AcroRay

Thanks, though! Looking forward to 'em!

Kino's Journey - very interesting, subdued tone. Interesting characters. Betterman - Weird, weird... Like HP Lovecraft meets Ultraman. Even starts with a sort of "you may think I'm mad..." moment.

Yay! Thanks very much!

I just picked up the Arii 1980s kit of Kamjin's ship, the Queadol-Magdomilla, minus its instructions. Could someone please post a scan of the assembly instructions? It isn't a difficult kit, but it has well over a dozen tiny fins, spurs, interior docking surfaces and other bits of detail that I want to be certain I have attached appropriately when I build it. The main site's scan is only the color side of the leaf, and very low detail. Thanks in advance to anyone who can help!

HEART AND SOULLLLLL!!!!! Sheryl and Bobby!

My girls both enjoy Macross. 7 year old Anya likes singing along with Frontier. Older sis Rachael (11) loves the Robotech dub and Frontier. Neither of them much like the mecha, although Rachael appreciates the Bandai Valks, Takatoku Paros and the Yamato Q-Rau and Konig in our living room. If anything, they'd probably prefer dolls of Ranka, Sheryl, Minmei and Mylene. I know Rachael wants a chibi-Klan, and maybe an Alto figure. She'd probably like the big Banpresto Klan figure. So they love Macross, and like the female characters most of all. When asked to do a little talent thing for Girl Scouts a couple of weeks ago, Rachael took along the MacF vocal collection CD I made for her, and sang along to What 'Bout My Star (Fulmo Mall street live ver.). She has Asperger's Syndrome, so getting up and doing something like that is an achievement for her. Ranka and Sheryl are inspiring characters for Rachael.

Has anyone picked up the Fuke & bike kit being sold on eBay? I think its pretty nice, and am wondering if anyone had any review of it.

I scored the red SD QRea on YahooJP via my proxy pal for like $12 after shipping to her house (and probably paid a little too much). Probably won't have it in-hand for a while (since I wait for a 2 KG box to fill before she ships it to me SAL), but its good to know I've got one on the way. Not too interested in the other SDs. There seems to be a huge number of the whole series on YahooJP right now, and I have to wade through them just to look for anything else. I hope that means they've actually produced the product to easily fill demand, rather than overproduced something that's not as terribly popular as it should be. Sheryl and Ranka are hitting over Y6000 each. Klan's hovering around Y3500. Believe it or not! Klanorama http://page7.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/g72302504 http://page11.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/n69254123 http://page.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/117206518 http://page10.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/m61627042 (too high, no one wants this one!) http://page18.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/w37238048

So when do we get a Grace figure to fulfill the O-Lcon [Office Lady] niche....?

I think the sculptor intended some sort of zero-G look with them. They look like they could be floating in water. Heavy Guage does an excellent job interpreting the more subtle elements of characters' designs in their work. I wouldn't be surprised if they took into consideration several of the scenes where you do see Klan in zero-G, and used that as an element in the rendition.

I think that's the "Scale Solutions" kit of the ship. I am filled with envy!

The Cheyenne seems more representative of Kawamori's ARMORED CORE work than Macross. I found it to be very out of place in Frontier, but it fit in perfectly with Zero and the proto-Destroids featured in the pre-SW1 section of the 1983 MACROSS HOBBY HANDBOOK 1 - MACROSS MODEL WORLD.

Oh, none taken. You certainly aren't the first person in the toy culture here to use it! Bandai didn't originate the line, though. Takatoku did. Matt Alt has also done an excellent translation at ToyboxDX on the details of the original Takatoku Valk's origin, as seen in the latest Figure Oh. Well worth reading: http://toyboxdx.com/phorum/read.php?4,192680

Only one thing consistently strikes me as negative in recent Valk designs: Tiny little spider-monkey hands. I hate 'em. When you have to suspend so much disbelief in the show, why can't that include some mighty robot hands? Tangentially, I utterly despise the term "Chunky Monkey". Regardless of the Takatoku's blocky design and the rhyming quality of the term, it reflects nothing appropriate to the toy. What's any more 'monkey-like' about the design than any other Valk?

The Iron Gear is an amazing piece of gokin. Bandai really out did themselves. I've been wanting to get my hands on one of those since they came out. Nice review!

Its probably from a menko card sort of product, or one of Ohsato Toy & Hobby's products. They had a lot of deco in that style. Alternately, it may have been from an anime magazine of the period. Those got a lot of excellent, original art.

We're talking about Uni5's Godphoenix, not Bandai's GatchaSpartan (which utterly sucks in both concept and execution).

Uni5's first version. Although - call me crazy - I sold the Hino-Tori shell to raise some funds for another purchase.

I went up to $51 on it, since my Factory restoration project could use some better decals and a couple of replacement bits. But got outbid.

Wow! I am deeply impressed. Those are beautiful! I do hope you can replicate patterns and develop instructions.

I was fortunate to get one. Its a dream come true for my inner 10-year-old. There's a set of 6 diecast Gatchaman vehicles on the way including Red Impulse (forget offhand from who), but they're like $250+ for the set.

With the re-issues of so many 'old' kits (Dorvack, Macross, Xabungle, even more recently - Ideon), I'd like to see you re-try the old kits contest!

I'm looking forward to seeing yours, especially in comparison to the pre-assembled products. I'd have killed for a model like that back in the 80s!

I'll do my best! More Takatoku luvs!

Well, they were intended to be actual toys for playtime by children, not replicas for collecting by adults. At its inception, that what MACROSS was for.