Slave IV

3 hours ago, MKT said:

My 1st Arcadia Reactive Armor for the VF-0.

 

This copy didn't arrive with any wrapping at all, so I wrapped it up nicely myself and applied a sealing tape. I'll likely keep it that way until I decide to open it & put it on my non-PF VF-0S. 

Most (all maybe?) Arcadia releases don’t have tape sealing the boxes. 

4 hours ago, Mommar said:

It matters to the sellers.  If they can't move them, they aren't going to buy as many the next time, if at all.  That will affect Bandai if they can't sell through as many as the previous time.

The 11C goes for crazy amounts on the aftermarket now, was on sale for $100 when I bought #'s 2 and 3 a year after release.  Nobody is making a move to make more now because the lesson was to retailers that they don't sell and the reason was the deep discount they had to put them on.

Exactly! Which answers all the talk of "Why don't they just make this or that or more of this or that?" or complaints of "artificial scarcity". It's the way it is because this stuff just doesn't sell enough to be any other way right now.

4 hours ago, Mommar said:

Given the significant price drops on the previous release I'm not sure that guess is going to be accurate forever.

I'm not sure prices for old items in the aftermarket they already sold out on matter to them. Again, history has shown that items often go on clearance in the relatively short term but then creep up sometimes to insane amounts when they haven't been available for a while.

18 minutes ago, PointBlankSniper said:

If duping distributors and retailers, and then offloading unwanted stock to them is bandai's main businiess, that would make perfect sense.

At this point, bandai has a much stronger pattern of not acting in favor of their primary objective. I'm still waiting to see how they justify spending like a billion to make their meta verse, which is just a barebones and unoptimized copy of vrchat, and using it as a link to p-bandai's site lmao.

Any corporate business main goal is to sell whatever they have by any means necessary. I don't know about those other ventures of theirs you mention but yeah, not all ideas are great.

Anyways, its all getting old to me and I'm just happy there are Macross.toys to get and if they make.more variations and versions I want, all the better but I'm not counting on them.

On 10/7/2024 at 11:18 AM, Mommar said:

Bandai will take the wrong lesson from this.  The ride we've released five times already won't sell, continue to ignore booster sets for subsequent releases!

My guess is even the third or fourth release of the main hero Valk still sold better than the first release of some of the others, which is why they keep redoing those instead. You know, because making money is their primary objective and the pattern is pretty consistent throughout the various series of Valks.

5 hours ago, djivaldi7 said:

So, if we all sit out a few years we'll be able to pick all these up for pennies on the dollar?

Usually for niche items with small runs, once the initial supply runs out, prices start going up. That’s why we often see the Valks that sit on clearance that were probably made in less numbers than the main hero Valk to begin with sometimes end up being worth more years later.

2 hours ago, Chronocidal said:

What are these "multiple Roys" you speak of?  All I'm seeing are literally five separate variants of Hikaru (seven if you count the VF-1D and VT-1).  

Lol, just in general but yeah, goes to strengthen my point. 

There are no official numbers but you can make a reasonable estimate based on the market and what resources are available online. It’s been discussed but Macross is absolutely a niche market, at least for the high end Valkyrie figures. The mainstream market for Macross is for idol concerts. 

Thing is, like any corporation that is out for profit, the reason why they would reissue something is because it got decent sales numbers and when dealing with a niche that has such low numbers overall to begin with, it means those other items that don’t get reissued or revisited with accessories probably didn’t sell enough to warrant any further attention. Hence we get multiple Hikaru’s and Roy’s before we ever see some other variations. 

Love to see this kind of passion put into anything. Thank you for doing so much for this great community of nuts (in a good way)😜

3 hours ago, Chronocidal said:

Yeah, my "hobby room" is turning into the exact same situation.  Just boxes everywhere.  

Haha yeah, my hobby room and over half my garage are stacked floor to ceiling. 

