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Worldwide Macross was largely the death of the preorder madness EXCEPT for toys still restricted to Japan (DX VF-1).

The Banished Court Magician Aims to Become the Strongest Another one of those weirdly specific premises that seems to have no end of stories built around it. "The adventurer party arrogantly banishes its white mage/support from the party on the (incorrect) assumption that they're not contributing anything from the back row, so they have to go off to start a New Life that reveals how awesome and overpowered they've literally always been while their old party learns the hard way that they were being carried." There were two shows with this exact premise last season alone, and this is like the 6th or 7th one this year. This is one of the most common isekai-adjacent fantasy story premises along with "starting my new life as a pharmacist in a small town". Court Mage Alec Ygret is kicked out of his party and has his rank and title as a court mage stripped from him because the arrogant princeling leading his adventuring party thinks he's not pulling his weight because he's only ever advising caution and casting support magic from the back line. Predictably, he's a complete doormat of a person who can't even bother defending himself and is held in such poor esteem by his own colleagues that nobody else bothers to defend him either. Of course nobody's willing to hear him out when he's finally found a little bit of spine, so he's conveniently picked up by a never-before-mentioned old friend who wants him and him specifically to join her A-rank adventuring party "Lasting Period". This series is so by-the-numbers and so devoid of original thought or anything to make its protagonist interesting or relatable that I honestly caught myself tuning it out or putting it on pause and wandering off to do other things multiple times during the first episode. This series is so tediously dull, so desperately boring, and so profoundly unimaginative that I'd recommend literally anything as an alternative to watching it. Watch something else. Read a book. Play a video game. Learn a new language. Study the tax code. Pay next month's bills early. Hug a cactus. Learn things man was not meant to know and go mad from the revelation. Just don't waste your time on this sad mess of a show. My Friend's Little Sister Has It In For Me! Ordinary High School Student™️ Akiteru has a problem. He's a man determined to bring efficiency to the world of romance (AKA clueless), and his best friend Ozuma's little sister Iroha likes to hang around his place and be an annoying pest because she obviously likes him and he could not be less interested in her. His hobby, which he wants to turn into a career, is game development. His game development circle "5th Floor Alliance" has put out an indie game that got over 1 million downloads and he's looking to go pro with a job working for his uncle's entertainment company. His uncle is willing to hire 5th Floor Alliance as devs without making them sit the company exam, but there's a catch... he wants his nephew Akiteru to be his daughter's fake boyfriend until they both graduate because she's transferring to his co-ed school and he wants to keep her away from boys. So starts an obnoxious love triangle. It's... not bad? Not great. This is another one of those premises that gets overused a bunch, with the guy's future being held hostage in order to force him into a relationship that eventually ends up as a love triangle because the girl he's forced to be with starts to like him and the one who couldn't confess fast enough suddenly spills the beans. Watchable, but nothing to write home about so far.

While I agree that preorder madness is not what it was before (thank god) for DX Chogokins I feel like for a new Valkyrie they do tend to sell out faster than the VF-17S is selling at the moment. Bandai is selling the VF-17S as a companion piece to the Fire Valkyrie so I assume the production run might be as large as the VF-19 Kai and the Kai sold much better as far as I remember.

Almost certainly... they did basically the exact same thing with the Tomahawk beam cannons. What was done back in SDFMI-era publications didn't really go much beyond giving the VF-1 a Destroid's arm cannon for a gunpod or sticking the Tomahawk's gun clusters in place of the Armored Pack's chest missile launchers. Sticking whole Destroid body parts on a VF as a FAST Pack was something we didn't really see prior to Macross Ace and Macross the First when the Macross's chief engineer started to get weird about FAST packs.

