MacrossJunkie

I'm going to have to get more flexistands to use with the vf-25s. I dislike the ones that come with the DX. They are fixed position so you can't adjust them in any way, the connector and support parts for gerwalk and fighter with those thick, black support beams and such make it look obtrusive and ugly, and doesn't work very well for battroid if you want to use the waist joint. How are the new yamato stands, btw, for those of you that have them?

I could totally see Bandai doing a Soul of Soft Vinyl series of vajra like they did with the angels from Evangelion.

Wow, that's an awesome deal. I told myself that I wouldn't get anymore 1/48 VF-1s, but at that price it is really tempting.

I realized that part of the color difference on my 25G is from a slightly different "finish" on the plastic. The plastic that makes up the back plate of the fighter, the shoulder piece that you connect the missile pods to, the thigh, the part that holds the cockpit, and the piece on the leg with the "U" shaped hole that connects the leg armor are all much glossier than the plastic that make up the other blue parts. The other parts have a duller finish and the blue doesn't look as deep, possibly due to the finish itself. While I have no doubt that Bandai is having some problems with varying colors of green with the differences being more apparent on one toy than the next, I think part of the basic color difference is due to this difference in finish. So even when the colors are pretty close, they can look different because one part is just that much glossier than another. Looking at the various Luca photos, the parts that have a deeper green are the same parts on my 25G that are glossy.

No raping here. I ordered back in November and December respectively for Michael and Luca and paid $185 and $195 shipped from Overdrive. I'm sure you'll enjoy the 25G. Despite any complaints with I have with the toy, I am fairly happy with it and have no regrets getting it.

I think the color and type of light may have something to do with it. Under The 2700k color bulbs I use for normal lighting in the house, I can discern the difference, but under the 5500k color bulbs, which are closer to daylight, that I use for photographing stuff like my valks, the difference is much harder to spot.

That looks like the same set of crew and vehicles that they used when they displayed their 1/48 VF-1S back before it was first released.

Aren't even the plastic pieces such as bumpers on cars painted too? I haven't seen many cars that have a color matched unpainted bumper. Most use the same paint on the entire body. As for toys, you're right that there is a big difference in color between the colored plastic and painted areas, especially as you said for metallic paints. Some companies actually do give the extra effort to paint the plastic areas when necessary though, like in the Binaltech line of transformers which had the die-cast parts. My Silverstreak has the entire car body painted with a metallic silver finish. On the other hand, for Sideswipe/Lambor they painted only the diecast parts, but I suspect it is because it uses a non-metallic paint so the difference is not so big. Regarding the DX VF-25s, I think most people have accepted the fact that painted areas and colored plastic areas will look different. What is bothering people with Luca is that plastic areas were showing multi tones in those pictures shown earlier in the thread. I think it wouldn't be an unreasonable expectation for pieces that are plastic to have a uniform pigmentation. I guess it's possible that they used different plastics. However, my 25G came with two sets of hip guns. One without the armor and one with the armor attached. In regards to the shape, they are the same in every way except one has two holes to accommodate the armor piece. Color-wise, they are not the same for some reason. It wouldn't make sense to me that they would use a different type of plastic and the texture looks the same as well. For some mysterious reason they were just made with a different color. It's not a huge deal to me as the color difference is small, but I'm just illustrating my point that the color difference in the plastic areas seem rather needless and that is why a lot of people are upset with the Luca.

Hey thanks, ikhii. I think I'll order sets B, C, and D and give them a try. Looks a lot more convenient than using my stupid airbrush as I hate doing all the clean up and maintenance and the results of those kits look great.

That looks great, ikhii. What did you use for the weathering on the -1S? An airbrush or something else?

Messed with my 25G some more and finally was able to get the upper knee joint working (helps a bit, but still couldn't bend it as much as I hoped) and figure out how to make that waist joint work. The arms can reach across the chest further than I initially thought, which is nice. A couple pics before going to bed.

It is, you would either have to pose it without the armor or try as Negotiator suggested in the DX v4 thread about the other joint that's connected to the thigh piece. I tried to get that to bend but it wouldn't budge and I didn't try any harder for fear of breaking something in my attempt.

