STAR WARS Merchandise Episode - 2

[Fatalist]

I bit the bullet and ordered a couple Resistance Xwings. Hopefully they arrive. Should be around the 14th of Jan.

[Hikuro]

Those bandai X wings are NOT fun to build......good god.

[Dobber]

Those bandai X wings are NOT fun to build......good god.

I'm inclined to agree. The upper fuselage is a jig-saw puzzle that leaves many gaps around very small detail that is VERY difficult to fix without losing said detail. All because BANDAI insist is on making the fuselage stripe in color instead of just using a decal or sticker like the wing markings. It's idiotic.

Chris

[derex3592]

Anyone tried to assemble the Bandai Y-Wing kit yet? This is turning out to be an adventure.

While I can appreciate their attention to detail, I'm really wishing they had opted to mold more of the main body details in place, or in groups. Several of the pieces are actually too flimsy to even survive the forces necessary to snap them in place, and I'm having to assemble a good portion of the kit with tweezers.

Also, I might have just gotten a bum packaging, because a few of the pieces are warped, including some of the long engine struts. I'm thinking some of these pieces would be better replaced by paperclips, or even guitar string, just for the higher strength.

Really wishing we could get one of these in 1/48 now, though I'm surprised how big the ship is in 1/72. Makes me wonder what the old MPC kit was.

Edit: Also, this is weird, but I just got a purchase announcement from HLJ for a Bandai 1/48th X-Wing I ordered back before the embargo happened. The item doesn't even exist on the site, but the purchase went through, and is now in my warehouse.

As nice as all the electronics are, I think I'm going to actually have to rig up a way to make the wings work manually. Plugging the ship into the stand just to open and close them is kinda silly, and I think I can probably shapeways myself a scaled up copy of the 1/72 kit's brackets to hold the wings.

I have the 1/72 Bandai Y-Wing in my to build sooner than later pile -- now I'm scared!

[Chronocidal]

I'm inclined to agree. The upper fuselage is a jig-saw puzzle that leaves many gaps around very small detail that is VERY difficult to fix without losing said detail. All because BANDAI insist is on making the fuselage stripe in color instead of just using a decal or sticker like the wing markings. It's idiotic.

Chris

Same here, I wish they would have just molded the fuselage as a single piece, would have worked so much better. The really baffling part is that they don't even mold all of the red stripes... the rear panel on the right side is left regular gray, and they expect to you cover the entire area with a large decal. Maybe they expect the decals to cover the gap? Sad part is, the gaps on the 1/48 version are actually worse, because they didn't even bother to follow natural panel lines.

I think just gluing the kit together will fix a lot of the gaps though. I've gone back and sanded and trimmed lots of the smaller parts to make sure they fit correctly, and if I press in the right places, the gaps pretty much disappear. One key piece seems to be the underside of the instrument panel colliding with the pilot's thighs.

It's very reminiscent of my experience with the 1/72 VF-25 kits, really. The parts take a lot of fine cleanup to fit correctly.

Far as the Y-Wing goes, it's really a beautiful little kit, but a lot of the smaller pieces consist of wires the size of mechanical pencil lead, and some need to be shoved into small holes to fit correctly, so they're very liable to bend. Fortunately, the bent engine vector strut didn't turn out to be a problem at all, and actually snapping it into place forced it back into shape.

I think they could have molded a lot more of the tiny details in place, or molded in in groups, and no one would have noticed, especially the things like a where you actually lay individual pipes along side each other. In contrast to the X-Wing though, the colored parts are pretty perfectly integrated. While the main body is a bit of a jigsaw, you'll never see any seams under all the greeblies.

Edited December 14, 2015 by Chronocidal

[derex3592]

well hopefully the practice I got on all the super tiny and fragile piping and parts on the 1:72 Fine Molds Falcon prepared me for the Y-Wing...my god it was almost never ending.

[Chronocidal]

So I took a closer look at my 1/48th Bandai X-Wing after getting home, and I have to correct my earlier statement, because aside from one specific spot, the seams on the forward fuselage are actually quite a bit better. They didn't divide the nose up into so many unnecessary parts, and instead of having both gray and red panels, you just get the colored panels separated (which causes other problems, but at least not gaps).

