jenius

Amen Exo though, what were you doing buying all the Alphas upon seeing the Beta?? Why not just buy Scott's since that's likely the only Alpha that would ever sell out? That way there you could handle it and determine if you wanted to buy more at some later point? Can I play devil's advocate here? Did you purchase the Mac+ toys from Yamato? Did you snap both your VF-11Bs legs off? Did you watch your YF-19 crumble in your hands? Did you enjoy opening your VF-19A to find the paint had already worn off the leg fins in transit? Did you give Yamato a second chance? Did you buy the 1/60 VF-1s? Did you marvel as the screw-covers popped off during the first transformation only to never be seen again? Did you lose one of the stupid arm guards after putting the gun in for fighter mode? Did you ever put it in GERWALK mode with super armor and laugh at the fact you could no longer twist the legs? Did you give Yamato a third chance? Did you get a Yamato 1/48? Is it not worth all the craptastic efforts that came before it? Aren't you thrilled you didn't swear Yamato off for those issues you saw in their earlier products? Yamato has grown leaps and bounds much quicker than Toynami has/will but I still think it's silly to swear off a company based on their first two "quality" products. What if the Beta comes out some day and it's Toynami's equivalent of the 1/48 VF-1? What if it doesn't come out but Toynami picks up some other license and does something stellar? Being skeptical is one thing, being rash is another. Besides, we're all familiar with prototypes not making it to production. We're all frustrated and we've become impatient... but I think we should just all turn our eyes to the great Yamato products coming out and hope some day we'll be pleasantly surprised to see the MPC Beta resurface... as something transformable that actually attaches to Alpha.

Sure, once I get it I'll see what other toys it has some similarities to and get all the pics together I can. I might just load up the server with a temporary review with a ton of pics and then go back a month later and slim it down big time.

There are ways (I would think) Toynami could probably get this thing to hitch together in a somewhat decent manner... problem is that "somewhat decent" just isn't going to fly with the negative feedback they've gotten on everything else. Everyone will immediately hit forums and say "Ugh, this thing BARELY connects, it can't even do two barrel rolls before the alpha falls off!" Ya get what I mean? The better it connects the more people will want it to live up to a toy's standards of being able to connect like Legos so the level at which people will be truly happy is a mighty high standard.

I'll be doing a full review and then a comparison to the Banprestos on my site. Bobe says he's shipping mine Thursday(ish) so I should get my review up sometime next week.

Hey Bobepat, did you ask about them releasing the 1/100s with the super armor as a separate box set like my theory for how other people will be able to get the Hikaru VF-1S?

Wow, Starscream looks fantastic in fighter mode... and god-awful fugly in robot mode. Yikes! I won't be getting that although I wouldn't be surprised if someone gives it to me as a present since everyone thinks I collect Transformers and has no idea what Macross or Robotech is... I'll have family members get me the Toynami 1/100 series since they can be had at a really reasonable price and seem like a great gift. I'll be getting myself the Angelbirds VF-1A and the YF-19 if it's out by then. I'm going to be passing on the reissue of the 1/48 Max and the new Hayao as well as the VF-0A.

An answer about the connecting to the MPC, the MPC Beta attached to the currently avaialble MPC Alpha (supposedly) via a removeable piece. There was an arm that could be attached to the Beta by some means that then followed along the belly of the Alpha and attached near the chest. It's been a while since I saw the pics and I've always questioned how stable it would be... I wouldn't be surprised if this was a big part of the hangup on the Beta's final design... it seems impossible they'd be able to get a firm attachment. The arm jets also attach to the Beta's chest but how solid could that be???

Praise the lord I don't collect DYRL paint schemes. It has saved me the cost of 4 1/48s now (Max, Hik, Hik S, and Hayao) but lemme tell you, I do feel a ping of jealousy when you all get yours . I must remain strong... MUST remain strong.

I have some serious doubts as to how well this thing will sell. It's an off-color production of a toy that was already doomed to have a small fanbase... I wish it luck.

I do agree that the MPC is an improvement over the Imai kit. Do you think the slight changes made though would make a Tread meant to match up with the model not be able to match up with an MPC? I should think if it could fit one it'd fit the other. All we have is speculation based on some hearsay... you don't need to panic... YET.

Ugly but intricate, I'll buy one for the novelty and hope that making paint jobs like this mean we'll see more neat paint jobs in the future.

