M'Kyuun

Very true, and why I didn't buy V1. V2 is what they should have made first time out of the gate, and V2 should, in Yamato fashion, be the improved version with quality issues fixed. As much as v2 appeals to me, I may have just talked myself into waiting for v3.

That battroid looks sharp...finally proper hip placement and angled crotch to really emphasize the lankiness of the battroid. I like the color scheme and the new leg armor. However, Kawamori's insistence on one-upping the previous models really manifests in this design, i.e the additional engine pods, the lights on the chest plate, and the back guns all seem superflous and unnecessary, and detract from its appeal. It's a very busy design. I'm hoping that Bandai will give us v2 of the VF-25 employing the design changes seen here.

The LEGO Group are no strangers to animation, and they certainly have some talented folks working for them. Although I was never a fan of Bionicle, the theme was highly successful both in terms of the toys and the various animated shows and movies. My continuing hope is that one of the designers will create a well-done, perhaps Macross inspired, transforming robot that gets the nod from the CEO, and those of us who've been waiting will finally get what we've been wishing for. In my case, I've been hoping for a transforming mech theme since the 80s. However, I don't want Built to Rule or Kreo; I want a perfectly transforming robot theme where the bots turn into believable vehicles, with good poseability and aesthetics. I would love to see TLG create a series of ratcheting ball & socket joints in various sizes, as well as inverted versions of a number of existing pieces. Currently, I'm working on a Vf-4 inspired mech...it will be perfect transformation, with retractable landing gear, and as much poseability as I can squeeze into it at its size. It will also accommodate a minifigure. I'm making slow progress, but eventually I'll complete it.Update: http://www.flickr.com/photos/95379588@N08/with/8690923878/

"Van Force" was a Japanese exclusive alternate model using existing Exo-Force LEGO sets to supply parts. While his models transformed and were interesting, they were more sci-fi and lacked the sleekness and "realness" of his Macross designs. And, they were pretty flimsy. I had hopes that LEGO would approach SK to create a transforming theme along the lines of Macross (without being Macross, for licensing and availability reasons). Given the popularity spike for transforming toys, I'd have thought LEGO would eventually jump on the bandwagon and create a theme of their own, but, alas, it has not happened. Maybe LEGO feels that toys of that nature would be too complex for the age group they want to target, or the designers haven't found a way to make a visually appealing and functional transforming robot. However, it is certainly possible: Alex Schranz, aka Orion Pax, makes some awesome stuff. Definitely worth a look on Flickr.

I don't have the pics on my wife's laptop; however, this guy has them on his Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=all&q=lego+konig+monster&m=text I think he has the full set of pics as they appeared on Brickshelf. Hopefully, these will both awe and inspire. The guy was a damned good builder.

The creator of the LEGO Monster was an unknown Japanese builder who went by the name Gla-Gla. He posted pics of his creations on a LEGO fansite called Brickshelf for a number of years around the 2002-2004 timeframe. One day, he just closed his account and removed all his pics. Fortunately, fans of the model saved the pics and have made them available. Soren Roberts, an excellent builder himself, believes Gla-Gla was the Hory Froating Head himself. I don't think so personally, but who knows. Gla-Gla never posted anything beyond pics of his various models, several of which were Macross related and transformable. He made a few non-Macross transformable mecha as well, and an awesome Ingram from Patlabor. His transformable mecha were also notable due to their "perfect" transformations. The identity of the builder remains a mystery. BTW, my avatar is a pic of Gla-Gla's VF-17. It transformed as well.

I think b/c the lower section of the shoulder pod is darker than the overall valk, and that the back of the leg doesn't quite fit the contour of the lower shoulder pod, and just falls short of touching the plates that cover the gap forward of the shield, it presents, to me, the appearance of a small gap. It's a very, very minor nitpick. Too, it may just be the lighting in that particular pic. Still, Yamato have done an amazing job, and I'm not at all thrown by the addition of extras to fill in the legs and such. For the price of this beauty, I'm glad they offer them. However, I'm a fan of neither red nor yellow, and so will hold out for a nice blue and white deco, and hope I have the funds when Yamato eventually releases it.

