VF-31AX Kairos Plus - Bogue Con-Vaart Use

[no3Ljm]

12 minutes ago, Mommar said:

I have no idea what that website is.

@wmkjr shared his experience purchasing stuff from Yoyakunow in the Where to Buy Section. Hope that helps.  

 

Edited July 27, 2022 by no3Ljm

[treatment]

Not Wotafa's, but prolly the first DX-31AX Bogue video-review, I guess...

 

[nightmareB4macross]

I can’t wait but will have to. This arrives Monday.

🤗

[MKT]

13 hours ago, treatment said:

Not Wotafa's, but prolly the first DX-31AX Bogue video-review, I guess...

 

 

Hmm.. around the 4-minute mark onwards, reviewer is saying the tolerances around front of the cannons are better, but the tabbing issue at the rear of cannons are still there. 

 

[seti88]

The sword from the 262 and the lil drakens certainly give bogue’s AX with his windemerean emblem a cool knight look..

[Angesdad]

Anyone received the toy yet, waiting on first impressions😃 BTW I am trying to decide between Bogue’s new AX or Arad’s old 31S, any input would be appreciated!

[Sanity is Optional]

Got mine, pulled it out for a basic inspection. Same 31 cockpit gap, both wings slotted into the legs fine, one arm was slotted in, but didn't try massaging the other one into place.

[Lolicon]

Anime Export taking their sweet time shipping out. 

[68whiskey]

23 hours ago, Lolicon said:

Anime Export taking their sweet time shipping out. 

I bought it from them this go around and my turn around time wasnt too bad. I ordered on launch day and it arrived today. The version I got was on par with the quality of the Hayate VF31 Kairos . The cockpit gap , shoulder area was off and one of the guns is pointed down pretty bad. Paint was pretty good tho but I will say Bandai QC is slipping..... hard 

[Lolicon]

9 hours ago, 68whiskey said:

I bought it from them this go around and my turn around time wasnt too bad. I ordered on launch day and it arrived today. The version I got was on par with the quality of the Hayate VF31 Kairos . The cockpit gap , shoulder area was off and one of the guns is pointed down pretty bad. Paint was pretty good tho but I will say Bandai QC is slipping..... hard 

Yeah mine arrived late yesterday (almost 7pm!). AE never sent any kind of shipping notice so I just figured they were still processing. Apparently I had an SHF Iron Patriot figure that's been sitting in storage for years that I had forgotten about that I threw into the shipment too.

[Mommar]

On 8/3/2022 at 8:57 PM, Angesdad said:

Anyone received the toy yet, waiting on first impressions😃 BTW I am trying to decide between Bogue’s new AX or Arad’s old 31S, any input would be appreciated!

That depends on what you're looking for.  The engineering on the previous 31's are superior, even with the supposed tolerance fixes on Bogue.  But they also look different from the AX design wise.  Depends on which look you prefer.

Outside of the grey and orange Armor parts you won't really have any other upgrade parts unless you want to track down some drones and/or customize super parts because they never released any super parts for Arad.

Unless Bandai pulls a Bandai you might be more likely to get color coordinated Super and/or Armor parts for Bogue.

[Angesdad]

8 hours ago, Mommar said:

That depends on what you're looking for.  The engineering on the previous 31's are superior, even with the supposed tolerance fixes on Bogue.  But they also look different from the AX design wise.  Depends on which look you prefer.

Outside of the grey and orange Armor parts you won't really have any other upgrade parts unless you want to track down some drones and/or customize super parts because they never released any super parts for Arad.

Unless Bandai pulls a Bandai you might be more likely to get color coordinated Super and/or Armor parts for Bogue.

After much deliberation I've decided on Arad's 31S and skipped Bogue's this time. Oh boy, late man's tax sucked on this one. I figure Bandai will release Chuck's AX down the road with the asymmetrical head design, which I find more appealing over Bogue's.

