David Hingtgen

Bump, because this is that cool.

Quick post to all MW members: I'm closing this thread as soon as attachment uploads are working again---this thread is over 50 pages and way out of date now. Please avoid posting for the next few hours until the new one's open. I already have lots of new pics to start the new thread with. And *I* will start the new thread. (Mod-power abuse)

Absolutely. TIE Fighter is the best PC game ever IMHO.

KISS Rodimus is the GT, like Mirage.

VF-14 in M7+? Will have to check sometime, I don't remember that all all. (The only M7+ ep I really remember is the "Gamlin's training" one, as it had Milia's VF-11) Checked the VF-11 tonight against my books: VF-11B and C themselves are physically identical. Only differences are the FAST pack booster nozzles, number of forward missile launchers on boosters, and gunpod. The housing for the booster nozzles themselves are the same--square and round nozzles fit in the same basic booster design. Still don't know what the "thing" stuck between the nozzles on the B-version is. Thought it was a stabilizer fin, but rear-view drawings show it to be rather thick. A C's gunpod looks a lot like a B's with all the extra "stuff" stripped off it. It's quite possible there's really only one type of gunpod, and the VF-11B's we saw in M+ simply had extra attachments (like a bayonet) added on to theirs for that particular mission, as they knew they'd be hunting down rogue Zentradi armor suits. Anyone have the M+ TIAS? Does it show the VF-11B's gunpod in detail? The Design Works book doesn't have the B's gunpod at all, and the C's is only in the M7 TIAS book (which I have). VF-11D: Asides from the obivous two-seat cockpit (which is like the VF-0D in that it is extended *both* front and aft compared to the single-seater---the pilot sits further forward in the two seater than he does in the single-seater), it has larger canards (easy to change, even the original toy had them pop right off if you wanted), and a set of vernier thrusters right behind the cockpit, much like a VF-19F/S. Also, due to the cockpit/vernier, the VF-11D has a sort of "collar" around the front of the neck due to the slightly longer forward fuselage by the hinge. Again, all this could still fit a "generic" VF-11B/C body, as the entire front end of the VF-11 simply pivots down 180 degrees on a simple hinge to transform. They could just make a new "front end" to get a D. It'd be more involved than just a new head-sculpt, but it'd be equally "not affecting the transformation or fit of other parts". Also the D's head is different--has a visor instead of an "eye" among other things (I like the D's much more than the B/C). The Jamming Birds' VF-11D's have new boosters and leg armor, but I'll assume that's just them, not standard VF-11D's. The boosters are clearly the "sound" boosters, and appear to be the same as used on the VF-22S as such. The new leg armor--no idea why it's there, other "sound" armor packs don't have leg armor at all--Basara and Mylene never did, and it doesn't open up with speakers or anything--really have no idea why the Jamming Birds would have new leg armor, but they do. Heat shield---well, it'd be really hard to do the SHE version and have any nose gear at all--even a removable one. The heatshield is basically where the nose gear should be, and makes the entire forward half of the belly a mess of sliding hinges.

Hunh. So, MP-05=Anime Starscream? We can hope/beg/plead.

A quick googling gives a Harley-Davidson Fat Boy for T2.

A point I read on another board was that Thundercats had a pretty large and fleshed out mythology--both their own, and "Third Earth". Plenty of places and legends to explore (or re-explore)--no need to ditch it all and come to Earth. Third Earth was a neat place as cartoon settings go. Especially Mumm-Ra's pyramid. Though the Ro-Bear Berbil jungle village has to go...

Just in case we get some more Thundercats fans here---I found this on the net long ago and kept it--I believe it to be the actual animation model sheet for the Sword of Omens. If not, it's 100x more accurate than it has any right to be:

I think the 11 battroid ends up a bit taller due to transformation. IIRC when I had my VF-11 it was larger than my 1/60, even at 1/64 or 1/68 scale or whatever. I'm going to get out my Macross Designs Works and M7 TIAS books tonight and go over the VF-11B, C, and D inch-by-inch tonight and really check for differences. Though I think the Jamming Birds VF-11D is considered modified kinda like Basara's, and might be more than just a standard D with new FAST packs. (AFAIK no "standard" VF-11D has been seen) Though the D's head sure seems "UN Spacy" and not "custom". As for the VF-14: AFAIK the only version is the M3 one, "retroactively" designed from the FZ-109 in M7. I do like the FZ-109A though, but it uses way more anime magic. The FZ-109F/G is just ugly, and uses more anime magic than the YF-19 and 21 combined. I just played M3 tonight to check some stuff---it's interesting, as they don't "cheat" at all on any of the transformations---though they don't have to worry about hinges nor pixel-thin attachment points, and parts can magically "slide" through each other--they don't allow any shape/size changing---no shortening nosecones or magically rounding-out legs. You get a pretty skinny YF-19 battroid, but you know it WORKS. And the VF-14 stays quite proportionate, which gives me hope for it existing as a toy some day. They transform at warp speed though, the VF-14 and 9 are just insane to watch.

