Hiriyu

Thanks for the image. The picture of the "Gakken 1/12 Ride Armor" is not actually a production 1/12 Gakken; it looks like either an early prototype, or another model kit. A couple of things that do visually appeal to me on the new toynami are the fact that the feet look like they have some articulation, which was a missing feature sorely needed on the Gakken, and that the thigh-armor appears to be in the right proportions in ride-armor mode... Though it will remain to be seen how well the forward ends of the thigh-armor actually anchor to the bike... Also, the proportions of the chest/forward undercarriage, and the detailing of the vertical axle slides look a little dubious to me... I will definitely pick one up, if only to able to check it out and resell.

Bottle Rockets I like it. Great progress, MechTech. The videos were great, and your model is just crazy. In a good way. If you ever build a Prometheus model, I wanna see some RC carrier landings.

Nope You just need to use a little force the first time, after that, it is much more compliant. It is capable of full splay, no need to mod the landing gear, folks.

You might try our own Mr. March's site here: Macross Mecha Manual

I am referring to the landing gear strut itself (clarification: this is the landing gear upright to which the wheel is attached), not the carrier within which it resides. If you look closely, the outboard side of each landing gear strut is notched just below the pivot point, which allows it to be moved laterally. The notch in the landing gear strut allows it to clear the carrier. Again, take a very close look, and you will see what we're talking about.

Wrong. Unlike the 1/60 VF-0, which has an indentation (or notch) within the carrier piece for the strut to swing into, the 1/60 VF-19 has a relief built into the the upper strut itself. Take a look, it IS present, it's just that the function is so stiff as shipped that it is not readily apparent.

Perhaps. Send me a PM and we can chat.

I do some similar work to Night Stalker. I'm not directly affiliated with any toy companies, but several are clients of mine. I do non-ferrous tool and die work, packaging, and production tools, among other things.

More than you ever wanted to know about the Toynami 1/100... And then some.

Had nearly the same happen to me. A while back, I was sending a fellow MW member a screwcap from a 1/60 VF-1 at my then-local PO. When I came back out of the PO, a traffic officer was writing up my car. Seems to me that the city had quite a racket going, you have 15 minute parking zones everywhere within 4 blocks of the PO, and as everyone knows, it is impossible to get in and out of the PO in anything less than 45 minutes... Ended up with a $60.00 ticket, all to send a friggin 1/60 screwcap. Had I been another few minutes, the would have likely towed my car...

Agreed, to a point. Even with the tops of the shoulders sitting flush, there is still a little longitudinal gap between the end of the shoulder and the leg. Takatoys' fix seems to be the way to go for complete correction. That said, with a little fiddling, I've got mine to where I'm pretty happy with them unmodded.

There's actually no functional problem with the rear landing gear on the 19 - people just jumped (leaped?) to that conclusion. It is capable of splaying outward of its own accord, though the joint is very stiff as shipped (there is a relief in the top of the landing gear strut to accomodate the 'tilt' movement, as opposed to the 0's notched pivot piece, and it does not require drilling/grinding/notching etc). I also haven't seen a big problem with the shoulders sitting flush on mine; it helps to tweak the top of each of the lower legs/aft fuselage inward just a little bit, then there's plenty of clearance for the shoulders to sit flat.

I have access to CNC and patterning/casting equipment. If there is a high enough demand, I could check out the possibilty of doing some parts in aluminum. I would agree though that a hard resin block would probably be a lot easier and cheaper to do.

I just steeled up the nerve to take my 0S apart and check it. Sure enough, the left shoulder joint is heavily stressed and has started cracking through, though it is still intact. The pattern of the stress is the same as in eugimon's avatar. The right shoulder shows stress marks, but it is not nearly as far advanced as the left. The left shoulder pivot was the tighter of the two (have since loosened the shoulder screws slightly), so the additional stresses stand to reason. I will get pictures up as sson as I can. Might be tomorrow.

Erik, wow, your enviro picks are great, but your oils are just amazing! More, please!

You're not alone kaneda I feel much the same way. In reality, mecha fans have never had it so good as now, what with the huge array of stuff available to choose from. Perhaps the overly picky ones just shout the loudest. Regardless, I'll just continue enjoying whatever I like, no matter how hard somebody tries to convince me that my opinion is wrong

Bumpage Does anyone have any more info on the forthcoming Megahouse Orguss toys? Please?

These look great. I love small scale stuff, particularly if it looks as nice as these do. Jenius (or anyone else), where would you recommend preordering these?

I did notice a stress mark on one of the internal blocks (same as others have reported) upon first transformation of my 19, but no other issue to report.

I quite like the 1/60s. Before the 1/48 arrived on the scene to spoil us all, the 1/60s only toy competition were the old 1/55 and 1/100 designs... And compared to these (and in their proper context), the 1/60 is godlike

, Yep. I like how Kei's name kind of alternates between "Guel" and various other abstract names. Still not too hard to follow though.

I don't think that there are two different HK sets, they are just being advertised with varying levels of accuracy. I just took a look at what is on offer on Ebay, and don't see any differences between any on auction or the ones I have. The set I have is a 4-Disc KO set, with selectable subs (Chinese, English, OFF). The subs are not great, but they're endurable, and like everybody else says, it's Orguss. When in a vacuum, suck it up

..Or, a VF-4 Lightning III I have to admit, that was my first thought upon reading Graham's cryptic message.

Best to send me a PM and keep personal transaction stuff off of the main boards. But you'd probably be looking at ~7 or 8 bucks.

Don't be. It's a cool toy, have had no issues with mine.