The CG is old news (from Yamato's standpoint), Graham's been mentioning how he has seen the prototype for a while now by saying "it looks much better in person" and it's supposed to be out in a few months.

No, seriously, are you going to tell me that Yamato did a better job with the 1/60 head on their 1S? The Toynami 1S head was the best out there... until Yamato's 1/48. The MPC essentially is the IMAI kit. They are the same size and dimensions and Toynami actually purchased the molds to the IMAI kit and used them to design their MPC molds. I wouldn't worry about the difference between 1/55 and 1/48 scale with the Legioss in MPC or IMAI kit discussions either seeing as the scale is neither 1/55 nor 1/48 but somewhere in between for battloid mode (and simply unapplicable to fighter mode). If you made Beta/Tread to attach to the IMAI kit it would almost certainly attach to the MPC as well. 1/48 scale for a Beta would make it approximately as tall as the MPC VF-1 and something like 4" deep in battloid mode... I don't think you'd really need to get a larger scale than that. It's my understanding that Toynami is just kind of shrugging off the Beta and questions related to it at the moment while they determine its fate internally. If I'm not mistaken, the $250 price point originally was said in the context of a guesstimate at what a TRANSFORMABLE Beta MPC would cost and based on that Toynami had begun considering making a non-transformable Beta for significantly less. My take on this, with Shadow Chronicles finally having a deal penned Toynami might just shelve the Beta entirely and wait and see if demand for RT products doesn't pick up. They're probably also planning a line of Shadow Chronicle toys (cheaper, mass-production stuff) that they will be releasing in the meantime and that might even include smaller plastic alpha/betas... only time will tell.

A theatrical release first eh? Well, being in San Francisco maybe that will be one of the six cities this thing would probably show in Very interesting, I will continue to approach RT:SC with one eyebrow raised.

I disagree, I think it shows these molds are now profitable enough where they could pretty much spit out whatever they want since costs have been recouped. Extra profits now can be funneled toward new molds like the 1/60 0s, 19s... and who knows what else.

Col Small Johnson??? Where was that from???

He does go out with a literal bang in DYRL if I remember correctly. It's not Kamjin he kills though, just some nameless Zentran. He does point the gun into the guys back and shoots through him into his own valk after taking a thorough butt-kicking. Then the whole valk goes boom creating an opening for Hik and Misa to fly through.

Hehehe, you have exceeded your data transfer limit... what I saw was cool though!

keep in mind, the $$ are going to a good cause, try not to hate the bidders too much

I believe that's the answer you were looking for... or maybe hoping not to hear.

What did you do to that Yamato 1/72 YF-19 to get the legs to angle out like that in GERWALK mode... that's custom right? I'm not just missing something on my own? Good job on all that stuff, even your MPCs look good!

Roy joined years and years before what we see in Macross... he's a veteran of the anti-unification wars. So, the assumption would be that you can't go being in war for so long without getting a little beat-up at some point (although, in reality, you certainly can). I do believe you're right... I used to think they actually showed blood in that scene but I think the only scene you see Roy's blood in is when he's hunched over dead.

Well, I don't think we're really qualified to say that. After all, I don't think we even know what exactly cause the wound. I think this was debated in a thread once before. The presumption being that the Q-Rau's weaponry would have left HUGE holes in Roy so he must have been hit by something else. The most likely canidate being that his plane was hit and something exploded and the debris flew forward, through Roy's seat, and into his back. The debris obviously would still be in Roy since we never see it shoot through his chest so yes, he would likely be in immense pain. I actually think KingNor has a good point about Roy's death probably being more alluring to the Japanese audience. Roy stomachs an insane amount of pain, goes to his girlfriend's apartment so he could see her one last time, then dies without letting the pain win or getting emotional. I'm a Westerner but that seems like a variation of the ultra honorable death we see in Eastern culture flicks pretty often and it also appears in some good films coming from this side of the sea also (Westerns have some good examples). Since I'm pretty sure that's where the director of the series was going with Roy's death (This guy even dies cool!) I'm pretty sure it's a safe assumption that his wounds were going to be fatal no matter what. Roy's probably been wounded many times in battle and I think the audience is supposed to assume that he was acutely aware that he was on his death march and he would rather die with his girlfriend than in a hospital.

You know what they'll probably do? They'll probably release a combo VF-1S Hikaru and Strike Parts giftset later that won't be a convention exclusive.

Your Mac+ display looks far better (much less cluttered) than my own.