Bandai VF-31AX Kairos Plus - Hayate Type

[Mommar]

On 3/7/2022 at 6:03 PM, no3Ljm said:

I backtracked using Tamashii website. Preorder for VF-1J started July 2018 for a December 2018 release. Preorder for Max's VF-1A started April 2019 for a September 2019 release. 

That's four months between VF-1J release to VF-1A preorder. Nine months between releases. That's a good amount of time for them to fix between releases. Do you guys think that they have a good amount of time to fix Mirage's upcoming 31AX? Including Bogue's for that matter?

Also, besides the VF-1J nosecone tab, what were the other fixes that was on the VF-1A?

 

But that timeline would make my point, the span of time between the first release and the second pre-order was enough for word to get back that something wasn't right.  This time Mirage's pre-order was up before we ever saw Hayate.  There might not have been time to float that back to Bandai.

[Sanity is Optional]

1 hour ago, Mommar said:

But that timeline would make my point, the span of time between the first release and the second pre-order was enough for word to get back that something wasn't right.  This time Mirage's pre-order was up before we ever saw Hayate.  There might not have been time to float that back to Bandai.

They had the pre-order up, but that's different than having the parts produced or the figures assembled. Plus there was a delay in releasing the Mirage unit, that could have been due to mold changes.

[no3Ljm]

1 hour ago, Mommar said:

But that timeline would make my point, the span of time between the first release and the second pre-order was enough for word to get back that something wasn't right.  This time Mirage's pre-order was up before we ever saw Hayate.  There might not have been time to float that back to Bandai.

5 minutes ago, Sanity is Optional said:

They had the pre-order up, but that's different than having the parts produced or the figures assembled. Plus there was a delay in releasing the Mirage unit, that could have been due to mold changes.

With this 31AX timeline, I'm actually not expecting Mirage's arms will flush properly onto the wings in Fighter mode like Hayate's. With Bogue's release, perhaps.

 

[Chronocidal]

4 hours ago, no3Ljm said:

With this 31AX timeline, I'm actually not expecting Mirage's arms will flush properly onto the wings in Fighter mode like Hayate's. With Bogue's release, perhaps.

I don't even see the arms as being the biggest tolerance failure on this, because I was able to get those to generally fit and lay flat without resorting to destructive measures. 

The tabs from the wings into the ankles were another story though, and I spent a while carefully filing those down on all sides before they would fit into their slots.

[no3Ljm]

3 hours ago, Chronocidal said:

I don't even see the arms as being the biggest tolerance failure on this, because I was able to get those to generally fit and lay flat without resorting to destructive measures. 

The tabs from the wings into the ankles were another story though, and I spent a while carefully filing those down on all sides before they would fit into their slots.

Understood. But then, you also have to remember that not all of us have the guts nor the ability on filing it. I, for one, doesn't have the tools for making it nice as possible. And for paying already a lot on buying this premium collectible toys, I don't think spending another $5 to $10 to $20 of extra sets of tools just to get this thing right is passable. Also the idea of them getting it right on the 31 only to ruin it on the 31AX makes no sense. Yes, probably it's just the new design itself. Or maybe it's just the engineering of it. But I'm pretty sure, they know this from the get-go. And we're just estimating on the time in-between that if they have the window to make those fixes before the next release. And at this point, I'm just skeptical regarding Mirage's release. 

[Chronocidal]

Oh, agreed, that's pretty much my point.  The arms will mostly lay flat with a little elbow grease.  The tolerance issues this one has are just on another level of bad that I don't think I've ever seen from Bandai before.

[RealJayDee]

Hey guys!! 

I think issues will be solved by the next release. Factories are the first to know when production went south; even when Bandai wasn't informed or didnt care, I think they can easily fix it for the next model.

That or Bandai has gone appart of the samurai way

[Scyla]

Got my VF-31AX from HLJ and the shipping papers state that the country of origin is China. So my theory that Bandai manufactured it in some new factory in Vietnam seems to be false.

[sh9000]

Luna Park sent me a replacement DX VF-31AX Hayate with better condition toy packaging that had bubble wrap and shipped in a shipping box.

[Angesdad]

23 hours ago, sh9000 said:

Luna Park sent me a replacement DX VF-31AX Hayate with better condition toy packaging that had bubble wrap and shipped in a shipping box.

What a relief to see LP taking ownership and making it right for their customer. I hope they see that had they packaged better in a proper shipping box in the first place, none of this back and forth wasting everyone’s valuable time and money would’ve been necessary. Well it’s a process I suppose, I am hopeful LP will pull through.

[68whiskey]

On 3/17/2022 at 8:01 PM, Angesdad said:

What a relief to see LP taking ownership and making it right for their customer. I hope they see that had they packaged better in a proper shipping box in the first place, none of this back and forth wasting everyone’s valuable time and money would’ve been necessary. Well it’s a process I suppose, I am hopeful LP will pull through.

