armentage

Are there any 3rd party company (e.g. Toyhax, but not Toyhax, they don't) that offers labels for the Sentinel Mospeada and Legioss?

It's a huge bummer that the instrument cluster is blank.  Any these could use a little bit more surface detail and artwork.

17 hours ago, Anasazi37 said:

https://www.cgtrader.com/3d-print-models/hobby-diy/other/babylon-5-starfury-starfighter-3d-stl-printable-files

OH MY STARFURIES!

21 hours ago, Anasazi37 said:

Yeah, that's getting really close to the speed of the Bambu Lab P1P (256 x 256 x 256) that I purchased last December. Creality recently announced the K1, which is a little bit faster than everything else on the market. All of these options are making it a lot easier to do large prints in a decent amount of time. I bought mine so I can build really large starship models.

And soon enough, I'm sure we'll see 300^3 printers that run at these speeds! 

It IS very nice to print out giant starships...

Ankermate M5.  Prints 10x faster than all previous printers.  There are a few more like it coming out on to the market.

https://www.ankermake.com/m5

I bought a 300mm ^3 printer.   I thought it would come in handy for large modeling related prints.  However, the more standard 200cm ^ 3 printer would be sufficient for 98% of my prints.  

(The M5 is a 200cm ^3 printer!)

I'm looking for the super parts set for the Bandai 1/60 RVF-25 Revival version.  Please PM!

On 1/3/2021 at 3:54 PM, CHAVAKAISER said:

before and after

So I have a question - what happens if you get the peroxide mix over the painted parts of the figure?  Will it eat away or damage the paint?  How carefully must you be while applying it?

Interesting how the face-on sketch in the first photo looks A LOT like some of the Invid illustrations we saw in Kevin Siembieda's  original Robotech RPG books.  It's something about the way the arms look so big and heavy (or are those weapon stores hanging under the wings?) and the legs are spread apart at the same angles you saw frequently in Genesis Climber.

So... I guess those of us who ordered on BBTS continue to wait?  Should I be worried?  It's been months and the pre-order release date seems to keep slipping.  I'm kind of sad I cancelled my Nippon Yasan order

3 hours ago, VF-Zer0S said:

Because I’m dumb I spent 10 mins trying to decipher the third and forth word. Still nothing lol. Glad everything is ok. Looks like the Zentradi tried to blow it up

Which 3rd and 4th words?

22 hours ago, wmkjr said:

Super exclusive battle damaged cover edition.  Glad you, your house, and the valk are safe.  

Ooh!  I was thinking the hole looked like a "Reflex Blast" (excuse my Robotech, but I read those damn novels as a kid and the word is stuck in my head)

I shall sell this on Ebay at a giant premium!

So, I setup my 1/48 VF-1J box up on my dining room table to swap out some hands.   I began to smell something funny, and then noticed something horrible had happened...

I HAD PUT THE BOX OVER A CANDLE.  IT DID NOT END WELL FOR THE BOX.

The Valk is fine though.

Notice how the hole is almost perfectly round!

Can someone give me a link to the right display stands for the HiMetal R VF2SS?  I want something that will connect to the mounting pieces that came with the toy.

TL;DR Disappointing attempt,  4/10.  A floppy mess.

I got my VF2SS last night from Image Anime in NYC.  I'm sad to say that, overall, I'm not very impressed.  This is my first HiMetal anything, and I guess I wasn't prepared for the vastly inferior product it is compared to the DX Chokogin Valks.

The transformation is quite simple and very straight forward, once you figure out how to tuck away the head and backpack properly.  The joints are stiff... TOO STIFF!  Rather than quality ratchet joints, they are using insanely thight rivets that barely turn, putting a TON of stress on the toys structure as you try to position the arms.  Worse, they will obviously loosen over time and the toy will become crap.

In Battroid mode, the heat shield doesn't cleanly meet the canopy, leaving a lot of glass visible.   In fighter mode, the legs and arms lock together for SOME structure, but the combined arm/leg structure has nothing to lock in to, and thus is constantly flexing around.  Nothing ever lines up!

The hands tuck away so badly it is better to just leave them visible in fighter mode.  They include a pair of ridiculous, tiny hands, that just BARELY fit inside the arms when tucked away.  They don't really look like hands at all, but little grey bits of crap that just fall off when you touch them.  Better to just remove them in fighter mode and store them.

The SAP is also quite floppy.  The joints are tight, but there's just too much toy for a PVC joint to work.  I just can't get the wings to stay parallel with each other, the gun to point straight, etc.

Paint apps are almost non-existant; there is just the red stripes on the chest, and a few little ports/plugs on the limbs.  I dare say the 1/100th Bandai kit from 1992 had more stickers.

I don't think any of these problems are QC issues; rather it's just an overly complex design that was executed quite poorly.  

So I recently came across this post and I'm really interested in trying it out....

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=899984

Basically, this guy is using hydrogen peroxide hair developer creme instead of the usual home brew hydrogen peroxide & oxy clean solution.  The creme is nice and thick, sticking to the plastic instead of running off of it.  Doesn't seem to damage color either!

I'm going to try some of this on the awful VF-25, and perhaps a little patch on my Gakken Mospeada.

