David Hingtgen

I'm on dialup, and I make sure every pic is as few KB as possible. (for my own sanity to upload them) What's not a JPG?

800x1000 of Gerwalk goodness:

Here's the VF-0 that was at Chara Hobby---note the price is 17,640Y. Which is slightly higher than Roy's at 16,800Y. Still, I don't think that's enough to add in a Ghost and the new weapons, even if they remove the leg armor and original missiles.

Checking around, while it has the number of a Cannon Fodder (321) it has the colors of what Hasegawa says Shin's (311) should be. I don't agree with those being Shin's colors, but they sure look a lot better than what Kawamori says. As they should--they're exactly your standard F-15/F-18 scheme. They are de facto "fighter plane greys". Either way, it's got the colors I want---and REALLY hope Yamato goes with *exactly* those colors. Any change would throw off the low-vis look IMHO.

Could always be mis-transformation. 90% of all YF-19 photos I see of the original Yamato had the chest wrong--it was quite possible to achieve a level nosecone, and no gap above it. Yet all the "official" photos either have a huge gap, or the nosecone angled up to close the gap. I wouldn't be surprised if the new one on display also has the chest too high (sure looks like it) and they forgot to put the shoulder flaps down. Anyone who's followed the MP Starscream knows it took them about 3 photo shoots to realize that the intakes have hinges for a reason. (and they still get the pelvis wrong half the time)

Yeah, it seems strange that just about every other transforming -19 ever (even the bad ones) has had the little flaps that fold down from the outer edge of the shoulder, but the Yamatos don't.

That's 1000x better than what Yamato's pics have been showing us so far. It's two-tone grey, but the two shades are very close--just like your standard USAF/USN Compass Ghost scheme. You can barely tell the nosecone and flaps don't match the rest of the plane---that's the effect you want. That's the most low-vis of any valk Yamato's ever done. I was so NOT going to buy this based on the pics we had earlier, but will so buy this if that's the actual colors they use. I'm wondering if there'll be two releases---the high contrast "what Kawamori says" version without Ghost, and this version, with Ghost.

Found another YF-19 battroid pic, and a good Ghost pic.

Be nice to the mods, we go out pic-hunting at websites we can't read the language of for you:

And it's even worse if you know anything about ships, too...

I'd buy them. IMHO the best improvement of the 48 over the 60 is the backpack--how it fits in fighter mode. If the 60 had the 48th's slimmer, lower backpack (fitting between the legs, not hovering over them with a big gap under it) it'd look so much better. How to sell them? Price! When they're half as much (or less) you can buy a lot more. I'd have my first Max VF-1J. (I only ever have enough money for Milia and Roy--Max is third).

While Graham's apparently perusing the thread: Does it incorporate a variation of the Retppu's "gullet" transformation for the chest undersides, or the Hasegawa's "neck" transformation to shorten the nose by moving the cockpit up and aft? Still trying to figure out all the panel lines/joints, and that's the best I can come up with so far. (Though the presence of a Tab B-like structure doesn't fit with Hasegawa-style torso formation) Basically---does the torso transform like the old one, or did they really change it? And any comments on the VF-0 with Ghost shown at Wonderfest, seems awfully grey compared to the VF-0A low-vis pics so far:

My first thought for SS was "Waspinator". Heck, Waspinator as an F-22 would be cool. If the movie needs comic relief, that'd be my choice.

Tiny pic, can't quite tell--is this a Yamato VF-0 with Ghost?

Forgot to mention: It's also clear the inner wall of the legs folds down near the calves, for the bicep/elbow to go into. Not quite SHE, but for a single-piece and single-hinge design, it gets 90% of the effect.

The canards certainly move, as it's part of the transformation.

Heavy and constant bitching about the movie/designs/fandom is fine, but I have very little tolerance for personal attacks. Watch it.

::puts new pics on front page:: I am SO going to do a detailed CAD vs final product comparison when I get mine---unless Graham does it first. As for the neck cover--I meant it seems so much smaller and recessed--the original really "covered" the neck and made the whole area flush with the rest of the plane. The new version is just a "covers the mechanism" bit, not really blending it in. Doesn't seem as good as the original one was. Though I think it's more important the head actually lays DOWN in the new one--the old one had it raised like 35 degrees, really made it obvious. That's a big improvement. PS--ha! Looks like Tab B is back--look right behind the head of this pic: http://ga.sbcr.jp/g-toys/c3-2006/02/11.html And based on this: http://ga.sbcr.jp/g-toys/c3-2006/02/04.html it looks like the trailing edge of the wingroot slots into the legs. And from this: http://ga.sbcr.jp/g-toys/c3-2006/02/10.html it's pretty clear we have a "line-art accurate" codpiece transformation. I'm still wondering about the "Z-cut" behind and below the canards--wondered about that since the CAD, still no clue why/how.

http://fantofan.jp/news/event/charahobby2006/rSANY0035.jpg is the best of the new pics---that's the one I was referencing last night for the wing transformation. SS looks a lot more kibbly than I thought---he's got a LOT hanging off his back at all angles.