I kind of liked that the Quarter could also use the cannon as a close combat cutting weapon like when they focused a PPB projection like some kind of energy blade from the tip of the gun and slashed open a hole in the Galaxy.

Yeah, I know. I'm just saying regardless of it being a sniper rifle, the size of the weapon and the floppiness of the wrist will pretty much lead most people to pose it that way if they want a decent firing pose. Though I guess other variations could probably be using it left-handed, kneeling or in a prone position. In any case, I really like how detailed they made the rifle and I think either this one or the armored Ozma custom would be the one to get if someone wanted to get just one.

I just tried and while there's some improvement, I think I would need to a more U shaped hole into the top of the tip to get the kind of movement I want. I would probably need a dremel to accomplish that but I don't have one handy. So for now, I'll have to do as Negotiator mentioned to get more knee movement until I can get a dremel to try out my idea.

I wonder how many people have canceled their pre-order for Luca already. I'm on the fence on whether I should cancel or not. With my luck, I might get one of the one that have distinctly different shades of green rather than just barely noticeable. It's also even more expensive than Michael's too. However, this would pretty much be a last minute cancel as these things are out now, so I would feel bad canceling and leaving the place I ordered from stuck with the item. On the other hand, I would feel just as bad if the item was badly colored and having paid almost $200 after shipping... The thing is I don't know if I will get a bad one or not so there's a chance I might get a good one and be happy with it. So I guess the question is should I take the gamble or do I cancel... argh! Decisions! Sigh... I guess I'll just wait and see >.<

Well, in my case, the rifle is pretty heavy for the hand and the wrist is pretty limp so if you want the rifle to be held up and look right, you pretty much need to use the other arm to help support the rifle.

Couple pics of my recently acquired DX VF-25G. I really like the battroid mode, but the fighter mode needs work.

I think I'm just going to try sanding down the leg armor so that it no longer gets in the way. It's just pointless excess that has no aesthetic value anyway.

Here's some examples of the sloppy paint applications: Glob of white paint in the circled area. Right shoulder paint is rough and uneven and a bit too thin as you can kind of see the blue plastic underneath. Circled area of booster. Black paint is messily applied. The other booster looked fine. Another thing I found annoying after trying to pose this thing is the rear leg armor attachment pretty much disallowing bending of the knee more than a few degrees. If you try to do more, the circled area will be pushed on and cause the armor to pop off. It's not a clip or anything that serves to hold the piece to the leg. There is absolutely no function for this extra bit and should have been without it to free up movement. Here's another curiosity though hard to see with the lighting I used to take the pic. The hip gun is made of different plastic as the part that has the armor attached is a darker color than the piece without. It's more noticeable in person. I don't know why they couldn't be the same color as they are basically the same piece but one has holes while the other doesn't. Edit: Added extra pic of rear leg armor to clarify what part I'm talking about.

I finally got my 25G today after two days of being held at the local post office. Many of the mentioned problems with loose armor and the locking peg for the crotch don't seem to be a problem on mine. The peg may or may not become a problem. I won't know yet unless I use it for a while. The hip and crotch armor seem to actually clip on for mine and don't fall off while I'm re-adjusting the legs or doing other stuff with it. However, I feel the 5-dot shoulder block is kind of loose for me and doesn't hold its position very well. As for the color, under sunlight and the lighting I have in my house, I can see the differences in texture and color, but it's not as stark as that Luca photo. It's like 3 shades of blue on the plastic parts alone. The paint app is a little messy in areas and uneven in places like the white shoulders. I found it odd that they put a lot of effort into minute detail into the areas that are hidden, obscured, or will rarely see, but the outer surfaces that are prominent lack many of the panel lines and such that you see on the model. Overall, I guess I am satisfied with it. More so than I expected to be. It definitely looks pretty impressive in Battroid mode with the Dragunov sniper rifle and super packs.

Was there any announcement when the new yamato stands were to be released? If so, I think I missed it. I don't think I've seen pre-orders for them yet either. Edit: Nevermind. I re-checked the other thread and saw April.

Yeah, I doubt that thing could stand with the gun and flight deck lifted off the ground. This begs the question... Will they be including a stand? If there's anything that needed a stand, I think this thing surely qualifies.

Ah, thanks. That makes much more sense now.