Chronocidal

I kind of don't get what's going on with shipping through San Fran recently.. my last order from AmiAmi spent almost a week in customs, and arrived at the same time as an HLJ order that I placed several days later.

Note, you really don't want to tighten those at all.. you want some play in those connections, because it gives the shoulder mounts a bit more room to move over the stops.

*jaw hits floor and puddle of drool starts to form* Me likey. A lot.

Ok, I've been tinkering to see what causes the nose to get stuck, and it seems to mostly be the neck plate. Basically, to rotate the chest plate up, the head plate has to be pushed back toward the back plate as far as it will go. Not sure if the head has to be in the up position or not yet, but it'll let you see if the nose is getting past that plate. If that neck plate isn't pushed back, it catches on the front of the nose, and the chest can't rotate to let the nose out the front. One other thing that helps too is to make sure the nosecone itself is as far down as it will go.. there is some play in the double hinge connecting it to the cockpit section, and if you rotate it the right way, it will go further towards the gear, and leave you more room to rotate the nose out from under the chest without it scratching. I'm still trying different methods, but so far my best way has just been to lift the head up, raise the shoulder plates and back plate a pit, and push the head plate back as far as I can, until you can lift the front up and over the nose.

I'm still working on learning the tricks to getting that bit of the transformation right myself. I've only done it a few times now (I love the fighter mode on this, and usually just leave it that way), and every time I go from battroid back to fighter, the upper chest plate doesn't like rotating upwards. The trick is in how you get the chest plate to rotate upwards. Align things right, and the chest plate will lift up, and let the nose slip under it easily. I just can never seem to identify exactly what allows it, so I always wind up fiddling with the thing a couple minutes before it actually works right. I think it has something to do with the neck joint, and how it sits against the nose. Try flipping the neck plate up and back, and see if that helps some.

Maybe I lucked out on my order, but I was really surprised how snug they managed to keep my 27 packaging. The VF-27 itself was wrapped in a cardboard sleeve with a separate compartment for the poster that let it just fit diagonally. That sleeve/box was the exact length of the larger shipping box, that was about 16" tall and wide on the end. Course, for me, the space around the 27 was taken up by my Miria VF-22 and Hi-Metal Fire Valk. There wasn't any wasted space at all in there. Did they use a similar box as mine for packing just a solo DX VF-27? Funniest thing about mine.. the outer shipping box they used was an old Italeri shipping box. Nothing like getting a heap of Japanese toys in a box from Italy. On the downside, that could be why no one could find it until I came back with the missed delivery slip.. I was telling them to look for a box full of Japanese characters, and they sent me something all marked up in Italian.

True enough, I wasn't considering Yamato in that comparison, and I should have. I guess what separates them for me is that Bandai has been aiming much more toward the playable side, while Yamato goes more for displayability (or would that be dis-playability? ). Yamato isn't a small company, but compared to Bandai, they're rather insignificant, with much more limited production (I would assume, I could be wrong), so I guess that makes me tend to be more accepting of their prices. Compared to Yamato, the prices do make sense, even it's just because they're roughly evenly inflated. Oh well. I might get one eventually, if only to display on my desk at work. I don't care for the scale, but then again, the smaller size is much more inconspicuous for the workplace.

Well, I have to applaud Bandai for making it look good.. but until they start doing something incredibly revolutionary with these, they just aren't worth the money. This one's better than the Fire Valkyrie, but still way too high priced for what you get. I took a chance on the Fire Valk, and while it's decent enough, it's definitely not worth the $60 I paid for it, and even that was 25% off. That's the same as my Masterpiece Skywarp cost, for something about two-thirds the length, no where near the same material content, and no real noticeable difference in quality... well, except that Bandai can't seem to figure out how to match colors for anything, and they keep insisting on using plastic molded in grey and painted red to match red plastic.. it doesn't work so well. Oh, and Skywarp included a complete stand. To me.. these just look like they should be sold alongside the $15-$20 transformers you find at any other store. Roughly the same size and such, though articulation may be a bit better (although I'd say the limp wrists aren't worth it). I'd love to understand where the extra cost comes from in these... I guess maybe production line size, development time, licensing.. I dunno. I might get some of the more rare Valks when (and if) they come out, I just hope the prices come down.

