Hiriyu

It's all compromise work to make it look better in one mode or the other. The 1S head sculpt on the Yammie 1/60s was obviously compromised to make it look better in fighter mode (so it doesn't hang down too low), hence the small, 'squashed' look. No real mystery there. Can't explain the 1/55 though, which is sized right for battroid, but is way off in terms of the contours.

I think that I still have a beat-up Jetfire and a headless red 1/35 Legioss somewhere in storage, but I haven't seen them in years. I might also have a couple of ARII models tucked away too, but not sure. I gave away everything else to younger family members and friends when I was 14 or so, as girls, skateboards and guitars became much more interesting to me at that time. Now I kick myself for doing so, seeing what serious loot all of my old stuff is now considered. I had lots of OG Transformers, Gobots, TONS of Legos, literally hundreds of classic early to late 70's Hot Wheels, and lots of vintage hand-me-down diecast toys from my parents' time. All of which go for big money now on Ebay. Doh.

That is but one point of view. Some may choose to have faith in the clip, and no physical evidence of the existence of the clip is required to solidify faith. Myself, I am clip-agnostic

Ginrai, Thanks for the illustration of the broken shoulder joint. I'll be sure to be extra careful with mine in this location too - sorry that you had to suffer for our benefit I've fortunately had pretty good luck overall with most of my Yammies, having broken parts on only a couple: A backpack hinge broke on one of my 1/60 VF-1As due to extreme mishandling. The valk was more or less loose inside of my backpack, which a friend carelessly tossed into the rear footwell of his car, to be crushed by the front seatback being slammed back into place from a forward-tilted position. I can't really fault Yamato on that one. I was able to glue it back together, so there was a happy ending. I also managed to break one of the die-cast rear landing gear struts on a 1/48 CF, through a similarly violent mishap (I've never heard of anybody else managing this one). The valk was displayed in fighter mode on top of a dresser, and was caught by the corner of a towel(!) I was tossing into a hamper nearby. The poor thing was whipped off the dresser and flew 4 or 5 feet horizontally, and 4.5 feet vertically, landing sideways on its gear. Nothing but the rear strut was damaged. Again, completely my fault. My only real Yamato sob-story has to do with my VF-11B, which broke its hip-peg joint virtually right out of the box, like many others have reported. That one really was a horrible design problem, but one they rectified on the next release. Still doesn't help my 1st edition though

SA's Lowtax has agreed to his offer. I would too.

It was proven here some time back that those parts are in fact the lameness emitters, at least when equipped on the fire valk Seriously, nice news though.

Living and working in LA, I've met lots of movie/TV celeb types over the years. Off the top of my head... Telly Savalas, Merlin Olson, Jamie Lee Curtis, David Faustino, Danny & Chris Masterson, Jason Lee, and several others. All have been very down to earth, regular folk. You can hardly swing a dead cat in LA without hitting some 'celeb'

Wow, I had no idea. Thanks, very good info.

I'd second Bobe-Patt's opinion here. $30-35.00 shipped looks about right. Just curious, but it looks like the valk in the first 2 pics is a Hikaru 1A... Is that one available too, hopefully?

'S what happens when ya ridin' the range on yer Yammie Garland, pardner. Yeehaaaw. I'm very impatiently awaiting mine

Yep, that is how it's looking. Anyone else notice that it warped out not only with BH Exilio, but with planet Vulcan's core as well? Sounds like a pretty nasty triple-whammy.

The Black Hole Bomb was activated near the core of the Galaxy in the original series (Ep. 6). The BH near the Sol system's edge was created by the collapse of the Exilion's warp drive in Ep. 5 of the original (this is why the BH is referred to as the black hole "Exilio" in DieBuster Ep. 5).

The image Twoducks posted is what I was talking about - you guys are right, I was mistaken about its meaning. I had interpreted the image as something destructive, rather than constructive. The buster corps machines are indeed constructing "something" I think that the franchise is about to set another new record in anime...

Just before the fade to black at 28:00. After Nono leaves and screens Lark off with the buster corp. I tried to take a screeny, but no luck.

