Chronocidal

You won't regret that Advance, it's a beautiful bird. I think my only recommendations for it would be to take the transformation slowly, since it's a quantum leap in complexity compared with the VF-1, and to act quickly if you want to acquire any sort of official under-wing weaponry for it, since sources for those are few and far between. If you want everything and the kitchen sink for add-ons, it might be worth tracking down the Macross Plus YF-19 version as well, since it comes with a boatload of extra missiles and weaponry to add. It's very much up to you and your interests though, because digging into the various lines of Macross merchandise can get complicated and expensive very quickly. I don't expect Bandai to overwhelm the 1/60 market with 1/48 releases, but I do expect them to release at least a few. It would take a significant effort to produce a line as extensive as Yamato/Arcadia though, since the current 1/60 VF-1 mold has been in near-constant production for over a decade now.

I wasn't even planning on getting the whole group, but my inner completionist got to me (x2 even). If only the series was as good as the toys that came from it.

I admit, I can't say I'm a fan of the series, and have never seen it, but the very idea of making that pile of transforming boxes "sleek" or "aesthetically pleasing" sounds like a losing battle from the start.

So, something to keep in mind when you talk about fitting modern avionics into old airframes. Modern stuff is ridiculously processor intensive. Not in the sense of how much hardware you need to fit, but in terms of how much heat all of that stuff generates, and how different digital systems are compared with older hardware. Old tube-powered hardware would run just fine at high temperatures, but without some extensive reworking of the airframe to evacuate all of that heat build-up, those systems are going to melt themselves. Another thing to keep in mind is the rapid response angle. Stories about the F-20 usually mention how it could be started, up and running, and in the air within something like 5 minutes. That was back when everything was just purpose-built hardware. By comparison today, a lot of hardware is generalized, and individual functionality is software defined. It's more flexible, but you pay for that flexibility in response time, and the more computerized you get, the longer and less predictable your startup sequence becomes. The comparison to Windows 10 is apt. The more software-intensive your systems become, the more complex the boot-up procedure becomes, the longer it will take, and the more likely you are to have minor failures that require a reboot.

On the other hand, at least giving everyone identical bodies keeps the characters consistent from frame to frame. This comic looks like they keep rotating through an endless supply of stunt doubles, and forgetting to edit them out in post production. Seriously, some of the more recent covers are really not bad at all. They just can't seem to consistently make anything inside the comic look anything like them.

Ok seriously, I would buy all of those. I should really grab some more of the kits before they get hard to find. They've got some structural issues, but they're really fun to build, and more enjoyable to transform than the DX.

Hey, just think, they could sell us unpainted VF-0D kits and solve half the complaints with the official release.

Lynn Kyle as played by He Man in a wig? It's really hilarious, every time they put out a few good panels of mecha action, the characters turn into wax dummies. Far as the story goes.... you know what this reminds me of? As long as we're messing with stable time loops, I think they've decided to go the Sea Lab 2021 route, where every new iteration becomes further and further deformed. Maybe they'll send off the entire Robotech universe by having every generation imprisoned in a gym and playing volleyball for eternity, while He Man Hunter and Minmay the Hutt make out under the bleachers.

Except, did Bandai ever say anything to anyone? I don't remember anyone mentioning that they reduced multiple orders down to singles, or announced that they would. Wouldn't they have had to make some kind of public announcement about why a bunch of people's orders were cancelled? Or did they deal under the table and ensure that all of the faulty orders were allocated to the shops taking foreign orders, so they wouldn't have to make any excuse to their "actual" customers?

All this still begs the question, why didn't Bandai speak even a single word about this mess? I have a hard time believing they would outright cancel a boatload of their own webshop only orders, and offer no explanation.

They really really can't. The funniest part to me is how insanely tiny his hands are, especially next to the redonkulous honking block of a joystick they have sticking out of the console. It's like seeing a 3 year old try to wrap his hand around a phone book. What I did notice is that a standard 1/48 Hasegawa pilot looks like it's the perfect size for the cockpit.. but Bandai didn't leave any room under the console for properly scaled legs, so I'd have to cut the pilot off at the knees to fit. I might do it anyway.. their Hikaru figure looks like a 12 year old.