Seconded, on both points. Looks nice. The gap under the shoulder pad keeps catching my eye. Other than that, and the gap in the neck in that HLJ pic, she looks seamless. I'd love to see it in the blue w/ white stripes deco.

I have the beginnings of all three Mac+ Valks in various stages of build, but I stopped working on them. I probably got farthest on my VF-11. I can't bring myself to tear them apart, always thinking I'll get back to them. All 3 of my models can fit a minifig in the cockpit. I'm retiring from the military this year, and I'm hoping I'll find more time for building once I'm free of the Air Force. Even now, I'm deployed, and looking forward to going home in early May. Can't wait to pick up a few Star Wars sets, and work on my current LDD project with real bricks. Chronocidal, I've seen your gargantuan VF-1 before and remember your saying that the existing hinges are too weak to bear the weight and /or strain of flexing, rotating, etc. Most people don't think about it, but a sizeable model of durable ABS is both substantial and weighty. But my hat's off to you, sir, as that is a fine VF-1. Even if you finished it in fighter mode and left it non-transformable, it'd be an amazing and highly recognizable model.

Carl, great topic. I use LEGO Digital Designer, but unfortunately, I neither have the time nor talent to rebuild this thing virtually. However, in the hopes I can stir up some interest, here's some LDD info: The program itself is a free download from LEGO.com, and there are inumerable topics in this forum to help you improve graphics presentation, unlock Universe, etc, plus tips and tricks: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showforum=128 There's a mod to the preferences in the program to unlock the Universe pallet, which offers much more versatility to your projects. User beware; the program is fun, and with the Universe pallet unlocked, moreso b/c you can build without any parts limits, and there's no mess to pick up. The pallet is not all inclusive, but is still impressive. On the other hand, the program's not without its quirks and drawbacks. I'm working on a transforming design right now, and the rotation tool, allowing hinges to be cycled through various degrees of motion, is finicky, and sometimes just doesn't work, depending on how much structure attaches to the hinge, close contact with another part of the model, etc. Simply put, it's buggy, and frustrating as hell. To the point, then, recreating Gla-Gla's Monster, still a masterpiece after all these years, while not impossible, would be difficult to accomplish. There aren't many pictures of the model for reference, and some areas would require educated guesses as to how they were constructed. However, I'd love to see someone more talented than myself try. So far, I've only succeeded in building a transforming forklift in LDD. http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=432191 I've scoured the internet looking for Macross designs done in LEGO. A quick search for "Macross" will net you some nice models on Brickshelf.com. Outside of this, however, I've not had much success. Jack McKeen built some nice transformable SD Macross designs and was featured in AnimeFringe magazine years ago. BaronSat sells some Macross related models as well. I hope I imparted some useful info. I've pined for the LEGO Macross license that will never be for years. If there are LEGO fans out there who build Macross models, hopefully they'll find this topic and post some creations. Perhaps one of them will be able to back engineer the Monster and make the LDD file available to everyone. Good luck and Play well!

I chose the SV-51. While the aesthetics can be debated (I personally love the way it looks in all three modes), I like how the cockpit area of the fuselage forms the centerpiece of the battroid, and effectively positions the VTOL engines for all three modes. The engine areas in the legs are capacious and the three-toed augmentors give excellent stability to both GERWALK and Battroid modes. I'm a fan on non-cockpit-out-front designs, so I like how the LERX suspend the aft fuselage over the cockpit using the VTOL fan door to conceal and protect the canopy. It's a nice simple, practical, and efficient design. Looking at previous designs, the transformation is innovative. I like the YF-19, and consider its transformation innovative as well: however, having the upper body attached merely by the backpack piece (which must be hollow to contain and conceal the cockpit canopy and still allow for two jet engines) strikes me as a great idea for a toy and an animated design, but not as "realistically" practical as the SV-51. While alot of folks here consider all the features of the valks as they are featured within the animation and design books, I personally focus on the designs from a purely mechanical standpoint as they relate to the toys, and by extension, to their practicality in a real mechanism. Of all the valks, I think the SV-51 comes closest to being a realizable design within the next 20 to 50 years given our current state of material technology, and perhaps 50-75 years for viable propulsion.

