Lolicon

So I finished building my YF-29. I got the both the Sheryl and Ranka versions and had planned to build both at the same time, but one evening my bastard cat decided to attack the box the model box where I was keeping all the prepped parts, and succeeded in snapping off the fragile nub off one of the canards on the Sheryl model, and since the main fuselage had already been glued together, I had to buy a whole new kit just for that. Take care when building, since that nub is quite fragile! Anyway, that allowed me to focus on just the Ranka version. Like the Sheryl kit, it's identical to the Alto version, except it's molded in different colored plastic (obviously). And like the Alto kit, it only comes with marking seals, aka Bandai's fancy name for stickers. It comes with all the stickers to build Alto's SMS marking scheme (except in pink rather than black) and of course the stickers for the special Ranka markings. The actual model kit itself is okay. It's the usual Bandai snap fit affair. If you've ever stuck together a Bandai HG Gundam kit from the past 20 years, then there should be nothing that surprises you here. As I noted in a past post, the parts fit around the lerx is poor and leaves a huge, visible gap. I hadn't planned for this, as it's the kind of awful parts fit I'd expect from a lame AMT/Ertl kit, not a Bandai kit. In any case, the way the model is built makes it very difficult to remove all the seams, unless you're prepared for a lot of work and masking tape, which I didn't think was worth it for a 1200 yen kit. So the model itself is easy enough to assemble, and most of the parts fit well. What drags the model down is Bandai's cheap, boneheaded (but not unexpected) decision to only include stickers. That proved to be the most annoying and time consuming portion of the build. If Bandai had just given us decals, it would've made things 10x easier (not to mention made the kit look much better). The sticker film is much thicker then a decal, but the actual coloring or whatever is thinner, making them translucent when you apply them. It's especially noticeable when you apply a light sticker over a darker surface. When I went to see the Frontier movie, out in the lobby there was a glass display case with all three YF-29s built. They were unpainted and stuck together with just the stickers. And they were ugly, especially the Alto version, because it has white stickers on a red surface. The result? Alto apparently doesn't fly a red and white YF-29, he flies a red and pink one. Alright, that's enough bitching about the kit's flaws. On my build, I decided to paint as many of the pink markings on as I could, since pink stickers look almost as bad as white ones, IMO. All the sensors and navigational lights are painted on too. I didn't want to deal with painting a 1/100 scale pilot figure (I'd had enough of that painting the tiny 1/72 pilots) so I coated the inside of the canopy in silver. And then the stickers. You have to lay them down perfectly, and if you don't, you can't just nudge them into place like with a decal. You gotta peel them off and lay them down again. Do this a couple of times and the super sticky adhesive quickly gets lost. However, the part that really took a long time was getting the stickers to conform to the surface so they would look like they were painted on. Sadly, there's no such thing as "sticker softener" so I had to do it the old-fashioned way: with a toothpick! I more or less got most of the stickers down, but sometimes the surface was just too irregular to get the sticker to conform. The worst areas are the back beam cannons and the area around the battroid head. I usually prefer a semi-gloss finish for anime mecha models, but for this one I decided on a flat finish, since I figured it might better hide the fact that these are stickers. I'll let you decide on how well that turned out. Overall, it's merely an average kit that requires a modeler with greater skills and resources than myself to really look spectacular. Just trying to get it to look presentable (and not like a really cheap toy) takes a lot of work!

And that's why, after being burned by the YF-19 many moons ago, I never buy the initial release of any valkyrie.

New figure pics time. Last episode Sheryl Picked up this Sheryl as soon as it was available, to go with the Ranka I picked up back in April. It looks great for a game prize figure, but they went a little overboard with the pink paint, so her hair looks way too dark. Also, as per Banpresto's usual MO, her face is slightly off. I know Banpresto is more than capable of sculpting a good face because of the near-perfect Oiran Sheryl figure. Still, it's an inexpensive game prize figure, so I'm quite pleased with it. I do own a Macross Quarter, but no EX-Gear Alto. Oiran Sheryl Best Sheryl figure ever. Face sculpt is perfect and the level of detail is excellent. She's also the tallest Sheryl figure I've seen; she's a giant next to Ranka (I don't recall Sheryl being that much taller). I guess Banpresto threw out any pretense of making them to scale to focus on making them look good. I'm fine with that, given how awful some of their past releases have been. She does come with a pipe, but it keeps falling out of her hand, so be prepared to blu-tack it. Figures that the best Sheryl figure is one that does not appear in the anime. Also, like almost every cast-off figure, the solid PVC clothing adds a lot of bulk. However, I haven't bothered putting the clothing back on because it involves a lot of parts rubbing against each other, and painted parts scraping against each other just makes me nervous. Also they both look great in their underpants, and I'm just as much a perv as the rest of you.

