Bandai HG 1/100 YF-21 & VF-22

[KOG Water Dragon]

40 minutes ago, Big s said:

I just checked Hobby search and their prices on the Queadluun Rau kits are both $35 each. Those kits are so large with a lot of plastic and huge boxes. They’re definitely great for the builders that are low on cash and want an impressively detailed kit at a big size

And super VF-1 and Armored VF-1 are about $24. Regults around $20. New YF-21 with fast pack is on pre-order for about $22. Granted these prices would be different if the yen wasn't so weak right now, but still. Good value.

[lechuck]

I don't subscribe to the notion that Hasegawa kits are bargains they are being touted as.

To make it just look decent, say on par with an OOB build Bandai kit, your are going to have to invest more work, time and resources. Put a price tag on those points and your bargain is actually the more expensive route to go. And after all that one is still left with limitations, like simplistic articulation for example.

 

[Big s]

1 hour ago, lechuck said:

I don't subscribe to the notion that Hasegawa kits are bargains they are being touted as.

To make it just look decent, say on par with an OOB build Bandai kit, your are going to have to invest more work, time and resources. Put a price tag on those points and your bargain is actually the more expensive route to go. And after all that one is still left with limitations, like simplistic articulation for example.

 

The regult actually has very innovative articulation and Bandai would still have seams on those parts. Bandai is good at gundam, but those designs are basically made to be toys. They have very squared and simple surfaces. Something like the recent G-Line hg kit had no seams at all. But even their new YF-21 and hg Dunbine kit have them. If Bandai made the Queadluun Rau it would still have seams in similar spots. Bandai kits are easier to pop out of the sprues, but the softer plastics from the other companies are easier to clean up.

[Casual.Plamo]

6 hours ago, lechuck said:

I don't subscribe to the notion that Hasegawa kits are bargains they are being touted as.

To make it just look decent, say on par with an OOB build Bandai kit, your are going to have to invest more work, time and resources. Put a price tag on those points and your bargain is actually the more expensive route to go. And after all that one is still left with limitations, like simplistic articulation for example.

 

I think they are a bargain.

The work that is put into the kit is what makes it fun for me personally. 

A painted/properly built kit will always look better than an OOB build even if it's a Bandai kit. But of course that depends on the modeler.

As for resources spent, they're more or less the same. I still spent resources like paint, putty, cement on Bandai kits too. 

[KOG Water Dragon]

7 hours ago, lechuck said:

I don't subscribe to the notion that Hasegawa kits are bargains they are being touted as.

To make it just look decent, say on par with an OOB build Bandai kit, your are going to have to invest more work, time and resources. Put a price tag on those points and your bargain is actually the more expensive route to go. And after all that one is still left with limitations, like simplistic articulation for example.

 

Eh... maybe I'm in the minority these days, but I don't think OOB bandai kits look all that great. I fully prep/glue/paint/topcoat all kits whether it's Bandai or Hasegawa or Wave or Kotobukiya or anyone else. And I'm already deeply invested in tools and supplies so.... it's a moot point for me.

And the whole reason I picked up model building as a hobby was to have something to invest time, work, and passion into. So Hasegawa is still a win for me.

I guess you could even say I have a rampant unquenchable distaste for OOB. If I don't wanna work, I can just get a toy?

[Casual.Plamo]

1 hour ago, KOG Water Dragon said:

Eh... maybe I'm in the minority these days, but I don't think OOB bandai kits look all that great. I fully prep/glue/paint/topcoat all kits whether it's Bandai or Hasegawa or Wave or Kotobukiya or anyone else. And I'm already deeply invested in tools and supplies so.... it's a moot point for me.

And the whole reason I picked up model building as a hobby was to have something to invest time, work, and passion into. So Hasegawa is still a win for me.

I guess you could even say I have a rampant unquenchable distaste for OOB. If I don't wanna work, I can just get a toy?

You said it better than me.

I agree and this is also what I think.

[Big s]

2 hours ago, Casual.Plamo said:

I think they are a bargain.

The work that is put into the kit is what makes it fun for me personally. 

A painted/properly built kit will always look better than an OOB build even if it's a Bandai kit. But of course that depends on the modeler.

As for resources spent, they're more or less the same. I still spent resources like paint, putty, cement on Bandai kits too. 

