Graham

My advice would be, if you want a transforming Valkyrie, stick with the toys. As others in this thread have mentioned, transforming kits can be fragile and have problems with paint scratching when you transform them. Also, some accuracy is usually sacrificed in order to make the kit transformable. If you must have a transforming model kit, here's my opinion on them, for what it's worth. Please bear in mind that I'm not really a model guy, although I have owned many Macross kits over the years. Imai/Bandai 1/72 Scale VF-1 I never had any breakage problem with the old Imai/Bandai 1/72 scale VF-1 kits that were first released in the 80s. I've owned quite a few over the last 20 years and treated them quite roughly. These kits are not perfect transformation and do require parts swapping to transform. Also, paint and glue is required for them to look good. The sculpt of this kit is Ok but not perfect, but hey it is an over 20 year old design. Arii/Bandai 1/100 Scale VF-1 The 1/100 scale Arii/Bandai VF-1 kits are another story altogether, as I found them extremely fragile and prone to breakage, even though they are scaled down versions of the 1/100 kit. These kits are not perfect transformation and do requre parts swapping to transform. Again, paint and glue is required. these kits were first released in the 80s. Bandai 1/100 Scale VF-2SS The 1/100 scale VF-2SS kits from Macross II (1992) have proven to be extremely sturdy. I've had several of these over the years. Again some parts swapping is required to transform. Although they are molded in color, painting makes them look much nicer. Construction is pretty much snap-together, although of course glue will make them more sturdy. Sculpt is pretty good on this kit IMO, except for the canopy which is completely the wrong shape. Bandai 1/100 Scale VF-19Kai & VF-19F/S These Macross 7 kits from 1995 are snap-together construction and molded in color. Painting does make them look much better though. Parts swapping is required for transformation. Quite sturdy kits, with the exception of the hands and the small tabs on the wings that are used to connect the wings to the lower leg in fighter mode. Transforming Resin Garage Kits (Various) Many companies, most notably Studio Half Eye, IHP/Liquid Stone, Retppu, D-Stance and others have made transforming resin garage kits of various Macross Variable Fighters over the years. These kits are often expensive, hard to find and require lots of parts fitting to build. Although they are primarily held together by screws, the joints do tend to loosen fairly quickly and the kits become quite floppy. while these kits can look excellent, they are really only recommended for experienced model builders. Graham

Check out Hobby Search as they normally post the Instructions Guide. http://www.1999.co.jp/asp/GoodsDetails_e.a...hop_right_e.asp Hope thats what you looking for That's perfect. Thanks. Graham

Need help. Somehow I have managed to loose the instructions for my unbuilt MG Z-Plus C1 kit. Could somebody please scan and email me a copy of the instruction sheet? Please PM me if you can help and I will give you an email address to send the scans to. Thanks, Graham

Owned the Takatoku for about 10 years. Graham

According to the May 1 update on the Macross Compendium, the release of the 'Kazutaka Miyatake Macross & Orguss Design Works' book has been rescheduled to middle of May . (Also, moved this topic, as too many people were complaining about it being in the toy forum). Graham

Gah.....level 6 in the BSG game, the Cataract Galactica gunnery level is tough. Tried to get through it maybe a dozen times last night, but the Galactica kept getting blown apart each time by the missiles from the Basestar, which seemed impossible to shoot down. And just how in hell are you supposed to blow up the dozens (hundreds?) of attacking Raiders & Mauraders using those puny gun turrets? Those turrets fire only a single missile and you can't even adjust the missile's power, blast radius ect. And the guns themselves while they look visually impressive don't seem to be as powerful as a Viper's guns. I don't understand why the Galactica just doesn't launch Vipers to take out the Cylons? If Raiders can fly in the Cataract witout harm, why not Vipers? Relying on one man who has to switch between 4 turrets to defend the whole Galactica is a bit silly if you ask me. What are all the other pilots doing, sitting on their thumbs? Graham

Just finally mustered up the courage to check my set and (touch wood), they are still fine. I'd be really pissed if a $250 set started cracking. Graham

