MKT

Just a PSA & reminder, especially for folks new to handling Arcadia's VF-19 / YF-19, that the Gerwalk joint doesn't pivot down as far as you would expect especially if one is used to handling Bandai's DX. The Gerwalk joint is nicely stiff and clicky, but it does not take a lot for the joint to break after the (I think) 3rd click if one is expecting the 4th.

Thanks @Slave IV @m0n5t3r. It's fun to think up new ways to present these old figures. I'm telling myself to wait for some 'flu' downtime to watch Macross 7 lol, but I have been rather unlucky so far in that aspect. I think it's just the sheer number of episodes that is a bit daunting, and like @Sanity is Optional's experience, so many have mentioned needing to get past the first 1/4 or so episodes before it gets good. The concept of playing musical instruments while flying valks always sound bonkers to me, but just only couple weeks back I found out that the official line art actually do detail how the instruments interface with the valk to fly. Small mind blown moment there..

Likely last pic for this year.. I think, from the top view I like the Fighter sculpt of this VF-19 Kai more than Yamato / Arcadia's. Yeah the area between the legs can be a bit gappy, but the shape of the LERX and wing roots are more akin to the YF-19's..

I'll likely put Player 2 Ryu and any future repaints by themselves, since the aesthetics are a bit different than SHF's.. Your comment on Ryu's grey bugged me a bit, so I looked it up and although the recent reviews on YouTube never mention it, I think you are quite right. The grey looks to be washed out. I'm usually not very particular on exact coloring on toys, but the initial shade of darker / richer grey Jada showed for this Ryu was somehow a big part of why I decided to pick it up.. oh well..

Love this as well

Nice! I ordered this as well, as my first Jada SF toy to dip toes in. Figured I'm likely gonna get their repaints as an alternative to the SHF ones.

https://tamashiiweb.com/item/14559/?wovn=en Release has been updated to 20 Jan 2024.

So, look for stores that accept payment during PO to lock in today's rates? Anime-Export & Hobby-Genki comes to mind..

This being Macross World, let's analyze more pics.. Battroid is supposedly much improved over Yamato's, mainly due to the bulkier legs. But coincidentally, there is another YF-21 developed by Bandai, which is the HG kit. So comparisons are inevitable: I think most of us can agree the HG looks fantastic, it has ideal proportions. On other hand, we can see the DX's nose is comparatively really long, and the hips are ultra-Urkel right up to near the chest, giving it unusually long legs. It's as if Bandai, in its clever ankle rotation engineering, overshot the lengths of the legs to make it as long as possible compared to Yamato's. But of course, this is not a fair comparison as the HG is a parts-former vs the DX that has to be perfect transformation. However, if Bandai implemented Yamato's nose shortening mechanism, and just reduced the height of the top of the hips, we can get something like this: In the edited pic, I've shortened the nose by about the same amount as what Yamato did for their Battroid YF-21. I've also lopped off a little the tops of the hips, without moving the hip joints or side skirts. The edited proportions now still nowhere near the HG, but I do feel it is much better than what it is now and in fact, the top of the hips can be lowered even further. The way I see it, Bandai should be able to make both of these changes without adversely affecting other modes at all, so it is a bit of missed opportunity as Bandai have been teasing this mold for so long compared to other DXs. The DX VF-19 Advance / YF-19 never had so much controversy. They took what worked for Arcadia - from what I see the high-speed mode wings, and the thigh filler engineering from S.H.E kit, and even improved the sculpt a bit in areas and made an excellent toy out of it as whole. Here they did their own clever engineering solutions for the DX YF-21, but just kind of missed the mark in some key areas that could easily be fixed. Anyway, this exercise is kinda moot, because this also being Macross World, I will still join the PO come Jan 10.

This gives more hope that the arm cannons issue can be fixed. I believe @Chronocidal also reported the same thing for Hayate's first release. I did try to force the arm slider a bit but no luck then, so I suppose have to try even harder next time..

Sat through Rebel Moon, I have to agree with many of the reviews & sentiments out there. This is one the shows where the trailer is much better than the movie by a thousand times, and incidentally when I went back to rewatch the trailer, I realized about 1/3 of trailer scenes are not even in the movie? The whole show is like a bad meme of a whole lot other movies or media lol. Some are just too in-your-face that you wanna shout out "that's (so and so) from (insert-the-movie / game)". Why I say game is that there are 2 shots from the show that straight out reminds me of places & scenes from World of Warcraft (Blade's Edge Mountains for anyone who played back then). The other thing that stood out at beginning, was when baddie Noble appeared, and he looks like a carbon copy of M.Bison. Not from the game, but Raul Julia's portrayal in that campy 90's Street Fighter movie

Never planned on getting these, but recent sale at Hobby-Genki was too good to pass up..

Ah ok, that makes perfect sense now. The caption while prominently showing the front of Fighter threw me off earlier.. It's a good thing they painted up the intakes, consistent with the YF-19. Most of the other Chogokins so far have left the intakes unpainted. Also the tampo markings look like pretty nice after being so used to Yamato's plain jane for so long. Luckily no ugly NETFC wordings on the wings lol. There's still those rather prominent 'General Galaxy' on the underside, but its ok as we'll already try to hide its belly as much as possible for display.

Gotta say this Fighting Armor line is quite a hit & miss. Individually most of them look good, but not so much when putting them together because they will all be the same height due to the same body. Obviously prefer those characters who originally have a face mask, so this line will be more natural for them. That said, I’m tempted to pick up Wolverine due to how good the colors look even if he is ‘faceless’. Magneto so far looks the coolest though..

I think the hips could be excessively tight in previous releases, both VF-19 Advance & YF-19 FP, so might want to loosen the screws on the back first..

Could be translation error, but I also wonder about ‘engine nozzle fins move one by one’. Not referring to the intake covers, are they?

Sort of took it for granted previously that the cockpit seat will rotate like what Yamato / Arcadia did for some of their valks, but it sounds like Bandai is just making them swappable parts.

https://tamashiiweb.com/item/14740/?wovn=en Price: Yen 35,000, excluding JP domestic tax PO: 10 Jan, 2024 Release: June 2024

Macross 7 the only series I've yet to watch. But the toys have grown on me.. Merry Christmas everyone!

Nice remake animation.

I actually saw that pic not that long ago, but if not mistaken it turns out they were of old prototypes in 2020.

And now I'm just realizing the sales solicitation pics have no yellow tinted canopy..

Lol the price.. its just about the same as Arcadia's SV-51, but we know that valk was much larger. Tables have really turned between Bandai & Arcadia. Can't see a backplate & a few simple fast pack pieces to justify a massive increase over the recent non-FP YF-19 either. I thinking Bandai expecting this to be a once off mold with no repaints down the road hence the high MSRP.

Lighting is warm white, but the darker tone is mostly down to pic processing. Actual blue is slightly lighter.