Graham

That grey part is the removeable engine intake cover, which you should remove for displaying a non-FAST pack equipped Valk in fighter mode. Or to make that a bit clearer, the only time this cover is open in the anime is when the valks are flying in fighter mode (and perhaps also Gerwalk mode as well) in an atmosphere. In battroid mode, or when the Valk is in space this cover stays closed. When you remove this cover, you can see the front of the engine. Graham

If your alternator is smokey, I suggest a visit to an auto mechanic to get it fixed. Graham

I've found a chainsaw, machette or meat clever works well on Harmony Gold products Graham

If you had a Roy type VF-1S I'd say go either Super or Strike, both look fine. But as you have the Hikaru VF-1S (my favorite 1/48 BTW), I'd say go Strike. It really looks much better as a Strike, which is how it is shown in DYRL. Graham

Forces of Valor toys recently started selling here in HK, so I've had a chance to examine them and I think if anything, David is being too charitable about the quality of their products. IMO, the panel lines on their 1/72 scale F-14 and Tornado suck bigtime. Basically a half blind retarded drunken chimpanzee with parkinsons disease could do a better job of panel lining. The panel lines on the Forces of Valor toys are ultra thick and way too dark. Most of them are not even straight, they wobble all over the place and there are lots of overruns, where the panel liner slipped and didn't clean up. The only Forces of Valor products that look half decent IMO are the 1/48 Apache and Blackhawk. PS, anybody wanting a good Tornado should buy the Corgi Aviation Archive version. Graham (still waiting for a 1/72 Corgi Eurofighter Typhoon)

Yes, the pilot has a face (Millia) under the visor. The visor is a seperate piece to the rest of the helmet/head. However, I'm not sure if on the production version, the visor will be removable or will be glued in place. Graham

As we have two near identical topics active at the same time, I'm closing this one. Graham

Quite looking forward to this. I'm a big fan of zombie movies, and I like Milla (especially naked) Graham

Tenjin's Valkyrie Maniax site has this good size comparison pic of a VF-1 and F-14. Graham

Well, we saw the 1/48 Hikaru VF-1A reissue for HK$580 and the 1/48 Max VF-1A for HK$599, which is pretty cheap. We also found the Yamato VF-11B FP & YF-21FP for HK$299, which is a good price. We also found the Bandai reissue 1/55 VF-1A Hikaru, VF-1S Focker and VF-1A CF for only HK$220 each. And not that I care about those yucky Tranny toys , but some members here do, so IIRC, the Takara Masterpeice Convoy was HK$680 and the neutered US version Optimus was HK$450 (I think). Graham

Generally referred to as a 'half Gerwalk mode'. Graham

The real next alternator! Sorry, the only alternators I know of belong in cars! Graham

My first Valk toy was the 1/72 Bandai VF-1S Hi-Complete, which I bought back in 1987. My first Valk model kit was the Imai 1/100 Armored Valkyrie, which I bought in 1982 or 1983. Graham

And Sebastian's baby can nearly say Macross. I heard him say "Ma....ma....", so he just needs to learn to say "cross" Graham

I remember being hugely dissapointed by this movie when I saw it at the cinema way back when. I was expecting lots of cool dogfights, but the film had hardly any action. Very anti-climatic. Two thumbs down. Graham

I have two of the VF-11B FP, both transformed about 20 times each and so far neither of them show any stress marks. Go ahead buy the toy, don't worry. Graham

