Graham

Here's a copy so far of my email correspondence with HLJ. My original email: - And HLJ's reply: - And my reply, where I had to use all my will power to remain polite, as I do not suffer fools gladly. Graham

My contact in Yamato who is right at the top of the food chain has previously stated that the Shoulders on the Shin VF-0A are POM. However, he may have been told the wrong info or missremembered. These things do happen. I have just emailed him again and asked him to double check with the product development guys, who in turn will check with the factory. Graham

Yes the head does extend. I'll post a scan of the latest pics tomorrow. Graham

The new August issues of Dengeki Hobby & Hobby Japan magazines (just out), have some painted pics of DMZ #05 the Scopedog Turbo Custom. It's confirmed that DMZ #05 will come with 3 hand weapons, these being the standard GAT-22 Rifle, the Solid Shooter Bazooka and the 4-barrelled rocket gun. I'll post a scan tomorrow. If you are a Votoms fan, the August hobby mags are great as they have about 30 pages of Votoms coverage. Graham

My Shadow had the worst QC out of my 3 Alphas. It came with a badly warped neck piece, which meant the head was wonky in battroid mode. The gunpod fell apart as well. There was one other problem, but I forget what it was. I junked the thing within a few weeks of receiving it. Luck of the draw with Alpha QC I guess. Graham

IIRC, Gamlin is in the series right from episode 1. While it's true he get's Milia's VF-1J trashed, he certainly kicks serious ass in his VF-17D/S and VF-11C. Graham

Note, those grey pods are not fuel tanks. They are HAIM-95A medium-range maneuverability missile launcher pods. Graham

Perhaps the new series is set in the future, i.e. post 2050AD and the new fighter is a natural evolution of the VF-19 and VF-22 taking the best from both designs. It would be interesting to spectulate on what improvements future VFs may have. In fact I think we once had such a thread, but I'm too lazy to search for it. The most useful improvement I can think of would be minaturized, internal multi-use fold boosters. Graham

Here's the scan of the double page spread on the new TV series from the July 2007 issue of New Type Magazine. Medium size scan. 3000x2121 pixels. 2.27MB. Large size scan. 4960x3507 pixels. 5.66MB. Graham

Just got the magazine and I'm scanning it now. The VF pics are really just very rough design scribbles. Graham

I'll try and piock up the copy of New Type in a few hours and get it scanned. Graham

From what I understand, it's the whole arm assembly. Graham

Wheels being too big is better than hands being too small. Graham

The 1/60 Ghost is way out of scale with the 1/48 VF-1. Graham

Not trying to bash this too much based on the limited amount of information available so far. But looking at this pic from MAHQ of the Gundam Excrecia, it definitely looks like it's gonna be another style over substance show aimed at a younger audience. Graham

Actually, the Ghost is dark grey, darker than the early promo pics. It looks great IMO. Graham

Hmm.....what's with the name 'Macross 25', thought it was going to be called Macross Flyer? Graham

Old news. MegaHouse's unfortunately named 'Palm Action' series haven't been getting great reviews so far. Graham

I'll have to try the 1/60 YF-19 with a VF-0 gunpod to see how it looks. Graham

No you can't order from Yamato directly, as they cannot sell Macross items to customers outside of Japan. However, HLJ is not the only authorized distributor. As I understand it, any toy store which is physically based in Japan can request the replacement parts from Yamato. Graham

I'll have some firm news by tomorrow hopefully as the customer service rep at Yamato is off sick today. My main contact seemed quite shocked to hear that HLJ was charging for these. It's probably just a misunderstaning between the two companies. Graham

Great toy so far. Transformed between all three modes last night. No problems yet. Graham

I'll ask Yamato about this, as it doesn't sound right. It may take a while for an answer as communication is sporadic at the moment. Graham

Just got one today, but won't have a chance to open it until tonight. I've been told that the arm parts that were cracking on the original VF-0S/A have been changed to POM plastic on the Shin type VF-0A, which is supposed to be stronger than ABS. Graham

The chara designs remind me of the Getter Robo OVA, especially the guy with the scarf. Not liking the mecha, but then again I like very few Gundam designs anyway. I have to say the Unicorn mecha are far better looking than the 00 mecha IMO. I'd actually consider buying Unicorn toys based on the designs shown so far, but I wouldn't touch these 00 mecha with a 10 foot pole. Graham