Grand Admiral

I like Incinerator, but the propeller hands just ruin it for me.

I like the CF scheme but I'm still holding out for a Dobber non-canon scheme.

Macross II was non-canon and from what I understand, not very popular. I'd love a VF-2SS myself.

I'm waiting to see if the legs can be tucked in better in both fighter and linked modes, as well as reviews of the quality of the thing.

Ok, this will probably drive you guys nuts.

I wonder if it's possible to flip them around so the intakes face forward?

Just reporting back, the Pine Sol didn't really help very much with the Testors enamel paint. It softened the paint but did not remove it. I'm primering and re-painting everything.

As cool as it would be, it's extremely unlikely that LEGO will ever sell Macross kits. I wrote a lot more about the subject in this thread, if you want to read it: http://macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=24776

Animated Starscream has a cool bot mode but IMO the jet mode is pretty chunky and ill-proportioned. Oh well, I'm sure I'll buy it anyway, given my weakness for transforming jets.

I think Del Toro could do a good job. He's proven that he knows how to shoot fantasy films and I know he has a respect for the original material.

When scanners can't descreen, it makes patterns obscene, that's a moire!

Ehhh... don't think I'll buy one. Not a fan of the way the legs stick out in funky ways in jet mode. Not for this price, anyway.

I'm going to be waiting until I see some reports from those of you who are buying them. If I find out that the legs can be tucked in better then I'll probably pick one up, but we'll see.

I like it, but not so much that I'll go nuts buying them. I never bought the first run of 1/60s because they weren't PT. It'd be nice to have a couple of the new 1/60s to go with my other 1/60 valks though.

Just needs one of these. Look out for Smokey! Bonus points for anyone who sculpts a tiny Burt Reynolds to sit in the cockpit.

A couple years ago I would've said yes, but these sets are a direct licensing tie-in to the movie that's coming out this summer which is sure to have TONS of publicity, ads, toys, etc. This isn't just LEGO randomly deciding to make sets based on a 40 year old cartoon. It's going to be a summer blockbuster with all the hype that goes along with it. Now, based on that thought... I think it's possible that there might be LEGO sets for the Robotech movie that's in pre-production right now. I just seriously doubt you'll ever see LEGO sets based on any of the anime-based Macross series. This is for the same reasons that Hasbro or other large toy companies don't make them either. It has to do with licensing, marketing, production runs, and so on. I've been active in the LEGO fan community, both online, and in public events and shows since about 2000. It was announced on LEGO fan forums like Lugnet, and I applied and have participated in it for the last few years.

If you have the brick you're looking for in hand, flip it over and there's a number on the bottom of it. Then you can plug this number into Peeron and gets all sorts of information.

The downside of this equation is that you can't buy every LEGO part in every color at any given time. The company has a palette of parts and colors that they produce, and that changes every year. The only parts that are consistently produced in a wide range of colors every year are basic bricks. However, if you have trouble finding parts on LEGO.com, you can always take a look at Bricklink.

1) Indiana Jones is being produced because of LEGO's history with George Lucas and the Star Wars license, as well as the new movie coming out this summer providing fuel for advertising it. It is the SOLE exception to what I said about LEGO's marketing. 2) The $500 Millennium Falcon was produced only after LEGO tested the waters with the $300 Star Destroyer and Death Star II sets. When they produced the Star Destroyer, it was the largest and most expensive set they had ever created, and they considered it a huge gamble. Fortunately for LEGO, the Star Wars license is like printing money and they felt it was a viable idea. However, Star Wars is several orders of magnitude more popular worldwide than Macross is. LEGO has had financial difficulties for the last decade and is only now beginning to recover and become profitable again. Are you perhaps talking out of your ass a bit? Macross sets just aren't going to happen. Exo Force is about as close as you're going to see them get. No he did not. I've met the people who designed the Exo Force line. I have been involved with the Lego Ambassador program for the last 5 years. You can also read my writeup at Classic Space Forums of my trip to the LEGO headquarters in Billund, Denmark where I did prototype designs for the Mars Mission MX-71 Recon Dropship. I kinda know what I'm talking about here.

No, they really couldn't. LEGO has a primary market of 6-10 year old boys. If they were to make a model as complex and containing as many bricks as some of the above models, the individual model costs would be easily over $100.00 for a small set. Macross is far too niche a market for LEGO to make any money on, even though we'd all like to see it.

Ok, I'll keep it in the Pine Sol for a week and see where I'm at. Thanks.

Does the Pine Sol completely dissolve the paint, or will I be left with residue? The parts either need to be 100% clean or I need to buy a new valk and just use these parts to make some other kind of custom.

I just checked the parts and used a toothbrush to scrub a wing. The paint was loosened up a lot, but unfortunately it smeared around and still stuck to the plastic. Strangely, the existing tampo printing was unaffected. I'm hoping that further soaking will help.

Will brake fluid strip the paint quickly, or is it something I would need to soak the parts in for an extended time?

Thanks for the tips. I'm currently trying the Pine Sol method, I'll see how that turns out.