MacrossJunkie

If I had to voice a complaint about this Arcadia version, it's that the tampo printed patterns kinda suck. They're way too thick and chunky. It's particularly noticeable on the wings. When I was looking at it, I felt like there was just a large empty gap at the ends of the wings where it looked like maybe the tampo didn't get printed, but it really does kinda stop short proportionally compared to the Yamato. See below and compare the patterns on the wings, stabilizers and canards. The Yamato patterns were much more accurate to the OVA. Yamato on the left. Arcadia on the right. Edit: Also, the gunpod is a little warped and curves a little toward the starboard side. Is this an issue with anyone else's or is it just me?

I got mine. That was pretty fast shipping. Shipped through FedEx on Monday and got it today. No issues that I can find with it. The boosters weren't missing anything and nothing wrong with the feet. Not as big a visual upgrade going from the Yamato version as compared to Ivanov's. The colors are more or less the same or similar enough, perhaps a tad more magenta on the Arcadia version. Otherwise, the same improvements on the Arcadia Ivanov carries over to this as well as compared to the Yamato. The differences are more noticeable in battroid mode as compared to fighter mode which, imo, was already pretty good for the Yamaro version of Nora's. The wings stayed in place better and didn't sag compared to Ivanov's. More refined sculpt, finer panel lines, better arms, shoulder pauldrons can be positioned, tighter joints, seams better hidden, etc.

The inside of the thighs kind of crumbled on mine and split apart. I was able to glue the two halves together. Hopefully the plastic on the Arcadia ones hold up better.

I ordered mine off of ebay. SV-51 decals I bought it once for my Ivanov and recently another one for Nora's. I think they're pretty good.

Are the Arcadia made valks part of the MWW or just Bandai? I know stores like BBTS are also selling it, but it's at a higher price and probably a longer wait time to ship over the ocean unless there's some arrangement that allows the US stores to get them at or around the same time as the Japan release. If it's not part of the MWW, I'd think they'd have to keep some spares around to part out instead of going straight to Arcadia for extra parts like HLJ has done for me in the past, or maybe they can to go through their distributors. I have no idea really. This situation with Macross stuff being sold in US stores through official channels is pretty new so I have no idea what to expect. For the near future, I'll be ordering straight from Japanese stores unless US ones end up with better availability like for Bandai stuff, until more releases actually ship and there's more feedback.

Ah, I just looked at the pics and assumed the two pictures were of the same booster, one with the part back on. Looking at it closer now, I see that they are two separate boosters. Stuff like this is why I try to order from HLJ when I can manage to. If this happened to me, I would likely be able to ask them to send me the replacement part. Even over a year after I got Ivanov's SV-51 from them, they got me a replacement leg with the correct foot.

Thanks for that. That's such a random place to put it and bad design, imo. It really doesn't belong under "Follow Us". No wonder I couldn't find it.

Didn't that also happen with the Ivanovs as well? At least that can be remedied by gluing back on and isn't on the level of having two left feet. If that's the worst that can happen, I'll certainly take it over the myriad of other issues that could go wrong. *knock on wood*

Under Payment Method -> Default Payment, does it show this? Currency Used: JPY It does take a little while to update when you change it from USD to JPY. Regardless of what you have this set to, the site seems to show in USD anyway, but as I found out, they'll charge you in JPY if you have it set to that.

Yeah, it wasn't showing in my CC app when I looked last night. It was there when I checked this morning and it looks like they charged me in yen, fortunately. it was something like $275 and $57. Quite a price difference from what HLJ was charging in USD on their site.

My Nora was finally available in the PW. I am unsure what I actually paid though. HLJ's site says they charged me 315 something for the SV-51 and 66.50 for shipping. The emails I got say I paid ¥36,800 for the SV-51 and ¥7740 for shipping. I really hope it was actually in Yen because it's cheaper than the USD price they show.

Mine's still showing as processing, but not in my PW yet. If I click on order details, it gives my an Error 500 page.

Those are YetiStands made by ChaoticYeti. He's had to stop making them for now I think due to time constraints with his day job and probably other factors.

