Shaorin

i second this motion!

ehhh, you think too much, pal. there is a reason why MACROSS' genre is referred to as Science FICTION...

actually, it's not THAT delicate; you just got to treat it with reverence and respect. it's no 1/55 CHUNKY, but it IS remarkably sturdy in all the ways it needs to be. it's definitely no IMAI/BANDAI 1/72 Plastic Model Kit. in fact, i've found to be just as sturdy as the 1/60v.II. both stand up like the proverbial trooper, transformation after transformation... well, i knew with certainty, going in, that it was to be, and is to remain, a permanent fixture of my collection, as it is a unique classic, with personal sentimental value. an HEIRLOOM, as one might accurately refer to it, so future resale value was and is a non-issue for me. further, i had faith in my skills to finish it to the level i felt it deserved, and i prepared myself in advance for that, going into work on it with the best modeling supplies i could buy, and the thought constantly on my mind that the model i was working with is just this side of irreplaceable. that enabled me to call forth the best of my skills, taking my time, slow and easy, to be sure that i made no serious, irreparable mistakes. now, if you thought that was frightening, bear into mind that i have also DISMANTLED and RE-ASSEMBLED the ENTIRE model, in order to tighten up all the joints with tiny swatches of electrician's tape around all the joint shafts, including the wing joints, and touching all the screw holes with LOCTITE super glue to make sure all the screws stay nice and tight for years/decades to come. at any rate, my work here has without question MOST effectively tightened the model up like the proverbial drum. it now feels like a PRECISION MECHANISM. a ROCK, pure and simple...

out of a current personal lack of MACROSS related topics to come to my mind to discuss, i thought i'd put together a THEN and NOW thread for the work i've done on my vintage BANDAI HCM VF-1J Hikaru T.V. to bring it up to a par, detail wise, with my Yammie 1/60v.II of the same VF variant. here goes; my HCM, late last year, still in the hands of it's last owner; my HCM, just received that morning. first thing i did after unpacking was to take these shots; at the outset, i was planning to apply the original decals and otherwise keep it as it was straight from the box; but then i started feeling disatisfied with it's "Finished" look, especially in regards to the decals, which lacked detail and clarity. even worse, the printing on some of the decals' film was actually beginning to rub away without much provocation. that was the last straw, so i decided to break out my moddeling skills and go whole-hog in an effort to detail the HCM with a brand-new set of TAMIYA COLORs that i bought just for the purpose, and replace most of the original decals with a mixture of leftovers from my 1/60v.II, and leftovers from the many HIGH GRADE and MASTER GRADE GUNDAM kits i've built in the past, as well as one or two from a couple of TOMY ZOIDS. my ultimate goal here was to bring it's level of painted detail to par with the 1/60v.II, while replacing it's decals with substitutes as close to equivalent as i could manage, while also going a little off of Canon with some GUNDAM-sourced decals that were nondescript yet flagrant enough to pass for the "Typically 1980's Style" Service and Maintenance stenciling decals found on many a realistic 1980's Japanese Mecha toy or model. at any rate, i feel that i've met my goals here as well as i could ever hope to; i also fully painted the included tiny DYRL Lynn Minmay, though i'd definitely say that i pretty much roundly failed in bringing out the "best" in her rather horrendous sculpt; THANK GOD i have the CM's "GUTTO KURU" version!! at any rate, it is regretful that i did not plan this detail job BEFORE i placed the original decals, otherwise i could have preserved the original decal sheets. hindsight 20/20, as usual. still, i'm happy with what i got here; i even replaced the horrible HCM "Pilot figure" with the far superior, canonically accurate sculpt found in the old IMAI/BANDAI 1/72 VARIABLE TYPE kits. all in all, for me, this HCM and the 1/60v.II represent the very best MACROSS had and has to offer, from 25 years ago, as well as from today...

Closer and Closer?!? i figure they have pretty much hit the nail squarely on the head with this new 19 series design template that the 19kai has established. much like the 1/60v.II VF-1, i just can't see where there is room for any more major improvement... uh-oh, looks like a PARTS-FORMER, at least as far as the Cape is concerned, anyway...

the commercial's overall style is kind of cool in that unique, 1980's way, too bad the toys it's attempting to sell suck so much A$$. all that exquisite 1980's build quality, wasted on such silly design work...

