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Chronocidal

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  1. Chronocidal
    Holy crap.. I need like.. four of those kits, just so I can get a decent amount f those huge engine parts. And 1980s space logo pieces as far as the eye can see. Also, funny to see them actually finally re-use the purpose-made piece they made for the collectors series X-Wing. I think this might be only the third time it was ever used in a kit.
  2. Chronocidal
    I don't know if there'd be any reason, considering I've never actually used the backpack hooks on the VF-1s to begin with. The double hinge for the VF-0 backpack always worked slightly differently as well, and always held really well. Honestly, if they tighten up the molds, and keep the plastic quality on par with recent Yamato and Arcadia releases, I don't think they'll really need to change much about the original VF-0 design. It worked fine for the most part, and the proportions and shape never seemed to be an issue. If they can improve the molding to current standards, make the feet lock better, and tighten up the chest/nose mechanism, they should be golden. Now, the question I do have though... the old Ghost booster for the VF-0A/S was only really held on by clipping the canards under the upper fairings, and resting around the tails. I don't know if the VF-0D carrying a Ghost is canon (I think you could in Macross 30?), but it'll need something else to hold it on without the tails in the same place, and you'd need a new set of color-matched chest pods as well. I wonder if they'll actually include some kind of clip to hold the existing Ghosts on, or eventually reissue them with a different mount for the VF-0D.
  3. Chronocidal
    The complaint isn't about the CAD drawings, it's about the poster being too blue, as far as I can tell. And actually, I wonder if the color in Macross 30 for the VF-0D was more blue than the series.. I might have to check that later.
  4. Chronocidal
    It's too early to tell anything really, so that might still be the case. The beta just looks like the hangar is integrated between modes, so anything used/earned/bought for multiplayer would also apply to the single player modes. That on it's own though is a whole 'nother can of crap. While I imagine there will probably be a way to unlock everything through single player, it also has the potential to turn the game into an aircraft mmo grindfest, and throw any kind of multiplayer balance out the window once people start to cashwhore their way to winning in online battles.
  5. Chronocidal
    So, Ace Combat: Infinity has a demo/beta up for download on PSN. Looks like about 4-5 missions total, but I only ran the training intro, and the single player campaign intro, which was two fairly short missions. The Good: Old fashioned AC combat is back, more like AC0 than AC6. Still some oil splatter if you fly through an explosion too close, but why would you want to do that? The opening tutorial in an F-4E uses a remixed AC5/AC4 track for the music, gave me goosebumps. The Potentially Bad: Seems they're prepared to fully go down the microtransaction rabbit hole. The development tree looks more like something out of an RPG, (actually sort of similar to Macross 30) with multiple systems and aircraft upgrades that you can upgrade to tune up a lower level aircraft. Also looks like there's plenty of spots to buy little add-ons with cash to do assorted things like add extra missions and paintschemes. All in all, I'm cautiously optimistic. I don't give a crap about the online content, but if I can get a nice single player campaign out of the game with some enjoyable missions, and don't have to actually level grind my planes in online battles to progress, I'll be satisfied. The potential for custom aircraft configurations is nice, and the game world seems like an interesting mashup of Strangereal and real life (the training tutorial is over San Diego, and the first mission is over Tokyo). I'll be interested to see how things pan out with it. I just hope they don't kill the game with microtransactions and DLC.
  6. Chronocidal
    Isamu was a special case, since it was made-to-order websclusive. The others weren't just that in demand to begin with. Really, the demand is being hijacked by the scalper market. Some of them have panned out as not being worth scalping, because the design just didn't have that much demand to begin with (the CF and VF-27 especially). Given this one's Ozma, I don't know how it'll go. His VF-25 was iconic, but the number of people who could recognize his YF-29 is much smaller.
  7. Chronocidal
    If Arcadia ever made this design, I would buy four of them. Seriously. I want a white VF-19F like nothing else. Every time I see something like this, I'm tempted to kitbash a VF-19P and VF-19F together, and repaint.
