MacrossMania

4 minutes ago, jenius said:

Meanwhile, on the Yo-yo forums:

"OMFG, adults have entire collections of Transformers... some of them never even open them! LOLZ, idiots!"

Those who live in glass houses...

Those who live in glass houses probably shouldn't be putting Yo-Yo's behind glass bookcases either, but that's just my humble opinion.

20 hours ago, apptt4 said:

previous owner had it custom made to hold his THIRTY FIVE THOUSAND AUSTRALIAN DOLLAR worth yo-yo collection. he chose his classics cars hobby over the yo-yo's, sold them and sold the case to me. IKEA detolfs either side.

Yo-Yo's!  OMFG I'm dying laughing.  Just had to call the EMT guys and they resuscitated on the spot.  Now I owe the ambulance company on top of everything else.  Thanks Yo-Yo's! 

Just picked up my copy.  It was the last one available in the store and I called to secure it literally minutes after it had been posted.  Wow!  My luck is just extraordinary at this point.  

On 12/30/2018 at 2:54 AM, tekering said:

The 1:48ths are back!  

Love this.  I will always love the 1/48ths, no matter how much they've been overtaken by modern technology and thinking re perfect realizations.

On 12/28/2018 at 2:38 AM, SuNDuK said:

My squad, and especially Ozma with his little customised Valk vaiting for Luka's 171 in next year

AAAAaand night time party!

 

 

God damn!  I love these pictures!  I don't know what it is, the contrast with light and dark, drama, the snow outside (always a harbinger of anime).  Give me more!

4 hours ago, sh9000 said:

Awesome.

I'm going to start a go fund me campaign to buy all the Macross valkyries I want to buy, and I am going to be totally up front and shameless about my intentions.  Macross for me and no other 100% of the time.

On second thought, I'm going to do something totally selfless and benevolent and start a go fund me campaign to buy all the Macross valkyries I want to see in a museum, call it the Macross Museum, and have everything from the eighties to the present day.  Any and all members of the MM forums can contribute if they want.  We'll have it in some deserted Midwestern city like the one I grew up in.  That way it won't inflict any real cultural damage.  Every contribution made will go toward buying another centerpiece in the collection.  We'll charge admission fees of course to sustain the premises, utilities, rent etc.  And the administrators of MM World can be the administrators of the Museum.  What do you think?

http://blog.livedoor.jp/hacchaka/archives/52036391.html?fbclid=IwAR08QjZMkGfvmbOpcq2HfoeKZYCYUydLJOrEQFBhNj9h-jW5TTFiMfynMbA

Blog with more images.  Google translation is a bit of a parody though.

1 minute ago, jenius said:

The finish is so premium.

I really like the tampo printing and paint.  SOOOO many valks botch the paint job.  Slathered on too thick or too thin, too toy-like like a Yammie with no paint, or too model-like with overdone tampo prints.  I don't know if this is just the original Kawamori design, but the balance is perfect on this one.  It really shines through.  The goldilocks of paint jobs.

A magnificent bird.  And the comparison pics really show the shortcomings of the Yamato 1/48.  Although it is near and dear to my heart as the one that kicked off this toy collecting madness back in 2003 (the Low Viz, which I got back graded an AFA 90 after it traveled in a tattered box all the way from Japan with the corners missing, lol, one of only two at that grade), developments in toy engineering and design over the last two decades are obvious.  Bandai really knocked it out of the park.  Credits to "Macross Ross" from FB.

4 minutes ago, Tking22 said:

Got a few Christmas gifts, ThreeZero 1/6 Big Daddy is definitely the highlight. Bioshock was easily one of the best games of the last generation, and one of my favorite games ever, had to get this guy, it's beautiful and very well made.

