PointBlankSniper

Nice work with the wings. I think the nose are supposed to be very different, considering some parts like the feet and intakes look identical between the two. If you think about how the 25, 27, 29, and even 30 are supposed to be direct descendants of the 24, but all of them look nothing alike beyond general mechanisms, I think it's safe to assume any differences noticed are intended. So my read is that the cockpit is that little bit larger. Other things like the nose being that little bit stockier might be intentional as well. The line down the center of the nose might be a chine, or could be a two tone nose design along with micro fins at the front of the gear doors that survived into the 29's design. Maybe looking at the 29's line art might help you a little. The 27 might have little features in common with the 24 too. Admittedly, the 30 being related in any way, more than just vague wing profile, is kinda bs lol. Maybe the engine humps with the little slit sensor thing up front counts for lineage... Following that train of thought, those hexagons on top of the engine near the ankles might be missile hatches, something that evolved into the 30's missile container with topside hatches, and then the 31 reverting back to calf missiles but with a large door. The real thing up for guessing to me is whether the intakes are actually that faint bit taller on the 25, since they do look identical by design, or maybe the scaling of the two images just wasn't perfect so there's nothing to that, idk lol

Most of the stock problems are just the effects of bandai's strategy to feed scalpers rather than customers. Even japanese people take swings at bandai for eternal stock shortage and scalper problems every chance they get. Yet bandai still focuses on jumping between small batch reprints, spam new series and new designs nobody asked for without fulfulling demand, spam pbandai limited runs, etc. They do everything in their power to create stock shortage and raise the value of scalping. Then they blockade cross region retail at the expense of regions with bad distro and local pricing, in the name of combating scalping. But there is no legitimate logic to it, because in reality, they are just giving more power to scalpers by giving them exclusive rights to peddle merchandize between regions. They singlehandedly built the scalper empire, and they will do everything they can to continue to fatten it. So it's not really an HLJ issue IMO, other than the fact that they are the last one allowed to do cross region retail, so all the symptoms are showing through them. It's just bandai totally not secretly having back channel arrangements or managing the scalper network themselves 😉, and totally putting in all their efforts to stop the scalper industry😉, that they totally didn't have a hand in birthing 😉, and cutting out all the distro and retailers for retail equivalent pricing through p-bandai isn't just another step in their strategy 😉. I totally don't think every individual scalper and scalping retailer is just an undercover bandai staff 😁 Its not going to improve because bandai's priorities are as suspicious as the consistent quality and QC issues of their DX/Metal Build/tamashii lines. Just another thing that even japanese people are openly dunking on them for, and they don't care. Their games also have some of the most heinous DLC schemes, despite people forgetting that is a thing between every release. Bandai is run by corporate vampires, so things can only get worse.

Still haven't watched so never realized that was a thing. Googled around to check. Now it makes sense. My googling has revealed an old thread on here with an image that proves the gunpod is wrong though. It's supposed to also have a white version of the Kai's speaker launcher rather than the regular gunpod lol

I think it's the camera angle, and the head design. 171 is taken slightly top down, so it's proportions are squatted, and the chest looks lower than it really is. The head and its colors are blended into the ear lasers, which gives it a photogenic V shaped silhouette that follows how the chest also tapers together towards the front. 17S is taken level with the waist. That makes the chest look as wide and thin as it really is, and looks like it hangs high up on the skinny torso. The legs' full lankiness are exposed by the direct flat angle. The head is cylindrical and silver, which stands out like a soda can, while the lasers are dark with no highlights so they blend in to the back side parts and main body, making them contribute little to the silhouette and proportions of the head. Overall it it makes the head look too narrow for how wide the chest is, and the chest too wide for those legs. It's basically a "V" shape vs a "t" shaped silhouette. Only one of them looks like an angry robot.

I don't have mine yet, but if I'm not mistaken, you just need to flip one wing up at the wing root hinge and drop that leg at the intake/thigh. You've already got it out of the box, so it shouldn't be much more work to take a peek. You just need to see the top of the "101" and the corner that it should/shouldn't align with. This is assuming there really aren't any double same sided shoulders in circulation.

