Pontus

They seem to be doing re-runs of the most popular sets, 000, 101, and 102F. There's also a reseller on ebay who seems to have all of them, but he wants almost double the price. I made the mistake of buying a 102F off of him thinking that these were a limited run thing like most Macross stuff seems to be... then the very next week Fext came out with more of that exact model.

Oh! I see the difference now, thanks for the clarification. Hm, which one would I want... I like having the missiles and... well otherwise, it doesn't look that much different and the kai version isn't canon is it (why even do that)? But the listing on ebay has a pic that looks like a development model which doesn't have the black stripes or missiles, so who tf knows.

I thought those pics looked familiar when I was looking at the 1/72 kits today! What does "kai" mean?

Show.z says late August 2019.

Show.z store has a preorder for the same valk.

I saw these and was intrigued, but I'm not familiar with Macross Delta. I'd love to watch it, but it's really expensive. But I love this figure/valk thing and thought it was a great idea... until I noticed that the girl isn't any of the characters???! Is that right, or is it some other character? Anyway, that got me to thinking, what character WOULD be with it. It seems Hayate and Freyja were an item, so that would make a good pairing, right? I wonder if there's an action figure of Freyja that's generally the right size... And it seems that answer is YES! An SH Figuarts Freyja is 135mm tall, and it looks like the Aoshima figure is 150mm. Does anyone have either figure to take measurements of? What would be required to make Freyja's dress a little more flexible? And now I'm thinking, what about a Lynn/VF-1J pairing? I wonder if I could hack a 1/72 model to hold my Kitzconcepts figure in a similar manner. Hmm...

Those Transformers look amazeballs, but if they don't transform... are they really "transformers"? Just saying. Let the downvotes commence.

Sorry for bogarting this thread, but this is a lot of fun. Doesn't anyone else play with their toys? Max and Miria were getting their marital issues worked out in a constructive way through "combat exercises" today:

We need a "build-a-valk" store! With an online app to custom design it, and then they build it for you.

Oh yeah, I found it now, thanks. Sorry for bringing up stuff that's already been covered (including my bs theories, lol).

They probably include differences so that they can claim plausible deniability. Maybe they're using old molds or something. What are the differences? But then how do you explain the next preorder being a Bandai knock off?

I have a theory. Aren't all the Yamato and Arcadia toys made in China? I just looked on Anymoon.com and yes, there by the UPC, "made in China". They probably build them in bulk and then sort out the good ones for Arcadia, ship them to Japan, and then sell off the seconds as "knock offs" instead of throwing them away wastefully. When building something this complicated involving molding, assembly, painting, etc., you can't get everything perfect every time. There's going to be some seconds, probably a lot. Or they may be getting returns from Arcadia as they inspect prior to packaging (although they probably package in China too). If Arcadia complains, what are they going to do? Make it themselves? HAH! Yeah right. Find someone else to make them? Good luck with that. Speaking of which, do you really think there's some OTHER factory in China making these knock offs? Probably not.

IT ARRIVED! And my head cannon was broken, but I don't mind. The hips were completely immobile, but I just loosened the screws. And the glue failed on the orange arm cannon cover. I didn't have much probs transforming it. I had the same problem as others with a stiff spine cover (?) but you just have to press a finger behind the head and squeeze the backpack together. It also seemed to help having the head slid back far enough.

I finally got 2 of 3 of my orders from Japan including a YF-19 full set. My SDF-1 anatomy and papercraft book seems to be lost somewhere between here and Jersey despite coming in the same shipment as the Queadluun. Unfortunately, I got a broken head cannon. Also, the queadluun hip joints are quite loose. But ah well, now to transform this awesome valk...

Not to disparage your work but rather the design here... is he wearing slipper sandals with white socks? Is that really what their boots look like? Man he is ready to do battle... in COMFORT! I guess that's not any more ridiculous looking than those shoulder pads. Are those flood lights under there?

