Arcadia 1/60 VF-0S & VF-0A

[Kyp Durron]

I stand by what I said, for what they're charging, I expect them to get it right.

[funkymonkeyjavajunky]

ok, so when are payment requests going to go out for the VF-0A?

[ArchieNov]

So any idea why Arcadia is changing up the colors as they please? I'd understand if it was a non-canon valk, but if they're releasing a hero's custom color scheme (e.g. Shin Kudou), you would expect that they would follow it exactly. After all, the custom color scheme is what defines it as that particular hero's valk.

Small changes like this (while may be aesthetically pleasing), undermine the identity of the valk. Kinda like how Gilliam's VF-25F didn't have the black stripes on its head like Alto's (even though everything else is the same).

Edited August 13, 2015 by ArchieNov

[technoblue]

No idea beyond speculation. People have asked Mr. K on Twitter about the colors for other releases (the VF-0D and the VF-1 are good examples), but his answers lead to more debates here on the forums. I've learned to stop worrying about it.

[Kyp Durron]

Continue buying their stuff, and they have no reason to stop the shenanigans. Start voting with your wallet, and I'll bet you they'll quickly stop screwing around with the color scheme.

[Sandman]

Continue buying their stuff, and they have no reason to stop the shenanigans. Start voting with your wallet, and I'll bet you they'll quickly stop screwing around with the color scheme.

Normally i would agree but i'm afraid the conclusion Arcadia would come to was that we don't want VF-0 toys. It's like how yamato thought their zero line failed because people weren't interested in zero valks but missed the fact that that they all were released defective (exploding shoulders etc).

[Valkyrie Driver]

Normally i would agree but i'm afraid the conclusion Arcadia would come to was that we don't want VF-0 toys. It's like how yamato thought their zero line failed because people weren't interested in zero valks but missed the fact that that they all were released defective (exploding shoulders etc).

This is why there needs to be customer feedback before the release. As much as I hate focus groups, this is where you need them.

[Mommar]

I went back and watched Episode 5, are we sure they've actually changed up the colors? It looks much closer to the OVA than the old 0A does actually.

[Tking22]

That 0A is ugly, if the blue is indeed on the legs then that's just...bad. I never intended to get a 0A, Shin or cannon fodder, or whatever they're calling it, so I honestly don't have many horses in that race. That said, I did want a new 0S, but Arcadia's current pricing just, isn't working out for me, which is weird, because I thought the armored 1J was quite reasonable for what I got, I get that that was just a VF-1, which has been pretty much perfected for awhile, but still, they're really driving away casual valk collectors, if that's a thing. I don't do Bandai's stuff, I hate Frontier and Plus's mecha, so Arcadia is the only company putting out valks I'm even slightly interested in, but they're pricing is getting out of hand, small company yada yada yada and I get that, but it's just becoming too much at this point. I shudder at the thought of a new SV-51, I wouldn't be surprised at a $400+ dollar price tag, and yet, I'm sure many people will somehow buy multiples. The molds they are putting out look great no doubt, but it's beyond Hot Toys pricing, and at that point, to me, it's gotten absurd.

[eggy99]

Cancelled my PO at HLJ. Colours just a bit too out there for me. I'm looking for more of a low vis looking valk, and the blue accents stand out too much.

Will wait for the CF version next year.

If final version is different after release I might try and get one.

Edited August 13, 2015 by eggy99

[CoreyD]

The infinite color shade discussions usually irk the hell out of me and I actually like the grey shade they used for the new 0A. Still those blue fins are just...weird.

Still keeping my preorder though, so whatever.

[Scyla]

I think it looks good. Now I need to secure a Ghost drone.

[Old Man]

I was okay with the hue of blue they chose for the 0D, but it makes no sense to me why they're using blue anywhere on the 0A...

[MacrossJunkie]

Hmmm, yeah... I believe I will be repainting those fins and the back of the legs if they come blue like that...

I swear they must hire people with abnormal cone mutations in their eyes or really strange lighting in the office that makes these look right to them.

[Tking22]

Comparing a Hot Toys to a transformable figure does not at all equate. The likelihood of affordability is slim for an obscure anime series like macross when you compare it to a fan base such as Transformers or Gundam which vastly outnumber macross fans worldwide and as a result the more of a thing is produced the likelihood of it will come to an affordable price point.

