sidearmsalpha

Anyone know when those bookends are coming out?!?!?

Hey, does anyone know if the Valkyries from the Super Famicom Macross game are considered cannon? On the art on the box, manual, and before-level screens, they show a VF-1S that has a noticeably different head and fast packs.

I totally agree! The 21 looks ugly while the 22 looks cool somehow It's the visor that makes it look better in my opinion. Visors on robots are cool. The 21 just looks to goofy with that featureless head.

The action figures that have really captured my attention these days are Takara's Microman figures. The figures that came out last year and especially this year have some amazing articulation! They've finally put out a female body figure this year. Yeah, they reuse the same body type for all the figures, but the different colored paint schemes, individual heads, bunch of extra hands, and accessories make it worth picking up most of the figures. They're going or have put out figures from Devilman, Aliens, and Predator. They've already released Batman, Batgirl, and Catwoman through Previews as well as the male and female Acroyer and Microman figures they put out this year, so they can be picked up for less than they were originally in the original Japanese packages, too! Takara needs to pick up more anime and US licenses to put out figures with these super-articulated bodies.

All these CG movies are too damn family-oriented for my tastes, so I don't care for 'em. I guess that's why it's going to be awhile before we see sci fi movies in theaters that are totally CG. Gotta make a movie that appeals to most movie-goers. I haven't seen the Final Fantasy CG movie, but I've heard it's not so good. I guess that's why big name studios would rather take a chance putting out another family-oriented CG movie than take another chance and put out something different. I wonder if CG movies will ever be affordable for smaller studios to do something that would cater to the sci fi or action fan.

Like the title says, what mecha or robot from any anime/cartoon/movie do you think has the best looking head? My pick is the head for the VF-1S Valkyrie. The design is just beautiful! From the double head lasers on each side to the awesome visor and chin pattern on the neck, the VF-1S head design just shows what a gifted artist and engineer Shoji Kawamori was as far back as the early 80's! It's too bad there hasn't been a toy that captures the detail behind the visor seen in the lineart in Macross books. I've always wondered why Takatoku and Bandai couldn't seem to get the head design right on the 1/55 toys. It seems that Yamato finally got it with the 1/48 VF-1S, but they couldn't with the 1/60. I lean more toward robots/mechs that have visors instead of eyes. Mouths and noses are ok, but not when they are distorted or made to express grins like Transformers' heads tend to be. Take a look at alot of the Beast Wars figures and you'll see what I mean.

I also wanted to comment on the fact that alot of you are tired of seeing the same toy with a new paint scheme. While it's true that there's not much of a difference from one VF-1 to another, I don't mind picking up each one, as it saves me the hassle of trying to custom or cannibalize a couple to get the variant I want. And when you consider how kickass they look, especially with armor, it's hard not to appreciate a whole fleet of Valks in any mode. Seriously, if the VF-1 were an actual fighter plane, how many of you wouldn't be knocking down the RDF's (or UN Spacy's) doors to enlist?! For those of us that had to hunt down and pay a fortune for Macross toys in the mid-90's, I look forward to each Yamato release aside from the occasional QC issues or flaws in their designs. I do wish they would bring out some Destroids, more enemy mecha, and other character figures, but I wouldn't mind seeing the other 1/48 VF-1's that we've been craving for. If you have the room, you can never have too many Valks! They are just THAT cool! For those of you that want non-Valkyrie mecha, you should really check out Kaiyodo's Macross figures. They have a very nice Battlepod and Tomahawk figures. And as Haterist has pointed out, the Bandai Macross Mission gashapon figures are very cool, too, especially the Battlepods, Q Raus, and Glaugs.

Speaking for myself, I don't ever plan on giving up my interest in Macross toys. They are the coolest transforming toys ever. And, I don't think there's any better designed transforming mecha in anime. I have a bookcase full of them, and I just find myself looking at them in awe everytime. I've been collecting them for years, and they haven't lost their appeal. It irks me when people check out my collection and blow it off. They just can't appreciate the ingenuity that goes into designing and making these works of art. If I wasn't limited by space and available funds, I'd have at least 3 of each -- 1 to display in each mode and others for customs. What started with Robotech and then Macross, has become a childhood fascination that I don't intend to give up anytime soon. I realize that reality, life, and hard times catch up on us and force us to give up the things that we like sometimes, so to those of you that have had to give up on this cool hobby because of difficult circumstances, I'm sorry for that. And to those that have just given up to move onto other things or start families or other commitments, that's great. New hobbies or interests sometimes win out over our old ones. I hope that when I start a family, I can hold onto my stuff to share with a future son or even daughter. Right now, it's really cool being an uncle to 2 nephews who look forward to coming over to play video games or to see what cool new toys I have. As nerdy as it sounds, I think I would feel somewhat empty if I gave up my collection. I do enjoy other interests and hobbies, but collecting Japanese toys, especially Macross toys, is the best one. While I believe that Macross will probably fade away after Macross Zero, I'll still be into Macross. I can see myself finally putting together the model kits that I have yet to build or working on custom projects, if time allows, if no new Macross toys get released. It's obvious that Macross doesn't have the staying power that Gundam does, but I do see Macross surfacing from time to time when new projects come around. Who knows? Maybe someday, they'll remake the original series or movie in glorious CG! I'm sure that interest in Macross will never truly die out. As Bandai did, the toys will probably be reissued by either them or Yamato in years to come, or some new company or companies will step up to the plate to deliver even better toys!

