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Thanks for the reassurance Graham! I'm really looking forward to getting a DX Messiah soon! The Armored Ozma will be my first. I really hope it won't disappoint!

Maitta naaa! I was really hoping to get my first DX Messiah this June! Oh well, as long as Bandai addresses as many of the first release issues as they can, I think I can wait for my pre-order until August. BTW, the laser turret on the booster pack in this pic looks shorter. There doesn't seem to be any opening hatches or other gimmicks on it either. I hope that's just in the mock-up. I really like how they improved the neck joint and the head lasers. I hope the head lasers won't be made out of brittle plastic though. So far, I'm glad I held off on buying the first release Ozma's. Its the wait that's killing me though!

Hi! Can anyone translate that portion which shows the head being raised up? Is that a custom job? Or does the longer neck ball joint come with the super pack? Thanks!

Looking at the Ozma custom pics from GA Graphic, I'm pretty impressed with how it looks. Add to that the reports of it being sturdy and non-floppy and I'm about 70% sure that I'm getting one of these. The 30% hesitation comes from three things: 1) Where's the neck?, 2) Where's the landing gear?, and 3) Where's the armored pack? I'm okay with the proportions. And the Skull Leader color scheme is just too damn sexy!

The Alto custom is looking better and better in my opinion. It may not be anime accurate, but it looks pleasing enough for me. For me, the high hip placement doensn't make it less aesthetically pleasing. Like I said before, it makes it look like a VF-1/0 series battroid, which is a good thing. What does worry me about the hip placement is articulation. Granted, even the Yamato VF-0 is difficult to pose in this area, what with the wings and diecast section of the fuselage sliding mechanism getting in the way of the hips. I can see the same problems with the DX. If Bandai had followed the lineart accurately, then there would have been more space for the hips to move around. That's my only nitpick so far based on the pics alone. I REALLY hope that that Ozma battroid was mistransformed. If that is how the head will look like in the final product, then I'll have to get the Armored Ozma instead.

Wow, that Michel valk looks so....I don't know. Toy-like? Good pose though.

I don't have the Yamato YF-19 so I can't make a comparison based on that toy. But I do have the VF-1S version 2 and am pretty familiar with how the Super pack attaches to the legs in that valk. While I don't know exactly how the Super/Armored packs attach to the VF-25, I have a reasonable idea how the legs are positioned in "naked" valkyrie mode. Based on the anime, I don't think the legs are positioned lower when the super packs are attached just like on the VF-1. The legs of the super and armored VF-25 are still straight and tucked into the space where the legs lock into the backpack during valkyrie mode. You can clearly see this in some of the rear shots of the super and armored VF-25s in the series. Not that I'm defending Bandai or anything. Clearly, the spaces between the legs and the backpack in the DX are not line art accurate. Its just that when you consider the bulk added by the super and armored packs, it makes sense that they would leave some space to accomodate for that. I believe this is one instance where anime magic was used in the series so that the legs lock all the way through regardless of whether they're naked or not. If you can show me the pics where it clearly shows the legs bent in super/armored valk mode though, I would appreciate it very much. And thanks to Graham and the others for giving their examples of Bandai's A game toys. I only have one Bandai SOC so far (Voltes V), and while I'm pretty happy with it, it does have its own flaws and quirks too. I don't have any of the Saint Seiya toys since I'm not really a fan of that anime. To those who have the DX Aquarion: how's the QC and durability of that toy? I've heard many good things about it, and am partly interested in investing in one. I think the DX Aquarion would also be a good yardstick for measuring what the potential durability of the DX VF-25 would be as well. As far as I know, Bandai's DX line is clearly meant to be toys. They're loaded with tough materials and are purposefully chunky compared to their anime counterparts. Just look at the Sentai Rangers series DX toys and the DX Gundam toys. They won't win any awards for aesthetics that's for sure. But they're built like bricks and are meant to take the abuse of rough play and continued manipulation and transformation. They're different from the SOC line in that they're not exactly collector's grade display items. Compared to the other DX toys however, I'm impressed with the detail Bandai has managed to put into the DX VF-25. While obviously not in the level of the Yamato valks, its clear that Bandai is considering that market segment with this toy as well. Its not as "kiddie" as the other DX toys. This is all I have to say regarding its looks though. Aesthetics after all, is a highly subjective matter, and no amount of argument would change a person's opinion of what is fugly and uber sexy.

