HardlyNever

Unfortunately, the price on those Regults isn't THAT out of line of where they are at places like Mandarake, YA Japan, etc.  It is high, but not ridiculously so.  I definitely regret not buying more than one of those at pre-order price.

The Roy is just insane, like others said, there is something weird going on with the sale history there.

Finally put on the runner parts, and now I have "runner part finger ache."  There seemed to be inordinate amount of parts on the ARMDS; I thought there would be more parts for the main body.  It really seemed like some of those parts could have been included in the main mold, as well, not sure why we had to put so many of those details on.

I'm also worried about not being able to get the bridge off when I want to pack this thing up to move.  I sanded down the screw cover just a hair and now it is in there really snug.  Maybe some tape can get it off?  I guess I'll worry about that later.

http://tamashii.jp/special/macross/yf-19/

It is just different/more tampo.  The only improvement to the mold itself seems to be they added a rotation point at the knee.

The canopy is also the split canopy design of the yf-19.

10 hours ago, no3Ljm said:

Hahaha! Well, he did say he liked the Tomahawk and Phalanx more than the other Defenders — in which also does the same “standing there shooting at things” poses.  

 

True, but:

1. I like the overall design of the Tomahawk and Phalanx more.

2. They at least have opening/closing missile bays.  And maybe we'll even get swap-out missile doors for the phalanx (unlikely).

But I'll admit it is more subjective than anything.  I just don't really care for the design of the defender.

I'll probably pass on the valkyrie one, but if they made this:

I'd be down.  Might even buy a second Glaug for it.

It goes in the "crotch" of attack mode.  It covers the hole where the display stand plugs in.

I'll be the voice of opposition against the destroids, I suppose.  I bought into them with the expectation that the full line of them would be made, so I wanted a complete set.  It so happens that the two they haven't made (tomahawk and phalanx) are my two favorite designs, and I imagine Bandai has an idea that at least the tomahawk is the most desirable one, generally speaking, and are deliberately withholding it to get people to buy the less popular ones.  

I don't hate the destroids, but I can't say they are that fun or engaging for me.  It isn't that they are poorly made, it is that they are pretty bland and intentionally designed to be background characters, to some degree.  So when you get one out of the box, there really isn't a lot to do with it.  The defender is the biggest offender in this category, as it basically can only do various "standing there shooting at things" poses.  Again, they are well made, and they deliver anything you could realistically want from a destroid, it just there isn't much you could realistically want.  Even the monster feels pretty basic after you get over the initial "wow this is big and awesome" moment.

So yeah, they designed well, but also pretty boring.  If Bandai doesn't make the entire line of them, they will be one of the first things I sell.  If we do get the entire line, I'll probably keep everything (even that lame ass defender).

Understandable.  I have really young nieces and nephews visit sometimes, and it is crazy how fast they will run at this stuff to check it out.  Luckily all my collection is behind glass so nothing happens, but even the cat isn't allowed in the same room as the collection unsupervised. 

7 hours ago, jenius said:

Yeah... I won't be doing that. I also just put my toys away after a review so the work just isn't worth it.

So the entire anymoon collection is just sitting in storage?  I'm not sure why, but that makes me mildly uncomfortable... 

To each their own, of course.

NY's reputation definitely took a hit with their handling of the Kairos.  I can understand if you got burned by them, you don't want to give them your business anymore.  But it is pretty well known that their lower prices come at the cost of customer service.  It is just their customer service was especially bad for the 31A.

I haven't been burned by them (or any retailer) yet, but I think the lesson for me out of this is just to use Nippon Yasan for more readily available releases.  I just got a PF sdf-1 from them with no issue at all. 

But none of my DX Chogokin pre-orders are with them, and I'll probably never pre-order the really hard to get items from them now.  I think it is about choosing the right retailer for the product in question, but I can understand if some people never want to use them again for anything.

7 minutes ago, Arthurius said:

Having alot of difficulties with the VF-1s messer for changing to fighter mode.  The legs wont peg into the arms or all line up well, and i now have paint scratch / removed on the peg of the leg that connects to the arms.

Are they all like this?  Gerwalk works really great, but pretty disapointted i cant do fighter mode with my valk.  Any tricks?  Forget about tabbing and just sit loose?

On the bright side, this is about the only scale i can actually manage to display valks in gerwalk mode.

Hard to tell without a picture, but make sure the arms are in the right spot.  They need to be fully recessed on their joints, and the "shoulder" needs to be slide upward toward the head.

It will definitely be interesting to see how the secondary market treats this.  I think the entire Arcadia premium finish thing is a big question mark right now, in terms of long-term value, because it only started last year, and the production runs seems pretty low.  I wonder how the market will value the extra tampo and detailing over the next few years.  I'm also interested to see how much that varies between each product.

I think you're fine waiting another week, but I wouldn't wait much longer than that if you really want one.  I don't really see this getting a discount, but there might be a few that end up back at pre-order prices if retailers just can't move the remaining ones.  I doubt there is much supply out there, but demand is pretty niche.

Also got mine from NY.  No issues, and was packed well.