There is kind of an odd satisfaction with a simple build though. Although even with something like a fully colored no seam lines real grade, I still like to add a little flavor with decals and weathering and such. And I guess you kill the value a bit when you have to hunt down decals and pay extra for them. The other issue is that for these kinds of builds is that they usually have to change the design from its line art or anime appearance. I never liked the Sazabi mg ver ka kit that everyone else seems to love since it really doesn’t look like the design I loved to begin with. 

[kajnrig]

Bandai kits don't really challenge the builder. That's their strongest and weakest point simultaneously; when you build them, you ooh and aah at the impeccable engineering, but that's marveling at the job Bandai did, not anything you did. I find I've had a lot more fun working on their older kits, like up through the mid-00s, which still allowed for effort on your part. Their 90s 1/144 Gerbera Tetra shocked me with how much better it looked and how much more fun I had building it than the 2013 HGUC counterpart. (Plus they've sucked at and continue to suck at and seemingly will forever suck at making hands. I don't know why they continually drop the ball on those, but they do.)

Hasegawa I wish would tackle more subjects more often, but their design decisions - and especially their aesthetic choices - are solid and stand the test of time. Their recent kits demonstrate that they've been able to adopt modern design sensibilities - ie snapfit technology - without compromising on said design decisions and aesthetic choices. (From all indications, the YF-19 that is still sitting in my HLJ PW continues this trend.)

[Big s]

1 hour ago, kajnrig said:

Their 90s 1/144 Gerbera Tetra shocked me with how much better it looked and how much more fun I had building it than the 2013 HGUC counterpart. (Plus they've sucked at and continue to suck at and seemingly will forever suck at making hands.

That hguc kit is an odd one. It’s a great kit until you get to those why Bandai why moments. The biggest why moment on that kit were the feet. They put odd details, but sunk them in and there’s massive distracting gaps around the bottom of them. If they had just done a simple two part construction, it would have solved that issue.

as far as hands, I can’t say they’ve always sucked, there was a time back when the 0083 hguc gm kits came out that they had amazing full hand sets included. They had closed fist, grabby, trigger finger ones and open palm hands all included. But a lot of newer ones are terrible. Even designed weird. Like the palm part on holding hands end up on the outside of the handle. The most recent Bandai kit that I was cleaning up surprised me with sculpt, but still kinda disappointed. It’s the new Dunbine Hg kit. The fingers have really amazing sculpted details that blew me away. But you only get two sets. One open expressive set and one holing set. No closed fists and the grabby ones aren’t tilted forward or anything for great sword poses. 
Other kits like the hguc revive zeta only goes the grabby hands and nothing else. If you want hand options or decals, that’s all added charges with most kits the jegan kits all look great, but need extra hands and the option sets don’t even match the included ones.

I Don’t hate Bandai, but I definitely think there a lot of odd decisions and I also don’t think there’s anything wrong with a simple build every now and then. There’s a different kind of satisfaction when you get a quick build low frustration build done than a closed every gap and sanded for hours or days till things seem right kinda build. And I think that people that enjoy those quick builds shouldn’t be ashamed of them either. I love seeing everyone’s builds wether they’ve spent a little or maximum effort, as long as their proud of it

[kajnrig]

1 hour ago, Big s said:

as far as hands, I can’t say they’ve always sucked, there was a time back when the 0083 hguc gm kits came out that they had amazing full hand sets included.

Yep, there was that whole series of GM and GM-esque kits from the mid-00s to the early-10s that either shared all the same I'm guessing CAD data or outright shared a dedicated hand runner. I'm pretty sure some of the Zaku-type kits shared their own runner, as well. Those weren't the most aggressively detailed like the Builders Parts hands were, but they were detailed enough, and they were nicely-posed to boot. I don't know why Bandai didn't just keep reusing them.

1 hour ago, Big s said:

But a lot of newer ones are terrible. Even designed weird. Like the palm part on holding hands end up on the outside of the handle.

It's so frakking bizarre, they had a great thing going, and then they REVERTED BACK to those painfully ugly square-hole type hands from their earlier HGUC and HG Seed/00 kits, the only positive of which was that they allowed for simpler, easier-to-equip weapon handles.

