jeniusornome

Dat rainbow canopy!

I wouldn't put the boosters on it, it's perfect just like that.

Re: the shoulder bumps. I just got KC's dark red Valk in recently and noticed that their shoulder swivels, while sharing the same swivel design as the v2 1/60, instead of having a bump directly in the path of the swivel, there's a little indentation at the end of the swivel that helps it to lock in place for Battloid/Gerwalk mode, but easily come out for transforming back to fighter. I thought it was a really nice solution. The shoulder joint is really the only thing about the 1/60 v2 that I don't like so this was a pleasant surprise.

I don't think there's a way to mod the v2 design to remove the bump/notch entirely and put a similar indent on it, so some very light sanding on the bump/notch, like @vlenhoff said, is the best (only?) real "fix".

Seems like the white is greyer and the blue is slightly lighter than the Yamato?

Agreed. They literally could have just ignored all previous media, done a whole new story and not bothered with all of... this. If they wanted to do a new take on the story, just do a new one.

I think I'd have preferred it if they'd made Robotech an anthology back in the day, and used the common name to bring a ton of properties to the US. And I say this as someone who practically breathed Robotech when it aired.

Trying to tie them together was a neat idea, and the whole time loop thing was ambitious and one of those "if done right would be awesome" ideas, but there was no follow-through. At least, none worth speaking of. There still hasn't been.

I think it also depends on which licenses they actually have? I don’t recall it ever really being said, but we all assume they’ve got all of Macross, Zero and Plus since that’s what Yamato had. Whether they have the molds or CAD files for new versions is another question entirely. 
 

wouldn’t mind seeing a reissue of the queadlunn rau suits, or 1/60 destroids, but they’re not exactly pumping out the releases so anything short of a of repaint seems unlikely now. 

They actually reached out to me after I placed my order about the shirt size- it defaults to SS on the website and I didn’t see that, so they emailed and said “hey, we noticed your shirt size is the default, is that correct or did you want a different size?”

proactive customer support is awesome IMO, and the few other times I’ve heard someone mention needing to contact them it’s all been good. 

Bottom left of the box on mine. It’s a sticker they put on it. Nothing on the protective shipping box. 
 

hmm. Trying to upload a picture but the board is throwing an error when I do. Weird. 

Got my black and red VF-1S in the other day, #19 if anyone is keeping track, and had a chance to open it earlier. Initial impressions:

I have the Max and Miriya SD VF-1Js, and I always thought they felt a little wobbly. I think they're fun, cute figures, but I was worried this would have that same loose feel. Thankfully it does not. To me it feels like somewhere in between an HMR and Arcadia VF-1 (the only other VF-1s I have for comparison). This seems fitting since both price and size-wise it's between those. Transformation is very familiar, as a nice mix of both HMR and Yamato/Arcadia method. I like how the arms lock everything into place. The "filler" pieces aren't too annoying, and the integrated hands are pretty good. I like them about the same as the Arcadia ones.

Hips and antennae are very tight on mine. Going to have to take some careful working of them to loosen up a bit, especially since the swing bar isn't metal, really don't want that to break, and the antennae are thin, so using them to rotate for transformation would likely just lead to them breaking off. I would have liked to see metal in that swing bar, or a stronger feeling plastic at least.

The box on mine also had "gold" written on the sides as some others have reported. No visible gold paint as spray under the red that I can see on mine. The only real "QC" issue I can find is that where the top of the legs / intakes are supposed to snap into place for fighter mode, the connection comes loose easily - like, if I go to transform the legs for Guardian mode, it pops loose like it's ready to swing down for Battloid. Fine once it is all in place though, so it's really only a little fiddly during transformation.

In isolation, considering KC toys are literally the only Macross merchandise we can easily get in the US, I would be absolutely over the moon with the figure. I think it feels nice, it nails the look, it's very poseable, and it doesn't break the bank (compared to importing).

In comparison with HMR and Arcadia (I haven't played with a DX VF-1 so I can't compare) I would put it squarely in between the two. I think fans of transforming mecha would be well served to own at least one of KC's Valks. Macross fans if for no other reason than to ensure they find it successful enough to continue producing additional Macross figures we'd likely never get from Bandai, and for everyone else, if the line continues successfully, it could mean Southern Cross toys in the future!

I expect they will be much easier to get than other Macross merchandise with all sorts of pre-order madness and scalping and markups and so on. I hope to eventually see a 1D, various models of 1A and 1J from them as well - I will probably buy a couple more rather than try to hunt down the hugely overpriced Yamato/Arcadia out of print ones.

Overall, very happy with it. Glad I got this color scheme, but would be even happier with this quality for the $100 price point that it seems standard releases will carry. Looking forward to seeing more from KC.

I'm not entirely sure I need another VF-1 - I have a few HMRs, a few Arcadias, and I was waffling back and forth as to whether I even wanted to try to pick up the DX 1A Max in a couple weeks when it releases. I'm also not a fan of HG.

