QuinJester

The "EMS only" was in reference to amiami.com, which is where the 25% off deal is, not anime export. AE does indeed support SAL shipping. They seem to continue their sale specials after release, though they sometimes drop to only 15%-20%. There's a sort of "half transformation" phase that the MacQuarter goes through which resembles a gerwalk mode-

As of roughly 6-7 days ago... yes. EMS only, but it's unlikely the the MacQuarter would ship any other way anyhoo. They have a similar system to HLJ. They send a notice once the stuff you've ordered comes into stock with the total amount owed and you send them the amount in yen via paypal. Got my first order with them going through right now, and if everything seems ship-shape I foresee them getting a lot of my business in the future (at least, for larger/more expensive items).

Yeah, people like me, you CM's loving punk. Their products are absolutely awful. Utterly without reproach. Ugh. The DX doesn't look bad, but for me the deal breaker will really be the way the hip joints are designed. Even though I only had one DX with hip lock issues, it's a serious party pooper and not something I'd want to chance again. (Interestingly, the lower leg looks like it's rotated beyond what should be normal vis-a-vis the way the DX '25 is designed. Hopefully that's an indication of some sort of leg swivel, though it would be better if it was up on the thigh).

The only FSS kit that comes close to the SDF-1's price is the WSC or Volks Twin Tower Jagd Mirage, which is more than five and a half feet tall and ran for 168,000 yen. Just sayin'. The typical 1/100 or 1/144 kit is priced much closer to the 20,000 mark. But yes, this very much falls into the typical Garage Kit line of production because, well, let's be frank that's exactly what it is.

http://www.yamato-toys.com/ec/items/detail.php?gid=1523 I see no indication that this is any sort of "special-super-more-expensive-than-the-one-we'll-put-together-for-you-later" deal. Yamato obviously saw the production cost of making this toy, saw the recession, and had to make a choice - make a $5000 toy and try to sell it at mass retail, make a much smaller toy that's STILL very very expensive and try to sell it at mass retail, or make what they do have available to try and make at least some people happy by offering a $2000 model kit that they don't have to mark up to compensate for wholesale discounts. EDIT: and if they DO somehow make this available at a later date at a fraction of the price, assembled, painted, what have you, it'd be a rather audacious kick in the nuts for the devotees who plonk down the nearly three thousand dollars after fees and shipping to get this "kit".

Doesn't change the fact that the DMC-12 had a crust-of-the-earth slowness of nearly 11 seconds to 60 mph, which was barely faster than a similar era Honda Civic. On top of that, it weighed about 2700 pounds thanks to all that stainless steel, making the thing a cinderblock on wheels. All those critiques aside, I can't imagine a "new" DMC doing all that well. People want a Delorean because it's a Delorean, gull wings and pokey performance and all. The DMC badge wont mean much if it isn't attached to something that went back through time.

Sounds like it's got a LOT in common with the Delorean, actually. . Don't forget that the original Delorean was so heavy and so underpowered that it didn't even have a speedometer that could go up to the 88 miles per hour shown in the Back to the Future movies that made it famous. Ugly is subjective, of course, and while I personally love the look of the Delorean (again, BTTF to blame for that), it's not exactly elegant with its rigid, 80's-tastic straight lines, awkward boxy front, and big solid wheel caps. The Solstice body design is decidedly more "modern", but loses a lot of the flair of that ugly, boxy Delorean look that makes it so distinct. Personally, if I were to pick something out as being the biggest fault it would be the lack of gull wing doors due to the convertible design. That's REALLY a shame. What's a Delorean without gull wing doors?

Definitely. Looking at the side silhouette, my brain instantly said "oh hey, Nissan", though the side profile looks to me more like they wanted to imitate the GTR than the Z (Apples and only-vaguely-different-apples, I know). I like the wheels, though. They look like they should be able to pop out spinning blades, Bond-car style.

It's, uh, oil? Mold release agent, to be more specific. Something to let the plastic mold "let go" of the steel molds when it comes out of the oven, so to speak.

But ... but ... the internets are serious business! People aren't allowed to be sarcastic or mean things other than what they say!

Um. We have a Megahouse ride armor line that has spontaneously ended without fanfare, the Beagle line which puttered out after two releases and left its fans blueballed, we have the CM's line which seems to survive on low production overhead, re-used packaging and high prices, and a line of Toynami Alphas and Betas which, despite being marketed as "limited availability" items, can still be readily found - albeit horrifically broken most of the time. I'm not exactly seeing the unquestionable nature of that success...

I will have to agree to disagree with you, but only partially. Re: VF100 YF-21/22 - A set of alternate "anime accurate" chunky legs would be an excellent use of resources. Put overly skinny skeletal legs inside the body for transformation, but have alternate legs what have a nice bellbottom shape to exchange for times when it remains in robot display. That kind of thing would be much more beneficial as far as parts-forming things go. I'm happy to see that the VF-19 seems to be fairly spartan as far as "extra bits needed to transform" go.

Should be roughly 12-13cm tall, tops, so around 5 inches. The regult would be taller.

Not anymore Once again, Toynami rears its ugly head. No domestic importation of the armor plus figures, so it's import only. $80 or so after shipping, probably.

Only sets that include extra parts (super packs, armor packs) include stands.

Hot lights at trade shows make EVERYTHING look washed out. Fortunately, the magazine pics have shown it as a lot darker and more metallic. Very excited for the quarter Just got to find a place to put it ... hmmm....

I wouldn't. I'm quite happy with the four main character valks. Then again, I don't have the same OCD (Obsessive Collector's Disorder, in this case ) that some people have about their valks, so who knows?

As of right now, the only way to get the GPB without having a VF-1J attached to it is the exclusive.

Of which ALL the Valkyries are a part of. There are no transforming Macross GNUs.

No open bays for CM's Yellow, but otherwise the figure is pretty great if you can get past the microman size and the complexity and fiddlyness of the transformation that results. He gets colored two-tone saddlebags, too, which break up the monotony that's present on the Stick/Ley versions.

I'm not sure how that'd work though, with the sizes being so different, but hey, we'll see what we can see. Of course, Hasbro was also saying over and over again that the three ROTF Bike sisters would have a combined form, and that's pretty much been kneecapped... heh.

Actually, I doubt it would be. If you look at the pics, Wingblade Prime's base body is that of the the deluxe, not of the Voyager. The legs are a big indicator.

In the movie, his flying tank had the four wings. 95% of the preview sketches and lineart on the internet isn't accurate to his movie appearance, heh. Voyager's tank mode is, in fact, movie accurate. The figure is pretty sweet, too, I agree.

The news about selling the sets at WF means that they'll be sold on a convention-only license in limited quantities; which means no, they wont be $30 plus shipping and handling. They'll probably be closer to 60-90 plus shipping and handling, depending on how badly scalpers will take fans for a ride. Oh well. No cockpit seats for me.

It's definitely tiny, even with the helmet on . Even 3-5% bigger would have helped. Anime-accurate-to-one-scene-that-was-5-seconds-long be damned, it would have looked a lot nicer with a bigger head