Anasazi37

Well, there will definitely be something Macross-related at the upcoming Tamashii Nations show, in the Soul of Chogokin area. No idea if the YF-21 will be among the toys displayed, but here's hoping....

I bought two copies of the 1/48 pilot set that @Xigfrid sells on Shapeways. Plan to make my own Roy in space flight helmet and Hikaru in both atmospheric and space flight helmets. I want all the options. https://www.shapeways.com/product/G8D52LFAX/pilots-set-for-vf-1j-dx?optionId=91611789&li=shops

Bandai's decal application and painting instructions for those reissued Imai and Arii kits are notoriously incomplete. You basically have to figure it out on your own from staring at the pictures on the instruction sheet and the box. I'm not sure it will help here, but you could always install the Google Translate app on your phone. You can take a picture of what you want to understand (even if it's on a computer screen) and it will attempt to translate it on the fly. It's not a perfect system, but you can get a decent understanding that way. I've used the take-a-picture-of-my-screen method when I'm stuck with an image with Japanese text on it. If you have the text itself, you can go right to the Google Translate site, but that site won't work with images.

Mandarake sells and ships their own items, and they're pretty meticulous about what they sell. In other words, their grading scale is conservative. I've received items with "damaged" boxes and couldn't figure out what they saw. I've also received "opened" items and it wasn't clear that anyone ever took the items out of their plastic trays. Sometimes they show pictures of the items and not just the box, but not always. I've only ever had one issue with a Mandarake purchase and it wasn't that bad.

I suspect that the Japanese site will be updated faster and more frequently than the English one: https://tamashii.jp/special/tamashii_nation/ Still nothing Macross-related yet, as far as I can see....

KiKi loose joint fixer also works really well. Not that you should have to use it on a brand new, re-engineered toy....

Or take it out of the box, dump all of the parts into a flimsy plastic bag (like the kind you get at a supermarket), and slap a label on that.

Really wish that Max would build out the rest of the VF-31 and VF-25 at this scale and sell full Fighter mode kits. I'd buy and build those. Just producing the nosecone is such a tease....

I've permanently removed them from my list of stores to use. I don't even check their site anymore. Going through a proxy after release to get an item through an auction, even if I have to pay a fairly large markup, is preferable because the odds are much higher that the item is real and I'll actually get something for my money. It's unfortunate. I've had good luck with them over the past several years, but based on the recent experiences of other members, I know that luck will run out, so why take the chance.

You're looking for the 1/72 VF-1 Valkyrie Weapon Set. Hasegawa seems to regularly reissue it, so you can generally get it for under $10. It's ¥800 at HLJ right now: https://www.hlj.com/1-72-scale-vf-1-valkyrie-weapon-set-hsg6 They do make a 1/48 version, too, but I think those would look comically large on a 1/55. Here's the hole placement on a Hasegawa wing: Here's my best guesstimate mapping of those holes onto an old beatup Jetfire wing I used for customization practice a few too many times: And here are pictures of the hobby drill I used and the armaments attached (top and bottom views) I still have the wing around here somewhere, so I can take a picture of the actual holes if necessary, but the key was to start with a small one and then widen it with the next bit size until the peg on the pylon could be pushed in. I taped the map I made onto the wing and drilled through it. Happy to provide that map, too. Like the wing, it must be around here somewhere....

Current "easy" option is to repurpose the 1/72 Hasegawa armaments. They look decent on a 1/55, albeit a little small if you look closely. Still, I stockpiled a bunch of Hasegawa weapons sets a long time ago just for this task. It's possible to use a hobby drill on the wings to make holes that are *just* the right size to support friction-mounting the armaments. I did the math and mapped out where to place the holes if you want to go that route. I think I have a picture of that I can post if you're interested. Gluing on some small rubber circles with holes drilled into them is another option.