But the idea that KC could hold a license long enough to get to a point where they're producing Southern Cross figures and Mecha is worth some of my money. So I just ordered the Black and Red 1S.

I have no idea where I'm going to put it.

It's like a reverse model kit. You buy it assembled, it takes itself apart, and then you put it back together without instructions!

It's a feature!

@Shizuka the Cat magical girl striker lyric something something?

sounds like you got a new Walkure member ahead of everyone else. 

That’s Jim Gundam. He works up on the 19th floor at the law firm? You know, Gundam, Gundam and Gundamsson?

He gets mistaken for a statue all the time. Especially by birds. 

...are these stores multiple stories?

Has anyone ever posted a video tour or something, so I can see one vicariously?

I haven't seen a storefront like that in... ever? It looks like an entire anime convention vendor area in a single storefront.

Flipping back and forth on ordering a pair of the FEXT SCIFI03 myself - really like how they look. I know you did the design on them @Saburo and I think you nailed it.

That little yellow mech looks very familiar... is that one of Rihio's little multi-link guys? They look fun. Considered buying some to go with my Diaclone stuff before I realized my wallet was off crying in the corner because I was stretching my collection a bit thin. :/

On 8/23/2019 at 10:32 AM, vlenhoff said:

On the other hand, sometimes i want to display Sylvie's separately, since the VF-2SS looks nothing like it's VF-1 cousins.

They look excellent next to a VF-4.

I still think the guys who did the MII designs just made the 2JA an updated version of the VF-1, and the 2SS an updated version of what little had been seen of the VF-4 at the time.

(and the Metal Siren... came straight out of the late 80s. The only thing it was missing was the giant hair and a cover of "talk dirty to me.")

@Bahamutzyro maybe she won't kill you! Prince is Magic.

@Saburo my 31C is the same - a little wobble on the left one. Right seems fine.

There's so much plastic in there it's almost an entirely separate figure. I wonder if the armor can just stand on its own?

Every time someone mentions the Dougram HMR figures it’s followed by something like “these are amazing!”

I'm very tempted by them. I have no attachment to the show, however, having the Dougram and Roundfacer, next to the Spartan and Defender, and a Glaug... the late 80s/ early 90s Battletech fan in me would love that combination. And would also go nuts waiting for a Tomahawk release that may never come. 

8 hours ago, mechaninac said:

The reason for the huge aftermarket markup is that the release of the VF-31A was such a cluster-frak on Bandai's part, coupled with many vendors who took in more orders than they could deliver... due again to Bandai's factory messing up production and suppliers messing up distribution; also, CF and plain it may be, the A has unique wings to the 31 line, and is the only one not skittles colored, which has it's own appeal, specially to real-world fighter aircraft enthusiasts.

You'll also need to wait until hell freezes over before you see a reissue of this particular bird since it was sold as a TWE item, ostensibly to order, and as such a one-off; the only hope would be for a release specific to one of the mainline characters (too lazy to look up which) who flew a somewhat personalized unit, a movie colors variant [if the movie(s) even have such a thing], or a CF with a different modex to distinguish it from the first, limited edition, version -- the price of which will eventually stabilize somewhere, but unless people who have extras start dumping them onto the market all at once, don't expect it to get anywhere near affordable.

I don’t like to double dip on molds most of the time, and I’m good with just having Mirage’s 31C, but if they did a VF-31A in the typical “brownie” colors I would probably buy it. Assuming it wasn’t ludicrously expensive. 

On 8/11/2019 at 12:29 AM, tekering said:

Kaiju tend to take up a hell of a lot of space, it's true.  

We need captions for this photo.

"What do you mean you lost the rings? The wedding's in an hour!"

20 hours ago, sh9000 said:

Knight Rider, Airwolf, and A-Team.

That's an 80's dream team right there. Nice!

@HayateAltoHunter nice, like the way it's all spread out instead of everything crammed in together. Are those little info cards in each block?

@seti88 I think I see LED lighting strips along the back of the cases.

Do these come in knockoff packaging too or is there an easy way to spot if an unopened one is legit or not?

Man. I meant Aoshima! I’m so confused. There’s.... four different companies done Legioss so far, five of you count the originals, and now Sentinel is adding to the pile. Hopefully theirs will be amazing. 

Compared to Macross stuff where it’s just Bandai and Arcadia to keep track of, and that still gets confusing sometimes. 

Aha, evolution toys, that's what I was thinking of. I had to go check on anymoon, there was this picture in my head and I kept thinking it was Toynami, but it's the spread of ET's 4 Legioss figures at the top of that review.

@jenius ah I didn’t realize they’d used all of the updates Aoshima made. Maybe I’ll keep watching for a deal on it anyways... I do like the purple. 

Though i I could have sworn Aoshima also did a dark Legioss, I see now that was not the case. Maybe I was thinking of CMs.