jenius

No A-stance and no swivel at the waist... I don't think this thing will be very much fun in battloid.

Yeah, I know you're joking but if I worked for Toynami I certainly wouldn't admit to it... as much as I'd like to think I'd be capable of convincing them to make better toys (but, from real-world corporate experience, I know they'd probably make the same crap and I'd collect the same paychecks). Although you know wherever there's pretty much ANY toy talk you can find me. To be fair, was I arguing? I thought I just made a glibe observation. I'm all for criticism so far as it's grounded in genuine observation. I appreciate the fact you've visited the site. It's also true, I do really look for positives. The basic idea was that I'd highlight the good of products and mention the bads and then do lots of comparisons. Thusfar, I've been so busy just getting the initial posts up there's only one comparison. That'll change eventually... probably a long eventually from now since I have almost zero time for the site. As I repost the reviews that are already up there I'm actually showing now flaws with the toys instead of just mentioning them in the review. I'm about to repost the MPC Alpha review with pictures of their crooked heads, paint flaws, close-ups of the pin that breaks free in the hand, and a broken arm. I think that will help dampen the typically sweet tone. Yikes, I better double-check my posts because the whole goal of the site was to never recommend anything but I do think maybe I've forgotten that at times. I was hoping to just give my impressions and let people then decide from them what was important on their own. The total score is useless really, it's the individual scores that should matter. You want a toy you could throw at someone? Look at the durability section. You want a toy you can pose, look at the articulation section. I would love for people who disagree with stuff to actually post that they do disagree with it, I think it'd be great to have other opinions on there. Hopefully those opinions wouldn't be just "Oh this is a cheap knock off!" but rather an explanation of why someone would feel that way. And yes, I apologize, my last post was entirely too serious sounding. Note that I haven't purchased another 1/100 valk since the first one I grabbed. I'm pretty dimissive of this product, it's fun for $15 (if you can get it for that) but that's about it. I'm just surprised that actual dislike of it seems to exceed the general apathy I have toward it. I will probably buy more at some future date as fodder for my display cases... but that's about it. EDIT - The toys are supposed to be receiving grades. A score of 30/50 would be 60% or a D-. A score of 35 would be perfectly average. Any score above that would be above average. In that respect, I think i've basically stated that Macross/Robotech collectors have largely average toys to choose from... with exception of the 1/48s which gets B+ and maybe an A-.

I always thought "Turd" was a lovely color.

Agreed, these aren't knock-offs but I don't think anyone actually considers them to literally be knock-offs. C'mon folks, if you want to call a toy crappy call it crappy, don't call it a knock-off or you might confuse people (or indicate just how little you actually know about these toys). As Chet has indicated, they are vastly superior to the Banprestos and share nearly nothing in common with them. They do have parts in common with other larger, more expensive toys but let's face it, you can only make a VF-1 so many ways. The fact that Toynami lifted design cues from larger toys and made them work for this small of a toy is actually commendable. I still don't understand why people who don't like these $15-$20 toys feel they should bash them (especially since the majority of those people have not, and would not, ever purchase these). There are hundreds of actual knock-offs out there, why not make threads for all of those and bash the product? People who bash these 1/100 toys in this thread seem to me like the people who hear from a coworker what happened on the Howard Stern show and then call the FCC to complain.

That console looks seriously retro! It's totally the early 80s attempt at high-tech looking.... done 25 years later. It's kinda neat.... but I'd prefer "boxy but good"

I guess that's plausible but it seems strange to me that that would be something any pilot routinely did during battle. Gamlin kind of gives the impression that Basara is so great 'cause he breaks this barrier all the time that Gamlin's never been able to break. I had the impression it was something Basara did often... I don't think any specialized maneuver that involved strafing loopty loops would be something you'd observe regularly. Then again, anything is possible...

This marks the first occasion I have ever seen someone use the term "hard-on against" something. Having a hard-on is a euphemism for erection. You don't get an erection because you abhor something (like guitar-based flight controls). You get an erection because you enjoy something, like Sylvie or Ishtar. If you're going to accuse MacII fans of having hard-ons for hotties whereas Mac7 fans wouldn't feel that way I think you may want to reconsider your argument as it would lead me to wonder what does give Mac7 fans hard-ons... but I suppose I'm being entirely too literal now huh? Keith, can you clarify what I was talking about with Gamlin and that skill level he couldn't achieve. It would take me forever to find the episode and watch it again. Was it really just a maneuver? It seemed to me like their was some sort of real-time ranking system involved.

