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Wanna take it apart for me and show me where the screws are? ;-)

Woohoo! I just received mine at the door this afternoon in Toronto, Canada. Luckily most of us still had a day off in lieu of New Years being on a Saturday! Just some info for anyone in Canada considering this wonderful toy; I was charged $50.66 ($8 Canada Post handling fee + $42.66 GST/HST tax on $328.18cdn value - thanks government for nothing!) at the door on top of the shipping of 4840Y already paid to AmiAmi. So overall, the total price came up to $446.06cdn (including paypal/creditcard conversions) - which I am always interested in when purchasing something like this. I am not happy with the fact that I paid over $100 for shipping/brokerage/taxes which hurts on an already expensive purchase. The toy is definitely worth over $350cdn, but $450 is pushing it and depends on how fanatical you are - I absolutely LOVE IT! A few thoughts I'd like to share; AmiAmi packed it in bubblewrap and in another cardboard box that was a perfect fit only slightly larger - it arrived in pristine condition. I love the styrofoam packing, it was very tight and couldn't be pulled out from one side only, I had to open both sides of the box and push out from the other end to avoid damaging the styro tray or lid. It was initially puzzling how to attached the ARMDs - it isn't clear anywhere. After examining the parts closely, you can see that it snaps onto the rails and that it just takes a bit of pressure to "snap" them into place onto the rails (the magnets don't seem to do anything IMHO). I like the stand, very robust and helps align all the parts so they are square, but I wished it lifted the SDF-1 a bit higher to clear the pretty massive stand. Maybe a clear block of acrylic would be more elegant. Molding and surface details are excellent! I love all the details in the recesses and the part seams for the most part are very well engineered to "work" with the overall design. That being said, I can only identify a few seams which I would putty over and repaint to eleminate them, the bridge (I hope it is just glued and just "pops" off) needs to have its vertical seam and horizontal seam removed. The front top main body has a vertical seam under the main turret that could be filled and underneath as well. Overall, I would say 5-6 seams needs to be removed, but that's pretty amazing in my books! I'd like the seam at the arms where they connect to the ARMD to be removed too, but it seems to get quite a bit of movement when the ARMDs are swivelled horizontally - I'm afraid they'd just crack and open up again on first swivel. A bit of warning, those main "antenna" like things from the shoulder do NOT swing all the way around to face the front "parallel" with the body of the SFD-1 when in cruiser mode. They aways have a slight angle outward to them which I find odd as the slot seems to indicate they'd move farther forward, but if you look careful, the track in which they slide on ends short of the front of the slots in the shoulders - don't force it. It's unclear how to remove the leg cover plate to expose the city. After a lot of gentle prying, I figure that you can get your fingernails under the front portion closes to the knee joints and pop that loose, then slide the entire plate forward as there are 2 tabs holding them in place at the rear - do not pull out perpendicular to the length of the SFD-1, pop the front and pull forward. It looks like the leg is assembled in a top and bottom half and the city is attached to the bottom half, so if we could dissassemble the leg vertically, we should have the city exposed for painting. There are likely screws top and bottom either under the top plate with rear gun turret or bottom thrusters - this is where I wished they didn't apply all the panels and turrets to expose the screws to make taking apart more obvious. It would be great if there was a brave soul here that would do a walkthough to taking apart the leg for me to follow ;-) 2 questions for Graham... if you could ask Yamato, can I just pop off the bridge (pry it straight out) and where are the screws holding the top and bottom of the leg halves for access to the city? Any enterprising Photo-etched artists out there? The antenna array on the bridge is just begging to be replaced by an aftermarket Photo-Etched piece with the little vertical antenna "strings" running between the main horizontal masks. This is one serious replica! Definitely the crown on my toy collection. I don't think it needs much to turn it into a masterpiece, I was planning on doing a few obvious seam filling and sanding, painting a few areas (maybe 30-50%) with more mottled greys in a panelled pattern that I can then post-shade, panel line/oil wash, draw in cross-hatching lines like ILM did on the star destroyers to give it scale, decal bunch of little white, red and yellow strips all over it to simulate the lights in DRYL and do a light colour dry brush on top of a matte/flat clear-coat. All I can say is WOW! If you can afford it, it is definitely recommended!!

I second that!! ;-)

Woohoo, just received the same! 4840 EMS shipping to Canada too. Came out to $395.40cdn for interested Canucks! Boy the Yen is high! But from the review, it looks totally worth it. Can't wait to paint this puppy up!!

I love the slight assembly, it will make painting that much easier! Thanks Graham for the wonderful review, I for one am so glad that I pre-ordered this and the review comfirms it! This is definitely one that I will clean up the seams and detail and paint up with tiny panels and details to give it even more scale that such a wonderful toy deserves. Of course I will try to post up a step-by-step thread on these boards as a foray back into this world again - maybe we can make it a group (not necessarily a build) improvement thread! Thanks again, I haven't been this excited about a toy for a few years! AmiAmi hasn't requested payment on the pre-ordering though, has anyone received notice?