To make an out-of-universe comparison here, this was the exact same way I felt about Poe in TLJ, just not so much a villain as a universe-breakingly talented schmuck. Yeah, mister "I was just demoted for disobeying orders and getting the majority of our fleet vaporized, so I'm going to start a secret mutiny, and put a secret plan in motion to rescue us that'll result in 90% of the Resistance dying in defenseless escape pods, and in the last 5 minutes of the movie I'm going to have a dramatic realization about how important it is to follow the chain of command, and that'll make it all better." One can only hope that after these sorts of characters die, all that built up karma follows them around like Jacob Marley trying to drag a Dyson Sphere behind him.

You can also use an original 1/55 Chunky as a self-defense weapon. I'd agree with it being a sort of "side-step" in terms of comparisons. Much like the Bandai and Arcadia YF-19s, they focus on different aspects, and accomplish them different ways, with no real definite conclusion of one being better than the other overall. Is it an overall improvement in terms of fit, form, and function, compared with its competitors? In a sense, Bandai mashed up the Yamato 1/48 and 1/60 molds, in terms of features and proportions. They took the size and features of the 1/48, shaped it like the v.2 1/60, and put their own spin on the transformation sequence. For every little improvement, I think they took a similarly small backstep. I think not including any missiles with this release was a slap in the face, but such is Bandai's standard practice at this point. Just like with the YF-19, the addition of a waist joint necessitated a compromise that works better on paper than in reality. Just like the old Yamato 1/48, my speedbrake needs tape to hold it closed, and the wingflaps are still uselesss features that are both completely inaccurate, and annoying to have to keep adjusting. The landing gear are nicely shaped, and fold out well, once you've gotten over the pain and frustration of all the fingernails you've torn off trying to open the doors. Unfortunately for our wallets, just like the YF-19 situation, the only real answer is that you should own both.

Funny story.. when Bandai made its first SD VF-25, I think a fair number of people thought it was a better looking VF-25 than the first Bandai DX version. Agreed though, those are cute and pudgy without ruining their proportions to the point where they look like they wouldn't fly.

If you want to feel better about the VF-31 situation, just think how the Sv-262Ba fanbase feels.

Once I started my trend of buying every M&M pair I could get my hands on, I finally got ahold of a Max JM to match my original Miriya Matchbox rebox. Had that thing since the late 80s, and was my first actual transforming Valkyrie toy, so I felt it was fitting to finally finish the pair.

So, I'm noticing two things about the way the legs and arms tab in on this valk for fighter mode. First, the friction tabs in the arms really aren't don't much good to hold the arms up on mine. They're hard to line up exactly because of how the arms are able to slide around, and even when they do get settled, mine tend to just slip off over time. The arms are stiff enough to not really fall, but if I leave the valk sitting for a while and come back, the arms have slipped off the tabs on their own, as if the tabs are slightly too big. Second, it does actually make it much easier to mount the gunpod. Since the arms don't attach to the legs or backpack at all, you can just pull them down. Only time will tell if the joints remain stiff enough to not get sloppy. On an unrelated note, I really do like how beefy and heavy the metal feet are... because I think that's going to be the only way I display this valk in general. These gear have got to be the most annoying to deploy of any valk I have... kind of remind me of the nose gear on the Yamato VF-17, with the way the gear door interferes with the catapult bar. You have to pull the doors so far out to rotate them out, it just looks weird to me.

I haven't noticed any delay in this regard, my pair from AmiAmi arrived this week with no trouble via EMS. Unless there's been some change since about Wednesday, that is, since that's when mine hit LAX.

You seem to think that they've ever worried about paint rubbing. Have you seen the Delta valks?

Aye, I thought that mold looked familiar. Rock solid OS mold too, I have the Greenscream version because I actually love the pseudo-military scheme.

