Renato

Does anyone have the Yamato 1/48 FAST packs? The sticker sheet comes with Budweiser and that funny Octopus thing labels to put on the micro missiles!! BEST THING EVAARR!!

Hello there. I own the book. It's very nice as a novelty item (after all, it was given away as a free gift with an issue of Animage), but for a "dictionary" it's rather thin. The first few pages are in colour, if I remember correctly it's an image collection of the main characters and opening animation, etc. for SDF. The rest of the book is printed in green ink only and lists in a fair amount of detail, with many lineart illustrations, a lot of things you may or may not have known about SDF Macross. Interesting entries that come to mind are "Cars" and "Vending Machines". It's not just things, places and apparatus that are listed, but more abstract things like the explanation of the term "Satan's Dolls", etc. On the whole, a good little book if you're already a knowledgeable fan.

In the case of M7, Mikimoto did the original designs, and they looked great. Then Kenichi Katsura (I think that's his name, I always forget) came along and re-did them for the anime. So, in the case of Mikimoto, yes, they are dumbed down. But I think for Miyatake and Kawamori, they finalised their own designs themselves. Kawamori recalls in one of the books, I think it's M7 Materials, that in the original SDF show he was always being told to simplify his designs as they were far too complicated for anime. When it came to doing M7, he foresaw this and purposely did simple designs. Then, in contrast, he was told to make them look MORE complicated as they were far too simple!! Anyway, take a look at the design works book and just be glad that a lot of that stuff DIDN'T make it into M7, e.g. the Valks with valk-sized guitars, with goggles, combining-valks (a-la Getter), etc. Phew!

Brainwashed by Space monsters to draw giant space monsters? Interesting... Even if he was, you'd think they would have brainwashed him so he'd make them look at least a little menacing. Since we're talking about interesting tidbits, Tetsuro Amino, the director of M7 also worked more recently on that children's anime called Chacha and something something... Anyway, it's about a little boy and his pet dog/car. I'm sure someone here has seen it and can explain better....

You think that's bad. I spent 5 minutes shaking and weiging boxes, before choosing 3 boxes and all 3 were sara! Graham Bloody Sara! Wouldn't be so bad if she didn't lean like she does.

I have a FAST pack set for my low-vis, but of course that particular connecting piece is all white, so I don't use it. I think the FAST packs are fine without the extra piece, aren't they? Or is there a danger of too much strain...?

I got my first 1/48 last week. It's a low-vis valk. After a couple of days one of the tiny little connecting ends of the gunpod strap has split, so although it stays connected most of the time, the strap tends to fall off from the connecting ring. If you get me. I wonder if this is a common problem. I suppose it's not so difficult to fix if I just get some adhesive for it, but still... Anybody else have this happen to their 1/48 strap? EDIT-- Yes, I just saw the previous page... looks like it's not a rare occurrence.

Yeah, I shook the one I bought, too. Still got Sara.

The larger monsters are done by Miyatake, while Mikimoto takes care of the humanoid ones like Sivil, Gavil, etc. And Agent, the VF doesn't sing.

Two or three weeks ago I was in a shop which was called simply "TOY". It was on the fifth floor or so of this building. Anyway, I walked in to find, to my surprise, it was actually a porno manga shop. However, among all the hentai paraphenalia, they had lots of these Perfect Rei figures around... I'm no Evangelion fan so it could have been another figure, but I distinctly remember it was very poseable, and the packaging does look similar. I remember taking a good look at it because I thought to myself, "Hmm... this looks quite nice... Even though I have no interest in Eva I could buy this..." And also the fact that I often go to hobby and model shops but I'd never seen that figure before.... Hmm indeed. Now where was that shop again..? Can't remember... And I don't particularly want to ask directions to a hentai shop... I repeat, be aware that I may be mistaken.

I only got one figure. I was gonna buy opened ones, but they are twice the price of unopened ones, with the Minmay diorama one being about four times the price (Y2000) if i remember correctly. So I just got one, hoping for Basara. Actually I got Sara. I don't mind the sculpt, but the pose is terrible. I'm sure whoever designed it thought it looked good on paper. Sadly, PVC BENDS. Now we have Sara Nome doing "the Lean" (Michael Jackson eat your heart out!) and of course, I don't have Mao to prop her up against. Anyway, I hope that opened Basara is still there...

