mickyg

As per usual, when he sets his sights on something he wants, prior to his birthday, he inevitably ends up getting it.  This leaves this particular dad high and dry for gift ideas.  Every. Single. Time.

He's managed to score a BNIB from a seller in Sydney for $180 shipped.  So I guess that was a pretty decent price.

He's now decided he loves Sideshow Toys and wants a Captain Rex.  I think they're pretty amazing to look at but the price is a no-go.  Can't fault my son for his taste in quality toys, that's for sure....

My son's birthday is in a little over a month (June 20) and he's after the third figure for his Figma collection (has Kirito and Asuna).  I figured it'd be pretty straight forward to find one but wow, was I wrong!

Anyone have this in their collection, willing to part with it, and willing to do so for less than $150 shipped, in Australia?  Yeah, tough ask but I thought I'd try here first.

Yep - anything ABS will be a better stand-in for "toy plastic" than PVC.  ABS seems to be notoriously difficult to get paint to stick to.  If you can test it on ABS, there's a great chance it'll work as good or better on your Chunky.

Oh, that sucks, man.  I knew there would have been a reason to not include them when you had the 1D pictured.  Yeah, that design is cool because it's compact but it means figuring out how to toughen up what's already a very fragile means of weathering.  Lacquer based clearcoat on top, maybe?

Bravo, sir. Bravo!

Can I ask for one tweak to your VF-0S entry?  Can you put the finished work up for reference?  I know you've got them posted elsewhere but this will make this entry a nice, standalone piece for people to use, all in the one post.

I've been meaning to do this to my VF-0S for a long while now.  This is a great push to help me get my act together and at least make a start.  I'm really good at starting...

Wow @Lolicon!  Amazing work!

Had I not seen the custom pain mix for the RVF, I'd have had no idea that you were actually repainting these as well as just weathering.  Very, very nice job.

I'm still trying to figure out how Kylo even got to Exegol.  I get that he'd been there before and all but isn't it impossibly difficult to get there without a wayfinder?  Or did Rey send the navigation stuff she sent to the resistance fleet his way as well?  I guess I could live with that answer, except that it's just totally absent from the movie.

I didn't hate this movie, I'm just not sure I loved it, either.  Easily the best of the three for me though.

Been working my way through the Hasegawa SV-51y/a kit over the last few months.  I don't get much time in the last few years to work on models so progress is snail-pace slow.  Been enjoying getting back into it though.

Here's a very low Q pic of latest progress:

I struggled to find what Hasegawa calls "Aircraft Gray" in their callouts but ended up using some Gunze FS36321.  It's a bit darker than the shade of gray the kit is molded in and looks nearly identical here in this harsh LED flash lit photo.

I also spent a great deal of time "thinning" the leading edges of those intakes.  It's a pretty abrupt angle though and the closeup picture makes that a lot more obvious. Still, anything is better than the stock thick, blunt profile.

Lots more to to do but it's good to see Ivanov's ride coming together.

Also noticed

Great episode!

It looks very, very nice.  Your attention to details is also spot-on.  I see nothing but respect and a labour of love on this project.

Just letting the community know to give any sites with "service1@vinayotap.com" a wide berth.  Specifically www.ltvxyonline.com and www.wainershop.com (both appear to have Macross items).  It looks like any site with this contact email at the bottom is engaging in some pretty shady tactics:

• Site looks legit with the proper SSL certificates
• Order an item at a great price (great, not unbelievable or insane)
• get a legit order confirmation email
• Wait a reasonable amount of time, which for me was only a few weeks
• Receive a small padded bag with a necklace

Search that email address above and you'll see other experiences are identical.

I never got any confirmation of shipping.  As luck would have it, about an hour after I sent an email this morning asking when it would ship (directly to the confirmation email they sent about my order) I got a text message saying my order had arrived at my local post office. 

This will come as no surprise to anyone but the order was in fact, a cheap necklace.  So it's indeed a scam.  Stay away.

I've started a credit card dispute so hopefully that puts an end to it for me.  However, most card companies require you try to work it out with the merchant.  I have not, and have no desire to waste my time when I know it's a scam and others have posted the same thing about this lot, though via different "storefronts" if you can call it that.  My CC issuer may have a problem with that and force me to. 

I'm reluctant because according to our local post office, this scam has been making the rounds lately and if you email them, they send you a phishing scam reply, packed with who knows what and the next thing you find is a bunch of charges on your card that you didn't authorise.  I'm not at all worried about that, since I suspended my card after I made the purchase and realised it was likely to result in this silly necklace.

So there you have it.  Don't buy from either of these two sites.  Now, to add them to the blacklist and find out how to get these domains flagged...

Stay safe out there!