So yeah, lmk! Its the only 31J with a tramp stamp, comes with the elusive missiles, unopened with fancy tamashii nations packaging and made before their quality started going down the drain. What more could you want right?😁 I got some other stuff I'd probably be willing to part with but lazy to dig it out and take pics but if there is any interest, I guess I will and start a proper thread.

Speaking of the 31J Kai, if anyone wants one, I have an extra that I could sell. Just putting that feeler out since I haven’t started a FS thread but I could. I’m on the SS list last time I checked. 
Edit: just checked again and I guess not since I may have not sold anything here but I have purchased and I think there are people here who can vouch for me. I rarely sell anything which is why my place looks like:

Fine, I'll also post here too even though it also says "Macross" on the box.

 Ok, I’m messing with my KC Regult now and here’s my initial impressions:

• Looks fantastic, we all knew that already though. 
• The size and heft is substantial… there is a lot of diecast, especially in legs. 
• The amount of weight in the legs means any sustained flight poses probably won’t work or be a good idea. There is even a warning in the instructions that you should keep the knee joints straight when storing the figure. Not sure what that even means even though they supply a picture, it’s not clear to me but I suppose keeping them pushed in like they come stock would suffice. Good thing there is no flight stand for this thing anyways, lol. 
• There are ratchet joints in the hips, thrusters and feet. They are the loose, sloppy style as opposed to nice, precise ratchets found on better quality toys. Should do the job though. 
• Other joints are friction and have nice tolerance. The head lasers feel particularly smooth.
• There are at least four separate battery compartments and switches… annoying and possibly to the point where I will never even bother with any of them.
• Much, much better than their Valks but we all expected that too. Doesn’t feel as good as the HMR and you can tell this is a KC product in comparison to something Arcadia or Bandai would make but still really good and I’m glad I have one. Also glad I didn’t bite on their promotion to get a couple more with the missile packs although I wouldn’t mind picking some up later at a discount if possible. Right now, I’m just glad I have one and look forward to getting the figure that fits inside. 

Here’s a quick pic with a 1/72ish Valk:

Oh, I forgot to take a pic and mention the removable leg panels earlier so here’s a pic showing that nearly useless feature that I still appreciate having:

Ok, I’m messing with my KC Regult (it says Macross on the box so I'm posting it here😜) now and here’s my initial impressions:

• Looks fantastic, we all knew that already though. 
• The size and heft is substantial… there is a lot of diecast, especially in legs. 
• The amount of weight in the legs means any sustained flight poses probably won’t work or be a good idea. There is even a warning in the instructions that you should keep the knee joints straight when storing the figure. Not sure what that even means even though they supply a picture, it’s not clear to me but I suppose keeping them pushed in like they come stock would suffice. Good thing there is no flight stand for this thing anyways, lol. 
• There are ratchet joints in the hips, thrusters and feet. They are the loose, sloppy style as opposed to nice, precise ratchets found on better quality toys. Should do the job though. 
• Other joints are friction and have nice tolerance. The head lasers feel particularly smooth.
• There are at least four separate battery compartments and switches… annoying and possibly to the point where I will never even bother with any of them.
• Much, much better than their Valks but we all expected that too. Doesn’t feel as good as the HMR and you can tell this is a KC product in comparison to something Arcadia or Bandai would make but still really good and I’m glad I have one. Also glad I didn’t bite on their promotion to get a couple more with the missile packs although I wouldn’t mind picking some up later at a discount if possible. Right now, I’m just glad I have one and look forward to getting the figure that fits inside. 

