kajnrig
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Everything posted by kajnrig
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That was my thinking as well. A "Full Set Pack" of the YF-21 would consist of only... what, the FAST Packs and Fold Booster? Maybe a similar fold barrier punch effect? I was always under the impression that the YF-19's extra ordinance is only due to that one artwork of it all laid out being so iconic. The YF-21 doesn't have such a depiction IIRC. That said, I do think a DX should include at least the FAST Pack by default. Especially on these two prototype VFs, the "Super" parts are so minimal as to be a foregone conclusion. It was actually really disappointing to see the YF-19 WWM release be SO stingy by not including them.
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Ah, yes, I suspected you might be in a different market. Those are all JPY prices converted to USD; you being in the Euro zone(?) would change the prices somewhat. Hobby Search is pretty reliable; Amiami and HLJ are both solid choices, too. I don't know much about Hobby Genki, I think the reviews around here have been generally pretty positive as well. (Note that all of those are Japanese-native stores.) BBTS and Kappa Hobby would probably not be ideal sources as they're located in the US. I'm unfortunately not well-versed on European hobby stores.
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IIRC the Hobby Genki price doesn't include international shipping (same as all the links above except BBTS), potentially making it the most expensive option. Of those Japanese stores, HLJ has the cheapest price on the item itself, but again, international shipping might make up the difference in cost. BBTS has a fixed $4 shipping cost for the item, so the final price should come out to $354 + tax. I took a gander at Kappa Hobby, and they have the item on preorder for $338.88 + tax and free US shipping: https://kappahobby.com/products/macross-frontier-sheryl-nome-tsukuyomi-ver-1-7-scale-figure-shibuya-scramble-figure The rough USD prices, from lowest known cost to highest: HLJ = $235 + international shipping Hobby Search, Amiami = $255 + international shipping Hobby Genki = $275 + international shipping Kappa Hobby = $339 + tax BBTS = $354 + tax
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2002, but yes, looks to be for the most part, except for the updated hips that first showed up in IIRC the Armored VF-1J. They're lookers, but yes, they're rather limited in articulation. That said, IIRC it's a little bit better than what's depicted here, and what's depicted here doesn't do the kit any favors.
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Which reminds me, how difficult would it be to convert the Q-Rau to a Q-Rare/Rhea? I imagine it'd "just" be a matter of replacement parts for the forearm cannons and a new backpack upper shell with a rail for a shoulder-mounted cannon., but there might be more going on I don't recognize at a glance. I want to say the proportions are different, too, maybe the backpack as a whole is smaller on the Rare/Rhea...? (EDIT: Hm, yeah, seems the backpack has way more going on than I remembered. Fuel tanks as well, accent details around the missile launchers, and definitely seems it's smaller overall, bottoming out at the top of the thighs rather than at the knees.) Also, that version of the SVF-41 Black Aces is 1/48 scale, correct?
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Yep, Bandai are really cutting back on domestic-for-export allocation, it seems. At this point you should just order any Bandai stuff locally. Or I dunno, I see a bunch of these pop up on Yahoo Japan after their release. If you can get a good deal, you might still save some money going through a proxy, even after accounting for Japanese domestic shipping, international shipping, and proxy fees, given the exchange rate. You would think Bandai could make international prices more competitive while still making a decent profit, but the jacked-up local prices dictated by them still don't save you anything compared to just trying your hand on importing a kit or two yourself. It's frankly a bit ridiculous.
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I looked at a couple reviews and unfortunately it seems like they had to completely redesign the underbelly fuselage to accommodate those hardpoints, to the point that they don't bother including the original non-hardpoint parts in the Kairos SP kit. It's a shame, because I agree, mucking all of that up just so you can mount some dopey fish-plane things is a dumb idea. I'm just glad they didn't make that mistake with the VF-31D Skuld kits that released beforehand. Sure, the fish-planes have to be mounted on their own stands or something, but the original depictions of them were literally as sport fish being caught by the Skuld anyway, so... yeah, makes sense they wouldn't have any way to connect to the VF. That in mind, it's only more bizarre that Aoshima then turned them into like... drones or Bits or what-have-you.
