MacrossMania

Appreciate the thought that may have been put behind the shape of the wings on both the 31 and 25's. Not sure that was actually the case, but if it was, that's cool. To me though, it's still a poor design choice. And that's the point, design versus engineering. At least in my world. The engineers make the architect's vision happen in the real world. And so the bandai toymakers make Kawamori's designs happen in the "make believe" one. But it's the initial design that's totally flawed as far as I'm concerned. No amount of engineering is going to solve that problem when the thing is designed to have wings that look like the back of a praying mantis. I hate saying this, because macross fans are always so preening and well wishing -as the internet is generally I guess, but especially so when you get these self-anointed specialty groups like nerd heaven or something. I know I risk the wrath of the Macross community by daring to criticize a Kawamori design, but let's face it, you can rank them, and as far as the 31 is concerned, it had to be said.

VF-31 is by far the worst offender in my mind. They took it to the next level.

Something I posted in another section. It belongs here: Um, really? The VF-31 has the single biggest design flaw of all the valks. A huge backpack. It looks like a butterfly. Ever notice the promo pics never show it from the side? Because it looks truly awful. The plane is beautiful, true. But valkyrie design is a delicate balance between all three modes, jet, fighter, and yes, even gerwalk mode. But it's definitely NOT a slavish devotion to one mode at the sacrifice of all the others, with cherry on top engineering to make it seem more lovelier than it is. I do love the VF-31's jet mode. It's by far one of the most elegant designs. And the engineering is superb. No doubt about it. But they could never figure out where to put those wings. I mean like, at all. It just hangs there intrepidly into space as if it's not the embarrassment to Bandai's legacy of quality design work that it is. When it comes to the dance of all three modes, I'd say the VF-1 still does it best. Flat and behind the back no questions asked. The YF-19 does a pretty good job, and a novel one too, putting them on the sides of the legs. The overlooked YF-29 does a pretty good job as well. The flaring menace of those upside down wings makes it look like a cobra. And the flare of all those missiles on the legs and shoulders, like a King Cobra. But the poor old VF-31, it's skinny, awkward, and frankly looks like a praying mantis. The bug look of the new valks is something I can't get over. And I honestly don't understand why people have so completely overlooked the VF-31's design flaw. Maybe it's just blind allegiance to a master artist developing his craft. And I agree there's no doubt he's moved it forward, as he inevitably does being the master craftsman that he is. But I put the VF-31 more along the lines of an evolution in valkyrie design, not a revolution, and certainly not a landmark valkyrie. Not the way, say, the VF-1 was, or even the YF-29, which in my mind is an overlooked masterpiece.

Um, really? The VF-31 has the single biggest design flaw of all the valks. A huge backpack. It looks like a butterfly. Ever notice the promo pics never show it from the side? Because it looks truly awful. The plane is beautiful, true. But valkyrie design is a delicate balance between all three modes, jet, fighter, and yes, even gerwalk mode. But it's definitely NOT a slavish devotion to one mode at the sacrifice of all the others, with cherry on top engineering to make it seem more lovelier than it is. I do love the VF-31's jet mode. It's by far one of the most elegant designs. And the engineering is superb. No doubt about it. But they could never figure out where to put those wings. I mean like, at all. It just hangs there intrepidly into space as if it's not the embarrassment to Bandai's legacy of quality design work that it is. When it comes to the dance of all three modes, I'd say the VF-1 still does it best. Flat and behind the back no questions asked. The YF-19 does a pretty good job, and a novel one too, putting them on the sides of the legs. The overlooked YF-29 does a pretty good job as well. The flaring menace of those upside down wings makes it look like a cobra. And the flare of all those missiles on the legs and shoulders, like a King Cobra. But the poor old VF-31, it's skinny, awkward, and frankly looks like a praying mantis. The bug look of the new valks is something I can't get over. And I honestly don't understand why people have so completely overlooked the VF-31's design flaw. Maybe it's just blind allegiance to a master artist developing his craft. And I agree there's no doubt he's moved it forward, as he inevitably does being the master craftsman that he is. But I put the VF-31 more along the lines of an evolution in valkyrie design, not a revolution, and certainly not a landmark valkyrie. Not the way, say, the VF-1 was, or even the YF-29, which in my mind is an overlooked masterpiece.

Yea I figured you would Lolicon.

I just wanted to see what you'd say. I like getting a rise out of people.

yea, so I was actually kidding on that. But if you're interested, there's this fantastic place called ebay where people of all kinds get together to hawk their wares. it's a veritable wonderland of egalitarian trade. here's a little promo for you.

yea so my collection is worthless now. i think i'll throw it all out

Just got mine in the mail today and I'm like... It's the supercharged anime look to the robot mode that's by far the best thing about it. Nobody's managed to achieve that level of faithfulness to the anime look of the robot while at the same time achieve the sleek modern design of the aircraft. Anime magic brought to life. Unparallelled in my opinion.

