Review – 1/144 Scale Macross Jets

Next week Gina and I will be in Hong Kong and in keeping with the “excited about vacation” vibe I figured it was time to pull out some more blind boxed toys that I grabbed when I visited Hong Kong last year. These Macross jets are small — each is roughly 4-inches long — but they’re insanely detailed and look fantastic when displayed as a group.

Packaging

As blind boxed toys each jet shared the same box design, and while it’s not amazing box design it’s attractive and the back of the box makes it very clear that inside is one of a selection of different cool jets. As is often the case with toys I trashed the boxes; I know that probably kills some collectors, but there’s no way that I can keep every bit of packaging that passes through my hands. So long, boxes!

Some Assembly Required

Each jet is pretty much completely assembled when you pull it out of the box, but there are bits inside that allow you to either assemble the jets with landing gear down or retracted. I opted for the retracted — I think these look cooler on the flight stands than landed — and assembling each one only took me about a minute or two. Super simple!

There were also decals packed with each jet, but they’re very tiny decals and there’s no way I’m up to applying them. So my jets are displayed on the shelf minus the decals; and as you can see in the photos the toys still look incredible.

Swing-Wing Design . . . and Awesome!

Three of the four jets shown here feature swing-wing; you can spread the wings wide or sweep them back for high-speed flight. Seriously, at the roughly $3.50 I paid for each of these toys I got an awesome deal because each one is a miniature work of art. This review at figures.com says:

Each Valkyrie is a miniature work of art, realistically and artistically capturing the classic vehicles of Macross in neat small-scale jets four inches from nosecone to thrusters and three and a half inches from wingtip to wingtip. Each one is true to its onscreen counterpart in shape, scale, sculpt, and paint down to the smallest detail.

I may not know much about Robotech/Macross — for me, this design is pretty much associated more with Battletech than it is Robotech — but I absolutely love the jet design. And positioning these guys with a few Revoltech figures I bought in Hong Kong last year (I should post reviews) and the Convertors Maladroid Volcan (review here) on the toy shelf makes a great mini-collection. I don’t think these photos do the toys justice, since they look great here but they feel even better in-hand. They’re small and fragile, but there’s something about the size that makes them feel right when I fly them around. (Shhh, don’t tell anyone.)

Highly Recommended

If you can find these for $5 or less each then grab them. Grab them and never let go, because these tiny jets look really cool and are a hell of a lot of fun. Don’t believe me? Well, see the figures.com review I already mentioned and scan every photo posted there.

And if you’re not completely happy with what you see here then you could always take the approach that we see over at Ant Sized Man where the writer, Ant Sized Man, was unhappy with the seams and details so he dove into customizing the toys. See this post for one set of pics of a painted/customized toy and don’t miss the search for all of the toys from the series. I’m not gonna dive into detailing the toys, but man are these customs amazing. Great work!

Closing Thoughts

What else can I say? I got a good deal on these cool jets and love the way they look on the shelf. They’re small, sleek, and fun. And that’s all that any of us can ask for from toys, right?

Can you tell that Philip Reed is excited about going back to Hong Kong? Can you blame him?