All Activity

The red gives a more painting looking highlight. Reminds me more of some of the box art kinda look

I want a weathering special I want also a Zentran suit for tv Max

Can you form Voyager class Devastator, do you have all the pieces now?

Damn that looks amazing!

Going for TV VF-1S Hikaru. I laid down some more color to see the parts (and defects) better. The intakes are the original size, but painting them this way makes them look huge!

Hey thanks so much! Yeah the decals broke at the recessed area so I went in with paint to touch it up after. I did however do what you are planning on a similar kit and it worked out way better. I just used the decal as a guide and cut out a couple thin circles of .3mm and glued them down before priming etc… decal went down without disaster 👍 Not sure why I didn’t do it this time. Amnesia I guess. Lol

@Papa Rat Very nice work! That reminds me of one of the flaws on the ARII Valks. The UN Spacy insignia on the fastpaks needs to have a support put in. There shouldn't be that bad gap. When the time comes when I build my ARII S-Valk, I'll want to putty that detail in so that the decal can sit flush. I can imagine it was a nightmare getting the decal to conform to those deep contours.

@F18LEGIOSS2 That is some amazing craftmanship there, mind if I ask what band or type of styrene you used & where you can get it? I definitely have some scratch building to attempt myself. @nightmareB4macross I get more of my paint delivered tomorrow, so one step closer to being completed. Your 1/55 "Ultra custom" also looks like it's nearing completion. Will you be going with a Roy or Hikaru color scheme?

Just to add onto the list @Graham, there’s others that want a DX 1s DYRL Max (that was short lived) as well. Like I mentioned as always, Bandai always half a** completes a lineup for the Macross lineup, it’s a rare treat for us if a complete series of a line is fully done (like Frontier for the renewal lineup)

Finally! He's only a little over a month behind the rest of his wave, but I finally got my hands on Studio Series 86 Voyager-class Mixmaster. Mixmaster's one of the tougher Constructicons to do if you wanna go full on Sunbow. And, I think that Hasbro got closer than last time, as SS86 Mixmaster's got that all-purple torso and thighs, with just the single red rectangle and a few cartoon-accurate dark gray spots breaking it up. There's molded details suggestive of the little nozzles on his hood, and it really looks like Hasbro did their best to give his shins the flat, feet-free look. That said, his shins don't quite have that shape that looks like he's wearing booties, and he doesn't have the protrusions from his hips. Of course, all the wheels are showing... they don't magically turn into green lumps. I'll note that his shoulders kind sit higher than his torso; I wonder if they could have got them to sit lower, if they could have put the elbow between the wheels instead of below them to be more like the cartoon. Big props for having the mixing drum on his back, though, instead of hanging off his butt like an insect abdomen the way the Combiner Wars version does. One area where he differs from the G1 toy, but not necessarily with the Sunbow model (since it was so oversimplified), the roof the cab isn't his shins, and the front of the cab isn't in his knees. Instead, the cab is on the back of his feet. This will simplify things later when it comes to transformation. Mixmaster's sole accessory is this pistol. There's a definite sense that the team needed the budget of two Voyagers, two Deluxes, and a Commander to realize their vision for Devastator, so that's how they packaged them, but there isn't a lot here that makes Mixmaster specifically more Voyager than Scavenger or Bonecrusher. Mixmaster's head is a little hard to get at, but it is on a ball joint with limited up/down/sideways tilt in addition to swiveling. His shoulders swivel, but lateral movement is a bit limited by the bit that sticks above his torso. Straight from his side it's just a bit under 90 degrees, but if you rotate the shoulder at all it's realistically more like 45 degrees. He has bicep swivels, which is an improvement over the CW version, and elbows that bend 90 degrees. No wrist or waist swivel. His hips can move forward, backward, and laterally 90 degrees, and he's got thigh swivels. His knees bend about 90 degrees. His "foot-less" design means no real up/down tilt, but he does have 90 degrees of ankle pivot. Mixmaster can hold his pistol in either hand, or plug it into the 5mm ports on his forearms. There's no other robot-mode weapon storage. Mixmaster's transformation is very simple, and mostly in the legs. Fold flaps out from under his feet, then tuck his heels in and open his shins. Tab his legs and feet together, then bend first the wrong way at the knees. Swing his hips backward, then use the transformation joint under his knees to fold the cab down into place. Grab the bottom of his chest, lift up halfway up, then straighten his arms and lift his shoulders up. Slots near under his hands should grab onto the sides of the cab, then fold the chest the rest of the way up to cover his face and tab into his shoulders. Lastly, pull open the mixing drum where it tabs into the back of his hood, fold out the spout, then close it back up. This time around, Mixmaster's a much more cartoon-accurate cement mixer than whatever they were thinking when they did Combiner Wars Mixmaster. I think by having the correct alt mode Mixmaster's competing with Long Haul for the "most improved" award in the set. I don't have any major gripes with his alt mode... I do have a few minor ones, though. Both the G1 toy and the animation model left a gap between the cab and the rear, here though the forearm and fist bridge that gap. The G1 toy and animation also had some rectangular panels on the roof of the cab that this toy doesn't. Like I said, though, minor gripes. I'll take this truck all day every day over the Combiner Wars one. He doesn't do much in truck mode. He rolls. There's a 5mm port on the roof for storing his gun. That's about it. Kind of shame; I feel like they could have engineered the mixing drum to spin if they really wanted to, but it 100% doesn't. Mixmaster continues the trend established by the other figures in this set... it's definitely an improvement over the Combiner Wars toy, but the not-quite-Sunbow design, limited articulation in spots, and overly-simplistic engineering makes you think that they probably could have done better. The fact that they got his alt mode right this time is a big win in my book, though, so I'd recommend him.