Yeah, I saw the stacks after looking a while. Now for the other 80% of the truck...

It goes along with my (and many other's) main complaint: The vehicles are so incredibly broken-up in robot mode, you have no idea what's what, or even what it turns into. Where are Prime's stacks? Grill? Headlights? Horns? Fuel tanks? Fenders? Hood? Cab? Fifth wheel? There's some tires, but that's about it. All the sheet metal seems to have broken up into one-inch long bits. Just about every TF ever---you could definitely tell what it turned into based on robot mode. These--you can't, there's just random bits of metal hanging off the skeleton. Could be a tank, train, plane, car, or mechanical parrot.

Question for Graham if he knows/can tell us: Any Fold Booster details? Light up? Clear green casing with many layers of intricate detail visible below, or just a chunk of green plastic? Any chance of opening leg armor? (we clearly see it open up to launch a missile in the anime---the leg armor seems to carry a single large missile, rather than micro missiles) And a question---why was the "rubber collar" disposed of for this version? I always thought it really smoothed over the neck in fighter mode very well. Yes it was incredibly annoying to tranform, but it sure helped fighter mode. (Though I was always annoyed Yamato molded it in the wrong color--such a big obvious part that should be pure black---and you can't paint rubber)

Yellow isn't the problem, PALE yellow is the problem. Did you see my Roy's valk comment? The Jolly Rogers do not have a cheap-looking yellow. Nor do the Blue Angels. Nor Sunstreaker. Even McDonald's. It is quite possible to just have normal, rich yellow. But most toy companies don't seem to have it. Yamato's about the only one it seems (and even theirs is still too pale). But for some reason, Hasbro especially, toy companies seem to only ever use the most pale, sickly-looking yellow money can buy. And it looks bad on everything, regardless of context. (I do believe its a cost issue--ever since lead was banned from paint, white and yellow have had problems---the only good yellow pigment is lead chromate, and it was cheap--now that it's gone, getting a decent yellow costs more. Probably add .008 cents to the cost of the average toy. When I say "cheap yellow" I'm being quite literal) FYI, the yellow used by the Jolly Rogers, and thus Roy in a way, is specified that it should always match lead-pigmented yellow. No "cheap pale yellow" on the commander's plane... Also, amber isn't at all too close to red. Go look at MP Prime. Amber works, because he's a truck, and trucks have amber lights all over. Depending on how many runnning lights, it can run into the hundreds. When's the last time you saw a vehicle with pastel yellow turn signals or marker lamps? Amber=accent color of every vehicle on the planet, regardless of what side of the road it drives on. Plenty of amber on G1 toys that I can remember. Not much pale yellow, besides stickers and Prime's eyes, ironically. (Sunstreaker is a DEEP yellow) (Though my collection was about 95% Decepticon, so I didn't have that many cars--lots of planes though) And if amber/red doesn't work for kid's toys, what about the zillion "flame" toys? Almost every single line has a "fire/flaming" character or version of the main character. Many similar shades of yellow/orange/red. PS--anyone else sorta annoyed that there's a bunch of new shots of MP Starscream already from Chara Hobby, but we're still scrounging for YF-19 shots? "Wow, 20 news shots of MP SS from the exact same angles and pose we've already seen". Though I did notice the it looks like the wing transformation is quite different than I thought. It almost seems like the root flips 180, but then the rest of the wing angles out from the root on a sliding hinge.

I don't think the Ghost nor Fold Booster are intended to remain attached in battroid mode---they're "fighter only" devices I think. They're like the opposite of GBP armor.

Yellow has replaced silver/chrome as the accent color of choice on TF's lately. Especially Prime. You know, amber works well on Prime due to all the bullet lights, turn signals, etc in truck mode. And it's not nearly as garish. But when they use bright yellow instead of amber: A. It looks bad/unrealistic/cheap. Vehicles have amber lights, not yellow. And "cheap yellow paint" is the #1 way to identify knockoffs of a lot of toys. B. It encourages them to use that paint as accents everywhere. PS--that is the worst yellow I've ever seen on a toy, period. There are shades of yellow out there asides from "pale, ugly, nigh-pastel" for giant robots. See Roy's VF's! Deep yellow can look really good, pale yellow doesn't look good on anything, ever. It just screams "cheap toy" since that's the only thing in the world pale yellow is ever used on.