Vifam7

No, these things happen all the time in the business world. Licenses can be sub-licensed. Special exceptions and permissions can be made. Etc. etc. However, it's highly unlikely that you will see something Macross Frontier-wise from Yamato that currently and directly competes with Bandai's MF DX toys or 1/72 model kits.

The one nice thing about the VF100s VF-25 is that they are actually in 1/100 scale. It allows you to be "in scale" with other 1/100 scale toys. And if you're into building robot anime model kits, 1/100 is a pretty popular scale.

The cruiser that was in the Philadelphia Navy Yard was USS Des Moines. The ship is no longer there. Scrapped a few years ago. In case anyone's interested, the following battleships are also museums - USS Alabama - Mobile Bay, Alabama USS Massachusetts - Fall River, Massachusetts USS North Carolina - Wilmington, North Carolina USS Texas - Houston, Texas

With the VF-1, many of us went from 1/55 Takatoku to 1/60 Yamato V1 to 1/48 Yamato to 1/60 Yamato V2. Some also may have even made side purchases of the Toynami... No sympathy from me. Not likely. The complaints on the VF-27 have been minimal.

Thanks! I actually thought about cutting that part off but I left it in because the stalk was already really long and I thought some kind of arm-like looking thing was needed to pull the leg in. Ideally, I should've modded it so that it connects with the bay but that's the kind of work I'm not quite confident with yet. Maybe one day...

Very nice and restrained. No crazy wings, ground effect body kits, overly thick tires, and other such nonsense. I approve. Does the A/C still work?

Make it 1/12 scale so I can plop in my K-On! figmas.

peter, Can we get a full pic of your car? I love old cars that are tastefully modified.

Do not use isopropyl alcohol to clean Bandai, Yamato, or any other toy! IPA can strip off lacquer paint used on just about every toy out there and even eat into tampo prints. Just use a bit of clean water and a soft cloth like that used to wipe eye glasses.

Sorry, the model is locked in fighter mode. When I was building the kit, I broke the left shoulder mechanism. Honestly though, having now built this kit and knowing its workings, I would advise NOT to paint or decal, if you intend on transforming the model. There are just too many places where the paint and decals can get easily scratched or chipped. And transforming means you have to touch and handle the model all over the place. Heck, even during the buildup, I had to be careful not to scratch up certain areas. Clear coating can help but it's not foolproof. If you want to transform and play with these Bandai models, I would advise to simply snap the kit together, use the stickers, and call it done.

Thanks guys for the kind words! I'm most proud of the fact that I actually finished. Now, what do I build next...

Finally finished my Bandai 1/72 scale VF-27 Lucifer kit. I think I’ve been working on it since Summer 2010. Since the design of the VF-27 seems to be influenced by the SR-71 Blackbird, I decided to paint and decal just like it. Please ignore the stick holding the canopy up. I just used it to keep the canopy up when photographing. I’m not really skilled in building kits, so if you see faults, it’s due to my lack of skills. Some of the other photos are here: http://s261.photobucket.com/albums/ii43/Vifam7/plamo/Bandai%20VF-27/ The kit wasn’t that hard to build up but it does consume a lot of time as it is a complex kit with a ton of pieces. The one section folks should be careful with is the shoulder mechanism. Don’t use too much force in putting it together as it will break easy if you do. I broke the left shoulder on mine. But since I was intending to lock this kit in fighter mode, it’s not a problem for me. As for painting, even though mine is mainly an one color paint job, the work still took a lots of time. This mainly due to the inherent design quirks of the VF-27 and the transformation feature that Bandai incorporated. On this build, I decided to use the UN Spacy decals from the Hasegawa VF-1 kit, 1/72 SR-71 decals from Rocketeer Decals, and a few stickers from this VF-27 kit. I decided not to apply on all the VF-27 stencils and whatnot decals on this build because I didn’t think it’d look good and moreover I didn’t want to do the work. I went with the UN Spacy markings because they are so much better looking than the SMS or NUNS stuff (IMO ). Besides, the red & white UN Spacy insignia makes a striking contrast to the black don’t you think? BTW, can anyone tell me why Hasegawa’s UN Spacy insignia decal is a two-piece affair? It was a major pain in the butt to get the two-pieces to align while also adjusting the placement of the insignia! One thing I changed on this build was the landing gears. The included landing gears pieces in this kit are out of scale and just don't look good. So, I decided to use the landing gears from a 1/72 F-14 kit I recently ruined. For the nose gear, I snipped the insert peg from the kit’s nose gear and glued it to the F-14’s gear. On the main landing gears, I simply trimmed the F-14 legs a bit and inserted them backwards. The main gear wheels are from a snap-fit Hornet kit. Too bad I can’t do this mod for the 3 VF-25 kits I still have left to build. Finally, since I painted and decal’d it as a reconnaisance plane, I decided to clip a TARPS pod on the belly. Yes, I know that the TARPS pod is a F-14 Tomcat equipment, but I thought it’d look cool hanging from this VF-27 so I did. In retrospect I think I wasted my time figuring out a way to hang that TARPS pod from the arm because it's barely visible.