Same. Haven't bought a single VF-25 because they looked like crap from the start, and the reports of easy paint chipping and QC issues have done nothing to change my mind. If a company releases something you deem to be crap, the best thing to do is vote with your wallet and not buy it. Buying crap and then thanking them for it only encourages them to release more crap. Clearly, Bandai deemed the dissatisfaction with the original VF-25s and the potential profit from releasing a new, improved version to be enough to warrant going ahead with it so soon after the originals came out. EDIT: Or maybe just the part about profit.

Everyone seems to have accepted that as canon, but I'm pretty sure it was just an animation goof. Why? Because when Alto bails on his VF-25 in the last episode, it's also missing the head stripes. EDIT: Either that or the last episode was goofed. Either way, someone made a mistake. (Doesn't matter to me really, just noting it.)

Any reports on whether or not the paint will flake off if looked at the wrong way?

I've built six of the 1/72 kits and I can tell you that the decals are pretty piss poor. Chronocidal covered the bases on that. The dithering is easily visible to the naked eye. You don't need a macro lens to tell it's some shoddy print quality. The stickers have the same poor print quality and fit issues, but have the added minuses of being thicker than decals, more difficult to conform to surfaces (no such thing as "sticker softener"), and worst of all, the pigment/coloring/whatever is thin as hell, meaning the stickers are actually translucent. It's not an issue on a white surface, but it becomes obvious when you try to apply a sticker on a darker surface, say a white sticker on Michael's 25G, or a white sticker on Alto's red YF-29, which ends up looking pink. I'm currently building building a Sheryl and Ranka YF-29, and I threw the stickers aside in favor of just painting all the stripes on. If you just want a fighter mode model, I'd get the 1/100 scale kit. It's cheaper and fewer parts and no transformation mechanism to deal with. In addition to being expensive, the 1/72 kits are pretty laborious to actually build because of the transformation feature. Plus it's a pain to actually get all the parts lined up in fighter mode, and you'll still end up with some unsightly gaps. Oh, and you'll probably end up with at least some paint and decal damage while fiddling around trying to get everything in place.

Just received my new kimono-clad Sheryl figure today. Oh my dear lord this is easily the best Sheryl... no, the best Frontier figure released so far! (Though I still like Ranka more. ) She's slightly taller than the black and white rabbit figures, and pretty heavy with that massive kimono and all that hair. Both the sculpt and paint job are superb, and I love the level of detail. For once Banpresto captures Sheryl's face perfectly! (The only other Sheryl figure to get her face just right is the Megahouse concert Sheryl, though I have two more Sheryls coming in the mail, so we'll see...) Right now I have her displayed in her bikini because you have to pull the kimono off to remove tons of plastic and bubble wrap, and I don't have the heart to put it back on. Rubbing painted parts on each other always makes me nervous. For anyone who collects anime (or just Frontier) figures, you don't want miss out on this one!

He means Bandai decals/stickers are hideous screen-printed affairs, if you stand closer than 3 feet away from the model.

I found a Sheryl right after for 16k on Mandarake, so I'll pass on it. I want the new movie Sheryl and Ranka figures. I'd prefer if they made full size figures of those two though.

What in particular is wrong with it? I'd be interested in it, unless what you have to say really about it is really that bad...

The gap is like 2 mm wide. It's a "no one at Bandai gave enough of a crap to check the CAD drawing before finalizing it" type of screwup. Also, the way the kit is assembled means that attempting to remove all the seams would entail an enormous amount of time and effort (and masking tape) that just isn't worth it for this kit. Even the pro built YF-29s in Hobby Japan left those seams in (or are photographed in such a way so that you can't see them).

First episode aired in December 2007.

Hit or miss with HLJ. Sometimes they ship fairly quickly, sometimes it takes forever. I guess it depends on how many people bother showing up to work there. When I ordered my YF-29 kits, they sat in the the "Preparing for Shipment" stage for 9 days. And they were "in stock" items. You are correct, sir. I held out hope that maybe the stuff would be caustic enough to melt those stickers, but then again if it was that strong it'd probably just melt the plastic too. I did discover something that is effective at getting the stickers to conform to the surface: a toothpick!

Here's something that I haven't seen mentioned. #$%@&*! Bandai can't even get the parts of their own simplistic kits to fit together properly. I wanted to paint as many of the markings on as I could, but when I went to assemble the upper and lower halves of the front fuselage, there's a gigantic gap in the parts. The two pieces are flush against each other at both ends. Also, the upper and lower halves of the lerx (is that what it's really called?) aren't even the same length. The bottom half of the lerx is clearly longer. I suppose it wouldn't be as much of an issue if you just cover it with a sticker... Some damn sloppy work, Bandai. I went online to see if it was just me, but it's not. Gap can be seen on this build too. http://reggiocomics.blogspot.com/2011/03/kit-review-yf-29-ranka-marking-ver_03.html

Out of boredom, I picked up a couple new items recently. There's been plenty posted about the Sheryl rabbit figures, so I'll skip those and go straight to Maiko Ranka, my new favorite Ranka figure. I was quite disappointed by the first wave of Frontier Ichiban Kuji figures, and even the Sheryl rabbit figures, though a vast improvement, have faces that don't really look like Sheryl. Banpresto finally gets it right with the release of Maiko Ranka and Oiran Sheryl (which I'll also pick up if I can find one reasonably priced). The pictures tell you pretty much all you need to know. She's a little taller than the other 1/8 Ranka figures I have, but they got her bust (or lack thereof) correct.

