ArchieNov

VF-25 - 11 (3F, 2S, 2G, 2RVF, 1A, 1YF) VF-1 - 6 (2A, 1S, 1D, 1Elint, 1J Armored) YF-29 - 5 (Alto, Anniv, Isamu, Ozma, Rod) VF-171 - 5 (2Alto, 1CF, 1Luca, 1Maruyama) VF-27 - 3 (2Gamma, 1Beta) VF-19Advance - 3 VF-0 - 3 (2D, 1A) VB-6 - 2 VF-19 - 2 (1S, 1Kai) VF-22 - 2 (Max, Millia) SDF-1 - 2 (Yamato, Master Made) YF-30 - 1 SV-51 - 1 VF-17 - 1 YF-19 - 1 VF-4 - 1 VF-11 - 1 Macross Quarter - 1 Tomahawk - 1 Defender - 1 I think that's it from the top of my head. I didn't count my Revoltechs and other smaller scale toys.

I tried to, but it's too long at 1.5 hours. They also talked about a bunch of stuff at the start that I wasn't interested in (Macross 2). If it had a chapter skip points for when a new topic was started, it would be easier for me. Better yet, a transcript or synopsis.

My main gripe with Lego pricing is that they are a lot more expensive outside of the US (which is unfortunately my situation). Over here, even fairly new sets can cost up to double what it does in the US. And stores like Amazon do not ship Lego to my country (I'm guessing it's a distribution restriction thing). You guys living in the US are really lucky when it comes to Lego.

Hehe. By the way, I checked the measurements and if I'm not mistaken, the UCS Slave 1 is around 1/48 scale. Unfortunately I don't have any of the 1/48 scale valks so I can't verify it. Maybe someone could compare a 1/48 pilot figure and a Lego minifigure and see if they have roughly the same height (of course the proportions would be way off). I know the pilots may not be accurate to scale, but it's the only thing I can think of at the moment besides doing the math.

OMG that price lol! But if that is also in scale, I can't imagine it being something you'd be able to swoosh around or even carry without trouble. At least with the Slave 1, it's still relatively easy to pick up.

Thanks everyone. I have Yeti to blame for making me buy Lego again (lol just kidding ). But I don't think I'll be getting any other UCS sets soon. If I'm not mistaken, Slave 1 is the only Star Wars UCS that is in proper scale with minifigs right? By the way, what exactly is greeble-ing? I read it in one of the reviews, but I assumed it was tampo printing. From your comment, I think I misunderstood what it meant.

Done with the build. It was awesome! Lots of techniques and parts I never saw before (well it has been 20+ years). This thing is massive, and looks much better in person than in the pictures. My only problem is... where the heck can I display this thing?

Since I couldn't find any Lego of Poe's X-Wing locally, I decided to get this instead. Was this a good choice as my first Lego purchase in more than 20 years? All the reviews I watched/read about it seem to hold it in really high regard.

The Active "Nothung" if I'm not mistaken. It's another variant of the VF-19.

Oh I didn't know about that. So for some parts, there's nothing holding them together except for magnetism?

Hehe sorry, I didn't realize that some would see this as a can of worms topic. I actually have a similar opinion as you do. I don't think that having a CG model will necessary lead to a better designed (especially if transforming) toy. But I guess this depends on the quality of the CG model. I mean, if the CG model itself was designed to transform in the same way as it would in the real world, then I would understand that turning it into a toy would be easy. But if the CG model also used screen magic (e.g. Michael Bay's transformers), then I don't really see how this would help that much. (By the way, though not fully accurate, I'm fairly impressed at what the toy designers accomplished in trying to convert Michael Bay's transformers into toy form) And we also have several cases where not having a CG model doesn't mean you can't have a good toy (e.g. Anime figurines). A lot of the current ones look pretty dead on accurate.

Sorry, it seems my title was too long. I don't know how to edit it. But basically I was asking if the presence of CG models in the animation really allow for a better engineered/more screen accurate toy? I know this has been mentioned a lot and that the earlier Macross valkyries were more difficult to translate into a working toy because of anime magic or the lack of a CG model. The reason I ask is because I came across a nicely done compilation video of updated animation scenes for Macross (from the Pachinko game, BluRay extras, etc). And this has a LOT of CG models that can be used as reference material if needed. So my question is, if someone was to redesign the VF-1 toy series and use the CG models in the videos above as a reference, are they going to be able to come up with a better VF-1 than the Yamato v2? PS: I thought the video was awesome. Personally, (with the exception of the Minmay songs) it was nice to hear the Robotech BGMs again as these were the ones I heard in my childhood. Some notable scenes: 8:18 Armored VF 1-S 8:28 - 8:47 Britai VS Global 9:13 - 9:37 Hikaru VS Kamjin 10:52 Wowza! 11:14 - 11:28 The Virgin Road VF remains a mystery. Is it really a VF-1D or a 2 seater VF-1A?

True. But then consider that the Bandai VF-19Advance and Yamato VF-4 had way more complex transformations and gimmicks than the Arcadia VF-0A and yet those didn't have anywhere near the number of the engineering issues that the 0A has that lead to toy breakage/damage. Plus also note that the 0D came before the 0A, and yet that had better overall QC than the 0A. Although the 0D also did have its share of weird engineering choices (gunpod notches too far back, making it interfere with rear arrestor hook).

