Uxi

1) 1/60 VF-22S Gamlin 2) 1/48 VF-1A Low Viz (v1) 3) 1/60 YF-19FP 4) 1/60 VF-1S v2 Roy TV 5) 1/60 YF-21FP --- Runner up: 1/60 VF-11B (if I had a VF-11C, it would probably be #4 Some days I would put the VF-27 Brera in place of the YF-21 at #5, which used to be my bar-none favorite valk but I'm not as fond of the color scheme as the Gamlin. I'm sure if the Gamlin had never come out, the YF-21 FP would still be my favorite.

True that. Probably the only area I like the movie approach better (no trailer). Too bad they didn't go above and and make an Ultra Magnus/Powered Convoy that used the trailer to augment the Robot. Wonder what the chances are for an MP Powermaster Optimus Prime down the road?

kit

I did notice the knurled pins... are we setting ourselves up for failure there or should we be filing those down?

To put a different sense of perspective on it, even at the height of the surge, it was only about 1/3 of the US Army's Active Combat Brigades deployed to SW Asia. Then there's one, yes one, brigade in South Korea. That leaves the other 2/3 of the US Army's combat assets at home. Yet the continued deployments for nigh on a decade have indeed be straining the endurance. IIRC, there were never more than 4 reserve combat brigades (out of about 36 total). For reference, in 1987, the US Army had 55 Active and 57 Reserve combat brigades. Though it should be noted that just about the entire Marine Corp combat power was there for OIF-1 (1st and 2nd MEF, not count a few MEU and the HQ/skeleton of 3rd MarDiv or the reserve 4th), then roughly half of it kept there at any one time for combat operations in Iraq and/or Afghanistan. Relevence to this thread? As I mentioned quite a few pages back,if one thinks that 187 F-22 are sufficient... or that the F-35 can fulfill it's role, then they either think the USAF has too many F-15's or that F-16's should have been able to do the job of all those F-15's that now aren't going to be replaced. IOW, something is going to have to give in the USAF's mission until the F-22 replacement gets out of the planning stages.

I could definitely see another exclusive with the missile pod replacements for the AA cannons... Dayum, jealous of you guys ordering it.

What's the contact info for takatoys again?

If it has a see-through plastic window with no flap on the box, it's a v1. IIRC all the v2 don't. Do any v2 have a flap?

I'm in!

If the legs are diecast and the details appear far more crude, yet certain aspects appear CLOSER to the line art (cockpit shape for example, IMO), it's a v1. If it's really light and has apparently no diecast, yet has a bunch of tampo printed markings with a better scaled pilot/cockpit, and 1/48 details/gimmicks, it's a v2

IIRC people with the dreaded knurled pin were having them break after having never transformed them or on the first transformation. Worst of the lot anecdotally seemed to be the Hikaru GBP VF-1J with grey visor... So far my TV Roy appears fine. Shoulders get a bit scratched from transformation but otherwise looks fine...

Oh I know that ship already sailed. Most of the "savings" in a non-stealth 5th Gen fighter would be in looser QC, etc as well as any actual spray coatings, etc. Think of it kinda like how Intel treats their chips (they don't actually have lines of Extreme Edition processors, for example, the cream of the crop that can take more abuse just get their prices augmented and backed by Intel, etc). The cream of the crop would be the stealth models while less worthy models off the line. If it doubled production, for example, price per plane for all of them would go down since alot of the cost is in R&D being amortized. Even if it was 10-15% of total price reduction per plane, would be significant. Gates may as well have pulled a Cheney and destroyed the "jigs" since he killed the program just as dead. Barring a hot war with Russia or China, which is extremely unlikely, the F-22 fleet will only shrink from here on out.

I'd have killed for the MPC somewhere around, say... 1997 through 2000. Toynami just had the worst timing evAr by releasing in Yamato's wake (and then Bandai cashed in with some reissues, too otherwise the chunky crowd might have liked them).

The Zentran and Meltran are supposed to be using OOOOLD tech, so using the original designs (with a few variants and no doubt some wacky paint schemes is certainly plausible). The next Macross series should just focus on another Fleet. It doesn't have to be after Frontier chronologically.... I would prefer sometime after 2012 but before 2045, say. There were supposed to be a couple thousand fleets like the Bodol Zer Main Fleet, right? So they run into another one (or two, preferably at least one Meltran exclusive Fleet). Would be an awfully good time to show at least a subset of the Supervision Army and some of their own mecha and ships. Pre-crash ASS variants and some bigger ships, too. In any case, the Regult, Glaug, and Gnerl should be there. Maybe having some strange variants without legs (tracked? spider walker types? AT-AT and/or AT-ST types? etc etc) and/or other modifications (Glaug/Nos-Ger/Q-Rea style shoulder cannon in place of the AA guns, etc). But no need to for Kawamorisan to completely disregard his old design. If they did something really revolutionary and made the "good guys" a mixed Zentran/Meltran analog to the Bodol-Zer Fleet that gets cultured, starts experiencing some luv triangles (it's inevitable) while fighting off the Supervision Army, it could be epic. And while I wouldn't like a reboot, doing some modern animation and SFX with the old voice recordings wouldn't hurt, either.

