Chronocidal

Aha.. backplate on that VF-0S looked molded in white.. though it's still clearly a prototype, so who knows. Still undecided, but that's at least one thing I'd like to see.

Oh, absolutely, I mean, the X-Wings in-universe were all pretty much chop-jobs, patched up and repaired on the fly with whatever was handy. No two were painted alike. I think the Red 3 version of the nose cone got popularized because I seem to recall seeing mostly photos of that model as references, and it was the model shown on the old MPC 1/41-ish kit with the ROTJ label. The details of X-wing models are really a topic unto themselves though. I've done a lot of research into where the individual parts came from so I could go straight to the source. That rear toilet seat thing was just a plug used to cover the mounting point for the filming armature. The entire back panel is also the top from a WWII Sherman tank, I believe. I love tracking down where those parts came from. It's basically what Fine Molds did for their 1/72 Falcon kit. That isn't a kit of the Falcon, exactly.. it's a Falcon shell, with several hundred reduced scale replicas of parts from other model kits. The Y-Wing is really the same thing, but I don't know if they went to those same lengths with that kit.

That's what I get for not watching the videos. I want to scream at them for all the pre-painted snap-tite crap, but to be fair, that larger scale X-wing might actually be worth a purchase. I've been begging for 1/32 kits for a long time, and I think that one is fairly close from what I read. The video looked a lot better than the kit photos, in any case. Proportions look a little off in a few spots, and the detail isn't very crisp. Might need a few scratch-built parts to actually look accurate. My biggest issue is that the lower half of the nose looks too deep. I might be being generous really, but for comparison, I'd already planned to re-work and rebuild the old AMT Pro-Shop kit into something that didn't make me gag. The detail on this new one is already a quantum leap above that kit, and would probably make a much better starting point.

This really makes all kinds of sense. If the ball socket is molded to fit one size sphere, and then you build the ball joint out of two half-spheres of different sizes.... well, what do you think will happen? Only a few options really.. and in this case, if the plastic half is bigger than the metal half, it might pretty much explain everything. 1. The plastic half is too big, spreading the joint out and letting the metal half slip out of the socket. 2. Oh no, the metal part isn't staying in! We'll have to glue it into the ball to keep it from slipping out so easily. 3. Oh no, the glue leaked out and now the joints are sticking, and the whole thing is a mess. Oh, and the glue isn't enough to keep the peg in the ball. Bottom line? All the quality control in the world isn't going to save you if you can't even mold the parts in the correct size.

I'm pretty sure Bandai realized at some point that they should stop even trying to label things with scales, because the fans of these things will call them out on it if they're wrong.

So... what happened to the Fine Molds stuff getting sold by Revell? The stuff they have listed is not even remotely similar. Or is that because that's the Revell Germany site? I don't think I've ever seen such a huge pile of livestock defecation masquerading as a product line before.

The plastic/metal combination ball joint isn't the problem, because they can clearly work. The problem is in Arcadia's ability to design and manufacture them correctly, so they do work. I take issue with the entire thing because they clearly knew how to make perfectly good hip joints for the v.1 VF-0. I don't know how you can just forget how to do that.

The irksome thing is really that several of the features on the VF-0D were steps backwards from the old Yamato VF-0s. That just flat out should not happen. The materials used are exponentially better, and the quality of the molding is much higher. But at the same time, they left a few problems from the old design untouched, and even introduced new problems that the original design never had. I can't wrap my head around that one.

If the ankles are anything like the ones on my 0D, I think someone is overcompensating for the non-locking ankles on the early Yamato releases. Those things do not like to extend. Honestly, I feel like the production quality on these is just fine. They look beautiful. It's just the engineering behind all the failing features that seems to be the weak point. It's like a lot of things just weren't thought out very well.

Guess I'm glad the new design does nothing for me then, one less thing to worry about getting a copy of. Hopefully somewhere down the line Disney will just let the companies fend for themselves, and sell where they want.

So I went digging through the old topics, and found a few that might be worthy of addition to the collection of repair topics. Original Yamato VF-0 Nose Droop Fix: http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=33217&page=3#entry860058 Old Yamato 1/60 YF-19 Fix Topic: http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=21130&page=1 Discussion of broken Yamato YF-19s, but contains some discussion on repairs and Shapeways parts: http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=35649&page=1 Veef's Shapeways parts start getting discussed about here: http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=35649&page=5#entry1041892 SV-51 Disassembly Photos for accessing wing joints: http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=143&page=24#entry867221 I should note, a few of these are individual posts within the larger "What's wrong with my Yamato, Bandai, etc." thread from long ago, and it's worth linking the entire thing here: http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=143&page=1 I think what might be useful is actually taking and compiling these individual topics and posts into an easier to search thread so they aren't all scattered around. A lot are within the "What's wrong" thread, but they're scattered, and might not be easy to search for. As far as modifications go though, I've got two, if we want to add them to the list. A slight mod for the v.2 VF-1's fast packs so they don't bend the tails so much, and stay level (slightly destructive to the packs, so you may not want to do this if you plan on ever re-selling them): http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=33306&hl= Also a bit on the destructive side, if you ever felt like experimenting with the old Yamato YF-19's gullet.. http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=38775&hl= Also, while I know there are a lot of assorted Shapeways solutions out there for various valks (notably Veef's shoulders) do we have a full list of all that has been fixed using printed parts?

Fortunately I've never been that interested in the figures (unless they go with a vehicle), and the various exclusive vehicles are generally easy to find on the assorted online shops for the various retailers. I know I got several X-Wings, an A-Wing, and a B-Wing that way. I really would like to see a re-release of the classic B-Wing scheme though, I only was able to get a "dagger squadron" repaint. It's not bad, but I love the classic look.