He’s super ugly, but that’s why I love him. Sometimes pretty is boring and gotta get something different for a change and this is definitely different and is awesome for it

That would make for a cool display. Gotta get that 70’s disco collar tucked in for safety

The other item I got was Mattel Hot Wheels Nemesis Prime. It is similar to Binaltech Laserwave in that he is made out of a lot of metal, a wheeled vehicle and probably the last piece of my Mattel Hot Wheels collection I need (). I can’t see how they could make more characters I want. The only other Transformer I could think about would be Cliffjumper. As for Nemesis Prime, as something that was scheduled for November it arrived very early. Nemesis Prime is super tiny and as someone who never owned a G1 Optimus Prime he is kinda interesting and neat. However, with no nostalgia for either Hot Wheels nor Optimus I feel I’m missing out on the main appeal of the piece. So he feels like an expensive novelty in the same way the Missing Link Transformers feel like an expensive novelty to me. Looking at the current aftermarket prices they don’t seem too outrageous to me and I don’t see them skyrocketing like Optimus did. So if you are interested to check it out, and missed the preorder, now might be a good time to buy one from the aftermarket.

Stig: “Hey Rey, why so stiff?” Fixed Pose Rey: “Shut up, Stig!” The Holy Combo is a thing of beauty though! Welcome to the club!

Glad to help! The combined unit takes both to the next level.

I hope they adjust the proportions just a bit so the head can sit a little higher and the boosters are dimensionally correct like this. Excited for this one.

That turned out fantastic! Love it when the kiddos want to take part of the hobby. I still have a few unbuilt kits they wanted to build.

I got Binaltech Laserwave to finish my Binaltech/Alternators collection (of two items, the other is Nemesis Prime). The RX-8 is nicely painted (and super heavy due to all the die cast; almost to a detriment). I especially like how the transformation changes the seats and floor of the car to the, nicely tapered, lower torso. Of course on mine the hood pops up constantly during transformation. The fact that is made out of die-cast doesn’t help with that because it is so heavy. There are some outdated solutions on the figures like not having a thigh swivel - which I hate because you cannot achieve natural looking poses - but overall I’m quite happy. It is so nice to have something that is not G1 Shockwave. I’m super excited for the Shockwhale and the Kuro Kara Kuri SG Longarm that was revealed this week. Funny how Shockwave is a Jazz/Meister retool quite often now.

Their idea of trying to kitbash a Destroid with a VF-1 was likely ripped-off from R-Area.... However, the original attempts first appeared during SDFM-era publications....the concept was then brought back decades later in Macross The First.... It's too bad that its first attempt as an actual toy is turning out a complete eyesore....

😍 oh yes!

I'm probably on Earth with my eye set on the New Macross class colony ships set to launch in 2030.

Many thanks to @jenius and his extraordinary generosity, I have the complete set now. What a model!

I’m hoping they model the neck & ejection seat similar to the 1D, as per the episode, plus maybe a pilot figure in SDFM space kit (enclosed helmet).

I had a feeling this would be coming soon, but not this soon. I’ll definitely get this. Can’t wait for more pics

Armoured Valk next!

Outback would be rather very much on the list of want since he's had some season 3 episodes. Wheelie though, he looks different. Maybe it's the neon colors throwing me off, but he doesn't even look like the Legacy mold. But I think unless I can view him in person I'll probably pass. I'm still really happy with my Titans Return variant.

As much as I don't like Wheelie, I kinda like that Wheelie. I'm definitely in for Outback, been expecting him since they did Brawn. Still waiting on Swerve...

I think everyone is reading too much into the preorders with an old mindset. Everything from revivals like 25G, Tornado, 31J, 262Hs, 171EX, 25S armored and 27, have all been selling out very slow. Some of them are still in stock. Even the PO for the Fire Valkyrie is still in stock at a few places. PO madness is simply no longer much of a phenomenon for these toys. The only exception to this was probably the YF-19. While the 21's sales were hampered despite being new and having demand... It seems like it's just the current trend with DX Valks. It may just be the result of the overall known issues of recent bandai action figures in general, including metal builds, and the economy, and bandai overproducing as they embrace global releasing valks after the legal issues of the macross IP cleared up Even if they had perfected the sculpt for this release, my guess is that it would just sell out at a similar same pace. There's no way this thing could sell out faster than the 19Kai

Mark H. replied a comment saying the shoulder fins don't come off. And another one saying the leg missile hatch doesn't open even though it seems like it should.