'kay, you done inspired me! i dug out one of my old IMAI/BANDAI 1/72s, and carefully kitbashed it's existing back pack module Radome to fit into the HCM's empty slot; i had to make sure it fit VERY shallow to the back pack's top surface, all but totally flush, so that it wouldn't interfere with the close proximity (pretty much hugging one another) of the top surface of the back pack module and the stowed arm units in FIGHTER mode. i managed to get it perfect; it looks and works great!!

Ditto.

i seriously doubt that modern TOYNAMI MASTERPIECE versions of any of the SOUTHERN CROSS mecha would manage to sell even a fraction of what the MASTERPIECE VF-1s did. that said; i have a scad of the mid-1990's EXO-SQUAD ROBOTECH reissues in storage, from back in then in the dark ages, when i was a budding MACROSS fan that was gratefully taking what little i could get. i have pretty much all the large vehicles, ZENT. battle pod, GLAUG officer's pod, INVID shock trooper, and the SPARTAS/HOVER TANK. i got them all for close out prices at the local TOYS-R-US back then, they obviously didn't exactly fly off the shelves. i got a wee bit creative one day long ago, and decided to attempt to modify that SPARTAS so it could assume TRANSPORT mode. while i was only partially successful, i could clearly see that it wouldn't have taken much more effort on MATCHBOX's engineer's part to make the toy FULLY transformable. it was very much possible back then, i think that MATCHBOX simply wanted the toy at a VERY SPECIFIC manufacturing price point per unit, and properly engineering the toy would have pushed it over the edge. this is all speculation, of course; i just feel that this is likely the most logical and likely dead-on explanation for why the old SPARTAS toy was designed the way that it was. at any rate, those days are long behind me, thank god, and even though HG wont let fans like me have proper modern U.S. localizations of any of MACROSS' preponderance of video media, at least there's nothing that that Peanut Gallery can do about me amassing a collection of MACROSS toys of a caliber i could barely even dream of back in those dry years!!

it's not a transparent pigment. it's TAMIYA COLOR X-7 RED, same as all the other red-toned details i've applied to the model. i ruined the Radome insert piece prying it out of the cavity to gain access to the screw so i could dismantle the back pack module so i could tighten up the tail fin joints. after i finished up, i painted the entire cavity red in order to reflect the color scheme established with the 1/60v.II; perhaps i could figure out a way to scratchbuild a new Radome insert one of these days, but for now, this is how the HCM remains;

ummm, RIGHT ABOUT NOW. where's my YF-19? i'm even beginning to consider the inevitable VF-19S, despite the awful stubby wings!!

is it going to see a DVD release as well?

i'm currently about halfway through GEORGE ORWELL's "1984" my first time reading it, and it sure does smack me pretty damned hard of HG in general, and how they run their RT.COM and all...

INDEED. any way one tries to slice it, it was Kawamori-san, pretty much by himself, using his professional-grade aerospace engineering skills, that drafted up one of the most remarkably realistic, believable variable Mecha designs, a timelessly enduring piece of mechanical engineering that has yet to be matched, nearly 30 full years on. hell, it has taken every one of those thirty years worth of technological advancement for toy and model engineers to be able to render three-dimensional replicas of Kawamori's amazing design that actually accurately follow and pay justice to his original, three-decade old design drafts. now if that isn't engineering way ahead of it's time, i do not have the slightest clue what is...

