Sephiroth

http://www.toy-wave.com Toyman has them for $35 USD. He's an excellent seller that I have done business with many times.

Then you'll be sad to know Dunst has no interest in doing a fourth. She doesn't want to be known as "Mary Jane Watson forever". As long as she's there for the third movie, that's cool with me. Besides, they can always bring in Gwen Stacy for Peter's new love interest in a fourth movie.

That scheme rocks!

http://www.cnn.com/2004/HEALTH/06/24/muscl...e.ap/index.html

Cool pics Hattori Hanzo, I see that you are using the elevator deck from a USS Flagg as well! They fit the 1/48s just perfect, huh.

I am so sick and tired of every friggin' company moving their factories to China just because labor is cheap. We know the US market in general don't care about quality so long as we can get our stuff cheap, but whatever happened to Japan, land of zero tolerance for bad quality? Back in the 80s and earlier all their toys were made in Japan and never had quality problems. What made Japanese companies go overseas when they know quality is gonna suffer? It's not like Yamato is trying sell to the US and have to compete on price. and you think people would buy these toys at the markup it would take to build these toys in japan where the cost of living is rediculously higher and where real estate is at a premium? c'mon, lets be honest here. There are a ton of quality toys produced in China, it's just that Yamato is satisfied using second and third tier factories to produce their goods because the market supports it...that's what happens when you don't have any real competition in a niche market. With all the technology that Yamato has at their disposal, and this 1/60 GBP is their final product? Meh! The 1/55 design is an engineering marvel and that the GBP armor fits like a glove is even more so.

Cool pic! A little more lighting on the valk and it would completely rock!

Out of proportion??? I did not realize that Yammi was in proportion with valks shown on Macross. The appearance wise, yes, Yammi resembles more closely with what you see on Macross. As for as proportion, it is doubtful and debatable. As for Bandai being "Blocky-ness", you might be right on making it easier to fit. That does not mean, Yamato should be releasing armors that have definite quality problem(s) to the consumers. Yes, I bought the armor, even knowing that it had problems, but that is what happens when there are no competitions. It is all in how companies envision their future and its mission. Bandai has proven over and over again for last decades that their product is superior to its competitor. As for Yamato, it is hard to tell. How long they will survive the competitive toy MKT, who knows. The result will be shown when toys based on Macross series has saturated the MKT and Yamato has to rely on other product line to sustain its viability. Will they be considered as being a quality toy manufacturing company????? I have to agree with CID. To say the 1/60 Yamato is more in proportion with the original line art is a given...there's no reason it shouldn't be when you consider that the 1/55 Takatoku/Bandai valks were made over 20 years ago and the 1/60 Yamato valks. That does not excuse Yamato from continually releasing flawed products (both in design and quality) when we know that they are capable of doing better.

Thanks for the pics! The armored Max looks pretty cool, but you were right about the VT-1 and VE-1 looking goofy.

Thanks for the nice compliments. I really love the GBP armor...I can't understand why I didn't pick up a set any sooner than I did. I just wish I had a Max VF-1J to try the armor on. Hell, I'd like to see pics of an armored VT-1 and VE-1 just for the hell of it. If any of you have these items, can you please take pics and post them here? Yeah, I thought it was pretty neat how they put that feature in there and was surprised no one ever mentioned this before. I guess a lot of people never removed the missiles from the sprue to find out. I used some missiles from a Bandai reissue, but they fall out easily.

More Random Images GBP-1S & SVF-1A (Takatoku Super Valkyrie Armor): Millia SVF-1J (Takatoku Super Valkyrie Armor):

More GBP images that you rarely ever see... GBP-1A Front: GBP-1A Back: Millia GBP-1J Front: Miliia GBP-1J Back:

