Majestic

Oh yes, it will be MINE! (prays for reasonable price). Can't wait to see the custom paint schemes on this thing. A Low-Vis version would be cool...but probably an urban or desert camo would be more appropriate.

Their original idea was to make a marionette production of "The Day After Tomorrow" and release it on the same day as the real film, which would have been the most hilarious thing ever. But of course the lawyers put a stop to that. Its supposed to be a parody of action films, first and foremost, mostly making fun of Jerry Bruckheimer films. Expect also a puppet sex scene. It will have a couple of songs that sound like they'll be hilarious: "Team America..F@ck Yeah!" - their themesong! "I'm Ronery" - sung by Kim Jong Il.

I know that since the 1/48's came out, the 1/55 enthusiasm has been somewhat sidelined. But I still think there's a dire need for recast 1/55 fastpacks. If enough of them are made, perhaps they wouldn't be as expensive?

Add me to the list for somebody recasting! (for a reasonable price). Maybe even a slightly higher custom detail version for the recent Bandai reissues, with swap-able strike cannon. I have a custom 1/55 just waiting for strike armor.... But you know what they say...wish in one hand, sh!t in the other, see which gets full first!

Wow, guess I kind of set my self up for multiple lectures. Like I said, it was kind of a spur of the moment situation. When I first saw the perp, for a second I thought it was a family member. By the time I reached the porch, I realized it was not. I've already said that in retrospect I should have been more careful. We were indeed very lucky that nobody got hurt. JsArcslight is right, you can replace things but not people. I don't consider not beating him a "hippie" reaction, merely the intelligent choice. Nothing really would have been gained from kicking his ass, except a complicated police report and some expensive lawyers. Nor would it have been necessary. Had my pregnant wife been in the room, maybe I'd reacted differently. Plus the cops showed up INCREDIBLY FAST, 4-5 minutes tops. My first words to them were "God DAMN you guys are fast!" I found out today that my next door neighbor, who came out during the tail end of the confrontation, had a loaded pistol in his pocket. I'm glad he didn't pull it out and point it right as the cops showed up! As far as the thief "learning his lesson", I'm sure the experience of getting arrested and spending the night in jail will leave impression enough. If it doesn't, he'll no doubt repeat the process! Graham - It's funny, I am seriously considering a handgun now, despite my strong beliefs otherwise. Funny what a little scare will do to amplify your sense of familial protection! Imagine if a stray bullet were to strike my Low-Vis! I'd dive in front of it to save it!

Thanks to all for concern. Something that in retrospect, I really should have thought about first, but it was totally spontaneous to confront him (and of course he could have totally spontaneously shot me or otherwise). It was all incredibly dumb luck. Regarding beating the hell out of him: I hadn't really considered it, I guess I'm just not the type do that, mostly it was disheartening to know that this young kid is heading down the wrong track, that this might be his first crime of many in life - although if my pregnant wife were in the same room at them time, who knows what the hell I would have done, I don't know. I'm a pretty mellow guy. I think since he was underage (as if I'm supposed to know that), that you can be liable/charged for "roughing him up". Plus, I'm not sure I'd be able to lie about it: "Yeah, he resisted me and I thought he was going to run, so I shot out his kneecaps". In the end, nobody was hurt, and except for the kid ending up in the Big House that night, it was as if nothing happened. I of course installed better window locks the following day and am looking into a security system!

