music and love will save us all" message (I liked the music in macross II) but try to bring back the seriousness that we didn't get in 7 but which we got in the original. Only if it means we go back to macross' roots which was more like SDF:M. It covered a lot of ground with only 36 eps, as well as gave us many characters with more details and depth on on each one rather than focusing on only 3 people like DYRL. DYRL simplified everything and didn't even offer explanation to why they were in the ship, and its transformation systems, and why they use giant robots. As much as I liked the aged versions of hikaru and minmay I also like the TV series versions for slowly developing the characters over time so we get time to know them. (and not just focus on the main ones like in macross 7)

Well I hope the reissues are at least 1/48 quality of stiffness. If/when the reactive armor comes out he will be a strong battroid able to withstand the stress of chunky bits strapped to his body. I will probably end up getting least two. 1 for fighter mode (equiped with ghost booster) and 1 for battroid (wearing reactive or naked). But I need that battroid to hold a pose. No konig monster loosness. I want 1/48 goodness.

The credit card valk and the low vis valk got together one night and thier child turned out to be a half breed explaining the black w grey. But if they did release the all-black valk, wouldn't all the people who won the credit card one get all po'ed? Any time yamato releases a LE people will roll thier eyes at it and not believe it. I think a way around this is maybe if this release doesn't sell so well they could do a 1S or VF1B in pure black colors but with a 1S head turret (of course) to differentiate it from credit card valk and stealth which is 1J. If they made the VF1S a LE, gave it LV skull emblem like the LV ver.1, (no high vis stickers) I think fans would lap that one up quick. So long as they don't oversaturate. (way too many releases at once already imo) But rather than make this "3 in the world" rare, they just go to LV ver.1 numbers. I personally have grown to like the look of the fighter with a bit of grey because it breaks it up. I've always thought fully colored valks are boring in battroid mode. (like the all white DYRL valks vs the CF and TV valks which are broken up with white trimmings)