Chronocidal

Oh, boo.. guess I'll just wait for the CF Hi Metal then.

I think what's probably keeping it from going back to gerwalk is most likely that the nose isn't pulled out far enough to let the chest plate sink back down and lock. The nose has to slide back and forth on that metal plate that the two tabs are on, and it can be really tight at first.

Have to admit, I'm not sure which die-cast flaps you mean. Are you talking about the plate that the intakes attach to on the underside? That's a single piece that the cockpit slides onto, and you have to pull the nose down/forward before you can slip the chest plate back behind the cockpit. If you want to play it safe, you can actually pull the nose section entirely off the plate, fold the chest down, and then reattach the nose afterward, but you have to be careful to fold the neck joint out of the way to get it back on.

Amuses me when people do mix up the name tags with forum ranks, but I completely missed when I achieved that rank.

Know what I've always wanted for the VT-1? A duty-uniformed Hikaru and Misa, plus a tent to put up under the half-gerwalk VT-1.

"Always wear the proper safety equipment when building Macross Models. Don't let this happen to you!"

Anyone who gets one together, mind posting a quick profile quick? I'm actually curious how the profile compares to the 1/72 transformable kit, since that one feels like it's too thick, and nose-high to me.

Fortunately, that hinge only serves to hold on that little flap, and won't harm the functionality of the valk, even if it falls off really. The way that can break is if you rotate the backpack into fighter mode position in a certain way. If the hinge is open at all, the edge can catch on the part of the backplate that surrounds the arms, and spread that piece, cracking that part off. The way I prevent that catching is I keep the backpack angled up about 45 degrees, then push upwards on the backpack until the hinge bar sinks into the backpack entirely before rotating the pack down to be level. It makes sure that hinge slips under the backplate without rubbing. Edit: Decided pictures might be more helpful. So here's the edge you're catching the hinge on. What I do, is pinch the backpack, pushing up on the thrusters with my thumb, and down on the hinge with my forefinger, until the hinge snaps flush with the upper surface of the backpack. You might need to bend the backpack down a bit more than I have there, but when that hinge snaps in, it'll also snap the broken part past the edge it catches on. Here's a view without fingers. The double pivot for the backpack is flush now, the hinges are past the edge of the backplate, and you can just bend the backpack down level without it catching now.

I do know the USS Stargazer had the backplate of a VF-1 glued to the saucer somewhere.

Congrats! That plane's a real beauty.

See, I always thought that way too, until I realized that the VE-1 is pretty literally the only VF-1 we were likely going to get in semi-standard military colors. I think I just like it for the unique super packs. Still missing the VF-X, Angel Bird, and a Max-1S, but I have a plan to fix the Max issue myself.

I think what gets me most of all is that we just spent the better part of a movie watching upgraded X-Wings and barely-different TIEs duking it out over several planets within the atmosphere. But now you're telling me that, 30 years ago, they had a version that's specifically for atmospheric flight?

You know, I can understand the merchandising angle to a point, but throwing out a bunch of new designs to use in a movie set 15 minutes before Episode IV just makes me wonder why those designs were never seen nor used again at any time after. They also need to stop giving every putz of an Imperial official their own (fugly) shuttle design. The classic shuttle was good enough for Vader and the Emperor, so with all the budget going toward the Death Star, who keeps approving these custom rides? I know I'm being a stick in the mud, and honestly I'd probably give all these new fangled designs a pass and even buy them all if they looked good.... but they really just don't.

To be entirely honest, I never liked the individualized colors on the packs. All of the VF-1s used a black tail, so the colored circles seem out of place with the skull to me. Same for the canopy shield really. And figures I'd edit that before refreshing the page, and the next reply mentioned the heat shields.

It's kind of a multi-layered problem, because Bandai also doesn't really seem to understand how pilots fit into cockpits, or how tightly all the components of an aircraft are actually crammed into the fuselage. Really, the plastic is far too thick everywhere. With the transforming kits? I really think it's just the way they're engineered with so many layered panels for structural integrity prioritized over any cockpit detail. Really though, Bandai has no consistency in this regard across any of their kit lines that I've seen. Oddities in ship scales not withstanding, their Star Wars kits have absolutely beautifully molded cockpits and pilots. But then I went to put together one of their Cosmo Zero kits from Yamato 2199, and while the pilot looks nicely molded, the cockpit itself feels like it's far too deep in the fuselage, and the pilot can't even see out the canopy. Bandai absolutely knows how to manufacture incredibly molded and detailed kits, it just seems like the engineers designing them vary widely in how they approach things, and what details they focus on.

