Bandai DX VF-31

[Shukenzero]

Bandai have yet to show Arad and Chuck's, outside of reveals of early prototypes. Maybe it's a little hiatus before new announcements, ala the VF-25G and RVF-25? They pretty much went full pelt with four DX releases, so I hope it's that and not bad sales.

[seti88]

2 hours ago, Lolicon said:

Yeah the black will probably go well with any of Delta squadron and probably the 31A too.

Looks fantastic, Saburo! 

Here you go! 

https://hlj.com/product/KBYMG-04

https://hlj.com/product/KBYMG-03

https://hlj.com/product/KBYMG-02

Think the 31C has my favorite head unit so far. That'll probably change when the 31S comes out, even though I don't like Arad's colors. 

Thanks for the links lolicon, i might be able to secure some from local retailers...

I thk mirage's head is the best overall, due to the top/bottom visor design .. i didnt get her tho cos wallet is pretty sapped at the mo..

1 hour ago, chyll2 said:

you mean pinpoint sticks?

hmm lets expand that to pinpoint glo-sticks for walkure concerts! 

 

1 hour ago, Saburo said:

One more pic before I head off to sleep.

 

lovely dreams of mirage! 

[Lolicon]

2 hours ago, no3Ljm said:

Hey sir! Thanks for posting that link. But is it ok if I bother you about it? Is it ok if you could post the specs as a whole? And also the hilt? Thanks!

Not sure what you mean by specs. The handle with battery and LED are all one piece. Then there's a plastic attachment that you attach that acts as the on/off switch and holds the blade. It comes with 8 different blades. 2x transparent colored, 2x diffuse colored, 2x transparent clear, 2x diffuse clear.

2 hours ago, Saburo said:

Thank you @Lolicon!

I am also curious, are the batteries replaceable?

As far as I can tell they are not. I haven't made any attempts to open it up though.

[TCracker]

Will be another 2 weeks before my VF31C arrives. Drat, and double drat.

[chyll2]

question on the hip articulation, I know the hip can be extended by pulling it out from crotch. My question is, does the toy allow the hips to be opened out?

[Slave IV]

9 hours ago, Saburo said:

One more pic before I head off to sleep.

Stunning!

 

9 hours ago, Saburo said:

Thanks @Kanedas Bike!  Did your arrive yet?

 

Nice!  Post up pics.

 

Thank you @Lolicon

I am also curious, are the batteries replaceable?

 

The hilts are so small, I don't see how they open for replacing batteries and there is nothing about it in the manual. I'd imagine they are so low power they will last a very, very, very long time though. I bought a bunch of them for my SW figures and granted, I don't turn them on often but I've accidentally left them on overnight or days and still fine. 

[no3Ljm]

7 hours ago, Lolicon said:

Not sure what you mean by specs. The handle with battery and LED are all one piece. Then there's a plastic attachment that you attach that acts as the on/off switch and holds the blade. It comes with 8 different blades. 2x transparent colored, 2x diffuse colored, 2x transparent clear, 2x diffuse clear.

As far as I can tell they are not. I haven't made any attempts to open it up though.

I should've been more clear. I meant measurement.

Planning on using the LED on a 1/6 figure. Thanks!

 

 

Edited September 13, 2017 by no3Ljm

[Saburo]

8 hours ago, Lolicon said:

Not sure what you mean by specs. The handle with battery and LED are all one piece. Then there's a plastic attachment that you attach that acts as the on/off switch and holds the blade. It comes with 8 different blades. 2x transparent colored, 2x diffuse colored, 2x transparent clear, 2x diffuse clear.

As far as I can tell they are not. I haven't made any attempts to open it up though.

Ok, I figured they were probably not replaceable.  I'll order some sets.

3 hours ago, chyll2 said:

question on the hip articulation, I know the hip can be extended by pulling it out from crotch. My question is, does the toy allow the hips to be opened out?

Yes, you can extend out the hips to get a wider range of motion.

 

1 hour ago, Slave IV said:

Stunning!

 

The hilts are so small, I don't see how they open for replacing batteries and there is nothing about it in the manual. I'd imagine they are so low power they will last a very, very, very long time though. I bought a bunch of them for my SW figures and granted, I don't turn them on often but I've accidentally left them on overnight or days and still fine. 

Thanks @Slave IV, nice to know that the batteries l will last a while.

[recon]

Am in dilemma whether to get the super packs for the VF-31s even though i have preordered one set for the VF-31F. The reason is bcos the valks looks much sleeker in both fighter and battroid modes without them. Whats your opinion guys, should i do a mixed display, some with and without super packs?

[recon]

11 hours ago, Lolicon said:

Yeah the black will probably go well with any of Delta squadron and probably the 31A too.

Looks fantastic, Saburo! 

Here you go! 

https://hlj.com/product/KBYMG-04

https://hlj.com/product/KBYMG-03

https://hlj.com/product/KBYMG-02

Think the 31C has my favorite head unit so far. That'll probably change when the 31S comes out, even though I don't like Arad's colors. 

Those led sabers will also do nicely for gundams in both metal builds and metal composites variants. Dont you think so @no3Ljm?

[jenius]

Regarding the hips, they extend out but it doesn't create the ability to twist at the hip in a way that would effect the angle of the toe (it's not a ball) . Instead, there's a twist above the knee to simulate that.  extending the hips does allow a greater range of movement for doing the splits. At least, that's how I recall it. 

[Slave IV]

18 minutes ago, recon said:

Those led sabers will also do nicely for gundams in both metal builds and metal composites variants. Dont you think so @no3Ljm?

Definitely. They come with a variety of blade styles and lengths so should work well for most lit blade figure uses. I believe they were made with Gundam specifically in mind but again, lots of options. 