Hey @Gunnar I'm not sure, actually.  I'm in the same boat.  They've got a "guaranteed shipping within 5-7 days" that has completely lapsed on mine, so I'm going to see what I can do to cancel the order and get it refunded.  We'll see what happens and I'll update the thread accordingly.

Looking for a TAV33 Optimus Prime from the "Robots in Disguise" or "Transformers Adventure" series.  Don't care about box condition as long as the toy is in good shape and has all the accessories.

I'm in Australia so shipping will be pricey and hoping to pay as close to original retail as possible. 

I've temporarily blocked my card. Just in case. I've done some reading and I'm definitely covered if this turns out to be the bait and switch that a few others have reported from this email address. 

Really surprising there aren't far more reports from this vinayotap group. I really only found a handful. 

Stay tuned...

I noticed that email. Didn't think to look it up for some silly reason. 

I already placed an order yesterday, though it's smallish. I'll look into what I can do to cancel but also what options I've got if I leave it and it goes badly. The CC I used has a very low limit and should be protected by Visa if it turns out nasty. 

Thanks for the feedback so far. 

I'm taking one for the team...

Can't find any warning flags other than how briefly they've been in business and the fact they don't take Paypal.  I recall days when some Japanese online shops didn't either.  Those things can take time/experience to set up.  And then again, this may all be a massive scam....

So I've ordered a few thing things totaling less than $100 and will update this thread if they come through.  Will also warn everyone if they don't and put an entry in the black list thread, too.

Been doing some further checking, as there were some 1/60 Macross Zero Water slide decals that looked interesting, and this other site came up: www.wainershop.com

Same exact layout and "logo" if you can call it that.  It's either dodgy as anything, or it's just  a very simple web front template that both of these companies are using.  I created a login for ltvxyonline but it doesn't work for wainershop.  So logins don't look to be linked.

Going to do further research before I enter any financial details.  Something just seems a little off at this point.

It's that time of year where kids start asking for things that are long since gone from store shelves.  Unsurprisingly, my son decided he just had to have a TAV33 Optimus Prime - something that's been gone for years now.  I told him I'd look into it.  To my surprise I found a site that looks to be Canada based that stocks this. https://www.ltvxyonline.com

Not only that, they've got a pretty healthy amount of Macross goodies too!

But, is it too good to be true?  The site has been up for less than a year.  The Security certificate appears to be valid though.  Has anyone bought from here and can advise?

Is the YF-29 Alto version an officially verified reissue?  I thought it was just being shown at all the usual events as a "see what we did?" sort of marketing thing.

I'll say!

Man, at 25 years in the making, this is even more impressive to have followed.  Really love your work, your attention to detail and all the time you put into journalling your build here with us Macross folks.

Inspires me to get back to a lot of my unfinished projects and keep up with the threads I started but never finished.

4 hours ago, tekering said:

It's never too late to learn, my friend!    Modelers are a generous group, always open to sharing tips and techniques with others.  YouTube alone can teach you everything you'll ever need to know.

It's all just a matter of experience and practice.

Pshhh!  Speak for yourself man - all my skills are top secret!

I keed, I keed.  I can't think of a single thing I know how to do with my own modelling experience, that I haven't learned by reading a tutorial, watching a video, or chatting with someone else.  A lot of that has come from this site, alone, too.  Of course you've got to then try it, but the point is that Ted's spot on.  It's never too late to start learning some new skills and modelling is one of those things I hope I never stop doing.

@tekering Lovely work on that figure!  Got any poses on the Monster, now that you've reached the finish line?  I know scale probably won't be kind but your previous pics looked great and certainly didn't make me think "that monster is way too small!" in the slightest.

Love the outcome on this one!  The panel shading on the heatshield/"canopy" is a very nice touch, too!

I like them so much, I'd happily be the Australian distributor for all his stuff.  Just don't have enough folks down my way to order the quantities to make it worthwhile, unfortunately.

I'm sure your pics would help his stands reach some other audiences too. 

I'd try to segue to get us back on topic but this thread is long since gone anyway.  You're probably one of the last folks to get an original Yamato variant of this thing! I love that it's still about as good as it gets, even being an almost exact template for the much newer Bandai High Metal R version.  They certainly did this one nicely.

Of course it being MacrossWorld and all, I'd be remiss to not complain about all the "Should haves" that we didn't get:

• missiles that don't like to stay put
• very limited arm posing options
• no "official" gunpod mounting option (though that's pretty easy to do anyway)
• Some paint scratching issues on die-cast parts
• wings and control surfaces that aren't at the "correct" angles and/or don't have any way to tell you they're properly aligned

I'm still in agreement with you though, it's a greatly done toy and as others often say, surprising that it manages to hide a robot in there in fighter mode.

Not a problem!  Happy to help a fellow member out (you and Yeti both!).  Yeah, until you have these in hand, they really are difficult to visualise.