My DX 1/48 VF-1 Wishlist. DYRL VF-1A Hikaru Super. DYRL VF-1A Max Super. DYRL VE-1. TV VF-1A Cannon Fodder.

Nice try @Morgen Black. Bandai doesn’t care if nothing else done to the Macross lineup as they half a** leave everything else up in the air with long teasers and nothing else. Us collectors that have been here for a very long time knows this well: “Any hope for a certain complete Macross lineup ain’t going to happen”

So international customers that purchased from a Japanese based store are screwed then?

Almost finished with this little bugger. Besides the absolutely awful disintegrating old decals this Arii 1/100 scale VF-1S looks alright. I think that added parts like the simple sprue scraps drilled out for verniers and that reddish purple undertone came through in an interesting way. I still need to do some tiny paint details but I am ready to move along.

As mentioned above, If Bandai wanted to grab attention of fans and collectors it would release a 1/48 TV version of Kakizaki's VF-1A or 1/48 cannon fodder VF-1A. One can only hope. MB

I have bought a few items from Luna Park over the years. They are legit, you will get what you ordered. They are an expensive option compared to many alternatives. Some of my items came unprotected in soft shipping bags (damaged box, contents were fine), other items were bubble wrapped and in multiple cardboard boxes (great packaging). The one thing that I have found is that shipping takes a while. If you have patience and you make sure to email their Customer Service with expectations, then it works out. It is not the best option, but if you want something that is hard to find then Luna Park may be your only option. Good luck. MB

It’s definitely a tough time to try and acquire Japanese kits, especially for those of us in the U.S., but if you’re not here, then it will be significantly easier to find them. I would check the toy section, I think I’ve seen Luna park come up over there in discussions about Bandai’s dx line

Not silent, but quieter... mainly as a product of more efficient engine designs driven by tighter regulations on tailpipe emissions and fuel economy. That's a pure vanity feature introduced in the early 2010s intended to replicate the driving experience of older cars with worse sound insulation. Those systems either amplify the existing engine noise or generate fake engine noise and mainly pipe it into the cabin. The fake engine noise isn't... but I can understand how people might make that connection. EVs are required to have an Acoustic Vehicle Alert System that plays an audible tone at around ~70dBA in low speed operation so that pedestrians can hear the otherwise actually silent EV coming. Similar versions of the same requirement all came into effect in the 2010s around the same time that the purely-for-vanity's-sake fake engine notes were being added to cars with combustion engines. It's not the companies... or perhaps it might be more accurate to say that it's not just the companies. The issue is that there are many different governmental and non-governmental bodies developing, publishing, and enforcing/certifying standards. Those organizations which are developing those standards are often (but not always) independent of the corporations that are using those standards in their products. Those standards are usually developed by committee, and the committee can be made up of representatives from multiple rival OEMs, suppliers, research institutions, government regulators, etc. These organizations that develop the standards are often localized to one country or region and don't necessarily come to the same conclusion as another standards body in another country or region. To give an example, there are nominally five different major electric vehicle charging standards in play, maintained by four different organizations: SAE J1772, the main/oldest US-based charging standard developed by the Society of Automotive Engineers SAE J3400, the newest US-based charging standard developed by Tesla and formalized by the Society of Automotive Engineers because nobody trusts or likes Tesla IEC 62196, the European Union's charging standard developed by the International Electrotechnical Commission GB/T 20234, the People's Republic of China's charging standard developed by the Standardization Administration of China CHAdeMO, Japan's domestic charging standard developed by the CHAdeMO Association None of them are compatible with each other at the hardware level, and there is at least some degree of incompatibility at the software/protocol level too. As the comic suggests, any attempt to create one standard that covers everyone's use cases just means you have another competing standard in the wild with all the others you were trying to get rid of. Most of the manufacturers would love to converge on a single standard so we can stop pissing about with having to develop half a dozen variants of a single function or have half a dozen different port hardware variants. It's just that nobody can agree what standard to converge on.

