SpaceCowboy

I do place this at the feet of Bandai though, because they have a history of making very small quantities of their DX toys in the past, and in this case, it isn't just NY that is having trouble, but multiple retailers. 

Honestly, I wish Bandai would just stop making the DX line if they are going to support it this poorly.

If it is just delayed, I'll sit and wait.  No way am I accepting store credit if they can't deliver.  It's bullshit that NY demands payment up front, and now they can't deliver and only want to offer store credit.  If they can't deliver I will pursue paypal resolution.

On the one hand, I might be done with NY.  On the other, I think this is shitty Bandai.  This might make me done with Macross and collecting Valks.  I love how they look, but they are expensive and prone to breakage, and now, they can't even be bothered to actually produce something I've already paid for in enough quantities for me to get it.  Tired of waking up at 3AM to try to secure an 5 minute window to preorder. 

Too old for this crap.  I've got other things I can spend money on.

Just contacted NY to see if they could provide any details.  My order was placed and paid for by 10/6/2017 at 7:31AM CST.  I have heard nothing from them.  It's sounding like Bandai once again screwed the pooch with production and not satisfied with limiting release sales, now wants to make it a gamble on whether you are going to get your preorder items as well.  I don't know what it is that they don't like making money so much that they produce an item then don't make enough to satisfy even initial demand for the product...

Add me to the list that is still waiting on two VF-31A from Nippon-Yassan. 

Okay, that's what I figured.  In my case, it looked like that tab/grip was nearly fused to the under carriage.  I'm not sure if the previous owner glued it, or if over the years it had simply bonded with the plastic or what.  In the end, both times, I've just soaked the whole back assembly in H2O2 without bothering to disassemble it further.  Painting the tail fins is a pain this way though.

One thing I still haven't figured out, is how to disassemble the tail piece.  I took the two screws out of the bottom, but couldn't figure out how to separate the fins from the rest of it.  I could pry it a bit, but I was afraid of breaking the plastic. 

Nice!  One thing I did this time to help me remember how to put it back together was to take a piece of cardboard, and open up Jetfire so that he's stretched out as much as possible.  Then, as I took out the screws I pushed them into the cardboard in the same configuration he was laid out in.  It made it easier to remember which screws/springs went in the leg, and which leg, etc.  Also since they were pushed in, they didn't roll around.

Pro-Tip - don't do the whitening during one of the most cloudy February's you can remember. 

After:

From my first whitening experiments, I then decided to take a G1 Jetfire and transform him into a VF-1S.
I bought a yellowed G1 Jetfire for about $30.  I bought a set of armor for a bit more ($50 maybe?)
Before:

I'm okay with it slowing down a bit.  I also hated delta.  So far, it is the only Macross I have yet to finish.  I'm about half-way through.  But there are so few characters I have a remote liking it is difficult to stomach.  I hated Macross 7 as well, but I made it through all 50 some odd episodes of that.

The Valks from delta, on the other hand, are pretty awesome.  For me, all the macross jets get put into what I call my "head-canon".  This story mixes in machines from Robotech too, and then also has elements that aren't from either Macross or Robotech (like time travel, space bounty hunting (aka cowboy Bebop), etc).  The delta valks are the newest in this ongoing storyline that are sort of X-Wingish type valks.  I transform them so that the tips form a bit of an X instead of the more traditional transformation.

But yeah, it's okay to have a bit of a slow time.  I'm hoping with Harmony Gold losing the Macross license in a few years that we can get a bit of a Macross renaissance, as hopefully a competent company takes over the rights and distributes it properly to the US. 

Any word on when the Kitz Concept figures are launching, and which figures will be produced?  I'm gathering a $50 price point, but looking online, I'm finding nothing about them.

I might still get the toynami 4.25" figures, as they will be rather cheap in comparison, even if the faces are pretty bad.

Amber.  You really want to encase them in amber, preferably as soon as you can.   

It's light and oxygen reacting with the plastic.  Just because you keep them in storage doesn't mean they won't yellow.  It has to do with how much bromine they are mixing and what they mixed with it, and how long it takes for the bromine to surface, how much light and oxygen it is exposed to, what the temperature of storage is (heat accelerates).  At least that's my understanding.  So I wouldn't take them out of the closet thinking that is going to make it better.  Maybe just open the box to circulate the air, in case it is chemicals that the plastic is giving off that are adding to the reaction. 

An example:

I bought a old G1 Jetfire off of ebay (not the one I restored above, but a different one.  You can tell that it was mainly in robot mode, because where the backpack was up, the area below the plastic was whiter than all the other parts, because it wasn't getting as much light.

OR

Buy one of the Bandai 1/55 Reissues from a a while back.  Search ebay for "bandai 1/55 macross reissue".  But you'll spend more than $30-$60. 

http://xoomer.virgilio.it/tfmedia/skit/vfx.htm

I can't vouch for this site, or if they have any or whatever - just doing a quick google search.