Also, I just want to ask Graham and the others: what toy would exemplify Bandai's "A" Game for you?

I mentioned a few posts back about the space between the back and legs. I think this is a deliberate design choice to accomodate the added bulk the fast packs and armored packs will put on the legs.

After seeing the Michel and Luca Super Pack equipped DXes, I have to say, the placement of the hip joints on the legs seem too low. As I said before, I don't mind the placement on the crotch, or even the placement of the legs themselves. But now that I've seen where the hip joint connects to the legs, it bothers me because it makes the leg movement unnatural. Just look at Michel's valk and see how the legs are practically in front of the torso. That's terribly unnatural and unsightly, not to mention how ugly it would further look when posed in action shots. The Super pack themselves do not bother me. They look good on the VF-25. I'm wondering now how the armored pack will look like, given that it has more bulk than the Super pack. None of the missile bays are open though, so I'm wondering if the missiles will be removable. I like the detail on Michel's sniper rifle as well. I hope Bandai does a spring mechanism to simulate the opening of the stabilizers in the anime. That would be awesome! I'm considering waiting for an Ozma Armored Pack bundle instead of buying the naked valk this December. That way, there will be time for some tweaks to the original manufacturing process and hopefully, less manufacturing errors after the first run.

I think what's happening here is that people's expectations of Bandai are a little too high. Sure Bandai is much bigger company than Yamato, with far more resources to spend on R&D and engineering for their toys. But you have to realize that Bandai has a LOT of toy lines. Their resources have to be divided across all of the divisions handling these toy lines. So in the end, its the budget of the division that determines the quality of their product. Economics dictate the that the quality of the product is directly proportionate to its retail price (although this is not always the case, taking Sony's PS3 as an example). You cannot expect Studio Half Eye level engineering on the VF-25 for the price Bandai is asking for it. But then what about Yamato? Their VF-1 ver. 2 and YF-21 are well engineered toys and they're selling for almost the same price as the VF-25. But then, you have to ask, how long did it take for them to reach that level of engineering prowess? How much money and effort did they put into it? Quite a lot I'd say. This is not to say that Bandai CAN'T do a better job. It's just that Macross is not their milk and butter. That honor goes to the big "G" of course. If they spent the same amount of time and effort Yamato put into Macross, then I'm sure they can put out some really good products from that line. Heck, with their resources, they would probably take less time to get to Yamato's level now. That is of course, IF Bandai decides to put more into the Macross line. Ultimately, its the consumer response that will determine whether Bandai would pour more resources into developing better Macross toys. Which means that if the DX tanks, then its probably safe to assume that Bandai will drop the license for Yamato and other toy companies to pick up. In other words, just vote with your money.

Okay, I've seen the latest pics and have been thinking a lot about my response to it. True, its definitely not 100 percent line-art accurate. I agree that the hip placement and the extended ankles in battroid mode, as well as the gaps between the shield and legs in valkyrie mode, are huge departures as far as being anime-accurate is concerned. That being said, I must say that the latest pics are not as bad as I thought they would be given the criticisms being given here. I'm not trying to defend either company. What I care about here is whether my money will be well spent on a good product. I've gotten my money's worth from Yamato's V.2 VF-1S as far as I'm concerned. The DX looks okay so far. The hip placement, in my opinion, gives it a more solid look. In fact, it looks more like a Vf-1 or Vf-0, which in my book, is a good thing. The question is, whether those design choices were made in compromise to the DX having to support the fast and armored packs. The gaps between the shield and legs makes sense, if you consider that the armored packs alone provide a considerable amount of bulk to the legs. What I'm more concerned about is whether the level of articulation has also been compromised because of this. For example, the knees look a little too high. That would make i difficult to pose the battroid I think. So far, I haven't seen any other "action" poses of the battroid, and that worries me. It may look good to me, but I want something that I can pose and play with too.

Whew! What an episode! And what a ride it has been for all of us who went on this journey! Omedetou Kawamori-san! Naka-naka o-migoto na sakuhin desu! Manzoku na o-shimai desu! Hontou ni arigatou gozaimasu! Now I know what SMS truly stands for: Search for Minmay Service! Virler = Vrlithai?

