We take a brief break from our regular Gundam posting to talk about Macross. As I’ve mentioned before, Macross was actually one of the first series featuring bad ass robots, (Although I guess Voltron is technically my first) and has always remained my favorite. Still, I’ve not really looked into building model kits until the recent Macross Frontier. Despite dips in animation quality in some episodes and a basic recycling of the enternal Macross love triangle meets music meets transforming robots, it still provided good action, music and was enjoyable overall. Anyways, the TV series finished last year, but announced that a full feature would be in the works. That full feature is coming out next month, and being the fan that I am, I decided to pick up a pre-sale ticket.
Now, I’m a sucker for limited things, so rather than just by any old ticket it, I decided to get the ticket sold only through Family Mart in Japan, that comes with the YF-25 Prophecy model kit. YF-25 Prophecy is apparently the prototype for the YF-25 Messiah that is used throughout the TV show.
The box is actually fairly neat as it comes with a full color bottom, which is something I’ve never seen on any other plastic model boxes.
Comes with the standard Macross instruction manual and your choice of using either water slides or decals.
So considering I haven’t finished my YF-25 Messiah kit, I’ve found myself in position of yet another variable fighter to build. Still, looking over it, it should be a fast build, should I sit down to do that. Still, we come back to the matter of time, as I’m trying to finish up my Sinanju photo’s, move along with the Hi-Nu Gundam Fall Project, and that we have Kshatriya dropping next week. Still, expect a WiP when I do decide to start building this kit.
Any other Macross kit builders out there? Not limited to just Bandai, but Wave or Hasegawa? It seems the only changeable variable kits are the ones put out by Bandai, but I’ve always wondered on the quality of other makers kits… One on my horizon is the 1/100 Monster to be released by Wave. If there’s any opinions out there, I’d love to hear them.
An American Salaryman in Osaka 
im glad you decided to get that. now i wont feel nearly as bad when/if i cave in and get the blue vf-25
I’ve definitely developed an interest in Macross since I saw Macross Plus this year. What little I’ve seen of Macross Frontier seems alright as well, especially the VF designs. I’m really lusting over the upcoming VF-27.
PS: think there’s anyway to get my hands of the YF-25 outside of Japan?
That is a difficult question. I have been a Macross fan since Robeotech aired in North America in the 80s. The choices available for model kits have always been tricky. Bandai and Arii made transformable kits but neither had perfect transformation. You had to swap out pieces and each mode left something to desire. Hasegawa makes the most detailed kits, but they are not transformable and require classical “modeling” skills to pull off. Wave is fairly new to the market and the results remain to be seen.
Models range in scale from 1/72 (most popular) to 1/48 (new this month from Hasegawa) to 1/100 to 1/144. The Frontier models are probably the best models available right now, but Bandai made a lot of mistakes with them. When you build yours, you will find yourself cursing some of the design compromises they did. Painting these kits are a real pain and simply doing the bare plastic with decals route is frustrating.
Check out this forum entry for a “pro” building the VF-25F. This is my favourite source for Macross related information: http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=28142
@Buster: The VF-25G, Michel’s unit then I presume? . I’m actually interested in building Luca’s RVF-25, just cause I liked how they worked the AWAC’s unit into a Valkyrie. My problem is that there really isn’t much difference between the VF-25F (Alto’s Unit), the VF-25S (Ozma’s Unit) and the VF-25G save a few weapons and color it seems. That and the fact that Bandai whored out the Macross designs even more, by then repackaging them with the Super kits for a “super” expensive price has kind of turned me off to it. The good thing is though I think that made the regular kits pretty cheap. To make a long story short, while it’s easy to build three or four Zaku II’s, it’s not quite the same to build three or four Valkryies. Anyways, I need to finish building my VF-25F first, before really getting ahead of myself!
@Zro: The YF-25 was a limited release through Family Mart here with the movie ticket, so unless Bandai turns around and releases it to the masses through normal means, it’s going to be pretty hard to get it. You’d need someone in Japan to order it for you, and as far as I’m aware, I don’t think you can order it anymore. Still, this is Bandai, so there is always a good chance that they’re release some form of the YF-25 to the masses, at risk of pissing off the people who paid premium for this version, heh. Guess it depends on how well the movie does?
@Darth: Thanks for the impressions and link! I will definitely check it out. I’ve looked at the Hasegawa kits before, and you’re right that they are very much the “classical” airplane model kit. I guess that’s why I’ve never dipped any tried one before. The Bandai kits end up being the best then probably. I find it interesting though as since Bandai has entered the market on Macross, it’s most likely forcing other makers to find better ways to improve the quality of kits, as it seems that Bandai has snatched the market share from the other makers. Of course I could be over analyzing though.
I will admit though that the fact that the decals are a turn off, and I’ve had a couple of broken pieces with my VF-25F so that’s a primary reason in why I’ve not finished it. While the special Deculture versions with the Ranka waterslides and all are neat, that’s like asking for punishment! And I just don’t like the fact that they’re making you spend another 30 or 40 bucks just to get some waterslides. They should just sell them separately, even at a premium price of 500 yen or 1000 yen even, I’m sure they’d have buyers.
Согласен, эта блестящая мысль придется как раз кстати