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Chronocidal

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  1. Chronocidal

    Bandai DX VF-31

    Chronocidal replied to UN Spacy's topic in Toys

    Looking at the legs there, I just realized. Judging by the angles of hip, thigh, and lower leg, I think they actually put in two separate joints for sideways rotation: one above the knee like on the renewal VF-25, and one above the thigh, like the VF-19 Advanced has. Not sure why they felt the need to make it double jointed (yay, more tiny moving parts ) but it should open up some interesting posing options for gerwalk mode.
  2. Chronocidal
    I feel like this is just targeted at the same type of collectors who like to have 1/18th aircraft to hang from the ceiling. Based on the shape and details, I really don't expect it to transform though, unless it's setup to work as a multi-mode kit that you can assemble in different ways. This would probably be the perfect scale to attempt a more sturdy version of the true-to-animation leg transformation that Bandai put in its 1/72 kit, but the whole thing is just too huge to be practical, and you're going to need a massively strong internal skeleton to keep everything from drooping. Aside from the "whoa" factor, this thing is really just too big to display anywhere, and if I was going to spring for such a huge centerpiece, I'd want a fully loaded strike pack set anyway.
  3. Chronocidal
    The texture on the surface of that model makes me think the entire thing is one huge 3D print, so yeah, I can't imagine the finished product would be that simple.
  4. Chronocidal
    I think the thing that stands out to me about that design? It reminds me of mid-90s polygon graphics designs that were made specifically to allow good performance. Big, blocky, and easy to render on low-end hardware. That being said, I don't know what era this design is supposed to fit in, alternate timeline or original. It looks like nothing from any series or movie. I'm really not a fan of pretty much any thing about it, but I'm admittedly very biased toward the post-TNG aesthetic, having worked on mods for Bridge Commander for many years.
  5. Chronocidal

    Bandai DX VF-31

    Chronocidal replied to UN Spacy's topic in Toys

    I'm starting to wonder.. either no one setting up these displays is very skilled at transforming these valks to look presentable, or there is literally nothing to be done about how ducking fugly the spine is.
  6. Chronocidal
    Rule of cool aside, just thinking back to Macross 30, I hardly ever used anything but fighter unless I was in a confined space, and even then, I'd prefer gerwalk for the mobility. When everyone has turreted guns to pick off incoming missiles without moving out of fighter mode, or even beam cannons to take things out from any direction, it just makes more sense to keep dodging. For the type of fights they're in right now? I can understand why they're only popping into gerwalk for minor maneuvers. It's definitely useful to be able to direct your thrust and jump all over the sky, but unlike certain situations like Macross Plus and Zero, these are very rarely true one-on-one fights, and slowing down enough to go hand-to-hand is likely to get you picked off really quickly from someone covering your target. It's really something we haven't seen since Macross Zero where Nora wiped out Shin's flight group. She didn't transform until Shin was the only one left, and only because he was actually keeping up with her. As long as your target has wingmen, you don't want to give them an easy target. From the Windermerean point of view, they don't seem like they want to get into protracted battles ("duels of honor" notwithstanding). They're bum rushing their targets to counter immediate threats just long enough to give Heinz time to neutralize any combatants, then bugging out. In space though? All bets are off, you don't have to slow down to transform, and you can just flip and spin all over the place to point your weapons in whichever way you need. What does make sense though is that a head on-profile in fighter is a whole lot smaller than a battroid, and between Keith's using the force and lasering whatever was directly in his path, it let him utterly decimate those jammer ships by flying between their firing patterns.
  7. Chronocidal

