Chronocidal

Those Max and Kakizaki bundles were two of the last VF-1 releases I think I got, they both went on clearance after a while. Nice grab! They definitely dont have the rainbow canopies like the box shows though, I think those were some of the first ones where it got left off.

The only missiles that ever came with the original were the four clusters of three, so I wouldn't expect more really.. That's all that we saw it carry anyway. Now, given the era that aircraft came from, there are a massive amount of things you could mount on it (modern day A/A or A/G weapons would fit nicely). I believe some may have been made available on Shapeways in the past, but I can't recall for sure. No reason they couldn't be made now though.

Someone had mentioned them replacing a few of the spring pins in the arm with screws, but I can't confirm this myself since I don't own the older versions.

I dont know how much metal is in the main body (the front shoulder pivots at least), but the wings/legs have a ton of it in them. I was impressed that they made the main thruster vents on the back edge of the wing out of bare metal, it just works perfectly. You might need to be careful with the metal joints holding the kneepads, mine are stiff enough that I worry about the plastic covers breaking off.

That's probably as new as you can possibly get one of the first edition strike Roys, sounds like it was never removed from the box at all. Grats on a good find, though sorry you got hit with the broken shoulders 6 years after the fact. It would be nice if the shapeways replacements came in a matching color of plastic, but at the very least, those problems are not terribly hard to repair, even without using brand new parts.

Oh, actually my only thought about the CAD is that it may actually be less work to just stick with what already exists in the CAD models than to try and invent something new, just to remove a feature. If you were to just eliminate the rotating seat, at the very least, you'd want a new piece to go behind the seat of the existing cockpit, if not a redesigned cockpit bucket. It's not a huge deal, but it's still adding a new piece to the molds.

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..