Edited August 10, 2022 by Angesdad

[Sokeijon]

Received mine yesterday. But yet to open up and check. Hopefully nothing goes wrong. 

[MKT]

My VF-31AX Bogue arrived today:

 

Upon unboxing, I had a mild surprise, because Bogue's insignia have slimmed quite a bit from what I remember from the promo images..

 

A quick check from a few pages back, confirms that the insignia proportions have been changed. Not sure what to make of it yet, the insignia in the original promo images do look somewhat too large, especially in comparison with Hayate's & Mirage's. But merely slimming it sideways instead of proportionately all around, makes the shield look a bit weird..

 

But most importantly, did Bandai put in any fixes to Bogue's mold? Early anecdotes around the web say yes, which got the hopes up, but some later comments from other owners say nope, Bandai-ed again.

Straight out of the box, the valk was pretty much untabbed in a few key areas - the whole nose, both intake joints, the wings, and the arm cannons so it was a very floppy affair. After tabbing & lining everything every up, well, I am happy to report that YES, Bandai finally did apply fixes! 

First off, both wings tab fully into the legs. My 31AX Mirage's did show some improvement in this area back then, but even then they still don't seem to want to tab in all the way. Here, the wings do tab into the legs proper.

 

 

How about the arm cannons? In 31AX Hayate's, for the cannons to point straight, the rear have to be untabbed from the wing, otherwise if tabbed, the cannons will point downwards. In my 31AX Mirage's, there appear to be only slight improvements in this area, such that it feels more like some luck of the QC draw, and I think for many people, they can at most only get one side to work.

For Bogue's, you can tab the rear of cannons all the way in, and the fronts will point very much straight ahead. I don't know, was Bogue the best sharpshooter in the new Delta movie? This could be why! 

 

 

Nevertheless, the fit and finish around the cannons and underwing area is still not perfect. The various panels still have some residual push and pull against each other, so you won't get that nice flush finish of the base VF-31. But overall, the main pet peeves with the earlier 31AX releases are now gone. I have not transformed it yet, so can't compare with earlier releases to determine which exact areas Bandai tweaked to get everything to come well together this time.

I'm still not keen to handle Fighter mode much though. The many sharp edges keep snagging on my clothes, and though the plastics appear strong, I'm sure there'll come a time one of the pointy bits snaps off with more playtime.  

 

 

Edited August 17, 2022 by MKT

[68whiskey]

@MKT you got lucky for sure. Here is a pic of mine after fighting to try to get things into a decent looking manner. 

 

 

[MKT]

2 hours ago, 68whiskey said:

@MKT you got lucky for sure. Here is a pic of mine after fighting to try to get things into a decent looking manner. 

 

 

 

The differences between my 31AX Hayate's and Bogue's are substantial enough for me to be convinced Bandai tweaked the mold for Bogue's, that it is more than the luck of the draw.

Yet when I see your pic, the gun appears to point down even more than Hayate's, so no idea what is really going on now. How is the gun on other side?

This recolor also doesn't seem popular, there's currently close to none reviews so far online so it's hard to gauge further..

[Chronocidal]

I would probably chalk that up to there being really nothing unique about any of these, and the fact that the issues with the mold seem both well-known, and almost entirely random.  I can't say they're anywhere near as bad as the 171s, but this is probably the most lemony release they've had since that point.

[Kanedas Bike]

1 hour ago, Chronocidal said:

I would probably chalk that up to there being really nothing unique about any of these, and the fact that the issues with the mold seem both well-known, and almost entirely random.  I can't say they're anywhere near as bad as the 171s, but this is probably the most lemony release they've had since that point.

It was really just the cannon fodder 171's to be fair. But those flat out disintegrated given enough time. The infamous triangles, legs, etc.

The 31AX just have terrible, terrible, terrible fit and finish.

-b.

[ValkAddict]

@68whiskey - Bro, I feel your frustration. My VF-31AX Bogue has the same issue. This is mine taken out of the box - it's annoying that the gun points downward and there's a gap. Frak! Bandai'ed again!!

