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GabrielV

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Everything posted by GabrielV

  1. I decided to transform my Hikaru VF-1S the other day. I was folding out the hands and the whole right hand mount just came apart. I'm not talking about it slipping out of it's peg. The rotating part the hand plugs into and mounts in the arm came apart. It looks like it wasn't glued together well. The fix itself looks pretty easy. The complicated part will be getting the piece re-glued together back on it's transformation rotation pegs without inadvertently making it fixed position. Still, pretty irritating.
  2. GabrielV

    Hi-Metal R

    CD Japan just shipped my VF-2. Total was 17,300 yen. 3,300 of that was EMS shipping.
  3. GabrielV

    Hi-Metal R

    I'm pretty sure the only Valks seen during the Culture Park battle are Icarus fighters. Someone here on these forums did a modification of their Evolution Toy valk so it could carry it's gunpod on the undercarriage like other Valks. IIRC, they mounted it on the centerline, which may mean the ventral fin underneath the cockpit needs to be retracted for it to be able to fire. Somewhat unrelated, this question used to come up in my RPG games all the time. "Can I use my gun pod in Fighter Mode?" So, I looked over the lineart and my model kit quite a bit to determine if it was possible. When the SAP was installed, one solution was to say the gun pod was in the arm armor with the barrel facing the shoulder, and there was a firing port on that side of the arm armor. This isn't supported at all by the lineart, but was a potential useful fudge for the RPG. Without the SAP installed, my group and I made the arbitrary decision that there were two weapon mounts between the arms in fighter mode, one on each side of the centerline. These mounts could hold the gunpod in that mode. Once again, there is no basis for this other than we wanted it to be that way for our games and it seemed at least semi-plausible. Right now, the only time I can think of when un-SAPed VF-2s are seen outside the eyecatch in the OAV is during the air show on the moon. The only valks which can be confirmed as being armed during that event were the VF-2SS-SAPs in Nexx's squadron.
  4. GabrielV

    Hi-Metal R

    I've been pretty vocal about my dislike for spine art on the valks, but I have to say that the 35th anniversary VF-1S does look pretty sweet.
  5. GabrielV

    Bandai DX VF-31

    Well... crap. Things are uncertain for me right now. I have to skip it. It looks beautiful to me, though. Hopefully, I'll be able to snag it eventually. The way my luck runs, I kind of knew that either this or a Chogokin Andromeda would pop up for pre-order during this time.
  6. GabrielV

    Bandai DX VF-31

    Here's how it is from my POV. First off, the VF-31 looks great. I knew I had to have one as soon as I saw it. Price point is definitely part of it. I'm not rich enough to buy every single valk or buy duplicates. Combine this with the fact that the Delta VF-31s are (for the most part) just the same fighter several times with different paint schemes. I'm nowhere near as deep into valk collecting as others here. Even still, my VF-31C makes 13 I own (if I count my Toynami Masterpiece toys). For me, things were getting samey. Hayate's valk is more than a bit bland for a collection already having a VF-1J Max and a YF-29 Perceval. Also, from my POV, a lot of the paint jobs were ugly. I don't mean they were poor quality. They were just color variants I found not to my liking. Arad's and Chuck's fighters look garish. I HATE that symbol on the spine on Arad's and Messer's. So, I'm not on board for those. I wanted Mirage's fighter because I feel it has the best look of all of them. It has a pleasant color scheme. It's untainted by spine graffiti. The color isn't quite red, purple, or pink. It's unique and would stand out in my collection. I can set it next to Max, Miriya, or any of my other Valks and it will still be a standout part of my collection, unlike Hayate's which would just blend in and end up looking non-descript. I'm not worried about Super packs for my VF-31. I think the VF-31 packs make the mecha look cluttered and ruin its grace. So, I can save some money there. I'd still like a VF-31A if one is made. It falls prey to some of the blending into the crowd since it would be about the same color as my VF-0A and VF-4G, but the distinctiveness of the design offsets this a bit, and it doesn't have garish colors or spine art working against it. As for the Draken, I don't really like it. If I had a lot more money, I might get one. I'd prefer if they did a white one from the final episode. But it's an easy skip for me. I'd rather save that money for a SV-51. So, that's my rationale. I don't know if anyone else shares it, but its why I spent the money on the VF-31 I did and why I'm not extremely likely to spend much more. For me buying the entire Delta squad was never really something I would have done.
  7. GabrielV

    Bandai DX VF-31

    During my first transformation this was the part I struggled the most with. I couldn't tell what the heck the instructions were trying to illustrate and it isn't a step which my knowledge of the VF-25's transformation translated well to. I probably spent 15 to 30 minutes just fiddling around with that panel the head is on.
  8. In person, it's not that bright of a blue. It's kind of deep navy grayish blue. It comes off as somewhere between the grey on the legs and body and the black of the feet with a blue cast to it. After your comment I tried to check if Mirage's gun pod had the maroon stripe in the show. I was unable to confirm or deny. I was able to find one brief shot in the final battle of the series where it seems the stripe on the gun pod is a dark gray, but it only lasted a fraction of a fraction of a second and could have easily been maroon in shadow.
  9. GabrielV

