jenius

This movie should have been the first 70% of avatar, then when Jake prays to the planet to save the Na'vi we should see three Predators drop down to the surface. The Predators kill off all the bad guys except Super Marine (with two Preds dying in the conflict). Then Jake defeats Super Marine only to have to go one on one with a Pred... which he kills with his pterodactyl. Roll credits.

It'd be easy for a company to make a 1/100 toy that both looks great and features perfect transformation... but it would fall apart like paper in your hands or cost far more than a 1/60 scale toy that is PT. You ask too much. Landing gears are also not an essential part of transformation so they don't really have anything to do with "perfect transformation"; they're a bonus frill. It's also a little silly to boil down the difference between the old Takatoku's and Bandai's Hi-Metal to looks vs. landing gears. The Bandai is worlds more sophisticated in its design than the Takatoku. One of the biggest hurdles Bandai would have faced with built-in landing gears would be the clearance necessary for the gun to be stowed in fighter mode (something the Takatoku couldn't do at all). The gears would have to be relatively large, the doors concealing them absolutely miniscule, and everyone would have broken something pulling them out.

From what I understand, the Hi-Metal VF-1J is selling well and has good buzz. This should be good news for variants beyond Max's 1J.

Can't you move the shoulder covers a bit to adjust the gun?

Graham posted a review last page. Graham, I just checked it out, it sucks that you got one with glue on the intake cover. I checked it out and it doesn't even seem like there's anything with any business being glued in that area.

It's funny you should mention the overlong nose on the 1/48. In my Hi-metal review I did a side view fighter comparison of several VF-1 toys and the line art. When I make my "1/48 mega review" there will be a similar shot. I'll also include the battroid's compared to that battroid line art. When I have those photos done there will be more discussion on the 1/48's issues with the visual proof to back it up. The newer reviews, like this hi-metal review, have the benefit of coming after I started pulling in line art for my discussions so I've been a lot more critical since doing that. Even my initial 1/60 V2 reviews didn't have the line art included so there will be more conversation (including examples of where the 1/60V2 nails it) when that "mega review" is done also. It's a constantly evolving site (with any luck) which admittedly makes comparing the remarks I made a couple years ago to current posts difficult. Note: I also bag on the V2 for the shoulders but that's because I seemingly bought every V2 that's known to have shoulder issues... go figure.

Side Covers: Bandai was seriously damned if they did and damned if they didn't there. I don't like parts-formers so I have never been a fan of side covers. If Bandai had included them more people would have complained about all the fiddily little parts that the 1/100 came with (even if so many of them are optional). I don't mind Bandai foregoing that entire conversation by excluding two parts that pretty much every VF-1 toy ever has not included. If Bandai releases super parts or a GBP it'd be nice to see them there. V2 Battroid: I just can't get over that head position. For me it's a lot easier to overlook slender arms than a misplaced head. I'm going to change all my various 1/48 posts and all my various 1/60V2 posts into 2 mega reviews. When I do that I'll also include comparisons to the line art for both. I have my opinions but I try to let people decide for themselves and I still gave the V2 pretty high marks because I realize that head thing is something that might irk me more than most.

If you were able to curve the tape measure perfectly you might find him a tad small. I don't know how tall he's supposed to be but if he's in the 5'-6' range I'd say the pilot looks roughly accurate (it's really hard to measure due to his shape and posture).

My review is up on anymoon.com. Please check it out and let me know if you see anything I missed or anything like that -

Unfortunately I do not but you could probably check out the GnU toy thread, I'd bet they got posted there. Yamato showed a custom Alaska base VF-1A and a stealth (based off their 1/48) VF-1J.

No, Yamato's Stealth 1J was something of their own creation, it is not that "darkbird"

Yamato did show off a custom GnU VF-1A in this paint scheme so at least we know they know it exists. EDIT - this seems like the perfect toy for a future Macross Chronicles Exclusive.

Ran into a couple friends last night who had just gotten back from watching this film. They're review: "Hey, were you planning on going to see Last Airbender? Don't. It was BAD."

I also got to a point in Invasion where it seemed I did everything that was asked of me but I wasn't getting to the next level so I just gave up.

I think we need to compare MSRP to MSRP (or wait until the Hi-Metal goes on sale to make sale price comparisons). Shipping costs also depend a lot on who does the shipping. At least with the HM-1J you'll probably be able to do stuff like use SAL. Now, when the Max comes out it really will cost similar to a V2 so I'm sure lots of people outside of Japan will balk. It does seem like the toy has good buzz.

Mine just arrived... I know how I'm gonna spend my 5th of July.

I've done the measurements on the Toynami and it wasn't 1/100 scale, it was too large. The Hi-Metal is even bigger so it's true, it isn't a true 1/100 scale. That means it's going to look a little too big next to all of you who have made your own 1/100 toys for it to play with. The GnU and Kaiyodo's transformable toys were much closer to 1/100.

Oh, so it's not that it's a bad thing that the tornado parts are compatible, more just a bad thing that something else isn't compatible. I think it's only the fold drive that doesn't work... isn't that right?

Why is that a bad thing?

"Thunder Hummer" should be super parts for a "Blow Superior." The Thunder Hummer ain't my thing but your work looks great.

Toys are supposed to be bright and shiny... MODELS are supposed to be matte and weathered. I was actually let down when I got my first Yamato because the plastic looked cheap and model-like. I've grown to appreciate matte finishes more but I like how Bandai's hits that sentimental button of "Oh yeah, I collect toys because I remember how much I love toys... not because I'm an adult without modeling skills."

Is this because they don't know how much your final total is going to be so they just get the authorization from your credit card up front? I know my company was asked not to do this by our credit card vendor (generally speaking, every business contracts someone else to handle the transactions, the business pays a fee to the credit card processor, and then the business accepts the cash, it's actually a pain in the rear with many different companies involved... the least of which is your actual credit card company).

I finally got some work done with Bandai's Tornado Parts gift-set including a video: I've also unveiled the new anymoon.com format, the Mega Review. My goal with future updates is going to be combine multiple similar posts into one Mega Review to make the site a lot easier to navigate and keep updated. Let me know if you guys have some feedback... there was a lot of content being squeezed into one post.

Are you my personal troll or just a troll in general? I actually said that "I would draw the conclusion" that they WERE profitable but below Toynami's desired ROI. Others are free to draw their own conclusions.

It's impossible to say whether or not Toynami's Robotech line is profitable. We can conclude that the fact they're still operating despite the global meltdown that has many companies that produced better wares hurting, Toynami as a whole is profitable (or at the very least, not too deep in the red). I would probably draw the conclusion that the early deaths of all their MPC lines after the VF-1 would be an indication that the lines were not much better than break even. They also seemed to lose shelf space with every release which means more and more stores felt they were getting shelf warmers which undoubtedly made it harder for the MPCs to be profitable.