Chronocidal

Any news from Bandai about continuing their kit line, or are they ditching the 1/72 series to make micro machines of everything? Still need my B-Wings and Tie Bombers, folks, come on.

I want a v.3 VF-1 mold like I want to dive face first into a woodchipper. I know some people would love seeing further improvements, but I'd much rather see either new products, or variants of old ones that people have been wanting for years (coughcoughsupernovaschemes). But I mean.. if the labor involved in assembly and painting of these is what's driving the cost? Issue kits of everything and be done. Arcadia seems to be chasing its tail every 5 minutes trying to appease every single fan who makes some comment about paint colors, or build quality control, or whatever. They need to just save themselves the headache, and release kits of all their molds (in various base colors of course), so they can breathe easy and just let the customers make everything how they like. Seriously, I would probably spend more on kit versions than pre-made ones, because whether I ever get to doing them or not, the number of things I can imagine building far exceeds what any company would ever even come close to releasing.

I want to say that there's a photo of a superhornet loaded for bear with 12 AIM-120s on the box of Janes F/A-18 sim, but I'll have to dig it out. The internet's being entirely unhelpful there. I cringe at the thought of seeing that many outward-canted pylons on an E/F at once though.. it's bad enough with just the tanks. Far as the F-22 is concerned though, I did read somewhere that Lockheed kept all the tooling intact, and precisely documented the production processes. Not like there's the money (or assembly line space) to do it right now, but they could theoretically restart production.

See.. this would be an issue for Arcadia, except that there's no business to lose, since they're not producing anything to compete with the bootlegs. I almost halfway think these might even benefit Arcadia, if only by showing what sort of demand exists for the things they aren't making. If and when they start, it'll be an issue for them, but at the moment, it's really just in Big West's court to knock down the companies producing bootleg stuff of their IP.

Hard to believe they could seemingly just forget the right color for Mirage's plane... especially considering the 1/72, 1/144, and non-scaled kits have already been released with the right colors, not to mention the display prototypes from the very start of the VF-31 DX line. Like... I can see why they'd think it should be red, and it's not a bad color. It doesn't change that it's wrong.

Keep in mind, I don't think the intakes move on gerwalk mode for the animation either, but they have to for the model and the DX it appears.

I was waiting for this literally the entire series. It would have actually made things in the second half interesting too. Delta pushed the mathematical limits of what can be considered a triangle... the angle was so narrow, it may as well have been Hayate and Freyja hugging in L.A. while Mirage watched from New York. I know it's probably not popular for a reason, but I'd really love to see them get back to something more akin to Zero. Actual military, actual conflict, with Protoculture craziness providing the backdrop instead of the key plot points. Do some jumping around and actually explore all these other planets and alien races. Or you know, if fold-wave sensitivity is some sort of new step of human evolution, we could go the full shounen route, and have humans developing superhuman abilities related to music. Then we can have the idols go the full-on magical girl, flying around in MAXL-style valks, and singing in combat to choreograph their attacks and power themselves up... See.. while I want to say I just threw up in my mouth a little, I'm also extremely curious what that would look like, or how good it could actually get.

I'm perfectly ok with them going for less metal, it generally just means there's less paint to chip away from transformations. Really glad I'm getting two of these eventually, this might be one of the only valks I'll keep a display of in battroid mode. That head is just amazing to me. For those of you thinking the wings look goofy in gerwalk, it was discussed a little in the model thread, and if the toy isn't designed to prevent it, you could always just flip the wings back around to face the normal direction.

I figure I've waited this long for it (since the first previews of the series), so I figure a few days more to wait isn't so bad. With any luck, I should have mine by this weekend, that's usually how long SAL takes for me. In the meantime, I'll practice transforming my 1/72 kits instead.

Oh, I had no idea it was actually up for order! Put in an order for a pair at HLJ. Having built two of Keith's plane now, I'd say the 262 is probably the most well built of the transforming kits yet. Takes a little massaging to get the parts all lined up, but it's a sturdy little brick in fighter mode, and love putting them together.

Got shipping confirmation for my AmiAmi one at 4 am, so they apparently ship on weekends, but it'll probably take a week or more to get here. I never go over registered SAL cost, usually about half as much as EMS with them.

Wonderful.. and the plastic isn't even glossy. Time to start thinking up custom paintschemes to replace Bandai's shoddy work when it wears off..

I'd absolutely pick up another VT-1 if it happened. My original is just fine thanks to Graham getting ahold of spare shoulders for us back then, but I just love the paint scheme on it. If Arcadia were to add anything, I want a duty uniformed Hikaru and Misa to sit in it. Extra bonus if they include the tent. I might even get a third, and customize one with a VF-1D head instead of the antenna one. Far as conspiracy theories go though, that makes a decent amount of sense. Bandai is probably keeping close tabs on Arcadia after the YF-19/VF-19 situation. I wish they'd get on with more HMRs though. Millia's finally coming out this month, but I'm surprised they actually went with the M&Ms before the VF-1D and VT-1.

Honestly, at this point, and at the current prices, I don't think I'd buy an M&M set again, even if they did release them. My pair of originals were two of the very few Yamato VF-1s I actually did pre-order, and they came out to about $125 a piece before shipping, around $300 total to my door. That same set would cost around $450 from HLJ, based on what it would cost to ship me a pair of Roy strike sets. Not to say I don't want them to re-release them, I'd love for them to put a dent in the existing overpriced circus of M&M auctions. I just have a very hard time justifying getting more of the same thing at a 50% markup.

Definitely top, it's the only one with a good spot for the antenna, and I'd actually replace the domed fronts with standard flat 2x2 round plates.

