mechaninac

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.

Thank for the pictures SaveRobotech, but I didn't notice any shots showing the underside of the Legioss in fighter mode; that's the one shot that, mysteriously or intentionally (not referring to you, just a general statement), hasn't shown up anywhere yet, and the picture that would put to rest all the debate regarding how the legs look stowed from bellow. Do you have any such shots?

If I could hazard a guess I'd say their earlier statements regarding price were mere trial balloons intended to gauge customer reaction and interest, as well as sheer over estimation. As large as the Beta is at 1/55 (not nearly as large as the Koenig Monster) it is mostly comprised of empty space, and hopefully Toynami has limited die cast to areas where it actually makes sense instead of how they did on the Alphas.

Oh go on, preorder already... you know you want to

The blue is the hero version of the Beta that gets just about all the screen time with the freedom fighters. However, during the initial assault by the Mars Base fleet seen in the first episode of the series, the green Beta does show up in combined mode with green Alphas as background cannon fodder. The Shadow Beta shows up fleetingly in the assault on Reflex Point, I think... not sure, and it is prominent in Shadow Chronicles. The Red Beta never shows up in Mospeada, so it never did in The New Generation chapter of Robotech either; however, it is shown in Sentinels. Of all the Betas, the blue one is the only one, to my knowledge, ever shown transforming into the different modes.

To me that's an easy choice. I already have the Alphas and, although they aren't great as far as fit and one has an area of sloppy finish, none of them are broken or show any signs of spontaneous disintegration, and they do look almost anime accurate in all modes... unlike the CMs (maybe I'm one of the lucky ones who did not get the craptacular examples of the breed). So, I can have an Alpha/Beta combo for, at most, $180 shipped (and I do think that the Toynami example looks better than CMs' -- no judgment on quality, however), or a Legioss/Tread combo for app. $300 shipped. In addition I will be able, if I so choose, to procure all the Betas to go with all the Alphas, including the SC ones, for the same or lesser price for a complete collection; whereas, with the CMs I can only be guaranteed to acquire the blue alpha and be left hanging or forking over even more than the absolutely absurd retail price for the other, exclusive, versions. Thus, for me, there is no contest; Toynami's it is. I preordered the blue Beta at BBTS (thanks for the heads up by the way) and if I'm satisfied with their rendition of this "holy grail" mecha I'll pick up the others as well; if not, then I'll at least have one which does complete the set for the main characters in the show.

I don't know if these have been suggested yet, but how about: VF-25 Rapier VF-25 Stiletto VF-25 Scimitar VF-25 Katana VF-25 Claymore Since the VF-9 already has the code name of Cutlass, a bladed weapon moniker would be appropriate from an already established Macross naming convention.

So, since the YF-21 is being released very soon, and Macross' 25th anniversary lasts the entire year, what do you guys think are the chances that Yamato will pull a 25th anniversary special edition YF-21 before the year is out? After all, it would help them amortize the tooling that much faster by releasing another scheme independent of licensing issues... just a thought...

I remember Graham mentioning that the intake covers were removable pieces just like every other Yamato offering since the 1/48 VF-1. That shot of the undercarriage really sells this bird; where I thought the YF-19, while very nice, only got within 75% of matching the sleekness of the design as implied in the animation, the YF-21 is 98% there... it's a stunning effort on Yamato's part.

Damn! Those glowing eyes are just too freaky. Thanks for posting... that 1/100 just got owned.

To quote Graham: "I backed out of there slowly, making sure to make no sudden moves to alarm the natives (inmates?)." Just messin' with'ya