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Best of luck to you. Hope you have a full recovery. ♥️

UPDATE: Still waiting for my arm to heal; the skin is mostly closed, but the veins and the tendons in my wrist were damaged. My PCP is sending me to a couple of specialists to check the extent of the damage.

The kicker is that Trump was the one that pushed for states sales tax for online purchases back in 2018. 😓 https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-organizations-web-store-collects-sales-tax-in-only-two-states-1523042739?gaa_at=eafs&gaa_n=ASWzDAhaQ98vwnW4tOP1CRZ9aWUt5Ciinsy0pu78G73aEPzO1p5b2iv88SDuJWTjnEE%3D&gaa_ts=68c484b1&gaa_sig=ez-vikqArm6citkWtTMtzkTYvpLwHq3_uNSAEuG6d2Pxjw-mjZmtfn_jdjTMKvjFZxwoIMjTKOky5pK-5mo5Rw%3D%3D

I agree, but unfortunately it’s not the overseas stores at fault over things. It’s something that’s unfortunately also creeping on a lot of stateside places of many retailers of different products due to either parts of products made overseas or the entire product made overseas. I do hope things change soon, because everything seems to be getting pricey these days

I guess that’s why I haven’t heard of them until recently. I’m old, but not that old yet.

Yup or contact the proxy service/site you purchased from to see if they can do something for you.

@RavenHawk, I'm not sure which state you reside in but depending which (in this case most) BBTS also charges state tax (which is also another consideration). I'm guessing you're aware of this since you have probably frequented BBTS more than I have (which has been nil in the last 6 years for me). Tariffs is a ton of crap because we already get charged state sales tax for most states... so tariffs are pmuch doubling up on taxing.

https://www.toyark.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=78304&d=1757097008 32nd HMR CF VF-1A.

https://www.knowheretoys.com/Pre-Order-Ramen-Toys-New-York-Comic-Con-MAKINA-LABS-The-Shark-Clear-Action-Figure-Our-Exclusive_p_12203.html

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/madoverlord/macross-ii-lovers-again-alus-edition/posts/4476351 Update # 36.

Sigh, once again, agreed, I just want my Kaki TV 1A. One day, someday....

