Renato

"Piece of piss" is an expression which means "it's easy". He was talking about the transformation.

This month's issue of "Cut" magazine -- basically the Japanese version of UK movie mag "Empire" (in fact, they often just carry translated articles from that publication) -- has a cover story on Macross and other anime. http://www.amazon.co.jp/Cut-%E3%82%AB%E3%83%83%E3%83%88-2011%E5%B9%B4-06%E6%9C%88%E5%8F%B7-%E9%9B%91%E8%AA%8C/dp/B004Y0AIJ0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1306231646&sr=8-1 Lots of pretty pictures if you like that kind of thing. However, I hear that the feature itself is poorly researched and just outright wrong at times. I haven't gotten it yet, only glanced through briefly. I was going to buy it, but my friend basically told me "you want it? Take mine, I don't want it! Get that sheet outta my house!" As I say, it might be worth it for the illustrations which I believe are all new.

I posted photos of this guitar at the end of this super-long post here: http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=31300&view=findpost&p=911320

Yep, three spots on the back.

FOR THE TOO LONG / DIDN’T READ CROWD: IT WAS A F***ING AWESOME CONCERT!!!!!! Thank you, you may move on. OK, let's see if I can do one of these. Not to be outdone by Tochiro and Gubaba, I shall try my hand at doing a concert write-up. Firstly, sorry for resurrecting this thread. The main reason I felt this was the best thread to post in to do this write-up is because I had already introduced the band Hummingbird in my first post here, and that's quite relevant here. Yesterday (Sunday) was the second day of Yoshiki Fukuyama's 20th Anniversary concerts. On Saturday, there was also a Chie Kajiura concert, for some reason scheduled on the same day. You can read Gubaba's excellent write-up of that one here: http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=29483&view=findpost&p=911067 I bought my ticket back in February, if I remember correctly. To be honest, even though it is the 20th anniversary of an excellent performer, I had this feeling that going to this concert felt more of a chore than anything else. I have seen Fukuyama live many, many times over the past ten years, and I know his basic routine. And he often misses notes and screws up lyrics, or mess up some riffs (though this one is quite rare). The last time I saw him was in Osaka over a year ago, and to be honest, it was the worst performance I'd seen, I was quite disappointed. I went to that one because it was the Revival of Fire Bomber gig, which would be the first time I saw Chie Kajiura and Fukuyama together. It was OK, music-wise, not bad, but he just looked beat from the day before in Tokyo, which I heard was pretty good. We got a shorter song list, a few mistakes, and the lack of coordination between Chie and Fukuyama showed quite a bit. And I’d seen most of the songs done live already anyway. There were only a couple of songs from the new album and I was expecting more. I decided to go anyway since I heard that Toshiyuki Furuya, the stray ex-Hummingbird bassist (and leader, technically) was going to be a guest performer. Well, after all that, I am happy to say yesterday’s performance was much, much better. Fukuyama looks, sounds and plays better, healthier, more confident. He used to cough a hell of a lot between songs, even between lyrics, during a performance, but not anymore. He didn’t do that once. He used to sound quite worn out, unable to hit high notes towards the end of the concert, but no more. He sounds as fresh and SHARP on the last lyric of the last song, as the first shout of the first bar of the first song. And he even noted this himself. A number of times, he said he was surprised at his own performance, where he used to struggle he now makes it look effortless. You can even see it in the Long Long Live DVD: halfway through he is collapsing over himself, barely able to stand, really having a hard time playing and singing, his voice almost a whisper at times. This… was something else. Fukuyama re-born. So OK, who went to this concert. From MW, Tochiro, Save and myself. Save came fashionably late. There were also the usual suspects of Japanese Macross fans. I got there early and spoke to them for a while. Apparently one of them won a backstage pass, one of two that was mixed in with the prizes in the Gachapon machine. Not bad for 500 yen, huh? Yamato had their shiny new VF-19kai toy on sale in the lobby, amongst the CDs and T-shirts. They also had a life-size, real Basara guitar on display, which hopefully will be a proper product soon. I spoke to Tochiro and his friend Richard from the videogame podcast that they do (who has the worst concert luck ever, for reasons I will let Tochiro explain), for a while, mostly about bottled water, Jack Black’s 1999 scrapped TV pilot, derogatory surfboards and other shenanigans when I decided to go to the bathroom before the show