Gotta admit I don't get the ThreeZero thing.  I think they're great toys and I definitely admire them, just not enough to buy.  They definitely fill a market niche with the whole post-apocalyptic thing, which they seem to specialize in.  But their toys totally lack any metal.  Plus they don't seem to be durable at all.  They're slathered in paint.  I used to be an amateur modeler who won a few competitions back in the day and I know that the kind of flat paint that they use can be prone to rubbing off.  It seems to me that if you wanna be a player in the high end toy game, die cast is a must, and durability has to be a consideration.  With all plastic and flat paint, it seems they aren't that though.  One of the big complaints of Yamato/Arcadia is that they're just display pieces.  Their too fragile to be real toys.  

Having never owned one, I could just be recklessly speculating here.  Am I just totally off?

3 hours ago, seti88 said:

https://p-bandai.jp/item/item-1000131194

opens at 4pm JST....

Jesus, this thing is so gorgeous.  I was going to propose to my girlfriend, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to put that on hold.  Final payment on the ring is going to be delayed at least a month, maybe two.  Depends on how many copies I get.  

On 12/3/2018 at 6:18 PM, nightmareB4macross said:

Great collections everyone. I still enjoy my 1/48 greatly. Here are some pictures to share.

Aplogies for the picture overload.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is a personal plea to Bandai.  Please do a DX version of this!

2 hours ago, spanner said:

Day off work today so I thought I'd do some display cabinet de-dusting.. 

Also presented a good photo opportunity!

The DX Delta's! Such a beautiful trio! 

 

These look great together.  Love em.

12 hours ago, tekering said:

I added markings to my GBP with water-slide decals, so I sealed it with a matte topcoat:

Boss.

Turns out HMR's aren't that tough after all.  Recent shelf dive for me below.  Anybody else have something similar?

late the party, but it's never too late for a regult.

had to get these beauties.  My priorities are right where they need to be in life.

1 hour ago, Sildani said:

This arrived.  VERY glad I got it! 

Details please.

10 hours ago, Slave IV said:

Yeah, I had a feeling about this one and as my first Gundam MB, I’m very happy. Metal content is off the charts but doesn’t feel overdone at all. I can’t think of a single negative about it so it’s about the most perfect figure I’ve opened in a while. Only thing is I’m not a big fan of the series but it looks so good and the artistic license was a good thing to me. 

You should definitely expand your resources on this one.  Metal builds are some of the best "toys" out there.  They perfectly capture the essence of the gundam series - at least from a design perspective - much more so than even the SOC line.  I have about six of them right now and plan on expanding my collection on that front - even while sacrificing some standard MF and Delta releases.

On 11/2/2018 at 6:46 PM, Slave IV said:

Finally got this guy out

Me likey a lot!

Edit: Another shot

Just got this myself.  Was thinking against it because I just went through a mammoth round of purchases, but caved in.  Glad I did.  I knew it would be one of those regrets later on if I didn't cave early.  This is a beauty.  The things they are doing these days with the metal build line is just amazing.  Taking it to a whole other level.  And here I thought they did that early on with the modular plastic parts and the metal endoskeleton.  But this is just crazy.  Plus I think Charles aka OptimusPrimeSG nailed it when he said that Bandai's artistic license with the builds really makes them stand apart from the plastic model releases.  They seem more by the numbers.

7 minutes ago, Lolicon said:

Hell yes! 

Ah yes, Van Damme.  If ever there was a sillier, sullen-looking soldier, it was him.  Somehow the smirk never quite matched the sobriety necessary for the role.  Born for porn, in my mind.  Born for porn.

3 hours ago, Shizuka the Cat said:

Well, that can be a lot of fun.

well, well, well.  What you can get people to say with a little encouragement.  I'll be sure to tongue "tie" you in the future with yet more flattering hashtags.

4 hours ago, no3Ljm said:

Ok. I guess, it's my turn to vent out something. Well, it's more of like a funny experience to me. I think. First time happened to me.  I know at the end of a day, it's a little bit frustrating since it involves a big amount of money. But I just don't want to think about it too seriously. So I'm keeping my cool. 

