AcroRay

I don't think she was beached, exactly. I think the ocean content in its area was actually evaporated by the Zentraedi attack, leaving Prometheus high & dry, and its crew cooked within its hull.

Sweeet! (And Destroid buildups always look so much more impressive against the background of a nice, clean home!) Good work, brother!

Since I'll probably only get one from the set, it'll probably be Ozma's. I don't like that gaping 'mouth' cavity on Alto's, and I prefer Ozma's color scheme better as well.

Thanks! Here's an instruction scan of the Diaclone kit. I've got a "Crystal Type" all-transparent version, too. But it really only required assembly and some Gundam Chrome pen! Both are the same scale as the Diaclone toys, and also include a missile-launching backpack (not pictured). They've got a vacu-formed diorama base, scaled too look like an airstrip far below. Takara was on a little bit of a hang-glider kick with their properties back then. I've got a Dougram series Soltic ROund Facer with a similar hang-glider addition, and there was a Dougram itself with one as well.

Nope, unfortunately. These are made in China and seem like dolllar-store fare, not the more elaborate and - honestly - more intriguing Korean knockoffs. But these are fun to have. I love knockoffs. Its probably be about 18 years since I bothered to build one of these 1/170 kits, so it was a nice bit of nostalgia as well, even though the kit is sooooo dated in execution and it was more of a gaming-miniature style project. I still have a fully-built 1/170 Battroid Factory Module with a partially-built VF-1S in it, which the 1A has now made homeless... Next up will probably be a 148 Dougram kit, Yellow Sub's 1/144 Nosjadeul Ger kit, or a Diaclone Powered-Armor Gilder Type.

After some miscommunication, my first 4 kits arrived the other day - Battroids and Armored Battroids. Fun little things! Lotsa cute engrish on the packaging. The Battroids are copied from the Arii 1/170 VF-1A/1S kit and are molded in a slightly metallic mustard and metallic gray respectively. Each kit has both heads, paper decals you have to cut out yourself, and are a couple of percent smaller than the originals. Detail is a little soft, but the one I built (the 1A, pictured in the Workbench thread) went together OK. The Armored Battroids are knocked off of Nichimo 1/200 kits, but are a tiny bit smaller with slightly mushy details. The 1A is forest green, and the 1J is a dark gray. Each kit includes both heads and the screws that the original kit had, as well as the tiny bracket part for mounting inside the little display bubble the kits were originally released with back in the 80s. They also came with paper decals, although they were mismatched from other kits in the line. The 1J box & contents: Comparing the knockoff 1A, parts to the parts of a vintage 1J (Battletech repackage edition): Quick buildup on the 1A, using some of the paper decals where appropriate: ...They were fun, so I ordered a half-dozen more from the dealer before he runs out. I included order for a Gerwalk 1J and Fighter 1D to figure out what line they originated with.

I got a handful of those "Super Space-Time Models", which are knockoffs of Arii 1/170 kits and Nichimo 1/200 kits, and decided to build the 1/170 VF-1A. The kit was a couple of per-cent smaller than the original, with paper decals instead of waterslide so options for decal use were limited. Fit of parts was a bit off in some places. For fun I just decided to build it stock, coating over the more-or-less accurate mustard brown metallic plastic it was made from. However, some of the plastic didn't want to take the white paint, even after pre-assembly washing, which was a pain because I just wanted to throw the thing together representative of its knockoff state, rather than modding it or improving it. The box had lots of fun Engrish on it:

Yep - probably both overstock from Japan, or stock manufactured by the originating companies' subcontractors to cover debts their creators left behind (which is certainly the case with the little plastic Takatoku toys, giving birth to the CONVERTORS line among other usages). I'll skip out on photography of mine, although I do have the boxed K-mart edition (Blue box, much like the blister-carded one) and one in a box like the original, but fully-translated. There are other editions as well out there that I've seen. Xabungle was a fun series, with some cool super-real mecha designs and a beautiful model kit series.

You're thinking of a small, CONVERTORS-like toy by Clover of the Xabungle super-carrier robot IRON GEAR, which has a strong resemblance to the early preproduction Macross design you mentioned. I have one at home (a couple, actually) but no images handy. They were released in various packaging ranging from repros of the actual Xabungle box packaging (including a little menko card!) to blue generic Kresge/K-Mart packaging. Here's an auction of the beautiful, massive modern SOC version of it, with images of it in both modes that might ring a bell: http://cgi.ebay.com/Bandai-Soul-of-Chogoki...1QQcmdZViewItem ...If you want one of the old toys of it you recall, PM me! I may have an extra in decent shape. I'll try to shoot a couple of pics tonight & post 'em. [i've got a bunch of recent stuff I need to get images of anyway, including some knockoff Macross plastic kits.]

I did say "some" people. I hold Bandai's SOC-class entries to a rather high standard myself. My experience, however, also leads me to withhold detailed judgment on the DX Messiah until I see it in all the intended materials, with those materials' appropriate interactive tolerances. Then you'll know what's got a good seam or not, what looks too wide or too skinny, etc etc.

Ferget it, Dex. If it ain't got "Yamato" written on the side of the box, it isn't going to please some people even if Bandai makes it hop outta the box, Fold itself into the fridge and bring you back a b33r all by itself. That's all there is to it.

I'd look directly toward corrupt factory management for that.

I'm partial to Hobbylink Japan myself: www.hlj.com SAL shipping will cost you about the same as domestic Priority, but will take a bit longer to get to you from Japan.

Wow, seeing it all taken apart like that actually makes it look like - a toy - rather than just a pricey collectors' piece. I think that's rather nice, actually. Think I'm going to have to get me an 11B...

I haven't built it, but thought I'd share the link to a free paper kit of the transport plane seen in the "Goodbye Girl" episode (iirc) of SDFM http://www.freewebs.com/paragon19/other.htm

Considering how much money Bandai's dumped into this new incarnation of the property? You gotta be kidding.

Heh - Well, you can use the Variable Monster for your Behemoth!

I'm really getting a lot out of the professional (machinists, prototypers, etc) comments in the thread! Great stuff, gang!

Good question. Maybe a knockoff, or a different print run? I'd post that at the ToyboxDx forums toyboxdx.com/phorum .

Maybe not quite twice as tall? Here's a comparison with 1/55s: http://anymoon.com/blog/wp-content/uploads...041%20Clean.jpg

Too cool! Thanks for the news!

Looks like Custom Dioramics was bought out by a company named VLS, and their products are rather poorly organized at most websites. Here's a couple of links from a UK company's offerings, with pictures of the deck sheets: http://www.netmerchants.co.uk/product.php/...ectionmodern148 http://www.netmerchants.co.uk/product.php/...rdecksection148 Hope this helps.... There's also a company that make 1/48 scale kits, but they only show photos of their photo-etched hardware & tool accessories and not of the decking kit itself: http://home.clara.net/djparkins/fltpath/fp...eck_Section.htm One modeller website also noted "Verlinden had some paper based, completely finished deck sections long time ago. Sometimes you can get these on Ebay or modeling forums."

I like the little decal mockups on the Moeyo images. I Yamato cooks up nice quality decals, or the big "D7" on the round portion of the front hull is going to look rather bad. That's been a problem area in previous kit & toy incarnations. If they use the materials they typically use for their Valks, there could be some problematic areas. Notice the crew figures are painted.

Good points! Now I'm all intrigued to find out for sure!

Whenever it slips, I just think of two little words... "Virgin Road" ....and it all seems so much better.