started. I took a million wrong turns before I found it, but I’m not complaining, for if I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have bumped into this guy, sitting on the ground against a wall. This is Toshiyuki Furuya, Hummingbird’s bassist, today’s special guest – best known to Macross fans as the guy who wrote Dynamite Explosion. After more than a decade, at last I was able to meet and speak to the guy, and he was really happy to find his music had an audience overseas. Right, on to the music itself. The concert was made up of three main sections, the first was typical Fukuyama numbers, made up mostly from his solo album material, which was great. It was a good mix, and many songs I’d not heard live before, in particular that “Fukugan” operatta, which we talked about earlier in this thread, Fukyama’s own “Bohemian Rhapsody”, was great. I didn’t know he had written that while recuperating after breaking his collar bone. After a short break, the four Fukuyama Band members became the three, Hummingbird members – which means the keyboardist (whose name escapes me right now, since they’ve changed him THREE times already) and the bassist (Tetsuro Maeda) left, and Furuya came on stage, to give a powerful rendition of “Towa no Tobira”, thus elevating this hitherto “pretty good” gig into an epic performance of godly proportions. I am serious, the raw energy unleashed would have been visible if only they had had their patented Dr. Chiba Song Energy convertors equipped. “1,000,000 Chiba song units!” Every Hummingbird song was absolutely fantastic, and it was then that I felt, man, this is what I’ve been waiting for. When I lived in Japan for a year in 2001-2002, it was just after HB broke up. I have felt gutted ever since then, not to have seen what I thought was the greatest band in the world perform live (for which Furuya-san profoundly apologized when I spoke to him!). I had to make do with my albums, which I listened to each and every day, and to this day I am not bored of those first two albums. They are masterpieces in rock history. I love Queen, the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, the Who and I put Hummingbird right up there with them. But this really blew me away. Fukuyama’s band is great and all, but, man…. This was just testament to how incredible this band was and is. And the in-between-song banter with the three of them was great, too. They were taking potshots at each other, reminiscing about their old gigs, old radio shows, laughing like they were at a class reunion. Fukuyama: “Remember “Hoshi no Tegami” [beautiful song from the “Timeless” album]?? You hated recording that song! I’d look over and you’d be making that horrible face!” Furuya: “Yeah, ‘cos those harmonies were a nightmare! I’m sitting down, one hand on the keyboard, another playing bass, and at the same time I’m supposed to do backing chorus?? Screw that!” Or even, when Fukuyama is off on one of his infamous tangents, Furuya would just cut in and say, “Jeez, you talk a lot! Shut up and let’s play!” to which the audience went wild. It was really great to watch. There was more great banter which I remembered up until a few minutes ago but I forgot now, oh well. After the HB section, the concert was technically over but the 4-piece Fukuyama band came back to do a few powerful encore numbers, and finally bringing back Furuya on acoustic guitar to close the concert proper with a rendition of “Happy Birthday”, Hummingbird’s debut single. On the way out there was a camera rolling which you had to give a short message to, and apparently will be on the DVD. It seemed like the perfect opportunity for embarrassment, and our MacrossWorld reps did not disappoint. All will be revealed in the inevitable DVD release. After that Save, Tochiro and I had some drinks, where we discovered that Save can’t tell his left from his right. All in all, this was a million times better than I expected just because of how incredible and solid Fukuyama’s performance was, and better than I expected by an incalculable power of ten due to Hummingbird’s one-night-only revival. They honestly were a really, really great band. But don’t take my word for it, AT LEAST check out their first album, right here: http://forums.macrosshare.com/viewtopic.php?t=403 (It’s out of print, so this is your best bet) Here I am with Furuya-san: Yamato’s Basara Guitar:

Well, it wouldn't surprise me if it did disappear. That magazine is increasingly made up of filler recently, and it seems it's existence was mainly as a hype machine for the Frontier movies. Now that they're done, I think they're predicting a void. Apart from The First, the best things in that magazine for me are the Itano interviews and Ryuusuke Hikawa's columns, so if it does end I will miss them. There will be no shortage of Yoko Kanno, May'n and Megumi, etc. interviews in the other myriad magazines, since they are relevant to the current anime scene.

