Lonely Soldier Boy

That blows. If the metallic finished Priss has revised joints I might consider getting one, since the Motoslave is supposed to be shiny anyway and who knows when we'll see another manufacturer's version.

Not much into this series but I like these little figures. Gashapon style figures with lots of articulation. They look like cheap fun! I wonder how tall they are.

Funny how Bandai went for tabs to lock the two halves of the hooves together in Fighter mode. Yamato would've used a ratcheted joint at the ankle.

I wonder if she'll sport the big wheels also. I don't have my MHs in hand yet, but can those tires be recasted? Edit: Is there anyone here interested in replacement tires for their Stick and Rey beside me?

I thought of that too. They'll call back, dude. Don't worry.

Oh yeah. That's how a Destroid should look like. Glad I haven't ordered mine yet. Hey Graham, can you post a bigger scan of that page?

D'oh! You're right. Sorry. Damn! Now I'll have to reconsider Yamato's Motoslaves. I like all my transforming bikes in scale. So, all four Motoslave releases have the falling limb issue?

When is the Megahouse Bartley due for release? Shouldn't we be seeing pics of it already?

I wonder why Yamato chose the 1/15 scale. 1/12 would've been better size and sales-wise since the Garland is also 1/12. I hope someone picks up the glove soon. In a way, I'm relieved that the Aoshima is a model kit, means there's still chance of having some nice Motoslaves in that scale in the future.

Toynami strikes again. Now I'm more worried about the domestic Beagle Ridearmor than I was before. Might as well go for the japanese release. Same for the 1/55's but I'm not into those.

Damn! I'm so transparent.

What about the D-stance model? That one is PT and has great proportioned legs. Hell, even the 1/72 has better proportioned legs than the 1/60. Hence why I haven't bought one yet, despite being my favorite VF. I think Yamato could've done much better in the Battroid dept. Edit: There are so many places where Yamato could draw inspiration to solve technical issues of their transforming mecha, but they always seem to go with their own goofy ideas. Sometimes they hit the nail, like with the hidden swing bar in the VF-1 (that was a stroke of genius), but then you have the skinny legs on the YF-21, the magnets on the Garland and most likely the small tailfins on the 11.

I just scored a set of all three Megahouse's for $147 at eBay. $49 per figure. I'm very happy since all MH's are going for 70 to 90 each on eBay right now. I was watching the auction, but I thought it would be a very tough one so I didn't bother to bid. Today I checked the auction and it was literally in its last minute. I made my offer within the last forty seconds and I won. Somebody must be hating me right now

I hope Graham gets his GN-U fighters. If Yamato wants my money all they have to do is PT Valks, enemy and support mecha all in the same scale. That's it. I'm easy.

Shorty's got a lot of nice features, I give him that, but the pilot figure is also a let down for me.

HAW! Yeah, sorry for the handwriting, I was so excited when I did those sketches. And yeah, the idea is to add a wall to isolate the medical bay. It is too exposed for my tastes. It does narrow the access to the gunner station, but only by a few millimeters so you still can place the figures there. Yeah, I know, but you keep giving me great ideas. I'll definitely do that eventually. Last night I was thinking on a way of making a simple working elevator and sliding upper hatch. The idea of removing the panel that connects with the mini-fighter docking area is also great, but that mod will have to wait for now. That's also a great idea since it's close to the engines, but I'm not sure about cutting out the hull. You have to make it possible for it to be placed securely in place again and that means tabs and slots and cutting in a section that has lots of detail. But I definitely want to detail that area. I'd probably just leave it open, since I want the corridor to be visible from the cockpit and it would be very hard to get your fingers there to open and close the door anyway (unless you could do that from the outside, hmmm).

When they face a new product, companies have resources that a guy in his garage can't have: CAD experts, designers, sculptors, quality control supervisors, well equipped workshops and more important: a budget. That means that all the guys that are working to deliver the product are being paid to devote to the project and are pros. Moreover, the Beta is a very straightforward design: blocky shape, little features and simple transfromation. And yet two modern toy companies accomplished the same thing than this guy who works alone on his garage in his spare time and never got a cent not even for supplies (except that this Beta has better detail than any of the others). I mean, this model can hold poses! How's that different from a Toynami Beta, (or Alpha which in terms of durability is not better than the model it was taken from)? I think Toynami and CM's were lazy with their Betas/Treads. If this guy could do the basics on his own (like great sculpt, detailing, engeneering, poseability, transformation and apparently even durability), Toynami and CM's could've worked out the real challenge: a decent linkup. As for the money, Yamato did an impressive job on a toy that's way more complex and expensive to produce than any Beta, and is at least just as risky in terms of sales: the SV-51.

That's actually a very good idea. I'll probably do that once the other heavy mods are done. I don't like the mini fighter at all and was thinking what should I do with that section. The thing there is that you have to strip off the whole area and detail it again, the floor for example is too high, so you'd have to take it out and add a new floor so the figures can stand, but it's doable. As for buying a new toy just in case, fortunately my friend insisted in not to make any mods to the actual pieces but making recasts of them and modify those instead. If I had it my way, my Falcon would have glue smudges, Dremel scars and pieces of plastic of different colors slapped all over the place. Here's a sketch I did of some of the planned mods:

Great design choices there. I specially like the feet. It's amazing how a single fan can match a whole toy company in every way and in some areas even outdo them.

BTW, I just handed my MF to a friend of mine who's a big SW fan and an amazing sculptor. The idea is to mod the interior of the toy to make it look more like the actual sets, and to distribute the spaces better (we're even planning on actually connecting the cockpit to the rest of the ship via a detailed corridor). Then, I'm planning on adding some more LEDs on the aisles and the cockpit and eventually doing a paint job all over the thing. It'll probably take me quite some time to complete, 'cause I have very little time for myself, but I'm very excited about it. I'll post pics as soon as my friend has some of the sculpt work done. Right now all I have is a dismantled half Millenium Falcon.

We haven't even saw Landing gear or color shots. The 25 is taking forever and I already want to see the rest of the line.

Then the Bandai 25 is definitely a 'Pork Chop'

Yay! I was just adding the custom stickers price to the total cost of the toy

Yamato stickers nightmare, here we go again.

"Those pork chops will go straight to my intakes!"