Lolicon

On 5/4/2023 at 9:08 AM, Convectuoso said:

At last I got mine

Great pic!

10 hours ago, Convectuoso said:

Colors look too dark. I hope the final release looks closer to the prototypes shown before

I haven't seen the OG series in decades so I'm not sure how dark Kakizaki's 1A should really be anymore.

9 minutes ago, treatment said:

9900y and TWE?

each?

lol!

Some serious greed there,  Bandai.

Really banking on nostalgia, eh Bandai?

Speaking of nostalgia, I reckon we bought our old respective Yammies 1/60s years ago much cheaply and they're PTs! 

Wonder if Arcadia will do everybody a solid and re-issue their versions to compete against these overpriced HM-Rs...

And Bandai's "web exclusives" are still subject to PO madness, except now you have fewer options to go about obtaining them.

Bandai might actually finish a squadron? I'll believe it when I have them in hand.

21 hours ago, treatment said:

Matte finish really makes the old VF-25 look better.

RE: nose cone gap

While it's not present on my 25F, there was a very noticeable gap on my WWM. I noticed the top and bottom halves of the nose were not aligned properly. I pushed the two halves in opposite directions until they were aligned, then applied super glue along the seam to keep them aligned. That fixed the gap.

On the revival 25F one of the arm tabs for the gunpod is incorrectly sized so that's an issue from the WWM release that has not been fixed.

Front landing gear is slightly crooked so that when you push back into the bay, the front wheel rubs against one side, which makes is harder to push in and pull back out later.

Gunpod is at least straight this time. It was warped on my WWM.

Wings and head lasers are still prone to being warped. This is another long-running issue from the renewals.

Also have had to touch up some sloppy paint apps, but I think that's just something that's always plagued Bandai's stuff i.e. their fit & finish has always been inferior to Yamato/Arcadia (for the most part).

On 5/5/2023 at 12:56 PM, no3Ljm said:

Looking forward on your 'magic' fixing it, @Lolicon.

On 5/5/2023 at 4:34 PM, DewPoint said:

All hail the white landing gears! 

So, now that I have the Revival version in hand, I have to say it's great for those who missed out on the Renewals. But if you already have the Renewal and are happy with it (and it's not yellowed or broken), I wouldn't sweat missing out on the Revival version. The improved joints are only marginally better than the Renewals and the super parts are more purple-ish (it's the "Gundam grey" color I think if you've ever handled Gundam markers).

The matte finish is lovely, but you could achieve the same effect with some matte topcoat sprayed onto the Renewals. But I understand not everyone has the time or wherewithal to do that, so the Revival version is a good choice if you absolutely must have that matte finish.

My copy arrived today.

Matte finish makes it look so much better than the renewal.

Canopy tint looks to be identical to the previous version. It might be a tiny bit darker, but the difference is so slight that it's negligible.

Wings and head lasers are slightly warped because Bandai.

Aside from the matte finish and NO STEP markings on the wings, it looks identical to the renewal. I know Bandai made a few modifications to some of the joints, but if it's the same as the WWM version then there won't be much difference.

Side by side with my old renewal (phone pics)

I broke my Messiah. 

There's something rotten going on when HMR costs about as much as the DX line.

I guess Arcadia heard the complaints about loose joints in the original release and overcompensated a bit...

Even in videos the matte finish looks so much nicer than the old glossy versions.

9 hours ago, treatment said:

received my VF-25F Revival today from HLJ via fedex.

oob:

 

Canopy is not frosted, but does have a very light tint.

Annoyingly, out of the box, the right head-laser on mine is a bit raised up and not laying flat/flushed as the left head-laser:

 

Haven't messed with it nor transformed it, yet, so I'm still hoping it was just packaged that way and will be properly flushed after it goes thru all the TF forms/processes.

Also, the right knee-cap on mine  is not quite as flushed compared to the left knee-cap, either:

 

 

 

Man I'd forgotten how plain the stock VF-25 toys are. 

Shipping from HLJ was 4000 using Yamato transport. 3-5 business days.

