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I used to own two VF-31A's but sold one when I was tight on toy funds. This is a great opportunity for me to fix that mistake! I LOVE the low-viz schemes. I just wish they'd release the kairos armor and super parts, in which case I'd pick up even more!

Yeah, these look really good. This is why I picked up spare sets of super packs when they went on discount from.. I think Luna Park? It was back when I tested whether they could actually deliver, and ordered a couple of other items they had.

Got my Lego haul, Goonies set looks awesome but I got Soundwave too, might save Goonies for Christmas.

My go-to has been AE lately, but if this one goes international, it might not be worth scrambling.

The best thing about Lego getting the right to Star Trek is you know we are 100% getting a lego videogame for it.

So far, 2 sites has listings. Am sure others will soon follow suit. 1) Ami-ami https://www.amiami.com/eng/detail?gcode=FIGURE-193946 2) Nin-Nin Games https://www.nin-nin-game.com/en/dx-chogokin/206211-dx-chogokin-macross-delta-vf-31a-kairos-delta-10-ver-bandai-spirits-.html

Under other circumstances, this would look like a lazy repaint. But Bandai must have recognized the 31A has quite some pent-up demand. Wait, previous release was a TWE and TWE rule of thumb means no reissues? No problem, just add in a small Walkure emblem, change the modex & call it a 10th Anniversary and call it day. But it's the right move this time lol. Bandai didn't even go with Arad's version. Also, if it's a proper anniversary celebration it would be some gaudy paint scheme.

It's been a while since I ordered from HLJ, but did they always charge a handling fee on top of their shipping? I don't recall that being the case before.

I just saw the movie and thought it was good. It kind of reminded me of the 80s fantasy adventure films like the Conan films, Krull, and Red Sonja.

I'm not sure where to try to pick this up. HLJ are no longer honest brokers, in my opinion.

I still prefer the greater detail on the Netflix figure. I dislike the leftover arm kibble from his Siege 'spaceship' mode, and I wish they'd retooled his arms for the Netflix release, but otherwise, I still think it's a decent take. I do wish however that the legs bent forward at the knees like the G1 toy to fill in his cassette player mode. Oddly enough, they followed suit with the SS86 mold, which makes no sense when the knee bumps are there precisely for that reason. It would have made more sense to follow the G1 toy's engineering in that regard than copy the Netflix's improper transformation and then make the knee bumps push flush into the legs on the outside edges of the cassette player mode. I think the cassettes for SS86 Soundwave leave a lot to be desired as well. I still haven't secured a PO for SS86 Soundwave, and oddly enough, despite Soundwave's being one of my favorite characters, I'm not really feeling like I'm missing out. I'm waiting patiently, hoping that perhaps they'll do a slight toyish retool with more surface details. Unfortunately, nothing's gonna fix those crappy cassettes. Hopefully, Dr Wu will give us something better.

See, this is the part that I'm not sure if we've ever gotten any truth about, and probably never will. The rumor/excuse at the time was that Bandai had production issues with the paint, and it caused them to cut production. Granted, this was also deep in the midst of the Great Nippon-Yasan Fustercluckening, so any news anyone had was probably at least partially polluted by their customer gaslighting service. What I suspected was going on was that Bandai truly didn't expect any heavy demand for a CF variant from the domestic customers, and never made that many to begin with. That smaller production run might have truthfully been reduced further due to production problems, if the stories are to be believed. What's not really clear though is where the scalping began (you know, beside NY). I actually half expect that some of it came from Japanese collectors who picked them up just to complete their own collection, only to discover they could make a tidy profit on the international market thanks to those silly international military aircraft enthusiasts. I would love nothing more than to see all of the prices of the old 31As tank after this, but I doubt they'll really drop that much. What I think is probably more likely is for this one to wind up discounted at Amazon.

What time are they supposed to go on sale?

I defintely prefer the shape of the Bandai DX. The drooping nose of the Arcadia looks pretty bad in the side by side comparison pics.

I have most of them. Just need a few more.

That one was a more artsy version and there’s another in that line coming up. The Belvine. I don’t think it’s out quite yet, but also no articulation, but damn pretty to look at The HG is closer to the OVA design, no nekid lady, can’t remember if she was in the Aura Phantasm pictures or not. It was a web exclusive that actually came out right pretty close to the same time as the max factory sirbine, maybe a couple months after, but not by much. I highly recommend both the Max Factory and new HG Dunbine stuff for different reasons. One line is super detailed statues and the other are great fun to build and mess around with that require very little effort

I think I may be in for one... assuming we can get a reasonable price out the door.

That might have something to do with their international agreement with HG, who still have the exclusive merchandising rights to the original series outside Japan. Now, I'm not a super-big collector but IIRC the VF-31A was a very hot ticket item when it came out... made quite a bit of cash for the scalper crowd. IMO, it's not a bad thing that they're revisiting in-demand items that didn't get widely distributed for the benefit of the international crowd too. Wasn't the problem that it was a web exclusive because they didn't think anyone would want the CF version compared to the character models, only for it to turn out to be a high-demand item that got scalped to hell and back?

Oh, definitely, but what I think is kind of funny/ironic about this re-release is that I don't think the Kairos had much demand in Japan to begin with, which may or may not have contributed to the low production the first time around. I would be really interested to see how sales go on the re-release. In fact, I hope we see the scalper market absolutely gobble them up, and then dump them on ebay for cheap. I think it was actually both now that I think about it. The crystal covers definitely caused issues, but the Kairos also had a bigger canard that wouldn't fit through some part of the chest armor.. although I might be thinking of the later armor pack? I think that one had a piece that clipped around the canard entirely. Either way, there are too many versions floating around, and since the original question was about the AX super packs, I thought the canards and different chest covers on that one might cause even more problems than just the regular 31 packs.

That is awesome custome work.

I'm really liking the Walkure emblem on the tail fins on this reissue.

If I remember correctly from when I tried putting on the Super parts on the Kairos, it's not the canards that cause the problem with fitting the chest armor, it's the two panels on either side of the head, the ones that have the fold crystal on a Sigfried.

In terms of the international crowd a lot of people wanted the 31A.

I did try putting a spare set of Messer Super Packs I have on my VF-31A about 6 months ago. In the end I took them off though, as I prefer the look of the bare VF-31A From what I remember everything apart from the chest armor fits. And it would be easy to modify the chest arour with a dremelto fit, if you are so inclined.

Oh, they're still trying to make money. Their financial crystal ball is just obsessed with chasing the international dollar, instead of putting out things everyone wants.