They only did so because they were getting backlash in multiple sections in this place and on other forums. They realized their solution of paying an extra monthly subscription for better shipping wasnt working in their favor. 

[Anasazi37]

4 hours ago, 68whiskey said:

They only did so because they were getting backlash in multiple sections in this place and on other forums. They realized their solution of paying an extra monthly subscription for better shipping wasnt working in their favor. 

better shipping = the packaging used by every other reputable online store when shipping items overseas without asking customers to pay extra for it

[RealJayDee]

So I just got my vf 31 ax from Mandarake, which is also my first purchase without an intermediary. It said package damaged, but it is mint condition.

At 30k + shipping Id say was a somewhat good deal, unfortunately I had to pay an import tax of 16%, so not happy with the current budget required to buy one of these.

Shipping, I am very happy it came inside a shipping box, with bubble plastic and very well covered with paper from all sides.

And oh boy! that new valk smell!! Arad's 31S was my last purchase so I was brought back to 2018. The box, its sad that the sleeve is gone and its just a box again.

The toy, full of gaps, but its ok since I gave up QC on these things a long time ago, now its a "touch me and watch me break" relationship... so its the looks and paint app that has me extrmely happy!!!! Because it looks AMAZING on the shelf along the others 31 (I missed all Altos previous releases).

[no3Ljm]

6 hours ago, RealJayDee said:

To be honest, with all the gaps that's going on underneath, I gotta say, the top part of Fighter mode still looks awesome.  

 

[Slave IV]

32 minutes ago, no3Ljm said:

To be honest, with all the gaps that's going on underneath, I gotta say, the top part of Fighter mode still looks awesome.  

 

What about that big ole gap behind the cockpit that has been on all of them since day one?😁

[no3Ljm]

57 minutes ago, Slave IV said:

What about that big ole gap behind the cockpit that has been on all of them since day one?😁

C'mon now. That's already a given.   Even the ever-cool-looking VF-31A Kairos have it as well. And everyone claimed it's the perfect VF-31. 

 

[Angesdad]

On 3/25/2022 at 11:03 PM, Slave IV said:

What about that big ole gap behind the cockpit that has been on all of them since day one?😁

You can massage it a little and it goes away, until you breathe on it.🤣

Edited April 3, 2022 by Angesdad

[Slave IV]

1 hour ago, no3Ljm said:

C'mon now. That's already a given.   Even the ever-cool-looking VF-31A Kairos have it as well. And everyone claimed it's the perfect VF-31. 

 

 

42 minutes ago, Angesdad said:

You can message it a little and it goes away, until you breathe on it.🤣

Haha, yeah. I don’t like it but I also don’t mind it too much considering I own every existing DX VF-31 type and have any upcoming ones preordered. 

[sqidd]

6 hours ago, Slave IV said:

 

 I own every existing DX VF-31 type and have any upcoming ones preordered. 

Do we own our toys? Or do they own us?

[Slave IV]

5 hours ago, sqidd said:

Do we own our toys? Or do they own us?

Owned!😆

[chriswoo]

i wish they come out super pack for VF-31S

[rematron]

5 minutes ago, chriswoo said:

i wish they come out super pack for VF-31S

Yeah. I wish for 31A super parts but not likely to happen at this point. At least with the 31S you can just paint some other 31 super parts. But they don’t even fit the 31A correctly. 

Edited March 27, 2022 by rematron

[chriswoo]

finding super pack is hard now or rather expensive 3 time fold after market price.. 

[Angesdad]

36 minutes ago, rematron said:

Yeah. I wish for 31A super parts but not likely to happen at this point. At least with the 31S you can just paint some other 31 super parts. But they don’t even fit the 31A correctly. 

Painting to match the 31S color scheme sounds fun something I am definitely inclined to do. The only downside is that you will lose all the tampo printing where custom colors need to go on.

15 minutes ago, chriswoo said:

finding super pack is hard now or rather expensive 3 time fold after market price.. 

Yeah hard to come by but still obtainable at 14-15k yen at Mandarake. 

Edited March 27, 2022 by Angesdad

[chriswoo]

i think worst to worst we can still savage decal from 1/72 or use that as template to work with custom printout decal  

 

 

Edited March 27, 2022 by chriswoo

[rematron]

47 minutes ago, chriswoo said:

i think worst to worst we can still savage decal from 1/72 or use that as template to work with custom printout decal  

 

 

Yup. Good idea. I bought a Messer 31 specifically to repaint the whole thing an RL low visibility scheme. Gonna be using those decals. If I can’t buy it, I’m gonna make it, darn it! I just can’t get into the in ‘in your face’ color scheme of the delta valks. I like the planes but not the colors and stripes and images. It’s like one of those big RVs you seedriving down the road with huge squiggly lightning striping. Just…why...? Lol. To each their own, of course. Just not for me.

