mechaninac
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Everything posted by mechaninac
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You should consider yourself fortunate that this 29 does not interest you. See, I'm glad I don't care for it at all... kept me from the headache of trying to preorder at a decent price and saved me money I can use for something else I really want; it's a win-win!
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I'm so getting this. I have Alto's EX, but this is a real must have (also thrilled about the announcement of the RVF-25, but not so enthused with the rehashed VF-27... gimme a renewal dammit). True that it's not a hero VF, but this is the one for which people were clamoring all along from the very announcement of the 171EX, at least in these forums... I have no idea what the demand will be in the home market, but if past renewals, YF-29s, and the EX are any indication, this and the RVF-25 are also going to be a "blink and you miss the initial discounted pre-order ordeal"; thankfully, NY should continue to be a reasonably priced source for them. The VF-11s are not a good comparison to Bandai's Frontier line, in my opinion: For one, it's a Yamato product with very different scales of production numbers and distribution, and two, the price points on Bandai's VFs are much less expensive (provided one secures a pre-order during the very limited window of availability) than Yamato's offerings, which tend to be far more expensive initially, be available for a lot longer, and have slightly better quality... although nowhere near enough of an advantage to warrant their ludicrous MSRPs.
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Differences from the original should be the non-tinted canopy and the inclusion of the option parts, as others have stated, but also "non-exploding" shoulders and revised crotch design as present in all contemporary releases -- unless the VE and VT already had the fixes that addressed the issues with the early V2 VF-1s.
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Oooh, cryptic...
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Even at a 40%-50% discount at the retail level, you can confidently bet that Yamato is making a profit on every unit sold to retailers (their prices are set with possible allowances for high volume orders), and as long as their inventory is moving they may as well keep production going as long as they don't make so many that they end up flooding the market; thereby destroying demand. It's the stores and on-line sellers that run the risk of taking a bath if they order too many and end up having to offer massive discounts to move the merchandise; but chances are that, even at the 1/2 off level, there is still some profit to be had (note that you hardly ever see a VF discounted more than 55%... that must be the limit of profitability for retailers); anything discounted by more than the minimum threashold for profit is just not moving at all and needs to be dumped to clear space for other, newer/more in demand, merchandise (Yamato's 1/200s and Dou figures are good exemples).
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Ha! Chirico dognapped Ein an dressed him up for Holloween...
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Nice. I would be most interested in a solution for the collapsing landing gears. Why Yamato never so fit to include a simple detents in the design (just look at the ones in Bandai's Renewals... perfect), when the things must have collapsed on them hundreds of times from prototype to test shot assemblies, I'll never understand. Did some bean counting geek look at the problem and just say: "Meh!... Good enough?
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...I'm terrified beyond the capacity for rational thought.
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... mass hysteria!
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Aircraft Super Thread Mk.VII
mechaninac replied to David Hingtgen's topic in Anime or Science Fiction
Very, very cool. Here's hoping that the actual number of buried Spitfires is on the high side of the estimates, and in good enough condition, in pieces or large sub-assemblies, to be quickly turned around to flying trim to thrill aviation enthusiasts the world over for many years to come. -
Medicom/Hot Toys and all 1/6 scale figures
mechaninac replied to EXO's topic in Anime or Science Fiction
Aslan? Qui-Gon Jin? The dude from Taken? Gawain from Excalibur?... Very nice Ra's al Ghul. I tip my proverbial hat to you Kicker, on all your collections, with the scope and quantity worthy of their own Museum exibit. -
Got mine this Saturday as well. The first thing I did was check everything to make sure nothing was missing, and I'm happy to report that all is accounted for; also, paint and tampo applications are flawless and, unlike my F, there is no slight "bite" taken out of the right LERX/swing bar. However, as others have mentioned, mine suffers from wing warping as well, specially the right wing bends up enough to be visually noticeable even from a distance... not happy about that, and something I'll eventually need to attempt to remedy. Other than that, the surfaces have a slightly oily film (mold release lubricant I assume). I found the blue to be much darker than I was expecting from all the pictures, and the joints nice and tight; however, at least straight out of the box, things were not alligned as perfectly as I'd like: left leg just didn't want to sit as high up as the right in fighter mode. One thing I found underwhealming is the sniper gun... it looks "cheap" to me. It's probably due to the plastic Bandai used; on mine there are obvious flow and knit lines that cause it to look "toyish". They could also have made it 5-10% smaller or a bit shorter and it would have looked better in fighter mode without being undersized for GERWALK and Battroid, but that is just a nit-pick. Overall, not bad, and a worthy addition to the collection... Now, when is the anouncement for the RVF-25?...