And whatever you do, don't feed the Monkey! Graahm

Surely you don't have to be a fan of the cartoon, or even the entire franchise, to appreciate a nice, well designed transforming toy. Does it need some UN Spacy logos on it to garner any cudos from you? While I can appreciate nice engineering on a toy, that is not enough to make me rush off and buy it (or vote for it). For me to buy a toy, it has to be of a mecha design I actually like. The toy has to be aesthetically pleasing, well articulated and generally well designed. Lastly it should be from an anime or game I actually like. In my younger, wilder, more carefree days, I'd buy mecha toys just because they were well designed or had interesting gimmicks, irrespective of whether I actually like the mecha design or the anime it was from. Then one day not so long ago, I realised I had a house full of toys that I hardly ever looked at or touched, so I decided to get rid of most of them on ebay and stick just to the designs I really like. These days I have strict rules about which toys I purchase. My interests are mostly in 'real type military robots'. And even then I'm really picky. These days the only mecha designs that I find attractive enough to make me buy toys are Macross, Mospeada, Gundam Sentinel, V Gundam & Combattler V. That's it. The Takara Convoy may be a superbly engineered toy, but transfroming trucks and cars hold no interest for me, so I'd never consider buying it. Likewise, everybody raves about the Bandai SOC Dancougar, but as I find the concept of animals that transform/combine into robots silly, I'd never buy it. Same with the Bandai SOC EVAs. They may be great toys, but I've never liked the design, so why buy it. Graham

I'd advise you to buy at least one 1/48. I don't think you will regret it. I'd recommend starting with either the Hikaru VF-1J Super or the Hikaru VF-1S and a FAST Pack set. Graham

Don't worry, there are lots of the Japanese Convoy toys in HK, selling for HK$699 on average. I've seen it in nearly every hobby shop. I don't think they are selling too well, cus Transformers is not really that well known or popular in HK. Anyway, a quick update. On Monday night I met with Sebastian, Guppy, their lovely wives and Sebastian's very cute baby (who thankfully is much better looking than Sebastian ). We had dinner together, followed by drinks. Then on Tuesday, I had lunch with the bigwigs from Yamato as they are in town for the HK International Toy fair. I got to see and learnt about lots of upcoming cool stuff. Unfortuntely, I'm not allowed to talk about any of it. Unfortunately, I'm still waiting for the Shopathon T-shirts from the manufacturer. When I spoke to him Monday morning, he promised they would be ready at the latest by the morning of Friday 9th. I'm trying to chase him for an update. So, on Friday morning before the Shapathon I might have to rush over to Cheung Sha Wan to pick up 30+ T-shirts Anyway, I just like to ask all of you who are coming on Friday not to eat breakfast as we will have a late breakfast all together when we meet up at 11am before we set off shopping. Graham

Makes me wonder how popular the Transformers toys and animation actually are in Japan, as Transformers gets almost zero coverage in the Japanese hobby and anime magazines. Graham

That avatar is big enough already. If those puppies were any bigger, that poor girl would give herself two black eyes running like that. Graham

LMAO! Was the pun intended? Yes, it was intended. I know there are a lot of fans here, but sorry I just find the whole concept too silly. My pet name for the cartoon, toys and fans is 'Trannys' I'm still pissed that Panda Z didn't win toy of the year. Graham

I don't see why it's so difficult to believe that Kamjin used a resizing chamber to macronize Earth livestock to provide food for his troops. If Humans can be macronized, why not other living animals such as chicken, sheep, pigs and cows? In fact, once provisions start running out on board Breetai's remaining ships, it would probably be necessary to macronize Earth animals as a food source for the giant size Zentradi remaining on Earth. Or perhaps, Zentradi already have some type of giant livestock animal living onboard their ships. Their ships are certainly big enough to have a farm section. Or maybe they have farm planets whose sole purpose is to raise food for the giant Zentradi armies, and the warships just carry ample supplies of frozen food for their long journeys through space (freezers full of giant frozen chicken legs anybody)? As for the wine, perhaps it is a Zentradi wine bottle, not an Earth wine bottle. I don't think it's too difficult a stretch of imagination to consider that the Zentradi also developed bottles of a similar shape to Earth bottles. Or another possibility is after the end of Space War 1, with a considerable number of giant size Zentradi living on Earth, the various Earth industries, commercial enterprises etc would also start to produce Zentradi-sized consumer goods to cater to the giant size Zentradi, who are now employed on Earth and thus have spending power. Graham

Err.....hang on a minute. Not sure how I feel about being called a 'Higher Sauce' . Personally I prefer HP Sauce (buy me a bottle and I'll tell you anything) Graham