Chronocidal

Oh, gotcha. I would love to see someone pull off a dual cockpit rotation someday. Not that it would even be visible, but I'd be really interested in seeing if it's physically possible.

In terms of design, it doesn't make sense to remove the rotating cockpit from the VF-0A and 0S, because it already existed in the CAD drawings, and the parts would have had to have been redesigned to remove the feature. In the VF-0D's case, it didn't make sense to put it in at all, because the mechanism for a dual cockpit rotation would have required a lot of re-design of the basic aircraft. In the YF-19's case, the canopy opens from the other direction compared with the VF-19s, so there's no way to access the cockpit in battroid mode anyway. That feature was almost purely to duplicate how Basara got in and out of the Fire Valk in the show, and I don't know if any of the other VF-19s were ever shown with their battroid hatches open.

This would actually please me, since the existing one is kind of a pale cream color. Just as long as they don't make it bleached white, I'll be happy.

Keeping the cockpit gimmick actually probably saved money in this case, since it'd be a few less parts they'd have to redesign. Probably still needed new molds, but they might have saved a bit on CAD labor.

Did they just forget the HUD in the D? Or is mine just missing?

I think I just generally appreciate Yamato/Arcadia's approach to engineering to Bandai's. I really don't see the need for die-cast in valks, and Bandai tends to use it in all the wrong places, guaranteeing that your valk is going to wind up with paint chips aplenty in extremely visible places. Between that and the almost assured floppiness over time, I just have grown to like Yamato/Arcadia's designs better. Anyway, just got my monster, and this thing is definitely beastly. For better or for worse, yes, the nose decals are just that: decals, and not very sturdy ones at that. I chipped away part of Ranka's hair just brushing my fingers over them. Between the general tendency of Bandai stuff to be coated in mold release, and the gaudiness of the logos, I might just scratch them off with my fingernails.

I don't even buy anything higher than registered SAL for this exact reason. Regardless of how fast it gets to LA, it's still going to sit there for a week while they putz around.

Guess the question is, if you do get a refund through Paypal after someone isn't willing to replace/refund an item, are you even obligated to return the broken item? Given the option, I'd keep the broken one rather than have nothing at all, since I tend to enjoy repairing stuff.

Not having Picard sing it is too bad. Good version of the song though, really fitting lyrics (does everyone just latch onto First Contact because it's the least bad of the TNG movies? ). I still like the parody one I found a while back, but the singing isn't as good. I'm still hoping for someone to piece one together out of spoken dialogue like they did with the "Let it Snow" version.

So, the postal service just can't seem to be bothered to keep their tracker site updated. Arrived in LAX monday, and first update since then is this morning, saying it's out for delivery in my town. Didn't even mention customs, it just didnt update for 4 days.

Paypal's policies are fine if you really want a refund, but Paypal doesnt help you replace the item. If you have multiple sources for getting one, and no rush to purchase, that can work out well. But with releases the way they are now, by the time you receive your item and discover the problem, you may not be able to get a replacement elsewhere. I feel like I remember that being an issue for a couple of folks with the Arcadia YF-19, and even HLJ had trouble replacing them due to limited stock, but I don't remember how those issues got resolved. In the past I would have just said to order two of an item so you have a backup to return if it's broken (or re-sell if it isn't), but prices are getting to where that's not just practical anymore.

I wouldn't even bet on it, since I think a lot of the promos for the VF-0D had those markings too. The last really nicely marked valks to come out were some of the later model VF-1s, and they've been scaling back the tampo on them ever since.

There is nothing inherently wrong with checkered/striped/whatever tights. The shorts just put over the top.

They're being typical LAX customs, taking their sweet time.

Oh, it was a clearance sale, so yeah, that's not entirely fair. Given the early quality problems though, I'd say $100 would've been a fair price for the original releases. And I admit, I like the color as well, but it's hard to justify the increase in price for me, because 90% of the improvements are in battroid only, and mine almost never leave fighter mode. If the armor does get made, I'll grab one, and a 0S to put it on at least, but the thought of how much that will cost is already making my wallet whimper.

Those... are some really obnoxious mounting slots on the intakes. Also, yeah, maybe if it hits clearance, but I can't see myself paying that much for one of these. I'll think about grabbing an S, but that is literally triple what I paid for one of the originals.