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The helmet is kind of okay, but the rest of the costume... just not feeling it; it looks like a Batman inspired power suit, or like the one in the GI-Joe movie, not a robot/android; and it's not the matte rubber look with glossy shoulder pauldrons and other bits, it's the whole aesthetics of the thing... on its own it fails miserably at visually conveying the very underlying theme of a dead cop grafted to a robot body.
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... So... How long before Robot Chicken does its version?...
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I suppose you could just get those self-adhesive felt pads available at Radio Shack or Home Improvement stores; they make them in many different sizes/diameters. It's not an ideal solution, but it would give you a non-skid, non-marring, surface separating the damaging clear tips of the stands from your precious VF. I don't have any of the new stands, only severeal of the old, pre Flightpose, black tipped ones, and while they do no damage to plastic, paint, sticker, decal, or tampo prints, they do tend to leave a bit of splotchy residue behind on whatever you're displaying if left on the stand for a long time; the good thing, however, is that the residue is easy to clean off with a bit of soapy water.
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I'll just pretend this doesn't exist until it hits broadcast TV, and then, out of pure morbid curiosity, I may give it a viewing.
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That is very welcome news. If, and this is a big if, Bandai saw fit to invest in new tooling to mold the secondary colored parts to run concurrently with the production from existing molds in order to get the full compliment of pieces in their properly pigmented plastics, what are the chances that any re-release of the 25S will come with color keyed plastic instead of painted pieces?... Just wondering...
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I don't know about the Tornado Packs, but the Super Pack is a given... just give'em time.
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My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
mechaninac replied to CaptRico's topic in Anime or Science Fiction
I've no idea. I have not checked out MLP:FiM, and have no intention to do so, whatsoever. I assume that it's very much a saccharine and insipid pablum for little kids, but with enough inside jokes, snide humor, and over-the-head-of-kiddies innuendo to make it palatable, and maybe even somewhat enjoyable, to many adults. -
Flip the 22 upside down and you'll notice two small black screws (Hint: pop-off the fin antenna to avoid bending/breaking it): Remove them by using a fillips-head jeweler’s screw driver (make sure to note where each one is supposed to go because they are different lengths -- longer near the lens), now the whole assembly of the inner wing bottom with the landing gear door will come off, just pull on the open landing gear door and you'll see; Undo a third screw that actually holds the hinge so that you can disassemble the whole thing (there is no need to remove the metal hinge pin from the outer wing hinge as that would require breaking the glue join, and the problem is the all-plastic hinge anyway... if desired, a small drop of clear nail polish can be applied to the middle slot that exposes the pin, for good measure); Separate the plastic hinge and add a good thick coating of polish, or some electrical tape, to the clamping piece's open "C" section -- if nail polish, allow to dry; Reassemble the hinge and screw it back in it's place using one of the longer screws (don't over tighten); Since the landing gear and door will have likely become dislodged in the process of taking the wing apart, just put everything back in its proper place -- gear in its cradle in stowed position ("V" shaped piston detail forward/down), and door closed on lower inner wing panel); Flip open the belly plate's arm cover so that it's out of the way, and make sure the small cover hinged to the wing root is in its proper place, and closed; Work the inner wing's bottom assembly under the arm cover and in line with the lens (it slides off, so be careful not to lose it) until you feel the whole thing just seat itself on the upper inner wing's screw bosses; Reinsert the screws and tighten them down until you feel some resistance (Tip: drop the screw in the hole and, before tightening, give it a counter clockwise turn until you feel it seat on the right point where the threads line up... it's a very distinct, unmistakable, feel when it just finds its proper place); Pop the belly plate's arm cover closed and voila, good as new, only better. I made these instructions as step-by-step easy as I could; hope they help. Cheers!
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Bandai really should release a CF 25 (A?) this time around, the slightly yellow desert sand color looks great on the Messiah...
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My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
mechaninac replied to CaptRico's topic in Anime or Science Fiction
Crom would disown you if you did... -
It appears that all the 21s and 22s have this problem, and more so with the left wing than the right (the right wings of all my 21/22s are fine, if not truly stiff). What I did on my toys was dissassemble the offending wing, which is really easy, and add a bit of electrical tape to the hinge on my Miria and clear nail polish to the same area on my Gamlin (haven't done anything to my 21 yet as it's boxed up in storage at the moment); both fixes yielded the same result... a left wing that stays in place, just like the right, in whatever position you place it.
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Very nice. I do have one question for those who may have the G in hand already, because even with gamu-toys photos spread it is very hard to tell: Is the underside of the wing glove on the G painted or molded in color? One thing is that those intakes would greatly benefit from a coat of black/dark grey overall and silver/steel on the fans. Another is that those who were complaining about a possible bent antenna/head laser can rest easy as it appears that Bandai has included a had plastic alternate to swap out the bendy PVC one... cool. Mine is on its way from AE, so I'll be able to see the toy for myself, in all its glory or ignomimy, in a week or two.