You know, those Hobby Japan shots of the DX don't look half bad. I could only read a bit of the text under the super pack shot. It says something about the super pack being an essential part of a valkyrie during space combat, and that while it adds nicely to the volume of the valkryie, whether the toy will have the stability to stand on its own without support using the super pack is something that can only be found out once the toy and the super pack add on is released. The editor also adds that he wishes that the toy and the super pack be on sale soon. I'm sure the more Nihongo de jouzuu shitotachi can translate it better than I.

Woot! I just came from the Destroid thread and saw the release date for the 1/60 Strike 1S Hikaru! Merry Christmas to me!

If I may, your output resolution is dependent on what max resolution your TV supports. If your TV supports full HD (i.e. 1080p), then the best you can do is to download (and/or convert) the episodes that are encoded in that resolution. AFAIK, none of the subbers encode in 1080. Only the re-encodes (like gg's) and some raws have it in this resolution. So far, I've converted (using Xvid4PSP) gg's mkv files into mp4 without tampering with their native resolutions, and they all look sublime on my 1080i only capable first-gen Bravia. Only problem is, some of the song subs are cropped. This is because the PS3 "zooms" the image a bit. I'm assuming that a file that is encoded in native 1080 will not have this problem. Try experimenting with different episodes and converting them with different settings using Xvid4PSP. It'll take time, but apart from buying the Blu-ray versions, its the only way you're going to get maximum quality on your TV. HTH! BTW, Shinsen Subs don't need converting to play on the PS3. Although, being encoded in a smaller resolution, they don't look as sharp as my converted gg's.

Thanks for the scans link David! Though most of these pics are available for viewing at the Macross Mecha Manual already. Yeah, the primary design does indicate lankiness. I've been watching a few episodes to compare, and the lineart seems to be consistent (except for the the OP pose, which as David pointed out, is indeed "weird"). Still, the uncolored DX shown in the pics are proportioned nicely in my opinion. As this seems to be the more refined prototype compared to the colored one, I'm expecting this is as close to production as we're going to get. Is there anyway that we can send comments directly to Bandai to accommodate our observations? Surely, we have some form of liaison with them ala Graham? Points to consider: 1) Lower the hip joints 2) Make sure the shield is closer to the forearm At least, these are the most important in my opinion. Whether or not Bandai listens however, is another matter entirely. For all we know, Kawamori-san himself already pointed these out to the toy engineers and was told that it was not possible.

After looking at the "official" Battroid lineart posted by David H. and the DX prototype, I must say, I haven't realized how anorexic-looking the VF-25 is. It certainly doesn't seem to be that way in the anime. Just look at Alto's battroid pose at the opening of the series (Triangular version). Aside from the higher sitting intakes, bigger crotch, and wider shoulders, the DX's proportions seem to be spot on and doesn't look that chunky at all. IMHO, what Bandai needs to work on aesthetically is the crotch area. If they can lower the hip joint by a few millimeters, I would think that would make a world of difference. I don't know how possible that would be though from an engineering standpoint. Maybe altering that area would compromise the entire fuselage area. I'd rather leave that problem to the engineers. But then again, I also question how difficult it is to follow Kawamori-san's design considering that the VF-25 is mostly CAD based to begin with. Oh, and for those of you who say that the SOC line is "chunky" obviously don't have an SOC to begin with. The proportions of the GX-31 Voltes V for example, is very anime accurate. In fact, I thought it was the lankiest interpretation of Voltes V to date. And I don't see how you can call the SOC Eva's "chunky". Still, I have become a great fan of both Yamato and Bandai. And competition from these two can only mean better products for us consumers in the long run.

Good episode. Retains the dark sense of foreboding established by the previous one. Valk girl Klan was an interesting fanservice after Michel's death. Anyone notice that she's using Michel's super packs? I only watched the episode once. I'm not sure my Japanese heard it correctly, but I think Ranka said she will be going for the sake of Ai-kun's kind. I'm not sure if she said where she was going though (I assume they'll be going straight for the Vajra hives). So they're consistently using the names of ending theme songs as episode titles. I second the notion that Northern Cross Episode will end with that song as well. I wonder if they'll keep doing that until the end.