Think the buttstock is supposed to be a skeleton underfolder, so it was always supposed to shorten to the same length, just without spitting... They should have done a new gunpod mold, not just for that, but also the ammo gimmick and add the beam ammo. That is definitely an intentional feature. The wings are different shaped, so definitely new parts. They put them there on purpose like the new wings on the 19Kai. I agree that it's a cool play option and I wish the frontier valks also got, and bandai should release more missiles to actually use the feature. Wanting them removed is kind of being the no fun police... I don't see how it's possible to mount the back pack guns. The piece it goes on has no ports on the surface, and all of its edges are blocked by something, so they can't even hook anything around. They either have to dremel some tab slots in before packing it in the box, or give you double sided tape with the pack. I feel like the way they announced this is a declaration that they won't do a super pack for it. Not even the 19Kai looks like it has plugs for the sound booster. I feel like bandai killed the idea of add ons as separate purchases, that's why anything that was going to have a pack had their packs included since WWM started. I'm still huffing my hoping for the arm cannon, but I honestly don't think it's ever happening.

I think everyone is reading too much into the preorders with an old mindset. Everything from revivals like 25G, Tornado, 31J, 262Hs, 171EX, 25S armored and 27, have all been selling out very slow. Some of them are still in stock. Even the PO for the Fire Valkyrie is still in stock at a few places. PO madness is simply no longer much of a phenomenon for these toys. The only exception to this was probably the YF-19. While the 21's sales were hampered despite being new and having demand... It seems like it's just the current trend with DX Valks. It may just be the result of the overall known issues of recent bandai action figures in general, including metal builds, and the economy, and bandai overproducing as they embrace global releasing valks after the legal issues of the macross IP cleared up Even if they had perfected the sculpt for this release, my guess is that it would just sell out at a similar same pace. There's no way this thing could sell out faster than the 19Kai

Mark H. replied a comment saying the shoulder fins don't come off. And another one saying the leg missile hatch doesn't open even though it seems like it should.

Honestly, the only thing glaringly inaccurate in fighter mode is that the elbow guns are far past the shoulder panel gap that it should have been in line with. And then the shoulder missile port(s) upon closer inspection. Otherwise, line art for fighter mode seems to have always had those leg proportions.

It would be crazy if you mange to put together the mythical Evolution. I think there's a 3d file of the YF-24 on cults3D. Not sure if it helps with what you want to do.

TBF the new revival Armored Ozma from its promo, to box art, right down to the instructions, had the wrong paint job on the head. Same for the visor and canopy colors on the 27. Those came out to be animation accurate like the renewals when you look at the actual toy. So bandai is willing to ignore all their photographed/rendered materials and sneak in a correct toy in the box. But this scenario we now have is very drastic, and requires new molds, so it almost certainly is not happening. Maybe if people scream at them on twitter as early as possible, there would be a chance lol.

Honestly, your Siegfried looks more like a real plane than the Kairos. IMO you've proven that looks like an absolutely fine combat aircraft with the right paint job. In this comparison, the Kairos looks a bit cartoony with those panel lines and colors. It probably doesn't help that the delta wings and dog teeth were always kind of mismatched to the flow of the body's shape and makes it look more sci fi/toy like to me. I always thought Kairos would look better with lambda wings. If the outer wings were erased from the join outward, and a random person was told to finish drawing the rest of the wing, I think the natural response would be to draw a lambda wing, even without knowing what it is. This comparison has made that idea obvious to me lol Anyway, have fun cooking up your next project.

You can never be done tweaking a piece of art, so this is a good place to let this piece be completed. I just want to request a shot with the regular 31A beside or in formation with this, just to see them together, if it's not too much trouble.

Looks right at home in universe now.

Oof The only thing to be learned from those sketches is that the 17's fighter mode is intended to have skinny legs. That and Yamato definitely threw battroid scaling out the window as far as they could when they made their 1/60s. Honestly, their 17 had weenie legs too. It just had a wide Keanu top. I also noticed the 171 still has one of the missile ports on each shoulder. Was under the impression that both were missing from all the comments.

I just watched with auto TL captions. I'd say it's comprehensible if you just listen for those random english names and model numbers and keep your eyes peeled for when it consistently garbles them up, because YT doesn't know franchise specific lingo. Quoted the two screenshots to make a couple points. The first is that the fighter mode's legs are nearly as thin as the arms. Those are basically the 171 proportions, if not possibly slightly worse. Obviously, those same proportions don't come close to matching the battroid mode beside it. A toy can only mirror one form, or neither, and it looks like bandai made their choice here. Second, it is no gargantuan beside the Blazer valk. This image looks about the same scaling as the DX YF-19 to the DX VF-171EX I have beside me. Unless the Blazer is supposed to also tower over the YF-19, it doesn't look like 17 could be any bigger than the 171.

Your picture is exactly what Bandai is showing to be incorrect. The top of "101" lined up with the edge should be on the back of the shoulder. The edge should only be 2/3rd the height of "101" on the front.

