mitch

Just wanted to say I saw some Macross Frontier cosplay at Anime Expo today. 2 Rankas, 3 Sheryls and a Klan Klang. I would have taken pictures but my camera sucks Still, thats 600% more Macross costumes from the last 2 years. I'm hoping that there will be some more for the Masquerade, I'll borrow a friend's camera and see what I can come up with.

No armor sets have been released yet, just the super packs, and since they are Japanese exclusives I wouldn't bet on seeing many if any at AX unfortunately. You'll probably find the VF-25's there, but the prices may be steep. At Botcon BBTS were selling the 25's, but they were marked up so they were about the same as buying them online plus the shipping charge, and the other day I saw them on sale for $275+ in little Tokyo. If you can get there early on the first day, you might find something. Either that or hope that they haven't all sold by the end of the convention and try to cut a deal with the vendor (sometimes they will do a deal to get rid of stock at the end of the show so they don't have to haul the left over stock away). Good luck with your search either way, you never know what you'll find at conventions.

I can't wait to see the finished article, its looking great so far! I know a guy who is a pro model builder and I have nothing but respect for anyone who can build something from scratch, especially when it comes to scribing and technical/mechanical reproduction (plus the lighting is going to kick some serious ass!!). Good luck!

I'd put money on it being a case of removing the ponytail from the back of the head and the mask coming in 2 halves that fit over the head like the CMs figures.

It's looking good so far. One thing that I would note however is that as cool as they are, Super/Strike packs are used for zero atmosphere/space combat. Good use of the background art though. Keep it up, you've got a good start and the more you work at these things the better you become. Good luck!

Nice! Kinda puts everything in perspective scale-wise. I hope the construction of the 1:1 scale Gundam promotes a boom in the giant robot industry. Here's to hauling the world-wide economic situation out of the gutter one city-sized mech at a time!

One of the coolest shots in Anime. Ever! Still gives me chills to this day.

Damn that looks cool! I'm still on the fence about getting the Alto, I'll probably wait for a review (especially after Bandai's shenanigans with the VF-25). I'll definitely pick up an Ozma if they get round to it though.

I think the armored '25S looks sweet! I'm not too concerned by minor color discrepancies at this point, when the '25's first started being marketed there were several pictures that were missing the tampo prints and with various color apps. I still have a sliver of hope that the mistakes of previous releases will have been corrected, although I'm not expecting miracles at this point since Bandai seem inept at designing a decent neck for the poor old 25S. Despite the problems that have plagued the 25 I still generally like it, and I stand by my pre-order of the armored 25S.

Good stuff! Personally I think it looks a lot better as a Gerwalk than in it's intended robot mode. Paint it red and make a little Roy to stick in the cockpit and you have a full win!

I haven't heard of this being brought up before either, but I agree that it would make sense to an extent since the human population was to say the least drastically reduced after the Zentraedi bombardment of earth and you need a lot of people to rebuild cities, build interstellar space craft, colonize other planets, etc. Of course, the population would have been swelled by Zentraedi/Meltrandi amalgamation in peace time so that could account for a lot of it. I would really like to hear if there has been an official statement on this rather than speculation on my part. Besides, who needs cloning when repopulation done the old-school way can be so much fun!

If someone is looking to get 3 ghosts to go with a Luca to complete the set I might be interested in buying the missiles which would help recount some of the (excessive) cost of the pack. PM me if you're interested.

I've been a professional painter for a few years now, and I can advise you that it depends on how detailed you want your end result to be. From my own personal experience I can say that Badgers are a good all-round brand, Paasche's are cheap but I wouldn't use one for anything other than base coating, and Iwata's are really good but expensive (but a nice one will mean you can produce lines equivalent to a pencil line). Look for something that has a double action trigger which will help control the flow of air. What supplies your air is another matter altogether... Hope that helps, try going to a really good art store and see if you can talk to an airbrush technician or someone who has experience. Other than that, look around the net.

Personally, the only problem I have had with DYRL is seeing what's going on in a few shots because of low contrast. I assume this is due to the quality of the DVD I have because I remember reading that the last release of the DVD in Japan had the frames digitally cleaned and correcting coloring mistakes (it's like the stormtrooper hitting his head on the door in Star Wars ep4, once you know it's there you can't NOT see it). I still go back and pause it in certain scenes and go through it frame by frame to see what's actually going on (eg. Max/Milia dogfight, opening battle scene,etc.). Despite that, it's one of my favorite films.

So you have to swap out the neck as part of the transformation?!?! The hands I could live with. The shield? Okay, whatever. By this point we'd all let the whole 'perfect transformation' thing go. But the now the neck? Is anyone at this company even feigning effort any more? A couple of guys can knock out extendable necks as what I assume is a fan project and one of the biggest toy companies in the world can't even take the time while they are already redesigning the head?! If I wanted to swap more stuff on a valk I'd be saving a hell of a lot of money buying the 100's line! That's Bull$#*t, Bandai. Ok... deep breath... Has anyone got any ideas on where one could get these custom necks sent to the US? Didn't someone mention a couple of threads ago that you could use revoltech joints that DON'T require removing the head every time you want a Battroid?

