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Started watching GQuuuuuux, a rather nonsensical appellation (yeah, I realize it's a placeholder, but certainly they could've come up with something better) and after four episodes I find it a bit lackluster thus far relative to other Gundam entries. While many entries in the franchise are a bit contrived to ensure the featured pilot finds their way into the cockpit of a Gundam, this one stands out as particularly ham-handed as well as her ability to unlock its other abilities where the intended pilot, a Newtype no less, failed. Thus far, and it's still very early into the series, there hasn't been much character development with more time allotted to setting up the alternate UC timeline and the clan-fighting subplot.

Just watched it. Solid flick. Thank goodness they didn’t go with the standard MCU trope of villain with similar super power as the hero. Nice message about And

Someone else on another forum also just mentioned their YF-21 having a stubbed left foot. I can safely conclude that this is indeed probably another widespread defect. As if this figure didn't already have enough. 🤦‍♂️

Caught the latest episodes of The Gorilla God's Go-To Girl, Witch Watch, I've Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years, Can a Boy-Girl Friendship Survive, The Brilliant Healer's New Life, and The Too Perfect Saint. This season is painfully light on talent. No real standouts so far, just a lot of serviceable but unremarkable middle-of-the-road formula shows. The only series I'm really waiting for every week is The Apothecary Diaries. There are a few real stinkers, though. Classic Stars is so incoherent I still don't know what it's even about five episodes on. Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX is exactly as poorly thought out as its literal placeholder title implies. Yandere Dark Elf marketed itself like a romcom but it's basically softcore porn. Kinda disappointed... but my watch group is getting a lot of mileage out of The Apothecary Diaries and our rewatch of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure in celebration of the announcement of Steel Ball Run. I might try to pick up one or two more simulcast titles to see if I'm missing anything good. Maybe The Beginning After The End, Kowloon Generic Romance, or Shoshimin.

Finished Apothecary Diaries on Netflix. Fun show. My wife and I enjoyed Maomao's detective work. While the show benefits from modern knowledge of science and medicine as seen and understood through Maomao's character, not to mention allowances for the amount of freedom she's given to express her thoughts given the time period, we found it an enjoyable show for the main character's stoicism and intellect paired with Jinshi's charm and cunning. Too, the various mysterious elements, both regarding the main characters and their backgrounds as well as those presented in the story essentially for Maomao to solve (since, other than her adopted father as well as her biological one, she appears to be the smartest person in the room) offer plenty of opportunities for couch conjecture, in which we enjoy indulging as the story unfolds. Anyway, while the first season had a pretty satisfying conclusion, not all questions were answered, and we look forward to the second season.

I think the only thing that would stop them from doing just that is purely Bandai's unquenchable fetish for doing things that don't make any sense. I'm not sure which I prefer at this point though, since neither release type seems to be really harder or easier to acquire than the other.

I'll bet any of these not Basara are going to be TWE only.

Watched it. Loved it. First real Marvel movie since Endgame.

I appreciate the sentiment, truly, but rest assured, I'm fine for now. I can only hope it remains so for foreseeable future or there are going to be a lot of veterans in dire straits. Regarding the Train Station, most City buildings are essentially thin with nice facades. It's been that way since the beginning of Town back in the late 70s and the trend continues. I think that's one of the major characteristics that really made the Modular Building Series stand out, as it marked a radical change in design architecture giving us full buildings with generally larger interiors instead of thin ones with open backs. But, LEGO being LEGO, it offers the possibility of modification in addition to 'beefing up' the simpler designs if one desires to do so. It's why LEGO is such an excellent and persistently popular creative medium. Few other products offer what it does. Gotfred Kristiansen made one of the most poignant decisions in the company's nigh century-old history when he decided to make LEGO a system of play where everything works with everything else continually which will guarantee its success well into the future when other toys lose their appeal or relevance. The Arctic sets do indeed look great, but why need be a child to enjoy them? I find, if anything, my appreciation for LEGO has only grown with the advancement of years. I'm 53, 54 in a couple months, and I'm more invested in LEGO now than I ever was as a kid. It's a major part of my life, a defining element, and without it a large part of my character and identity would be lost. I, too, hope they get around to revisiting Ice Planet at some point, along with Futuron and other Space themes of yore. Give it time; many of the designers are AFOLs who grew up with these themes or are younger fans who discovered them and wish in some way to resurrect them in modern sets. Patience.

Nice. Can’t wait to see this finished.

So I my employer decided to recognize me for 20 years of service, which they valued at $10 a year. I took it as an Amazon gift card and decided to be irresponsible and buy a VF-171EX Armored Nightmare Plus. First impressions is it’s a damn solid Valkyrie, little smaller than I expected. Easier transformation than some others. Kinda wish the missile launchers opened, but over all I’m quite happy with it.

Sub-assemblies built. Just gotta get some primer on to see what needs smoothing out.

Aww damn... I'm sorry to hear. Yea on one of the copies that I've checked (thoroughly) had a dented/bent foot tip. I'm sure it was rushed/jammed in the calf compartment by the assembly workers. I ended up using hot water to kind of sculpt it back into place with one of my metal CSI Creos 'T' rulers. I had the same thought process that if in the future if one of the other copies I has the same issue I could attempt a swap, but I have not checked as to disassembling it in depth yet.