It's kinda ironic that the valks that were so unpopular and difficult to sell in their prime end up becoming holy grails or have the highest increases in price in the aftermarket nowadays. I guess we can only blame ourselves for being completionist types of collectors.

People's creativity with Lego or any other type of brick always impress me.

Haha yeah, I know this isn't the Star Wars thread. Which is why I didn't go into too much detail into why I didn't like the prequels. Believe me, what I listed up there is just a tiny tip of the iceberg. I just hope this new movie won't be a disappointment (don't let me down JJ). My issue is not about clones being dead or alive by the time of A New Hope. My issue is how clones suddenly became the original stormtroopers. Anyways, enough about that. I do like the design of Poe's X-Wing, and am seriously considering purchasing one. Unfortunately it seems they are not locally available yet. And there appear to be a lot of scalpers on eBay. I also kinda find it funny (or sad) that Lego reviewers complain a lot about its $80 price tag, when we normally buy stuff that is much smaller (Macross or otherwise) for more than double that amount of money.

I was a big fan of the original trilogy, read a couple of the novels (now called Expanded Universe), collected the card game (which also had lots of trivia and information), as well as owned a couple of Star Wars technical manuals. Needless to say, I knew a lot about not just what was seen onscreen, but also the background behind a lot of things. Then came the prequels... and it basically crapped on a lot of the things that were established before it. The worst part is, there's nothing that can be done about it because George Lucas' films are considered canon. It would've been acceptable if the story he presented in the prequels was better, but it's not. It's riddled with a bunch of inconsistencies, plot holes and is not as imaginative as the stories that came before it. Some things that made my eyes roll: 1) Force sensitivity = Midi-Chlorian count? 2) Jango Fett clones were the original Stormtroopers? The stormtroopers in the original trilogy weren't even hinted at being clones or having that kind of origin. 3) Mace Windu has a purple lightsaber JUST BECAUSE Samuel Jackson wanted a unique color 4) Obi-Wan was a Jedi Master? On the Jedi Council even! Oh please, he was technically just a Jedi Knight 5) Trade Federation Droid Control ships in Ep1 were more than twice BIGGER than Imperial Star Destroyers in Ep4?! Imperial Star Destroyers were supposed to be the biggest starships ever made when they first launched. They were initially thought to be unfeasible due to their size and power requirements (they have something like a miniature star as their energy source). 6) etc, etc, etc... I could rant all day just listing the dumb things the prequels did. But I will choose not to. I've considered giving this a chance, but can't bring myself to do so. Mainly because from I've read in the past before the prequels, the Clone Wars weren't about Droids VS Jango Fett clones. It was about Clonemasters and Clones VS Clones and then later Clones VS non-clones. And HONESTLY, why the heck would you call Droids VS Clones as the Clone Wars??? It would be like calling events of Macross the Zentradi Wars. Or World War 2 as the German War. It just doesn't make sense. Sorry, enough ranting for today...

Thanks, Yeti. I may try to hunt one down locally. One question though. Are the blue rubber bands at the back required for the wings to stay closed? I saw it in some reviews.

After seeing your Lego X-Wing, I'm now tempted to start buying Lego sets again. I haven't built one in almost 3 decades, but that black and orange color scheme really appeals to me. Would you say that the X-Wing is a good purchase? I watched a review of it but I don't know how it compares with the other more recent Lego Star Wars sets. Oh and by the way, I would like to request that you do not recommend anything that is related to the Star Wars prequel movies. I hated them and will not associate myself with any merchandise related to Episodes 1-3 .

I noticed that the separation of the upper legs from the fuselage happens when you straighten out the nose/cockpit area. One of the issues I read about the v1 series is that the nose droops when picked up. They've addressed this issue on the v2 as it holds it up better, but it's still not perfectly straight. If you really work on making the nose as straight as possible (meaning you don't leave any gap in front/behind the heatshield), it forces the legs to separate a little bit. I'm not sure if this is a transformation issue on my end, but my 0D has this same problem.

Thanks, Saburo. That looks exactly like mine. Between yours, mine and spanner's, I guess it's pretty much safe to say that this is a common issue. I'm not sure if all the 0As out there are like this, but if so, it's probably a defect with the mold or something rather than a mistake in the actual assembly.

Hey Saburo, I might be wrong but looking at your pics, it seems your 0A head laser does not point completely straight either. It's more noticeable when the laser if folded all the way forward and comparing the width of the gaps on each side. Can you confirm? I'm trying to verify if this is a common issue.

It's like they're dancing to Saturday Night Fever hehe

I was comparing the rear arrestor hook on the 0D and the 0A to figure out if there was a valid reason why the gunpod had to be placed further back on the 0D (thus preventing you from bringing down the hook). Based on what I can see, it seems that there was no reason to have the gunpod placed that far back. On the 0A, the only change was they made the notches on the arm for the gunpod higher, and that gave enough clearance for the hook to come down. So my question is, did the toy designers/testers just simply mess up?

Okay thanks. Will try to be more careful with the other painted parts (which seems to be a large percentage of the overall figure).