And on the topic of hand variety, yes, it galls me to this day that Bandai just refuse to give you left weapon-holding hands, especially gun-holding ones, and ESPECIALLY canted-wrist gun-holding ones. Their Builders Parts hands are way too detailed to match, and the posing on them actually kind of sucks, defeating the purpose for them at all... Meanwhile, Kotobukiya gives you full sets of hands with every kit AND offers hands as standalone add-ons AND offers them with a variety of posing/connecting options.

asd;kflja;sldfj;lasdf;laskdjf; I've bitched and bitched about this for so long now, sorry for being a broken record, everyone.

1 hour ago, Big s said:

I Don’t hate Bandai, but I definitely think there a lot of odd decisions and I also don’t think there’s anything wrong with a simple build every now and then. There’s a different kind of satisfaction when you get a quick build low frustration build done than a closed every gap and sanded for hours or days till things seem right kinda build. And I think that people that enjoy those quick builds shouldn’t be ashamed of them either. I love seeing everyone’s builds wether they’ve spent a little or maximum effort, as long as their proud of it

I don't mean to imply that others should be ashamed of liking gunpla and easy snap-fit stuff. I do, however, think it's a fair and objective observation to make, that Bandai deliberately engineer most of the "challenge" out of their kits.

And this is another matter entirely, but I also see a lot of gunpla builders - hobbyists who build exclusively gunpla - develop a sort of... lack of curiosity, so to speak, precisely because they build gunpla. They build easy, unchallenging stuff, and at best they lack interest in challenging material (even if said material is something they're interested in, like Gundam), and at worst they actively deride challenging material for not being unchallenging (even if said material is something they're interested in, like Gundam).

Like, the attitude a majority of gunpla fans would take towards the aforementioned 90s 1/144 Gerbera Tetra is that it's inferior to the HGUC because it's old, has seam lines, has arguably worse articulation, maybe not as good color separation, etc. But I go and build it and find it such a more fulfilling build experience, and it looks better, too. I get the sense that a lot of the gunpla community would agree, and they would demand better of Bandai, if only they pushed past their own comfort zone.

[KOG Water Dragon]

4 hours ago, kajnrig said:

I don't mean to imply that others should be ashamed of liking gunpla and easy snap-fit stuff. I do, however, think it's a fair and objective observation to make, that Bandai deliberately engineer most of the "challenge" out of their kits.

And this is another matter entirely, but I also see a lot of gunpla builders - hobbyists who build exclusively gunpla - develop a sort of... lack of curiosity, so to speak, precisely because they build gunpla. They build easy, unchallenging stuff, and at best they lack interest in challenging material (even if said material is something they're interested in, like Gundam), and at worst they actively deride challenging material for not being unchallenging (even if said material is something they're interested in, like Gundam).

Like, the attitude a majority of gunpla fans would take towards the aforementioned 90s 1/144 Gerbera Tetra is that it's inferior to the HGUC because it's old, has seam lines, has arguably worse articulation, maybe not as good color separation, etc. But I go and build it and find it such a more fulfilling build experience, and it looks better, too. I get the sense that a lot of the gunpla community would agree, and they would demand better of Bandai, if only they pushed past their own comfort zone.

I agree with all this so hard. 1000%.

I don't hate Bandai kits for what they are... it CAN be nice to have a stress free experience where you can focus on other aspects of finish like painting or decaling or weathering or whatever. Not having seams that cut right through complicated details is good. Increased parts separation cuts down on the need for hours of masking (though it's good to know how to mask well).  And of course it's nice to not have parts that just don't fit together well.

But. I hate how Bandai kits have shaped the expectations and mindsets and learning paths of great swaths of the modern mecha modeling community. Bandai is not seen as something that goes above and beyond in order to be beginner friendly and attainable for kids and beginners... it's seen as the standard that defines what a model kit should be. Lack of need for glue, quick snap-fit, everything moulded in color. And these days, full of gimmicks and hyper-articulation. This is an issue because anything else becomes seen as sub-standard and a 'problem'. Those conditioned by Bandai will, a lot of the time, not want to try something outside the Bandai box. Which is a shame, since there's so much other neat stuff out there.

Who remembers when the original MGs had opening hatches and optional add-on greeble parts? That felt special. And now the MG line is all but dead. What a downfall.

