Graham

Except that the book lists both VF-1J and VF-1S continuing to be made after Space war 1. Production figures by year as follows: - VF-1J Production figures by year 2007 = 6 made. 2008 = 19 made. 2009 = 4 made. 2010 = 12 made. 2011 = 4 made. 2012 = 2 made. 2013 = 2 made. VF-1S Production figures by year 2007 = 6 made. 2008 = 13 made. 2009 = 0 made. 2010 = 8 made. 2011 = 3 made. 2012 = 0 made. 2013 = 0 made. Graham

I have 8 DXes so far and none of them have any super glue vapor stains. Agreed the toys are far from perfect, but they are the best versions we have for now. Graham

Honestly, the only QC issues on my toy are a small paint chip on one of the yellow lines on the shoulder (which I didn't even notice until somebody here pointed it out on one of my photos) and an overly tight right shoulder, which was solved by loosening one screw. Apart from that, it's great. Don't deprive yourself of a great toy by falling prey to the "Chicken Little" syndrome. People here are making it sound like it's the worst toy ever, when in fact, some of the problems like not being able to insert the wing root pegs into the armor are user error and other issues such as paint chips are isolated and/or very minor problems. One or two people have a minor issue and the whole of Macrossworld starts panicking and cancelling orders. It's really getting ridiculous guys. If parts breakages had been reported I could understand it, but the only things being reported are greasy plastic, the occasional 'super glue fingerprints' and the odd paint chip, which are already known issues with the DX line. If you are happy with the previous DX'es, then you will love the Armoured Pack. It's a great fun toy. Don't let a few small cosmetic blemishes put you off a purchase. I've just bought my second one, that's how much I like it. It may be a long while (if ever), before Yamato get to make these and they are selling out fast, so don't regret not buying now and having to pay inflated prices on ebay later. Graham

Hey, where's the wedding pics? We wanna see the lucky/unlucky girl that the 'Uncharismatic Hermaphrodite' married! C'mon, you are a senior member here, we gotta know. Graham, (posted in a bar, on my mobile phone after 3 beers). Anyway, I will be visititing Japan next March, hopefully we can hook up for a beer or 5.

Hey, where's the wedding pics? We wannd see the lucky/unlucky girl that the 'uncharismatic hemephrodite' married! Does she look like Minmay, Mylene, Rankb etc? Mwahahaha! Raham, a3ter 3 beers

I love it. It's a great toy IMO. Most of the negatives that people are complaining about are minor stuff. It looks fantastic, is fun to zoom around & pose & for the most part locks together really securely.

Yes Alex, you are very, very, very late to the party! So late that it's already the day after and we are all sleeping off our hangovers. Guess you weren't invited huh. Mwahahahahahaha! ;) ;) Graham

GNUs all the way. They have a good sculpt, nice crisp clean lines and decent poseability. Saw a YF-19 GNU for only HK$60 (US$7.70) the other day. Revys on the other hand are made of PVC which I hate, as it lacks the crispness of line that mecha toys need. The VF-1's have horrible hunched shoulders, Plus, the legs are permanantly spread like a cheap whore. Graham

You don't need to file the pegs. At first I had difficulty in getting them intoo the armour. Actually, I was scared of using too much force and causing stress marks around the hole, but I found you just gotta angle the peg a little and sort of wiggle it in. It gets easier after 2-3 lockings and unlockings. Graham

Yes it is. I also tested that out last night.

OK, I just transformed from armored fighter mode to armored battroid mode for the first time. The transformation was pretty painless and easy and quite quick. I'm happy to report the toy can stand unsupported on its own without the display stand. No incidents of premature crotch unlocking yet either. I haven't visually compared the crotch lock on the new toy with that of an older toy, to see if there is any physical difference, but the crotch lock on the new VF-25S does feel tighter. How the joints and crotch lock hold up in the long-tem under the weight of the Armoured Pack, I don't know, only time will tell. Two minor issues: - 1) The wing hinges are very loose on my toy and in battroid mode with the weight of the boosters, the wings actually want to swing forward sometimes. 2) While the toy can stand unsupported, it can take a little balancing to get it to do so, as the weight of the boosters makes the torso want to slouch back sometimes. Not so much that the toy will topple over, but just makes it look like it's leaning backwards. Oh, and the right shoulder ball joint on the VF-25S was really tight. I was afraid something was going to snap when I was rotating the shoulder. Anyway, here's a few quick pics snapped at night in my bedroom, both with and without the display stand. Graham

Can't wait. Graham

Eh? You are getting married? And double eh a new Fire Bomber album????? Tell me more. Graham

Ah, I didn't notice that in the instuctions, well it was late and I was tired. Anyway, it's good to know. I shall reattach mine tonight. Graham

Brazil is definitely his best work IMO. Graham

Pass. Not interested in magical girl animes at all, especially ones that look like Strawberry Shortcake. Possibly my 5 year old neice might be interested in it though! Let's hope kawamori get's all this silliness out of his system in time for the next Macross series. Graham

A couple more minor comments: - 1) the number of micro-missiles in the various pods differs from the model kit, which differs from the VF100s version, which differs from the anime, which differs from the lineart, etc, so on and so forth. Seems like Bandai can't make up their mind just how many missiles their should be in the Armored Pack....LOL! 2) As suspected. the lower front part of the intake armor is not hinged. Looking forward to transforming to battroid mode. I'm very interested to see how the crotch lock holds up to the extra weight and if it has been strengthened at all. Graham