On 3/31/2023 at 11:36 AM, Ignacio Ocamica said:

Some quick pics:

 

Love that pic. Reminds me of this. 

On 4/25/2023 at 9:13 PM, MKT said:

Yamato's interpretation of VF-17 from some angles reminds me of The Tumbler with Angry Birds face. 

 

 

Looks great. Also like the use of clear parts for the walls to better diffuse light. 

9 hours ago, treatment said:

from https://twitter.com/MTM_025_8_S04/status/1652297397157105664/photo/4

Hope the "Revivval"-version (left) don't yellow like that Renewal-version on the right....

Damn that one on the right must have belonged to a heavy chain smoker or something. Also, he should dust his toys off every once in awhile. 

Bandai and the concept of hassle-free shopping are antithetical to each other.

2 hours ago, Halfstep said:

I think you can still achieve the yeti double stack with Archi "max" set up.  Here is a pic of my max stand.  Mind you there are extra small braces in my pic that can be removed to condense the set up for a detolf.  Kim also announced this morning you can buy extra parts so if you buy a single stand it can be converted to a "max" stand.

Great news. I'll probably buy some parts to convert the regular double stand into something more like Yeti or the max stand.

I'd pick up a few wall displays like that if they ever became available.

1 hour ago, MKT said:

I don't mind if the cockpit is tinted slightly heavier, or different color tint, as long as the base plastic is not frosted & still clear like the 'revived' YF-29 Alto full-pack.

At this moment even in the videos, it is a bit hard to tell if the cockpit plastic for this revival VF-25F has some bit of frosting going on. I really hope not. 

We'll find out when we get it in hand. Should have mine in a few days.

I'm just hoping Bandai shored up their QC and this isn't another WWM VF-25. 

Got around to setting up an Archi double stand. If you've dealt with Yeti stands before, then putting it all together is a breeze.

The quality is the equal of Yeti, so I've no hesitation about purchasing more stands. (Though I do wish I could get more of Yeti's custom stand adapters because they were all much better than the stock adapters.)

The only drawback (for me) regarding the double stand is that it takes up way more horizontal space than the double valk setups I had with Yeti stands. Whether or not this is a minus for you will depend on your display setup. For me, I would prefer taking up more vertical space.

I also purchased some Archi custom max stand pros which do allow for double valk setups taking more vertical space, but I haven't assembled one yet.

https://gokinplus.com/products/archi-custom-max-stand-pro

Archi double stand setup

For comparison, my Yeti double valk setup. The second valk is up and above the first valk rather than way off to one side. (Essentially more efficient use of limited space inside a display case.)

15 hours ago, treatment said:

from https://twitter.com/simsim5479/status/1652163601673891840?cxt=HHwWgMDRydmC1e0tAAAA

 

Hmmm I guess Bandai misplaced the molds for the SMS base. 

8 hours ago, David Hingtgen said:

The old one had a clearer/better canopy, the new one is darker, harder to see inside.  Not as bad as the -31's are, but someone at Bandai clearly has a thing for overly-tinted canopies.  

 

::edit::  Head lasers are straighter in the old one, but can't be sure if just this particular re-release copy is warped, or the whole batch is like that.  

Canopy is heavily tinted so it's harder to see how badly painted the pilot figure is.

Also someone forgot to pull out the lower stabilizers on the left one.

10 hours ago, David Hingtgen said:

Nothing yet from AmiAmi for Alto.  

Amiami been really slow lately. Sometimes it'll take days after release before I finally get a notice that it's available and to pay shipping. And then after I pay shipping I've waited as long as 9 days for said item to actually go out their door. 

On 4/26/2023 at 2:12 PM, Angesdad said:

Looks freakin' awesome. Love the subtle shade on the panel lines.

Thanks! Though I'm still essentially beginner level, I'd like to think I've improved at least a little over time. 

Only one more to go and I'll have at last finished the movie skull squadron. Though I suppose I'll have to also finish putting Max's 29 back together too...