For me: No VF-0S, but maybe a stand for the VF-11B. I don't like the VF-0S design, like many others here. But the second they release the SV-51 I'll grab one. Or even the VF-0D. I'm sure we'll see those soon after the Focker release.

Another pic

Here's the Bandai 1/44 VF-11, all built-up with the TECT grade-up kit to make the Full Armour Thunderbolt. It's a sweet piece of kit. Also, they're cheaper than I thought they'd be, but they are rare now. I'll see if I can find some myself, too...

what do you do outside of running of this site? i'm from Toronto. Go Leafs. You think I have time to do anything else? Graham well how else do you get to fund your toys? He probably sold his soul on ebay or something.... But really, I'd like to know as well. I've got two theories. 1) Graham actually is hunky Hollywood action hero, Nicolas Cage. That's a million in the bank everytime he wields a gun around. Hello? Hong Kong -- John Woo! Anyone else see the connection? He hired Woo to direct him cause he wants to stay close to home in order to afford cheap Valkyrie toys. 2) Graham actually is hunky Japanese mecha designer supreme, Shoji Kawamori. The Holy Froating Head... is actually a mask!! Well, you never see them together, do you? Yet Graham has written loads of essays on, for instance, the background behind each VF-19 variant; he can quote chapter and verse of the Variable Fighters Aero Report from the Macross Plus TIAS, and to top it all off, HE'S BEST MATES WITH THE YAMATO CHIEFS AND TELLS THEM HOW ACCURATE OR INACCURATE THEIR RENDITIONS OF KAWAMORI'S DESIGNS ARE. One and the same. There you have it -- It's time to reveal your true identity, Mr. Parkes!

Now this is cool stuff. Set of three. I also never knew that they actually made FAST pack versions, too, and even a transformable SDF-1. And I always thought they were just novelty sharpeners (weren't they?).

Yeah, I had one of these, too. They've been described as "the Banprestos of their day". Mine was probably my first Macross toy, too. Either that, or Jetfire. I think I had the Skull-001 type, but the colours weren't entirely accurate. Don't really remember, but I do remember it was fun!

In all seriousness now, I do admit to actually having used them for target practice. To be fair, it was an experiment. I wanted to see if the spring-loaded gunpod of the 1990 1/55 VF-1S reissue was as powerful as that of the new reissues. Answer: No. Had a lot of fun to get those results, though.

Another non-existent South American here. Interesting poll. You've got Asia Minor, SE Asia, "Hong Kong" and "Japan". What the hell is going on??

The answer is simple. Kawamori has stated that the REAL story is the TV series. The DYRL movie is supposed to be a movie based on the TV series. So Max was never macronised. Yes, it's so simple. The real story is the TV show... So who sang the song "Do You Remember, Love"?? Minmay? Well, if the movie was made in 2030-whatever, how could she? She was dead, or missing, or whatever! Yet that record remains her most famous song within the Macross universe. Interesting, since according to the series, she never sang it. And also, why the hell is Max's other daughter, Emilia, macronized?

Except that the narrator (Ray) in Mac7 tells us that Exedore has not been micronized. Gah!

Shouldn't be too hard to find in Japan, and I believe the average price is around Y8,000 for a second-hand, good quality one. Incidentally, that's also the original retail price. You'll have to fork out to get it shipped to you in the "United State of California" (is EVERYONE here from LA??), though, as it's a really heavy book.

The Alphonse is a "Labor In Action". I don't think Bandai ever did any more of the labors, just Alphonse. I could be wrong, though. As for the Banpresto shoulders, I don't really have too much of a problem with them, they're similar to the way the Yamato 1/60 shoulders loosen over time. When that happens I coat the sockets with something. Anything, really. The real problem with the banprestos is when the knees and elbows loosen. The forearm is put together with glue, so it's not as if you can easily take it apart and re-touch the joint. And no, that version of the Phalanx does not exist in M7, or anywhere but the dark depths of my insane mind. That's not to say there aren't any "wacky" VF-1 and Destroid customs which do appear in M7, though..

Yup. I've got a couple of sitting here, myself. Surprisingly posable, once the arms are tightened up. IMO, they're far more poseable than the Yamato 1/60 versions.

Hey, it's not like he drew it or anything.