i realize i'm beginning to get rather redundant with this, but; my 1/72 HCM VF-1J, with a new set of more realistic decals in place of the originals, as well as some paint detailing; i've really come, in the six-odd months since i first bought it, to appreciate the HCM for it's unique, fantastic look and feel, flaws and all. it has come to the point where the HCM has become as indispensable to me as my 1/60v.II of the same VF-1 variant. as vastly superior as the YAMATO 1/60 is, in pretty much every way conceivable, the HCM, for me, anyway, possesses a fantastic, retro-sentimental feel that invokes serious feelings of deja-vu in me, as if i had owned one as a child, despite the fact that i can assure you that the closest thing i actualy had to it in my youth was a copy of the REVELL ROBOTECH repackage of the IMAI 1/72 VF-1S Variable Type. i guess the fact that my memories if that model are so fleeting, and the HCM is so similar to it, in all the ways that my memory happens to recall, that for all intents and purposes i might as well have been one of the three HCMs that was in my childish, destructive hands for so short a time all those years ago. in sum, i'm most glad and thankful to have the tiny collection i have here so far. it's everything i had wanted so very badly ten years ago, when all of the most desirable VF-1 items out there commanded sums well above what i could have ever hoped to afford then. with the core of my MACROSS passion well taken care of, it is time for me to focus on my other MACROSS interests. sometime this year i'm hoping to be able to pick up either the YF-19 or VF-11C that i want so badly. hell, even the new VF-19kai is starting to look attractive to me, although i do not believe i'd be able to justify it's price tag unless i could find it down the line at some fantastic bargain price. at any rate, we'll see. i'm having a difficult time at present getting the funds together to afford any of these other VFs i want so badly, but i'm not about to give up on them!!

all i know is that MASAHARU KAWAMORI (pen name of "Shoji" Kawamori is the man 100% responsible for the VF-1 series, which i personally consider to be THE greatest Mecha design ever drafted, variable form or otherwise. i am quite sure that there are many more out there that feel at least nearly as strongly about that as i do, and, even if the facts of his ACTUAL involvement in SDF MAC./DYRL are actually overblown and abused, it is nonetheless most accurate in respect to the fact that, in actuality, Kawamori's VF-1 is, for all true intents and purposes, MACROSS itself. let's face it people; SDF MACROSS was and is a terrific series, and was an actual phenomenon in Japan for a brief period, and there was singular, unique aspect of the series that was (and pretty much still is) almost entirely (if not entirely)responsible for MACROSS' rabid popularity back then, as well as it's enduring popularity thirty years on. that unique aspect happens to be none other than Kawamori-san's original brainchild, the VF-1 "Valkyrie" Variable Fighter. let's be honest; viewed in that context, Kawamori-san truly WAS the creator of MACROSS. his design singlehandedly made the series take off like the proverbial supersonic jet. without his indispensable real-world engineering fueled influence, "BATTLE CITY MEGAROAD"/"MACBETH" (as SDF MACROSS was billed during it's early development stages) would have very likely never made it off the drawing board, and if it actually had, would have been likely to have been buried to death and quickly forgotten amongst the torrential flood of "Real Mecha" series being poured forth into the Anime industry at the time, M.S. GUNDAM leading the charge as it always traditionally has. bearing all of this in mind, anyone should be able to see why Kawamori-san is generally regarded by fans as the "Father of MACROSS" as great as the combined staff of SDF MAC. was, it was Kawamori and his design concepts that singlehandedly gave the MACROSS project it's "Killer App" which was an ABSOLUTELY CRITICAL element needed to enable the series to stand out, and make the unique and undeniable mark in the industry and in the audiences' minds that it has. any way that you slice it, this is THE absolutely invaluable linchpin element in any successful Movie and/or T.V. series production, and MACROSS was/is no different...

indeed. since HG made quadruply certain that the entire extended MACROSS series didn't get it's fair shake back in the "Great U.S. Anime Boom" days, and today, a decade later, with that once amazing Renaissance Age a distant memory, since the U.S. Anime industry at large has all but stalled itself straight down into Davy Jones' locker, it is now pretty much a certainty that the MACROSS series will never get a proper U.S. Videodisc release. face it people, it's coming all back to the early days of U.S. Anime fandom, except that we now stream material off the net rather than purchasing fansubbed Nth-Gen VHS and BETAMAX dupes at our respective local conventions. it's a very different world out there now, and some of us, like myself, seem to have a spectacularly difficult time adjusting away from the outmoded, traditional mentality regarding physical Audio/Video entertainment media. The Future, as the old tired line goes, Is most certainly Now. now where's Doc Brown's DeLorean when one really needs it?

