Chronocidal

If that center panel isn't sitting flush, there's probably something under it propping it up. There are a couple of folding panels and a battroid support under there, so make sure they're all collapsed correctly.

I'm almost tempted to pick up a third, that's about $15 lower now than I paid for my copy from HLJ at release.

The thrusters aren't the problem, the backpack flap hinge is just mis-molded to the point that it doesn't even touch them. The hinge just doesn't rotate far enough to give the arms clearance. Only real way to fix it would be to modify that flap by sanding away the edge so it rotates further. If you raise the backpack, the arms can sit higher on the pegs.. but they don't stay there. They just squeeze off of them, due to the conflicting materials. The plastic just has no friction against the polished metal. If the backpack flap wasn't a problem, it might be worth roughing up those tabs with a file to see if you could get them to stick a little better. I really wish the arms didn't bother me as much as they do, but the worst part is always trying to mount the gunpod. The arms themselves I can overlook from some angles, but as soon as you add the gunpod it's like a giant neon sign pointing out exactly how badly out of alignment they are for fighter mode. The full length of the gunpod is planted firmly on the ground, front and back, when you set it on the gear, and that's frankly the only way to even get the arms to stay up in the first place. Otherwise they just dangle. Bonus points for making the gunpod look like it's going to blow out the underside of the nosecone, because it constantly tilts from the droopy arms. It just drives me absolutely bats that people can design these sorts of things, and just completely miss such obvious issues. Like, these problems were visible from the earliest promotional test shots. Why did no one do something about it? Edit: To make the problem very clear.. this isn't the arms drooping from gravity. They are being pushed downward, and standing the thing upright on its feet doesn't make any difference. This is just where the arms sit. If it wasn't for the ground pushing the gunpod up when you set it on the landing gear, the wheels wouldn't reach the ground. If I actually press the arms up, yeah, the gunpod actually looks like it's almost firing forward, but it won't stay that way without constant pressure. Bottom line.. yeah, I really want to like this figure more than I do. Would be great if we could get this paintjob and posability on a Yamato or Bandai.. but at the same time, for as easily as all of this panel lining rubs off, I'm glad neither Yamato nor Bandai decided to go that route. As it is.. just treat it as a battroid figure, and you're probably fine, so long as you don't handle it too much (and don't look at the elbows).

I was thinking that this arrangement makes literal anti-sense, since the Fire Valk already has shoulders with round holes in them, but looking closer, it appears they didn't think that far ahead, and had to re-locate those mounting holes for the speaker fins. But still.. why would they think we need two sets? Did they not believe a peg the same size as a missile hardpoint would be sufficient to hold the fins on the shoulders? I'm not exactly complaining, since fortunately the different colors of plastic indicate they are actually separate parts, but it just feels silly.

I generally don't care for the giant combiner groups, but man if I'm not tempted to just grab that one. One of the best looking chopper transformers I've seen, and I'm a sucker for the type of plastic origami going on there.

Just saw the new Slave I, might have to pick that one up since holy crap does it make the old UCS one look even more like garbage than it already did. Just wow. I hope the pieces exist in the proper colors to rebuild it in the OT scheme. Might grab that and the Tie Interceptor this year.. maybe two Interceptors actually, so I can rebuild one as the standard model.

Well then, that's a weird choice.. were they just incapable of making those shoulder fins rotate like the Yamato? I'm not sure I'm actually "concerned" about not being able to remove them though. This just makes me think that these will be coming with extra shoulders that make customization that much easier.

Got my Roy this past week, transformed it once to fighter to confirm the arm sliders weren't frozen, and then haven't really touched it since. Probably for the better, so the panel lining doesn't rub off like my Rick's. I don't know. These just feel like an oddball. They've got a couple of really questionable design choices that manage to goof up all modes roughly equally, I suppose? And sadly, the arm design is at the center of all of it. The forearms being so thick pretty well kills the profile in fighter mode (especially when the arms sag off the pegs, leaving the rear gear propped off of the ground by the gunpod ). Then the screwy elbow design just looks terrible if you look at it for more than five seconds. It just makes me sad at how easy it would be for them to fix it. Also yeah, same exact issue as above. The arms will not seat on those stubs. The backpack flap pushes them down, because it doesn't collapse far enough against the thrusters. So they just dangle even lower than their intended position. Also, unfortunately in my case, this is probably the worst fitting nosecone I've seen on any VF-1 since they started making them fold. Can't figure this one out, it's like the nosecone tip got shrunk in the wash or something, it's too small for the rest of the nose, and doesn't sit flush, so there's an angled gap all the way around. On the plus side, the paint is immaculate on this one, and I appreciate the extra pivot they added to tilt the head lasers in and out. I don't know if I exactly regret buying both of these, and I can appreciate someone finally making a release that's more battroid-focused, but the sad part is that some of those compromises weren't even necessary in the first place. They just made some poor choices in general. These are probably just going to remain in battroid forever. Though.. now I'm actually kind of wondering how hard it would be to make a set of custom arms without the elbow and droop problems. Could even work in a set of perfect transformation hands, since they didn't seem interested in those. Would be really funny if you could just pull off the arms below the shoulder, and replace the whole assembly with a set of Yamatos.

Nin-Nin got hammered, think it had one of the lowest prices, but AE came out about the same 33,000 yen, I think (without checking the conversion math) I got one added to my cart.. then it added a second (which wasn't actually a problem since the limit there was 2), but then the cart link just began timing out. Hobby Genki is showing available too as of this edit, but they've got one of the higher prices. Edit: Also, whoa... HLJ limited to 3? That's.. new.

