sidearmsalpha

Like some of you, I don't bother showing my stuff to most people because they just won't get it. Most people are just too close-minded to grasp that these are more than just toys. It's just too complex for their small minds to comprehend. They don't realize how much goes into designing and making these awesome figures. It's not a problem to blow thousands of dollars on a suped-up car that essentially gets you from point A to point B (like any car), but if you own a few figures/toys aimed at an older consumer, you're a weirdo. If I do get asked by some idiot why I collect what I collect, I just blow them off. It's not worth wasting my breath. People collect arguably weirder things, and I'm not judging them. It's cool to have hobbies that you can enjoy to keep you sane or get you away from the daily rat race, whatever they may be. As long as you're not going broke or hurting someone, more power to you.

The Banpresto VF-1S's still have a better looking head than these squishy-headed 1/100's. It's more accurate, and makes me wonder why Banpresto could get it right at that scale, but Yamato couldn't get it right at 1/60. IIRC, even the Takatoku 1/100 VF-1S had a head that was very accurate, but they couldn't get it right for the 1/55 versions.

Hmm...looks like the arm armor is going to be the DYRL style for even the TV Valkyries like the Yamato 1/60's. Not a big deal, but it would have been better to see the TV style arm armor on those VF's.

Ok. I love shmups and have a huge collection of them, but there's still quite a few I need. I'd like to get into playing the emulated ones on my pc, but I don't know crap about emulators or where to get the rom's. Any suggestions? Also, those Zentraedi and Meltrandi mecha from the manuals to the PCE games look so cool! It's too bad we'll never see kits or toys of them. Same goes for the Valkyries in Macross 2036 and Macross Scrambled Valkyrie.

I remember collecting the Return of the Supermen storyline after the Death of Superman and being really excited at the time. Years later, I can't get excited about anything Superman-related. I'm actually turned off by most superheroes nowadays cuz they tend to look too over-the-top. I honestly couldn't picture a guy flying around with his underwear outside his pants in bright red and blue colors. Superman's suit just seems so outdated, but I guess they have to stick with it cuz it's what fans and most people want to see.

After seeing this movie, I'm pretty much convinced that it's still going to be a long time before we see a live-action comic book team movie that can capture the epic storylines in the comic books. There just isn't enough screen time (and budget) to develop a story AND characters along the lines of say an Age of Apocalypse story. Live-action is great for less characters (i.e. Spider-Man), but there's just way too many characters in the X-Men universe to ever represent faithfully on the big screen. I doubt you could commit all the same actors to stick around for several more sequels to build up to something like that. I'm hoping that with CG seeming to be less costly and being used more and more to make entire movies, it might be feasible to make comic-based movies in CG where all you need is voice actors to reprise their roles in sequels.

Nevermind! For anyone who missed the scene at the end of the credits, it's been put up on YouTube. Check it out here if you've seen the movie or don't care about this spoiler: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bogAgn0rslU...20men%20credits

Can someone PM me with what happened in the scene after the credits? Or better yet, can you post it in the thread with a spoiler warning? I hate it when they do that crap in movies, especially since I watched it.

Wow, some of you guys seem to take broken and missing parts on this or any Yamato toy lightly. After paying $160 for a VF-0S, I was pissed when one of the tailwing spikes was bent. Thankfully, it was easily bent back, but I hate playing Russian roulette with these toys. It almost doesn't seem worth it sometimes to pay the high price when you know that you could end up with a busted toy because the manufacturer overlooked something so obvious (as Graham pointed out in his review of the VF-0S about the tailfins just needing to be folded down to avoid the breakage of the spikes). Wonder if they even package tested it?

Did anyone attend the Robotech Shadow Chronicles panel at Super Con in Oakland, CA on Saturday to see what new info they had? I might be going today, but I don't know if my girlfriend will let me sit in on the panel since it's supposed to be 90 minutes long.

Wow! Looking at those comparison shots, I didn't realize til now how much bigger the VF-0S is! I guess using nuclear reactors to power the VF-1 and those few more years of R&D were able to shrink down the technology used in the VF-0 quite a bit. I received a VF-0S from an HK seller on eBay, and other than one of the little yellow pointed things on the back wings being slightly bent (easy fix) and the skull on the pilot's head being a little off, it doesn't have any issues. I really like it alot. The improvements really add to its beauty. It would be nice to see the VF-1 get similar improvements sometime later.

I was about to ask G man the same thing. So, could you let us all in on your master plan? I mean it is a hellavu lotta valks to keep in one person's possesion. 394768[/snapback] No kidding... I hope you check all your Valks when you get them to make sure they are not damaged or missing anything cuz Yamato's QC still sucks. It's nice to have that kind of cashflow to buy several of each, but what good are they if they are all boxed up? I hope you can display them all someday if you're keeping them. There's no doubt you'll make a great profit on the Low Vis's or the hard-to-find ones if you ever sell them. Even if I could buy multiples, the girlfriend would kill me. She freaks out if I buy any toy or collectible over $30 when I could be using that money to buy her something or take her somewhere. I have to physically hide any new Macross toy from her and figure out a way to hide the expense, too. Deciding whether or not to keep the boxes is another problem. We just moved into a 2 bedroom apartment, and she graciously allowed me to use the extra room to house and display my stuff, but the large boxes take up too much room, so I usually have to throw the boxes away or put them in our storage unit. It makes it harder to pack them away later without the protection of the original boxes, but less of a headache when I can pack several of them in one moving box as opposed to trying to move them all in their original boxes.