If you're concerned about the shoulders, it's an easy process to loosen up the pivots they're on. The pair of screws holding them to the backplate can be easily loosened with a screwdriver to give those pivots more room to side over the stops when rotating the arms out from fighter mode. Too loose, and they'll flop around or fall past the stops in battroid though. Though, I'm assuming you mean the folding/rotating piece that attaches under the backplate. If you look up the history of the Yamato v.2 VF-1, those pieces caused a lot of problems early on due to improper assembly/design, and would crack around the metal pins. If you mean that the shoulder joints are too tight to pose easily, and you're worried about snapping off the ball joint, you'll have to gently spread the shoulder covers that are slipped over the top to pop them off, and then you can access the screws holding the joint together to loosen them a little. Can't stress the "gently" part enough, though the covers are fairly easy to glue back together if you happen to pop them apart by accident.

Sweet! Going to hold off shipping them until the Sv-262 and Hi Metal VF-1A brownie are ready to go though, they'll be dropping some time in September. Between these and the 1/72 Draken III, gonna be one massive HLJ box of Macrossy goodness next month.

See though.. problem with that? Pre-TOS, the Starfleet logo was not the Enterprise arrowhead logo. Each ship had its own insignia at that point in time, and it wasn't until much later that Starfleet adopted the Enterprise logo as its own. Curious to see how they actually try to connect anything there, but I still can't get over how ugly that ship really is.

There's the hook.. they only make the first half of the pilot free to watch. Think I'm way past caring about this. If it's any good at all, I'll probably just watch it in syndication years down the road.

Meh.. hopefully that date stays solid. I've still got plenty of warehouse time left on the 1/72 Sv-262 kit I ordered, so if this new date works out, I can ship them all with the Hi-Metal VF-1A CF.

So, for all those new to the v.2 fast packs, congrats! Since there's probably at least a few people here who've never used the fast packs before, I figure it might be worth mentioning a few things to be aware of with them. First off, be careful with the paint on the tails. Since the backpack boosters push the tails against the spine of the plane, it's possible for one of the antennas to rub against and wear down the black paint. All of my DYRL VF-1s have a small strip of matte scotch tape applied to that spot to minimize the damage. If you're feeling adventurous, you can also file down the antenna so it doesn't dig into the paint as much. Second, on the more OCD side of things, I do want to drag up an old post I made, with a slight update. A few years back, I was curious about the long term effects of mounting fast packs, and how it bends the tails. (http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=33306&hl=%2Bfast+%2Bpack+%2Bfile&fromsearch=1) Since that time, I wound up purchasing a used VF-1J Hikaru with super packs, and I can say with some certainty it was displayed for a long while with the packs mounted, because that tail is definitely bent a little. Not badly, but it's noticeable if you look for it. Before anyone panics, no, this really isn't any kind of serious issue. I've never once heard of anyone's tail breaking, and the bending is minor. This is really just a fix for people who get bugged by slight misalignments. A pretty easy fix is mentioned in the post, but it's fairly destructive to the boosters, since you have to file a chunk out of them to give the tail room to sit properly. It does have other benefits as well though. Making room for the tail to nest into the bottom of the left booster can help it sit more in-line with the right one, and it also can relieve a little of the pressure on the tail from that spine antenna, which might help protect the paint on the left tail. To reiterate though, no, I'm not recommending everyone start filing chunks out of their boosters. Main takeaway is just to be aware of how you attach your boosters, and be aware of whether that spine antenna is rubbing on the tail. Third, and unrelated to the backpack, I remember some folks having trouble removing the arm packs. I think one of the locking pegs on the arms is supposed to be angled to let the tab slip over it, so if rocking the pack one direction doesn't work, try rocking the other way. If it still doesn't want to come off, you can try lifting one of the tabs with a straight pin.

Yeeeeah... really no coherence to how anything is happening at this point. I mean, I would have assumed the absolute best case for the Hayate var thing is we wind up with him hulking out every time Freyja sings, with Mirage playing the Black Widow part to calm him down at the end, but this is like "Suddenly, by the power of magical mental threesomes, I now have the power to completely ignore that serious plot complication!" As if he has ever had any sort of control of it in the first place... This one even went one worse, since suddenly, instead of just becoming superhuman, he went completely bonkers for no discernible reason. What happened? Not to mention the whole "Oh.. how'd we get out of prison?" bit. The writers seem to have developed an uncontrollable fetish for leaving serious issues completely unresolved with no explanation. Are they just repeatedly writing themselves into corners they can't get out of, or are they so desperate for padding to fill in the plot with that they're just throwing plot threads at the wall like spaghetti and hoping something sticks? Honestly, know what I'm hoping for at this point? I want to see someone pick this up and make an abridged series out of it. Not as a parody, but as an actual re-write to give it some coherence. Just take the base plot, and rearrange the visuals and dialogue to make a smaller picture without so many missing pieces.

Why do I feel like these kits have better proportions than the 1/72 ones? The transforming kit of the 31 feels like the nose is sitting too high, but this one looks like it just has a better profile.

Honestly, I want to rip out the outer panel of the leg, throw some F-16-styled gear into it to fold out diagonally, and say good riddance to the existing ones.

Given how badly I've seen Bandai's white plastic yellow in the past, I have to admit, I'm perfectly okay with the gray color of the Focker 1S.