Now pardon me while I go adore my Eduard aircraft kits with resin details, photo-etched detail sets, fantastic waterslide decals, all packed in the box. But not moulded in anything but grey. 😁

Edited August 24 by KOG Water Dragon

[Big s]

1 hour ago, KOG Water Dragon said:

Who remembers when the original MGs had opening hatches and optional add-on greeble parts? That felt special. And now the MG line is all but dead. What a downfall.

Personally I think that old Zaku looks better than this new one 

[sketchley]

7 hours ago, KOG Water Dragon said:

I agree with all this so hard. 1000%.

I don't hate Bandai kits for what they are... it CAN be nice to have a stress free experience where you can focus on other aspects of finish like painting or decaling or weathering or whatever. Not having seams that cut right through complicated details is good. Increased parts separation cuts down on the need for hours of masking (though it's good to know how to mask well).  And of course it's nice to not have parts that just don't fit together well.

But. I hate how Bandai kits have shaped the expectations and mindsets and learning paths of great swaths of the modern mecha modeling community. Bandai is not seen as something that goes above and beyond in order to be beginner friendly and attainable for kids and beginners... it's seen as the standard that defines what a model kit should be. Lack of need for glue, quick snap-fit, everything moulded in color. And these days, full of gimmicks and hyper-articulation. This is an issue because anything else becomes seen as sub-standard and a 'problem'. Those conditioned by Bandai will, a lot of the time, not want to try something outside the Bandai box. Which is a shame, since there's so much other neat stuff out there.

Who remembers when the original MGs had opening hatches and optional add-on greeble parts? That felt special. And now the MG line is all but dead. What a downfall.

Now pardon me while I go adore my Eduard aircraft kits with resin details, photo-etched detail sets, fantastic waterslide decals, all packed in the box. But not moulded in anything but grey. 😁

I'm not disagreeing with you, but the comment about how Bandai shapes the expectations and mindsets is intriguing to me.

As I live in Japan—so my perspective is based on that—Bandai's kits come across as something tailor-made for the domestic market: for the people who don't have the space/time/tools/etc., but still want to do the hobby.

 

I.e. your dining room is your living room is your bedroom is your kitchen: anything with toxic fumes are out of the question—and not only is there no space outside, even if there was, the weather (humidity, etc.) messes with drying paint, etc.

For example (and with that loft for the bed, this is a larger one, about 1.5x to 2x the size of many apartments—what they call "one room mansions"—that I've seen.  Can you spot the washroom and shower?  Hint: they're under the loft.):

 

In addition, Bandai sets on the lower end are as cheap as chips—the same (or less!) than the Big Mac set (🍔 from ￥750~ vs Gunplay from ￥500~).

Due to those reasons, the lower end Bandai Gunpla kits could be considered disposable: build, panel line and sticker, and toss in the garbage once you get and finish the next kit.  Living in a house, I have a bit more space.  But even then, display space is at a premium, and a good 2/3 to 3/4 of my completed kits are "in storage" as I'm loathe to toss any of them 'just in case'.  Japanese people are far less reluctant to toss anything that is taking up space and has outlived its immediate usefulness... 🤷‍♂️

 

Anyhow, I can appreciate how these kits aren't a disposable item overseas due to the markup from importing them.  Nevertheless, it is both interesting and baffling that Bandai kits—essentially a niche product developed for very specific domestic conditions and consumer demands—has taken on a life of its own overseas (the 'standard' of model kits for some people, etc.)

 

Regarding the Bandai Macross Plus HG 1/100 kits:

These past few days I've visited a couple of model shops (looking for paints and paint thinners), and I came across the YF-19 kit.  What caught my attention is that they also had the decals on sale next to them—as a separate item.  It's annoying that the decals have to be purchased separately, but I can appreciate Bandai both cutting costs to reduce the price of the kit (for those that don't need the decals) and making it easy (at least domestically) to purchase them if you do need them.

[Big s]

44 minutes ago, sketchley said:

These past few days I've visited a couple of model shops (looking for paints and paint thinners), and I came across the YF-19 kit.  What caught my attention is that they also had the decals on sale next to them—as a separate item.  It's annoying that the decals have to be purchased separately, but I can appreciate Bandai both cutting costs to reduce the price of the kit (for those that don't need the decals) and making it easy (at least domestically) to purchase them if you do need them.

