Awacs

Ah, I love seeing artwork for stuff. I was already quite attached to the VF-171, and these pictures just sell me on it even more. (I have a great love of the "workhorse" mecha, like Plus/Seven's VF-11 and the VF-171 looks like it is very much in that category). In terms of gunpods - I don't recall seeing a VF-171 using a gunpod in the first episode of Frontier, so I'm not willing to speculate on where it might be stowed - it might be under-fuselage, it might be in a "chine" mount for all I can tell at this stage. I figure time will tell one way or another. Do like some of the character models in the scans - in fact the only character model in Frontier I am not sold on yet is Ranka - which is a pity. I like the character, but she looks a little too "ten-year old" for me to be entirely comfortable with the characters at this stage of proceedings. I quite like the rest of the character designs though. Karl

Yeah pretty much - Nora's SV-51 made me do pretty much of a double take as well. It seemed to me that, given that most of the fighting in "Zero" was done at visual range, almost as if she wanted people to see her coming. Which strongly suggests to me a woman with, shall we say, issues. It isn't a scheme I am particularly fond of either. I think it was more the fact that the pink trimmed shadow fighter (and the pink SV-51) looked odd to me in the context of the what was around them. That said, I have a mild degree of Pink/Purple colour-blindness so I sometimes so those two colours can look a little strange to me. It is as probable that my problem with that particular trim colour is down to my brain, as it is the colours per se. (I'm also purple-gold colourblind, and went to a high school that had a purple uniform with gold trim, so I am somewhat cursed by colour it could be said). Karl

Not for me - it's likely to spend as much time in fighter and Gerwalk as it does in battroid should I buy it. It does look rather nice indeed - liking the look of it and the proportions a lot. The only thing stopping me from making a resolution to buy it is that I am asking myself how many Roy-1S's I actually _need_ to own. I've already got two of the 1/48th scale ones (one with FP's and one in "atmospheric" config) and the original 1/60th (totting my GBP armour). Not sure if I'd immediately jump at a fourth. Now when they come out with the Hikaru -1J I'll be very interested, and it a Max and Millia would be nice just so I can have decent ones in the same scale. Very nice looking toy though, very nice indeed. Karl

More likely if I wait too long the exchange rate will shift a bit and make things less favourable. It has already shifted so as to put three or four quid on the Aoshima Legiosses in the last few months. Hanging on would be a bit Russian Roulette I think That'd be hard to forget. I remember the time when a friend of mine and I saw that. We kinda stared in imcomprehension, theh had some more to drink. The idea of someone taking a fighter that was stealthed against everything except eyeball mk1 and then giving it neon-pink trim was enough to truly boggle the mind. I mean, why not just go the whole way and use yellow with luminesent strips like a High-vis workmans jacket? :-) Karl

I think I am in a minority here, but I am planning on getting this. I'm not wildly crazy about the look of the Legioss in fighter mode, but not so much that I immediately recoil in horror, and the Tread I actually think looks quite decent. True, neither of them match the line-art, but that isn't actually a dealbreaker for me - they are off-model a lot of the time in the series too so I have quite a broad tolerance for what I will accept as a "version" of the designs. Given the issues I have with my Toynami Alpha and what I have seen of folks Aoshima Stick-types, this is my prefered option for getting the Legioss Eta that my collection still lacks. The price is a bit scary, but I budgeting it with a slightly higher figure in mind, so I am relatively comfortable with that as well. Everyone's mileage will vary. I can see why those who aren't getting it aren't, and I can see why those who will be getting it are. Karl

I can't really help you with 1). because I'm not sure how to define "best" in this case. But the answer to 2) is "Messenger" (by coinkidink I was watching that last night). Karl

I've got a pair of the Wave 2 Toynami 1/100s. Of the two breakages on my Milia, one is my fault and one is Toynami's. The fact that the mount for the gunpod is broken is a result of the fact that the whole kit and kaboodle fell a metre and a bit onto my floor, which can't been good for anything. (A shame really, as I had the Max and Milia displayed as if they were the "synchro-pair" in the Red Arrows display routine at one point). The other breakage - the fact that one of the head lasers wasn't assembled right (they'd just slapped a tiny dod of glue on it and slapped the laser on the side of the head) is definitely Toynami's fault. The laser just snapped right off the side of the head when I touched it with a finger. I wasn't best pleased about that, but fortunately Blu-tack came to my rescue and unless you look closely the repair job doesn't show. If I'd paid the price that the shop claimed they had originally wanted for them (£29.99) I would have been extremely annoyed. As it was at the £15.99 price tag I wasn't entirely chuffed. I've not had any problems with the stands on the Max and Milia at all - and I've had them canted over at some marked angles so I reckon if it was going to give it would have done so already. The general fit of the parts on the mecha themselves however... that is a quite different story. Karl