I still say make a VF-22 out of it--then it'd be the one and only (and best) transforming VF-22 out there.

Yes, and several people have come to the conclusion that that is basically "sculptor's personal artistic choice"--there's no reason to do it, every other YF-21 can do a great 3D representation of Kawamori's drawing. Why the D'stance does the head/neck so differently---gotta be how the sculptor wants it, or there's some mechanical/transformational reason we can't figure out that doesn't crop up on other YF-21's. And as always--no need to copy the worst part of the model--just do the arms (and legs!) and we'd have a great YF-21. Gerwalk mode really shows off how well D'stance did the legs.

Oh come on, everyone LOVES attempts to make "American Anime". The major studios are so good at it... "Hope beyond hope" that this doesn't happen.

The D'stance has the arm "fill" the area between the top of the plane and the belly plates. They actually form the sides of the fuselage, rather than being suspended between the upper fuselage and the belly plates. There is 1/20 the gappage that the Yamato has around the arms. And the wingroot is sculpted just so that the shoulder "ball" rotates completely away, actually forming part of the underside of the wing. A little tweaking of the belly plate edges, a little tweaking of the undersides of the wingroots---almost gap-less. I think a key point is that the arms are "fairly constant in diameter and cross-section". Try this one for a shoulder (and arms) pic in fighter mode: http://park1.wakwak.com/~jasshy/CG/21/yf21_fi057.jpg Many more pics of a completed D'stance here: http://park1.wakwak.com/~jasshy/yf21.html Another key thing is the bicep---while every YF-21 has the forearm slide down over the hands to cover them up as well as lengthen the arm for fighter mode, the D'stance also has the same thing happen to the bicep. Frankly, the D'stance blows away any other YF-21 in the "arms in fighter mode" department. The belly plates and arms are just sculpted to fit together so well. It's not perfect, but there's no way it ever could be in real life. Plus a bit different transformation compared to SHE and Yamato---one that follows Kawamori's drawing of the YF-21 transformation closer---check the shoulder drawings. Basically, the Yamato has the arms "hanging around near the belly plates" with huge gaps on all sides, while the D'stance actually has them FORM the sides of the fuselage and sealing off the belly plates, as they should. Again--there's no way to have the arms form perfectly flush fuselage sides like Kawamori draws without serious anime magic, but D'stance came so close most people are very impressed. ::EDIT:: OK, here I've attached the previous pic but I outlined the "shoulder flattened out" in red to show how it fits---a chunk of the wing is actually carved out to make room for it---the "interior" of the shoulder actually makes part of the wing underside in the D'stance. Also, you can see the hollowed-out area in the instructions well--Step 6 (lower left part of the first page of instructions Vinnie posted) right above the "P.CAP" notation. Graham--you've got to admit the D'stance does a far better job at integrating the arms and the belly plates than the SHE or Yamato. And it does it all while still having the legs fit inside that very "skinny" belly bay. The FP Yamato YF-21 had a thinner belly by folding the legs sideways, but the D'stance does that even more so, and eliminates the "open sides" look. And frankly still looks better in every aspect of every mode. (Asides from the head "crown"--but that's easily rectified--just do like the original Yamato did for that) I am more impressed by the D'stance YF-21, than any other "transforming mecha" toy or kit ever. To take Kawamori's "impossible" arms-turn-into-sides-of-the-fuselage transformation and do it that well while retaining a working leg/belly-plate transformation is nothing short of amazing.

Ack, sorry Graham. I know it's not a copy, especially when you compare point by point for shapes. However, there are many features of the transformation as well as overall "sculpting choices to balance fighter vs battroid appearance" which are clearly "closely inspired" by the SHE, and only show up on the SHE/Yamato, and not any other transforming YF-19. In that, it certainly owes a lot of its "heritage" to SHE. The most obvious link I see is the "large folding part that has Tab B at the end". That is pretty unique to the SHE/Yamato, as the Hasegawa one does it very very differently, the Retppu doesn't do it at all. That is frankly the core of the YF-19's transformation (how you fold the foward fuselage to make the torso) and that is what the SHE and Yamato do very similarly. Also how the codpiece is formed--what is done with that area is quite different between the various -19's out there, but the original Yamato and SHE are pretty close. Also the whole "rotating backs of the knees". While that was dispensed with in the VF-19A release, that was clearly "based on" the SHE, which goes along with a very similar (AFAIK) bicep/elbow mechanism.

