SuperSenpai

The Container Store carries acrylic risers: http://www.containerstore.com/shop?productId=10019504&N=&Ntt=acrylic+risers BCW Supplies sells acrylic sports memorabilia cases of varying shapes and sizes. You could use an empty one as a stand. http://www.bcwsupplies.com/products/memorabilia-displays/

I'm not an expert on these things, but the gas propellant is different from the fuel used by jet engines. My understanding of jet engines is that they work by taking in air from the environment, and mixing the air and fuel to produce a combustion reaction. The superheated gases are then ejected from the rear of the plane to produce thrust. So you need both air and fuel to create the reaction that provides thrust. Anime's post above suggested that the reason why FPs are necessary in space is because they provide the air/gas supply that would ordinarily be provided from the intakes in an atmosphere. My argument was that we see numerous instances of valks flying in space without FPs. If we assume that their spaceflight is enabled by jet propulsion in the same way as in the atmosphere, they must already have a supply of air/gas even without FPs. Obviously, the valks already have their own supply of fuel since they couldn't even fly in their atmosphere without it. So my point was that even if the FPs provide additional air/gas, it can't be the only supply since we see valks flying in space all the time without FPs. Of course, this assuming that the engines are still functioning according to standard jet propulsion principles. This is fictional alien technology we're talking about, so who knows?

In real life, FAST packs carry fuel for fighter planes so that they can go longer without refueling. They are still using their intakes to pull in air from the atmosphere. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drop_tank http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conformal_fuel_tank In Macross, they seem to provide additional ordnance, thrust, and perhaps fuel. However, in SDFM, the valks fly in space for the majority of the series without FPs. There's also at least one scene in both SDFM and DYRL where Hikaru's valk is seen jettisoning its FAST packs and flying off while still in space.

I don't think it comes with the TV hands though, unless I'm mistaken.

I get that Yamato/Arcadia makes an effort to produce toys with a lot of attention to detail because they are supposedly fans of Macross or whatever, but let's not kid ourselves -- they are out to make money, and they understand well the obsessive collector mentality that thinks it needs every iteration of a toy in order to have a complete collection, or that somehow thinks minor differences in coloring and sculpt make a toy more anime-accurate. It's funny because even within a given anime you see a ton of variation in coloring and sculpt, as pointed out in jvmacross's examples above. Look how chunky the valks are in those cels -- they don't look anything like a 1/60 sculpt -- closer to a 1/48 or even a 1/55 chunky monkey. Colors range from white/off-white to almost gray.

Honestly, these stands are inexpensive so if anyone has concerns about the tips, they should just buy one to test it out. Put a cheap toy you don't care too much about on the stands and you have your answer. These stands are so cheap, and choices for display stands are pretty limited, so I think it's worth it to spend a few bucks to at least test the thing out and figure out whether it's a long-term solution for you. Worst-case scenario, you find out the tips eat paint and you're down $10 plus shipping and one expendable toy. Best-case scenario, the tips work fine and you save a lot of money and headache trying to track down Yamato launch arms.

I guess this confirms that my long-held suspicion that there never really was a legitimate reason why the TV 1S and DYRL 1S were different shades of white, other than to make obsessive Macross fans think that making each one a different shade was somehow more anime-accurate.

I have an MPC Alpha sitting on one of my FP stands, with tips contacting the painted parts of the leg assembly. It's been nearly a year and no problems, so I feel confident in saying that it's probably safe. And I think it's been a given in these discussions that the Yamato VF-1 was not a concern for precisely the reason you mention. I think most people who have chimed in were using these with Bandai valks or non-SDFM/DYRL valks that have painted sections that typically contact the tips.

They might have been weathered editions. The online shops list weathered editions for about that much.

Heh... well, I wasn't really thinking that radically (hovertanks, etc). I just think that it might be interesting to see what Kawamori can come up with that isn't a standard fighter plane design. I think there are even some compelling story-related reasons for doing so. In the original Macross series, it made sense for the valks to have fighter jet features since a lot of the action took place in the atmosphere. But since then, everything has moved into deep space so there's no real reason for the valks to have features that support atmospheric capabilities. Of course, I'm not saying we should get too far off the rails since, strictly speaking, deep-space fighters wouldn't need to look anything remotely like a fighter plane. But I'd be interested in seeing designs that look more "space fighter" like than "airplane" like.