Me all day long.

AmiAmi is a store? I thought everything just existed in the ethereal firmament of the internet void.

I don't think anything is going to be quite as durable as the 1/55. They're much more focused on high end toy making with all the attention to detail. The paint job, antennae, fins etc. will always be a drag on it.

They're doing the smart thing here. Fine tuning their engineering in the smaller HMR line first, and then graduating to the 1/48, perfecting that line, and then (hopefully!) moving on to the 1/35 line. And that teaser we got way back when. I mentioned this on another thread - that HMR was just a testbed for the 1/48, and "everyone" laughed at me. They all thought I was crazy to suggest that the technology learned on a smaller scale could somehow be imported to the larger scale. But it makes perfect sense to me, and this just proves it. Thank you for the validation.

But to be fair here, the latest reissue is really garbage in my opinion. It doesn't do the original justice at all. The plastic is cheap and the panel lines nonexistent. It just continues Hasbro's embarrassing trend of skimping on the production in favor of a bigger bottom line. The toys they put these days are not even worth collecting as modern day toys - anticipating that they'll become collectible in a few decades. They're just cheap as hell, and there's no difference here. Not the same toy at all.

I thought Kawamori had a hand in designing these? I could be wrong, but I think it's true. I know he had a hand in other tformers like maybe optimus prime or something.

I love this. And smell a new franchise brewing!

Couldn't agree more with that last comment. As much progress as they've made, there isn't much out there that holds a candle to the Big O.

That Aile Strike Gundam looks great. Where did you get it?

A thing of beauty. I got one back in 2003 when they first came out. Kicked off my collecting habit which continues to this day. Graded it with AFA and it got a 90 - after receiving it in the mail direct from Japan in a box that was literally falling apart. What a gem. I will always cherish mine.

Definitely yellowed. I missed out on almost the exact same figure in the same box condition about a year ago. The figure was perfect, no yellowing. In typical fashion, I figured it was about as common as water or air or the rising sun, and I would find another one of its ilk soon enough. Boy was I wrong. So when this came up, my collecting instincts got the better of me and I realized that I would probably never find one in this condition again, yellowing of the figure notwithstanding. So I snatched it up. Now the goal is to find a non-yellowing figure, swap it out and grade it. The saga continues!

You know the funny thing is I don't. As much as I respect the collecting community's fetish for the 1/60's, I have always been a Bandai/Takatoku acolyte when it came to anything around that scale, so the idea of getting into the 1/60 line was just anathema to me. That, and I always felt that the 1/60's were a bit overrated. At the end of the day, it felt like Yamato was just settling in an overcompetitive industry for the lesser production costs of a scaled-down model, rather than tweaking to perfection the 1/48's, and I just couldn't stomach the idea of comprising. So I let them go. I only have one 1/48 left, the Low Viz, but I kept a copy. Whereas I have none of the 1/60's. In retrospect, it wasn't a bad idea with Bandai's HMR and 1/48 lines, but at the time it just was just pure stubbornness on my part. So no, no comparison pics in the offing. Sorry.

Apparently my reputation as an MISB collector does not precede me - for once in my life! I don't take them out actually, because I just love the feeling I got when I first stared at them in their toy boxes when I was young. They stay where they lay.

I know this isn't the forum for vintage collectibles, but damn it, I really like this one. Got it a while back, so not a strictly recent purchase, but it still qualifies in my mind as I take a step back from collecting for a while, take stock of my life, and just revel in the collection that I've built. They're not worth a mint necessarily, but they're worth a mint to me. As they say in the industry, emotional value. And this one in particular is a good example of that. The Takatoku toys, the toymaker that started it all with the chunky monkey. As I delved into the Macross franchise, kicked off by this venerable toymaker, now long extinct and relegated to the pages of a forgotten history, I soon realized that Takatoku had many other toy lines that, while not all that important to their bottom line or their legacy, and in fact the reason for their downfall, they put as much love into those toys as they did the VF-1's. And again, Orguss is the perfect example. They aren't worth much, maybe a hundred here, there, maybe less, maybe more, but to those who love them, they are dear friends. Orguss collectors will go all out to collect any and every version that ever lived of the machine - even pencils and pencil sharpeners. They're out there, they exist. Almost precisely because the toy line itself is so obscure it demands an attention to obscurity in every respect, because there isn't much else to collect but the obscura. So in that vein and without further adieu, I welcome the latest addition to my admittedly modest Orguss collection, the 1/60th Orgroid.