Renato

After applying nail varnish to the groin connectors on the 25G, I can say that it does not work (at least it does only until you transform the thing) and now the toy will no longer stand straight in Battroid mode. So I phoned Bandai and they said they would have to see just how bad it is as that is apparently a tricky area, and that I would have to send it to Tochigi Prefecture where they have their "Omocha no Machi" ("Toy Town"). Watch this space for further developments. Time to change my signature and update the scoreboard!

I liked the song at the end of the podcast. But as I said before, there's no way I'm ever watching another Oshii film again. He ruined Patlabor with the second film, I hated GitS and Innocence and I will never, ever forgive him for Tachiguishi-Retsuden, the most godawful, boring film I have ever, ever seen. Ever. I've been on an Oshii boycott since then. One thing, though. I heard from my friend that in the novel, you don't know the actual gender of the protagonist until the very end of the book, which I thought was quie ingenious... I guess that aspect is out the window for the film, though. Maybe not? I dunno, I guess any answer would ruin the movie so don't feel like you need to reply to that point.

I think a couple of the original SDF bunnies got married, too. Was it Shammie who even got divorced loads of times, too?

Actually it has been reissued a number of times. The latest reissue was last month (Feb 2009). I think mine is a first edition because of the crooked gunpod and the rear landing gear that doesn't angle out. EDIT: I always look at Japanese e-tailers to see what has been reissued when. e.g. http://store.shopping.yahoo.co.jp/pricebuster/gds-5276.html I think I read it on Yamato's page first, though I can't find it there now.

Wah. Double-post, sorry. By the way, good luck with your exams, man.

Guys, don't bother looking at lineart or anything. Bandai is using two different types of plastic apart from the die-cast, so even though they should be the same colour, it seems they couldn't get it just right. In fact, the colour differences are there in the Michael version too!! I guess in ff95gj's pics it looks more prominent... either that or that shade of green is indeed harder to match. In any case, it was one of the first things that bugged me about the Michael as soon as I took it out of the box. I quickly forgot about it when I noticed the other BS with the fig, though... If in fact the Luca looks this bad in person, though.... Jesus, I'm glad I got the Michael instead. I was on the fence there, for a bit. Kits, here I come!

Yes, did take lots of pictures, here we go. EDIT -- Argh. The order of the attachments is "last one first". OK, if you cycle from the end (bottom right) to the start (top left), that is the correct order to view the photos. So with that in mind: 1) This is the state of the right arm. The part that was developing cracks then exploded is the two-half bicep part which actually is not a unique complaint to me, I read it earlier in this thread. 2) Right arm: as you can see the plastic cylinder the screw goes in is also crumbling. 3) This is the left arm. It's not so clear, but there are a couple of large cracks developing. 4) OK, here are the new , relacement arms from Yamato. Maybe the glue dried or something, I don't know, but this is just a joke. 5) And here is the OTHER replacement arm. The part which "forms" the elbow in battroid is not very tight and doesn't really connect well. It has quite a visible gap, where it should really be nice and tight. 6) I figured I wouldn't have another chance, so I played around with a four-armed valk. I consider myself a Yamato customer service veteran by now. I'm sure they know my name with all the phonecalls I've made up to now. Overall, I think Yamato have proved that if you have a problem, they'll be happy to fix it... in exchange for a new one. I'm satisfied now only because the problems I have now are minor in comparison, which, really, should not be a good enough reason. However, I believe the dreaded stress marks on the grey blocks in the nose section will only worsen over time... Sigh. I'm not a gambling man, but really, that IS what this hobby has become.

Personally, I got over the aesthetic issues a long time ago. In my experience, though, if they sacrificed those details to make a durable and playable toy, then they failed in every count, because mine is neither durable nor playable. And yeah, I'm gonna make comparisons to the model because THAT VF-25 STAYS TOGETHER AND THE DX ONE DOESN'T. And no, I didn't glue the kit together or anything. That said, Yamatos at least look good before they fall apart.

I found the first couple of minutes on Nico Doga and the art style is fantastic. It's just the kind of stuff I love. Thank you, Area88, for digging up gems like this as usual. I see a few old VHS copies in some auction sites, but it looks like there's no DVD out... that figures, though.

Again, it is a totally different division making the kits to that making the toys.

As I stated in this thread weeks ago, it IS SUPPOSED to be Misa, according to Macross Chronicle. While we know that Misa wasn't in the VT-1 with her orange flight suit, she did actually wear one while she was on the other ship with Kaifun. Yeah, it definitely sounds like an excuse, but I guess Yamato are at least trying to balance Minmay and Misa fans. The best thing, of course, would've been to put Hikaru and Misa in their respective blue and gray uniforms.

Maybe it's just all in the vault.

In a way, it was two companies. At least two totally separate groups of people, because they were two different divisions. I can't remember the names right now, but one was called the "boys' hobby division" or something and the other was the "Collector's division"... Something like that. Anyway, the staff is totally different for both. Eriku -- Thanks, I will try the nail polish fix. Hope it turns out as well as yours.

Then you're better off getting the kits. You don't even need to paint them. And my DX collapses even without the super parts on. I might eventually coat the connectors with nail varnish and see if that helps. For the time being, I honestly cannot see what the fuss is about. I guess it's alright, but I wouldn't get another and definitely not worth the price. I will put the stand together next. Oh, I should add, the most impressive thing was Bandai's usage of space in their packaging. While you can fit ten valkyries inside one Yamato box, the Bandai boxes are compacted to the max with tons of stuff packed inside. I am really impressed with that. Kind of pathetic that the box is the most impressive thing, though.

