MacrossJunkie

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.

Argh, evil temptors! I want to finally pick up a CF VF-1A but with all the presents to buy and the Quarter coming this month, I know I shouldn't. Visiting this site is a bad idea in December...

I don't, but it's in the magazine section under model graphix for May 2003. The person that made it most likely took inspiration from the FB-22 concept which takes an F-22 raptor and basically elongates it, removes the stabilizers on the tail, and gives it delta wings.

I wish I knew how you could try to get a different IP address for that. I've never used a mobile broadband connection to connect to the internet. However, since you're using citibank, try generating a virtual account number and adding that account number to your paypal account as a different credit card. If it really has anything to do with a limit to how much money you can send with that card, then this should fix it. I do that all the time when using paypal now since I don't trust giving paypal my actual credit card number. I just delete an old credit card and then add in the new virtual account number. If that fails, perhaps you could contact amiami, explain your situation and see if you can work out another acceptable method of payment. At the very least, if you explain to them, then hopefully they won't blacklist you.

I once had a similar sounding problem buying a game through Impulse using their own payment handler instead of paypal. I had all the info correct and there was nothing wrong with my card, but for some reason it wouldn't take it. I contacted them and they told me that their strict security checks see if the location of the IP address you're ordering from match the area that your credit card's billing address shows. I was confused since I was ordering from the same house that was listed in the billing address and I wasn't going through any proxy services. That is a really dumb security check because that would mean you wouldn't be able to order from anywhere else except in your own home and hope that the IP address matches the area. I tried some other things and then gave up and used paypal to buy the game as I didn't want to wait overnight for the external IP lease to expire to try to get a different IP address. You might have a similar issue. Maybe paypal has since instituted similar checks. Since the only payment method available to you is paypal and can't use something else, you could try releasing your router's (assuming you're using one for internet access) external IP and renewing it and seeing if you get a different IP address and then trying paypal again.

The first one did, yes. Though it wasn't the 4 viewport style canopy of the 22. Prototype 1 had a more traditional canopy like the VF-1 or VF-11's. The prototype 3 featured in model graphix isn't canon I think. I don't think there's any official mention of there being another prototype after the one Guld piloted, but if there was another, it would be reasonable to assume that it would have the same controls and canopy as the production VF-22. That bomber version looks kinda dumb, btw.

That's actually good news for me also for the same reasons as stated by the people above. Between Bandai with their Frontier stuff and Yamato with everything else, it's been tough to keep up.

I don't think it's possible for them to make the front landing gear any longer without re-designing the fuselage as there's no room to make it any longer the way it is now. Maybe if they took out the waist articulation, they would have a little more room, but not much or else the doors would get in the way of the transformation for battroid mode. They could make the rear ones a tad longer, but it would be ultimately pointless if the front gear is so short.

As far as the 22 canopy used for the YF-21, it kind of makes sense. You could rationalize it like this. When General Galaxy was pushing for the 21 to be a special ops replacement for the 17 after the 19 was chosen to be the main fighter, they had removed the BDS/BDI system and put in a more conventional cockpit and canopy (that would go on to be used in the production VF-22) when they produced this 3rd prototype. It doesn't look like they put in the integrated gunpod covers yet for the one shown in the scan so perhaps there could be room for a 4th prototype or they just added that after the 21 was approved for production as the VF-22. As for the 22A using a 21 style covered canopy style, your guess is as good as mine. Perhaps the modeler didn't have any extra VF-22 models and just decided to use a YF-21 to customize instead

Actually, I thought there was. There were pics of a model Quarter that wasn't the DX.

They decided it looked too good so they messed with the colors to make it look sillier so people would have something to complain about and give Bandai the opportunity to release a darker repaint later so that people would have to buy it again to get the better looking one ... obviously

Oh, I see. Thanks. I thought they found some clever way to handle it, but guess not. Well, that feeling of finally being impressed by Bandai sure faded really quick.

That tornado pack VF-25F doesn't seem to have the bluish tint that the movie super pack does despite the fact that both are from the movie. What's up with that? (the question could be interpreted as either why didn't they add a blue tint to the tornado pack version or why did they add the blue tint to the super pack version)