Here’s a quick pic with a 1/72ish Valk:

Oh, I forgot to take a pic and mention the removable leg panels earlier so here’s a pic showing that nearly useless feature that I still appreciate having:

1 hour ago, derex3592 said:

As I begin the long, bittersweet process of starting to box up my Macross and other collections over the past 20 years or so in order to move forward to the next chapter of my life in a new home later next year, it becomes apparent to me just how RIGHT Yamato nailed the VF-1 with the 1/60V2 and subsequent releases from Arcadia. As I transform and box up the Bandai DX VF-1s and the Hi Metal Rs, yeh those have their place, but they all seem a bit.. I don't know... To fiddley for lack of a better term. The DX is just to big honestly. The HM-Rs are fantastic, don't get me wrong, but they have there down sides with the small size, all the part swapping and accessories. So let's just take a moment and remember the golden years of Yamato with just a few samples of never transformed VF-1 greatness that was for a time, and still might be, in my opinion anyway, the pinnacle of the Macross Valkyrie transformable toy collecting. And for those wondering, yes, the tan one is the holy grail VF-1J CF Commander's Ride with rainbow canopy in perfect condition. 😊

100% agree! I always tell new collectors who seem focused on DX not to overlook Yamato/Arcadia. 

2 hours ago, Shawn said:

Are you finding that sea shipping is significantly cheaper than the air options?
For smaller items the sea option is like 10% cheaper than some of the other options in my recent experience. Once time it was literally the same price.
My stuff goes to SoCal so perhaps my rates are lower than others. Just wondering.

For some very small items, it’s actually more expensive to ship by sea but other than that, it’s always cheaper. Saving 10% or even $1 is pretty significant, especially if you have a lot of shipments. Unless your local delivery service is terrible, I see no reason to ever pay more than you have to for shipping. For my average shipments, I usually see more like 30-40% cheaper. 

Been watching the other thread since it started and haven’t posted about it because I know I just can’t (shouldn’t) indulge right now but just wanted to check about the possibilities of this being made available again at a later date.

Awesome work!

40 minutes ago, mikeszekely said:

If they weren't so expensive I'd like to try a Bandai DX VF-1 someday.  The impression I get is that a lot of people here prefer the Arcadias, but I have a feeling I'd like the DX.

They are both great. The DX has the advantage of over 20 years to improve so there are going to be some things that are better, like articulation and the updated arm transformation technique. But the Arcadia feels like a precision, quality piece the way it all fits together and locks where the Bandai is a bit sloppy in several areas. Some may argue the plastic qualities but I prefer the Arcadia plastic too. IMO, Arcadia feels like a German engineered machine and the Bandai is more American in that it gets it done but without the extra attention to perfection.

15 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

OK, like I said when I reviewed Fugu's Jetfire, I feel way more secure in my knowledge of Transformers than I do Macross, so I'm sure that there's nothing here you don't already know, and I'm probably missing something that you guys can point out to me.  But after some friendly (I hope) teasing from @tekering for buying just about every Transformer Hasbro's released in the last six or seven years but not owning any Macross toys (despite hanging out on a Macross board), I picked up some Hi-Metal R figures and wanted to share my thoughts.  We'll start with the VF-1.

I got, specifically, the DYRL VF-1S Strike Valkyrie Focker type and Hikaru's VF-1J with GPB armor. As you can see (and probably know) the HMR's are a lot smaller than the Yamato/Arcadia (or KO of said) VF-1.  The smaller size comes with a few drawbacks, with the most immediate and obvious one from the above image being the hands.  However, I'm still impressed with the HMRs... the detail is quite good for their size.  Both VF-1's feature more paint than most mainline Transformers, the sculpt is sharp, and the molded panel lines are accurate and realistic without crossing over into excessive greebles.

While the HMR's do have some thin plastic parts, I'd go so far as the suggest that overall the materials on the HMR's feel noticeably better than Fugu's Jetfire.  Alas, I don't have a legitimate Yamato/Arcadia to compare with.

