Pontus

4 hours ago, Slave IV said:

I got notice about some "Rick" figure is about ready to ship from Kitzconcept. They wanted a confirmation response so just a heads up to check your email if you had this figure ordered.

Thank you very much for the reminder!  In my case, I ordered it on 7/2021 using an old email address I rarely check, so even though I have since changed and confirmed my new email address with them, they sent the confirmation to the old email which I don't check often anymore.  I would've missed it without your reminder. 

I really wanted to get this, but after Mandarake said it was 6600yen shipping tacked on, I just couldn't justify the purchase sadly.  Just remembered I haven't filed for my tax returns yet.  Guess I better get on that since I just changed my mind.  

Edit: Sorry if I teased anyone by posting the link and then buying it afterall.

Is it ok to contact them directly for purchase of individual kits instead of waiting for them to come up on ebay?  Or should I just buy what comes up and wait for them to list the ones I want one at a time?  I'd rather combine shipping for a large order, but I understand that this could take some time to sort through.  

On 11/30/2022 at 2:35 PM, Mog said:

The coffin will have misspelled tampo all over it.

And instead of being in the 1/1 scale they show off at their 2081 Expo, the coffins will only be in the smaller 1/1.3 scale.

And "no step" printed on every available corner/edge.  Ironically, they might finally remember to put the ejection warning on tho.

On 12/1/2022 at 1:22 AM, Chronocidal said:

Honestly.. I kind of wonder if we're at a point where someone with a very broken understanding of English is browsing these forums, and thinking all of these "DON'T DO THIS" statements are actually the opposite, and forwarding them to Bandai as feedback on what they should be doing.

It would explain a few things..

It's probably more along the lines of an AI/algorithm that scours the internet for hits on particular subject matter, then reports the amount which then registers them as mentions instead of complaints.  I bet they probably just pay google to do it, but don't want to pay for the deep dive details.  So the more screw ups they include, the more people talk about it, so it counts as a win.  Honestly, it goes with the double entendre, "No publicity is bad publicity."  If you had nothing to talk about, even bad things, you wouldn't be talking about it, and thus they would sell less because less people would hear about it in the first place.

I was just looking into my 1/72 regult preorder from KC and noticed I apparently still have Hikaru Advanced Figure preorder listed in my order history.  Thought I'd come here to see if anyone actually got theirs, but I don't see any.  Wasn't this supposed to release last December?  Did anyone get one, or are we still waiting?  Website says it's now due out this month, but I've seen KC stuff come and go and come back again for PO.  Any word on that?

On 10/19/2022 at 2:29 PM, scand said:

It’s been 15 years almost since I sold my first one. Now I have a 21 back in the collection. This one still looks brand new… 50 bucks on yahoo auctions JP. Articulation leaves a little  bit to be desired but it will work…

Did anyone else hate this toy as much as I did?  It didn't transform well if at all, looked awful in every form/pose, and was overall just a frustrating PITA to play with.

I'll PM you @MKT.  I have the 1/60 version which is much better and matches my DX YF-19, so I've been meaning to get rid of this 1/72.  I may not like it, but it's still worthy of love and should go to a good home.

30 minutes ago, MKT said:

Back when these Banpresto SQ Delta figures were released, I was deciding between these or their Blau-Blume version. Ultimately, decided to go for the latter to show more uniformity as a group. Later on, I thought to pick up this set in their original costumes same as yours above, but by then only individual figures popped up sporadically. Pretty surprised more versions weren't made, as I think there were other costume sets especially in the first Delta movie..

I got mine from this wonderful ebay seller that had all 6 figures I wanted (used without boxes, but very well packaged), combined shipping, AND discounted the multiple purchases by $40.  She still has some Macross figures including some of the Blau versions and at least 1 schoolgirl version that you might be interested in.

4 hours ago, Scyla said:

Looks great. I have the SHF Freya and Mikumo and hoed Bandai would release the rest of Walkure as TWE but that will never happen.

So I need to get those because I too want to have them displayed with the Valkyries.

Are they hard to find on Mandarake?

Manda had them for just 400yen, but only 2 of them.  I found mine on ebay, all 4 for $110 or so.  That seems extreme for $4 kits, but Manda probably would want at least $40 in shipping.  Amazon has a couple of them too, and I think they were $15 or so, but didn't have all of them  I could have bought them individually on ebay for much less, but there was one that was going for a crazy price iirc, so it was about the same buying from one seller.  I'm in the wrong business, or at least the wrong side of it.  

