Do you remember love?

Needless to say, I didn't! But with a brother's recent visit to us, my wife and I were introduced to Macross, the original Japanese version, all over again. I thought the old 80s series by Harmony Gold was cool. That was until I saw everything again in Japanese with subtitles: it was incredible! The story, the music, everything was fantastic. Hollywood or the USA can not match this epic. And seeing the movie, "Do You Remember Love?" capped it all.

But the real treat was finding out Hasegawa (yes! THAT Hasegawa!) produced all the VF-1s, VF-19s and VF-0s from all the beautiful Macross series throughout the year in 1/72 scale! And the passion comes full circle, the story complete. And I can't get enough of it. Oddly enough, my wife loves it even more!

So the yellow wings mean...?

The Matchbox 1/72 SB2C Helldiver. One of the most ungainly, portly looking aircraft to ever take the air. Historically, one of the most insignificant planes to land on a carrier. It wasn't fast. It wasn't well armed. It didn't participate in any battles. Nor did the British, inheriting the planes intended for the French, actually do anything with them. And when I bought the kit (for again, P20 from SM Cubao in 1985), all my brothers asked was: "And you're gonna dogfight us with that?" Who cares. It was a pretty plane. Silver and yellow, a bit of blue. And that was when I really started building models for real. Not because of how well it would do against a pretend enemy airforce.

Dragonstrike

Back when DML, or Dragon Models Limited, first came out in the mid-90s, my hobby world was stunned by seeing quality kits produced by something other than Tamiya. For the first time, there were 1/35 subjects that we haven't seen before, and it was for me the start of a Silver Age for modelling. I was in the middle of my advertising career then, and I had a disposable income that I didn't want to put into the usual mortgages, rent or car plans. No way. Dragon kits were coming out, and it was a great time to start modelling again.

The M4A1 Sherman came out, and I knew I wanted to build it as a British Sherman I in Alamein colors. I didn't know how to, as the wide, wide world of the web wasn't there yet, but I knew I had to. I actually saved up for it, hopped onto a bicycle and pedaled to Special Hobbies in Cubao, and got the kit into a knapsack. I was ecstatic.

And that is a true example of Dragonstrike. You get hyped up so much for something, and the drive pushes you to building the best you can possibly build. I scratchbuilt the sand skirts and jerry can rigs. The gear came out of odds and ends from the spares. I tried to dust it up so much the camo scheme got buried. But hey, I was happy. Nowadays, Dragon still does it time and again with the new kits they come up with in great prices. Metal barrels. Etch parts. Fantastic subjects. Its a great time to be a modeller today.

Ito Lang

National Bookstore in the 1980s had an unusual reputation for me. Especially the one located at Quezon Boulevard, next to Tropical Hut and McDonalds. You know where. It was the only place within walking distance from my grandmother's house where I could find models for sale. And at that time, around 1985 to 1987, they had tons of the stuff. But I was bitten by the armor bug then, or rather, I was in an arms race with brother number two. His Panzers were overruning my bed once a bit too often in the 1/35 scale, so I thought it would be best that a suitable anti-tank weapon be found to deal with him. I found the Tamiya kit there and promptly saved up for it. It was a quick build, and an easy task with my uncle's airbrush. I was rather proud of that model as I think I did it justice (for my teen mind, that meant getting it right to the directions). I never saw the kit on the shelves again though, because Tamiya pulled it from production.

This current model is one I recently built in tribute to that first one. Of course I never heard of Zimmeritt before so this has it on. Of course I didn't know that the long L/70 gun needed special bogies so this one has a shorter L/48. And of course I never knew these guys needed to be as dirty as possible, so there go the pastels. But its still that old soldier for me, standing guard over that pillow at the top of the old bed.

Striking twice

The Matchbox 1/72 scale P-38J Lightning is an old favorite. I used to stare at it for (what seemed like) hours outside the glass case in SM Shoemart Cubao's toy section. The box artwork was one of the most stunning, with a flaming zero falling in the background, and Tommy McGuire's Pudgy V clearly written. It was there on the shelves everytime I came to that place, and always beyond reach, as it was a purple series box, and there were so many cheaper orange series planes that I wanted to get. On my birthday in 1982, I had the chance to get it with the 100 pesos my parents and aunts put together, but when I got there, it was gone. (Good thing Matchbox released an F-16 then, and that's what I got!) And I did get Hasegawa's then-new P-38F/L.

But here we are, in 2006. True, its a terrible Lightning kit. The panel lines were trenches and at the wrong spots. The propellers spun the wrong way. And the detail left much to be desired. But its a Lightning, dagnabbit. And when good Mr Applebee brought out one at a swap meet in 2002, look who was there to get it straightaway. And here it is, in its full glory.