Alpha OTS

Someone on another board posted this link: http://wildcats.pupui.jp/mt/archives/2007/02/cms.html Anyone know what this is exactly? Is it a custom or is it a proto for an upcoming line?

I knew that handle looked familiar. And I still want a Wave. I just don't want to pay $130 for it.

Anyone have a picture of the 1/5000 next to a 1/100 Toynami Valk?

Hrmmm......a walking Macross without a spark would be a Zombie Macross! And of course, he would want trains.... "Trains....uhhh....trains!....uhhhrg.....trains......."

It's actually more like GTA meets Hulk Ultimate Destruction. Once you power up your guy, he does superhuman things; jumping from rooftop to rooftop, picking up cars, etc. I'll probably pick it up when it comes down in price. I have enough games I haven't finished as is.

Yes, but you're comparing an apple to an orange. The Macross doesn't walk. The Macross is NOT a robot; it does NOT have a spark. Expecting any of these things out of any physical representation of the Macross is just simply silly. I'm a fan of transforming mecha too, but there's no way I would buy this very expensive niche product if I weren't a Macross fan.

Where's the cheapest place to get one of these from?

I got a little worried that I jumped the gun too quick. As soon as I saw it I grabbed my credit card because for some reason that $180 BBTS(minus shipping) price tag was still in my head and I was in impulse buy mode. Glad to hear this was reasonable. Looking at some ebay auctions I did ok. Not a steal, but definitely less expensive than I would have done through a buy-it-now auction.

I was looking at sites that might sell the Boukenger Daibouken sets and came across robotkingdom.com. On a whim I decided to see what was in the Macross section where I saw a Konig 1/100 Monster for $109. Knowing what BBTS was selling them for when they had them in stock, that seemed like a deal, even with the $30 overseas shipping, but BBTS is notorious for overcharging rare items. So how much of a deal did I get? I just noticed it's no longer in stock there now. I hope that means I ordered the last one and not that it was an inventory error.

I posted this on another forum, but I thought it might be of some interest to the people here as we enjoy mecha with gimmicks too. I'm not a Power Ranger fan, but I am a fan of Voltronish things, and it's only by random chance that I came to be aware that the deluxe Japanese version of this mold existed which is highly detailed and expensive. Walking through the toy aisle, I saw a mini domestic version of that deluxe. For $9, I thought it was worth investigating. I pick it up, look at the back and see that the other vehicles that combine to the basic mini "zord" set I had in hand also are capable of making their own "zords". So that's three mini-voltrons of a sort. So I picked up "Set A" which is 3 vehicles(truck, bulldozer and sub), "Set B" which is 3 vehicles(jet, hovercraft and car) and Set "C" which is 4 vehicles(steam shovel, driller, cement truck, hook crane) for a total of 10 vehicles. Caution: These pics taken with a crappy camera which is very good at making my desk look much more damaged than it actually is. From left to right here's Set A, Set C and Set B. And let's combine that into only two mechs. I believe these are as close to official as the official modes for Drive Max and Drive Tank as you can get. So let's combine one more time into only one mech. And this is what the packaging says the total super combined mode or Ultimate Drivemax/Daibouken should look like. Here's a variation that looks a lot better, but the black car isn't as solidly connected to the back as it could be. And here's what the teeny tiny instructions say the total super combined mode should look like with everything solidly connected. Since there's options, let's see if there's combined vehicle modes. Again, I believe this is as close to offical modes as is possible with this set. And let's try a complete connected train ala Brave Tiger. And with the red jet so there's no loose pieces at all. This is more like Lego Voltron, cool, so let's try some variations. And the last two I came up with. I added a couple very minor paint details to cover up the screws in black plastic and to make the red truck look like it had a real cockpit. Now for the negatives. Lack of paint apps, especially if you've seen a picture of the Japanese version of the normal sized toy this is based on. For the smaller size, eh, I can deal with that. I added the ones I thought it needed without much effort. Other negative, due to the lego-ish nature of these sets, you can see above there's some partforming going on. Things break apart then reassemble elsewhere. So insteady of things folding in half, they instead break apart and then peg to another hole with some pegs and holes still being visible. Last negative, articulation is pretty basic, and in Set B zord mode pretty much nonexistent. I used to own a vehicle Voltron and this reminds me a lot of that set, only much smaller(which I prefer) and with more articulation and WAY WAY WAY more combination options. I thought it especially neat that they managed to have a unique head for each individual set zord AND the A+B+C zord. So all together it was about $27. Definitely worth checking out if you're a Voltron fan of the vehicle sort.

Holy cow, I didn't realize the figure could fit inside in bot mode. That's pretty nifty. The transformation looks ok, but I see those bars everyone's talking about. There is a little too much weight and stress on them. If this ever drops substantially in price, I'll give it a try, but as of now, I'm just not enough of a fan to fork over that kind of cash.

It is, but that's the trade-off for a more inexpensive Alpha than the Gakken.