It's kind of funny that some people still overlook glaring differences like this, and others complain when there is a minuscule mistake somewhere, like getting the position of the legs wrong or something.

It is EXTREMELY tight, although more so when straightening it out, rather than angling it. That said, it really doesn't affect the transformation at all, or anything else that much once it is broken. Although a break is a break. He's the main guy in charge of the Macross division, like Graham said (not the CEO). I don't know his name as I've only spoken to him on a couple of occassions (it's another guy that I usually speak with), and I didn't get his business card. I could find out easily enough, though, because the marketing manager was there too, whose card I do have. I know he wasn't there since the beginning, but it's not like he has no experience, I think he is the guy known as "Mister K" on the website (the one who writes all the articles on the development of each new valk). As for the wing roots, they are friction, not ratchet joints. The screw can be loosened, my advice would be to do so early on. If anybody has Masterpiece Rodimus, I *think* the screw joint that breaks on one of the leg panels on that toy is a similar deal, i.e. the screw is causing unwanted tension... I don't know for sure, though. Who knows, maybe loosening it will worsen the situation? Anyway, most of you probably don't need to worry. I spoke to Save yesterday and apparently he only transforms his stuff once a year, so on average people here should be OK. Here is the crack:

Jenius has a video on Youtube, and I'll be putting one up, too, soon. Yeah, loads. On the back and shoulder joints, elbow joints, ankles, feet recesses, and many more areas. The paint matching is near-perfect. This is also the reason why I wouldn't put it on any stand other than the Yamato launch arm ones, since it is really heavy compared to most other valks. To be clear, when I said "mostly compaints", I was referring to those in general, not to this particular valkyrie.

Bumped into some Yamato guys again last night at Fukuyama's 20th Anniversary gig (there'll probably be some write-up over in the Movies & TV series section soon), and when I told them, they weren't that surprised at the breakages, they admitted that area was super-tight. They did however say they would "make a note" of the stress marks/cracks in the wing-root joints, it seemed like that was news for them. I also told them that despite all this, the Kai really does seem like it had a lot of love poured into it, to which the main guy bowed and said "That's right. You know, I really don't hear that enough!" I replied, "Yeah, I guess it's mostly complaints, huh." He scrunched up his face, shook his head and groaned "Eeexactly," as if defeated.

Bandai should read this thread. Do you see, Bandai?? Your procrastination is forcing us to discuss World of Warcraft!! That's how bored we are! Get off your asses and finish off the line, already!!

Took me around 20 minutes to get it back into fighter mode this morning, even though I did it in around 5 yesterday. I don't know why, but the legs just did not want to line up with the tabs.

There was a photo of the YF-21 prototype (maybe someone can dig that up?). And I'm quite sure that was before the Strike release, because I remember being in my old apartment and I moved over a year ago.

Found some worrying cracks along the swivel joint on the wing root (the main one that connects the wing to the leg).

Interesting... example... But yeah, sorry I wasn't clear. For me, the heft is quite welcome. In particular in Fighter mode. It remains to be seen how the joints hold up, but I can't imagine it being as bad as the recent floppy Bandai valks. BTW, there is LOADS of die-cast on this toy. I think there has not been so much die-cast in a Yamato toy since the original 1/72 Macross Plus line.

I don't like to give scores, because it has different value to different buyers. I got a Bandai Hi-Metal last year, and that affects my objectivity to judge this. There are people who skipped on that one and waited for this, and probably only know the old 1/65 Bandai chunky. I'm very satisfied. A little peeved in some areas, but the transformation issues will hopefully resolve themselves as I get accustomed to its peculiarities. One thing that stands out -- it's quite heavy, the VF-11 feels really light, even flimsy, after handling this. Trust me, they don't. I tend to read everything carefully most of the time, precisely so this kind of thing won't happen. Alas. "GOTTA TAKE OFF THE LIMITER... AND TAKE IT TO THE EDGE!!" Oh, wait, wrong valk.

