MKT

Dithered over getting one of these for a while, but finally picked one up.

Wow these must be among the priciest 1/7 figures I've seen. I've always wanted a Gorgeous Sheryl figure, but the price kinda make me pretty hesitant each time, but these new ones really take the cake!

I used to have that anxiety as well, so everything from Japan was always EMS in early days of collecting. Faster times = supposedly less chance of package damage. And then I started using SAL shipping, which extended the ship times to 2-3x EMS, but the packages on average did not arrive any worse for wear. Then I realized it is not so much the ship times that affect the damage or wear on the packages, but more of which shipping company it goes through. After all, it is the staffs' attitudes that affect the handling of packages and their temperament always seem to reflect across the whole company. So if a certain courier company or shipping service always deliver damaged packages, chances are it will not matter if I select a fast or slower service from them, the packages will still arrive badly.

Well, I just find the dog-like sitting pose pretty cute lol. No doubt this HMR is going to be a great toy, as most HMRs are. I still remember reading @jenius's reviews of Yamato's Scopedogs and they were pretty awful durability wise, being in the era when Yamato toys commonly have exploding plastics in the worse places where strength are needed most.

Reinterpretations of this nature such as Unix Square's VF-1 are always tricky, because there aren't any other direct media tie-ins like anime, movies or comics for these designs. So these toys have to stand purely on its own design merits subject to our very own personal biases, and Sentinel being one half of Unix Square, as I understand it always like to take risks like this. Some do payoff, like their Riobot Mazinkaiser or the Re:Edit Iron Man lines, whilst others appear to have bombed like their Fighting Armor line. That said, I like what Unix Square is doing overall for the reinterpreted 1J and although there are some design concerns in Fighter, I like that it is different enough but still has direct lineages to the VF-1. The same though, can't be said of Moshow's current iteration of the Cyclone lol.. but no biggie, everyone's preferences are different.

The HMR VF-0 mold doesn't give good impression at the start, due to the lack of weight as discussed before, but the more time I spend with it the more I like it - it hits the sweet spot of good sculpt, nice playability and robustness. I'm of those toy collectors who want duplicates when something is that good, more for a just-in-case scenario so I'll likely get another. Any eventual VF-0A in all honesty doesn't really need much tweaks. Perhaps just make the heat shield easier to deploy like the 0D, and get rid of the terrible plastic translucency of the 0S.

^^ LOL I never watched Votoms so I'm not familiar with the mechs at all, but is the mode on the bottom right what gives Scopedog its name?

Having handled the 0D quite a bit side by side with the 0S (something I didn't do with the Arcadias), I'm just even further impressed with it. The 0D seems to be a more refined design of the 0S in some ways. For example, by moving the vertical stabs to the legs, the backpack now looks more compact & seats closer to the back. The 0S design, which traces back to the VF-1 of resting on the folded stabs always felt a bit janky in that regard. In Battroid, I feel the 0S has rather lanky proportions, something I don't quite get with the 0D. I couldn't really put the finger on it before, and now I know why. Not sure if it could be mis-transformation on my part, but the larger cockpit canopy of the 0D appear to make the chest bulge out slightly more in Battroid. This is then balanced out by the bulkier-looking legs, in some ways due to the folding fins on the hips and ankles, but the larger reason are the bigger and meatier calves of the 0D, having to fill out the space previously taken up by the swing-wing trajectory area of the 0S. It also for this reason, why the rear of 0D Fighter looks much more integrated, and in toy form, feels more solid. These little changes somehow just make the 0D Battroid look beefier and all the better for it.

That may be true, but the VF-31 base or AX releases after YF-19 all had rigid lasers sticking up..

Classic flavor always the best

Now I’m reminded, one part of my Yammie 1/48 Max 1J also tealed few years ago whilst the whites remain white. It was just one particular piece underneath the wing glove. But few moments ago I just took it out from display to inspect, plus Milia’s 1J, and now the whites have also yellowed. It must have happened over the past year, so I guess our 1/48s are similar in that regard. Not bad, yellowing only after like.. 20 years?

Ok had a look at all the images, and yeah it is one set of arms after all. My bad. The diagram really is nonsensical then, the arms should be out of the yellow highlighted area lol.

This is the biggest mystery on why it exists lol.. It just looks so out of place, even more so on Gerwalk / Battroid, and the aesthetics of it look like its kitbashed out of something else. At least for the huge gun we know it's sort of influenced by the Windermerean 262s.. although I don't recall the movie explaining anything on that.

Being a partsformer, its interesting to see the stylistic choices for each mode. Fighter looks stellar, and perhaps even more so than the HG YF-19 which has the huge feet sticking out back. Battroid also looks good, it reminds me of a cross between the more sterile line art accuracy of the GNU-Dou & the exaggerated sculpt of the Revoltechs. The graphics do look a bit confusing at first glance, but looking at the renders a bit closer, I think the arms in Fighter are different parts from Battroid/Gerwalk?

Thanks @Lolicon @Mog Yeahh that shot was heavily inspired by M+ lol.. Yellow but still gold, knowing they have been played with quite a bit. Some of biggest personal heartache are those toys which yellow or rot without seeing much play.

+1. Also tornado parts pretty unique because it totally changes the shape of the wings as compared to any or most other packs for a VF. The blue on blue for the 25G helps sell that illusion compared to the 25F.

Another personal favorite angle of the 0D... With a contrast to the VF-0S.

Unix Square shared more pics of the transformable 1J on their FB. Compared to the earlier prototype, some surface greebles have been removed for a cleaner look.

*Peeks into this thread*.. Love me an Arwing. That's a nice print @Chronocidal!

Perhaps one of the shipper boxes is the renewal version brown shade.. So far it looks to be the same as all Revival 25/29 releases - matte finishing, extra thigh screws, chest lock & the 'no step' tampo print on the wings. The head laser being one soft and one hard as confirmed by @ArchieNov is an odd choice though. For the other Revivals, Bandai made them all hard plastic.

Hopefully that extra head laser piece is straight lol

When I first saw the scans, I thought it could be a whole new mold. But turns out it is the same sculpt as what they exhibited previously though, with very minor differences: There was some discussion on the Battroid backpack shortening feature when it was shown in one of the more recent exhibitions. As it turns out, the one in the exhibition was mis-transformed, and the backpack wasn't pushed up as far as it should be. With a higher backpack, this should also allow the leg belly plates to have a bit more backward angle. I noticed the arm cannons in Fighter have a slightly different sculpt too. Not a really a notable change, but a difference nonetheless. It just shows that Bandai have continued to iterate on the mold, but only on minor stuff but the overall sculpt should be pretty final at this point.

A preview impression: https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/convention/2023/tokyo-game-show/macross-shooting-insight-hands-on-a-solid-shmup-with-rocking-music/.202723

So its not only the toe and heel have separate articulation, the toe has an extension feature as well. Hopefully everything won't become an over-engineered mess like the 171.

The recent 0D pics were all mostly lit using a small LED torchlight, narrowly focused through the transparent diffused panels. I like what I think to be layered shadow look to the pics, and exploring more in that direction these days. I think your 0D will be your best work ever judging by all the custom decals this time.