Graham

That's actually extremely old news (several years at least). I'm surprised the Telegragh is just publishing it now. Also, the Telegraph is notoriously anti-Typhoon. According to news last October, which I consider more credible, the RAF will be getting ammunttion and training for the Typhoon's 27mm Mauser cannon. Typhoon wins gun dogfight By Neil Tweedie (Filed: 03/10/2006) "The RAF has been forced into an embarrassing U-turn on its policy of not allowing pilots of the new Eurofighter Typhoon to fire their gun. The service has decided to issue ammunition to future Typhoon squadrons and train pilots in using the fighter's single German-made 27mm Mauser cannon, reversing its cost-cutting edict. The decision follows experience in Afghanistan showing that guns are still one of the most effective weapons when supporting ground troops. In a scathing e-mail, a Parachute Regiment major commanding an isolated outpost described air support from RAF Harriers, which have no guns and rely on rockets, as "utterly, utterly useless". He contrasted their performance with the support offered by US air force A10 aircraft, which are equipped with a 30mm rotary cannon. At a conference last week, Air Vice-Marshal David Walker, the officer commanding No 1 Group, which includes the Harrier and the newly-forming Typhoon squadrons, said he had decided to proceed with the Typhoon gun, buying ammunition, spares and maintenance equipment. Seven years ago, the ministry decided to dispense with the gun on all but the first 55 of the 232 Typhoons planned for RAF service, in contrast to the other nations in the Eurofighter consortium, which kept it on all ordered aircraft. The experts argued that Typhoon did not need anything as crude as a gun. The plan would have saved the taxpayer about £90 million. But Typhoon is designed to such fine specifications that the loss of the gun created a weight imbalance and it was finally realised that the cheaper and easier option would be to fit a real cannon." Graham

I've heard that the shoulder section and bicep swivel joint will both be changed to POM on the Shin VF-0A. Hopefully, that will solve the problem. I need to chase Yamato for info on the availabilioty date of spares tho. Graham

The figures and command car are in scale with the die-cast Ingram. I think the scale is a bit smaller than 1/48 though. Graham

'He'? I always thought the kid was a she. Mind you it's been ages scince I last watched the TV series. Never been a fan of the Griffen. Always liked the military designs more, especially the Helldiver. Graham

The kid in black is from the tV series IIRC and is the pilot of that ugly black Labor with wings. Can't remember the name of it, maybe 'Griffen'. Yes, the hand extends on the CM's. It should be smaller than 1/48 as the pilot figure is smaller than a Yamato 1/48 VF-1 pilot. Graham

I think it's going to be blind boxes. Graham

I'm probably going to go with Drifand's solution and glue the fingers on the rifle holding hand. Question 1, which glue works best on the PVC DMZ hands? Question 2, anybody got the new Microman Chirico figure with the big machine gun yet? Are the joints a bit stiffer? BTW, my son really likes the Takara 1/18 Scopedog. He has good taste in mecha as he also likes the Yamato YF-19, VF-0 & VF-1! Graham

1) There are a few people at Yamato who speak very good English. Yes, selective topics on the MW forums are read. Not all the time, but occasionally. 2) While I'm not allowed to go into detail yet, the wings do have an interesting feature, that should help with concerns about strength. 3) I've already informed Yamato about the hip gatlings at Wonder Festival. I'm waiting for an answer about whether they will be changed. Graham

I'm very excited about it. I love the SV-51. I do prefer Nora's colors to Ivanov's though. Still trying to figure out how I'm going to make room for one, let alone multiples in my display case though. Graham

Just to clarify, before people start panicking this is not at all true, just I guess an attempt at sarcasm. We really need some sort of sarcasm smiley, so people know when things are true just a joke. If I was Yamato, I'd be thinking about suing Retracting Head Ter Ter about now for Libel. Wonder if he is a HG or Toynami agent? Graham

Have held, it, but didn't dare transform the resin prototype, it's worth too much. I did open, close & fold a few parts, but that's all. Graham

Doesn't it also include some sort of reference book? Graham

Just ordered both Gates of Fire & 300 from Amazon. can't wait to read them. Will be seeing the movie on Thursday. Graham

While overall, I like the Takara 1/18 DMZ Scopedog, the crappy hands and Microman piss me off more and more each day. Definitely going to try the Yamto if I can find one. Seems they're sold out everywhere here. Graham

Saw the Tyrants at WonderFest. They are all PVC, with no or almost no articulation, well maybe the just the shoulders and hips (unsure). Graham

Some big pics: - SV-51 Ivanov GERWALK. SV-51 Ivanov Battroid. SV-51 Ivanov Fighter. SV-51 Ivanov Flyer. Graham

Merged topics and edited title. Graham

You want some pics of urinals? Yuk. Sorry, I'm guilty of the ahem....toilet humor. When I first saw the topic titil I read it as'Urinal' instead of Unreal, so decided to change it that way Graham

Tricky situation..........keep watching this space. Graham

Opening here in HK on March 15th. Definitely going to see it. Graham

The green Gera Doga HCM-Pro is also great. Fantastic articulation and detail. Graham

I think we have to learn to accept that toys from the smaller companies like CM's Corp, Wave & Yamato are invariably going to cost more than toys from the big boys like Bandai & Takara. It's simple economies of scale. Graham

Just picked up the Takara 1/18 scale Scopedog today. It's pretty good, the most impressive thing being the weathered paint job IMO. Pros: Excellent weathered paint effects. Nice solid joints, holds poses very well. Good articulation = good posability. The rifle can be converted to short barrel version. Takara scores over Yamato on this point. Cons: The Chirico Cuvie Microman figure is a real piece of crap! The joints are too loose and the hands are constantly coming off, as is the holster for the Armor Magnum pistol and the chest canister and the right arm just below the shoulder. Getting him properly seated in the pilot seat and actually holding the Scopedog's contol handles took ages and made me so fustrated, I nearly stomped on the Chirico figure in a fit of frustration! I'm not impressed with the Scopedog's hand design at all. The plug-in non-articulated PVC thumb and finger parts for holding the rifle are not very secure IMO. The finger section tends to come off quite easily. With PVC I can see the problem getting worse with time. I would have preffered hinged ABS hands. One of the two cables that attaches to the front of the control column broke within minutes. The column is hinged to move up and down, but the cables aren't sturdy enough to take the movement where they attach to the column. Lack of accessories. The head antenas are very stiff with no flex at all and seem pretty fragile (easy to snap). The visor will not stay up by itself and falls right down again. Lack of any detailing on the insides of the skirt armor. Come on Takara, the much smaller and cheaper 1/200 scale Bandai HCM-PROs (especially the Sazabi) have an insane amount of inner-armor detail at a fraction of the cost. There's no excuse for this on a modern, larger high-end toy costing much more. Overall, it's good, but not quite as good as I was expecting. The Microman Chirico was a real disappointment. Also, I'd have definitely prefered the head antenna to be made of a slightly flexible material, such as POM or PVC. As it is, they are just too stiff and likely to snap if the toy is dropped. I find myself cosnstantly worring about this when handling the toy. I'd give it a 7.5 out of 10 all together. I'll probably eventually pick up a Yamato 1/12 version for comparison. Graham

Why odd? It's the 25th anniversery. You didn't seriously think BW would let it pass without something new did you? Graham

Wondering how the latest fighter-mounted AESA radars do against F117/F22/F35? Graham