Radd

Other than colours and gun emplacements Battle Frontier isn't much different from Battle 7. I've always liked the NMC ships. I'd love a whole line of them in scale to each other, with an original Macross or two. I've got the perfect spot for a great display with all of them.

Galaxy could certainly turn out that way, and seeing Bandai's 1/60 Valks makes me think it's something to be concerned about. I'm not all that keen on Galaxy's design. It's alright, but I'd much rather have Battle Frontier and the Quarter. Though, to be honest, if they put out Galaxy as well, I'd certainly get one. There's not enough cap ship toys out there, especially for Macross which really deserves them. I'd love to have Battle Frontier and a DYRL style Macross in scale to each other most of all. I'd probably want a larger Quarter toy, since the Quarter is about the size of an ARMD.

The problem is, some of us want "toys" not "model kits" for a variety of reasons. Some people don't have the time, patience, skills, or work area for model kits. Some of us want toys because of the perfect transformation, and sturdiness factors. Some of us really want to keep all our Valkyries in scale when possible, already having an extensive 1/60 collection of Yamato toys. Really, at this point there's no reason we shouldn't be able to get both the looks and the sturdiness in one package from a company like Bandai, either. I got my Yamato 1/60 v.2 earlier this week, and that thing is solid, in all modes. And looks great. That said, I think a number of people have mentioned canceling pre-orders, or at least deciding to only get one of the DX toys.

I'm exaggerating a bit, sure. At 18 they can join the military, which means they can begin learning to pilot jets and drive tanks and whatnot. At 18 they can still be on the ground, rifle in hand. And, again, we've been living in relative peace since World War 2 ended, there hasn't been a military draft in my lifetime.

You, sir, really need to watch Frontier. It's all out now, no excuses!

Alright, I'll admit it, I was skeptical that these new 1/60's were really so much better than the 1/48ths, but now that I have my hands on one, and have had some time to play around with it, I'm impressed. I still think the 1/48ths get a couple points on these, but things like the additional elbow joint and improved shoulders, as well as just how incredibly well it holds together in all modes makes this the most impressive Yamato toy I've gotten since....well, since the 1/48ths. I can see myself nabbing every single one of these new 1/60's. Never thought I'd be so excited about VF-1 toys again. I'll be picking up Hikaru's 1A once the destroid Defender is out.

Good God I hope someone makes an english patch for this. It looks remarkable. I was a bit put off by the low-quality look to the ship models, but on the other hand the fleets look to be as massive as they are in the anime. Is that the case? Hundreds to thousands of ships?

Heck, in the States we send kids only a year older than Alto around the world in tanks and jet fighters to shoot and be shot at in the real world. That's in our relatively peaceful era. In Macross, 2059, humanity is probably spread thin across the galaxy, they apparently teach the older highschool age kids things like piloting, and considering how quickly they pump out colony fleets, with millions of civilians and who knows how many in military escort it's really not surprising. In relatively recent years the idea of age at when one becomes an "adult" seems to have remained on the rise, getting knocked back a notch only in times of wars large enough to reduce much of the adult population. Also, to put things in perspective, both Hikaru and Max in SDF:M were younger than Alto.

I'd definitely nab one. A Battle Frontier, too. I'd love it if they released a Battle Frontier toy, a large one, and included a small, in-scalle Macross Quarter, in addition to a larger Macross Quarter toy. I know I'm dreaming, but hey.

Teaches me not to dive into the instruction manual. I didn't even know about that. Ja, that helps quite a bit, actually. You only get a bit more clearance, but it definitely lets you get into some more dynamic poses a lot more easily. A very nice touch.

Just got my Tomahawk, lovely toy but one of the first things I notice is that you can't really bend the legs forward, which really limits poses. So much about it seems designed for great poseability, but then the fact that you can't bend the legs forward makes a lot of the great leg articulation pointless. I also wish the toe joint was a light tighter, you can get some decent poses out of it, but they all put weight on the toe joint, which sends it toppling over after a while. Even so, this is a great looking piece. The arm joints seem perfectly fine, and even in a neutral pose the toy is mighty impressive looking. The 1/60 YF-19 of destroids. I'm looking forward to stickering this fellow up. I'm gonna wait and see if anyone makes a custom sticker set. Unless anyone wants to tell me that Yamato stickers have improved over the years? I haven't applied any regular Yamato stickers since my Max VF-1A in the original VF-1 1/60 line. I love the little ground crew guys that come with this thing. I really hope Yamato plans to include different ground crew with each Destroid. I kind expect it will be the same two guys, but if it's not, that would be a fun little bonus. Could spread them around my 1/60 shelves. All in all, it's nice enough that if the rest of the destroids are at least as nice I don't think it will be too difficult to convince myself to get them all. I'll probably pass on the weathered versions. I don't know that the weathering will be enough to justify the price hike of an already expensive non-transforming toy.

I'm disappointed that it won't have an upgrade to the graphics, but the ability to download games from the online store and keep them on SD cards sounds awesome.