perhaps i'm just not right at all in the head today, but these days i think i'd sooner be compelled to vouch for MACROSS by way of Lucky*Star (SHUDDER!!) then suffer any more of the raw sewage HG continuously attempts force-feed MACROSS fans outside Japan. seriously guys, let that outdated, broken-assed U.S. Anime marketing model of the 1980's REST IN PEACE ALREADY, for crissakes!! it's 2011, for Effin' out loud!! (somebody wanna be a pal here, and take the DeLorean back to, i dunno, say about 1995 perhaps, and go BLOW HG's CORP. HQ CLEAN OFF THE MAP?!? - pretty please? -)

indeed, a remake of SDF MACROSS, heavily modeled off MACROSS; THE FIRST, with the best of today's production values, would be a most smashing idea, IMO...

i think i put that wrong; i meant the total Mindf*&k that the story continuously pulls on you, especially in in respect of the presence of it's "direct sequel" MGS4. oh god... perhaps it's just that i've never been much of a fan of Time Travel stories; FAR too difficult to logically quantify, IMO. in not so serious fare, such as the BACK TO THE FUTURE series, the concept seems to work fairly well. however, in actual hard SF, such as STAR TREK and the like, Time Travel, as a concept, must be handled VERY carefully in order to make any sort of sense at all, and even then, some major elements just don't seem to gel, at least to my mind. now, factor all that, with the fact that Asahina-chan, whom i happened to take an instant attachment to, half a decade ago, before i learned barely anything at all in regards to the SUZUMIYA series, in fact, happens to be tightly caught up in an especially convoluted variation of this sort of fictional scenario, and you just might begin to grasp why i seem to have the proverbial ants in my pants in regards to the series' canon. i mean, i've streamed the first few eps of the first SUZUMIYA series, and rather enjoyed what i watched. indeed, it has even compelled me to consider purchasing the two existing seasons of the Anime on DVD. HOWEVER, from what i've grasped of the later story elements of the series, through research from threads like this, as well as WIKIs and the like, i'm beginning to form the opinion that i'd be doing myself a profound service by continuing to hold Asahina-chan in a personal vacuum, safely separated in my mind from the Suzumiya Canon and it's multitude of manifest complications. indeed, it's FAR too late for me to simply drop Asahina-chan as my no.1 favorite Anime chara to date, deny the profound attachment i have to her, and seek out safer waters. i just wish that she was attached to a more mundane, realistic character drama, rather than the convoluted, quasi-sci-fi trainwreck that i tend to feel the SUZUMIYA series to be. and here, after leaving "TENCHI-MUYO!" and my old puppy-love for Ayeka Masaki Jurai behind, ten years past, i thought i was for once, finally all the wiser of getting myself entangled in character attachment in a series that i happen to take great exception to, story wise. look's like i've done f*&ked myself real good once again. too bad i cant just get myself all attached to Minmay or something. Good God. i mean, SDF MACROSS was ONLY my literal Gateway Anime, so very long ago...

this whole thread reads rather like some bizarre amalgamation of Shakespeare and Dick and Jane. keep it coming!!

OH MY GOD. is this series getting convoluted as all hell or what? it's beginning to remind me of "METAL GEAR SOLID; SONS OF LIBERTY" oh, what a headache...

kind of simplistic and cartoony, by today's comparatively realistic, detailed standards, but one can nonetheless clearly see the early foundations of today's current form of the Lolicon genre developing here; Hideo Azuma works; (that's a great picture there, IMHO) (and so is that!! i've always LOVED that style of schoolgirl uniform!!) then there was the more popular and generally well known loli series of the eighties, such as "Minky Momo" and "Creamy Mami" Minky Momo; Creamy Mami;

As I hereby nominate myself to be sent to Japan alongside you, to help nurse ♥Mikuru-chan♥ into being by my side forevers and evers... ♥

what's wrong with the TOYNAMI's LION modes? looks pretty sharp on the whole to me, pretty much an ideal blend of classic legacy look and feel, with modern articulation...