VF8000G

Next Decoction Model: Noblesse Oblige. It's not White Glint but not at all a bad choice. Also, my Aaliyah came in today. Still messing with it but already I'm a bit disappointed that a $400 figure can have QC issues with paint like this... I'll have more to write later.

I think it must be a really low production quantity, and the announcement of the gloss finish version may have temporarily tanked the price of the regular release on the second hand market. Before this, it used to regularly go for $6-700 before shipping which is ludicrous. Kotobukiya doesn't usually make a lot of large high-end action figures, and to my knowledge I don't think they've released anything like this in the past. It reminds of the boutiqueness of Wave's Tetsukyoujin figure which also seemingly came out of nowhere and remains elusive on the aftermarket. I will say though, the 48,000 yen MSRP doesn't seem as absurd as those new Metal Builds from Bandai which are roughly the same price and give you a lot less.

I just bought this for an incredibly good price on Mandarake (~$380 shipped); when I receive it I'll be sure to share photos and thoughts on it. Very few reviews in any language on this figure so far.

I'm not sure the legs can even be disassembled unless you want to break the figure. I'm looking for a solution to that myself, with no luck. As for the loose ratchet, all I can think of in this situation would be Kiki joint fluid. Another solution would be scour the web for cheap defective YF-21's (there must be more than a couple on sale by now) and salvage the legs to attach via Delimiter mode.

Someone else on another forum also just mentioned their YF-21 having a stubbed left foot. I can safely conclude that this is indeed probably another widespread defect. As if this figure didn't already have enough. 🤦‍♂️

Yes, the left toes are stubbed on both of my copies. Trying to frankenstein a "good" one together and replace the bad toe with the good one from the other figure. But Bandai has welded the legs and feet together in such a way that there's no method I can even discern to disassemble either the legs or feet other than the obvious delimiter mode, which won't help here. It's a lot different from the old figures which had lots of screws, even if they were behind screw covers. I think this might be another common defect that people missed, given the other more catastrophic issues with the figure.

Anyone know how to disassemble the foot? Specifically, removing the lower front feet that's pointed? Does it just pop off with a bit of force? These Bandai figures with their lack of screws are so annoying to fix.

My headcanon has always been that the Fire Valkyrie is just Hot Rod from Transformers who happened to scan the YF-19 on his way to Earth and just silently sticks around with Basara because he enjoys his antics. And the crazy thing is that Takara is somewhat entertaining this idea.

Maybe I'm in the minority with this one but I really don't dig the lanky long-legged proportions. Looks like the old V1 Hi-Metal.

IDK if yanking the entire FSS license wholesale from a company for making display figures followed by axing another company's attempts before they were even released is "allowing it" man... I would love a big gokin Mortar Head more than anyone in the world but we got to be realistic about how this franchise is run. It isn't for casuals, that's for sure. Nagano is the type of person to hoard a movie in a theater in Japan and never release it on media, he will never care what his fans want. And that's why there aren't many of them outside of Japan. Mamoru Nagano makes Harmony Gold look like Santa Claus.

Kaiyodo did but they were more like PVC statues. Kaiyodo also lost the FSS license after that disaster lol. Kinda cements my point. I think Wave tried to release some figures but Nagano personally cancelled them. That recent Volks Gothicmade was the only FSS "toy" released and it's an ultra-boutique item that cost $1000 and TBH I don't really even consider it FSS. Either way Nagano ain't letting outsider scum like Sentinel and Bandai touch his baby.

Nagano's been saying it for four decades now. Have you considered the Hi Metal R? It's got some ugly chrome gold in the frame but reviews are glowing.

Nagano would never permit it lol

Tangentially related:

I like it more than the HMR on the sole basis of it not having that tacky chrome gold in its frame.