Ok, time to put together Devastator! Start with everyone in their alt modes. For Scrapper, make sure the little clip on his shovel is in place and lift the shove up. Pull out his arms, rotate them 180 degrees, then push them back in. Bend the elbows to make the heel. Now pull his right leg away from the left. For Mixmaster, fold the heels down from the underside of the cab, then fold in the other flaps. Unhook his hands from the cab. Rather than shift the entire cab the way most Devastators do, just grab the front of the cab and double-hinge it into the top of the cab. Open the mixing drum. Get Long Haul's trailer and turn in into pants mode. Slide the right thigh sideways into Scrapper's left leg, then close his right leg around it. For Mixmaster, use the groove in back of the truck to slide him forward onto the left thigh, then close the mixing drum back up. Speaking of Long Haul, fold his legs back, and fold the roof up. Tab his heels into the roof. Pull his arms out, rotate his forearms 180 degrees, and then curl his arms up. His forearms will tab into the biceps, and then the entire arm will tab into the side of the truck. On the underside you'll see a big gap with Long Haul's face peaking through it. This gap fits over the purple block at the top of the pants. Long Haul's knees will fit into grooves on the flap on the back of the pants. On Hook, fold out the Devastator head part way, and pull out the feet/shin flaps. Pull the to halves of the vehicle apart and fold them over, then lock them together by folding the head the rest of the way into place. Fold his feet/shin flaps back into place. Now the trick is to make sure everything you need to connect is oriented right. Fold out the arm connector from the crane deck, and the torso connector from Hook's chest. Open Hook's front cab, fold out the other connector, and close it up. Bend Hook's right arm 90 degrees at the elbow, but leave the other one straight. Now line everything up... the chest tab goes into Long Haul's cab, and Long Haul's smokestack goes into one of Hook's feet. Tabs on Long Haul's arms go into Hook's other foot and a slot on his chest. Hook's bent right arm plugs into a slot on Long Haul's roof flap. For Scavenger and Bonecrusher, untab their leg treads. Take the center block and fold it outward. Now put the leg treads back. They'll tab back into the combiner ports, but for extra stability there's a flap on the inside of one leg on each bot. Fold it down, then bend the foot of the opposite leg up so that it pegs into the flap. It should be pretty obvious that the ports on the arm bots slide down over the connectors we folded out of Long Haul- just make sure you push down until they click. You're not quite done, though! The rearward tread on each arm bot has a slot that fits into tabs on Long Haul's arms. All of these connections make Studio Series Devastator feel much more solid than the Combiner Wars version. Now we just gotta do the rest of the partsforming. Fold out the fists, and spin them so the hollow side is the back of the forearm. You'll notice a peg inside, and a tab on the lip near opposite the fist. Line up the tab and peg with the slot and peg hole on the blocks dangling from Scavenger and Bonecrusher. Note that it's obvious which side of Scavenger they plug into, but make sure you've got Bonecrusher's turned so the forearm pegs into the hollow side. The easiest way to attach the chest armor is to first open the front of Long Haul and clip the shield onto the part you just opened. Then close it back up, and the top of the shield tabs into Hook while the sides of the shield tab into the treads on Scavenger and Bonecrusher. And there you have it, folks... the third official Devastator toy in 40 years. Like his constituent parts I think it's very difficult to capture a truly Sunbow accurate Devastator... Bonecrusher's treads can't magically turn purple, Scrapper can't magically turn into a weird I-shaped block with a shovel and some scaffolding, and Mixmaster's grill can't magically vanish, after all. But improvements have definitely been made. His hands are now correctly purple, he's got the purple at the tops of his thighs and (subjectively) I think his overall proportions are better, even if he's much smaller than the Combiner Wars version. Improved, but not without flaws. Much has been made of how his lower legs don't really line up with his knees. Officially, it was a design decision so he could stand straight up without Scrapper and Mixmaster banging into each other, but would it really have killed them to just make the hips slightly wider? Or, so what if they bang a little? Modders have already started whipping up knee parts that bring the legs back in line, and the slight A-stance doesn't look bad. I think the next biggest complaint is the backpack. I'm not sure why they didn't design Long Haul's legs to sit up a little higher, maybe hide some of those transformation joints on the back of Hook. I also don't know why they didn't make the flaps on the pants part fold up a bit more. It's not the prettiest, but ultimately not the worst thing ever. It's not like Sunbow Devastator didn't have a (purple) backpack. Of more minor complaints, there's a visible hole just above the shield where Hook's head is hiding. Hook's head doesn't line up perfectly with the shoulder flaps, hence the gap. I really don't know why a flap couldn't have been built into the shield, or onto Hook's shoulder flaps, to cover it. I'm also not a fan of the way Mixmaster's forearms just kinda dangle off the back of Devastator's leg. Unlike Menasor, who had a chunk of leftover trailer and Stunticon pistols, weapon storage was designed for Devastator. Bonecrusher and Scavenger officially use their own alt mode storage for their own rifles, while Mixmaster and Scrapper's plug into the top of the backpack (just ignore that I mixed up Scavenger and Scrapper's rifles). Hook's can plug into the side of his boom. As for Long Haul, the reason part of his gun is green is because you're meant to plug it into Mixmaster's bumper, and you're supposed to the think it's the green toe seen in Sunbow art. The problem I have doing thigs this way is that the toe is off-center, and Bonecrusher and Hook's guns are going to visible from the front (Scavenger's shovel kinda hides his). Fortunately, there are more peg holes on the sides of Long Haul's legs, on Scrapper's feet, and on Hook's left arm. It's possible to plug all of the Construticon's guns on the back of Devastator and out of sight. Devastator's head swivels, no tilt. His shoulders can swivel, and his right arm can move 90 degrees laterally (his left is just a little short). His biceps swivel. Both elbows can only bend about 45 degrees. His wrists swivel, and his fingers (which are molded as a single, permanently curled part) can open. His waist swivels, but only about 45 degrees in either direction before his back kibble hits his waist. His hips ratchet forward 90 degrees, backward about 45 degrees before his butt flap gets in the way, and laterally (on a friction joint) just under 90 degrees. His thighs swivel, and his knees ratchet 90 degrees. Ratchets in Mixmaster and Scrapper's waists give him about 45 degrees of ankle pivot. All-in-all, I don't think his articulation is that much different than the Combiner Wars toy, but because he's smaller and so much more solidly built I find that he's much easier to get into dynamic poses. That being said, I think Scavenger and Bonecrusher also really needed ratchets in the shoulder swivels. Devastator can hold his own gun by plugging the 5mm handle into ports built into his hands, though on my copy (and others, I'm hearing) the connection is pretty loose. One last thing to discuss is scale. I hate to open that can of worms, but I know a lot of people who are happy that Devastator is now closer in size to Legacy Menasor and the old four-Deluxes-and-a-Voyager combiners from Combiner Wars and Power of the Primes, but I know just as many people who think that the Combiner Wars toy scaled better with individual characters. So, here's Devastator with a few Optimus Primes (SS86, Devastation, Dr. Wu, NewAge, and Hasbro's Core-class). Now, here's the official scale chart copied right out of The Ark (so, not any of the various fan-made charts out there). On the very bottom line we have Prime roughly crotch-height to Devastator, and wouldn't you know it SS86 Prime is roughly crotch height to Devastator. But, on the first line, Megatron is only about knee-high to Devastator. Assuming Prime is the same size as Megatron (though, if you compare Megatron to Shockwave on that same line then Prime to Shockwave on the third line you might expect that Prime is half a head taller than Megatron), then Devastation Optimus or a 3P Legends-scale figure might scale better. When you actually played the Devastation game, though, Devastator seemed even bigger still. Which makes me think of the episode "City of Steel," when Devastator was climbing the Empire State Building while clutching Prime in one hand. I think you could make a case for the Core-class toy being the right size for that. All of which leads me to a somewhat unorthodox conclusion... scale is whatever you want it to be. Personally, I never liked Devastator being so much bigger than the other combiners, so much so that I actually bought a downsized KO of CW Devastator. SS86 works better for me. And if I want Devastator to loom larger over Prime than SS86 Devastator does over SS86 Optimus, then I have other options for Optimus. So, yeah. Ultimately the gestalt follows the same pattern as his constituent parts. SS86 Devastator still has plenty of flaws, but enough improvements were made in aesthetics, scale, and especially stability that I think it's well worth replacing the older Combiner Wars version. Just remember that it's ultimately still a mainline toy, not a mini-Masterpiece.

