Chronocidal

For all the problems they both have, I'll say this much: The VF-25 kits look good and actually line up correctly if you don't transform them. I can't say the same for any picture I've seen of the VF-1. I have a completed VF-25F which I completely hand-painted so the markings would be easy to tough up if they were scratched. I've transformed it a few times, and it generally holds together just fine. It takes work to get things to line up, but it works.

I dunno why people are complaining about the pilot honestly, the original Brera figure was already better painted than all the V.2 VF-25 figures I have. I put my legless Ranka in Alto's ride anyway, so I can put this one in Michael's VF-25. I just have to scratch-build myself some speaker pods. Anyway, meh. I don't really know if it'll be that much better or not, but I actually like the look of the booster pack on this one, and it'll make a nice counterpart to my Alto YF-29 on display.

See, I was curious if that was the idea from the start, which would be much more reasonable. You'll still be talking easily over $100 from shapeways for something that size, but it's much more potentially possible.

I'm pretty sure printing something like that with Shapeways would approach enough to buy a car or two. Possibly a house. For an estimate of just how huge something like this would be, go look at the 6 ft Daedalus scratch build in the model forum, which is roughly 1/200 scale. It's massive. I'm not even sure Shapeways has printers capable of making things that big, and I can't even fathom how much it would cost to ship it to you. Even in pieces, that's a huge amount of material.

Actually, for something like this, all the reference lines from the panels would be a great help. It's a lot easier to draw an evenly curved line when you have lots of parallel lines around to guide your hand. Still, that's freaking amazing. Bravo!

I've seen backwards costumes done before, and yeah, they might get tiring, but the nice thing is that it's simpler than a setup that'll require you to make some kind of stilt/shoe to essentially give you animal-ish legs (which can be done mind you, but will probably be complicated and expensive). Best one I've ever seen was actually much more complicated than this, due to the subject. Someone made an animatronic life-sized chocobo costume. The shape of the body pretty much required them to be hunched over, with their head right in the tail end of the bird, and I think they rigged up controls for the head/arms, and maybe a camera. Compared to that, this should be really simple. Now, you could always go for a cartoony SD version, make the head huge, and have no trouble hiding your head. And actually, keeping it backwards would allow you to just pop open the entry hatch to see out. You should definitely get some of those cheap foam ball blaster nerf guns for the turrets though.

I'd recommend looking back a ways through the boards. There was someone who designed a couple of valk-girl cosplay outfits using mostly moldable craft foam. Comes in sheets, and seems to have been quite shapeable. You might need some underlying structure for something that bulky, but I think that would be a great start.

It's not bad at all in fighter mode, and yes, the legs are much improved over the original VF-25. It's a huge improvement all around over the early Bandai DX valks. If you plan to keep it in battroid though, the new one looks like it will be a much better version, just due to the revised leg and head positions. I can't say much about the crotch lock on the old one though. It's pretty much the same as the original VF-25 one, and while it might be a little better, I think people have still reported it popping loose, and their battroids falling over backwards. Not that it's impossible for that to happen with the new versions either, but the new one's hip position is just much better. The thing about Bandai valks is that while Yamato is confident that their valks can stand on their own, Bandai includes a stand for a reason. While they'll hold up for a while to pose, they just don't seem to be designed to be displayed without support. Their joints just don't have the strength to stand for extended periods.

Pretty sure it did, it's all just a resin prototype you know. Also, while the plane itself is completely different, I wouldn't be surprised to see a lot of shared internal parts on this one from the VF-19. Mostly, I'm thinking the actual arms might not have to change much at all from the shoulders down. The various parts like some of the the internal hinges, cockpit, and things like the landing gear will probably all be the same. Even the gunpod might be in this case, but I wouldn't bet on it, since the old one was shiny.

Those front pods are only used outside the atmosphere. They're in Macross 30 as well, but there's actually no situation where you can equip them, since the only mission that takes place outside an atmosphere is the opening one, and you're locked into using a VF-25 for that. I'm pretty sure the YF-29 you fight in the opening has them equipped though, and you see them in some of the splash images during loading screens.

Well you know, valks take a heck of a lot less room if you don't pack them in the original boxes. If I ever have to move long distance with them, I'll likely pack them tightly in styrofoam peanuts, fold the boxes, and stack the trays. Plus, a lot of valks can be taken apart to an extent, and it really helps find ways to pack them together in small spaces.

Same here, though I'd be satisfied if they just made the game-style super packs for Isamu's. They look so much better in the game than in the movie.

Actually, I've seen a cutaway of the Falcon. I don't think a lot of people actually realize how big that thing was supposed to be to begin with. Yes, it technically was a freighter, but seeing as how the common cargo it was carrying was something that had to be hidden anyway, the Falcon was just about the Star Wars Equivalent of a minivan with a stash of cocaine in the tires. I think the entire living area we saw was actually where the cargo would normally be stowed. To build the full sized exterior would have probably broken Lucasfilm at that point. Anyway though, I honestly don't see why anything is even being debated for this. Kawamori knows what he's doing, and pretty much covered all the bases. The entire point of the advanced technology in Macross was that you could cram all the fancy machinery required for a mech into the frame of an aircraft, and have no one actually be able to tell from the outside. So, bottom line.. it's magic. The plane is exactly the size it has always said it is (which is a fairly standard size for a small fighter), and everything works because the plot says it did. Just because the animators weren't able to convey that scale correctly doesn't mean the plane has to be a different size.

