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Bobby

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    All things Voltron

    in Anime or Science Fiction

    Posted

    This is quite a feat to gaze upon by modeler Oscar Ramos who made both a GoLion and Dairugger XV...out of cardboard...at 2 ft tall...and they transform!

    Having transformed the DX versions of both I can especially appreciate all the sliding panels and his engineering ideas where he developed some new takes not found on the DX versions (for ex. Dairugger's forearms can be turned outward and still have normal elbow bend while still featuring 3 helicopter tail fins)

    GoLion

    Dairugger

    He took some cues from the Miracle version (Space Probers (#7 & 8 transformation), and the flipping roofs for the All Terrain Space Vehicles (#14 & 15) transformations, but perhaps most notably his method did not leave huge gap holes in the back of the arms and feet vehicles.

    (note: on the second video the sound is cut due to a rights issue...your speakers are fine;))

     

    Your most recent Macross or toy purchase! General thread.

    in Hall Of The Super Topics

    Posted

    Woah, Kuma...that's pretty inventive! I just tried it! So the legs are connected correctly and the red and blue are telescoping but in order to do this pose you have to push the envelope of how the hip joints are set up to achieve this position. The front and side plates of the waist armor are the only ones on either ball or swivel joints to be able to move out of the way for dynamic leg poses forwards and sideways. However, since the rear plate is fixed, you can't push the leg in a backwards direction. BUT (and here's the clever inventive part) if you swivel/rotate the internal hip joint a full 180 degrees it causes the connection point to become lower (i.e. poking out of the waist armor as seen in the pic) thus allowing a much greater range of motion (in this case backwards) so the hips can now be pushed forward and up a bit to achieve this killer heroic pose. Great pic!

    Consolidated Megazone 23 Toy/Model Thread for 2017-2018

    in Anime or Science Fiction

    Posted · Edited by Bobby

    Yes, noticed that too on the Arcadia Garland. And I regret to inform you that the answer to your question sadly is a solid yes. But perhaps for a slightly different reason than usual though...it's not that they're cheap joints...it's the weight. And for that reason, you could argue that they aren't the right (or best) joints for handling this weight (perhaps an engineering shortcoming afterall). The die cast in the arms is heavy, but also fairly balanced as-is for posing to where the shoulders can reliably handle poses with the arms extended straight out to the side. But add the gun and it's like it tipped the scales and became too much in certain extended poses if that makes sense. And likewise, the sheer amount of die cast in the upper-body/cowl makes for quite the top heavy load right at the hips resulting in this same drawback. This indeed is pretty disappointing for the price...but at least like you were able to revive the Arcadia Garland's shoulders, the floor polish injected at the affected areas notably improved these issues rather well in my opinion. But not completely, cause gravity.

    Consolidated Megazone 23 Toy/Model Thread for 2017-2018

    in Anime or Science Fiction

    Posted

    Sorry to hear RH, but good to hear from you and hope things improve over the holidays!

    --

    To keep things balanced, Amazon.co.jp had 1 poster recently give it 3/5 star review.

    He mainly stated that he had been waiting for this release since it was announced. He commented/complained about the box and that even though it seemed well protected, the corners on his box sleeve were damaged a bit.

    He mentioned how the arms have to be attached in order transform into slave move and when transforming to bike mode, the manual recommends the arms be removed to prevent paint /chipping peeling and to save it for last (I personally don't think this is necessary and it seems like more trouble than it's worth as it might weaken the tightness of that ball joint to continuously be popping it in and out).

    He commented on how the proportions appear the same as the prototype and its looks are done in a very brave/heroic style. And that there is a lot of alloy used in the upper body, and the lower body is also heavy. He also said that while each one may vary from the next, his has some issues when trying to pose it with the gun from loose joints.

    He wraps up by stating that while the figure overall moves/posesd well the waist is giving him issues, that the set comes with 2 stands, that the instructions are very detailed and you can visit Art Storm's Youtube channel if you get stuck.  And lastly, that it's difficult to compare to other Garlands because of the size and price, but closes with if you like Arcadia's Garland you'll probably like this since Fewtures EX alloy is highly detailed and very impressive.

    --

    So the more I handle it, I have to agree with the waist and shoulders observation becoming/being an issue. The shoulders are great for regular poses but not quite strong enough for holding up the gun...and the Garland is so top heavy that if you don't balance it just right it will fall over at the hips (especially backwards) which is rather unfortunate due to weight. As I mentioned in an earlier post, some future floor wax totally remedied these weakness, however the balancing part is still an issue cause gravity defying liquid doesn't come in a bottle yet :)

    Many of you already know all this so here's what I did and as you know the key is precision and that can easily be achieved with a Monoject 412 [LINK] [LINK] via a tiny drop of Future Floor Finish (now called Pledge Revive It Floor Gloss) [LINK] which goes a long way.

    To sturdy up the shoulders to easily handle the gun and not droop as the Amazon reviewer noted was just one tiny squirt in the front, work it in by rotating the arm and then again in the back and work the joint. In about 30 min and you'll notice quite  a difference and no problems holding the gun!

    20191208_165717.jpg

    To sturdy up the waist (the forward/backward direction as the turning part is fine) you can easily add a drop on each side of the large hinge (both front and back) and work it in...

    20191208_165921.jpg

    Once you let it seep in the crack it will move halfway around the joint automatically by capillary action and do the other side for the other half. Any excess you can dab away with a q-tip so it won't leave a shiny spot...

    20191208_165956_3.jpg

    And again due to the upper body weight I did the hips which also really helped firm it up...front and back, both sides, a little-dab-a-doo-ya...

    20191208_165859.jpg

    And lastly another spot to prevent it from leaning too far forward and strengthening dynamic poses when on its tip-toes was adding some to the joint for the front half of the foot. If you look behind the ball of the foot in the arch area you'll see where you can squirt a tiny bit and then work it in...

    20191208_165813.jpg

    Once done you cannot see the wax at all and I've done this for many years without any ill effects on any figures (no rust, residue, marks, etc.). I don't know if this has ever happened to you, but I've had a nice figure fall off the shelf and break-a-leg, literally...and in an effort to not let that happen again this solution really gives a lot of peace of mind when posing the more expensive figures on the top shelf! 

    A couple more closing thoughts...

    i. Disappointment in the sculpted hands. They look great, fit very well during transformation, but on a premium figure like this I would have liked the option of a set w/poseable fingers (Yamato's had 1 joint at least and Arcadia's had 2 joints per finger). 

    ii. Is there such a thing as too much weight? You might think that with this guy because at this price, you wouldn't think you should have to do any 'joint strenghtening' and for ex. SOC Lion Voltron is as heavy as all get out and has no trouble standing up whatsoever. So this issue ends up being an engineering flaw/shortcoming for the Garland that many may find to be pretty disappointing.

    20191208_170604.jpg 

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