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Chronocidal

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Everything posted by Chronocidal

  1. Chronocidal
    Yeah, I think it was a fairly fun ride. I'm going to be picking it up, and devouring the little Edwards/Rosamond/Mojave Desert references, since that's all in my backyard. I think the source of some "let-down" about this movie is that it's an origin story that got sandwiched as an intermission in Marvel's bigger picture (which the honest trailer hangs a lampshade on). I think any movie released that close to Endgame was going to be a bit of a disappointment, because the hype train has to take a two hour detour through the desert before you can get back on track to the destination everyone was looking forward to.
  2. Chronocidal
    Was going to say, that looks like a huge step up from the old Yamato 25th edition. Would look pretty good with Batman logos as well, I think. On the other hand though, like all quick color-swap repaints, it falls into the same pit the YF-19 Double Nuts/BoP did.. they painted all the vernier thruster exhausts gold. This one's still pretty good though, and there's some precedent for gold-colored exhausts, since we've seen several super packs use a gold-ish titanium tint on the nozzles. I'm just glad they had the sense to stop before painting the chest intakes gold too. Also.. random side note, but the spellcheck on this forum is off its nut.. I can understand flagging things like "valk" and "protoculture," but it doesn't know the word thruster?
  3. Chronocidal
    I thought that kit was one of those "build-a-kit" magazine subscriptions, and that it was released a long time ago? Is this one a re-release of it? I absolutely don't have the room for a prop/model that big, but I'm also absolutely taking notes on the layout and proportions for a potential computer sim model.
  4. Chronocidal
    I do appreciate that, but realized it might not be helpful after all. I recall reading that some of the weapons don't work so well on the DX VF-1 hardpoints, because they've been slightly tweaked to give them that rotation. Not to worry, though, I'll just have to take measurements and experiment a bit. In reality, I do only need to make a non-rotating female joint, since what I'm aiming for would be a sleeve to snap over the existing pylon stub. I'll probably carve myself a prototype out of styrene sheet and take the measurements from that.
  5. Chronocidal
    See.. I'm of two minds about this. I understand they had to make them distinct from the actors in the MCU, because that would have been just confusing, and expensive, but they might have gone a bit too far on the "real" end of comic book characters. On the other hand.. from a character perspective? Yeah, that Black Widow actually looks like she could be Russian. She actually reminds me of the character style from some of the Metal Gear Solid games. The character models they're going with aren't idealized classic comic book styles, and I think I'm actually pretty okay with that. Cap though.. I think he's an exception. They bulked him up so hard he looks like he's smuggling a beer gut in that armor.
  6. Chronocidal
    The leak wouldn't be on purpose, but because you ordered through an unsecured storefront site that might be wide open to the interwebs. The cancelled order would be obvious, since the product wasn't actually in stock on the main site, and the terminated account would be well within their rights for your abusing a flaw in the website.
  7. Chronocidal
    I guess that just seems like a very odd point to make... of course the VF-1 is easier to transform.. the process has been pretty well nailed down by every toy for about 30 years now, with some advancements in leg delivery. I'm just very surprised they would talk about complaints about the 262 as a selling point of the VF-1. I was more thinking of the 171 as a comparison for complaints, not specifically the transformation difficulty (though I know some folks have absolutely hated transforming it). The 171 breakages seemed serious enough that they should have far outweighed peoples' dissatisfaction with the 262, but as you say, the point was made in a very different context.
  8. Chronocidal
    The lack of any consistency across releases would lead me to believe that those checks mean jack squat. It's not an issue really worth fussing over, in the end, this is the same as not painting the landing gear white, or any other number of aircraft-related goofs that Bandai either is ignorant about, or just flat out doesn't care. They followed the visuals of DYRL to a fault, and we got stumpy pylons that probably every other physical version of in existence (several of which also made by Bandai) looks nothing similar to. They're not going to change it. I plan to. Pretty simple, it's just disappointing they chose to break the status quo, and make something in a way that no one else ever did, for a fairly good reason.
