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kajnrig

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  1. kajnrig

    Hasegawa VF-31

    kajnrig replied to seti88's topic in Model kits

    Ah, I see. I sent HLJ an email earlier. Hopefully they'll get back to me by start of next week.
  2. kajnrig

    Bandai DX VF-31

    kajnrig replied to UN Spacy's topic in Toys

    For all the hoops that Bandai made people jump through to get these, they sure seem pretty easy to obtain now. I'm glad people are able to get these. Quick tangent: What's the release date of the -31A Kairos again?
  3. kajnrig
    To be clear, the display prototype is a reused VF-19 Advance mold. The first display prototype of the VF-31A Kairos was also a reused VF-31J mold, and recent pictures/prototypes have seen the relevant changes made (nose cone sensor array, two-part fold carbon chest kibble, etc.). Anyway, I'm all in for a YF-21/VF-22 as well. Max and Miria colors next, please.
  4. kajnrig
    Thanks for the insight. Maybe this is the exception that proves their exceptional QC, then, because I have never had a Bandai kit sabotage itself so spectacularly before. Generally bad kits, sure, but never sockets bulging with stress marks bad. I haven't touched it since; it's sitting on my work table, backpack and fin funnels and weapons still unfinished, because I am wracking my brain trying to figure out how I should go about fixing their mistake. I have a MG Nu coming in the mail eventually, too, and I'm looking forward to building it. It was released just a couple months after the Sazabi (so also part of that early 00's golden era of MG kits), so I'm not expecting it to be nearly as problematic as this kit has been.
  5. kajnrig
    Has anyone built the 2007 MG Hi-Nu? If you have, what's your experience with it been? To me, so far it represents almost everything I hate about modern MGs. Such obtuse, overcomplicated construction. I've been snapping one together and literally EVERYTHING on it is way too tight. I thought I had the backpack frame connected securely to the chest frame, but couldn't get the collar piece to fit right and ended up stressing that thin piece of plastic only to realize that I was supposed to push the backpack frame and chest frame together EVEN MORE. They went together with an audible SNAP!, this on top of the first audible snap when I initially put them together. And even after doing that, the collar and central chest piece/cockpit cover barely fit into place. The crotch is the absolute worst. It uses a straight circular peg that plugs into an ABS socket that fits inside the lower chest, and again the connection is too tight, such that when I went to remove the chest and crotch (to fix the below issue), the chest actually split open (along the natural parts separation lines, so thankfully nothing was damaged) and the socket was almost fused to the peg. There were actually stress marks on said socket from the peg being almost too big for it. The issue is even worse on the joints connecting the crotch to the legs. The engineering is absolutely terrible; the joint is made up of three separate sheets, two with pegs protruding out of them to connect to the (also ABS) sockets in the legs. These two are supposed to sandwich the third, which has a series of studs for the two parts to "ratchet" along in order to give the legs some of that forward-and-back swivel. Unfortunately, these three sheets are all too thin, too weak to survive the forces necessary to move them back and forth, and the pegs themselves are again too tight, this time resulting in the pegs actually shearing clean off when I tried to rotate the leg. And this was with the pegs only half-way inserted into the legs' sockets. I don't get how Bandai ever thought this was good engineering. It's not. It's terrible. It's the epitome of gimmickry at the cost of the model kit. None of the joints needed to be that tight. I spent all of last night drilling out those socket pieces to get a good balance of friction, tension, and mobility. I have to rebuild the entire crotch-to-leg mechanism. The intent was to resell this because I just wanted something quick to pass the time, but now I have to deal with this nonsense. I'm so frakking pissed off at this kit. It should not be this hard to build. I snapped together the MG Sazabi from all the way back in 2000 and it's such a better kit in almost every single respect. Why? Just... why? (And before you voice your opinion about the Ver Ka, don't, I don't give a damn about the Ver Kas, they're ugly busy redesigns of perfectly good mobile suits and yeah maybe the Hi-Nu Ver Ka would have made for a better building exercise, but I didn't know at the time how crap this one would be and at the end of the day this one looks better anyway. Sorry for cursing, it's not you, it's me being frustrated.)
  6. kajnrig

    Bandai DX VF-31

    kajnrig replied to UN Spacy's topic in Toys

    The black really helps to mask those super skinny arms in battroid mode. Nice pics, Noel.
  7. kajnrig

