Batou

Yeah, I think Kevin's been pretty busy lately. Mine showed up Saturday, which was a pleasant surprise - I never got the usual shipping notice. I guess learning you're about to be someone's father is reason enough. Love the toy. I'm in agreement that it costs way too much for what you actually get, but I don't regret it. Like Vostok said, there isn't a whole lot of other choice out there for a Q-Rau, and this could have easily been a QC fiasco. I think I'll pass on the Max, and probably the purple CF, but I might buy more than one of the green tv-style models if they ever make them. Now if they'll just put out a few Regults and a Glaug ...

Ditto. I got a Chunky Monkey mostly for the same reason. The minute I see someone's hand go for my Yammies, they get hip-checked and handed the Bandai. Besides, it's so much more like the old Jetfire most of them remember, anyway, they always seem just as happy with it. Especially when they nearly shoot their eye out with that gun. All of the Transformers released in America were so neutered, it's really kind of a novelty to them to see such unsafe toys.

Great series. Gonzo never ceases to amaze. I have mixed feelings about this, though: It's great to see something this good get exposure, but the English dubs weren't so great (IMHO, anyway). Bad voice acting just ruins a series for me (I hated Evangelion until I saw it subbed on DVD), and this will likely keep me away. Oh well. That's what they release them on disk for.

Oooohhh ooohh oohhhh.... Sign me up.

ROFLMAO!!! Exo hit it on the head. I could care less what my friends have to say - I just don't want it getting in the way of me getting laid. I have all of my "toys" loaded on bookcases in my home office, none of which are easily viewed from anywhere but inside the room. That part of the '5-dollar-tour' is usually brief and glossed over - just stand in the doorway and tell them this is where my computer is, then quickly move on. Women don't usually get to see the full extent of my little shrine to my own nerddom until they're a few dates in and it then becomes an acceptable "eccentricity" rather than a flashing alarm to grab their purse and flee. BTW - Does anyone else here detest calling these things "toys"? Esp considering these ultra-expensive Yamatos and such are (I'm assuming) directly aimed at the nostalgic 30-somethings (or thereabouts) like me? I mean seriously - who in their right mind would buy a child a 1/48???

What about in Mac 0? An armored valk did pretty well in atmosphere... How so? Roy had the element of surprise when he busted out of nowhere, and then firepower as he loosed every missle he had at Ivanov. After that initial attack, he was pretty much a big fat slow target to fill full of lead. Which Ivanov proceeded to do, IIRC. The armor might have saved his life, but it didn't look to be all that effective to me vs a fast moving target. I guess it was really meant for point defense, but it looked like the extra weight got him clobbered. Since it was obviously on the VF-0, I guess we can assume that it was designed to be used in atmosphere. Even so, I agree with Blaine and say that the full armor suits like that and the GBP wouldn't really come into their own until you got them in zero gravity.

Congratulations, Kevin. It's good to know that all the hard-earned money I'm always sending you is going to a worthwhile cause. I have a feeling this kid will have no shortage of toys to play with.

You got that right! Seriously, you should put that toy army to work and take over France with it. "Sacre bleu! We geev up!"

(Points at Sithlord) Link

I've been using Gundam Markers for a while now, and they've given me excellent results. Just be sure to use the gray color (black will be far too dark), and resist the urge to re-fill your lines. One stroke through the panel line, and leave it be. Subtlety is what you're going for. Lots of folks around here swear by Micron (sp?) pens as well, which you can pick up at just about any art supply store. Might I also suggest using after-market stickers from Takatoys or Anasazi as well (if you aren't already)? If you're going to dress up your valk, these REALLY make a big difference.

I'm pretty sure that the new ones he made for the VF-1J do. His quality keeps improving, too.

Spike Speigel at the end of Cowboy Bebop. Julia's in that same episode as well - the way she just dropped like a sack of potatos ... and the look on Spike's face as he saw it happen. Kaworu at the hands of Shinji in Evangelion. Asuku too, in "End of Evangelion" (she did die there, right? as eva 2 was ripped to shreds by those white evas? I was never entirely clear on that). Someone already mentioned Roy Focker in the TV series - lots of sentimental value in that one.