Hey sharky, that's a first. I've bought three sets of the series 2 figures in the past with the last set being late last year, and none of them ever came came with the black bags you speak of. All of the ones that are supposed to transform did come with all the necessary parts to transform them. There was one time that I was missing the gerwalk/fighter fuselage for the VF-1S, but the seller was kind enough to send me another complete valkyrie free of charge even though I just needed the part. Come to think of it though, all the ones I received always came sealed in their clear bags outside the boxes with the boxes flattened for easier and cheaper shipping from HK or Japan, so they might have thrown away those black bags that you are talking about. That's odd that they would include scrap plastic like you say you received.

Yup, price is the only really appealing thing about these new toys. It's what made the Banprestos appealing also. You know you have a cheap transformable toy you can just play around with and not having to worry about breaking it. It's too bad they have the same ugly design flaws of the SP's and MP's. The VF-1S has that squashed head design from the Super Poseables. The legs just seem off, too. Atrophied in a way, especially the upper legs. They used that upper leg/hip joint design from the MP's and even the 1/55's. I was really happy when Yamato didn't do that with the 1/60's and 1/48's. It looks so much better. The upper arm pieces seem like they should be higher up in the shoulder parts. I don't like the rounded part of the upper arm piece where it meets the shoulder piece. Should be more angular instead of looking like the Valkyrie has a bone attached to its shoulder.

Hi all, has anyone here tried to disassemble the legs on any of the MP Alphas? Reason I ask is that I just picked up a Shadow on eBay and the left leg won't bend at the knee at all, and if I don't get a replacement from the seller, I'll have to try to fix it myself. The right knee bends fine, but the left knee won't budge at all, and I don't want to force it and break it. I would imagine the screws on the lower leg are under those little round painted caps, right? Also, I noticed that the right knee is crooked somewhat causing the outer part of the upper leg to bend outward as if there's something missing in the knee joint that keeps the lower leg from being straight. I'll have to take pics to demonstrate, I guess. Also, the upper leg section isn't supposed to bend midway, right? Cuz it looks like there's a joint there. I'm not sure since this is the first Alpha I've gotten.

Hey Dat, probably a stupid question, but why did you have to replace the arms with -IJ arms? Is the groove for the arm band only on the VF-1J's?

I doubt well ever see a really good live-action fighting game movie. The storylines for the games just don't really make good movie plots, and the characters usually look too over the top to be believable. I wouldn't have minded seeing DOA as an anime movie. It's almost like trying to make a good movie out of a good 2D shooter. In a game, you don't care about the unrealism, but it's tough to translate that onto the live-action screen without it looking cheesy. That's the same dilemma that Hollywood has with super hero movies.

It's probably been discussed before, but I can't figure out why Yamato used that clear, shiny plastic for the 1/48 heat shields. It's not so bad on the shields that have skulls on them, but they're just so gaudy on the VF-1J's and now, the VF-1A CF. It just clashes with the flat paint/colored plastic on the rest of the Valks. I like the solid plastic on the 1/60 heat shields, plus they added that cool curvy groove on them, which is anime-accurate, right? That thin painted line on the 1/48 heat shields just sucks. You would think that since Yamato went through the trouble to add such a cool gimmick as the pullout heat shield, they would go even further to make it look good. I'm thinking about repainting the non-skull heat shields in flat colors and, maybe, cutting the groove into them to stand out better. Has anyone done this?

Does Toy-Wave bill you at the time you place your order on pre-orders?

Does Toynami sell parts? I just broke the toe part on the blue alpha -- that plastic piece that connects the toe to the rest of the foot. Doesn't make sense that the toe is metal, but the piece that actually does the bending is plastic.

Yeah, like wolfx said, you normally get all the parts to make one of the three modes. You just interchange parts to change it from one mode to another. They look best in Gerwalk and especially Fighter mode. The Battroid modes look funny with the short head lasers.

Yeah, the new look of the inside of the stores is what pretty much finally got me fed up with going there, too. It doesn't help that I think most US toys and figures just aren't very cool. Aside from some Transformers and Gundams and the occasional Lego Star Wars vehicle, I don't really care for what the US toy market has to offer. It's too bad TRU couldn't import stuff and sell it in their stores. That would be a HUGE draw for me.

I liked watching Warren's art develop at first. I think his art peaked with Plague of Angels, then it went downhill from there. He started drawing his characters more simplified and with too many exaggerated anime expressions and features. His art is pretty appalling to look at now. I wouldn't mind seeing a live-action movie if done right.