Chronocidal

I think my biggest gripe with the entire design is just what insane nonsense they made the lower legs into. Like... just why did they make them do that? And is it even necessary, or are they just really fond of showing off how many moving parts the legs have?

Honestly, after they flubbed the AX release so hard, I really don't care if they put out more of them or not. I never liked the altered nose/canopy profile they went with, and in either case, I'd much rather see them go back to re-release the original Kairos. Would still like to get the original VF-31 packs for Arad and Chuck, but I figure those are a lost cause as well at this point, because Bandai seems to have just abandoned those characters in the dirt. I'm glad I picked up a couple of cheap super parts sets (Messer's, I think) to repaint into their versions if I ever actually get together the space to display the full flight. I do kind of prefer the AX super packs though, they look more balanced mounted centered on the wings. Maybe if I get bored someday I'll just do a Siegfried+ and kitbash the best parts of both versions together... Siegfried nose section and gunpod, AX wings, arms, and legs. The molds are so similar they'll probably just slot into place. Edit: Scratch that, of course, me being the lowly fan I am, I forgot my place. So silly of me to imagine Bandai might deign me deserving of tools such as screws in order to accomplish such a blasphemous slight upon their everlasting engineering wisdom. Seriously Bandai, get bent. Your designs suck, and unburying my AX from the depths of my closet reminded me why I banished it to the bottom of my pile in the first place. Miserable piece of sloppy, mis-toleranced garbage.

Yeah, don't expect to get it anywhere near release date. I'm STILL waiting for them to deliver on my original YF-21 kit preorder. Still, $35 isn't too bad, and Bandai's decals have never been worth the paper they're printed on anyway. I'll probably just make a custom scheme for it.

Don't be surprised if that's a web exclusive though. They love doing that for those "last episode power up" versions. I still have the original release though, and I grabbed a pair of the super bundles, so I'll probably skip it unless it's just the armor.

Yeah, I mean, I at least like to think they aren't intentionally malicious with their teases. I can't even begin to pretend I understand the logic that governs their releases, and I can't say I know enough about gundams one way or another to guess why they behave the way they do, but their behavior with models at least seems a little more flexible? I'm surprised we got Gamlin's VF-22 at all, but maybe they were gauging reaction before they committed to the M&Ms. With the DX releases though, I'm firmly convinced they have their investments min-maxed to an obscene level, since they seem to have next to no interest to revisiting anything they don't think will sell well. With Luca, I cannot really blame them one bit for ignoring him (kind of like the Frontier movies did). I don't think anyone was clamoring for more from his character in any of the Frontier media. I would also not be even slightly surprised if Bandai collected export numbers for every release, and if the distribution between foreign and domestic purchases reached a certain point, they might make the assumption that everyone in the foreign market who wanted him probably already got him. Like imagine if they tracked the stock from the original release, and found that more foreign purchases were made than domestic. While that might point toward more of a foreign demand, it also means they'd probably be struggling to make back anything locally, and would be losing a lot to export expenses.

Realistically speaking, I would not hold my breath. They haven't cared enough to complete any series group (that's valks and their packs) since the original Frontier releases. I think it's frankly kind of amazing we got Chuck's VF-31 at all. They just aren't willing to commit the resources to characters that don't have "enough" of a fan following at this point.

I mean I don't expect Arcadia to ever re-produce it, but I guess my point was that it doesn't make sense to scale up the HMR version when the 1/60 version already exists to just measure directly. The weapons shouldn't have any trouble fitting either, aside from the chest mounts. My thought was more that it shouldn't be hard to design and print a set of adapters to properly support the original ghost, since Arcadia just can't be bothered to do the work. Edit: To be clear though, if it wasn't stated earlier.. Bandai didn't fix the proportions for the ghost either. They did a straight re-scale of the Yamato version without changing anything, and because of this, it doesn't fit correctly either. The only thing they changed was molding the canards permanently bent into the position that would over-stress the moving Yamato version, leaving the ghost propped up too high in the front.

I think a lot of people are holding out hope that Arcadia will just re-release the old Yamato version, and save them the trouble. It doesn't fit right, because the proportions of the Arcadia are narrower than the Yamato VF-0, but it's still a lot of work saved. Printing new front fins, or adjusted slotted tanks for the VF-0 might be a decent way to make it fit better though.

The really hilariously sad thing? I still think this might be the best official aircraft transformer we've seen in about a decade.

I wonder how difficult it would be to just unscrew the upper pivot, and replace that topmost segment with a solid metal nut and bolt.

Glad it feels solid at least, it certainly doesn't look like it should be. It kind of looks like someone looked at the original VF-1, saw the VF-2SS, and went, "Hey, what if we take that older one and update it so it looks more like the same kind of sloppy collection of robot parts cosplaying as an aircraft as the newer one?" "Brilliant!"

Problem there is that they would probably never produce those designs anyway. All they seem to produce are the most common and popular versions that Yamato made in the first place.

Yeah, happy I can skip that mess. I'd rather they make something actually accurate to some of the designs that they still struggle with. Speaking of accuracy though.. I'm gonna be that guy and point out that it's cute that they included the ROTJ throne room in an otherwise ANH Death Star I.

Man lived an incredible life, no matter how you look at it. Reminds me though, both of my grandfathers were born in 1925, so their 100th birthdays would be coming up shortly. Time certainly flies.