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Chronocidal

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  1. Chronocidal
    Demand for some items is also really high specifically because of Bandai's marketing shenanigans. Most of the really highly sought after add-on packs for their valks are limited to a one-and-done release schedule, and only sold from their Japan-only web-shop. So, if you're late getting into the series, or miss that precious pre-order, you may never see the item being sold again for anything near retail. Anyone trying to get a hold of Ozma's VF-25 armor pack at this point is probably shelling out 2-3x what the valk itself cost. Their sales schedule for the valks themselves is sometimes not much better, but there's at least a chance that a re-release will happen. Also, entirely agree with Plus as an intro to the universe. It's just a nice self-contained chunk of the franchise that stands on its own, and brings out some of the best music and action the franchise has to offer as a whole.
  2. Chronocidal
    Dunno if this is really spoilery at all, but I'll hide it just in case.
  3. Chronocidal
    I will readily admit, I like to harp on Bandai because while they do some things very well indeed, I also really dislike some of their past and present design decisions. I tend to be heavily biased toward Yamato (not necessarily Arcadia though) because of their attitude toward respecting the source material, and actually attempting to pay attention to the little details that aircraft aficionados appreciate. Bandai just isn't very good at that yet, and the few strides they seem to make in that direction appear half-assed to me, like copying markings everywhere without thinking what they say, just to make it look like they put effort into it. It feels a lot like kids in school padding reports with blank space to make them look longer. That being said, the Arcadia's wing mechanism is pitifully weak compared to the Bandai one. I've tightened them multiple times, and they never seem to stay very long. Bandai definitely has a handle on complex transformation mechanisms.
  4. Chronocidal
    Bandai hasn't really tried to replicate the look of the VF-19's main gear, or really any of the valks they've done. I don't know if it's some vague attempt at paying homage to the old gear on the 1/55 chunky VF-1s, or what, but for a company so focused on mecha, they seem not to have much understanding about how landing gear work, or look. They have gotten better over time, but they still don't seem able to make realistically proportioned struts or tires. The VF-25's gear are supposed to splay out like the Yamato VF-19s do, but Bandai has stuck to simple rotating sticks from the get go. The quality of the sticks have just improved. The ones on the Arcadia, and all of the Yamato VF-19s look pretty close to that VF-19 kit line art, but the Master File is just a copy of an F-18 main gear, so I pretty much ignore that. I know that VF-19 kit image is old, but I don't know what reference they were using at the time. The thing that occurred to me about the ankles though.. and it's not really a flaw, but I find it irritating.. Bandai's folding panel shenanigans with the legs was creative, but it means I can't extend the feet in fighter mode. My favorite display position for most of my valks is actually standing on the feet in fighter mode, and the way Bandai built those ankles, it pops the legs out of position, because it extends the folding panels. I've honestly never been the least bit bothered by the recessed area for the arms on the Yamato/Arcadia mold, so while I applaud their skills in plastic origami, I think that entire mechanism is just excessive.
  5. Chronocidal
    I would actually chalk the missiles up as a severe negative mark against the Bandai, since they give you wings with hardpoints, but no missiles, and the missiles that fit can't even be bought outside of an entirely separate product that's not even related to the VF-19. And while I like the advance packs, they cheapened out and didn't even attempt to make the shoulder packs accurate. Even without the wing boosters, the fast packs on the Arcadia are just better thought out (they actually attach to the wing gloves), and the missiles (for better or for worse) are your "everything you can ask for, plus two kitchen sinks" set. As for a stand.. I'd only call that an advantage if it wasn't so ugly. But that's just personal opinion, I know they're perfectly functional. As far as "amount and quality" of tampo though, Bandai went into overkill mode. They went above and beyond what was seen in the animation, and honestly, with all the SMS logos plastered everywhere, it's approaching the gaudy level of over-marking you see on the 171s... "How are the pilots supposed to remember which craft they're flying?" "Don't worry, we've painted the name of the aircraft on every available surface to make sure." It's really not that bad, but I think they overdid it in an attempt to appeal to the more demanding aircraft collectors. Some of the markings and warnings make perfect sense, but throwing "ACCESS PANEL INSIDE" all over the place only looks good if you can't read the text, and they used too big a font for that to work. The Arcadia really skimped on the tampo, though, and they seem to be adopting that approach for everything, sadly. I probably would have been perfectly happy with the intake warnings added, that might be the first time they actually left those off. I just hope in the future both companies try to hit that middle ground between the two. In the end I can't really vote, because I can't say either has an advantage in the long run. They both have features I like, and features I dislike, so it pretty much winds up averaging out. If anything, I'd say the Bandai has both better good features, and worse bad features, while the Arcadia kind of plays the middle of the field.
  6. Chronocidal
    K, maybe Bandai just likes to micro-manage it's products then. The specific thing that I always see in every Bandai valk is that they absolutely love tiny insert pieces. When I took apart the hips on my 171, there were at least three individual itty-bitty plastic nubs that slid into place around where the rest of the leg fit in. And it's like that all over the thing. Removing any major assembly will usually result in a handful of plastic filler bits falling out. I've just never seen that kind of practice on anything Yamato or Arcadia do, so maybe it's just in Bandai's requirements.