Up on AE and HLJ https://anime-export.com/index.php?product=91493 https://www.hlj.com/dx-chogokin-vf-19-kai-excalibur-nekki-basara-special-banc676269

The knee gap is a consequence of needing to compress the legs for battroid, and stretch them out for fighter. Otherwise, you get the long skinny legs on the DX YF-19. Since the Fire Valk generally gets a lot more time and attention to battroid mode, the fighter just gets the short end of the stick to make the legs look appropriately chonky. The YF-19 got the opposite treatment, and while it leaves the battroid looking more lanky than it should, I'm not even slightly interested in them redoing it. All that will accomplish is giving us another giant knee gap like the Arcadia version has. We've got the Arcadia for a good animation battroid, and I'm fine letting Bandai keep its more fighter-focused take. (Though I would love to see them make that stupid gray thigh hinge match ) We'll see how he price works out though. Inflation (and other potential increases) aside, the exhange rate has still kept things fairly consistent on the import end for the US. I'm really not sure that neck cover is going to be an improvement though. They're trying to hide it with camera angles, but it looks like he's wearing a neck brace.

Yeah, that's the price you pay for getting the neck cover integrated. Can't say I'm actually a fan, it just looks like it breaks up the entire flow of the spine. Looking like once again we're just going to be trading off positives and negatives between the Yamato and Bandai designs, with the perfect mix being a non-existent blending of the best features of both.

I'm honestly not sure HLJ is even worth trying lately, because they seem to be on Bandai's sh!tlist for some reason. I am STILL waiting for my original HG YF-21 order, and they didn't even list the HMR VF-19P. I don't think they've been getting sufficient stock from them for a long time. Whether a DX release will be different, I don't know.

Is this a trick question? \ Though on that note, maybe it's time for a new edition of my avatar.. "LISTEN TO MY LAZOR!!"

Ugh.. obviously the gear are bare metal, but I don't think that integrated neck cover is doing fighter any favors at all. Now it's just got scoliosis. \ I do think the overall fighter profile is a bit better than the Yamato though. Better intakes (but still the same ugly knee gap), and the LEX looks like a better angle, making the nose look longer. Still want to see a top view, but I'll try and bite for one at least.

I'm just curious if there is anything that can be done about the time restrictions applied to the search functions. I can understand there being limits on making new searches, but the time limit applies to any function applied to an already completed one. Every time I need to perform a search, it seems like I'm slamming my face against my desk trying to actually view what it found, because I can't change pages, can't sort by date, can't really do anything with the results. I understand if that's just a forum software limit, so maybe that's something to take up with the developers (or something that might get fixed in a future update), but this behavior just feels baffling.

I think the Bandai Star Wars model thread is long buried, but figure this is worth posting. Looks like they're re-issuing the PG 1/72 Falcon https://anime-export.com/index.php?product=91383 Deadline is the 30th of April, with a release at the end of July, so it might have been announced a while ago, and I just missed it.

Interesting, what's the difference, if any? I'm just generally annoyed at whatever caused Amazon to completely yeet my pre-order into the abyss last time. In other news though, spent a bit of time taking measurements, and after coming up with a fitting sleeve interior, I can build different nose cones for the E-Wing off of it. I'll probably do one more like the original EU design later, but I wanted to try something a little different to start out. Kind of reminiscent of a BSG Viper nose, but a little more curved, and with a similar detail to the original X-Wing nosecone. Will need some intensive sanding, but I'm glad the plastic I used is pretty near one of the stock paint shades used on the ship.

Nice! Been waiting for that one... Now to just wait and pray that Amazon doesn't shaft me on this one like it did my Tie Bomber pre-order.

I never really wanted a ton of markings on the VF-17s anyhow, but yeah, the lack of the ones we did see in the show was pretty disappointing. I can't really say I was that upset about it personally, since I don't mind them being solid black, but that's one of the detriments of giving the customer too much choice.

Anyone missed the steelbook set, it's back up on Amazon for a pre-order at $40, but no definite shipping date yet.

The possible price issues might make this a no-sale, but I might still grab one or two, just because I love seeing all the different ways to approach the VF-19 design. If I do wind up with one, it'll probably stay in fighter mode, since while the Yamato is good, the proportions and shape of the forward fuselage/LEX always bugged me. I want to see if Bandai manages to improve it. Either way, I'm much more interested in seeing this turned into a proper VF-19F/S/P/etc. anyway, especially with them finally adding some proper hardpoints to the design. Would love to see some of the customs out of the Macross 30 game, or the Master File, but those will always just be a pipe dream.

Yeeesh, they need to get with it here. There's still a good number of OT designs they haven't touched (Imperial Shuttle, Tie Bomber), a pile of good stuff from the PT, and a heap of stuff from the "new" canon that they can latch onto. After the two I mentioned, I would absolutely be down for official E-Wing and Tie Defender kits, and I still want a decent standard N-1, V-19, Clone Wars-era Y-Wing, ARC-170 and any of the Jedi Starfighter designs.

Suddenly... I want a very bizarre and specific crossover to happen. I feel like Basara would be right at home in this series.

It does look like they skipped the origami involved in the YF-19's legs, and went back to a simple cutout for the arms. Can't say I'm upset about that though. As impressive as the mechanism was, it was probably the absolute peak of excessive complexity in any Bandai product I've seen, and actually annoyed me because it prevented extending the feet in fighter mode.