HardlyNever

The VF-31 toys have ratcheted hips, where as the vf-25 and yf-29 renewals did not. I'm not totally sure the ratcheted hips were confirmed for this re-issue, though. But I haven't been following every update closely.

Got on at Nin-nin game. Hopefully this one won't be too hard to secure once the dust settles.

RIP AmiAmi

Yeah, I'm cautiously optimistic that this one won't be too rough. There's also a decent chance it ends up like DX VF-1A Max, where the pre-order was ridiculous, but it was pretty easily obtainable at release. And now we're talking like the Tamarians from Star Trek:

A bit confused here. Is this a second run, with hopefully no leg problems? Arcadia's page doesn't mention it. Why is it a good bit cheaper than the first run, I wonder. I am tempted, though...

The blue is for the Max 1A that hasn't been released yet, either (just teased). Technically DYRL Kakizaki hasn't been released either, but there has been a preorder. The black is indeed intended for Roy, who hasn't really been teased yet (we haven't actually seen a Roy VF-1S in plastic yet). The chances of them NOT making him at some point are ridiculously low. So if you plan on getting one, buy enough fast packs accordingly. The emblem that is "missing" is the red 011 for Hikaru 1A. The included red one is intended for Hikaru 1S. Maybe Bandai will include the correct emblem with the Hikaru 1A; maybe they won't care and just expect us to use the red one we already have.

I don't have any YF-29s, so I'd probably buy this one. Seems like they've been teasing this one for a while. Will be interesting to see what the PO madness looks like on this, since it is a reissue(more or less) of a pretty old mold.

Could be. The only things I've seen associated so far are the VF-1s and the YF-19 (that sign was in a display with the 1/48 Hikaru VF-1J and the 1/60 YF-19). There is a YF-19 video with the "VALKYRIE PROJECT" branding: So 1/48 and 1/60 could be the "2 sizes." But honestly, that sign is kind of hard to parse, even with (because of?) machine translation. Oddly, their yf-21 tease didn't seem to have any "VALKYRIE PROJECT" branding, at least not what I saw. But that could be because is still in development. It can be pretty hard to figure out what Bandai is doing, though. They may have dropped the whole "VALKYRIE PROJECT" thing already.

I fee like that might be what VALKYRIE PROJECT is about. Creating DX versions of the most iconic valks in the Macross franchise. But they really haven't said much about it outside of just including that logo in some displays, so maybe I'm reading too much into it. Maybe it only pertains the the VF-1.

Honestly, if it isn't a J, A or S variant, I don't think we'll get it in this line. If it never made an appearance in the TV show or movie, we won't get it in this line. I think of this as basically a "greatest hits" of VF-1s with maybe a few extra (like Kakizaki) thrown in to fill out the line. I think we'll get a full DYRL Skull squadron (including Roy). We'll get GBP, either as a separate accessory, or as a bundle, possibly both. TV Kakizaki has a decent shot of being made. Maybe some kind of TV Skull leader package that comes with Roy and Hikaru pilots, and maybe TV super parts? If TV supers get made, M&M 1Js get a lot more likely; otherwise I don't see them getting released. Maybe a CF of some flavor. That's it. Of course, I would like to be wrong on this one.

Yeah, I contacted the seller. He was responsive before, but hasn't said anything now. I don't really want to put him on blast in this thread yet. Looks like he sold several of these recently, so if you recently bought an HMR CF from a member here, and have an extra hard point wing(and are missing a non-hardpoint wing), hit me up I guess.

I bought a couple of HMR CFs used. One is fine, but one of them had been opened, and I got two non-hardpoint right wings, and no left wing with hard points. Is it possible this is a Bandai error (has this happened to anyone else), or is this on the seller? I know Bandai messed up with the DYRL Hikaru 1A leg armors, but I don't recall there being an issue with the CF release.

HMR is definitely the line that grows on you as time goes on. I also think it might be a line that never really gets "replaced" in the future. I wish I could get more regults for non-insane prices, when they come up at all. I still kick myself for not getting more than 1 missile set back when they were on pre-order. I'm really hoping for some more enemy mecha to fill out the "bad guy" ranks. I'd probably buy 2 or more of any enemy mecha they make going forward.

For my 3 sets, they wanted just over $100 USD for UPS shipping. I'm on the east coast, but New York would probably be a bit cheaper. I turned it down, but I'm seriously considering it now. This is my last outstanding order anywhere, and I kind of want to be done with it. It feels like I'm paying a ransom, though...

Thanks everyone for checking. It looks like this is probably another dead end; the fact that you have to open the box and also know that the display stand is original to that toy is kind of a problem to begin with. It might be possible that 2111861 is on Alto re-issue stands; it could be that it is on all Alto release stands. It could be that there are several possible numbers that are there, and we don't know what they mean at all. No clue what is going on with the white dots; or whether they mean anything at all. Without more data points, I don't think we could make any kind of definitive statement. I was also a little interested in the "Bandai 2011" year on there, but I'm assuming everyone's says that as well. Do even later release stands say "Bandai 2011" on them? I know they stopped putting that text on there, at some point.