I voted VF-4, as I just like the design. I don't get hung up on the amount of air time and such...I just like the look and transformation of the thing. The VF-2SS would be a close second, as I don't believe Yamato would make either of these without some influence/ input from the fans via Graham. Also, I didn't vote VF-17, as I believe it's a forgone conclusion now that they're making the VF-19. Just my humble opinion.

I'm not a fan of Bay's movies, nor do I care for Kurtzman's and Orci's writing, at least for Transformers. I liked Star Trek, but anyway... "Prime" is too close in appearance, dialog, and overall feel to the live action movies for my taste. I watched all 5 parts. I thought it was out of character for Optimus Prime to go gunning down his zombie-ized comrades...it's a quick and cheap plot point to have zombies, or drones for that matter, as they're just fodder to amp up the action/shooting scenes. It'd have been far better if Prime found a way to isolate his zombie comrades (actually, zombie robots is pretty dumb, too) and determine a way, which would require no small number of challenges, to remove the dark energy and return all his fallen comrades to a dignified grave with their honor restored. The Prime of G1 or Beast Wars would have taken the hard road to preserve honor. It's merely a speed-bump for Orci's and Kurtzman's Prime. Or maybe I just have too idealized a picture of Prime. Overall, I thought the show lacking, although Ratchet's "dick" moments were amusing to a point. As others have pointed out, it's an unimaginative rehash of what's come before, with Bay's characters' influence at the fore. That said, where are the preliminary toy pics? heck, we saw pics of Animated toys and art before the show ever aired.

Hadn't noticed it before, but the "noses" of both my insignias point slightly outboard. It's very slight, but the insignia on the right stab sits a hair more aft than the left. The panel line passes through the purple paint in the "ear" on the right side, and barely touches the purple point within the white outline on the left. Still, I'm not going to fuss..it's a cheap toy made cheaply, and overall the figure looks decent and has no other major flaws (that I've found so far). Besides, one can look at military acft and detect flaws in their paint jobs as well. I've worked on and around them for 19 years. Don't even get me started on corrosion and dirt.

The paint apps don't look too bad on mine. The right intake (acft right, that is) has a small streak of silver paint where it globbed up and left a tail...basically looks like a silver sperm cell swimming across the surface. Fortunately, it all falls within the silver painted area with no bleedover into the black. The rest of the paint job looks pretty crisp and clean. The detractor on my fig is all the sprue marks. One can tell the parts are hastily snipped off, barely trimmed, assembled and painted. Oh well, whadaya expect for an $11 toy made by people paid on the serious cheap? Now if blatant sprue marks started showing up on my Yamatos....grrr

Picked up RTS Tracks and Jazz here in Spokane, Wa. Great homages to the originals, esp Jazz. Tracks' legs only bend about 30 degrees, and hopefully, if the preliminary shots of his Wheeljack remold/repaint are any indication, the new inner leg pieces will allow for better poseability. Finally found Dirge at Target after giving up on finding him, so now I have all three Hasbro Conehead Seekers. Terradive, beyond his nasty orange color scheme, features a refreshingly different look and transformation than typical jet mode Transformers. Cool fig, I have to say. Still looking for Highbrow...haven't seen him anywhere, and I dig the retro Transformers. Plus, he's a P-38...love twin boom aircraft. I have the scout class classic hotrod and bi-plane figures (terrible with names)...both are great little figs. Looking forward to upcoming Perceptor, Wreck-gar, Scourge, and Lugnut figs. Having pulled out my original Jazz and Tracks figs for comparison to their new incarnations, I can't help but revel in how far toy technology has advanced, or how spoiled kids are now. The original car TFs cost 13 bucks a pop and they were bricks. Ok, they had die-cast...so they were solid heavier bricks, but bricks nonetheless. I'll take the new over the old anyday.

