Lolicon

Shoulder blocks on mine have paint scraped off right out of the box. Some things never change.

Head sensors are all clear parts instead of some being painted. Very nice.

I received mine from Amiami but haven't opened it yet. It's a pretty sizeable box. Certainly much bigger than a YF-29 + super parts should be. In my experience Amiami tends to pack things better than HLJ, at the cost of increased box size and possibly increased cost. On the other hand, HLJ seems to employ experienced Tetris players to pack their boxes.

Are you going to use real world fighters as a reference? Seeing as Frontier CGI valks are totally clean and cel shaded.

DHL out for delivery. Yay! But no time to fiddle with it till tomorrow.

I'm sure Bandai will be there to lend a hand. Sorry, I meant give him the finger.

You guys should know by now that Bandai joints only come in two variations: floppy as hell or tightened by someone with the strength of the mentally deranged.

Nice! That's cheaper than Amiami after shipping. Damn this lack of EMS to the states!

Liking the way the new finish looks. Can't wait to get mine in hand.

@MacrossJunkie Those are hands down the most beautiful valkyrie toys I've ever seen.

Not every country has a f***ed up COVID response like the USA and is under Japan Post suspension.

Paid for mine at Amiami. I'm eager to see the new finish.

Lessons learned. I'll have to go overboard on Hikaru next. Dust is the bane of my existence when photographing. Had to reshoot so many times. I need a clean room to photograph in...

That sucks. I wonder if after doing the whitening treatment if you should seal the valk in a layer of clear coat? Just thinking if cutting off exposure to the air would prevent re-yellowing if it's some kind of oxidation process.

Thanks! There's almost as many markings as Bandai's DX SSP, but the text isn't ginormous so it's a lot less obnoxious. Unfortunately the effects I added were mostly dulled out by the top coat. Even the heated metal effect is barely visible on the boosters.