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I just hope they put some more cockpit detail in this time. The 2 figure pics give me some hope.

Oh man that is so frick'n sweet! To all you bastards that can afford to fork over the coin for that thing....you suck!

NIIICEEEE! So I'll ask the inevitable question. What did you do to panel line and weather your valks? I've been tempted to use Gundam weather makers on mine but some of the test I did using my Toon. 1/100s didn't turn out so well.

Note that this was a British war and not really a Canadian War. Canada did not exist as a sovereign nation until 1867 with the signing of the British North America Acts. And we didn't truly exist as an independent nation until 1982 with the passing of the Canada's Act. Proving that you could secede from Britain without a war.....it just takes generations. We didn't do so well in winning The War of 1812 either and it really ended with no side really winning unless you just go by body count. Then we won! Yay.... We did burned down part of Washington and the first White House though. This was in response to the sacking of York (Toronto) and the US burning down Parliament the previous year. Needless to say if the British hadn't been busy with Napoleon at the time the British would most likely have wiped the floor with the Americans. Also this anit-American/Canadian stuff is bullshit. Most Canadians don't have anything against Amercians. We just shake our heads at what the US government does sometimes. Just like you might do to ours if you cared about what goes on in Canada. Oh and there is universal health care. I am so glad I don't have to worry about health insurance. Anyways enough said. Back on topic. Avoid the Megablock stands unless you want to modify them. I have posted in previous threads how to do this. If you don't you are very limited in the poseability I would trust to the things. Buy Flexistands. You can swap the shorter and longer arms from the other stands to get some great posses like I mentioned above. I imported these to Canada last year and the 3 stands cost me about $55 Can. + duty/taxes. Remember to ship using USPS not UPS. UPS sucks balls outside of the US. They charge crazy brokerage fees and if you don't live in a larger city in some Countries good luck getting your parcel as you probably don't have a drop off point in your town. F**K I loath and despise having to deal with UPS. Which I do on regular occations cause we use Dell computers and servers where I work so everytime I have to fix something I have to order parts and send parts back that go UPS.... which are really going Purolator as UPS does not deliver directly to the city I live in.... hence no drop sites....... anyways FLEXI STANDS ARE WORTH EVERY PENNY!

Sorry about the rant I got a little carried away. Anyways nice Sheryl pics and nice lens! Anyway take some sample pics with it please? You've got to be able to get some really nice shallow depth of field pics with that 1.8 lens.

EDIT: When I say SD I am talking SDHC. That is so not the case anymore. Where I live I can get equivalent memory SD/SDHC cards cheaper than CF just not as fast mind-you. You see the problem is that camera memory write time is way more dependent on the camera processor and buffer than the card. You are going to have to buy a $1200+ camera before you can even see slight deferences between the fastest cards. I know that you would like to keep your CF cards for a new camera but if you can buy a "fast" SDHC 16GB card for $50-$120 US why would you pay $80-$150 for the fastest 4-8GB cards that you are only going to notice the performance on a camera that is most likely more expensive than you need. So it might be a bit faster but are you really going to see it in anything other than burst mode? SD is taking over the market and more and more DSLRs are SD only (even Olympus has started to move). About the only thing propping up CF sales today are high end SLRs and older devices using CF. Almost everything else has moved to SD because it is small and cheap. I will give in that CF is probably more durable than SD but you should store all media in thier plastic cases and in the camera so are you really going to break an SD card? It's not like a floppy so as long as you don't try to bend it between your fingers it should be fine. Never mind that if you are using and 8 to 16 GB card how often are you going to be taking it out of the camera? If you want to stay with Nikon and use CF you are probably going to have to look at a D300 then which has CF and SD slots. Problem is that the Camera goes anywhere from $1300-$1700 bucks. Now I know you would rather stick to a Nikon to go with your glass so do you spend and extra $400-$800 for a now Full Frame Camera that you don't really need to save at MOST $100-200 to keep your existing memory? If you are making money taking pictures I would say go for it but for personal use a D300 is probably way more camera than you need.

Sweet poseable thrusters and 2 pilot figures with nice detail it appears.

If your trying to stay around the same price range why not look at the D90 or D5000? Check out the reviews at cameralabs.com. Gordon Lang gives a great in depth review on both and there is a video review on the conclusion pages that you can watch. http://www.cameralabs.com/reviews/Nikon_D5000/index.shtml http://www.cameralabs.com/reviews/Nikon_D90/ Note there is no Compact Flash slot on either of these cameras. I think for mid range and lower Nikon has go to SD only. The good news is that you can get an 8GB high speed SD card for under $40 these days so I don't really see why you need to stick to CF.

