2003 was the year Yamato toys starts to ramp up production of their Macross line with a large volume of new product releases. 2003 was also the year where the 1/72 line of Macross Plus toys was coming to an end as after this year they didn’t release anymore products of this scale. The good news is that the perfect transformation 1/48 opened up the way for the 1/60 perfect transformation VF’s. List of Macross Toys created in 2000-2002 by Yamato can be found here.
Last post prior to this could be found here. This build session focused mainly on the construction of the Gundam Kyrios’ head. Prior to painting a layer of plastic paint primer was applied to the parts of the head.
The cheapest online store to buy a 1/72 VF-27 Lucifer seems to be at HWJapan, thanks in part to an ongoing sale. Compared to other sites, HWJapan is selling their’s for only Y3,849 yen, or roughly 30% off from the sticker price. And that is considering that Macross Frontier is such a hot anime franchise right now because of the recent release of the movie, Macross Frontier merchandise shouldn’t be going on sale right now.
But I wouldn’t go right away to buying the Lucifer from them without checking the other online sellers. That’s because the difference in handling fees and shipping could still spell the difference.
Its hard to believe that Yamato Toys has been producing for almost 10 years already toys from the Macross Franchise. What started it all was the 1/72 YF-19 of Isamu Dyson from the Macross Plus series that was initially released in July of 2000 then followed in December by the 1/72 YF-22 of Guld Goa Bowman. Both of which were capable of transforming to the 3 states of Fighter, Gerwalk and Battroid. And I have to say that building a real life miniature replica toy from its line art that is capable of transforming to three different states is no simple feat and speaks greatly of the skill employed by the folks at Yamato Toys.
From there they expanded their line to 1/60 and 1/48 scale. Then they added the Valkyries of the original Macross and the Macross Zero VF’s. They also made the small scale, non transforming GNU line up. More recently also they branched out by including the non-VF Destroids from the original Macross series then this year they started producing VF’s from the Macross Seven series.
I saw my unfinished Gundam Kyrios on the floor when I woke up. The Kyrios had just experienced a 5 ft fall from the shelf to the marble tiled floor. I immediately picked it up to check if there were any damage or parts missing. I saw the gun hand a few feet away from the Kyrios. The force of the impact had knocked the hand out of its socket. As of first glance I’m not seeing any scratches nor missing parts.
A lot has happened already since my last post, but I’m still taking my time. The main limiter has been the painting of the black stripes in the kit. Mainly those found in the wing parts, ankles and front pelvic plate. It would have been easier to have just hand painted it, but I wanted the smooth surface that could only be hand by spray painting.
Posted over at the Macross Frontier blog was the announcement of the release of issues 36, 37 and 38 of the Macross Chronicle. The Macross Chronicles are a series of magazines that gives further detail into the workings of the Macross Universe. From the people, to the mecha to the every day workings of life in the Macross Universe. Whatever is mentioned here can be considered as being “Official.”
Macross Chronicle #36 is scheduled to be released by November 26th. A preview of the articles found in it are:
Included in the issue is a poster of the Macross Frontier Movie that was first shown in theaters last November 21.
Update 02/03/2010: Second line up Master Grade model kits with clear parts found here.
I was wondering a few weeks ago why Amiami was having for pre-order some Master Grade Kits with Clear parts. Turns out that this is all part of the Gundam Franchise’s 30th Anniversary. Its called the Gundam Clear Parts campaign wherein, like mentioned above, some master grade kits will be offered up with clear parts so that the hobbyist can show case his Gundam kit with the inner frame visible.
