Graham

Are the Max and Hikaru DYRL 1A actually out yet? Haven't been keeping track of the 1/55 reissue situation. If not, when are they due out? Graham

Here’s my theories on the final 4-5 episodes of Frontier: - •Ranka and Brera will find a Vajra colony or main base. Ranka will become their queen and decide to stay with the Vajra for good. •She will mutate/change into some sort of half-human / half-Vajra. •Being able to communicate with both human and Vajra, Ranka will realize that the whole conflict was a mistake and the two races will either (a) henceforth live in harmony, or (b), the Vajra and Ranka will disappear off to the center of the galaxy, never to be seen again, ala SDF-1, Shin & Sara. •At some point Ranka will regain her full memory. She will realize that the attack on the 117th Research Fleet was in fact the Vajra trying to rescue her from Grace and Mao’s experiments. •Ranka will end up curing Sheryl of her illness. •Alto will either end up with Sheryl, or will die in a blaze of glory fighting against the Vajra, before Ranka negotiates a truce. •Klan goes insane with grief and dies during a suicide attack on the Vajra during the peace negotiations. •Ozma & Cathy will depose and probably kill Leon. •Brera will turn against Grace and end up killing her and will die in the attempt. •Luca will finnally hook up with Nanase. Graham

I sure hope they are kissing PVC goodbye. Shin, just curious why do you keep spelling it "Damashii", when AFAIK, all of Bandai's online and print literature spells it "Tamashi". Graham

Keeping lineart accuracy, durability and perfect transformation is a big challenge at 1/100 scale. I can understand why Bandai is going with parts swapping from a durability aspect. While I'm sure they could make it perfect transformation if they wanted to, durability would likely suffer unless parts of the design were bulked up and strengthened, but then lineart accuracy would go out of the window, i.e. you'd end up with a chunky monkey. My main concern at this point is that they minimise the use of PVC. I do not want a toy with floppy or warped wings, tailins, weapons etc. I've owned a boat load of MSiA and GFF PVC dog poo toys over the years and every single one of then ended up with warped, floppy or bent parts. Or armour that fell off if you looked at it wrong (yes, Sentinel GFFs, I'm talking to you!) Graham

If the 1/100 VF-2SS toy looks good and comes with the SAP, I'm buying a whole squadron. I don't care how much parts swapping is involved. I've been waiting for a decent VF-2SS w/SAP toy since 1992. Graham

With Yamato, Kawamori-san has the power to make them change something he doesn't like. With Bandai, maybe it's a different case? Graham

IMO, it's been a great time to be a Macross fan since about year 2000 or maybe 2002 onwards. Graham

I'm not counting out Bandai's 1/60 yet. I'm sure when we see a production standard version posed properly, it will look better. But at the moment, it's definitely got 'child bearing hips'. ...LOL As it is, both the 1/72 scale model kit and 1/100 parts-former are looking better at this stage. You would think that Bandai would have realised that with Yamato upping the bar on appearance in the past few years, most fans now want a toy that looks as anime accurate as possible, rather than something big and chunky and out of proportion, just cus' it's got the chogokin name tied to it. Graham

I don't know, but I'm guessing that Yamato allowed the 1/100 licence to expire and chose not to renew it. Yamato's main focus now for Macross is 1/60, GN-U and 1/200. Bandai have the Frontier toy and model licence locked down solid for the next several years, as they were the major sponser of the show. Graham

I'll buy the 1/60, but I'm definitely not happy with how chunky the battroid looks at the moment. It's interesting that we have yet to see a test shot in the production materials (ABS & Diecast). So far all pics have look like either unpainted resin or hand painted resin. Possibly Bandai knows people are unhappy and may still make significant changes. Still, if they want to get this thing out by November, they will have to hurry. I'd still love to see what Yamato could do with the VF-25 in 1/60 scale. Graham

A large scale Macross from Yamato could be a possibility someday. Never say never. It's certainly been discussed for a possible future project, but no decission has been made yet. Graham

Looking very nice, certainly much better than the 1/60 DX toy. Does anybody know if the official release date is still set for 25th September? Graham

That is a heck of a lot of parts swapping if you ask me and quite a lot of parts to keep track of. The amount of parts to swap is quite similar to the old Yamato 1/100 VF-0S. I'm wonding if the 1/100 VF-25 will come with 3 different crotch area blocks, 1 for each mode, a bit like the 3 different hip bars supplied with Bandai's old 1/100 VF-2SSS kit. On the positive side, the 1/100 VF-25 Battroid is so far looking much better than Bandai's DX 1/60 VF-25. Graham

While this is extremely interesting news and potentially very exciting (I known I'm dying for a decent VF-171 and VF-2SS toy), I wouldn't start getting all happy-clappy so soon. While Bandai has announced various VFs in the VF100s line that we all want to see, whether they actually make it into production at this early stage is by no means certain. In the end Bandai is a business and it's all going to come down to sales. If the first few releases in the line sell badly, it's likely the line will be quietly dropped. So if they are a good product, let's all do our best and vote with our cash, to do our bit to keep the line going. The other potential bug-bug is execution. This line is only going to sell well it it's designed and made well. A Froppy mess, with bendy PVC parts, sloppy paint application, parts that are constantly falling off and a whole heap of parts that need to be swapped to transform is going to be a turn off to many buyers. IMO, these toys will have to be a step up above MSiA and GFF. I really hope that Bandai dooes well though, they certainly have the ability if they put their mind to it. I don't want to see something like the disasterous Eureaka 7 toys from Bandai. Graham

So no mention of Armoured Pack then? Graham

Great news about a VF-171 and VF-19. Hope it's a VF-19F or VF-19S. Hopefully we'll get a decent VF-2SS w/SAP as well. I wonder how this will effect Yamato? Graham

The lack of a hinge on the vertical stabilizers is quite worrying. Graham

More likely cus' it's a test shot and test shots are usually much looser than the final production version. Graham

ABS, PVC and POM. Graham

Screen caps of the VF-171 with extra weapons from the next ep preview. Not sure whether these classify as FAST packs or not yet, as they have a sort of jury-rigged bolt-on, temporary look about them. Graham

I don't see why not, there's not too much left to wrap up. While of course, I'd love more episodes, I think they can wrap it up nicely in 4 more eps. Graham

Yep, already posted in the Frontier merchandise thread. Graham

Yeah, making Ozma's car should be a no brainer. Graham

Ah, I see. While I don't plan to buy any other PSP games to play, unless there is an Ace Combat PSP game, I'd definitely be interested in putting VF-X2 on it. Also, presumably the Macross Plus Game Edition playstation game can be made to woork on the PSP as well? Graham

Knowing very little about PSPs, I'm confused by all this talk of firmware and software mods in the last few pages. I thought a PSP from any country should be able to play the upcoming Macross Ace Froontier game without any modifications - just stick the game in and it will play, right? I'm planning on picking up a second hand PSP to play the game when it is released, will I need to mod it in any way? Graham