I stared with this "research" with the hopes of finding a way to tell the difference between initial releases and reissues for Alto and Ozma, especially on the outside of the box, to help people out when shopping online. Unfortunately, I don't think I have anything else beyond what I posted before, regarding that. I'm not especially interested in the anniversary stickers themselves; they were just a possible means to an end. Unless some new info is found, I don't think I'll find a way to tell the difference between an initial release Alto and a reissue, at least on the outside of the box. There are some numbers on the inside of the box, possibly serial numbers for the box, that with enough data and/or info from Bandai, we could possibly work out which toys are which. I'm not dedicated enough to bother with any of that. So for now, I'll just have to call it. I did notice one kind of strange thing, though. For some reason Bandai put another copyright notice on the display arm (which I haven't noticed in their later DXs). And this kind of piqued my curiosity, even though it doesn't really help with my initial goal. There is also what could be a serial number on there. Does everyone's display arm say "Bandai 2011" on it, as well?

Thanks for checking. Honestly, I have a few qualms about relying on the 30th anniversary sticker to date things, but in the absence of anything else, it's probably the best we have to go by in most cases. I doubt people have receipts and the like from that long ago, and when shopping online you'll be lucky to get a picture of the actual box you're going to buy. Edit: I continued going further down this rabbit hole, and I'm probably losing my mind. The only thing I feel comfortable saying regarding initial releases versus reissues is: If it is an Ozma with a 30th anniversary sticker on the box, it is (probably) an initial 2011 release. If it is an Ozma without a 30th anniversary sticker, it is (probably) a 2014 reissue. I've seen enough pictures of boxes with and without stickers for that particular release to be comfortable with that statement. I'm pretty sure even the 2014 reissue will say "Bandai 2011" in the corner. Anything outside of that is too hard to tell. I think the Michael 25G and Luca RVF releases (as well as some other products) also had stickers, but they didn't get reissued, so it doesn't really matter. For Alto, at this point I don't think any of his releases were supposed to have 30th anniversary stickers on them (side note: the stickers are a mind screw of their own, but that's a separate topic). I haven't seen enough (any) pictures that I trust of an Alto renewal with a 30th anniversary sticker on the box. I'm also not sure that he got more than one reissue, as the official Bandai page only lists the 2011 and 2014 releases, while anymoon also includes a 2013 release for Alto. I'm still digging into this a little more, probably to the detriment of my sanity. I doubt I'll actually find a way to tell the difference between an initial release Alto and a reissue (again, barring outside documentation), but there are still a few avenues I want to check. If anyone has a legit Alto renewal with either a 30th anniversary sticker (that came like that), or a non-"Bandai 2011"copyright in the corner, that would be helpful. Being the internet, those kinds of things wouldn't be that hard to fake though, so I'm still going to be skeptical.

So I ended up going down a bit of a rabbit hole with all this; I'll spare all the details, but what I've ended up concluding is that there is basically always a Big West copyright date on all official Macross releases (Bandai or otherwise), that pertains to the year the show/movie that product is related to came out, which makes sense. I'm sure somewhere out there are exceptions to this rule, but that really isn't important regarding this. Then Bandai has their own copyright notice on there, that doesn't always have a year. When it does have a year, though, that year is when that product was released (as opposed to say, the year that mold was copyrighted). There doesn't seem to be a lot of rhyme or reason as to when Bandai includes a year on there and when they don't, but they did include a year on the VF-25F renewal that I have. The catch with all this is I don't actually have any Bandai reissues (of any variety) at hand. So it might be possible that they don't change anything at all about the box (including the copyright year) when they do a reissue. So does anyone have an Alto and/or Ozma vf-25 reissue that they know for certain was a reissue , and can they check the date on the corner of the box?

Is there anyway to tell the difference between a first and later release Alto or Ozma custom? I'm talking about the renewals here (not version one); it looks like there was a first release in 2011, then reissues in 2013 and 2014. Does the re-issue box say 2013/2014 on it? Or do they all say 2011?

Kinda funny, I'm not really a big Tim Burton fan, but my wife loves Nightmare Before Christmas (I kinda like it too). Somehow one of my display cases has ended up like this:

If you're not going for a full return/refund, it really couldn't hurt to ask for more. I doubt they would blacklist you just for asking for more (nicely). I wouldn't count on getting more than they offered, though. Can't really say what the appropriate amount is, but I just had a similar situation with a transaction with another member here on a similarly priced valk. Nothing was broken, but it wasn't in quite as good of condition as he initially advertised, and we settled on me getting $25 back, which I thought was fair. So I think they are in the right ballpark, but maybe a little low, especially considering something was actually broken (but at least glued). Personally, it wouldn't bother me that much, but I would want a little money back just on the principle.

In terms of screen-to-toy accuracy, I think the VF-31 is hard to beat. Not my favorite design, but definitely screen accurate.

Thanks to @BluprinT for the great transaction:

Something something "parallel thinking"