Anasazi37

This is a hard pass for me (not a Basara fan), but I'm happy to see that Bandai is giving some HMR love to valks that don't show up in SDFM, DYRL, Frontier, or Delta. I haven't given up hope that we'll get the rest of the Destroids and the Scout. At least the Macross HMR line is still alive....

I managed to transform my 171 to Battroid mode this weekend. It was a very stressful experience, made worse by unclear printed instructions and a lack of decent quality videos online. I found several that detailed the transformation from Battroid to Fighter, but not the other way. There was one from about ten years ago that was...okay, but the lighting was terrible, the person didn't know how to adequately describe what they were doing, and the resolution was bad. Had to replay sections of it multiple times. Getting the torso, chest, and head properly aligned and locked in was the worst part. The tolerances on this toy are very tight and pretty much all of the joints and hinges are very stiff, so I constantly felt like something was going to break while I was trying to move things around. I had to apply a bit more force than usual. I am never transforming this toy again. Much like my 171 CF is permanently in Fighter mode.

That's why I was thinking that it might be standard language that Bandai adds to all TWE listings now. We've seen additional batches when first batches sell out quickly, but it's unpredictable and I haven't yet seen one happen this late in the preorder window.

Yes, that looks to be the case, based on the additional information you just shared (I hadn't gone to look at the listing). I wouldn't be surprised if Bandai included that language on all TWE items now, to give themselves the option to make additional batches based on demand. If they opened up a second VT-1 batch, that would be great news for collectors who missed out on the initial batch and would (hopefully) encourage Bandai to make the VE-1 because I think there would be enough demand for it.

Courtesy of Google Translate: preorders close on 31 March and it releases sometime in July. I'm fairly certain that all direct proxies used up their allocations almost immediately and the stores like Anime Export that act like proxies are largely sold out now, too. Folks in Japan still have a week to place orders; everyone else is probably out of luck at this point--until they start to show up on the secondary market (Yahoo Japan, Mandarake, etc.). I hope it does really well with respect to sales, because I'd like to also own a VE-1 and Bandai is 75% of the way there with the VT-1 mold.

I decided to open up my 171 last night, just to see how bad it might look in Fighter mode. Both head lasers are laughably, ridiculously warped. Thank goodness for the second set of hard plastic ones. Paint seems fine so far. I plan to carefully transform it to Battroid mode this weekend. I'm prepared for more disappointment.

I'm glad that at least some stores send out notifications. HLJ does not. I generally don't know that a PO through them has been delayed until I get one of their periodic "open order reminder" emails that includes release dates and start to think that I'm crazy because something I was expecting to release soon is now scheduled a few months later, so I go back and look at emails and discover that HLJ quietly changed the release date. I know that they're at the mercy of the manufacturers, but they could do a better job of letting customers know about changes. I try to combine shipments through my Private Warehouse as much as possible, so I've started tracking release dates more closely on my own. This kit delay, likely to the end of May, just complicated my March shipment plans.

Looks like the VF-1J Battroid kit is delayed until sometime in May: https://www.goodsmile.com/ja/news/5811 The news didn't show up on the English version of their site, but I noticed that Amazon Japan changed the release date to end of May, so I checked the Japanese version of their site and, sure enough, there it was:

That turned out really nice. I love how the grey adapter blends in with the valk. Glad to hear that you like the design. I put a lot of work into them!

I know that some of the proxy services in Japan use them for highly competitive preorders. Mandarake's site is simple enough that you could probably build something useful, but you could end up automatically buying a poor quality used item unless you add some natural language processing filters to catch that. Mandarake tends to use standard descriptions for item condition, so that helps.

Schrödinger's Valkyrie! And this is why, once I open mine, it will be transformed to battroid mode and stay that way forever. I'm keeping my original 171 CF in fighter mode for similar reasons (potential explodium).

My 171 has been sitting on a shelf, unopened, since it arrived in late January, mainly due to all of the poor-quality-control comments in this thread. Odds of me having one that doesn't come with paint issues, bent antennas, and/or stress marks are very low. I will open it, eventually, but I'm waiting until I can counterbalance that experience with opening something that won't disappoint me. Might be another two months before that can happen, given current release schedules.

Finally had a little time to wrap up the design work on the armament set, do a final test print, and upload everything to Cults 3D: https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/art/weapon-armament-set-for-the-1-55-vf-1-armored-valkyrie @nightmareB4macross, let me know if you still want a set. I plan on printing and prepping a few of them for my own projects and thought you might want one for your museum (or a custom).

Results of the latest test print. Panel line details came out well and the double RMS-1 pylon attachment system is working as designed. I'm not 100% happy with how the rear section of the UUM-7 is printing, though. Need to fix that before making the files available for purchase.

Yep, I made a few of those customs for MW members back in the day. The conversion kit was really nice. Not surprising, since it was made by @captain america.

I'm still waiting for the 1/20 Strike Battroid so I can complete my set. Won't happen, though....

I could have sworn at one point you posted pictures of your attic and it was filled with your "overflow" items. Maybe it was just boxes?

Just ask @tekering about attics....

I would love it if "normal" meant that we'd finally be getting a TV version of the SDF-1, but I'm not holding my breath. My best guess is that it's the non-premium-finish DYRL version.

My DX is going to be in Battroid mode permanently, precisely because I want to keep my Yamato in Fighter mode permanently due to its superior profile.

I remember this coming up in conversation more than two years ago. Found the relevant posts.

Latest update. Added additional panel line details across the board, along with a very shallow channel on both sides of the RMS as a guide for painting the black stripes. Also made some internal improvement to help with printing and assembly.

Reasonable? As in close to original retail price? Not really. That ship sailed a long time ago, unfortunately. Looks like Mandarake currently has one for ¥45,000 ($300). They're usually a decent reflection of secondary market prices. All the usual auction and third party merchant sites in Japan list it for higher than that. You might run into someone here or on one of the FB groups who is willing to sell it for less, but I don't want to get your hopes up. Edit: I just realized that you're asking about HM-R, not DX. Those are selling on Mandarake for about ¥12,000. You have to be fast to grab one, though. The auction sites are listing for a wider range, from ¥9500 to ¥17,000. Since it was a TWE release, there aren't as many of them in circulation.

I've been dealing with the same problem. I have all three 1:20 VF-1s (Strike Gerwalk, Strike Fighter, Regular Fighter) and a bunch of very large starship models (Aliens Dropship, Aliens Sulaco, Babylon 5 Omega Class Destroyer, Gunstar from The Last Starfighter, Daedalus from Stargate) that I want to assemble and display. I'll probably have to reconfigure my entire home office to create enough space for them.