  7. Chronocidal
    True, bad design is just bad design. It's more that Bandai seems to always design everything with 3 to 4 times the number of necessary parts, so unless they're mandating a ton of details to their contractors, I don't think the group who made the 171 worked on any of the Yamarcadia valks. It's just a consistent style of parts breakdown that the Bandai designs have that I haven't seen replicated anywhere else.
  8. Chronocidal
    I dunno, I've never seen any mechanisms as needlessly over-complicated and outright stupid as the 171's knee joint. I can't honestly believe those came from the same engineers as anyone working for Yamato or Arcadia.
  9. Chronocidal
    Yep, should all be the same colors. The only oddball was when Ranka must have been riding with Michael in her performance dress. I forget which valks came with extra figures for sure (and who they were supposed to be), but didn't Michael's come with a micronized Klan figure? It might be the same model as the others, but I think she wore the same style uniform as Canaria, possibly with Michael's helmet.
  10. Chronocidal
    ... .. Yes.
  11. Chronocidal
    Likely.. the only pilot figure to actually be changed visually from male to female was Nora, if I recall correctly. I never had trouble putting the legless Ranka in a VF-25 though, the cockpit is small enough that her arms hold her in decently. She rattles around if you swoosh it too much, but she'll generally land upright in the seat. Also, given that it happened in the series at least once, I think the one included with Ozma's valk was supposed to be Cathy.
  12. Chronocidal
    I bought a few multiples with the intention of customizing them.. last count is at least 2 of each, with 3 of the 19F and 19P I think. I hate the thought of modifying something only to trash it, so I bought backups. I plan on reworking one of the 19Ps into a white 19F somehow, possibly with shapeways printed wing components. I hesitate to paint anything, because the tolerances on those things are so incredibly tight.
  13. Chronocidal
    I need to stay away from there, or I will wind up buying more VF-19s. My 19 collection is close to rivaling my set of VF-1s, and considering how many there are of those, that's saying something. Last count, I think I have 15..
  14. Chronocidal
    The Bandai pieces are also shaped nothing like what was seen in the animation. The T-Rex parts actually cover the entire shoulder joint, which looks much more accurate.
  15. Chronocidal
    Honestly, I think it looks better that way, just because the wing gloves actually attach to the legs.
  16. Chronocidal
    That pic isnt using the leg packs, just so you know. Still works pretty well, but the shoulder packs stick up a little that way.
  17. Chronocidal
    I believe this came up in a discussion about the Yamato VF-19s, and someone mentioned that the process applied to molds so they produce a dull finish involves an etching liquid (probably a weak acid) being applied evenly to the molds. I don't know exactly how costly or labor-intensive that might be, but it sounds risky to the integrity of the mold. I think they really nailed the gloss on the VF-19 Advance and YF-30 though. It just looks right, without being overly shiny.
  18. Chronocidal
    I bought a spare 19P just so I can make one similar to that scheme someday. it's so pretty.
  19. Chronocidal
    Ah, it won't be so bad, I'll just fly around to my heart's content in single player, like I did with Battlefr-.... Oh. Right. EA. Back to Tie Fighter it is.
  20. Chronocidal
    I haven't tried to remove the girls directly, but they're definitely decals, and they can flake away pretty easily. I knocked off a bit of one's foot just by general handling.
  21. Chronocidal
    Actually, no, the Bandai is the only VF-19 variant to have any gappiness issues of that type with the super parts on the legs. The Yamato and Arcadia YF-19s both designed their leg packs to merge seamlessly with the wing roots, leaving a sculpted recess for them to tab into. Bandai just didn't bother. They designed the packs to not extend as far up on the legs, and left the locking tabs flapping in the breeze. Then they photoshopped the gaps away for the box art, which is frankly more irritating to me than the gaps themselves. Like you said though, I just love the base fighter, so the packs looking ugly isnt a huge deal to me.
  22. Chronocidal
    Actually nope, none of the originals had the nose kites tampo'd on. Was really disappointing actually, because I never use any of the stickers. I had heard it was something about them having issues tampoing across multiple parts early on, but they clearly got past that limitation later on.
  23. Chronocidal
    I want those VF-19 variants. Badly.
  24. Chronocidal
    That's all I really mean actually, the "and more" part. The VF-19 cameo looked pretty much just like the Arcadia YF-19, with SMS markings in place of the kites. The Bandai one though? Is covered in markings and details that they didn't bother to animate for the movie, and has a few significant differences from it. Mainly, the shoulder packs are a completely different shape than the movie showed, and while the movie one had the standard YF-19 head/shield/cover section, Bandai decided to remodel it to cover the entire head (which I still find myself tempted to remove just because it's such a stupidly superfluous feature).
  25. Chronocidal
    They did this throughout the series and movies, and possibly even in the games. Once a model is built and rigged for animation, it's relatively much simpler to do a quick copy/paste of components than it is to design and rig a new model. That also might be related to why some of the toy releases were relatively sloppy, like the super parts for the VF-27. It's really easy to slap a few extra polygons on a model to look cool, but re-creating that in real life might not work as well as you'd hope. Given the length of the cameo though, I wouldn't even bet that Isamu's plane had any moving parts at all. What is funny to me though is that the Arcadia YF-19 with the T-Rex parts is much more screen-accurate than Bandai's toy. Bandai took some liberties with the toy that aren't all bad, but it makes me wonder how much of that was done specifically to differentiate themselves from Arcadia's YF-19. It also makes me want to explore the idea of making some screen-accurate shoulder packs for the VF-19 Advance.
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