Sanity is Optional

Nope, gone now.

Don't suppose you'd be willing to share the files? That looks great, and much lower profile than the default Bandai stand.

Nice work!

Honestly for most aircraft I just go with COBI, they do quite good work and aren't averse to military kits. Also they have a lot of very nice slopes and curves, which helps them get the shapes done well.

Same: the PF Arcadia I worry about the paint, and the non I worry about the legs.

Ah, right, DYRL form just not DYRL colors.

Got myself another SDF-1 figure. Box is a bit dinged, but inside looks great.

A bit higher than my order from e-knight media, but may as well put in a backup pre-order when it's this easy.

Broken pin joints strike again.

Not sure Resin is a great idea for these, resin tends to be harder and more brittle than the original plastic. Since these flex a bit, you may just end up with resin shards in short order.

I'ma just skip this one. I've got 3 Arcadias, a Yamato, a Bandai Advance, and 4 of the previous Bandai YF-19 already.

The proper term, speaking as a mechanical engineer, is Bad Tolerancing. With injection molded parts, the variance is low; so the driving factors are the tolerances of the molds themselves, and the shrinkage of the material.

Yamato had their own design issues, like their line-wide pin related breakage issues, or the problems with fast-pack attachment (secure, but also prone to breakages). It's a design philosophy, very secure connections tend to put more stress on parts and can cause more wear over time. I do think they went a bit too loose with the arm connections in VF-1 fighter, but frankly doing those as pure friction fits was asking for trouble without shaving molds after a test-run to fine-tune the tolerances (something I believe they only do for in-house molds).

The VF-1 is a lot simpler than the VF-25, and unlike their plastic models (which tend to have amazingly good tolerances) the DX Chogokin line is not produced in their in-house Japanese plants I believe. Personally I've found the VF-25 Renewal line are quite sturdy and hold together well, aside from the battroid crotch issues, and so long as you aren't using Tornado/Armored packs (as they're huge and heavy).

It's not nearly that easy, especially with how many pieces there are in these figures. Tolerances add up across every connection, and even 0.001" adds up when there's a bunch of pivots, hinges, and sliders between two sides of a connection.

The margins and such are why I did my only Macross 3D Modeling (missilepod gunpod replacement for VF-31) as a hobby thing, and then promptly just put the files up for free, and on shapeways at cost. More power to you guys, for being able to keep up with the business side of things, even temporarily.

Molds degrade over time, this could be an issue with sub-par molds, or it could be an issue with molds aging and tolerances getting worse.

I'd love to see a return of the MG-level 1/72 transforming kits, but it seems Bandai's more going for the 1/100 parts-forming ones. As far as Chogokin and Hi-Metal go, they're pretty comparable to the Gundam Metal Build and Metal Robot Spirits lines. Not sure we'll ever get something like the Robot Spirits or HG lines unless it's completely non-transforming.

Speaking from an engineering perspective, they probably didn't want to have to redesign the bracket and make new moulds. Yes, that would be required, clear plastic is different, generally more brittle, and would likely snap if they just re-made the existing ones in clear.

G no Reconguista was pretty freaking awful, probably the worst anime I've actually watched all of. No character consistency whatsoever.

When it comes to the YF-21/VF-22, I think a parts-former is probably the best solution. Maybe in the new Bandai HG 1/100 line alongside the YF-19 and YF-29. It's just got too much anime magic (before even mentioning the morphing wings) to ever be made into a perfect transformation toy without at least one mode suffering.

I mean...if I ended up with some cool custom VF figures/kits, I'd be kinda ok with that? I'd still prefer a good show, but I'd take a bad show with lots of interesting merch over say Delta.

I think the one I got from AE ended up under $175 shipped. Definitely high for an HMR.

V-tubers and TikTok influencers? God, I really hope not.

Adjust for inflation and exchange rates, and it's not quite as bad. Right now something selling for ¥20,000 only ends up at $145 on my CC statement.