    Bandai DX VF-31

    Chronocidal replied to UN Spacy's topic in Toys

    I'm probably going to try and get at least a couple of these, but I might stick with Hayate and Mirage (and the eventual 31A if it ever happens.. MAYBE Chuck, just because I really like the color). Might change a bit later in the show, but I don't think Delta is doing as good a job at marketing the valks as Frontier did. The dogfights are cool and all, but the lack of any significant battroid-based baddassery is making me think I'd be more interested in a fixed fighter-mode model. I just think comparatively how, by the end of the first two episodes of Frontier, we'd already seen two separate armor variants of the VF-25, we'd seen all three modes showcased, and I was left with the feeling that I neeeeeeeeded an armored VF-25S. Maybe it's the design choices, maybe it's just the lack of interesting action, but I don't feel that way about the 31. Fortunately, with the folding wings and general shape of the valk, I think I should be able to easily display these standing on the feet in fighter mode, because Bandai still can't make an attractive stand, and those landing gear are an abomination.
  8. Chronocidal
    Honestly, if the colors matched decently, I'd probably shell out for one of these just to adapt the parts to an HMR VF-1D. Odds are, Bandai's never going to release packs in those colors anyway, and the entire Toynami valk might wind up cheaper to get than official Bandai super packs to customize. So far, they haven't even seemed interested in releasing separate packs at all.
  9. Chronocidal
    Maybe they got their product lines crossed with a "Robin Hood: Men In Tights" collection?
  10. Chronocidal
    Cute episode, but yeah, as obvious as Freya's affection for Hayate is, I can't help feeling like that relationship is a dead end (hopefully not literally). Age-wise, I just think he and Mirage fit better together. The entire red/blue thing they had going on in the first opening is either an obvious reference, or the biggest triangle troll ever. I am loving the hints they're dropping about Mirage though. Yes, she's got decent instincts as a pilot, but if her heart isn't in flying, where is it? Family-wise, we don't know what kind of mother Miranda Jenius would have been, and I'm wondering if she pushed Mirage into flying against her wishes, to carry on the family legacy. If Lady M turns out to be Mylene, that'll be an interesting twist, but Mirage still has two more aunts with names that start with M, and there are still other characters I can think of. Heck, it could even be Millia herself honestly, we don't know how pure meltran genes work, or how long they live.
  11. Chronocidal

    Bandai DX VF-31

    Chronocidal replied to UN Spacy's topic in Toys

    Very likely, unless they found a way to unfold it and sit underneath both arms in fighter mode, but even then I think it's slightly too bulky to fit, since it fits around 3 sides of the arm.
  12. Chronocidal
    Certain planes have been built with higher g-loading allowances from the start, but payloads definitely limit things significantly. I remember reading that the F-16XL was actually designed to take up to 18 Gs, and its payload distribution wasn't clustered together like the Strike Eagle, with single weapon pylons mounted all over the underside of the wing, which probably helped reduce the stress on the wings.
  13. Chronocidal
    To be fair, you're probably not going to get super packs for an HMR version, so there is that. Otherwise, yeah, better to wait. Does remind me though, I really do need to get a spare set of TV packs to repaint for my VF-1D.
  14. Chronocidal
    So, from the first few seconds of that trailer, I'm curious. Did they finally just settle on the decks being absolutely massive with huge windows to explain away using the same number of windows on a ship 3x as large as the original TMP Connie? Either they have a windowless deck in the middle, or those decks must be 20 feet thick on the inside.
  15. Chronocidal
    I almost soiled myself at the Thrawn reveal honestly.. I'm not getting my hopes up -too- much that they're dragging that much of the EU in, but Thrawn was always a pretty independent element that could play on his own. It just makes me happy that they've got Zahn working on material for the new canon. Just counting the movies, I don't think there's actually that much that conflicts with the original Thrawn trilogy, but with newer books already written, I don't know how much they can add in before things start directly contradicting each other.
  16. Chronocidal

    Hi-Metal R

    Chronocidal replied to joppewo's topic in Toys

    Wasn't that piece made from plastic on the original Hi-Metals? I don't remember hearing of anyone breaking them the first time around, so maybe the plastic was just a better material to use. As tiny as that piece is, I do want to think that if you could drill the ball and mount out, you could replace the pin with a stronger metal. Might need some serious metalworking tools to do it precisely though.
  17. Chronocidal

