Graham

The shoulders on my V2 VF-1A Hikaru & VF-1J Hikaru are fine. Heck, even my V2 VF-1S Focker production version and preproduction test shot are both fine. The shoulder issue really surprised me when it first cropped up, as I really abused my test shot. I mean I was really rough on it and it hasn't shown a hint of any problems. Still haven't taken my VF-1S Hikaru out of the box yet, despite buying it before Christmas. Graham

This is Macrossworld, get used to it. People will still be bitching about the shoulders 10 years from now! Graham

My only exposure to Nadia is the god awful movie. I remember seeing it at the cinema as part of a double bill when Gundam F-91 came out. I think 99.99% of the people in the cinema had come to watch F-91. Unfortunately, they showed Nadia before F-91, so everybody had to sit through it before we got to see F-91. I remember people in the cinema were actually heckling and booing the Nadia movie. God, it was boring. Graham

I think you hit the nail on the head. No mecha designs by Studio Nue or Artmic = fail. To be honest, I could never get into the SC mecha designs. They always came across as more silly looking and less belivable than those of Macross & Mospeada and I think that was definitely part of the problem for the shows lack of success. Graham

What all three of them........LOL Graham

The DX stands will not be sold seperately. AFAIK, a stand is supplied with the webshop exclusive DX Alto Super Pack. Also, the VF-25G DX and RVF-25 DX will also come with stands. The Bandai SMS version of the Action Stand is not out yet. As with the standard Action Stand, it will probably not provide sufficiant support for the heavy DX toy, as it is designed for the much lighter model kits. I'd recommend the tripod fexi stands. Graham

Not even the Destroids? They are about as perfect and flawless as it is possible to make a toy. Graham

Loving the attention to detail on the Defender. The detailed gun muzzles, the 78mm rounds visible in the magazines, the ammo belt visible through the arm pits, the moveable main sensor, the use of transluscent plastics for the red sensors on the guns.....all these small touches really add up and make this a great toy. Graham

I saw it in the Causeway Bay Animate on Sugar Street last Friday. Also saw it in Toymania, 1/F 188 Oriental Center, Wanchai Road, although may have been selling as a set only with the Alto type. Graham

I wouldn't worry about it too much. When the Alto model kit first came out, they were super hard to find and sold at inflated prices. Now, you can find them everywhere for a reasonable price. Same thing will likely happen with the DX toy. Graham

There is supposed to be more of the toys arriving by sea in hong Kong next week, so hopefully, the prices will go down. Luckily, I got a good preorder price for my second pair from the sea shipment. Graham

As I just posted in the DX VF-25 thread, Animate which has branches in Mong Kok and Causeway Bay still have both the VF-25S and VF-25F and are selling them for HK$1,480 each, which is about US$190 each! Apart from Animate, Toymania in the Wanchai Oriental 188 center still has both DX toys, but he was selling them as a set only and the price was also very high. Yesterday, I also saw a few peices in stock in Richmond Center in Mong Kok, but I didn't check the price. New stock is supposed to be arriving by sea next week, so the price might drop then. Graham

Heh, I haven't had my hair cut in more than 6 months. Luckily (or unluckily as the case may be), at my age, what little hair I have left doesn't grow very fast. Graham

Heh, here in Hong Kong, some shops are now selling a single VF-25 toy for as high as HK$1,480, which is US$190! Graham

I picked mine up just before Christmas, but sorry I still haven't taken it out of the box yet, so can't answer your questions. I got too excited with the release of the Bandai VF-25 and Yamato Destroid Defender, so the Hikaru VF-1S is still sitting in his box waiting for me to clear some shelf space. Heh, how times changed. 10 years ago I would have ripped a Hikaru VF-1S Strike Valk out of the box, the second I got it. Now, its like....ho hum, another VF-1.......yawn. We have a thread specifically on the V2 1/60 VF-1S, so please post questions related to it there. Graham

I'm surprised that after all this time people are still afraid of the 1/48. It's a pretty rugged toy IMO. I've never had one snap in my hands. The only time I ever broke a 1/48, was when I intentionally pushed the BP8 backpack hinge on an early production sample past it's design limits (100% my fault). I have about a dozen 1/48 currently on display and they have been transformed many, many times. Heck I speed transform mine to show people how fast they can be transformed and how rugged they are. In short, I am not at all gentle with mine. I remember shocking one member here, when I speed transformed my weathered 1/48 VF-1S in front of him. As for the VF-0's arms, that is unfortunately another story. I also think the Bandai Macross 7 and Macross Frontier toys are great. Will be picking up my second pair of VF-25 DX next weekend. Graham

Thanks Gubaba, although there's a few things in the gunpod section that I don't quite understand. Hmm.........when they talk abour "rear armor plate on the body", I wonder do they mean the body of the gunpod or the body of the VF? And why would the armour plate have any relation to firing time? Perhaps they mean the armor been made stronger to cope with the increased recoil of the 58mm round fired at a high rate-of-fire and this help tame the recoil, thus aiding in keeping the gunpod on target when firing sustained bursts? Just noticed you missed out a "g' from upgraded. I wonder, does the above paragraph imply that the gunpod is actually attached to the engine nacelle in fighter mode and not the arm, as with the VF-1/VF-0. Graham

Hi Sebastian, I didn't buy him the AT TE in the end. I got him the Rebuplic Gunship instead and about 12 different Clone Trooper figures. Graham

I did a review when the V2 1/60 VF-1S Strike was first released. The rview was discussed in the old thread. Graham's Review For some reason, I forgot to link it to the main site. Graham

OK, thanks for the breakdown. Disappointing there is no VF-25, VF-171 or VF-27 lineart. I'll still have to track down the blue book just to be a completest though. FYI, for those that don't know, Movic also previosly released similar books for M7 and MD7, although those books did have lots of mecha pics in. GRaham

For Zinjo and edwin3060 - you both had the books for a month already and didn't think to post about them!!!!!! Graham

Zinjo, Could you give a breakdown of what VF lineart is in the bluebook please? Graham

SCOOP - NEW MACROSS FRONTIER LINEART BOOKS!!!!!! 2 new Macross Frontier lineart books by Movic have been released. These were completely under the radar, as I at least had never heard anything about them before. There is a Red book and a Blue book. Publisher's links below: - Macross Frontier Blue Book. Macross Frontier Red Book. Both books are A4 size and about 160 pages each. They are full of lineart and only lineart, nothing else. The Blue book apparently features lineart of the male characters and mecha. The Red book, which I was able to buy features lineart of the female characters (50% of the book) and locations (50% of the book). As with prevous lineart books by Movic, the art is only printed on 1 side of every page. So that means even though the book is about 160 pages long, you are only getting about 80 pages of lineart. Still, it's a damn sight more lineart than has been published previously. Cover pics attached below, as well as scans of 3 sample pages from the Red book. Haven't been able to find these listed on Amazon Japan or HMV Japan yet. I came across these during a hunt around Mong Kok district today. Unfortuantely only two shops had them. One shop had both Red and Blue books, but was closed, so I could only stare at them through the window. Another shop only had the Red book which I bought. Graham

Yes they. They slide in so they are flush with the bottom of the backplate for Gerwalk and Battroid mode and then you slide them out to clip the shield onto for Fighter mode. Graham

Excellent work Gubaba. Highly appreciated. Very interesting that the VF-24 was a joint General Galaxy & Shinsei project. Graham