You too? Jeez... Is it the leg joint like on mine?

I think the bar itself is die-cast. However, the plastic hinge itself showed stress marks before I ever did anything.

I dunno... DESIGN?? Yes. So don't nobody say no mean sheet about Bandai lest the boss himself commit seppuku all over the mystical tatami-matted assembly factory.

I think that was over a year and a half ago. They released one photo, and then nuffin'.

More pics. Here's the floppy crotch plate issue. I had to do this to keep it up: Missiles. After having put it on the stand for a while, the crotch plate became a little stiffer. Go ahead with your sexual innuendo humour. I haven't transformed it back to Battroid yet, so I don't know if the issue will reappear... but I will attempt to nail-polish-fix it anyway. Yep, did that. Yamato really makes a big deal about that. Tell me about it. For the record, I'm not one of those guys who sits on their toys to "apply pressure" or whatever, neither are my hands overly large, nor am I inexperienced when it comes to complex, transforming toys or anything like that.

Just got mine today. BTW, I already broke it. More on that later. This is a really good toy. The first impression: The yellow on it is really pale, making it look REALLY toy-like. The finish is quite similar to the Bandai efforts. Transformed it to Gerwalk with no problems, but the first transformation to Battroid is a total b1tch, in particular the section where the backpack hinges over the cockpit, and fiddling with the nosecone took forever to get it just right, there is a lot of sliding going on and one hinge in particular looks really fragile -- it is also the most problematic one, because you are supposed to slide it a couple of millimetres, even though there is no space for you to use your fingers to do so... I used a small tools in a couple of areas. Once it's done, it looks good. Except mine has an issue with the crotch hinge -- it's too loose, so it kept hanging down. Looks like he has a pouch. Thematically, that may have worked for the Zola Patrol VF-19P, but not this one. After putting it on the stand for a while, the problem seemed to go away, though I'm not sure for how long. The opening rear hatch gimmick is great... except when I opened it in Battroid mode, Basara had slipped out of the seat and had almost been decapitated (voodoo magic from MWers?). It must have happened in the 30 mins or so that I tried to assemble the chest area. Overall, excellent toy, I'm impressed. The arms also are ingenious. Possible problem areas: - I think this is the first Yamato valk to use ankle ball joints. I don't know why they chose to go this route, I hated them on the Bandai toys and I just hope they last longer here. In fact, there are quite a few areas like the elbows where they usually use ratchets and they haven't here. - I cut my finger under the nail when trying to remove the magazine from the gun. I still couldn't do it, and won't be trying it again.. Not a big deal, really. - The crotch thing I mentioned -- I wonder how many people will have this issue? - Paint chipping. It's not a big deal for me, but I know people here are fussy about it. There is quite a lot of die-cast here, including the entire rear engine section -- in Fighter mode, the crotch piece plugs into one of the nozzles and the first time I disconnected it, it left a paint chip. I don't think that can be helped. Also the lg missiles tend to scrape along the edge of the bay doors, and since they are all painted I can see that being an issue over time. As for how mine broke... The valk is BLOODY tight. The tightest hinge is probably the upper leg one, used only for Gerwalk. Well I pulled and pulled and eventually it moved but it took out the tiny tab which limited the movement past its maximum angle (I think there are only like three positions in that super-tight ratchet joint, so it's a small window of error -- cross it and pay the price). I don't have photos of that yet because that was on my second transformation, but I will upload it later. Anyway, it doesn't really affect things that badly, it still poses fine, I only have to be extra careful when moving it around in Gerwalk or transforming it. Bottom Line: BOMBER!! Now for some OPERATION STARGAZER goodness.

From what I heard, that is EXACTLY what happened. Apparently, there was a recall because the figure was deemed offensive. They can call a woman a "stupid b1tch" on film, though, that's OK.

It's probably my favourite valk, too, but it really has given me its fair share of problems in the beginning. And the heatshield wasn't even one of them...

That's an odd-looking picture. I think these are closer to the official colours: http://www.macross2.net/m3/macross7/vf-19p.htm