These figures come with a lot of accessories.  Now, I know that Bandai's released a couple of different VF-1's at this point.  Most of what I'm going to cover should apply, but aside from different decos or heads they may come with accessories these two don't, and these two surely come with accessories that they don't.  That said, as you can see in these two trays, there's likely a lot of overlap.  Both the VF-1S and the VF-1J come with two pairs of alternate wings, a gunpod with a small handle, a larger handle for the gunpod, a canopy, alternate intakes, stand adapters for Bandai's Tamashii Nations Stage Act 5 stands (not included), some landing gear, and replacement hands, albeit different ones (the VF-1S has DYRL-style left-and-right closed fists, L&R chopping hands, L&R gun-holding hands, a left open hand with splayed fingers, and a left cupping hand, while the VF-1J has TV-style L&R closed fists, L&R semi-relaxed hands, L&R gun hands, and left-only cupping and open-splayed hands).  We also have, unique to the VF-1J, four racks of small missiles, two torso fillers, and one neck filler, while the VF-1S has some replacement head lasers on sprues.  One pair is basically the same as the attached ones, just made from a more bendable rubbery plastic, while the others are straight instead of angled out like a 'V', and intended primarily for Gerwalk/Fighter modes.

Since the VF-1S is billed as a Strike Valkyrie, it has a second tray with the arm armor, the two-part leg armor, two Super pack boosters, and a Strike cannon, as well four missile pods, two lone large missiles, and two doubled large missiles.

Meanwhile, the VF-1J has a second tray with the GBP armor itself (chest, hips, pelvis, shoulders, forearms, legs, and boosters), more larger alternate hands, feet covers, a few missile parts, and a parts separator.  There's also a replacement head.  This is to reflect that while Hikaru's VF-1J normally has white around the "eyes," for some reason during the episode "Miss Macross" this area was sometimes colored gray.

The HMR has fairly similar articulation to the Yamato/Arcadia, not too much lost going to the smaller scale.  Heads are on ball joints that can look up a little, slight sideways tilt, decent downward tilt.  The ball joint itself is connected to a swivel and hinge for transformation, and you can use that hinge to get a little more downward tilt (the swivel just puts the head off-axis, though).  Their ear-lasers swivel.  The shoulders are on metal ball joints that can swivel and move laterally 90 degrees.  Like the Yamato/Arcadia they also have a hinge that doesn't really lock down in Battroid mode, giving them forward/backward butterfly motion as well.  Their biceps swivel, and their double-jointed elbows bend a little short of 180 degrees.  Their wrists are ball joints for swiveling and some in-out-up-down tilt.  No waist swivel.  The ball-jointed hips can't swivel very far forward or backward without hitting the wings, but they offer some thigh swivel.  The joint can slide out a bit, but even extended you only have about 45 degrees of lateral hip movement.  Hinges below the intakes can be used for 90 degrees forward hip joints.  There's another swivel just above the knees, which bend 90 degrees.  Fully-extended, the feet have some up/down tilt, and the front half even seems to have a little swivel, but like the Yamato/Arcadia a there's a disappointing lack of ankle pivot.

The stock right hand has a space carved out of it that the stock handle can slide into.  If you prefer bigger hands, the stock hands simply pop off the ball joints in the wrists, and the stock handle slides right out of the gunpod.  Replace it with the bigger handle, which is made for the alternate hands.  The alternate hands are kind of rubbery so the fingers bend around the handle with the index finger hooking into the trigger guard.

As long as you're swapping parts, the wings use c-clips to grab rods inside of the back.  You can yank them off and replacement them smaller ones that are fused together as one solid piece.  These shorter wings are a better match for Kawamori's line art.

And, as I said, the VF-1J comes with chest and neck fillers, like the Yamato/Arcadia ones.  The chest fillers slide over the thin flat bits inside the chest, while the neck filler fits in the gap behind the Battroid head but also over some small gaps near the front of the chest.  The neck filler has the door molded into it, but there's no alternate one with an open door.

If you remove the handle from the gunpod and collapse it, you'll find that there's a bit that's left with a tab.  That tab can grab a slot on the outside of the Battroid's right arm.  What's more, the FAST pack armor for the right arm has the same slot, allowing for the same same gunpod storage in Super or Strike mode.