I was walking by some ribbon on the shelf... is that 1/60 gun sling strap?! Flattened a bit of copper wire out and made a buckle. I noticed two pairs of holes on either end of the gun for strap connections. Rolled in some paperclip rings, and... Tada!

DIRECT HIT! Good thing he's got that sweet armor. He recovered quickly though.

Manual cannon deployment! "Am I doing this wrong?"

Well I'll be damned. I did NOT notice that on mine as it was very stiff and the back of the connector popped out instead of the extra joint popping up. I just looked at my cannon and, although I had to hold it down on its mount while forcing it around to get it to pop, sure enough, it popped up this time. Well, anyway, I like my way much better. Why have an extra joint that puts stress on the cannon mount points instead of just allowing the hinge to extend down farther? Plus, that's not quite 90°, and with the extra joint, mine now comes past that down to right beside the head. Anyway, thanks for the tip! Wow, I love this toy more and more every time I play with it!

Ok, from the description, I thought the workshop was more for modeling, but if this needs to be moved in there, that's cool. I guess that's why I didn't see much of it here, duh. I saw the maintenance thread which is why I thought it appropriate for this here. I was concerned about maybe making it too broad and thought maybe I'd limit this to 1/60 mods but talked myself out of it. Would it be better if I just made my own thread in the workshop? I'm just a big fan of reference threads where people can find scattered info in one place.

I was dissatisfied with the amount of angle you got with the strike cannon. It didn't seem to be all that useful for a cannon to only have about 15° of range: So I took out my trusty exacto knife and got to work: Much better now. It may be a cannon, but it doesn't have to be canon! Then I noticed that the arm missiles weren't glued in place, but they also don't come out. So I took the two screws out, disassembled, and noticed that all I needed to do was shave down the sides a bit. Be careful though - if you shave too much off, they'll just fall out, and if you shave too little, they will pry the sides apart and stress the little screws. I did too much on one side, but a little creative melting of the tab fixed that right up. I think they need some additional detail too... someday.

If there's already a thread for this topic, I was unable to find it in a quick search, but please let me know and I will continue there. What hacks/mods have you done to your valks? Have you done any repairs that have left the valk improved over stock? (although I don't mean for this to become a repair/maintenance thread) Has anyone added lighting or even electronics? If you already have a project thread about this, post a link and I'll add it here for reference. Perhaps we can make this a sticky reference post for all hacks/mods if this is a thing people do a lot of or are interested in. If not, enjoy my own mods in the next posts. I'll reserve this first post for links to project threads or posts below. Feel free to post your own below and I'll link those here as well. Personally, being Mr. Fixit for just about everything and working in the repair field, I'm not squeamish about taking things apart and making them better if possible, although I do suffer from a condition known as "scope creep" among vehicle project circles where the scope of a project tends to creep unsustainably larger until you've got a monster you can never hope to tackle. Just ask my motorcycle and camping van. And this new obsession is no different as I'm already forming big plans for lighting and modding my 1/60 VF-1S and making a large, well lit SDF-1 model (that hopefully transforms) based on the papercraft model. Anyway, I'm eager to see what others have done and hoping we can share ideas and do cool things. Cheers!

Also, if you have issues like @jenius describes in his review where your tail section never lays flat, you can make a little slot where the backpack thrusters meet the... wing base? Anyway, cut a slot there and it will snap together in fighter mode much better. Also note the aforementioned pin off the right on the chest piece - much better than tiny plastic ones.

On mine, the tiny plastic pins broke on the piece that allows the chest to assume fighter or battroid position. At first, I tried to find a tiny drill bit and put a pin in from a piece of paperclip, but then I realized it was plastic and that, being in electronics repair, I had sharp dental picks and a soldering iron. Worked wonders. You can see the pin I installed in my pics if you look at the chest piece. It's a PITA to get that little plastic piece to snap back into the body tho and it comes out easily. I'm thinking of putting in another pin there.