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

Sorry, no matter how you transform it, the wings are always slightly upturned when viewed from the front or rear. Graham

Yes, the shield does attach better in fighter mode on the DX, compared with the model kit. The shield does not lock onto the hands exactly. While the hands do support and position the shield, there is also a sliding piece located on the underside of the back plate, that has two tabs that slide out of the rear of the back blate for fighter mode. The hands go into the shleld and the shield then clips onto these two tabs. In the attached photo, you can see the two tabs I'm referring to. Graham

I have no problem getting the shoulder pieces to sit flush on mine. I think it's may be affected by the angle of the chest plate. Graham

No, I posted a top view pic of the Fighter modes of the YF-19 next to the VF-25 a few pages ago. I later posted a top view pic of the VF-0 next to the VF-25, as apparently the VF-0 is 1/60. Graham

We already have a 43 page thread on the upcoming VF-11B just a few topics below. Any news should be posted there. Anyway, I think it's safe to say those pics are old news. Graham

Just picked up a Defender. Absolutely amazing toy. IIRC, the next release is supposed to be the Phalanx. Graham

On the slim chance they still might reply, I've emailed Yamato to asked which ver.2 VF-1 (if any) have POM shoulder joints. Graham

Havn't had this happen to me yet, but then I still haven't played the Macross missions yet. Graham

I only have room in my display case for one scale of VF-1. I’m still trying to decide if I should stick with the 1/48, which I’ve invested quite a lot of money in and which currently fill two shelves of my display case, or should I change to the new ver.2 1/60 VF-1? Changing to the new 1/60 would have several advantages. It would free up more space so I could make room for some other items like the Yamato Destroids. It would also mean that the majority of the toys in the cabinet would be a consistent scale. At the moment, my display cabinet is arranged as follows: - 1st (top) Shelf (SDF/DYRL Shelf) = Yamato 1/48 VF-1 toys. 2nd Shelf (SDF/DYRL Shelf) = Yamato 1/48 VF-1 toys, plus Yamato 1/60 Q-Rau, Wave WHAM SDF-1. 3rd Shelf (Macross Plus Shelf) = Yamato 1/60 Macross Plus toys + Macross Plus Doyusha’s & Macross Plus GN-U. 4th Shelf (Macross Zero Shelf) = Yamato 1/60 Macross Zero Toys. 5th Shelf = Macross Model kits: various Hasegawa, Wave & Bandai kits. 6th (bottom) Shelf = Misc. Stuff: Takara 1/18 & 1/48 Votoms, CM’s Patlabor, Bandai Dragonar, Toynami Legioss. I’m planning to clear out the miscellaneous non-Macross stuff, to make room for the Bandai Macross Frontier toys. Putting my 1/48 VF-1 in storage and changing to the 1/60 would give me space for the Destroids as well, which I have no room for at the moment. Another advantage of switching to the 1/60 is that the two-seaters are coming, something we will never get with the 1/48. It would seem a no-brainer to switch, but I’m not completely sold on the 1/60 VF-1 yet. While it’s overall a great sculpt and locks together much more solidly than the 1/48, not to mention the FPs are much more secure, there’s a few things I don’t like about it. 1) The pilot being a little too far forward in the cockpit, the mirror finish on the canopy, the fiddlyness of getting the hip bar in and out of the nose hatch during transformation, which is can be a real pain in the ass. Apologies for the long rambling post, but basically, I’m just wondering if anybody else has is space limited and has already or has plans to retire the 1/48 in favor of the new 1/60 ver.2? Graham