The decals cost them only a few cents. It’s a freebie with their Star Wars kits because they’re a nothing item. Not including them in the kit causes the buyer to be nickel and dimed by Bandai for a cheap  item, but being overcharged for it

[Chronocidal]

What's kind of amusing in a way, specifically about the decals...

Anyone who started building Bandai's Macross kits with the 1/72 Frontier line remembers how terrible the decals were.  I don't remember seeing those ever improve, for any of the general releases.  I have to wonder if all of the negative feedback those garnered drove them to not include them in the first place, since they really aren't good for anything but the garbage bin.

I'll be curious to see if the ones in this generation of kits have ever actually hit a passable quality standard.

Edited August 24 by Chronocidal

[KOG Water Dragon]

1 hour ago, sketchley said:

I'm not disagreeing with you, but the comment about how Bandai shapes the expectations and mindsets is intriguing to me.

As I live in Japan—so my perspective is based on that—Bandai's kits come across as something tailor-made for the domestic market: for the people who don't have the space/time/tools/etc., but still want to do the hobby.

 

I.e. your dining room is your living room is your bedroom is your kitchen: anything with toxic fumes are out of the question—and not only is there no space outside, even if there was, the weather (humidity, etc.) messes with drying paint, etc.

For example (and with that loft for the bed, this is a larger one, about 1.5x to 2x the size of many apartments—what they call "one room mansions"—that I've seen.  Can you spot the washroom and shower?  Hint: they're under the loft.):

 

In addition, Bandai sets on the lower end are as cheap as chips—the same (or less!) than the Big Mac set (🍔 from ￥750~ vs Gunplay from ￥500~).

Due to those reasons, the lower end Bandai Gunpla kits could be considered disposable: build, panel line and sticker, and toss in the garbage once you get and finish the next kit.  Living in a house, I have a bit more space.  But even then, display space is at a premium, and a good 2/3 to 3/4 of my completed kits are "in storage" as I'm loathe to toss any of them 'just in case'.  Japanese people are far less reluctant to toss anything that is taking up space and has outlived its immediate usefulness... 🤷‍♂️

 

Anyhow, I can appreciate how these kits aren't a disposable item overseas due to the markup from importing them.  Nevertheless, it is both interesting and baffling that Bandai kits—essentially a niche product developed for very specific domestic conditions and consumer demands—has taken on a life of its own overseas (the 'standard' of model kits for some people, etc.)

 

Regarding the Bandai Macross Plus HG 1/100 kits:

These past few days I've visited a couple of model shops (looking for paints and paint thinners), and I came across the YF-19 kit.  What caught my attention is that they also had the decals on sale next to them—as a separate item.  It's annoying that the decals have to be purchased separately, but I can appreciate Bandai both cutting costs to reduce the price of the kit (for those that don't need the decals) and making it easy (at least domestically) to purchase them if you do need them.

Thanks for the perspective.

As far as Bandai and decals go... I'm not sure they're actually doing the customers a favor. Bandai's approach - selling kits with stickers and giving the option to buy decals - is relatively unique in the modeling world. Hasegawa sells all their kits with decals (sometimes very big sheets) and their kit prices are still quite reasonable. Max Factory quickly moved to decals being included after their first Macross release was stickers only. Wave Macross kits have decals. Stickers are pretty much unheard of when you get into any of the other model kit genres - auto, combat aircraft, armor, naval, civil airliner, etc. Maybe its because the target market in japan for gunpla is so different from the other types of kits. But yeah, other japanese kit makers like Tamiya and Fujimi and so on just consider decals standard. So to me, Bandai making you buy decals extra just feels like video games that want to make you pay extra for small DLCs. Part of the problem is that the decal sets are often more expensive over here and harder to find after initial release. Maybe its not as difficult and expensive to get the decals if you're based in japan.

I hear what you're saying about smaller living spaces and difficulty working with anything that creates toxic fumes. I deal with that difficulty myself even living in the U.S., as I do not own a house. I at least have windows and a small balcony though, which I'm sure many in small apartments in Japan do not. That said, I know there is a robust scale model industry in Japan, with companies (Tamiya, Hasegawa, Fujimi, Aoshima, etc) making lots of traditional scale model subjects which do require glues and paints. And the modeling mags are full of fully painted works. So what's the difference? Perhaps the other companies and types of kits cater to older hobbyists who are more likely to have more work space? While Gundams are often the choice of those with less space? Who might often also be younger? I don't know, just speculating.