This news gets me worried because once they finish doing what they have planned this year, why would they release new accessories for a figure line that's over a year old and no longer as easily available? How well do those super poseable strike packs fit on the 1/100's anyway? Does it take much trimming?

Agesthreeandup has advertised that they're not going to put orange plugs on him. However, the last two packages I ordered from them took three weeks to arrive. If you're in the states, just keep that in mind. JRS Toyworld (jrstoyworld.com) said that they weren't too, but that may have changed. Personally I'm waiting for all the first week hoopla to die out so I can read where everyone bought theirs from and what their experiences were and then make a purchasing decision of where to buy based on that.

Ditto everything Lynx said with emphasis on the above. Whatever you do, if something's not moving like it should DON'T force it. This is especially true of the arms and hands. Put it down, then come back to it later. Although if you buy a Shadow, you shouldnt' have problems with the hands as it's a much thicker claw type hand than the thinner human type hands the other Alphas and the upcoming Alphas have.

If you're willing to pay the $60 + $10 shipping, robotech.com's a place to buy them from rather than deal with the potential ebay hassle as they still have them in stock.

It's hard to care for gerwalk until you see it in action and how truly functional it is. When I was a kid, I thought it was a dumb half-assed transformation. Now I think it's the coolest mode available. As for Alphas, here's a post I made about them on a different forum: ------------------------- I took advantage of the Christmas $40 sale robotech.com had on their alphas. I picked up Rook and Lancer. I opened up Rook first. From my research on these, I knew you had to handle these like eggshells, especially the first time you transform them. So I did, and didn't really have any major problems. The one panel popped off, but that was because I was unaware that it needed to be flipped over before moving the shoulder into place. So after that, I diligently followed the directions to avoid any other needless popping. Quality's decent. Most of the diecast is in the legs and upper chest. Unfortunately there were some QC problems with Rook. Both sets of rear landing gear are really loose. They're supposed to lock into place when you push them forward, but they don't. I guess some careful krazy glue apps could tighten up the joint if I wanted. The multi-jointed mechanism that leads to the head is loose too, so the head is a bit looser than I'd like, but its acceptable. The chest center is supposed to move out slightly so it's angled rather than flat, but its not budging, and I'm not going to force it. When I opened up Lancer, I was really worried because something was clearly wrong with the left thruster/foot. Fortunately it was just rotated out of place and not a problem with the figure itself. Phew. First thing I check is the landing gear, and that's when I confirm that Rook's are not behaving the way they should. I was familiar with the transform now so the transform flowed a little smoother. Only hiccup was the right arm wouldn't extend, but after carefully moving it a little back and forth it eventually extended. The joints leading up to the neck are also more stiff than Rook's, so the head has the firmness I expect. The chest expansion moves easily in and out unlike Rook's. Leg joints on both are pretty firm. No looseness. Unfortunately despite being made of plastic and the joint seeming strong, the arms have a tendency to rotate downwards under their own weight. This sucks, and would have really benefited from a ratchet joint. I put Rook's arm up in a wave and it eventually rotated down to be out laterally. So if you want an arm in an over the head pose, you have to sort of over extend where you want it so it'll be where you wanted it once it finishes its rotation downwards. Lancer has the better joints of the two. I'll probably just display Rook in bot mode rather than in jet with the landing gear out. Both Paint apps are about the same on both. Rook's seems to be better because the red helps hide the flaws. There's some sloppiness, but you have to look for it. There's a nick or two on each as well. Nothing nightmarish, but it could be better. The wrists are really loose on each. The hand articulation takes some gentle massaging to work into place. I can get the hands and rifle into the poses I want, so this all isn't much of a problem. Unfortunately Rook has that hand split problem starting on her left hand where the pinky end of the metal pin connects to the wrist. This sucks and is something I'm going to have to keep an eye on to make sure it doesn't happen elsewhere. I'm pretty comfortable with both of them now, and not really afraid of handling them like I was when I initially opened them. They're not fragile like a plastic model is. I guess its durable enough for a collector. I'm pretty concerned what multiple transforms will do to the shoulder joints, and if it'll lead to limited "arms by the side" poses in the future. To be honest, I get far better QC, durability and poseability out of a $20 alternator or even a $10 deluxe. Unfortunately, Robotech/Mospeada being the niche it is, a similar option just isn't in the cards. So for $40 each, I think I did ok considering my other Alpha options(way too expensive or cheap and broken) and the limited physical manipulation I expect to do with these figures. I honestly can't really recommend or not recommend them. Most of the flaws I've mentioned I knew about from researching google. I guess be like me and know what you're getting yourself into before you take a chance and be completely dissappointed. ---------------------------- After seeing Shadow Chronicles, I started jonesing for a Shadow Alpha. The price at robotech.com is $60 a piece now, too late for the sale. It arrived, and I'm a little dissappointed. Hands weren't a problem on my Shadow. It's the one area where it excels over my other Alphas. I definitely didn't get a good one though. There was a nasty nick in the white of the right jet intake which was glaringly obvious. I had no choice but to touch it up with some acrylic paint. There were a couple of nicks on my Rook, but they were nothing as eye-catchingly bad or deep as what was on my Shadow. The black on the inside of the right intake was assembled very sloppily too. It's like they pushed it in way too hard and it started to crack as a result. Wouldn't surprise me if whoever/whatever did the damage caused both this and the aforementioned nick at the same time. There is also a very bad stress mark on the right inner arm as if someone or something was handling/assembling that part with way too much force. From what I read elsewhere, the Shadow supposedly had the best QC of the lot. Unfortunately that doesn't coincide with my experience. The factory monkey didn't show my Shadow any love. Out of the three I have, Lancer's the best. Apart from some sloppy paint apps that I had to closely inspect to find, I didn't have any real QC problems with Lancer. Rook has loose landing gear, some minor nicks, and the potential for hand splitting(I'm keeping a close eye on it, but I have to be careful moving the hands). It seems like Alpha QC is a gamble and the odds change based on how early(worse) or late(better) the wave is.

