drifand

Excellent effort! I think the only quibble might be that the head seems to sit a little too high... Man, I do wish Dragon would release the rest of the Protect Gear variants!!!

Bandai has re-released the SOC Dan in muted, 'realistic colors'... but I don't know if there's any improvements to the bad neck. :-/

Very true. As I can't afford anymore space in my smallish apartment, I could only spec 12" deep shelves... I wanted 18" at least but the interior designer desuaded me. I just make do with what I have, now. Check out my link below... :-) nice dispalys man....must've cost you a small fortune for those. me, i spent a whopping $250 for my shelves seen here(the pics are old).... CLICK ME though my love for SW lego got the good shelves. i had my macross stuff there for a while but it loked out of place surrounded by lego. Not too shabby yourself! I can tell you're having fun from the effort gone into arranging your pieces. :-) Ya, that's something I believe strongly about. Yamato IS improving and I'm still in the market for well designed, well made Macross toys, but NO, no 1/48s for me, ever. :-P

Very true. As I can't afford anymore space in my smallish apartment, I could only spec 12" deep shelves... I wanted 18" at least but the interior designer desuaded me. I just make do with what I have, now. Check out my link below... :-)

OMG! They look like 'screw head' rejects from the original Alita manga!

You're talking about the 'neck joint' piece that slots into the torso? That's the biggest problem with the toy - Bandai made it too loose. Nothing much you can do except to: A. Apply some Blu-tac to make it stick better; or B. Not use the neck joint, just fit the eagle head onto the torso and sacrifice the neck poseability.

Apharmd = Guile from Street Fighter... camo slacks, flat-top etc.

I used to love VO designs - very sleek and cyber-futuristic. Then Katoki kept piling on the kibble. Now I can't make out what the latest Temjin looks like unless I step back 2 meters from my monitor.

Ya, that's what I did :-) I could live with the whole lot being lefties, but to arm them with such an unimpressive 'hairdryer' was unforgivable! Why not go thru the FIX figures? I'm sure they each have several spare rifles etc... I liked the FIX GP01's rifle because of the swiveling handle. I can use the left hand to grasp it and fake a 'right-handed' pose. So Graham, what's your fav? The olive, tan or winter scheme?

Hi Amped, Over on TBDX, there was some discussion about Kow's exact involvement in the Zoids 24 series too. But since nobody there is a real Zoids expert, we don't know for sure either. I did buy the hardcover Maschingen Krieger Encyclopedia last year, and in the back section there's a small article about the Zoids 24 series featuring a very cool grunged-up Gorem in Kow's SF3D style. It had a bubble canopy instead of the grilled eye, plus powered-suit style hip armor flaps on the hind legs. I can't read Japanese very well, but it does seem to mention that Kow was involved in concept design, packaging and production. As for the package painting, those were by the great Yoshiyuki Takani, who also did numerous illustrations for Macross, Gundam and many others.

Weapons added! Plus a small but neat mod... mostly made from various kitbashed Zoids Customize Parts sets. Here it is, decked out with a CP07 Cannon Unit on its back, and a jerry rigged radar dish from CP13 Field Weasel Unit. The attachment points for the cannon are the two 'handles' meant for the pilot figure to grasp when standing on the rear platform. The width is just nice, but the handles are a bit too thin for a good grip... thicken with putty/tape/etc for a better fit. Close-up of the cannon in forward firing position. Since there isn't any space for traditional ammo rounds, I figure this piece has to be a direct-fire beam weapon. Pilot can observe his hits directly thru the top hatch. Radar dish has been brutally sanded to remove 3 coarse mold-ejection marks. Back view, with cannon and radar in stowed position. Without any other 'handles', the pilot figure won't be able to stand on the rear platform anymore... no big loss. Other changes are under the hood. Notice the gadget below the 'grill' under the eye? That's a folding armature made from bits and pieces from other Zoids CP sets. I even cut out a rounded groove on the top of the chestplate to accommodate the extending cylinder. A closer look with the chestplate removed. Easy to understand, yes? The double linkage is very firm and when folded out acts as a prop to hold the chestplate open for 'maintenance access'. The white rod is from a piece of Tamiya Plastic Beam (3mm). Here it is, with the chestplate back in place and held open by the armature underneath. Neat! Finally, I added some detail to the exposed battery cover by gluing two spare 'piston arms' from another CP set to the sides of the cover. Not very noticeable, but I like to know it's there instead of the giant 'PUSH' instruction printed there. That's all the mods I think I want to do for this baby. Now starting putty work!

Well, I paid about US$55 for mine from a local dealer in Singapore. Japanese online dealer Amenbo lists it for 4500 yen (MSRP is 5000 yen) before shipping. Next time I hit town I'll also be looking for some Zoids optional weapons packs... Gorem deserves a lot more than just ONE gatling gun and some smoke dischargers! :-)

Actually, the only thing that's 'glowing' is the LED eye! :-) The Gorem was one Zoid that I really struggled over whether to buy back when it first came out. I had gone thru a 'Zoids phase' when I was younger and managed to collect quite a few like Red Horn and Gordos. Then as I got older, battery-op toys became boring and fell out of favor. When the original Zoids 24 series came out, I was intrigued once again by the different styling and cool designs. But since I didn't have much spending money, I had to pass. Now that the reissues are here, I'm really glad to finally have one. I'm still debating whether to get the Deathspion as well... I like the Gorem best because its gorilla design still resembled a humanoid robotic form. After the shots were taken, I took the Gorem apart and started to sand and prep the parts for painting. It's now in pieces all over my desk!