That one of the oversized 3rd party Starscream molds? Looks good alongside it. Picked up my pair from AmiAmi this morning (missed the mail truck by like 5 min yesterday because I went to the bank at the worst time). Overall? Beautiful, in all three modes. It really pulls off the look well, and adds a lot of range to the flexibility we've seen up to now. I'm not going to hammer too much on any points already brought up, but I'll basically summarize things by saying it looks better than it functions. There are some great improvements over the old 1/48, and over the 1/60 v.2, but there are also some little changes that make it feel less stable, and less fun to handle in general. Main nit-picky points - 1. The leg connection is useless. The instant I disconnected the legs from the chest, the bar fell out, and I was holding the legs in one hand, and the rest of the valk in the other. If you don't care about perfect transformation, that's fine I guess? But I don't know if a waist swivel is worth that lack of sturdiness. 2. The leg fin hinges are kinda worthless. I'd honestly prefer solid fins that I could remove for the GBP armor. This really isn't a strike against the valk itself so much as a "wtf Bandai?" moment. It's the same problem with the tails and canards on the YF-19, but those have the benefit of being on the top of the valk, rather than underneath, so you don't knock them out of alignment every time you pick it up. 3. I'd trade the slight outward angle on the gear in an instant to have them painted, and work more like the Yamato design. I've never liked the sliding tab-mounted gear doors, because they're more annoying to open, and even less realistic, because real aircraft landing gear use the same sort of offset hinge mounts that Yamato used to use. These are probably the most annoying to open I've seen yet, and the nose gear gets a special dishonorable mention for not attaching the front door to the strut, and generally being miserable to pry open. 4. I'm personally not a fan of the hand design being a weird cross between the mechanical DYRL style and the round fingered TV style, but I'll just use the fixed posed ones. Bottom line though? This is an amazing step up, between the shape, proportions, and added range to the joints, as well as the massive pile of tampo all over it. Functionally, it's basically the same as the Yamato 1/48? Does just about all of the same things, and has some of the same little niggling issues (floppy flaps, speedbrake falls open constantly, that kind of thing). It just does a very good job of bringing the design into this decade. Also, on the subject of pilot scale... I don't know what to call this. Left to right: That's the 1/60 VF-0D Shin, a v.2 VF-1, Arcadia 1/60 Isamu, Bandai DX Isamu, 1/72 Wave VF-4, 1/72 Bandai X-Wing, "1/72" Bandai A-Wing, "1/48" Hikaru, along with what I believe is a Hasegawa 1/48 F-14 pilot, Bandai 1/48 X-Wing pilot, and a Monogram 1/48 F-106 figure. Couldn't get to my 1/48 Yamato, or the 1/48 Hasegawa VF-1 pilots at the moment. Yeah, it's basically a pilot with 1/72 girth, and 1/60 height. I just don't think anyone has a standard size for pilot at all.

What's the actual canon printing on the gunpod? Or do we even have one? I know the Yamato method was to print it in alternating directions so one side is always facing upwards in any mode, but is that ever shown in the animation? You know.. assuming the animation showed any printing at all, that is. I'm personally perfectly okay with leaving the gunpod blank, and even without the leg printing. They just look too big and out of place to me most of the time, even if they're supposed to be there.

The fonts do look a bit huge, but I think they're proportionally the same as what Bandai used on the HMRs. I'm mostly just relieved they got the nose striping correct on this one, instead of cutting it off prematurely like they did on the HMR release. Far as the gunpod goes.. so, I know how to solve it, and it's really nothing even complicated, probably something that could be scratchbuilt. We just need a gunpod where, instead of the handle just extending, when the butt of the rifle extends, it pulls out the back entirely and opens up, the barrel aft of the sight/strap mount rotates 180 degrees, and then the gun collapses down solidly again with the lettering reversed on both sides.

Now that is how I wish Bandai would make them look. Did you actually remove the landing gear to paint them, or just mask and spray them in place? I will say that I'm a little disappointed that Bandai couldn't figure out how to attach the fast packs without cutting slots all over the lower legs though.

That actually doesn't look too far off... what you basically have is that Yamato gave us Roy, and Bandai gave us a Hikaru figure. The Yamato one looks a little oversized (which, let's face it, Roy would never fit in a real fighter cockpit), and the Bandai one looks a bit too small, but he's also missing a lot of the bulk that a modern fighter pilot carries.