Salamander

I wonder what the chance is that Michel comes back as a Varja-controlled zombie/cyborgised by Macross Galaxy...we didn't actually see him buy it, he just got sucked out of the hole while dying, right?

Somewhere, that would be AWESOME...

I keep getting internet explorer cnnot open this page message. Can someone have a mod post the pics? If it is more pics of the painted Resin Ozma fighter from the first page, I'd like to see it, but it dosn't appear to be transformable which really wont give us an accurate representation of what the toy's fighter will look like.

Chris

You probably need to update your flash player...also, try another browser like Firefox or Opera.

Hmm, there are also side pictures of the Gerwalk and you can look straight into the hollow fuselage

it's no surprise, bandai has always been chunky. look at their ghastly M7 valks.

Yes, because as we all know one specific example from more than 10 years ago means that all products (including current ones) of a manufacturer are like that...

/sarcasm

There's a difference in making a collector's grade toy that will be transformed many times, and a model kit that is made to look nice on the shelf and where the transformation is an additional gimmick.

So it's likely that the TOY will be chunkier than the MODEL.

Then, saying that Bandai doesn't know how to make good-looking and accurate toys is disregarding all of SoC, many transformable Gundam action figures, stuff like Saint Seiya Saint Cloth Myth, and many many other toys.

Frankly, I'm getting sick of the length at which some Yamato-fanboys go to discredit any company that is not their all-time favourite money-sink. What's next? "Bandai is using LIVE BABIES for the production of the Macross Frontier Valks! Boycot them!" or "The paint on the 1/60 Valk is made using extracts from FLUFFY LITTLE BUNNIES! Burn the Bandai factories to the ground!"?

I'm by no means a Bandai fanboi, but some of the statements made on these boards are bordering on the ridiculous.

*wonders how much of the "It's too fat"-whine is caused by the dark space background taking away details and making the Valks seem thinner in most action scenes in the MF anime*

The VF-19 Kia metal coated was a variable model that looked awful in fighter and gerwalk but makes a decent battroid. The normal color that was released is just plain ugly in all incarnations.

They are the same mold.

Bandai's M7 toys awful. The VF-19 model was better than the toy but not by much. The VF-17 toy is built like a tank and looks like one in fighter and gerwalk. The Battroid was decent and makes a better toy with modifications.

Awful for collectors, great for kids. Which, AFAIK, was the primary aim of the M7 series, seeing it was broadcast on TV etc.

The Gundam models range for spectacular to what were they thinking. The performance is still inconsistent. I just got a 1/144 Desert Color Dom and 1/144 Zaku sniper. Great kits that needed no paint and are well designed kits. They are just beautiful to look at even before assembled.

I also got the 1/144 Strike (Normal Colors) and the 1/144 IWSP. No where near as nice a kit. Only a little more effort and a few more parts molded in the correct color, especially the shield gatling gun and shoulders, and it would be a great kit.

and

The VF-2SS, again a variable model but when I first looked at it left it in the box. Parts are molded in the wrong color... other parts poorly engineered. Best described as an almost but not quite. Re-released with no improvements except a glossy finish on the box and a 25th anniversary sticker.

We real modellers PAINT (and often modify) our models, so we don't suffer from that little problem.

The only reason many mecha models come molded in colors is that people who only have paint marker can touch them up and make them look somewhat more like the 'actual' thing...

I really don't know what to expect from Bandai but I do know it will not be on par with a Hasegawa.

We can sit and hope that Hasegawa will get the license in the future but we have yet to see any M7 Hasegawa models.

It really doesn't matter if one person with lots of putty and styrene can make a great looking kit out of a POS.

I just want a model that I look at and think wow this will look great finished.

Bandai can do it but will they?

As far as I can see, it's going to be on par with a HG to MG Gundam. Hasegawa makes really nice models, but they can't transform and are a lot more fragile than most of Bandai's models (differences in the type of styrene used...).

It's not a POS. You obviously have never seen a real POS model. Here's a little list on what they tend to suffer from:

- really bad proportions.

- really crap engineering with parts not fitting others in all senses of the words.

- mold defects like flash, depressions, and gaps.

- shitty plastic that breaks if you look funny at it.

- shitty plastic that doesn't like paint.

- rubber parts that desintegrate when you touch them.

- shitty instruction/decal/sticker sheets (or worse: none at all!).

- shitty boxes.

The fighter mode looks like a non-transformable mock-up (note lack of transformation lines on nosecone)

Both of them should work together to give the fans the toys that don't break and stop fighting each other.

