MKT

I acquired some of the harder to find CMs from Surugaya JP around 3 years ago. The green WF pilot figure does pop up, wouldn't say occasionally, but I've seen it 3-4 times in the roughly 1 year period I was stalking their page. WF Minmay even less than that, and I was internally debating for a long time when it did show up in-stock, but in the end I didn't pull the trigger since it didn't look different enough for me. Perhaps I should have...

Thanks for the update @Actar, appreciate it. @Mommar good to know that the gun can be level after all. Truth be told, as long as gun's slant more or less no worse than the current DX YF-19, I'm not so bothered by it either. Unless it's a big ass gun like the 29 or the 30, which will make them stick out more lol. It was just more of a growing curiosity since we are comparing closely what are improvements & changes that are being brought to this mold vs the DX YF-19 & Yamcadia's Kai.

Thanks for checking. Can the pivot work if the grip is slid rearwards, towards the butt? It looks like the barrel fin might just clear that black hump if so.

The grip pivoting out does look like it may change that gun issue completely. Hopefully we have more firsthand accounts of it soon.

When I look at this illustration again, it seems to work quite differently than the DX YF-19. In the YF-19, the barrel ahead of the grip is the one that bends to give it a straighter position. Here though, it's saying to bend the butt instead, behind the grip after sliding the grip forward. So instead of the barrel pointing straighter, it's the butt that tucks in tighter upwards at the rear. Or am I just confusing myself?

^^ Wotafa does spend a bit of time explaining on the mold's subtleties around the head. There's a neck joint that acts as a lock, and the head lasers have to be angled outwards first before they can be rotated. The shoulders purple diamond elegantly moving in and out of the way as the speakers are opened & closed is a very nice touch and makes up for the lack of rotating pilot seat.

It's interesting that both versions' overall sculpt turned out to be so similar, & the visual differences are just more of nitpicky ones. 1. The DX has the hump on the back where Yamcadia's doesn't. 2. Feet on DX looks better whereas the other looks a little lost. 3. DX has that big gap on both sides below the uniboob, whilst the Yamcadia (by extension, also the HMR) has that additional articulated flap to cover it. It'll be interesting to see if that gap becomes more of a conspicuous see-through when viewed from the side. 4. DX has a shorter forearm, which makes it look better, and nicer sculpt in that it tapers thinner from elbow to hands, whereas the Yamcadia is mostly same width. 5. I always wished the area below the knee pads on the Yamcadia is body colored - the black makes it look like there's a big gap there. Thankfully this is a not an issue on the DX.

Hmm for all the extra engineering Bandai did, it's kinda strange they missed on having the gunpod pointing straight in Fighter, and this perhaps may be the most crooked gunpod in DX history. Most of the other DXs released over the years have their gun pods aligned very well. In hindsight, I looked back at the PO pics and they never showed it mounted in Fighter lol.

I also keep hearing yes.. Yes.. YESSS! Feels like watching the wrong genre.

Looking at these pics now, the DX is like the PF Arcadia Kai we never got.

From Stone Cheung on FB:

The DX 19's cover collapsing into the shield was and still is quite cool, even though it didn't work for Gerwalk. I think Bandai can't do the same this time around, because the Kai's side head lasers will be in the way of the cover's extension arms.

Another small detail is that in Battroid the gap between the chest cover & nosecone has become more Yamcadia-like, compared to the DX 19. I assume this is due to what looks like more curvature given to the area immediately behind the cockpit in Fighter relative to the DX 19. Additionally, that odd cliff between the neck cover & head in Fighter some of us were concerned about earlier seems to be gone. Previous PO pic: New pics as per manual:

Not surprisingly, many of the engineering from the DX YF-19 has been carried over. The eccentric bendy gun for Fighter mode is kept here. I think we have noticed before how Bandai went the Arcadia route for leg proportions. The manual reconfirms the knee gap in Fighter, with leg shortening in Battroid for bulkier proportions. Earlier pictures seem to indicate Bandai got rid of the shin panel covers. However, the cover is still there but re-engineered into a simpler sliding cover instead of the previous swiveling panel. The previous solution is visually better though - it hides the whole cutout space completely, whilst the new solution hides the uglier parts but the cutout space remains. We get to see how the new integrated neck cover works. Although there is still some back collar showing in Battroid, overall I like how they attempted to solve the previously only partsforming feature of the DX 19. It's in keeping with the innovations they have introduced starting with the VF-19 Advance. (for eg, one feature I feel that's a bit underappreciated is how the front canards elegantly hide into the Battroid back spine) Barring any factory assembly QC issues, this looks like it will be a solid release.

First time hearing of a Galient, and it looks good & different.

These are pretty cool. I have a soft spot for Dreamcast, & am tempted to pick up handhelds that can play DC games.

From certain angles, the SV-262 Fighter can look a bit dumpy.. But I love everything else about this design. Keith's Hs still has the better colors overall, but I'm happy Bandai made Bogue's variant. Hopefully Bandai gives us the 262Ba before the release of the next Macross show. If Bandai wants to continue to be lazy the Ba would be a perfect VF for it - just needs light remolds on the wings and head.

Liking this mold more as time goes by.

These line of VFs actually look worse in color compared to when they were still in grey mold. I remember thinking this of the base 1J, and now this Tomahawk armored 1J. It's as if the color magnifies all the ugly detailing even more.

Yup, Priss on the Kusanagi CT-3X from Cyberpunk 2077.

Mostly likely will pick this one up after release, depending on how reviews go. Bandai can justify all they want the reason for this 17 taking Ozempic treatment, but the fact is they have acknowledged how the 17 is supposed to look like in their older 1/65.

Not really a pose, just it's the only one time I transformed the SV-51 CF many moons ago. This was when Yamato's products had nice sculpt, but not so much on the tolerances. It was pretty floppy, so thereafter it spent the rest of its years in Fighter. The Arcadia's SV-51 feels so much better in hand.

Had the same issue as well on my Fire Valk, on that particular panel not lining up on one side in Fighter. It's just due to the mega stiff hip joint that makes aligning that panel quite impossible unless hips are disassembled & lubricated.