Agreed. The VF-1 is classic and iconic. There simply is no need. Suddenly, I'm having flashbacks of Greedo shooting first ...

Amen.

I'm all for perfect transformation if the toy is large enough to do it properly (i.e., 1/48). If the toy is too small to do it without making too many compromises, however, I don't mind swapping a few parts. I'd much rather it look correct in all three modes and have to pull out an extra nose cone or something than have it look good in only one mode. I look at this new 1/100 VF-0 and I don't have any problems with it. It looks great to me, and I have no doubt a larger version with more bells and whistles will come at some point. If swapping parts is too much for you, then wait for the inevitable larger scale version to come out - it will come.

I'd buy that. Maybe throw in some empty beer cans for the cockpit?

Man am I getting behind in posting around here lately. (Grumble ... stupid day job ...) My "Holy Grail"? My 1/48 VF-1S Roy with Strike PACK attachments. It was my first 1/48, and still the crown jewel of my (no longer quite so modest) collection. The 1/48 VF-1J is a close second, along with my shiny new Optimus MPC (and I'm not a TF fan at all), but Roy's still my favorite. Hands down the best toy ever made.

I don't see what all the complaining is all about. So 1/100 is a little small. Big deal. I'll bet a more detailed 1/60 or larger version will come, esp in light of how well the 1/48 VF-1s have been selling. Don't think for a minute that they aren't aware that the fans want a larger version - they just know they can sell lots more if they release these first. Just be patient and it will come. I'm just stoked that a less expensive Yamato is in the works, and it's actually something other than a VF-1. The launch arm/stand looks great. Too bad that backpack hinge isn't strong enough to support a full valk and FAST pack setup. Well, without danger of snapping off at any minute, anyway. I'll pick up at least one, maybe more depending on how much they are. This is very cool news, guys. Enjoy this while it lasts - they aren't going to make Macross toys forever, and big or small, this beats the hell out of paying $300+ for a busted up Jetfire. Now if someone could just light a fire under their ass about that new YF-19FP ...

No one likes Microsoft. OSX and it's derivatives are fantastic - I think most of us just take issue with having to pay twice as much as you would for an equivalent PC for the proprietary hardware to run it on. The day Apple ports its OS for x86, I'll switch in a heartbeat, but not before. (Me: Senses a thread about to get locked for going OT... <_< ) Rob - You'll definitely want to backup, format, and reinstall for something like this. You might be able to hack the NLS back into English, but in my experience (I'm a unix sysadmin who also manages a largeish Win2K AD Domain), it's going to cause more problems than it's going to solve. You'save yourself a lot of grief by installing the English version, and adding support for Kanji and eastern fonts once it's back up and running.

I got three of them: I couldn't get any of the armor or parts to stay on in battroid. Hell- I couldn't get the PoS to even stand up on it's own. Wobbly little bugger. Ah well - I picked them up from HLJ while they were $5 ea or so, so I can hardly complain. This is one of the few toys out there that I say are better just left in the box.

I'd imagine they'd be the same as the 1/60 M&M sets. Remember how blue those FAST pack pics were when they were first released? You'd think someone would touch them up and correct the colors in Photoshop or something by now. Anyway, those look awesome. I swore to myself that this 1/48 madness would end with the Hikaru 1J, but it's going to be hard to resist getting at least one of these babies. I still need one with TV-style FAST packs, right? Yeah - that's it. (let the rationalization begin...)

I bought the DVD too, but haven't gotten around to watching it yet. I've seen a handful of the fansubs floating around, and the animation quality is flat out incredible. Can't speak for the story yet, though. It's Gonzo, so how bad could it be? (On second thought, don't answer that ... <_< )

I'd probably wonder how my feet were supposed to reach the pedals ...

Welcome to the asylum. Mind yourself not to feed the lunatics. Or the trolls. What everyone else said was dead on, so I won't drone on about it - just use the kid gloves when handling the 1/48, and you won't have any problems with the backpack. The QC problems of this line have been vastly overstated, so don't let a few bad units out of thousands keep you away. Just be warned that one valk leads to another ...