mechaninac

What a shame... I was all gung-ho about getting a CF SV-51 but Yamato had to make it look like a plucked chicken. Unless they change the plastic color to a much darker shade of tan or a greyish brown I'll have no choice but to pass on this: if it doesn't look reasonably close to what I saw on the screen I won't buy it. As for the body colored joints and face, I believe the problem lies with how Yamato had the molds made. If they decided to go with a series of family molds to shoot parts in one go, then whatever the color happens to be that is what you'll get for all the plastic parts comming out of that mold; if parts that should be black belong to the same mold as the larger parts that are going to be magenta or brown, or whatever, then they will be molded in magenta or brown, etc., and the only way to make them look right would be for yamato to have them painted which will add cost. So, unless my assumption is totally off, the toys will have body colored joints.

That's been done already: Philip J. Fry (Futurama) was his own Great-great-etc.-etc....-grandfather when the crew tore the Universe a new hole and found themselves in 1940's New Mexico.

Either that, or include replacement wings with built-in hard points with the ordnance set (IMO the YF-19 should have had wing hard points all along anyway). That way, all one would need to do is open the wing gloves --are they glued or just screwed?... I can't remember-- and swap the wings. And the Heavy Weapon Arm Pod is a must with any such set. What do you say Graham? Is this something that could be brought up for Yamato's consideration? PS.: Yamato, while not alone in this, makes foolish decisions more then just some times; the 1/60 YF-19 is a prime example of this. The engineering on the toy appears to be only about 85% finished: the lack of chest locking in GERWALK and specially BATTROID, let alone the other minor flubs, attest to my personal impression. I hope they'll so a lot better with the upcoming YF-21; the SV-51 gives me hope that they certainly can do better.

I'd club a thousand baby seals to red stains in the snow with a NERF bat for a VF-2SS with SAP in 1/48 or even 1/60 scale. 500 baby seals for a VF-2JA. To phrase it in the form of a question: What would I be willing to do for a VF-2SS and VF-2JA? Seriously, though; I don't think it will ever happen, but if Graham could keep mentioning it every time he meets with Yamato, who knows? Maybe they would do it just to shut him up.

1. Have Yamato acquired, or are they in the process of acquiring, or do they even have any plans to try to acquire the license for producing toys of the mecha from the upcoming Macross series? 2. Is there any interest on Yamato's part to acquire a license to M7? 3. Will Yamato be making alternate paint schemes for their current and future crop of 1/60 VF's based on game licenses and/or one-offs like LV1 & 2 and Stealth from the 1/48 line? 4. As many have mentioned, other VFs would be welcome; so, do they even contemplate the possibility of making toys of the VF-4, VF-5000, VF-9, VF-14, etc? After the current possible mechs are exhausted from the licenses they hold, of course. 5. Will they ever consider making the Destroids from M0 and SDF in either 1/48 or 1/60 scale? And how about enemy mecha?

Pretty much. I watched the first episode to give it a chance to grab my interest... it failed. Tried to watch the second episode to see if would improve... it put me to sleep. I haven't bothered since. Odyssey 5, however, seems promissing; at least judging from the premier.

Too late, First Contact and the whole Enterprise series already did that.

Do not drink and transform, you may hit a snag and spill your drink...

Vin Desil, heh? Why not? The terminator role is tailor made for wooden performances.

No, no, no... you've got it all wrong. English Literature has it all wrong. Every publication, movie, TV program and theater piece that references Arthurian legend has it all wrong.

Rental... several months after the DVD is out, when several copies are just taking up space at my local Blockbuster.

If Yamato had never gotten into the business of making Macross products I would never have gotten the Anime toy collecting bug and would be several thousand dollars richer today. That's not to say I resent spending all the money I've dumped into this hobby over the last few years, just stating a fact; the same fever that was instigated by Yamato's products has spread to other franchises that would have held little, if any, appeal to me otherwise... strange but true.

That's true, however... My concern with a live action GITS movie is that, based on current trends, it would likely be more akin to Aeon Flux than Blade Runner.

Thought I'd contribute a video for everyone's amusement: Rube Goldbergh, eat your heart out!

How about this beast. I know its from the much vilified Robotech universe, but it's still a nifty hover tank design; the VBT-1 Centaur Veritech Battle Tank:

We've already seen that powers are not individually exclusive: power absorption/emulation and flight. Maybe Hiro's father is "Unbreakable", like Claire. I don't see his character as being so disposable as to be offed in the first episode of season 2. And I must mostly agree with chrono... the season opener was a bit "flat".

Man oh man... I can seriously see that "kid" walking into his school one day toting a platoon's worth of firepower and going SS on the whole student body until the German equivalent of SWAT puts a bullet through his demented fat head. That is one ANGRY mofo.