    Hasegawa VF-31

    kajnrig replied to seti88's topic in Model kits

    Debating whether I should opt in for a third kit... Ooooooh, Hasegawa, why you gotta do this to me? EDIT: I don't see it up at HLJ or Amiami, or on the Hasegawa site. Can anyone confirm if this is an actual second production run or just HS finding more stock?
  8. kajnrig
    ^ Seconded.
  9. kajnrig
    That's a really shitty product. I'm not all that surprised about its current state of affairs, either, considering it's still in Early Access on Steam (correct me if I'm wrong). The same thing happened with ARK: Survival Evolved. Even the Pro/X patches haven't streamlined the game to playable levels, and it's not like the game should be all that resource-intensive. It's just really, really poorly optimized code. It's ridiculous these ostensibly half-finished games getting full-on boxed releases (even if they're just codes for digital downloads in reality). That said, PUBG certainly looks to be further along than ARK ever did, and with a more competent developer behind it as well. So hopefully its kinks get ironed out. I mean I certainly won't be getting it either way, but here's hoping for those who do play it.
  10. kajnrig
    Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the Strike Rouge gets a new Aile Striker-esque backpack. This assumption is based solely on the model kits released. Stargazer is absolutely the diamond in the rough of this particular franchise. It still has some faults related to being part of said franchise, but it managed to entertain and engage me more in its 45-minute runtime than most Gundam shows, and all of Seed and Seed Destiny put together. I can only imagine what it could be if it were untethered from the shounen mecha genre in general and Gundam Seed in particular.
  11. kajnrig
    Definitely excited about SFV AE, but I'm even more excited about the 30th Anniversary collection. Here's hoping Alpha 3 will still have its World Tour Mode. Arcade Perfect gameplay is great and all, but I want my Street Fighter RPG, man.
  12. kajnrig
    Sakura YOOOOOOO Definitely grabbing AE, otherwise known as what the original game SHOULD have been. Actually, has it been confirmed what goes into AE? Are the previous season DLC characters included? Is Sakura included on release date, or is she part of the Season 3 DLC pack?
  13. kajnrig
    Oh crap, turns out her AI chip had bits of fold quartz in them!
  14. kajnrig
    It still seems reasonably sizable, though. Is it a resin toy? Did SHE move to plastic materials? Those parts look like plastic. God, it looks sooo good. I'd change up the size and proportions of some areas if I had one, but man do I want one. It's just such a shame about that price.
  15. kajnrig
    Eh, the CGI eyes are too obvious to be "a bit" creepy and off. In its current state, it just looks like bad CGI. Heck, the majority of the movie looks like bad CGI. And why focus on the eyes? It's not like the original manga and anime adaptations - what little I remember of them, anyway - paid special attention to them. Agreed. Aside from being super gory, they were also just... grimy in general, as far as I remember. Like, everything should be caked in at least one layer of dust and motor oil. That said, the trailer does give off a feeling of competence, confidence, more so than other anime adaptations. It's confident enough in itself to go for the subdued, "artsy" trailer rather than the "generic summer blockbuster," at any rate. Happy tidings to those who like what they saw.
  16. kajnrig
    They're finally finishing(?) the AoZ line. I had thought they would be done after the TR-5s, but apparently not. What are the chances they re-release the Primrose and Hrudududduududu and all those other AoZ docking crafts that have suspiciously HGUC-looking boxes but aren't part of the HGUC line?
  17. kajnrig

    Bandai DX VF-31

    kajnrig replied to UN Spacy's topic in Toys

    Piggybacking off what I wrote earlier, I just got a charge 2 for some more kits and the EMS shipping is 8000 yen(!!!) compared to 6500 if I'd just bought the kits brand new off HLJ. Doubly frustrating is the fact that they didn't group them for surface mail shipping like I wanted, which could have saved me another 3-5000 yen... Sigh. A bit disappointing. Anyway. Slight tangent, back on topic.
  18. kajnrig
    Huh. I know I've seen that silhouette before, but for the life of me I can't place the name...
  19. kajnrig

    BANDAI DX YF-19!!

    kajnrig replied to seti88's topic in Toys

    IIRC, the prototype arm cannon never made it into production, right? Anyway, whenever I think of it I inevitably think of: (I spent too much time making this.)
  20. kajnrig

    BANDAI DX YF-19!!

    kajnrig replied to seti88's topic in Toys

    Hasn't the fold booster changed significantly from M+ to Frontier, ie the series with the most DXes? I remember the... VF-25G? used one to fold to Galia IV to save the day, and it looked way different from the M+ booster.
  21. kajnrig

    Bandai DX VF-31

    kajnrig replied to UN Spacy's topic in Toys

    Maybe they chose a cheaper shipping option? But also, I've noticed that FJ tends to (or at least seems to) inflate their EMS shipping costs compared to other stores I've bought from... which admittedly aren't many. I bought a couple Gundam kits for cheap using them as a proxy, and with EMS the total was still almost the same as (if not more than) if I'd bought them new from HLJ or Amazon. Their EMS rate tended to be somewhere between 1,000-2,500 yen more than through HLJ... though I've also noticed that EMS in general seems more expensive than it used to be. And to be fair to FJ, they tend to put more... I shouldn't say "care," because that implies that HLJ isn't careful with its packaging, which it is, just that HLJ tends to be more economical about packaging compared to FJ. Bulk shipments from FJ have sometimes been double-boxed and always liberally bubble-wrapped, whereas bulk packages from HLJ come in a single box and have all the items on an extra cardboard base, sealed in plastic wrap, with air cushions on top. ....that said, I don't get why there would be that big a discrepancy between CA and NM(?). The items are the same, you'd think the packaging would be, too, and I don't think they charge differently to different parts of the US...
  22. kajnrig

    BANDAI DX YF-19!!

    kajnrig replied to seti88's topic in Toys

    I mean... that WAS just a prototype, people. The first prototype of the VF-31A had incorrect nose cone sensors and fold carbon chest... flap... things...basically just being a lightly modified VF-31J, and they ended up correcting those things, so y'know, maybe relax a little.
  23. kajnrig
    Thread title is misleading. This isn't a done deal yet.
  24. kajnrig
    When did the VF-2SS come out? I've been seeing it around here the past week or two. Chances are low it's still in stock at HLJ et al? It's hit and miss, but I love the curves on that nose...
  25. kajnrig
    Ooh. I just got a PS4 Pro for the kids, too. Maybe I'll pick up that X collection. Never played more than the SNES games, and those are so good. On another note, I haven't gotten a Switch yet, but damn if this song ain't catchy as hell.
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