Meh, that doesn't mean much to me, as far as toys go, I used Hot Toys as an example because they too offer super expensive "high quality" figures, transformable or not. Arcadia's pricing has gone beyond most other crazy expensive companies pricing, beyond Hot Toys, 3A, TP Transformers. I get that it's a more niche series, and Arcadia is a small company, I feel I covered that in my yada, yada, yada, but once again, my point still stands, they're stuff has gotten too expensive, especially considering what they are putting out now, this color situation is absurd, are we to continue to give them so much slack on their merchandise because it's niche and they're a small company? I don't think that's right, they're charging beyond premium pricing at this point, and I'm just not seeing the quality or attention to detail anymore. I really don't care either way, they're damaging themselves at this point, their only market is the most die-hard and financially sound collectors out there. I get that their products are made in limited quantities and they're a tiny company compared to what Yamato was and Bandai is, I'm pretty sure everyone on this site gets that without explanation, but I still stand by my statement, too expensive for what we're getting and seeing.

[wmkjr]

I was okay with the hue of blue they chose for the 0D, but it makes no sense to me why they're using blue anywhere on the 0A...

I can see the fins but not the back of the legs.

Crappy dull color tones from the episode during the fighting make it hard to tell.

Tried to snap the pic but I'm to slow:

Blue is definitely visible in this one:

Now go with grey or differentiate yourself from the other version and go blue? Regardless, can't wait till release.

Edited August 14, 2015 by wmkjr

[MacrossJunkie]

Since I apparently have nothing better to do than to overanalyze things, here's another screenshot that may help.



This scene has less colored ambient lighting than the other shots although there is still a slight bluish tint to everything, it is set above the clouds with direct sunlight hitting various parts of the valkyrie.
The little triangle of sunlight hitting the white section of the fin shows that to be white. By the same token, the sunlight illuminating the right corner of the fin shows the area to be roughly the same gray as the heatshield.
So take that how you want.

A few more scenes where it looks grayish:

In any case, whether it is blue or gray, I'm going to make mine gray because I feel it looks better that way.

Edited August 14, 2015 by MacrossJunkie

[seti88]

I thk even the old yamato vf-0a wasnt anime accurate in colors (the black stripes on wings/arms)...guess its a toss up which one you wanna get or upgrade...

[spanner]

It was just the other day I was looking at my SV-51 engine intake area and thought it would look better if the area around the fan blades were colored black as apposed to silver just like in this pic here!

Edited August 14, 2015 by spanner76

[wmkjr]

Thanks for the screenshots, very nice one on top I must say. I like to over-analyze things too as I got nothing better to do right now except sit and wait for more delicious pics of valks!

I was showing screens that had some blue as someone asked why they would use blue anywhere on the VF-0A. I think that the whole blue/grey thing is confusing as the colors keep changing. They both look good to me.

Here's another one with grey although it's shaded:

Don't get me wrong as I was miffed on the color choice for the 0D when it came out. Who knows what Arcadia's thinking as the criteria for color selection.

Edit: MacrossJunkie, is that from the Blu-ray? I wanna pick up a set.

Edited August 14, 2015 by wmkjr

[MacrossJunkie]

I think aside from the dark blue on the fins and back of legs, the rest of the valk's colors look pretty accurate.

If they have to screw up a color, I'd certainly prefer it to be limited to a small area rather than over the majority of the valk like with the 0D.

[Guest davidwhangchoi]

all i know is the grey is much closer to the anime than the yamato oa.

and i think Mr. K or the color guys may be color blind to blue they can never do blue correct period. i had that whole issues with the 0D. the anime may have blue in certain frames but that poster if it has blue, it hid it well:

[Mommar]

I think aside from the dark blue on the fins and back of legs, the rest of the valk's colors look pretty accurate.

If they have to screw up a color, I'd certainly prefer it to be limited to a small area rather than over the majority of the valk like with the 0D.

Was the rest of the body in contention? I think it's only the bits of blue people were fussing about wasn't it?

Truly a hard thing to determine. That scene with the smashed up 0A falling totally looks like blue fins, but not the back of the leg, but other scenes it could be grey... or blue that's shaded. So hard to tell without production notes. What if we grabbed somebody like Gubaba or Seto or Renato from the other threads? I don't think any of them collect figures but they're BIG into all the niche aspects of the show. Renato in particular seems to have info on production details. Maybe one of them could clarify?

