Radd

Wasn't the YF-24 the basis for both the VF-25 and VF-27? Taken back to the drawing board to produce those two fighters due to poor performance of the 24 itself? That would make both the fighters we did see the "mass production version", in a sense.

I actually disagree. A strong, booming voice is what you'd expect, sure, but I thought the softer, yet confident voice really lent itself better to who he was as a character.

I liked the squid, but it's something that sits better in the imagination than on the printed page or the moving screen. The physical squid itself was only part of the whole thing, remember. There was all that time of build up, nightmares around the world. Suddenly this thing arrives letting loose an explosion of madness and brain death. Very Lovecraftian. Given that, as I said, it could only really play out so far as illustration in a book, I really doubt they would have done all that better with it on screen, the changed ending doesn't bother me too much. On the other hand, they spend some significant moments in the comic explaining why Doctor Manhattan isn't all knowing and all powerful and so while more immediate an enemy, he isn't quite so extraordinary as the threat the squid represented. Of course, the movie was also long as it is (which I personally don't mind, but you know how Hollywood has such a low opinion of the public's attention span) and there was a lot of little things which would have had to have been addressed for the squid ending to make sense. The missing artists, the genetic engineering stuff. All very small things, but they would have had to have been slipped in somewhere. Regarding Veidt, the movie really doesn't show his sadness and thoughtfulness regarding the whole plan. In the book, I thought that it was made pretty clear that his motives were pure, and that he was really torn up emotionally. He really thought that this was the only way to save the world, and the book itself leaves it very unclear as to whether or not he's wrong. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that this is the whole point of it all. We see a world that is closer to the brink of nuclear annihilation than we experienced with the Cuban missle crisis. The bombs were going to drop. Is it wrong to sacrifice millions of lives to save the rest from the end of the world? Probably my favourite thing about the book was that it left you with that moral quandary to mull over.

I agree. I'd rather not have any sound chips or the like. Still, maybe running lights and illumination for the Macross City inside the legs? I dunno. I'd rather the price was lower and it had no gimmicks like that at all. But, if the price is going to be $500, and they can do it in a way that actually looks good, I'd be okay with it I think. Yanno?

I have 4 1/48 scale Valks. One is the low-vis woodland version with GBP armour, and the other three are the DYRL Skull Squadron minus Kakizaki. I'm considering picking up a Kakizaki just to have all the named Skull Squadron character Valkyries. Beyond that, I don't plan on buying any more 1/48 Valks, but don't plan on selling the ones I have, either. They've got a display shelf all to themselves. If anything I've started to consider selling my 1/55 Bandai toys.

Ja, I was never a huge fan of the plain Macross Plus colour scheme. Or the Mac7 CF colours. A Jamming Birds variant would be extra awesome, but there's that licensing issue. It won't happen. I'd love a VF-X2 version, though.

"So hard there will be a CRATER and I'll have to buy it TWICE!"

Heh, well there's no right or wrong as to which anyone prefers. I'd have still bought it if it were the tv series design, but would have been disappointed. I've been wanting a toy of the DYRL version for ages. For what it's worth, I do hope Yamato does a TV series version, too, though I probably won't buy it myself. Would be neat if they released the tv series version ARMDs, and the movie version Daedelus and Prometheus, assuming there's any difference between movie and tv versions.

Comparing the two I'd say that the TV version is the sports car, and the DYRL version is a tank. I'll take the tank, if you please. I much prefer the DYRL appearance. It's much more powerful looking, and conveys a greater sense of scale.

How many of the "Mine's perfect" for that matter? Mine both have the paint issue, but while I consider it an issue, I don't consider either of them to be "broken" per-se.

The trading card market became incredibly over saturated, and to a degree trading cards suffer from being something of a passing fad. Baseball cards hit a snag when pro baseball lost much of its popularity. Trading card games suffered the over saturation/low quality problem. Lots of games all hitting the market at once, many of them without anything to really distinguish them. Comic books suffered a severe issue of quantity over quality. Holo-foil-gold-collector edition covers, story lines interweaving between far too many different series forcing you to buy all of them to know what was going on, a broken sales model, and a lot of just plain crap writing. I don't really see there being a comparison to make between those industries, and the collector's toy market right now. At least not within the scope of Macross toys. The high cost of toys, and the poor shape of the economy, may present problems of their own, but it won't be the same issue at all. I suspect things might slow down a bit, until the world economy recovers somewhat.

I'm with Mog. Also, you gotta consider that engineering factors into a lot of these toys' prices, and the Macross does not have an extremely complex transformation or anything.