I got a YF-19 the other day. The day after I realised there was a huge split in the upper right arm, and the left had severe cracks. I superglued the split together and it seemed to help, but the day after that the whole arm assembly spontaneously pulverised. I phoned Yamato as usual and they said they would send replacement arms. I got the replacement arms yesterday (the same day I received the Michel DX, by coincidence!). One piece was broken right out of the envelope, and another was a little faulty. Sigh... I have had to contact Yamato about almost every single one of my recent purchases: the 19, the sv-51, the OD Tomahawk.... I'm sure they know me by now. I just feel like Bandai and Yamato are laughing at me right now! I think I'll be calling it a day for toy collecting for the time being.

I got the Michel yesterday. It is my first DX Valk. Some thoughts (although mostly disappointments), after only playing around with it for about an hour in total: The hip armour is just total BS. It is beyond a joke. They fall off at the slightest touch. Knees cannot bend backwards with the super packs on, due to the rear-calf armour reaching too high up and restricting the range of the kneejoint. I liked the tiny details on the missiles inside the shoulder packs. The groin connection: This is my biggest problem with the toy. The tiny, tiny plug connecting the two halves of the toy together in Battroid mode is too weak to sustain the weight of the upper half, particularly when all the Super parts are on. So the whole thing just crumbles in half. It gets really, really repetitive and annoying. I disliked a lot of the design of the toy from the beginning, but when I heard about how pleased everyone was due to its sturdiness, I thought I would give it a chance, and that since I had low expectations due to its looks, I may end up liking it for what it is: a playable, fun toy, which resembles the cartoon closely enough. However, even that small expectation was dashed. I thought this toy was supposed to be fun to play with, but alas, it may just turn out to be just another display piece. Which means, yet again, I have to say the model kit serves all of these purposes much better, and is much more affordable. It's still early days and my views still may change, but so far this thing to me like it has neither looks, durability, nor play-value. If it's gonna rest on a shelf, there's the super messiah kit which I have yet to build.

Speaking of Mari, holy crap, look what I found: It's all in Japanese, but here's the jist: This is popular Japanese celebrity Tsurube way back in the day, talking to Mari about menstruation, impregnation by projectile saliva, Van Halen and the Bay City Rollers. Japanese TV at its finest.

Yeah, there are a couple of Mari DVDs out. http://www.amazon.co.jp/collage-DVD-%E9%A3...5192&sr=8-3 http://www.amazon.co.jp/%E3%82%B5%E3%83%A0...270&sr=1-22 Here's a clip from one which she put up herself.

Kinda OT... To the admin member or mod who bestowed upon me such a charming custom member description in response to my comments above... Erm, it would be "funnier" if you had actually spelled "hermaphrodite" correctly. And for some reason my signature has been screwed up.

Congrats! I finally FINALLY beat Miss Macross EX too! Snapped up the VF-27. Man, that's some crazy stuff it pulls when you go into overdrive. You tend to overtake any ship you're trying to catch up to, even the Ghost X9! I didn't get Brera, though. Dunno what you have to do to get him. Also, I guess you have to ace all of the Frontier missions with S or above to get the VF-171XE? Well... that's gonna take a while.

I had heard they would re-release series 1 since last year, but I still haven't seen them anywhere. I would like a Mylene, since I have Basara, or even Mao, since I have Sara, maybe Hikaru, since I have Roy. Or even Ishtar, for variety's sake.

I thought the first episode was OK, and the second was fantastic. Then when I saw the 7th episode I was like "woah, this is gonna be amazing! Whose is that purple valk?? Is it piloted by a protoculture kid? There's so much more intrigue to be revealed!" And then it just went downhill. I never cared about any of the characters, which is the main factor in whether I enjoy the show or not. It's the reason I like Patlabor, Cowboy Bebop, Macross 7, etc... Without interesting characters, this show is totally empty to me. Ooh, the drama of Alto and his whole frickin' family. Who cares. Two girls in love with an uncharismatic hermaphrodite. Why?? The action was good, but I might as well just watch an AMV on Youtube to get the lean meat without the extra fat. I re-watched the first few episodes as they aired a couple of times to pick out the details, but after a while I lost interest, so I have seen the whole show, but just once, on a crappy small-screen TV with a cheap VHS recording. I'm not in a hurry to watch it again.

See the Destroid thread. The Olive Drab is supposed to come with a normal set of stickers. I didn't get one, and I heard that one other member on the Destroid thread had the same problem. so as I suspected, it looks like Yamato screwed up a whole batch of them. I managed to get Yamato to send me one, but if you're outside Japan I suppose you can get Overdrive to send you stuff since they deal with broken/missing parts. The waterslides are only for the Weathered, though, so guess you would just have to buy more Tomahawks.

To be honest, it seems to me that this movie is not gonna be out by summer. I remember one of the voice actors at the event saying that "If it comes out by the end of the year..." Not to mention that they were open to opinions, so that if there was anything people really wanted to see in the movie that they should take advantage of Kawamori being there to hear opinions, because there "is still time to change stuff".... I very much got the impression that at that time (Feb 22nd), the script's final draft hadn't even been completed yet. Certainly production was still in its very early stages. A trailer is all we may get by summer.

Well, I'm really happy that Yamato listened to Graham, yet again. I remember when the original 1/72 VF-11 was in the prototype stage and Graham told them to change the Fast Packs because they were wrong. Which kind of bothers me... I thought Kawamori checked the development of the toys every so often? I guess Bandai have him right now, so he cannot go over to Yamato and give them input. It also bothers me that if they heard about this first from Graham, then it means that no Japanese industry person nor consumer has complained once about it. That paints an interesting picture. When Yamato says something like "Well... no Japanese consumers have complained about X/Y/Z..." does it mean that Japanese consumers don't really give feedback? It was certainly my image that they didn't, but now I think we have a little more proof.