Also, I wouldn't worry about the value of Jetfire, especially if it is an older played with version.  If it is in box, and white, yeah, don't touch it, but if it has been ravaged by time, go to town.  I see these regularly going for $30-$60 on ebay.  A few months ago I got on a bit of a buying spree, buying older jetfires, then I cleaned one up and repainted it (see - "You're Yellow" thread).  Honestly, it is one of the cheapest ways you can get a macross like veritech for customization at the moment, especially if it is very yellow.  I recently saw one jetfire go, with full armor for, $63, and that included a cliffjumper, and two motormasters.  It was missing the clip that held the gun in place, box and instructions and he was super yellowed.  I bid on him, but was glad to be outbid as I already have 2 out of box jetfires, 1 in box matsushiro in excellent white condition with armor, and another in box bandai white with armor...so...I really didn't need another one...BUT, I'm still thinking about picking one up to whiten and customize into a Super Veritech

Hey, even the Mona Lisa is falling apart.

Enjoy things while they last.

My understanding is it just depends on how they mix the plastic with bromine (commonly used as a flame retardant), and then the bromine reacts with oxygen and light to surface on the plastic.  So if the bromine mixture was lower, the plastic won't yellow/will yellow much slower.

So, are there any good techniques for protecting the existing paint when doing this?  If I covered the painted sections with masking tape would that protect the paint, or would after a month in H2O2, the peroxide end up just filtering under the tape and eating away the paint anyways?

I sort of want to whiten another one, but I want to preserve the original paint colors.

Results of my whitening experiment.  What I discovered:

Parts need to be mostly submerged despite what I've read elsewhere. I used 3% H2O2 solution and that took about a month in Texas October.  I added OxiClean powder, but in the end, it felt like just having enough H2O2 (32 oz) was more important than that.  I couldn't ever tell the Oxiclean was doing anything.  The last two weeks I barely had any mixed in.

Here are some pictures from ebay of the G1 Jetfire I bought (I was too dumb/impatient to remember to take my own pictures, so these will have to do to show the degree of yellowing)

Note the under side of the wing compared to the upper leg.

Here the difference between the back fins and the body is pretty noticeable.

Guy only had one blurry shot in robot mode...

Something, I'm not sure if it was the H2O2 or the Oxiclean ate away 99% of the paint on the chest plate, and faded it on the wings and fins.  It also destroyed the stickers.  So you probably want to remove those first.  Also, I didn't pop the black plastic pieces off the upper thigh as I let it soak.  I had heard the process wouldn't damage colored plastic, but after a month, the black portion of the thighs had become a whitish grey. 

As this was an experiment, and considering all the above unforseen consequences, I decided to do my first custom.  I strongly recommend Tamiya masking tape.  I've tried regular masking tape and I never got sharp lines.  With the Tamiya, that wasn't a problem.  I also designed and 3D printed a replacement gun, since he didn't come with one.  If you have a 3D printer, you can find the STL here: 

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2551529

It's a bit thinner than the real one, but I think it looks a bit sleeker, so I've decided to leave it.

Without further ado, here are the results post whitening, post paint, post gun print:

A more dynamic pose:

S

And Jet mode side, (I painted the inside cockpit as well)

And front

I definitely made some mistakes with the paint, but this is the best I've done customizing a toy.  I'm really happy with the Tamiya.  H2O2 at 3% took a long time to whiten, but it was worth it.  It took about 1 hour to take apart and probably 2-3 hours to put back together, mainly because I didn't take any pictures disassembling it, and laid out the screws roughly where they should go in robot mode, so there was some trial and error to figure out where things went as I put it back.

Overall I'm happy with the results.  We'll see how long it stays white.  I've heard that it "returns faster", but I don't believe that.  I think it will continue to brown at the same rate that the plastic generally does.  We'll see.

Hopefully I'll be able to score one on release since I missed the 2 minute pre-order window.

That Shen long is awesome.  Though they really should have forced you to buy 7 figures with little dragon balls with them to make him.  It's the one time I would really be in favor of a build a figure.

Timely, as I've just started de-yellowing an old Transformers G1 Jetfire.

I've been using hydrogen-peroxide 3% + oxi-clean powder.  The internet is all over the place on different things to try.  Things to note:

* You need UV to activate it, so leave it outside.

* glass blocks UV...:\ (I've been using a freezer bag)

* Anything higher than 6% hydrogen peroxide you should use gloves with.

* the paint on my jetfire's chest plate has completely washed off, even in 3%, but perhaps this is a function of the oxi-clean instead. :\

* Supposedly, you need to disassemble as this can cause the metal screws to corrode.

It is working, but slowly.  My main problem has been finding anything close to "do exactly this and it will work".  Some say it needs to be submerged, others say the peroxide evaporating will whiten unsubmerged parts.  I've heard anywhere from 1/2 tsp to 1 tablespoon of oxiclean per bottle, or per 50ml (9 per normal sized bottle).  If anyone has any more detailed instructions, I'm all ears.

I've left it out for about 1 1/2 weeks so far, and it has gone from a yellow to a creme off white.  Still leaving it out there to see if I can get to bone white, as I'm pretty much committed to repainting the other parts anyways at this point.

Not Macross IP - but Airmech Command is a VR RTS that you can pilot around a transforming plane.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/364630/AirMech_Command/

Doh, looks like I missed out on this.  How hard are these to find once they are released generally?  Or are they like their big brothers where you have exactly 1 hour to order the thing and then it's only available at scalper prices?