Hiriyu

"Scuupuda!"

"Hey! Get off of MY.... Er!....Uh...."

I think that you could probably use the word "entry" or "re-entry" as a synonym for "dive" in that context.

Beta: "I'm the man" Alpha: "You da man!"

I'm itching for the Beagle too. Nonetheless, Yaco's Gakken still looks mighty fine.

It's art, I tell you.

Dang. Just, dang.

The trick to getting the MPC's arms to fully collapse and close is this: Fold in the hands last. Collapse the forearm completely, so that the locating tabs at the top of the forearm engage into their corresponding slots in the shoulders. The forearms should then fit pretty tightly to the shoulder. Once the forearm is secured then (and only then) should you attempt to flip the hands into their storage bays. You have to get the fingers positioned just so, so that they will permit the arm covers to close fully. If you don't have the hands folded correctly, you won't be able to get the arm covers closed. All discussion of shoddy materials aside, I think that the leading precursor to broken hands on the MPCs is overstressing caused by the internals of the arms basically crunching the folded hands as in a vice when the arms are collapsed with the hands stored. Ray's advice up top on getting the legs and torso to extend and collapse fully is spot on. When compressing the legs for fighter mode, you'll know they are compressed enough when the locating tab on the bottom of the arm matches it's mating notch on the lower leg. It should be able to snap in without pulling the upper and lower arms apart. HTH.

I just got home, and my Toynami Beta was waiting for me. Pulling it out of the box, a big grin started to spread across my face. I haven't grinned like this while opening a new toy purchase since... SOC Gunbuster? This thing is huge. And chunky. And heavy. And what's more, the weight is in all the right places. I start to move some of the limbs. What's this? Ratcheting clicks, Taka-Bandai-style. This is a Toynami? I check the box again. Yep, it's Toynami. #00457. Shock. I play with it a little more. Everything is solid. All of the movable joints actually operate as they should. The extending portions of the legs extend and retract with a perceptible "thunk". The arm joints are nice and tight. The hands are made of real plastic, have articulation, and don't appear or feel as if they will spontaneously crumble into dust. The head rotates. The missile booms extend, open, close, and rotate smoothly. The articulation in the front "toe" is smooth in operation and has a good range of movement. I set the thing on my desk, and put it in a menacing pose. It actually holds the pose without a wimper. This thing is a bruiser. I've popped the accessories (landing gear, stand, connecting booms, cover piece, and pilot) out of the vacuformed tray, and set about putting the pilot in his seat. Tight fit. The cockpit feature is cool though, and it's neat how the the pilot's seat pivots independently of the pivoting clamshell of the upper and lower fuselage pieces. Still can't get the pilot to seat quite right... Seems his "butt plug" doesn't want to engage the locating hole in the seat. No biggy - a pair of nail clippers removes the plug, and "Rand" slinks into submission in his pilot's chair. I have yet to transform it into Diver mode, try out the landing gear, connecting booms, and display stand. My Blue MPC awaits in the other room. I'll be back. With pictures.

Great song and video, but Carmen Miranda called and she wants her dress back

I've got an extra copy up for grabs if anybody wants it. $40.00 plus shipping. It's an original OUT-8 reissue with the poster.

Cliffhanger? That's not the word I would have chosen The ending is meant to be an illustration that all has been put right within the super-multi-dimensional-general-mishmash of things, by the actions of Kei and Olson. The effects of the Super Dimension bomb have been cancelled out, and all possible worlds have reverted to... well, their own worldly possibilities. Hence the slide show at the end, which shows the [possible] result(s) of the non-existence of the singularity set up by the bomb in the first place. Pretty simple, really

>EXO< is 100% correct. Unless the legs were cast from solid lead, and the rest of the toy from hollow plastic, there will be balance issues. The old school Gakkens are no different in this respect - the lack of balance is a given by design. While the MH and CMs have nice detail, I still stand by the Gakken as the absolute epitome of the Ride Armor design... Though the Beagle is looking like a very strong contender for the title at this point in time.

I am all over the Beagle like white on rice. It will be mine. Oh yes. It will be mine. Thanks for linking these newest pics.

