PointBlankSniper

Quite sure Bandai is going with a low volume run after some slow sales, especially with the last 31 release. They are probably trying to justify rehashing the rest of the 31 line to themselves by stacking the conditions. High demand, formerly limited, low volume production, fodder army builder, and anniversary marketing, all look like the makings of an instant sell out sales report lol

Bandai has no intention of making bank off of these, or it wouldn't be so ultra low stock comepared to the rest of the WWM stuff that we're basically back at PO madness lol

Crazy that a limited item is going into store retail for reprint.

Mine came in last week. Colors are nicer than I expected, and matte is also nice than I expected. Kinda weird the gunpod is still in gloss though. Had to do shoulder swap. Ejecting crotch cover is apparently nothing new. The arm plug hole has absurd spring tension, so the gunpod adapter doesn't stay in, and the shield launches across the room if not pushed in at some perfect distance and left to settle so that static friction overcomes the spring tension lol. Intakes barely hold in gerwalk when on the stand. They just want to drop with the legs, and the backpack strut wants to pry that crotch piece out. I know the gerwalk articulation is supposed to be lackluster, but I can't tell if the intakes are just the 2 clicks. And it looks like there is a thigh swivel, but they only turn like 3 degrees with no friction and no ability to resist gravity while on the stand, and then have a soggy backstop that pushes back, so it just feels like plastic that doesn't bend is just flexing back... I can't tell if it's as far as it goes, or I'm doing something wrong. The sloppy abdomen split where the battroid brace goes was somehow sealed together so tight out of box, that I had to pry at with an uncomfortable amount of pressure with a flathead. Never knew there was a fancy swing bar locking switch mechanism in there, but mine came pre locked. That blocked the swing bar from going in all the way, and I couldn't figure out why, because the lock wasn't supposed to be relevant until the next step... Took me a long time to figure out i was wasting my time trying to force it to latch on the fuselage. While on the stand, the battroid legs jiggle and rattle at the swing bar's axel hole inside the crotch, as well as a bit of slop at the latch, despite properly locked in. It's probably the intended fitment by design, but it sure as heck feels like an extremely aged and worn out metal on plastic joint and doesn't inspire confidence... The stand adapter doesn't even seem to sleeve around it's intended crotch space all the way. It's kind of a loose and off angle mess. Superparts are surprisingly easy fit for once, despite the regular sloppy nubs. Gunpod splits slightly crooked and IDK why lol. It's great that I grabs on the crotch in fighter mode without needing that partsforming adapter that self ejects though. Overall, looks wonderful, and panel fitment seems to be great. Waist and thigh structure doesn't inspire confidence when hanging from the stand, because of everything I nitpicked, but it holds after getting them together properly so far, so it's still a satisfying display piece to have. Heres to hoping those sloppy bits are not a longevity issue.

Booger's Draken though. Also, now I can sleep knowing I'm not crazy for believing the gunpod mechanisms do their job

Seems like couriers all do the same dirty tricks these days. My family was all home looking out for a package during delivery hours recently. Then UPS said we missed a delivery a couple hours later... and scheduled another one for the next day, only to tell us we missed tomorrow's delivery within minutes of scheduling it. All the clown show just to tell us to pick it up ourselves because they are cutting corners on delivery lmao. The part before that was even funnier. The package cleared customs, reached local distro, inexplicably returned to country of origin and retreated halfway across that country for days, and then was suddenly out for that imaginary first delivery rofl. I have infinitely more faith in uninsured and untracked months long surface parcel and the regular postman, than these so called worldwide premium express courier conglomerates. Anyway, I'm guess it's the screw thats digging into the head fin.

I'm guessing best position will have to be somewhere in the middle, where the fin is between the backpack bulge and the crotch cover.

It's as you say, but then there's a third mechanism where the grip also pivots out of the gun at at the front of the trigger guard, making the former two mechanisms excessive. If I'm not mistaken, the trigger might even be able to slide back after pivoting out, so it can rest against the crooked butt and have the barrel fin stay clear of the back pack humps if those really were an issue. But so far, nobody has confirmed using all 3 and explaining why none of it works.

Bandai has slapped hard points on everything since the YF-19 full set pack, presumably for play value, even though they won't release any more missiles. So there are more valks than missiles to go around. Meanwhile, they won't add hardpoints back on the revival frontier valks, excluding the armored 171 that they were originally concieved for, despite the 25s canonically using them and even have contours of them molded into the wings. Basically just another fine example of Bandai logic.

Gotta wonder why nobody seems to be using the mega grip swivel on the gunpod. I would think the slider and bendy mechanisms shouldn't even need to exist if the grip swings so far. It really doesnt look like the under barrel fin gets in the way of anything. I wanted to say it might be a matter of the swivel being loose, but he slider already puts the weight on the back which should give the muzzle the tendency to go up. Really a headscratcher ATM...

New shield definitely looks the part now. Take your time on this, no rush, no pressure. I'm sure the few of us here understand it's your little pastime project and aren't concerned with the speed of updates Have fun on your trip 😁

I wonder if it will really come out looking like the instructions. The last couple releases showed that the box and manual don't represent the final products lol

I think of the shield as a sacrificial damage sponge to act as a backstop against attacks, because they know things can and will get through the barrier eventually. Not blocking with the shield and surviving a hit is just a luck based bonus that is good for ace pilot stunts, and not advisable tactics lol.

Those are the exact holes I am saying are seemingly even too shallow to hold the fins for the 19P That's what I'm getting at, but in the pessimistic direction. Bandai basically looks like they deliberately designed incompatability into this to quietly announce the refusal of making add ons and variants to milk all the groundwork they already put in, because typical Bandai logic... The HMR telegraphed their intentions with functioning shoulder holes, even though they used the same brand of weird logic to end up with two sets of shoulders on the 19P 🤪 It just doesn't look good on Bandai's part to plan and engineer petty inconveniences into their new molds for both themselves and the customer lol

It really doesn't seem like there are any connection features to accomodate the sound booster... Also gotta wonder if those shoulder holes are cosmetic or if they are deep enough to hold the 19P's speaker fins.