The thing over here is... model kits as a hobby have been on a decline for years and years, with scale auto and aircraft and armored vehicles and ships largely being an "old man's hobby". A lot of younger people here take their first steps into the hobby through Gundam kits. They're not necessarily excited first and foremost about building models of things... they're first and foremost interested in Gundam (the animation) thanks to the franchise's increasing exposure and popularity here in the west. So buying some Gundam models to mess with is a means to express fandom for the series and its mecha designs. Some get really into it and want to build skills, some keep it surface level (snap and display/play) and some lose interest and sell off their collections after a little while. A similar thing has happened lately with Armored Core - a lot of people played an Armored Core game for the first time thanks to the hype surrounding Armored Core 6. And consequently a lot of people who are aware of model kits through Gundam are suddenly interested in the Armored Core kits that are being re-issued by Kotobukiya. And of course, a lot of these people are... surprised... by how unlike Bandai kits they are.😓 So yeah, a lot of people here are doing Gundams as their first foray into model building, so it's inevitably going to affect their perception of other kits. I freely admit, I first got into mecha models in a similar way. I got super into Robotech when it aired on american TV, and was super excited when I found Macross kits on the shelves at my local hobby store. The difference was I already had a long history with scale models (wwii aircraft, airliners, sci-fi ships) so I was prepared to understand what was involved with building the 80s Macross kits. Later on I got into Gundam in the reverse way of most Gundam hobbyists today - I found cool looking Gundam kits on the store shelf while shopping for more Macross  I had no idea what Gundams were or where they came from, I just thought the models looked cool. I only tried to learn about and watch the shows many years after I had already built a bunch of the kits.

Edited August 24 by KOG Water Dragon

[KOG Water Dragon]

16 minutes ago, Chronocidal said:

What's kind of amusing in a way, specifically about the decals...

Anyone who started building Bandai's Macross kits with the 1/72 Frontier line remember how terrible the decals were.  I don't remember seeing those ever improve, for any of the general releases.  I have to wonder if all of the negative feedback those garnered drove them to not include them in the first place, since they really aren't good for anything but the garbage bin.

I'll be curious to see if the ones in this generation of kits have ever actually hit a passable quality standard.

They still routinely include waterslides in most p-bandai MGs (PGs?) and Ver Ka kits though, so the waterslides seem to be somewhat synonymous with premium/limited. I just wish all the p-bandai RGs had waterslides too.

[Casual.Plamo]

On 8/24/2024 at 3:34 AM, KOG Water Dragon said:

But. I hate how Bandai kits have shaped the expectations and mindsets and learning paths of great swaths of the modern mecha modeling community. Bandai is not seen as something that goes above and beyond in order to be beginner friendly and attainable for kids and beginners... it's seen as the standard that defines what a model kit should be. Lack of need for glue, quick snap-fit, everything moulded in color. And these days, full of gimmicks and hyper-articulation. This is an issue because anything else becomes seen as sub-standard and a 'problem'. Those conditioned by Bandai will, a lot of the time, not want to try something outside the Bandai box. Which is a shame, since there's so much other neat stuff out there.

Totally agree with Bandai kits setting the wrong expectations to Model kit building.
It's a good thing that they made model kits accessible to the masses, but it made them think that non-bandai kits especially ones that needs paint/glue/etc are trash.... whereas infact thats what the actual model kit hobby is.

23 hours ago, KOG Water Dragon said:

As far as Bandai and decals go... I'm not sure they're actually doing the customers a favor. Bandai's approach - selling kits with stickers and giving the option to buy decals - is relatively unique in the modeling world. Hasegawa sells all their kits with decals (sometimes very big sheets) and their kit prices are still quite reasonable. Max Factory quickly moved to decals being included after their first Macross release was stickers only. Wave Macross kits have decals. Stickers are pretty much unheard of when you get into any of the other model kit genres - auto, combat aircraft, armor, naval, civil airliner, etc. Maybe its because the target market in japan for gunpla is so different from the other types of kits. But yeah, other japanese kit makers like Tamiya and Fujimi and so on just consider decals standard. So to me, Bandai making you buy decals extra just feels like video games that want to make you pay extra for small DLCs. Part of the problem is that the decal sets are often more expensive over here and harder to find after initial release. Maybe its not as difficult and expensive to get the decals if you're based in japan.

