Graham

The Doyusha VF-1J Hikaru was cancelled and never made it into production I agree, these are nice little toys if quite pricey. IMO, the best of the bunch is the YF-21. I'm still POed that I accidently dropped mine from a height of about 3 feet and it landed on it's plastic canopy, which shattered into about half a dozen small pieces. Have to get a replacement someday. I'm pretty sure that Doysha has no plans to continue with this line, as sales were somewhat lower than anticipated. Graham

No, the Low-Vis 1/48, which was painted by Mr. Naoki Kimura first appeared in the February 2003 issue of Hobby Japan magazine. Graham

The Metal Siren may have better combat performance in the anime, but IMO, it is an ugly, ugly Valk that looks like it's been cobbled together out of mis-matching parts. The VF-2SS Valkyrie II and VF-2JA Icarus on the other hand are just so beautiful and sleek looking. Graham

Even I don't know what's next for the 1/48 line after the VF-1J Hikaru in November. However, my completely unofficial guess would be Max & Millia VF-1J. I guess another possibility would be a DYRL Max VF-1S. Personally, I'd like to see some more non-canon color schemes, like some of the ones that have appeared in Model Graphix magazine. Graham

My agent tells me it's a little bit early to get hotel rates for January. In the meantime, here's a couple of web sites with info on HK hotel pricing. HK Hotels And HK Hotels It would also help if you can all let me know your rough budgets and if you all would prefer to stay in the same hotel. Graham

That is not a Yamato prototype. Neither is it the Hasegawa. the Hasegawa will be much more detailed. Studying the pictures I seriously doubt that it is in anyway transformable. Mostly likely, it is just a scratch build by a talented amateur, or possibly judging by the low level of detail and poor placement of parting (seam) lines a prototype of a game prize toy by perhaps Banpresto. Graham

Sounds good, I'm always up for meeting fellow MWers and having some drinks. Not sure I can persuade my wife to come though. She's not a Macross fan and gets very bored and irritable when I sit around talking Macross and toys Graham

Just to clarify a few points: - 1) The Monster is definitely confirmed, but we won't see it until the first quarter of next year. Yamato were not happy with some areas of the design and also the level of detail, so the Monster is currently undergoing a bit of a redesign and also having a 'detail-up' face lift. B) 2) Despite what some people have posted in the past on the old MW Forums, no other Destroids or enemy mecha besides the Q-Rau are confirmed at this time. Yamato are considering a lot of stuff, but no firm decision on whether to produce these items has been made yet. At the moment, it's a case of wait and see! Graham

If Yamato made the new Macross Zero Destroid, I would like to see it with electrically powered rotating gatling gun barrels. Perhaps also a sound chip for the gun firing sound as well. Graham

I'll do some research on hotel rates. Graham

I think it varies. Sometimes Kanto is more expensive, sometimes Animate. But I think you are right that generally Animate is a little cheaper overall. Yes I also noticed that Animate's stock usually seems more limited though. No, I don't get over to Causeway Bay much, probably just once or twice a month as I live out in the New Territories and my office is in Kowloon side. Actually, my office is fairly close to Mong Kok, so it's very easy for me to go and check out the Mong Kok branches of Animate & Kanto during my lunch break. Graham

OK, I just checked the Kanto Hobby and Animate stores in Mong Kok during my lunch break and as of today Wednesday August 27th at 1.30pm (HK time) they still DO NOT have the VT-1 and VE-1. Graham

My first yamato was of course the YF-19 ver.1. I bought 3 of them the day they were released. This was long before I had any contact with Yamato (that didn't start until after the release of the YF-21). I remember when I first handled the toy being a bit disappointed with the paint job of the YF-19 and the groin piece blcking the gunpod in fighter mode, but I still loved it, as in terms of an accurate sculpt, it was light years ahead of Bandai's horribly out of proportion VF-19Kai/VF-19S toy. And yes, I broke the Tab-B on one of my YF-19 toys, but only on one. It actually didn't bother me that much as I was able to work out a fix for it pretty quickly. The last few years have been a real pleasure for me with release after release of new Macross toys, each one better than the last. OK we'll forget the VF-11B shall we Compared with the dark decade of the lat 80's to late 90's where we had no new Macross toys accept the Macross 7 toys, we are in real heaven now with so much choice. Yamato just keeps getting better and better. The 1/48 really deserves the title of Masterpiece and with the addition of the FAST packs should be even better. I think Yamato's releases in the next few years are going to blow us away. Graham

Haven't checked the toy stores here in HK yet, but will do so during my lunch break in a little over an hour and report back after lunch. As far as I know, the toys aren't supposed to be released until Aug 29th or 30th. Graham

Hmm...the leg mounted air brake is interesting. I'd always assumed those hatches on the lower legs were for internal missile bays. Graham

Don't shoot me for this, but legal issues aside, perhaps Toynami should see if they can get a Macross II toy license from Big West. Heck that might be the only way we will ever see Macross II toys. Toynami do seem to have been getting better with their sculpts recently (FPs & Alpha MPC). Graham

From what I've been told, yes it's true. Unfortunately, what this means is that the chances of seeing any Yamato Macross II toys are slim to none until Yamato have made every Kawamori designed VF first. Only then would Kawamori say "Go ahead, I don't care, you've made all my stuff already". B) Graham

Heh, I'm the opposite. I love Mylene. I'd like to move my hands down from her shoulders to her ******* and squeeze B) On the other hand if we are talking about Basara, that is one character I could happily throttle. Throughout the whole series I was so wishing that Gamlin would plug him in a *ahem* friendly fire accident. Anyway jokes aside, as others have said Macross 7 is not everbody's cup of tea. Personally I love it, despite my dislike of Basara. In fact I probably prefer it to original SDF Macross. If you can get past the Valks with human faces, the over-use of stock footage in the combat scenes then you are in for one heck of a ride. Graham

In fighter mode, I'm pretty sure it would have to flip the backpack up to have the wings all the way back and touching. Graham

IIRC, the TV Hikaru VF-1J is not supposed to have a colored visor rim. Graham

The new October 2003 issue of Dengeki Hobby magazine shows that the next series of Gundam Ultimate OP will include the EZ-8 (from 08thMST) in at least two different color variations and IIRC a Gouf Custom as well. Graham

Heh, heh, that's not the currant issue any more, the latest issue is the October 2003 issue which has been out 3-4 days already. Graham

Did anybody (Junmei, Munkey Nugget?) go to the C3 2003 character show event in Tokyo (August 23-24)? They may have had a playable demo of the new Macross game there. Graham

My most prized possessions used to be my original Takatoku and Bandai 1/55 Valks, but I got rid of most of them since the 1/48 came out. I don't really have a single most prized possesion, I love them all. Graham

Not just that, C1 usually has the BSG nose/shield. A1 usually the normal nose/shield. Graham