If you look at some of the anniversary and Tiger Meet schemes of real life fighters, it's really not all that unrealistic. See links below. http://www.amv83.fr/Asm/galleryjapan.htm http://s362974870.onlinehome.us/forums/air/index.php?showtopic=135452 http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?t=61746

Just finished watching the movie... It was fantastic! Anime to live-action adaptations often don't go well but they definitely did it right this time. The special effects, CG work, and props were all well done. Best of all it retained the much of the original's story and "feel" but without feeling dated. I'm also glad they kept/used much of the "Uchuu Senkan Yamato" music. Admittedly though, the movie was more emotion than complex sci-fi story. And it's missing the anti-war element from the original anime. Then again it's a movie so I guess there's only so much they can include. I thought combining was pure genius. While I thought it was an awesome movie, I'm not sure if foreign audiences can connect with the story. Maybe too simplistic a story and the "last days of WW2 Japan" vibe might not work? [shrug]

Japanese photos and reviews http://show-kera.blog.so-net.ne.jp/2011-06-25 http://hustler24atelier.wordpress.com/2011/06/19/yf29da/ http://blog.kuruten.jp/bat/167447

I don't know if a 'director's cut' can save that Rebirth movie. My Blu-ray copy is on the way from Japan. There's no way I'm going to watch this movie as a cruddy fansub or video file on my PC monitor. There are certain shows that I wait for the Blu-ray disc to watch it in full HD glory on a big HDTV. This is one of them.

This news doesn't surprise me at all. Interview articles in the hobby magazines from months past were hinting that Bandai was thinking of doing a vers2.0. The success and positive reviews of the VF-27 was probably key. For those who want to know - it says on the bottom left box : (rough translation] A new evolution to the DX Chogokin VF-25 Messaiah!? As we enjoy the evolvement of the DX Chogokin Valkyries, in response to numerous calls for a improved VF-25 in the future, there is now news that an all new design VF-25 chogokin is in the works. Details to come in the next issue!

That'd be impossible on the 1/72 kit unless you eliminate the transformation feature. Granted that's how the kits should've been from the beginning (IMHO) but that's a whole other discussion. I managed to get a pretty decent fit on my VF-27 build though (almost finished). I see the issue on the 1/100 kit but then it's an 1200yen kit. I guess, you get what you pay for.

People seem to forget that all of the classic robot anime series from the 80's (Gundam, Macross, Mospeada, Dunbine, etc) were aimed at kids to sell toys and plamodels. 20+ years later we still love 'em and buy toys/plamodels of them.

The character style reminds me a bit of GEAR FIGHTER DENDOH.

Hopefully Bandai will make a MG kit of this.

Maybe Doraemon universe. http://doraemon.tropicalwikis.com/wiki/Moshimo_Box