Shaorin

it CAN'T HELP but be "off-model" from the line-art. as stated before, the line-art CLEARLY DOES NOT take into account that the BATTROID it depicts actually TRANSFORMS into a sleek fighter aircraft. if anything, the line-art is off-model, -WAY OFF MODEL- from what it should be depicting the VF-1 BATTROID to look like. as stated before, there is too much stylization overall. too much that suggests that the BATTROID depicted there cannot and does not transform in any way without prodigious quantities of Anime Magic in it's service. jeez, guys, just take a serious look at this original BATTROID art and tell me that it could transform into a fighter jet; well? it cant, can it? OF COURSE NOT!! everything's WAY THE H&%L OFF MODEL of what would be required to make it do so. the art is fine for selling one on the basic design concept, but that is all it's good for. the 1/60v.II is a three-dimensional representation of EXACTLY what any serious engineering team would produce as a finished product from the concepts illustrated in that art up above. thus, i assert that the original line-art should NOT be held as the ideal final model to judge all others by, as it is nothing more than mere loose conceptual art, meant to convey the general overall thrust of the design concept presented by the original designer...

Actually, it IS in the right spot. for the reasons illustrated in my posts above. plus a $2000.00USD per copy list price!! BONUS!!

count me out. as the punk with the boombox said to Ishtar in the MANGA VIDEO english dub of MACROSS II; "Too Messed Up!!"

but it's NOT a "Flaw" it's an integral aspect of the realistic model's design, which allows the tight tolerances of the 1/60v.II's carefully balanced proportions to actually work. i'm no engineer, but i understand, just from a glance, that the proportions of the 1/60v.II have been carefully designed to appear as balanced as possible in all three modes of it's transformation. you cannot have a BATTROID head that doesn't "Float" without sacrificing the balance of the BATTROID torso provided by the telescoping cockpit/nose fuselage module. a balance that also provides the tighter seating of the blast shield over the cockpit canopy in BATTROID mode. finally, the head of the 1/60v.II does not really actually "Float" at all when you look at it from the proper perspective. many VF-1 fans complain about it as an "Aberration" but i feel that they simply are just not used to, and perhaps incapable of getting used to, a VF-1 scale replica with physical balance tolerances as tight as the 1/60v.II. probably, i think, because such a thing HAS NEVER EXISTED before in the 30-year history of the VF-1 "Valkyrie" design...

and that's a GOOD THING. believe me. the original VF-1 BATTROID line-art is stylized. STYLIZED. it DOES NOT, by it's very STYLIZED nature, take into account that the humanoid robot it portrays actually transforms into an aircraft. INTEGRAL components of a high-performance aircraft that happens to transform onto a humanoid robot cannot radically change their physical shape in order to "look cooler" in the robot form. a taileron is a taileron, as a wing is a wing. just as the aircraft's engine nacelles CANNOT magically fatten themselves up to make the robot-mode's legs that they form look more "Buff" i really do not understand the religious dedication among fans to the original VF-1 kawamori BATTROID line-art, when so much "Anime Magic" was so obviously employed in the line-art's overall physical proportions. as a long time VF-1 fan with a discerning eye, i feel that the 1/60v.II VF-1 is perfect in most every way, and i cannot begin to imagine how YAMATO or any other firm could possibly realize the ideal balanced design of a fully transforming realistic precision scale replica of the VF-1 "Valkyrie" any more precisely than YAMATO has with their 1/60 VF-1v.II...

for me, the 1/60v.II COMPLETELY outclasses the 1/48, and i have lived with a 1/48 since their debut in 2001/02. in 2008, i picked up my first 1/60v.II after holding off due to some skepticism in comparison to the 1/48, but after getting my first hands-on with the 1/60v.II, i immediately re-boxed my long-cherished 1/48, and never looked back. yes, for me, the improvements are THAT dramatic. the 1/60v.II is EVERYTHING i imagined my perfect VF-1 fine scale replica to look and feel like fifteen years ago!! for me, everything about it is so precisely balanced, and remains so in all modes, to boot! something i once thought impossible!! if anyone would like to buy or trade something for a well-used but fully functional/complete VF-1S Focker 1/48 with applied decals and a broken (and missing)single laser barrel (three remain intact) don't hesitate to give me a bell!!

F&%$k'in A!!!! and i thought it was BIG as it was!! it's even bigger than the masterpiece PRIME!!

the YAMATO 1/24 33cm./13in. INGRAM is PRICEY, to be quite sure, but O.M.G. is it EVER A HIGH WATER MARK in Mecha toy design!! here's a reminder of the INCREDIBLE engineering and loving care that went into this fine scale precision model; http://www.collectiondx.com/news_item/71408/yamato039s_124_ingram imagine! once, not so long ago, this level of fine detail and scale functionality was strictly limited to "FRANKLIN MINT" made fine scale models of classic vintage cars and trains and such, and i recall that those usually sold for somewhere near what the INGRAM lists, and sometimes more! NO ONE would have EVER entertained the notion of a precision scale model of a "Silly Toy Robot" back then, no matter how realistic and believable it's design!! what a great time today actually is to be a Mecha fan!! i wholeheartedly feel that anyone that has any chance at all of being able to foot the bill for this beauty should not hesitate to do so! to me, it looks worth every penny and then some!!

