mickyg

I've done a review of some custom adapters for mounting regular model kits. CY sent the out for me to evaluate a few months back and I've only just now managed to get the review up. Check it out HERE.

YetiStand and the man on these forums behind these amazing stands, ChaoticYeti, hardly need any introduction here at MacrossWorld. He’s brought us the YetiStand Alpha, a robust, laser cut, clear acrylic mounting base that allows a myriad of arms and adapters to display your toy collections on; Some having nearly as many toys as there is room to mount arms for. More recently he’s introduced the YetiStand Beta, which is aimed more at displaying single items, but otherwise uses the same laser cut acrylic design (though it's not as thick as the Alpha). He’s also got a few wall mounted options that he’s putting the finishing touches on. These should be available on the site soon (See www.yetistand.com). I won’t be talking much about stands in this little review, though. Instead, I want to focus on one of the selling points of these display stands, the adapters that allow secure mounting of just about anything you can imagine. Most are custom 3D printed and all of them are very strong and tailored specifically for the type of item that will be displayed on the stand. I'll be taking a closer look at some he designed, just for me. Well, and anyone else that shares my enthusiasm for this new offering, of course. YetiStand is one of those rare companies that invites comments and ideas directly from its customers. So when I had a new idea for displaying model kits, Thomas (AKA ChaoticYeti) at YetiStand wasn’t just willing to listen, he got right on prototyping my ideas and was good enough to send me some finished samples to try out. Some background info: Plastic model kit display options are limited only by the imagination, with anything as simple as a vehicle sitting on its wheels, right up to fancy, in-flight fighter jets mounted to rods that resemble a refuelling probe. When I see innovative ideas for mounting, I file them away for future use. One of these filed away ideas is to use a simple square, brass tube, mounted securely to the model and a stand. The idea is very easy to implement - simply craft a plastic box inside the model with the appropriate internal dimensions to allow the brass rod to slide into it. A nice feature to this method is that the whole assembly can easily be undone to allow transportation of the stand and model kit. And the hole is usually small and inconspicuous. Done properly, you almost don’t see the rod (think of a banking aircraft scenario, where the wing hides the rod). The possibilities are nearly endless. So, how can we use that “model on a stick” idea with the various YetiStand offerings? Simple, make a mounting adapter that will allow a brass rod to be inserted into it, much like how it goes into the model itself. With that idea in mind, I discussed it with Thomas over a few emails and a computer render soon followed. I suggested a few different sizes for different model kit weights and dimensions, and before I knew it, we had 3 different adapters, printed and ready to try out. A small, medium and large offering, in fact. Disclaimer: I’ve been slack and haven’t actually built anything to display yet, but the concept is certainly simple and sound. What I have done is test fit the brass rod into the adapters and the fit is so tight and solid, it’s actually difficult to remove the rod once it’s in. The adapters themselves mount the same way all the YetiStand adapters do – with a rubber washer, a hex head machine screw, and nut (all included with the adapter). Sizing couldn’t be easier: Small for little things (think typical 1/72 scale) which accommodates a 1.6mm square brass rod (1/16") Medium for larger kits (1/48 for example) which accommodates a 3.18mm rod (1/8") Large for the really big kits (1/32 or that 1/48 B1-B kit you’ve been dreaming about showing in-flight) for 6.35mm rod (1/4"). While there’s no pricing info yet, expect these to be similar to current offerings on the YetiStand site for adapters. As is the case for the other adapters on the site, these are 3d printed and in many cases, done on demand. There may be a wait but it won’t be much and you can bet it’ll be clearly communicated as to wait times and availability. And remember, if you can’t mount it, there’s a good chance there’s an adapter that might not have been made yet. Here are the adapters, shown along side the brass tubing they're designed to fit with.

I was under the impression that if the value of the item was high enough, it was standard procedure for the vendor to require some form of "premium" shipping. I know this is the case with HLJ. I don't have the option for SAL if the value of the package is higher than a certain amount (can't remember the value in YEN). I know as soon as that threshold is exceeded, SAL disappears. Not that is makes much difference - my EMS package was damaged recently and although nothing is broken, the boxes took a bit of a beating. But I guess that's different than a broken item.

Anyone else have issues with the rear rubber tires coming off with the slightest amount of pressure? One of mine also had what looked like lint, on the hub, under the tire. And oh my goodness, were those rear gear, front doors tricky to open. What an amazing piece of engineering this is, though. Wow!

Such a fun toy!

That's actually some welcome news! Might get that armoured VF-25S kit that I've been eyeing off for a very long time after all. And maybe get it from HLJ, too.

I have very "normal" sized hands. If that helps at all. Happy to take comparison photos in the next few days though.

I'm looking forward to checking it out as soon as my schedule slows down enough to thoroughly inspect it.

Maybe a silly question and possibly not the right place to post this, but can anyone put up a few comparison pics of the VF-1S, J, A head area in Fighter mode? I want to see if there's any difference in spacing between the head cutout and the various heads.