With all the talk about Yamato's new 1/60 GBP armor...I felt obligated to spread a little love for the Takatoku 1/55 GBP armor to help even things out. I've been wanting a set of Takatoku 1/55 GBP-1S armor ever since I first laid eyes on the pics at Nam Ngo's Valkyrie Factory site several years ago. Well, that day has finally come. I was searching eBay for closed GBP-1S armor auctions to figure out how much they were currently selling for. I came across this closed auction: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...item=3193068694 The title was "Takatoku Toys Macross Armored Valkyrie GBP-1S " and it was listed under the Robotech category listings. The starting price was $200, but no one bid on it...this was actually the second time the seller listed this item. Most complete GBP-1S armor sets sell for $250+, and this one appeared to be unused from the pics. I couldn't understand why no one bid on it. Anyway, I decided to contact the seller and ask if he still had the item available. The seller took several days to write back...I had given up hope by then...and said that he did indeed have the armor and that he would sell it for $215 shipped. We worked out the deal off eBay and now I am the proud owner of my very first set of Takatoku GBP-1S armor...and with my luck, Bandai will soon announce they are going to re-release the 1/55 GBP armor. I noticed that there aren't a whole lot of pictures or reviews of the 1/55 GBP-1S armor to be found on the web. No one ever really talks about the armor other than to say that the chest and shoulder compartments open up. When you are able to find a few pics, you will most likely see the armor being used on a VF-1S or Hikaru VF-1J. To help remedy this, here's some fan service: Box and Inserts: GBP-1S Front: GBP-1S w/ Compartments Opened: GBP-1S Back: The GBP armor perfectly fits all vintage Takatoku/Bandai 1/55 Valkyries as well as the reissues. I am completely amazed by how snugly the armor pieces fit around the battroid...especially since this toy was designed in 1983 by hand (no CAD). The 1/55 GBP armor design allows for a lot more articulation than you would imagine just from looking at it. The leg & knee joints are still able to move foward and back one notch and the arm & elbow joints have full movement. The parts can be clipped on easliy or easliy removed, and remain attached with no problems. The GBP armor dosen't add too much weight to the toy and doesn't offset the balance. The GBP armor itself is molded in a nice mix of colors (blue/red/grey) with no painted areas. The factory-placed stickers give the GBP armor enough of a finished look that I don't feel the urge to use the sticker sheet provided. There's just enough detail molded in to keep the pieces interesting. It appears from other sets that I have seen offered that the plastic is suspectible to UV damage (thankfully mine had no UV damage at all). The box art/design is on par with the quality you come to expect from Takatoku. The art on the front depicts an armored Hikaru VF-1J and shows full character shots of Hikaru and Max. This differs from the VF-1S & GBP-1S giftset which depicts an armored VF-1S and only shows the the charcter shot of Hikaru. More battroid art is shown on the right side and the stiker palcement guide can be found on the left side. The only flaw I see is that there is no underside to the box...the top is half/sides are taped to the back of the styrofoam tray. The instruction guide is one sheet, folded 2x. It depicts the armor being placed on a VF-1S. Something I have never seen posted or discussed is that the instructions sheet shows that you can place extra missiles into holders on the hips:

I sold a complete set of Bandai Strike armor w/ missiles and styrofoam tray for $200 awhile back.

meh. After reading Graham's review and seeing the pics, I think I'll stick with the Takatoku 1/55 GBP-1S set, at least until Yamato gives it the 1/48 treatment.

I'm actually impressed with this offering from Toynami. It appears they actually put a lot of time and detail into this project. I like the color choice as well. The only thing I fear is that this toy will be too small and delicate to be handled constantly, much like Yamato's YF-19. Combined with nice MPC packaging and the potential to be combined with a forthcomming Tread, I think $80 is a reasonable price when compared with the prices that vintage Gakken Alphas go for.

I found mine at the Target in in Minot, ND. A couple of weeks ago, I saw on another forum where a guy reported that his local Target slashed the price to $34.99. He even provided a pic showing the little red clearance sticker. I immediately went to my local Target to see if it was true...but the MP Optimus Primes kept scanning at $48.98...still chaeper than Wal-Mart ($63.88). Every few days, I would go and check to see if the price had changed with no luck. I was surprised when I saw the price scan at $34.99, because there were no red price stickers on it...I scanned it again just to be sure. I picked up the last one they had on the shelf, but I'm sure they have more in the back.

I just picked up another Hasbro MP Optimus Prime at Target...I couldn't resist the reduced price of $34.99!

Thank you for the awesome pics! Very nice collection you have there!

Here are a couple I took a while back:

I can't believe you guys dedicated two pages to the infamous Eurypeima spinicrus aka "Camel Spider" already... I never saw any live ones while I was deployed to Qatar a few months ago as it hadn't warmed up enough for them and the scorpions to be out yet. I did hear a few exaggerated stories concerning their abilities from other troops who had them as unit "mascots." Yes, they can jump 3 ft straight up in the air...it helps them to to attach themselves to camels and other animals. They are very quick and are attracted to shadows. Until the General Order 1 came down prohibiting troops from keeping them as pets amoung other things, the troops would catch them and make them fight each other or scorpions...one camel spider was said to have taken on two scorpions and kill both in a matter of minutes. They can get to be fairly large...almost the size of dinner plates with all legs extended. I was able to purchase one and bring it back with me to the US. They sell them mounted/framed at the local BX/PX in some locations for about $20 depening on the size and if the abdomen is connected or not...they usually break away if they dry out too much or not carefully framed. The one I have is about the size of my palm. It's not the largest they had available, but it was the only one with abdomen still connected. I hang it in my office next to the scorpion I bought while I was over there and people can't help but stare at them for a few minutes...great conversation pieces.

I'm not sure, but I'd hate to be the pilot that had to find out the hard way...

You can belittle my inject all you want, but is it really so far fetched as to be "paranoid" to think that other countries wouldn't try to align their resources and military strength with one another in an event such as this? All the scenarios mentioned above were pretty much one-on-one ifs...I simply tried to evolve the scenario to be more realistic. Of course it wouldn't be the whole world against the US, but to think the enemy would be alone is wishful thinking...welcome to reality.

Just to add to the scenario...who says that the Russians would be alone in their fight against the US? What if another world power, like China for instance, got involved and supported the Russians?

I know it's probably not what you want to hear, but I would have to concur...except for the comment about the clothes...that's just harsh. But hey, to each his own right. Now, if you took them all out for huge display and took some pics...that'd be cool.