Three weeks ago, I bought the cheapest DX YF-19 I could find over eBay at $230 shipped from China. Last I checked my tracking it was delivered at my work's mail facility last Saturday. After not getting it from Monday to Tuesday, I panicked. So I browsed My eBay last night and check it again. Yeah, it was shipped and delivered according to it. So now, for curiosity sake, I went back to the seller's feedback page and see if there's anyone besides me who bought the rest of his '5' DX YF-19 units who left some feedbacks. And lo and behold, there's one stating 'Paid $230 figure but the seller send me a small plastic box. Cheater!'. I now have to panic, right? Nah. I still need to think positive. Besides, if I get it, it's going to be one cheap YF-19, right?  

Today, Wednesday morning. The reception said, there's a 'letter packet' that was waiting for me in the mailroom. I was like, a 'letter packet'? And when I saw it, it is indeed a 'letter packet mailer padded envelope'. (Say that 10 times faster.  ) With the same tracking number that I'm following. Instinct kicks in. I said to myself I have to shoot a video while opening this and took pictures of it at the same time. And when I opened it... it wasn't a 'plastic box' like the other buyer received. It was a freaking Disposable Plastic Raincoats. That's right with an 's' coz I got two! For $230, I got 2 Disposable Plastic Raincoats. It would've been nice if the raincoats have printed Makina pictures on it.  

Anyways, the ending is that, I already did file for a Full Refund. And if the seller didn't respond up to Oct 30, then eBay will take over.

 

On a side note though, I woke up this morning with an email stating I won a bid for an opened DX VF-31A last night at YJA. Once again, it was the 'cheapest' one I could find. And yes, I did check the seller's feedback and it's a 75/25 ratio. So cross fingers. 

 

Basically my worst nightmare.  Thank god for ebay's buyer protections though.

Rant for the night:  I was going to post a couple of photos under the pretend "hashtag" of "About to go Shizuka the Cat" and implore all you toy collectors out there not to go the way I did, spending all my hard earned cash on a bunch of recent releases and some not so recent but all the more hard to find vintage releases, that, truth be told, unless I got them now, I'd probably never, ever see again.  Trust me, I've been there, and lived to regret every day since.  And the long lesson learned here is that cash is more plentiful than toys, so you might as well snatch them up while you can and the cash is flowing, because you never know, even if you do get the chance to own one later on, they may be asking far more than you're willing to pay.

But I digress from my intended rant as a digression from my originally intended post.  So, here it is:  got hit by the postman again.  But being the picky MISB box collector that I am (yea that's right, I said "box collector"), even just one ding on the corner of a box instead of the pristine specimen I had been fantasizing in my mind ever since I got the notice in my inbox that my delivery had arrived on my doorstep, is enough to ruin my week.  And of course, that's just what happened.  At least I'll admit that Toy Dojo (anyone ever shopped there?) actually did do as I asked (at least somewhat), and bothered to keep the original shipping box in the box that was shipped to me, so that technically at least, it was "double boxed."  

Which is all to say that I am very disappointed.  Yes, it was a very pricey Gundam Metal Build - Astraea Type F - and no, as is my usual OCD habit, I will not be posting pictures of it because I have sealed it up in its cardboard tomb never again to be molested by the unwanted sunlight unless I, and only I, decide the time is right to send it off to AFA for a see-through mausoleum case of its own.

Somewhere in the back of my mind I tend to think that the will world of the world bends to my own, only out of the pure fantasy that somehow my superficial, shallow wants in life (i.e. toy collecting) actually have mass enough to bend the space-time continuum around it (in actuality it's probably the sheer mass of my own collecting habits collapsing in on itself and creating a vicious black hole that sucks everything in its path, even my life).  Somewhere, I actually half believed when I opened up the toy tonight that the pension gods or the girlfriend gods or whatever other god I should be servicing right now, and not the toy gods, had grown angry at my avarice, and decided to rain down a fiery hell of retribution for my audacious move to go outside my usual collecting sphere of vintage G1 toys, and try to maintain some sort of semblance with the other modern toy lines that I clearly don't deserve, like Metal Build for instance.  In my warped mind, I actually half believed that the winning streak of perfect deliveries I had achieved thus far with mainly vintage toy deliveries would soon be continued, only to be so disappointed, thus giving rise to the fantasy that it was retribution by the toy collecting gods who thought I had gone maybe a bridge too far.  