I think Grace DOES knows a fair bit about Ranka's ability to empathically control (or at least influence) the Vajra through her singing. She deliberately changed the tone of Aimo into a battle song after all. But yes, she did say in this episode that the situation was not as she expected. But both she and Leon looked to be VERY MUCH in control of it regardless. I posted in the Episode 19 talk back thread that I was curious as to how Leon could justify to the populace his taking over the leadership of Frontier. Now I know.

Uhm, I didn't see the Vajra eventually exploding when the Nuns, Alto and Co were continuously raining bullets on them last two episodes. Only Brera's, Quarter's and Battle Frontier's Heavy Quantum Beams had any effect on them in those instances. Which is why in this episode, the fact that the Vajra were being killed by conventional weapons stands out as odd, to say the least, and is a legitimate point of interest and discussion.

Good point. I was actually considering this myself. Its safe to assume that there are different Vajra queens controlling different swarms or hives in different parts of the galaxy. So it is possible that the Vajra that folded in are from a different swarm that are not yet impervious to conventional weapons. But then, are the Vajra in Frontier also from this swarm? Or are they from somewhere else? More importantly, WHO and WHERE is their queen?

Condiment King said it: what about the "fully evolved" lobster Vajras that folded in? But something struck me though: The Vajra are continuously evolving creatures correct? What if the trigger for their evolution is not simply due to their reaction to weapons, but to emotions in general? For example, when Ranka was dreaming, she was dreaming about how she missed her mother. Aimo felt that emotion and was forced to evolve...into something (that we haven't seen yet). When Ranka sings, she also sends out her emotions through the fold waves incorporated into her singing (through the fold crystals in her stomach or whatever that is), and the Vajra are affected by it. Hence, when she sang the Aimo OC in this episode with pain in her heart, the Vajra used that pain to evolve into a different form/s reflecting that emotion. You might ask: so how come the Vajra were affected differently before during the earlier times she sang Aimo OC? Well, Ranka was more or less confused at this time. Aimo OC was certainly a huge departure from the original tone of her song. So it makes sense that the emotions she feels when singing it is that of confusion and doubt: something that the Vajra exhibited during Ranka Attack. But then later on, Ranka sang with more conviction, with a desire to protect her friends and Frontier in general. Again you see here the different reaction of the Vajra. While most of them were still confused, this particular one red lobster latched on to Canaria's Koenig. What was it doing? It certainly didn't look to be trying to destroy the Koenig. Was it trying to protect Ranka inside? I've been getting the vibe since the earlier episodes that the key to "defeating" the Vajra is through emotions, particularly peaceful and happy ones. It certainly fits Kawamori-san's themes of peaceful resolutions of conflict. How do we resolve conflicts that are borne out of hatred? The people of Macross Frontier who have lost loved ones will certainly feel a lot of hatred towards the Vajra. But this hate would only make the Vajra stronger, and would make the conflict last longer. I wouldn't be surprised that this is the ultimate message being sent to us by Kawamori-san and is certainly in keeping with the issues that we have in real life. Hate begets hate. Love begets love. And what better medium to convey the emotion of love than through singing? Elmo perhaps, said it best: "If only we could have reconciled through song from the start, rather than through the violence of the First Interstellar War." So yes, singing will once again save the day in Macross F.

There's something bothering me about this episode though. If the Vajra had already become impervious to conventional weapons, how come we still see them being blown to bits by Alto, Michel, Quarter, Canaria, et al? Shouldn't the Macross fleet be massacred by now? Unless...the Vajra that they're fighting now are from a different hive altogether. A hive that hasn't been updated of the battle data that the Vajra of previous encounters had accumulated. But then, what about those that just folded in? Where did THEY come from if not from the main hives? THEY were still being blown to bits. I smell plot devices at work here...

I believe that was an EXTRA body, not a reconstructed one. Grace could've packed a whole bunch of them when they arrived from Galaxy. And even if personas could be downloaded, Michel IS a frontier citizen, meaning he could not have a personality stored in some database somewhere, since you would need to have some sort of implant for that to be possible. I agree once again that we should put this discussion to rest. Talking about how it would be possible to bring Michel back is just plain geeking out. We should recognize his death for what it is: a heroic sacrifice that would forever immortalize him in MF fans' minds. And yeah, even the MF infantry uniforms and gear look like those from Starship troopers.