QuinJester

Stickers will be very unlikely on the DX versions; they'll probably be fairly festooned with paint and printing. The models will likely have a mixture of dry transfers and thin stickers instead of waterslides, with maybe a foil sticker or two for the camera visors. When these things actually enter the finalized, painted stage (these are definitely photoshops of a blank model. There are tells all over the images), they'll look anything but cheap, I'm sure, even though price-wise they're definitely cheap by comparison to the alternatives

With the Zero, SV-51, and now the VF-25, it doesn't seem like Kawamori is a big fan of folding/sliding hands anymore. Maybe he looks at it from the design standpoint of "it'd be more efficient and faster to transform realistically if the hands were already available". Wouldn't it suck if your RL transforming mecha got something stuck in its gearing and didn't have hands to hold anything? That was the reasoning for having the head mounted up on the top of the fighter body, wasn't it, supposedly?

My own Nora had slightly wiggly wings, the right side definitely droops a tad in comparison to the left, and her hips aren't exactly the tightest in the world (rawr? No, no, that's definitely not appropriate), but for the most part it's still pretty solidly assembled. Visually I'd say it's nicer looking than both the Ivanov and the CF, though, fixes or not, simply because it's so different (and it's not an unpleasant difference). How many Magenta fighters will you have in your collection, vs. yet-another-charcoal-grey?

Gah. I'm so conflicted. I want these, but I want them with fast packs and armor. If the fast pack releases are complete sets instead of just add-ons and come later, I wont want to buy the standalones... and yet... ARGH.

One shouldn't confuse "aesthetic" with "limitation". A lot of the 80's-tastic SOCs are blocky, chunky, and tubby looking, yes. Unfortunately, most of them were also never designed to actually transform in the real world, making a lot of those "chunky" and "simple" designs a nightmare of cleverly designed swinging panels and pivots; unfortunately, humanity doesn't have easy access to morphing plastics that can change size and shape, yet. Xabungle's crotch is a piece of genius, is just as complex as any moving mechanism on the YF-19 or SV-51, and it's a quarter of the size. While it's easy to "poo poo" a lot of bandai's SOC and other transforming work simply because its design aesthetic doesn't match the lithe proportions of the F mecha, you shouldn't assume that it means Bandai don't have the engineering and design cojones to make complicated mechanisms, make them small, and make them sturdy. I'm surprised that so many people seem to be ignoring the obvious point of comparison for this; the LAST DX product Bandai produced, and a Kawamori design, no less. Aquarion.

Well, if you want to talk about realism with regards to the intakes and whatnot, how about that big, yawning, gap that sits between the front intakes and the rear engines of the 21 when in gerwalk/oh-god-where-are-my-limbs modes. The 21 too enclosed for my liking; it's a shell with legs and arms hidden inside. It's a radical departure from previous valkyrie designs and while the fighter mode is extremely elegant, I just can't find it in my heart to like it that much. The 19, on the other hand, is a flying brick with wings and a gooseneck. It's beautiful in a brutish, inelegant kind of way.

It'll probably be a combination effect, mostly random areas, with certain "set pieces" and "set levels" interspersed for good measure. D2 already had them, with things like the cathedral in the 1st level. Even Nethack, the ultimately complex roguelike had setpiece levels (town, class quest levels, castle, etc...) interspersed with the random areas.

/drools all over himself in anticipation of painted fastpack photos

Aphrodite-1, totally. ... oh wait, are we not supposed to actually be having this discussion? Crap.

And they didn't even include it with the 19. I wish they had included more than empty air and some spare canards with the 19... No, they wont include a stand, I'd imagine. Doing so would be direct competition against their own product as the VF-1 doesn't need a specialized stand like the SV-51 and I presume the 21 did.

Or, you know, they're taking a lot more time and care working on the designs, because a transforming Kawamori design takes a sight more work than knocking out yet another gundam design? This "Bandai hates Macross" nonsense is mind-boggling.