Toynami just let yamato make the alpha and beta (legioss and tread) fighters already. Then re-release robotech versions of them with characters from shadow chronicles with toynami changes to them.

We all just want something that doesn't self destruct after a few seconds looking at it.

...

Wait.

You...are...suggesting...that...to...cut...breakage...YAMATO...(of all that you can choose of)...MAKES THEM?!?

This does not compute.

Brain hurts.

At most, I'd ask Yamato to make the base design, then choose a capable company whose engineers actually know something about QC and what kind of materials you need to use for certain parts to prevent them from breaking AND that has factories upon which they can enforce their quality standards to actually finish the design and produce it.

And no, I do not neccessarily mean Bandai or Takara.

I like how it looks so far. Bandai are putting a lot of effort into it. Is this the most complex transforming toy bandai has ever made?

I really wish people would stop thinking that Bandai has never made complex transforming toys, or that Macross designs are inherently more complicated than other designs...

Er...it isn't a picture of the model kit, is it? (with the wrong sign)

Would making them look like Bandai Chunky Monkeys make them too close to the VF-1 line-art, or could HG pull that off?

(looking at the changes made to bootleg toys to make 'em more legit, I'd say they could get away with it...)

I submit more pictures to my Macross World buddies regarding the new re-issue VF-1J and VF-1S. I am surprised the price plus shipping goes up to $100 a piece. I think it is too much compare with the early 2000s re-issue.

The retail price in Japan is 7800 yen - about 72 bucks or 46 Euro ( wow, the dollar is really falling, isn't it? I wonder when 1 Euro will be 2 dollar...). The previous non-FP reissues were 6800 yen, but the dollar was a lot higher then compared to the yen, so back then it was a lot cheaper for you US guys. I think the price has remained about the same for us Europeans.

So it looks like a currency issue, really.

Is the paperwork still the same, or did Bandai include a nice little booklet this time (like they do with SoC releases)?

Wouldn't HLJ end up using EMS since the 1/60 DX would be considered a high end product?

Registered SAL or airmail.

Usually still significantly cheaper than EMS to Europe (+ less import duties)

Psst.

I believe the topicstarter misspelled "Toynami". A Mod should fix that.

A toynazi is something else altogether.

Concerning the Valks, they look pretty good, although a bit too PVCy to my likings...

My guess is that Bandai found out that designing a "simple transformation" Valk, while still having it look good enough for the discerning standards of todays consumers is not as simple a task as they expected.

Designing a simple transformation toy that looks average or that looks crap is easy. Designing one that looks good in all three modes is actually a lot more difficult than most would expect.

With Gundams its easy, cus' most transforming Gundams are just bend the leg at the knees, point feet down, rotate waist 180 degress and attach the shield over the head. Valks in general are a whole different kettle of fish and several orders of magnitude more complex in transformation.

And:

Perhaps Bandai can get transforming tips from Takara, they've been dealing with Transforming toys for almost 25 years now. The best and biggest ones are really complex sometimes and even the small ones are not half back most of the time (depends on which line of TFs though). Of course a Valkyrie is very different from a TF however it is not like they haven't crossed paths before (there are still some Macross-ignorant TF fans that wonder why Jetfire's transformation is so nice and makes him still look cooler than the original Starscream).

Excuse me, but these kind of statements make me boggle.

Bandai (well, their design office Plex) has been designing transforming toys for at least as long as Takara, including really complicated ones (already in the early 1980s). Back then, they designed tons of really complicated toys for various sentai series and (especially) Machine Robo (known as Gobots overseas).

Suggesting that they do not know how to make complex yet show-accurate transforming toys 'a la Yamato' is....inane. Especially considering what they've turned out in the Soul of Chogokin line the last couple of years. Maybe you should pick up such nice transforming toys like (only mentioning the ones I have, other people might comment on other Bandai toys):

- SoC Xabungle: about the size of a 1/144 Gundam model kit, with diecast, tons of accessories, and an accurate transformation.

- SoC Dancougar: One of the first transforming SoCs, and a really fine one. It also strikes a nice 'average' between how Danny looked in the show and the vintage toy...

- SoC Irongear: This is like a giant big cool playset, with tons of opening panels, a buttload of small PVC Walker Machines, some pretty cool accessories, and of course it transforms.

Some cool vintage stuff:

- Flash King (from sentai series Flashman, 1986): Simple transformation, but you've got to admit that the way each jet becomes an arm and a leg is incredibly inventive (hint: it doesn't involve taking the jets apart...).

