Graham

I pretty much keep all my Yamato 1/60 YF-21 and VF-22 in fighter mode all the time. It's the niceest looking mode for that particular VF anyway. Graham

Agreed, a lot of people don't really grasp the difficulties involved in design and manufacture of a transforming VF toy, or appreciate that many of the requirements that consumers want are often conflicting. Consumers these days are very demanding. We want: 1) Perfect transformation. 2) Easy and quick transformation. 3) Lineart accuracy of the sculpt, with a high level of detail. 4) Excellent poseability with many points of articulation. 5) Extremely durability. 6) Lots of gimmicks. 7) Made of high-quality materials. Including many accessories. 9) Tight (non-floppy joints), which retain their tightness after time. 10) Low cost. Certainly there is often conflict between points 1, 4, 5 & 10. The more points of articulation you put into a toy, the longer it will take to get everything lined up just-right to transform. The more points of artculation you have, the greater number of parts, which will be pulled, moved, twisted etc. which means greater chance of something breaking. The higher number of parts also equals higher cost. Again point 10 is often in conflict with many of the other points, especially 3, 6, 7, & 8. Graham

The next logical step I always thought after Aliens, was to have Newt, Hicks and Ripley make it back to Earth, but also have the Aliens get back to Earth, get loose and start taking over the planet. Graham

T-shirts? Whos doing these? How do I get the VF-17 one? Graham

As long as they have enough folding, collapsing or removable parts for the back of the legs, we should be OK for a decent enough fighter mode. The back of the legs is always a critical area for getting the fighter mode right on the 19. Looking forward with great anticipation to the 25th, although I expect that Yamato will only display the prototype in battroid mode. Graham

I may go any see this a second time. Far from perfect, but enjoyed it a lot. Graham

Ditto, I also think the next (and possibly final) book in the series will be about the VF-25. They do seem to be concentrating on the 'hero' mecha, which makes sense from a commercial standpoint. Graham

Did you have to pay extra for the pubic hair, or was it a freebee? Graham

To be honest, the Hi-Metal Blazer looks its best in battroid mode (same of course with the Hi-Metal Fire Valk). It was definitely designed first and foremost with battroid mode in mind. Fighter mode I will say looks good from certain angles only and not so good from other angles. Viewed from the top it looks pretty good, although there is an unsightly gap between the sides of the shield and the legs. Viewed from either the front or the rear it also looks quite good, although I would have liked the tail fins to be a bit taller. By far the weakest angle to view the fighter is from the side. Bandai in my opinion, really failed to nail the look of the nose block. Not only do we have the Yamato-esque big gullet (totally unnecessary on a toy without internal landing gear), but the shape of the dorsal surface from behind the cockpit all the way back to the chest plate is all wrong (too high IMO). The cockpit could have done with being raised a bit more as well. I'm not saying it looks terrible. I can live with it. But in my opinion, Bandai didn't quite capture the spirit of the VF-19 fighter mode. Still until something better comes along, it's certainly a big improvement on its predecessors, the 1995 Bandai 1/65 DX toy and the 1/100 plamodel. As for concerns about the upcoming 1/60 Fire Valks appearance in fighter mode, I'm as much in the dark as you guys. I have no inside information and I haven't seen it either yet. Lets just say I'm cautiously optimistic. Graham

Actually, I'm sure you can get some far better poses than that. Looks like they didn't try at all. I'll try to take some pics in the next day or two. Graham

While I acknowledge the practicality of gerwalk for VTOL and urban combat, I seldom transform or display my toys in that mode. I'm a fighter man first and foremost, a battroid fan second and a gerwalk fan a far distant third. Graham

My point is that it is nice to have another writen source confirming (or at least implying), that the VF-19 is in more wide spread use than previously thought (at least with certain fleets and/or planets). Graham

Seems like the show was a big disappointment in terms of new Macross product news. Hopefully WonderFest on the 25th will be better. Graham

Although it's well known that the YF-19 won project Super Nova and the VF-19 was indeed slated to replace the VF-11, everything we've seen and read up to and including Frontier (but prior to Master Files), seemed to indicate, that the VF-19 was in the end due to its cost and complexity only ever produced in extremely small quantities for Special Forces units and Ghosts and the VF-171 made up the eventual mainstay replacement for the VF-11. Excluding Master Files, this is the first clear indication, that adoption of the VF-19 was perhaps more widespread, at least among certain fleets, than previously thought. Graham

A few more pics. Grahm

Two things immediately struck me when I read the passage on the VF-19S Hi-Metal Box. 1) where it says: "The VF-19S is piloted by Lieutenant Docker, former VF-17D pilot in Diamond Force. A former VF-19 Combat Test Pilot....." I found the part about Docker being a former VF-19 Combat Test Pilot extremely interesting. This could just refer to the very short time, where he was shown flying the 'Test Colors' VF-19S in episode 20 of Macross 7. Or, it could also mean that in a former assignment, he has previous experience testing the VF-19. This would go a long way to explaning why he was given command of Emerald Force, rather than giving it to Gamlin. 2) Also of extreme interest: "The Blazer Valkyrie could be called the fleet's most powerfull mainstay fighter. The first Blazer Valkyries deployed in the Macross 7 fleet where given to the elite Emerald Force". That it refers to the Blazer as "mainstay fighter" and also mentions that "the first Blazer Valkyries". Both phrases seem to imply that at least in the Macross 7 fleet, the Blazer not only equipped Emerald Force, but probably after the Protodeviln war went on to replace the VF-11C. Graham

Correct, the landing gears attach to the stand, not to the Valk. So basically, the landing gears are just like a cradle that the Valk sits on top of. Doesn't look like it would be easy to swap the wings with the Fire Valk. I can't see any screw that would allow you to disassemble the thigh to get to the wing joint. Graham

No, it's not necessary to swap the head lasers for transformation. Graham

A few quick battroid pics. This toy is very cool. I've wanted a decent Blazer Valk toy for 15 years (the 1/65 DX doesn't count).

Yamato may not have been attending this year. Did Bandai have the 1/250 scale Macross Fighter Collection, series # 4 on display? How about the prototype Hi-Metal YF-21? Any sign of a 1/60 scale DX VF-171 from Bandai? Graham

For a VF-17, probably would need to have part of the legs removeable, to make a decent looking fighter mode. Graham

Heh, when I visited Yamato's Tokyo HQ a few months ago, they had a whole line up of those figures in different outfits in their showroom. Kinda creepy. And no, I didn't take photos, before anybody asks. Graham Wow!, That is one sexy beast, but 300pcs only.....hmmm. Graham

One is with the head lasers in parallel for fighter mode, the other is with the head lasers angled apart for battroid mode. Graham

A few more quick fighter mode pics before bed. One photo on the provided display stand and the other two photos with the landing gear (one using the camera's flash). Graham

Yes, the pilot (Docker), is mostly white, apart from the shoulder & chest are, which is blue. Graham When I bought my 2pcs at about 6.25pm on 2/F Sino Centre at the shop near the down escalator, the shop only had 4pcs in total and I bought 2 of those. Grahm