[seti88]

31 minutes ago, recon said:

Am in dilemma whether to get the super packs for the VF-31s even though i have preordered one set for the VF-31F. The reason is bcos the valks looks much sleeker in both fighter and battroid modes without them. Whats your opinion guys, should i do a mixed display, some with and without super packs?

I love all the looks and modes of the 31. For me there is no wrong display option.

[Lolicon]

The LED swords might be a tad too small for 1/6 scale figures. They're good for standard action figures, 1/144 and 1/100 Gundam models or similar sized figures.

DX battroids are probably the largest figures where they won't look too small.

[Mr Bomber]

1 minute ago, Lolicon said:

The LED swords might be a tad too small for 1/6 scale figures. They're good for standard action figures, 1/144 and 1/100 Gundam models or similar sized figures.

DX battroids are probably the largest figures where they won't look too small.

looks awesome

[Lord_Of_Tetris]

56 minutes ago, Saburo said:

Yes, you can extend out the hips to get a wider range of motion.

 

37 minutes ago, jenius said:

Regarding the hips, they extend out but it doesn't create the ability to twist at the hip in a way that would effect the angle of the toe (it's not a ball) . Instead, there's a twist above the knee to simulate that.  extending the hips does allow a greater range of movement for doing the splits. At least, that's how I recall it. 

 

WHAT. I've had my VF-31 (Messer) for months and didn't know this. I just tried (gently) to pull out the hips and gave up because I didn't want to break it. Can someone take before/after photos? Thanks.

[jenius]

I probably do it in my transformation guide... I'd link but I'm on a phone at a conference. 

[Sildani]

Yeah, here. After pulling; before pulling. 

[Lord_Of_Tetris]

OOOOOOOOOH, oh stupid Lord of Tetris. I apparently pulled Messer's VF-31 hips out some time ago, and they've been in the "out" position this whole time. I forgot I even did it, or that it's even possible.

Good thing I didn't pull too hard when testing this out...

[Pedro2k6]

@jenius I saw some of your reviews on others YouTube channels beside yours. Those channels are new, you create them?. You're planning to create new channel?.

 

 

[Sandman]

54 minutes ago, Pedro2k6 said:

@jenius I saw some of your reviews on others YouTube channels beside yours. Those channels are new, you create them?. You're planning to create new channel?.

 

 

 

 

Whoa someone took Jenius's video and upped to their youtube account and labeled it as collection-dx.

Edited September 13, 2017 by Sandman

[505thAirborne]

Mirage has arrived!! 

Of all the Bandai DX's that I own, this is so far the best, sturdy tight joints, matte finish paint is superb, no big gaps and everything locks in place! . 

 

[Sanity is Optional]

You guys are making me regret leaving my 31C sitting in private warehouse until the High Resolution Wing Zero releases.

[Saburo]

Now for some fan service!

*Fixed* I was having some issues with settings on flickr.

 

Edited September 14, 2017 by Saburo

[davidwhangchoi]

2 hours ago, 505thAirborne said:

Mirage has arrived!! 

Of all the Bandai DX's that I own, this is so far the best, sturdy tight joints, matte finish paint is superb, no big gaps and everything locks in place! . 

 

looking good Airborne

[Sildani]

1 hour ago, Saburo said:

Now for some fan service!

Uh, dunno if I'm missing a joke here, but that photo was set to private. 

[Saburo]

4 minutes ago, Sildani said:

Uh, dunno if I'm missing a joke here, but that photo was set to private. 

Sorry about that. I was making some setting changes on Flickr. Should be ok now.

 

 

[mickyg]

Still no good for me...

[Zx31]

So I assume everyone has stopped worrying about if the color is correct.

[Sildani]

I don't know if David Hingtgen has given his benediction yet...

Edited September 14, 2017 by Sildani

[davidwhangchoi]

14 minutes ago, Sildani said:

I don't know if David Hingten has given his benediction yet...

LOL

[David Hingtgen]

50 minutes ago, Sildani said:

I don't know if David Hingtgen has given his benediction yet...

 

1 hour ago, Zx31 said:

So I assume everyone has stopped worrying about if the color is correct.

It's awfully red, more so than I had hoped and more than it should be.   It's more red than purple IMHO.  

[F360]

3 hours ago, Saburo said:

Now for some fan service!

*Fixed* I was having some issues with settings on flickr.

 

that pose definitely fits her well. 

[David Hingtgen]

I've only gone to GERWALK mode so far, but I'm finding some odd issues, noticeably molding on pegs/tabs---

One of the wingtips wouldn't really "click" into place at all, big gap---turns out there was a big blob of excess plastic adjacent the tab.  Kind of like a hang nail.  Not at all a sprue/gate mark etc.   Almost like an excess drop of hot plastic got on there and dried. Sliced it off and seems good, but still not as flush/seamless as the other wing.  

But the biggest issue---the "power generator" flaps---you know the inner, tougher one of the four?   Mine was REALLY stuck.  Finally got it open and noticed it was crooked and pressing the halves apart.  Pried/wiggled it out---and it's got issues.   There's two posts, top and bottom, goes into holes on the main halves on the generator.  One post was a bit crooked, with stress marks at the base.   The other post was bent over a full 90 degrees and twisted.  Looked like it'd been melted then assembled.   I eventually decided to slice it off and invert it, and glue it.   Will see how it goes----it was beyond saving as it was, as it'd been "pinched" with the middle part of the post paper-thin.   I sliced out the pinched area, and hopefully it'll still have enough height remaining to work.  If not--total removal, drill, and replacement.  

[jenius]

6 hours ago, Sandman said:

Whoa someone took Jenius's video and upped to their youtube account and labeled it as collection-dx.

Well that doesn't sound good. I'll have to send a notification to YouTube. This isn't the first time,  won't be the last.