i'm pretty happy with what YAMATO has done since, myself. about the only things i'd like to see from them that hasn't already seen release are 1/60 renditions of the VF-2S and VF-2JA "Icarus" from MACROSS II; honestly, though, i've plenty of catching up to do, with or without these MAC II mecha. with both the 1/60v.II and the 1986 BANDAI HCM of my favorite VF-1 variant (Ichijo VF-1J T.V.) forming the base of my Valk collection, i've the YF-19, VF-11C, and perhaps the YF-21 and VF-0S as well to acquire to complete my planned collection. i think any possible YAMATO MAC II Valks would have to take a back seat to those for me...

damn it all!! i NEED to get myself that Yammie INGRAM ALPHONSE sometime this year!!

i THOUGHT King Aryglyph's VA sounded rather familiar the last time i went through SOIII six months or so ago...

getting to see MACROSS; DYRL for the very first time via the late-90's BEST VIDEO VHS release of the infamous TOHO dub. granted, it could've been worse, it could have been the heavily edited late-80's FHE "CLASH OF THE BIONOIDS" but still, the HIDEOUSLY HACKNEYED TOHO dialogue is truly is a masochistically amusing nightmare. who could forget unforgettable lines such as; ZENTRAN SOLDIER 1&2; "A MAN AND A WOMAN?-WHAT'S THAT?-A MAN AND A WOMAN!! IT MUST BE PRO-TO-CUL-TURE!!" HIKARU; "They're Floating, Just like us!!" HIKARU&ROY; ROY; "Heyy, Hikaruu!! HIKARU; A MAN!! ROY; You can Still Fight wen yer Drunk!!" HIKARU&MISA; MISA; "...You must Do this immediately!! HIKARU; Who is this? i saved you Before,remember? i am Not listening to a Woman!! GO!!" god, at least i finally happened across a region-free HK bootleg with an accurate english sub to replace that monstrosity with!! finally i could actually ENJOY DYRL's script!!

"ON-X" (Onyx) i believe it was called. the thing had a series of square LEDs for a Mane that lit up in sequence every time it talked, and i recall a scene in which it's speech was glitching out, and Rainbow Brite "fixed" it by PRESSING IN one of those lights that was, for whatever reason, sticking up higher then the rest...

long since captured, for me. also, i actually had a somewhat similar entrance to Anime as you, with a couple years seniority. for me, it was MACROSS via the double-episode 1990s FHE ROBOTECH VHS/LD release, starting around 1994/1995. from those, it was MACROSS proper via the MANGA VIDEO releases of MACROSS II and MACROSS PLUS. i still have all those VHS, as well as some of their LD duplicates, added in recent years...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_Brite_and_the_Star_Stealer (Yeah, i'm pretty certain i'm gonna get my ass kicked seven ways to Sunday for this, but...) anyone here remember the 1985 theatrical Movie "Rainbow Brite and the Star Stealer" fondly? though i had not seen it during it's theatrical run (i was like, Four at the time, and hyperactive to boot...) my mother had taped it for me off HBO in the late eighties, and i recall liking the movie from the first time i seen the tape. i still have that VHS, a high-quality high-grade TDK from the mid-eighties, solid as a rock. it was my only copy of this movie for twenty years, until i found it's DVD release. after seeing it again, in high resolution for the first time, actually, it dawned on me that this movie had to have been one of my first experiences with Japanese animation. sure, Rainbow Brite itself is certainly not japanese in origin, but this movie certainly is, and everything about the actual animation, to me anyway, feels very much like 1980's Anime. pacing, visual style, you name it. anyway, since this movie is, to the best of my memory, the first Anime-like program i had ever seen, i tend to affectionately regard it as the seed that planted the basis of the serious Anime fandom of my teenage years to the present day. so, is there, by any chance, any 1980's "Neo-Maxie-Zoom-Dweebies" out there besides me that might feel the same? oh, and something of a hint at what this movie might have been like had it been made exclusively for the Japanese market?

ah, thanks. that's pretty cute, but i think i prefer that one i found more...

was it this? if so, then i'm afraid i have to agree with them; ♥Kawaii♥

i'll try to dig her out for you soon. i assure you, i did her very Kawaii...

i did a fairly decent Valk Girl illustration of Ayeka Masaki from the Anime OVA series "TENCHI MUYO!" quite a few years ago, ink and colored pencil on heavy illustration board. i'll have to dig it up and post it one of these days...

i haven't seen the manga, so i wouldn't know. my sister, however, has actually read some of it, and she says she feels the Anime storyline is better... diff'ernt strokes for diff'ernt folks, i guess. i just think it's a good show overall, myself...

oh for cripes' sake, guys! can't you take a joke? i'm just picking on myself, for crying out loud!! who is that, if i might ask?

"ELEMENTAL GELADE" with my 17 year-old imouto. about 3/4 of the way through my complete collection set, one of PIONEER LDC/GENEON's last products before throwing in their cards. R.I.P. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elemental_Gelade

indeed. it'd be great to see a faithful Anime adaption...