Picked up the VF-25S Ozma with Armored pack yesterday from a shop on the 2/F of the Oriental 188 Center in Wanchai for HK$1,250 (US$161). It’s an absolutely huge box, even I wasn’t expecting it to be that big. Not quite “Yamato huge”, but still big and very deep. Now for some limited comments and observations I say “limited”, as so far I have only attached the armor in fighter mode. I have not tried transforming the toy yet. First off, the toy only comes with one set of head lasers, not two sets as speculated previously. The head lasers are still made of some sort of semi-soft plastic, I’m not sure what, perhaps still PVC, but they are much straighter and more ridged than on the V.1 VF-25S. At least the lasers are now parallel. To attach the lower leg armor, you first have to remove the front and rear ankle collars from the VF-25 toy. Keep a zip-lock bag handy so you don’t lose them! The Armour Pack fits very securely for the most part, much more so than the Super Pack. You will all be happy to hear that the hip armor seems to attach very securely, at least in fighter mode. I can’t speak for Battroid mode as I haven’t transformed to that mode or Gerwalk yet. The huge wing armour/gun/missile/engine pieces are also much more secure than the Super Packs. Oh and the 4 main thrusters are on ball joints, so can be positioned as desired. Likewise, the ball turret guns also have a good range of movement. Getting the wing root pegs to lock into the holes on the leg armour was scary at first, as it is a super-tight fit. The lower leg armor is super secure, with the two halves of the leg armor being locked in place by multiple external pieces. The only parts of the armour that have fallen off once or twice when knocked are the armor pieces that cover the wing root guns. And the forearm armor. These wing-root guns armor pieces have two pegs on the back that plug into corresponding holes on the replacement wing root pieces. The armor pieces need to be removed and reattached from the host wing root during transformation. The fit is not as tight as it could be, but still acceptable. You can tell the toy was not initially designed with armor in mind, as the attachment for the forearm armor is a joke. It’s a small ‘L’ shape clip at the wrist and pure friction fit by a small triangle shape that fits into the ‘V’ cutout in the elbow. When attaching these in fighter mode, you have to bend the elbows slightly, to open up a gap for the triangle to fit. When everything is assembled and gunpod in place it is pretty secure, but could be better. Some members here have complained about a lack of markings on the toy. Well, all I can say is that in the anime the Armoured Pack never had as many markings as the Super Pack and to me it seems to have all the markings I recall seeing in the show. It took me about half an hour to get the Armour attached to the toy on my first try. I was going carefully and slowly. Quite a lot of time was spent figuring out how to get the gunpod to attach. At first I thought it couldn’t attach as I thought the supplied connector is too short and the manual doesn’t show the gun attached in fighter mode with Armor. However, I realized that the gunpod actually has to squeeze between the leg armor pieces to fit. My one real dislike, which I’ve posted about several times previously, is the multiple small rows of vents on the sides of the leg missile boxes are missing! Bandai sculpted in these vents on both the model kit and the VF100s toy. It escapes me why they forgot to sculpt them on the much more expensive DX! That’s right, the sides of the leg missile boxes are just plain plastic with no sculpted details. The toy is huge in fighter mode. Really bulky and imposing. It looks great IMO, but is a real shelf-hog. The display stand supplied is the same as comes with the Super Packs and VF-25G/RVF-25 and is unpainted. Some extra clip on support pieces are included to cope with the extra weight and size of the Armor Pack. However, at least in fighter mode, I thought these did not give the necessary support and it didn’t feel secure at all and I decided to use the stand for display. The toy comes with a support or locking panel for Gerwalk mode, that the manual shows attaches to the underside of the back plate. Two support struts then plug into the underside of this panel and connect to the armor on the back of the lower leg. I haven’t tried these yet. The toy comes with a small neck extension peice for battroid mode, but I haven't tried it yet. I also haven't checked the head yet to see if there are any changes to the head sculpt. Here's some photos of fighter mode. I'll try to take some of battroid mode tonight. Graham

It's been out in HK for a few days already, as has been mentioned in recent posts. I picked mine up last night.

IMO, it's a pity that the issue 29 VF-17 A-page art is Gerwalk mode. I would have loved to see Temjin's take on the VF-17 in battroid mode. Graham

I strongly doubt the reaction missiles from the ghost & weapon set would fit on the Armored Pack, as the missiles have an overwing clip, but to fit in the hole in the photo would need a peg attachment. I hope Bandai releases a third accessory set, consisting of: - 1) 4 x Reaction Missiles for use with Armoured Pack. 2) 1 x normal Fold Booster (the type that Alto uses to get to Galia IV). 3) 1 x spare sniper rifle, so Alto with Armored pack can have one, so that I don’t need to steal the rifle from my DX VF-25G Michael toy. Graham

To save me having to dig through the MAF threads, can somebody please remind me what is the criteria for the following: - 1) Unlocking the stat limiters? Is it completing all missions, or completing all missions with ‘S’ grade? 2)Unlocking the VF-0S and SV-51, Nora, Ivanov and Cannon Fodder. Thanks, Graham

More interested to know if the new article gives more detail on Macross II, like is it a full campaign? And will we get more than just the 2 mecha shown so far?

Given that most of us already have all the anime in one form or another, missing a limited UMD with the OPs & EDs is no big loss IMO. The SK interview will probably show up fansubbed on BT sooner or later. Me, I'll be sticking with the standard version.

Nearly maxed out with Misa, only 1 small heart to gn.