Chronocidal

That's pretty awesome, it does explain a lot about why the new version is so much closer to the kit (especially the way the ventral fins fold). I am a little concerned they still are using the vertical pegs to lock the wings into the legs, instead of tabs like on the VF-27. But given the way the armor and such has to attach, those pegs might be the only thing that'd work for both armor and super packs.

Ok, honestly? Replacement wings are AWESOME. Because it means we can maybe get spares to repaint, and replace the smaller wings on the Blazers if we want.

I don't think it has enough engines yet. Actually doesn't look bad though, I like the way the wing extensions fit, and they look pretty good in gerwalk.

I just ordered 4 of the little suckers yesterday, along with 4 YF-29 kits, armored Ozma and Alto, and a spare plain Alto kit to experiment on. Not to mention a Hasegawa YF-21. I might spray them in the end, but really all I wanted was something to experiment on with various paint schemes. I'll probably just slap one together to see how it goes, but I'll probably detail them all decently over time. I don't feel too bad about doing a half-assed job on one though, since they only cost me about ten bucks each.

Ok, that topic died pages ago, can we not dig it up again? Want closeups of VF-17 fast!

I was able to preorder from HLJ a couple hours ago, but I haven't checked back to see if the orders are closed again.

Finally moved back into my apartment in california, and don't have to worry about carrying new things with me, so the catchup buying has commenced. Has to be the biggest order I've ever made with HLJ. Between this monster, the preorder for the new VF-25, and the various kits I ordered, I think I spent close to $700... but I'd been saving for a while at least. Saddest part is though.. the armored1/72 VF-25 kits finally go on sale at 20% off.. and due to the change in exchange rate, it's just enough to put them right back at where the price was when they were first released.

Distance yes, but good grief the dispersion is huge. Could be they were bouncing off the far wall and going all over, but the fact that I could see their paths curving sideways during flight has me pretty doubtful.

Hmmm.. Looking good so far Can't wait to see more pics of it. Tails look like they're tilted a bit too far in to me, but might just be the angle of the picture.

GAH! That blazer looks incredible! I need closeups stat! Oh, the P is nice too, but I think the placement of the canards on the Fire Valk and P make the nose look a bit too short. The blazer's nose looks perfectly blended into the fuselage, and the wings look just the right length.

Dangit Yamato, just shut up and take my money. That F/S looks beautiful, they got the wings the perfect size, and removing the canards just makes it look so much sleeker to me in some way. I'll probably skip the S, but that F is mine.

Any update on this July 24th announcement that was supposed to happen? I haven't been able to find anything yet.

I'm betting on them all having the correct back plates as well. The panel directly behind the head has a seam line that looks like the part can be swapped out for different head shapes.

Holy.... Yeah, I'm sold, I'll take one of each type.

I went looking for the Chippettes version they used to have, but all I found was this.

Random thing for the heck of it, because I found it, and I really want a better english version of the song after hearing this.

Stop, don't let them make a Max version, or I'll have to buy it. I really just want a Millia S, and a Gamlin D. XD

Don't see why they wouldn't release it on both dvd and bluray, they did the same for the Eva Rebuild movies. By the way, I just realized that I forgot that Day of Sagittarius already had the music switching between 8-bit and orchestrated during the episode. I guess I just never paid that much attention to it. Half the fun of the orchestrated album is just figuring out where all the tracks are used in the anime. Some, like that one, were already orchestrated, and aren't that different, but some stock background tracks are really altered.

Oy, after watching Disappearance again, it's just been hitting me exactly how crazy the entire time travel mess is. I mean, it all kind of fit together already, but it just occurred to me that the trip in Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody was done specifically to set up Kyon with a means to fix things when Disappearance happened. Haruhi would have done what she did back then anyway, but putting Kyon there gave him the key to fix everything. They just love to screw with causality so much. Good to hear about the US release of Disappearance, I might have to pick that up on bluray. I've been listening to Suzumiya Haruhi no Gensou too, and it took me a good while to get it, but I just realized that I think one of the tracks is actually an orchestrated version of the 8-bit computer music you hear while they're playing Day of Sagittarius. I'm not even sure why it just hit me, but I've had the orchestrated version in my head all morning. I need to get the track labels translated, so I can remember what they actually are. Plus, I need to get myself a copy of the show soundtracks at some point. After listening to the orchestrated Mikuru theme again, I'm really starting to want a special edition of that episode. Not so much a rehash.. but I want to see what it would look like in Haruhi's head. I just think that orchestrated theme deserves a fitting movie/show to go with it. Not necessarily episode length, though I don't think they'd want to devote an entire feature length movie to an inside-joke. As little sense as the plot of the club movie made (I mean, despite the crazy multi-layered metaphors for the actual story), I think you could potentially work the plot into something that could be fun in its own way, as a semi-serious sci-fi/fantasy epic. Sort of like what they did with the movie Chicken LIttle, where they made a hollywood-styled retelling of the events of the film into an actual movie (which of course was nothing like what really happened). I don't know if the plot would stand up to being taken seriously, but I would love to see the characters acting entirely in-character for the movie roles. I mean, even if everything was played completely seriously, I think it would be hilarious to see them acting their roles as Haruhi intended. It'd be worth it just to see Yuki playing some kind of cliched evil witch character, especially if they have her acting the part, complete with a massively evil laugh. Mikuru being some kind of badass actual combat character would be something to see as well. Plus, I think the voice actors could potentially have a lot of fun with it. Darn it, now I'm suddenly wanting to write a completely serious version of that story.