On 8/4/2022 at 1:49 PM, 505thAirborne said:

P.S. For those of you still wondering if Mandarake is a legit vendor... Yes, yes they are and their packing is far better than most other shops. 

+1 for Mandarake, that place is awesome!  At least until the shipping charges appear.  Not unreasonable tho.

17 hours ago, MKT said:

After so many years, I finally got CM's Max in his flight suit.. Miria doesn't have to be all alone anymore and melting in that dress (literally, some of these old PVCs weep like mad).

 

 

Weeping?  Srsly?  Dang tho, that is a gorgeous figure!  Congrats Miria on finally getting your man.

I figured it wasn't fair to the other Delta ladies not to have at least some representation when I have 3 (possibly going on 4) Freyja figures.  Even so, Freyja figures are all just too darn cute to have just one! 

And of course, I can't afford to spend oodles of moola on all 5 DX, but I can't have all 5 figures without matching valks.  I really liked the Tomytecs but they only made 2.  I thought about doing 1/72 kits but don't want to build them (and also expensive), so these lil Bandai Mecha Collection numbers should suffice for a nice display behind each figure.

Got a good deal on Chuck's DX, but now I might have to collect all of the spy/recon valks.  Boohoo.

Thanks to @DYRL VF-1S for a great price that suckered me into buying something I didn't intend to but still sorta wanted for reasons... it's orange and has a big, round thing... and it's cooooool!  Now I have to buy MORE toys to go with it.  Darn.

Smooth, easy transaction and excellent packaging.  Everything arrived in good order.

1 hour ago, wmkjr said:

VEFR-1 is the SDFM one you were describing.  There was also a VF-17D with radome.

Ok, that was hard to find but fun!  According to this, it appears only in ep.27, so I pulled it up on youtube... and even just skimming around looking for it with no sound on, I'm honestly tearing up here.  What an amazing episode, my favorite I think, the culmination of all of the astropolitical AND the personal drama, destruction of earth, and the retaliation and war juxtaposed against interglactic cooperation, personal and social love, and "culture."  Wow, reminds me why I love this show so much. 

Anyway, @11:28 you see the VEFR-1 for all of a fraction of a second in the fleet of valks gathered in front of the SDF-1.

Awesome, thank you everyone.  I forgot about that RVF-171 which is a really cool looking machine!  Hope I can find one for a decent price eventually.

1 hour ago, arrow said:

your missing RVF 171

Which show/movie/media did the VF-11C appear in?  I'm assuming it was Macross Plus, but I don't remember a scene with that.

Edit: nevermind, found it.  Well, close at least, it's the VE-11, and it looks awesome!  

I think I'll just go with Hasegawa fighter kits since the DX versions are all very expensive, and they only really look their best in fighter anyway.

This thread will probably die off quickly, but I wanted to give some love to the spy planes.  I've always fancied them with the big disc on top, especially the RVF-25 which happens to be my favorite color, sea green, and I recently picked up a Chuck Mustang VF-31E (in my other favorite color, orange).  So I guess I have to find a Vsn2 RVF-25 and a 1/60 scale VE-1 Elintseeker now - even though I don't collect Fronteir/DYRL toys - just to complete the collection of spy valks of course.

But are there any other "spy valks" that I'm missing here?  Wasn't there one in SDFM that was a bit different from the VE-1 of DYRL?  (or maybe I'm thinking of the trip to Alaska Hikaru and Misa took).  Oooh, gotta get a 1/72 scout regult to go with them.  Gotta have that spy vs spy action!  

I'm not one to keep up with the "pre-order madness" and only pop in once in a while to check for new stuff.  I pretty much have everything I could want by now, but being in the middle of padding out my Delta collection with a few figures, when I saw that Max makes an appearance in the new movie (although I cannot find a synopsis for the life of me) with a beautiful, tricked out YF-29 that's currently up for pre-order on BBTS, I had to pull the trigger for what seems like a decent "old man tax" price, lol.  Considering that I normally end up paying $300 for even the basic DX valks, $260 seemed reasonable.

But am I going to get one?  Usually if you miss the pre-order, you're stuck with the scalpers.  But this is the first time we're getting US pre-orders for these things.  Did BBTS order a set amount and haven't filled their pre-order quota yet?  How does that work now?  Looks like the YF-25 anniversary edition will come out any day now if it hasn't already, but it also still has pre-orders available on BBTS.  I'm tempted to get that one, but heard that the QC wasn't too good. 

On 3/5/2022 at 9:38 AM, Convectuoso said:

For those who have made HM customs, especially @sh9000, what's the safest way to remove the head of a HM Valk?

