Graham

They are not both decal sheets. One sheet is water-slide decals and the other sheet is stickers. If you are a hard-core model builder and want to build it like a proper display model, i.e. puttty, sand and paint it's best to use the water slide decals for a professional looking result. If on the other hand, you just want to do a quick build and consider the kit more of a playable action figure, rather than a display model, you can just assemble it without paint, slap the stickers on and you are ready to go. I'm hopeless with paint and decals, so I will do the latter, with maybe some panel lioning as well. Basically, I just consider the 1/72 kit a stop-gap measure to give me a VF-25 to play with until the 1/60 and 1/100 toys come out. Graham

+1 on the over-reacting thing. Graham

Bandai's kits do tend to get floppy over time, especially the transformable kits. Graham

I'm just surprised that Leon/NUNS let Alto and Luca fly in pursuit of SMS at all. I would have grounded them until there'd been sufficient time to prove their loyalty, not let them fly after the Macross Quarter. Heck for all Leon/NUNS knew they could just have been pretending to join NUNS and then flown off with their brand new VF-171EX to rejoin SMS. And what's with Klan? She didn't go with SMS, but didn't seem to be with NUNS either. Graham

OK, email with pics sent to Yamato. Awaiting their response. In the meantime, perhaps Japan based retailers such as Overdrive or HLJ can order some replacement right shoulder hinges from Yamato. Graham

He likes playing with 1/55 Chunkey Monkeys. I've given him my 2002 reisssue VF-1A CF and vF-1J Hikaru. He also likes the Bandai VF-17S/D, cus' he can transform them by himself. He's not into watching SDFM yet, too much talking, although he likes to watch the action scenes in Frontier. I gave him my SOC Combattler V about half a year ago and he loves it. Lots of paint chips now though and the 2 head antennas have long broken off. Graham

I think can accept parts-formring for the VF100s line as long as they (a) look great, and (b) most importantly, they lock together well in all three modes. I really hope they are not like the transforming GFF toys, e.g Z-Plus, where they don't lock together real well and parts constantly fall off if you breath on them wrong. Graham

Just checked several hobby and model shops during my lunch break but no sign of it yet. Here in HK, we usually get stuff within 1-2 days of the Japanese release date, or sometimes simultaneously or occasionally a few days earlier, due to the shorter distance from the the factories in southern China to HK, compared with to Japan. Graham

There's none showing up on Yahoo Japan Auction yet, which is usually a reliable indicator that something is out. Usually with Japanese toys or models they are pretty good at keeping to the specified release date, although 2-3 days early is not too uncommon. Graham

Yeah, that's a scan from an old issue of NT from several months ago. Graham

No and No. I always lift the arm-to-back plate 180 degree swivel connector up and over the stopper. When I got my early version, I didn't have the benefit of any instructions, just figured that was the right way to do it and I've had no problems so far. Same with supporting the folding shoulder hinge. Like any object made of multiple, small, moveable parts, especially made of plastic, if I feel a joint is overly tight and giving me too much resistance, I'll support as much of it as I can while trying to move it, rather than holding it unsupported and pulling. I presume the way I have been transforming the new 1/60 VF-1 is correct. Don't know if it's what Yamato recommend in their instructions or video (haven't watched it yet). It just seemed the right, or common sense way to do it to me and I've (touch wood) had no stress marks or breakages so far. I haven't been following these threads on the new 1/60 VF-1 closely so far, so I was honestly surprised about the shoulder issue. In the months I had the toy to test, it seemed as sturdy as a brick to me. I do hope we don't have another brittle plastic problem. I'll be monitoring my toys closely and discussing with Yamato. Graham

Still trying to wrap my head around how this breakage is happening. Looking at the shoulder hinge pin, there looks to be IMO enough plastic around it that it should in theory be strong enough to withstand all but the roughest handling. It's not like Yamato just put a paper thickness of plastic there. I've got a pre-production test shot that I've had since long before the production version was released that has been transformed a great many times and it is even tighter than the production version. This shows no stress marks in the shoulder hinge area at all. Likewise, my production VF-1S and VF-1A seem fine so far. Have to look into this some more. Graham

Thanks David, that's clearer now. Will look into this. Graham

From the next episode spoilers that Kresphy posted about it sounds like the chance for I hope not, he's my favorite character. Graham

OK, I'm reading the posts about broken shoulders, looking at the pics in the other thread and comparing with my VF-1S and VF-1A and I still can't figure out exactly which part you guys are saying is breaking. From Shin's post above, I'm guessing he means the 180 degree swivel joint that connects the arm to the back plate, but when you guys start talking about broken outer edges, I'm lost. And the extremeley blurry pic in the other thread showing a broken part doesn't help at all. I've no idea what it's showing, it's too out of focus. Any chance of some nice clear pics, with the part outlined in red, or with at least an arrow pointing to it. Graham

Looking at the above pics and reading the explanations and comparing with my VF-1 and I still can't figure out which bit has broken off. Graham

Just curious, what's wrong with the shoulder hinge? Doesn't seem like a weak design to me. Graham

Yeah, I bought him the Philippine Voltes V VCD set, which is dubbed in English last Christmas. He loves old super robot shows, like Mazinger, Great Mazinger and Combattler V. Graham

You would also need to add the decals, as most of the red and black markings are supplied as water-slide decals. But, yeah, it should look OK with the steps you list. That's exactly what I plan to do as well, as I am far, far from being a modeller and can't paint to save my life. Graham

Don't think so. The damage was only in a wing or fin tip, so shouldn't be critical. The damage to Alto's VF-171EX looked far more serious. Ozma rocks in this episode. Graham

My 4 year old will love that. He's a huge Voltes V fan. Guess I know what to buy him for Christmas if it's out in time. Graham

Could never really get into Krull. A member who rarely posts here these days was (still is?) a big Krull fan and has IIRC even has an original movie prop Glaive. For me, Space Hunter is what it's all about - love that movie. Graham

I heard Snake Plissken was dead. Graham

Honestly, it wouldn't surprise me if the release date gets pushed back to December or January. All we have seen so far is resin mock ups, not actual test shots, which makes me think that they haven't made the tooling yet. Graham

The official Frontier site blog has an update on the 1/72 VF-25F Alto. Looks like the release date is mid-September. Here's the Goggle translation: - And the original Japanese text: - There's also some new pics on the blog. Graham