Mmm, can't wait for this kit (and the DX later). Curious though, is it just me, or is the folding fin on the gunpod not very... uh, good? The ones on my Keith kits tend to fall out of place and flop around to the point where I'm considering gluing them down.

Payment request from AmiAmi done, now to see how long normal registered SAL takes. No payment request from HLJ yet, but that one's staying in the warehouse until Messer's ready to go.

See.. this is what I would basically love to do with all of my models. Painted markings are just so much more attractive to me, I love trying to paint as much as possible and only use decals for very small lettering and things that would be impractical to paint. Those vinyl patterns pretty much nailed the markings on the tail, I love how clean that looks. By the way, as long as you're at it.. why not cut out some clear plastic inserts and replace the painted on wing lights? That's one feature I was pretty disappointed with when Arcadia didn't keep the clear ones.

Really, what's actually the most concerning is a comment I remember reading from some time ago, during the production of the VF-0D. I don't remember for sure if it was speculation, or an actual tweet from Mr. K, but one of the reasons he was said to have mentioned for the higher costs was that the "failure" rate for parts was incredibly high. Now, that can be taken a few ways, or relate to a lot of different things. Given the context, at the time it was easy to assume he was referring to bad paint application, leading to a lot of fudged paint jobs. Saying that you're having a lot of failed parts at the factory is indicative of a lot of potential problems though. On the one hand, if you're having that many issues with failed tampo prints or paint jobs, then you clearly need to either A: rethink your painting processes to be easier, or B: hire better labor. There's a limit on how far you can go with B though, and if it's costing too much, you need to rethink your manufacturing, and find ways to simplify your painting and assembly. Note, this is an entirely separate issue from paint color. Bottom line, if you're making stuff this hard to assemble? You're not benefitting anyone. The VF-1 was probably the best blend of detail, accuracy, complexity, and ease of assembly, and it was originally sold at a great price point. They need to get back to that as an ideal, and work towards things that will lessen production costs, while maintaining a high standard of production. Honestly, if labor is costing that much? Just make kits of everything and be done with it. They'd probably save themselves years worth of lifetime from the reduction in stress and bellyaching from fans who want one or another thing done a specific way. Easy solution: they can do it themselves!

That can kind of work both directions though, since people addressing her wouldn't call her "The Major." It just takes a little linguistic common sense to know which is right for any given situation. Very few people called her anything other than (The) Major though. On the other hand, I'm entirely down for watching this dubbed in Japanese with English subtitles. I've joked before about watching the Matthew Broderick Godzilla that way, but in this case, it might actually improve the movie a great deal hearing the familiar voices. Shoot, if they really want to garner some good will from fans, they'll include the Japanese audio as a standard option in the bluray release.

Sad they couldn't develop a better system for the weapons pod, I know the parts are tiny, but the little fold-out doors just look so clunky on the DX (besides being the wrong shape). I'd almost prefer a swappable piece for the doors like the kit uses.

Fortunately for me (though unfortunately for my wallet), I trust random Chinese knockoff factories even less than I do Arcadia at churning out quality products, and though they're more expensive, I'm probably going to stick with official products through reputable sources so I have some recourse if I get caught with a lemon. As far as pricing on the knockoffs goes though, I'm not surprised they can offer them at those prices, since after discounts, I paid less than that for a lot of my original Yamato VF-1s. Assuming no one was taking a significant loss, and referencing the unassembled versions, I'd guess the actual parts cost around $50-$60 to produce (back then). Thing with Arcadia though.. I don't pretend to know how the licensing process works, and I'm not going to assume the local fanbase here is representative of the Japanese customers... but Arcadia is rapidly approaching the appearance of someone shooting themselves in the foot repeatedly, and being absolutely convinced that the next shot is going to make their foot feel better. Between paint color nonsense, lousy engineering, or just ignoring the products people want to see, Arcadia has some issues. At the very least they could have garnered some good will from the fans by releasing the strike-packed VF-1s first, instead of teasing their fans for years and then finally releasing what everyone wanted in the first place. Now they're off gallivanting through the franchise doing choice projects that I honestly don't know if there's any real demand for, and ignoring all the ones people seem to ask for repeatedly. Maybe they're just focusing on the cheapest licenses for now? I don't know. I could be entirely wrong about what the fans are demanding as well. I was plenty happy to finally get a VF-0D, but I've never been under the impression that there was all that much demand in Japan for Macross Zero merchandise. And now they've announced they're going to remake one of the all-time biggest shelf-warmers in Yamato history. Either way, Arcadia has to know that bootlegging is getting easier by the minute. Pretty soon, they won't even need molds, just a copy of the product to scan, and sufficiently advanced 3D printers to make entire products from scratch. At some point in the not-too-distant future, 3D printed parts are going to surpass your base-line bootleg molding (if they haven't already). Then they won't even need to sell a physical product, they'll just sell you a bootleg schematic, and you can print the thing yourself. (Some of us can do that already.)

Hah, nice! Grats on finding the original too. I might tweak the design a little and cut a custom one from plastic card, extend the pivot so the gun lays down against the backplate better. Thanks for all the measurements, and removal method!

I'd actually be interested in a way to remove it safely myself, I find my hand catching on it so often, I'd rather remove it entirely and avoid the possibility of breaking it off. Part of why I really like Mirage's, it's got nothing sticking up from the head to break off.

So, what with Bandai seeming to be completely uninterested in ever giving anyone any decent missiles to load on this thing, I'm beginning to wonder how hard it would be to get the hardpoints to accept the Arcadia weapons. It looks like the only thing stopping them from latching on is the hex-shaped interior of the center hole. I'm getting more and more tempted to just attempt to drill those out to the proper size for the Arcadia pylons to attach. Anyone here ever tried something similar?