Chronocidal
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Hi-Metal R Fire Bomber (VF-19 Fire Valkyrie, VF-11 MAXL, VF-17T)
Chronocidal replied to sh9000's topic in Toys
Interesting, he's definitely got a fairly well-known catalog (AKIRA, Nausicaä, etc), but I wonder if this is just a one off, or Bandai has him on contract to do a few different sets of packaging art. I'm really hoping this line gets expanded to include the rest of the Yamarcadia Macross 7 molds (and maybe a YF-19). -
One of these days, I'll learn my lesson and never attempt to fix Bandai's screw-ups. Third VT-1 looks like it's just missing the ratchet for the left gerwalk joint, or at least missing a few teeth. After the first notch, the leg just flops down. I started trying to pry out the screw cover to disassemble the thigh, and see if it's just loose.. only to realize the entire leg is locked together by multiple layers of screwed and glued panels, and to take the hip joint apart I would need to disassemble the entire leg. So, after chipping away a slice of the screw cover, I gave up, leaving it with a minor scar on the inner thigh. This one will just be staying in fighter mode (with or without the boosters) so I don't have to rely on that joint any. Kind of amusing, this one leg feels sloppy the exact same way as my first VF-1J, which took a five-foot swan dive into a pile of boxes during the 2019 earthquake. Wonder if those upper thigh ratchets are just a hidden weak point in the design.
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Hi-Metal R Fire Bomber (VF-19 Fire Valkyrie, VF-11 MAXL, VF-17T)
Chronocidal replied to sh9000's topic in Toys
Same for me, got one at HLJ and one at AE, but going to wait for further releases before shipping either. -
Third copy just arrived from Yoyakunow, looks like everything's in good shape on a quick inspection, but will do a quick transform later when I get time. Took them a little while to get it shipped out, but once they did, FedEx got it here in really good time, and for a really surprisingly low price as well. Think I paid about $35 to get it here. Wonder if they have a bulk deal with FedEx that's giving them better rates, since I haven't seen shipping that cheap for a while. Now it's time to repaint one of the spare helmeted Hikarus into a Roy.
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Not sure which screwcaps you might be thinking of, since I don't think the original Yamato ever even had any. All they did for the PF releases was put little paper stickers over them.
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I think my question would be whether they would accept a photo of a product with that sticker, even if the receipt was from a webshop based in Japan. I have half a mind to swap the sticker off of my YF-29 I got locally, and see if they'll let me request a replacement antenna for the one I got from HLJ.
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Hmnn. I've got a copy of that sticker on one of my YF-29s, since I got it through Amazon. It's -almost- identical, but the age label is slightly different. I wonder if they'd accept that with a request for a replacement head laser.
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I'm honestly still baffled no one has ever bothered to include a replacement for the rear canopy. The rear canopy just slots in with a tab on both the Arcadia and Bandai versions. Would be really easy to make a Shapeways version though, so maybe something I should look into to add to my replacement neck cover.
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Ok, interesting, I was considering getting a second for some extra customizing, and that's handy. Also nice that I had enough points with ShowZ to drop the price to the same as the standard. Convenient!
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I assuming this whole QC mess (including the YF-21 issues) is going to get pinned on whatever factory they contracted with. I'm not holding my breath, but I'm hoping they make spare parts available for both releases. Because of how the backpack is assembled, it would likely involve the entire backpack assembly. If they do that, I will absolutely try and get ahold of one to customize with bigger tails as an option. Also waiting on a third from Yoyakunow, so if I lose the QC roulette, I may be customizing one anyhow.
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I would totally buy just a couple of boxes. Looks like ShowZ is sold out on these now!
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The gear really do improve the whole presence. I almost wish this one's colors matched the VF-1D, just so I could do a straight backpack swap (or rather, I wish the VF-1D used these colors), but I might still try adapting some Hasegawa tails as an option. It would be a nice option, but considering I only really want to display this in either fighter mode with the boosters, or "tent mode," the smaller tails won't really stand out.