[Angesdad]

1 hour ago, chriswoo said:

i think worst to worst we can still savage decal from 1/72 or use that as template to work with custom printout decal  

Yeah that will be beyond me and better just leave it to a pro, right @Anasazi37?🤔

 

[Anasazi37]

4 hours ago, Angesdad said:

Yeah that will be beyond me and better just leave it to a pro, right @Anasazi37?🤔

Adapting the existing 1/72 sheet to work with the 1/60 DX would not be easy. I'm guessing that the DX is not simply a scaled-up version of the 1/72 model (or vice versa), so you'd be dealing with differences in the size, shape, and proportions of individual markings. Scanning the sheet and magnifying by 1.2 won't cut it. That would give you a decent starting point, and you could maybe hack away at the markings to make them fit, but my instincts tell me that you'd end up doing a lot of redrawing driven by trial and error fitting of draft markings. Having a very accurate ruler and a set of digital calipers on hand won't hurt, either.

[Chronocidal]

Also keep in mind that doing that would pretty much require redrawing the entire decal sheet to not look like utter garbage, because Bandai's Macross decals are a legendary disaster.

[rematron]

34 minutes ago, Chronocidal said:

Also keep in mind that doing that would pretty much require redrawing the entire decal sheet to not look like utter garbage, because Bandai's Macross decals are a legendary disaster.

Meh. I’m gambling that the 1/72 decals won’t look that out of place on 1/60. I mean, it’s kind of subjective what size everything needs to be anyways, right? Not a big deal. I’m not looking for everything to look exactly the same as the Bandai tampo’d product. Just needs to look good.  
 

But I agree that the angles and sizes of things won’t necessarily line up. But I also think that sometimes (often) Bandai overdoes it a little with tampo. So maybe I’ll just leave some stuff off. I might even use some Yamato decals. 
 

In my case I’m not trying to reproduce a Delta squadron Valk. So maybe I’m talking out of line. 
 

Edited March 28, 2022 by rematron
Adding comments

[Chronocidal]

39 minutes ago, rematron said:

Meh. I’m gambling that the 1/72 decals won’t look that out of place on 1/60. I mean, it’s kind of subjective what size everything needs to be anyways, right? Not a big deal. I’m not looking for everything to look exactly the same as the Bandai tampo’d product. Just needs to look good.  
 

I think for certain things like the logos and smaller bits you'd be right, but part of what made the 1/72 kit decals so obnoxiously bad was that they were essentially wallpaper decals, with the panel lines drawn on.  Like.. hope you wanted to panel line the whole valk, or you're SOL there, because massive amounts of the markings are included in those giant panels, and the only other option is to paint those entire fancy exhibition schemes by hand.

You could maybe cut those wallpaper decals into swiss cheese, and place the individual bits and pieces, but it's going to be a massive amount of work.

Edited March 28, 2022 by Chronocidal

[rematron]

58 minutes ago, Chronocidal said:

I think for certain things like the logos and smaller bits you'd be right, but part of what made the 1/72 kit decals so obnoxiously bad was that they were essentially wallpaper decals, with the panel lines drawn on.  Like.. hope you wanted to panel line the whole valk, or you're SOL there, because massive amounts of the markings are included in those giant panels, and the only other option is to paint those entire fancy exhibition schemes by hand.

You could maybe cut those wallpaper decals into swiss cheese, and place the individual bits and pieces, but it's going to be a massive amount of work.

Really? LOL. Those sound like awful decals. Good to know. Might just save my money and do a complete custom job. I do plan on panel lining the whole thing. I’m new to painting and decaying so it’s definitely gonna be a major undertaking regardless. But I can just see the beautiful end result in my minds eye. Making it reality will be worth the learning and undertaking. Now to just put my money where my mouth is. 

[RealJayDee]

So yesterday I read the post about the sliding forearm armor, which I wish I had read before, since it was not fully slid backwards and caused the cannon to point downwards.

Unfortunately I thought it was glued out of possition and got me sanding the white piece that holds the cannon... 

This already complex arm under the wing system had no need to be even more...does the forearm armor backwards or forwards really adds something?

[Angesdad]

Hi Does anyone know of retailers that still accept preorders for 31AX Hayate super parts, besides Luna park & nin nin ?

Edited April 5, 2022 by Angesdad

[sqidd]

14 hours ago, Angesdad said:

Hi Does anyone know of retailers that still accept preorders for 31AX Hayate super parts, besides Luna park & nin nin ?

If you can't find a set I have an extra.