SteveTheFish

Yeah, that mermaid turned out great!

Oh wow. I didn't know that there was an HG Sirbine. A couple of years ago I built the Max Factory Sirbine kit, which was a plastic recreation of their bestselling Sirbine sofubi kit from the garage kit days. It's a non-poseable figure kit and has a sculpture of a nude woman on the shield that's rather exquisite. It's quite an incredible kit.

NICE! Looks like you used Tamiya's NATO Black. So it seems that it has recessed panel lines, am I correct? I've built two Blackbirds in 72nd scale so far: the Italeri and Hasegawa ones. For both kits, I had to cut those red stripe decals into segments. It's the only way to do it. @pengbuzz You have my prayer. My dear cousin was just diagnosed with stage 4 cancer last week. She's younger than me, in her mid-40s. You need to cut out ALL sugars from her diet. No carbs, so that means no potatoes, no bread, nothing sweet, no booze, nothing. Cancer feeds off of sugar. Starve the cancer.

Something like a FAG/Mospeda kitbash? https://jp.pinterest.com/pin/336221928450528161/

I think probably at 1:72nd scale, painting the eyes would make it look weird and bug-eyed. Probably the best thing would just to use a wash on the face, like Tamiya's brown/pink accent color. Even at 1:35th scale, armor modelers doing figures don't really paint the eyes, do they? I'd have to look up some examples.

I found info on this sofubi kit on the Macross World legacy site here. It's at the top of the list: https://www.macrossworld.com/macross/models/hobbybase/hobby_base.htm I have another Valkyrie sofubi kit that's not on that list. It's a VF-1S in Battroid mode. I noticed that the legacy site does not list any figure models, such as the Arii sofubi kits or that clunky ABS(?) kit of Misa DYRL by Tsukuda. Sofubi kits aren't as popular as resin kits because they're a bit different to build. Many people don't have patience for them, but I'm rather fascinated by them.

Well, when I worked for Aoshima, the Macross license was open, meaning if you pay for it then it gives you the ability to do anything Macross-related, including Macross II, Flashback, and other minor stuff. That was in 2015 when that open license was revealed, and I was at the All-Japan show working for Aoshima's booth when that was announced. In recent years, I've just wondered if the villains at Harmony Gold may try to do something about that and perhaps companies might be selective regarding their projects.

For what it's worth, I saw Kaneda-san at the All-Japan Model Hobby Show and once again implored him to produce either a Misa or Minmay riding on a VF-1 VFG kit. He said he's not keen on that since there's so much TOS Macross stuff being made already by other companies, but personally I think the real reason is that he'd rather do that weird furry stuff instead. I don't get it. I'd think a TOS VFG kit would be a top-seller, but he does what he wants to do.

Apparently the previous artist (whom I like a lot better) has been replaced by Mercy Rabbit, who has an unbridled passion for the color purple, inexplicably. I do not know what's up with that, nor have I ever heard of Mercy Rabbit before seeing this artwork at the trade show. "Hey, this Valkyrie is orange and beige, but somehow I'm gonna make it look purple and if you don't like it then you're a kaka-poopoo head so shut up." Yeah, I like the other artist better. YW. Bandai allowed photos, but not videos. A Kotobukiya rep requested that I not video either, at least not where their FAG stuff was. I guess their girl kits are such a hot item that they don't want people lingering around in their booth making videos. However, Kino Kousaka was allowed to do so. Then again, they make models based on 3D scans of her and she's a celebrity in the Japanese modeling community. I didn't see her at the show and she was probably finished recording before I even arrived. Her channel has plenty of good coverage of the event, if you don't mind her using the word "kawaii" to describe pretty much EVERYTHING. Don't get me wrong; I like her and her videos, but it gets annoying how Japanese women over-use the word "cute" to describe everything. I'm glad my wife is not like that, but my daughter falls into that trap a little. It seems like everyone is getting into the FAG phenomenon these days. (Hey, that's Kotobukiya's acronym, not mine!) Of course it started with their Frame Arms Girls, then their Megami Device series, Bandai has their 30 Minutes Sisters (their Gun Gal didn't seem to be successful), Aoshima has the VFG series or whatever it's called, Doyusha is importing some Chinese competition for such kits, and now even Hasegawa is joining that scene. There are modeling magazines dedicated to such kits now. On the days open to the general public, Bandai's booth gets swamped with people and that must be why they had such a huge, relatively empty tradeshow booth. They just want people to take pictures and move on, instead of recording themselves talking about the kits. To bring this back on topic though, I'm just glad that Hasegawa are not strict about media.

Hey, since I live in Japan, contact me if you need replacement parts on model kits. This goes for anyone on here. Thom and Chas may remember that I helped plenty of people on the Starship Modeler forum to get replacement parts. Bandai parts are the easiest because my LHS is a Bandai Pro Shop affiliate. I just give the shop owner the parts request order and he can request them. For Bandai models, you order on a part-by-part basis, whereas with other companies you'll need to order the entire sprue, plus pay for the postal money order fees and all that crap. If you or anyone needs replacement parts or decals, I'd just need a scan of the parts request form from the instruction booklet (unless it's a kit I own myself). EDIT: So this is a kit that will soon be in my possession: a 1:72 scale VF-4 sofubi kit! Wow! I know that there's been resin kits of this, but I'd never seen a sofubi kit. I found this on Mercari and since I had a 500 yen coupon, I snagged this kit for only 2800 yen! It shall soon be in my hands. All shall love me and despair!

Here's my video of the event. Attending the hobby show is increasingly becoming a social event for me, and as such I spent more time standing around talking and less time documenting the event. Plus I was having many problems with my lousy video camera. https://odysee.com/@stevethefishdotnet:2/2025-All-Japan-Model-Hobby-Show-全日本模型ホビーショー:e

I'm compiling a video of the footage I took at the event. Bandai only allows photos but NO videos, and now Kotobukiya has that same policy. Volks didn't want videos either, even though their booth was just a table. I really don't get it. Plus the event has become such a social event for me that I'm constantly running into people I know and talking for quite a while. There's a lot of photos and video I wanted to take, but didn't have a chance.

My pics of the Max Factory booth. I attended the All-Japan show yesterday. Look at the bottom of the pic above. Tiny 72nd scale Minmay by the Valk's foot! There were also Moderoid Mospeada kits on display.

So I went to the All-Japan show yesterday and had a great time with Adrian from Big West and Egan from Anime News Network. We went out for Mexican food afterwards and talked for a couple of hours until I had to get back to Shinjuku and take the long, 3 hour journey back home (I was too cheap to take the shinkansen). Rest assured, the new Q-Rau has a TOS Millia figure! So I asked the Hasegawa rep why we didn't get a Kamjin with the Glaug kit. He basically said that the scale is off, and it would not have looked right. I think they are given the dimensions and they make their model accordingly. This kinda reminds me of the dilemma with the Snowspeeders from Empire Strikes Back. I wonder if the actors were sitting Indian-style in the life-size props because there is just NO leg room afforded. This 1:12 resin figure of Minmay looks like the version of her from the Macross The First manga. That's the dress she has in the first volume, with her China dress opened in front to show cleavage. I'm sure I'll get this kit when it comes out. Valkyries look so cool with just the legs extended. I love that look. The figures of Hikaru, Minmay, and Misa are gonna be plastic. I was expecting resin.

Thanks. I also have a Bluestreak model made from an old Arii Nissan Fairlady Z model kit. It's painted and ready to go. All I have to do is solder the wires together and create a switch and I'll be done with it. Here's an older WIP pic of it, before I put more pieces together.