WhatBoutMyStar

I don't have the Revivals. I have the Renewal Alto and Michael 25s and also a number of 29s that share similarities with the 25. The design is just prone to having the joints loosen over time. If tightening the screws in the shoulders and hips/legs, which are usually the problematic areas, don't work, then at least the good news is that those joints are pretty easily disassembled so you can access the socket and apply some joint tightener like Kiki's or floor polish. I believe there are posts in the Maintenance thread about disassembling the shoulders and hips if you search for them, as well as videos on youtube on it. I also corrected my prior post to note that the Revival 25s (not the Renewals) are bundled with the super parts. Inadvertent mistake just typing and posting quickly.

There are quite a bit of differences between the original and the renewal 25s, including the sculpt/proportions in battroid (the top of the legs/hips sit up much higher above the crotch area on the original). If it's in battroid, does your 25 have one locking tab or two metal locking clasps in the waist? If it's the latter, it's the renewal. The original was also prone to yellowing. If you still have the box, the renewal 25G box should be white. The original 25G box was black. Biggest visible difference with the revival v. the renewal is the matte finish. The revival 25F and 25G also come with the super parts bundled.

I don't think it's the lack of popularity of Delta compared to Plus in itself (I recall a poll in Japan about 4 or 5 years back showing Delta was actually more popular than Plus). It's that the fans of Delta aren't in the typical demographic who would buy expensive collectible figures/toys, who are typically older and often driven by nostalgia. I remember that poll showing Delta fans being much younger, and I believe it was the only series where more than 50% of the fans were female. Also just from my experience with my own teenage kids and their friends, they simply do not care about toys and figures like I did growing up. They are more interested in their electronic devices and streaming/social media. Given the crowd sizes at Walkure concerts, I'm sure more way more revenues have been generated just by ticket sales of Walkure shows alone compared to what Bandai has grossed or will gross from sales of DX 19 and 21 valks from Plus or all of the Delta valks that have been released. I'm speculating that Bandai realized this and decided it wasn't worth the risk going forward to press on with more DX valks from Delta, especially when the early releases of "hero valks" like the multiple releases of Hayate's 31J and Messer's 31F ended up quickly inundating the aftermarket for below retail price. Plus, like SDFM/DYRL, falls much more in line with your typical collectors and should be a much safer bet for Bandai in terms of selling DX valks.

Like the limited edition metallic 25F with both Sheryl and Ranka, Bandai should put out an all metallic version of the fire valk w/ gold trim and include an extra Sivil figure.

I believe Mandarake was selling the 31J with the fold projection unit for 16,000 yen unopened recently. For basically around the same price of this revival, you could probably get that version which has been plentiful in the aftermarket as well as the the super parts set. You'd end up being ahead and better off given the extra sound booster which is a very nice accessory. Shame Bandai didn't sell it separately as I would've bought one for each of the other members of Delta Flight.

Don't really understand the rationale behind this when the 31J has had quite a number of prior releases already. If they're going to re-release any of the 31s, it should be the 31A and Arad's 31S given that they are more difficult to find and more expensive in the aftermarket. Perhaps Mirage's 31C in that group as well.

Yes, the gray piece is the cockpit adapter. The transaprent piece with My on the bottom is to adapter for her to stand in either of the valk's hands in battroid/gerwalk, or it can be plugged into one of the ports in the main display base so she can stand on the display stand. I have all of the tiny session figures and they all have these pieces.

If you want a DYRL Strike 1S Hikaru, you don't have much in the way of options that haven't been mentioned already. Even the aftermarket for the HMR version is pricey since they go for 20k yen+ on Mandarake (even more expensive than some very good DX valks like a couple of the VF-31s, which is just crazy to me). Another option is Arcadia, which will be re-releasing Hikaru and Roy's Strike 1S in a couple months and which are still up for pre-order from the online shops in Japan for like 21-23k yen, so basically a similar price as the HMR 1S Hikaru and I'd easily take the Arcadia all day over the HMR even though I like my HMR valks. There's also the Valkyrie Factory KO of the Arcadia and I've seen Hikaru's 1S (non premium finish version without the strike parts) go for as low as $80 shipped from China. I think the strike parts separately go for $50-60. It's a KO, so obviously the build quality isn't going to be on par with the Arcadia, but it's likely the cheapest option available at this point if you want a 1S Hikaru.

tiny little fella - Newage Hound.

Given that Macross is such a small/niche market, I would think most Macross collectors have previously bought from or would be familiar with places like Mandarake, Yahoo Japan, etc. for used valkyries. Even retailers like AmiAmi sell used Macross items. Especially with the exchange rate lately, prices are significantly lower at these places than what you generally see listed on eBay everything factored in, so I'm not sure why someone would go to eBay as the primary secondary market for used Macross items. As far as DX VF-1s on the secondary market, if they're not busted up, the demand still remains very strong for them and I don't recall seeing any used ones going for below MSRP. A lot of those came in sub-20k MSRP like the 1J, Hikaru and Roy's 1S, Max's 1A, etc. The 1D was a couple thousand more. The going rate for all those now are far higher than that. There certainly are Frontier and Delta valks, however, that I've seen go for below MSRP, even new/unopened in box like Hayate's 31J as one.

Someone mentioned Walkure above and assuming the ones at the end in the front row are pink and red, then that would certainly line up for each of the Walkure members' color schemes. Pink = Makina, Yellow = Kaname, Red = Freyja, Green = Reina, Purple = Mikumo.

I'd rather have 1/12 figures of all of the Walkure members given KC has done a pretty good job with their action figures as opposed to VF-1s in each of Walkure members' colors, which makes no sense to me. I'd be very interested though if they put out Hayate and Mirage's 1EX since I highly doubt Bandai or Arcadia would ever release those.

ShowZ has had the KC Jetfire paintjob for months now for even cheaper ($140 shipped, no tax) compared to the $169 price at BBTS not including the $4 shipping and tax. All that said, I don't have the Jetfire or any KC valk but one of my friends has the Jetfire. After handling it, I wasn't all that impressed and I certainly wouldn't pay $190ish out the door for it at BBTS or even $140 at ShowZ.

I must be one of the lucky ones that hasn't had any issue with the legs detaching on any of the 3 DX VF-1s that I have when transforming them, which granted isn't that often and I've only unpegged that lock once (when I first got the 1J) to check out the waist swivel feature only to think, eh not worth it, and never used it again on any of my VF-1s. I can can sway the figure mid-transformation back and forth and it stays locked with the legs attached. The only annoyance I have w/ the DX is the leg fins easily getting moved or falling off. Otherwise, I think they are significant improvement over the older Yamato 1/48 and Yamato/Arcadia 1/60 VF-1s that I have.

That's absolutely terrible, and to me there's no way this is "extremely inconspicuous" or "acceptable" especially given that this is a near $300 figure w/ shipping costs. I don't have this reissue but have the prior Arcadia release, and honestly I'm not all that thrilled with the overall QC of the figure. It's a frustratingly fiddly figure. Count me in as one of those waiting, or hoping, for a DX Fire Valkyrie to replace it.