Graham

Scan? Will try to pick up tomorrow. Hmm.....'Macross Begins'...........perhaps it will be a new TV series or OVA based on the 1999 to 2009 period, i.e. from when the ASS-1 crashes to the start of the orignal SDFM TV series. I'd still love a season 2 of Frontier though. Anway, unless Sketchley is pulling our collective legs about the writing on the back of the poster it sounds like Frontier was a big enough success that we may be getting some form of new Macross anime next year.....yippee! I do hope it's something set in the 2050s or beyond though. I'm personally not keen on retreading old ground with an origin story. Graham

I usually use the terms 'TV games' (HK-English) or 'console games' for stuff like Playstation, X-Box etc. 'Handheld games' for PSP, gameboy etc 'Arcade games' for well, arcade games. And computer games for any game played on a computer. If you say 'video games' here in HK, most people would just look at you blankly. Graham

Love that NT pic of Sheryl as Basara and Ranka as Minmay. Fantastic pic of the VF-171EX battroid as well. Graham

While I haven't read a Marvel comic since my teens (except for Marvel Zombies), isn't Captain America supposed to be white, and Will Smith is err.......not? Mind you I've been wrong about the race thing before. I could have sworn that when I last read some Nick Fury stuff back in the 80s', he was a grizzled old white dude with an eyepatch, yet he was played by Samuel L. Jackson in the recent Iron Man movie. Not that there's anything wrong with using actors of a different race to portray a character, but I would have thought that most fans would have a reasonable expectation that a character be the same race in a movie adaptation as in the printed source material. Graham

While I love the original TV series and OVAs, Pailsen files just leaves me cold. I only watched up to ep # 6, but just couldn't get into it at all. It's a shame, cus' I really wanted to like this OVA. Part of the problem for me anyway, is that ATs need to be cell animated. Unlike Valks, which actually look good in CG, ATs in Pailsen files look like they come from an early PS2 cut scene movie. Graham

IMO, no video games should be made into movies. And why do we even call them 'video games'? I much prefer the HK-English term 'TV games', as we play them on our TVs, not on our VCRs. Graham

At least they should come with a display stand and a good selection of accessories (FAST Packs, missiles etc). Perfect transformation may not necessarily be desirable at this scale. You need to remember that in toy design, especially at this scale and doubly especially with complex transforming toys there are a lot of trade-offs involved. If you want line-art accuracy, a high level of articulation AND perfect transformation, then these ideals while desirable are not necessarily compatible with durability. The more complex you make a toy, especially thre smaller the scale, the more potential there is for durability issues to arise. Graham

I understand why people are extremely upset if their expensive toy breaks and there is no way to repair it, I'd be too. However, I'm surprised that some people are against the extra articulation that Yamato added to the shoulder. IMO, it really improves the poseablity of the toy. And I'd hardly describe the shoulder as flapping around. If we get no reported breaks on the VF-1A Hikaru, that makes me wonder how much of the problem is user error VS. design and material issues. 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