The other night, the wife and I went for a walk and on our way back, spotted somebody kneeling in front of our TV, loading up a bag with stuff! Without really thinking, I leaped over the wall next to the sidewalk and ran up to our sliding glass door and confronted the burglar, a 16 year old kid. First he acted confused, then tried to distract me so he could make a run for it. I had to hold him in place and block the door while my wife called 911 from next door. He was attempting to get past me the whole time to make a run for it, and was alternately begging and struggling. He dumped out of his bag (actually our bag): my gamecube, a bunch of games and DVDs, then I checked his pockets and he'd taken everything out of my wife's purse (credit cards, cell phone, etc.), took credit cards out of my nightstand, all of my wife's jewelry from her jewelry box, cash from my wallet, a big plastic bag of change, and even an old gold watch inherited from my grandfather! I thought he had stolen my shoes also, but it turns out he owned the exact same pair as me! LOL! By the time the cops arrived (an astoundingly fast 4 minutes later), the kid was literally weeping at my feet and kissing my hands, groveling, crying and speaking only spanish. The cops had him cuffed and on the ground within seconds of arriving, then more cops drew their guns and "cleared" the rest of the house. The Crime Scene van showed up and took fingerprints off some things and photographs. There were about 6 cops in my living room! I told them if I'd known they were coming, I'd have cleaned the place up a little. Then I got the lecture from the Sergeant "not to be a cowboy" next time, and that I could very well have been shot or stabbed. All of this is true in retrospect, it was pretty foolhardy, but it all happened so fast I hadn't really considered it. I should have, considering I've got a pregnant wife. She also pointed out the poor security on our windows and chastised us for not locking the door (this was the one time we'd left it unlocked). But what was funny is that the other officers were congratulating me after the Sergeant left with "You didn't even have to call us!", "holy crap you had him pinned!" and "better you caught him then him get away to rob someone else". Another guy says "You should have taken the opportunity to rough him up a little bit." The cops took our statements and the kid was hauled off in the paddy wagon. The DA will charge the kid, and it should be a pretty open-and-shut case. The kid has no defense whatsoever, seeing as how I caught him red-handed, the cops arrested him in my house, and he still had the gold watch in his pocket when they frisked him! It was a miracle of timing. If we had arrived 30 seconds later, he would have been long gone with all of our stuff. I told my wife: "No need to watch CSI tonight! We've got our own episode!" Thankfully, he had no interest in my 1/48 collection. My beloved Low-Vis was unscathed. I'm glad the officers didn't mistake my it for an armed accomplice!

Nobody knows what's next in the 1/48 line. My guess is that IF 1/48 GBP armor is released, it likely won't be until long into 2005, if at all. The 1/60 armor took a long time from when the first prototypes were revealed. The 1/24 Scopedog by Yamato, currently in prototype stage, is reported to not be in production until 2005, nearly a year since it was revealed. It's not clear if the current 1/48 design can successfully accomodate the nosecone/waist area...but I'm sure they'd figure something out.

What would never happen but would be really really cool of Yamato to do (they're cool enough already) would be to hold a paint scheme contest in Hobby Japan or similar and have the winning design be the next 1/48 release. I know, I know, Kawamori would sooner destroy Harmony Gold headquarters with his eye-lasers, but a man can dream, can't he?

Has there been any word on more VF-1 1/48s being reissued? I saw a while ago that HLJ lists them on backorder...is it safe to assume that that means another production run is imminent, if not eventual? EDIT: Confirmed at HLJ to say "backordered", although their definition of backordered includes the caveat that basically re-release is not guaranteed. It seems they know as much as we do, in other words.

I agree completely. It's amazing how angry and defensive others get over the opinion of several people that the prequels were downright terrible. I wish my standards were as low as theirs, but alas, they are not. Star Wars was ruined for me as well. All of my former interest in collecting and following the series? 95% gone. Only slight vestiges of fandom remain for the original trilogy. I can't decide if the prequels taint them or actually make them look better. I am not excited at all for anything Star Wars, especially prequel-related anymore. Of course I will see Episode III, but that doesn't somehow cancel my right to bitch about it. After the steaming %$*piles that were I and II, I'll go in prepared to be disappointed. I'm sure there will be at least 2 minutes of footage that might be mildly entertaining.

"Revenge of the Former Fans" - I'd pay to see that definately. Approriate that the initials spell "ROTS". Star Wars Rots indeed.

