Arcadia 1/60 VE-1 Elintseeker Premium Finish

[M'Kyuun]

Got both of mine today, and I only opened the one (from AmiAmi). Fit and finish are excellent on mine; all joints are tight and feel good. She's a lovely variant, made all the prettier with the tampo livery everywhere.. After all these years, and so many valks, the basic VF/E model is still just a beautiful little fighter. But as nice as the plain bird is, everyone knows it's the unique AWACS Packs that differentiate the VE-1 from her fighter sisters, and mine all went on like butt-ah.  I saw the pic of Boobytrap's packs , and I would check first that the green bit that mounts to the VE-1's backpack is seated (there are little indents for it to tab into- it's a soft click when it goes in, but it shouldn't move around). Second, once that's properly seated, the large boosters will soft tab into the bit you just installed on the backpack. It was barely palpable on mine, but both indented, and maintain a proper straight profile.  As for the radome, it slots into the forward part of the backpack; if it's leaning, I'd check that backpack hinge to make sure it's not being tweaked. Good luck, Boobytrap! I hope everything works out so you can enjoy your new valk.

One thing of note that kicked my ass for a bit is that the two pilot figures are different. Maybe I'm the only one who didn't notice, but one has longer legs than the other, and he goes in the front pilot seat, while the one with stubbier legs goes in the WSO seat. I didn't look very hard at them when I took them out of the tray, and just assumed they were identical. You know what they say about assuming.  I would hope to spare anyone else the facepalm moment.

The VE-1 was really kind of a Grail valk for me, as I've never owned one, and over time, I've really come to appreciate the unique look of it compared to the other VF-1 variants.  So, today was a good day, and I think it was a good cap-off purchase so far as VF-1 variants go.  Going forward, I hope Arcadia will try their hand at some of Kawamori's other valks that have never been done as toys. I'd love a VF-14, VF-5000, VF-9, and a Variable Glaug- for starters. 

[Tallman]

35 minutes ago, M'Kyuun said:

Got both of mine today, and I only opened the one (from AmiAmi). Fit and finish are excellent on mine; all joints are tight and feel good. She's a lovely variant, made all the prettier with the tampo livery everywhere.. After all these years, and so many valks, the basic VF/E model is still just a beautiful little fighter. But as nice as the plain bird is, everyone knows it's the unique AWACS Packs that differentiate the VE-1 from her fighter sisters, and mine all went on like butt-ah.  I saw the pic of Boobytrap's packs , and I would check first that the green bit that mounts to the VE-1's backpack is seated (there are little indents for it to tab into- it's a soft click when it goes in, but it shouldn't move around). Second, once that's properly seated, the large boosters will soft tab into the bit you just installed on the backpack. It was barely palpable on mine, but both indented, and maintain a proper straight profile.  As for the radome, it slots into the forward part of the backpack; if it's leaning, I'd check that backpack hinge to make sure it's not being tweaked. Good luck, Boobytrap! I hope everything works out so you can enjoy your new valk.

One thing of note that kicked my ass for a bit is that the two pilot figures are different. Maybe I'm the only one who didn't notice, but one has longer legs than the other, and he goes in the front pilot seat, while the one with stubbier legs goes in the WSO seat. I didn't look very hard at them when I took them out of the tray, and just assumed they were identical. You know what they say about assuming.  I would hope to spare anyone else the facepalm moment.

The VE-1 was really kind of a Grail valk for me, as I've never owned one, and over time, I've really come to appreciate the unique look of it compared to the other VF-1 variants.  So, today was a good day, and I think it was a good cap-off purchase so far as VF-1 variants go.  Going forward, I hope Arcadia will try their hand at some of Kawamori's other valks that have never been done as toys. I'd love a VF-14, VF-5000, VF-9, and a Variable Glaug- for starters. 

Yeah, the person who sit at the back got chopped his foot. I noticed that too.

[aaajin]

4 hours ago, anubis20 said:

Just got mine and im hoping someone didnt swap the contents for a bunch of loose legos  

https://flic.kr/p/2g4w57d 

 

Just got mine today too & was surprised with the rattling sound coming from inside of both boxes. Won't have time to check till weekend, but I'm assuming those are just the option-parts moving around .... riiight?

[Shizuka the Cat]

46 minutes ago, aaajin said:

Just got mine today too & was surprised with the rattling sound coming from inside of both boxes. Won't have time to check till weekend, but I'm assuming those are just the option-parts moving around .... riiight?

Yeah, they are the option parts baggy moving around inside the box.

[tekering]

7 hours ago, borgified said:

Do you have these issues that @Boobytrap has mentioned on yours since you have opened yours already?

The shoulder and wrist hinges could be a little tighter, I suppose, but my backpack locks into place properly.

