dafob

Thanks for the tip. I checked Jungle every now and then but not as often as I should. As for the 1/48 TV Max on eBay: I've been lucky enough so far to get most of the valks at "reasonable" prices. I'm now at the point where I'm hitting the "rarer" ones and have been paying exorbitant prices (YF-21, VF-11B, VF-1D, VT-1). I've been avoiding that 1/48 TV Max listed on eBay hoping I could find it cheaper elsewhere but I'm about to give in soon. I think you and I should go to rehab together and seek help for this addiction.

Where did you find TV VF-1A Max and Kakizaki? I've been searching high and low for those 2, in either 1/48 or 1/60, and have come up empty. I even had an easier time finding a VT-1 Super Ostrich (sale pending). After seeing your posts, I feel a LOT better. Finally, someone who has gone even more overboard than me. I just started collecting since X-mas and in less than 4 months have over 25 valks in both 1/48 and 1/60 scale (mainly thanks to the help of the many fine folks on this site). I'm only going for the main canon valks though, from SDF and MacPlus. The two TV Max and Kakizaki are the only ones I still don't have. Someone posted these two about a month ago here (at awesome prices) but I missed it by an hour (that's what I get for spending time w/ the wife and kids... lol). Congrats on the collection, though. Looks like it's shaping out to be a great one.

The tail piece can be tricky. I have 4 Jetfires and 2 of them just fell apart after removing the two screws. But the other two required more work. You have to take a flat tool (like a plastic scribe used to disassemble laptops, or an Exacto blade if you're feeling adventurous) and wedge it loose at the point shown in the pic. But like you said, be careful. One of my Jetfires was probably left in direct sunlight over long periods of time so the plastic has pretty much degraded to the point where the slightest pressure and the plastic cracks/breaks.

I've also had fantastic results whitening all of my G1 Jetfires w/ Developer 40 hair gel (hydrogen peroxide). Stupid me couldn't wait until summer so I did this over a few partly cloudy days in the fall. I would highly recommend waiting for the long summer days. One minor thing I did notice was that it seemed to slightly wear down (lighten) the red stripe on the chest area. I need to whiten some Yamato 1/48's but for whatever reason I'm too chicken to try on real [i.e. expensive] Valks..

Can I be part of the cool "I-overpaid-but-hell-it-was-worth-it" club? Just finally got these two birds recently, from this very forum. Wasn't lucky enough to get the first releases of either one (YF-21 doesn't come w/ fast pack/stand; VF-11B doesn't have flip top box) but just happy to have them in the collection w/o having to pay even higher eVil Bay prices. Anyone wanna sell me a V2 1/60 Super Ostrich?

Thanks for confirming. Wasn't looking forward to hydrogen peroxide treatment in case it was due to yellowing.

Background: I'm new to Macross collecting, even though I've been a fan since I first discovered it on that "other" US show in the mid 80's. I loved Macross Plus but admit that Macross II wasn't up to par and Macross 7 made me lose interest in the franchise by the late 90's. I plan on going back and picking up where I left off w/ Macross Zero and onwards, but for now my main knowledge of the franchise remains at SDF and Macross Plus. My main knowledge of the figures are the 1/55 "chunky monkey". I'm aware of Yamato, Bandai, and Toynami figures in the early 2000's to present but didn't really pay much attention when they were released (due to lack of funds during this time). I've been doing my homework by reading up on the current figures and lines, and their origins. My Question: I recently picked up a bunch of figures, mainly 1/60 Arcadia VF-1's. I read about the 1/48's and how impressive they were so I picked up a loose 1/48 VF-1S Roy. The first thing I noticed was the color of the figure. The Arcadia's are pure bright white in color but the 1/48 seems like a muted gray. The gray color is consistent throughout the figure so I don't think it's due to yellowing where there's inconsistent discoloration. I bought a 1/48 VF-1A this past weekend and its color matches the muted gray. Were the 1/48's originally this off-white color or have these figures' color been ravaged by the 15 years since their release?

LOL. I did realize that about Max, but I've never experienced a Bandai HMR before so wanted to get one to see what it was like. Plus, it was half the price of the Arcadia reissue 1/60. But I think getting the 1/60 VF-1J Max and a 1/60 YF-21 will complete my immediate collection... for now.

Long time lurker, first time poster. Decided it was time to join you fine folks and jump into the world of Macross collecting. I've been wanting to jump in over the past decade but the Yamato prices were exorbitant to me. So I got into Masterpiece Transformers and third party figures. Fast-forward to present time and MP TF/3P figures are well into the $100+ per figure. Now all of a sudden Yamato/Arcadia figures don't seem so expensive anymore. Anyways, I'm no where near at the level that you guys are but these are the figures I've managed to pick up since X-mas. I don't expect to get every figure out there, but I want to at least get the key figures. Down another rabbit hole I go...