 

[Angesdad]

Looking at the drooping guns, curious if you've pulled all the way up on the new sliding forearm gimmick. - because I find that's the culprit to make things misalign. 

Edited August 19, 2022 by Angesdad

[ValkAddict]

Thanks @Angesdad for the tip. I will check this.

 

[no3Ljm]

1 hour ago, Angesdad said:

Looking at the drooping guns, curious if you've pulled all the way up on the new sliding forearm gimmick. - because I find that's the culprit to make things misalign. 

I don't think it's the sliding forearm. Because if he were able to tab the folding part to the rear side of the wing body then he was able to slide the forearm properly. Also, if that wasn't slide all the way up, you won't be able to fold that part properly as well. It looks like it's the same case as Hayate's and Mirage's release, if you tab it properly the rear side, the guns will droop. Whereas if you untab it a bit, the guns will line up properly. Though Hayate's still the worse.

[68whiskey]

16 hours ago, Angesdad said:

Looking at the drooping guns, curious if you've pulled all the way up on the new sliding forearm gimmick. - because I find that's the culprit to make things misalign. 

Ive tried multiple things based off what others have tried to do to save the Hayate VF-31. Im pretty close to extending the arm out and taking a heat gun to the gun component itself. The team in charge of QC over at Bandai need to be fired. 

On 8/18/2022 at 12:11 PM, MKT said:

 

The differences between my 31AX Hayate's and Bogue's are substantial enough for me to be convinced Bandai tweaked the mold for Bogue's, that it is more than the luck of the draw.

Yet when I see your pic, the gun appears to point down even more than Hayate's, so no idea what is really going on now. How is the gun on other side?

This recolor also doesn't seem popular, there's currently close to none reviews so far online so it's hard to gauge further..

The gun on the other side is tolerable , its not perfect but its not as visibly obvious. Im confused as to what mold they are using because I bought 3 Hayates ( 1 was fixable to a normal look, 2 looks good on the stand despite bent cannons and 3 I had to give away because of how bad it was). Mirages came in perfect and Bogues came in looking like one of Hayates. My belief is that they have different facilities for production. One of the molds may be out of spec and they dont want to pay to remake it due to sales. QC should be catching these things but they are sleeping on the job. 

[Sanity is Optional]

They're probably using multiple molds, and I'm guessing their tolerances were not up to bandai's usual standards.

[no3Ljm]

For those who's still looking for Bogue's new ride. Amazon US has 4 stock available for US$259.99.

https://www.amazon.com/Macross-Chogokin-VF-31AX-Kairos-Vaart/dp/B0B5PJVFFN/

[hardreturn]

 

[Lolicon]

Mine's still in its bubble wrap. I chose to install new blinds on my windows over opening and playing with this valk. 

[hardreturn]

windy boys

[ValkAddict]

Great pics @hardreturn

[hardreturn]

thank you  

[Mommar]

Mirage and Bogue getting upgrades too.

[betocc]

Just now, Mommar said:

Mirage and Bogue getting upgrades too.

With Bandai you never know, even if they were displayed it is very likely we are not getting them like it has happened before. I think the Armored Set for VF-1J was displayed in a different color schema that we never got.

[Mommar]

Super Parts too.

[Angesdad]

19 minutes ago, Mommar said:

Super Parts too.

It could just be a one-off show piece that will not come to fruition as we all know.😁 Mirage maybe, but Bogue definitely later on the list. Just give me Arad and Chucks' supers first! 

[Lolicon]

Finally opened my copy now that I'm setting up my Delta shelf. In person the colors aren't bad at all. But the parts fit seems even worse than Hayate and Mirage's. The gunpod won't even stow properly in fighter mode; it just falls right off no matter what I do. Some of the panels under the wing won't stay flush at all. And the wing tabs, instead of being too big to fit into the leg slots, are now too loose and don't really plug in securely.

You suck, Bandai.