mechaninac

Anything that affects the surface texture by making it rougher will invariably make it more susceptible to oxidation down the road. While the bleaching, or sanding, or peroxide may whiten the surface somewhat by removing the offending layer, it can also make it more vulnerable in the future... unless you take it upon yourself to either polish the new exposed areas or coat them in varnish. The problem is that even if you paint or clear coat, unless you use automotive paint or another kind of color fast mix, they will eventually yellow too. --//-- Another culprit in yellowing is you, the owner. The more you handle the toy, the more hand oils, salts, acids you deposit on the surface. Even though the effect is minor, it is cumulative. Unless you wear gloves when touching your toys, or you wipe them down after each and every time you play with them, your own greasy self will cause some yellowing of the plastic. Unfortunately toys, even the collector variety, specially if molded in light tones (white is the absolute worst for this, hence how poorly the original pristine white 1/60 VF-1A fares), are perishable items.

It will if there is another Fed rate cut. It's all a vicious cycle: cut rates to forestall a recession and stimulate borrowing (pump more money into the economy); this leads to a lower dollar value (like any commodity, the more of it you have, the less it's worth due to over-supply); with the weaker currency, energy gets more expensive (one of the biggest reasons for the current crude oil prices is because the dollar is so week... less bang for your buck); the higher energy prices makes everything more expensive (manufacturing, farming, transportation, retail... all feel the pressure of higher oil prices); since oil instigated inflation occurs, consumers tighten their belts on discretionary spending; when the consumer spends less, corporate profits suffer; with lower profits there is less corporate expenditures into R&D, infrastructure, labor force, etc.; lower corporate spending leads to less economic activity and higher unemployment; this leads to a slow down in the economy teetering on the edge of recession which prompts the Fed to cut rates to forestall... And so goes the Merry-Go-Round (this is overly simplified, of course, but you get the idea). The only saving grace is that a lower dollar makes American goods more competitive in the export market, but it's little consolation when you cringe at where the prices for our favorite obsession have gone, and how much it costs to ship the stuff. Things will get better once the markets digest all the bad news and people start jumping back in to invest in the next fill-in-the-blank-bubble. Don't you just love market cycles? With all that being said, I hope that when the Beagle is released there will be a convergence of a stronger dollar and a lower MSRP than has been rumored so I'll be able to afford it. The thing looks awesome.

Unfortunately, UV is not the only culprit. Oxygen in the air will cause the plastic to oxidize and yellow, although at a much slower pace than direct sun light; as Jenius commented, the early 1/60 VF-1s will yellow regardless of UV exposure... my Hikaru 1A has severely yellowed landing gear doors just sitting inside a dark drawer. Also, flat finishes yellow faster from atmospheric interaction than gloss ones due to their larger surface areas. Gloss is achieved by highly polishing the mold tool cavities and matt comes from the molds having less polish or some type of surface etching that produces an irregular surface finish that scatters light The only real way to absolutely prevent yellowing for certain is to put your toy in a hermetically sealed, UV proof, container filled with some noble gas like Nitrogen.

Watched the AiA&I-Z sub of Ep. 1 and thought it was pretty good. I have to agree that what they omitted from the Deculture version was a shame and the editing in some parts felt a little choppy and/or rushed; but overall I did not have any problems with it. I like how they kept the Portuguese greeting (Bem Vindo) at the gate where Sherryl arrives in Frontier... I liked that multilingual touch in the DE. Now that Ep. 2's sub is out I can't wait to start its download to see what everyone is raving about in the other thread.

Admittedly, I pulled that number out of my... well, you know. The way I figure, if it's good enough for a political poll it should be good enough for a scale representation of a fictitious aircraft. I doubt that the new 1/60 VF-1 will be exactly the same length, width, depth as the old version, but it should be damned close, within...

If you scaled down a F-14 and a F-16 to 1/60 the F-14 would still be almost 1.5 times bigger than the F-16. If you sized the F-16 to be as big as an F-14 at 1/60 then the Falcon would be roughly 1/48 scale. Similarly, since the VF-0 compares in size to a Tomcat and the VF-1 is a hair smaller than a F-16 (as Shin Densetsu Kai 7.0 mentioned, the VF-0 is huge compared to the Valkyrie), a VF-0 toy sized VF-1 would be 1/48 scale... not 1/60. At the same 1/60 the VF-0 dwarfs the VF-1, and the new VF-1 should be the exact same size as the old 1/60 version within a 3% margin of error.