The mold is looking great, but I'm just not crazy about that red and yellow color scheme, nor the face. If anybody's feeling frisky w/ Photoshop, it'd be neat to see a Blazer scheme.

Agreed...wish Takara had stuck to their original, more accurate, design; that, to me, is the whole point of the MP line..to represent the original characters in a large detailed scale, with special attention given to the bot mode. I realize Kawamori designed the original F-15 seeker, that he's an icon in Japan, and that it was probably an incalculable honor to let him have his way with the MP mold, but I'd much rather have had the more g-1ish mold, chunkines and leg mounted stabs intact. I envy the skill and tenacity of those willing and able to do customizing work. I lack both, and so can only gaze with wonder. It's certainly a form of compulsive masochism, this damnable internet.

While I give kudos to Yamato for having the guts to make this years ago, Bandai trumped it in spades. I have a question: Do the hips move forward and back in battroid? If so, I'd love to see some more dynamic poses in battroid with the legs positioned as if it's taking a step forward preparing to attack.

I've been studying those Rodimus pics (slow night at work and I'm by myself with another 10 hours to kill.) Some observations: the lower legs form the front fenders of Rodimus Prime's uber-winnebago, while the shoulders form the front fenders of Hot Rod's car, so the transformation should be interesting from just that alone. I looked at the Rodimus/HR bot pics..the only difference I see is that Rodimus' legs are positioned a few millimeters lower at the hip. Supposedly there are two swappable faces, but I don't see a difference in the posted pics. From the animated pics, Hot Rod should have a more rounded face with few angles, and Rodimus' face is more angular and faceted, to give a more adult impression. I don't see much difference in the placement of his spoiler in these pics, either. The articulation on this fig is impressive, to say the least, as a MP fig should be. While I don't see much difference in the bot modes, I think they nailed the vehicle modes pretty well. Hot Rod even has an interior...more than what I would have expected. Now he just needs to come with a little Daniel fig with his jetboard, and a fishing pole for Hot Rod. One area I wish they'd taken some license is the trailer. The original was pretty boring, and it looks positively archaic next to Hot Rodimus, esp in terms of engineering. This would have been much cooler had they re-imagined it into a sort of rotating howitzer platform with a seat for Rodimus, with the base folding out to become support legs. I still have to wonder what about a space-winnebago struck the designers back then as being cool, esp for a young hero character. Maybe if he was covered in floral designs, had molded dreads, and a perma-doob hanging from his lips, and a Matrix reconfigured into a peace sign hanging on a chain, inciting his fellow Cybertronians to gather together until "all are one", there'd be some relevence to his alt mode. My friend had Rodimus back in the 80's, and even as a huge TF fan at 14, I remember thinking he was pretty crappy. For me, Hot Rod in either mode is the more desirable option. That he can grow a couple millimeters and rock the space camper is just icing on the cake. My $.02

