Alex

They're different? I didn't even notice. Though I only casually inspected the "extra". Which one is the Ozma. The one all by its lonesome at the edge of the sprue?

I just finished putting togehter my Ozma. DECULTURE! Well, those wing root lazers now stay in place much better than before. The left one still pops out a little, but it's a much better fit on this. The overall feel of the kit is much better. Maybe it's just the plastic being darker and hance feeling sturdier. The overall transformation of the kit is the same as the Alto except the head does not rotate as we knew and the face moves up itno the helmet for the transformation. The cheek-guards also move so that's three seperete pieces that move for the transformation on the head alone. Five if you count the head lasers. The stickers are much nicer in design. The colours are not as brash as the Alto (in my opinion). The Skull Squadron sticker is very nice but a tiny bit too big. The horns touch the hinges for the wings so they crinkle. It shows them touching in the sticker guide so that's annoying. DECAL-TURE! The overall colour scheme feels more military than the Alto. Much more sinister. Even the head has the appearance of a skull in some angles. Speaking of which, very nice that they cast the eye piece in green as opposed to the Alto's clear plastic. Pity that they didn't colour the canopy piece, but since there are a few different interpretations of the colour for thet piece, not a surprise I guess. Something I noticed was that the neck collar was reproduced twice on the sprue. Anyone know why? Apart from that, it's all much the same as the Alto. YUCK! DECULTURE! I'm still having a problem with the left landing gear door popping off the chest in battroid mode as I did with the Alto. Everytime I put a little too much pressure on it, it pops off across the room. The head lazers loosened as quickly on this as they did on my Alto. One hour after putting them on they tend to pop off quite easily. The hands still fall off at the slightest touch. That piece that basically holds everything together at the hips is still a tiny piece that I see breaking off as it did on my Alto. Time for my rare-earth magnets, me thinks. That's it for the annoying stuff. Overall a much better attempt at a 25 than the first (for me at least). Much better parts fitting, more coloured parts. Some of the previous bugs but far outweighed by the good.

I seem to remember many of the jokes in later seasons being far more topical or at least based on things firmly in the latter 20th century. That always (star)bugged me to no end.

I had a scare last night as one of the staff at one of the larger stores told me that it came out on the 3rd and had sold out. Then the guy was corrected by his superior basically saying "yeah, don't listen to him. He's an idiot."

Someone said that the Ozma is out? I didn't see it in any stores today. I doubt it is sold out that quickly. Perhaps that person in the pic grabbed a sample. Most sites I see say November 30th-ish for release.

It's more than do-able. I just clipped off a piece of the sprue and Heath-Robinsoned a replacement. However, the part it is replacing is incredibly small and thin. As I said, i'll probably use magnets in that piece in the Ozma. I tested out that idea the other day and it works well considering how light the kit is. BTW, has anyone else placed springs or folded plastic in to the cod-piece. I did and now the inner plate that sometimes falls back always comes up into place.

Came back home the other day to find my VF-25 trying to peek up his own rear-end. The teeny plastic tab that holds the torso to the cod-piece must have been weakened by multiple transformations. It just snapped off. Fixed it by drilling out the piece and adding a stronger (and much more conspicuous) tab. I'm probably going to investigate the potential of a magnet in this area when I get the Ozma next month. How widespread is this coz that tab really IS quite small and required to support the entire upper torso.

Another word of warning about the kit. Be careful when you pull out the feet for battroid/Gerwalk. As gingerly as I handle this kit, i still broke one of the back cuffs on the left foot in half. This is a somewhat fragile kit so be careful to avoid my fate Still one hell of a great representation of the 25 though.

Samples of these buggers have been creeping up all over Tokyo. They looked quite nice in the photos. But close up, i'm very much unimpressed with these. Had a quick handle and it felt solid but very underwhelming.

I really hope that the movie doesn't give us a cheap rip-off of the Cowbop episode "Feng Shui Boogie". I have images of the Frontier gang contacting Hikaru et al only to have the signal cut out as we hear some inspirational stock dialogue from sdf or Dyrl.

Just the hands that need to be swapped out for a pair of hands that are molded togther. The shield cannot be attached to the back in Gerwalk if the arms are in full gerwalk.

I'm kind of annoyed that the shield requires some parts forming for the transformation.

Don't be worried yet as i've only had it for a day so maybe I just haven't got the knack yet. The only thing that I don't like (and it's just a personal thing) is that the white plastic makes it look a little cheap. I'm not one to paint a kit after i've made it so looking forward to Ozma or Michel's more.

A video would be cool. I still don't know why Kawamori chose to basically use the SV51 design for this bird. Transforming this kit feels very "been there, done that" considering it's supposed to be separated by at least 60 years from the SV51. Maybe he ran out of Lego

Built my kit yesterday. Might have pics up soon. Word of warning about the shoulder area. The joints in this area are extremely tight so take care to hold the entire assembly when transforming this beast. Aside from that, this is a pretty damn decent kit. Fighter mode is a little difficult to get locked togehter (haven't managed it yet).

Yeah. Frenzy_Rumble from the TFW boards is one of the best around at the mo. He's accepting commisions since custom izing is his full time trade. In fact, the guy who won that Menasor on eBay also commisioned a Predaking from him. I'm actually considering placing a commision with him myself.

Nice work. I'm sitting on a 60% completed Fire valk and Maxl using the GNUs that i'm making for Renato. These things are great for customs. Looking forward to seeing more people using these for customs.

I saw a title in one of the Tokyo papers today: "SDF to allow people wearing glasses to sign up" Seems the Self-defence force has become a little less strict over health requirements for applicants these days. I guess this explains why Max/Michel et al are allowed to pilot wearing glasses. Wonder if kawamori bribed the SDF health-board just so he can have ONE MORE retcon.

The first time I did the lottery in the UK (when I was 10) I won 10 quid. Never bothered doing it again since I won the first time.

You haven't experienced the Chunky?! I was so tempted by the 1/55 FP but it was like 8,800 yen. maybe another time since I bought Animated UM the other day. The 1/55s just ooze charm. You should definitely look into the new origin release.

I see that the 1/60 1As are out today. So tempted to pick one up. But them i saw the origin of Valk 1A fastpack set was also out. Chunky monkeys took away my attention.

I think the man with the prosthetic arm came into my room and broke it.

I'll post the pics tomorrow. I haven't had much luck with valks recently. Missing heads, magically expanding plastic.....

I had considered that but as i said, and if you check the hinge on yours, the pin would seem to have no opportunity to come loose seeing how tightly it's held by those end caps (god, that was a long sentence). Not to worry. I'll just phone up Showboat Kawa-whorey and get him to retcon it into the design of the 51.

MY VF-0? No way I would risk buying that. I just assume that in an effort to please the "line-art accurate" crowd, Yamato tried to install some anime magic but dropped the gimmick. I guess the feature wasn't deactivated in mine. Still can't fix it as there's no way to do it.