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2 hours ago, SuperHobo said:

I LOVE this laser image. Hilarious! 

6 minutes ago, Sildani said:

Repressed initiative in the collective unconscious?

56 minutes ago, kkx said:

I am still very bumped out to missed the metal club JG sazabi. Been trying to find if there is anyone still selling even with some markup. But found nothing below $400.

Pinged Showz and they finally replied yesterday saying that they did ordered a second batch and they are waiting for development. So I think it is unlikely that any new item will be made. The factory and mold would most likely be gone forever.  

I'm also waiting for this as well. Hopefully this isn't the same group that got raided and shut down. I think this is more of a 'model with metal parts' like the Sinanju that just came out instead of like a true Metal Build. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong here.

30 minutes ago, DYRL VF-1S said:

I think COVID puts a wrinkle in all of this.  But just remember that last year we saw POs for TV Max 1A, DYRL Hikaru 1S, SSPs, and Missile reissue all from the 1/48 line.  So, it will be interesting to see what happens.  The molds are there at this point for the main Valks so that's one less thing than there was at the beginning of last year.

The only mold I'm excited to see but haven't seen thus far is the GBP armor. There's also some mold changes that Bandai would need to create for VT-1 and VE-1 if they so chose to make those.

1 hour ago, Kyp Durron said:

Any idea as to what's coming next? I haven't bought any of these since I was waiting on Roy's VF-1S to come out, I don't plan on buying many of these, so I'm limiting myself to just one or two.

DYRL Kakizaki VF-1A will be released in August but that's all the news thus far. It was a P-Bandai exclusive.

1 hour ago, SuperHobo said:

Do you know what type of battery the Kampfer's mono-eye takes? 

I'm using Energizer 377/376 from Amazon. You can find this size at any drugstore. It's easier to install the battery by taking out the electronics part of the head. It's not glued or tabbed in or anything. Just sitting in there fitted to the head but loose. I found that out the hard way when I installed the batteries backwards and tried to fish them out with tweezers.. I couldn't the batteries out at all.. until the entire electronics assembly came out.

17 minutes ago, SuperHobo said:

Hot damn, my kampfer finally arrived at the post office it should get here either today or tomorrow. 

It's B.E.A-utifull and probably one of the best metal builds out there. The quality of joints, diecast content, and gimmicks exceed Bandai's official offerings. Poison Toys really knows how to copy the processes given to them, improve upon it, and apply it to something completely new and unreleased officially by other companies. Fantastic work and craftsmanship here. I wouldn't doubt it if the team from Poison Toys are made up of manufacturing engineers for factories that do make the official line of metal build toys for Bandai. It matches or exceeds the quality from Bandai and far exceeds the quality from Metal Club which do feel a bit like knock offs.

Great pic @Saburo!

This image kinda highlights the shoulder joint negatively as it looks too small. I wonder if there's anything technical there that I'm not seeing that would have prevented bandai from making that joint larger/thicker. 

As far as I know, both Japan's SAL and EMS are still not shipping until further notice. When flights do resume, I expect a huge amount of backlog having to be processed before any semblance of normalcy begins to take effect. I'm not expecting 'normal' to mean that I'll start receiving items like we used to in 1-2 weeks time. The normalcy I'm looking for is regular shipments and whatever that might look like in the foreseeable future.  

COVID-19 is here to stay but I fully expect people and businesses will learn and adapt to this new normal. 

1 hour ago, oshanmacross said:

Has anyone received shipping notice from MyKombini for their super parts?
Sent email Friday asking for status but no reply yet.
Earlier in the week they asked for another 350 yen stating the shipping was more than they expected ~_~

I have 2 SSPs with them (They apparently already have them) but haven’t received any additional email asking to pay for shipping. I was just going to ask them to hold off on shipping for now until things start turning normal. 

The subtle changes to the paint scheme are really nice and I'm almost tempted to get one to replace my original release. Almost, but not quite.  I'll wait and see if @Kuma Stylecan change my mind with his review.

