Graham

Here's the pics from the new May 2004 issue of Dengeki Hobby magazine. This time we get a pic of the back of the battroid. Graham

According to the new Dengeki Hobby magazine, looks like the release date for the 1/100 VF-0S is now June 2004. Graham

I think the battroid mode nose is the only part shortened. However, one thing I'm not sure of is exactly how long are the removeable and swapable nose cones. I suspect they may consist of the complete nose & cockpit section. i.e. from the tip of the nosecone all the way until the neckpeice (where the head attaches). If this is the case, your idea might not work as to transform the toy from battroid mode to fighter mode, I know it is necessary to remove the neck peice from the battroid mode nose section. So to make your idea of only using the fighter mode nose cone in all 3 modes, you would have to modify it to accept the battroid mode neck piece as well. Anyway, your proposed modification would leave two holes in the nosecone for fighter and gerwalk mode and probably destroy the two red color hybrid sensors on the sides of the nose as well. Plus you would end up with a disproportionately long nose in battroid mode. Graham

Just like to add, it looks like this toy definitely has a mid-calf rotation point (where the red band runs around the lower leg), just like the 1/60 VF-1. Graham

I suspect you are probably right Oh well, maybe we will be able to disassemble the toy and modify it by cutting off those ugly hip joint buldges and shortening the pegs that join the leg to the nose. Graham

After seeing this thread, I've been thinking all morning about which toys I've found disappointing. The problem is so far I can't think of any toys that have really disappointed me. The Banprestos were crap, but according to the rules of this thread they don't count and I never really had high expectations for them anyway. I guess the problem is that I do a lot of research before I buy a toy, so I generally know what I'm buying and also I really only collect Macross toys and Gundam Sentinel FIX toys. That's it two toy line only. I'll probably also buy the MPC Alpha/Legioss when they come out, unless they turn out to be total peices of junk. As a kid, I collected Star Wars figures, but it's been what 20 years since I last bought one. I guess I'm going to have to vote for the Yamato 1/72 scale YF-21 FAST Pack version as the most disappointing toy. Horrible color, poorly sculpted gunpods and FAST packs and the damn thing never wouldn't lock together properly in fighter mode. Graham

From the new Dengeki Hobby magazine. I'll scan them as soon as I get home. Graham

More pics coming in about 5 hours, stay tuned. Graham

Is this a certainty? The only thing certain in life is death. I was going to say 'death and taxes', but a clever man can avoid tax. Graham

Not much chance, in fact I'd say extremely slim. Unfortunately, those days are probably long gone. So, I'll be buying retail just like everybody else. Graham

Yamato don't really seem willing to have any contact at the moment, so it's no use to ask them questions for now. I'm sure a VF-0D will be coming soon. Graham

20cm has been mentioned, but I'm not sure if this is the height in battroid mode or the length in fighter mode. I do recall that Yamato did mention to me that the VF-0S battroid was only slightly shorter than the VF-11B battroid toy. Graham

The VF-0S head certainly looks a lot better painted. In the unpainted pics in the April Hobby magazines, I thought the head looked horrible. Graham

That is the Hasegawa SV-51 plastic model kit and so should be discussed in the MW Model forum, NOT the toy forum. Let's keep this thread on topic. Thank you. Graham

Just to clear this up, the picture's caption says that they first introduced the VF-0 1:100 in the April issue of the magazine. There is no mention of when the VF-0 will go on sale. Thanks for that clarification. Graham

The only thing that I really don't like about the toy is the hip joints in battroid mode. Not only are the ugly, but they place the hips too far away from the nose. However, as I love the VF-0 design, even if Yamato don't change this, I'm still planning to buy 3. Graham

Anyone?..................Bueller? Do the feet belong to something that was cropped out of the pic, Graham? C'Mon, you know how it is...........WE CAN'T GET ENOUGH!!!! You go ahead and post an update on something that hasn't been released, and we're already concerned with what's next!!! The feet on top are of some ugly looking samurai robot, nothing to do with Macross or Yamato. No idea what series it's from. As this site is 'Macrossworld', NOT 'uglylookingsamurairobotworld', there is no need to show the pic Graham

Price is supposed to be somewhere between ¥4000 to ¥4400 (to be confirmed). The toy is also supposed to come with the wing missiles and the leg FAST packs as well, although these have not been shown yet. Graham

Here's a picture to illustrate what I mean about the wings. On the Hasegawa model kit, the narrow portion of the wing trailing edge, where it meets the fuselage is quite long. On the Yamato toy, the same area appears very short. Graham

Larger version of the pic now up in the MW magazine section here. Graham

BTW, a slightly bigger version of this pic will be going up in the magazine section in a few minutes. Graham

Guys, straight from the just released May 2004 issue of Hobby Japan Magazine, here's pictures of the painted Yamato 1/100 scale VF-0S toy. A few comments about the toy shown in these photos: - The hip joints still look fugly and too big. About a month ago, Yamato told me that the hip joints would be made smaller, so there are two possibilities here. 1, this is a painted earlier sculpt, pre-modifcation. Or 2, Yamato are not going to change the hip joints. Guess we just have to wait and see! I note that the tail fins and heatshield do not feature Skulls. I had previously advised Yamato to Tampo print the Skulls on, but I guess they decided not to (perhaps to save money?). This means we are probably going to get the typical crappy Yamato stickers. Oh well, maybe Takatoys can make up some of his superior quality stickers, or Devin can make his excellent decals. Maybe it's just the photos, or maybe the toy wasn't transformed correctly, but the tail fins look too vertical in fighter mode. They should be canted (angled) more outwards. Also, the tail fins look a little small IMO. The release date is shown as April. Maybe this is a mistake as previously the release date has been shown as May. It's unlike Yamato to release anything early. Where the wings connect to the backplate, they are supposed to narrow down (front to back distance). Compared with the Hasegawa model kit, the narrow area looks too short. Not sure which is correct. Anyway, here's the photos. Graham

What you have to remember is that when Destroids were originally designed, the UN Spacy probably didn't have a 100% clear idea of the aliens war fighting capability. Oh sure, they knew that the aliens were giant humanoids, but beyond that little else may have been known, so the Destroids were built to fight against giant humanoid soldiers, but proved seriously lacking againgst the faster and more mobile enemy mecha, especially the Q-Rau, N-Ger & Glaug. Destroids were probably phased out of service as they lack both the tatical and strategic mobility of VFs and also their sheer versitility. Graham

HLJ has pics of the various clamps. See here. Graham

I have both of those Macross CD-ROMS, although I haven't tried them for years, so not sure if they still work or not. What do you need? Graham