Yes, the left toes are stubbed on both of my copies. Trying to frankenstein a "good" one together and replace the bad toe with the good one from the other figure. But Bandai has welded the legs and feet together in such a way that there's no method I can even discern to disassemble either the legs or feet other than the obvious delimiter mode, which won't help here. It's a lot different from the old figures which had lots of screws, even if they were behind screw covers. I think this might be another common defect that people missed, given the other more catastrophic issues with the figure.

So, DX VF19S retool as retail or P-Bandai release when?

Seems that way, yeah... they've come up with a couple good excuses for why the tech isn't used more widely, a lot of which are some flavor of acknowledging that repeated use of LEGO Genetics in the real world would be a very unhealthy thing to do even if they weren't for the massive changes in biochemistry necessary to work around the square cube law. Admittedly, investigating this question led me to that very uncomfortable detail I hadn't been aware of before about Ernest Johnson's unusual proportions being a miclone system-induced deformity. If a few too many trips through the miclone system without perfectly system-compatible genes can leave you with permanent physical and genetic alterations, that's a good reason to only use it sparingly.

Mine has been holding up for the most part, being the two modes I've been utilizing are gerwalk and battroid mode. In the past two months maybe changing it b/w the two modes 1-3x a week. Sorry I do not. Are you attempting a repair?

I guess micronization is the Macross version of the Star Trek transporter problem. It was dreamed up to solve a plot/setting problem, but the implications of the technology start to break the setting (somewhat) if you think about them too much. And I'm of the breed that does nothing but think about things too much. 😁 Thanks for the confirmations, as extensive as the expanded universe materials are for Macross, it wouldn't have surprised me if there were explanations, but I guess I'm getting into "just go with it" territory. Or, at least, "Schroedingers Setting" territory, where it will only be defined when it becomes plot relevant.

Anyone know how to disassemble the foot? Specifically, removing the lower front feet that's pointed? Does it just pop off with a bit of force? These Bandai figures with their lack of screws are so annoying to fix.

TLDR: Just an update. I've been working on dialing the blue some more and started with the light blue-gray parts. I have to make some more adjustments due to the exposure settings because of the different mixtures of resin and colors. Sorry just took some quick shots with my phone's crappy camera. I didn't want to pull out the DSLR for pics just yet. Quick note: everything is held together with blu-tak. Yes parts are slotted and keyed and yes there are clear parts for the forehead sensor. I didn't add them in because they are small (they do fit no issue at all). The left is the first blue part (from last week), the right was printed up this past Friday. I know it looks a bit washed out and lighter (I had the overhead LED desk light set on high). On the light's first setting it looked more correct, the 2nd blue printout is still connected to the supports, the first blue color is the top of the VF1R head (and the spare/scrap support/raft next to the YF-21DX head): Yea the desk LED light's high setting really washes out the colors. I'll try to add a bit more blue/black to the light blue-grey for the second test/set: Spoiler for a little write-up and some earlier WIP pics: Canopies, check the following spoiler: And modeling up more parts... Spoiler for more pics:

That is an excellent question we do not currently have an answer for. We know there are some health conditions, principally genetic ones, which prevent a person from safely using a micloning system and we know that the miclone system can both remove and install biotechnological components of the body like the Meltran bio-fiber optic nervous system or a records officer's expanded memory. There's no word on whether micloning can work with cybernetics or even more minimal body mods like tattoos and piercings. Since giant Zentradi are prohibited on Earth and aren't present in most emigrant fleets or planets for resource reasons, this may be something of an academic question even in-universe. Supplemental material for Macross 7 indicates that Exsedol did spend time among Humans as a miclone toward the end of the First Space War as we saw in the Super Dimension Fortress Macross TV series. It's noted that, by the time of the Macross 7 fleet's departure, he had returned to his giant size and original body plan because he was concerned that his miclone form's smaller size might mean reduced memory and information analysis capability compared to his specialized giant form. Ernest Johnson is a half-Zentradi "peace child". Exactly what's going on with that metal on the back of his head is unclear, but it may be related to his unusual body proportions. Macross Delta Character Design Works has some notes that suggest Ernest's height and unusual proportions are not natural, but are instead the result of some quirk of his half-Zentradi genetics not playing nice with repeated use of micloning systems and leaving him slightly deformed with a Hellboy-like physique. It's possible that metal bit is reinforcing his skull due to those micloning-related health issues, or perhaps it's simply an affectation because he's bald? (For instance, TV Vrlitwhai's "eyepatch" wasn't an implant... it was basically just an outlandish eyepatch bolted directly to his skull to cover up an injury.) That's a good question, which we don't have an answer for. Perhaps it's too great of a strain on the body and mind for a severely injured person. Maybe the system really is THAT doggedly precise that it'll recreate injuries and scar tissue not just run off a copy of the body based on its DNA. Or maybe it's something to do with the genetic issues that prevent some people from using micloning systems safely that have been mentioned several times since Macross Frontier. Klan Klan, Michael Blanc, and Ernest Johnson are all mentioned to have (or be at risk for) issues caused by miclone systems.

Thanks for the compliment! It’s supposed to be the VF-1D but lacks any details for the most part. Have a look.

Absolutely stunning! Is the head the standard VF-1D type or is it the VF-1C? It’s hard to tell. Can’t wait to see your next projects. 😍