I have a funny feeling since they're showing the Beta again *and* promoting SC Alphas, we're going to see a Beta, but in SC colors to get those of us who already bought Alphas to buy another one to match the coloring of the Beta.

Agreed. That was one of the strengths of Robotech's va cast, imo. I just finished watching two discs of the new ADV english dub. I have two more on the way. I don't like Hikaru's voice. It comes off as whiney. I thought they were trying to emulate Robotech Fokker's va way too much. I was hoping for some of the bravado that you hear in DYRL's and Zero's Fokker. I laugh when I heard that voice because it's easy to get caught up in the enthusiasm and energy. You genuinely like the guy. This Fokker's just too dry in comparison. Dare I say, he's too Americanized. It doesn't have the same energy and it's just not the same. As a Robotech Fokker clone I guess it's ok, but that's not what I was hoping for. Minmei is ok. I agree with the above posters that this was more of a marketing ploy than a true desire to do a good dub of this character. I think there are a couple of unintended consequences that do work towards the benefit of the storyline though. A small part of the awkwardness and miscommunication between Hikaru and Minmei can also be attributed to cultural differences; she's staying with relatives, she shops in Chinatown, and there's a more implied innocence as Minmei is consumed with the celebrity of being Miss Macross. I had no problem with the age of the va. To be honest, I couldn't tell. It's the accent I have an issue with. BUT, as the episodes went a long, I could tell the va was getting more comfortable and the accent became less of a distraction. I hope that continues to be the case. Claudia, Ben(Kakizakika?) and Max sound a lot like the Robotech va's, and that's a good thing, imo. Global/Gloval's voice works. As a character his voice needs to carry authority and it does. Misa's ok. Although I think she sounds too young at times. The Robotech va's voice was perfect for her because she *can* sound old when she's being authoratitive, which makes the Rick/Hikaru "old lady" references all the more funny. All said though, like Minmei's va, the lot of them do seem to get better as the episodes go on.

Those customs are just too nice. Kudos!

Ooops, that's my doing. It's a partformer and that's just how I reassembled it. According to the box it's a "Macross SSF-1 Cruiser-Fortress Tranship Robo" Yes, SSF-1, that wasn't a typo. I *think* its a knock off of sorts, which was why I was asking. Anyway the box says that this is 1/5700 scale, so its a hair smaller than the Wave 1/5000. Ship mode is roughly 21.5cm from tip to tip. Standing fortress mode is roughly 15cm to the top of the bridge. To the very tippy top of the fortress mode is roughly 23cm. The valks are the Toynami 1/100 scale. So this is something of an idea of what the 1/5000 looks like with them. What's funny is that the box clearly shows the Bandai/Matchbox version. Eh, it was $15. No loss.

After seeing this thread a month or so back, I thought I found and was buying that in an ebay auction, but I ended up with this instead: It's a partformer. Unfortunately the ship mode doesn't hold together too well. I could probably take some crazy glue to the joints to remedy that though. Its decent for the $15 shipped I paid and looks good with the 1/100's I have. Anyone have any info on this? And is the aforementioned chogokin kind of rare?

Hi! I recently acquired the VF-1J set. QC is much better on these as the joints are much stiffer. Not to say that the joints were crappy on the previous set, they're just not near as good as these ones are. The blue and red coloring on Max and Milia is really nice. The VF-1J heads are on that same type of neck as the VF-1S. Its ok, but like the VF-1S its all just a bit too narrow. Anyway, I'm a little new to Macross. I wasn't aware that Max, Milia and Hikaru had numbered VF-1J's. The instructions say who has what number, but they don't point to where to apply them. I figured I'd put Hikaru's on the side of the nose under the cockpit like I did with the numbers in the last series. The problem is that Max and Milia's numbering is white and that part of the nose is white, so it would be pointless to put a white sticker on a white background. Are these supposed to be numbered anyway? If so, where? Edit: Oops, forgot that I wanted to say that I'm happy that toynami fixed the display cup in the second series. I've had mine on display, in a swooping jet mode pose no less, for over a week and no cracking!