As for decals, hell even gunpla bootlegs give waterslides these days lol. granted they're not of the best quality. But still...

[Big s]

On 8/23/2024 at 9:51 PM, sketchley said:

I.e. your dining room is your living room is your bedroom is your kitchen: anything with toxic fumes are out of the question—and not only is there no space outside, even if there was, the weather (humidity, etc.) messes with drying paint, etc.

Oddly, all the good deadly stuff is far more available over there. Here in the U.S. even Mr color paints are more of a very recent addition to basic hobby shops and even then, they’re tough to find. Other items like Tamiya polyester putty are banned. Bandai even suggests in their paint guides Mr color paints.

For many years of my time working on hobbies, many of those items were unavailable. We basically only had the option between enamel or acrylic paints in all hobby shops. I don’t think that really changed until 2010 or 2015. But even now it’s a very limited thing to find lacquer paints in the U.S.

[Casual.Plamo]

4 hours ago, Big s said:

Bandai even suggests in their paint guides Mr color paints.

I’m not sure when exactly or if it’s always been the case. But the paint suggestions on their manuals are aqueous. Which is alcohol based paint like tamiya acrylics.

Other brands like koto, etc still uses me color in their paint guides though(last I checked)

[Big s]

Red blue and decals are up for preorder 3 per customer of each at hlj right now

[Big s]

got three of each confirmed so far. I think the decals will probably need another 3. But every Bandai preorder up tonight is allowing 3 per customer 

super surprised they’re all standard releases 

Edited August 28 by Big s

[Chronocidal]

Yeah, that is a relief, I picked up two of each, and two decal sets.  I might cancel one before the order happens, but I'd like to have the option to display two modes of each.

Plus.. I forget, did Milia use Basara's sound booster, or Mylene's?  I can't find the pic right now.  

 

[PointBlankSniper]

One of the pics show gunpod can mount on the new belly plates, at least in gerwalk.

[Big s]

25 minutes ago, PointBlankSniper said:

One of the pics show gunpod can mount on the new belly plates, at least in gerwalk.

I think it’s just using the smaller ones like the 21 has

[kajnrig]

Shame that the decal sheet only covers EITHER M OR M, not BOTH M AND M.

[Big s]

18 minutes ago, kajnrig said:

Shame that the decal sheet only covers EITHER M OR M, not BOTH M AND M.

Yeah, I was able to put in for 3, but I’ll probably need 3 more at release 

[Chronocidal]

I think with a little creative use of paint for some of the striping, it shouldn't be too bad to cover both with one set.  Might need to source some kites from other sources, but I'd think some of the 1/72 Hasegawa markings might be close enough to cover those. 

I'd be really interested to see exactly where they expect a lot of those markings to go, though.  That is a massive pile of tiny bits to place on such a small kit.  

What's a little concerning to me, in a "why would you do that?" sort of way.. why did they include the zig-zag decals for the panels behind the intakes?  I know on the YF-21 kit those are yellow parts.. did those get molded in white, so they included decals to cover them up?

Edited August 28 by Chronocidal

[KOG Water Dragon]

1 hour ago, Chronocidal said:

I think with a little creative use of paint for some of the striping, it shouldn't be too bad to cover both with one set.  Might need to source some kites from other sources, but I'd think some of the 1/72 Hasegawa markings might be close enough to cover those. 

I'd be really interested to see exactly where they expect a lot of those markings to go, though.  That is a massive pile of tiny bits to place on such a small kit.  

What's a little concerning to me, in a "why would you do that?" sort of way.. why did they include the zig-zag decals for the panels behind the intakes?  I know on the YF-21 kit those are yellow parts.. did those get molded in white, so they included decals to cover them up?

Nothing a little paint can't solve.

I've always thought the paint jobs on the Max and Miria VF-22s were exceedingly plain, so I'm glad to have a lot of stenciling to spice things up.