Well, the VF-25's legs are missing a key mounting point to keep them stable in fighter, so they don't stay up (same as the DX really, but the model is at least capable of getting the legs higher.. there is room for them). What I did was add some extra tabs to the legs and wing glove pieces, and now fighter holds together like a rock. I think there are pictures a few pages back in this thread, but I can repost them if you want to see where I did it.

I'd love M&M versions, but I really don't need another set of M&M valks. I definitely like the VFX version better, but I'd really prefer the white nosecone from the M7 one. And.. the blue and yellow hightlights don't really fit.. oh well, I'd probably buy them up like all the rest.

Judging by the fact that there's no cutout for the gun in that big honking mount, I'd say no, which really makes no sense, considering the included stands did.. now people have to pay extra for a stand that doesn't even do what the freebie version did. Do the separate portions of Bandai's development team even talk to each other?

Sheesh.. that's a monstrosity. Meh. I don't trust their ability to make stands for these. My VF-25G keeps slipping backwards off the stand in fighter mode, because the stupid attachment plate design they used for the forward support won't stay in the mount. I know they wanted to make it versatile, but it's not sturdy at all. At least this time they supported the fighter from the rear, instead of just a plate the legs sit on. I really just don't like the giant bulky mounts on Bandai's stands.. they're so visible they kill any sense of the thing being in flight, rather than sitting on a launch rail or something. I really wish they could come up with something smaller, that clips around some sturdy part of the plane, and holds it in place (more like the SV-51 and YF-21 stands). Of course, then you'd have the stand scratching off paint wherever it attached.

This is very interesting... apparently, Bandai is not so scared to go to 1/48 scale after all. 1/48 MEGA SIZE MODEL Gundam Maybe they were too scared to test the 1/48 waters without having the cash cow name to fall back on? Either way, I hope this sells well enough to convince them that 1/48 is worth pursuing, ESPECIALLY for Macross. I'd love to see them make an entire Mega Size line eventually. Though.. whether they'll remain (even some remote notion of) affordable is yet to be seen. Correction.. if this is the standard they mean to produce this line in, I'm not sure what it means... this looks to be even more playable than the standard Gundam kits (extremely simplified assembly, snap fit, who knows what type of internal structure, if there even is one), and probably no where near Perfect Grade quality. But if it means I could get a 1/48 VF-25 for around $80, I'll gladly accept the simplifications.

Holy... cow... Umm... I'm about 30 seconds in.. and I'm about to spew soda all over my monitor from pure stupid giggling WTF-ness. I feel like I'm watching Macross fighters re-enacting a cross between a Benny Hill chase sequence, and a montage of the Three Stooges. This seriously needs a fan dub with judicious use of "Nyuk-nyuk-nyuk".... or better yet.. someone needs to draw in all the cartoon sound effect bubbles like old-school Batman! Edit: Gotta hand it to them.. nothing says menacing like a bunch of mechs chanting "Dahh.. Dahh.. Dahh..." And after seeing this.. I actually want a sub of it, so I'd be able to tell if what I think happened actually did just happen.. and everyone stopped fighting because some dj started blasting pop-music through the comm system. The comments are epic though. "2:15: Mikhail is alive?! Mikhail is alive!!" Edit 2: After seeing the whole episode... it felt like what would happen if Strongbad did a Macross tribute.

Wow, I didn't expect it to have nearly the correct proportions.. the head looks a bit big, and the nose is obviously long, but that doesn't look bad (considering how badly it fits together ) Mostly, I'm amazed the arms look long enough, since they look rather short in the fighter mode pics I've seen. I didn't buy the full Vermillion group, but I do have two on the way to tinker with.. Probably will build one of each type, but I don't know if I want them both flying, or one on the gear... and while one will be Hikaru's 1J, I have no idea what I want the second to be.

Hrmm.. If I get any more of the VF-25 DX's it'll be an armored Ozma, and it'll be a while from now. I might get the kit eventually, but I dunno if I want to have to do that much work to get one.

Nice.. might be my chance to FINALLY get a 1/48 Roy Been waiting about 5 years to get one now. I don't need any more YF-21/VF-22s, but I do want to get a VF-0S finally. And... while I dunno if I should, I might try my luck on another YF-19... just in the hopes of getting one with better shoulders and such.