Did anyone try the solution I suggested a while back -- to paint the tips with clear nail polish, or some other type of clear coat? I would do it, except none of my stands have the paint-eating problem, so I have no way of knowing weather it would work.

Asking prices on eBay, whether for Yamato valks or anything else, are never a good indication of true market value. Better to search on sold listings, especially auction-style listings. Those tend to be more close to reality than the ridiculous Buy It Now or Best Offer prices. You can also check the For Sale forum here on MW. Some listings are a bit much, but most forum members tend to offer much more reasonable prices than eBay. Mandarake is also another good source for getting a sense of reasonable prices. They have a few 1/48s that are going for ~11,000 to 13,000 yen.

Seeing all these third-party valk designs makes me think that future releases in the Macross franchise need to start branching out and exploring different types of designs for transforming mecha. While there has been some diversity in valk designs already, I find most of them to be variations on a theme, and/or hybrids of existing designs. I think it would be cool to see some designs that are pretty different from what we've already seen. For example, they could ditch the fighter-plane motif that has been standard since the VF-1, and go for something that looks more overtly "sci-fi" like, along the lines of the Colonial Vipers from Battlestar Galactica, or the X-Wing fighter.

I think people need to keep in mind that it's not a 100% sure thing that the Flightpose stands will eat the paint. Some people had problems with this, others did not. It seems that certain production runs were more prone to develop this issue than others. We don't really have a clear picture on the exact reason why the tips ate the paint, so it's entirely possible you could buy a set of stands and have no problems with it. It's a lot like the Yamato V2 shoulder issue. Yes, a lot of the early production V2s had bad shoulders, but there were ones that were fine.

YMMV. I haven't had a problem with them.

I think sometimes items also get relisted after being bought because Mandarake doesn't require you to pay right away when you purchase the item, but they will mark it as being unavailable on the website. It may be that the buyer changed their mind or didn't pay for some reason and the same one got listed again.

I think that design looks good as a promotional poster or print ad... but not so good as packaging.

There are definitely at least two versions of the TV Max, the latest being the clear canopy version. I'm fairly certain that revision exists because there's one sitting on my shelf as I type. Jenius's list on Anymoon is pretty comprehensive, but I don't think it's 100% complete.

I think there's at least two. One is an older version with the tinted canopy, older-style crotch/nosecone locking mechanism, and a newer one with the 1/48 style locking mechanism and clear canopy. I think both versions are considered shoulder-safe.

C'mon peoples, this thread is not nearly as fun if you simply post that you bought something and don't provide pictures!

Which seller did you get your KO from?

http://ekizo.mandarake.co.jp/shop/en/item_s-1459829.html With EMS shipping it should come out to about $160.

Baru Killy??? Hahahaha... it's like bad game of telephone.

Oh I don't know... even though the Frontier toys are based off of CGI models, I think they could still figure out plenty of stuff to do differently. Just as one example -- my educated guess is that the CGI models only provide a blueprint for what goes where during transformations, but they don't provide the details of the exact mechanisms because they would never be seen on screen. I'm guessing they provide gross movements of how the appendages transition to their new positions, but don't model the actual hinges, joints, etc that implement those movements. I think there's a lot of room there for Arcadia to do something different, akin to the way Bandai came up with a different way to transform the arms/shoulders in their 1/100 Hi-Metal toy vs. the Yamato V2, or the way the hip bar in the 1/100 functions vs the V2. Besides, if they are able to correct for a lot of the complaints that people have made regarding the Bandai toys, that would offer a compelling reason for people to pick up an Arcadia VF-25 over the Bandai toys.

Oh yeah, if they are rainbow canopies, then they have the older style mechanism that locks the hip swing bar to the nosecone/crotch, which most people consider more difficult to transform and is often a source of paint chipping on the swing bar.