Was looking back at shots I took of my VF-25 kit mod to hold the legs up higher, and actually, the position of the wing glove doesn't look much different (when properly positioned). When the legs are held at the correct height, the glove does cover a good portion of where that leg stripe is. I think the change is mostly due to using thicker plastic, and not having the lower wing glove quite as beefy as it is on the model. You're right though, the shape is different. Looking at the shot of the underside that points out the gerwalk support brace, it looks as if the lower surface of the wing glove is actually not going to be flush with the leg in fighter mode, as if the inner edge was cut away some. The upper surface definitely is closer to the centerline than the lower half, but unless the leg is actually wider than it looks, there might be space left there. It just occurred to me as I was typing though... this might be to allow for a better super/armor pack integration. The super and tornado leg packs aren't too big, but this might be to give the armor packs more room. I don't think having the lower wing glove shaped this way will have much of an effect on the overall design, but I am very curious to see how they plan to lock the wing gloves down and the legs up if they don't have something similar to the tab system I added to my kit, which is what they wound up including on the VF-27 and YF-29 toys.

Yeah, I should say if anyone doesn't have them and wants them, I did manage to save the fan translations before they were licensed. I've got everything up through book 9, and various pieces of book 10 and 11. The actual translations of 1-5 are really pretty though, lots of nice artwork and such thrown in. I just wish they'd pick up the pace translating books 10 and 11. While the overall story is there, it's missing a big chunk. I'm anxious to see what this Tanabata announcement is though. Suppose I'll have to wait till either late tonight, or tomorrow. In the meantime, off to watch the last three episodes of the series to prepare for Diappearance tomorrow.

It looks like they're comparing the length of the forward fuselage, but that doesn't make much sense. It is clear how much higher the nose is above the ground though, mostly due to the forward landing gear. The second arrow is showing how much higher the legs are I think, giving a much thinner profile around the wing gloves.

I never understand why they do that. There's no way they'd end production of something that quickly, and they'll be getting more stock as it's produced. They just seem so jumpy to reach for that "discontinued" label before the company has even produced enough to pay for the molds.

I think it's kind of an offshoot of the similar things people tend to do with cars really. Macross just happens to use a lot of aircraft, so they're the most visible option for these types of decorations. I still think the Ace Combat Idolmaster schemes were the first time I saw anything like it, and it's kind of snowballed from there. If Gundam series had more characters that were idol singers, we'd probably see their faces pasted all over gundams too. Oddly it actually is pretty fitting in the Macross universe, due to the way the aircraft become associated with the musicians (either as escorts or pilots). I mean, it started with the Minmay Guard designs, and went from there. It's like a slightly unnatural progression for the nose-art you see on old planes. Really, I think by that point in time, technology would have progressed enough to render anything other than active stealth systems obsolete anyway, so I like to think that regulations dictating the ways military aircraft should be painted would get to be a little more relaxed. I mean, that, plus space is usually really really dark. That episode with Hikaru flying through Saturn's rings comes to mind. If you don't paint your stuff bright colors, it's likely you'll be just as much a hazard to your wingmen as you are to the enemy. On the other hand, there's a difference between formation lighting and turning your plane into the Goodyear Blimp.

Point 11: The feet are shiny? Very nice to see that the front landing gear is now of a reasonable design. I actually don't know which direction of retraction is actually canon though. Gear used for catapult launches generally have retractors behind the gear to hold them in place, but I guess they don't need those anymore. I like the gerwalk support, hopefully that's a preemptive measure against the weight of future super and armor packs. I love how the gunpod fits now too, nice and snug under the belly. The trick now will be to see if they can pull of the same for Michael's gun. Also, is it just me, or does the gunpod look bigger? Oh, and it looks like they went with the model design for the ventral fins. I think in the side comparison of the old and new gerwalk modes, you can see the tips of the fins poking out behind the calves. Don't know if that will cause any issues for armor down the line, but I'm happy to see them properly sized and angled for fighter mode.