    Bandai DX VF-31

    Well, mine has entered what I call "the yoyo". Every once in a while a shipment of mine gets stuck in a loop where it bounces back and forth between two different distribution centers: one 100 miles south of me, and the other 100 miles north of me. It's already been carried through my town once today on it's way to the other distribution center. Now its on the truck to go to the other distribution center. I might get my VF-31 tomorrow or it might bounce between distribution centers for several days. Nothing I can do but wait it out.
  10. GabrielV

    Bandai DX VF-31

    Made my payment to HLJ as well, and got the confirmation email. EMS shipping for me was 3380.
  11. GabrielV

    Hi-Metal R

    I've heard stories that not paying when the payment request comes up results in an automatic lifetime ban. I've also heard stories that asking for cancellation of items can get you a lifetime ban. And I've also heard stories that if you ask nicely and well in advance then you can get a cancellation with just a warning to not get too comfortable cancelling orders. I have done one cancellation with AmiAmi. I had pre-ordered Vol 1 of Yamato 2202 thinking it would be like 2199 and have english subtitles. A month before the release of the BD, it was announced 2202 would not be released with English subs. So, I sent an email to AmiAmi explaining my reasoning for wanting a cancellation of that item. They cancelled the order and sent me back an email saying they were cancelling for me as a courtesy and to not do it again. I wouldn't say I'm a big customer for AmiAmi, but I'm a fairly regular one. They're currently my first stop for figures and such. But my recommendation? Don't order from AmiAmi unless you are absolutely sure you're going to carry through with the order.
  12. GabrielV

    Hi-Metal R

    I had no idea this was coming. I'm not a Hi-Metal R fan, and hadn't checked this thread for a while (last time was back when I was pondering whether to PO the Anniversary VF-1S as a gateway into the HMR line). But I'm doing my standard morning check of AmiAmi, and I see the VF-2SS there. My heart sinks as I click it, because I know it's already sold out. And it is. I managed to get a PO in at CD Japan, though. It looks like I created an account there 4 years ago and never ordered anything. So, hopefully this will be a smooth experience. I just want a VF-2 I can play with. I'm not angry about the Evolution Toy version as others are, but it is a supreme bummer that it's the least swooshable of all my VFs. The last time I took it down to take a photo of it (not even handle it, just photograph it on it's stand), I had a bitch of a time trying to get the legs to stay pegged in. It's been transformed to battloid once and then back to fighter as it is currently displayed, and I have no idea when it will ever be transformed again. Even my next most fragile and finicky one (the VF-19 Advance) has been transformed back and forth half a dozen times. It disappoints me, because I already had a VF-2 I could never touch because of fragility (my old model kit), but at least the Evolution Toy version still makes me happy by sitting as the centerpiece of my Valkyrie shelf.
  13. Hikaru Strike / Red and black for me.
  14. Some company simply needs to remake the big Gakkens. I'd buy one.
  15. GabrielV

    Bandai DX VF-31

    I take it this pre-order was quite a bit worse than the normal Valkyrie PO shenanigans? I'll say this. At least it wasn't like my first Volks Dollfie Dream event. That was VolksUSA in mid 2015. The server for their webstore was not up to the challenge at all. I spent two hours trying to refresh the page on that one, sometimes even managing to get something into my cart before everything crashed again. At least with this there were other options. I had been sitting on AmiAmi and refreshing the page every second for about the last 15 seconds before order start time. As soon as the pre-order button came up, I clicked it. And I got a message that the item was out of stock. So, it was only available for a split second. Thankfully the link to the HLJ listing was posted. If not for that, I wouldn't have been able to order one. The catch is that even though I had a HLJ account set up, the only thing I've ever ordered there was a Sylvie VF-2SS, and I cancelled the pre-order. Hopefully they won't kill my VF-31C pre-order or put me at such a low priority I won't get the item because of that.
  16. GabrielV

    Bandai DX VF-31

    And... I have an order confirmation! Yay! Sleep. Must have sleep.
  17. GabrielV

    Bandai DX VF-31

    Thanks both of you who posted this. I submitted an order, but I didn't get any email confirmation and I don't see anything in my account on the store. Screw it. I'm going back to bed.
  18. GabrielV

    Bandai DX VF-31

    Same here. It was literally only available for a fraction of a second.
  19. GabrielV

    Bandai DX VF-31

    Sorry if this is a stupid question, but where will Mirage's VF-31 go up for pre-order on April 3rd at 4PM Tokyo time?
  20. Wow. This is an old thread. I'll just chime in to say that the original Dirty Pair just never clicked for me. I tried to watch a couple of the movies and just didn't enjoy them. I've never seen the series, comics, or any novels. I do like Dirty Pair Flash, though. I think the second OAV (the Worlds World story) is the best one. I enjoyed Touma as a supporting character. The random stories of the Random Angels OAV were mostly fun too. I have mixed feelings about the first OAV as it was played a bit too serious and straight. I liked Dirty Pair flash better when it was being a bit wacky. I felt the show did a good balancing act and served as a bridge between western action adventure animation and anime, and kind of flipped the bird at both as it drove by.
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