Poor Nora, her own thread has been largely forgotten about 😄 I've started going back to Macross Zero to take reference pics for weathering Nora's SV-51. The weathering on hers is not as visible as Ivanov's in most scenes and surprisingly there don't seem to be a lot of scenes with her ride. Especially not up close, I only have a few reference shots I can really use and will likely have to extrapolate from those for the rest of it.

Looking forward to this one so I can complete my Arcadia M0 collection. The Yamato one was okay, but the Arcadia versions fix most of my complaints about the Yamato ones. Already have a new decal sheet in hand for this coming release. Hope this one doesn't come with two right feet or something.

Looks good! You're also the only other person I've seen that has posted a pic using the alternate destroyed pylon parts. Or at least I don't recall ever seeing someone else post pics of it. Did you decide against using the photo etch parts in the end?

Might not look too bad. I have a set of the supers for the anniversary edition which also has the dark grey metallic color, so I'll give it a shot when Max's 29 finally comes out. Not sure why the wing pods are pure white, but the boosters and the covers are the periwinkle color when the CG render seems to imply they're the same color. Even the box art they previewed shows the same color and not white. I really hope they fix that before release. The white pods just feels a little too much white. The CG and box art version looks a lot better.

Thanks. I tried with a lot of force to push them in while it was in fighter mode and they just would not go in. I tried it in battroid mode and they snapped right in for some reason. I tried it in fighter mode again and it also started snapping right in without any effort. I have no idea what changed.

I have both and I would unreservedly say that the Arcadia one is much better. 1. They both do have diecast parts, but the Arcadia one has more, but not noticeably so. They're both mostly plastic. 2. This part is mostly true. Particularly the gap in fighter mode where the head is is smaller and there are now built in covers to further cover the hole below the head. 3. True, but the old stand takes up a lot of space and is chunky and you're better off with an alternative stand, in my opinion. 4. Other than the head area, the gaps between the seams in fighter mode are relatively similar, perhaps just a little less on the Arcadia. 5. True. The Arcadia version feels tighter and even the wings stay up and straight without additional support. 6. See 3. Other positives of the Arcadia version: It's black which is the correct color vs the dark gray of the Yamato version. Comes with a pair of the smaller micro-missile pods which I believe is the "more correct" loadout instead of 2 pairs of the large ones that the Yamato came with. The panel lines are much finer and better on the Arcadia version. The shoulders are much more adjustable and can be angled properly on the Arcadia version. (see pic for comparison. Left Yamato. Right Arcadia. Ignore the weathering I did to the Arcadia version) As others have said, having the two left feet won't cause any issues with standing or balance. It is solely a cosmetic issue.

Picked up mine today. Apparently USPS tried to "deliver" it on June 2nd and claimed I wasn't home and said they left a notice. Except, they never tried to deliver or else someone would have showed up on my Ring doorbell camera on the approach and registered a doorbell press. There was also no notice in my mailbox. I only knew because I remembered to check the tracking yesterday and would have been returned to sender on the 7th. I got no explanation on why they lied about the delivery, but at least I got it when I went to the post office. The left leg armor seems to have difficulty staying in place and the forearm shields are much looser than what I would have expected from something attached to the hardpoints which are usually very difficult to actually remove. Instead, these things fall off with just a little pressure. Thus far, the 31 AX is a mess of failures.

Thanks for that! What is that in? I only have the old designworks book which precedes Zero.

But the centered lasers are the inaccurate ones. The ones that are off center are the ones that are accurate to the line art. I just think the alternate ones are strange because there's no reason for them to exist. They just have the line art accurate ones on the wrong sides (left laser is on right side and right laser is on left side) in the pic I pointed out.

What's the deal with the two different head lasers and why are most of the pics using the inaccurate one (the one on the right in the side by side pic)? Edit: I guess they must be removeable/swappable since the lineart accurate ones are on backwards in this pic I don't see any justification for why the alternate, centered head lasers are there though or where they came from.

Lol, nice. But I thought you'd be taking the temp from the other end 😉

There's no change. It's the same as every VF-31 variant before it. @Toonz Just hold onto the base of the spine mount, grab the container with the other hand and twist side to side while pulling. It should come right off.