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All toys break no matter who makes it because these are built on production lines and quality is fluid. As for an American company having the Macross license, it wouldn't be unheard of since there are a lot of Japanese licenses that are owned by American companies. The question should be could you expect a Bandai DX or Yamato 1/60 coming out of a company like Hasbro and I think the answer is no. First off you would need tie-ins like a tv show, movie, or video game because Hasbro or whoever isn't going to rely on nostalgia from 30 somethings to fuel a line so instead they will cater to the younger, wider audience to sell product. Hasbro COULD design and build high end "adult collectibles" but it's just not part of the nature of the company. In the end it doesn't matter what franchise it is, if it doesn't sell a toy company has no problem letting it go or die off till fan interest picks up again and right now I don't think the audience is large enough in North America for a company like Hasbro to spend the R&D, and production cost money. What they could do is import toys and stick a Hasbro label on it like they do the Transformers Masterpiece line, it would just be called the "Macross Masterpiece Line" or something.

Here's some craptacular pics of my YF-29

Isn't that the VF-25 Ozma head? Looks really good.

Yeah I agree but I think it has more to do with just the basic designs than the company making them. Plus Bandai's Macross Frontier stuff has that glossy "toy" look while Yamato has mostly gone with the flatter realistic approach. Still I love the new YF-29, it's a little fiddly to transform and all the fins and wings means you have to be careful when transforming it but it may be the first Macross toy I own that I will keep in Battroid mode instead of fighter mode. Also no scratches or paint chips on mine, I've read and seen enough reviews that I was aware of the problem areas and also I just popped the head off while transforming it.

True, Bandai and FLEX have a long history of working together most notably on Bandai's SOC line and it doesn't get much more exposeur and upscale then that.

Just paid for mine at Amiami, the VF-1's are still my favorite Valks bar none but I think this could be a close second.

Yay got my payment notice from Amiami plus the Postal workers should be going back to work tomorrow or the day after

Cool thanks for the reply, I figured the new height difference was due to technical reasons of the toy and not actually following any sort of cannon set from the movies about height and stuff. So it's safe to assume that the new VF-25's will also follow suite and be larger and on par with the new YF-29.

Wow it's way taller than the VF-27, is it suppose to be? Also if Bandai makes new VF-25's based on what they learned from the YF-29 will they also be taller too? I don't know just how much the VF-25 and YF-29 share in common parts.

Yeah I wouldn't go by HLJ prices, there way off the mark. Angolz has the Superman one for $185 and even BBTS has it for under $200. Still these aren't cheap figures by any means. http://www.angolz.com/store/superman-superman-collectible-figure-1-6th-hot-toys-mms152.html http://www.bigbadtoystore.com/bbts/product.aspx?product=HOT10351&mode=retail Anyways back on topic I can't wait to get one and hopefully the Postal strike will be over soon I just wonder if Amiami will honor my pre-order or will I have to pay the normal price in which case I might have to think about it.

This thing looks amazing and just from a stylistic standpoint and not quality or engineering I just like the look of this better than the VF-19. I was so excited to get one until I got a e-mail from Amiami telling me they won't ship to Canada because of the damn Postal strike we have going now, so even when I have this thing pre-ordered I still can't get it

I think there's a common misconception that if a company is large and has been around a long time that they should be releasing perfect products but that's just not true. If it was then General Motors would have the best most trouble free cars made and everything Microsoft releases would be perfect but that's just not the case. Sure companies like GM, Microsoft, or Bandai has enormous resources compared to other companies but at the end of the day it's people like you and me who design these things. In the end if you don't have the right design team and process' in place then no matter what company you are your product will be a "failure".

I think Bandai for the most part has great quality, the SOC line is near the top of QC and design no matter what line you compare it too. Is every figure released perfect? Of course not but which toy line in the world releases 100% perfect figures, be it SOC's or Maxgokins or Yamato Valks or whatever these may be "Adult Collectibles" but there still massed produced items built on a assembly line. They may not have the production numbers of say Transformers but their not assembled by magic elves in a mystical workshop in never never land either. Obviously Bandai and it's Macross Frontier products are improving, I don't think anyone can argue that the VF-27 is a distinct improvement compared to the VF-25 and the upcoming YF-29 will most likely improve on the VF-27. Just how much of a improvement they are achieving is debatable and probably not as high as collectors want but it's tough. Especially when you have stiff competition from a company like Yamato who has vast experience with transforming Valks and looks like it raised the bar again with the VF-19. It's hard to compete when the design process takes months and your competition is also designing new stuff too. It's not an excuse for Bandai or Yamato or any company to release sub-standard items or have a design that utterly fails but it is understandable if not forgivable when they do.

I know the new VF-19 is getting all the love right now and rightly so, but still this new YF-29 also looks like a great piece too. I can't wait to see a comparison of the two since right now there each companies cutting edge Macross fighters.

Okay if you say so, but it looks like the version with the harpoon/flower/propeller on the outer nacelle also has an extra grey part on the inner one which made me think it was just an upgraded Fast Pack.

So there's two different kinds of Fast Packs for the YF-29? One looks like a regular version and a upgraded version which honestly looks like it's gonna fire a flower at you lol.

Not a stand but these rotating bases are pretty cool plus they come in pretty large sizes and are pretty cheap. http://www.bigbadtoystore.com/bbts/search.aspx?search=rotary+mirror

Some more pics, a summer release and 30cm tall. Won't be cheap.

Cool thanks for the info, I was just wondering what the chances were that there would be a new fighter or an upgraded version of the VF-27. Since I already pre-ordered the YF-29 I was thinking if I should also get the VF-27 or just wait and see what happens.

So correct me if I'm wrong but the history or the mechs in Frontier goes like this, the plans for the YF-24 spawns the VF-25 from Frontier and the VF-27 from Galaxy. Which in turn the engineers from Frontier take what they learn from the the VF-25, the optional upgrade of the Tornado pack and perhaps the VF-27 to create the prototype YF-29? So does this mean that perhaps the engineers from Galaxy could also improve the VF-27 and come out with a evolution/upgrade of a fighter themselves?

I was thinking about doing that also but I figured if Yamato's stands ever went on sale or something I didn't want mod them to much. Still these are cheap alternatives and if you have some left over stickers can look pretty good.

Received my stands a couple days ago, there pretty good alternatives if you don't want to spend a lot. I do highly recommend using crazy glue just to keep things in place and the only mods I did was trim the "saddle" arms so the fighter sits lower in it so the "arms" rest against the fighter and the gun sits on the bottom of the "saddle". Here's a couple quick pics and again sorry for the bad photos.

Got mine today and everything seems fine but I haven't bothered to transform it yet. The packing job from Hobby Search is about average, the usual bubble wrap with some packing paper stuffed in between the package and outer box, nothing special. Anyways here's some pics, sorry for the very bad photos.

Cool no problem, I ordered from them Sunday and received a shipping notice with the tracking number today. So all that's left is to wait for the postal service and see how well of a packing job they did.

I just ordered that VF-25G from them a few days ago, they seem to be all right with quick e-mails confirming your order and payment received. I'm just waiting on a shipping notice from them, but this is my first time buying from them so I can't say if their good or bad plus 4,000YEN for EMS shipping seems a little high but it is coming from Japan and I'm assuming the box will be quite large.