Chronocidal
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Chuck's looks amazing, in for my usual two Color probably isn't accurate, but the color they have looks good. Armor packs.. well.. I'll grab one of every TWE release on principle, but yikes that's massive. It's like the designer of the VF-25 pack issued a challenge, and the VF-31 designer just goes "Hold my beer.." (in-universe that is, since I'd assume Kawamori is just trying to one-up himself here) Now I'm wondering though, if the Delta movie gets a sequel, are we going to see the whole squad outfitted in those packs?
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But.. doesn't that artificially skew your statistics to only represent the really die-hard fanbase? That's basing your expected production volume on the least popular item. Sounds like a really good way to convince yourself that you won't be able to turn a profit on the items people actually want to purchase. In this case though.. I think production-wise, it might not matter which one they release first. If they're smart about the design, all the releases can share the majority of the major parts. If the Gerwalk kits don't sell well, they can probably just repackage the parts with fighter-mode directions, and still sell them.
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There've been a few folks here with the original DX VF-25s that eventually turned piss-yellow. Not sure if this included the renewals, but the topic was active not that long ago. The HMR line has pretty much avoided bright white though, for better or for worse. I think the lightest of the bunch are Hikaru's VF-1J, which I'm pretty sure is just a light gray color, and the Messer-styled VF-1S, which might actually be white.
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Speaking of the UCS Shuttle though, I realized, I never posted up the mod progress shots from last winter. I went and bought enough parts to do these mods (I think), and finally am moving into where I might have the workspace to build it. Last I checked, I was midway through replacing the entire walls of the hull with tiled plates to get a decently smooth transition between the roof and sides. Sadly the cockpit area gets too thick if I tile over all of the studs, since the contours of the angled parts get lost.
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vf-31 siegfried WIP: Alternate Weapons Pods for VF-31
Chronocidal replied to Sanity is Optional's topic in The Workshop!
So, I had a funny thought. I'm curious whether it would be possible to cut pylon shapes out of simple sheet plastic for testing purposes. I'd love to make some more realistic pylon designs that get the weapons further out in front of the wing. Do you happen to know off the top of your head what the thickness of the YF-19 DX pylons are at both the wing mount, and the weapon mount? I can measure them myself when I get home, but planning these sorts of projects is a nice mental distraction for dull workdays. I'd hope they were roughly a consistent thickness to keep things simple, but that might be too easy. -
I thought the VF-19 Advance was actually a customized VF-19EF model that Isamu had tweaked to restore it to the same specification as the prototype? On that note, can we start yelling at Bandai to tweak their mold in the reverse direction, and give us this beauty?
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Would absolutely love a new UCS shuttle. I'm not sure if I want one any bigger than the current one, but when I went to tweak the design in LDD for a new cockpit section, I did discover that a few features become a lot easier to fit properly if the whole ship grows a bit. Specifically, you can resize the side intake scoops from a 3-stud diameter to 4, and replace those fugly solid tubes with a stacked pair of the same white canopy pieces they used for the engine bank on the original, and get a nice hollow half-round shape. I'd be interested to see how the nose was constructed in that vid though, that cockpit is not an easy shape to reproduce. I used a bunch of angled panels mounted on hinge plates for my revision, but that one looks like it's using curved bricks to smooth over the entire assembly.
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Your most recent Macross or toy purchase! General thread.
Chronocidal replied to Gakken85's topic in Hall Of The Super Topics
Yep! Interceptor is an Amazon exclusive, the standard fighter is from Wal-Mart. Interceptor didn't come with a pilot figure though, sadly, and I got my normal one through a reseller, because up until literally just now, I'd never seen it show up on the Wal-Mart website. https://www.amazon.com/Star-Wars-Collection-Interceptor-Exclusive/dp/B00CM5D86Y/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1540402834&sr=8-1&keywords=vintage+tie+interceptor https://www.walmart.com/ip/Star-Wars-The-Vintage-Collection-Imperial-TIE-Fighter-with-Pilot/891805680 -
Yep, you have to freeze-frame it while they do a fast flyby. It's the bit where they blow past the skyscrapers so fast that all the windows shatter. I am pretty sure that pic has the wing entirely detached, and held upright by a support though. If anything, that pic is one of the best examples of how badly Bandai bloated the black stripe on the spine, behind the canopy. It's supposed to be above the canards. The CYA "You're doing it wrong" note is pretty insulting though, and Bandai's molding has had this sort of issue before, with the VF-19 Advance, even. I had to do some cutting and filing of the tabs on the VF-25-style wing boosters before they would latch, because the locking tabs looked like someone had smushed them with a hot iron. I'm thinking they're pushing production schedules, and popping things out of the molds before they're ready.
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This is absolutely why LEGO is so satisfying though, in every way. Not only do you get to design those insanely complex mechanisms yourself, but you can set the balance of complexity and enjoyment on your on terms, and revise the design at will. My efforts to design a workable YF-19 though have all fallen through because certain elements don't exist that will fit inside a manageable package. Don't get me wrong, I love the YF-19/Advance mold (minus the feet.. those are ugly ). It's astoundingly close in proportion and overall shape to the Hasegawa dedicated fighter kits, and that's quite an achievement all on its own. I do wish that Bandai would give a little more consideration to structural limitations and stresses, and be a little less glue and screw cover happy with their designs, but in the end, it's a marvelous little hunk of plastic that I'm happy to have sitting on top of my desk.
