MKT

When I look at these Ghost pics again, attached to the 31AX fighter I'm suddenly reminded of this ancient arcade game, one of the first games I played as a kid:

I think it's just Bandai resolutely sticking with metal / silver for landing gears, rather than unpainted per se. If we look at their HMR VFs, the gears are painted but they are still painted silver. What a wasted opportunity.. But unpainted intake fan details are still something of a head scratcher. Some DX's are, most aren't. The new HMR VF-0S's intakes are painted though, with the intake molding in sharper definition than the bigger 1/60 DX's.

hahaha it just gets more and more bizarre..

This looks like the world's coziest place, surrounded by treasures.

Received Unique Toys' R-05 Desperado @DotM Megatron recently. This figure is huge, and the heft is pretty crazy due to the judicious amount of metal it has. To put in perspective, it is 25% taller than a 1/48 DX VF-1, but weights almost 300% as much. It is no wonder many reviewers of this figure mentioned how tired their hands get after transforming it lol.. There's so much weight that when I initially took it out of its box and stood it, the hips & legs wobbled a bit too much than I liked and I wondered if the joints could not cope. But it was just merely mis-transformed out of the box, and after spending couple hours just tabbing stuff correctly, assembling one of its claw hands, wrapping the metal chains, and generally familiarizing with its articulation, the figure stands solidly and can hold some basic poses well with its beefy, mostly ratcheted joints. Just when I thought 3P Bayverse TF toys have reached a pinnacle in terms of engineering & design, Unique Toys always outdo themselves with each release. This figure has what I consider to be UT's defining characteristics - good, almost accurate sculpt in both modes, and obviously prioritizing robot mode in this iteration, but not so slavish to the CG model until it sacrifices its usual straightforward transformation playability and durability by avoiding small, fragile moving parts. I've not transformed it to alt mode, and I would like to use the word 'fun' in its transformation just like its previous products, but looking at the transformation videos means this is going to be a much more very involving endeavor this time. Although not necessarily frustrating, but just that it has many, many steps. Leaving it is robot mode for now, it just has so much shelf presence. I'm also very impressed with its right claw hand. They are very articulated and should be able to offer nice expressive gestures with more fiddling.

Not many TFs that show little back kibble..

Not the exploding wing pins.

Lol this is the weirdest plus funniest thing ever, both Yamato & Arcadia. Kind of surprised because I thought Mr. K as a huge fan would be more discerning on what ends up on his toys.

Great observation! Not sure how I feel it being a 100% downscaled copy of Yamcadia's. Perhaps it is a good thing. I do hope the Chogokin version will bring some new innovation though.

It is... a very acquired taste alright.

Nice! Releasing next year, and they got T-Rex to engineer it.

"Come on guys.. How long more do you want me to hold this stance for the Avenger's 2012 Yearbook pics?" ...and that is the reason why all armors Tony developed after this can be remotely controlled.

I'm wondering, was this the only unreleased color scheme from Macross 30? Bandai appeared to be really going all in Frontier and 30 during that time, so its strange they left this one out.

Perhaps this should be on another thread, but on somewhat related note, the 171, or rather the earlier VF-17, made me realize that Kawamori's inspiration for his valks wasn't so much the actual production jets, but the earlier concepts of them. Some examples: The VF-17 is often quoted to be based on the F-117 Nighthawk, but it really looks closer to its concept the Lockheed Have Blue. The VF-4 emulates the SR-71, but it's likely more akin to the YF-12 on account of the extra downward stabilizers at the rear engines. The VF-14 Vampire also looks heavily influenced by the SR-71, but apparently a very early concept of the SR-71 had the very same arrowhead-shaped nose.

The 171 CF was really the nicest color scheme for the whole 171 range, but I only got one and never transformed it till today because afraid of the exploding triangles. Would love to get multiples if they revived it.

Another Beagle popped up at Mandarake, but take note of the remarks: https://order.mandarake.co.jp/order/detailPage/item?itemCode=1213615610&ref=list&keyword=mospeada&lang=en

I don't disagree, $160 stateside is really overpriced. Fortunately, it can be had much lower from JP stores. I only hope whatever mark-ups Bandai US is imposing does not become the new standard for JP prices later on.

I can understand the sentiment of how looks cheap it looks, and it will be initially bolstered somewhat when taking it out of the packaging because of how light it feels relative to its size. This is especially when compared to the non-transforming mecha in the rest of HMR line. We do not have to look across at other HMR IPs, but in the Destroids line itself and the differences in heft is just night and day. But once you handle it with more time & transform this VF-0S, your opinions might change as it did mine because of other factors. Today I transformed it to Fighter, and just.. wow! The fit and tolerances are just phenomenal, everything lines up and tabs up perfectly, there's minimal gaps as can be expected, and there's NO freeplay anywhere. I daresay it surpasses the Arcadia VF-0 mold in this regard, which does have one or two loose areas, and definitely any of Bandai's own current Chogokin releases (looking at you 31AX!). This qualitative aspect is hard to convey, the best I can explain is that it has the more toy-like plastic flex of a typical Bandai Chogokin in Battroid, but the fit and tolerances of the best of Arcadia molds (VF-1!) in Fighter. This is quite an achievement at this small 1/100 scale. As mentioned before, despite the weight the plastics are strong, and the grey parts within the chest and neck although looking very thin appear to be made of POM. This is similar to what Yamato used for their old 1/15 Motoslaves, which has fair bit of small plastic parts, but because of POM material they don't feel fragile and till today haven't heard of any much breakage issues. It is also a pleasant surprise to find that unlike the HMR VF-1, the missiles can be individually separated from the tree (I know @Angesdad posted a pic earlier of them being worked on individually, it just didn't hit me then). Again, as testament to the tolerances, the missiles fit beautifully to their trees and the trees to the wing mounting slots.

I drew the line at these SD valks, but something tells me I’m gonna regret not getting them in coming years…

Yammie VF-19 Blazer is my first Yamato valk and whenever I see one it brings me back to the day how amazing it felt taking it out of the box. Top 2 Yammie valk till today.