DYRL VF-1S

Word. Thanks for taking the time to expound! I certainly appreciate the history and your involvement in it.

Very true my friend. I don't complain about it because I'm fortunate to be able to still collect these, ya know? But, looking forward to more announcements from Arcadia and Bandai when they come. Nora would be awesome, but honestly, I'd even love it if they started going back to some of their VF-1 Premium releases and amped them up with the weathering and paneling. They could do that without the need for new molds if they wanted.

So. Which one of you awesome customizers are gonna create a 1/55 VF-1A version like this? Inquiring minds want to know.

Arcadia too? (Which wouldn't surprise me)

Pretty sure they showed a displayed prototype of Nora over the past year if memory serves correct. Wouldn't surprise me at all.

Totally agree! I was just making a point (hopefully in a respectful way) of how if you're going to apply logic to one idea, you can't just single it out. You have to apply it to all similar things. And that is quite extreme when we just had a barrage of comments on something sooo similar in the last page. So yeah. I'm with ya brotha! I guess it's a bit misleading when I say I'm all for keeping the topic strict. What I should say is that whatever the Mods want to do is fine by me. HA.

Hey man, I'm all about keeping threads on topic (just look at my comments from time to time on 1/48 DX thread). Nothing drives me more crazy than that. But to be fair, and since you're not a moderator, what Sqidd inquired about was very on topic - no more off topic than you and others reminiscing on the custom parts for 1/55 done by several members in the past (and many who are no longer active). I'm sure he would create a new thread if it ever materialized. And a couple people have already showed interest in furthering convo here. Anyway, I'm not being confrontational about it, but voicing an opinion. If you want to keep things strictly on topic (which I'm all for,) I'd ask that you and others move the reminiscing of custom parts from the past to its own thread as well and keep legit releases and recognized KOs to the topic here. Just giving perspective because we have a good community here and I happen to be a big fan of reading your input as well as Sqidds.

Haha I'm with ya! I don't disagree with any of that. For all we know, the Macross DX line gets all the "early in career" designers who cut their teeth on it. We all know that other lines bring in the bucks for them like Gundam and DBZ, etc. We're over here trying to decode intent and design when it really could be F'ups to your point LOL.

I respect your opinion on this and appreciate your approach to the topic. I know it might seem counterproductive but I think a good way to explain it is the old adage "less is more." Most design goes through a process that includes understanding your target audience (as well as outside of your audience,) and then streamlining the design to meet budgetary restrictions or needs. Trust me, most products or even intangibles such as software could have waaaay more features than do. It's not a design limitation but a balance of not over complicating the experience and keeping with budget. "Feature creep" is a term used to describe how some designers stack on incremental features to improve a design and in turn over complicating the experience. I personally feel like this is what Yamato did with their SSPs. Are they cool? Sure, to look at once. I never use them though. It seems to me that Bandai thought it unnecessary even if it meant losing a cool factor. Bandai proved they could design the SSPs in a similar fashion as Yamato when they displayed prototype drawings, etc. before the DX 1J released. They decided not to move forward with it for whatever reason. I'm just explaining why that action doesn't surprise me. And my logic is in the proof that people are still buying the SSPs.

I find it to be a simple explanation - they already had the molds when they ditched the design for whatever fiscal reason they decided to ditch it for. They didn't complete the design. It didn't make sense to create new molds nor to offer a fully functional SSP that exposed the parts. That's my best guess. But that's where my expertise/educated guess ends because we just don't have all of the details available to us, ya know? I got nothing but Macross love for ya Treatment, but if you aggressively challenge my opinion, I'll aggressively defend it. No tangents going on here - just discussion.

Oh and just in case you aren't familiar with the term "feature creep:" https://lmgtfy.app/?q="feature+creep"

Do you know much about design? Like, are you a subject matter expert? I know what I'm talking about (albeit, I meant to say "feature creep" and revised my post to reflect that). My profession is to communicate design. Any engineers, designers or UX designers care to comment? It's not a matter of design failure at all. As you pointed out, they are capable of the design and have displayed it as such. You also see detail when prying open as you mentioned. Am I incorrect in stating that most people on this board who own SSPs from the 1/48 Yamato also own SSPs from Bandai for the DX - all while knowing that they didn't have the same features as Yammies? Bandai chose to be light on SSP features because it wasn't necessary. Even if end users complain, we still buy them. What we don't have insight to is what budget Bandai allocates to the DX line for Macross. They obviously took resources that could've been spent on (what I would call) overly designed SSPs and used them to deliver something else in the line. For all we know, something we really enjoy about the DX line is due to that very thing.

Yup, design is an interesting beast. To me, the SSPs of the Yammies are simply a matter of feature creep. Most of it is so unnecessary. And honestly, how often does anyone here actually use it? What, like maybe one Valk armed with SSPs that show the inside for a photo or one for display? If I'm Bandai, I realized that early on and put my design dollars somewhere else. The fact is this: Most of you own the SSPs from Bandai if you own them from Yamato 1/48s. What does Bandai care as long as you're buying them? What tips the scale is if the lack of design means you won't buy them. Otherwise, they deemed another feature more important and placed resources on that priority. It's not a matter of not being able to design something vastly improved over Yamato; it's a matter of weighing the investment against return on investment based on budget.

Nice! And didn’t Netflix do new voice actors for their version? This says original eps. I wonder if that retains the original voice overs?

Can't wait to see!! Dude. Couldn't agree more. I don't contribute anything from a custom standpoint, but I love watching you and others post stuff and trade notes. It's the same appreciation I have for Art. I'm a creative (music, writing, etc.) but I'm not an artist. I understand many of the mediums in art. I understand a broad approach to art. I just can't execute on it myself. But I admire and appreciate it with an understanding of it. That's how this is for me. And btw, killer shots of custom parts and the valk!

Keeping my fingers crossed! Ok. I actually owned the first reissue a long time after release because it was a decent back-tax-price. But didn’t really care about the heatshield. Now all this talk reminded me that I may want the Origin version after all. So you know there’s that and stuff. Nice man!! I’m always in awe of you guys who have been collecting for long. My money went to a divorce and a bachelor life in the early 00’s so I missed a good 15 years of collecting.

I don’t believe you. I think @sqidd was just clarifying and validating your statement since there was an ask for specifics on heat shields. I know I left that clarification out by mistake for example.

Dude that Gerwalk pose on the flight stand is siiiiick

Yes, a TV SDF-1 would be awesome Though I would quite like a DX version of that too

*Sigh* A man can dream... LOL

I wish they would just jump start the line again. Do reissues again with full tampo this time. Make sure to reissue DYRL VF-1S Strike, VE-1 and VT-1. And then start filling in the gaps of SDFM and DYRL that weren't previously there. Hell, you could even design a stand this time. I would purchase soooo many. You hear that Bandai??? Long live the Chunky Monkey!

I literally already answered this. There are only two pages in this thread. Go back. One page. Look.