KOG Water Dragon

What are the odds they'll do the fighter version of this variant?

What a world we live in. Multiple 1/72 armored battroids to choose from. I have the old Arii and the recent Hasegawa, looking forward to the PLAMAX.

You've been pretty lucky I guess. Out of the entire HG 1/100 Macross line, the entire Armored Core VI line, every RG and MG for the last 2 years... I haven't gotten a single pre-order filled at initial release. I did manage to get a stash of 6 VF-22 Max/Miria decal sets, not sure how I got so lucky. I think I got 1 YF-29 Max, 1 YF-21, and 1 Fire Valkyrie way after release. Gundam stuff just never gets filled so I wind up canceling the orders when stock turns up local. I think I got 2 of the Armored Core kits well after release. And yes, it does look like HG has rights to original Macross characters and mecha worldwide outside Japan. Still, that isn't stopping other companies from making kits, and Bandai had their own 1/72 VF-1 a while back, and I think they are still doing the pre-completed VF-1 toys? I'll get the Wave 1/100s if I need to, but I'd rather Bandai do a series. Especially since the Wave kits available now are just movie versions.

I know of the awkward complicated issues surrounding VF-1 merch being officially sold in the US. Bandai doesn't want japanese sites to sell kits to the US because they want to sell kits through stateside distributors. And the stateside distributors can't carry the VF-1 stuff because of the Harmony Gold agreement. So that makes selling a Bandai VF-1 domestically a no go for the time being. However. Harmony Gold can't stop people from buying VF-1 kits from Japan, which is why we can easily get the Hasegawa and PLAMAX kits. And since HLJ is kinda sorta being allowed to break the 'dont sell to the US' rule (though they seem to be allocated much less Bandai stock now as a result), it stands to reason that HLJ could sell a hypothetical Bandai VF-1 kit to the US, as long as Bandai gives them stock allocation. And since they can't sell it locally in the US, I don't see why they wouldn't allow HLJ to sell some to the US, since there's no domestic distribution to compete with, because of the Harmony Gold stuff. It doesn't seem like kits imported to the US by buyers (not retailers) violate the agreement. And even if HLJ couldn't get stock and sell to the US, I'm sure there would be other ways to get them. But the main thing is, even if the US market had no access to them at all, I doubt Bandai would miss the opportunity to sell a HG VF-1 to the entire rest of the world. And I imagine a robust possibility of people across the world acquiring some to sell to the US through auctions and second-hand sites. No mistake, I think they'd be hard to get in the US for a while, if HLJ was the only place you could order from in Japan, knowing that it's hard in general to get Bandai items from HLJ anywhere near release date.

It seems to be a series marketed on the shortcut change gimmick so I'm not really expecting any non-transforming subjects in this line. Unless I'm missing something, aren't Hobbysearch and other japanese sites also able to ship VF-1 kits to the US? Hasegawa and PLAMAX have no qualms about making VF-1 products.

Happy to see it. Although I'm still not the biggest fan of the 1/100 scale, this Bandai HG line is proving to be a great way to get a whole lot of VF designs in all 3 modes, many of which not available in plastic before. I dunno if they'll keep going after the VF-25 and VF-31 series are complete, but would love to see VF-11, VF-0, and VF-1 if they want to compete with Wave. Somewhat skeptical that they'll do VF-27, SV-51, or SV-262, but we'll see.

I wonder if they'll go all the way to VT-1 and VE-1.

Still no Max/Miria in either fighter or battroid...

Sure, I know it's just battroids. But I never picked up the previous editions. At least with these, I'll have SOME representation of VF-0 (and VF-1) to display with other 1/100s.

I never really cared about the Wave 1/100 kits before, as I prefer 1/72 and up... but now that Bandai is doing all these 1/100 HG kits... I feel like there's a reason to grab the Wave 1/100s after all. I'm not entirely confident that Bandai would add VF-1 and VF-0 to its 1/100 HG series any time soon. I wonder if either company will do a 1/100 VF-11...

True. I don't need it to come from Wave. I'd be happy with Plamax or Hasegawa doing it as long as it looks at home next to the existing destroids.

It does not. Its pretty unique.

I love the destroids. Its a shame they only had these 3 in Macross. It would have been really cool if they'd had a 4th. Maybe painted green. With big hands. Alas, I guess we shall never know how that might have turned out.

The stand and the decals are separate things. The stand is pre-decorated, and you can use the decals for other things.

Ya. And I'm just saying, for the price of the kit, it sucks to still need to pay even more for the vf-31 waterslides. 2500y markup for the acrylic and idol decals.