OMG you just reminded me of another thing I hate about Mac7. Remember when Gamlin was all butt-hurt because Basara routinely broke some proficiency barrier in his valk that Gamlin just couldn't quite achieve?? Then in one episode Gamlin actually achieves it and everyone is like "Whoa!" I'll take my cheese with an extra side of CHEESE. Some piloting skill barrier? Ugh...

Shhhh, don't tell anyone, but Toynami's fastpacks may very well be better than Yamato's 1/60s... They're certainly on par. The only big plus the Yamato has is the fact the Toynami requires a backpack clip but heck... the early Yamatos can't even attach fast packs and would have required that same clip. The Toynami also features adjustable thrusters and removeable leg armor (a little too removeable) whereas the Yamato has fixed thrusters and no additional leg detail. Let's not ignorantly bash because it's attached to the MPC which is not very good, the super armor itself is actually quite nice (provided the pieces stay on the valk well). Now, for those of you about to say "Yeah, but the armor always pops off" I would point you toward Yamato's 1/48 reflex missiles. On to the initial question, yes, I own one but I do not own a scanner. Sorry, otherwise I'd love to help.

I don't even remember it being referred to in the shows as "cruiser" or "storm attacker" but I could be wrong. I think all the labeling done subsequently is just people trying to sell it. Seems to me like it should have only two modes but since everything else seems to have three modes I can see why people would go that route. The difference between "battle" and "Storm attacker" are just a spread out chest, raised arms, and lowered booms... hardly seems like a "mode" to me.

So long as companies like Yamato, Bandai, or anyone else make money by labeling something Macross there's always plenty of hope for future Macross projects.

I was wrong

I'm finally finished putting up my revised 1/48 reviews on www.anymoon.com. I guess that's not entirely true, I still haven't busted out the Low Vis I and done the Low Vis review I've been planning for a while now. I guess I'll save that one for some point down the road. In the meantime, swing by the site at some point and check out my review of the super TV releases

SDF-1 is always considered a 3 mode transformer in every version of the toy that is produced. The old matchbox toy labeled them "Cruiser, Attack, and Battle modes"

Visit www.toynami.com to see all the shows they produce toys for. Most of their toys are pretty insignificant but they did do the MPC Voltron that received a lot of praise.

MacII: "Why does a new agency need a valk?" "How did a reporter penetrate the enemy's defenses better than the military?" "How did Hibiki manage to lose a reporter, pick up an alien, and get her home without a million red flags going off?" "Wait, is this the ending from DYRL?" "Did they just blow up the SDF-1?!?" Mac7: "WTF?" So, yeah, I guess if I gotta pick the lesser of two evils I'd go wtih MacII. At least it's short and it can be fun if you ignore the plot contrivances.

I have updated the review for all the 2nd Edition Yamato 1/48s on my site. You should check it out for some more pics including photographic evidence of the changes Yamato has made to the product since their first go at it. Here's a sample pic of some of the gallery-type work.

Glad you guys liked it. A little note on the Stealth GBPII, I have a really crappy lighting system so it was hard for me to get good pics with the Stealth. I think the Stealth GBPII combo could be nice but I would highly recommend buying the recast hands off of one of our other board members and painting them black. If you did that, I think it'd really look much better... i found the green hands very odd with the Steatlh. Also, the GBP casts a lot of shadows over the valk so if you're going to be using it for a display make sure you have it in a well-lit area or else you won't even notice the Valk inside all that armor (other than its black head popping out).

Nice, I'm especially jealous of the Orguss stuff. I don't own anything Orguss but I love the show and think it'd be fun.

Hey everybody, if you've been on the fence about purchasing a GBP kit I recommend you take a trip over here for a ton of pictures and comments. If you own a GBP and have wondered what it would look like on some of the other valks there's a gallery where I kinda went nuts with all the different combinations. Check it out.

Looks like the shadows could be helped by having a second light, one more directly over-head. Yes, the pics are also a bit bright and the white balance is off on Voltron. Here are some samples from my site: My system is HORRIBLE. I have one direct overhead light, nothing else. I also do not own any photo-editing software. I do own a pretty sweet camera though, a Cannon a620 that is chock full of manual settings and a pretty sweet macro function.

so you're saying it's not vaporware Oooh I like it a lot... although I do find some of the gimmicks pretty... gimmicky but I'd much rather have it that way then sitting there thinking "couldn't they have just added x?"

Yeah Haterist, I made that same observation... doesn't look like a "toy" in that sense.

TSINC on ebay had a few not too long ago. If you're in CA you're gonna get Taxed though

Yeah, I don't think I ever once put the red armor on my first Jetfire. It took a long time but eventually his right arm fell off. Then I bought a buddy's Jetfire and eventually both of its arms fell off