That boom box mode is kind of a stretch. I haven't played the game yet, so I'm not sure if he actually assumes a boom-box mode officially, but I'm inclined to say, "why would he?" other than as a fan-nod to the original character. Millions of years before the boom box was invented....before he sided with the Decepticons, Soundwave, in a prescient move that would echo across time and space, transformed into a radio, and in true Macross style, laid down the beats in a futile effort to make his fellow bots, "give peace a chance." While I like my MP Grimlock (Hasbro version), I have to say that MP Prime still epitomizes what the MP line should be, IMHO. Granted his truck mode suffers, but in his bot mode, he is pure awesome: big, hefty, lots of die-cast, full of nifty features and details, extremely well articulated for such a large figure, and pretty spot-on with his robot mode. MP Megatron is pretty cool, but he's overly complex with a lot of kibble, hindered and limited articulation, and a lot more license taken with the bot's look. The MP seekers stray quite a bit from their G1 look, and I wish that Takara had used or released seperately, their original, more G1-esque F-15C styled seeker. Picked up my first HA fig: Jazz. The original Deluxe was absolute crap; this toy makes up for it in spades. Although I'm not crazy about Bay's bot aesthetic, there is enough of G1 Jazz in this fig to make me like him. The toy has decent, not great, articulation, matches his movie incarnation pretty well, and features a retractable visor( nice surprise). The motorcycle/ weapon is alright..points for creativity and for adding additional playability to the set. I didn't bother taking Capt Lennox out of his plastic and rubber band cocoon, but he does have some pretty good poseability for such a small figure(shoulder, hip, and knee joints allow him to sit in the car or assume a rider's position on the bike). Although he lacks proper seats for the Lennox fig, he does have a center console and a steering wheel. I got a little Alternators vibe from him. Overall, a pretty decent fig.

Also, the VF-25 was so designated to mark the 25th anniversary of Macross. The model we haven't seen is the VF-26. So far, my Brera VF-27 is holding up fine. The metal bars to which the shoulder attach are a little loose, but they can still be adjusted and posed without too much trouble. I wish Bandai had designed the slots further back, as the metal bars don't tab in when the chest is angled down. Overall, though, a pretty solid toy. I've grown used to its chunky style. Still, if Yamato was ever to pick up the license and make a skinnier, more accurate version, I'd definitely consider it. I'd really love to have an accurate 1/60 Michael's VF-25.

Slightly OT, IMO, most of the valks lose their sleekness and realism in the lower leg/aft engine section. The YF-21 and VF-22 are about the most realistic looking valk jet modes from front to back that I can think of. The VF-11, VF-1, and VF-0 have pretty passable jet modes too. The SV-51's bell bottom legs and tri-toe augmentors, and the VF-25's anthropomorphically stylized lower legs really stand out to me as stretching believability. The VF-27, sharing traits from both SV-51 and the VF-25, along with its unusual wing mounted engines, makes it really stand out as bizarre. I never got a submarine vibe from it, though. Kawamori is pretty careful to design the forward fuselage to approximate real aircraft, but the rear section of his designs tend to stray from reality to favor the battroid. Just an observation, which in no way diminishes the unique quality of Kawamori's designs as some of the most realistic transforming mecha out there. Ultimately, they are what draw me most to Macross.

I also thought the 27 looked odd with the, IMO, superflous wing mounted engines. Guess that's what gives it a leg up over the 25; well, that and its ridiculously huge rifle. Both pilots are nearly matched with metro-sexual prowess, but Brera's cyborg body and his valk's magenta paint scheme give him an edge over Alto. Wow, I'm surprised the SV-51 took the lead here. It's not a traditionally pretty bird, and the 25/27 designs are arguably sleeker, if sleek is to be taken as "more aerodynamic". The SV-51's battroid clinches it for me, though.

Looks good. Not crazy about the Kai's paint scheme; I'll hold out for a Blazer or maybe some other non-canon paint scheme down the road. Design-wise, however, I prefer the VF-19's design over the YF-19. I think the Kai's and the YF-19's wings look better in battroid than the "F" and "S" models, even though I dig how the latter's wings look in fighter. If they make a VF-19F with white stripes, I'll bite. I'm not too crazy about yellow, and the white "pops" more with the blue and dark grey, to me, anyway. I've never been a fan of G-mode in any valk. To me, they all pretty much look like a mid-transformation glitch...a plane with arms and legs. Kinda silly, IMO. Hope this will maybe pave the way for a VF-17.