Dude!! The Model Works?! As a twelve and thirteen year old kid living across the street from CalTech in 1985, I used to walk or bike up to The Model Works whenever I had a little money (rare for me in those days), and pore over all of the imported model kits. Occasionally, I could even afford to buy one or two of them - in fact the only two models which I built back then that are still with me today are ARII 1/100 VF-1S Super and Strike valks I got there. I really loved that place. From about '83 on, my friends and I were really into model building, and we started building mecha with the Revell RT model line before there was a show. When RT came on the air, it was so much the better. Then, we started coming across all of these really cool imports with strange names, beautifully gritty artwork, and a deep sense of mystery. How did these fit in with the show? What the hell was a Regult? Who was this Ichijo guy? It didn't matter, because the models were kick-ass. The influence of the Macross model kits got me into other imported lines too - Dorvack and Orguss chief among them. Karl's was terrific in that regard, because as you've mentioned, they had a huge amount of those models for just a few bucks apiece, and for even less when on sale. I frequently entered their model contests and got to have my models displayed in their big glass counter/display. They even had all of the Gakken and Takatoku stuff, which I used to lust after, but could never afford (I spent one entire summer saving up to buy a Ride Armor, but by the time I had the money, I had grown out of my desire for it ) . By mid '86, I was into other things, though some of my friends had educated me on some of the finer points regarding DYRL, and RTs relationship to SDFM. I never did see the movie back then though. Essentially, through the dark ages of Macross, it fell completely off of my radar, though I still had a few trinkets stored away. It wasn't until '02 or so that, completely by chance, I stumbled upon some new-fangled Valkyrie toy on Ebay. Looking up information on it brought me here, where I lurked for a while and read up on the real history and developments in the franchise, and which ultimately lead me down the path to my current valkaholism. In my case, if not for the internet, all I'd have were those early memories (and a lot more cash).

Didn't the original Megaroad launch with an escort of upgraded/updated Nuptiet Vergnitz and other Zent ships (sorry, I can't quite recall the specific name used for the upgraded Vergnitz)? With the capture of the factory satellite, it would seemingly make sense that at least for the early colony missions, modified Zent designs could be used to provide the bulk of escort forces.

Pretty cool random sighting, and a somewhat odd thing to run across

Pardon my intrusion, but isn't the above an exact confirmation of what Togo's been going on about here for the past couple of months?

I salute you, Chronocidal.... Or was it Eugimon?

I'd think that she's actually a goner this time. With Galaxy disposed of, where would her consciousness be stored for the next "download"? An interesting tidbit that I had missed the first time on the low quality stream, and picked up on the HQ raw: there were several other figures in silhouette floating around Grace whilst in the network interface. I think that these must have been the other members of Galaxy Anonymous. I'd bet that their physical bodies were in the other cells surrounding the one that Grace was patched into. I still think that Hikaru wins the award in the end. Hikaru totalled 4 valks during SDFM, and twice got limbs blown off of the valks he didn't manage to outright destroy

Grace? Coming back again? Like Michael? Hahhahhahaa

I owe you a beer, Duke. Though, there was still some unexplained PC imagery right there at the end... I guess I'm hedging too.

Four, actually (Hikaru lost the 1D in the second episode, his first 1J to Breetai while onboard the Nuptiet Vergnitz, his 2nd 1J to Rolli, Konda and Warera during the Miss Macross contest, and his third 1J to Misa's flubbed Daedalus attack while on Earth). Hikaru's still the king. Great ending episode. I had several "Oh Carp!" moments while watching. I didn't mind the lack of a resolution to the love triangle, just because I wasn't really that wrapped up in that particular aspect of the plot. The Vajra being basically in heat actually makes a lot of sense now within the context of what we've been shown. As Duke has been saying, this does seem to limit somewhat the connection to the events of Mayan during Zero... however, there is still a link there that has not really been explained. With regard to Dicky B., it does seem as though he thought that he might get to meet Minmei via the connection of the fold network. Maybe Dicky knows something we don't. Overall, I quite like what this series gave us. On to the movie!

Thanks A7. I saw that information in the link you provided - I was just hoping for more specifics (ie; manufacturer of the race-proven 7.8 and 10.0L engines) Looks like a beast of a car nontheless, resemblance of a late 90s Camaro notwithstanding.

Wow, I didn't even know that Vector was still around. I can remember freaking out as a kid when I saw a Vector W8 at a gas station in the North County back in the mid 80s. What are they using for the powerplant these days?