Graham

Yay, at long last the VF-17 has a proper gunpod, so the VF-17 can be flown and fought as it's supposed to be. Graham

Tried academy mode, created a character ok, but then too many pages of talking stills to go through......gave up. Started on Macross 7 campaign, it has atmospheric fighter mode FPs for tbe VF-11C.........yay! Graham

Just went though a long load process, but still won't let me chose the second option. Chose second option, then asked to chose pilot, wingman operator etc. Now has gone into noraml mission mode that we are used to. Graham

Game updates my PSP to version 6.31. Hmm........on starting MTF, 5 or 6 'Attention' screens popped up in succession, prompting me to chose 'yes'. No idea what they are asking though.....Hahahah! After getting used to the 'veiw even in blazing daylight' AMOLED screen of my Samsung 'Galaxy S' smartphone, the PSP screen seems positively antiquated. Presented with 2 choices, which I guess are the Mi-Wishy-Washy academy mode (no interest ATM) or the normal VF mission mode. Chose the second one - screen now going though a load cycle 1% to 100% (maybe loading old stats from MUF?) Drums fingers, on 61%........

Cute bar-wenches, actually. And they can never get enough of me Graham Just putting in the UMD now. As much as this may sound like blasphemy, beer comes first........LOL! Graham

Look what I just picked up! Graham

We'll, if I can't find it today, I won't have a chance to look again until I have some free time on Saturday, as from tomorrow, it's the Chinese New Year Holiday and I have stuff to do with my wife's family. Heck, even on Saturday when I have some free time, all the game shops may well be closed beacuse of the holiday. So it may be next week before I can pick it up Graham

Heh, yeah it always seemed that way to me. Graham

So did I. In fact I thought last weeks episode was pretty much a self contained story, with no need for immediate follow up (perhaps following up in season 4 instead). In fact I'm surprised they are staying with this. I really hope we are going to see some Clone and Droid action soon. Graham

I've met Tenjin once last year in Tokyo and had drinks and dinner with him, big thanks to MWer Save for setting it up. Tenjin is a super cool dude, speaks pretty good English as well. He's also a Facebook friend, which is how I asked him about the book's release date. Graham

If you want a VF-171 / VF-171EX / RVF-171 toys, the only choice at the moment is the 1/250 scale fighter mode toys from series 4 of Bandai's Macross Fighter Collection. Quite nice little toys actually. I expect we will see a VF-17 from Yamato before we see a VF-171 DX from Bandai. Graham

Looks like it may be out in Japan already, or at least 1 person has it. I just checked Yahoo Japan Auctions again and a new auction is just up, with a pic of the actual box. When I checked earlier today, all the other auctions just used the generic publicity pics. Graham

Big West and/or Bandai seem to be keeping the YF-29's battroid and gerwalk modes a secret so far, although we can all pretty much guess what it it will look like, apart from the head. I guess they don't want to reveal it until closer to the movie, which is one of the reasons why I doubt we will see it in MTF. Checked the games shops near my work at lunch today, just in case it got an early release, but no luck Graham

You do know that amazon.co.jp will ship books to the US and their site has a switch to English option, so ordering is simple. Graham

How is the canopy changed? Any pics from the manga to support this? Graham

I hope 4-5 years later, we'll be seeing Macross Frontier Valks from Yamato. Graham

From my limited experience at looking at friends Japanese phones when I've visited Tokyo & Kyoto, I'd say that pre-iPhone & Android era, Japanese phones were definitely superior to anything from Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson etc. In the present iPhone & Android era, I think Japanese phones have been surpassed. Graham

The official Macross Triangle Frontier site has another update to the Mechanic and System Pages. http://b.bngi-channel.jp/psp_macross/ On the Mechanic pages, the only new mecha I can spot are the Macross Quarter and a Vajra spaceship. Haven't really looked at the system update yet. Graham

The book is not yet up for pre-order on amazon.co.jp, but I asked Tenjin and he said it should be up fairly soon. Graham

OK, good carry on then. Graham

Never have been into podcasts, more of a reading than a listening guy (apart from music), but I shall probably have to give this a listen to if you are talking about Yamato, just to make sure there are no obvious errors. Graham

Hence why the 1/100 scale non-transforming fighter mode-only model kit is being released on February 26th, simultaneously with the movie while the transforming 1/60 DX scale toy is being released at some as yet unspecified later date. Graham

Studying the line art of the YF-29, I'm surprised the wing-mounted engine nacelles don't feature dorsal and ventral verniers. I would have thought that would have been an no-brainer to improve roll rate in both space and atmosphere? The Tornado pack has dorsal and ventral verniers on the wing-tip engine nacelles, so why not the Durandal? Graham

He's also done quite a few new Hasegawa box art since the first book as well. Graham

If Yamato made it, how many of you would be interested in buying a 'Macross the First' version 1/60 scale V2 VF-1J Hikaru? Please refer to the attached photos of converted Wave (battroid) and Hasegawa (fighter) kits, to see the color scheme and new head. Also as I haven't read the manga, can somebody please let me know if a new pilot sculpt would be required, or is the flight suit and helmet standard TV or DYRL type? Graham