I'm not the biggest fan of the DX VF-25, but I gotta agree that a few incidents of broken screws, and a single broken leg, are nothing to get in a panic about. I'd give it some time to see if it's more widespread than a few isolated incidents. There's no way to guarantee 100% flawless production runs.

I used to fund my Macross toy hobby entirely on my freelance art and CG modeling business. Unfortunately, the economy has taken its toll on that. I was hoping to buy every single 1/60 VF-1 version 2 release, but that's just not possible at the moment. I'll get a few. The Elintseeker and Super Ostrich currently topping the list. Beyond that, I'm definitely getting a set of DX Frontier toys. Already have Ozma and Alto, going to pick up Mikhail and Luca as soon as they're available, and at least one of Luca's Ghost fighters. The Quarter is a must-have, too. Also still planning on Yamato's 1/60 VF-11. I'll be pacing all these out, of course. I'm glad the SDF-1 isn't coming until next year. I'm pretty frugal, and can definitely save up enough to spare on that with the time we've got.

I'm fairly certain we'll be able to remove the cannon and flight deck, as both are shown to be detachable in the show. Also, yes, there is a scene were we get a clear view of the Quarter's hand as it winds up to deliver the Macross attack with the flight deck bow.

Never realized there were so many people who preferred the TV series version. Myself, I'm happy it's the DYRL version, though I hope the TV version fans get some love.

Also, I totally agree, would LOVE a New Macross Class ship in scale with the Yamato SDF-1. Preferably Battle Frontier.

The hands are too small!

This looks absolutely brilliant! I hope this is coming out relatively soon, given we've until next year before Yamato's SDF-1. I plan to get both.

Looks like an early prototype, missing a lot of detail, but still plenty to get excited about. I'm certainly looking forward to this. Glad we have plenty of time to save up for it, though.

I'd be more interested in the VF-171 and EX before the VF-27, though I do really want a VF-27, too. I wonder, how big is the VF-171 compared to the VF-17? Are they pretty much the same size? If so, a 1/60 VF-171DX should be larger than the 1/65 VF-17 Bandai put out for the Macross 7 line.

Of course, I should add that I would not be unhappy to be proven wrong on that count.

Actually, the VF-19P from Dynamite is probably my favourite 19 design. I suppose that they could be advertising an upcoming 1/100 toy there, but...I dunno, it seems like it's Frontier related, given the SMS logo on it, and everything else being Frontier related. Speculation that it's not a Frontier related toy gets the "one of these things is not like the other" jingle stuck in my head. It'd be more than a little left field.

I have both the Ozma and Alto DX toys so far. I do think they're priced higher than they should be, and I'm in the camp which feels Yamato has hit a very good balance of playability and looks. Of course, I've never been burned by the QC issues that seem to have plagued a lot of people. If I had been, I'd probably be a lot more enamoured with the DX. I suspect that Bandai, being a much larger company than Yamato, and this toy having a much broader market given the success of the show, really could have turned out a toy with Yamato looks, yet sturdier and with fewer QC issues, and retained a similar price point. That doesn't make the DX a bad toy, it's just business that less was put into design with expectations that sales would be solid regardless. And it's not a bad toy, but it's a poor display piece. The toy has its merits, but anyone who says that it looks every bit as good as a 1/48 and beyond Yamato toy is, well, lacking an eye for detail. The toy is substantially cheaper than most recent Yamato toys, but it's also quite a bit smaller than, say, the 1/60 Macross Plus toys out so far. It's larger than the similarly priced 1/60 VF-1 v2 toys, but less detailed and cheaper looking. I dunno. I'm getting all four, but I'm also a huge fan of Frontier and the VF-25 design, so that may be getting the best of me here. I did have to think long and hard about it, even after getting these first two in my hands. I can say, without reservation, that if I knew Yamato would be putting out their own 1/60 Frontier toys in a few years, I would probably only have one DX and no plans for more. Of course, again, I've never been burned by Yamato. I can certainly understand why those who have would not hold such an opinion. Also, I am glad that there's some competition for my Macross toy dollars now. I do hope that we see some positive effect from Yamato and Bandai competing over our collective wallets.

I'm guessing the mysterious VF-19-like one is actually the VF-27. I mean, come-on, the line work has been filtered, blurred, and it's the size of a postage stamp. People are reading a lot into perceived details that just aren't reliable. Also, considering the VF-19 never appears in Frontier, and everything we're seeing is Frontier related, it's more than a stretch to say that it's the VF-19. A VF-27 toy, on the other hand, is practically guaranteed. I do like the conjecture that we'll see the VF-19 as the regular fighter in the movie, but it's just that. Conjecture. Wishful thinking, at best.