captain america

Direct translation from the article: From Akiyama supervision "we would like to build up the battle action which is charm of the original in the picture whose quality is high. In addition, from we would like to do the dark part, to that you can sympathize ", that the enthusiasm talked. Sounds like we're in for lots of dark battle action and talking enthusiasm

Family pic. More views will be available on the SM webstie: http://www.samurai-monkey.com

Size comparison with the ARII 1/100 kit box.

Capn's log stardate: March 31st Sculpting is going well, but slowly. Most of the major structural components are done, but there are still quite a few bits that need machining and detailing; most noteably the cannons, rear hatch handles and hatch cover. I'll save the cockpit for last. The parts I'm showing are by no means finished: they still require detailing and filling, but I needed to prime them to give myself proper reference points to make further refinements. All this took almost 2 weeks of work. Ugh...

I'm really at a loss to understand why there would be 2 different versions of act II floating around. I have bootleg copies of the original japanese laser disc, the US Renditions version, and have even seen the japanese version subbed in chinese, and they're all the same. I doubt VERY seriously that US Renditions would've had any sequences redrawn; that would've cost an absolute fortune and wouldn't have changed anything either way. Murakami-kun has the same Miami Vice wannabe white outfit in all 3 versions, his zoalord battleform is always light green/violet, and Enzyme II was always off-white/light tan with dark skin and red eyes.

Funny thing is, we really don't know what the creator beings look like... The assumption seems to be that they're humanoid, but they've never been shown in the manga. The ships (the ark, relic) are just that: ships. Biological in nature, but they don't seem to be sentient beings. Archanfel himself may be an original creator being, but his origins are still very ambiguous. **POSSIBLE SPOILER** There's a very prominent parallel between the Guyver story and Christian theology as well...This may help determine Archanfel (Archangel?)'s role in the story and the destiny of mankind Right now, it appears that Archangel is one of two things: either a creator being left behind left on earth to create a vast army for the rest of the creators to be used in some massive war, or... An outcast diety who defied the gods/creators and was subsequently banished/outcast from "heaven" and is seeking to create an army of man to storm the gods in "heaven" and conquer it. Archangel was originally discovered by Valkus back in the 1400s, when Valkus' ship (a spanish/portuguese gallion) was sunk in a massive storm at sea. Valkus was washed up on the shore of a mysterious island on which he discovered the ruins of an ancient civilisation. Inside one of the main temples lay Archangel, asleep in some sort of transparent coccoon and was awakened. Long story short, Archangel makes Valkus his first "General", and gives him a zoacrystal from his body to turn him into a Zoalord as well. All the other Zoalords were then hand-picked by Valkus and recieved 1 zoacrystal from Archangel's body.

Doh-dough: I'm not sure what you're referring to, the animation seen in the Manga/US Renditions of act II is the same as the japanese version; I still have bootleg copies of the original japanese version (which I occasionally watch), and there are no edited bits or different colors. You're right about one thing though: the absolutely horrible US dubbing detracts tremendously from the story. The biggest problem with the OVA series is that they introduced the Hyper Zoanoids far too prematurely, and you end up with an animated act II that consists of little more than Sho & the gang hiding-out from Chronos in the woods. The drop in animation quality also doesn't help.

Sadly, I think that if it's either a new OVA or TV series, they're going to start from the beginning all over again. Don't forget that the last Guyver OVAs were done some 12-13 years ago, and no investor/sponsor would want to just continue a failed project where it left off. Especially not to follow act II, which was absolutely shitty in my opinion, and had a somewhat "warped" chronology compared to the Manga. **POSSIBLE SPOILERS--read at your own risk** Actually, the Guyver armor units weren't a mistake, they are technology found on board the creator's ships; it's battle armor meant to be used by the aliens as a multi-purpose battle weapon. They're like space suits on a space ship of sorts, and every alien vessel has a set of three. In the early days of man, the aliens/creators experimented with a human by allowing one of the Guyver units to interface with him. The power increase was staggering, and allowed the human/zoanoid to escape the mind control of the creators...And go on a rampage of destruction. This is why the Remover unit exists. What I find really shitty is that the Guyver story starts to get really interesting only after where Viz stopped translating. We also find out only much later on that Archanfel (Archangel?) is not just A zoalord, but THE original Zoalord from which all the others were created; 11 zoacrystals in his body being removed individually and implanted into hand-picked humans to create the 11 other Zoalords... 12 generals whose sole purpose is to turn all of mankind into a warrior-army that will be used to storm the gates of "heaven".

Look what the easter bunny brought!

They did. If anything, Toynami improved greatly on the fighter mode of the Legioss, and it's immensely nicer and more accurate than the Imai model... They also "borrowed" the kinked-LEX and extended wing planform from my 1/32 model, but that's another story alltogether. For what it's worth, the fighter mode will always be arthritic at best; it's just a byproduct of that design, and to over-emphasize the fighter mode would just result in an Armo-Soldier that looks retarded and unflattering.

Quick update: I've commenced sulpting the Regult. Will post initial progress pics next week.

