mechaninac

IMO 1/100 MG Gundam Hands, specially of the Ver. 2.0 variety, might be workable options for replacements... they seem to be about the right size. Zeon hands (Zakus) might also be a closer fit, looks wise, than Fed ones due to their rounder designs.

In regards to the standing pilot figure in Wicked Ace's pictures, that's a recast of the pencil sharpener figure. The recasts were made available by MW member Rohby about 4 years ( it's been that long? ). Their size makes them perfect for 1/48 representations of Roy and Kakizaki. @misteryno: Happy Birthday!

Considering that the big guy was named Lunk in the Robotech version of Mospeada I find this quote all kinds of context awesome:

Even in the Enterprise 2 part episode "In a Mirror Darkly" they got it right as the uniforms worn by the crew of the Defiant had a logo reminiscent of the starship pennant that adorns the secondary hull and warp nacelles of all Constitution class vessels. If they got it correct for a TV series they should do so for a theatrical feature film.

And Graham's post above should make you fall in love with it all over again... Thanks for the clarification Graham. Now, if Bandai did decide to make a VB-6 toy for their Macross F line, would they go with 1/100 (admittedly Yamato's territory in scale if not series wise), or go all out with a 1/60 jaw dropping, wallet crushing, behemoth? Or would they just go with a 1/72 model kit?

Retracting Head, Every time I see your avatar I want to smack my screen... The only reason I have most of my 1/48s in Battroid mode is because they take up less shelf space that way, but they do look best in fighter mode, don't they? Edit: Woo Hoo! Thousandth post!

And I was afraid that I had made the wrong choice in preordering the CM version over the MegaHouse. Now I can see that either choice is a crap shoot. Personally I think that CM's has the better balance overall sculpt (specially the rider figure), and Megahouse's the more dynamic looking Ride Armor mode and "richer" looking finish... perfect transformation tipped the scale for me. I'm eagerly awaiting the Beagle version. That looks almost perfect.

Add me to the legions of disappointed pre-order buyers who cancelled instead of putting up with Toynami's BS. I do not blame BBTS or TMP for the screw up; I would expect them to eat a $20-30 discrepancy but not a 87.5%, at a minimum, difference in MSRP, even if they misinterpreted the promotional flyers they used as the basis for their pricing. I do hope that the bean counters at Toynami will get some feedback for these and other vendors about the appeal of their product at their asking price and recess accordingly (not very likely considering the company in question). Now, like most here, I'll be waiting for reviews and the laundry list of features before even considering to buy the Beta at anywhere near full price.

Patience my young Padawan... all in due time. I wouldn't be surprised to see the Glaug and the Queadlun Rau, at least being displayed, before Year's end.

1/18 would be awesome; but, for now, the 1/35 kits are the only game in town, and for 1300 Yen each (before shipping) they are a great deal on a pretty good kit that's in scale with a multitude of modern Armor models. @Da Pinche Haro!: they are HG quality kits... snap construction, poly cap joints, swappable option parts, molded in 2 colors, and include PVC figures to scale (seated and standing).

No need for apologies. Beside it wasn't your post that read like a "you don't know jack" assumption. It was this one by JBO: When I read your original question I just did a minor double take and thought to myself... "that's true but isn't that the idea I just put forth, only not is so many words?", and felt it was unnecessary for me to add anything to it; but after that, the above remark appeared and I felt that what I said needed clarification. Now I feel the need to apologize for the confusion.

Heck, Yamato's toys lack the guaranteed QC issues that justify the higher cost of Yamato' toys... However, I agree that what Toynami puts out aren't even worth their standard MPC MSRPs. At most the Beta could retail for 1.5 times the Alpha's retail price ($119.99)... I think I could talk myself into swallowing that; but $150-200, with their track record, is most definitely too much.

Is it really, absolutely, positively, necessary to explicitly voice every possible permutation and minutia in a simple statement meant as a moderately sarcastic response in a thread where it can be assumed, by the very nature of the topic at hand, that those reading it are well enough versed in the basics of the physics involved to understand the idea(s) presented without said ideas needing to be pre-digested, and without the knee-jerk jumping to conclusions regarding the poster's understanding of the subject or any part thereof? Or is it just the nature of the Internet Forum beast that any statement must be dissected for any existing, and more often only perceived, flaw in order to poke holes in same or otherwise diminish what is being stated regardless of whether the statement is true or not? This If/Could've/Would've/Did it/Didn't it/Will it/Won't it merry-go-round is beginning to look more and more like a Schrödinger's cat experiment...