But once again, it's like the kit developers had someone die in the middle of designing the nose, and there's a huge ugly seam running across several panels right under the rear canopy on the right side. It's supposed to be another red panel, but for whatever reason, they don't include that particular one in the colored sprue, and you get gappy nonsense.

I'm hoping for a few more of these kits for Christmas, so I might do a few quick build-up pics of the 1/72 Y-Wing and X-Wing, and maybe another 1/48 X-Wing for fun.

Truth be told, questionable parts breakdown aside, not even the Fine Molds 1/48 kit comes close to how massively detailed these things are, and they look to be insanely accurate to the filming models, as if Bandai ran them through a 3D scanner.

Edit: Just for an example on the Y-Wing.. I went against my better judgment and managed to pop all the little greeblies off the fuselage without any damage. All the parts pictured go onto the main fuselage assembly. There's a few more that connect after the engines are attached. The smallest pipes shown are about 0.6 mm in diameter, because they fit loosely in a 0.7 mechanical pencil, but won't quite go into a 0.5.

I'm trying to figure out how many of these can be left off until main painting is done, but some are done in layers with major parts of the fuselage, and might have to just be hand painted once the kit is done.

Also, fair warning, it's no easy thing removing the R2 unit from the Y-wing, since a large panel snaps over his shoulders. You may want to use a headless body for assembly, and snap the head on after the ship is done.

Edit 2: Aaand.. in the process of reassembling the main panels, I managed to break one of the loopy pipes that hang out the back of the ship. After thinking about it though, I just snipped those pipes off both sides, since I could easily drill out and remount/replace them later. I might even leave them off, since not all of the film models even had those particular details. Where the X-Wings got unique paint schemes, the Y-Wings all had unique plumbing.

Edited December 15, 2015 by Chronocidal

[treatment]

ridiculously awesome figure!

:hail:

[Hikuro]

Well I just got a rather nifty piece of merchandise.

Over the last couple months every local news channel has been covering the company Saberforge who build lightsabers if no ones heard of them....they've been around I guess since after the recession when the owner lost his job as an electrician and opened up this place.
I have a few friends who own some of their sabers so when I asked if they were awesome, I was told it was a stupid question and to just shut up and buy one.

I go online on their Etsy page, ordered their Vengeance with an amber LED, Blade, charger, blah blah blah. That was back in October! Now into December I got pushed back 3 times, going from 4-6 week build, 8-10 week build and then a 15-25 day recevial from a company that's just a 40 minute drive from my house. Going back and forth with these guys on what was going on with my damn saber I finally got a refund.

Today I had the balls to go to their showroom and saw all their wonderful merchandise, play with the products, ask some questions despite them being insanely busy with a dozen people wanting service and only 1 guy behind the counter.

Needless to say, I walked out with a better attitude than when I went in. The guy behind the counter gave me more info on what was going on and what I should of done than they ever did online. So now I got a special unique built lightsaber being built for me and ready to pick up in the end of the month AND walked away with another lightsaber. So all in all I spent 618 bucks!

But I mean come on! This looks so damn cool! and what's so awesome is I had my freaking living room lights on and I'm still getting that intensity from the LED?! Wow! Just wow! Can't wait to get my 2nd saber with all the trimmings in a week and a half.

[peter]

[Chronocidal]

Quick note about the 1/48th Bandai X-wing kit... I bit the bullet and disassembled the motor box for the wings, just to see what it would take to let me move the wings manually.

The electronics came out pretty easily, but there's a long chain of gears used to slow down the motor speed for the wings that might need to stay in. The wings themselves are moved by pins in a sliding track driven by a worm gear, so if I can find a way to access that axle from the exterior (maybe modify a portion of the rear greeblie plate to open and expose it), I can keep the wing mechanism intact, and maybe just use a screwdriver to open and close them.

[Big s]

Hlj was really good about honoring instead of canceling the preorders on bandai Star Wars kits as long as the preorder was placed before the embargo. I got my Bobba Fett that way.

