Jump to content

mechaninac

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    4204

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Everything posted by mechaninac

  1. mechaninac
    ^You're in for one hell of an enjoyable ride. And if you haven't done so, watch Avatar: The Last Airbender also, as it is really good as well and introduces most of the concepts that Legend of Korra glosses over or takes for granted.
  2. mechaninac
    Standing Vader, and sitting Vader for the cockpit?...
  3. mechaninac
    The latter. If I'm not mistaken, or remembering wrong, every Bandai Macross DX's preorder has gone live at that time; which makes preordering these things an unqualified pain in the butt for those living in the North East...
  4. mechaninac
  5. mechaninac
    Amiami = They'll carry it with a great discount, but your chances of securing a preorder with them are less than getting struck by lightning on a cloudless day. Hobby Search = They'll carry it with a good discount (usually the same as HLJ), and although your chances are better than Amiami, the chances of actually placing an order are slim, and cart-jacking is highly likely. CD Japan = They'll carry it with a slight discount (~5%); somewhat better chance to preorder than HS, but still difficult. Big in Japan = They may carry it, but securing an preorder is still difficult, and sometimes, depending on the item, the require payment upfront. Anime Expo = They'll carry it, but a very small allocation that sells out in a split second... and they require payment upfront. Nippon-Yasan = They'll carry it starting at MSRP for the first batch, raise the price 1000-2000 Yen for the second preorder window, and may increase again with every subsequent batch. They offer flexible payment options: pay upfront, pay anytime, pay upon invoicing. N-Y is the go-to retailer of last resort. HLJ = They'll carry it, but nobody can tell when they'll open the preorder -- could be on the opening day, or a week later, and they sometimes screw up on the ordering limits. Preorder chances are hard to quantify. Then there are the ones that I do not recommend = Play-Asia (stay clear... you've been warned), and Nin-Nin Games (overpriced from the get-go).
  6. mechaninac
    Yamato's first run of their YF-19, while no entirely terrible, had a fair number of issues in addition to its wonky, gullet-tastic, arched back proportions, most notably the crooked gun-pod syndrome in fighter mode -- when mounted it cannot face straight ahead. Yamato's second release, the one that included the Fast Packs and Fold Booster, corrected this problem... no fixing the odd side profile, though. Bear in mind, however, that Arcadia's version also has plenty of flaws: horrible ankle design (Yamato's is much better in this regard) and a gun-pod that points down when mounted in fighter mode (Yamato's 2nd release doesn't have the ground strafing gun-pod weirdness of Arcadia's, but it is undersized to the toy; also, Arcadia forgot to include the vent slots on their gun-pod's barrel jacket). You can also go here for a full rundown on the Yamato 1/60 YF-19 toys.
  7. mechaninac
    You'd need to use a proxy service, or, if you have a friend in Japan, have them preorder for you. However, you don't have to go through such hoops; if the item is a general release you can suffer the preorder madness with everyone else (Jan 06, 2015 - 4:00PM Japan time for the VF-19 Adv AFAIK) by trying to secure one from any of the usual places, and when it's a web exclusive/limited edition you can preorder, drama free, from Nippon-Yasan.com as they carry all Tamashii exclusives.
  8. mechaninac
    That's nucking futs!!!... If I had an extra 11C (only have one, currently boxed, copy) I'd be listing it for sale. It's cha-ching time for whoever has extras they're willing to let go.
  9. mechaninac
    Err... The VF-1J that will come with the GBP armor in the bundle will be fully transformable -- just like every other VF-1 v.2 that has been released thus far by both Yamato and Arcadia (same exact molds). This also means that this "new" GBP armor will be entirely compatible with every single VF-1A, J, and S v.2s ever sold by either company. Again, the Valkyrie itself was,is, will be transformable between all 3+ modes; but only with the armor off, because that's how the VF-1 Armor was in the show: a single mode add-on to be worn in battroid mode and, like wmkjr stated, has to be jettisoned (removed) prior to allowing the Valkyrie to go into the other modes.
  10. mechaninac
