Anasazi37
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Everything posted by Anasazi37
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Look no further than sneaker bots for insight into what works, and what doesn't, when it comes to building something like this for rare collectibles. Selenium and similar automation tools are mentioned in several articles as a good place to start, but successful bots tend to be a lot more complex. Sneaker collecting is big business, so folks have put a lot of work into their bots. It's quite the arms race between them and the vendors, so it's creating this weird evolutionary environment where a bot is deployed, then it's defeated, then it comes back stronger/faster/smarter, is defeated again, and so on. Pretty soon we'll have Skynet, but at least the Terminators will be wearing really nice shoes.... https://www.highsnobiety.com/p/sneaker-bots-2019/ https://www.highsnobiety.com/p/sneaker-bots-how-do-they-work/ https://medium.com/@ayinope/how-sneaker-bots-actually-work-a016fd419646
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At present, no. It seems to be a relatively rare printing issue (I think) and I was trying to keep the sheet small, both to conserve ink and to keep the price low. With the current set layout, there isn't room. I could always print some up separately for folks who are interested and include them with an order of the current set.
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Mine is printed correctly
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That picture is making me want one, too. And a TV Hayao. I see a bunch of PMs about decals. The level of interest is higher than I expected. I'm going to try to help everyone who has contacted me so far. There might be a delay in me responding to messages, though. I already know that my work day tomorrow is going to be very long, so I might not be able to get back to everyone until Saturday morning. If you're interested and haven't reached out yet, please send a PM soon.
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Speaking of decals, I just finished printing the first set, which covers all current and announced releases to date, plus Roy and Max VF-1S customs. Most of the sheet is heading to @RedCometfor his custom projects, but six sets are still up for grabs. There's interest in two of them already, so maybe it's more like four are still up for grabs. I can print more, but not a *a lot* more, so PM me and I will put you on the list, after which I'll figure out how large a run I can actually do. I usually handle these print runs on a first come, first served basis. Price will be $5 per set plus shipping. If there's a lot of interest, I'll move this conversation to the For Sale forum and post a link here.
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Alaska Base would be pretty straightforward to make decals for. The set would be larger since you're having to paint over a lot of the existing markings, but I don't think it would be that bad. Yeah, he ended up getting the Kakizaki part right, but kudos to Bandai for the epic trolling on that one
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My DX SSP Set, shipped via EMS, is *finally* in the US! Looks like it hit customs in Los Angeles yesterday afternoon. So maybe just a few more days? If so, that will put it at exactly three months since FromJapan shipped it....
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That seems high--even by current standards. @sqiddhas bought a lot of stuff from Mandarake over the past few months and I don't remember him quoting numbers that high. We've talked a lot here about how Mandarake's DHL prices seem to be much better than most other stores. Maybe that's changing. I just had Tenso ship me a Yamato 1/60 Queadluun-Rau using DHL, and that comes in a box much larger than the VF-1S, and they charged me ¥5525 for shipping plus a ¥1150 handling fee. Tenso jacks up their shipping prices because they know that they offer a unique service (other package forwarding companies do exactly the same thing), and I've grown accustomed to the handling fees because they do ensure that everything is packed nicely--even if they have to put your box in a larger box. So yeah, that seems high. Don't forget the TWE releases of the left and right GBP hands (individually), followed by a Full Set Pack general release of both hands together about five years later.
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Yeah...I regularly stare at the three 1/20 kits I have and think to myself, "when am I going to have the patience and the huevos to build these?" Probably next year.
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If he starts down the Max Factory path, he'll need the Strike Gerwalk, the Strike Fighter, and (fingers crossed Max will release it) the Strike Battroid since I know that he's fond of display all three modes. With each one clocking in around $300 plus $150-300 shipping, that's going to hurt.
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@Shawn's story of what it took to transform his Sv-262 is both funny and painful to read, because all of us who have attempted it experienced the exact same thing. Mine is staying in battroid mode for life.
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Said every vampire who happens to collect Macross toys (not that I'm saying *you're* a vampire, just that it's something a vampire would say)
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Yes, that's true. They could have resolved the inconsistency by including a Hikaru figure with a helmet rigged for space flight. You could make the case that Hikaru left Roy's name on the canopy in honor of him.
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I just noticed that in the official photos of the Tamashii Features 2020 event, where the Super Set was unveiled, Bandai conveniently left atmospheric-helmet-Roy out of the cockpit:
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My last EMS shipment (one SSP set for the 1/48 DX VF-1), posted on 18 Apr, entered a black hole on 17 Jun. According to Japan Post's site it was dispatched, but here we are a month later and...nothing. My best guess is that they packed it into a shipping container and it hasn't left the Tokyo airport because there are so few flights to the US. I'm guessing another month before it arrives, which would be consistent with the four month estimate Japan Post was communicating back in mid-April.