The VFX white/black/yellow one is not Skull squadron, though it does strike me as closely following the markings of VF-84's F-8's, which was the Vagabond squadron, that would soon become the VF-84 Jolly Rogers which is what Skull Squadron's markings are. So sorta, in a way, yes, but not really. Hard to see, only pic I know of, but there's yellow and black stripes at the tips of the wings and tailfins, a matching fuselage stripe, and a tan nosecone. It is close to most any 1960's Navy scheme that had yellow, but especially close to the Vagabond's F-8's. It could easily be seen as "early Jolly Rogers". And here's the real scheme I think they based it on:

http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=24232 Now if they can only use their magical powers to stop the fighting... I'm AMAZED I saw this like 36 hours ago and there hasn't been anything about it on this forum yet. Here's the main part, believe as little or much of it as you like: "WB animation is remaking the Thundercats as an animated TV series. The animation style is whimsical, Americanized-anime, along the lines of Teen Titans. The setting is modern-day Earth, in a major city (possibly LA) The Thundercats are all teenagers. Their leader is Snarf (!) who is now a mystic with a "third" eye. Each of the Thundercats has a weapon with an "Eye of Thunderra" and transformative powers (not just Lion-O) When they aren't fighting evil, the Thundercats play together as a rock band. That's not a typo, or a joke. They are rockin' cats in their present form. Mum-Ra now has wings."

We've already shifted the non-YF-19 stuff to another thread, but eliminating SHE would be hard to do, based on the fact that the original Yamato YF-19 is a direct copy of the SHE, and the new one probably incorporates quite a bit of it. Plus there's already been a lot of comparisons about SHE vs Yamato YF-19 transformation aspects (of which I had quite a rant about the upper intakes). And there's the whole "what other -19's could Yamato do"--notably the VF-19F/S, which SHE has already done a -19A to 19F/S conversion--could Yamato? Would they? Etc. I'm still keeping most new pics posted on the first page of the thread, but there hasn't been anything really worth posting lately (there's a site I'm watching for pics--within 48 hours I expect good stuff). I have considered making a new "pics only" thread, which would allow no discussion. If there's a new post in it, it means there's new pics uploaded in it by Graham or a mod etc. Or official press releases, etc. This thread would then be for discussion. If you want I have a big battroid mode pic. It's the same angle/pose/lighting as all the others we've seen, but it's bigger.

The valk itself is identical. As I said earlier, it's the gunpod (C's have no bayonet, that's the most obvious difference--it's overall smoother and sleeker than the B's) and the nozzles of the booster packs that are different--which is why it'd be so easy for Yamato to do both types. A VF-11B's booster pack has "traditional" round rocket engine nozzles--like the VF-1's, only smaller, with a small fin mounted between them. A VF-11C's booster pack nozzles are square with no fin. Also the C's booster packs have 2 fewer missile launcher ports. Color-wise, the standard VF-11B is medium-dark grey with orange stripes like in M+. Your standard VF-11C is white with black stripes in M7. Though if a new VF-11B comes out, I'll wait for a VFX repaint--I've already owned two in M+ colors, and the VFX scheme is very nice. (White with black and yellow stripes--very 1960's US Navy fighter-esque) If you really want, I could scan some lineart to actually show the gunpod and booster pack difference.

The "purple" pic is a scan of the SHE VF-19F/S painting guide. Here's a quick/bad retouch I did to try to bring it close to how it looked in M7: (it should be even more of a pure royal blue)

I might pin this for a little while, so everyone can see it--a lot of MW'ers just kind of bypass the model section---but they're really missing out, as VF-4's are so rare. Vf_1S---is there any chance you could scan the transformation steps from the instructions? While MW does have them all scanned here: http://www.macrossworld.com/macross/models/she/she_vf4.htm they are quite small. Larger versions would be nice.

It was more like 1/68 I think (maybe 1/64) due to it being too fragile in 1/72--shoulder bars I think. The VF-11 should be a bit smaller than the -19. Definitely larger than the VF-1. It's slightly bigger than a VF-4.

Or since a mass-production one from Yamato would likely use metal, it should be very strong if implemented. Any hobby shop should have fine tubing and rods of aluminum and steel---often used for structural reinforcement for kits, or R/C planes.

That's 10x better than it originally was. Have you considered painting the bare grey plastic so it matches the other gear?

Yup, definitely post in the "Wanted" section--you never know who might have one.