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Rhubarbarian

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  1. Rhubarbarian
    Came over here to mention this. I picked up a pre-order at AmiAmi last night, so I assume it's on HLJ and other regular retailers as well. Glad I didn't pay the inflated prices when I got the Megazone bug back at the start of quarantine.
  2. Rhubarbarian
    Yeah, mine was getting stuck halfway initially and that was giving me cold feet. I gave it a bit more force last night and it settled in very securely.
  3. Rhubarbarian
    Yeah, I recall it being work conflicts/COVID supply chain issues. Very understandable, but since Arcadia doesn't provide any sort of stand and I can't even find their simple display stand on the secondary market, there aren't many alternatives unless you accept the weird canon issues of everything being supported by an SDF-1 launch arm. Also, is there any mechanism for mounting the gunpod in fighter mode? There's a slot in the undercarriage in front of that fold-out transformation peg that looks like it would be ideal, but it seems like it'd be a *very* tight fit and I can't find any product photos that support doing that. I never had the VF-4G but I remember people saying there wasn't any way to mount the gunpod in fighter mode on that one. EDIT: For some reason I thought the Arcadia re-release of the VF-4G came with a gunpod, but re-watching Jenius' review I guess neither the Yamato or the Arcadia came with one.
  4. Rhubarbarian
    Mine showed up today after shipping Monday morning from AmiAmi, DHL is fast. But this is the third Arcadia/Yamato release I've gotten in the past few months (the others being an Sv-51 and a VF-22) and I am dying without Yeti stands. I love the launch arm stands for VF-1s, but they always seem out of place for other releases. Time to dig for old FlightPose stands, I suppose.
  5. Rhubarbarian
    I did this with my TV supers, it's a great look. I pulled the trigger on the supers before getting a TV Roy, and eventually decided to just pass on the Roy in favor of waiting for a DYRL version.
  6. Rhubarbarian
    Interesting article, thanks for the link! In the end, only two items from an initially huge December AmiAmi order ended up shipping on time for me. We'll see how many of the ones that got pushed to January will still ship that month. It's pretty crazy; delays seem to be hitting pretty much every manufacturer.
  7. Rhubarbarian
    Looks like it's been delayed till January: No word on the Perfect Finish.
  8. Rhubarbarian
    If you find the person who said "I love the missile packs being released separately and only once, after only one VF-1 release and with no indicators of the upcoming release schedule, that idea was great!" let us know.
  9. Rhubarbarian
    Yeah, at retail the DX is honestly a really good price for what you get. I'd rather have the missiles separate and have the price of the Valk lower; I don't need full missile sets for every Valk I have. One missile set has covered three Chogokins for me, between different modes and missile styles. The idea that we'd get the missiles included with the Valk for little or no added cost is wishful thinking. My main complaint with the missile set is just availability - it's fine (for me, anyways) to have it as a separate add-on, but I hate having to guess how many I'll need when I don't have any clue what Bandai's release schedule is. Do I need a set to cover Max & Miriya's DYRL set? Do I need more TV missiles? Who knows.
  10. Rhubarbarian
    I've been on the fence about buying a Beagle for a while and that's probably the best price I'm gonna see (certainly better than the $1k I saw at Frank & Sons before the pandemic started). Thanks for the heads' up vladykins!
  11. Rhubarbarian
    My VF-1S arrived like this from Nippon-Yasan. Not wanting to deal with the hassle of a return (NY had already shipped it late, got my address wrong, and then delayed for a month sending it back), I just glued it back together myself and haven't had an issue since. Transformed it multiple times since doing the repair, too.
