Graham

2,500.

The grey color 'Low Vis' FAST Packs are kinda neat though. Graham

This is a topic that seems to pop up fairly frequently. FP ver. is a lighter shade of grey. Gunpod is a lighter shade of green. FP ver. has a pilot, regular ver. does not. FP ver. has metal reinfoced hips. FP ver. has FAST Packs. FP ver. has Tampo printed UN Spacy emblem on the wing. FP ver. has pre-cut heatshields (regular ver. you have to cut them yourself). Graham

The price is TBA, as is the release date. As a very rough guestimate knowing the speed Yamato work, I'd say we'll see it by Christmas 2005 if we are lucky or perhaps first quarter 2006. It hasn't been announced how it will be sold, but there were rumors flying around a while back that two versions are planned, the armor by itself and also sold bundled together with a Hikaru VF-1J, just like he 1/60 version. It would not surprise me if this were true. Graham

I completely agree with that. Maybe Yamato should make un upper arm adaptor as well to make him look more pumped . Graham

Take a look at your 1/48 in Battroid mode. Now imagine it is wearing GBP chest armor. Even if the chest armor was made out of very thin plastic, it is still going to partially obscure the Battroid's already fairly narrow shoulders. This would mean that in order to add the shoulder GBP missile pods without adaptors, the missile pods would either have to be disproportionally thin, or would overhang the sides of the shoulders. Graham

GBP groin armor has always been a tricky issue. You either have to have a short nosecone on the VF-1, like on the 1/55 to keep the length of the GBP groin armor reasonable or if you have a longer more 'fighter mode' accurate nosecone on the VF-1, then you end up with overly long groin armor on the GBP. More than a year ago when they first mentioned the possibilty of a 1/48 GBP to me the plan IIRC to keep the length of the 1/48 GBP groin armor a reasonable length was that you would have to remove the nose cone to attach the groin armor. However, there was also talk of having a hole in the bottom of the groin armor, so that those who wanted to maintain perfect transformation could still leave the nose cone on, but the tip would stick out the hole on the bottom of the groin armor. I have no idea if they still intend to follow this idea. Graham

Nope, no news of the 1/100 VF-0S. It's been 6 months now since any of the hobby magazines had any new pictures or info. Add to that the fact that Yamato did not have the VF-0S on display at last month's Wonder Fest, then I have a nasty feeling that it has been dropped from their production schedule. Graham

Don't speak too soon, we haven't seen the 1/48 groin armor yet! Graham

I thought we established in another thread a while ago that Star Wars takes place in just one galaxy i.e. "a galaxy far, far away". So what's with calling a game '"Star Wars Galaxies"? Confused! Graham

And a close-up of the filler piece between the chest and back plates. Graham

Now for some close-up scans of the armor. Graham

Here's the latest pics of Yamato's upcoming 1/48 GBP armor from the just published May 2005 issue of Dengeki Hobby magazine. For the first time, we get to see an actual physical sculpt of the shoulder and forearm armor, rather than just CAD drawings. It looks like all the missiles from the shoulders and forearms will be removable. There's some nice detail on the inside of the missile bays. Although the VF-1J in the photo is shown with DYRL type hands, from the pics of the forearm armor it looks to me that the TV bubble type hands should fit as well. I'm still not too happy that just like it's smaller 1/60 scale cousin, the larger 1/48 version still has to use false shoulder covers in order to fit the shoulder missile launchers. I guess we have no choice but to live with this . I notice that the false shoulder covers seem to have a small sliding cover on the side. One thing which I find very interesting is the addition of side armor to fill the gap between the battroid's chest and back plates. Graham

Cyclones aren't Macross. Graham

That God Zeta V2 kit doen't look half bad. Nah, don't you mean 'God-Strike-Wing' Graham

I dont know if it's correct to say it's wrong per se. While it's usual for the VF-17 to use the elbow lasers in Gerwalk mode and keep the gunpod holstered, I don't think there is any technical reason stopping the VF-17 from using it's gunpod handheld in gerwalk mode. Perhaps Brando's VF-17S did not feature the elbow/wrist lasers. It's possible they could have been removed to make room for the jamming system. Graham

Nope, I haven't had time to collect it from the guy I commisoned to do the job yet. I should be picking it up next Tuesday or Wednesday. Graham

That is incorrect. I also used to think that the the YF-21 could only have guns if it had FAST packs. I BLAME YAMATO!!! To be fair to Yamato, the based their YF-21 toy onepisode # 1 of Macross Plus,where the YF-21 was not armed with the two gunpods. Graham

Yes, the gunpod can be fired from inside the VF-17's leg in fighter mode. Graham

That is incorrect. I also used to think that the the YF-21 could only have guns if it had FAST packs. However, take a look at the pic below from page 88 of the Macross Design Works book, which clearly shows the YF-21 without FAST Packs, but with the two gunpods semi-recessed into the leg bay cover panels. The Hasegawa 1/72 scale YF-21 model kit and the Doyusha 1/144 scale die-cast YF-21 toy are also set up like this with two gunpods semi-recessed into the leg bay cover panels. Also, if you watch episode # 2 of Macross Plus OVA carefully, during the weapons testing, there is a shot of the underside of the YF-21 in fighter mode, where you can see the gunpods attached without FAST Packs. Graham

Unfortunately in real life trying to shoot two guns at once just means you end up not hitting anything. It may look cool in John Woo movies, but it's a really shitty gun fighting technique in real life. Graham

Err....have you watched Macross 7? Check out these screen shots from ep # 44 which clearly show a Fold Booster on Max's VF-22S. And the VF-22 has different leg bay cover panels than the YF-21. Each leg bay cover panel on the VF-22 has the gunpod stored internally as well as a pair of micro missile launchers and a bay for a reaction missile. Yes, you have to suspend belief a little to imagine that all that stuff could fit into the panel . Graham

Manfred Brando's VF-17S color scheme in VF-X2 is different from Millia's red VF-17S in Macross 7. See the attached pics. Note, the yellow trim on the shoulders and wings of Brando's VF-17S is a different more fancy design and the UN Spacy emblems are replaced with what looks like an eye emblem. Graham

Call me old fashioned, unwilling to adapt to change, a dinosaur, etc, etc. But I have absolutely no interest at all in online games. Tried them a couple of times, didn't see what all the fuss was about. I'd much rather just play a good single player game by myself or if there is a 2-player mode with a friend next to me sharing beer and pizza. I guess this is a minority opinion though. I'm not a hard core gamer at all, but I have been playing games on various systems for 20+ years. Graham

Well, at least they are being honest. I've been to a lot of restaurants that served crap, but would never admit it. Graham