[Black Valkyrie]

After watching TFA, I can say its safe now to get the merchandise but I'll concentrate more on the vehicles.

[David Hingtgen]

So, what are the best blue-squadron X-Wings out there? (Don't want Poe's). Do ANY of the smaller ones not have crooked laser cannons? I generally like diecast models a ton, but skinny bits like that are always plastic which just ruins the look. Saw the worst one ever today, it was bent like 70 degrees, surprised it was still intact.

Any new/neat X-Wing stuff coming from Hasbro? (I figure a new UCS from Lego is a shoe-in, just maybe not this year).

[Chronocidal]

How small are you looking for? I'd think your best bet on any front is the Bandai kit, although I wonder if they'll make a Revoltech one of the new design?

I'd kind of like them to bring back the old Action Fleet vehicles, those were a nice size, odd proportions aside.

[the_foul_fowl]

Have you considered the miniatures from FFG? A bit pricey for what you get, but it is a very nicely detailed miniature

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/products/x-wing/products/force-awakens-core-set/

Me, I haven't gone into FFG stuff but I'm yearning for a large Star Destroyer. The largest I have is the shokugan one from a few years back by F toys. I also have the micro machines one and the Black series one... But all are small

The FFG one is really nice though

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/products/star-wars-armada/products/imperial-class-star-destroyer-expansion-pack/

Anyone know of any other options for a larger star destroyer besides the FFG one...?

[Chronocidal]

I don't know of many larger capital ships, and really, outside of resin garage kits, there is a horribly small selection of any of the non-fighter ships from all of the movies. The tabletop game series out now, X-Wing and Armada, are providing a much needed boost to that particular niche.

I'd love to grab a few more of the X-Wing game ships, like that rebel transport from ESB, but the scale of those ships gets pretty large once you get past anything bigger than the Tantive IV they've released. The Nebulon-B they've produced is absolutely huge, and while not anything like a resin kit, it's still pretty darn expensive. The sizes of mid-size ships like the Falcon and Slave I are pretty manageable, but since everything is in the same scale, the fighters get pretty tiny.

[Dobber]

I don't know of many larger capital ships, and really, outside of resin garage kits, there is a horribly small selection of any of the non-fighter ships from all of the movies. The tabletop game series out now, X-Wing and Armada, are providing a much needed boost to that particular niche.I'd love to grab a few more of the X-Wing game ships, like that rebel transport from ESB, but the scale of those ships gets pretty large once you get past anything bigger than the Tantive IV they've released. The Nebulon-B they've produced is absolutely huge, and while not anything like a resin kit, it's still pretty darn expensive. The sizes of mid-size ships like the Falcon and Slave I are pretty manageable, but since everything is in the same scale, the fighters get pretty tiny.

What Nebulon-B are you referring to? The only official one I'm aware of is the Armada one and it is really small. The only other Nebulon's I'm aware of are fan made ones on Shapeways, and yes they are really expensive.

Chris

[the_foul_fowl]

The largest craft in FFG is probably the huge Corellian Corvette from the X-wing game

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/products/x-wing/products/tantive-iv-expansion-pack/

Yeah, the Neb-B from the Armada game is quite small...

I hope with the new wave of kits from Dragon, Bandai etc, one of the them will start making capital ships! ISD, Mon Cal cruiser, Corellian Corvette, Neb-B, Rebel transports!

[Mechapilot77]

So, what are the best blue-squadron X-Wings out there? (Don't want Poe's). Do ANY of the smaller ones not have crooked laser cannons? I generally like diecast models a ton, but skinny bits like that are always plastic which just ruins the look. Saw the worst one ever today, it was bent like 70 degrees, surprised it was still intact.

Any new/neat X-Wing stuff coming from Hasbro? (I figure a new UCS from Lego is a shoe-in, just maybe not this year).

the tiny hasbro black series diecast x wings have perfectly straight lasers....not much of it is diecast though. ..its perfectly straight. i think the bent ones were the disney ones a couple years back which were a little bigger IIRC.

