mechaninac
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Everything posted by mechaninac
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Vader is checking his hand to see if it truly is too small...
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I just rechecked and holy crap, you're right, I missed that; the 2-3 week registered SAL is actually 5250 Yen, compared to their 4700 Yen quote for EMS... crazy. N-Y has officially ceased to be a viable option for this Arcadia bird.
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^ I think it was around 2700 Yen for one VF-0D by EMS -- HLJ only offered that or FedEx options due to the item's value; I'm not absolutely sure, but it was definitely less than 3000 Yen. N-Y's cheapest option on the VF-0A, Registered SAL -- 3300 Yen with an average of 3 weeks+ transit time, for example, costs more than HLJ's EMS pigeonhole which gets you the item in 3-4 days... arbitrary custom delays notwithstanding.
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Thanks for the heads-up. I contacted Entertainment Earth to see if they can beat or match that final cost as I already have this pre-ordered with them; now to wait and see if they'll stand behind their 110% Low Price Guarantee...
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Thanks. That's not too bad at all; same price as BBTS but with free shipping, and no upfront billing. This will be my very first SOC super robot, ever... hope it lives up to the hype. Edit: December release, plenty of time to save up, and a nice X-mas gift...
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Ditto on finally getting mine from HLJ... waited until the PW time limit was almost up before requesting shipping in order to ship another item along for the ride. I must also share in the overall impression of being utterly underwhelmed by the toy; nothing aligns 100% in the rear section of fighter mode... everything is slightly off: pushing on one section to align it causes something else to pop out of place, and the monstrously blocky fighter mode stand adapter is so tight that it causes the intake/thigh sections to dislocate from the fuselage -- rendering this adapter useless. Engineering wise, there are no neutral location detents on the canards or the very loose stabilizers... they stay in place when moved, but there is no tactile feedback to indicate their proper home position. Cosmetically, the off white, which should've been light gray, is too light, and the navy blue is entirely too dark, and I too have the misaligned danger-intake warnings. This toy is certainly overpriced in my opinion. As far as the leg doors, I found that pushing down on the larger of the two allows access to get a fingernail under the smaller section to pry it open. The only problem I have with mine is that the right leg's forward door slide is too loose which causes the door to drop off the toy when opened... I'll need to dab a bit of nail polish in the slide socket to remedy this.
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Evolution Toy - VF-2SS Valkyrie I 《MACROSS II ~LOVERS AGAIN~
mechaninac replied to joppewo's topic in Toys
You're right. It would be a lot easier to ignore or excuse any perceived shortcomings gleaned from the prototype pictures if the price point were < $140, or if we knew for a fact that the SAPs were going to be included as a bundle, along with a stand, for the asking price. And it is foolish to think that there will be many improvements, if any, by the time production starts. We've seen this "movie" many many times, by the time we're shown the prototype, what we see is pretty much what we will get. -
Where the VF-1 is concerned, that appears to be the case...
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Took the plunge and preordered off BBTS. Their discount in conjunction with their super saver shipping makes it a slightly better deal.
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Ha! Poor VF-11B is stuck babysitting the kiddies.
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You would think that the folks at Arcadia would've had the factory do a pilot run of all stages of manufacture, including the decorative applications, scrutinize the end results of each step and correct any issues along the way until the final product ready to go in the packaging is as perfect as a product with an MSRP around ¥36,800 demands to be. That would constitute a thorough Quality Control regime, but I guess Arcadia couldn't be bothered to notice or care; they earn the Krusty the Clown seal.
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Definitely glad I got my one VF-4 when I did from HLJ, and a bit bummed I cancelled the one I had on pre-order with N-Y... could've had my display piece and an extra to unload at 2-2.5X MSRP, and prospective buyers would still consider it a bargain; but spilled milk and all that...
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Aside from the reality that A-wings and B-wings had not been designed when A New Hope was made, it is entirely reasonable to assume that, within the SW universe, the Yavin base did not have any of those two types among their fighter compliments when the Death Star came a-knocking... same with the base on Hoth. It could be as simple as different Rebel units fielding different hardware, just like different allied fronts in WWII; maybe, until the final assault on Endor, when the Rebel Alliance threw everything it had at destroying the DS2, A-Wings and B-Wings were primarily attached to Mon Calamari fleets.
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Eh? There's absolutely no comparison, even a tenuously tangential one, between the two. Despite the name Jackie Chan Adventures, that whole show pretty much revolved around Jade Chan; that show would've been more appropriately named Jade Chan Adventures... it was all the other characters around her who came across as filler. As for Ashoka, she was always a supporting character meant to be the bright, spunky, moral anchor to Anakin's emo brooding self.