Nor Nono for that matter. I wonder where she went off to. I thought she was about to sacrifice herself by going into the VGW. Hmmm....maybe she went off to get Buster Machines 4,5,6 etc which are probably big ass muthas left in some periphery in space and forgotten. 405675[/snapback] *** Spoiler *** You DID see the last shot of Episode 5, right? Nono is nono more

Not much going on the 1/48 front for me... DYRL 1/48 Vf-1A (CF): 001 1/48 Vf-1S (Hikaru): 001 Accessories 1/48 Vf-1 FP: 001 Others 1/60: VF-1A Hikaru: 2 VF-1A Max: 1 VF-1A CF: 2 VF-1A CF TRU: 3 VF-1S Roy: 2 VF-1J Hikaru: 1 VF-1J Max: 1 VF-1J Millia: 1 VF-1S Strike Roy: 1 VF-1D Trainer: 1 VT-1 Super Ostrich: 1 VE-1 Elint Seeker: 1 GBP-1S Standalone: 1 VF-0S Roy: 1

I finally received mine from TMP yesterday. Very cool toy overall, and notably absent were some of the QC issues mentioned here (tailfin spikes are fine, magnets oriented correctly, etc). Typical of my luck though, I've noticed several other issues that I haven't seen anyone else report. I have lots of blurring and smudging on the tampo printing - the black stripes on the legs and chest are the worst. The grey paint in the secondary air intakes on the chest plate is pretty spotty too. There is some grey paint overspray/smudging on the LE of the right main intake, which is pretty noticeable. On the whole, the paint job is visually worse than that of any other Yamato I own, and that includes the rest of the 1/60s. I also encountered another weird issue - while transforming the VF-0 for the first time, the knurled pin which holds the two leg swingbar linkages together fell out, resulting in the legs taking a three foot plunge from my desk . The pin was a royal b*tch to find , having nestled itself deep into my carpet under the desk. Luckily, it was easily replaced once found using a pair of needle-nose pliars to reinsert it, and hasn't given me any further trouble... yet. My zero also exibits the floppy limb and foot syndrome almost everyone has mentioned. If I'm not very careful when posing it, it has the tendency to perform a knee-swivel move in a disturbingly Elvis Presley-esque fashion. Don't be cruel... Despite these seeming negatives, the design and execution are overall pretty good, and I really dig its looks... from a slight distance. I'll try to get some pics up this weekend.

One other point regarding the use of aftermarket stickers and decals that I have not seen mentioned in this thread yet is this: If you ever decide to sell any of your valks, they may fetch more if you have an untouched original sticker sheet to go with them. Might be stretching it with Yamato 1/48s, but this is most definitely true of older collector toys like Takatokus and Gakkens

You're thinking in terms of a terrestrially constructed elevator (Earth-based, with an orbital terminus). Most orbital elevator ideas I've read about explain the proposition the other way around: Orbitally based, with an interface/terminus on the Earth end. To build it, you'd just drop weighted carbon line (alright, a LOT of line ) from a geosynchronous satellite. Once you've "tied it off" on Earth, you use autonomous elevator "cars" to slowly climb their payload up the "rope" to orbit. No need to worry about foundations, earthquakes, or any of that nonsense.

Nice pics, port. The MPC Alphas are really nice looking, but 'tis a shame about all the QC issues people have had. I still enjoy mine, but they are all pretty much on static display. I'd have to agree with the consensus in this thread regarding the Betas. If it can't be made transformable, decently sculpted, and decently priced, I wouldn't bother with it. This from a guy who has all of the MPC Alphas and who has eagerly awaited the Tread, and who would most likely buy a Beta/Tread in whatever schemes they offer it, should they choose to make it reasonable.

I'll second that post in its entirety. The Gakken 1/55 IS hilariously bad, but at least not hideously bad like the 1/72. The little wing-tabs were stupidly weak, the add-on backplate thing was pure idiocy, the shoulder joints were prone to the little staked pins going missing, the arms didn't line up in fighter mode, the canards and arm fins didn't move, and, ohhh, that sculpt. I still have a warm spot in my heart for them, even though I know that they're bad. It's kind of like that horrible mangy stray that you 'adopted' as a child. Perhaps it's because they were all I could afford to buy myself as a kid, so that I HAD to love them... Or that my friend had a 2-mode Alpha, and mine could at least do all three modes (kinda sorta)... Or, it might be, as JBZERO has pointed out in the past, that I'm just a masochist. I still have a little bit of a closet affair going on with the little transformable cyclones too. God, I'm sick *edit - misspelled 'idiocy'

Yes, it's a boot, but I agree, the box art does look better than the real deal. The art on the disc labels if different too.

Very nice, Skull-1. Beautiful 1/55, and yes, Devin's decals are rockin'.

Damn, waiting for mine from Tam too. Sounds like mine should be here soon. Must...have...patience... Aaarggghhhh

There are these ones too: http://www.hobbytron.com/F14TomcatRCPlane.html They are really more like toys than real r/c birds. They have ~2' wingspan. Might be what HWR MKII has seen around.