Graham

LOL! So true. Graham

If these sell well enough, a version with FAST packs later on is a possibility, as are other mecha from the Macross universe. Graham

We don't know that the VF-25 has any chaff or flares or whatever the 2059 equivalent counter-measures are. It probably does, but we don't know for certain. Anyway, I think Alto discarded the Super Packs in ep 7, as he realized he didn't have time to shoot down all the Vajra missiles and he probably thought there was a greater chance of decoying away the missiles with the Super Packs rather than chaff. Just my theory. Graham

Well, I think unless the VF-171 starts getting some more screen time soon, there is almost zero chance of a model kit or toy. Graham

Fun episode, pushing various elements of the story and character relationships forward nicely. I doubt it was the usual studio on character art duties through. IMO character faces, especially Ranka and Sheryl were pretty poorly drawn in the first half befoe the eye catch, but seemed to improve slightly in the second half. My biggest complaint about the character art is that Sheryl looked like she'd lost 20 to 30 lbs this episode, they drew her so skinny. Graham

It's a trade off. With the Revoltechs, you get a wider freedom of movement, at the expense of large, often exposed ball joints. With the GN-U you get slighly less poseability, but no big ugly ball joints. Same with cost, it's a trade off. The Revys are cheaper, but are PVC, which some people (myself included), don't really like. The GN-U are bigger and made mostly of ABS (with some POM), but are more expensive. Both are good for what they are. We should be happy that we have two different companies giving us different options. Graham

I know, but I still think it was not cool. Anyway, back to the toy discussion. Oh......and Bandai sucks big sweaty donkey balls! (Just kidding ) Graham

Plus Ozma told Alto to stay on his tail. Graham

Generally, the tone of this thread has been quite positive I believe. While, it's probably true that the majority of members here would prefer it if Yamato had the Frontier toy licence, the fact is that they don't and Bandai does. Whether they are our first choice or not, I think we all want Bandai to succeed. After all, we all want nice toys of the Frontier mecha. However, as has been stated by multiple members here, Bandai really need to prove themself in the Macross toy arena. Unfortunately, what they have shown so far does not really inspire a great deal of confidence. However, I remain cautiously optmistic that the final VF-25DX product will hopefully be greatly improved over the early prototype shown. Graham

That was for wearing Gundam jackets to a Macross meeting, not out of any disrespect for their design skills. Graham

After studying the Bandai 1/60 DX VF-25 prototype pic some more, one of the reasons for the exposed cockpit hinge may be because the rear of the cockpit is right on the parting line, where the nose separates from the chest plate. There may just not be any room for a hidden hinge mechanism. If you look at all the 1/48 and 1/60 Yamatos that have hidden cockpit hinges (VF-1, VF-0, YF-19, YF-19), there is sufficient space behind the canopy for a hidden hinge. Perhaps the Bandai 1/72 VF-25 model prototype pics does not show a cockpit hinge, because the cockpit doesn't open? Let's give the Bandai guys the benefit of the doubt and wait before we see some more advanced pics, before we start poanicking. Graham

Latest pics of the GN-U Macross Plus action figures from the new July issue of Dengeki Hobby magazine, just out today (the magazine not the figures, that is). Notice for the first time the photos of the internal frame (skeleton). These are really cool figures and should be out within 2-3 weeks. ABS construction and bigger than Revoltechs. Graham

More pics of the Bandai 1/72 scale VF-25 model, from the new July issues of Hobby Japan m9agazine and Dengeki Hobby magazine, just out today. IMO, the 1/72 kit is definitely looking far better than the 1/60 DX toy at this point. I'll try and do better scans when I get home tonight. Graham

Just place holder colors from a very early promotional clip from last year. Graham

The UN Spacy kite could be removed from the VF-1 for 2 reasons that I can think of. 1) Perhaps there was some sort of civil war (as has been theorized) and NUNS had an acrimonious split from UNS, so the UN Spacy kite logo is verboten to be displayed in the Frontier fleet. or 2) As previously mentioned by removing the UN Spacy kit, BW or Bandai Visual hope to be able release the series outside of Japan. Graham

IMO, at the moment the Bandai sculpt looks like something Yamato would have put out 8 years ago. Oh, the toy can definitely be improved a lot by a few small changes, but whatever they do, they have to get rid of that hinge pin on the canopy. I really, really can't believe that. Graham

Heh, I've said it before, but Bandai have no idea about designing Valks. Other mecha, epscially Gundams yes, but Valks no. They should go crawing to Yamato on hands and knees to ask for design help "Help us Yamato, you're our only hope!" Heh, the master (Bandai), has become the student.......LOL! In a few years (I hope) you will all kneel before the awesomeness that is the Yamato VF-25 .....Mwahahahaha! No wonder Kawamori-san has been frowning in all the photos with the Bandai design staff. Graham

While it's certainly true there was an overusage of recyled footage in Macross 7, epcecially for the stock transformation scenes and many of the combat scenes, I didn't find the overall animation quality bad at all. I thought the character drawings and animation was pretty good and consistent throught the run of the show. There were no episodes that I can recall were there was a noticable drop in animation quality. Note how Frontier neatly sidesteps the issue of recyling transformation scenes, by having ultra fast transformation for the VF-25. The main thing I didn't like about Macross 7 was the somewhat washed out looking and mainly pastel colour pallet they chose to use. That was an artistic choice on the part of the production team, not a quality issue. Graham

Just my two cents. The mecha drawing, animation and choreography in Frontier is gorgeous IMO and beats any other mecha anime ever, IMO. Only some mecha scenes from Zero, Plus DYRL or original BGC come close or equal it IMO. However, the Frontier mecha animation has been consistently brilliant so far every single time the mecha have had screen time. IMO, no Gundam show can touch this on mecha animation quality. Backgrounds in Frontier have also been simply stunning, absolutely beautiful and easily surpass the background art of pretty much any other anime I can think of. I love the character designs in Frontier and generally the character drawing and animation have been of a high quality, although with noticable dips in quality in the actual character drawings in certain scenes, mainly in those episodes where the character animation duties have been farmed out to other studios. Graham

Looking forward to watching this later today. I'm wondering if we'll get a recap episode half way through the series, I certainly hope they avoid that. Graham

Sigh.........the Nora SV-51, has just about perfect QC and pretty much everyone says that. The only problems with the Ivanov SV-51, was a loose missile fit, slightly saggy wings with all weapons attached and a small quantity came fitted with two right (or was it two left?) wing hinges, easily fixed and hardly noticible. All the above issues were fixed on the Nora. The Nora is one of the best toys Yamato have ever released IMO. Don't believe all the crap you read online, spread around by people who like using the word "turd" in every sentence. Graham

For those that have seen it: - 1) Any mecha Pr0n at all, even just a teensy flyby shot of a VF-25 or VF-171? 2) is it animated by the same Philippine studio that did ep 6? Graham

Arghhhh...........................my eyes, they burn! Graham

Judging by the battroid pic, you can see the right knee cap armour is open far more than the left knee, so I think the knees will be able to bend forward more than in the Gerwalk pic. I certainly hpe so anyway. The Gerwalk pic, definitely looks mis-transformed, or perhaps not locked together, would be a more accurate term. Graham

I just noticed the canopy hinge...........oh dear! They better make that go away on the final version. IMO Bandai has a lot of catching up to get to where Yamato are today in terms of looks. Graham