Chronocidal

Little late, but I think it was in LDD. I know there have been some custom part update packs for it, since LEGO stopped supporting it. Downside to the update would be the lack of actual windows, but I'm absolutely not upset by not having a cockpit with minifigures in it. It's cool that sometimes they work out in the correct scale, but I'd much rather focus on a having as accurate a shape as possible, rather than being shackled to the existing stock of clear elements. Since it hasn't been brought up here yet, I'm just going to say I'm really torn about this new set. On the one hand.. I want to get it. On the other.. the primary reason would be to rebuild it, because this design just upsets me in so many ways. As a starting point, I'm not nearly the airliner aficionado that I know some folks here are, but this 747 has so many serious flaws that I can't look at it without cringing. Primarily, the cockpit absolutely needs a redesign, but the placement of both the wing and stabilizers relative to the fuselage just bother me. But the shuttle.. this hurts. Mostly because it's almost dead on 1/110 scale, same as the Saturn V, and more importantly, the Ideas shuttle that got rejected.. and this design is so much worse than that one. I do like how they used some ball and socket joints to angle the main engines, and I might steal that design for mine, but the rest is just a painful downgrade in so many ways. It doesn't even look as nice as some of their City-themed minifig scale ones, and even using one of their old single-piece molded noses would have been an improvement over the weird half-octagon cone they designed. I have gradually made a lot of tweaks and modifications to the original KingsKnight design, especially the nose and tail (the feature I'm most proud of, that thing is a SNOT jigsaw), but I also redesigned the wing to use the old-style notched wing plates, which let me give the wing a proper gray leading edge both on top and bottom. Those pieces sadly aren't made anymore, but I'm certain something could be worked out using all of the new angled tiles they've made. Funny enough, the original Ideas design was closer to the Enterprise anyway, since it left out the upper nose markings that I rebuilt it to include. In terms of the set though, I know it's not historically accurate, since they just decided to replicate the Paris Air Show scheme carrying the Enterprise, but it feels like a lazy cop-out not to include the parts or stickers to pick one of the other shuttles. They even missed a stupidly easy detail by not adding the upper windows on the cabin, or even a sticker for them.. which is specifically what that notch in the upper cockpit panel was used for in previous shuttle sets. I know the Enterprise had those windows covered, but they were still there, and it would have made a very low-effort detail. I don't know. Maybe I'll use the points I racked up during the Star Wars sales to discount it and pick it up later this summer, but it's definitely a fixer-upper. I could even use the stickers (yes they're all stickers) from the shuttle on mine, since the parts involved are mostly the same.

Would a set of old Yamato stickers work? I think they included the necessary markings, but I don't know if they were white-backed stickers. You might try the sale/trade section though, lots of people here bought the first version, and you might find some who wanted the version without markings.

The most prominent aircraft I know of with similar features is the F-16, which is discussed here, with some up-close photos of what those stripes look like. The TLDR is that they prevent static build-up that could interfere with the radar. http://www.arcforums.com/forums/air/index.php?/topic/140762-f-16-nose-cone/ Whether they were done for any reason other than aesthetics by Kawamori is up for grabs, but given he has an aerospace degree, I would not be at all surprised if he was fully aware of their real life purpose. I definitely learned something new though, I always figured they were structural stiffeners, or vortex generators. The YF-19/VF-19 nosecones have something similar, but they tend to be drawn as a more aerodynamic shape, so stiffeners/generators seem more likely.

I'm currently waiting on a pair from ShowZ, and watching the tracking information. I'll probably eat the cost if there is any, but will definitely report it here once I find out the details.

Plus, Bandai just cannot get over the assumption that main characters are all anyone wants. That may be all that sells in Japan, but it's baffling how they don't even understand the value of the variety in the shows that they sponsored. The entire schtick of Delta was a squad of airshow craft, but they're too dense to comprehend the draw of completing the squad... or just too risk averse to consider producing anything that won't sell out as well as a main character, anyhow. Coupled with the never-ending reissues of Hayate, everyone's just sick of the same release. And of course, Bandai misreads the situation perfectly, interpreting the disinterest for the only release they think we should care about as apathy about the entire franchise, when all we really want is all of the other merchandise.

Weird, they actually just removed it? That feels dumb.. even if it is more accurate. Oh well, I cleaned off one to use with one of my first versions, so no real harm done, I'll just move it. Don't need more than one for a battroid display anyhow.

Was browsing through a few old folders, and found pics of the updates I had planned to the UCS Imperial Shuttle. Still a long way to go to update the entire wing mechanism, but the engine section and cockpit were pretty well ready to go. I was never really happy with the way I tried to redesign the side intake vents, but considering how many more curved elements have been introduced since that point, maybe it's time to revisit the update. I must say, I was always incredibly happy about how cleanly all of those angled panels came together to shape the rear of the cockpit section. I never did get to build it though, so I have no real firm idea of whether it was actually structurally sound.

