Graham

OK, here's the first 15 pages of chaper 3 scanned in. Here's the color intro page. Graham

Guys, just picked up the April 2008 issue of Shonen Ace, containing chapter 3 of the Macross Frontier manga. This is a really kick ass issue. Spoilers: - Graham

That's hillarious. Graham

I've owened many Bandai toys over the years, including several of the SOC line (Various Mazingers, Getter, Combatler V, Grendizer). Also, more recently the SPEC Dragonar, which is an amazing toy. But I still don't want to see painted diecast in a Bandai Macross Frontier toy for the following reasons: - 1) Die-cast metal toys will suffer from paint chips sooner or later, no matter how careful you are, especially transforming or combining toys. 2) It's never possible to match the color of die cast cast painted parts and ABS parts exactly. 3) Weight may not be such an issue with non-transforming toys, but too much weight can cause serious issues with parts locking on transforming toys. Bandai hasn't proved themselves to me that they can make high die-cast content transforming toys. Toys like Voltes V, don't really count IMO, as they are combiners, not transformers, with relatively simple combining function. The only really complex die-cast transforming toy I can think of from Bandai with complexity on par with VFs is the SOC Gunbuster, but I don't own that personally, so can't really comment. Graham

If Bandai's 1/100 line turns out to be HCM-Pro type toys and they make the VF-171 with all the markings Tampo printed on, I will be as happy as a pig in crap. For their 1/60 DX line, as long as they keep the die-cast metal parts to only where needed for strength (i.e. swing bars), make the rest of the toy out of ABS, have nice tight joints, parts that fit and lock together well and have at least a similar level of detail as Yamato's 1/60 toys, I will be happy. I'm just preying they stay away from unecessary painted die-cast metal exterior parts. IMO, die-cast and transforming toys just don't mix. Graham

Had some time free this aternoon, after a meeting finished earlier that expected, so I headed of to the toy shops of Mong Kok district to try and track down the Mega House offerings. Now, I only wanted to buy one, probably the Stick, but every single damn shop was only seeing both together as a set and for about HK$850 (US$109) a set. This was a bit more than I was willing to pay, so in the end I went home empty handed. Graham

But seriously, now that we know that Bandai have the licene, really hope they treat it with respect and do their best to give us some kick ass toys. Graham

LOL....It's all true I tell you...................NOoooooooooo! Graham

Chapter 1, page 73. And that concludes chapter 1. Chapter 3, is out in Japan since Feb 26, but I haven't been able to find it here in HK yet. As soon as I do find it, I'll start the scans in a new thread. Graham

Chapter 1, page 72. Graham

Chapter 1, page 71. Graham

Chapter 1, page 70. Graham

Chapter 1, page 69. Graham

Chapter 1, page 68. Graham

Final batch of scans. Chapter 1, page 67. Graham

Michael has the blue trim on his X-Gear and also wears a blue school tie. Alto has red trim on his X-Gear and wears a red shool tie and gets the white VF-25 with black and red trim. Luca has green trim on his X-Gear and wears a green school tie. No guesses for which one is gonna die first. Michael is reported to be a crack shot, probably why he uses the mecha sized sniper rifle in chapter 2 of the manga. Graham

10KBC Graham

We don't need two threads on the same toys, especially when the original thread is still on the first page of the toy forums! I'm merging the two threads. Graham

One good thing about Bandai, is their product development lead time is usually shorter than Yamato. Hopefully, they will be able to release the toys while the show is still on the air. However, if what we have seen in the pics is their present state of progress so far, it's likely we won't see any transforming toys until the show is already half to three quarters over. Graham

Read Watchman dozens of times since I first bought it back in 1987. I definitely think a mini-series would be preferable to movie. There is no way you could fit everything into a movie, even if it was 3 hours long, without cutting or changing too much. Personally, I have my doubts that the material is even suitable for adaptation to the screen, even as a mini-series with a highly-talented director. Graham

Chill out guys. Maybe I'm reading this wrong, but I sense a lot of hostility to what was inteded as a humorous remark. Graham

Heh, my comment about 'Bandai dicks' did seem to stir up a hornets nest. The Bandai staff turning up to a meeting about Macross Frontier with Kawamori-san, who is one of the top three mecha designers in Japan (if not the world) and the main the creator of Macross, while wearing Gundam jackets is a definitely being a tad disrespectful in my opinion. I know if I had been Kawamori, I would not have been pleased. Dante74, your thought balloons were hillarious. I can actually see it being true. Kawamori does enjoy a pretty good working relationship with Yamato, and while I don't know it for a fact, I'd wager that if it was up to kawamori, he'd choose Yamato to make the Frontier toys. I've heard he is extremely happy with what Yamato have been doing. And he does seem to look pretty unhappy in all the photos shown so far with the Bandai toys/staff. While of course, I'd personally prefer Yamato made the Frontier toys and Hasegawa the models, I'm not counting Bandai out. They certainly have the technology, experience and talent to make some amazing toys and models if they chose to bring their 'A' game to the table. However, as many others have commented, they do need to prove themselves, as except for the HCM's back in the 80s, all their other original Macross efforts have been either mediocre, to downright bad. Graham

Chapter 1, page 66. Graham

Chapter 1, page 65. Graham

Chapter 1, page 64. Graham