    Hi-Metal R

    Chronocidal replied to joppewo's topic in Toys

    Sorry to hear this, it feels like we keep seeing more die-cast failures, but it's probably just random. We never hear about the failures in Japan, since they can just get replacements. One more reason I hate die-cast in general.. plastic is pretty easy to glue.
  18. Chronocidal
    There've definitely been a few good designs lurking around, but they're getting fewer and farther between. The ID4 Resurgence designs are at least interesting, but there's been a general lack of creative or fun designs coming from the west. I think that's part of why I loved Guardians of the Galaxy so much. The design work in that movie was just dripping with creative takes on simple concepts of design that felt at least moderately practical while staying amusing to see in action. Seriously, the scene with the ships locking their shields to form a barrier had me in tears.
  19. Chronocidal
    Ah, trading down to get the coated canopy version? I've debated trading canopies on a few of mine to get a full DYRL squad with them matching, but never wanted to try and separate that glued-down panel on the spine of the cockpit.
  20. Chronocidal
    You might be better working from a different reference instead of the older Yamato YF-19 or the model up above, but the YF-19 is a giant pile of animation magic in the way it transforms, so you may wind up with mesh collisions no matter how you do it. Both the newer Arcadia YF-19 and Bandai VF-19 Advance have newer attempts at the transformation that work a bit better, but still have compromises for reality. The Arcadia has an indent in the side of the leg to accommodate the arms, while the Bandai has a set of folding panels that collapse into the leg in fighter, and cover the gap for the arm when you extend the feet. All that rigging though is incredibly impressive looking, I love that you're making something that looks pretty much physically possible to do. I'll be honest though, when I first saw the title, I forgot Blender is a CAD program, and thought someone had just gotten really frustrated with their YF-19.
  21. Chronocidal
    Major props to him for figuring out the mechanisms to make that work, but I have to admit, I'm not a fan of all those goofy technic plates he used. To be fair though, using all those hollow pieces is probably the only way to keep it from collapsing under its own weight. Pretty amazing either way, the scaling probably puts it somewhere between 1/24 and 1/18. The hands are the same size as the 1/18 one I started, but the rest of the valk looks a little smaller in proportion.
  22. Chronocidal
    I know that feeling well, I've picked up a few more Figmas than I originally planned, but at the same time, I like using them to work out poses for character sketches. Picking up different characters is just a convenient way to get references for differing body types.
  23. Chronocidal

    Hi-Metal R

    Chronocidal replied to joppewo's topic in Toys

    Oh, thought for sure I'd seen the old DX Blazers with the "hi-metal" tag at one point or another. Probably a bootleg. I did like the Hi-Metal VF-19 design, and picked up the Fire Valk when it went on clearance once, but the colors they picked for the blazer made me want to gag. I do hope they get around to trying again with the Macross 7 Hi-Metals though, and hopefully incorporating a few features they needed the first time around. Probably the only way anyone's ever going to get a MAXL in any scale.
  24. Chronocidal

    Hi-Metal R

    Chronocidal replied to joppewo's topic in Toys

    Actually, given the sprue marks, fancier gear doors, and size relative to the 1J, I think that's one of the multi-mode Bandai VF-19 kits. The original Hi-Metal VF-19 Blazers were 1/65, and looked nowhere near as good as that one does.
  25. Chronocidal
    Unfortunately, even a good kit of a fugly ship is still fugly. While I can appreciate the practicality of some of the new designs (mostly thinking the landing craft in the opening sequence, and the tie fighters with a tail gunner), I really wasn't impressed by any of the new ship designs used in TFA. Out of the "new" designs, we got space boats, Ren's box with giant expand-o-matic tails, a bunch of podracer engines glued to a cockpit, Han and Chewie's docking bay in space, and Leia's flying taco truck. I mean, I get practicality. But when you're trying to push merchandise for a big movie, you at least want designs that people will like, or at the very least remember. The stacks of unsold vehicles that aren't X-wings, ties, or the Millennium Falcon should speak volumes that they really didn't try very hard to come up with designs that anyone would actually buy. Heck, if they don't feel like putting in the effort to develop some good-looking ships, and if they're going to go cherry pick random things out of the EU to use, just go right ahead and steal more of the existing EU ship designs like they did for the LEGO Jek-14 fighter (E-wing). At least then you get merchandise that has built-in demand from the EU fans who've wanted toys and models of those designs for years.
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