Lolicon

Woohoo my VF-25S and SDF-1 both arrived! The very first thing I did after opening it. EDIT: Did a quick inspection of the unit. QC is only marginally worse than on my Alto. -Yellow paint app is a tiny bit sloppier than Alto's red. Inconsistencies are also more noticeable with yellow on a grey background. -Some paint already scratched off on the ankle cover and lower tailfins. -Couple of spots where it's obvious where the yellow paint was touched up by hand. -SMS emblem on the left side of the nose it a bit sloppy. -Bits of the skull emblem on the back have flaked off at the corner where the curved surface meets the flat surface. Overall I'm satisfied. Most of these issues I can fix with a paintbrush. Time to panel line this baby and give it some acrylic "horseshoes." The paint rubs off pretty easily on the feet so I brush a few layers of acrylic clearcoat on the bottoms of the feet to prevent that.

True enough. That just brings to that old horse: they're in demand and selling pretty well, so why doesn't Bandai release more of them?

Your remarks were that you were willing to pay more at HLJ, which implied you could get it cheaper on ebay. If you were just referring to the 25F, then that was never the case, even when it had just came out.

Never said his point about QC issues was invalid, but I want to know what HK sellers he's talking about that carries valkyries cheaper than HLJ et al.

Can you point me in the direction of these HK dealers that are selling VF-25s cheaper than HLJ?

If it's anything like the 25F release, HLJ and/or Amiami will probably get some more in, after the initial wave. You won't get the preorder discount, but even full retail is a lot better than current ebay prices. I bought a second 25F in mid-November, weeks after it came out.

Yay finally got my shipping notice. And now the long wait...

Finally entered the "Being Processed for Shipping" stage. And I just noticed that HLJ updated their shipping prices. Fedex is cheaper than EMS for the 25S? WTF?

Yeah, that's the rub. No matter how awesome your company is, it only takes one stupid employee to make your entire operation look incompetent and amateurish. Perhaps I had the misfortune of dealing with an idiot whom HLJ has long since fired, but the damage has been done. Anyway, getting way off-topic. A couple of days wait won't kill me (I usually ship via SAL, after all), but man I'm super excited about getting my 25S, so it makes the wait feel really long. Haven't been this excited about a new valkyrie in years! Also glad to see that the Ranka figure isn't an amputee! Can't wait to stick her into my 25F.

Glad you guys have had good experiences with HLJ. I haven't, and as a result I've taken most of my business elsewhere. Simple as that. Lavishing praise on them isn't going to change that.

I only order from HLJ if other places are sold out. They're slow and their customer service is only slightly better than the soup nazi. I see some of the skull emblem has already scraped off.

Preorder up. And already sold out. http://www.amiami.co...E-5122&page=top

VF-25S with armor is much more iconic to me, as we only see the 25S without armor what, twice, in the whole series? 8190 is pretty steep though. I might have to pass on the 25F armor.

Just noticed that the Alto armor pack pic shows the chest missile launchers opening outward, whereas the Ozma armor pack pic shows them opening inward. What the hell? Just to make sure I wasn't imagining things again, I did a quick check of the anime. The chest launchers are supposed to open inward, except in episode 2 where they inexplicably open outward. So, uh, I'm not sure which is supposed to be the anime accurate version now.

Glad to see they went with the purple canopy tint this time around. The gunpod color is a bit baffling though. Is it supposed to be that color? I thought all the 25s had the same gunpod color, not counting the sniper rifle. I guess I'm ordering both armor packs...

HLJ is notoriously slow at processing and shipping orders.

Can't wait to get my greedy hands on one. This will be one of the few times I spring for EMS shipping.

The YF-29 was created for the sole purpose of selling some more toys with the release of the latest movie. Plot-wise, the YF-29 makes no damn sense. Even by anime standards, the speed with which they created the YF-29 was ridiculous. The VF-25 and 27 series are supposed to be cutting edge, top of the line fighters... so where did the YF-29 come from? Did some grease monkeys whip it up in their garage over the weekend? Speaking of weekend, apparently the requirements for joining SMS are the same as the Springfield Police: a solid weekend of training. And you hand your latest prototype fighter to a kid who's had a weekend of training and just lost a (very expensive) VF-25 because of his own inexperience and inadequacy? Not making good decisions with your money, Mr. Bilrer. That said, I do like the look of the YF-29, but not enough to shell out the current insane prices. As others have pointed out, it only appears in the latter part of one movie and doesn't do anything special. Unless you count Alto losing yet another aircraft as something special.

HLJ preorder is open again, but only at 5% discount now.

I must have those. Will they be available through regular channels? (i.e. not web exclusives)

Actually, it repeatedly switches between grey and white in episode 9.

From an technical standpoint, definitely the VF-19 for creating an anime-accurate toy that simultaneously manages a sleek fighter and chunky battroid (and no ridiculous QC problems!). Designing valkyries from the Plus/7 era must be quite a challenge with all the anime magic involved. Kudos to Yamato for pulling a proverbial rabbit out of the hat! That said, my personal favorite is still the Renewal VF-25. It's a great, anime-accurate toy, and such a huge leap forward from its pathetic predecessor. I still love whooshing both around, though.

Just got my 11B and took it out of the box. My first impression is: what a beautiful bird! Though it looks a bit half-dressed and not very intimidating because of the tiny tailfins. Things improve quite a bit with the fast packs. Picking it up, my first thought was how light it was! This comes from so much recent VF-19 and 25 handling. Love the grey color. It gives it a more militaristic feel against the usual bright colors of other valkyries... though the orange striping does take a bit away from that. Not much though, since it's fairly minimal. Has the meanest looking gunpod I've seen on a valkyrie. Guess it's the bayonet. I was hoping I would get one of the earlier runs with the rainbow tinted canopy, but alas, just a plain clear canopy on mine. Time to fiddle with transforming it before I detail it.

Just got my VF-19 today (I'm a cheapskate that rarely springs for EMS). I don't really like most of the Macross 7 mecha designs, but wow what a beautiful plane! The longer-looking wings and slimmer front fuselage make it look way better than the YF-19. Bring on the valkyrie with boobs!

You're brilliant.