AcroRay

I happened across this cel of Misa in her space gear on YahooJP, and thought I'd contribute it to the reference info pool...

Very nice! I love the stark, anime-like color design and the toy-like look of it. If I get one, though, it'll have to wait until I see some reviews on its durability and QC.

Wow, Vifam! Thanks SOOOOO much for posting that!!!! It certainly confirms a lot of history & speculation that's been floating around. Fun stuff!

I bought one of the Minmei in Polka-Dot dress new in box from member tripmywire for literally $1. Honestly I thought I was just buying one of the little pVC figures packed into the 1/100 mech toys... I thought it was pretty nice. The sculpt was good - a little cartoon-y, but not out of character for the animation. Hollow vinyl & PVC that held up pretty well. I had to heat & reform her fingers properly around her microphone. Also, they've got a nice Macross base with a wire stand that could easily be repurposed for a valk or other subject if you just use a doll-stand for the figure, so you've got a bit of a bonus built into the figure if you pick it up cheap.

Basically a toy made from Arii's 1/100 model kit. If you're a completist, you might consider picking one up if you can score it for $5 or so. But they're pretty dreadful. They do come with one of several painted PVC character figures and a nicely little trading card, which might be worth your while. They were released pretty extensively world-wide back in the 90s, so I expect the were available in Europe as well but weren't exclusive to that region.

I think you can count me in for one male set, possibly one female set. Great looking stuff! I also agree that - for this community of buyers, at least - a set of 1/60 pilots would be quite popular.

Speaking of big-scale Valks: Anyone remember those 6 foot tall fiberglass Valk/Veri statues that Toynami was selling, of which one was offered as a drawing prize in ToyFare? Did those ever make it into production? Anyone see one first-hand, or know anyone (other than George S) who owns one?

While most of the Robotech 1:18 scale figures were pretty bad, there are a couple I'd highly recommend - which would be both the small and large Armored Zentraedi soldier figures. (Although the large Zentraedi figure is closer to 1/72 scale, I think.) I'm also partial to the large Dolza figure, perhaps because its not possible to make the big old Gorg any uglier. And while the body sculpts of the rest of the figure are awkward an inelegant (to put it as charitably as possible), Matchbox did seem to try to make their general details as accurate as possible. Lesa Hayes' suit and helmet are accurate to the unique designs seen in her excursions during the show. Same with the rest of the Macross crew & their weapons. Stick their helmets on them and they're passable. Not anywhere as nice as the CMs series of figures, but neat little baubles if picked up cheaply enough.

It seems recent MACROSS-related publishing is more focused on getting out a colorful product than producing what we've - well, some of us, at least - grew used to back in the 80s. It would be nice to get just one or two really nice TIA's or a Perfect Memory out of the series. Considering digital layout & publishing methods, would it really be so difficult? But I guess there's more money to be made in shot-gunning the market with lots of little products while their attentions are still on the show.

More likely: production will be cut short by the economy, making them more expensive in the long run.

Nice, and nice for the price! Winner for me, and it'll nicely fit my 1/100 kit & toy collection. Can't wait to get one.

A lot goes into production & marketing timelines: manufacturing facility availability, avoiding competition among concurrent SKUs, etc, etc. At the very least, they'd want to make a solid window of time to be available for their high-end products (the SOCs) before releasing the smaller-budget items. Why swamp the market?

I'm a total cheap-455, but $100 is a damn good price for one of these. I was amazed at the one I got pre-owned. They're MASSIVE! And it is nicely posable - at least as much as demonstrated in any of their on-screen appearances.

Very interesting read! Thanks for posting this!

Very nice, and I wholeheartedly concur with your sentiments on OOB buildups of older-style kits!

Nice! I'm planning on building one I picked up as well, so your notes on problems & issues are really welcome!

I have one with hip repairs, which took a little effort but the repair is rock-solid and the thing a whole lot more fun because of it. Go ahead & open it! If the hip post are broken or the ball joints really tight, post here and we'll advise you!

Bandai: "All your bucks are belong to US!!!"

D4mn straight! Yeah!

If you just want something cheap and fun to play with, go for one of the earlier 'version 1' types. People are dumping them for as low as $25-$50. Sure, they're a little like a diecast & plastic rag doll - but the detail & weight is nice and for that price you can happily detail them up or just play with it without a whole lot of guilt. Never underestimate the cheap option!

The more detailed your speculation is, and the less obvious any notice in the post that it is indeed purely speculation, the more likely your post will be miss-quoted as fact. Just something to keep in mind.

I've got one of those - with the longer rods - holding up my massive, heavy UNIFIVE Gatchaman God Phoenix, and haven't had any problems with the rods slipping.

Thanks for that review of the various types, anime52k8. I've been wondering about that lately!

Try the break fluid, then: its more gentle on the plastic. Oven cleaner can damage the plastic after lengthy exposure, which is difficult to determine. And be sure to clean the plastic well when you're done. You might have some problems with reds & blues, though. Some colors will dye the plastic, so you might not get that sprue-new clean.

I also noticed that, if you look inside of the shoulder joints from an overhead view, you can see the ammo belt leading from the torso into the arm!