Hopefully they continue to sell out rapidly and it will convince them of the desire to mass produce, just like the 1/3000 Regult. Even if they reduced scale to 1/72, it would be bigger and more impressive than Toynami 1/100... though I would still hope for 1/60.

Elintseeker or Super-Ostrich.

Still seen a Grimlock at TRU, so will probably pass (have long ago decided to pass on the Takara). Are they done/over? I think the MP Rodimus is looking great, including the car when it's not mistransformed (straight tailpipes and looks like a good slope to the hood). The Rodimus Prime is not nearly as big as he should be (it's a good 25-33% height/mass increase in the animation, but that's a spurious argument for Transformers, so whatever. ). Best option to have given him that bulk/height would have been to use the trailer ala Ultra Magnus armor bits. It's a shame, they didn't make Rodimus Prime a bit more different from Hot Rod in the animation, though... Mouth faceplate like Optimus would have been too obvious probably, but maybe a different helmet, too with the antenna things... hell, I might have liked it if it was the whole OP "helmet" (blue part, just red/mauve to match Rodimus).

As noted, my VF-22S Gamlin is still my favorite, but Bug/flaws that I'd like fixed for YF-21/VF-22 would be: 1) locking rear landing gear, 2) nubs on the front landing gear cover so that it won't droop open when the joint gets loose (I have a small piece of blue painters tape on my YF-21 with small corners sticking out, barely visible but stops that flap from opening up). Additional upgrades/improvements: 1) ratcheded 2 piece feet, not so much for transformation as for posability 2) canopy heat shield (clip on addition would be fine) 3) Movable head laser (ball joint?) I'm one of the few that is still fond of the YF-19FP, apparently... That said, my biggest beefs are the cockpit (love the 2-piece... hate the weird dislocation you have to do to get it open. I think a push-down/collapsing piece like the in front of the nose is needed between the two canards. I also hate the codpiece and how out of place it looks in fighter. That whole section needs to be rethought. Should be interesting to see what the Kai is doing with it.

VF-22 Gamlin is my favorite Macross toy right now. Runner up is my v1 Low-Viz 1/48 VF-1A

I'd love for that 1/2000 to be painted in an SDF:M scheme. Where are the web exclusive Prometheus and Daedalus to put on the arms, though?

Now that I got my hands on TV Roy, I'm waiting for my unassembled kits to arrive and plotting this out. Still going to paint them... thinking the most dangerous spots (inside and outside of the arms, inboard sides of the legs, etc) will stay white like the TV valks the the bottom of the arms could still take ghost grey without a whole lot of risk IMO. Might try a really light coat of ghost gray and treat any resulting transformation damage as "weathering." Otherwise, in fighter it'll be light ghost gray on the nose and rest of the bottom, gunship gray on the top, and a metallic on the edges and accents. Anyone painted/tinted the clear visor and/or canopy? I'm thinking of trying out a "have glass" style look

That reminds me of the idea I've seen some folks gave wrt F-22 production... keep producing airframes, etc but just don't make them stealth. That way we get good replacements for F-15's, that don't need to be in the first wave, and possibly exportable. And it keeps the tooling, etc alive in the event a need was shown for a real F-22C. Oh well.

Yeah, went through the manual and didn't see anything circled or the like. Gotta say that I love the tampo printing, especially on the gunpod and the intake stickers, as well as the (now) requisite UN Spacy Kites and numbers. Was very happy to see the instrumentation pre-done, as well. If only it had the VF's on the ankles, I probably wouldn't add any. Now, think I gotta repair my broken Thunder Hummer and redo it in white to match.

Got it. That was fast. Love AmiAmi! My first 1/60 v2. First impressions are pretty cool. I definitely see the improvements to the 1/48 lineage. That backpack scares me almost as much as BP8... is it supposed to require force to get past that detent? Am I transforming it wrong, or does the square piece that goes around the shoulder joints not lock to the chest plate like the v1 1/60 did? After 1 transformation, I think the black on the shoulders looks like it could be chip city coming up, huh? Love the detail in the feet and the pilot is awesome. Love TV Roy!

Anyone see the new Ace Combat mentioned at TGS?