The Indian AF did the same thing when the Su-30's were over here for an exercise against RAF Typhoon's earlier in the year. I remember "Air Forces Monthly" making mention of it in an article on the exercise. Apparently it was something that the Russian suppliers (who provide maintenance support after all, giving them a heck of a lot of leverage) insisted on. Makes a lot of sense to me - if I were the Russian's the last thing I would want to do his hand out to NATO, the US or the UK the frequencies that the Su-30's radar would be using in wartime. I'm fairly sure that the RAF do something similar when they exercise with the IAF and other airforces. You always want to keep something back to keep a potential opponent guessing. Karl

That's a fair point actually. The SHAR isn't exactly blessed with fantastic rear arcs either. Mind you - it was a distinct improvement on those of the GR marks that it was contemporary with (rear view.... er, you can see your headrest if you turn your head right around, was about the size of it on those). Most things do though.... Karl

It is considered to be a big "thou shalt not" in terms of fighter design I thought. I'm wondering whether they think they can sneak it past as the F-35 is being touted more as a "little bomb-truck with self-defence capability" than an actual fighter (at least, that's how the Navy and Air Force over here in Blighty seem to be regarding it). In that context it would join a long-line of aircraft with that flaw - Jaguar, early GR-Harrier marks to think of just a couple. Karl

Might work on the american monster, as Fakezilla is at least vulnerable to conventional weapons to some degree. But judging by some of the films Gojira quite likes nuclear radiation, so a tac-nuke would probably equate to a nice snack, and when it comes to conventional orndnance his roar always seems to translate to "On me 'ead son, on me 'ead". :-) Karl

Or, if Misa is anything like my last girlfriend (which in fact she is a little bit):- "Listen Buster, just remember that I'm the one that shot you down." Karl

I think I stumbled in here just around the time I got Internet access back after a couple of years (graduated university, couldn't afford a computer) as a result of a fairly random google search. That would be around the time that the Toycom VF's had just been announced. I remember the early discussion whetted my appetite about the possibility of actually owning a VF-19. (Amusingly I still don't actually have a proper -19, just a Bandai 19Kai I bought a few years back. Must do something about that one of these days). I lurked on the forums for a loong time, and have only recently started posting. Yeah, I'll sit down now and quit hogging the mike so someone with something to say that is actually worth listening to can say it. Karl

I wouldn't worry about it. Happens to us all (I for one have a bad habit of being unable to spot what is right in front of my nose sometimes - literally. Lost my keys once - only to find them a half-hour later sitting on the coffee table in plain sight....). Karl

It isn't a bootleg - that's Madman's Region 4 release of the Animego remastered Macross talked about up-thread a bit. I've got it (got it off Ebay for £25 or thereabouts which was a pretty good price) and I am pretty happy with it. Can't directly compare it with the Animego version I'm afraid as I haven't owned that one, but I am pretty pleased with it in it's own right. The sound is nice and clean and the picture looks pretty good to my (admittedly only semi-educated) eye. (It is also rather well packaged compared to a lot of stuff I have on my shelves). Karl

Good to hear that CMS are still beavering away at their Legioss and Tread prototype (knew those hammering sounds I could hear in the distance were a good sign). I shall await the first pics of the new version with baited breath. (And also the announcement of price and release date so I know whether I am going to be able to afford it or not....) Karl

I'm leaning towards picking up the Megahouse ones at the moment. I actually don't think that the Toynami sculpts look too bad - in fact they look pretty decent. However, having been unimpressed with build quality of my one MP Alpha Fighter I'm not entirely convinced they are going to be worth whatever the eventual price point is whenever they actually come out. Besides, I know I do quite like the look of the Megahouse Ray and I wouldn't want to have a mixed set. (Besides, as far as I know Megahouse are the only ones who have so far suggested they will be doing a Hoquet, so they look like my best bet for a full line-up). Karl