Then I realized this is just plastic and metal, and while beautiful, there's no interaction between me and its essence, and no one really cares whether or not I collect or what I collect, and it probably just had a rough journey over from a distant, far flung part of the country.  And then I left it at that.

10 hours ago, rdrunner said:

No offense to any fans of the -31 design out there, but in a sense, I agree with what you said about the 31's "backpack", especially in Gerwalk mode. 

I have been struggling to think what it reminded me of...

 

 

Personally, I'm ok with the fighter and battroid modes, but every time I look at a Gerwalk 31A/F, this just pops into my head.

Lol, absolutely cracks me up.  I hadn't even thought about the Gerwalk mode issues to tell you the truth, but I think you're spot on.  LMAO.

10 hours ago, Shizuka the Cat said:

I am kind of in agreement as well.  Love how the 31 looks in fighter mode. But gerwalk feels too long to me.

I like that the VF-1 becomes more compact in its gerwalk modes, with its tail portion folding into a backpack. I also like the VF-11 in that its tail portion becomes an arm shield and its variable-swing wings are mounted near the center of the plane body, like the VF-1.

But gerwalk mode for rear-mounted reverse-angle winged planes like the 31 (and the 19 to some extent) always looked awkward to me. I think maybe in part this is because I feel the wings look less sturdy as there are gaping cavities in the plane body between the wing mount points in gerwalk mode, cavities that could pose structural weakness from an aeronautical engineering perspective at times of heavy turbulence, G-forces, or wind sheer.

 

Interesting U turn here in the discussion.  I was going more for aesthetics in this discussion, but it is interesting the points you bring up about whether a valkyrie would actually function.

8 hours ago, Lord_Of_Tetris said:

Hmm. Personally, I think the VF-31 is the best engineered transforming jet toy I've ever handled, but I also admit it's not my favorite design.

With some of the more-recent Valkyrie designs, it really doesn't look like it should be able to fly. For example, the YF-19 and VF-31, in Gerwalk mode, have their wings connected to the body of the jet by some very-thin wing kibble. I'm fine with suspension of disbelief, but if I think too hard about it, it looks like flying too fast or making too sharp a turn would snap off the wings. By contrast, the VF-1's wings (in Gerwalk mode) are connected to the body just as strongly as the connection in fighter mode, and so it looks like something that can actually fly and maneuver.

The insect-like design is...eh...an acquired taste. When I first saw the head of Messer's VF-31F, my first thought was, "What? I'm NEVER buying that...Waspinator-like...THING." Shrug. It's now one of my favorite Valkyrie head designs. I like the uniqueness. It still reminds me of Waspinator, but hey, Waspinator is awesome, so...shrug. 

The large wing kibble is...eh...something I can live with. For better or worse, the Macross jet designs don't transform the wings, per se, but more like the wings fold away somewhere. (To illustrate: Studio Series Starscream transforms the wings in various places, and Starscream's robot mode doesn't have huge chunks of wing kibble hanging off it). The Valkyries that best fold away the wings (in my opinion) are the VF-17, YF-21, and VF-11. Pretty much every other Valkyrie has a huge wing kibble problem.

The VF-0, VF-1, and VF-2 have the wings folded up in the back like a large board. The animation cheats it with some mass-shifting wings, but even then, seeing such a large wing backpack on a toy makes it look very impractical. The YF-19 has huge wing kibble on its thighs. It looked cool in the 1990s, and it still looks cool today, but having it on a toy really shows you how impractical it is.