I've seen some members post that the private courier service worked out for them, with their packages arriving in about a week (I think), but it was just too sketchy for me to try. For the few items I still had there earlier this year, I paid $5-10 each to have AE ship them across Tokyo to Tenso and then had actual shipping professionals with access to brand name courier services like DHL send them to me. Since then I've avoided AE and will continue to do so until EMS is an option again. With that said, their customer service has been less than stellar lately (based on what I've read here), and they keep jacking up prices on popular POs, so I might never go back. For what it's worth, it can take AE several business days to reply to messages. I'm not convinced that their online form works consistently, though. Sometimes I received a response and sometimes I didn't, so I switched to replying directly to my order confirmation email with my question and that did the trick. The address to try is info@anime-export.com. I hope your package arrives safely.

I know what you mean. It hurt to pay that much to get a set, but I put the UUM-7 effects on my Roy Strike and the RMS-1 effects on my Max 1J and they both look great.

Good point

I think you're one short, if you're following the @tekering and @sqidd methods of collecting valks: one to display in Fighter mode one to display in Gerwalk mode one to display in Battroid mode one MISB backup one MISB backup to the MISB backup

It sounded familiar (not in a good way), so I typed "jpfigures" into the forums search box and all kinds of negative stuff came back. For example: In addition to doing a global search of the forums, the Straight Shooters List and Blacklist threads in the For Sale section are good places to start. Both are kept up to date.

I always check the Japan Post website for an official update after hearing news like this from a store: https://www.post.japanpost.jp/int/information/2020/1008_01_en.html The "Air" option is highlighted in red, indicating some kind of update as of today (09 Oct). You can click on this link to get more detailed info: https://www.post.japanpost.jp/int/information/overview_usa_en.html Sure enough, you can now get unregistered small packet air shipments to the US.

That particular plate, yes, but you have to remove at least four other screws and pry apart the forward (nosecone) section to slide it out. I was able to do it, but it induced some anxiety. I'd be very surprised if that plate is different between releases.

Theoretically, yes. The head and neck are mounted on a black plastic piece that slides into the back of the nosecone section. It is not easy to pull out or reinstall, but it can be done. I'm assuming that the black mounting piece is interchangeable between the different variants.

I've been thinking about getting a structured light scanner so I can, for archival and historical purposes, create 3D models of a lot of rare stuff. That includes resin parts I'm planning to use on customs. Once I use them, they're essentially "gone" and it would be nice to have pristine representations of them. @sqidd, I'll send you a PM with what I'm thinking of doing. $1000 is pretty steep for an individual scan and conversion to CAD.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyanoacrylate All essentially the same stuff

I forgot about the Skull Leader stickers. My big pile of resin cast Sazabi hands came from Rosario. I bought a Sazabi kit and sent it to him so he could make molds of the hand parts. I got a bunch of casted parts in return. It took *forever* to get them, though. I think he went through a rough period where he wasn't able to fill orders, or those orders took a long time to fill (can't remember which), because of some personal stuff he was dealing with. He started to move away from the forums after that.

The earliest decal sets I know of were made by Jung. I came across this old image in my archives (Aug 2001), where his set is the middle one. I'm not sure who made the top one, but I think the bottom one is from takatoys, although the supplemental sheets say "produced by vf1x.com" on them, so I'm not sure. Sorry for the terrible resolution. I might still have an unused Jung set around here somewhere. Will try to find it this weekend.

I do keep track of mine. I even still have digital copies of the orders I sent to Chris Barretta for heads and heatshields, circa Fall 2001. Nice nosecone and hips in that last picture! And I saw some Sazabi hands in the background, too! I have a big bag of those, but gave up on using them because they are so finicky and delicate. I also spotted some parts in your photos that I've been looking for. I'm short a 1J head and a few other things.... Could be a worn-down "nub" on the clip, a worn-down spring, or both. If it's the nub, you could do what @nightmareB4macross suggested and try to build it back up using glue or a little epoxy. If it's the spring, you could probably find a replacement with more tension in it. Either a new one or salvaged from a "junk" Jetfire bought on eBay.