The eternal question is will I actually be able to get any from HLJ or will I have to buy local as usual. I've bought 2 of the Fire Valkyrie locally and HLJ still hasn't filled my pre-order for the Fire Valkyrie which I placed as soon as it was listed for pre-order.

[Chronocidal]

Yeah, no kidding.  I directly emailed HLJ support about the delays, and all they had to offer was "short supply, we're addressing orders in the order they came in."

Seriously though, I'm still waiting on my the YF-21 I ordered almost a year ago, while I was able to order multiple copies from Amazon that arrived in a day.  They need to get this nonsense together, or they're going to start losing business.

[KOG Water Dragon]

14 minutes ago, Chronocidal said:

Yeah, no kidding.  I directly emailed HLJ support about the delays, and all they had to offer was "short supply, we're addressing orders in the order they came in."

Seriously though, I'm still waiting on my the YF-21 I ordered almost a year ago, while I was able to order multiple copies from Amazon that arrived in a day.  They need to get this nonsense together, or they're going to start losing business.

It's not likely anything will change. Bandai just simply doesn't want businesses based in Japan to sell their products overseas. That's why Hobbysearch flat out doesn't carry Bandai on their website anymore.

HLJ was able to defy this, maybe because their FOCUS is on selling overseas (and don't really focus on selling to Japanese customers), so they still carry Bandai product, but my understanding is their stock allocations were greatly reduced.

So yeah, I'm sure HLJ would get more stock to sell if they could, but they can't. They can only sell whatever stock they are alotted. So yeah of course they are losing money on Bandai sales. But they sell way more than Bandai so they'll be OK.

We just have to accept the fact that it is no longer easy or convenient to buy recently released Bandai kits from HLJ. If you look for MG Gundam kits on HLJ, virtually nothing is in stock. Big change from the old days.

I still use HLJ heavily for all the non-Bandai Macross stuff though. I got the Queadlunns, Regult series, 1/72 YF-19 battroid, YF-19 w/ fold booster, Armored VF-1 kits, Wave VF-171 kits, and all the Plamax stuff there no problem. Orders filled as soon as kits released.

[Raikkonen]

So the mass predictions of a P-Bandai exclusive totally wrong... And thankfully!!!

Max, here I come!!!

[Big s]

2 hours ago, KOG Water Dragon said:

So yeah, I'm sure HLJ would get more stock to sell if they could, but they can't. They can only sell whatever stock they are alotted. So yeah of course they are losing money on Bandai sales. But they sell way more than Bandai so they'll be OK.

We just have to accept the fact that it is no longer easy or convenient to buy recently released Bandai kits from HLJ. If you look for MG Gundam kits on HLJ, virtually nothing is in stock. Big change from the old days.

I’m wondering if there was a change. They used to only allow one per customer on initial preorder, but all of the Bandai items that went up last night allowed for three per customer. I have an odd feeling that there was a mistake somewhere, but then again possibly not. I really didn’t care about the Gundam stuff, so I maxed it my Macross orders to see what happens. Maybe they’ll get all my stuff at once, or maybe just one set of each, I guess I’ll find out eventually 

[Chronocidal]

I hadn't even considered how weird that is.  If their stock is that restricted by Bandai, why are they even allowing more than one per customer in the first place?

Or is Bandai being more generous with this one because they don't expect it'll sell well overseas?

[KOG Water Dragon]

25 minutes ago, Chronocidal said:

I hadn't even considered how weird that is.  If their stock is that restricted by Bandai, why are they even allowing more than one per customer in the first place?

Or is Bandai being more generous with this one because they don't expect it'll sell well overseas?

Just have to wait and see I guess.

In addition to the Macross items, I have quite a few other Bandai items on pre-order at HLJ. The RG RX-78 ver 2.0 (pre-ordered early but I never got one and it's backordered now), RG Akatsuki, MGSD Wing Zero, MG Gundam Vidar, and all the upcoming Armored Core VI kits. Will be interesting to see if any of those pre-orders get filled in a timely way (if at all).

The limit of 3 on the new VF-22s could be a mistake or it could be a sign they expect a large allotment. I'm genuinely curious to see what happens. I'm seeing that all the Gundam and Armored Core stuff I have on pre-order is also limited to max 3 per person.