David Hingtgen

What could be a bigger media tie-in than the new movie? What more could they ask for before reissuing the original Night Raven? Plus, the original would have looked a whole lot cooler and more realistic on-screen. Original Night Raven on-screen would have been the equivalent of casting Peter Cullen as Prime----goes a LONG way towards "taming" the fanboys, and frankly---there's no better option anyways, because the original is so perfect. As for parts--yes, I love moving parts, opening panels etc, on Joe toys. I pretty much demand them---it's why I had almost no "small" Joe toys back when. Heck, the main reason I got figures was to fill up the seats in the large vehicles! Cobra Moray was the best of the boats. I'd rather have one big, good, multi-part vehicle than several smaller simpler ones. IMHO, a good way to judge a Joe toy---how many pages of instructions it has. Ironic--I love gimmicks in Joe, hate them in Transformers. ::edit:: Ah, so that's what the red Strato-Viper's for. I may try to trade my coming 7-pack Range Viper for another standard Strato-Viper. Personally, here's my master wish-list for reissues: Night Raven Mamba Moray That's really all I want, but I desperately want a Night Raven. I really have no need for a Skystriker, or really most any Joe toys, or anything that'd cost less than 20 bucks today. Gimme Cobra. Maybe the X-19 Phantom, since I never had it and it looks cool--I'd buy a cheap reissue, but won't pay for a vintage on ebay. Random rant: The Rolling Thunder is over-rated IMHO. I had it, and the parts never fit well, I lost a part a day I think. (And I was like 10 when I had it, not 5, I was already quite careful with my toys then, and applied stickers carefully, etc----and that thing shed parts!) And it didn't "fold together" very well either--it'd close up, but it never looked QUITE right, as things were always a little off. Very fiddly overall. It's one of the few vehicles I really remember well, as I just remember a bunch of annoyances about it, and I think it was the last vehicle I ever got. ::edit:: Checking release dates, apparently I should have asked for the X-19 that year instead! PS---any chance of new reissues coming un-assembled? Sort of a direct-to-consumer-only line? I figure half the reason they don't reissue big things, is because they'd have to pay so much to have them assembled at the factory, and then pay even more to ship the giant, more fragile toys over here. A Rattler's about the biggest thing they can assemble and ship cheaply. If Hasbro would "allow" unassembled vehicles again, it may help get the big one re-released. (plus, for me at least, a HUGE part of the fun is the assembly process---a factory-assembled Joe toy is like pre-assembled LEGOs) Plus, I can do a much better job than the factory does.

Only at the very end of the very last ep.

Erm, um, I don't recall a "Maia Sterling" in any Macross series...

They had permission, it was a scheduled fly-by for a sports event.

Not fake:

How many zillions does it cost to get custom wheels shipped to Hawaii?

Pods detach. Honestly, the best way to get info is to read the instructions---they always point out every joint and removable bit.

Mamba rocks, get one. Best chopper in the line. It still amuses me how every time the Mamba comes up, you're guaranteed to have someone chime in that the rotor arrangement is fantasy/impractical/impossible----never mind that some real choppers use it. It's an "intermeshing" rotor.

Seems to be all TRUs. 1/2 off most anything but ROTF.

Aren't those at least canon schemes though? YF-25 seems totally "pulled out of thin air" in both name and colors.

Yup.

We never saw or heard a mention of a YF-25. We did see a YF-24. I think the YF-25 is something Bandai just made up this week as an excuse for a recolor...

Yeah, I found Universe Dreadwing(d?). Still not worth 10 bucks IMHO, despite the fact that I had the G1 and love the color scheme. It's a gigantic mini-con, transformation-wise.

YoJoe.com has EVERYTHING for the 80's line, nothing comes close. Here's the Defiant page: http://www.yojoe.com/vehicles/87/defiant/ PS--the Sky Raven does NOT have a drone, so it's not missing. (it's just one of many ways in which the original is better) Night Raven: http://www.yojoe.com/vehicles/86/nightraven/ Sky Raven: http://www.yojoe.com/vehicles/90/skyraven/ PPS---I never really paid attention to the X-19, but checking it out, it seems VERY cool, probably second only to the Night Raven. Wish I'd have had that instead of an X-30 back in the day. PPPS---why are all the really big, really cool jets not reissued? Surely SOME of their molds are available. (I consider the X-30 and Rattler the "smaller" jets)

VF-25 girl's done, and the VF-27 was done earlier. Does that mean Mylene's is next?

Gotta agree with uber-mod Roy here. Sheryl and Ranka are the new Tifa and Aeris. They're recognizable and popular, and fairly easy to cosplay. There weren't hordes of girls playing FF7 all of a sudden, and there's not a ton watching Macross now.

MP Prime has a major cop-out in that his entire back half of vehicle mode has zero resemblance to a real truck. And the back half of the cab isn't much better. If you made an MP Prime and mandated that the vehicle mode actually look like it should, bot mode would be quite different. ROTF Prime emphasizes truck mode, MP Prime emphasizes bot mode. The G1 toy blows away MP Prime when it comes to vehicle mode.

It doesn't attach anywhere---fiddle around with the straps to trap them between the plane and the legs, and it should be held in place through tension. The straps should pass just inboard of the peg hole that the foot/ankle goes into. Yes, it's godawful design, and I plan to remove the pins to remove the entire assembly (I will never combine mine with Prime). If you really can't get it, I'll photograph mine.

I didn't really want any of the three, and of those 3 would have gone with Cooper, but I do rank Timberlake above Reynolds.

Wheelie is more than just a shelf-warmer, he has entire endcap displays dedicated to holding the excess copies of him. And here's a game Aerialbot: (ironically, in making a non-licensed F-16 look-alike, they ended up making an F-2)

The first movie series had a LOT of toys from the videogame. Not so many this time around, asides from Breakaway. Interestingly, there's a Thrust repaint of Breakaway coming out---which is strange, since there's a "Thrust" in the game, but he's an F-18, and there's matching Skywarps and Thundercrackers. Now, I've heard there's going to be a new Dirge mold coming---but Dirge is about the only one NOT seen in the game. I'm hoping it's this F-18 design anyways. I took some pics from the game, but I still don't know how to take decent pics off a TV, CRT nor LCD. This is the best I could do.

Just call it the Commodore, because that's what it is. Has alliteration with Chevy, too. PS---I note the article says "scheduled to end production in 2009"---it's already over. Last shipment of G8s arrived in the US months ago. This photoshop is the best non-G8 front end I've seen for the platform--it changes ONLY the grill from the G8: I don't like the whole "square foglight insets" of the original Commodre and Mid-East versions. But odds are good GM will just use the Mid-East Chevy front end. Still, I hate the name "Caprice" more than I dislike any of the existing front ends. I wonder if there'll be a significant "freshening" and it'll really be more like a 2011 model, having taken an extra 6-9 months before making it for sale. Add a HUD, a blue interior option, new wheels...

Yeah, but the canopy should fit pretty darn perfectly from the get-go----they're swapped between Hornets on the carriers all the time, and they don't spend days checking the compatability---they all fit between all the planes.

Awesome! I want a G8, but simply cannot get one this year---but there won't be any Pontiacs next year! (and actually, most G8s this year have been sold, due to discounts etc). Still----the Pontiac front end looks the best of all of them IMHO. I imagine the new Caprice (god I hate that name) will use the front end that the Mid-East Lumina does, as it's a ready-made Chevy front end. Heck, maybe I'd get a "Caprice" and find some G8 that'd been rear-ended and swap noses...

??? I meant last choice out of the actors, not last choice out of the various GLs.