5 hours ago, jenius said:

Guessing that's the option parts just sliding around in their baggy.

My option parts had escaped the baggy entirely, and were rattling around inside the box as well.

[Lolicon]

PF VE-1 with rainbow canopy!

[ErikElvis]

I have a regular release on display. I’ve kept all these PF’s in the box except my milia that I decided to display. 

Rainbow canopy looks good. I wonder if there is a kit for models for adding the rainbow effect. 

Edited May 29, 2019 by ErikElvis

[anubis20]

12 hours ago, Shizuka the Cat said:

Yeah, they are the option parts baggy moving around inside the box.

Turns out they were completely out of the bag. At the factory when they folded the open part of the bag to tape it they completely missed and basically all the parts were just rattling around in the box loose. 

4 hours ago, ErikElvis said:

I have a regular release on display. I’ve kept all these PF’s in the box except my milia that I decided to display. 

Rainbow canopy looks good. I wonder if there is a kit for models for adding the rainbow effect. 

I have tried using Hasegawa holographic film and I gave up. Its a pain in the ass to line up and then dust easily gets caught up under it and looks terrible. I can see why Yamato cut this out even though it looks amazing.  

[spacemanoeuvres]

Received mine from amazon.jp. Box was smashed pretty good. Couple dings on the actual toy packages :/

[Sanity is Optional]

Mine just showed up, haven't gotten to open it yet but no rattling so I guess my option parts didn't escape their baggie.

Looks like the box stayed properly shrink-wrapped to the base, and appears entirely undamaged.

[Lolicon]

Do you guys prefer the Yamato pilots with their yellow livery or the Arcadia pilots in beige/tan/whatever?

[treatment]

Yeah. 

Mine has the amz-box a bit crunched, possibly due to some thing(s) being stacked on it during deilvery.  Got some minor tear on the lip of the flimsy Arcadia box where the amz-box was crunched.

Good thing the toy itself is undamaged and the option-parts were still secured in the baggie.

[VX31]

mine just arrived via DHL from Amazon.  Exterior Amazon box, slightly damaged, however black box was fine.

 

the only thing is.. the black box is like. really really not impressive at all. lol

Edited May 30, 2019 by VX31

[Lolicon]

It's been a couple of years since I mounted my Yamato VE-1 on its Yeti stand, so I had a hell of a time taking it down to do the canopy swap. With that in mind, I'm going to do all the detail work I want on my PF VE-1 before putting it back on the Yeti stand so I won't have to go through that ordeal again. So I took some pics fully loaded before I take it apart to work on. 

Really love how it looks with the extra markings.

[valhary]

Great pictures!

[Bolt]

37 minutes ago, Lolicon said:

So I took some pics fully loaded before I take it apart to work on. 

Wow, that thing needs work?

[Slave IV]

2 hours ago, Lolicon said:

Do you guys prefer the Yamato pilots with their yellow livery or the Arcadia pilots in beige/tan/whatever?

Honestly, I don’t care. If anything, I prefer to have variety so however they come is good with me. 

[Mommar]

Man I love this thing.  HMR’s got nothing on it.

Edited May 30, 2019 by Mommar

[DewPoint]

I'm not sure if I want to go with Amazon.co.jp and DHL in the future.  I received my box a day early, but the was obviously dropped and/or crushed several times.  The cardboard shipping box is very thin and the Valkyrie box is shrink-wrapped and glued to the bottom of the shipping box.  The Valkyrie was fine, but I have box damage.  Amazon also stuck a barcode sticker to my box.  Fortunately, the barcode sticker pealed off easily.  My box traveled excessively far.  It went from Nagoya, to Ohio, to California, then way the hell back to my home on a "Rock in the middle of the Pacific."  The VE-1 is lovely however.

[DewPoint]

On 5/28/2019 at 8:15 AM, Boobytrap said:

Here's a picture of the bowing. The one on the left side of the picture isn't too bad (although it doesn't always stay like that). The one on the right I can't seem to do anything with though. Another thing you can see with that picture that I forgot to mention is that the dish leans a little to the right.

 

 

Not sure how to take a picture of something being loose. did you want a picture of the areas I was talking about?

 

[treatment]

fyi for those (still) interested in getting this valk.

just saw amz-jp listing this valk for around 24k-yen shipped to the US in two-to-three days: 

https://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/product/B07MZ68RY9/

dunno how long it'll last there.

 

[anubis20]

Are the forearm bits easier to take off this time around? I remember on the Yamato reissue it was really tough to get them off. 

 

[ErikElvis]

5 hours ago, DewPoint said:

I had the same prob with my milia. Couldn’t figure out why the boosters looked crooked. One just wasn’t snapped in all the way. 

[efisher]

Got my Amazon Japan VE-1 order yesterday and can say it arrived in great shape. The only fly in the ointment was the bag with optional parts was open and rattling around inside. After a thorough inspection, nothing was broken.