I don't think the show was perfect, but I did find it highly enjoyable. One thing I found incredibly enjoyable was one thing that a lot of people wound up confused or put off by later on, the slow reveal with the Vajra turning out not to be the villains after all. Some of us called it early on, but others didn't catch on until the very end (it sounds like this guy at Colony Drop never caught that part at all, otherwise he wouldn't have been confused as to why the aliens decided to "chill out or something" after Grace was killed), and when the characters in the show acted on this revelation, it really threw a lot of viewers for a loop. The talk of the inconsistent animation (which I certainly agree with) and the lack of development of the side characters (which I also agree the show would have benefited a lot from) have been covered a lot, including here in this forum. I do think the story came down to the wire, and could have been better done with maybe another full episode to give more attention to the character aspects of the story resolution. I also did not like the character designs. I really wish Mikimoto had been on board for this one. I disagree with all complaints about the lack of resolution in the love triangle. In real life, you don't always get that kind of nicely wrapped up emotional resolutions, but in fiction it's rare to not get them. It's one of those things that makes Macross stand out a bit more to me. Sure, sometimes the guy does wind up with his arm around the girl at the end, sometimes not. No Macross, aside from MII) has really resolved the romantic situation in quite the same way as any of the others. Sometimes I worried that the show would go overboard with the homages, and just wind up being SDF:M/DYRL with new characters, but as the show progressed, I felt it brought enough new to the table that it was able to be a huge send-up to 25 years of Macross, while being it's own thing at the same time. I did think it was one of the nicer shows I've seen in a while, though admittedly I have not been watching much anime.

20% more for the weathered version. I don't know about that, I'll have to wait and see just how much it matters to me. Especially since they pulled this right after I'd already bought the regular version.

I've loved both the DS Castlevania games. I'll be nabbing Order if Ecclesia when it's out. I really, really wish Nintendo would put out a 2D Metroid game for the DS. It's a crime that they shelved the idea.

Agreed! Man, I'd love a huge Battle Frontier toy, I'd be willing to shell out for it, too. Epic-sized! Towering over the rest of my collection. Like two feet long/tall or something. I know it won't happen, but I can dream.

I thought someone had mentioned that the above links referred to both this OD version and a weathered version. Was fairly sleep deprived when I read that.

Ouch, my order has already gone through on my regular Tomahawk, I'll be waiting on weathered versions for all the rest if we can expect that.

I certainly won't complain when the effects are better, and the sets are more modern on a prequel, so long as they keep within the spirit of their time period in the franchise. Looks to me like they're managing that far better than Enterprise did. Of course, haven't seen an awful lot yet.

Caught the first episode. The animation was a lot better than I expected from that teaser trailer. Nothing to write home about, but LotGH was the same way. I liked the ship designs in LotGH though, not really digging the designs here, but maybe they'll grow on me. I'm looking forward to seeing where this goes.

I'll likely nab at least one 1/100 VF-25 to pose next to my 1/100 Konig Monster. Woot! I'm still really waiting to hear about the 1/100 VF-4.

I still get the VF-Zero theme, Counter-Clockwise, and Horobi no Uta stuck in my head on a regular basis. Zero lacks any sort of catchy pop music that you want to sing along with, the orchestral BGM is great. On the other hand, it doesn't strike me that there was really any place in the story for catchy pop numbers. I love Firebomber's music, but one thing that always disappointed me with M7 was the lack of orchestral BGM. Konno tends to hit that golden balance of catchy pop music, and great orchestral BGM.

I still really think people are being far too literal about Bilrer wanting to "meet Minmay", and jumping to odd conclusions because of it.

I don't understand the "either/or" mindset. Like you're either die-hard Yamato and hate Bandai, or visa-versa? That's not the case for everyone who is put-off by the look of the DX. From the photos we've seen, the DX does not hold the same emphasis on model-like appearance as the Yamato toys do. This is an observation. A fact. This is not an opinion. That is going to be off-putting to people who place a lot of importance on that. Some of us can be more forgiving, assuming the toys live up to other standards we hold important, such as construction and durability. Just like some of us can forgive the more fragile Yamato toys, and their various QC issues if they live up to other standards, and the problems aren't too serious (some of us have never experienced firsthand the horror stories of broken connection tabs, arms breaking off, or even a cracked VF-11 hip, and have only had to deal with one or two instances of messy glue application, or loose joints). Some of us have stopped buying Yamatos, or have stopped buying certain lines due to various problems that made them undesireable to us. There's nothing wrong with being discriminating about where you spend your money. Chiding people for having honest criticism of a toy, rather than gleefully throwing their money at everything to come down the pipe, serves no purpose. Neither does trying to tell people who are alright with the look of the DX photos that they shouldn't buy them. The "don't support ugly toys" argument assumes everyone else places as much importance on collector's item looks, when some really would prefer a sturdier toy. People need to realize that everyone has different ideas of what is important to them, and so not everyone is going to want the same thing. Sure, if we could get a single Valkyrie that was incredibly accurate and model-like in appearance, while at the same time amazingly sturdy and well put together, then there'd be far fewer complaints. On the other hand, if the DX line turns out to be as fraught with QC problems, floppy joints, and poor construction as the worst Yamato nightmare scenarios then all but those most determined to enjoy whatever Valk toy comes out will be pretty upset.

Of course. While certainly one could get all bent out of shape that the YF-19 and 21 don't look "exactly" as they do onscreen, they're definitely not perfect, but it's a stretch to make a direct comparison in regards to what we've seen of the DX. For all their flaws, they are still more "model-like" in appearance, whereas, if the photos are an accurate depiction of the final product, no one would confuse the DX VF-25 with a model. It looks like a toy. Citing the lack of side covers on the new 1/60 VF-1 does nothing to strengthen the argument, and I'm not certain what you mean about "using gravity to hold the YF-19 upper body in place. Mine snaps together. Of course, looking like a toy is not necessarily a bad thing, if there is a gain of durability, quality parts, and reduced price, but given we've no idea on the quality and durability, and being aware of the cost they are asking, and that most of us are probably used to the "collector's item" appearance of Yamato's offerings for not much more, it might not be what everyone here was hoping to see. No toy is ever going to completely satisfy what everyone wants out of a depiction of their favourite Valkyrie, but it's unreasonable to suggest everyone should simply be happy with what they get.