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Consolidated Megazone 23 Toy/Model Thread for 2017-2018


RavenHawk

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52 minutes ago, jenius said:

Can the joint be disassembled? 

Unfortunately, I think any disassembly of the shoulder joint would result in some significant damage done to the toy. :( It follows Arcadia / T-Rex's current methodology of layering parts over each other making any disassembly for maintenance a pain in the ass. I really need to stop buying Arcadia's first run of something. 

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48 minutes ago, SuperHobo said:

I think any disassembly of the shoulder joint would result in some significant damage done to the toy.

Are we talking about the same joint?

1640815854_minimaleffort.jpg.69421f1184436ab222a8fbc200a5d090.jpg

Put a little pressure between the shoulder halves, and you can split them apart to access the screw with minimal effort.

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25 minutes ago, tekering said:

Are we talking about the same joint?

1640815854_minimaleffort.jpg.69421f1184436ab222a8fbc200a5d090.jpg

Put a little pressure between the shoulder halves, and you can split them apart to access the screw with minimal effort.

Ahh thank you for being brave and opening up the shoulder!  Alright now we are talking! 

IMG_20180813_230928404.jpg

Edited by SuperHobo
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Makes you wonder why they didn't at least use a soft ratchet here, especially since the arms have die-cast. Friction joints are nice for freedom of movement, but once there's too much wear, you're stuck with a floppy toy requiring constant maintenance to artificially recreate that friction. On a toy  this expensive, it should never be an issue.

If this becomes a prevailing issue common to the figure, I hope Arcadia addresses it prior to further releases. Thanks for sharing guys.

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1 hour ago, M'Kyuun said:

Makes you wonder why they didn't at least use a soft ratchet here, especially since the arms have die-cast. Friction joints are nice for freedom of movement, but once there's too much wear, you're stuck with a floppy toy requiring constant maintenance to artificially recreate that friction. On a toy  this expensive, it should never be an issue.

If this becomes a prevailing issue common to the figure, I hope Arcadia addresses it prior to further releases. Thanks for sharing guys.

There almost always seems to be a problem with first releases from Yamato or Arcadia. I hope floor polishing the shoulders works this time around. I think I'll wait it out buying any further megazone pieces from Arcadia. 

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Just watched wotafa's review of Arcadia's Garland (linked in previous post).  Bike and transformation look great, but I was surprised (read: disappointed) to see that the Shogo figure cant fit in the Garland cockpit, and that a special cut down bust insert is used if you want to represent Shogo in slave mode.  I kinda get it...in slave mode u dont see Shogo anyway, but 1) I will know he's not in there (completely) and 2) I know its already possible/been done in the Yamato version and even the Freeing E=X Garland.  This is a borderline deal breaker for me, and I definitely cant call the figure "perfect change" in my mind now.  I was ready to go all in on this pt 1 Garland and a Hargun & transport (when it comes out), but now I gotta re-think if I want to invest that kind of money, knowing there's something "not complete".

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To Tekering's point earlier, every company that does put the rider in the slave mode has cheated a great deal on scale, way undersizing the rider. What's confusing with the Arcadia is they still way undersized the rider and then didn't include the gimmick.

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So floor polish trial #2 failed and so did putting in some electric tape. However, I finally decided to coat the metal mushroom peg in a light coat of krazy glue and let them cure overnight. NOW the shoulders are holding up perfectly well, well enough to pull off the two-handed gun pose without gravity slowing bringing the arms down. I can finally say I'm happy with this piece now. ^_^

 

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Edited by SuperHobo
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I've had mine for a few weeks now and after transforming it several times recently noticed tiny paint chipping on the (top) diagonal edges of the white, chest piece :(

The only time that piece is in contact with anything is in bike mode (after you flip the hands around the revealed clasping mechanism to hold the front suspension in place grab hold of the sides of the chest piece). Yamato's use of a magnet here was clever (but flimsy) and Arcadia's is much sturdier in comparison. But Arcadia's chest piece is a painted part that is being used for direct clamping to keep it solid in bike mode so chipping can happen. Just be careful when going in and out of this mode and maybe it won't chip on you.

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My two Arcadia Garlands came in the mail yesterday, and I've had a chance to muck around with both of them. One to display with my 1/18th Shinji Aramaki bikes, and one to hopefully display with the other upcoming Arcadia MZ23 line.

Overall, I'm VERY happy with them. i absolutely love the build quality and the solid feel of the bikes. As soon as you take it out of the box, it feels like a quality product.

Surprisingly, some of the connections that are tight on one aren't so tight on the other, and vice versa. Everything works fine though.

My only complaints are:

- The white chest piece on one fell off. It connects loosely, and looks like it was basically held in place by the red paint of the part that it attaches too. A tiny drop of super glue fixed the problem easily enough.

- The upper windscreen on that same one popped off. For now, I just slotted it back in and it seems ok. No glue yet.

- The pegs that connect the legs to the read wheel in robot mode don't quite seem to line up perfectly on either one. When you're slotting them in, you kind of have to force them... and then when you disconnect them, you get really nervous the plastic is going to snap.

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2 hours ago, treatment said:

Jenius' yt-review:

 

 

 

 

 

Nice video and great review. I agree with pretty much all the comments you made about this toy (including not being a fan or the extra spinning part on the shoulders, which is too loose on both of mine).

I think the only points you missed are the round ankle parts which I believe are meant to be rotated around in robot mode (not that they make any difference), and the big one being that the scale corresponds to the figures (Arcadia and Yamato) and not the vehicle itself (though you show "true" scale at the end).