Transformation wise the 25 looks like it shares more in common with the SV-51 than any other valk, which is pretty neat since the 25 is a cool, if ungainly, looking piece of work. The 25 will be like it's prettier, slimmer, cousin that gets all the attention at parties.

<Eyeballs his stack of unbuilt Five Star Stories resin kits, remembers that he lives in a small apartment 400 miles from his airbrush, and sighs mournfully>

From what I've been reading, 23cm would be the height of the battroid mode, though that's probably not including the head lasers (in the past, specced heights on bandai figs is usually the the top of the head, ignoring horns/shoulder pauldrons/back ridges/whatever), which would mean scale 13.8m for the head without lasers, which sounds about right. The head lasers on the vf-25 are pretty tall. Overall, it should be about the size of the YF-19, maybe a tad shorter than the 19 in battroid mode. Either way, it should be a decently big bird, even if it's a little shorter than expected, and the fast packs should really push it over the edge. Can't wait to see armor packs for Ozma's 25! Hopefully Bandai wont deny us all the fixin's there!

Er, you know, that thought had never even crossed my mind? I'm still not even finished with it at the moment . Got caught up with real life work. I wouldn't even begin to know what to charge for it, but if you want to start throwing numbers at me, be my guest.

You probably just need to fiddle with the orientation of his hips a bit. If the hips are clicked a little too far down and the knees not totally compressed, the legs will pull downward on the back of the jet mode and create a gap. Futz around with the leg orientation in fighter mode and you'll probably fix snugness issue.

Starscream has a pretty decent Gerwalk mode. Although in this photo it looks a bit like he's presenting himself to Nora... So far I've been quite satisfied with the simplicity and aesthetic appeal of the Animated figs I've picked up. Lugnut is the current leader for me, as his transformation is so smooth and intuitive. Prime is fun too, once you figure out the correct way to line up his waist for the spin gimmick to reset properly into alt-mode.

Yeah, they're from Super Robot Wars, a Horse/Rider pair. The Horse (Pferd) transforms into a robot (Aussenseiter), . Not the SOC, but this is what they look like. Aussenseiter is the one on the right.

If one were to believe the animation vs. the given stats, the VF-11 would look awfully similar in size to the YF-21. 'Bout the same wingspan, too. It'd be nice to have it closer to the 19/21's size, just for appearance's sake, but regardless I'll probably be picking up an 11, QC issues willing. I love its look and combined departure and adherence to the general VF transformation style. Hopefully it has nicely implemented (and non-floppy) wing flaps too, as they're shown in definite use in the OVA/Movie.

Bandai is the king of including 10000 sets of hands with their releases. A completely different set of hands was shown with last prototype; we'll probably get a set of poseable hands like MG hands/Yamato chickenclaws, a set of fists, a set of open hands, at least one gun-holding hand, and probably a few stylized open hands. Those fastpacks look hot. It'll be nice if each release comes with them, instead of them being separate releases.

Getting it done ANYWHERE would be pretty damn expensive. The resin alone for SLA models costs about $800 per gallon.

The new 1/60 VF-1's are envious of the YF-19's mono boob. "I must, I must, I must increase my bust"

The chest looks .... REALLY puffy. Like it bulges out a LOT. Is the chest seriously supposed to be that bulbous? I know people keep saying "it's just because it's not locked down" on all of these photos, but it's so consistent that I really think that's the way it's designed. Still, the 1A looks awfully pretty. If I'm getting one, that's the one.

SLA Rapid prototype, a fair bit more sophisticated than wood. They can change anything they want in CAD and print up new versions to their heart's content before moving on to final sculpting and casting.

New pics up on GA Graphic http://ga.sbcr.jp/mreport/010310/ It's Still a rapid prototype model, but at least you can rest assured that the cockpit hinge is gone. Also, a price; 12600 yen. Still hoping that the knee breaks forward more in Gerwalk mode for properly canted chicken legs, but it's looking rather nice I think.