PointBlankSniper

Didn't realize it was probably region locked. I'm using JP postal code since I would go through buyee anyway. Just use 100-0001 postal code. IIRC its just the Tokyo Palace so I could be certain of Tokyo availability and shipping rates that buyee would be covered under as well. It's the default listing. And that's just the cheapest one, but there are tons of "new" sellers well below what you screenshotted as well.

Double posted so I'll turn this into announcing Amazon JP is now at 20,520 lol For some reason they are now hiding the listing halfway down the first page too. Maybe bandai made them hide the price freefall?

I think you misread me a little somewhere along the way. I'm also talking about the japanese market. But what I'm saying is, there is more than just the original fans there. They macross has been growinig a lot of new fans there. While bandai is trying to be the second go at the same yamato customers, there are also the fans that didn't have a chance to get in on the toy back then, and don't want to wade into the second hand/scalper scene. They do have a sizeable market of multiple groups at home, so I don't think they care that much about exporting like you assume. What went wrong was their utter disrespect for the IP and the fans going on full display in an assortment of ways all at the same time. I was also thinking of but forgot to mention, I think the HMR releasing in such close proximity also poisoned the well. Unlike gunpla scales where its affordability/roster selection vs details/gimmicks between HG and MG, and the distinct differences are well established and expected, DX and HMR cannibalize each others' main selling point, which is (near) perfect transformation. The differentiator falls into the size and details, but fans of details are then cannibalized by the HG, which even comes with the sound booster. Macross simply isn't big enough for them to play with self cannibalizing product lines, when we are talking about these price tags. DX collectors are even looking at HMR for cues and seeing that bandai most likely wont release the full sound force there, and are becoming sure that there is no chance the collection would be completed in DX, so there's no reason to buy the centerpiece. Bandai shooting themselves and their DX line just continues through the HMR side of things.

I'm not sure how true all that is. I've seen that Fire Bomber is generally revered as a classic band in japanese pop culture, while general macross awareness has spread to girls through frontier and delta music. Mecha hobbies like gunpla, armored core gaming, has been getting popular with japanese girls as well. Had they priced this thing dirt cheap to the point of seemingly subsidized like some main character starter gunpla units, this could have been the gateway drug to DX Macross collecting for a lot of new people with a little nostalgia bait marketing. A one and done super robot looking display piece of a legendary front man should in theory be an easier sell to casual new fans, than something like a whole rainbow airshow military attack team. Instead of not having domestic fans, there seems to be a lot of japanese fans refusing to buy it. Their criticism is the same as we have here. The fans want the full sound force, as seen just above, and accessories like sound boosters. What bandai has shown though, is consistently declining QC, non commitment for accessories and completing rosters, and now, worst of all, fleecing their customers with sky high pricing on a barebones item under the guise of inflation. Unfortunately for them, they miscalculated and priced it out of demand and affordability, while over supplying as if fans are mindless moneybags. Very few bought into their insane pricing, causing the never closing PO listings to reveal the slow sales. Then they reinforce their noncommittal status by rolling out the half baked 17 with no ability to wear a super pack, building a very serious wait and see audience, because it's very clear a hypothetical storm valkyrie and sound boosters would be just as screwed, if those ever even had a chance of being made. The sound force collectors then see no reason to start a new collection when their yammie/arcadia actually has a sound booster already. The backfire keeps compounding because all the retailers want to clear inventory and get into panic clearance. This being so new, would never sell for a loss, so now with a still profitable price drop, everyone can see as plain as day, the insane fleecing behind the MSRP. PO buyers are burned and pass the sour mood onto the wait and see buyers, reinforcing the whole price drop watching game. To really execute themselves and their M7 plans, they surprise drop the anniversary Kairos for cheaper than this thing. Formerly limited, they retail release it this time, so everyone rushes there, only to realize its a small production run, so the panic buy compounds. Now none of the small budget fans have money spend on this, no matter how cheap it gets. Seeing these sales, speculation for the fate of Blazer Valk sets in, stopping the last of the collectors from wanting to even start this set, so it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. Thus sales of of this will continue to be worse. At this point, everyone is familiar with how bandai interprets their sales numbers. They are going to say nobody likes toys anymore, and toss out the perfectly good molds because their storage is not profitable, and instead, sink funds in some meme worthy collapsing investment bubble again. Crypto, VR, metaverse, NFT, AI, DX Chogokin Labubu, you name it, they've done it. It makes it pretty hard for fans to buy into this product line with bandai's attitude being like this. Story of bandai's life. I cry everytime.