Whoa Aegis, take a chill pill there. I guess not many people are posting as hardly anybody has watched it yet. Renato did start a thread on this about a week ago as well, but only 5 people posted there. Just give it time. Graham

That Mini G is looking fantastic. Graham

I'm surprised that with the success of the mini-series and season one of the new BSG, that none of the US toy or model companies have picked up the license to release toys or models of the MKII & MKVII Viper & Cylon Raider. I bet these would sell like hot cakes with the fans. I'd certainly buy multiples if decent looking toys were released. Graham

It was mentioned a few pages ago in this thread. Graham

Who is Mac Zero? Any relation to Mach Zero of 2000AD fame? He'd make a really ugly toy. What are yonks? I think there's only one other member here (also from UK) who would have the slightest idea who Mach Zero is/was. Graham

What are yonks? Ages, a....oh never mind. And I always thought 'Yonks' was how New Yorkers pronounced 'Yanks'. Graham

Actually, once I got over the learning curve and got the controls figured out, I haven't found the game to be that difficult. I'm playing on 'Normal' though, not 'Expert'. I'm just on the first Galactica Gunnery level now. Graham

Very nice kit. If I had any modelling skills what so ever, I would be all over it. I can't wait to see it built. Hopefully you'll take some pics of it once it's finished side by side with your TOS BSG Viper. Graham

There is only 1 page of Macross info in the June issue of Dengeki Hobby. Hobby Japan has nothing about Macross. The Dengeki Hobby page mentions 3 things: - 1) The Yamato 1/48 GBP, basically just a photo on the unpainted sculpt, which we have already seen. The only difference in this photo is that it it shown with TV hands instead of DYRL hands. The sculpt is still missing one of the intake covers 2) The Tenjin artbook, showing small pics of a couple of pages. Nothing new here as we all know about this book already and many of us already have it or have ordered it. 3) The upcoming Hasegawa SV-51 with boosters, which we've known about for a few weeks already. A small pic of the box art is shown, but again we've already seen this. You've never heard the expression "Dead as a Dodo"? Graham

I doubt I'll bother with the Spielberg/Cruise version. It's not faithful to the book at all. Plus, I'm not really a fan of Cruise and only Speilberg's early work like Jaws and Close Encounters appeals to me. I will check out the Pendragon version though, once the DVD is available for rental, as it seems pretty faithful to the book. Graham

The ISBN number is already mentioned several times in this thread. Graham

The June issue of Hobby Japan and Dengeki Hobby magazines hit shelves about a week ago and there was still no news about the Yamato Mac Zero toy. That makes 7 or 8 months now that there has been no news, so I think it's pretty safe to asume the toy is as dead as the Dodo. Graham

Wow, digging up a thread from 2003. Guess it's a quiet weekend, huh? Considering that the 1/48 GBP armor might be Yamato's final Macross product, it's a little to late to hope for smaller boxes now. Graham

I'm sure a few years ago I remember reading something from Romero, where he mentions that if he got to make a 4th movie, he would have made it so that most of the Zombies would finally have decayed away and the human poulation was starting to rebuild itself. Certainly sounds different to the evolved Zombies we are now getting. Anyway still really looking forward to this. Land of the Dead along with Serenity and SW epIII are the only 3 movies I plan to see at the cinema this year. Everything else, I'll just rent later. Graham

I dunno, maybe I'm just getting too old, but these days I have absolutely no interest in Superheroes or Superhero movies. While I liked Christian Bale in Equillibrium, I won't be watching the new Batman movie. Graham

Is it's first name Isamu? Graham

Err....like 7 topics down there is already a multi-page thread on this. Graham

Yep, you have both 1st and 3rd person views to choose from. No idea whether it works with the Joystick though, as I don't own one. I'm really enjoying this game so far. Most reviews I read made it sound rather bad, but I'm having a great time. I guess if you enjoy games like Ace Combat or AFDS, you will like this game. My only gripe so far, is that the radar display is so small as to be next to useless. I just end up using the targetting cursor to find things and never even bother looking at the radar display. Graham