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I did end up seeing The Creator last night on a whim. It's not a MAJOR cliche fest like I feared... but also, it kind of is? But also also, and I think more importantly, the movie doesn't know what it wants to be about. It's supposedly a movie about the struggle between humanity and AI, but it doesn't really know how to properly frame AI (in a speculative fiction way), so "AI" becomes functionally just another racial makeup of mankind... except when the movie remembers they're robots and treats them as such... but then it just as quickly forgets that in order to score cheap drama points. That lack of focus paints much of the story as kind of an allegory for and condemnation of Bush-/Obama-(/Trump-/Biden-)era US imperialism, but that doesn't seem fully intentional. Again, it doesn't strongly commit to the idea just as it strongly doesn't commit to any other idea it's working with, so the allegory/criticism is surface-level at best. All this, of course, set against the backdrop of it also wanting to be a Hollywood blockbuster, which I think is ultimately where the fault lies. It makes what I feel are too many sacrifices of narrative depth for the sake of hitting arbitrary "big-budget war epic" story beats. I had this issue with Rogue One, too - another Gareth Edwards joint - where they took what should have been a relatively small-scale story and unnecessarily blew it up into this big military operation to no real benefit. I'm not saying it had to be Ghost in the Shell, or Blade Runner, or Ex Machina... but I AM saying it makes me want to watch those instead.
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Ah, gotcha. They looked bigger than 1/20 in the picture, or maybe the Bandai figures are smaller than I remember...
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Indeed, ファイター = fa i ta a = fighter What's the difference between the SDFM/DYRL schemes again? IIRC the DYRL schemes all follow Roy's Skull Squadron theme, just swapping out the color striping? And the SDFM schemes are either white with color accents or inverted on Max/Miriya's -1Js? Or am I misremembering all that? Also, this is especially off-topic now, but I wonder what's with the figures on the side of the first pic. IIRC those were Bandai prize figures released way back at the beginning of the show. Are Max Factory perhaps intending to re-release them as model kits? They've been doing the same with other figures lately, too, notably of Asuka and Mari from Evangelion (and Power and Makima from Chainsaw Man).
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Where are you seeing that? I haven't gotten any of their email newsletters for several months now for some reason, including sales announcements and the like, and I don't see it announced on their store page.
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I was scratching my head thinking surely that's not true because I didn't remember that being the case on the Alto kit... but sure enough, the CF kit comes with new wings with the pylons molded onto the undersides. I don't know why that revelation triggered such a reaction of disgust in me. What do you mean, you don't want customers to drill holes into the wings and glue the pylons into place!?!?!? Looking at the scans on Hobbysearch, the CF comes with both the bare wings and weapon-mounting wings, so I suppose it's still not out of the question that a standalone add-on kit simply includes that extra wings runner.
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That sucks. It seemed like it would be very predictable, but I was holding out hope the story would clear a similarly high bar as the effects.
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I'm happy to see these turn out so well. Are they using different molds as well? I want to say the proportions are different - slightly less moe blob, longer-limbed - from the regular VFG girls, and even from the various prototypes, but that could just be wishful thinking. Will definitely pick up at least the Makina and Reina kits when they come out, probably the Kaname too. I agree it's odd they went with the Kairos wings for Makina and Reina and ONLY Makina and Reina, but on the other hand, it helps them stand out and emphasizes their closer connection to each other... but I'd also bet that more than that, Aoshima are banking on the more popular Kairos design to boost their appeal since the characters themselves aren't as popular as the other three. (I have no source about said popularity, just making a guess based on my gut feeling.) IIRC the original character-coded designs these are based on were from a CG video for a Walkure concert where they were all FSW Siegfrieds with their respective J/F/C/E/S heads and all equipped with the gunpod equipment pod. (The Hasegawa Reina 31E kit does come with all the parts necessary to build it with the radome, though. Dare I hope they include that here as well?)
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I'm 90% confident it'll only be offered as a full kit, not a separate standalone item. No real reason why, just my own suspicion. I wonder if they'll do a similar with the CF and include the reaction warheads instead, a la the DX toys.