Speaking of Super/Strike mode, the leg armor works a lot like the Yamato/Arcadia.  First you use some tabs to connect the calf armor to the back of the leg, then pegs on the calf armor hold the armor in place on the side of the leg.  The leg armor does not have a removable cover.  The arm armor is a bit different, though.  First it has a tab that goes into the back of the arm, then and another that kind of wraps over the lip of the arm near the elbow more like the old chunky monkeys.

The boosters connect to the backpack directly, without the need for a middle part.  They have tabs that plug into slots on the sides of the backpack, with an additional tab that braces against the inner edge of the backpack.  The rear engine cover does come off like the Yamato/Arcadia, but the front missile cover does not.  Instead, the entire front section can be pulled off and replaced with the Strike cannon.  The cannon is, of course, hinged so it can angle and fire over the Battroid's shoulder.

As for the GBP armor, first you need to remove the tip of the nose.  The hip amor sits over the intakes, but it doesn't lock onto them.  Rather, the backs of the hip armor have slots that fit tabs on the inside of the back behind the hips.  The pelvis armor is actually four parts; slide the back over the Battroid's butt, then the front slides over to connect to it and capture the hips and part of the nose.  The side skirts plug onto the sides.  The feet armor isn't so much armor as it is parts that mimic the Battroid's regular feet but make them look bigger, and they just slide over the front and back of the feet.

The shoulder armor simply slides over the Battroid's shoulders.  The boosters clip into the backpack in a way that's very similar to the Super pack.  For the arm armor, first you fold away the Battroid's hands, then you slide the back of the arm on and capture the forearm with the front of the arm.  Again, the hands are on ball joints, so if you want him to hold his gunpod you'll have to swap out a fist and use the largest gunpod handle.

The leg armor is actually four pieces per leg.  The back of the legs use the same tabs and slots as the Super pack, and the outside of the armor plugs into the back of the leg the same way.  But then the front of the leg armor plugs onto tabs on the outer leg armor, and you fully enclose the Battroid's leg by using four tabs on the inner armor piece to plug it into slots on the front and back armor pieces.  Finish the whole thing off by attaching the chest armor, which simply uses hooks to grab the gaps in the top of the Battroid's chest.

The GPB armor has missiles on the hips and forearms, plus doors on the outside of the legs, the backs of the legs, both sides of the chest, and inside both shoulders.  For whatever reason the missiles are already inside everything but the shoulders, where they're on flaps in the parts tray.  If you want you can even display the GBP Valkyrie post missile-spam.  The missiles in the forearms and hips can be removed.  The racks in the sides of the legs come out, then you can use the parts separator to push the missiles out of the racks.  The ones in the shoulders, chest, and backs of the legs are molded in, so you have to remove the entire panel.  There are replacement empty panels you can put into those spaces instead.

One thing to note about the Super/Strike packs and GBP armor... there are no special modifications to these Valkyries.  As near as I can tell, all the HMR VF-1s have the same slots on the arms, legs, and backpack, and the tip of the nose comes off on all of them.  There's nothing stopping you from using the FAST packs or GBP armor on other HMR VF-1s.  Heck, if you buy another VF-1 Strike Valkyrie you could even mix and match parts to make one Super Valkyrie and one double Strike.

Here's a quick look at Gerwalk mode.  I was able to transform the VF-1S from Battroid to Gerwalk with the FAST packs on.  Not going to go into a ton of detail here- while Gerwalk is obviously an important mode, it's still an intermediate step between Battroid and Fighter, and we'll cover the look and accessories more extensively in Fighter mode.

So, yeah, Fighter mode.  I mean, Kawamori worked out how the VF-1 transformed, so there's not a lot of room for deviation.  If you've transformed the Yamato/Arcadia, you've already done 95% of the HMR already.  The only biggest difference is in the shoulders.  Rather than fold in and swivel together to get between the legs, the HMR's shoulders swivel at the ball joint, untab from the back, move backward on sliders just to clear the intakes, double hinge inward so the arms meet, and then forward again.  It's slightly more finnicky, since even slid out there's not a lot of room to move the arms around the hips, plus the arms are connected to the sliders via c-clips that can be a bit frustrating to clip back on if they pop off.  The only other differences worth mentioning are that the swing bar for the legs just uses a pair of tabs to plug into the bottom of the nose in Battroid, so you simply unplug it to move the legs, no flaps involved.  Also, the heat shield doesn't slide up into the chest.  You have to pull it off completely, then replace it with a separate canopy part.