I can't argue that the series was made with marketing in mind, but really, there are definitely parallels in the real world. Reminds me a lot of the F-5 design lineage.. You had the F-5A Freedom Fighter, F-5E Tiger II, F-20, and X-29 design progression: base model (in several variations), upgraded base model, advanced model, and experimental prototype built with a mashup of parts from other aircraft (with forward-swept wings, and the same designation number even ). We're just missing the dedicated trainer variant at this point, to fill in the spot for the T-38 (or the VT-1). I think development trees like the VF-24/25/27/29 happen more often than one might initially think. Off the top of my head, the F-14, F-15, F-16, and F-17/F-18 all have had pretty similar design developments (or at least proposed developments), and now you've got the JSF trying the same thing from the get-go. Then you can toss in the all the Mirage and Tornado development trees too. And let's not forget the development dodecahedron that encompasses the Su-27 family. It just makes sense, aircraft companies love re-using proven design components. It not only saves money on development and production, but it reduces risk and cost for buyers as well, since you may already own support equipment that will be forwards compatible, and you may already have people trained to work on the components. Anyway, back to the actual topic... I put in an order for two, I just hope it doesn't come due until after Christmas.

I guess some people might be upset just because Bandai keeps reinforcing that perception that they really don't care about Macross, through either their marketing actions, or lack of product testing. Personally, Bandai's bad design decisions in the past few years have left a really bad taste in my mouth that just won't go away, because they keep doing things to bring it back. At the same time, at least they're making things, and keeping the brand alive. I just wish that Bandai's company structure didn't essentially amount to a half dozen different entities, all producing things independently without taking any input from the others. Seriously, it feels like directly competing rival corporations have better communication between them than Bandai's separate departments. I mean, at least when rivals see a good move by a competitor, they have the sense to copy it. Meanwhile, every separate product by Bandai seems to have to go through a few iterations before they start solving the problems the other departments already addressed. Anyway, apologies for being so negative when I haven't even built the kit. I guess I'm just disappointed, because I would actually have loved for this to be worth getting.

Seriously doubt it will have this, because the YF-19 didn't have a hatch there to begin with. The panel behind the head is full of thrusters on the YF-19. I'm pretty sure that was just a convenience change for Macross 7, so you could have Basara leaving his valk in battroid all the time, and not having to use a runway.

Assuming you mean the rotation point at the engines, I just coated the outside flat surfaces of the wings with something to tighten them up while level. The hinges are still floppy when not centered, but they hit a nice solid point when they're level now.

I don't think that canopy is even transparent. Even if it is blue though, I'm not worried since it looks awesome. Looks like non-gloss on this one as well. I imagine the colors are nowhere near final though, since the pylons will probably be color matched, and the plane itself is missing all but the most basic markings. If they don't tampo the insignia on the nose this time though, I'm going to be upset.

The fact that the legs are entirely cockeyed. Now, I haven't built one myself, and don't intend to, but I would trust the people here who already built them, and all the other supporting evidence saying they borked up the leg tabs. CAD has a way of allowing you to make something that looks like it should work perfectly, and then failing miserably once the models are brought into the real world. If there's a mistake being made, then oh well, but I have a really hard time believing so many experienced modelers would make the exact same type of mistake during assembly. Every single one I've seen built looks that way, leading me to think Bandai didn't test their molds enough.

If by "love" you mean taking the extra time and effort to rework/redesign/scratchbuild the things bandai blatantly screwed up, then maybe. But I mean, the fact that they screwed things up isn't a matter of opinion. Unless we're chalking up the legs being entirely cockeyed as "a new interpretation of the design." Liberties taken with the design are one thing. Failing to test your molds to make sure the model assembles correctly is another entirely.

Notice, they aren't showing you a view that shows how the alignments between the parts (don't) work in fighter. But yeah, they really screwed up the leg packs hard. I think somewhere along the way, they realized that their borked-up kneecap design wouldn't actually be able to fold shut with the packs on unless they cut the height of the packs down. Now, the legs are barely drooped at all, because the tanks on the back of the leg have to be half (or less) the size of what they should be.

Oh that's interesting.. the wing is dual layers. I didn't realize it before, but you can see the change in material colors between the sections along the back edge. Have to say, I like that much better than a simple panel over the top of the hardpoints on the upper surface. As far as ratchets go, I wouldn't expect much with the wings, but the VF-19's hip mounts were a quantum leap in quality over the old YF-19's, so I wouldn't be concerned about them getting floppy. They're still friction joints, but they're assembled in a way that gives you access to the screw, so you can at least tighten them yourself if they get loose. Also.. VF-0D, yes please, but I kind of doubt I would buy another VF-0S. Aside from a few changes in construction and materials, I really don't think they need a redesign that badly, since accuracy and looks were never a problem to begin with. I can think of a few ways they could be improved, but nothing nearly as dramatic as the YF-19's improvements. I'll anxiously await being proven wrong by the 0D though.

Darn, they moved it. It was basically just the VF-19 Active, but in battroid mode. Honestly it has one of the coolest looking designs I've seen for battroid yet. Also, whoa. Is that the concert Sheryl from the Diamond Crevasse performance from the concert in ep6/7?

What I don't get is why they seem to forget that there was a previous Jetfire remake that was pretty much entirely the same thing, but they never bothered to cry foul then. Also, wow.

Oh, its not likely at all that the neck cover is integrated, sadly. I just mistook the actual neck for the cover in that pic. If this transforms like the VF-19s, there's no room for anything under that chest piece. Really, I don't know if I even care if the YF-19 has a neck cover at all though, since the cover is black anyway, and doesn't "disappear" like on the fire valk. They might make the neck gray underneath like before, so the black will cover that, but the gray never bothered me that much on the first version.