MacrossJunkie

Thanks for the heads up. I just checked mine on the USPS site and it says the same thing. Hopefully It will arrive either tomorrow or the day after. I wonder if it's possible to get a partial shipping refund from the japan post since our packages were sitting around in Japan for 2 weeks not going anywhere.

Thanks. I called the USPS today, myself. They forwarded me to another dept that handled international package inquiries and the guy told me that it hadn't left Japan yet and that he would get the people on the Japan side of things to investigate.

Do ones that only show some very light stress marks eventually break also? I see some on my 1D, but I wouldn't have noticed it if I weren't looking very hard and very specifically at the hinge area under very bright light.

Mine was from AmiAmi as well. I think I will do the same. Let me know if you get a response from them. Edit: I just checked the shipping email again and noticed this: In case you did not receive the parcel or any delivery notification after about a week (EMS) / three weeks (SAL), please contact your country's postmaster and refer them to the above registration number. Is that suggesting to contact the postmaster general directly or should I just give the generic USPS phone number a call?

Well, I checked the post office and nada. So it's in limbo somewhere and there's no way for me to find out what happened to it.

Just curious, what are the measurements for height, width and depth per shelf for the Biby?

That's sad when even SAL beats EMS. I feel ripped off...

What I don't get is that my shipment had supposedly left Japan on the 22nd and they hadn't gone on holiday yet at that time. So have they parked the plane on a cloud and are just partying in the sky for the past week or maybe they decided to have Japanese people work at customs at the US side? By my reckoning, my package should already be in the US now and that's why I'm confused why it's taking so long. I'd understand if my package had only just shipped out around the 25th or later.

No, it normally shouldn't take this long. I see you're having the same problem as me. My last status on my package shows: Dec 22 2:45 - Dispatch from outward office of exchange - TOKYO INTERNATIONAL Branch Normally, if it weren't for Christmas, I'd have seen a status with the package arriving at the local post office by the 24th or 25th and delivered that same day. I've ordered a lot of stuff and had it shipped via EMS and it's always been 3 or 4 days after departure from Japan. Even if they took a break on the 25th and even the 24th, it should have arrived by now, but still nothing so I'm not sure what's going on.

It's not that there's a problem mounting the guns in fighter mode. It's that you can't at all since the gunpod covers can't be removed and even if you could, the gunpods themselves would be too big to fit the gunpod covers over. Some people have instead stuck them into the gaps underneath the wings where it folds down.

Nice. I don't like the stock gunpod color much either. That olive green looks really good. I think I may just do that as well as it's a big improvement.

I'm STILL waiting on my Macross Quarter to arrive. It was shipped on the 22nd via EMS and in the past, EMS has always only taken 4 days to ship to my house. I'm giving it extra time due to the holidays, but I'm getting worried and I don't even know who I would call or how if I needed to contact EMS.

Just out of curiosity, could you elaborate on what you did not like about it or what about it disappointed you?

Sigh... Santa's going to be running late for me as well From all these pics, I'm pretty impressed with the poseability of this thing. Strange that a carrier could have more range of movement than many valkyrie toys.

They're really not much to look at up close. The way they are molded, they look like what you would get if Voldemort had kids. Compare: I used ProModeller dark dirt wash for the VF panels which was a pain to actually get in the panels because the wash has too much surface tension, especially for such fine panel lines which usually caused it to get pulled right back out. Light dirt version for the gunpod. Then I used tamiya weathering kits for the weathering effects. I used rust orange and a tiny bit of oil stain for the orange painted areas and burnt red for the lighter parts. Some use of oil stain color in key places. Gunmetal and silver colors on the gunpod and feet, which don't really show up well in the pics. Sealed it in with Testor's dullcote.

Well, I got my VF-1D a couple days ago from HLJ. It's my first 1/60 v2 VF-1. I did some panel lining on it which was a huge pain because they are so fine and shallow that it's hard to actually get stuff to stay in there. I finished applying weathering on it and adding a flat coat which probably wasn't such a hot idea because there are a lot of areas that encounter much friction and cause the coating to scrape off regardless of how careful I was. I also did my best to paint up the faces since the blank faces on Hikaru and Minmay looked disturbing.

I think the pilots look larger as well in relation to the cockpit. The VF-25 pilots were about the same size as the gummi pilots that came with the 1/72 M+ valks (and have just about as much detail).

It does appear to have a swivel point just above the knee. This picture from a few pages back shows a fairly close up pic of the knee in battroid. You can see the swivel part right where the upper half of the leg ends. The lower part of the leg is turned a bit and is not lined up with the top half.

For this year, I'd have to say the VF-11B. Its arrival completed my M+ collection and was pretty much what I wanted ever since I got the 1/72 and felt so disappointed with the sculpt and design. It's nicely sculpted, has fine details, is thoughtfully engineered (except for that blasted escape pod!), and has tight joints that remain tight which is much more than I can say about any of the bandai frontier DX's that I've bought this year which have loosened to utter floppiness despite just being displayed in my display cabinet with hardly any handling. While it may be possible that I could change my mind when the Quarter arrives, I just don't see it happening. I'm very curious to see what next year will bring.

That looks beautiful. It has so much more printing done on this than they did on the VF-25. It doesn't look like they missed much, whereas on the 25, they left out so much that should have been there.

So it looks like they're reverting back to the uncolored stand for this I see it also needs an extra attachment that you have to clip on to holster the flight deck to the back. Argh, please tell me they aren't using PVC again for the turrets. Some are straight and some are bent inwards.

This and also replacement sticker/decal sheets for various valks.

Have a look at these from the model section for the VF-0: Fighter part 1 Fighter part 2 Battroid part 1 Battroid part 2 Battroid part 3 decal sheet

I often just use a paper towel dabbed in a bit of rubbing alcohol to get the grease off. I haven't seen it harm the plastic and unlike bandai's paint which comes off at the slightest touch, Yamato's paint is pretty durable and hasn't come off from using it. Just the same, don't rub too hard. just wipe enough to clean off the surface. Alternatively if you're worried about affecting any paint, I guess you could use soap and water on a damp cloth. Not sure what other people do. Coincidentally, I used "M" and "1" on my tomahawk as well. I trimmed mine right to the edge so it wouldn't look so much like a sticker. It also gives you more room to place it where you want.

Wow, your stickers look either chewed on or mangled somehow You might want to grab a xacto knife or small utility knife and trim off the excess clear areas. Not only will it allow the stickers to fit better on curved surfaces, it will make it look better without the unsightly clear bits. You might also want to try cleaning off the surface of the toy first to remove any oils and such that were on the toy when it was packed in. That will allow your stickers to stay on much better without the edges lifting off the surface.