Jasonc

There was literally only 2 fans that I saw that asked about Mari this past year, and one of them just wanted to complain because he's "worked with her" before". We wouldn't mind having her, but as I probably will not be heading this year (although I hold all the funds, so I guess I kinda still do), I can say a bit more on the subject. After fixing up the issues with her before the last time she showed up, and having to literally deal with her broadcasting business talks to people that should not be privy to that info, even though we had repaired everything, I didn't want to risk having this same type of thing come up again. Not only that, but her pricing is more than double what she was getting from 2016 on (from what I remember). For a con that is built around 1 day and 1 franchise (even though we have been slowly expanding outward into other related type of series), it is a small event where we can't pay that price only to maybe have an extra 10-20 people register. At her last attendance fee, we need 50 extra people just to cover her, and she doesn't bring that type of draw. The last time she brought in enough to cover her fee was years ago. I'm talking 8-10 years ago. In 2022, we "got in trouble" because we had our convention in September, and she happened to be in Japan at the time, but we were supposed to know her schedule and plan accordingly. It makes it difficult when we try to plan the convention to not be in competition with other larger events, and the center we rented has what we wanted open for the date. Sometimes, we were just stuck with two options (especially that year), and the others were near holidays or in competition with Wonder con and the sort. I could name a list of other things, but it's in the past, and it is things that other conventions have had to deal with as well. We aren't the only ones. If we're going to pay that kind of money, I'd honestly rather go all out, and invest in flying someone from Japan in that can bring a draw. Even if it was a loss, I'd be OK with that, as having new guests brings an excitement and a new chance to make connections. If we do it this year, which is still up in the air, we may try looking at other guests, be it musicians, singers, voice actors, artists, or Mecha Designers. I also do like reaching out to local music artists as well, which is why we were able (and lucky) to get Eririn. I made sure to watch her performance, and not just the Macross songs, but her original songs were quite good. Next year is the 40th anniversary of Macross: Do You Remember Love?, and we aren't sure what lies in store yet for next year, but once we know for certain, and who ever takes the Director position is hand picked, we'll know what we're going to do. If it is done this year, if there's any special 40th anniversary stuff, it might be a draw to a few extra people, but I'm sure that really depends on getting new guests. I'd love to get Mikimoto over, or any of the other originals, but that's something we'd need to really look at. I know they'd definitely give the con a boost. To what extent needs to be seen.

I should open up the boxes I have of these sometime. Seeing them in photos makes me really tempted to do so.

For Darrin's Zentraedi figures, I believe I have the set as well. At least I know for certain I have the Zentran figure. They are really good figures, and while not in a particular scale associated with any other releases, they are nice to look at at times. I have mine in my collection room closet somewhere, and I should take them out since I have a lot of Zentraedi figures bought and made.

I remember that time frame they gave it. They were wanting really high numbers for it, too, which is a bit of a shame. I think the fact that these are completely gone, and only rarely pop up is a good thing, especially since I don't believe this is a licensed design (although it attaches to one). A little gray market no doubt, but they do look pretty decent. It'd be nice to make this as just a complete set, with all options available, and each person can just mix/match all the various components, instead of sets.

I've been wanting to make this in 1/60 scale, and eventually will, but I think the easiest way to do this would be to scan it, resize it, clean it up, and then shape the connecting parts properly for a Yamato/Arcadia.

As I'm not a Twitter user, I don't get all the great updates when they come out often, but this has been, IMO, pretty silent. Is there anything or any news on design or production?

I'm almost at the same decision. I do like the Shibuya Scramble figures, but I am so far, really impressed with the Lucrea Ranka. That figure is absolutely adorable.

I honestly cannot justify spending money on a version that looks like it stopped going to the gym after Macross Plus aired in the early 90s. The entire nose section of the 21 in Fighter does indeed look like the early Yamato 1/72, and the skinny arms on it look like they probably wouldn't hold up any fast pack armor on the tail fins, nor a gun. The back shoulder, where the cutaway is that protrudes upwards, also seems to be very line art inaccurate (although it could just be that it's all in one color). As of now, I'm not liking the way it looks, but I know a few people that are getting it, so when they, and you all get your versions, I'll decide from there if it's simply bad photography, or a bad design.

With the convention planning for SDC this year, I haven't had any time to do any more designing with the piece. I was able to get to where I left off last time, so once that event is over, I'll go back to splitting time between this and the Pheyos design.