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Nice catch! As soon as my Max showed up, I put him in the iconic street battle pose (battroid mode), so I didn't take a close look at the pilot. He's indeed ready for space flight. It would be nice if Bandai provided two figures with each TV release (atmospheric and space versions), since they clearly have the molds and the means to do so, but that would be far too reasonable. So, recasting Max looks to be the way to go if we want a Roy or Hikaru in the TV 1S with Super Parts to be as accurate as possible.
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Much appreciated! You know, it says something about PO Madness that I didn't even bother to take a close look at the pictures posted on the Tamashii Nations site. I saw a Roy, I wanted a Roy, that was enough for me to start hitting F5 compulsively. Looks like he's geared up for atmospheric flight, not space flight. I'm still putting the Super set on it. And if someone did end up doing a recast of the pilot that I could paint as Hikaru, I'd be interested.
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Good point. For me, personally, I think it will be a "hard pass" if Bandai releases a Hikaru-specific TV VF-1S, since the only differences from the Roy would be the name on the canopy and the pilot figure. That's a $190 (best case) to $350 (worst case) purchase for two very small changes. Maybe they update the box, too. Meh. If someone wanted to do a resin recast of the Roy figure, which people could then paint so it's Hikaru, that would be a $10 solution. Come to think of it, we haven't seen the Roy figure, have we? He might be wearing an atmospheric flight suit--despite the Super set being announced at the same time. Makes my brain hurt.
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Wanted to give you all a sneak preview of the waterslide decal sheet I'm working on and ask if it's missing anything critical, based on what we know about past and upcoming DX releases. It currently contains: Pilot names for the canopy: 1st LT. Hikaru Ichijo, CPTN. Hikaru Ichijo, MAJ. Roy Focker, CPTN. Maximilian Jenius. They would be printed with and without the black background so you can either "paper over" the existing name on the canopy or apply a new one after carefully removing the existing name. Modex numbers for the vertical stabilizer: 001, 011, 012, 013. I put all four on there based on the decal sheet that is supposed to come with the Hayao 1A. Again, they would be printed with and without the black background. Skulls for the area behind the pilot Ejection seat triangles Skull for the heatshield The markings are either an exact match to what Bandai is using (skulls, modex numbers, and ejection seat triangles) or in the same style (pilot names). Some of the markings are designed to support @RedComet's custom Roy and Max 1S projects (and anyone else wanting to make those customs using the Hikaru 1S). There are duplicates of everything in case mistakes are made during application, but if you're used to working with waterslide decals, you could potentially dress up 2-4 valks with one set.
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@RedCometand I are working on a decal sheet for folks who want to fix reversed vertical stabilizer markings, add missing markings like the ejection seat triangles and the skulls behind the canopy, and enable Roy 1S and Max 1S conversions from the Hikaru 1S. We're even throwing in a Hikaru name for the canopy of the official Roy 1S.
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When you're dealing with third party sellers, items can be used. At that price, it's *probably* new. Others have noticed a downward trend in price of the Hikaru 1S on AJ since Roy's PO. I just checked the Amazon listing and it says "43 new" and "2 used" at different prices. When you click on the listings, you can filter by new or used under "Condition" on the left side of the screen. You can also quickly see which ones are fulfilled by Amazon.
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Yeah, it's unusually big. One MW member called the Max 1A a "narwhal valk" and ended up shortening the head laser. Carefully.
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Did Bandai ever reissue IMAI's 1/72 variable Hikaru 1J kit?
Anasazi37 replied to Anasazi37's topic in Model kits
The Revell kit was my first one, too! -
Did Bandai ever reissue IMAI's 1/72 variable Hikaru 1J kit?
Anasazi37 replied to Anasazi37's topic in Model kits
Thanks for the heads up! -
I've been a customer for almost twenty years and built out a big chunk of my Macross toy and model collection through them. Excellent customer service and their Private Warehouse sets the standard for everyone else. Their website has gone through some big changes over the past year, and I don't think anyone here would say those changes were for the better, but you really only notice the issues when a large number of people are trying to buy the same item at the same time (like the recent preorder for the Bandai DX VF-1S Roy). That tends to not happen with model kits, so you'll be fine. I bought all three of the Plamax 1/20 Valkyrie kits through HLJ. Sure, they were a bit more expensive than other stores, but given the high price tag, I wanted to make sure that I'd be taken care of if something went wrong...which it did. Turns out the boxes for those kits are BIG, so the automatic shipping cost calculators most sites use (including HLJ) were coming back with estimates well north of $300, which is insane. I contacted HLJ customer support, shared my concerns, and they worked with their shipping department to lower the cost by a substantial amount--for everyone. To my knowledge, they're the only store to do that, which made buying these large kits much more reasonable. I've also sent feedback to their founder, Scott Hards, on several occasions and he always provides thoughtful responses.