Just picked up one of these. Definitely not worth the suggested retail price, but not a POS either. One thing I noticed is that the missile racks in the forearms don't stick out as far as they should be -- like they are half way out. Anybody have this problem or try to fix that?

I remember that early bootlegs of the VF-19s were pretty close to the Bandai version. I think the only difference I saw was that the head lasers were not as detailed. Not sure about the Fire Valkyrie. I also have a boot of the VF-17d which pretty much looks indistinguishable from the original.

I like to fire up the home arcade system every now and then and play these pcb's: The Punisher Cadillacs & Dinosaurs Alien VS Predator Final Fight Battletoads (Electronic Arts) Sunset Riders Cowboys of Moo Mesa GI Joe Bucky O'hare UN Squadron Varth 19XX 1944 Sidearms Carrier Airwing Contra Super Contra Bunch of Capcom and Konami goodness! I like having different themed game days, too, like an all-Treasure day with games like: Gunstar Heroes Radiant Silvergun Guardian Heroes Dynamite Headdy I have held onto all my older game systems for games like: Contra III Castlevania IV Macross (Saturn & Super Famicom games) Zelda LTTP Super Metroid Turtles in Time Streets of Rage 2 Shinobi III Robocop VS Terminator (Genesis version) Mario All-Stars Contra Hard Corps Legendary Axe Blazing Lasers Man, I could go on ...

You would think this would be a logical choice for Yamato to do considering how well the Low Vis VF-1A sold. A LV VF-1S or even a VF-1J would be awesome complements to the VF-1A. Would make for a very cool-looking LV squad!

The thing about the bookends is that, from what I hear, they were really well done. I think they made these things TOO limited. Sucks that Toynami finally put out something really cool, but they are really limited. The same goes for alot of things I collect. They go and make these really cool things, so the demand for them is high, then they make matters worse by making them limited. The Low Vis is a good example. I like the military paint scheme, so limited or not, I would have picked that up. If I miss out on something, I just put it on my Wanted list and hope that I'll pick it up later, hopefully when secondary market values have cooled off.

Smaller than a super poseable?!?!?! Man, they must be serious about putting out that Beta Fighter afterall cuz that's the only reason why I can imagine that this toy could be that small.

I think that psycho lesbian was Cory Everson, who won Ms. Olympia a few times. She woulda made a great female Terminator.

The VF-1J on the box pictures looks really white. Can someone confirm if it's molded or painted the same color as the 1/60 Super VF-1J? I think that one was a light gray, right?

Yeah, the box on this looks exactly like the ones I saw as a kid in the mid-80's at our local flea market. I wouldn't be surprised if it's from some hidden stash this seller forgot about and just found. He seems pretty uninformed about the demand for these. Oh well ... his loss.

Anyone know where I can get tunes from Shinobi 3 or Gunstar Heroes?

The head on the toy doesn't seem to match the lineart. I don't like the toy's head. Looks like a Trojan soldier's head.

Just saw this on Figures.com if anyone is interested. Limited to 200. Too bad their con exclusives. http://www.figures.com/databases/action.cg...show_article=71

Hey Anubis, where'd you get that image from? Yeah, two versions of this would rule -- a blue/white one and an orange-red/white one like the Zetaplus versions.

DAMMIT, BANDAI!!!!! I WANT MY FIX HI NU GUNDAM!!!!!!

Man, I thought this was originally from an episode of Beavis & Butthead. Guess Mike Judge was a Monty Python fan.

I think that if Yamato ever goes under like Takatoku, someone else will step up to the plate later to make Macross toys, only they'll be better. They'll feature stuff like self-transforming or realistic lights and sounds (a gunpod with that buzzsaw sound would be awesome!). They'll make the 1/48's look like some of you look down on the 1/55 chunky-monkeys today. Macross will always be back in some way or another, IMHO. Look at how Bandai keeps bringing back all the super robots by way of the SOC line or gashapon stuff. And then there's all the older Gundam stuff that most Japanese kids today probably don't care about. Like the RX-78. They keep coming out with newer toys of this old Gundam robot all the time. I guess Bandai realizes that alot of older collectors want to see better toys of these older robots. It's also getting harder for Japanese (and US toy companies) to reinvent the wheel. They keep bringing back older properties with newer makeovers or applying new toy technology to them. Take He-Man and the G1 Transformers as another example. I'm sure that if these lines were to die out today, we'd see them again in the future looking better than ever.

Dude!!! You made my day!!! That's hilarious!!!!