330 dollars doesn't get you much these days... unless you're into picking your "girls" at truck stops...

Since I've pre-paid, any delay in release is just a continuation of the anticipatory agony for this toy to get to my hands; however, if a small delay means a greater likelihood of a trouble free first edition, then by all means take as much time as required to guarantee a defect free launch. Early to mid May should be fine.

That and the 1/60 Destroid Tomahawk... don't forget the Destroids. Truth be told, I'm looking forward to the Tomahawk far more than the 1/60 VF-1 rehash; I'm all VF-oned out at this point (I'll make exceptions for 2 seaters)... I want stuff I haven't seen before in toy form.

Whether or not the "rumor" proves to be true it's still a very BAD joke.

Do I believe the Beta will eventually be on sale? Yes. Do I think Toynami will meet their projected release date? No. I'd expect to see the first Beta out by this time next year at the earliest... hope I'm wrong on this, though. Do I expect the toy to have exorcised Toynami's poor engineering, material choices, and abysmal QC? IMO, we'll see little, if any, improvement over the Alphas. Do I hope Toynami will revise their MSRP (currently proposed to be anywhere from $150-$200)? No. If anything, I foresee them proposing the final cost to be closer to the upper limit then the lower one... hoping to be wrong here too. However, I believe that we'll see them selling under MSRP within 4 months of release. Unless reviews are absolutely stellar I'm not shelling out full retail for this. IMO, their Beta should be no more than $120 (1.5 x the price of the Alpha) each.

Please don't feed the Troll; then maybe he'll just go away and we can have some cogent discussions again.

eugimon, you're one sick, twisted, individual... I like that in a person. Keep'em coming; your Mr. Roger's Neighborhood remake "brain fart" is better than 99.5% of the dreck presently on TV... at least until BSG kicks off this Friday.

This picture shows exactly what I wanted to see regarding the legs in fighter mode, and is reason enough for me to give any fleeting thought of purchasing this toy no further consideration. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and to me CM's execution of this aspect of the toy is absolutely hideous and completely unworthy of the price they're charging for it. From my POV this is a shame since the Tread does look pretty good, but the Legioss makes the combo a no sale.

I didn't know of a perfect place to put this but thought this thread would be just about the most appropriate place for it. For all our fabricators/scratch builders out there... SWEET!

Then you should be one happy camper. According to the text on the box of my Rei the Fraulein figures are 1/10 scale... the same as Beagle's RA.

I think that's just the look of the unfinished rapid prototyping material you are seeing. If you look closely, the piston that connects the front wheel to the central hub, and the "V" shaped pieces, and their hinges, that lock around the lower abdomen in RA mode look to be made of the same fuzzy looking whitish stuff. I could be wrong but that is how I interpret what I see in the picture.

Oh snap!... there goes more of my money... @spedfish: Beagle's RA is supposed to be 1/10 scale.

Because... they're Dee Tee Dee...

What donor did you use? Can we have a "how to"? And we need pictures, lots and lots of pictures...

IMO 1/100 MG Gundam Hands, specially of the Ver. 2.0 variety, might be workable options for replacements... they seem to be about the right size. Zeon hands (Zakus) might also be a closer fit, looks wise, than Fed ones due to their rounder designs.

In regards to the standing pilot figure in Wicked Ace's pictures, that's a recast of the pencil sharpener figure. The recasts were made available by MW member Rohby about 4 years ( it's been that long? ). Their size makes them perfect for 1/48 representations of Roy and Kakizaki. @misteryno: Happy Birthday!

Considering that the big guy was named Lunk in the Robotech version of Mospeada I find this quote all kinds of context awesome:

Even in the Enterprise 2 part episode "In a Mirror Darkly" they got it right as the uniforms worn by the crew of the Defiant had a logo reminiscent of the starship pennant that adorns the secondary hull and warp nacelles of all Constitution class vessels. If they got it correct for a TV series they should do so for a theatrical feature film.

And Graham's post above should make you fall in love with it all over again... Thanks for the clarification Graham. Now, if Bandai did decide to make a VB-6 toy for their Macross F line, would they go with 1/100 (admittedly Yamato's territory in scale if not series wise), or go all out with a 1/60 jaw dropping, wallet crushing, behemoth? Or would they just go with a 1/72 model kit?