I wish a price range would be nailed down. I'd be first in line for domestic pre-order! Looking good! And custom decals/stickers by Anasazi....drool.

I'll reserve judgement until I read some scathing MW reviews, although it does look like complete ass according to the photos so far. I'm definately waiting for somebody else to buy this one first! I like that its so cheap, in the FIX range, its kind of a refreshing change from having to drop $100+ for the most recent Yamato stuff. But at the same time, I'd gladly drop that much for a 1/48 "perfect transformation" VF-0.

..because everyone ELSE is the fanboy. How does one transcend fanboyism to such an elite position as yours? This former "fanboy" felt that Lucas did indeed symbolically "rape my childhood" by way of ruining the franchise with the total abortions called Episode I & II. The prequels destroyed all interest in the Star Wars universe for me, and while I will no doubt go and see Episode III, I am preparing myself for unparalleled disapointment. This is all IMO, of course.

IMO, seeing as how Episode I and II sucked a giant mountain of ass, I'm not surprised that this fighter looks correspondingly ass-ified. Now you'll excuse me while Lucas continues to rape my childhood.

I am so utterly tired of time travel in the Star Trek universe. It's like those seasons of TNG that took place entirely on the holodeck, or episodes where there were crazy or twin Datas. When I saw on the last episode of Enterprise that they'd time traveled yet again to 1940s earth with alien SS officers, I went and watched Gene Roddenberry roll over in his grave a few dozen times.

I nominate the Battroid pic to replace the current MW homepage pic. (Or a pic of a few of Jung's 1/48 customs all together).

I am so sick of the 1As. Please Yamato consider a 1J or 1S head for your 1/48 CF (if you make one). /crosses fingers

Man, that is just so perfect. Yamato needs to hire you for paint-variant prototypes! I know it would be a lot of work, but maybe you could do a 1/48 customization step-by-step guide one of these days. It would be invaluable. It's customs like yours that continue to keep me excited about Macross. Incredibly great work there. Just....wow.

All ridicule asside, as I understand it, Graham is no longer as "in" with the Yamato folks as he used to be, so isn't privy to the same kind of info anymore. Something about crashing the Yamato president's Ferrari. I doubt the 1/48 line is dead. We'll likely see a 1/48 CF or a reissue of the DYRL 1S maybe? I pray for no more 1A's.

So I'm masking and airbrushing (with Tamiya acrylics) a model, but am finding that the masking tape seems to be effecting paint below it. When carefully removed, it seems to have the effect of dulling the paint beneath. What's the best masking tape to use to avoid this problem. I'm using: Low-tack brown masking tape and Electrical tape. Thanks.

I got one of the exact same IKEA display cases. I mounted a light kit and stained/clear-coated it. It sits in my room, full of valks. A pretty cheap display case for a mere $70-$80!

I definately see Graham's point on the rather bland and repetitive Gundam story arcs. The formula: Reluctant Amatuer Teenage Pilot + Experienced Zeon Ace = Colony Drop/Mutual Love Interest I like Gundam mostly for its mech design, but am less than impressed by most of the series/films. Char's Counterattack (minus Quess), 0083, some of 08th team/Miller's report, F91, have some great mech battles, which is mostly what I'm interested in. Most of the rest of the series' I look on in horror. I avoid the AU series' like the plague. SEED, while it has some decent design, just looks like power ranger gundam to me, where apparently the entire population has their own personal gundam. It is pretty odd that they stay so formulaic without taking a chance once in a while. I really wish they would do a series from the Zeon point of view, but we all know that it would likely follow the same formula. It's really a waste that such great mech design is for the most part wasted. I wish they'd get some better writing and a more serious UC story going. Maybe something along the lines of a "Heart of Darkness" theme, even if its been done to death elsewhere. In summary, MORE serious UC stories please!

Is this kit going to be sold domestically? One of our awesome retailers carrying this soon?