Given the issues those had, that still feels overpriced. That really is a good deal for a Hayate with packs though. I want to say it's amazing that it's dropped that low, but I think this is what Bandai overestimating demand looks like. Unfortunately, it also probably means we're never going to see any of the other versions released.

It wasn't, but I don't think that ever stopped HG from harassing vendors trying to sell merch from other parts of the franchise. I don't remember if there was ever direct confirmation that HG was involved, but I do remember getting some early pre-orders of Frontier valks at BBTS that got completely canned for one reason or another. They just stopped trying to sell them at all pretty quickly.

Pretty sure that is entirely off the table now, since they actually drew up a contract to say who gets to do what.

Will be sure to compare and post some pics when I receive one, and check if there are any fixes compared with the first release. I think one of mine is coming by airmail, so we'll see how soon it arrives.

I'm vaguely hoping that the stickers are "missing," but slipped in between layers of the package somewhere, but I'm not worried about them either way. I plan on trying my hand at cutting out some stencils and painting the logos on the key places (really only the fastpacks). I'll be a little disappointed if they leave out the heatshield though, since I think that looks better for battroid than the bare cockpit, and makes a perfect spot for the logo.

Just got confirmation on another pair shipped from the new stock at ShowZ, though.. separately, and with different shipping methods, so we'll see whether the boxes arrive intact. Not too concerned, since one of my first editions arrived in great display-worthy shape, but I'm looking forward to adding some Autobot logos.

Man, they're killing me here.. I've got a cannon full of money ready to fire into their lap, and they keep stalling.. Still.. I'll forgive them for the moment, since they just announced a line of Star Citizen ship models, and I'm going to be drooling over those until I have a small fleet of them on my shelves.

Holy crap, it actually looks like an aircraft! Underside will be where all of the garbage is kept, obviously, and you can tell it's still a a pretty chunky block underneath, but still better than I expected them to pull off. If we even get the opportunity to pick one up, I might do it, just for the luls.

See, the funny thing, from Bandai's perspective, I can kind of see how this makes.. "sense." The thought process probably went something like this: - "What's the absolute minimum factory-complete product unit we can send that will cover all of the complaints of broken parts we've received?" - "The only way to do that would be to send the entire plane body, and the spare canopy." - "If it means we don't have to disassemble anything or interact with the assembly line, fine. Ship it." It's basically the minimum amount of effort they can give to get you the replacement for whatever part of the valk broke.

Wow, that's wild. I know Bandai is an absolute pain for refusing to replace individual parts, but I never thought they would go so far as to just send the entire valk. The crazy thing about this is that now you've got, essentially, a giant spare parts bin in case something else breaks. Too bad they didn't send you the engine petals though, or it would have actually been a fair piece to display.

Not a bad price considering the rarity, but yeah, I haven't seen much fanfare about it. Maybe because they were testing the waters for this product line with a fairly unremarkable design? I know it was a headliner for AC4, but I don't recall that game getting nearly as much fanfare as 4A when it dropped. I do keep hoping they'll do more figures at this level though, since the first one wasn't really a design I was interested in. They put out a White Glint though, and I will be all over it immediately.

I'll have to go check whether my previous order is carried over. Slight bummer about the stickers not being included, but I feel lke that will be one of the easiest things to solve, and I'm sure there will be local options, just not free ones. I'm more concerned what the cost is going to be to actually receive the order at all now. Edit: Looks like I actually pre-paid my old order in full in September, so I should be good whenever the new stock comes in.

Oh? That's kind of awesome, but also annoying, since I had already started stripping the leg packs on one of mine. Still though, good to know! I'll probably just stash that set and use the clear parts one one. I had already ordered a third shortly after receiving my first pair, so we'll see if I get notifications about it soon.

This kind of makes me think it was faulty from the start, giving you all the resistance at first, and then over time the mechanism has just failed.

I think the only thing that would stop them from doing just that is purely Bandai's unquenchable fetish for doing things that don't make any sense. I'm not sure which I prefer at this point though, since neither release type seems to be really harder or easier to acquire than the other.

There are absolutely a ton of ways to reconstruct the original UCS Imperial Shuttle that would be much more accurate to the original shape, and just more solid all around. Embedding several layers of ratcheted hinges in the wing pivots would be a great way to start, since they have a much lower profile and would give better support than the old crankshaft design. I've been waiting for them to get around to a redesign of that one for years.

Probably just purely licensing costs. I'd imagine original characters are a lot cheaper to make and get approval for. Though I'd prefer an armored Ozma, I don't know if they could pull that off convincingly.

Yeah, the style of that movie was weird, but I am absolutely on board for some fancy sets recreating it. I would absolutely pick up a new UCS Batwing from that movie as well, since I think it would need to be that size before you could get the style replicated well.