23 minutes ago, RED WOLF said:

No reviews of this guy yet?

The existing reviews of the non-pf version will give you an idea on what the mold does transformation, articulation and gimmick-wise.  None of that has changed. 

There are plenty of pictures in this thread from various people, that should give you an idea on how "premium" this finish is.  

I gave my initial thoughts and a couple pictures a few replies back.  As someone that never had the regular yamato/arcadia sdf-1, I was very impressed with the look right out of the box.  This piece is probably the most detailed Macross collectible I own, in any scale.  Handling was a little rough for me out of the box, but like anything else, it should loosen up a bit over time.

Is it worth the almost $600 price tag?  That will always be a subjective answer, but I gave myself permission to "forget" about the price tag on this particular purchase.  If you're looking for bang-for-your-buck fun, this piece isn't it, as almost any 1/60 valk will give more "fun" per-dollar.  But if you love the sdf-1 and want something that is going to look amazing on display, this definitely delivers in spades.

Got mine in today.  Out of the box, I was definitely impressed with the level of detail overall.  Very few piece that I own made such a good impression right from the get-go.  When handling it, there was the ubiquitous "unreasonable amount of force required" and "one side much stiffer than the other" that has been the hallmark of Arcadia releases, for me at least.  The topcoat was probably contributing that to some degree, but it is still annoying to constantly have this issue with Arcadia.  But those are minor complaints, overall I'm very impressed with the build and detailing, and I'm looking forward to putting in all the runner pieces this weekend.

Seems mostly complete.  Few things:

1.  The Armored VF-1J is technically the DYRL release of it, as the pilot is a DYRL pilot (not Hikaru).

2.  You could argue the Regults belong in the "Common" section, depending on what exactly you believe is going on with the "greenness" of the DYRL Regults.  They definitely appear more white/gray in some shots of the movie, and more green in others.  I personally doubt we'll ever see green Regults in the HMR line, but I know they have been done in other lines.

3.  There is also the 35th anniversary Messer scheme.  Not sure what you want to consider that.

4 hours ago, Convectuoso said:

It's disappointing to see that this was the reason he was drawing an N-GER before. At first I thought it was a sign of the HMR N-Ger being released soon, but it was just for this box art. 

Eh, they aren't mutually exclusive.  The N-Ger was heavily featured in the last HMR promotion, so I wouldn't give up hope yet.

This was posted about a month ago:

Same shipping notice from NY. Not sure how golden week affects postal service in Japan.  

I'll be happy if I get it sometime next week.

Looking great 

Thanks for the info about the topcoat, sounds like it was best case scenario.  Will hopefully be getting a copy next week?  Maybe?

Yeah... I wouldn't worry about Bandai going bankrupt... they are doing fine.

Ironically, it is Arcadia I'd be more worried about going out of business, and they don't do any of this pre-order madness.  I'm not saying Arcadia is in trouble, but between Bandai and Arcadia, Arcadia is the much more vulnerable company, and you can get their releases without any issue.

As others have said, there are a multitude of reasons why Bandai might do it like this.  Brand management is very much a thing, as well.  Being the creator of a hot item that generates a lot of buzz can be worth a lot more than the actual profit you might make on selling another 500-1000 units.  Business and marketing aren't necessarily as straightforward as you're (Bahamutzyro) implying.

Also got "preparation in progress" from NY.

I'm still wondering about the top-coat situation.  I highly doubt the pieces on sprues are top-coated, is the main body even top-coated?  I feel like we might have been bamboozled on that.

I think the twitter was asking "where is this?" as in, it was teased a while back (not sure how long ago) and hasn't been seen since.

I'm not exactly sure when that pic was originally taken.

4 minutes ago, Slave IV said:

Once again, ME overthinking and overanalyzing. 

You guys see the support arm underneath the Valk right?

Sure, I'm talking about working as seen in the anime (i.e. no extra support).

But I did just go test out my HMRs, and they held up surprisingly well to being held just by the fast packs.  I wouldn't want to have them that way long term, but I could see a 1/100 scale toy possibly pulling it off, if it was something they planned for in advance.

41 minutes ago, anime52k8 said:

And you could totally make a functional launch arm stand, the problem is the toy would have to be designed to work with it, (a backpack that locks in place securely in fighter mode and connection points on the boosters for the claw to engage with) which nobody has done.

Ehhh... I'm not seeing it.  If you designed a toy from the ground up with this functionality in mind, then maybe.  But you would have to beef up the backpack connection to the rest of the body, and the connection between fast packs and backpack so much, you would really be making some pretty big visual compromises.

As a stand-alone release with a non-transformable valk, it could work.  As an accessory for a valk that has to transform and look good in all 3 modes, I don't see it happening.  Try holding an HMR in fighter mode just by the fast packs, and the rest of the body will just fall down.  Maybe a regular HM valk could do it?  They had a more "locking" backpack.  But I still wouldn't be confident in leaving it being held just by the backpack for any long period of time.  You still would need a second point of support somewhere.

It is definitely a case of anime magic at work.  Plus it seems like it is designed to work in "less than Earth gravity," although how gravity works on the SDF-1, I have no idea.