I'm praying Max and Yellow show up in this condition when I receive them.

Edited May 30, 2019 by efisher

[technoblue]

Yeah, if you care about box quality, amazon is becoming a risky prospect. I've had amazon US deliver smaller collectible items in padded envelops! I'm not a MIB collector, but even that made me pause. I guess I should be happy that I haven't seen that type of questionable customer service from the overseas sites like amazon.co.jp and amazon.co.uk, but the boxes amazon uses worldwide are flimsier than they used to be.

I lucked out with my PF VE-1. The shipping box was damaged to the point where DHL had to reinforce it with their yellow inspection tape. Arcadia's box was still secure in the plastic wrap inside, though, and got to me unscathed.

[anubis20]

1 hour ago, technoblue said:

Yeah, if you care about box quality, amazon is becoming a risky prospect. I've had amazon US deliver smaller collectible items in padded envelops! I'm not a MIB collector, but even that made me pause. I guess I should be happy that I haven't seen that type of questionable customer service from the overseas sites like amazon.co.jp and amazon.co.uk, but the boxes amazon uses worldwide are flimsier than they used to be.

I lucked out with my PF VE-1. The shipping box was damaged to the point where DHL had to reinforce it with their yellow inspection tape. Arcadia's box was still secure in the plastic wrap inside, though, and got to me unscathed.

I had amazon japan ship my figuarts black widow in a padded envelope  I was expecting a pancaked box but it made it to me with absolutely no damage at all. Its the only time they have shipped like that as far as a figure goes. All my blu rays and books get shipped in envelopes. 

[Boobytrap]

9 hours ago, DewPoint said:

I'm not sure what you mean by it not being seated correctly. The peg is inserted all the way in the picture. There is no further space for it to be pushed in and no wiggle room for it to be adjusted. I have tried many times to get it to level. I have removed the parts and put them back together again and again but it still wont stay the way I want it. I'm glad to see that others don't seem to be having the same issues.

I'm thinking that one of these parts may have a little extra plastic somewhere. My next step is to put it together without the valk attached and see if it still has the issue. If no issue there then I know that it is most likely an issue with how the part attaches to the backpack. If there is still the issue then it is most likely the pegs. Maybe removing a hairline amount of plastic will do the trick.

[DewPoint]

You could have an excessively long peg or the corresponding hole may have something in it that shouldn't be there.  Those pegs weren't the easiest to line up for me at least.

[technoblue]

46 minutes ago, anubis20 said:

I had amazon japan ship my figuarts black widow in a padded envelope  I was expecting a pancaked box but it made it to me with absolutely no damage at all. Its the only time they have shipped like that as far as a figure goes. All my blu rays and books get shipped in envelopes. 

Oof. I stand corrected. I've been really lucky with my overseas deliveries then. I haven't experienced anything like that.

I guess this could be the future, though...for amazon at least.

[DewPoint]

Amazon America sent me a Takeya water flask in a padded envelope.  It had a dent in it.  I sent it back and they sent me a replacement, again, in a padded envelope! The 2nd one arrived with no dents.

[R0P3-F15H]

My first real VF-1 toy ( exluding a 2003 'Robotech' valk and that really shitty small one made by toynami ) and the whole reason i have an account here now! the Elintseeker really hits all my asthetic buttons, finished panel lining/wash the thing today wich took about four five hours of me checking every nook and crany ( ended up missing the hinges in batroid mode, but it still came out very nice and light as i used a more dark grey then black wash ) and need to work on getting a good camera and booth to take some screens of it.  Otherwise my only concerns are when going from gerwalk to batroid the section between the lower and uper intake  is rubbing against the ajoining peice during transformation wich i assume is normal for the VF-1 style toys? and my other is the backpack clamps scare the beejeebs out of me thinking they are going to break the wings!

Edit: and also the filler peice for behind the head feels a bit small? might just be me.
Edit 2: forgot to mention aswell, all the screwholes came with covers already ontop of including a small slip of screw hole cover stickers ( i had almost overlooked them, as its a very thin slip thats just loosly around.

Edited May 30, 2019 by R0P3-F15H

[Lolicon]

I broke my VE-1. 

[jenius]

disassembled... not broken. Is it getting the weathering treatment?

[R0P3-F15H]

Oh boy, cant wait to see how it comes out! ( wish i had a rainbow tint for mine though, making me jelly .p. )

[Lolicon]

9 minutes ago, jenius said:

disassembled... not broken. Is it getting the weathering treatment?

Yeah, I'm gonna detail her up before putting her back on the Yeti stand, since it was an ordeal taking everything down.

Tip: don't leave the landing gear doors open when trying to pull the legs out of fighter lock.