beatsing

16 hours ago, Draykov said:

If you're referring to the figs in the picture sqidd posted, I'm pretty sure those are the Hasegawa USAF ground crew (released in both 1/72 and in multiple sets in 1/48 scale back in the 80s).  

 

I stand corrected.  These look pretty good.

yeah there was a movie and a tv version of the cannon fodders, they have different heads and slightly different paintjobs iirc.

Also those ground crew came with the Yammie destroids, not the cannon fodder,  iirc.  

I like those ground crew better than the gundam crew.  

23 hours ago, Masked Aviator said:

Yeah, doesn't look like they fixed it

I think it was January 2019 or December 2018.  

The dx vf-1 has a nose cone that folds down without a radar inside, and the leg flaps fold flat, so Bandai has already designed this toy for the Gbp, it’s just a matter of time.  
 

the 1/60 chogokin line has had a lot of large radomes so it is probably a toy they can make in the future but no prototype has been displayed.  
 

I don't really see the similarity other than they also use metal and the price point is similar.

 A little off topic, but members here have compared the Dx line to the metal build Gundams.  Amiami has a metal build in stock.

that's cheaper than what I paid

Nice review for both comparisons on the 1/60 and 1/48 scales.  I have the same thing about those vertical pegs for the arms under the fighter mode.  They should have had some side pegs to connect to the legs.  Seeing your side by side of the 1S with so much tampo, makes me think of my Takara seekers.  IIRC, I think Shoji also designed these, and the "no step" markings are everywhere but they're less obnoxious because the markings are smaller and seem more realistic.  I do like the tampos but for future releases Bandai should take a page from Takara.  Sometime I'll dig it out of storage and compare them.  

@jenius on a related point, the bandai stand is so boring, you have to take it apart for each mode, and it needs some force.  Also the 1j stand is boring it only does one mode.  for the yammie arcadias, I don't recall which it came with but I got a clear big stand that I prefer over the launch arm (the launch arm looks nice cuz it's like the movie, but it's not that balanced).  The clear big stand might have come with GBP (?) and I like that it's sturdy and easily adjustable and has storage options.  I got it a while back.  I'd expect Bandai to come up with better designs since there are so many better stands out there now I've seen come with similarly priced collectables.  That Bandai stand that comes with the $1000 Nu Gundam is a display that might work with the DX.  Or some stands for heavier toys have ratchets and locks for flying poses.  I don't mind buying a separate stand if it's nice but the stock stand isn't very good.    

Awesome collection.  No yellowing from UV rays.  Haha that's like my collection that's not on rotation display

Yup, I like those radomes valks too.  Thanks for filling me on the rest.  Weird that they reissued a Messer, when they should have reissued the 31a.

9 hours ago, Anasazi37 said:

Maybe prices are starting to stabilize, although NY hasn't caught up to reality yet. They're still asking ¥32,250 for the 1S and ¥24K for Max.

Gives me hope that I can avoid PO Madness from now on. But then Bandai will announce the Roy 1S and it will be a bloodbath.

1 hour ago, FattyMoBookyButt said:

Have you seen the prices for VF-1J though? I have officially lost all hope of ever completing my trio.

Comment applies to both quotes above.

Bandai's staff don't know much about the franchises they make toys for.  The stock for the popular 1S should be more than Max 1a.  Also Max was a strange choice for the second dx.  Considering the secondary market for 1j, or the preorder madness, Bandai should reissue the 1j.  Bandai displayed the movie squadron, so they're probably going to issue Max movie, and Kakizaki movie.  But I'd rather buy 1j than Kakizaki since I'm not collecting the squad.  But we haven't seen a Roy yet, and it'll be seconds in preorder window.  

Hobby search has Messer/Hayate for 22000 https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10540715

and Chuck for 24200 if anyone is interested.

Are these variants not popular?  I haven't watched Delta so I don't know.  I like the design though.  

My experience with HS has been limited.  About a few seconds before it's cart jacked ha ha

Joking aside, haven't had any defective items with them so curious to see how it pans out @DYRL VF-1S

The stuff I've bought from them are in stock and not huge demand like Figma or Revoltech.

ha ha ha he looked familiar just couldn't place him

haha is that the guy from 47 ronin?

13 hours ago, jenius said:

While I love the idea of a LowVis, the original Yamato scheme sold poorly and still doesn't sell all that well in the secondary market. 

@jenius I like that it was a somewhat realistic paint scheme.  Was the market saturated, or was it cuz the colors were not in the cartoon or movie?

2 hours ago, DYRL VF-1S said:

Oh, $45 is not worth it to me either.  But, PayPal gives like 10 or 14 business days for the seller to respond to a dispute.  They never did, so PayPal already fully refunded me.  It took them this long to reply to my initial email, and I gave them a week or two before making a dispute.  I imagine they'll find the dispute communication over the next week (PayPal used the same email address to communicate with HS as I did). 