Seems pretty easy in combat to, say, grab the YF-19's wing kibble and tear it off the thigh and bam, it can't fly anymore. Heck, it seems pretty likely in combat to accidentally break off the YF-19's wing kibble.

The VF-31's wing kibble...eh...isn't that much worse than most other Valkyries. It's impractical, but not moreso than the VF-1 with a board behind its thighs, or the YF-19 with huge kibble that can break off or an enemy can grab. It looks to me that it's pretty easy to shoot at a VF-31, miss, but hit the huge wing kibble. Bam, can't fly anymore. 

But.....ehhhh..........I'm pretty good at suspending my disbelief. I don't mind impractical designs if it at least looks cool. I don't need mecha to actually look like real combat machines (though that would be nice), as long as it looks convincing enough in the animation.

I grew up with Transformers, Gundam, and Robotech. Off the top of my head, I have no problem with Starscream, Blitzwing, or the Arialbots walking around with gigantic wing kibble on their backs. Shrug. It looked cool. Omega Supreme walked around with half-circles of train tracks on his shoulders, but it looked cool. Plus, have you seen certain Gundams? Wing Zero Custom's angel wings. Yikes! Seems like any sensible bad guy army should just bum-rush Wing Zero Custom and tear off its wings, but nobody ever does. My point is, I'm willing to look the other way if the robot looks cool and convincing enough, and I think the VF-31 passes that test.

Plus, the positioning of the VF-31 wing kibble kind of reminds me of the Hyaku-Shiki from Z Gundam.

More from above, my point was never about how a valkyrie would function in real life.  While it's an interesting brain teaser in my more idle moments whether an F-15 could actually transform mid-flight without breaking apart in a spectacular fireball, I think we can all agree (at least I hope I can) that this whole concept of a plane transforming into a crab-like gerwalk mode and thence into a robot is pure mindbending rubbish that never happen in real life, at least not in any practical sense on the battlefield and in the air.  We are dealing with pure fantasy here, and a lovely one at that.  Not, as Shizuka's posts seem to suggest, with root concept engineering principals and whether or not any of the cartoons would find purchase in an engineering classroom.

My point is wholly aesthetic, and that is all.  Call me shallow.  Call me an aesthete.  Call me what you will, but when I say that I think that the YF-29 is an underrated masterpiece, it's not because I think the USAF Is well on its way to building one to fight the Chinese.  It's because I think it is an absolutely gorgeous valkyrie.  Does it have the same love and production values as the YF-31?  No.  Clearly, bandai was giving more credence to the designs and spending more time with them in the factory.  But truth be told, that doesn't change the fact that the YF-29 just looks better.  Those flaring wings.  The boosters and missile compartments that look mean and menacing and bad a.f.  The whole thing is just a beast in my mind.  The same with the VF-19.

I think you nailed it when you said that Omega Supreme just looks good with those railroads on its back, like a nice wing spread.  And oh, that reminds me.  I couldn't agree more with your assessment that the Wing Gundam Zero is the silliest ever conceived if one looks at it strictly from the standpoint of a functional war machine.  It would be destroyed in a second.  But man!  What a beauty?  In my own personal opinion, it is by far the best gundam that Bandai has produced so far precisely because of its beauty.  Which lie mainly in those wings and the expressiveness of those poses.

I know I'm running up against the fan nerd-dom here, which finds safe refuge in the more mechanistic aspects of the toy designs, perhaps harking back to their childhoods when they would play with an erector set, legos and playdo.  And maybe many of them have grown up to be engineers, where such concepts find purchase in their daily lives and dominate their thinking in ways that many of us can't fathom.  In fact I'd be willing to say that's the case with Shizuka, with her MIT pedigree.  But for me, it's all about the beauty.  First and foremost, and last out the door.

Let the last breath of the broken Gundam

Take its lonely wings to the verdant heavens.

So go my thoughts after, run aplomb

With dreams of splendor matched only by madmen. 

-MM