MKT

I have no affinity with Dragonball, but the series & related media were always in my periphery view last time. Excellant pic!

Hmm I wonder if they misprinted the label. 1/12 scale?

So much this.. Everything from the YF-29 onwards (except 262) just have wings just hanging off too much at the back.

Yesss.. childhood dreams do come true. Liking the sculpt of this a lot!

Liking all the news coming out of WF so far.. Sentinel Tlead, Arcadia Hargun and now this VF-5000G! Since the VF-5000 is about the size of the VF-1, here's hoping but likely wishful thinking they won't price it much higher than the VF-1...

I'm with @Slave IV, get both! Because it sounds like after choosing one, you will be getting the other one down the road, and that you will only pay more for it. But if you absolutely must choose, get the VF-1J GBP set first. Assuming prices of both increases at the same rate, you would pay higher increase for the GBP as compared to Roy's 1S simply because of its higher base price.

Finally got my copy of the VF-31AX today. Opened and immediately spotted the problems everyone else mentioned in Fighter: the bad alignment of the various arm panels & guns, plus the wings not tabbing properly to the legs. After spending a better part of 2 hours fighting to get everything aligned properly, and frustrated along by the design of it where there are sharp points everywhere - the serrated wings, dogtooth canards, stinger end, head antenna, I'm giving up.. It is just sloppy tolerancing on Bandai's part on those problematic areas, and it appears to be at a level that's more akin to toys made about 20 years ago in the earlier 2000's, what with all the misaligned paint on the shoulder pieces, the panel gaps, and the tabs not fitting properly. Of the top of my head for comparison, the Yamato v2 VF-1 and VF-19 molds that are at least a decade old now were really the high point on how everything fits perfectly together without any slop. I then took out the previous VF-31s to compare, and have renewed appreciation on how sleek everything looked under and around the wings. I also pulled up Bandai's promotional pics of the 31AX in Fighter mode, and am not surprised if they photoshopped away all the gaps including the misaligned shoulder paint stripes everyone else has in their pics and review videos. But at end of day, these issues will not bother me that much as they will be mostly be display pieces. Just holding out some hope Mirage's AX will have these issues fixed.

No I didn't. When the VF-1D PO's went up, they haven't launched their premium service then. I just had a relook at their 'premium service', and am still as confused now as when they started it back then. As far as I can see, the premium service doesn't appear to have any subscription attached (for eg Amazon Prime), so the implication is that the benefits such as 'upgraded packaging' & '5% points' are built into the item prices. Yet when I compare a few Macross items between their premium and normal site, the prices are exactly the same. Whoever orders from their normal site should feel quite screwed.

Had no luck at YAJ for a few months, when one suddenly turned up at Mandarake. Grabbed it from there.

Just a random post; I happen to be going through some casual shots I took last year, and if there's a TF figure that perfectly encapsulates the most love-hate figure of 2021, this would be it: This is the Transcraft Bumblebee of the.. err, Bumblebee movie. I LOVE that it captures almost all the screen accuracy in robot mode, whilst being able to transform. Granted, alt mode suffers a bit, with some prominent hinges sticking out & awkward paneling lines, but it is a small price for the lovely robot mode. I LOVE the weathering paint-job applied to it. I LOVE how its aesthetics is good enough for me to be able to replace the ThreeZero DLX Bumblebee I bought on a whim earlier. However, I HATE that it came with catastrophic QC issues, such that the hips & some other key joints would likely explode if put through its transformation paces. I HATE that I only dare to leave it in pretty much a museum pose, and not at least get some fun dynamic poses out of it without risking breakage. And I HATE that I can't really replace the ThreeZero DLX after all, as although it ironically transforms, it is practically pretty much downgraded all the way to a statue in my collection, below the DLX..

I am currently out of home overnight, but am pointing you to @sqidd's pics he took a few months ago: If there are any other angles of it you would like to see, I would be happy to take them

A few recent arrivals: 1/32 Blue Thunder courtesy of influence by @sqidd's purchase earlier.. 1/144 Doyusha blue Vf-19A pretty much completes all I want from the whole Doyusha die-cast Macross line. Not intending to look for the rare, unpainted bare metal YF-19 though. 1/60 Yamato tan Tomahawk as companion to the my olive colored one. Hopefully PO for the HMR one pops up right after the upcoming VF-0S.. 1/60 Yamato VF-17D.. The 17S was one of my earliest Macross purchases in this hobby, and have been looking for a 17D for quite a long while. But prices have always been much higher for 17D compared to the 17S, for reasons I can't fathom till today. One popped at Mandarake recently for a rather good price & I jumped on it. Unfortunately and this wasn't disclosed in the listing, there is some sort of matt coating that covers just the exposed legs side at the underbelly of Fighter mode. It is as if a matt coating project was started but wasn't seen to completion. Not sure what is going on but it makes me think standards have somehow majorly slipped at Mandarake-Complex store, as this is my second problematic purchase from them in a span of a month.