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I can't argue the level of sophistication Bandai pulls off (mostly) successfully, but they absolutely have an extreme fetish for over-engineering, and it can be extremely detrimental to the longevity of their products (plus, their production habits make getting replacement items or parts nearly impossible). The higher precision, permanent assembly methods, ridiculous parts count, and number of critical components raises the risk of a catastrophic failure several orders of magnitude over the old Yamato/Arcadia valks. When they break, they disintegrate, and nothing is going to fix them. I generally try to order two of every Bandai valk, ever since the 171 snafu.. I figure I should at least be able to piece together one fully functional valk out of the pair, if something explodes. Between the over-engineering and ridiculous amount of paint scratching, I've always felt like the Bandai valks were better left on a shelf, while the Yamatos and Arcadias are better to transform and mess with. They're beautifully engineered, but that complexity means they just don't have the same dependability, and aren't as rugged as something made with less parts.
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Mmmm.. in for at least two or three.. glad to see them finally pick up the FB2012 scheme.
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Your most recent Macross or toy purchase! General thread.
Chronocidal replied to Gakken85's topic in Hall Of The Super Topics
Ehhh, not quite to scale, but close enough to look really good in a display together. Tie scales go all over the place though, and no two sources will ever agree on just how big they're supposed to be. The cockpit interior in the films was a lot roomier than these toys, but a bit smaller than the Bandai kits. Going by the Bandai kit, which is 5 inches tall, that should make the panels 20 inches high in 1/18, and this is a couple inches under that, so they're pretty close. My gut instinct is to call it around 1/24, since that's what a lot of the ANH film models were pinned down as, due to the pilot figures used. Now to find myself a Tie Bomber, and Advanced, and I'll have (at least) one of each of the OT fighters. -
Your most recent Macross or toy purchase! General thread.
Chronocidal replied to Gakken85's topic in Hall Of The Super Topics
Looks like the back left one is indeed the old Chunky. Also, while that Tie wasn't due for another few days, it showed up on my doorstep today as I arrived with my 31A. I always forget how relatively huge the normal Tie Fighters are compared with the Interceptor.. So glad Bandai finally gave us some weapons to load up their 31s with.. I don't think I'm ever taking the 31A out of fighter mode with this loadout.
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Your most recent Macross or toy purchase! General thread.
Chronocidal replied to Gakken85's topic in Hall Of The Super Topics
Wait, they actually had it? I've been hitting the webshop for weeks, and never saw anything but oddball listings of the LEGO and TFA/TLJ versions... wtf? -
Getting half an order is better than getting nothing, yes, but I don't view either as acceptable treatment of customers. Shoving people who purchased first to the end of the line because they ordered more isn't anything I've ever seen any other business do in my life, and NY really REALLY owes their customers some explanation for the nonsense. Frankly speaking, I would have preferred them to outright cancel the order early on, so I could have bought them somewhere else before the price doubled.
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Your most recent Macross or toy purchase! General thread.
Chronocidal replied to Gakken85's topic in Hall Of The Super Topics
So, it would just about figure that the day after I ordered the Wal-Mart exclusive Legacy Tie Fighter off Ebay (at a minor markup), I walk into my local shop and see a single one sitting on the shelf. I'd checked that shop multiple times in the past weeks, and the Star Wars toy section was almost non-existent. As far out in the middle of nowhere as I am, I figured it would never show up. If it's still there at the end of the month, I'm picking up a second one, and looking for a Vader version. -
"Fulfilling" is a bit of a stretch I think. "Getting around to them" is closer, and if you ordered multiple copies, you are shuffled to the far end of the line, and ignored until all the single orders are filled, no matter who ordered first. This far in, I'm not holding my breath for the multiple orders, so I told them to cancel one, before I get shafted for being stuck at the end of the line. I'm picking up my reduced order today after work.
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Pretty sure those are the wing root lasers, since there are two of them.
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Given how likely it seems like we're ever going to get a Ba in the first place, that may be as close as you can get. My reduced 31A order should be arriving today.. provided my change of address worked correctly. I'm not necessarily upset at NY for screwing up the order, but I'm absolutely pissed at how bad they've been at addressing the issue. I'm just glad they agreed to ship me a single, and credit me for the other one. Seeing the prices climb, I'm just not betting I'd get any at all if I waited until they got around to filling my double order. Fortunately for them, I'm in the middle of moving, and I've become acutely aware of just how many Macross boxes I have eating up closet space. I'd still rather have my original order of two, but I might be reducing my duplicates in the future anyway.
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I remember at least one or two head lasers on the Advance being broken, but it's frankly a very easy fix, and people forgot about it quickly. The packaging has been entirely redesigned, and while the Advance had a plastic shield over the rear half, the forward half of the fuselage was held down by a Styrofoam bar, and taped shut under a sheet of cardboard. What's actually really odd that I noticed recently.. the Advance's head laser does not lay as flat as the YF-19's. Maybe it's my particular copy, but something about the way the laser fits in the slot in the shield is different, and the laser lays farther back than on my Advance model.
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If you're worried about getting the actual Messer with the adapters, that's one thing, but I'm absolutely certain someone here can make adapters to mount the drones like that.
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I'm assuming they'll be molded in color then? Yeah, pass. Ugly schemes, and if I was going to go to the trouble of making them not ugly, I'd just paint up a pair of the first issue kits in the better schemes shown in the Master File.
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You can also mitigate the risks by supporting the structure properly when moving it. Don't just yank the leg around by whatever you happen to grab onto, but grip it by the hip region, and support the material around the joint so you aren't applying force to just the half that we've seen break.
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Robotech and REMIX by Titan Comics
Chronocidal replied to Old_Nash's topic in Anime or Science Fiction
As bad as everything is visually for the overwhelming majority, I can't deny I'm curious what sort of shenanigans they're pulling with the storyline, and where they plan to go with it.
