Slave IV

When you guys use the app, is there a specific AJ app or is there a way to set the regular app to Jp mode?

Nice! You chose wisely. It is a fantastic figure.

Or....spray the whole Valk to give it a gloss coat?

Beautiful setup @sh9000!

Can you get the product out in liquid form to apply by dropping with a toothpick or q tip? You probably should have tested it on something else first but it will likely work if used properly. I suspect if you sprayed a thin wide mist, it isn’t going to do anything. You need to get the liquid and drip it directly into the joint. Then move the joint around to get it fully coated. Then don’t touch it for a full day to let it cure. Then try it out, you should feel a difference. If not enough, repeat the process. You may need to do it two or three times although I’ve never needed more than one coat. As for cleaning it off, I have no idea what those parts are as far as painted or not, mine is still shipping. But you should be able to use some warm soapy water to clean it off.

Nice! Me too. As in getting the notice. I’ve bought a few things from AJ now.

I don’t care about PF or not and I don’t care about matching all PF or not. But I think if they can produce PF. Just make everything PF and forget about the PF distinction and consider all your products “premium”. I suppose the reason they did it is because they were not offering PF to begin with so they wanted a way to introduce it. I bet if they just came out with new Valks with PF treatment and said they were advancing their techniques to offer a better product into the future, people would have bitched about that since all the later Valks wouldn’t match the older ones. Either way, people will bitch so why not do it the way that makes them more money? As for their pricing, it seems perfectly reasonable for a small operation that basically only produces a few at most products a year to sustain its extremely niche business. There is no way anyone who understands anything about economics can expect them to be able to match Bandai’s pricing for similar products.

If you got the initial order sold by Amazon, doesn’t the order say “arriving sept 24-27”. If so, I wouldn’t even begin to worry about it until Oct 1.

I go my preorders at NY and AJ. Yeah, I definitely need multiples of this one for my collection.

OK, that's the sense I've got from reviews so far. Thanks! It has about the same desireability to me as the 1/60 KO figures which means a sub $100 buy point for a VF-1 w/ SS Parts.

I think the HMR GBP is to date, the finest implemetation of the armor out of all the different releases inluding the 1/48 and 1/60 Yamato designs (although the valk itself, I prefer the big boys). Everything fits together like butter and it is nice and solid when finished.

Looks like you got your answers but to reiterate, regular preorders will go up at shops starting around or right at 4 pm JST on the day of opening preorders. A few sites like amiami and Hobby Search will have the listings show up shortly before they open and they usually open right on the dot. Other shops will trickle in and it is usually in the order of CDJ, HLJ within a few minutes from 4 pm and then Nippon Yasan and Anime Export will usually come up around an hour or two later. You need to have tabs open for all your options and frefresh constantly if you want to have a chance at getting an order in. If the release is a Tamashii Web Exclusive, no worries...only NY and AE will have it available and there is no rush because the orders stay open for some time. AE usually closes before Bandai's announced dtae, NY will stay open sometimes even to release day but usually around a month before release. Other option for TWE items is to use a proxy service like FRomJapan who will purchase the item for you direct from Bandai, and also charge for their service. It's pretty reasonable but I find using NY is usually chaeper and easier. TWE items are all pay up front. Normal releases are pay around release date except at AE where everything is pay up front.

Excellent move! The HMR GBP is a fantastic piece! So well done. I hope they make more variants of it.

If you are lucky enough to grab the 1S off a preorder cancellation from HLJ, CDJ, HS or maybe amiami, it won't be overpriced. Most of them will offer the initial preorder price. The reason I say maybe for amiami is I think they already raised the price on their listing for it compared to what the initial preorder price was. Still, it's just listed at MSRP, which can't be considered "overpriced". I still need to secure a 1S for myself.

Wise move. Expect the cheapest shipping to be around $50 though. Either way, worth it!

Cool! Are you saying it doesn't even come close to HMR quality in your opinion? I still haven't brought myself to buying one of these and if that's what you are saying, I may never buy one. Either way, I'm hoping the price drops before I make any decision. Nice Ed!

Fixed that fo ya! By the way, welcome to the craze. This 1A madness will be nothing compared to the massacre that goes down when the 1S is released. Unlike most people it seems, I actually want this Max more than the previous 1J or the upcoming 1S. Good thing I had it preordered since the first few seconds it went up so I'll just wait for mine to arrive whenever that is.

Thanks! Hmmmm, do I have the Blue Carrera? I think so but it must be in a whole different location.

My latest pickups: Then I finally decided to compile "some" of my more recent random HW purchases: I thought that was it but found some more: Then I noticed one of them was a TH: Well I'll be damned! I guess I did come across a TH and never even knew it! Since this is not even the tip of the iceberg in HW I have in just recent years, I wonder if I have any others? BTW, did I ever say I was an insane hoarder? WTF am I going to do with all these things!

Yeah, the Zeta Robot mode really blows Hasbro's away. I love the working mouth in planet mode Hasbro has but I'll most likely want this usually in Robot mode and for some reason, I really love that jaw gimmick Zeta added. The compartments are a nice thought but seem almost worthless. It really would be close to perfect if it was bigger.

We can't say definitelvy which is best but we can clearly see asthetic and transformation differences that we can easily state which we prefer. As you say, no need to discuss much further here other than what they have showed me is I probably don't want either of the options proposed so far.

Thanks for the details. I've been trying to read the threads on both but there are hundreds, if not thousands of pages I'm behind on at this point so after reading 10-20 pages of people bitching, it gets old, lol. I haven't gotten to anything about transformation or any of that yet. I do hate and mentioned it earlier about MP-44 how TT and in effect, Hasbro is beggining to make everything a shellformer or fold former. That technique is pretty lame in my book. I'm much more interested in transformations that take creativity to figure out how to use existing parts to move into where they need to go to complete the transformation, the way all these characters were designed. If transforming was just constantly folding parts until you come up with something else, anything can transform into anything and there would be no point in the way the bot looks if all those parts are "fake" panels anyways. I've had the old Unicron figure since it originally came out and I never opened it because it never seemed like a great toy to me but at that time, I settled for the $30-$50 it cost me (don't remember the exact cost but it was cheap) because that price point is acceptable to me fr what I was getting. $300+, let alone $500-$600 needs to be a real friggin masterpiece and I don't see either option as being such although I have no idea what Zeta is asking for theirs yet. I'm not worried about time frames. I was collecting when Transformers and Macross first came out, I'm still collecting to this day and I will be collecting in the forseeable future. There is always something great coming out and usually more things than I can or should be able to handle so no need to settle anymore.

Nice Great Mazinger! I need to open mine.

Thanks for the details! I was just hoping for variety since the two I've opened so far have the bombs.

Nice! I got my money on the Brood. @sh9000, Do any of those F-14s have Phoenix Missiles?