Vifam7

Exact same mold... but will it also mean "exact same quality"? If it's Bandai's product simply being repackaged, we're safe. But if it's the 1/55 mould/design being manufactured at Toynami MPC standard/tolerances.....

I have to agree with Shin Densetsu and misterryno above. IMHO, for your first Valkyrie toy, the Takatoku/Bandai 1/55 is the one to get. Especially if you intend to play with your Valkyrie toy. Considering your budget, the Takatoku/Bandai 1/55 is perfect. For $100 you could get an 1/55 with fast packs (the extra booster/armor option parts) included. A 1/48 Yamato will cost you double if you want the fast packs. If you're considering the upcoming 1/60 Yamato (which costs around $110-$120), you might want to wait for reviews to pour in before you spend your money. First editions of Yamato toys sometimes have niggling issues that you might not want to deal with.

Hard to tell. It looks like the bottom of the poster (near the YF-21) it says "Series 2 to release soon".

A Korean knockoff is not worth $32.65+shipping. Somebody actually bought the darn thing!

Messiah? Blah, stupidest name ever. Sounds like a name thought up by a religious fundamentalist. x_x

I have a copy. Bought it used. The slipcover was beatup but the book itself was still tight. It cost a pretty penny. Almost regretted buying it, until I opened the pages. Keep an eye out on Ebay. It pops up on occaison. Or you could use a proxy bidder/buyer like Celga, Shopping Mall Japan, or CrescentShop and get it now from Yahoo Japan auctions. This copy comes with the Valk poster which mine did not come with: http://page11.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/n59567643 Who knows maybe it'll be reprinted one day.

It's a diecast model of the Mave. Probably the same one that was included with the limited edition Blu-ray release. I must have it.

The Amiami site description of these GN-U toys have customizability as one of the 3 points. Parts are easy to take off and put on due to a shared internal frame it says. These GN-U toys look pretty good to me. What's wrong with the YF-19? Tightness of joints and parts is one thing I'd worry more about these toys than sculpt tho.

There was once a resin cast kit of the Type 61 tank in 1/144 scale released by B-Club.

Warera, Loli, Konda How many of you understand this in-joke?

To quote a line from the movie The Battle of Britain - "Undercarriage lever a bit sticky, was it sir?" Give the pilot a break, he probably just got transfered from a Gladiator squadron.

Bandai does replace parts but not for folks outside Japan. It is always important to check the contents of a kit before you start building it. In fact that is the first and immediate thing I do when I get a kit. Look at the booklet and check the runners. If there is a piece missing, try contacting your seller.

iTunes works but IIRC it's not really generating bountiful profits for those rights holders. Besides, anime is a different product altogether. First of all, it's a very niche product with a narrow customer base that is fickle and lately accustomed to getting the product for free. And what is the "right price"? The right price I think is $0 Look at this way, if Macross Frontier was available for download (with English subs) for $2-$5 per episode how many fans do you think will pony up when they know a HDTV quality fansub is available for download FOR FREE via bittorent?

You can NEVER price it low enough to fight and win against P2P distributed free anime. Also - Low prices doesn't always equate to higher sales or higher profit. As more and more fans prefer to take anime via P2P and not put their money back into the industry, the anime industry will continue to shrink and likely lead to higher prices. With less product and higher prices, perhaps anime fandom too will diminish. And that might not be such a bad thing.

No, I watch all my DVDs on a SD set. But yeah, if you watch the HD Remaster release on a HDTV it looks horrible - at least with the current HDTV setup in my home. It might look better if I had a decent up-converting DVD player. Dunno. I watch my DVDs on a SD set because well... the SD TV set is in my room. The HDTV is elsewhere. Besides, since DVDs are all SD/NTSC, it'd probably be best to not watch them on HDTVs. No?

Thanks. I hope it's not a documentary with a slanted political view.

I didn't see any problems on my copy. In anycase, it's the best version out there.

Perhaps the best way to watch DYRL is to buy the Japanese HD Remaster edition and watch it on your computer. To do this, you'd first have to make your DVD playing software region-free (just google region-free DVD player). Then use something like DVD subber to add subs. Since you're a computer programmer I'm sure you'll find this a cinch to do.

The article mentions that he was particularly drawn by the "palm-sized" model of a Valkyrie. Then an interesting quote from Kawamori in the article. He says he likes small-size models (considers them 'cute') and that he'd like to have a small-size Valkyrie model even if it means not being perfect transformation (ie. parts exchange). Hmmm... 1/144 VF-25 kits? The article also mentions something about the metal presses for the "SDF Macross series" being revised for a re-release of the kits. Hmm.. another run of the old Arii/Imai kits?

By decent size - what do you mean? The 1/60 Perfect Grade models get pretty darn big. I think most folks generally like the 1/100 scale for Gundams. If you mean toys and not model kits, there isn't much variety outside of the 1/200 HCM Pros and 1/160-70-ish MSiAs. I really like the recent 1/144 Super-HCM Pros though (but there's no telling how long this line will continue - so far only 2 models)

I forget where I read - I think at AnimeOnDVD - the R2 SDF Macross TV Remaster Set is supposedly far superior to AnimEigo's set. Better, more correct colors and none of the ugly grain that AnimEigo infused back in. Obviously the Japanese had better masters to work with. The only negative of the Japanese set is that it doesn't come with English subtitles or ADV's English dub. Oh, and the high price.

Something for DYRL. A fan made joke trailer for Macross:DYRL using the audio from the Gamera 2 "Attack of Legion" trailer. Macross is the REAL GUARDIAN OF THE UNIVERSE:

That's "anime magic" at work. When dealing with anime robots, it's best not to get too concerned with scale and wonder if the size is correct. Those dimensions laid out in data books and whatnot were fabricated out of thin air. And so when they make scale models from such "data", you're bound to see some weirdness. And I'm sure when they design these robot models, the scale or size is probably fudged around a bit just to make the toy "look right".

The 3 movies will suffice plenty. In fact, it's probably better to watch the movies as they feature better animation and is seen as more canon than the TV series. Oh, and if you can afford it, get the Remastered DVD box set.. It comes with English subtitles and most importantly the original mono audio track. All U.S. DVD releases have the crappy "special edition" 5.1 audio track.

It wouldn't make sense for Yamato or anyone else to release 1/60 scale real world fighters. Real world fighter planes are already covered by numerous 1/72 scale diecast airplane makers. I don't think there's a market for 1/60 scale aircraft. Besides, I think Macross fans would rather have Yamato put their efforts in more Valkyrie varieties and enemy mecha than in a F-14 Tomcat or F-15 Eagle.