  9. Chronocidal
    I think it's a mix of scalpers, and people who genuinely want four sets, so they can use them for all of the valks they included marking panels for. What this announcement does do though is extend the expected delivery date for NY orders. I would fully expect them to do their "singles first" thing, and completely ignore the order they received the orders in.
  10. Chronocidal
    That's really my entire problem with them (aside from how something that blocky would never work in atmosphere to begin with ) But yeah. Max, Hikaru, and Kakizaki were all loaded with them before Max fought Millia.
  11. Chronocidal
    Heh.. suppose I need to spend more time watching things I haven't seen in a long time. Entirely fair point! I think the animation consistency there is still questionable though. They aren't even this long. Really though, I see this as more of a case as "the animation is wrong by default, because it is physically impossible." You literally cannot operate an aircraft if the weapons physically impede the control surfaces, and they used those boxes in atmosphere in the latter half of the movie. Just because it's drawn that way doesn't mean it makes a freaking lick of sense in the slightest. But again.. Bandai doesn't "do" aircraft. They prove it on a daily basis.
  12. Chronocidal
    I can't even call this a step back. This is face-planting at the top of the staircase. It's so out of left field to mess up something so freaking simple.. like it takes effort to screw up something like this, and actively ignore every single incarnation that did it perfectly before. If someone with access to a Bandai site could pass along those photos with a politely worded "WTF?" I'd appreciate it. This makes no sense. (Actually on second though no, don't pass along those photos, they're terrible I sent them to myself on an ancient phone camera.) Far as replacements go.. for the triple clusters and reaction missiles it'd be fairly simple to make a brand new pylon, which would probably be stronger, and better off. The box missiles pose a conundrum, because they don't have a removable pylon(stump). Unless you want to rip apart the boxes and put a new pylon in (it is a separate piece, you can tell from the molding seams), you actually need a pylon extension that will both mount under the wing, and snap over the existing stubs. I think it's possible, and I might make some pylons to try out, but I hesitate to make something in 3D without a prototype. I might try and scratchbuild something to see what I can come up with there, and then see if Shapeways (or another printing service) can replicate it in a usable form.
  13. Chronocidal
    YUUP. It's made all the more obnoxious by the fact that they went to the trouble of including those (incredibly inaccurate) wing flaps. You can't drop them more than about 30 degrees, which is to say nothing of the big extending flap the plane is supposed to actually have. I want to say that there is literally no other example in existence of the missiles looking like this, either drawn or physical. But you know Bandai gonna Bandai, and understanding how aircraft work is clearly beneath their expertise in the matter. You notice, they only advertised the Hikaru strike pose in battroid.. because these look terrible in fighter mode. Standing vertically in battroid with the wings out is the only time these missiles look even remotely presentable, because it hides the mounting stumps.
  14. Chronocidal
    Just to confirm, I wasn't imagining things.. Yes, the HMR UUM-7 pods have longer pylons than the DX VF-1 sets. Almost twice as long, in fact, which translates to 4x as long in-scale, since it's about twice the scale. They're around 5/32, while the DX pods pylons are about 3/32. So.. yeah. Think I'm going to either start working on pylon extensions, or just stock up on Hasegawa sets. As good as Bandai can be sometimes, I will never cease to be baffled by some of their design choices. This is just all kinds of dumb, when they did it so well on another release.
  15. Chronocidal
    I'm certain it played a part, but I'm actually surprised this was the valk we heard them mention customer complaints about. Like.. not the 171, which tended to shatter in the box, but this one, that I've never actually heard any reports of anyone breaking? I'm trying to remember if we heard similar admissions of complaint around the first VF-25 release. The cries about that one were loud and intense for other reasons, but I don't remember ever hearing Bandai admitting fans were complaining about it, because it seemed beyond obvious that it needed improvements.
  16. Chronocidal
    I want to say they could finally make an actual MP Jetfire, but I wonder how many lawyers would be on their case if that happened.