It's not exactly a transformation difference, the HMR VF-1s do not have landing gear inside the nose or legs.  If you want landing gear on them, you have top pry off little flaps to reveal some indents with holes.  The landing gear partsforms on by plugging into those holes.

Partsforming aside, everything I said about the Battroid applies to the Fighter.  There's plenty of molded and painted details that make the HMR VF-1s look premium despite their small size.  Everything fits together solidly, nothing's flopping around.  If I dare say so, I think the heads are even tucked in a bit better than the Yamato/Arcadia.

Both VF-1s came with pilots already in their seats.  Despite being super tiny they're painted fairly well, with the VF-1S coming with a Roy in the DYRL-style flight suit and the VF-1J coming with Hikaru in his TV flight suit.  To insert or remove the pilots, you have to remove the entire canopy; it doesn't open.  The front of the hips can me removed and replaced with exposed intake fans for atmospheric flight.

And if you want to arm them up in fighter mode, you can install the gunpod the same way you did in Battroid mode, using the tab into the right arm.  Missiles plug into the bottoms of the wings in a manner identical to the Yamato/Arcadia, but with one caveat... the regular wings are smooth on the underside, no holes to plug into.  So you gotta yank them off and replace them with ones that are identical, save for the fact that they do have holes underneath.  Honestly, I'm not sure what's stopping you from leaving the wings with holes on all the time; it's how the Yamato/Arcadia's are.

You can transform the VF-1 with the FAST packs on.  The tabs that lock the legs into the fuselage plug into identical slots on the leg armor, and tabs on the inside of the legs that usually tab into the arms  tab into the arm armor instead.

I really like the Hi-Metal R VF-1s.  It might not be fair to judge the Arcadia by a KO, but I'm going to do it anyway and suggest that I honestly think the build quality is better on the HMR.  The HMR's while still priced like a premium adult collectible, is also more affordable, which makes buying repaints and variants a lot more tempting, plus the smaller size means you'll likely have more shelf space to display those variants.  I myself intend to pick up Max's VF-1A at the very least.

That said, I think my biggest gripes with the HMR VF-1 is that it's a tad too small.  To compare to a Transformer, it's roughly a short Voyager/tall Deluxe in size (of course, given that the VF-1 is supposed to be significantly smaller than an F-14 or F-15, maybe it's not so out of place with Starscream and Maverick here).  If the HMR was just a bit bigger (but still well shy of 1/60) perhaps we could still have enjoyed a quality build in a relatively small package but without the need for partsforming.  Even with the partsforming, the HMR VF-1 is my favorite VF-1 toy (though I've yet to experience Bandai's DX Chogokin or ThreeZero's... whatever they're calling their line).

Nice review and welcome to the craze! I think that last picture says it all when comparing Macross figures to Transformers🤣

All jokes aside, I like and collect both but even back in the day, when I got my hands on the Chunky Monkey, I knew that it was leagues better than any Transformer toy I ever had and quickly moved on to Macross for the better toys and media. To be fair to Transformers, the Chunky ended up being the best toy of all time that nothing has really surpassed, IMO so it's tough competition.

I am curious and surprised about your statement that HMR is significantly better quality than the KO Yamato/Arcadia. I don't have a KO Yamacadia VF-1 myself but my understanding is they are noticeably KO in terms of lower quality (unlike many Transformer KOs that are often better quality than originals) but I didn't think they were that much lower. To put in perspective, I think the Yamato/Arcadia Valks in general are arguably the best quality Valks made to this day. There are some give and takes with the newer DX and 3Z (that I don't have to know for sure), but I think it's overall widely agreed that the Arcadia fit and finish has been unmatched in Valk toys. So for them to be comparable and better than DX in many ways and for the KO to be worse than HMR to you is a big difference and if true, I'm kind of glad I never got the KO Angel Bird and CF VF-1s I ordered years ago. I do have a set of KO clear super parts and while they are not as good as original, they aren't that bad and good enough to serve their purpose.