Thanks guys! I'm always looking for new-toolings of sleek looking modern combat aircraft. Gotta keep that note the next time I'm at a hobby store. Do post some more pictures when you've got it finished!

Hey anyone know anything about this? http://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/product/4797356944/ref=pe_2102_21557332_snp_dp

Italeri and raised panel lines... yuck! It looks like recessed panel lines though... Any good new toolings of this bird around?

Ooh, I love it. Is it 1/72 scale? What make? Is it any good?

I went with; 1/72 Macross VF-4 Lighting (fighter mode only) 1/72 Macross Plus VF-11 Thunderbolt + Boosters (fighter mode only) 1/72 Macross II VF-2SS + non fast pack & SAP (fighter mode only) Crosses my fingers but won't hold my breath!

Yeah, I'm just too anal to accept just a repaint. They are too different to pull that off effectively. They could do that then offer a v2 to suck some people in again like the YF-19?! I would not bite if they just did the re-paint with D & P. I do love the DRYL so much better anyways!

You took the thoughts right out of my brain!! It looks like a wonderful mash-up - the best designs of each. Looking forward to the finished photos.

Hah! so true!! You're already one step ahead of me on the FMMF, I've just been collecting just about every aftermarket PE/resin upgrade I can get my hands on for it.

Nope, not yet... I have it, and look at it every so often... dreaming of the day I get to dig into it. It really is the pinnacle of injection molding technology and engineering. It's really up there on my list of to builds... That Andromeda toy looks pretty awesome too, whats the cheapest place I can pre-order one? It looks like toys are the way to go when you have a little daughter (at least for a while anyways).

Any details on this toy? How big / long is it? Any working gimmicks? Lights? Wonder if Bandai will release a 1/350 scale model of this like the Yamato, they have all the electronics worked out.

Is this Valkyries2 book available for pre-ordering anywhere yet?

My sentiments exactly!! I'm with the captain on this one, the only redeeming quality to these kits is their box artwork. However, I did cut my chops on them back in the day - it was an exercise in frustration. It certainly taught me patience, disappointment and the ability to substantially modify a given thing to make it better myself! (of course in hindsight, it took time away from dating! - argh!!) I built every one of those back in the day... of which I think the little Nichimos and the Monster are the only one's I still have today. That Monster isn't poorly posed, its the only way it can be posed! The guns are non-moveable and the joints on the legs can only swivel in 1 direction! The only good to come out of this is that I hope it will generate enough interest in the original series or Macross in general to warrant new toolings to be produced. Or possibly a new art book that has nice reproductions of the original box art paintings. ;-)

Hey, what's that "Works: Hidetaka Tenjin" in the lower middle? Is it new? Does it have good illustrations? A little more detail please. I'm not familiar with that one.

That looks so good! Sooo looking forward to it. It might just be what I need to finally start that Bandai 1/350 Yamato!

Woohoo! just pre-ordered... thanks so much kyekye. I haven't been excited about a pending Macross release like this in a long time. I'm going to try to detail and paint her up right! Let's do a group build/disassembly together when it arrives - we could sure use some input from our two resident masters that completed the 1/2000 scale version ;-)

Can't seem to get this item to show up on Amiami in the english section to order... can anyone help?

Yeah, I expected to re-build the antenna array from stretched sprue... but the superstructure itself is a bit disappointing - kind of looks like a melted ghaspon. If anyone has seen the level of mold detail on the 1/350 Bandai Yamato crew members - you'd know exactly what is possible to mass manufacture in really tiny details. Here's to hoping that the production version will be crisper. How big would this piece be anyways?

Yeah, I'm a bit underwhelmed too. I don't even have a kit yet - don't know if I'll have the room for the 1/48 scale models. I think I still gotta get though my 1/72 collection, but know I've got to make the alterations to the legs of the 1/72 tilt angle to be more like the 1/48 the next time I build one. I'll wait to the VF-1S with Super Packs.

Just in time for Christmas! Should prove to be a nice platform to paint and detail up - how long will this be now? Gotta start saving! (more like hiding away... food from my daughter's mouth;-)

It's remarkable for 1/144 scale and you've done a superb job on it! I don't think it's got quite the level of detail of the 1/72 scale though. I totally agree with PetarB, the square cutout baffles are just beyond me - I'll leave it out too whenever I get around to it, just a massing all the resin and PE upgrade parts for it in the meantime ;-) Hey PetarB, when are you going to get back to the 1/72 scale Macross pilots and sculpt that Minmay in the back seat of the VT-1 with her helmet off for me? You did remember right?