It's getting strange how much momentum the line has lost... Renewal Frontier toys bumped this line.

Posting this here, cus it is in regard to a Playmax kit I've had trouble acquiring. Anyone have experience ordering from Lunapark? I've never heard of them before, so want to find out 1. Are the legit? And 2. What kind of cust. Service they have. ( shipping times, packaging etc.).

I haven’t come across an official Macross-to-Battletech conversion either. Every now and then you’ll see some fan-made versions, but nothing consistent or broadly available. If you want something accurate to the series, you’d likely need to create the stats on your own.

That’s oddly been common even before the ev stuff started becoming common. A lot of the Gas engines have been silent for over a decade, even rather quiet in the muscle cars. I remember a long time ago when the Mustang’s were getting 💩as soon as people realized that the noise was a speaker thing rather than an engine thing. Some people even argue that the fake noise is a safety feature to warn pedestrians and cyclists. As far as Cracker Barrel, that’s a whole different issue. The company was desperate because they started losing money and decided to try a logo change up. Most people didn’t even know it was an iconic logo til the few diehard customers that like the place started crying over it. Honestly I didn’t even know there was one thirty minutes away til my lady informed me about its existence after the controversy was in the news. She hasn’t ever been there either. That’s one of the stupid issues I have with this changeover. The companies aren’t on the same page with the standardization and it’s stalling the industry. If they’d standardize things, it would make the vehicles much less expensive and easier to maintain over time. Most of the charging stations seem to be Tesla and if someone has a different type of car, then they have to hope for an adapter to work. And that issue sometimes goes the other way as well. We might get an ev one day, but they’ll have to sort these issues out and make them more affordable overall and I’m not sure if that will be in my lifetime

It’s actually @tekering’s diorama. 😬 It wasn’t posted in this thread, but I’m the idiot that decided to repaint, panel-line, and sticker up the new Sentinel Tread:

Like I said, those on the dev team absolutely were torn between "Is this crazy enough to work?" and "Is this just plain crazy?". On paper, it sort of made sense. A properly calibrated emotor can deliver as much or more power than a combustion engine and has no RPM restrictions on when it can deliver its maximum rated torque. All other things being equal, an EV could handily blow a regular muscle car into the weeds. Most EVs have to have their motors derated to avoid burnouts and tire damage from anyone who puts their foot down too hard. The intended market, however... eech. Muscle car aficionados are infamously puritanical and winning them over was always going to be a massive uphill battle if not a full-on Sisyphean task. The BGE is a beautiful engine family, but she's not the most efficient thing on the planet, and CAFE and emissions targets were a priority for all of the Big 3. 😵‍💫 Almost nobody in America is buying A-segment or B-segment small cars. Even D-segment and E-segment mid-size and full-size cars have been in sharp decline for years. To the point that a bunch of product lines in those segments from the Big 3 have been axed over the last ten years. Those car lines were key to meeting emissions targets, since the big trucks and SUVs that Americans love are nowhere near as efficient. Something had to give somewhere, which is why all of the Big 3 made a push toward electrification of trucks and SUVs and scaled back production of less efficient engine designs. I wasn't a fly on that particular wall, but it's a sucker bet that the decision to discontinue the HEMI was an attempt to drag corporate average emissions back into line with the low sales of the Fiat 500, 500e, and 500x, and the discontinuation of the 200 and 300. Esp. with all of the Big 3 overdependent on purchased carbon credits. From my own personal experience... sort of? Not really? It's not that the understanding wasn't there. It's more like that the people with that understanding were marginalized by incoming leadership who assumed the market can't be that different and then end up backpedaling. It's actually kind of funny how predictable it is the second time around. Cracker Barrel's situation is a different kind of corporate idiocy, trying to water down a brand with a modern-minimalist aesthetic to make it more appealing to venture capital. And the main reason for that is this: I'm not joking even a little. One of the biggest stumbling blocks for EVs of all types is standards. Every OEM has their own proprietary network architectures, connector pinouts, etc. and in some cases there are multiple national-level competing standards for things like charging interfaces and regulation of energy storage devices. They try to harmonize, but intercompatibility is such a nightmare that Argonne National Laboratory has a facility and annual industry events devoted to trying to get everyone on the same page just with vehicle charging and smart grid integration. It's 100% possible right now to hot-swap EV battery packs in minutes as long as the pack's set up for it. The problem is there's no standardization of pack form factors, mounting points, etc. even within a single OEM, never mind across OEMs. If we could sort out the standards problem, you could keep an EV in service forever with much cheaper generic replacement packs even if battery chemistry changed.

Color choice may have something to do with it, the orange and blue are kind of sports like. I probably expended them too far across the chest as well, so they end up more like stripes. It might not look like a shark, but I still kind of like the effect. I'll play with it some more when I get some time. I have a few other ideas to try as well.