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ArchieNov

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Everything posted by ArchieNov

  1. I wanted to see if they had corrected the "Sinsei Industry" tampo on the recent release. Seems like the typo is still present. If they had fixed it, I might have gotten this copy.
  2. This issue was only limited to the cannon fodder variant. The 171EX versions (of which this upcoming release is like) didn't have those issues with deteriorating plastic. I still have the original release of the 171EX Alto and it still holds up fine (although it has yellowed so bad). My cannon fodder though has broken at the hinge joint that connects the upper torso to the lower body. Gluing it back together didn't help much because it started to break at other points afterwards. So now it's stuck in fighter mode until the day I throw it in the trash. Funnily enough, the triangles on my cannon fodder are still intact.
  3. Slightly off topic, but the worst engineering design of Bandai that I ever encountered was the hip joint for the Chogokin Gipsy Danger. Now that was a sure fire time bomb, I can't imagine how it will not break itself over time, even with good materials. Basically I found that my Gipsy Danger's hips were both loose after keeping it boxed up for a few years. Turns out the reason they were loose was because the plastic peg/cap that holds the metal hips together had snapped. I wish I still had a picture of it, but basically they designed the hip to be made of 2 metal halves held together by a plastic cap and with a screw inside. Normally you wouldn't think this was a problem. But they had the idea that the best way to give friction to the metal hips was to sandwich a super high tension spring inside. This spring was so strong, I could barely squeeze it with my bare hands. So you can imagine that having so much force being exerted on a plastic piece will turn out. I wish they just used a screw with a bigger head or better yet, done away with the spring idea. I just thought I'd bring it up because hearing about the spring being used to create friction in the 171 reminded me of Gipsy Danger's exploding hips.
  4. You're not crazy. That Yamato YF-21 gerwalk looks damn ugly. I know some people keep mentioning the nose being too short. But if you compare that picture of the gerwalk with Bandai's YF-21, you'll notice that the nose length on Bandai's is actually closer to that picture. Yamato's YF-21 nose is too long. But I'll admit that the longer nose does make the fighter look sleeker.
  5. I just wish Arcadia would reissue their display stands (I want the simple stand). Actually they should always keep them available since their valks don't come with stands.
  6. ArchieNov

    Hi-Metal R

    I heard Mrs. Jenius likes to play with Jenius's Monster too, so you're not alone 😜 By the way, I just got a notification from Anime Export that the HMR VF-1A Kakizaki is now in stock, but nothing on the Max yet. I thought they had the same release date?
  7. Those are the Renewal Tornado parts. When I said "old", I meant the last set of Tornado parts that were released. I always preferred the look of the 25G with the Tornado vs the Super because its Tornado parts' wings were also blue like the valk. Unlike the Alto Tornado parts which were gray and looked ugly to me.
  8. The old Tornado parts fit just fine with no issue on tolerances on the new one. Despite the contrast of glossy Tornado parts vs the matte valk, it actually doesn't look bad to me.
  9. The one attached out of box is the softer laser. The extra laser is hard plastic
  10. Just received mine from Hobby Genki. Wondering what I should do with my old one that has somewhat yellowed and the hip connection hinge has already cracked. I kinda want to dispose of it, but I can't bring myself to just throw it away. I'm thinking of displaying it with the old Tornado set even though those parts are still in the glossy finish.
  11. What was wrong with the arm cannons? I have the first release Hayate and I don't recall having that issue. If I remember correctly, I just had to make sure the forearms were slid into the correct position. The only real issue I had with the Hayate were the wing tabs that didn't fit into their sockets. And overall fitment tolerances I guess.
  12. Does anyone know if the reissue of the Hayate VF-31AX has improved QC over the initial release? I remember people saying the Bogue variant had better QC over the previous releases so I was hoping that trend continued to improve.
  13. I hope they update the packaging of this release so that it no longer uses styrofoam. I've noticed that all my valks that I've kept in styrofoam packaging have yellowed a lot quicker and more severely than those that were in non-styrofoam packaging.
  14. Just received my copy. Not sure if it's been said before, but this is probably their best transforming HM-R to date. All the tabs on mine plug in perfectly flush (yes including the wings) and everything lines up properly. The build also feels a lot more solid than the Roy VF-0S for some reason, but that's probably just my imagination. The colors look really good to me too, much better than the first Arcadia release. Now I kinda want a 2nd copy because it's so good, but I've restricted myself to only keep one copy of each Macross toy and stop getting duplicates.
  15. Metal Composite used to be focused on Ver Ka (Katoki Hajime's) aesthetics. After all, Fix Figuration was a line that was dedicated to his style. Not sure about the more recent Metal Composite releases since the last time I purchased a Metal Composite were the Psycho Gundams.
  16. As much as I would like to avoid them, sometimes they only come in white. The best case scenario is if the white is painted and not just bare plastic so that way it doesn't yellow. But for these valks, the white is usually just bare plastic. However, my PG Unicorn model kit from 2014 I think is still as white as day 1, and I didn't paint or even topcoat it. It's just bare plastic. So I wonder why the white plastic on that one has held up all these years while my other stuff has yellowed. I blame it on the styrofoam packaging.
  17. Oh nice. My Alto VF-171EX is all yellowed already so I hope if I get this new one, I can throw my old one away haha
  18. I'm just basing it off all the complaints I see on here about mishandled packages. And it seems like all (or at least most) of those are coming from people in the US. It does seem prevalent enough for some of them that they said they will avoid using certain shippers in the future. Of course I'm not saying that if it gets handled in the US, your package will surely be damaged. But it does seem to increase the chances based on feedback I have read on here and also my own personal experience.
  19. Actually, I was referring to the shipping company employees specifically in the US. Because I use the same shipping companies (e.g. DHL, UPS, EMS, etc) but my packages are almost never damaged. The one time I had a damaged package was when the shipping route passed through the US. It kinda feels like the US shipping employees are less careful when handling packages compared to the shipping employees of the same company in other countries.
  20. You know, I'm wondering if all these damaged boxes in shipping are more of a handling issue by the shipping folks once it is in the US rather than that of the shipping company itself. I don't live in the US, but I've had over a hundred packages shipped to me over the years via various shippers like EMS, DHL, UPS, Amazon JP, regular Airmail, etc, and my shipping boxes and contents are almost always in near perfect condition. No dents or crushed boxes. Actually, the only time I recall I received a damaged shipping box was when I ordered something from an eBay seller based in the US. Maybe the shipping handlers in the US just don't take proper care of the packages?
  21. I tried transforming it to battroid and back to fighter to check for QC issues. My right shoulder ball joint was relatively loose out of the box at certain angles. I'm sure I could fix it by unscrewing the shoulder and adding some kiki's joint fluid, but didn't bother since this will go back into the box. The shoulder swivel joints were much tighter than I would like, making it really hard to swing them out. This is troublesome because I always take extra care when swinging these out as it can scratch the paint off if it rubs on surrounding parts. This made the transformation much more painful that it should be. The hip ball joints were also not as tight as I hoped. They're not floppy (yet), but not that stiff. Again, I'm sure kiki's joint fluid might help here. All in all, while I'm happy to have an Alto VF-25 again (this is actually the 5th time I bought a Renewal Alto), I'm still skeptical about its long term resilience. All the other Altos I've owned in the past either I've sold because it was an extra, had a broken crotch joint, or have yellowed. I'm not sure how well this matte version will be against yellowing, but I hope it's not as bad as the gloss versions.
  22. I just got mine. The canopy isn't frosted.
  23. It's amazing that his old Alto is still as white as it is today in this pic.
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