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Yeah, I was refreshing and refreshing USAGS ever since I saw the YF-21 on there, since I have an unused coupon from filling out a questionnaire or something a bit ago too, but the decals just inexplicably wouldn't show up. Ever since Bandai acquired Bluefin here in the States, they've been limiting allocation to "JDM" stores that have traditionally served this market (HLJ, Hobby Search, Amiami, etc.). Probably they're trying to get as "clean" sales numbers as they can to more accurately predict future demand, revenue, costs, etc. It sucks for HLJ, because they assuredly have the capability to fulfill preorders if only they would receive adequate supply. Note that they don't exhibit the same inability to fulfill preorders when it comes to other items from other companies. It's specific only to Bandai. If you're buying literally anything besides Bandai products, especially when it comes to Macross, they should be one of the first places you look. I don't know how the continuing recent international expansion of the franchise means for merchandising, but during the Harmony Gold Dark Years HLJ were consistently my one major source for all things Macross, and even today there are certain companies and items that have ye to break out into international waters, like Wave and their various-scale Macross kits.
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That's really great. ...I just wish I liked the VF-19 Custom. Like, at all. But seriously, I love that the franchise seems to be popping off way more than it ever has recently. Let's hope it can keep up the momentum.
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Geez, literally minutes after I create an account and preorder at BBTS, too.
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Yeah I was wondering about that. Several years ago there was a big display of prototype HMRs and I forget if the 21 was among it. IIRC at least some of the ones shown there and unreleased at the time have since come out, so it's... possible?
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Strategic caches would make sense, but the Kampfer rises up out of the warehouse already fully decked out. That in mind, it really is sort of goofy that it confidently reaches into a random-ass truck and just happens to pull out the exact armed and ready weapon it needs. Imagine if it did so with such bravado and in its hand was like two industrial bags of sugar. POCKET SAND! There are some other goofy bits in the OVA now that I'm rewatching it, like how each of its weapons seems to only have a single shot loaded. Like seriously, it takes out a presumably fresh rocket launcher, blows a hole in the roof of the Alex storage warehouse, then in the next shot it has a shotgun in hand. At least it gets TWO shots out of that one before tossing it aside. Anyway, I'm in agreement about the color choice. They could have easily overdone it, too saturated or too dull, too bright or too dark, etc. That said, I do prefer the darker of the two tones used here, and I think it would have been better if they had just stuck with that one tone, or very subtle variations on it. But good color choice regardless... at least so far. Bandai are well known to digitally manipulate promo pics, so it wouldn't surprise me if the final product was noticeably different from the promo photos and/or prototype. -
Alto: https://www.amazon.co.jp/-/en/Macross-VF-171EX-Nightmare-Machine-Length/dp/B0BCTZ1N2H/ CF: https://www.amazon.co.jp/-/en/Macross-Nightmare-General-Machine-MC-075/dp/B0C6LYX19M/ Buying options, including the Amazon-sold option, are limited to those stores that ship to the location you specify. If you choose a Japanese postal code, more stores (including the Amazon-sold option) open up.
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Small PSA while I'm refreshing my various order pages: Seems USAGS now has the YF-29 Alto and YF-29 Alto decal set in stock. https://www.usagundamstore.com/products/macross-plus-hg-1-100-yf-29-durandal-valkyrie-alto-saotome-machine-scale-model-kit https://www.usagundamstore.com/products/macross-frontier-hg-yf-29-durandal-valkyrie-saotome-alto-special-water-slide-decals-sheet
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USAGS: https://www.usagundamstore.com/products/macross-plus-hg-1-100-yf-21-1-100-scale-model-kit No decal link yet. EDIT: Tentatively, an Amazon.co.jp listing as well: https://www.amazon.co.jp/-/en/dp/B0CJLJ494Q
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Oh I'm dumb. It's even reaching up to grab it and everything.
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Once again, it seems they've prioritized Battroid mode over the others. But dare I say that is a FINE-looking Battroid, and maybe it's just because I'm not as familiar with the design as with the YF-19, but the Fighter mode doesn't look half-bad either. Only Gerwalk looks somewhat odd, and YF-21's Gerwalk has always looked odd, so that's nothing new. It's implemented almost exactly like I thought it'd be, too: instead of trying to force the arms and legs to conform to the Fighter mode, the partsforming just replaces the entire fuselage altogether, and it is infinitely better for it. Hot damn, here we have a 5000 yen model kit that's about to put the 25,000 yen DX Chogokin to shame. I tell ya, this is honestly making me reconsider whether to buy the DX or not. Three of these - heck, FOUR of these for all four modes, and I'd still have 5000 yen left over for a nice stand to display them all. ...my only misgiving is how bad the limiter-release mode looks. Would it really have been so much to give us some mechanical detail-looking caps to plug up those garish joint sockets?