I used Evergreen styrene. It can be found easily in model shops. The tube’s outer diameter didn’t match the size I needed, so I wrapped and glued a 0.4 mm thick styrene strip around it in a spiral to build up the diameter, using thick Tamiya Cement.

A TV Kakizaki would be my #1 to round out the vermilion squadron. It seems unlikely but I'm holding out hope! An M&M release seems like a no-brainer and I'm confident we'll see these eventually. It might be a few years though!

Thanks! I’m loving the print and it’s a very relaxing project to experiment with transparent layers, pushing and pulling shadows etc… Yeah I’m stuck in vintage model land. I might have a problem. Thanks for sharing the journey you have been on. The end results so far are great! Any updates to share on the USS Cygnus?

Resin powder, to be exact. Actual sand looks more like gravel at this scale. 😉

Gonna wait and see what DNA might cook up.

All I want is a TV Kakizaki (or canon fodder since they are close enough for my needs) and Max and Miria VF-1J with matching supers.

One last one before I disappear for a few weeks (traveling for work and access --and time-- will be limited for a bit). This is just a very fast repaint using current US navy aircraft colors to try to come up with something "real". Took away all the highlights and flash, with the exception of the two dark stripes on the back to break up all that plain grey. I need to make new decals in the proper dark grey (the white numbers look wrong on this scheme). I would like to do a very light camo pattern on it (the large grey-on-grey blotches the navy uses on some planes) to give it some character and differentiation. This has a nice clean, realistic look, but it's a bit drab at the moment (kind of the point, but still...) It's really just bringing it around to the 31A colors, but with a bit less flair to it, so not sure I've added anything so far. Any thoughts?

