Lonely Soldier Boy

Hey, guys! I got mine yesterday, Yay! I opreordered this toy the minute I saw it at VE, 'cuz I've been longing for an Alpha toy since 1995. I live in Mexico city and I have to pay higher shipping fees, so I decided it was cheaper to send the toy to my editor in the US and hence the delay. For the same reason I had to ask Kevin to check the toy before shipping it, because in case of major QC issues, I wouldn't be able to get a replacement from Toynami. Kevin must have check the toy very conscientiously, because mine (02250) has no QC problems, aside from the floppy arms and other well known design flaws. Paintjob is perfect, no missing or broken pieces, smooth transformation, you name it, so I must say I'm very happy with my purchase and "Thanks Kevin for your help, your'e the man". Reading the first impressions on this toy I decided to place the decals right away using the pictures of a finished IMAI made by a MWer, as a decal key and boy does that decals look good. That way I also realized that the default decal key has some errors, so stick to the IMAI. I'll take pictures as soon as I find a camera.

I'm getting all of them tho' I haven't seen the blue for myself. I'll preorder it from Kevin as soon as possible.

Looks terriffic. Maybe the nosecone should point a little higher, like the VF-1 nosecone? I also noticed that you made the lower section of the nosecone sleeker, well done. I can't wait

I finally could complete my preorder. Since I live in Mexico City it's very unlikely that I can send a defective toy back to Toynamy and get a replacement, so Kevin agreed to check out the toy for me before shipping it, so don't expect big issues with my Alpha when I post my review. Thanks, Kev, you rock.

Here's the Modat guy. Edit: See what I mean?

The garland certainly carries a gun, but I remember a "lightsaber" fight near the end of the second chapter between the strike Garland and the Hargun (I think), pretty much a la Gundam UGH! Good thing the Garland carries a gun. As for the pilot, it is supposed to go inside the bike when in "Modat" mode, If Yamato could pull this off it'll be a kick ass toy, but if you look at the line art there's a lot of anime magic on that, 'cuz there's no way a person with two legs could fit in there.

I wish that was true. I used to say the same about the 1/48 and all I can think of now is how many toys there are still to buy. Landmates are from Yamato....

The Garland looks a bit weird to me, specially on the feet and the front wheel, the resin kit is much more accurate, but hey, i'ts a perfect transforming Garland toy! Guess we can quote EXO once more here: "Seems that my childhood is coming after my wallet with a vengeance" Does anybody knows who made those Landmates and when they'll be released? TNX!

Right! After all the 1/48's were manufactured in china also and they're just perfect, so what's the big deal? (chimps are cheap, tho' )

If I remember well from the line art, the chest plate of the toy in fighter mode sticks out too much. I'll try to fix this by lowering the nose a bit (everyone is complaining about the angle of the nosecone anyway), that should help to get more ground clearance (if it can be done).

They're just people with rigid ideas and no imagination to me. They're trying to find a petrified bacteria on Mars when the rest of us already meet advanced civilizations in other galaxies.

As for wich version of BR I like the most, when I heard of the director's cut, I was affraid I might hate it because I loved the original version so much. I thought that Dekard's narration was fundamental to better understand the context, and that taking it out would be a mistake, but when I finally saw it I liked it even more. Now I think the narration is not nesessary. My two cents.

The US version tries to "fix" the slow-meditative part. Let's not forget that Solaris is a russian author film and it wasn't intended for wester audiences that need an explotion every five seconds to stay awake (I blame the Hollywood studios for this). Even darker motivations led director Steven Soderbergh think that George Cloonie's naked ass would also make he's a better version. Edit: Change my mind. I just rememberd that scene of the car in the tunnel. That was SSSLLLOOOOOWWW I agree with BR being the best Sci-Fi movie of all times. Despite it's age it's still ahead of us in many ways. I love 2001, but I know some scientists and most of them aren't thrilled by the idea of extraterrestrial intelligence.

I agree with rocco_77. I didn't get my Alpha yet, but I've read every complain carefully and I'm still getting it. Toynami is learning to make toys the hard way, but no one can say that the Alphas are just as bad as the VF-1 line (in fact most of the people here that bought the Alphas never bought a single VF-1 MPC). Seems that the main problem here is that Toynami (perhaps to save some bucks) entrusted the assembly of a complex toy to some cheapo chinese factory. That problem can be easily solved just by moving the operation to other manufacturer for future releases. In case that the red Alpha keeps having all these issues somebody here will have to recast the entire toy for a MacrossWorld special edition Alpha bootleg. I mean it.

Thanks for those scans, man. Any pictures of the VF-0?

Fighter mode looks beautiful as always, battroid looks much better, but I'm not getting it 'till I see it in gerwalk mode. Remember that the knees could barely bend on the previous sculpt.

I've been away this thread 'cause my PayPal account won't work 'till next week and I envy all you proud owners of a MPC Alpha (specially Myerjesee). Sorry Kevin, I'll send my payment as soon as possible. I'm specting the inavitable QC problems so I'm taking notes of the flaws and how to solve them, but those "I'm happy with mine" and "mine has no problems" sentences are killing me! I can't wait to get mine.

Hey, Guys: I preorder mine from Kevin in march but I can't get in touch with him to make the payment. Hey, Kev, if you're reading this please send me an e-mail. I want my Alpha very badly. Oh and my condolences to EXO. Sorry, man.

Hey, fearyaks: How's the stickers quality? In the photos they look very "Yamatoish"

It's a toy, dude, not a car.

I don't think Yamato is thru with the Monster. They seem to have lost interest on it for the time being, but the Monster is a guarantee of sales, so IMO it's a matter of time (maybe a couple of years, but hey, it's the Monster). Same can be said of the YF-19 FP. Yamato is not gonna disappear tomorrow neither Macross fans, so there's hope.

By the way: I'm not trying to be a party pooper, but it doesn't seem that the Monster could bend his knee in batt mode at all. Is it supposed to be like this? The destroid mode looking this good is all I need anyways.

The center piece of each arm (the "elbow" in destroid mode) it's a moving piece. I think it reveals the machine guns that appear in the line art.

Since all the Mospeada eminences are here I'll take the opportunity to ask a question: Which number is Ray/Rand's Legioss? Anyone has a picture of it? I might buy two blue Alphas and make a custom, but I'm not sure about it. Thanks in advance, guys. If I understand well, Love Live Alive is not exactly a sequel, but kind of an epilogue to the series released as an OVA (I haven't see it yet tho'). I'm I right?

I knew it, I swear I knew it! By the way, Graham. What kind of shipment do you commonly use when you order a toy from the US?