Now you're just going around in circles. I'm not missing the other side of the coin, as you put it, because the other side is just the same side stated in a different fashion: if it blows up today we'll know in 8K years, if it already blew up 8 millennia ago we'll know shortly; it's the same thing... C is constant in a vacuum so the light will take 8000 years to cross the distance, so if you feel your chromosomes disintegrating by this time tomorrow you'll know that WT104 may have indeed exploded 8K years ago (excluding other causes for a massive X-Ray overdose). Of course there is no way to know if/when a star has/did explode before the radiation reaches us. The only time we are able to know of any such occurrence is when the EM radiation reaches us, and when it does, if it's lethal, there is nothing to be done about it anyway unless you're in a deep cave or a deeply submerged Nuclear Sub when the fireworks gets here. And this brings me to my original statement... unconcerned.

Starring Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton, Ben Affleck, Liv Tyler, and directed by Michael Bay... wait

I'm sorry, but I'm not well versed in gibberish-ese either...

I was referring to these:

You've gotten it exactly right, actually. People tend to forget that we don't see things as they happen, because they're used to the incredibly short distances of terrestrial life. It's easy to forget that we're seeing ancient history when we look at the night sky. Heck, you can see the birth of the universe if you know where to look(the blanket microwave background radiation is an almost unimaginably red-shifted Big Bang). What I said was absolutely true, and there is no estimate of how long the star in that binary system has before it explodes... I guess I did not make myself clear; maybe the way I wrote my post was a little too tongue-in-cheek. If it were to blow up tomorrow, we would not know... not for another 8000 years. By the time we did see the thing blow up, we would be in the process of being bombarded by the X-Rays if they're aimed this way anyway; hence, not concerned. Take Betelgeuse for example: it's a red giant star of about 14 solar masses in the latter stages of it's life cycle that astronomers think is a prime candidate to go super nova very soon in astronomically terms; at 427 light years from our Solar System, Betelgeuse could have blown itself 200 years ago and we would not find out about it for another 227 years. Everything we see in the night sky is representative of the way thing were several minutes (app. 8 min. for our sun) to several billion years in the past (the furthest detectable radiation has been on it's way to us for a bit over 13.7 billion years); when we look at the cosmos we are, in essence, looking into the past.

Just to put the kibosh on all this acrimony regarding the Beta's MSRP, Twin Moons has just put Volume 1 and 2 up for pre-order for $79.99 each (and with free shipping to boot). That's two vendors already with the same pre-order price for the same exact item; therefore, unless there is some major lack of communication between these vendors, their distributors and Toynami themselves, the MPC standard release MSPR is in effect. So Jenius' theory on the pricing is correct until proven otherwise. I wonder if BBTS is willing to match Twin Moon's free shipping deal... that's like a $10.00 savings. @Mog: looks like you'll finally be able to retire your avatar pretty soon... Edit: I wonder if Toynami's Beta will have the opening chest missile bays and the ones inboard of the shoulders that are incorporated in CMs' design. That would be cool and make the MSRP even more attractive. And althogh we haven't seen them, I'm assuming, hoping, that the Beta will have retracting landing gears deployed from the correct locations, which would trump CMs'.

Say what?!! I thought the Tunguska Event was caused by "the biggest interdimensional cross-rip" ever recorded until the year 1984...

So, even if this thing were to blow it's proverbial top tomorrow, and if the axial poles were aligned in just the right way to send the "death" beam our way, it would still take 8000 years for doomsday to happen in that cosmic scenario... Interesting read to be sure, but paint me unconcerned. @Wes: Oh come now. Don't you know that apocalyptic predictions sell much better than rosy prognostications? Just look at your average week on the major networks, cable news, and The Discovery Channel, The History Channel, TLC, etc., etc., ad nauseam, ad infinitum.

That's my only nitpick of Beagle's design. They need to beef up the calves by about 10% and the boots by 20% in order to achieve a more balanced (and I'm not even referring to tipping issues) design. As it is the lower legs look too dainty: appropriate for the female armor but not the male ones. Tipping issues may be somewhat remedied by reducing the weight of the bike as much as possible, having extremely tight --hopefully ratcheted-- joints at the feet, knees, hips, and waist, and added mass (die cast construction or ballasting) in the lower legs/boots. Otherwise, just WOW!

Apples and oranges. Besides, I wasn't referring to officially released photos, but snap shots taken by fans at trade shows where the items are on display, and specially where people are allowed to get close, and sometimes personal, with them. @SaveRobotech: No problem; it's kind of a shame but one can't be expected to remember everything, specially when under the gun. Every picture I've seen so far seems to point to a rather bow-legged-with-the-knees-sticking-out-past-mid-wing look that will detract a lot from the look of the fighter mode.

Not trying to step on the toes of anyone who likes this doll, but those klugey joints are eyesores.

I'd be interested in 1/60 scale fighter toys manufactured by Yamato, but only for subject matter that is not meant to transform. Prime examples would be the F-14A Kai flown by Shin in M0, the Anti-UN Mig-29, the Dragon II and Karyovin from SDFM, the Cat's Eye recon from SDFM, the Ghost X-9 from M+, etc.