  12. Rhubarbarian
    Honestly, I like the DYRL 1A head sculpt a lot and the green more than Hikaru's red. Kakizaki's not the most famous, but the Valk is cool. If I were to pick one up and budget was an issue, Kakizaki would be my vote. My arms didn't tab in super well in fighter mode out of the box, I don't know if that's mold degradation or if transforming it back to fighter from GERWALK will help them tab in a little better, but other than that it's the same as my 1J and my 1S. They're going to keep releasing these, so the other option would be to wait for the next pre-order, but it'll be a while. TV Roy is the next release and he'll definitely be more expensive than Kakizaki. Something to be aware of, the releases all come with stands, but they don't come with missiles or super parts. Both will be extra sets if you want to display with them.
  13. Rhubarbarian
    It's definitely worse on my Kakizaki than it was on my Hikaru VF-1J or 1S. The 1J had the arms held in pretty tightly despite the lack of a notch on those pegs. I'm hoping transforming the Kakizaki back to fighter mode will tighten it up, but I haven't tried it yet - he might just stay in GERWALK since I have one for each mode now. My suspicion, personally, is that they're probably saving adding a notch for a mid-run "refreshening" of the line if sales start to slip. Maybe on an otherwise less popular model?
  14. Rhubarbarian
    The first trade is free on Kindle, IIRC. The other trades aren't expensive. They're also part of the collected IDW volumes, but I haven't been super huge on a lot of the IDW plotlines outside of Wreckers/MTMTE, so mileage may vary. Speaking of MTMTE, how about this piece of work that got teased today:
  15. Rhubarbarian
    Mine showed up from Big in Japan this morning via DHL. You know that feeling when you're sick with a bad cold and you swear you'll never take feeling normal for granted again? That's me after dealing with N-Y for my last two DX releases. It actually showed up a couple days early even.
  16. Rhubarbarian
    According to the reading I was doing after watching it recently, it was originally supposed to be a 12-episode TV series until sponsors pulled their funding mid-production. The director of part 1 said that it was basically a compilation film of the episodes that had already been produced, which would explain the disjointed nature. I like a lot of the elements, but it's too bad others couldn't have been jettisoned to make for a more focused, stronger movie (particularly the "we're filming a movie using the secret transforming military robot I stole" plotline was pretty bad, I thought). Part 2 is a lot more cohesive to me. They narrow it down from 5 or 6 plot threads to just 2 or 3, and it works a lot tighter. The action sequences are better, too - I feel like a lot of the action shots in part one start half a second too late and end half a second too early to get the proper impact. Part 2's action is pretty stellar throughout, particularly the space battles. I bought the DVD for part 3 but I haven't watched it yet. I've heard to keep my expectations low.
  17. Rhubarbarian
    I got a Proto-Garland a couple weeks ago as well! The price on the regular Garlands had climbed too high for my tastes, but because of the re-issue, the Proto-Garlands were still pretty close to retail. I'd been re-watching M23 not too long ago and my job has been pretty rough lately, so I figured I deserved some retail therapy. It's an incredibly solid piece, I'm really pleased with it. Shogo's eyeless face is a bit of a knock, but I'm probably going to have it in maneuver-slave mode most of the time anyways.
  18. Rhubarbarian
    I rationalize it by saying the fighter is in space when I'm too lazy to put the fan covers in my parts bin.
  19. Rhubarbarian
    For the survey's sake, I'd be game to buy a Tread for the Zeta and Eta. I'm enough of a completionist I'd probably buy both and display one set combined and one set separate. I'm not enough of a completionist to buy the Iota or the corresponding Tread, though.
  20. Rhubarbarian
    Unfortunately, this did nothing for me with my SSPs - they only responded to me once they actually had my SSPs ready to send out. Once they had them, they responded within 24 hours (sometimes within 2-3 hours) to any messages, but before that it didn't matter what was in the subject line of the ticket. They ignored everything. A "we're still working on acquiring your item, please bear with us" would have been nice, but that doesn't seem to be N-Y's MO. I only ended up getting my SSPs from N-Y about two weeks ago, Toonz. They're sending them out as they get inventory and they're prioritizing people with faster shipping methods and fewer units. So if you ordered one or two and you're willing to pay for UPS, hopefully you will be up in the queue pretty soon. If you ordered four and you're shipping by ferry, well, maybe it'll be a nice Christmas gift to yourself. They are very snazzy and my leg armors actually tab into the upper assembly in fighter mode pretty securely, if not exactly snug. It holds together well, which was my main concern. I think the DX's best mode is battroid anyways, while the Arcadia's best modes are fighter/GERWALK, so I'm just going to display them that way most of the time.
