Graham

holy smokes! and i thought they were expensive here! HK$198 works out to roughly US$25.50. Not that expensive. Graham

Sorry, I've no idea what's coming from Yamato. They don't talk to me anymore Graham

In the side on view picture, the weapons pack looks plenty big enough to store the internal weapons IMO. However, in the front view pic the opening panels/covers do seem to have shrunk. Perhaps the animators simply wanted to emphasise the size of the weapons in this scene by using perspective to make the covers look smaller. Anyway, I'm convinced that the weapons are NOT internal to the battroids arm and the pack attaches to the YF-19's standard forearm by simply sliding over it, thus allowing it to be jettisoned once the weapons are expended or the pilot wishes to transform. I do not think it would be practical to have a special forearm modied just to fit this pack. Graham

Here's some pics of some of the Yellow Submarine 1/144 Valk kits with launch arms: - YF-19 w/launch arm. VF-4 w/launch arm. VF-17 w/launch arm. Graham

I briefly owned the Yellow Submarine 1/144 YF-19 with Launch Arm for about two weeks. Never built it and ended up giving the kit to somebody. I don't remember much about the launch arm, but I do remember the YF-19 had a horrible nose sculpt. The two hybrid sensors on the sides of the nose were about three times as large as they should be. Graham

I still say that the second pic is probably an animation error rather than the weapons being internal. In the first pic, the unit looks big enough to store the weapons. Or looking at the second pic again, I think that what we are seeing as the weapons pod opens is shadow on the surface of the YF-19's forearm, rather than a hole in the forearm Graham

Lot's of them in TRU & UML in Hong Kong. Don't see anybody buying them though. The manufacturer should hire Kawamori to do the cosmetic styling and the toy should have lots of IR firing weapons, allowing two bots to fight, then I might buy one. Sorta off topic, but did any MWers buy the Kawamori Aibo varient? Graham

The YF-23 is such a beautiful, sleek plane, it should have won the ATF compettion on pure aesthetics alone As they say, 'if it looks right, it probably flies right'. I still say the F/A-22 is too blocky and chunky looking. I want to see fleets of 23s filling the skies. Hell yes to a FB-23 varient! Graham

Yep, Saturn first. Graham

I bought one stand for HK$198. And the box is pretty small, less than half the size of a 1/60 box. I don't have the box on hand, but I guess it's something like 8" x 5" x 5" (just a rough estimate). Graham

Hasegawa VF-22S is definitely still available in Mong kok and Tai Po. I just bought one last week. I've seen the VF-19A in some shops also, but can't remember where. Graham

Many of us had hoped that there would be a new Macross TV series directly after Macross Zero and Egan Loo (unintentionally?) mislead us for a while by posting a statement on the Macross Compendium saying "Next series in the works". However, the next series turned out to be nothing related to Macross Personally, I felt that Egan should have modified his statement right from the begining to say "Next non-Macross series in the works". I mean the Compendium is the only official English language Macross website, so when a statement appears saying 'next series in the works', it's only natural for most people to assume that as the statement is on a website devoted exclusively to Macross it refers to a new Macross series. So anyway, Kawmori is probably very busy on the new series ''Sousei no Aquerion", which is a half year long series due to start this fall and IIRC features an environmental theme and combining (super?) robots. Graham

I'm still pissed that the M3 opening movie was not included on the 20th Anniversary DVD. Anyway, IMO the DVD is worth getting just for the 'Macross 3D' footage, which is not available anywhere else. Graham

I'm wondering why the line-art for this weapons pack never appeared in any of the Mac Plus books or Design Works? It would be cool to see what a Full Armored YF-19 looks like. Perhaps this weapons pack would be part of it. Graham

Thanks for the pics. I'm guessing in the second (middle) pic, the animators made an error when they were painting the cell and painted the weapons pack the color of the arm instead of dark blue. Graham

I really like the look of the prototype green Alpha battroid (sorry, Legioss Armo-Soldier). The head looks great to me. However, for some reason the picture of the red battroid makes me think it looks like it's made out of LEGO Graham

Could somebody please try to snag a clearer higher resolution screen grab of that side view of the weapons pack from Macross Plus ep # 2, as I can't do it on my computer. Thanks in advance. Graham

It might be possible with a bit of modification. The base of the stand has a screwed on plate covering the bottom, with I guess a weight inside for stability, I dunno, I haven't disassembled it yet. But it looks like if you unscrew the bottom plate, you could probably drill some holes in it to rig up some sort of wall attachment. The arm should be stable enough, as it has several screws which you can adjust for tension. Graham

The locking bolts on the 4 grappling claws are just molded on detail, they don't move at all. The 4 grappling claws are only hinged where they join at the base. Also, the grappling claws are not really used to hold the Valks, as they do not clamp closed very tightly. Basically the grappling arms are just for show and for providing a little extra stability to the Valk. The main point of attachment is the clip which attaches to the underside of the Valks and plugs into the vertical strut on the base. On most of the Valks, except the YF/VF-19 and maybe the Q-Rau (dunno, I haven't tried the Q-Rau yet), the clip snaps over the Valks, hip bars. Basically, it's a squarish or box shape plastic clip with two 'U' shape cut-outs that go over the Valks hip bars. I'll try to take some pics of the clips tonight as I know I'm not explaining very clearly. Graham

Awwww , that´s so cute , he´s already interested in the valks , Graham you surely have some very hairless legs BTW Ha, that's my wife's leg in the background. Graham

October 22nd, great that's a week before my birthday! That means I should get it from CD Japan in time to watch on my Birthday Graham

I would not treat a model kit as cannon though, especially one which is a fan made scratch build or conversion. Graham

I'd like to be able to read what it says in the second photo, under "History of Art". Looks like the front landing gear is not attached, which makes me think it's a fan custom. IIRC, the front & rear landing gear was glued in on the YF-19. Graham

That's interesting. I've also never heard of or seen that before. I'm wondering if it is legit or a fan custom? It's never appeared in any of the hobby mags AFAIK. Graham

Another potential problem is that the clip for the VF-11B attaches very firmly to the hip pegs and requires a bit of force and twisting to remove. While this is not a problem on the steel reinforced hip joints of the FP version, I'm worried it could cause breakage on the original 'weak hip' version when removing the clip. Graham