Angesdad

His observation of “The lock on the left ankle is loose” is also seen on my Ozma, it does engage but pops out of furthest extension point a bit too easily.🧐

Will Arcadia address the leg popping issue ball joint at the hips?🧐

Not sure if the 2 screws instead of 3 is actually the culprit but I did notice the legs on my Ozma is satisfyingly firm. You hold it horizontally and the legs don’t droop down against gravity. At least not as much. The same for the shoulders, no sagging out of the box and I wonder if they went full metal ball on the shoulder too. Overall the whole figure feels more solid. Wasn’t the case with Alto rerelease which should have come with a Philips screwdriver in the blister.😁 If I was to nitpick, one of the diecast ankles on mine that you pull out to extend is on the loose side that I am not getting a satisfying click into position.

I second your sentiment. Just had my extra Ozma shipped from YYK and the shipping was indeed higher than usual at 9600 yen via Fedex. From the shipping dimensions noted on FedEx, I am certain It comes in a shipping box just big enough to accommodate the figure and then some packing material. No over packaging lives here that affects such an extravagant shipping. Holiday rate in effect or am I being ripped off by Ryota-san? On the other hand, Hobby Genki shipped me at a very reasonable rate, however the outer shipping box was cardboard pieces slapped together with ZERO room for protection. A couple corners dented, it’s pissing me off to see such business practice and negligence, is 40,000 yen some pocket change to these people?

Yes it does. NNG blacklisted me because I made them refund for an order that never seemed to get fulfilled in timely fashion. This is when DX VF-1 armored released. Go figure.😎

Waiting for someone posts a review I’d like to see how they treated “matte” surface finish for the armor parts.😎

The secondary market price (Mandarake) for a missile pack has gone up to 22k yen, the same as VF-31J super…insane.

Maybe the new Ozma kit released next month will inspire me to top coat Alto’s down the road, for now I put it up for the first time and it is glorious! the bunny gal is for scale comparison purposes only.😜

That is a beautiful semi gloss finish😍 I should have been more specific, the metallic finish of my inquiry was on the silver radiator fin things middle of the boosters. For sure I am staying away from applying matte coat as it will pretty much flatten metallic feel and make it look grey almost, done it before swore I’d never do it again. 🤣 As for what @David Hingtgen mentioned, durability could be an issue however if you clean it well oil free prior to top coat, it should be okay?!

Hey gang I’ve finally gotten my paws on an armoured parts for Alto after stalking Mandarake for quite some time now, an awesome kit but I see that the grey plastic is real glossy for my taste. The red looks right. Has anyone tried top coat treatment on this particular armour set, If so does the metallic paint on the boosters get dull and lose its metallic sheen thus looking like matte grey? Your input is much appreciated.😊

I ended up fixing the bent fin myself, do be careful with the amount of time and heat you apply to the fin because it tends to curl up in different places that you don’t want.😂 I filed and sanded a bit to fix the wonky curvature, after a coat of top coat it was good enough for me to ignore it and keep the toy.

I set it up in my display case and shut the closet door with it in. The excitement went away rather quickly and that seems to help with any joint problems.

Ended up with 3, one was bent like my attitude, so 33% chance of raining tears for me.🤣

Cool looking runway there, did you make it? your photos look amazing as always!😘

My VT-1 just came in the mail this afternoon. The very first thing I did was shaking the box up and down side to side to hear any broken pieces bouncing around. - Sadly enough that is a testament to Bandai’s quality control today. Side note, this was my virgin order from YYK and contrary to all the stigma associated with former NY, they came through for me no problem with a kind of packaging that surpasses HLJ’s in the amount of bubble wraps and papers used to protect your valuable toy over the Pacific. +1 for YYK.

Hot water did not work for me. I put mine in boiling water expecting it to soften like pvc figures but it did not move much, if any. Think the part is ABS that you need to go hotter well above water boiling temp to manipulate it. Just working up the courage to give it a shot again with a heat gun, but I’d rather play with my VT-1 received today.

Really pissed off about the outcome of my inquiry to HLJ, especially when I've been nothing but patient.

That looks organic as the YF-21 should be.

Hi @MKT, thanks for sharing pictures of someone actually getting support from HLJ. In their recent reply mentioned they'd request the replacement from the supplier so at least they did not spoon-feed me 'falling into quality variance' bs. Well, I am being patient and hopeful.

Hey @MKT, have you received any updates? I've submitted my ticket earlier in the month nothing but radio silence so far. I assume a good number of people purchased from HLJ were affected by the bent head lasers so possibly they're waiting on everyone with the defect and do a batch claim to their supplier all at once.

Hey @Shawn, how did you manage to take the head off? Does it just pop off if you pull on it or?

The shoulder joints on mine were also excessively tight moving up and down sideways. I applied some 50 wt shock oil, slowly expanding the range working the joint and now at least it doesn’t feel like i am going to rip the shoulder off when articulated.

I am just hopeful no head laser if it's got any comes bent outta box.

Hey @Lolicon, hope you get yours intact. I am really not sure whether it is a transit damage or some kind of mishab down at the assembly/packaging line. The clamshell is solid and pushing it down I doubt will cause the damage we're witnessing. Either way a secure packaging such as AmiAmi's for example with ample space on top will surely help you leave out one of the possible causes.

Curiosity killed the cat, has anyone here preordered from HLJ received undamaged straight antenna? Just looking to see if there’s a pattern forming here.