As to brand...... I always say whatever works for "you". Some people prefer Cannons, some Nikon, Olympus, Panasonic and some even Sony. I find taking pictures to be a very subjective experience and a camera you don't like using will always result in sub par pics. So if you aren't enjoying the experience that the camera provides in taking pics don't buy it. One of the reasons I didn't buy an EP-1 was that the intial user experiece with their GUI for the camera drove me nuts. That is most likely because I grew up using Canons though. Anyway I like landscape and macro shooting so shutter performance is not the most important thing for me. I also wanted something that I could throw in my back pack and just go. I would have bought and EP1 or Pany GR1 but that was out of my budget range right now and why I bought a G11. I know the low light is not as good as an SLR and the shutter speed kind of sucks for action but I like the build of the camera and I like most of the shots I get with it (I really need to get a monopod for some of those low light shots....) My brother prefers his $300 PowerShot SX200 IS because it has a 12x zoom and its small. He can keep it in his pants pocket and whenever his 1 year old daughter does something kooky he is ready to shoot it. It dosen't take the greatest pictures IMO but he and his wife are perfectly happy with it. Beauty is always in the eye of the Beholder right? Now as too what Macross Man was saying I agree to the most part, but Program mode can only get you so far. I have been rather impressed what the program modes can get you on some of the newer Budget SLRs and high end compacts. That being said when you are going for certain effects in a shot, having control and knowing what you are doing can help allot. I got my G11 a few months ago and for "quick" shots I leave the camera in program mode and only screw around with the exposure dial and it takes pretty decent pics. For those tougher low light shots playing around with exposure, iso, shutter and white balance can get you some impressive shots. If you look at the shot below that is taken with a fluorescent bulb lighting the scene. I played with the white balance and exposure till I got this "warmer" shot out of it. Also adjusting the shutter enough so that my shaky hands don't make the pic blurry and give enough light for the shot.......did I mention I wanted a monopod? Maybe my parents listened to me this year....

Does anyone know if it has swappable hands or posing fingers?

no adapters need with flexi stands

I love them all but at the top of my list would have to be (in no particular order): OD green Tomahawk - as a former Battletech fan boy this scratches 2 itches! The torso joint sucks but otherwise I can find not on fault with this one. I can even franken-mech it. VT-1/VE-1 - Just wow. I love them both. With both sitting next to my Strike Roy........I just get a grin on my face. VF-11B - Sets a new standard for me. It's not as articulated as the VF-1 V.2 1/60s but it feels so solid and the build quality is top notch. Did I mention that it just plain looks kick ass!

You would have thought they had learned that lesson with the Ozama VF-25.... Oh well I'd still buy one if I could afford it right now.

Those would all be great. In addition I would like to see rub on transfers for something like the Minmay guard (or something similar) and I would love to have a 1/60 zentradi soldier to go with my valks. Fixed pose would be fine....... this feels so christmasy like I should be addressing this to santa or something.

The only problem I have ever had was shipping to where I live. I can spend $120-$180 on these toys but then add anywhere from $30-$50 dollars shipping per item and the screaming voice in my wallet tends to win me over.

From amiami I just ordered: VF-27 - $11,720 yen / $130.383 USD VF-25F - $12,450 yen / $138.543 USD I am not a big fan of the Bandai DX series but at that price I couldn't resist. The have the armored Ozama on for a discount as well but I figured that was enough money for a little while. Now only if HLJ would have a sale on the Frontier stuff. So sales work. I wasn't going to buy any Macross stuff for a few months and I didn't see myself buying anymore DX stuff after my VF-25F but I find a sale and out comes my credit card....... I'm so weak.

Can you combine the Yamato sale with the free christmas sale offer? I had thought they where separate.

Well the price at AmiAmi was so cheap I couldn't resist. Ordered the tornado and the VF-27. My wallet hates me already!

Get the 1/60 Max and/or Mira with super parts. You can't go wrong with the Blue Max or the Red Mira IMO....... but the Elint is super sweet as well.

I've got 3 of them and they are fairly good. Have to be a little carefull with some of the heavy ones like the VF-22 or the YF-19 but they will hold all 3 modes fairly well. Here is a tip though, buy the 3 pack from Laf toys. You can take the arms and mix match from the 3 sizes. This will really help when posing for Gerwalk or Batroid. Here is some pics of my stuff. OH and for the love of god do not over tighten the screws. It will slowly crack the acrylic and once a complete crack is formed from one side to the other it is pretty much done.

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Crap at work and can't see it right now..... are any Frontier items going for cheap?

As long as they keep the fighters looking like some type of plane or spacecraft (as long as it dosen't looked like a balled up mech with kibble) I'm basically fine with it. Just please no swords. I always thought valks be high speed combat machines where swords would be impractical. Strangely I'm ok with the knives.... FYI I like Gundam but for me Macross and Gundam don't mix well, they have different methodologies when it comes to things IMO. Now back on topic; the VF-25 Tornado looks fine to me if anything I would say that the cannon looks more Zentradish than anything else. I really like those louvers on the cannon and I think displaying the valk with those open will make it more visually appealing. After being some what disappointed with the initial offerings for the Frontier line I have to say that I am excited about almost every release that has come out since the armored Ozama.

I could accept it all except the knives and GIANT (as long as plane) beam cannons ........I mean really? Next thing you know Valks will have laser swords and "secret" hidden abilities that only get reveled the pilot is about to be killed .... I like Gundam but if it Macross gets to "Gundamized" I'm out. They don't belong together. Ugh next thing you know we'll have those crappy Robots/Gundams that change into some bastardized version of a plane/ship. They make the Wright Brothers roll in their graves I'm sure. I know some people like them but they just look like someone took a gundam, squashed it (flat or ball/cube ) and then added kibble on every possible place you can hang it from. Don't even get me started on how there is now a "sniper" valk...... If you, and/or your target, are going mach chicken 1 bullet 1 kill seems a bit ridiculous. EDIT: Seems like a cool idea for a destroid but a valk it seems like a waste. Does anyone actually use the the sniper rifle in fighter mode in the series?