David Hingtgen

The Energon combiner individual figures were nice, but it was pretty stupid to just have 2 types of limbs. If there were 4 distinct molds, they'd have been GREAT. It also would have helped the hands and feet a lot---it was pretty clear there was a "preferred" mode for each hand/foot part, for both the robot itself and the clear "energon" piece. It was pretty hard to get a decent pair of hands. I actually made a sorta-Bruticus using Barricade, 2 Combaticons, a Constructicon, and an Aerialbot. Looked better than any "official" combination.

Still waiting to see pics of the VF-1 stickers on it. Surely somebody has used them?

I think they're scrambling to get the 747 certified too. Anyone see the news (NBC) like 2 days ago? They're basically begging for the DC-10 to come back, but there's some red tape involving federal vs state firefighting regulations, so the DC-10 is barred from fighting the current fire and is grounded, just sitting there waiting for federal certification---I think partly because it involves national park lands. Pure bureacracy and red tape. Let the state burn rather than allow a DC-10 to do what it's been doing amazingly well... Who knew there were different levels for state vs federal firefighting aircraft conversion certification? A380--A380 flies fine, it's purely the aspects of making it a passenger-carrying plane with inflight entertainment. If I was UPS or FedEx I'd be ticked, because pure freighters could be being delivered NOW. (the certification is basically halted because they won't finish any more until the problems are fixed for pax ones--otherwise it'd already have the certification flights done, which cover both pax and cargo) 90% of the problems involve (indirectly) all those little TV's in the seats...

Yes, because before Kawamori's "tweaking" of the MP Starscream mold, it was like 99% identical to the animation model, and one heck of a nice (and accurate) F-15. I mean, it looked more like Starscream than MP Prime looks like Prime. It WAS Starscream, utterly. After HFH's revisions to that mold---it's Starscream-esque, with hip kibble and funky curved feet and intake kibble and giant Popeye forearms. I think a lot of the ire (mine included) is the result of seeing the "before" version of the mold. If we'd never seen how amazingly awesome it was BEFORE, we wouldn't complain so much about how it looked after all the changes.

I've never heard (nor would think they could) that Microsol etc could affect stickers. Anyways---we're not talking about heating it until the plastic starts to warp---heck, rubbing the sticker rapidly with your finger will generate enough heat to soften them. Nani---the problem with "mass production" panel lining is that it's always over-done. They don't seem to understand the concept of "subtle". Or it's simply too labor-intensive to do. If something is factory panel-lined, it comes with BLACK panel lines. Like this: Or just look at early Yamatos----WAY too stark and thick.

I have never done it, but some people use a hair dryer or something to heat up the stickers after you put them on----they'll become soft and then you can press on them and they will go into panel lines, and fit corners and curves better.

Hayao--how did you do the panel lines? Oil paint wash? And did you do anything extra for the stickers---did you heat them to make them softer to conform better?

I'm of the opinion most people see Kawamori as the guy who came in and "ruined" the original version of the mold that others had designed.

Which is another reason I prefer toy colors---the stripes on all 3 seekers are unique in both color and PATTERN. Though of course I do prefer an orange canopy, to match SW and TC. Checked Target here today, nothing new. I don't expect Classics here for probably 2 weeks at least.

The first paragraph was about Classic, but the second two (about the stripes and panel lines) were about MP. Masterpiece Starscream IS supposed to be "hyper accurate". There's really no excuse for such messed up wing stripes. It was also partially in response to the claim on the last page that the stripes followed the panel lines. (of course, it was actually more accurate with the first version of the mold--they introduced a LOT of errors when they added the CFT's, starting with the CFT's themselves being unlike any set ever built) PS---my guess for their "reference material" is the Hasegawa F-15E kit, because it's not really an F-15 and has all the errors the MP does. And it'd be readily available in Japan to TakaTomy. Using kits to make new model/toy planes happens so often it's not even funny. Anyone who models planes can easily recognize when a kit was used as reference instead of "real" reference materials (like accurate scale drawings or even better, photos of the real thing). There's rather few truly different molds out there of any plane, most are just copies of the few originals, or upscaled/downscaled versions of the company's own molds. The best clue for any F-15 is to see if there's a speed brake well. Why? Because every F-15 kit ever has one, but the real F-15 doesn't. So if a new toy/model has a speed brake well, then they based it off a kit and not photos of the real thing.

Um, Graham's scan shows all the names pretty clearly. Shin and Roy, and that's it.

I think I recall "Galdo" Bowman on the YF-21 stickers. And the canon name is debatable, but I know "Milia" has been seen on-screen in M7, and maybe the original serieis as well, so "Miria" is wrong IMHO. I think Isamu's name was screwed up as well. Anyways---will any of our intrepid decal makers make aftermarket VF-1 decals for the low-vis VF-0? (VF-1 the squadron, not the valk). And possibly adapt them so we get the FULL fuselage striping and correctly-sized nose markings? Oh, and red ventral fins, that's part of the scheme. Wolfpack markings would rock on the VF-0A, but there's no way I'm going to try to use sucky Yamato stickers for such large areas. Or maybe 1/72 or 1/48 VF-1 decals would work: http://www.camdecals.com/main.asp?img=48-029 (I already have them in 1/72, but they're reserved for building an F-14 in those markings some day--if I had a VF-0 I could photocopy my set and see how they'd fit)

Big point: IF Also--G1 could mean toy or anime. For most of all TF-dom AFAIK, fans generally prefer/expect toy colors. Examples: Starscream. Baby-blue fists, or deep blue fists? Thundercracker: baby-blue overall, or metallic sapphire? Grimlock: yellow chest, or metallic gold chest? Prime: pale grey stacks and bumper, or chrome? "Baby blue fist" MP Starscream wouldn't be accepted any more than Greenscream is. G1 *toy* colors are what we want. Anime-accurate never looks good. Except maybe for Astrotrain.