Is this file able to be bought?

I'll be honest, I kinda want this as well. I mean, I have enough old Yamato kits to customize one, but this would take all the time and pain out of making it, and leave those for some other custom.

LOL, yeah, I already printed about 30 on my large printer since they all fit, but the small one prints so well. I guess I'll need to patch up the ones I kinda clipped in a slicing software, but the addition to the gun I made makes it all worth it.

I got these files from one of the guys on FB (don't know if he's here), but these are pretty cool figures. The backpack was set wrong, and that spurred me to adjust it a bit for 3 options (one with wings contracted missing). I also designed a gun for it, so I'm gonna see what I can do with that. These are in the scale of the Bandai DX figures, maybe ever so larger, so 1/60. They were printed on an Anycubic M3 Max and their Photon D2.

Not a huge update, but I had a little time this weekend to work on this more, and here are the parts so far. As you'll see, I changed a lot of the parts to make them integrate more into other parts, so that as they move, there isn't a lot of gaps and wobble in parts. I did a test print of the parts I had at the time, and I'm happy that they fit really well. All the moving, transformable parts work as they should, and so far, the newer updates since the last print will only make it more stable. I finished the inside of the thigh parts, and they will be able to swivel on a ball joint part that is stabilized by the round covers and the anchor section going into the thigh part. I'm printing now to test, and if it works, I'll be moving onto the lower leg section.

As of now, I've been printing and adjusting the parts that I am finished with. I'm sure once I build, I'll have more adjustments to do, but so far, I'm happy with the parts. I just got more ball joints and screws in, so I am now measuring for the upper thighs to rotate at the hips.

As I'm currently trying to fix the files of my Orguss Bronco II that I've been working on, I got a bit tired of researching, and decided to work on another project until I can get that going. So, I decided to take out the S.H.E. Feios kit, and see what could be done about making it larger (1/60). The resin kit by S.H.E. is transformable, and while I am going to increase the size, I'm also looking at fixing some things to make it a little sturdier. While the size of parts can do that somewhat on their own, I've ordered a lot of ratchet joints, and purchased a lot of various ball joints while in Japan 1 1/2 months ago. Anyways, here's what I've done over the weekend so far, and while it's got a lot of trial and error in printing parts, it's coming along pretty well so far.

At this time, I may have to redo it, as I ran into an error in the file that I can't fix. I'm looking at solutions now, and I'm sure I'll find it, but until then, it's on hold. Once I do get it fixed, it could be around November/December that it's done. As far as what I'm doing with it, it'll probably just be the files for sale. I can print it, but it takes a bit of time, material, and parts cleanup. If I do that, I'll be selling those for a lot more. Part of that, is that I also use combined resins that give a really good amount of strength and very slight flexibility that make it pretty sturdy.

The 31AX issue reminded me of this all over again. It does seem like they are slow walking this release, and with the time they've been spending, one would think they have found all the potential issues, but then again, nothing beats regular use of a toy with the exact materials. Fingers are crossed.

Nothing pops up for Macross except what I already mentioned. That said, I don't really use Twitter. It would be nice to have a place to consolidate it all though.

The no update may actually be a good thing, hopefully. It could mean that there isn't much to update, but it could also mean that they're just behind. I really wish I could go to WF this summer.

I've been trying to see what is going to be available for Wonder fest happening in 10 days, and I think I've only seen one item (a BJD Sheryl doll outfit). Does anyone know if there are any other bigger kit items going up this go around? I'm always amazed at the kits that come around for this, and hopefully there are some great ones again. Even the toy news that is up as previews is always fascinating. I can't wait to see pics of those, but I'm definitely interested in seeing what kits in small batches will be available.

Sorry it's been awhile since I've posted on this. I had some major fixes to do on a couple other projects. Plus, I was designing the mechanics for a custom project that I was getting paid to do. In any case, I will get back to it shortly.

Unfortunately, when I got back from Japan the day before yesterday, I found out that AX is sold out. I wasn't able to register my industry badge in time, so I'm out, although, I do live semi-close by, so I can meet up outside, if anyone is down.

I'm going this year, if anyone wants to meet up.

Here's the official banner announcements. Registration for attendees, vendors, and artists is now live. There are very limited number of tables for Vendors and artists, so if you want to do that, they may be gone by AX time in early July. We are going to have some cool swag stuff with the full body art of these characters, too, so that will be available coming later, as well as guest announcements, and some other cool stuff.