1 hour ago, jenius said:

The box art is good... but why do the VFs have a yellow outline around them?

It's their special pinpoint barrier😆

4 hours ago, grogall said:

So I caved and got one for 360,000 Yen.... But not opening it since I don't have gloves. 🤪

 

What a deal!🤣

11 hours ago, PointBlankSniper said:

Everyone else seems to have had quick responses from them. Idk why it seems like it's just me getting pulled and thrown into non regular response proceedures. I put in the surface request on top of the original shipping confirmation, and haven't heard back for either, so I assume I'm in for another month long reply loop again. I think it's been over two months since the thing released, of course there's no hurry. 🙃

Tbf, I go for slow shipping through national posts whenever possible. They tend to do a better job for the lesser cost and more convenient for me to pick up from, than expensive couriers with their additional brokerage extortion fees around here.

So, I just checked and my email correspondence with them took 2 days total including their notice that my item was ready, me asking them for Surface option, them responding that they could with the quote, me confirming I wanted to use that method and them sending an updated invoice.

There are currently some holidays over there so maybe that has something to do with your delays?

3 minutes ago, Chronocidal said:

Maybe crossed wires and thinking of the VF-0S HMR Max?

But yeah, they'll do weird one-off schemes sometimes, but I'm sure it's dependent on how well the base mold has sold.  The ridiculous abundance of YF-29 repaints is honestly staggering compared with everything else.

Oh yeah, that's it. I knew there was something of his.

1 minute ago, twich said:

YF-29 Max is from second Macross Delta Movie, so it is very much canon.

Twich

Thanks for the reminder. For some reason I thought it was something else. Gotta watch again when it comes to D+.

6 hours ago, PointBlankSniper said:

Well, tbf, all that stuff is kind of non canon or outsourced designs. Bandai pretty much only deals in mainstream canon when it's not gundams.

Even then, they won't even complete a line up of all the mechs from any specific gundam show. Even one offs for very popular designs from their own side stories is a big maybe at best.

There's also weird stories of japanese copyright issues too. A game studio or magazine, or even just a seperate department of the same company, could tangle up IP ownership and stop someone else from using a design somewhere down the line. Even anime cannot legally use their own titles after a season ends. That's where you get weird titles with extra exclamation marks or random new wording when a new season comes out. Gintama for example, with all the seasons full of punctuation marks in their titiles, had to even be "moved to a whole new animation studio" in name at some point, because of strange legalities. They had to move from Sunrise to Bandai Namco Pictures, just to make a sequel with the exact same staff. Both studios are still just under Bandai Namco, so none of this makes sense to the average sane person.

Gundam sentinel for example is supposedly written and therefore owned by a magazine. So everytime the ExS Gundam is in a game, the pilot has to be faceless, because Bandai has no rights to him.

I'm sure Hasegawa is willing to jump through all sorts of funny hoops to get a niche model kit out, but Bandai is too big a boat to expect navigating such niche matters for IP that isn't even their own, as much as I'd like to see them do it.

They've done a few non-canon valks. 

YF-29 Max, VF-1S Messer, Anniversary VF-1J,... I'm sure I'm forgetting more.

9 hours ago, PointBlankSniper said:

Thanks.

Now I'm tempted to ask for it, but the risk of extending this loop of multi month correspondence... I wonder if I can intercept my own email, since they check email in large batches at a time it seems. Maybe I'll ask anyway, if they haven't magically responded very fast this time.

I think they responded fairly quickly but I'd have to check my emails. But since you're going for surface shipping, no hurry right?😜