I used a pair of hemostats (or just fine needle nose pliers) to squeeze the clip together underneath the plate while pushing up with my thumb and it popped out easily without damage.  Personally, I wouldn't pry with a blade if you can access the clip.  I tried that but didn't like the stress it was causing to the plastic.

4 hours ago, Convectuoso said:

@Pontus what's your plan for the shoulders?

About two years ago I bought two OHM VF-1As to repaint as Max and Kakizaki's TV versions, but the guy that was going to do the job disappeared several months ago without sending the repainted valkyries back. He's not answering my calls anymore. 🤬

I'm gonna have to find/match the brown color to paint the shoulders and tips of the rudders.  White for the lower legs should be easy tho.

Oh, and I didn't need to, but I disassembled the back panel by removing the little screw in the middle, but it took careful prying in the front of the wing slots to pop the plastic pins loose on either side.  It's not glued like the fore arms are tho.

Time to build an off white Frankenstein with all the extra pieces!

Now to make an extra large steak accessory!

Bandai just announced an upcoming pre-order for an HMR TV Kakizaki VF-1A!

Jk!  I thought about inserting a rickroll link above, but thought better of it.  Anyway, since I'm guessing there's not many who take their HMRs completely apart, thought I'd share some pics for reference.

I considered painting my CF, maybe buying another Hikaru for the white parts.  But they cost a lot, and I already have one.  I generally only collect one of each valk, and I recently got an Arcadia Hikaru GBP, so I don't really need an HMR.  

So I took to carefully tearing apart the cheaper CF first.  It was surprisingly easy, but the arms proved difficult.  I could have just pulled the elbow pin, but it wouldn't match the upper arm color.  

I opened the arms by splitting the arm at the seam on the elbow end with an exacto knife, then pop the middle apart by prying between the joint and arm box on one side.  It will break the plastic pin as you can see, but it's easily glued back together.

I needed to swap hip joints for the brown intake with white legs, so the gerwalk pin had to come out.  The hips pop off by turning hard on the peg while supporting the hip bar from breaking.  I used a short piece of thick paperclip to hammer out the gerwalk pin.  You have to do so in such a way that it can take a light hammering without moving while leaving space underneath for the pin to come out.

The lower leg comes apart easily with 2 screws, one of which is under a friction fit cover.  Here you can see the chunk of "hi metal" they put in the legs, lol.  I figured it was easier to match white than brown, so I decided to use the CF legs and paint the off color.  For now it doesn't even look that bad with the white wheel covers.  

But then I realized I'd still have to match brown for the shoulders.  Speaking if paint, I tried taking off the red stripes the soft way first with alcohol, then acetone, but they just smeared it around staining the rest.  Scraping it off carefully with my trusty xacto worked great without staining.  You need to clean off the chest, the wings, and the leg wheel covers... oh and the fuselage being careful not to cut into the kite.

Turned out pretty good if I say so myself.  Still needs some paint, and I haven't gotten the other wings out yet to remove the red stripes.

Thanks again @Shawn   for helping me complete my SV-262 with a reasonably priced Lill Draken set.  Why do they have green wing tip markers on BOTH sides?  I guess they might need to change color when attached, but then one should be red, lol.  Anyway, I only really wanted the armors and especially the sword.  I was really disappointed to find it didn't come with the valk.  Was the sword a movie only item, or was it an integral part of the valk?  I never finished the show or started the movie.  How does this set figure into the anime?

Just got this SV-262 from Shawn with some crusty glue on one of the legs.  I managed to carefully pick it off after softening with goo gone, but it did take some paint with it.  The goo is gone tho.

20 hours ago, Shawn said:

Adding these buyers to the straight shooters list-had great transactions with the following members who supported our website fundage sale (there are still a few more items, go get them!)

@Alf89

@Digitalfiend

@Jeremy007

@Marauder

@ShindeiNoUta

@Special Sauce

@Spiff

@davidwhangchoi

@glane21

@kkx

@Pontus

 

And I just opened it... to find a bunch of crusty glue all over it!  Wth Shawn?!  Just kidding, everything arrived in great shape, and was an excellent transaction of course.  I took some picks at the glue with a knife, but it's on there good.  Gonna try some goo gone next.  If that doesn't work, I'll move on to more aggressive methods and perhaps paint if necessary.  Thanks again Shawn!

I just want the sword that should have come with the valk imho, but I doubt anyone wants to sell that alone.  Plz lemme know if you have a set to sell.  Found a lill draken set, thanks!