DX Chogokin VF-171EX Alto - Revival ver. WWM Release

[Mommar]

Bit of a steep price but for those of us who miss3d it for other reasons...

[Chronocidal]

Yeah, BBTS is never the cheapest source, but they make a good backup, and their cheap shipping does help reduce the sting a little bit.  My pre-order at AE was only $220, but it'll probably cost over $60 to ship it.

[Lolicon]

Over $100 more than HLJ price. PW shipping also reduces shipping costs by a lot. But only a tiny number of people had the fortune to catch the HLJ preorder.

[Chronocidal]

HLJ's private warehouse does help sometimes, but unfortunately all of these release windows seem to be spaced out perfectly to ensure I can never actually group any of the bigger items together.  I can always toss in some modeling supplies or a small kit or something to pad out the box, but since they started auto-shipping things again, I don't think any major releases have overlapped enough to ship together.

Unless they aren't actually auto-shipping yet?  I think I've just been saying to ship with a couple days left to try and time deliveries when I can be home to get them.

[Mommar]

I never do Flatrate because New Mexico Postal Service is trash but FedEx plus NM tax is $320!

[blackconvoy_D01]

I PO'ed 2 of the 25 WWM with deposit from BBTS thinking they'd be the only one to get it state side, then it popped up everywhere. With Max's 29 I did Eknight and got a discount with free shipping. I'm gonna try to hold tight for Eknight if I can't get my 171EX from HLJ.

UPDATE

Eknight @ $279 with free ground shipping and pay when item is received and ready to ship via PayPal;

https://www.eknightmedia.com/macross-frontier-vf-171ex-armored-nightmare-plus-ex-alto-saotome-use-revival-ver-dx-chogokin-action-figure-by-bandai-tamashii-nations.html

 

 

Edited September 8, 2023 by blackconvoy_D01

[blitz]

USA Gundam Store has coupon code "macross" for 20% off right now. Works on DX Chogokin.

Comes to about $56 USD Off. https://www.usagundamstore.com/products/macross-frontier-dx-chogokin-vf-171ex-armored-nightmare-plus-ex-alto-saotome-use-revival-ver?variant=42346853793989

Edited October 19, 2023 by blitz

[Sanity is Optional]

3 hours ago, blitz said:

USA Gundam Store has coupon code "macross" for 20% off right now. Works on DX Chogokin.

Comes to about $56 USD Off. https://www.usagundamstore.com/products/macross-frontier-dx-chogokin-vf-171ex-armored-nightmare-plus-ex-alto-saotome-use-revival-ver?variant=42346853793989

Not bad at all, my preorder ended up around $205 before international shipping, so probably about even (depending on local tax).

[Alex GS]

is being a while this PO still open in AmiAmi releasing the VF-171EX this January , so if someone interested here it is the link:

https://www.amiami.com/eng/detail/?gcode=FIGURE-159118

at least for me I'm really excited for this release , never tried to get one of the old early releases cause the reports of breaking knees or legs issue in nearly every version, I hope this one gets reinforcements in those segments. 

 

[Chronocidal]

Interesting this pops up now, though thank you for the reminder that I ordered one, and didn't remember where.   

Had to go searching the forum here to find out I got one at AE, since my email search was being useless.

[MacrossJunkie]

I hope they consider re-releasing the 171 NM+ but with fixes to the plastic so that the black triangles and joints don't explode. I have two, one that's intact (knock on wood) in battroid and the other in fighter which had a crumbly shoulder. I'm afraid to transform the one that was intact when I last left it because it's like Schrödinger's Valkyrie. It simultaneously exists in states of unbroken and broken until a transformation is attempted and it resolves itself to one of the two states.

[Chronocidal]

Reminds me, I should actually see about finishing the design I made to replace the bottom triangles with something like the Yamato VF-17 had, just a two piece panel that mounts to the original screw, and folds down.

Don't think my FDM printer will work for it, but might be worth a shot with Shapeways.

[Lolicon]

I took my 171s out of storage recently and had to pull the legs out to attach the armor parts. Twisting and popping the legs out was a bit harrowing. I thought I was going to snap the damn things off.

[Actar]

Not sure if this is the right place to post this, but I just discovered that one of the legs on my teal 171 cannon fodder just fell off while the darn thing was on display. Was kinda shocked, but I guess it's par for the course for these guys...

[Chronocidal]

Yeah, no, that's just Bandai's "engineering" on display.  Those legs are an unmitigated disaster.

I would say on the positive side though, at least yours came off in one piece.  Mine that broke like that shattered beyond repair.

Just imagine if they had been smart enough to just put a single solid shaft between those parts.

Honestly.. if you can get the screw cover off of the lower knee without utterly destroying it, you might be able to fix the whole problem with a good old-fashioned BIC pen mod.  I'm not sure if the lower section has the room for it though, the knee ratchet takes up a lot of that space.

Edited December 6, 2023 by Chronocidal

[MKT]

Wow to fall off just by itself.. doesn't seem to be just weak plastics, sounds like also some form of plastic rot over time due to defective formulation, not dissimilar to the exploding shoulders of the Yamato VF-0. 

[mog_kupo]

On 12/3/2023 at 7:30 PM, Alex GS said:

is being a while this PO still open in AmiAmi releasing the VF-171EX this January , so if someone interested here it is the link:

https://www.amiami.com/eng/detail/?gcode=FIGURE-159118

at least for me I'm really excited for this release , never tried to get one of the old early releases cause the reports of breaking knees or legs issue in nearly every version, I hope this one gets reinforcements in those segments. 

 

 

Thanks!! 

[Chronocidal]

On 12/7/2023 at 8:49 AM, MKT said:

Wow to fall off just by itself.. doesn't seem to be just weak plastics, sounds like also some form of plastic rot over time due to defective formulation, not dissimilar to the exploding shoulders of the Yamato VF-0. 

I would say that's almost certainly what happened with that entire production run.  That metallic gray plastic has the material properties of obsidian.  When I say how my leg shattered, I mean it, it broke up into glass-like shards that were rather sharp.

That's really only half the issue though.. the other half is that Bandai used an absolutely incomprehensible design.  The way the thigh rotation hinge was designed looks like it was made to explode intentionally with how terrible the idea was.  

Just to be clear, the part that broke off, and allowed the leg to fall off is a hollow-cored mushroom peg, with a toothed metal spring pin down the middle.  THAT was what they decided was the best way to give the thigh rotation hinge friction, instead of something like a rubber friction pad on a solid peg.

The thing was rigged to explode catastrophically from the drawing board, and that's before you even consider the unnecessary interlock they added to keep the leg from rotating, which is just the carrot leading you to step on the land mine when you try to rotate the legs.

---------------

I know I do go off about the 171's design quite often, so apologies if it becomes a broken record, but I really want people to understand just how terrible the entire design is, in the hopes that they'll somehow avoid destroying theirs.  It seriously hurts my brain that such a thing ever got approved for production, and I wish I could walk up and slap the person responsible for what an affront to good industrial and engineering design it is on every level.  Bandai owes everyone who ever bought one a set of redesigned legs.

Edited December 9, 2023 by Chronocidal

[jenius]

There are a few "slap level" design decisions in the 171 and I'm curious if they're going to address any in this reissue. At a minimum, one hopes they went back to the drawing board on the wings.

[MKT]

I do hope Bandai fix the issues with this mold once & for all. They would have to commit more to re-engineer it compared to the Revival 25/29s, but at least they can then release the other repaints with confidence, especially the Delta 171 we never got. 

[ArchieNov]

On 12/9/2023 at 10:08 AM, Chronocidal said:

I would say that's almost certainly what happened with that entire production run.  That metallic gray plastic has the material properties of obsidian.  When I say how my leg shattered, I mean it, it broke up into glass-like shards that were rather sharp.

That's really only half the issue though.. the other half is that Bandai used an absolutely incomprehensible design.  The way the thigh rotation hinge was designed looks like it was made to explode intentionally with how terrible the idea was.  

Just to be clear, the part that broke off, and allowed the leg to fall off is a hollow-cored mushroom peg, with a toothed metal spring pin down the middle.  THAT was what they decided was the best way to give the thigh rotation hinge friction, instead of something like a rubber friction pad on a solid peg.

The thing was rigged to explode catastrophically from the drawing board, and that's before you even consider the unnecessary interlock they added to keep the leg from rotating, which is just the carrot leading you to step on the land mine when you try to rotate the legs.

---------------

I know I do go off about the 171's design quite often, so apologies if it becomes a broken record, but I really want people to understand just how terrible the entire design is, in the hopes that they'll somehow avoid destroying theirs.  It seriously hurts my brain that such a thing ever got approved for production, and I wish I could walk up and slap the person responsible for what an affront to good industrial and engineering design it is on every level.  Bandai owes everyone who ever bought one a set of redesigned legs.

Slightly off topic, but the worst engineering design of Bandai that I ever encountered was the hip joint for the Chogokin Gipsy Danger. Now that was a sure fire time bomb, I can't imagine how it will not break itself over time, even with good materials. Basically I found that my Gipsy Danger's hips were both loose after keeping it boxed up for a few years. Turns out the reason they were loose was because the plastic peg/cap that holds the metal hips together had snapped. I wish I still had a picture of it, but basically they designed the hip to be made of 2 metal halves held together by a plastic cap and with a screw inside. Normally you wouldn't think this was a problem. But they had the idea that the best way to give friction to the metal hips was to sandwich a super high tension spring inside. This spring was so strong, I could barely squeeze it with my bare hands. So you can imagine that having so much force being exerted on a plastic piece will turn out. I wish they just used a screw with a bigger head or better yet, done away with the spring idea.

 I just thought I'd bring it up because hearing about the spring being used to create friction in the 171 reminded me of Gipsy Danger's exploding hips.

Edited December 12, 2023 by ArchieNov

[Robin-11]

7 minutes ago, ArchieNov said:

Slightly off topic, but the worst engineering design of Bandai that I ever encountered was the hip joint for the Chogokin Gipsy Danger. Now that were a sure fire time bomb, I can't imagine how it will not break itself over time, even with good materials. Basically I found that my Gipsy Danger's hips were both loose after keeping it boxed up for a few years. Turns out the reason they were loose was because the plastic peg/cap that holds the metal hips together had snapped. I wish I still had a picture of it, but basically they designed the hip to be made of 2 metal halves held together by a plastic cap and with a screw inside. Normally you wouldn't think this was a problem. But they had the idea that the best way to give friction to the metal hips was to sandwich a super high tension spring inside. This spring was so strong, I could barely squeeze it with my bare hands. So you can imagine that having so much force being exerted on a plastic piece will turn out. I wish they just used a screw with a bigger head or better yet, done away with the spring idea.

 I just thought I'd bring it up because hearing about the spring being used to create friction in the 171 reminded me of Gipsy Danger's exploding hips.

Despite being a huge fan of Pacific rim(well, Del Toro's movie only) i never got around to buy the Gipsy Danger S.O.C.I do feel your pain though and now i feel a bit relieved knowing about this little issue. Let's hope the new Pacific rim releases will do justice to the movie. Anyway, sometimes Bandai's choices are really painful...

[sharky]

Out of curiosity why are some of you guys rushing to buy this knowing that there's a good possibility that the leg joint will explode?  Having read through the thread I didn't come across anyone mentioning that it has been fixed on this upcoming release.  It's what prevented me from buying it the first time around.

[26662]

1 hour ago, sharky said:

Out of curiosity why are some of you guys rushing to buy this knowing that there's a good possibility that the leg joint will explode?  Having read through the thread I didn't come across anyone mentioning that it has been fixed on this upcoming release.  It's what prevented me from buying it the first time around.

I’m not too familiar with the animated source material.  In a word, it comes down to design.  I love it.  I own one of each of the previous releases and haven’t had an issue.  If the new ones break, I trust I have the skills to fix them. 

