Lolicon

I thought Moehime was the place started by the former owner of NY.

Landing gear color doesn't matter to me.

Retailers: We want to order a bunch of of the VT-1 because have a bunch of customers who want it! Bandai:

Unfortunately PO madness extends even to web exclusives, because Bandai hates their customers.

This set does not come with extra wings. But if you happen to have the old set and wanted to use the non-hardpoint wings, you can't. If the pins aren't glued in, then they're incredibly tight and you'll need to pry them with a screwdriver or something to pull them out. I haven't bothered since there's really no reason to take the wings off. Hmmm so I was looking at the Luca and Maruyama 171s and noticed that on the rear part of the wings, they do have tampo printing, but instead of "NO STEP" they have "171" printed on the rear flaps. WTF? Even the Wave kit shares this. Is that how it appeared in the show? EDIT: Yep, that's how it appears in the show. I guess it's so the mechanics are constantly reminded of what aircraft they're working on so they won't accidentally install any VF-25 parts in the 171.

The wing pins appear to be permanently glued in place, so no swapping wings for the non-hardpoint ones if anyone was thinking of doing that. That's probably also why they appear to sit more flush. Also, the wings aren't as badly warped on this unit as my older ones. Still, Bandai seems to have a hard time producing wings that aren't a little warped. I broke my toy.

171 arrived. As expected the matte finish makes it look great. Otherwise it's pretty much the same as the original 171 release, aside from a few small changes to the paint apps and markings. Transforming it reminded me of why I haven't transformed any of my 171s since I first bought them. At least the arms aren't so ridiculously tight that it feels like you'll snap them off trying to move them. Welp, time to take her apart!

The stabilizers both have 001 printed on them. Does that mean Bandai screwed up this release? Since according to Bandai 100 is the correct modex printing?

Nothing that can't be easily sanded out. Only tangentially related, but I love that my long backordered PG Unleashed Gundam was fulfilled at HLJ the day after I shipped my 171. Oh well should have my 171 today. Can't wait to mess with it.

This is coming from someone who hasn't given a crap about Robotech since the 80s ended and absolutely loathes Harmony Gold. So in the 21st century it's easy to look back at Robotech next to the OG Macross and think "bleh WTF" but context is important. Forget Southern Cross and Mospeada; I'm just talking about the Macross Saga of Robotech. Side by side with the OG Macross, Robotech Macross is nearly identical to the original, aside from the name changes and a few scenes snipped due to being too racy/violent for children's TV (and a few baffling scenes inserted in later episodes to connect it to Southern Cross). Getting a faithful anime translation is standard practice today, but for the early 80s it was the norm to chop up anime to pieces in order to sanitize it for "sensitive western audiences" (Battle of the Planets, Voltron, Tranzor Z, etc). So getting a pretty faithful anime translation in Robotech's Macross Saga where people actually died on screen (rather than getting injured and sent away on "medical leave" never to be seen again) and the conflict not really being sanitized in any way made Robotech an outlier in early 1980s anime here in the states. Alright, that's my stream-of-consciousness-while-in-the-shower thoughts for the day.

IIRC there was only a difference of like 900 yen between surface and DHL for my 171 from HLJ. For a difference of only $6 I'd rather have my item 2-3 months sooner and not battered over a long sea voyage. Plus I'm eager to fix up the 171. I never got around to working on the originals and now I have the improved matte finish version to fiddle with.

Some people like being in abusive relationships.

No, Bandai doesn't intentionally make Macross artificially scarce. Bandai tries to make all their products artificially scarce. I expect the 5000 to retail for at least 25k.

That's a difficult concept for some.

Shipped mine by itself since I'm eager to check this bad boy out. DHL was only $36 on top of the unit price of $190, so the whole thing cost me $226. That's pretty comparable to what you can find domestically if you shop around, give or take a few dollars. Really the only real upside from ordering WWM items from Japan is getting it 3 months earlier. (Or you live somewhere without easy access to a good WWM dealer.)

Ugh that sucks. Happy that I still have the old Yamato version with sound booster.

Opened my Arcadia VF-19 and holy moly they painted the diecast shoulder joints a much brighter shade of red than the rest of the valk. The red paint sticks out way more than it did on the Yamato VF-19. Aside from that, the yellow parts now being gold, and the tinted canopy, it's identical to Yamato's. I can see why some don't like the canopy tint. Instead of being totally transparent yellow (like the RVF-25) there's a glittery texture to it, similar to the VF-31 toys, though not nearly as bad. It ends up kinda making the canopy glass look dirty, like Ray is gonna walk up to it and write "WASH ME" with his finger.

That's not bad. Just sign up for their premium service free trial, buy it, then discontinue the service before you get billed.

Ordered off Amiami. Sailed through with ease.

That sounds weird. Everyone knows real aircraft uses unpainted diecast landing gear.

No yellowing on my YF-30 either. However, I will say that I have had a couple of yellowing valks, and they are all from Bandai. I recently took my 25As out of storage and while one was yellow, the other was still pristine white, despite being storaged in their styrofoam trays and in identical conditions for X number of years. Bandai's valks have always felt cheaper overall than Yamato, and it wouldn't surprise me if that cost-cutting applied to their plastic mix as well. Bandai's releases have always cost less, but that cheapness shows in the overall fit & finish and propensity of their valks to yellow.

Is the VF-19 good? Should I get one?

Shipping depends entirely on the retailer you buy from. Some offer lost cost shipping (BBTS) and some even have free shipping. I'm not familiar with the costs of shipping from a US retailer to Canada.

Yes, but expect a significant mark up. I'm expecting it to list domestically for around $359.99 before tax.

Gunbuster! Man that's some old school sci-fi anime goodness there!