How about comparing the one drone that has the grey/blue colors from te beginning of the dogfighting to the tail of the 0A, would that give us another way to compare the color?

[Guest davidwhangchoi]

https://twitter.com/Mrk_arcadia/status/628427128745299969/photo/1

come to think of it the 0s it's fins are blue

that sure isn't black

[ErikElvis]

It's looks good to me. Can't wait to get him

[MacrossJunkie]

Was the rest of the body in contention? I think it's only the bits of blue people were fussing about wasn't it?

I meant it in the way of "On the bright side, at least the rest of it looks good unlike the 0D that had the wrong color blue which covered much of the surface" and not "Well I don't know what people are talking about, but the color of the rest of the valk looks right to me!"

[chyll2]

Lets also discuss 0S while we are at it

[spanner]

Ok then definitely the 0S pre production shots whites are too white!

[Old Man]

I was showing screens that had some blue as someone asked why they would use blue anywhere on the VF-0A. I think that the whole blue/grey thing is confusing as the colors keep changing. They both look good to me.

I stand corrected. It is rather difficult to discern just what color the fin really is based on the screen shots. I suppose a blue grey would look just fine, but the dark blue just bugs me a bit. Regardless, I'm still looking forward to this release. I just hope the blue doesn't find its way on the 0S

[Valkyrie Driver]

Was the rest of the body in contention? I think it's only the bits of blue people were fussing about wasn't it?

I had thought the main grey color was too light, I still think it should be a hair darker, as you can barely see the white stripes. That could be lighting though. The fins look a bit too blue to me, as the screen caps all show a dark grey, it's got a hint of blue to it but not much.

[Valk-1S]

Normally i would agree but i'm afraid the conclusion Arcadia would come to was that we don't want VF-0 toys. It's like how yamato thought their zero line failed because people weren't interested in zero valks but missed the fact that that they all were released defective (exploding shoulders etc).

I think the VF-0 sold well for Yamato as I don't recall them being heavily discounted at all. The only one that failed was the Nora and CF SV-51 which were heavily discounted.

[chyll2]

I had thought the main grey color was too light, I still think it should be a hair darker, as you can barely see the white stripes. That could be lighting though. The fins look a bit too blue to me, as the screen caps all show a dark grey, it's got a hint of blue to it but not much.

watching the scenes on Macross zero made me believe that Arcadia pulled off the correct color this time. The fins though is a different story since for every scene, it quickly change from blue to grey (and vice versa)

[Valkyrie addict]

Although, it's not specifically said that its Shin, the boxart and instruction of the Hasegawa and Wave VF-0A plastic kits used gray and not blue accents on the legs.

I may understand a certain reason for the blue accent since Shin's 0D was blue, keeping a similar "hero" theme on his aircraft would require some sort of blue accent for identification. But this is not what was showed in the anime. I personally like the blue accents, they looks nice and I will get this valk, but I'm not appreciating Arcadias decisions lately with no explanation. Every release has had some annoying nitpick that understandably pisses everyone off. Yes Macross is a niche market with a niche fanbase, more the reason to do things right.

[Mommar]

Although, it's not specifically said that its Shin, the boxart and instruction of the Hasegawa and Wave VF-0A plastic kits used gray and not blue accents on the legs.

I may understand a certain reason for the blue accent since Shin's 0D was blue, keeping a similar "hero" theme on his aircraft would require some sort of blue accent for identification. But this is not what was showed in the anime. I personally like the blue accents, they looks nice and I will get this valk, but I'm not appreciating Arcadias decisions lately with no explanation. Every release has had some annoying nitpick that understandably pisses everyone off. Yes Macross is a niche market with a niche fanbase, more the reason to do things right.

What the hell are you talking about? There are photos from the animation here that show the fins blue.

[technoblue]

People have a right to nitpick if that is their thing, but I wouldn't want to make a company responsible for answering each and every nitpick. Some get ridiculous. Besides, each company has its own rules for customer facing communications. One company might do what Arcadia is doing and allow Twitter and blog posts. Another might not allow any of that. And different parts of a company may allow for different access to customers.

My #1 big issue is spare parts for international customers. And I would like to see a new, viable way emerge to deliver those spare parts officially, even in limited quantities. I think that would be a nice forward-thinking benefit, but right now I understand that cost is a big obstacle and that's too bad. Luckily, there are other unofficial avenues if someone gets stuck with a broken Valkyrie.