jenius

I could never get over the 1/60V2 having the head in the wrong spot but otherwise I would love it if I weren't so scared of the shoulders. I had countless little problems with the 1/48s but never got such a bad lemon that I wished I could immediately return it. I broke one BP8 but that was my fault and I suspect the vast majority of BP8 breaks were caused by the same thing I did... namely not recessing that one little antenna fin when putting on fast packs/GBP.

HG Exec: How's Shadow Rising coming? Macek looks at flyer of Astro Plan: FANTASTIC!!! That's the real scoop folks, a new anime that can be renamed ROBOTECH!

It was in the show... IIRC there were conversations with the main characters in the hangar and you can see the radar being serviced right behind them.

I'm confused as to why you mentioned VOTOMS. I mean, I get that it's a hard sci-fi show (mostly) but it is also pretty ancient and I don't think it had much impact in the US. Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge fan, but I don't think it's really relevant in a conversation about US anime.

I preordered this and the GBP before the second panic came about. I thought we were past the shoulder problems. Now both are en route and I'm just going to be left hoping for the best.

I totally agree... the upgrade parts are clearly meant to be generic so it makes absolutely no sense that they aren't sold separately. Why did I have to buy another blue Legioss/Tread that hasn't changed at all to get these parts? Well, that's probably the game right there... CMs had to move stock and this was the best way they could figure to do it.

Yep, I almost ordered the upcoming Focker weathering edition but I wouldn't even consider it now. I'm waiting for 1/48 V2.

I've finally started digging into my new "improved" CMs Legioss. I'm really shocked at how CMs went about this. It is indeed a standard blue Legioss release with just a supplemental box of goodies. There are no instructions with the box of goodies but you do have to disassemble a toy that retailed for $270 originally to do the upgrade. It's so amazingly half-assed it's hard for me to get around. I would assume CMs had instructions up on their site at one point but I don't see anything instructing you to go there. All that said, the mods are very straight forward and not complicated... the instructions would be more for peace of mind than anything else. I'll eventually get a full post up on my site showing how the mods were done, before and after pics, and a verdict on just how improved things really are. Of course, I have a box of 8 other new toys coming in so it may take a while.

The Toynami Shadow Alpha just has most the same quirks that the other Toynami Alphas have (except the shadow has more durable hands). For the most part you just have to be worried about the arms following off just below the shoulder. The build quality on them is so poor that any host of other problems could arise, including the arched back in fighter mode. If you haven't checked out my review on the CMs Shadow you should, there were some good pics in there that should give you a better idea of what you'd be in for. If fighter is your favorite mode I think you'd do well to stay very far away from the CMs toys. No, CMs did not make a dark Tread. The Toynami Shadow Beta was due out in September 09. What happened to it is anyone's guess but Toynami's newest catalog has the Vinyl Battlepod and Maia Masterpiece back in stores in Q110 so there's a chance the Shadow Beta will be delivered to stores with those products.

That's a crap ton of weathering edition destroids!

Yes, Voltron is #1 of this series.

I got an email back from OD yesterday essentially just letting me know vacation was over. I also had a problem with my Spam filters catching their emails when I first started talking to them.

Just a little FYI, Toynami's Battlepod release is rumored to be concurrent with the Maia MPC second edition. I'm not sure if this had been mentioned before. I really doubt HG makes much off toy releases though.

My cover on the foot is loose on one of my Ride Armors also, it was so minor I didn't look into fixing it. Also, the Beagle/Toynami is actually a more complicated transformation than the animation so you can blame them... kinda. Basically they went through and had to figure out how to do it without "magic" and the only way they could figure out to pull it off and not take things off and add them back later was the transformation we got. It's a spectacle of engineering to be sure but the sheer complicated nature definitely makes this feel like a collector's item to be posed in one mode or the other, not a toy one should expect to transform often. PS - Got new Mospeada products in but haven't had a chance to open the boxes: 1) Drone Legioss (CMs) 2) Improved Legioss/Tread (CMs) 3) Riding Figure Set (CMs) 4) Character Figure Set (CMs)

That was really terrible.

Both are blown on my Roy 1S

I would guess that Yamato opted against metal shoulders for cost reasons. I think that plastic shoulders also works better in that there's some "give" to the part since it swivels and has two different primary positions. Essentially this "give" makes the shoulder connectors nicer to all the other plastic parts involved which allows the toy to be a bit tighter overall. Finally, the plastic can be molded in color whereas a metal part would probably remain unpainted metal. Personally though, I'd prefer metal and a shoulder that didn't break over those benefits.

Mospeada could have had a great prequel mini-series. It also could have spawned a full saga if handled properly (had it been SUPER popular). The Mospeada universe wasn't all that flushed out by the story of a rag-tag team driving to North America.

It's kind of hard to believe this is going to be some silly oversight. Even the replacement arms I was sent, that had never been on a valk, cracked from the pressure of the pin.

Ask Kevin why Tommy Yune said that HG wasn't going forward with SR until WB did something with the Robotech name at Comic-con and how that is different from a "hiatus." That's what got me banned... and I'm pretty sure I was simply banned because Kevin was sent off to New Orleans during Comic-con and didn't get to hear Tommy come clean. Since Kevin got in so much trouble for saying "hiatus" he can't believe that Tommy goes around saying "yeah, we're not going to move Shadow Rising until WB puts us in a better position" because it's so unfair that Tommy gets to be honest with the fans while Kevin has to be constantly lying.

Yeah, I got banned from RT.com and in hindsight I wished it had happened years ago. Talk about a waste of time. Does that mean I swore off Robotech merchandise though? No, I still buy stuff. Would I buy anything from RT.com? No... but that was like one item every other year at the most so they cost themselves like $2.50 by banning me.

Is it too soon to start waiting for the 1/48 V2? I was really hoping we were beyond the broken shoulders but that looks exactly like the same issue from the original Roy toys. I guess in the absence of an official confirmation from Yamato that the problem is fixed it's not right to assume it's long behind us. "More caution at the factory" can only go so far.

Not to be rude... but the only difference you would be able to see is the head... the GBP covers like 90% of the toy. I guess if you like posing the toy so you see it's back that might be something different. I took pictures of the 1/48 GBP on just about every 1/48 VF toy (although I shrank 'em too small so the pics don't look all that wonderful) but what I learned from that experience was that the GBP pretty much looks the same on everything.

I was under the impression they're still on vacation so I haven't expected any response. I guess I'm going back to work tomorrow (their today) so I would hope for a response some time this week. From the sounds of it I'll bet they're pretty inundated. EDIT - The Hik GBP was released 12/29. That means it's been like ONE, maybe TWO business days since it would have been received. I'm in the same boat, I ordered seven items to ship all when the GBP was released.