Edited December 22, 2015 by Mechapilot77

[Mommar]

the tiny hasbro black series diecast x wings have perfectly straight lasers....not much of it is diecast though. ..its perfectly straight. i think the bent ones were the disney ones a couple years back which were a little bigger IIRC.

Are you kidding me? I've seen exactly one of the Black Series X-Wings that has straight laser cannons.

Edited December 22, 2015 by Mommar

[Dobber]

The Disney store diecast x-wings are pretty descent for the price. They are a little smaller than 1/72 maybe around 1/80. They are only $9.99 online at disneystore.com both blue squadron and black leader.

http://www.disneystore.com/disney/store/DSISearch?Searchstr=Star+Wars+diecast&storeId=10051&catalogId=10002&langId=-1&pageCmdName=homeLandingPage&Ntx=mode+matchallpartial&N=0Ν=pProductID&Nr=pPublished%3A1&Ntk=All_Shopping&Ntt=Star+Wars+diecast&D=Star+Wars+diecast&Dr=pPublished%3A1

BBTS also has Hot Wheels diecast Elite vehicles coming out in 2016...they may be much better looking....I hope so since they are around $70

Chris

Edited December 22, 2015 by Dobber

[David Hingtgen]

70? Better have working landing gear bays/doors for that much. Could be worth it, but unlikely. I haven't seen decent Hotwheels diecast since their Ferrari 360.

[Chronocidal]

The Nebulon B was definitely released for the X-Wing game... but not sure about who actually produced it. It might not be an official product for the game.

http://www.spikeybits.com/2015/11/how-big-is-it-x-wing-scale-nebulon-b.html

http://uedata.amazon.com/Star-Wars-X-Wing-Miniatures-Game/dp/B013O5291U

I don't think the construction was all that sturdy, so maybe the company is reworking the design? The reviews on Amazon aren't great, but it's by far the largest version of this ship I've seen mass produced.

Edited December 23, 2015 by Chronocidal

[Swoosh]

Is the Force FX light saber with removable blade discontinued?

[Mechapilot77]

Are you kidding me? I've seen exactly one of the Black Series X-Wings that has straight laser cannons.

the new ones? in stores this year? they all look straight. the bendy cannons always kept me from buying them...until this year. go to a store and look. they are all straight now. haven't seen a bent one in ages.

[Axelay]

What is this, exactly? Because I want it in the most covetous way...

[areaseven]

What is this, exactly? Because I want it in the most covetous way...

It's a plot spoiler.

[peter]

Is the Force FX light saber with removable blade discontinued?

I don't know about disconinued, but the value of the Anikin one just jumped on Amazon by retarded proportions.

[Dangard Ace]

Got a nice little haul of Star Wars Figuarts today when I realized there are no hero figures. Anybody know when are Rey, Fin and Poe going to show up?

[Hikuro]

speaking of sabers, my 2nd saber arrived, well I had to go pick it up. I got a text from Saberforge asking me to show up tomorrow if I can and I told them I'll be there in under 12 parsecs, 14.5 tops. So atleast someone got the joke cause a few I know it went over their heads.

So either way, this is Saberforge's Gladius type built around TOR mmo from the first saber you get as a Jedi when you complete the first story arc. It's built with a Veridian soundboard so I can customize the volume, motion sensitivity and battle clashing. The saber also can channel 5 different blade effects which really go from variations of flickering or pulsing to still solid color.
Custom leather wrapped handle and a deep blue blade, not as bright as my medium blue on my Epoch of the same brand, but good enough I think.

384 dollars though is still a pretty hefty price, but I'm glad they're located somewhere I can drive to and see what they got whenever I feel like it. If ya gotta have something for a light saber, you're better off with these guys.

[Scyla]

I envy you. I want one too. I have to check what the first Lightsaber of my Sith Juggernaut was.

Edited December 25, 2015 by Scyla

[VF-19]

Got a Sphero BB-8 for Christmas! This thing is awesome, and tricky to control.

[Fatalist]

It's a plot spoiler.

Exactly, and it was the last straw that forced me to go see the movie. People need to be more careful.

[peter]

No clue how it's a plot spoiler, there are images of old Luke all over the interwebs.