- Super Gobots Raizor and Nightfright (1985): realistic helicopters (okay, Raizor is a cross between an F-4 and a helicopter) that change into pretty well proportioned robots. See if you can figure out Raizor's transformation by only looking at the helicopter and robot modes... A lot of the later smaller Gobots are quite complicated too.

Also, Bandai /= Gundam. They might be the motor behind the franchise, but they're certainly more diverse than some people assume.

There's loads of other companies that have made and are making transforming toys, some good, some excellent, some bad, some trying-but-not-exactly succeeding. I'm not saying that Bandai is perfect (they're not), but they certainly aren't the retarded newcomers that some people here seem to think they are.

I suspect that the tooling isn't made from pure aluminium, which is a rather soft metal that certainly won't be able to stand many uses, but rather from dural or some other mix of aluminium with another metal. At least it should have some form of surface treatment to resist wear more...

Considering the last 1S reissue didn't use the fugly head design, I doubt the Strike will use the fugly head design.

Unless you can come up with a sensible reason for Bandai to produce two 1/55 1S Valks with different head designs...

I've been wondering about that gap in the torso though, since the coloured prototype they showed seemd to have no gap.

Looks like black paint to me.

And damn, if the missiles launching from the protect armor VF-0 don't look like tentacles.

This has to be the most ludicrous comment yet in this thread...

Yes they have, the chogokin line are spectacular and truly high end.

...So why didn't they do similar for macross ?

Have you ever seen SOC prototypes? Some of them look like someone played around with loads of styrene sheet and low grade resin, eg. they ressemble a bunch of boxes that really only vaguely ressemble the subject while having a transformation with...issues.

The prototype of the VF-25 looks like a prototype that's just above that - one made to show off the transformation while also looking somewhat more like the subject it's supposed to represent. Besides, it's a resin prototype, so it suffers from all of the problems those have like heavy parts and joints that cannot support the weight.

Those SOC prototypes also look like they are full of issues, too. But they do not compare to the final product.

I'll reserve my judgement until Bandai comes with a multi-media test shot showing off the diecast.

My latest Yahoo Auctions Japan scores:

http://page.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/105353799

and

http://page18.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/w11563721

I'm actually quite shocked about the price these two auctions went for. 2300 + 1600 yen (+ 1010 yen shipping within Japan)? I had expected a lot more.

Sure, they're played with, but should include the boxes and instruction sheets. Some of the sticker sheets are missing, but I've already got the reissues too. I think the essential (VF-19A and VF-17D) sticker sheets are there. The VF-17D is missing the gunpod, but AFAIK that one is the same as on the VF-17S. The VF-19 Kai and VF-19S gunpods are mint on sprue.

Including middleman costs and shipping the lot should end up at about 75 bucks... :D

Except that Gobots don't exist in Japan. So that'd be Machine Robo, except that the main hero doesn't really transform, but rather summons a large robot, kicks butt, gets his butt kicked, summons an even larger robot, and wins. Although the anime was decently popular, that was mostly due to the female lead character, AFAIK...

I'd think "Galvion" if it has to be from a transforming robot anime, except that the Galvion anime failed miserably, despite having very nice music, and some really cool robot designs...the toys (designed by Takatoku) were never brought out widely, either (mainly because Takatoku went bankrupt).

Uh, what have we left?

Dancougar? Unlikely, there's the SOC already.

<draws blank on transforming robot animes>

That was one of the worst animated fights I ever saw - annoying dweeb Valk pilot.

Still, the animation itself was pretty decent...

Fit for Natalie beat me to it. Ah, well, here's the pic, should it be pulled from that URL:

[attachmentid=37359]

Good robot modes, 'vehicle modes' remind me of Rocklords, except that they're worse.

Imai did release some molded in color though. The kits are pretty terrible though. As to the size question, they're exactly the same size as the MPC as Toynami used these models in the development of their toy. In fact, the MPC is pretty much just a better version of what you see here.

I wonder why these folks didn't pull the fins out??

The problem with these things is that the paint tends to scratch horribly whenever they are transformed (or even, moved), as Imai engineered them way too tightly, not leaving enough room at joints (the color pics on the instruction sheets often showed scratched paint, IIRC). Couple that to not exactly tear-proof decals, and...well, should be obvious.

We really need pictures to go along with all these names.

Mach Blaster:

http://www.zincpanic.com/toy/13351.html

The UK Wikipedia has a rather nice entry with regards to Zoids:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoids