DX Chogokin VF-25S Armored Ozma Lee Revival ver.

[shazam]

 

[treatment]

10 hours ago, shazam said:

 

 

seems MarkH's copy has the nosecone issue, too...

 

[PointBlankSniper]

Looks like the drunken cross-eyed guy that put together Chronocidal's Max Durandal is back at it again. 🤪

[Graham]

Nosecone on mine is fine.

I finally got around to transforming it to Battroid mode on Saturday and adding the armor.

[ArchieNov]

33 minutes ago, Graham said:

Nosecone on mine is fine.

I finally got around to transforming it to Battroid mode on Saturday and adding the armor.

Good to hear that the issue isn't on every copy. But if mine does come with the crooked nose, is there a way to easily disassemble it and fix it?

Edited December 2 by ArchieNov

[David Hingtgen]

8 hours ago, Graham said:

Nosecone on mine is fine.

I finally got around to transforming it to Battroid mode on Saturday and adding the armor.

 

How does the texture/shine of the new armor compare to the old?

[Mommar]

I just learned because of consumer protection laws in Japan the reason why they're calling these revival and making slight adjustments is so they can sell the same item at a higher price point.

[rsvictor1976]

On 11/30/2024 at 3:13 PM, Test_Pilot_2 said:

Anyone have experience with Yoyakunow on how they handle releases? Would've thought I'd have heard something by now on the Ozma =/.

Did you hear anything yet from Yoyakunow? I ordered one as well but I'm not sure if they even have it in stock yet. Their shop still says its a pre-order. 

[Test_Pilot_2]

37 minutes ago, rsvictor1976 said:

Did you hear anything yet from Yoyakunow? I ordered one as well but I'm not sure if they even have it in stock yet. Their shop still says its a pre-order. 

Nope, nada, but we'll see. I'm checking it regularly to see if there are any changes.

[Graham]

On 12/2/2024 at 11:25 PM, David Hingtgen said:

 

How does the texture/shine of the new armor compare to the old?

It's not completely matt like the Revival VF-25S.

The armor is more kinda semi-gloss I'd say, or kinda looks like matt plastic but with a semi-gloss clear coat sprayed on top. 😅

[Graham]

Picked up my second one.

Both physical hobby shops near my work have these sitting on the shelves since last week.

[rsvictor1976]

37 minutes ago, Graham said:

Picked up my second one.

Both physical hobby shops near my work have these sitting on the shelves since last week.

Do they have a web site? Maybe I should of ordered mine from them instead.

[m0n5t3r]

59 minutes ago, Graham said:

Picked up my second one.

Both physical hobby shops near my work have these sitting on the shelves since last week.

Man, I miss toy shopping in HK (Kowloon side)... hopping from building to building, every floor filled with toy shops right next to each other with almost everything one could want. You can even compare prices and haggle, and buy from the cheapest seller. Used to go there once a year in the mid to late aughts to combine vacationing and toy hunting and bring home 1 to 2 "repatriate boxes" filled with toys. The good ol' days. 

[rsvictor1976]

56 minutes ago, m0n5t3r said:

Man, I miss toy shopping in HK (Kowloon side)... hopping from building to building, every floor filled with toy shops right next to each other with almost everything one could want. You can even compare prices and haggle, and buy from the cheapest seller. Used to go there once a year in the mid to late aughts to combine vacationing and toy hunting and bring home 1 to 2 "repatriate boxes" filled with toys. The good ol' days. 

Weren't you afraid of fakes and knock offs? One of the reasons I got out of collecting Transformers was it was getting too hard to tell the difference between the authentic and fake knock offs. 

[Graham]

1 hour ago, rsvictor1976 said:

Weren't you afraid of fakes and knock offs? One of the reasons I got out of collecting Transformers was it was getting too hard to tell the difference between the authentic and fake knock offs. 

Apart from the old Takatoku/Bandai 1/55 and 1/100 toys from the 80s, in 38 years of living in Hong Kong since I moved here in my late teens, I've yet to see a fake or knock-off of a recent Bandai Macross DX, HM or HMR toy in Hong Kong.

[Graham]

2 hours ago, rsvictor1976 said:

Do they have a web site? Maybe I should of ordered mine from them instead.

Both hobby shops  within walking distance from my office have websites and both have the Revival VF-25S with Armor Pack on the shelves as of today.

I just visited both shops during my lunch break today, to physically confirm they have stock.

However, their websites show no stock. 😅

If you want to try your luck and contact them, here are the links:

https://www.hobbylandeshop.com/

https://animes-pro.com/

But I think both shops are geared to local sales to people in HK, rather than export sales to overseas customers.

 

 

[m0n5t3r]

1 hour ago, rsvictor1976 said:

Weren't you afraid of fakes and knock offs? One of the reasons I got out of collecting Transformers was it was getting too hard to tell the difference between the authentic and fake knock offs. 

What Graham said... as far as I can recall, pretty much all the shops were legit. 

[rsvictor1976]

4 hours ago, m0n5t3r said:

What Graham said... as far as I can recall, pretty much all the shops were legit. 

That’s awesome. It reminds me of being a kid going to Toys ‘R’ Us with my mom knowing I could pick whatever toy I wanted for my birthday.

[rsvictor1976]

17 hours ago, Test_Pilot_2 said:

Nope, nada, but we'll see. I'm checking it regularly to see if there are any changes.

I just got a message from them that they expect their stock by the end of the week and will begin shipping next week.

[Test_Pilot_2]

14 hours ago, rsvictor1976 said:

I just got a message from them that they expect their stock by the end of the week and will begin shipping next week.

I just got notice to pay for shipping. Least expensive option is a little over 9000 yen then climbs to over 12k yen to the US.

Seems steep, but the box weighs 2.6 kilograms?

[Graham]

2 minutes ago, Test_Pilot_2 said:

I just got notice to pay for shipping. Least expensive option is a little over 9000 yen then climbs to over 12k yen to the US.

Seems steep, but the box weighs 2.6 kilograms?

It's a fairy big box, but from the two I bought and carried home, the actual weight is definitely not that heavy as 2.6kg/5.73lbs.

But you have to realise that many shipping companies/couriers, such as UPS, DHL, FedEx etc., calculate shipping charges based on volumetric weight of the shipping box, not on actual weight. Volumetric weight (depending on box size), will often be higher that actual physical real world weight.

[rsvictor1976]

Hey @Graham, can you confirm if the VF-25s now has three or two screws behind the hips? From the YouTube reviews I watched, it looked like it only had two now. 

[MKT]

The 2-screws on the hips for this release is a surprising change..

It’s quite a head scratcher how 2 is better than 3 when 3 wasn’t that effective on the other Revivals.
I wonder what other stealth changes were made..

 

[Sokeijon]

On 12/4/2024 at 8:20 AM, Graham said:

Apart from the old Takatoku/Bandai 1/55 and 1/100 toys from the 80s, in 38 years of living in Hong Kong since I moved here in my late teens, I've yet to see a fake or knock-off of a recent Bandai Macross DX, HM or HMR toy in Hong Kong.

So far for me, I saw one knock-off from Yamato/Acardia 1/60 VF-1S. 

And yeah, it is hardly to see Macross toys been "knock-off"ed.

Edited December 5 by Sokeijon

[PointBlankSniper]

11 hours ago, Test_Pilot_2 said:

I just got notice to pay for shipping. Least expensive option is a little over 9000 yen then climbs to over 12k yen to the US.

Seems steep, but the box weighs 2.6 kilograms?

If you are talking about YYK, they should have surface shipping and air small packet (if within size and weight limit) upon request. Don't know why those are not listed on their site by default.

I don't think these are possibly in the 2.6kg range. You can look up all the past dx weights on hobby search by searchigng for dx chogokin. It just doesn't make sense when the old renewals by themselves are only in the 800g range, and the revivals with super parts are only almost 1300g. The OG non revival release with armored parts is only 1700, and 600 without armor.

[rsvictor1976]

1 hour ago, PointBlankSniper said:

If you are talking about YYK, they should have surface shipping and air small packet (if within size and weight limit) upon request. Don't know why those are not listed on their site by default.

I don't think these are possibly in the 2.6kg range. You can look up all the past dx weights on hobby search by searchigng for dx chogokin. It just doesn't make sense when the old renewals by themselves are only in the 800g range, and the revivals with super parts are only almost 1300g. The OG non revival release with armored parts is only 1700, and 600 without armor.

The only thing I can think of is they had to use a bigger box and classify it in that weight range. If I remember correctly, Mandarake mentioned DHL goes by box size so it’s beneficial to use them for smaller items that are heavy.

 

Edited December 5 by rsvictor1976

[rsvictor1976]

7 hours ago, MKT said:

The 2-screws on the hips for this release is a surprising change..

It’s quite a head scratcher how 2 is better than 3 when 3 wasn’t that effective on the other Revivals.
I wonder what other stealth changes were made..

 

Would the third screw somehow affect the fit of the hip armor? I don’t remember if the Super Parts have the same hip armor as the Armored version:

[PointBlankSniper]

1 hour ago, rsvictor1976 said:

Would the third screw somehow affect the fit of the hip armor? I don’t remember if the Super Parts have the same hip armor as the Armored version:

If I'm not mistaken, the reputation of the revivals' hip stength tanked further with every release. That seems to be why 25G sold bad and started price dropping and flooding mandarake. Dunno if screws are actually the cause.

[m0n5t3r]

10 hours ago, PointBlankSniper said:

If I'm not mistaken, the reputation of the revivals' hip stength tanked further with every release. That seems to be why 25G sold bad and started price dropping and flooding mandarake. Dunno if screws are actually the cause.

Got rid of my 25G revival without even opening it after preordering the 25S, which is the only one I really wanted. But IIRC from early reviews, the reason it sold badly was because it was a floppy mess right out of the box. Poor QC? 

Edited December 6 by m0n5t3r

[Graham]

19 hours ago, rsvictor1976 said:

Hey @Graham, can you confirm if the VF-25s now has three or two screws behind the hips? From the YouTube reviews I watched, it looked like it only had two now. 

I'll check tonight when home.

[Graham]

3 hours ago, m0n5t3r said:

Got rid of my 25G revival without even opening it after preordering the 25S, which is the only one I really wanted. But IIRC from early reviews, the reason it sold badly was because it was a floppy mess right out of the box. Low QC? 

I will say my 2 x Revival VF-25S have nice tight hip and shoulder joints.

Of course, I'm sure these will gradually loosen after time, especially with the extra weight of the attached armor. But out of the box, they are nice and tight.

[rsvictor1976]

3 hours ago, m0n5t3r said:

Got rid of my 25G revival without even opening it after preordering the 25S, which is the only one I really wanted. But IIRC from early reviews, the reason it sold badly was because it was a floppy mess right out of the box. Poor QC? 

I never got the 25G since I already had the Renewal version still. I did get the Alto 25F though and that one did have a really loose shoulder that I had to fix. Out of curiosity, what's the general consensus on the VF-171EX Revival? Did that one do well? I was thinking of buying one.

 

19 minutes ago, Graham said:

I will say my 2 x Revival VF-25S have nice tight hip and shoulder joints.

Of course, I'm sure these will gradually loosen after time, especially with the extra weight of the attached armor. But out of the box, they are nice and tight.

I really hope the Ozma 25S Revival I get has no issues. 

Edited December 6 by rsvictor1976

[m0n5t3r]

38 minutes ago, Graham said:

I will say my 2 x Revival VF-25S have nice tight hip and shoulder joints.

Of course, I'm sure these will gradually loosen after time, especially with the extra weight of the attached armor. But out of the box, they are nice and tight.

Could possibly be related to this being a TWE. It's possible that regular retail DX Chogokins are being assembled in a factory with crap QC while the TWE factory has (slightly) better QC. 

[PointBlankSniper]

8 hours ago, rsvictor1976 said:

Out of curiosity, what's the general consensus on the VF-171EX Revival? Did that one do well? I was thinking of buying one.

It wasn't super hyped, probably because of past stigma, but it cleared out of channels steadily I think. I've heard nothing particularly wrong with it, and my unit was everything as expected. Other than a micro paint scratch/rub/mispaint(?) that I can't tell if its from factory or my own doing, I can't find real fault with it. It's even held up fine when I accidentally used the scary triangle as a perch to exert force while transforming. It's definitely not made of the metallic explodium plastic used on the old CFs. One leg armor could do with less bending and tension with the fitment, and an intake armor could grip a little better, but its nothing out of the ordinary. Overall, its uncharacteristically on point considering modern bandai QC.

[Paco Grande]

On 12/5/2024 at 10:03 PM, rsvictor1976 said:

Out of curiosity, what's the general consensus on the VF-171EX Revival? Did that one do well? I was thinking of buying one.

I have a revival MISB that I've been trying to sell forever and nobody wants it. Part of the problem is that I'm in Canada and nobody wants to pay for shipping and the other issue is that I bought it in Canada so the price was higher than Japan and nobody wants to pay that much. I'll most likely end up keeping it and opening it. I was planning to sell it and put the money towards a DX YF-21 but I just bought the YF-21 because of Amazon's black Friday sale.