So, the question is do they ban me, keep me as a customer but let the refund satisfy the situation, or miss the whole thing and issue me $45 in "points" on top of the refund that PayPal granted?  Inquiring minds want to know...

This is the scenario with NY's defective product, and they banned me without communicating, no offer of points.  But then still send me emails about products and greetings.

Bandai should do a low viz 1/48.  

Second the suggestion of Bandai doing SDF.  They're more likely to do the movie version though.

5 hours ago, Lonely Soldier Boy said:

So how widespread is the breakage issue? Is it one of those things that will happen no matter what or can it be avoided by being extra gently? I skipped on the bikes, but was thinking on getting them later on if/when money improves. 

My stick and Rey are ok.  The yellow has a stress mark out of the box.  Comparing them, the part is cut thinner at the stress mark than the original Stick and Rey.

My toys that aren't in direct sunlight haven't yellowed much.  I also use this UV light spray, you can buy it at model stores mr super clear uv or flat

2 hours ago, Anasazi37 said:

As a professionally-trained archaeologist, I can tell what the standard explanation is when we don't know an object's purpose: ritual item. Imagine an archaeologist finding a Detolf filled with these things, carefully posed and displayed, with three copies of the same variant showing a transformation sequence. Looks like a shrine and valks are our deities. Given that they're machines and people are inside of them, whole books would be written about the deep symbolism of the fusion of humans and technology, plus some ramblings about how ancient myths and legends about man transforming into animals had been updated for our era.

Or maybe a fertility idol since there's a female image (Minmay) that's associated with all these crude objects that roughly resemble the human body form (battroid), a chicken(gerwalk), and an arrow(fighter).  Notice how the "Yamato" doll has an exaggerated large phallus.  We think these were for rituals for fertility.  

@sh9000 nice recreation.  Brings me back ha ha

7 hours ago, no3Ljm said:

Since it's just a friendly debate. I want to ask since I didn't have any Yamato 1/48 VF-1's. When Yamato released their 1/48 VF-1's almost 20 years ago, did people already mentioned that it has overall poor quality? And did the discoloration happened immediately like Bandai's DX VF-25 v1? Bandai got released their DX VF-1 recently so comparing both companies regarding quality now wouldn't matter anymore, right?

I have to agree that's why when I read a few comparing posts I got confused a little bit since the photos posted from what I remember from the previous page is Yamato's 1/60v2.

 

My Yammie 1/48 from 20 years ago is still not yellow.  It was an engineering revolution for toys, like MP-01.  It was thing every serious collector was getting.  And no preorder madness

7 hours ago, jenius said:

People loved the 1/48 parts when they were released and they took 10 years to yellow. The reaction missiles were always a pain but at least they came in the box!

My 1/48 isn't very yellow.  It's still off white and I've had it for 20 years or whenever it came out

6 hours ago, Lolicon said:

All my comparisons are with the 1/60 VF-1 as I sold my 1/48s years ago.

I've already said the DX VF-1 is the best VF-1 toy to date, despite some flaws and steps back made by Bandai.

Would I sell all my 1/60s and replace them with the DX? Absolutely not. They're not THAT much of an improvement, they're the wrong scale next to all my other valkyries, and have too many annoying flaws.

Also, complaining about yellowing on a 10+ year old toy versus one that just came out is ridiculous. Toys and human lives don't last forever.

On the subject of floppy joints, the hips on my DXs are already getting loose. Because that's what happens when a toy is really heavy: the joints have to endure more. Fortunately, I don't use weight to determine the quality of a toy (which is why you never hear me praising the "heft"). 

 

The hips on my DX vf-25 is getting loose even though I only display it on the stand.  I think those metal parts are too heavy and put stress on the hips.

5 hours ago, Pontus said:

I work for a company that makes specialized control interfaces/desks.  We released a high end console that everyone complained felt cheap.  So we added steel plates inside, and it was much more "professional feeling" simply because it was heavier.   If we make consoles that are powerful yet small, portable, and of eminent utility, in high end installations they will be passed up for large, heavy, all-in-one consoles because they "feel more professional," (even if they have identical function) so now we're going back to making behemoth consoles again.  Public perception is a fickle thing that has more to do with "feels" than anything else.

Oh, and don't even get me started on the soft-touch craze.  Yes, let's put the worst paint in the world in the worst place you could possibly put it (where it gets touched all the time), and where it will look like crap after the first use and peel like crazy.  Because it FEELS good and therefore somehow makes a product "professional" which gets perceived as high quality somehow... at least for the first couple of weeks.

hilarious.  Oooo it's so shiny

5 hours ago, no3Ljm said:

But the thing is I don't want to spend too much.  

Need to save just in case Bandai decides to make the Metal Build GN-Arms Type E and DXSoC Voltes V a reality. 