Thanks for the tip. I gave it a try but it didn't seem to have any effect on the marking seal. Does it take awhile to work or am I doing something wrong?

Hobby Search has pics of the upcoming Sheryl and Ranka marking versions. Not sure what to make of the Ranka version. Decal softener doesn't work on Bandai's marking seals, does it? http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10146349 http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10146350

Picked up a few new items when I was in Tokyo last month. Black/White Bunny Sheryl- For a game prize figure, it's quite nice... except the face! Gah! The sculpt and paint job all around are good, but the face... I haven't seen Sheryl with such a stoned, dead expression since the Emotion Style release. A shame really, because it's a great figure from the neck down. Ranka SQ Figure- I've been hoping that they'd release a figure of Ranka in her white dress and oversized boots, and Banpresto finally delivers! And it does not disappoint. I absolutely love this figure. Like B/W Bunny Sheryl, it's a great figure, made all the more impressive that it's also a relatively cheap game prize figure. But unlike B/W Sheryl, she has a good face sculpt, better than the first Ichiban Kuji figures IMO. She's the same size as Super Dimension Cinderella Ranka. If there has to be something to gripe about, it's that her hair is a lighter, more yellowish green than is normal for Ranka. But that's a minor quibble. Can't wait to get the last episode Sheryl to go with it. What can I say? I love girls with a penchant for big boots, be it Ranka or the real life Megumi. Ranka Valkyrie Shoujo- Smaller than the SQ figure, but I like it a lot. Definitely worth the 1100 yen. Also actually looks like Ranka, unlike Love Slinger Sheryl, whose face is... off. (Why does Banpresto have such a hard time with Sheryl's face?) I wish I could see some good Valkyrie Girl cosplayers in the real world! Also picked up a Maiko Ranka from Yahoo Auctions recently. Everyone's busy drooling over Oiran Sheryl, but no love for Maiko Ranka?

You're a goddamn genius! I'll do precisely that. Not interested in the canon schemes either.

So Bandai finally releases reasonably-priced, fighter mode-only Frontier kits... and they don't come with decals? I don't know what to say to that.

Thanks guys. You're too nice. I think I'm done with the 1/72 line though. Just a lot of hassle to build. The worst part is the sanding, IMO. I think before commencing any actual work on any kit, I must spend like two weeks' worth of evenings just sanding all the parts down. After this kit, I've sort of developed an affinity for these non-canon schemes. I think the Ranka & Sheryl versions of the YF-29 are next on my list.

Bandai clearly engineered the 1/72 kits for the "snap it together yourself toy" crowd, because for anyone who seriously wants to do a good job building and painting the kit, it's a royal pain in the rear. That being said, I think yours turned out pretty good, given the shortcomings of this kit. Dunno if you ever plan on building anymore VF-25s, but if you do, I'd recommend painting the sides of the interlocking parts where the stripes are, because just sticking the decals/stickers alone will leave lots of unsightly gaps. For my part, I will probably never build another 1/72 VF-25 kit. I think I'll look into the YF-29 fighter kits next... though they have their own problems. *coughstickerscough*

Hey all, Just thought I'd share the Deculture version of the VF-25F I recently completed. I started it when I had some free time over the holidays but couldn't finish till recently. Decals aside, the kit is identical to the regular VF-25 kit, so you all know what building one is like. Mine is painted and assembled straight out of the box. I lack the insane skills that many of you more awesome builders employ. But for a fun little project that I did when I had a bit of spare time here and there, I enjoyed building this kit... right up until the decaling and final assembly. Getting the often large deculture decals (which are mostly just carrier film) to lie flat over the 25's many irregular surfaces was troublesome, to say the least. In retrospect, I should've just sliced up the decals into smaller pieces and ditched most of the carrier film. Ironically, this is my most accurate VF-25 to date, even though it's for a non-canon paint scheme.

Yup, apparently she plays the piano too. And who knows, maybe having a niche status might be for the best. Being "mainstream" has its drawbacks too. I'm from the Gulf Coast region of the USA, and it's just as hot and humid as in Japan, except back home I make it a point to stay indoors as much as possible and, like everyone else in America, I drive everywhere, so my exposure to the H&H is minimal. Not so while walking and taking trains everywhere in Japan. My apologies though, as I should have been more specific about the crowding. It wasn't so much being packed shoulder to shoulder that I disliked as it was the effort to get a good view of May'n. Spent much of the nearly two hours standing on my toes with my head craned upwards to maintain a line of sight on her. By the end my feet and back were killing me. The crowding was actually a little better than taking the rush hour train.