Thanks! So it's not the screws that provide the clamping pressure on the ball that you're having to loosen, right? I did the same thing when i first got the toy, as the joint was simply too tight to safely move the legs against. Perhaps I've already lessened the potential for breakage? I posted pics as well but they're so many pages ago that I'm not sure I could easily find them.

Which kit is it for the 1/72 Regult? Bandai I'm guessing?

Very true - I saw some of the warhammer magazines a few years ago, for the first time, and could have sworn they were all drawings. After opening up the magazine, I started to realise they were all painted figures. Very impressive but certainly a very specific "look" to them that isn't always the best in terms of realism. Lots of very good things one can pick up by learning how to do this sort of thing though. My approach is to learn how to do many things so that I've got the best opportunity to employ something when the need arises. However, I tend to be more of a "jack of all trades, master of none" in my endeavours...

These finally arrived yesterday from HLJ: I say finally, but they shipped on Saturday and I had them by Wednesday. Not bad for EMS shipping from Japan to Australia.

Had a bit of time to mess around with it yesterday and I can add a few additional comments now. Firstly, the size: It's small enough to fit easily in your hand. This is great for something you can handle and swoosh around. But also, small enough that there are bound to be some fragile parts. So best to be gentle with it. I still can't believe the level of detail achieved in something this small. It's impressive! I can't help but feel a touch disappointed in the size though. Never having bought any Cosmo Fleet-Special items before, I really had no idea what the size was going to be. But given the price and how they scale with the new HM-R line from Bandai, this is actually pretty reasonable. It's really just my own brain's expectation of something bigger that threw me. Oh well, I'm actually not going to complain because it's a fantastic little thing! Further observations: The panel lines appear to be the darker underlying plastic but I can't be sure. Almost like the paint application wasn't heavy enough to fully cover the panel lines. Not unlike the effect I try to achieve when pre-shading a model, really. It works well in defining the details here, even if it's a bit heavy for the scale. The Promethius and Daedalus, to my eyes, appear to be too big. I'm imagining little valks flying off the decks and that ends up making the rest of the ship feel too small for some reason. But that's based purely on my recollection of the TV show and the way the SDF-1 always "felt" absolutely huge. I'm sure there were tradeoffs here and like Momar said, some of the proportion details likely had to be sacrificed in the name of a good looking toy in both modes. Moving the "Arms" forward like in the banner image for the site, well it just looks silly. But it can be done! The Promethius really needs a bridge and none is even hinted at. Maybe I'll scratch something up for that? The bow guns feel too narrow but that's likely a perspective thing and how it was portrayed in the show. Again, it's funny when something massive is presented in toy form, just how easy it is to state with complete confidence that it's somehow "wrong" but the truth is that we're talking about a hand drawn spaceship that is supposed to be over a km long! How it "really looks" is never going to be an easy thing to get perfect. Mine seems to have some tolerance issues with one of the legs and it looks a bit twisted when viewed from the back. Maybe it's something simple. I'm not saying enough positive about this, given what looks like complaints above and that's unfair because this is a really great toy! These are just my nitpicks. I'm actually overjoyed to finally have a TV SDF-1 that looks sleek, detailed, is fun to play with, and doesn't cost a small fortune to own. We've probably all been waiting for this for 30 years now! I know I have.

My (1) just arrived. Looking forward to checking it out up close, finally!

It just arrived 10 minutes ago! Haven't opened it yet but first impressions are: It's smaller than I expected but that's not a bad thing It looks like the panel lines have been colored in It's got a lot of very nice detail Can't wait to display it!

Can't wait to get mine! It's been on the truck for delivery since 7am this morning, in a smallish suburb. It's now nearly 3pm...

Yeah, that's... not great. What is impressive though is the realism of those 3d renders. It's becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish between CAD renders and a real prototype.

Nice! Still (occasionally) looking for this at a decent price.

Oh yeah, I've seen them plenty. Especially at air shows. Always fun to try to find them. I actually thought you'd hand written that little poster in the cockpit. Hence my admiration for your abilities. Now that I know you printed it, well I simply can't follow anything you build, ever again. Love your work!

Yeah, that screw is massively noticeable. I was hoping to get mine today, even though it only shipped on Saturday, but apparently it took 3 days for the shipment to be sent from Tokyo and be scanned as "arrived" in Melbourne.

Very impressive at such a small scale, too! Love it!

Pics on that one would be super helpful! I've had the whole intake piece apart and it would be really good to know what's weak and what to look out for. Thanks for sharing, lack of pics notwithstanding!

Doesn't the Regult have that little issue as well?

Saw it and really enjoyed it. I was unfortunately expecting it to be terrible, based on reviews. Actually no, not reviews, simply the "word on the street" about the reviews. So perhaps because I was expecting disappointment, I actually enjoyed it more? Not sure. Either way though, I definitely liked it. My main issues: All that said, I still really liked it and honestly enjoyed Eisenberg's Luthor as well. Again, didn't think I would and was fully expecting to hate him but found myself appreciating this take on Lex. Slightly unhinged, super smart, a bit wounded psychologically, and downright scary.