  17. Chronocidal
    No trouble there, I'm just kind of throwing ideas around. I might give it a shot, I was mostly just wondering if you had actually tried making the "mount" part of the hardpoint before, the part that the wings usually have on them.
  18. Chronocidal
    Hey, you never know.. given how the 31A turned out, people might not actually get their strike parts delivered until years after Bandai's stopped making the VF-1 DX at all.
  19. Chronocidal
    But... the hands on the VF-31 are terrible. That fixed pointer finger makes them so incredibly awkward. Now, the fixed posed ones are fine, or if you use something like the DX YF-19 or later generation VF-25 releases, those are great. The 31's hands are just weird because they had to work with that oddball gunpod handle design.
  20. Chronocidal
    So, here's an interesting request, and I'm not sure how difficult this might be. Would it be possible to make pylon extenders for the DX VF-1 weapons? specifically for the missile boxes. I've never seen such stubby pylons in my life, and while I haven't measured it to be sure yet, I think the HMR box missiles might have physically larger pylons than the DX version. (Left to right, that's the Hasegawa 1/48 set, Yamato, and Bandai DX.) Honestly, every pylon in the DX VF-1 set needs a redo. For the reaction missiles and triple clusters, new pylons would probably be pretty simple, but the box missiles don't have a removable pylon. Would it be possible to make an extender that snaps over that stub, and gives you something more like the Hasegawa's size? Would look better in white anyway, I think. I might actually try this myself, since I've been meaning to get a new printer. Just much easier to troubleshoot when you don't have to deal with Shapeways' slow and overpriced shipping.
  21. Chronocidal
    Not only that.. but remember to think about what structures you're putting battle damage on. Tails are thin structures. If you have holes that big on one side of the tail, chances are, the shots passed through, and would leave matching damage on the opposite side of the tail.
  22. Chronocidal
    I actually did this with the 1/60 v.2 as well, since the Max 1S didn't seem to get nearly as many production runs as the Roy or Max 1A. I just used the stickers to cover the yellow arrows on the head. The Max was also missing the blue canopy shield, but that didn't matter since all the pics I could find of the 1S used a black one anyway. Now I just have to figure out what to do with a Roy 1A.
  23. Chronocidal
  24. Chronocidal
    Honestly, wouldn't surprise me if that's exactly what they intended for people to do. They're focused on the Japanese market, where space is at a premium. Even if someone did manage to collect all 4 DYRL valks, odds are they might only expect them to display one at a time, in which case, one set of packs is perfectly reasonable. Unfortunately, we have all these pesky international fans with more space to burn.
  25. Chronocidal
    So, putting how ludicrous it sounds to compare these toys to a limited production sports car aside for the moment.. the disappointing thing is, despite all the design innovation they made, I'm still not sure I would call it "the best VF-1 ever." Just from a detail, accuracy, and quality perspective.. Bandai still proves with every release that they don't quite "get it." They overblow the tampo to the point that it looks dumb, inaccurate, excessive, and just ugly. The tabs don't lock it together as well as the Yamato. They don't pay attention to some key details that Yamato nailed from even their first version. They tend to cut corners in ways that make things functionally not quite as good. And try as I might, as much as I paid for the "privelege" of owning them, I can't do anything but cringe at how bad the missile sets look slapped directly under the wing with not even as much physical pylon as the HMR valks have, at half the scale. I can't argue that the mold, detail, and articulation are impressive, and really pretty. But in a big-picture sort of way, while Bandai's positives are definitely better than Yamato's, I also consider their negatives quite a bit worse. It all kind of averages out, and between the things I wish they had done differently, and the constant frustration with even acquiring the stupid things, they leave a bad taste in my mouth that just sends me back to having fun posing and transforming my old Yamato valks. Don't get me wrong, I'd say the DX VF-1 is still one of the best VF-1s ever made... but if the only reason Bandai is making these is as some sort of VF-1 ego trip, they need a reality check. They make toys. Not sports cars. Not private jets. Making the best product in the world means jack squat if people can't actually enjoy it.
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