That doesn't tally with the facts at all, though. The "tuning out the core audience" nonsense is pure BS from a handful of loudmouth incel culture warriors on Twitter. 😆 Cracker Barrel tried to rebrand and modernize its trade dress to appeal to a younger and wider consumer demographic because revenues were in freefall. Why? Because their #1 repeat customer demographic is people over 65 and nearly half of all customers are over 55. Folks on fixed incomes are feeling the economic downturn most strongly of all, and having large parts of your primary customer base checking out to join the choir invisible is bad for business long-term. They underestimated how much of their brand identity is tied up in that kitschy trade dress rather than their admittedly pretty mediocre menu. 😆 It's quite a bit different. This wasn't driven by slipping sales or the target demographic literally f***ing dying off, for example. 😆 Stellantis is a multinational, not a European company. The development flagship is still in Michigan, as it has been since before Fiat got involved. As Fiat-Chrysler, some European development activities were actually moved to the US because the engineering expertise was concentrated there. (That's why the museum on the HQ grounds closed, it ended up converted into office space for the newly US-based Alfa Romeo and Maserati staff.) Pushing a performance EV to the muscle car crowd was risky, they knew that going in. That's why we had things like that "Fratzonic sound" system added. I've explained the other reasons behind it in previous posts. Ultimately, yeah... kind of a forlorn hope. Like I said, we were peddling new technology to a pack of borderline Luddites. That was never going to end well. 😆 That's not at all correct I'm afraid. A technical standard is nothing more or less than a rather wordy document that tells you in precise and exacting detail how to do the thing. The goal is to ensure that everyone who is working on a specific technology has a shared understanding of how it's supposed to work so that it will function with things built by other people. In theory, a standard ought to drive prices down by making development easier (since you're not reinventing the wheel) but in practice not s'much because a huge amount of effort goes into staying on top of all those applicable government, industry, and internal standards. (And I say this as someone who sits on four SAE J-standard committees currently.) Your belief that that '69 Caprice and '69 Charger share no standard beyond "runs on gas" is entertainingly wrong. Practically every aspect of those cars construction is governed by manufacturer-specific corporate standards, industry standards, and/or government standards. Those cars were built after FMVSS was put into place, so they absolutely comply with the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards of the era they were built in. Everything from the pitch of the screw threads to the thickness of the sheet metal to voltage tolerances of the spark plugs and battery to the thickness and material of brake hoses to the presence of seat belts is dictated by multiple standards documents at multiple levels. There are whole layers of corporate bureaucracy at the OEMs devoted to developing, maintaining, updating, and ensuring compliance with all these standards in every aspect of development and manufacturing. The stories I could tell you... and probably put you to sleep with because they're boring AF...😆 I don't disagree that these early generations of EVs will not have a century-long lifespan in the hands of collectors. That's because the technology behind these early generations of EVs is evolving so fast and everyone is pivoting as fast as they can to new features, use-cases, and standards that a part may only be in production for a few years before it ends up being redesigned, upgraded, and repackaged for a new generation of vehicles with more powerful motors, new transmission concepts, and new energy storage tech. Once EV tech matures and the pace of development is less frantic, we'll see machines with substantially longer lifespans.

Poor Vader’s true and oldest enemy: SAND!!!!!1!!1!1!1!!!

Metroid and Hyrule Warriors are pretty much it for me and the Switch 2 this year. And maybe next year... Also, $40 each for Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario Galaxy 2 (or $70 for both)?! Is there a developer that thinks less of their fans than Nintendo?

Geez, you guys seem to have more free time than I do! Remarkable progress, especially from @Papa Rat. I'm glad to see the Alien "Space Jockey" got some well-deserved attention in between all your vintage Valkyrie kits. Oh man, Mos Eisley is kicking my ass, guys. 🤕 I went ahead and printed the rest of the Dowager Queen derelict, more-or-less as it appeared in 1977: It's almost as big as the whole cantina! 😲 As you can see, it still needs a ton of work before it's ready for paint, weathering... and a whole lot of sand, of course. 😅 I also need several of those iconic moisture vaporators... ...and even though Hasbro gave us one back in 2007, it was typically inaccurate (and pathetically small). 🙄 No matter. I can just print my own to scale, using this free online model I found. 😋 Looks perfect, right? Well, you get what you pay for. 😣 Seriously, in my 16 months of 3D-printing, I've never encountered such a poorly-designed model. The damn thing's got no substance whatsoever. Some parts aren't even attached, just floating in virtual space... and to make matters worse, the rash of heavy rains this week have caused me additional problems. Let's zoom in and do a forensic examination of this disaster: At the top, you can see where supports should have printed, had there been less humidity and more consistent temperatures. That's materials failure. I had to substantially increase the exposure time for each layer. Here, you can see a bizarre gap in the support structure, caused by a persistent glitch in the proprietary slicing program. That's software failure. I had to switch to a less-efficient file format to avoid further issues like this. Finally, this section is where supports collapsed, lacking a surface to adhere to. That's a structural failure in the model itself. I had to spend hours reinforcing the interior structure, and many more hours placing hundreds and hundreds of supports manually to ensure a successful print. 😒 Well, after days of manual restructuring, technical adjustments, and a heavy dose of trial-and-error, I finally got one assembled. I went pretty heavy on the weathering, as the Mos Eisley vaporators look poorly-maintained. I might've gone too far. 🤨

Beautiful work!

That's extremely helpful. Thank you!