 

$2000 Sazabi to pair with that $1000 Nu Gundam

2 hours ago, Bahamutzyro said:

Your right, 20 years ago we jumped up and down for the yammies! But now as we can see they don’t age well. We shouldn’t pay 200 bucks 20 years ago for something that sits in a box n yellows.  We didn’t have anything to comp it to so we didn’t know.

i still like my stealth yammie 1/48 and it didn’t yellow, but it’s joints are loose n I transformed it once to batroid n it’s been sitting on my shelf.

My 1/48 isn't yellow, it's still off white.  The joints are still good, not loose.  For an old toy, the swing bar (most likely to be a problem for Bandai's two piece assembly) still works fine.  That's quality and time tested.  The Bandai *seems* superior for now; time will tell.  And somebody just posted pics of breakages for the DX.  My DX doesn't peg the arms securely in fighter mode even though there are pegs.

1 hour ago, Bolt said:

Lol. Dude! I think the Yammies aged just fine. Look how quickly Bandai's V1 VF-25's yellowed (ya we do have something to compare) or broke apart upon transformation. Also paying $200 bucks 20 years ago wasn't so bad considering cost, hassle and qc issues these days. Oh ya, let's not mention pre order ridiculous antics and scarcity issues.  

Am i the only one who doesn't have a Yamato yellowing Hikaru VF-1S?

Lets see how those DX's are down the road, see you in 20

I have a yammie VF1J off white but not yellow Hikaru too

1 hour ago, Lolicon said:

I want all my valkyries to be able to survive the millenia so that archaeologists in the distant future have pristine artifacts from our time that they can transform and whoosh around.

Hilarious.  Archaeologists saying "what is protoculture?"

Thanks @Lolicon for your comparison.  I was thinking the same about the aesthetics, cuz I'm on the fence about this accessory.  I'm not interested in the missile pack as I don't really display my 1/48 valks or 1/60 with the missiles on.  I have a yammie SSP pack and I don't display it that much either, so I'm not going out of my way for SSP.  I mostly display them as naked valks because I like the aesthetic of each mode, and the GBP and SSP can be fun, but are a little busy.  Guests who are not familiar with Macross can appreciate the naked valk, but have no idea what the SSP is - did you just strap on a rocket and gun to your model airplane? one guest asked.  ha ha

Or maybe it's because I have Max, and I don't think he rode with the SSP in the TV series ha ha

14 hours ago, sqidd said:

A hobbyist engineer is even worse about the "I would have done it like this" thing. Some of these guys are actually really good designers/engineers/fabricators. I'd argue a lot of them are better than "real" engineers. They can actually fix and make things. They do lack cost and production consideration perspective though. It's not a knock. Why would they have that perspective? They're usually making one of something in the most ideal way. Not trying to mass produce it at a targeted cost. A friend of mine that I work with on projects from time to time is a self taught engineer/fabricator/machinist and I would go as far as to say artist. He can pull of some genius/elegant solutions. But, his practical application skills aren't very strong. Most of the stuff he does he does one of. You have to design much differently when you are doing multiples or it has to be "serviced" frequently. A perfect example is about 10yrs ago we both had S197 Mustang (2005-2014) road course cars. His car was BEAUTIFUL. Hand made carbon fiber aerodynamic pieces, grills, coolers, etc, etc, etc, etc. It took about an hour and five hundred different tools to get the bumper cover/splitter off to access everything in there that you need to mess with from time to time. My car was set up so the entire front end of the car came off with 1/4 turn fasteners (no tools). It came off in one piece. One person could do it in about a minute. That's the execution difference between the "artist" designer and the "practical" designer. His stuff was pretty. My stuff was functional.

I agree 100% that these should not be breaking, let alone broken out of the box. That is a complete fail. I don't know what their margins look like. But I'd wager that they could have solved that problem for very little money per unit. They would buy themselves a lot of good will with that expenditure.

I agree, it's very disappointing to pay for a high end toy and it have such basic flaws. Most of the time I think to myself, "Charge me $10 more and get it RIGHT. I'll pay it". A $200 toy with problems is "junk". A $210 toy that is flawless is a masterpiece. 

Agreed.  Mass production requires functional designs.  On the whole, Riobot's designs are pretty good, but this mass failure is not acceptable for this price point, and I've been a fan of their work for years.   You're right on the money, and the DX VF-1 line looks to be that (almost) flawless toy in that $200 category.  My yellow went from $200 centerpiece, to $200 brick/statue out of the box.  If anyone asks me about Riobot, it'd be hard to recommend them at this point.  If Sentinel offered replacement parts or replacements like Figma did with Berserk, that would buy a lot of good will.

13 hours ago, RavenHawk said:

During my engineering days, I sometimes did like materials with like, but sometimes dissimilar made more sense. if you knew that there was going to be wear, but one part was easier to replace when it wore out than the other, then you made that part out of the weaker material.

Not saying that's the case here, but that was the theory.

Of course, other times, it's just cost. You want to make parts plastic, but it financially makes sense to use off the shelf metal pins, so you use those with plastic surrounding them.

If that's the case, then Sentinel should have included replacement parts in the box, or made the joints like the rest of the bike, with those ball joints that pop off and on.