Again, great review, and such a great toy. I only wish the blue and white one were priced so that I could justify ordering it too.

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Quote

I think the only points you missed are the round ankle parts which I believe are meant to be rotated around in robot mode (not that they make any difference),

I thought that step was just referring to placement of the heel when I read the instructions and did the photo shoot. The transformation guide will include it.

The scale thing is kind of a loaded conversation so I wasn't sure how to broach it so I just dropped it entirely :)

Glad you liked the review! I ponied up for the blue and white one but now that I know how fragile the paint is, I'm kind of dreading doing a review of it..

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9 minutes ago, jenius said:

Glad you liked the review! I ponied up for the blue and white one but now that I know how fragile the paint is, I'm kind of dreading doing a review of it..

I am SERIOUSLY conflicted on this one.

The blue and white color scheme is exactly, 100% up my alley. Absolutely love it.

On the other hand, with the regular edition coming in at $228 on AmiAmi, the strike parts themselves (which are kind of a must if you get the blue and white edition) coming in at $232, and then the special Garland at $582, that's paying $814 for some cool extra parts and a limited edition color scheme (or 3.6 times the price of the regular edition). I just don't know if I can justify that... then again, I'm still kicking myself for not buying the Viper's Creed Maneuver Blade back in the day, and that was around $450...

For those of us who missed the kickstarter, does anyone know if the blue and white edition is being offered anywhere other than AmiAmi?

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2 hours ago, treatment said:

Jenius' yt-review:

 

 

 

 

 

An excellent review. I also wish Arcadia didn't go for the fully painted look unless they found a way to seal the paint to the max. I do want to comment that the ankles do have a dedicated forward and backward joint that is separate from the toe and heel joint. That should help you put it in even more excellent poses. ^_^

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33 minutes ago, SuperHobo said:

An excellent review. I also wish Arcadia didn't go for the fully painted look unless they found a way to seal the paint to the max. I do want to comment that the ankles do have a dedicated forward and backward joint that is separate from the toe and heel joint. That should help you put it in even more excellent poses. ^_^

So it does! Just very stiff on mine, I had to close the foot up and rock them to free it after I saw your comment... I'll update the article, not sure what to do about the video :/

EDIT - I'll just incorporate that in the transformation video too. Yay.

Edited by jenius
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30 minutes ago, jenius said:

So it does! Just very stiff on mine, I had to close the foot up and rock them to free it after I saw your comment... I'll update the article, not sure what to do about the video :/

EDIT - I'll just incorporate that in the transformation video too. Yay.

Yeah, that joint is pretty well concealed in that area. It took some fiddling around to see that the ankles on my copy weren't lined up so I figured there had to be a joint in there. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

It's a licensed 12" sofubi Garland produced in 2007 by Marmit (©AIC). It's poseable at the hips, waist, arms, and head, has white pearl metallic and silver metallic paint, matte brown and black paint, finished in a gloss red body with removable head armor. Note: I did a lot of extra detailing (chrome, panel lines, etc.) so it does not come this way.

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[ [ [ "Operator 7-G...please respond!" ] ] ]

Edited by Bobby
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18 hours ago, Bobby said:

It's a licensed 12" sofubi Garland produced in 2007 by Marmit (©AIC). It's poseable at the hips, waist, arms, and head, has white pearl metallic and silver metallic paint, matte brown and black paint, finished in a gloss red body with removable head armor. Note: I did a lot of extra detailing (chrome, panel lines, etc.) so it does not come this way.

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garland_blur.jpg

[ [ [ "Operator 7-G...please respond!" ] ] ]

heh finaly another person with SPECIAL MEMORY VHD, i got a copy of it for about 20 from yahoo auction, realy gota get a player sometime and transfer it

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23 hours ago, jenius said:

What's the huge Garland? Looks super chunky!

Indeed. Like they might have modeled it after this shot...

garland_chunky.png

3 hours ago, Darkspire17 said:

heh finaly another person with SPECIAL MEMORY VHD, i got a copy of it for about 20 from yahoo auction, realy gota get a player sometime and transfer it

In the meantime it's so big it makes for some nice shelf art ;)

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  • 4 weeks later...

I just picked up a "new" (or so it was listed; in reality, heavily used) Army Color Yamato Garland off of eBay.

Took some pics with it to compare sizes to the Zillion Tri-Charger (posted in the Zillion thread) and... wow, I had completely forgotten what I floppy mess that toy could be.

(In fairness, 2 of my other 4 Yamato Garlands are pretty solid).

It really makes me appreciate what a solid, quality product the Arcadia Garland is even more.

 

20181003_231745.thumb.jpg.65cdcfd4302a9d71a299488e703269a6.jpg

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3 minutes ago, jenius said:

Wow, that one really looks like it's struggling. 

This was a fun pic to take:

Yamato-Proto-Garland-14.jpg

Yeah, it really is. Not banged up or anything, just floppy.

Nice pic, btw. The only one I'm missing now is the regular, original Garland (I have the metallic, Proto, factory color, and now Army color).

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2 minutes ago, jenius said:

My original Garland has shoulders that are more glue than plastic at this point. If you want one to leave permanently in bike mode,make me an offer. :)

Thank you. I'm still holding out hope of finding a surprise deal on eBay for a new-ish one.

They seem to go for around $200 lately, which I think is absolutely ridiculous. I got my metallic one, with the complete box set (box, cd, game/dvd disc, and book), all in pristine condition, for $80 about 6 months ago.

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  • 2 weeks later...

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