I figure that it is probably a unit patch of some kind. If they follow the trend of previous Macross shows I wouldn't be surprised if it's wearer isn't either an ace or in a special forces-type unit (like Roy or Gamlin) so it could well be their unit flash. I know I'm late to the party on this, but I just had to add how pleased I am to see those VF-171*'s. I have a bit of a love of the VF-17 despite, or perhaps, because of it's rather different look to most VF's so the idea that derivatives of the airframe might get some screen time in the new show does rather please me. Rather liking the look of the VF-25 as well - although my brain did do a double-take when, during the transformation sequence, it seemed to be held together by two very thin looking pivot arms. It just looked so horribly vulnerable to me for a moment there. Thank goodness for the wonders of Overtechnology! :-) Karl

I thought that ship looked familiar. Interesting. Decent teaser trailer actually - deals out a handful of images and then says "here, make a picture out of these". The VF-25 is very nice, love the look of it in Gerwalk mode. Not sure as yet whether I will actually like the series - so far I'm about 50:50 on liking/disliking the various incarnations of Macross on a story level, but the design work looks very nice and if the CG maintains that level of quality then it will at the very least be a very attractive show. Actually, one of the scenes in the trailer that most caught my attention was the tram - purely for the very attractive colour palette it looks like they are using on the show. (Yes, that is probably an incredibly sad thing I have just said - but for some reason colour choices make a bit difference to me. I'm not sure why, they just do.) Karl

The impression I get, from reading some of the stuff on Robotech.com is that Aoshima went to Toynami and asked to license the Masterpiece Alpha Fighter molds to produce Legioss for the Japanese market. Toynami said "we can't do that because they were a limited edition and we've made the full run. But we'll engineer you a modified version that you can sell" - so they redesigned them adding the shoulder missile box and the intake missiles to the mold. Based on that arrangement I would suspect that the molds remain in Toynami's control and that Aoshima are repackaging what Toynami have produced. That's speculation I admit but it's the picture that makes the most sense to me based on the pieces we have. Looking at the pictures I've seen here I would guess that these aren't going to be selling well enough to justify a Tread in the forseeable future. Looks like our hope is with CMS on that score (I hope that the current silence on that front doesn't mean they've run afoul of some sort of legal problem or anything). I was planning on picking up the red Legioss from Aoshima as I still have a hankering for the Hoquet version. But looking at their Stick version.... errrr, no not really worth spending nearly fifty quid on. Karl

Hmmm. Never really thought about which toy I value the most. In a crisis there are books I would rescue long before I thought about toys. But in terms of which one toy I would rescue then it would have to be my Gakken Legioss - I spent a good decade looking for one before I finally got it, it is one of my favourite mecha designs and I know I would have little chance of replacing it. If we are talking strictly about Macross toys then it would almost certainly be my 1/48th Strike Roy-1S - the first 1/48th I got and the nominal CAG-bird for my collection. But as I said - I'd think about books long before I thought of toys anyway. Karl

On the other hand, they wouldn't know that they were dissappointed with it's atmospherice performance unless they had enough hours of flying it in an atmosphere to find out how it performed. Given that it was the standard production VF for quite a while I can see a number of units that did mostly in-atmosphere operations being issued with it over the years. (If it's performance wasn't up to scratch I can also see them being very glad when they transitioned to the VF-5000.... :-) ) Karl

Vulcan's indeed do not care about gravity in the slightest. But then, with the way they sound on take off it always feels like they don't care much about any of the other popular and important laws of physics either. I've always had a soft spot for Vulcans since seeing them at several airshows when I was a youngster. There's something about the way the sound of those engines makes every internal organ, bone and muscle shake on a low pass that really makes an impact. Karl

I have to say that I'm one of those folks who come down on the side of not being too worried about not seeing Hikaru, Misa and Minmei again. Their character arcs are pretty much finished (arguably the tv series actually finishes their character arcs twice - as they get "reset" a bit for the episodes after the Bodolza fleet battle) and I'm fairly satisfied with how their character arcs ended. I don't get the sense of any unfinished business with them. Plus and Seven have shown that the Macross universe is robust enough that you can do other arcs with other characters, so I'm happy for any future series to continue to break new ground. Karl

I'd second the request as to whether they are considering a VF-1A Max TV Type. I'd also be curious to know if there are any plans to reissue the Stealth Colour FAST-packs at any point. Karl