I definitely have TheRoyalSkies subscribed for years, just in case the day came that I wanted to to dabble in 3D again. Glad to know it's the right place to look when I want to start. Seeing these design notes with so many heads packed together, his head design tendencies, or his brain worms so to speak, have become very clear lol There's always an eye level downward slanting horizontal ridge and a nose to chin vertical ridge. They form a T intersect where it is the farthest outward point, and all other shapes tend to taper towards it. There is also a cheek to lip level horizontal downward concave if there is a lower face, resulting in a distinct chin. Then there's the three general optics styles with some hybrids, that everybody is probably aware of. The bulb with a distinct circular lense inside, the thin line visor, and the polygon panels patterns. With the formulaic rules laid out, it almost sounds simple to design heads like he does lol. As for the super parts on the 24, yes that is what I wanted. Now I can determine that significant shrinking and proportion changes are required before my idea has a chance of looking decent and functioning. I wouldn't say it looks awful as is, but it can be summed up as an indistinct rack of pointed bricks. It does very loosely look like an inverted version of the 29's super wing layout, albeit very bloated 🙃. The idea needs more cooking and optimizations, back into the mind oven it goes.

At some point in my life, I did have blender installed, as well as many other creative software. I just couldn't find the motivation to figure out the UI and controls to use the most basic tools I wanted for simple tasks. The walls of tutorials that sent me off on sidequests to explore elaborate functions I didn't need were a big dissuasion for me. Not knowing what I need to know, to jump to learning exactly what I want to use is just too frustrating to me. Eventually, I might finally get to it. Seeing your work here is tempting lol Anyway, the AX booster position + 25 body pieces look great, even without custom bits. The wings at that angle give very strong VF-0D vibes. Cannibalizing some dorsal space for wholly different shaped add on shield is also a great idea. You just need to cook up a way for it to slide or tilt to clear the dorsal cutout during transformation. Don't forget you can also stretch into the unlimited empty tail space like the AX's thermometer lol. Even a full sized tower shield, larger than the VF-11's armor part, is fair game if you can figure out the transformation clearance Also, gonna yoink those face sketches and study them lol. Not surprising, but still interesting to see that the the sides and back are an afterthought in his brainstorming process. Small request. Could you also slap the 25's booster on, without removing what you've got on it. Just for me to visualize some of the brain hurting ideas I had before. 😁

That is one of the units I've been eyeing last lol

Well, at least I now know even the arms are new molds lol Nice shading btw

The good reviews and photos make me want to grab one while it's "cheap". But I am also not the biggest fan of it, also because of the McD clown looks, and the mouth face. In fact, i find it kind of bland due to the lack of flamboyant markings for what it's meant to be lol. Between saving for a hypothetical Blazer release, or just grabbing something mostly of the same mold for "cheap" before bandai potentially knee jerks and skips the whole line up for not selling out instantly at their msrp, especially after knowing how little care they put in the 17, is a hard choice lol. I'm sure even if the Blazer happens, bandai will do a much lower volume run and charge for it, and tack on higher inflation too... Their latest trend has been retroactively inflating all their gunpla msrp, even going as far as to inflate things they haven't even had plans of reprinting for the forseeable future... Anyway, the craziest thought has occured to me. Since the forearms seem the same, does the YF's arm cannon fit on the Kai?

That photo does kinda show how whale goo could turn it into the Kai's face

Here's another crazy idea. What if it was the 25G rifle, with the two rows of quadpod grapple spike things stripped out, since grunts won't be sniping. That's where the sane part ends. The crazy part is to make up for it's original 4 sided structure being removed, by turning it into a quad barrel gatling instead, with the same sniper barrels lol. Then cover it up with an appropriately magnified version of the 25's standard gunpod's transformable shroud. Maybe shorten barrels for convenience or wieldiness if that is an issue. Sniper accuracy isn't needed anymore anyway. With an abomination like this, we can pretend both types of the 25's gunpods took a little something from this overkill cannon, while representing NUNS' exorbitant tech and budget. Hopefully the landing gears still reach the floor 🤪

I've actually been thinking gunpod is actually the one thing most likely recycled on the 24 lol. Given that on YF-19 it was virtually the only thing copied to the VF-19F/S, and then same with 21 to 22, 17 to 171, and even between totally different valks from 29 to 30. So it's entirely reasonable that it has the same one as the 25, if not then splurged on so hard that 25G's sniper was standard issue lol. That said, more different and new designs are always cool. Especially if the 24 is supposed to be that much higher spec than the monkeyed export derivatives.

Hope you eventually have time to come around to the textures too then. What you did for the wings look too sharp and make the original textures look murky in contrast 😂 I just found a few nitpicks around the canopy and chest area too, but I'll leave you alone for now lol

The 24's upper calf is entirely a different design, along with the shape of the dorsal cutout that it fits into. Wasn't expecting you to skip changing it altogether. Also been noticing the second spine hump after where the real one is supposed to end. Dunno if it's leftover shading in the 25's texture, or leftover geometry from the shield changes, or intentional design on your part. The old panel lines make all of that very hard to tell apart. That's why I thought there was a lot of work left in converting the model to the 24

Looks pretty good painted up. The calf though 😭