Ok kids, play nice, now! The kit-builders will get their goodie with this 1/72 Regult kit, but the toy crowd won't be left out by any means; all I ask is patience Besides, the toy group will be getting the 1/48 VF-1D conversion right after I'm done with the Regult kit... And god knows what other goodies I've got up my sleeve mwahahahaha!!!!!

Unfortunately, the Hydrospan only works to enlarge. Also, I think that 90% of people who signed up for the kit did so thinking that it would be about the size of the 1/72 Imai kit; hence my preference for sticking to that. I was contemplating vacuum-forming the pod for weight-savings, but that would make it a lot tougher to assemble, and require lots more pieces to complete the cockpit with. Vac-form is a great medium, but I'd only consider it if there's no cockpit detail. But since this is supposed to be a high-detail model kit ( not a toy), I think that detail is the key to its success. As I mentioned before, a 1/48 "blow up" could still be done later on: simpler, large, and with external detail only. Simply because I think these would be 2 different skus with different needs to fill.

Yes, I think a scale compromise might be the lesser of two evils in this case. My biggest concern was more a matter of the joints not being able to support the base structure of the model from the added weight of the masive size. Here's what I propose: -I sculpt the Regult closer to the recognized 1/72 scale based on the 15.2m height, but just enlarge it slightly... Say 18m. In 1/72, that's still 25cm, bigger than the Imai model, but will retain full poseability and will just be generally easier for me to mold/cast. -FOR THE TOY BUFFS: I can, later on, take the sculpt for the model kit and simply hydrospan it up to 1/48 scale. I can roto-cast the main pod hollow (no cockpit or opening hatch) to save on weight and I'd make the legs fixed-pose to cope with the sturdiness issue and voila! A 1/48 regult that you can put next to your Yammie.

Hi Azrhino. Yes, ther's also the issue of the ball-joints in the legs, which will have to be of the large Yellow Sub variety... They may even have to be tacked with CA glue because of all the added weight; hence my misgivings about making it THAT large. This is all kawamori's fault

Just for Kicks, here's a Regult image I cleaned up. Feel free to size it to 33cm (from the absolute tip of the cannons to the bottom of the foot)...See for yourself how monstrous it is at that size

Argh! Now I'm in a quagmire... The "large" Regult makes more sense since a Zentradi soldier can actually fit into it, but I just now printed some plotter outputs to scale: this thing is HUGE!!! Now i'm really contemplating whether I should shrink it down just for practicality's sake. If I go ahead and sculpt it at this size, it would mean a jump of about $30.00 in price, just for the extra resin. The only bonus I can see in making it this huge is that it would be adequate for both 1/72 in terms of "logical" scale, and also 1/48 if you base yourself on numerical values... So you could put it next to your 1/48 Yammies. But it would cost $30 more. Or... I can keep it to scale with the Imai model, which is "correct" in terms of the numerical height dimension. Smaller, but also easier on the wallet. Any suggestions guys? It's your money.

There's actually a method to my madness... Should I ever decide to produce a 1/72 Zentradi soldier to go with the 'Gult, I want it to look right. I know the cockpits are supposed to be cramped, but there's a difference between cramped, and dangerously shrink-wrapped If anything, I think that the 1/72 kits are more like 1/100 scale as far as proportions are concerned... I can stil remember seeing that episode where Hikaru/Misa/Max/Hayao escape from the Breetai's ship aboard a pod and you see three VF-1s retrieve it; you could clearly see the pod was quite large.

Do you have any confirmed data to back that up? The official Macross lineart seems to indicate otherwise.

Hi Coby. I actually have Macross Perfect Memory, TIA #11, as well as the cutaway view. The cutaway is truly great, but it won't be much help, since there won't be any actual internal structure on the model, and the cutaway's view of the cockpit details is somewhat ambiguous... The anime style sheets will be better suited for that.

In so much as the preorders for the Regult are quite high, I've already started gathering reference to build the patterns from. One point of interest will be the size of this model: IT WILL BE LARGER THAN THE IMAI KIT. MWers: why will it be larger Cap'n? Cap'n: because the Imai model was made too small for the scale advertised. As you can see from the size chart below, a conventional Zentradi soldier is about 10M tall, compared to the VF-1 Battroid, which is just under 13m tall. Now, basing myself on available data, as well as reference taken from both Perfect Memory and TIA volume 11 (official lineart), we can see how that 10m Zentradi soldier needs to fit inside the pod of the Regult. Based on this, there is NO way that the Regult could stand 15.2m tall... Unless it's in its "crouched" hangar bay stowage mode. Long story short, a regult made to "intelligent" 1/72 scale would stand about 33cm tall, so this is going to be a fairly large model. ...Just doing my homework as usual

If we can get the preorders to hit 45, I'll commence sculpting ASAP.

I actually painted all the grey parts dull aluminium... Which was basically just Tamiya's chrome silver spray can which I then dull-coated with micro-flat. The "ball" joints I left shiny

If/when the LV is produced, there will be a limited set available with both the booster and launch pylon. Launch pylons by themselves are no longer available.

Hi Exo, thanks for the vote of confidence... I do my best. If anyone needs any Tachikoma models, just PM Rob or Myself, we still have some left.