Sorry to hear this @Rein+. It is hard to believe such an obvious break went past QC, that it looks more like an opened item that was resealed. That LP obviously buying it from 3rd party at Amazon just adds to this possibility.. LP initially appeared to have learned from their earlier fiasco of bad packaging; my VF-1D was affected by DHL's shoddy packaging but they have responded well when I reached out to them then, and since then, there were folks who have received packages directly from them on which they have improved the packaging substantially. Yet it's a shame now to hear LP's practice of buying stock from aftermarket and forwarding it directly to their customers seem to backfire on them, in the area of bad packaging coming back to haunt them & customers again. Robust packaging for toy collectibles is naturally a very important aspect, and I am surprised that they take so long to get this basic aspect right, even from the first time around. Just about every other store we have all shared before over the years, even the shady/problematic ones in terms of fulfilment, get this aspect right (ok except Amazon JP). It makes me think the persons behind LP do not really understand the toy collector mindset before they started this business. After the VF-1D DHL packaging fiasco, they pushed out a video to sort of explain the reasons, but to me then it was just about pointless. Why make a video about something that many of us in collecting community already know? That in Japan you can just wrap something in tissue paper and it will arrive domestically in just pristine condition, and all other carriers outside Japan may treat your package like a football one way or another? Instead, shouldn't there be something in the video made to address how to improve the packaging in the future? (To their credit, they DID improve after that, so long as it is shipped directly from their hands). Amazon JP still packages their stuff in thin boxes, but I suppose its a very deliberate decision to keep their shipping costs low. For me, and perhaps other people who order from Amazon JP, understand this trade-off and its somewhat made more acceptable because their item prices themselves are often the lowest too with the PO price guarantee. LP doesn't have that kind goodwill, since they tend to charge a premium for the items, and even heftier mark-ups for shipping. That the item arrives in horrible condition due to bad packaging just leaves a very bad taste in mouth. But at this moment, I just think LP is just going through growing pains and I hope they grow & succeed. The current situation seems to me they have been shafted by Bandai / Bandai distributors on the infamous 'stock cut' that hits just about every other smaller stores, and they are in the unpalatable situation of either to cancel & refund, thereby hitting their reliability, or suck it up and procure stock from aftermarket to fulfill as a stopgap measure. Whether it is sound business practice or not, if they are procuring stock again from the aftermarket, they just need to make sure their own staff pack the items themselves before sending it on to customers..

Hmm with the new videos, are their upcoming VF-1 releases a V3? Or they are just explaining the V2 improvements compared to V1?

Looks like the army Garland is finally out. I got notice from my proxy today, that the item arrived at their warehouse.

The VF-22s are just beautiful birds. These were among the earliest valks I got in my Macross collecting journey a few years back, Gamlin’s being my very first Yammie valk, & the trio being first duplicate molds in my collection. I think they are generally a bit under-appreciated over the years, perhaps & understandably playing 2nd fiddle to the YF-21. Fighter mode is just too sleek, & the fact that it is based on a real life, what-could-have-been jet just adds to the whole allure. Congrats on completing this haul.

What if.. Kawamori decides to make a valk combiner like Transformers? Being perfect transformation, I can visualize the ghosts and packs becoming the hands, feet, pants & chest..

Looks like the beefier arms not only makes the wing look fat in Fighter, which was my early peeve with the design, but also compromises slightly on how secure the biceps are in that mode, as the wings now no longer envelope as much around it like the older 31. There is also some sort of new sliding mechanism on the forearms, I wonder what does it really do? Is it just to tweak the arm proportions in battroid? My copy is still sitting at HLJ, once I eventually get it I hope I like this new design as much as it when it was initially unveiled. But I suspect the VF-31A Kairos will still remain as top favorite overall...

Yeahh those as well.. it’s a strange decision to have the index finger as it is. Didn’t catch up much on the new movie discussion to avoid spoilers, but wait, now we have to get minimum 3 Hayate AXs for the 3 different add-on packs? Bandai should release a 3-pc Hayate 31-AX pack like they do with the Tamashi stands lol..

One thing that's still irritates, is that huge gap behind the cockpit in fighter mode. Bandai has had plenty of chances to fix it for each new release, even more so for this re-tooled 31, but didn't. It really looks jarring..

It's available now, and pretty decent pricing too compared to most other places..

Wow that's very good price at CDJapan, even cheaper than retail + domestic shipping! Unfortunately saw this post too late and its now sold out.

Yeah sculpt-wise, after years of iteration, Yamcadia v2 and Bandai's Chogokin are already pretty much perfect for both fighter & battroid mode. A more stylized interpretation on either one mode now, means the other mode will suffer. At this, point improvements can only be made on gimmicks, details and durability. It's great that a transforming VF-1 toy is now available in many scales. Personally, the appeal of 1/72 VF-1 or other Macross jets, is that this is the prominent scale for real world fighter aircraft models, & I like the idea of mixing both real world and real world-derived fantasy jets together. Otherwise, if its just Macross stuff alone, the other scales already suffice. I like ThreeZero Robo-Dou stuff. From their couple of Patlabor figures I have, they are well built items, somewhat equivalent to Bandai Metal Builds but at a lower price point: great value.

Interesting.. I was just thinking yesterday, as I looked at Mikimoto’s artworks, that his trademark watercolor style lends itself very well to the older IPs. Something about the light & less saturated colors, gives it the perfect nostalgic tint..

I'm having trouble accessing the p-bandai link too. Previously, it takes a couple or so attempts before the server eventually allows you through to view the actual page. But now, it seem to be 100% region locked.