4 minutes ago, RedComet said:

Well they won't LET you ship anything by Japan post or EMS but when things stuck in postal purgatory arrives also seems totally random. For example one EMS package that was shipped on April 9th showed up yesterday, while another of mine, shipped from the same location on the 4th has yet to make ANY updates in its progress. It almost seems as if they literally stacked up a mountain of boxes, then have had to work on slowly whipping things from the TOP of the pile 

Yeah, I have two items that I attempted to ship right at the beginning of April from AmiAmi and Mandarake and neither have seen movement. Guess they're at the bottom of the pile with yours.  

Holy crap. 4 months!? So shipping by boat is now the faster AND cheaper method of shipment?

For those still looking for the strike packs Amazon Japan will ship to your door for $146.40 shipped and it will arrive in 3-5 days despite the pandemic. FYI

https://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/product/B07T9FL5F7/ref=crt_ewc_img_srh_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A1O4RZPJ0KOOSM

This is a pleasant surprise. After one month sitting at the Shangai Airport, my Kampfer that I ordered from Show-Z is finally moving! 

I can't stand transforming Gundam. It's such a mess and full of compromises that make a relatively weak model even weaker and I say this as a fan of the Zeta, Zeta Plus, ZZ, and Ex-S designs. I hope one day Bandai releases non transformable versions of these kits, HG, RG, or MG. Bonus for PG.

9 minutes ago, RedComet said:

If you want a DX Roy VF-1S, that's exactly what my customs this summer will be. They won't be cell shaded, but they will be high quality. I am doing them all enamel for durability, with light weathering on that (unless people specify otherwise) then all sealed in a clear coat. Even doing small details like changing the cockpit name/rank and painting the figure helmets yellow. And you can have 2 of them complete for the price of one LEK

Tempting. Could you link to some examples of your work?

16 minutes ago, sqidd said:

I was going to pull the trigger in January. Then he let me know the wait time. I thought, "The world could end between now and then" ..................and then this happened. So the pandemic is my fault. Sorry guys.

I remember this comment... It IS your fault. You have a whole lot to answer for buddy!

Anyways, I might be down to do this on a VF-1S and an SDF-1. There is no deposit to hold a place in line in case you get cold feet or anything 2 years from now?

Really? My Kampfer has been sitting at the Shanghai airport since April 6 with no movement at all. I guess your Sazabi is less than 2kg?

I'm hesitant to order anything because losing a package is huge risk now. 

Even if they did ship, nothing is moving out of Japan other than through DHL. I have two packages that haven't moved for nearly a month now from Mandarake and Amiami even though technically they've shipped. I think NY will be taking advantage of that and delaying your shipment until after their golden week.

Well, the blue frame did come out after the red frame. With any luck they might have fixed the V-Fin fit issue. There is one major 'problem' I have with the Kai is the gap between the Kai backpack and the gundam itself. I would say it's roughly 1.5 - 2cm between the backpack and the gundam. It just looks so stupid.  It was so ugly that I just ended up putting  away the Kai add-on back in it's box the same day I got it and replaced it with the flight pack I already had instead. I don't know if I did something wrong but I'm not alone on this 'mistake'.

No picture on the internet seems to show this issue prominently anywhere that I've found.. It's only in video reviews that I've seen. You'll see what I mean in the video below ~31 minutes in.

That's a great price and yes your V-Fin description is accurate. It's worse on my red frame than the blue.

Loose connections? I'll have to check mine. Do you think you might have gotten a KO version?

http://www.gundammodelcenter.com/gundam-central-metal-build/metal-build-blue-astray-gundam-central

The only thing I noticed loose on mine was the V-Fin which is annoying as hell but I can't bring myself to glue it in.

I love the over-the-top weaponry on that blue astray. The red frame is mostly disappointing unless you get the Kai version or flight pack to go along with it.

4 minutes ago, Alan Molina said:

but it has more stickers specially the skull shield  in the back of the cockpit 

@Lolicon is known around here for improving his toys by adding missing decals, panel lining, and weathering. They just discussed painting the landing gear here just a few posts up. He was one of the first to modify his DX and normally takes his toys apart the day he gets them.