    True enough. I actually pinpoint the beginning of the suck to the very episode where they were first introduced, when we're shown the Borg nursery... they go from menacing to silly in one dumb scene.
  11. mechaninac
    ^In that case, you have to go back all the way to the episode where Geordy gets a "pet" Borg he names Hugh.
  12. mechaninac
    Or just wait it out for Arcadia to reissue them. It's bound to happen sometime.
  13. mechaninac
    It looks fine to me, with plenty of fine surface detail and good proportions; but then, I'm not as fussy a model builder as some. Also, the fact that this will be a widely available Styrene kit, the production of a Hasegawa or 3rd party photo-etch frets to super-detail the hell out of it is almost a given, too; so those who find themselves underwhelmed will likely get their wish for more detail. Now Hasegawa, get on producing a TV version SDF-1 as well... and a Battle 7 and Frontier, and some of the other ships from all the shows -- take a page from Bandai's line of 2199 1/1000 kits.
  14. mechaninac
    That's entirely dependent on whether or not you're the impatient type. Impatience = more expensive shipping. In my personal experience, SAL has always come through in about 2-2.5 weeks, with the longest transit time being about 3.5 weeks, and the shortest being 4-5 days.
  15. mechaninac
    My second VF-25S copy, from CDJ, arrived today; 20 days door to door from shipping notification by SAL unregistered... who needs EMS?
  16. mechaninac
    Well, the VF-9 is actually a little smaller than the VF-1 -- so is the VF-2 from MII; the VF-4, VF-5000, and VF-11 are only slightly larger.
  17. mechaninac
    Agreed; but in all fairness, Gubaba was the one to interject politics with his little drive-by post.
  18. mechaninac
    ^
  19. mechaninac
    AFAIK, only Nippon-Yasan gives you the option of paying at any time between preorder placement and official payment request, which they usually send out one to two weeks before an item's release. AmiAmi invoices upon the official release date, and I don't think they offer any prepay mechanism as they do not factor in the shipping charge, based on your method of choice but subject to change at their discretion, until the item is ready to ship... and they DO NOT allow cancellations except for very extraordinary circumstances.
  20. mechaninac
    Methinks someone has a lesbo fetish... first Frozen, and now LoK.
  21. mechaninac
    I sure hope the last episode ever will be a 2-parter. After Kuvira going all Orguss 2 on Republic City, a single half hour wrap-up will be either very rushed or leave a lot of loose ends. Sad to see this great series end, though.
  22. mechaninac
    ^This is the Interwebz... reflexive, preemptive nitpicking is a time-tested worldwide sport.
  23. mechaninac
    Two ways to deal with a stripped screw boss on something made of plastic (ABS in this case): 1) Fill the hole with slivers or shavings of the same ABS and use plastic weld to bond it all together. The fill material can be acquired from the toy itself by removing some ABS from some internal, hidden, surface. 2) Source a slightly larger diameter screw of the same length and head size to use on the stripped boss. It'll cut/form it's own thread as it's worked into the screw boss, which will not be stripped as far as the fatter screw is concerned. The through-hole in the mating part may need to be drilled larger to accommodate the new, slightly wider, screw.
  24. mechaninac
    You can get a super cheap rotary tool (specially if you use a coupon) with several bits, including cut-off wheels if I'm not mistaken, at Harbor Freight ... The least expensive option is single speed and rather weak on torque but should do the trick.
  25. mechaninac
    After a bit of regret at not pre-ordering the original Renewal release, waiting a long time for this reissue, a great deal of disappointment during the frustrating nanosecond long availability window upon opening of pre-orders, acceptance of paying above MSRP in order to secure one with Nippon-Yasan, anger at being fleeced by Play-Asia taking money upfront and failing to deliver and shortchanging on refunds, scoring one off CD Japan shortly after P-A trouble; I have just received my very first VF-25S; took exactly 3 weeks for delivery from Nippon-Yasan via SAL unregistered. I can now consider my Renewal collection complete. I do have a second one coming, also SAL unregistered, from CD-Japan which I intend to either leave MISB or sporting the Armor Packs I've had waiting since those were released.
×
×
  • Create New...