Yep, if you want do display it with a full skull squad, it'll take a lot of work to paint up the 1/100 kits in the right colors, but they're actually nice little kits, easy to build, and decent detail and fit for the size. No super/armored/RVF versions, but they're cheap enough you could build up a small army of brownie VF-25Fs to escort it if you dont feel like tweaking the head lasers to make A-models. HLJ is currently backordered, but they always seem able to stock more of them. http://www.hlj.com/product/BAN969488/Sci If you want to display it next to the full squad in packs, or make things simpler to paint, the 1/72 kits are probably close enough to look decent as well.

I'm not a huge fan of the valk to begin with, but the fighter really does look pretty bad with that shape. The spine hump just looks huge.

Oh, it's a decal? Yeah, at that size I can see the edge of the decal film stretched over that indented hole. That actually might be fairly simple to remove then. Only question is whether the tampo will outlast the durability of the decal. And honestly, as gaudy as it is, I hesitate a bit to risk damaging the surface, or even killing it's "mint" condition. Maybe if I get a second one..

The Arcadia and Yamato VF-1s are essentially identical, I don't think they needed to change anything about the molds for them. The Arcadia releases don't seem any tighter to me than some of the tighter Yamato releases either. The VF-0s though, the new Arcadias are an entirely new mold (though certain pieces were probably molded off of the same base CAD model). The transformation for both versions are not really complicated, and generally go smoothly, but the tighter tolerances on the VF-0D make it more tricky in a few areas. Specifically, I had a bit of trouble getting the arms out. Tighter tolerances means less wiggle room, and tighter joints means they were harder to get to rotate to allow them to slide out from between the intakes. The VF-0D also has the added complication of all that paint that can scratch off the arms during this process. Once I finally got them out, I loosened the screws holding the shoulder hinges to the backplate, and they did get easier to move. The head area going to battroid also had a couple issues. The little cover panels around the head fit so tightly in their spot, they tended to pop off their hinges rather than rotate out. The fancy ball jointed neck pivot also gave me some trouble, because the head tended to pop off instead of rotate, until I loosened up the screw under the neck plate. The double jointed arm holding the head is really flexible, but tricky to position correctly if the head comes loose. The last sticking point for me (hah) is that while the early VF-0s had almost no locking mechanism to keep the ankles from extending or collapsing into the leg, this new mold makes it very difficult to pull the ankles down or push them in. They take so much force that I find myself removing things like the tails and canards so I dont slip and either break them off, or stab myself on them while pulling. Things generally work the same otherwise.

Oh, I've had the supers from release date. I learned my lesson with the YF-29 super packs, and have forced myself to pick up every web exclusive since, whether I had the valk or not. I have the blank piece from the supers as a placeholder, I just would rather put him in a sniper pose without any packs, and I just hate that he's missing the actual piece (and Bandai's complete refusal to replace missing parts ). I might swap in the plate from the YF-25, since at least that one is blue. I've even been tempted to try and slap the crotch plate from the v.1 on him, because the piece included with the renewals looks so terrible.

Don't have an older one, or this release in hand yet, but it looks like the colors on this one are more saturated, brighter yellow, and darker green. Still debating whether I want to attempt to scrub off the nose decal, and try to save the shark mouth.

I'm sadly kind of forced to keep my VF-25G in anything besides battroid, because Bandai forgot to pack his crotch plate in the box. I'm hoping to get a reissue so I have one that's actually complete.

I used to have a "no duplicate paint schemes" rule for myself, but I caved eventually and got both a DYRL Hikaru 1A and 1S. Then I grabbed four Roys (two DYRL, one TV, and one Arcadia).. and it snowballed from there. All in all, I might have 30 of the darn things now. I have to make special mention of the VF-19s though.. I've bought multiples of each of them, because I intend to do a couple of customization jobs, and if you count the Arcadia YF-19, I think I have a solid dozen of that mold. As far as the space though.. yes, the boxes are the biggest issue. You could easily pack 4 1/60th VF-1s in the space of a single Yamato box, and I might take to doing that at some point, collapsing down the others, and stacking the trays into a single box. Sadly, that doesn't work for the Bandai releases, because of the styrofoam trays.

They probably could have if they tried, but I don't know if lineart of the gear even exists, or where they would need to fold out of. The nose area is taken up with hip/waist joints, and the wings are solid leg joint internally. The best place might be the large rear belly plate, but that becomes the cannon mount, so the gear would have to fit between the cannon barrels.