Hiriyu

Agreed. I will likely not go to see this movie, as I do not wish to allow the studios which mine this cultural Sub-Strate to Sub-Sist upon my earnings.

Mr. March, it sounds as if you Sub-scribe to the theory that Hollywood is attempting Sub-limation of our childhood comic book heroes.

Nice work as always, chrono BTW, I'm the one that tagged you over at the Infinity forum yesterday... Hello again.

JBWeld is just a metallized two-part epoxy. It sets in about 45 minutes, and cures in 24 hours. I would think that a non-metallized epoxy would probably be better for plastic repair.

I'm certain that you're right, NMB4M, but I'm cheap, and these are cheap toys after all If the tape trick doesn't work, I'd probably just display them on their feet, or landing gear, as appropriate... Though maybe, I can use some polycaps from some old ARII kits instead...

Yeah, I have the 1J s preordered too. I am hoping the fastpack sets land in the $10.00 or less region, but I won't hold my breath. They sure did look cool in the pics though. I don't know of any prophylactic fix for the ballcup on the stand... although some reinforced tape, cut to a thin strip and wrapped around the cup may do the trick... I'll have to try that one out.

Small update for me, I went ahead and mounted the 1S on its stand . The ballcup DID crack overnight (surprise, surprise), but it did not drop the fighter. I had it balanced pretty well on the stand, kind of in anticipation of the event after reading all the gripes here. No big deal though, I just put some white glue in the socket, popped the ball in, wiped off the excess and let it dry. Still holds just fine. I went ahead and opened up my Max and Hikaru 1As and put them on the stands too, but neither one of those has cracked yet. I still think that these are neat toys for what amounts to Banpresto money.

I just got the first set, but have only opened the Roy 1S thus far. My initial impressions? I think that it's a neat little toy. Fun to screw around with, and very posable... much more so than any Yamato I own (numbering 25 or so at last count). The sculpt is not that bad though - sure, the proportions are bit weird in a couple of places, but nothing that is a real deal breaker for me. Comparing it to some of my ARII 1/100 fighter models (widely recognized as the BEST 1/100 rendition of the Valkyrie), it is clear that the designers took some creative license with these, seeming necessitated by the fact that these are fully transformable... Except for the shoulders, which really do have no right being THAT big The length and wingspan are pretty close to the ARII, but the breadth of the legs and arms in fighter mode are much greater. The front fuselage also seems to have been scaled 'up' a bit. It still kicks the poo out of the old Taka/Bandai 1/100 in terms of appearance and posability though. I'll have to report back on durability later Now, to mount this sucker on its stand... Muhahhahhaa!

I preordered one when they were announced, and the only issue I had was one of the little high gain antennae on the side of the front fuselage coming off. Easily rectified with a dab of ca glue.

I agree with Seven and Chrono. This series is nice, and I like it for what it is, but it could have been more. Doesn't hold a candle to the original despite its many similarities, but this is not necessarily a bad thing. I mean, how could you outdo Aim For The Top?

LL Cool VF1J, Yes it was a store in the same chain, but mine was in the Pasadena Mall. There was another one at the Arcadia Mall. That place was great, especially when they had markdown blowouts on model kits and stuff (I'm still kicking myself for not having picked up that $4.95 1/40 Orguss Bronco II kit that they had). They hosted model contests which I entered frequently, and displayed everybody's models in the main glass display case/counter. In my eyes, other toy chains like KB just could not compete. Later, they had a full-on skateshop too, which dovetailed nicely with my changing interests Danth, not sure if those boots were available as CFs, at least, I've never seen one to my recollection. Maybe someone else knows? *edit, doh, ^^ *

Don't know about major retailers, but mine came from a little gift shop across the street from my school which had a lot of imported bootleg things like Sanrio stuff and transformers (I seem to remember lusting after a bootleg soundwave that they had too) . My local toystore (Karl's Toys) had Takatoku valks, Orguss, and Dorvack toys, Gakken Mospeada stuff, all alongside the transformers stuff. Never could afford any of that though as a kid, so boots and model kits were pretty much it for me.

Yep, you're talking about my childhood here too . I was not well off enough as a kid to be able to get an import 1/55 or a jetfire, so I had to make do with the $10.00 1/100 bootlegs. As far as I was concerned at that point, it was just about the coolest toy ever. I played the hell out of my 1S, and broke both shoulder joints within a couple of months. Sadly, my superglue fixes would never last through a transformation. Heavy nostalgia with these things for me.

I don't think that these look that terribly bad, but I haven't handled one yet either. I have some on preorder thru TMP which, if I don't like, I figure I can sell and get my money back. As Jenius may remember me telling him when the MPC Alphas came out, I like to compare toys more based on scale than anything else. Like the Alphas when compared to a three-mode Gakken 1/55, I think that these visually look better than any other 1/100 transformable VF-1 to date. I'll have to wait and see to tell whether I'll really like them in a physical sense, once I've gotten one.

The ones that came packaged in fighter mode were called "Hawk Fighter". These generally go from $10-30.00 these days, depending on condition and what it comes with. I sold the one in the picture for $20.00 shipped, same as what I paid for it.

Alright, thanks for the heads up Valkyrie!

Yes, the feet were metal on these. These were boots of the Taka/Bandai 1/100. I had a 1S version as a kid, my friend had a 1J. I recently sold this one in the picture to Kanata.

Wow, really nice stuff there Fly4victory. I especially like the Lego stuff, but your models are just as nice. Ditto what Pat says above, are the Lego creations your own? I'll have to get some pics of my collection up at some point too.

Update on my Garland - Thanks to you guys, I've been too fearful to touch it Still looks really cool standing there in motorslave. Shogo remains in the box.

My understanding of it was that they did still have the ability to warp. They still had one collapsing generator onboard Buster Machine 2 after removing and using the collapsing generator from BM1 to trigger the Black Hole Bomb. Wolf, I think you're right that at time of detonation, they were probably not moving at any notably high rate of speed (relatively speaking). My take on it was that, having detonated the BHB, they were caught within the Schwarzschild radius of the blossoming black hole prior to warp, which caused the 12,000 odd year delay in their return. It is theorized that some very odd time contraction effects occur on the borders of black holes. Their actual journey home probably took not much longer than the rest of the fleet's. That's my guess anyway

You are more or less correct, but time dilation is always working at different levels of relative acceleration, it is just far more pronounced the faster a traveller goes. At .0001% the speed of light ("C"), the effect is still measurable, though small. The faster you go, the more noticeable the effect becomes. This effect has been tested in real life by taking an atomic clock up in an airplane and checking its synch with one on the ground after landing. Our present day artificial satellites even need to regularly correct for time, relative to "ground time". Being a space captain he has probably spent most of his intervening time at high rates of acceleration, so he has probably aged at about the same rate as Noriko between his commands of the Exelion and the Eltrium.

You can't do anything about the shoulder joints' looseness without prying them apart and regluing. I wouldn't bother. As for the stowage of the hands, collapse the arms tight first, and then fold in the hands. You'll know that you have it right when the wrist covers can close completely without force. I think that this may have been better posted in the MPC Ii super thread in the 'other animation/sci-fi' forum.

I took the liberty of editing your quote for veracity An Angel Birds model is a must-buy for me. Bring it on!

The kids, or the valks? My own friends' reactions can be summed in one word: "Robotech!"

Ditto. LOFL (except for the Minnesota part).