What kills me is all of the modern pieces that are covered in tampo art.  I could totally see myself (gently) bleaching the white back into the yellowed parts on most of the holder Yamato or early Bandai toys.   The modern toys from Bandai in particular are a different story!  I'm sure the hydrogen peroxide mixtures people use would completely remove the tampo artwork along with the yellow.

Perhaps there will be a nice secondary market in replacement decals to restore the detail lost during a deyellowing session.

3 hours ago, Sandman said:

Some people of this forum have mentioned yellowing on the renewal vf-25F and VF-171 ex alto. I've also seen a few yellowed on yahoo auctions japan.

I have the VF-171 Alto Ex.  I have had it on display in a china cabinet for about 3 years, dangerously close to sunlight.   I can confirm that it has in fact yellowed A BIT.  It's somewhat noticable, especially if you compare the plastic to newer, whiter pieces.   However, it is very, very subtle.  Nothing like the what has happened to the VF-25F.  It's really just deplorable.  It's not like they don't know which plastics yellow and which ones don't; or perhaps, it isn't the most talented mechanical engineering graduates that wind up designing toys for insane adults with too much time/money on their hands?

I just took my original 2008 Bandai VF-25 Messiah out of it's box for the first time in about 7 years.   Things have not gone so well inside the box...

This is the original Messiah, not the Renewal DX version.   I had it on a shelf out of direct sunlight for about 3 or 4 months back in late 2009, and it's been its box ever since.  The last time I saw it, I was dismayed by a slight difference in the whiteness of the nose-cone area.    I took it out to zoom around the living room yesterday and was pleasantly surprised!  The industrious mimsy's that live in my closet decided to give it a touch up.

Turning the Messiah over, I was treated to an more yellowy goodness:

Even the interiors of the wheel wells were not safe from the yellowy hands of time:

Glad I could share this.   I've been carrying this thing around from home to home for about 30 years now!

THE TIME TO REMEMBER HAS COME!  REMINISCE!!!!

I present to you a scan of the entire 1987 Books Nippan catalog that somehow found its way to me.  I was 12 at the time, and I'm not quite sure how or why this catalog showed up at my house.  I've always thought it was because I mailed away for a copy of the Robotech BGM, but I didn't realize at the time I was buying it from Books Nippan.

As a kid growing up in suburban New Jersey in the 1980's, this catalog was the only window I had to world of Anime and Japanese Sci-Fi.  I would study the catalog, memorizing every detail about the terrible, low quality black-and-white photo copied cover art work featured in this catalog.  I'd wonder what words like "MOOK" or "Perfect Collection" meant!   When I received this catalog, the only anime I had seen at the time was Voltron, Robotech, and G-Force.

My 12 year old brain didn't know what to make of "Call Me Tonight"!
 

Here's a link on Facebook if you don't want to download it:
https://www.facebook.com/armen.nakashian/media_set?set=a.10209672122821821.1073741854.1292079797&type=3&notif_t=like&notif_id=1500816911286233

And here are the original scans as Jpg's in a single zip file if you are interested!

books-nippan-1987.zip

*bump*  22-Jul-2017.  Added Some new items!

BUMP!!!

DE-LURK!!  

SOMETHING IS COMING..... YOU WILL ALL BE VERY PLEASED....

STAY TUNED FOR MORE!

(07/18/2017   EDITED!   Updated auctions)

I've gone and put a baby in the wife, and now we need to sell some of my collection off to make room for diapers and such!     

I'm running auctions on EBAY, there's simply too much to repeat here.   Please check out my auctions page!

https://www.ebay.com/sch/armentage/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_ipg=&_from=

All items are in new condition unless otherwise stated!  Check out the auction pages for more details.

Third-Party Transformers

Fansproject Causality - All five pieces of the Menasor set.   There's a piece missing, so I've set the price far below market!
http://www.ebay.com/itm/-/222587256150?

Third-Party Transformers
Mastermind Creations KM02 Knight Morphers ANNIHILATOR 
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mastermind-Creations-KM02-ANNIHILATOR-Used-/222589770708?hash=item33d3625bd4:g:aH0AAOSwYvFZNCqg

Google Glass!
Original Explorer Edition Google Glass.   Not exactly mecha, but it does feel like you're living sci-fi when you wear it!
http://www.ebay.com/itm/222586204107?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1558.l2649

Model Kits

AMT ERTL Enterprise-B 1/1000th scale kit
http://www.ebay.com/itm/222590262787?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1558.l2649

Academy F-22a 1/72nd scale (ends July 26th 2017)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/222586156067

Robotech Art Books
Robotech Art 2 
http://www.ebay.com/itm/222590180455?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1558.l2649

Robotech Art 3
http://www.ebay.com/itm/222590184198?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1558.l2649

I got my ship notification from CDJapan today!

Klan was meant to be some sort of "interesting" play on the idea of the loli girl, juxtaposed with a hyper feminized giantess, all in one. She was obviously a fan-service sex object for both fetishes.

The idea that it's some how "abnormal" to lust after childish looking women is simply incompatible with Japan and Anime culture. However, I don't think there's any reason to pretend that this isn't what is happening in Frontier.