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Ok, seriously, if THAT is the packaging, I am absolutely sold on a copy. I almost want to say I don't even care if the QC is lacking, since I've got a couple of the old unbuilt Yamato kits, and I could easily swap in original parts if they're not up to snuff. Heck, I'll paint one up myself in actual Autobot markings, and just store it in that box.
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It's starting to feel like some manner of cosmic forces are at play to make this the worst release possible.
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Not really wrong at all, but the fighter mode feels all over the place. If I were to make a very nerdy comparison? It's got very TNG Enterprise feeling about it. Some really good angles, but holy cow does it turn ugly if you catch the bad ones. Words do not exist to fully describe the massive chonky butt this thing is dragging around. It kind of feels like a boat. Not like a speedboat.. something more in the Maersk category. The nose definitely feels like it's of a different scale than the rest of the plane though, and I would genuinely be interested in seeing what would happen if it was just swapped out for something bigger. Yamato really nailed the mechanism for the nose to shorten it, and it's stupidly disappointing Bandai couldn't come up with something similar. The part I have trouble mentally processing is that the overall proportions aren't even that different... but everything looks completely out of scale by comparison.
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Not without major surgery. They aren't the same style of hinge, and they didn't use the swapping mount for them.
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I'm holding judgement until I get one in hand, but I do not even slightly entertain the idea that ThreeZero is going to release most of the variants that Yamato covered, so it's very unlikely that any manufacturer is ever going to produce something to replace them all. Visually speaking.. it's okay. Does a few things better, a few things worse, like someone stuck a Yamato and a Bandai DX in a blender, with some of the benefits and detriments of both.
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I'm waiting on a third from Yoyakunow, so we'll see if I get snagged by QC roulette. If I get one with a broken tail, I might very well modify it to have swappable tails, and repaint a spare set from the angel bird to match... or maybe I'll use a spare set of tails from a Hasegawa kit (the strike pack versions come with spares that aren't used on the folded backpack), and see if they match up well enough to use. Would be an interesting project.
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Mine stay in well enough with friction that I don't feel like they need glue, but the inner tabs feel the loosest. I usually lean toward non-permanent solutions for things like this, just in case I ever need to sell one of them. They're tight enough that a layer of scotch tape or even a slip of paper folded over the tabs will probably add plenty of friction to keep them in place.
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I wonder if we've got a batch of sporadically bad plastic involved. I messed with mine, and it was pretty sturdy, but I also was really watching where I put pressure. In short, do not push the head into place via that sensor petal. It's easy to find your finger resting there. If it's too great a risk, you can actually pull off the spinning joint with the petal, it's just pressed onto the shaft, no locking mechanism involved. I just spun mine a few times and it pulled off cleanly, leaving just the shaft glued into the head. It actually might not be a bad idea to just drill out that plastic pin, and completely replace it with a metal one. Wouldn't be hard to do, provided you find the right diameter.
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Yeah, that one is kind of a puzzler. Fortunately should be pretty simple to drill, pin, and re-glue? What throws me off about that piece is that it looks like it should rotate on that peg, but it does not. The Yamato had the entire armature swing around the side of the head to transform, but Bandai's version has the entire head rotate 90 degrees, leaving the arm stationary. The bad part of that is that the armature is also the easiest place to grab to rotate the head. On top of that, if the multi-directional pivot for the sensor panel is stiff, any stress from that joint is going to transfer directly to that point where it snapped. It's just.. it makes sense, but this is one more part Bandai should have made detachable, so it comes off before breaking. I definitely caught myself pressing on the antenna while trying to get the head collapsed for displaying it on the gear.
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The one and only thing on my Bandai wishlist right now is for them to hire some competent freaking quality control for their releases. All other ideas can wait. They need to get their heads screwed on straight before releasing anything new.
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Considering the comparison to the Yamato V2, I don't even think you can say it qualifies as a different scale, it's just another very slightly different take on a scale we already have saturation in.
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Yeah, these issues are not happening in shipping, this is looking like it lands squarely on Bandai's packaging process.
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Youch.. honestly, at that point? I'd be more inclined to clip it off, cut out the warped section and glue it back together before cleaning up the joint.