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It's not inverted, whoever created that display just glued everything upside down to mess with your head...
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Oh my... Not to put too much trust in a teaser trailer and blow expectations all out of proportions, but that promises to be epic. Love all the nods and cameos from the Clone Wars series, and glimpses of the original trilogy.
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STAR WARS Merchandise Episode - 2
mechaninac replied to Black Valkyrie's topic in Anime or Science Fiction
I'll admit that the "walking red lipstick" Imperial Guard looks kind of mildly interesting; everything else is just meh... way too busy. -
I've got to completely agree with you on this... Holly Cow!!!
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You do get the impression that Arcadia's entire staff, and the manufactures with whom the do business, are completely color blind, and even incapable of distinguishing gray scale gradations...
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That second teaser had me goose-bumping from the moment I saw the crashed Star Destroyer....
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Evolution Toy - VF-2SS Valkyrie I 《MACROSS II ~LOVERS AGAIN~
mechaninac replied to joppewo's topic in Toys
Undeniably, the end product has ZERO chance to live up to people's expectations of what a 1/60 VF-2SS toy should be in terms of fidelity to the line-art vs. toy designer interpretation, engineering and execution, level of detail and articulation, or even overall quality. It's the nature of the beast, specially for something that's been smoldering in the imaginations of so many fans of the Valkyrie II for so long; there's no pleasing everyone, or even most. There are several areas in which the shown prototype falls short of greatness (it's no VF-4G, but that was released as a last hurrah of a dying company with years of experience designing and engineering transforming Macross mecha). There is certainly vast room for improvement: slightly beefier lower legs with larger landing gear doors (something closer to the proportions of the 1/100 kit by Bandai), more definition to the upper leg intakes -- they look too small in proportion to the rest of the legs, cleaner flow from forward nose to shield hump to upper fuselage back (the prototype likely has a continuous shell thickness that does not do the area any favors, necessitating the odd shape for clearance), the aforementioned clunky pylons to which the boosters/ramjet pods are mounted and how they "sit", those damned tabs in a most visually obtrusive location... Bandai's solution (side mounted hooks) for the kit worked fine and were innofensive -- if they're still there come release, I just might cut them off and use small, strong neodynium magnets to lock the chest and back carapaces together in fighter mode, the shape of the leg fins, etc. The thing is that, given the depicted stage of the design progress, even if the model shown is a painted SLA mock-up, it is near completion, so I doubt that we'll see many, if any, improvements over what's been shown... chances are that, if steel is not being cut for the tooling, they're about to start. All that being said, and despite the high MSRP, I'm in for one piece (it's a VF-2SS after all, so I have to get one unless the end product, if/when shown prior to release, ends up looking far worse than what we've seen at this stage); my impressions of the toy, once I have it in hand, will determine if Evolution Toy will get more of my money for probable further releases. So what do people think the first version will be, Nexx's or Silvie's? -
Evolution Toy - VF-2SS Valkyrie I 《MACROSS II ~LOVERS AGAIN~
mechaninac replied to joppewo's topic in Toys
Wow! This news just came out of left field; totally blind-sided... in a good way. Just yesterday I posted my wish for just such an item in the Arcadia Wish Thread, and now this; albeit, I'd rather have Arcadia or Bandai tackle the Valkyrie II, but beggars can't choosers -- this has been such a long time in coming that it is sooo bought! Here's hoping Evolution Toy won't disappoint on design and build quality, that they bundle the VF-2SS with the SAP (sure would make the SRP more palatable), and that they release Nexx's unit and the whole Faerie squadron. And if this turns out good, a VF-2JA Icarus would be awesome too. -
1:32?... Pfft! You dream too small. Go 1:18 (3-3/4"), or bust!
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http://www.amiami.com/top/detail/detail?gcode=FIGURE-009563&page=top%2Fsearch%2Flist%3Fs_keywords%3Dmacross%24pagemax%3D40%24getcnt%3D0%24pagecnt%3D1
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Assuming Arcadia purchased/inherited Yamato's tooling, a virtual certainty give how new they were at the time of Yamato's demise, producing a FB2012 VF-4 would seem to be a no-brainer, easy to check off the wish list, release for Arcadia to cash-in on and please their loyal customers; but it all hinges on their ability to acquire the licensing rights, and their willingness to follow through.