I've lit up stuff too, LED/fiberoptic/electroluminescent. But I still don't see a way to do the landing light on the nose gear. Not to light up the whole thing like it should.

Speaking as a mod: Ummn, Haterist---why'd you perform thread necromancy, just to say "oh yeah!".

OMFG! VF-1 markings! I might have to get this for that alone. I was planning on waiting out to see if we get a VF-0 w/Ghost, or VF-0D, but I don't know if I can pass up the Wolfpack... PS--do the stickers say "Sin" Kudo? Does Yamato purposely avoid the generally accepted English spellings of pilots on all their valks? LOL--"Bewear of blast". Can Yamato just find one person familiar with English? Or just copy photos correctly? I doubt you'll find a single US Navy plane that has "bewear" on it. I don't know Japanese at all, but I can accurately copy Kanji from a pic. They should be able to copy English from a pic too. PPS--just realized the incredible irony of a VF-0 with VF-1's markings. Maybe Yamato will do a VF-1 with VF-2's markings... (I'd buy it) I am a bit worried though--Yamato seems to have made the nose stickers as large as the tailfins----so either the tailfin markings are tiny, or the nose stickers are huge. I'm thinking it's the latter, and that'll look weird. We're also missing the aft 3/4 of the nose stripe, it should go from radome to intakes, interrupted by the kite. VF-1's markings would work PREFECTLY on a VF-0, but only if they're sized right and they do ALL the striping.

I still think G1 Astrotrain was way better, and the best triple-changer ever. (Blitzwing is still my fave though). G1 Astrotrain was like 99% perfect in both vehicle modes (hey, a rocket-boosted locomotive was COOL) , yet still managed to have about the best robot mode of any triple-changer. The new one--it's a shuttle with half a train on the wings. Or it's a train with the back half made up of an upside down shuttle. The blockiness of a switcher steam locomotive really helped, combined with the boxiness of a shuttle. Going for sleeker, more modern interpretations made it worse. Plus there's only one space shuttle, and I'm getting real sick of the 8,000 quasi-shuttles they've made lately, usually as Jetfire. Either make the real, Rockwell-designed NASA Orbiter, or don't do it at all. It just looks stupid IMHO to make all these "shuttle-esque" designs. Especially when the real shuttle looks the best of all by far. "Made up" cars work fine, since there's zillions of car types on the roads, and zillions more concept cars. But there's only one shuttle, and we all know what it looks like.

It's fairly well known that Macross Plus was based off of the YF-22 vs YF-23 competition. Especially with the YF-21 being based off the YF-23. A lot of the controversy over the YF-23's loss lead to changes, which is why we had X-planes, and not the YF-24 and YF-25 for the JSF competitors--because they weren't officially competing. They were merely "experimental test planes for the same idea".

Interestingly, Classics Starscream has the same fictional conformal tanks that MP SS has. Pure coincidence? I thought Classics and MP had completely different design teams. How would 2 different new F-15 seeker molds decide to add conformal tanks, and screw them up in the same way? As for the stripes: not sure. Seem to follow a panel line, but from what I can see that's NOT how the F-15's wing panel lines are. They'd be further aft, and wouldn't "not parallel" the leading edge as obviously, if they followed the real panel line. Either way, it just looks stupid. And it's Thundercracker's wing stripes anyways!!!! SS has pure red stripes (no white border) and they don't "make a turn" at the tips and head back. TC is the one with a white border that turns back at the tips. Let's hope the recent rumor I saw (said to be from Hasbro at Botcon) about a US release in anime colors coming this way is true. We should know tomorrow for sure. Though my hopes aren't very high. With the hip and intake kibble, and the Popeye forearms caused by CFT kibble, I'd demand 100% perfect G1 toy colors to buy that mold. (Note, toy colors---for Skywarp there's not much difference, but SS and TC have SO much better colors for their toys than on screen--mainly the shade of blue---TC has got to have his METALLIC blue finish)

That's it. But as for lighting---kinda doubt it. The piece is only 1 or 2mm thick with the nosegear strut right behind it.

I guess it's like how, officially, the F-15 "Mod Eagle" scheme and the standard F-22 scheme are "the exact same color" according to the Air Force. Nope, no special heat-absorbing shimmery metallic paint on the F-22, not at all. These planes are all painted exactly the same. Officially.

Irony: The original low-vis is supposed to be the two colors that real F-15's were for most of their existence. And wow, he matches the FAST packs almost perfectly.

I bet we see Shin's when we get the Ghost.

Looks like a last minute change, both the early pics and the pics with the Ghost show a GREY wing stripe, not black. Now it seems to match the black leg armor stripes. Still, they at least did the more important IMHO "subtle" grey differences for the flaps, rather than the high-contrast of the early pics. The best though was the one with the Ghost. Even lower contrast, and the dark grey was less intense. THAT was the most low-vis valk we'll ever see.

The Bandai site doesn't have the 0D Shin nor 0A, so no "alternate" pics for thsoe.