Sorry to hear about the problems with your valk's head lasers Nine_Breaker, I don't think I've ever heard about Bandai employing Yamato's replacement parts policy, but I hope that I'm mistaken. One of the reasons I like the old 1/55's is that they can be unscrewed and taken apart (although they did start to glue some seams together as I found out when working on my latest project), which made fixes and customs a lot easier from my perspective. Covering the holes on the '25 makes it look smoother, but when problems like this arise it means there are no quick or easy solutions for certain areas on the valk.

I'm disappointed that there are no external indicators between 1st and 2nd issues of the Alto '25. I had the mixed blessing of ordering through BBTS so when they got the 25F in they got the reissues. Yamato had the courtesy of labeling the old YF-19 when they reissued it with modifications (on top of the packaging having a window so you could see if you knew what you were looking for). Someone needs to tell Bandai that it isn't a case of acknowledging past design mistakes, it's about honesty with the consumer of your (expensive) product. I really hope they announce another valk DX soon instead of just milking the '25. If they do the '171 next then there's another run of color variants they can rattle off to make the most of the design, where as the '27 only seems to have 2 color schemes. Definitely agree that a CF version of the '25 would be far more preferable to a clear 'fold' version. That's what the kits are there for.

I think I would agree with this observation, although it seems like the Macross franchise could run the risk of getting caught in a kind of feedback loop (given that MF is to a large extent an homage to what has come before). While this means that MF and current titles get the best from what came before I worry that this also limits what can be achieved. As for the reuse of the VF-1 in later series, I always look at the cockpit controls as much as is allowed - DYRL introduced the concept of the throttle's angle relating to the mode the VF assumes; horizontal=fighter, vertical=battroid, 45 degrees=gerwalk. Of course there are other ways of telling, but that is my own little visual cue.

WOW!!! Stunning! That is a work of art, right there! It reminds me of the armored Gerwalk in one of the Macross Art books (I think it was the Kawamori Design Works, but correct me if I'm wrong...). Thank you for sharing. Just out of curiosity warpaint22, what was the build-time for you on this?

Hi, Wow, quite a vintage collection! You can check out this link for the Bandai pieces to get an idea of what they could go for. Compare the prices estimated on MW with similar items on ebay and that should give you some rough estimate to their current value. As for the Takatoku's, you'll have to do some homework on them. Of course, now may not be the best time to sell, as you may not get top dollar for them since everyone seems to be cutting back on collectibles. Either way, good luck with it.

I think the armored '25S is looking awesome! The changes to the main figure look great, but I have my concerns about the head lasers. The V.1 was mildly disappointing (though treatable), but strengthening the materials, especially on something of that diameter, could be a delicate balancing act. Unless they are replaced with metal rod, which would be highly unlikely I imagine, they could turn out quite brittle. The delay sucks, but I was waiting for my 25S for a while after it first came out so it just gives me a bit more time to get my finances in order. If it is to ensure QC then all the better. Now that we have an idea what to expect after the first and second issues of the 25, I'm concerned if it could stand on its own without a stand in Battroid or Gerwalk. If they can manage that, along with fixing the armor so that it doesn't pop off at the drop of a hat, I would be happy (and pleasantly suprised).

WOW!! Gorgeous work! Thank you for sharing.

I finally decided the other week to take the plunge and applied some super-glue to the outsides of the 'hook' tabs on the male-connector on the crotch assembly and it seems to have helped a bit by giving the spring tabs something more to bite onto (time will tell if this is a long-term solution or if it needs to be re-applied over time), but if someone could post a pic or two of the mod using the styrene sheet that would be awesome. The loose crotch issue is one of my main gripes about what I generally consider to be a good toy, although it lost a lot of marks with me for needing something like this to make it work the way it should out of the box, never mind the hip-armor that seems to be spring-loaded. While I'm off on one, the sound booster kit will probably be a miss with me. 95 bucks for that?! The picture of the painted Ranka looked terrible, although I guess we should have seen that coming after looking at how the VF-25 pilots came out. Get with the program, Bandai!

I've just about given up on some close approximation of reissued 1/55 Strike, armor elint seeker, etc., so failing that... 1/60 VF-4 1/60 Star Mirage 1/60 VF-17 and 171 I wouldn't care if Bandai or Yamato made them, as long as they're tough as guts with minimal QC issues. Oh, and Revoltech Fraulein Minmay please. Also, though not technically a toy, I had an idea the other week that I doubt anyone but me would want to see... GUITAR HERO MACROSS! You could play along to Fire Bomber's tunes, unlock other classic tracks from M+, SDFM, MF, etc. and the background when you play would be a view from inside the cockpit that reacts to dodge missiles and stuff when you hit the notes right and gets hit when you cock it up... Anyone still with me on this one..? Anyone..?

I just signed up for MWcon'09 and I'm really looking forward to it already! I was disappointed that I couldn't make it to MWcon'08 but this year I'm determined to go!