lechuck

I had the exact same breakage, same wing and attachment point. Mine was the VF-1S Hikaru Valkyrie. To repair it, I used a dab of super glue on the edges of the circular hole and stuck the piece back on. Seems to be holding well, although I am way more careful now.

Slightly different views of VF-11 at Hobby Complex

Alright, got my VF-1S Hikaru (my first 1/60 ver.2) two days ago and all I can say for the moment is that Yamato have done a fantastic job. This is going to be my benchmark to judge other VF-1s and Valkyries in general. Battroid is gorgeous, everything locks snugly into place and the joints are tight, almost too tight at times. Two VF-1S'... one craptacular... My one complaint is the lack of side covers. Not just for aesthetics but I think would have been a practical thing to help support/hold that square shoulder plate in place. I can't tell if the shoulder hinge/plate is new but when holding it in the light one can see a very mild texturing on the canted edges of the plate (side with the ball joint). Does that make it POM? I forgot to take pics of this piece and I don't want to un-transform my Valk at moment. My crappy take on this Valk's most memorable scene... I tried Overdrive for the first time and the experience was great. They even e-mailed me back to ask whether I wanted a specific amount in the invoice. The end result being that it took exactly one week to arrive and best of all I paid nothing on customs/taxes.

Fighter looks good, but in Battroid mode the spark isn't coming across. It seems too busy, too many corners and edges. I'm missing the very streamlined and roundish looking Battroid mode of the VF-11. Oh and the feet are horrible. I also noticed a potential problem with articulation. It seems that the intakes are hitting against that back plate thingy. I circled the area I'm talking about in the picture below. Stuff like that spells frustration to me, the YF-19 is already a pain in this department.

Man, if I could get a Euro for every time Gundam is blamed for a "Macross fail" on these boards, I would have enough extra change to actually buy Yamato replacement parts.

Just when you thought this thing was dead, Alter magically gives us a life sign. http://www.alter-web.jp/mecha/09/05/index.html Looking really good. Price does seem a bit high but considering I'm fan of FMP and no other company is interested in making quality toys, I will be getting this. I can't tell from the open cockpit image, but I do hope there is a Sousuke figure in there. (I hate it when mecha is sold without pilots)

Yeah. It sounds like a lame explanation to justify the mess they will be creating with the Trek-verse. You know, I've also never really liked the time travel/Star Trek combo. The ones I like are - The City on the Edge of Forever - Yesterday's Enterprise - Cause and Effect But there is just way too many bad usage of time travel in Star Trek: The Voyage Home, that cliffhanger with Mark Twain, All Good Things, First Contact and anything in Voyager. What really baffles me is why they have never capitalised on the parallel universe thing. Star Trek has done way better with this plot device.

Thanks QuinJester. I'm really liking the 1/100 stuff. These last couple of months I've sort of resigned myself from the want for PT Valks. Except for a few exceptions, Battroid mode is mostly never captured properly. Add to that the bigger scale and higher price and I find myself never wanting to mess around with a PT Valks that much. Anyway, for the moment this line looks like a winner to me. Can't wait for the first picture of a VF-19S to arrive.

Whenever referring to the JP Tamashii site, please save the images and load them up directly. BECAUSE THE OTHER SIDE OF THE GLOBE CANNOT SEE A DAMN THING!!! (I really hate Geo-IP, borderless Internet my a**) Thank you.

Eugimon, thanks for that link, this is exactly what I was looking for. My DVD player with Divx/Xvid playback isn't cutting it anymore and I've grown tired of constantly re-encoding everything.

Can anybody recommend me a good media drive, I mean those things that hook up to your TV and allows you to play back your movies, music and pictures. Basically I am looking for something that can handle the following: - Containers: avi, mkv, mp4, ogm - Video codecs: Divx/Xvid, H.264, WMV/VC-1 - audio codecs: mp3, ogg, wma, aac, ac3 - subtitle formats: srt, ssa/ass, idx/sub Is there a site out there that discusses this stuff? Any help is appreciated, thanks.

We are probably not going to budge on are viewpoints but that Q&A excerpt neither denies nor confirms "same universe". And still I'm going to lean out of the window and say Abrams is trying to fit this movie in somewhere in the time line. Why else bother with all the retro designs? But come May 2009 and it is indeed a reboot then you won't hear me complaining.

Why is everybody calling this movie a reboot all of a sudden? Abrams has never officially stated this. I think he has said numerous times that he wanted to go back to the start of things and explore how the original crew came to be - meaning we are still dealing with the same continuity and not a new one. If it really was a reboot then why bother retro refitting/designing things from the sixties. They could have just done complete new interpretations of things, for e.g. a completely new and different Enterprise, an iBridge without gauges and knobs or uniforms that are not based on designs from 40+ years ago.

They probably would, if that thread weren't locked since last year.

Yes right, and fighting the enemy with speakers makes Macross so much more realistic than Gundam...

