Graham

JUst heard from Yamato that the toys are being delivered to the shops today. From what I understand, it willbe on sale in Kotobukiya on 7 Dec and all other shops on 8 Dec, but I may be wrong about that. Graham

Finally, some shots of the whole display. Any errors made in the description of the products are mine. I hope Noel will feel free to jump in with corrections and/or clarifications. Graham

Here’s some photos of the ‘Fish On A Stick’ and ‘Camp Stove’ accessories for Hikaru, which may be sold seperately, or perhaps offered as part of a mail-in campaign. Graham

Here’s photos of the long-awaited flightsuit prototype. Note this is still an early prototype and will probaly improve quite a lot by the time it reaches production. Noel mentioned that the Flightsuit would come with two different heads, one for wearing with the helmet and one for use when not wearing the helmet. Obviously the typical Macross hairstyle of Hikaru, Max & Roy would not fit into a helmet when molded in hard plastic or resin! The helemt should also have an opening visor. A possiblity for the future would be a flightsuit variation with light up pads. Graham

Next up we have the Maximillian Jenius figure, which is actually the next figure to be released. IIRC, Noel said this is production standard or close to production standard, so it is what the actual toy will look like. While the face sculpt looks pretty good IMO, I’m not 100% sure about the glasses. Graham

Popbox the manufacturer of the 1/6 scale Macross figures that MWer Blackaces (Noel) works for had a booth at the recent Asia Toy Expo 2006 held at the Hong Kong Convention Center on 25-26 November 2006. Fellow HK MWer Valk009 (Andy) and myself decided to visit Noel at the Expo and check out Popbox’s booth to see what new items they had that would be of interest to Macross fans. Noel who is heavily involved in the design and manufacturing of the 1/6 scale Macross figures was happy to take some time out from his busy day and explain the upcoming new products to us. I must apologize for the quality of the photos, as they were all taken through the glass window of the display cabinet and also I didn’t have a tripod with me on that day. I also have to apologize to Noel for not getting the photos posted sooner, as I promised him. First of all here’s the prototype of the DYRL 1/6 scale Roy Focker figure. Note that it is actually taller than the Hikaru and Max figure and will have a specially made taller than normal body. Noel mentioned that the body in the photos is just a mock-up and the limbs are not proportionally accurate (compare the forearm and upper arm lengths). However, this will all be fixed on the production body. If I remember correctly, the face and hair will also e resculpted slightly. The Focker figure features an ‘anime-accurate’ darker uniform and will come with a beer glass (no shown) as well as dog tags, and iron-on batch. The Focker figure is scheduled to be released after the Max figure. Graham

Pretty good, but the canopy and leg bay cover panels need modifying to be accurate. Graham

Yes & no. There is less actual physical modification of the toys going on now as it's unecessary with Yamato IMO, due to Yamato's more accurate sculpts, greater detail and improved level of articulation. Most of the old-time customization of the 1/55 was about improving articalation and adding more detail. However, there is certainly more customized paint schemes coming out for the 1/48 now than there ever was in the heyday of the 1/55. Graham

I think I have a front view lineart pic of the Megaroad somewhere. Graham

Pretty big. About the same hight as the 1/60 VF-0 in battroid mode and about 1cm longer than the VF-0 (excluding pitot tube) in fighter mode. I've got some good pics of it in Battroid mode, standing next to the 1/60 VF-0A and 1/48 VF-1S. Graham

All three of my production VF-0S are sufficiently tight that they can hold poses, without the arms sagging. Graham

I like it nice and tight! Graham

Yes, it pops out and yes, there is just about space for a seond figure, although he might be an amputee. Graham

As far as I know, no. At the momet, the plan is to sell the FP/FB set by itself, not bundled with the 19. Of course, the toy biz is highly changable and what a company announces one week, may change by the next., so never say never. All I can say is as of this moment, a bundle is not planned. Graham

Fold Booster & FAST Pack set will be released early next year, probably March or April. Graham

Probably not sneaked out, more likely an early gift sample given to a favoured friend of buyer by Yamato. Whoever has it shouldn't be posting pics tho! Graham

I really hate the nose sculpt of the SHE VF-11B, it's too big and bulbous. The head laser is al wrong as well. Graham

The two pieces are spare cannards made of ABS plastic. The cannards on the toy are made of POM plastic. POM is actually more durable than ABS, but cannot be painted easily. Yamato decided to include two spare cannards made of ABS, for customisers who want to paint the toy in a custom paint scheme, as ABS can be painted much more easily. The different cannard material has nothing to do with durability. I've had a preproduction sample for nearly 2 months and production samples for about 2 weeks and have transformed them many times. The POM cannards are very durable. Graham

Probably, it's shaping up to be pretty long. Graham

One of you is a prophet. Graham

Not sure why everybody is saying this is so small. 24cm is a respectable size. Yes, it might be a little overpriced for the size, but Macross is not a hot prooperty, so small companies like Wave & Yamato have to sell at a higher price as they just do not sell the quantities like Bandai with Gundam and Takara with Transformers. I'm getting one, until something better comes along (and no, do not read anything into that statement). Graham

That's correct, a VF-19Kai/F/S/P would require 99% new tooling, as nearly every single part is signifcantly different from the YF-19/VF-19A. Graham

No, the arm cannon thing is not included in the fold booster FP set. I've been talking with Yamato for a while now to try to persuade them to make it, for a second set of accessories, perhaps together with the wing missiles shown on the cover of the TIAS M+ book, although this would require new wings with hard points (not a big deal). We'll see. Graham

It's very tight, don't worry, no floppiness at all. They must have been feeding it the little blue pills Graham

Just to let you know, I've got about 60% of the photos for the review done as well as got the sticker and instruction sheets all scanned in. Just gotta finish the rest of the photos tomorrow and then get the actual review written. The review will be posted on Dec 7, which is the official Japanese release date. Graham