[ArchieNov]

1 hour ago, sharky said:

Out of curiosity why are some of you guys rushing to buy this knowing that there's a good possibility that the leg joint will explode?  Having read through the thread I didn't come across anyone mentioning that it has been fixed on this upcoming release.  It's what prevented me from buying it the first time around.

This issue was only limited to the cannon fodder variant. The 171EX versions (of which this upcoming release is like) didn't have those issues with deteriorating plastic. I still have the original release of the 171EX Alto and it still holds up fine (although it has yellowed so bad). My cannon fodder though has broken at the hinge joint that connects the upper torso to the lower body. Gluing it back together didn't help much because it started to break at other points afterwards. So now it's stuck in fighter mode until the day I throw it in the trash. Funnily enough, the triangles on my cannon fodder are still intact.

Edited December 13, 2023 by ArchieNov

[Chronocidal]

9 hours ago, sharky said:

Out of curiosity why are some of you guys rushing to buy this knowing that there's a good possibility that the leg joint will explode?  Having read through the thread I didn't come across anyone mentioning that it has been fixed on this upcoming release.  It's what prevented me from buying it the first time around.

Honestly.. it kind of comes down to just liking the fighter mode.  As long as these are never transformed, they hold up pretty well.  

[sharky]

Thanks, all, for the replies.  I have always liked the design, and I was interested in getting this new release.  I will take a wait and see approach. Hopefully, it'll still be available upon release.

[Duymon]

7 hours ago, Chronocidal said:

Honestly.. it kind of comes down to just liking the fighter mode.  As long as these are never transformed, they hold up pretty well.  

I own 12 of the cannon fodders. because they were so prone to breaking I bought 9 of them at steep discounts from people who got bandai'ed. 9/12 of my units are also permanently in one mode and held together with glue and epoxy

[Chronocidal]

Yeah, I think I got two at release, and later bought two more broken ones just for the spare parts.  Out of the four, I managed to put together two that are good for transforming, one that stays in battroid to hide the shapeways shoulder triangles, and one pile of spare parts.

[ValkAddict]

On 12/4/2023 at 9:47 AM, MacrossJunkie said:

I hope they consider re-releasing the 171 NM+ but with fixes to the plastic so that the black triangles and joints don't explode.

+1 please Bandai

[Chronocidal]

Yeah, a fix to the plastic won't cut it.  They need to send the thing back to the drawing board and re-engineer it from the ground up not to suck.

[MKT]

https://tamashiiweb.com/item/14559/?wovn=en
 

Release has been updated to 20 Jan 2024.

[jenius]

Only one set of wings?

• VF-171EX body
• 3 pairs of interchangeable hands (L/R)
• Gunpod
• Pilot figure
• Interchangeable antenna (hard)
• Wrist armor (L/R)
• A set of armored parts
• Anti-Vajra MDE particle anti-gravity cannon / 30mm MDE cannon matrix AVPAGC/MEDC30-EX-A
• Large anti-ship missile for anti-aircraft carrier Sentinel AVM-11R quadruple
• 2 medium-range anti-aircraft missile Befores AAMM-05D
• 2 Sentinel FXA-60A high-speed armor-piercing rocket 6-tube pods
• 2 short-range high-mobility anti-aircraft missile L.A.I./AAMS-02A triple
• Dedicated stand

[Sanity is Optional]

11 hours ago, jenius said:

Only one set of wings?

• VF-171EX body
• 3 pairs of interchangeable hands (L/R)
• Gunpod
• Pilot figure
• Interchangeable antenna (hard)
• Wrist armor (L/R)
• A set of armored parts
• Anti-Vajra MDE particle anti-gravity cannon / 30mm MDE cannon matrix AVPAGC/MEDC30-EX-A
• Large anti-ship missile for anti-aircraft carrier Sentinel AVM-11R quadruple
• 2 medium-range anti-aircraft missile Befores AAMM-05D
• 2 Sentinel FXA-60A high-speed armor-piercing rocket 6-tube pods
• 2 short-range high-mobility anti-aircraft missile L.A.I./AAMS-02A triple
• Dedicated stand

Maybe they updated it to ditch the swappable wings?

[jenius]

I am praying so.