Chowser, I think you are being a bit to harsh on the dell power supply. I've got a dimension 9100 using the same PSU with a Geforce 8800 GTS (first iteration) hooked up and can say that I've never had any problems. I think Dell probably just underrates the PSU to cover their butts. I'd say you can go ahead and update the graphics card. Or if you are still not sure, then try do a search on the Dell forums. Might come up with something more conclusive.

I noted that in my original post too, but everybody seems more worried about the length of fighter mode and the size of the rear tail fins. After looking at the images again, I think the problem lies in the wrong scaling of the individual components to make up Battroid. - feet vs. lower legs - chest/fuselage vs. head and upper legs/intakes - the whole arm section seems to be big compared to the more petite legs - and it looks too wide from shoulder to shoulder But hey, as long this thing flies 0.000000000001 sec longer with improved rear tail fins when thrown it in the air everybody will be happy.

That is basically the crux of this movie and in essence completely contradictory. On the one hand Abrams & Co. want a Star Trek movie to appeal to everybody but yet they go back Kirk and the rest of gang. What age demographic are they exactly trying to target here? Anybody that grew up with TOS and the early movies is probably in their 40s and 50s now. The younger generation has most likely been influenced by TNG, DS9 or Voyager and couldn't stand watching TOS. I can't even blame them, as a Trek fan I watched TOS, but there is like one handful of good episodes and the rest is bleh. I never liked the bulbous 60s design of the Enterprise, so ret-conning it won't make it better to my eyes either. Heck I don't even like the Conni-Refit (I know blasphemy to a lot of you) because it oozes too much of that late 70s early 80s slanting-forward design-philosophy. Rather than creating a mishmash in an already strongly established continuum they should have done a complete new reboot without any previous constraints or carried on further into Trek-future with a new crew and ship and maybe a drastic political shift in the milky-way galaxy to make it more interesting. So to sum it up, this new movie is not tickling me as much as I would like it too. And if I as Trek-fan is having problems, then what about all those "Joe - the non-Trekkers" out there?

No you are not the only one, that foot joint is horrible. And I completely disagree that Battroid mode looks good. The head is too small, the whole chest/fuselage area is too big (homage to 1/48 ?) and the feet are too small compared to the legs they are sitting in. And lets not even talk about what looks like minimal articulation on the hip area like with the VF-0. Again, all in the name of fighter mode. I was very disappointed with the over-emphasis on fighter mode for YF-21 and the shitty approach to Battroid mode and it doesn't look like it's going to change this time around.

About the GFF Metal Composite stuff: 1) What's the general verdict on these - good, bad? 2) Are these scaled at 1/100? 3) Is articulation on par with MGs? Not really contemplating buying one of the current offerings now, but if they ever announce Nu/Hi-Nu, Unicorn, Xi, Penelope, or V2 Gundam, then I don't think I could resist.

Finally got around and finished watching Fullmetal Alchemist/Movie. Great show with what I consider a very pleasing wrap-up. I don't read Manga so I'm curious, how different is Manga-ending to the TV/movie? Does it also have the alternate world thing? That part felt like it came out of nowhere, but played an important part. PS: Why is this thread not a sticky anymore? Mods please explain.

New pics at GA Graphic. VF-25F Alto's Unit VF-25S Ozma Lee's Unit Looking good to me, proportions and slenderness seem right now. Note, that Ozma's Valk doesn't look like it's been transformed correctly.

Exactly my sentiments. And to add to that, if I applied the exact same level of bitching criteria on Yamatos YF-19 and YF-21 then they are to be considered fail too (which funny enough most of you don't think so). Coincidentally the YF-19 suffers from the exact opposite of the Bandai, it's an anorexic robot that looks like it practices Bulemia as a pastime. The YF-21 - what can I say - is a giant hulk of plastic supported by two small tubes with stumps on them. None of them really look like something I saw on screen and have nothing in common with the almighty line art that everybody likes to cite. And if you think cart wheels, missing clear parts and none articulate hands are lazy and stupid decisions of Bandai, then you will have to remind yourself of Yamato using this the great idea of relying on gravity to hold the chest section of YF-19 together or the baffling decision to leave out the side covers for their third rendition of the VF-1. I bought the YF-19, because I think (to date) it's a good representation, even though it deviates heavily from what I have seen in M+. I skipped the YF-21 because the over-emphasis on fighter mode and the lackluster approach on Battroid mode killed it for me. Both of these could IMO be improved/corrected in shape and form. Same goes for the VF-25. It's not 100% correct and could benefit from some refinement in some areas. But at the same time this does not make this Valk a complete failure that only Yamato could have done right. Buy it if you like it, and if not then use that money for some other merchandise on your wish list. Plain and simple.

Was it ever mentioned if these 1/100s Valks would come with little pilots? Shouldn't be impossible, considering MGs have them. Not really a fan of pilot-less Valks.

MG Sinanju from Gundam Unicorn is on the way. Thank God not a another Zaku...