This is gonna be an epic week or so wait.. In two separate orders... Max VF-22S VF-11C TV 1/60 VF-1 Super Pack 1/48 Hasegawa VF-1 x2 VF-25F kit VF-25S kit VF-25 Super Pack Add-on kit SMS Action Base x4 Black Action Base (for Brera) And I think I'm done for a good couple months... or at least until the VF-0S gets reissued without splodey shoulders.

Thanks for the update, paypal incoming. If you ever need some kind of shoulder surgery, maybe we can all chip in and properly repay you

That gave me a good chuckle at work today, thank you. Got my Miria 22 from AmiAmi yesterday, and checked it over... nothing missing, only slight problem is a slightly weak wing hinge, but I can tighten that up easily. What amazes me though... This one fits together MUCH better than my YF-21. I broke off one of the rear belly plate tabs trying to get mine to fit together, and they've always looked slightly curved from the stress of hooking them under the engine boxes. This one though.. the plates are perfect. Flush, smooth, no gap, and they're actually slightly sloppy in that position, meaning there's no stress on them at all. I did notice one difference... my YF-21 has engines that seem canted upwards, as if the tops of the nacelles are leaning toward the center of the plane. This seems like it puts stress on the belly plates, since it raises the outer edge of the nozzle blocks. Miria's nacelles are much more level, and I think it helped the belly plates fit MUCH better.

oooh... I wonder how well those VF-1 Wolfpack stickers that come with the VF-0A would fit this... Well, just ordered mine from AmiAmi, I'll have to see when it gets here.

*sigh* Time to add them up again, I've been splurging. Yamato- Total: 16 1/48: Super Hikaru 1J 1/60: V.2 Roy, Strike Hikaru 1A, Hikaru 1J, M&M 1Js, Max TV 1A, VF-1D trainer, and VT-1, YF-19, YF-21, VF-11, Miria VF-22S, VF-0A, SV-51 CF and Nora Bandai- Total: 4 1/100: Hi-Metal Fire Valk 1/60: DX Michael, Movie Alto, and Brera Plan for this month is a VF-11C, and Max VF-22S, but that might be put on hold for more Frontier model kits.

Unless you mean the wings are curled up (stupid molding flaw they have no excuse for by now), yep, the shoulders are too wide to fit in the space between the thighs. It's easy to fix technically.. you just have to unscrew the arms and take them off. Then the wings sit perfectly level.

Actually.. I figured I'd take a chance on the Fire Valk since it was on sale, and I'm pleasantly surprised. It's kind of disappointing size-wise, but the ingenuity Bandai put into making this work is nice. I think any problems seen with a bulging back, or gaps in the wing root are from mistransformation, because I don't see that at all. It's not perfect, but I very much prefer the shape of this one to the 1/60 YF-19. Even with the gullet it has, the nose is angled down to where the plane looks much better than the Yamato version. It's not perfect I know.. the legs are spaced a bit too far apart in fighter, and the shoulders pop up far too much (actually.. really, the red shoulder pivots are just too small, but in this size you need that space for the mechanism). Plus the hand wonkyness, and no gunpod or landing gear. What I really am hoping though is that Yamato will adapt some of the ideas put into this one, and make their own version a vast improvement over the YF-19. Between the two designs, I think all the ideas are there to produce an absolutely beautiful 1/60 Fire Valk, and I'll eagerly await to see what Yamato can come up with for that.

Well, the later the release the better probably... and given the sale on HLJ recently, the movie version Alto is probably the easiest to get right now. I haven't noticed any serious issues with mine.. though it's only a couple weeks old. It does come with the super packs and painted stand, so that's a nice addition, if you don't mind the blue-ish tint of the plane and armor. The sale price at HLJ put the movie version at around the same as a V.2 Yamato 1/60 with strike packs, so it's not a bad deal.. that's the main reason I got that one. Besides, it's nice not having to hunt down the stupid exclusive packs for Alto. And honestly, I don't think the movie version has sold as well as others, so it might be easier to find that than a stand-alone Alto or Ozma. Btw, just checked... sale is still on, it's in stock, and it's actually only 12,000 yen, so cheaper than a V.2 Strike VF-1. Plus several of the 1/72 kits are discounted, so you could grab them at the same time if you wanted (I bought four of the little suckers. )