I know I picked up one or two for about $30 back then. Reshaping the fuselage so they almost don't fit is a problem though. It makes me wonder if they made it narrower to fit the armor pack. Would modifying the ghosts to let the canards fold down further be an option?

The legs dropping is just a repeated issue from the first version, because they never fixed the base issue: the legs just have no solid attachment point to the metal chest plate. And the tolerances between the nose and legs are off just enough that forcing the legs into the chest plate bends it downward. I was really hoping that they would have done something about this on the 0D, but nope. It uses the exact same shape as the original, with the same original problem. The rest of the figure is just built better so it's not such a huge deal, but it's still disappointing.

Just got confirmation on the bandai 1/72 x-wing, y-wing, and normal tie fighter, so those got in under the block I guess. Will have to wait and see if I get charged for Vader's tie, and the 1/48th x-wing kit.

I'd hesitate to label that thread as "fixing" a 171 knee, but that's probably the original title. It never actually got fixed, that 171 is still scattered across my office in pieces. I also don't know if this is meant to be focused on just repairs, maintenance, or anything under the sun including mods, but I have a few other sets of disassembly pictures of the old VF-0 and Sv-51, and other things, plus a couple of mods for the v.2 VF-1 and old YF-19 I can dig up later.

Probably not going to get the two out of stock kits I ordered then. Still no payment request on anything either. Maybe in the long run this will actually be a good thing though. If the sales for the domestic crap fall into the toilet compared with under-the-table deals and Ebay sales for foreign products, maybe the local companies will wise-up and actually produce something people will buy. Not holding my breath for it though. The mass market is still going to eat up the massive truckloads of stuff made domestically. It's just going to be the collectible market that gets to sit and spin on a lightsaber.

Did they mold the landing gear doors in different colors than the hinges? Or is one piece painted and the other is bare plastic?

If Revell is truly getting the old Fine Molds kits to sell, it's not all bad. I really prefer Fine Molds' 1/48th x-wing, just because Bandai filled their version with all the electronic stuff, and I'd rather have a cheaper kit without all the extra fluff. The Bandai 1/48th one was marked down to about $50 though, so I put in an order for one each of the Bandai kits at HLJ to see if I can get them. The 1/72 x-wing, y-wing and tie are still in stock, with the tie advanced and 1/48th x-wing are backordered. Whether they'll ever get restocked though...

Those are a pretty good example, but I don't know how many of them were released. The nice thing about the 1/144 ones is that there's a pretty big market for that scale, and you can find a lot of other aircraft to go with them, both die-cast and plastic. Personally, I'd prefer something like 1/72, or even 1/100 though, just for the extra level of features. Missiles and other attachments are really hard to keep track of in 1/144.

I would hope the 0S will all be molded in color, but they seem intent on molding the underside of the backplate in dark gray. That would be fine.... except that means the areas under the wings where the shoulders scrape against winds up painted white, and all we get out of it is a dark panel that isn't even visible in 2/3 of the modes, and I honestly couldn't care less about being a darker color. The old 0S had the entire belly molded in the same color as the rest of the plane, and I don't think anyone ever thought that was a problem. Maybe people in Japan requested the change? I just know that I'd personally prefer a hidden panel molded in the wrong color and left unpainted than have a very visible one that is almost certain to be scratched being molded in the wrong color and painted over to match.

Yamato and Bandai both tried making smaller scale collectable figures, but more like gachapon-style prizes than actual models. I don't know if Bandai ever made any non-fighter ones, but Yamato certainly did. Again though, they wound up in clearance sales at HLJ, just like the GnU-DOU figures. The posable figures, I think I picked up for maybe $8 a piece (list price was 3,000 yen originally), and the collections of 1/200 figures were going for about $12 for a set of 12 figures (originally 6,840 yen). While they weren't bad products, I don't think Yamato could ultimately turn a profit on something that small at that price. They couldn't bring production costs down enough to sell the products at a reasonable price to compete with the rest of the market. Whether they could hit a nice balance of features and cost with 1/100 scale fighter models, I do not know, but with some 1/60th VF-1s still floating about at reasonable prices, would they even be able to compete with their past overproduction? And ultimately, the draw of the toys to many is their perfect transformation. Without that, you may as well build a Hasegawa kit, or even one of the new Bandai ones.

This still smells like something being lost in translation. Did Disney make another deal with other companies to make kits for the rest of the world, or did they just completely screw the pooch, and not realize that Bandai would want to do this? It's not like Star Wars is a nationally recognized property or anything.

Those smaller scale battroid-only figures are fine for what they are, but the target market for them confused me. They weren't overly detailed, and not really that fancy in terms of posability, but they make nice little knick-knacks. The cost for them was really out of proportion with what they were though, either from cost of production, or licensing. I guess it feels to me like while Arcadia seems happy to accept a role in making the higher cost niche items, they're going through a phase where they develop priorities. So far, that seems to be focusing a lot on molding quality, and maybe painting, but I think the overall products are suffering in the design phase. The problems popping up wouldn't be hard to solve, but they have to be caught early. The way things appear to be working now, they aren't getting fixed before the factory starts assembling them, and the design issues are causing a lot of products to be scrapped because they don't meet the expected standards.

I'd agree with that idea (the sticking to niche designs Bandai doesn't want to do part, I mean), but also don't want to be flooded by Bandai versions of valks Arcadia and Yamato have already made, if Bandai picks up the licenses. If anything, I wish Bandai would try and mimic Yamato and Arcadia more in terms of design style, because the list of reasons I prefer them over Bandai is getting smaller all the time. If Bandai gave more than a half-assed attempt at landing gear and weapons, I'd probably ignore Arcadia now. These new releases just aren't impressing me with their designs.