  21. Rhubarbarian
    Hah, thanks for the correction. The proportions are definitely a bit shorter and thicker than Mikimoto's.
  22. Rhubarbarian
    Oh hey, I've just been going through Megazone 23 as well. Part 1's got my favorite character designs (as has been said, Mikimoto did all of the characters for part 1, not just Eve), but plotwise it's pretty disjointed. There are about 5 or 6 major plotlines going on and they're not at all cohesive (the "we're filming a movie using the secret military robot we stole" plotline is probably the most out of place). Part 2 picks up not long after part 1 and boils those plots down to just 2 or 3 and it works a lot better. The mecha fights in part 2 are also a lot better in part 2 than in part 1 - there's good animation in part 1, but most of the action shots feel like they cut off a second or two too early for me to flow well. The mecha animation in part 2 was just stellar, I thought. Peak '80s alien space-fight jam. Part 2 also ends strong, whereas I felt like part 1 starts strong but then just kind of... stops. I'd just be prepared to watch them back-to-back. The design shift is a bit jarring between the two; characters don't look anything like they did in part 1 for the most part, so be prepared for that. Overall, I think parts 1 and 2 are a fun bit of '80s animation history and the time investment is pretty low - two movies is a pretty quick watch. I ordered part 3 just to see how it is; it has some good animation in it from clips and sakuga I've seen, but there's also just shots that aren't in-betweened, so they play like a slideshow. It's weird because there will be an incredibly animated POV tracking shot flying down corridors, followed immediately by a shot that's got maybe 8 frames of animation for a four-second cut. I've heard negative things about the plot, but I'm just keeping expectations low. It's also the hardest to find of the three parts, so that's a factor as well - I was able to find a copy that wasn't too expensive, but there weren't many left.
  23. Rhubarbarian
    Pre-order's up on AmiAmi for the Zeta.
  24. Rhubarbarian
    They only responded to me once they actually had my item ready to ship (I got my SSP set from them last Friday). They ignored me for weeks until then. Once they finally contacted me, they were actually pretty quick responding after that, but it was complete radio silence until then. If you ordered fewer sets and want faster shipping, they'll prioritize you - I only had ordered one set and was using UPS rather than ferry - but beyond that it's a crapshoot. Good luck, hopefully your stuff ships out soon!
  25. Rhubarbarian
    This is my take. I love the Arcadia 1/60s I have (DYRL Hikaru VF-1S SSP and Millia VF-1J) in fighter and GERWALK, but there's not much of a competition in battroid. The DX has better proportions (larger head and shoulders), better articulation (the outward swivel at the GERWALK joint helps a ton for dynamic posing, plus the waist swivel, articulated fingers, etc.), no priest collar, etc. As for price, I was able to get the 1J and Kakizaki at retail, as well as a missile pack and the TV supers, and the Hikaru 1S/SSP at only a marginal mark-up. I don't need a ton of missile packs as I don't intend to have them all in fighter mode at the same time decked with missiles. I get that's a draw for some people, but it's never been my preference. I actually do prefer having them as an option to keep the prices of the main Valks lower. Secondary market prices also haven't been terrible for the DX line at release, despite them all selling out instantly at pre-order - they were a lot worse for the VF-31s, in my experience. Generally, I am very "why not both" when it comes to stuff like this - Arcadia makes some great stuff, Bandai makes some great stuff, I can budget to grab the ones I like from each company. The DX definitely replaced the 1/60 V2 for me, though I'm probably only going to be on the hook for Millia and maybe a DYRL Max/Roy at this point.
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