GobotFool

The voyager line really suprised me in my expectations of who I thought I was going to love and who I was going to hate. Rachet is my favorite, looks great in both modes, very solid feeling overall. It's a tie between starscream and Ironhide but for different reasons. Starscream I was expecting to absolutly hate. but after handling him I found that, despite his chunky fighter mode, he was alot of fun to play with, and his bot mode, while strange actually looks pretty cool once you get used to it. Ironhide looks great all around, but his shoulders are really fiddily and his head is set a little to far back on his body. All this becomes forgiveable if you pose him apropriatly. Ironhide was made to give him a hunched shoulder look (the whole design, not just the toy), so you have to pose his arms in an appropriate manner, otherwise he looks like he's shrugging and not hunching his arms back agressivly. once I worked that out I became happy with him. But it was annoying I had to sit there for 1/2 an hour fiddling with him to get him to look just the way I wanted him to. Blackout looks nice in bot mode (though a tad small) but his coptor mode, at least mine is very loose and doesn't lock togeather very well. Here is how I rank the voyagers Most fun to play with: Rachet and Starscream. Very solid, everything locks togeather, complex without being overly fiddily, unlike Ironhide and Blackout who take alot of effort to transform back and forth correctly. Best vehicle mode: Ironhide and Rachet, pretty much look exactly how they should look as vehicles. Starscream makes the original macross plus toys by yamato look sleak, and blackout just doesn't hold togeather well. Best bot mode. This is hard for me. I think all of them look good in bot mode. I'd say Ratchet is better than Ironhide only because he is less fiddily, but once you figure out the proper tweaks for ironhide, he, in terms of raw looks has the best bot mode. Blackout also looks very imposing in robot mode, but he's way to small!!! They need to make a leaderclass blackout! Starscream is just weird looking. But in a good way, he is very agressive looking, with his broad chest, and massive gorilla like arms. So yeah he's grown on me, and I like him alot. I'm kind of hoping we'll see a leader class/ultimate blackout as well, something that might even be able to carry the deluxe Scorponock the same way the voyager carries that crappy little gummy Scorponock it comes with. I was going to beg for a voyager BB, but from what I have seen of the 2008 camero deluxe, there is no need.

I have to agree about starscream. I thought I was going to hate him. as a display peice yeah, he's nothing to shout about, but after fiddling with him, he is a really fun toy. Actually, something I have to say about all of the new movie toys is that while some do look better than others, all of them are alot of fun to play with. The only one thats really given my any grief is Blackout. His damn chest will never line up properly in vehicle mode because of the way his automorph feature is designed. Also he doesn't snap togeather very snugly. Oh well. All I need to find is leader class megs and I'm finished with this wave. When does the 2nd wave come out? the one with the 2008 Camero?

Of the voyager class ones I'd say the best are either Ironhide or ratchet. I know some people have been complaining about Ironhides shoulders, but I think its because they're not pushing them down far enough. If you look at the box the hood is pushed down so that its pretty much laying flat on his shoulders, not at an angle. Of course this leaves a gap in the middle of the chest. Floating shoulders Shoulders pushed down flat as shown on the box. Ratchet is pure love. Solid on both modes, looks pretty mean and tough as a bot and pretty realistic as a vehicle. I suppose the only real down side is the puke green color he's molded in.

My current stash. I got all the deluxes 2 weeks ago, and leaderclass prime and the real gear stuff this tuesday. I am really hoping to grab all the voyager class stuff tomorrow. I want to see leader class megs in person before I decide to get him as non of the pictures have really blown me away. If you have to get one toy from this line, make it Leaderclass prime. Really well made, and lots of gimmicks that don't interfere with the overall look. (automorphing chest and feet, along with an automorphing gun arm). The only down side is a little chrome would not have hurt this figure. Sadly it seems the japanese leaderclass prime is pretty much the same toy with no real changes to the paint scheme. Oh well.

If you don't mind modding your toys, you can probably just wipe off the weathering with some paint thinner.

Not looking for anything deep, my main problem was the 1st two hours of the 3rd one put me to sleep. All I went looking for was some action, wild antics, and that was all condensed into the last 45 minutes while I suffered through a rather joyless first two hours.

Definitly the weakest of the 3 movies. Normally I am not one to complain about an excess of plot, but this movie is definitly overploted (way to many threads with very unsatisfying tieups), and way to light on the action.

My general hope is that if the movie does well we'll see some figures that equal the quality of the binaltech/alternator line.

Cool. In the past I've used other forms of alchohol that have damaged the plastic. So I just wanted to be extra sure.

Just a question, is this stuff safe to use on an old 1/55? I have a strike valkyrie and some one panel lined it. I really don't like the effect that much and have been wanting to remove it, but I've been worried about damaging the plastic in the process.

I nabbed a bunch of the toys at my local target, here are some pictures. Overall I enjoy them. I wish BB had clear windows and that the roof and rear window didn't interfere with his poseability so much in bot mode.

*sigh* If they turn it into nothing more than an oblivion mod, I'll skip it.

not bad. Kind of pointless, but as he said, he did it because he could. Got to love mad inventors

I'd rather see a hotrod than a rodimus.

That sounds so wrong....

Its not so much that macross fans don't know this, its more that as of this moment yamato's the only game in town. I'd jump ship the moment Aoshima or CMS offered a better alternative. But alas, that day has yet to come and I do love my valks.

Ultimately the 1/48 is about those people with a perfect transformation fetish. Some people have a serious die cast fetish, or vinyl fetish (this one I seriously don't get. dang perverts! ) Any whoo, the 1/48 is all about detail and perfect transformation. True, the battroid is not perfect, but neither is it really that bad. You’re never going to get a perfect transformation TOY Valkyrie that is perfectly proportioned in all modes because so much anime magic goes into the VF-1's transformation. I say toy, because a few models have almost pulled properly proportioned VF-1s, but if you ever look at the transformation sequences these involve parts that are really teeny and fragile.

I always wondered why chromed plastic sucked. Know I know.

If you don't mind all the liberties taken with starscreams character design the MP version of him is a real blast.

Ouch but true, I'm still PO'd at that little tape they placed on the rear vernier of the 19. Sometimes I think yamato stopped listening to product complaints a long time ago, or worse just really don't care.

I'd stick it on ebay and take your chances there. I have seen broken ones go for 50 dollers, and it does have the box so that is a bonus for some people.

I take off all the ball jointed parts before I transform mine.

What I find really disapointing is that up to the scopedog yamato's QC was going up, but right after that it seems to have taken a sharp dive. I myself didn't have any major problems with my VF-zero, but my garland kept falling apart in my hands and even without the breakage factor the 19 had enough small minor errors that added up to one big annoyance. Though crappy quality seems to be the general trend in the industry, as Takatomy has also been churning out some toys of questionable quality as well, with the sloppy paint jobs on MP-3 and MP-5 and cheap plastic. Not as bad as yamato but still, the last few MPs and BTs have certainly been below standard that takara had before the takatomy merger.

I have a feeling those are going to be on clearance for a loooong time :-p

Is there going to be a second run? with transforming toys I normally buy two, one for each mode. I don't want the messed up 1st run. I'd rather get a 2nd edition with all the fixes.