I'm skipping these... I'm not into the Smoky And The Bandit 1978 Trans Am look.

For some pretty cool imagery on modern MBTs vs. WWII vintage tanks and the role doctrine plays on battle outcomes between woefully mismatched adversaries I suggest giving Harry Turtledove's Worldwar tetralogy a try. The books are incredibly entertaining reads.

I can't speak for anyone else, but I've been nothing if not honest and pragmatic in my assessment of all things Yamato (or Toynami, or Bandai, etc.), including the SV-51. I believe in shedding the light on all flaws I encounter, including design oversights, where applicable, even if they do not constitute defects; but I also give credit where credit is due. That way, anyone contemplating a purchase can make up his/her mind based on a comprehensive review instead of only gloom and doom carping. Time will tell if the SV-51 proves reliable or not, but that is true of all toys. The SV-51, more than any other VF, is extremely complex, so I wouldn't expect it to be anywhere near as rugged as the 1/48 VF-1 let alone a Bandai 1/55.

I got my 51 a couple of days ago. I went over the whole thing and here's what I found: 1. No stress marks of any significance. The ones I did find where on the elevator-stabilizer assembly hinges. It seems to be caused by the insertion of the hinge pins during assembly and should not get any worse as these assemblies do not undergo any real stress. It is worth noting that the plastic's color amplifies the appearance of any minor stress mark. 2. Droopy wings, specially the right one, and the sliding locks don't really do jack (they would have to be twice as long to make any difference). 3. My wings fold symmetrically, so no same-hinge problem on mine. 4. All the ordnance attaches securely to all hard points on my example. 5. Best closing Canopy of any VF, including the 1/48. 6. Radome magnet could've been stronger, but it does it's job. 7. Wing root hinges should have been designed with a flange on the bottom surface to correspond to a matching shelf on the wings; that way, even if they were less then tight they could not rotate down past horizontal and the wings would stay straight at the roots, by default. As it is, the wings are free to rotate an extra 3-5 degrees until the wing's hinge pocket inner surface hits the lower edge of the hinge block. It may be possible to glue a strip of styrene to the hinge just above the bottom corner and then paint it Euro I gray to hide it (it would look just like a surface detail); this would cause the wing to "bottom out" much sooner than it currently does. 8. Most Gear bay door are abominably loose but do stay closed okay. This should be a painless fix with some clear nail polish. 9. Gummy DD rocks! I have not transformed it yet, so I may find other nitpicks in the future; but from what I can see thus far, this is Yamato's best release in terms of initial quality since the debut of the 1/48s.

The two best MB Tanks in the World are the Abrams M1A2 and the Challenger 2. Of the two, the British beast has a slight edge in overall sophistication and capability (it was designed based performance and shortcomings of its predecessor, the Challenger 1 and the Abrams).

After going through this thread I went to check on my 1/60 VF-1s... and I'll be damned, my Hikaru VF-1A has yellowed gear bays doors (nose and legs), and slightly yellowed upper arms, but the rest of the plastic parts are still pristine white; this Valkyrie has never been exposed to sunlight, direct or otherwise, and has been cooling its jets (Get it? Jets?... ... umm... cough... never mind... ) inside a drawer for the better part of four years. As mentioned before, the formulation combined with the whiteness of the plastic makes it very prone to yellowing due to chemical interaction with the atmosphere regardless of UV exposure; the odd thing is that most parts haven't yellowed at all. I also checked on the condition of my other 1/60 VF-1s and they all seem to be faring much better (VF-1A Max may have the slightest hint of color shifting on a couple of parts, but if it is there it is near imperceptible, or just my eyes noticing a variation against the painted die cast that isn't really there). It appears that everything after the first 1/60 should not suffer its extent of non-photochemically induced yellowing due their grayer tones, and hopefully better grade of ABS.

Wow, I don't really know what to say. My first impulse was to call on the original post; however this "thing" is legit... who woudda thunk it??? Unlike many here I have no deep seated antagonism towards Robotech (Star Blazers introduced me to Anime, but Robotech introduced me to the "real" Giant Robot genre), and I actually prefer Robotech's opening and ending credits to the Japanese originals; that being said, I readily agree that the dialogue, censoring, and editing/shoe-horning done by HG are mediocre at best when compared to the real thing. This film, it it ever gets made and distributed, has an outside chance of turning into a -Top Gun meets Independence Day- feast for the senses, but will more than likely turn out into a -Wing Commander / Robot Jox train wreck that will put an end to Hollywood's, post Transformers, interest in this genre.

Wow! Now I'm intrigued.