I picked up the WAVE/TOMY reissue of the Gorem last weekend and finally found time to put it together. Originally sold as 1/24 scale, the reissue is marked as 1/20 scale because it better reflects the size of the pilot figure. The fitting of the parts is excellent, with only the seam on the curvy cockpit halves being a bit more evident. The Gorem is about 22cm tall to the 1/20 Kaiyodo Powered Suit's 10cm. Too bad there aren't a whole lot of 1/20 scale toys out there, unless you want to get more of the Zoids 24 reissues. :-) The level of detailing on the Gorem is really good. The cockpit has a nicely molded seat, headrest and control panels. The figure fits inside easily and there's even a slot to hold his submachine gun. This is almost on par with the 1/24 Votoms, except of course, this is more of a toy than a model. The toy-ness is evident when you put in a C-size battery and turn the switch on. The 'eye' lights up and the gatling gun starts up, impelled via an ingenious flexible rotating spring cord. The walking motion is smooth but I find that the legs don't grip tiled floors very well. The gatling gun can also be positioned on top of the back engine block for purely AA action. The large red LED also lights up the cockpit instrument panel. The red glow is very evident thru the white plastic shell. I plan to paint the inside walls opaque. Lastly, what fun is a battery-op toy? Especially to more 'adult' collectors? Well, for the Gorem, its great design was the first draw for me. I didn't realize until quite recently that the Gorem and several other 1/24 Zoids were designed by Kow Yokoyama of SF3D fame. If you tweak the positions of the gears just right, it can balance on 3 limbs, leaving one free for some improvised static poses... I LIKE! Now I've got to get some paint for this beauty. :-)

Only in one case has the English dub of an anime series been of real value: GASARAKI. Just TRY watching it in Japanese with 3 double-lines of subtitles in 3 colors running across the screen! 2 are for the political goobledygook being spouted by the main characters, 1 for the unnecessary translation of bakground radio/TV chatter (also about politics). For those super-dense dialogue episodes, I gave up trying to read quick enough and just switched over to the passable English dub track. :-P

Excellent review here, with links to gallery of SOC Eva in various poses. :-)

Generally, I tend to avoid beautifully sculpted PVC "toys" by Kaiyodo, and most other PVC-material toys as well, including Gundam MSiAs and FIX. 1. Kaiyodo VIRTUAL-ON VR-Temjin - Crippled after just 2 weeks by spontaneously snapping 4 'mono-shaft joints', including the thickest one in the torso. Still pissed over this. 2. DX Nu-Gundam - stupidest neck-joint design EVAH. Can't stand properly with its funnels on. 3. Bandai's 'Soul of Popynica' Yamato. Too model kit-like, with hard-to-attach spindly PVC antennae and fins that tend to warp and drop off. No HEFT. Cheap China-made electronic lights and sound SHORTED out after 1 week. Souless Turd. You want Soul, go check out Aoshima's Arcadia! 4. Omega Boost & Beta Boost figures by Blue Box Toys. Even Kawamori has bad days. Horribly produced toys from below average gaming mech designs. The gun accessory looked cooler than the 'bots. 5. Kotobukiya's FRONT MISSION 3 "I.N. Corps Specific Wanzer" - Four legs good? Nope. Hardly poseable and dead boring. Worst one in an otherwise superb toy line-up.

As nice as it looks, this toy is not for me. I believe a modern-day realistic transforming robot design deserves realistic full-transformation treatment. Swapping parts because of proportion problems just means one thing: the designer didn't really think it all the way through. That Kawamori has had 20 years of experience with this type of mecha and still can't perfect it even with CAD... sigh. Maybe a larger full TF toy would be more appealing to everyone.

Here's a pic from when I still had my XXL Voltron displayed... It dwarfs even the mighty DX T-28 and vinyl Red Baron. I've since rotated it off-shelf to create more space for incoming SOCs and other gokins. One thing to beware of: This is one HEAVY sucker! One time when I lifted the toy by the main body, one of the 'foot' lions came off by itself and landed on my toe. YOW!!!

Just a brief update: A friend has said that he saw an SOC Eva-04 on display which had off-grey colored hands instead of the purple ones I got with mine. The color was grey with a slight hint of green - and doesn't match the box photos either. Factory error? Inconsistency? Does anyone own the Kaiyodo Eva-04? What color were its hands?

Thanks GD! Nah... no painting or retouching of parts yet. I think it was because I took the shots under warm flourescent lighting; while removing the yellow cast I accidentally bleached some of the original hues out of the toy. :-)

Just got hold of the latest SOC Evas from my usual toy dealer in Singapore. Can you say "Gorgeous"? Twice? :-) Weapons and gimmicks-wise, there isn't anything really new. But with these two, it's ALL about the beautiful finshing! Check out my Toybox DX Rumble... Diecast Forever!!!

Congrats! You're not just buying a piece of Macross history, you're getting some of the most beautifully designed and illustrated toy boxes ever. Even after 25 years, those pictures and text fire the imagination and evoke memorable scenes from the show like no other. The closest thing today are the gorgeous box art for Hasegawa's kits...

Every now and then, Bandai reissues golden oldie kits from the 80's, seemingly at random. Most recently, I've seen minty fresh kits of SPT Layzner gracing the shelves in stores. Sometimes, these old kits are reissued just prior to new versions like the recent HG Dunbines and L-Gaims and MG Patlabors. Super old 1/60 Gundam MSV kits recently went on clearance too.

I'm with you 100% on that. :-)