Think it was this one. He credited master file and some other publication.

I'd honestly like to see them try. It would be a technical marvel, starting with crazy instructions to teach the customer to detach the old waist/lower fuselage, because I don't see fat legs fitting without dropping the hip pivot to stay centered with their thickness. TBF, the leg packs might already work, with some ugly bracing using the armor pack's plugs to hang the pack up against the wing, or they invent an external layer of armor as the brace. Wait, they could just make the original thick legs as the armor, and that armor could have the correct connection to the leg packs. It might actually work. Free idea for bandai. Just come preassembled with armor in the shape of the anime accurate legs, and pretend the intake/thigh gap from wearing armor isn't there, or cover it with extended armor. Nobody will know the 171's legs are inside 😁. I'm sure bandai won't have the balls to do it, but maybe someone with a 3D printer can figure it out The real magic is actually with the backpack cannons that come with the pack, because the cockroach shell has no connection slots and can't be latched on with hooks around the edges because they have to leave clearance for the arms and wings on all sides. Those will need double sided tape, or tossing out and replacing the top half of the plane.

I don't wanna check all the eps, but I'lll take your word for it. I'm assuming those didn't transform into battroid, which makes it easy for them to not care about proportions in CG. Dropping legs for gerwalk that might have happened in Delta did is not an issue. I've caught satellite straight up clipping, morphing, and camera blocking during transformation in the recent red ranger isekai anime with the CG megazord. It goes to show that CG doesn't mean much for correct proportions with full transformationa and articulation when it's still in animation. It's like how there's a VF-22 in delta, but everyone knows that thing can't transform in CG with the canonical designs. If it did, it would morph just as much as it was hand drawn. I'm even requested a check on the in game models in another thread. Even the games have to cheat and clip the shoulders inside the belly plate and make invisible the bits sticking out, and then have the whole assembly detached and fly out magically to reach the intake sockets while the yellow bits just disappear. CG doesn't mean it's a correct and realistically working depiction. What's at hand here is not a matter of how it's depicted in animation. It's that Kawamori or some supplementary magazine or some other product blurb invented some lore and set the stage for Bandai to be lazy here.

I think that fear is a stretch too far. People have already put the super parts on their's just fine. They found the issue from comparing it to the back side and noticing that it has the correct front face on the wrong side. Busting out the wrong molds that should have been stored with their accompanying production run, while also already producing the correct parts is very whack. So far everyone has matched pairs, too. So it seems much less scary an issue than it initially looked. All it comes down to is whether there is a high chance of damage for the reassembly operation.

Well, it's not me up against the wall since I'm not the one trying to reconcile it. I've stated more than once that I don't agree with them doing things that way. I'm just pointing out their rationale, what they've done with it, and just the fact that they do have such a rationale on their cards to play.

Maybe it's assumed you can pop them out and swap the two sides around by yourself. Don't have mine yet, so don't know how shoulder assembly works. Unless they doubled up on the same sided parts like the YF-21's shoulders again, so that no amount of ease of disassembly matters... EDIT: Seems like Heppoko made another tweet about fixing it in 10 minutes. So here's to hoping the issue is limited to them actually just mixing up rationed out L/R pieces for final assembly, and not a situation where they could have used two of the same for either side

Well, I just watched the morita guy's deep dive into VF-17 design lore, literally the day before this toy was announced. Unless that channel is all fanfic and lies, or I'm tripping out, the lore is supposedly contrary to what you and others are saying. IIRC, the lore goes that, the nose/cockpit was changed on the 171 to favor avionics because they no longer needed conventional passive stealth geometry after VF-19 and 22 introduced active fold stealth. Then the EX changed it some more to accomodate EX gear tech that LAI backported from the VF-25. The elbow guns weren't needed because the gunpod became external. The gunpod became external because because its storage compartment got cannibalized by retrofitting it with the larger and more powerful VF-19's engines inside the same old legs. But it was fine to move the gunpod outside because once again, stealth geometry was no longer needed. None of this suggests going from a 3 storey gargantuan stealth bomber to a modest 1 storey playground replica of it. Especially not with the engine swap going in the opposite direction. That's why I don't understand why they are considered vastly different sized aircrafts with no parts commonality around here.

I know what you are tolking about. I even acknowledged that it saves them work from coming up with transformation articulation. But my original comment was very much replying to this comment that was specifically about toy production and not about design work. So I'm just pointing out that the 19Kai can't be made with "minor alterations". Unless you guys consider building a majority of new plastic injection molds to be a minority of the work in manufacturing the toy, then I have nothing left to debate on the 19.