  8. Chronocidal
    Holy crud.. just reading the casting list on this movie is epic on its own. I might have to actually go find a decent theater to see this.
  9. Chronocidal
    Actually, I'm pretty sure every Bandai valk will get loose joints eventually. It's something about the way they're made, I think, but Bandai's joints just don't seem to hold up over time. Doesn't mean they aren't very pretty though, and they come with a stand to hold them up. I'd go for whichever one you like, and can afford. Keep an eye out on the "For Sale" section on the boards here, sometimes people will have some great deals on some hard to find stuff.
  10. Chronocidal
    Heh, I mostly just mean that the way the valks were decorated didn't go well with the idea of any kind of toy. If you want to build a transforming toy to last, you design it to use the least amount of paint possible around any moving parts, so it won't scratch off with repeated transformations. You can get around things a little by molding parts in color, but the VF-25 just has little painted bits absolutely everywhere, especially on the parts that have to move and scrape against each other. Anything in the VF-25/27/29 family is just notoriously bad at this, because they designed the entire chest around a "move things around until one part loosely rests against another part and things kinda stay" mechanism, while all the parts involved also involve painted markings that are going to scrape off at some point regardless of how careful you are.
  11. Chronocidal
    I'm pretty well convinced that a good chunk of the VF-25's pricing is caught up in the obscene amount of tampo printing and painting Bandai has to do on each one. Personal dislike about Bandai's design choices and philosophy aside, the VF-25 is not an easy thing to paint, and the paintscheme is probably the most toy-unfriendly scheme on any valk, just because of how many decorated parts are actively rubbing against each other to transform. Actually.. that pretty much applies to anything from Frontier. The paintschemes look cool, but the transformations weren't designed with toys in mind, much less model kits.
  12. Chronocidal
    Have to admit, I kinda lost interest in this design once the Isamu version came out, since I much prefer the alternate paintscheme to another palette-swap with the gills. NY jacking the price up already just reminds me why I got so tired of trying to get Bandai releases. If it's availalble later on, maybe, but right now I've got other priorities.
  13. Chronocidal
    Yeah, I've never quite understood why so many of Hasegawa's kits come with so many pre-cut decals that are meant to fill in areas that should just be painted. I suppose in some cases they're easier than masking and spraying, but complicated decals that cover so much area are usually more trouble than they're worth. Anyway, looking awesome so far! If I didn't already have so many of the Bandai kits I'd probably jump on a few of these, but I already don't have room for more boxes.
  14. Chronocidal
    It does have that, but I've not once gotten the hips on a 171 to fit correctly, or lock in any position. They just flop around in the breeze. What's worse is that it seems like that was intentional, and it makes me want to slap their engineers for designing such a shoddy system. And actually, you're right, the 17 does have a ton of die-cast.. inside. It's unpainted, and hidden most of the time, because it's all used on the internal structure, like I wish Bandai would do more often. I dunno. I know it's been said Bandai's valks could be designed by the same CAD teams as Yamato's, but the design philosophies seem to be almost polar opposites of simple and sturdy with Yamato, and flashy and complicated for Bandai. The little folding triangles on both of them is a perfect example.. Bandai made those little origami folding panels that are probably one of the most failure prone pieces on the valk. Yamato? They just made a folding flap that attaches to the leg, and folds out of the way. They pop off, but snap right back on, and there's nothing to break. If Arcadia did ever try to improve the 17, I don't think much needs to change at all.. maybe redesign the nose a bit to droop less, and rework the front landing gear so the doors work better.
  15. Chronocidal
    I'd personally disagree with the "not being fun to handle" part, though I've probably gotten used to the occasional stab wound from my VF-17s. Both designs have their good and bad points, depending on how you like to display/play with them, so it's really up to personal preference. I personally just enjoy fighter mode mostly, and I love being able to easily transform things back and forth. While I do prefer the actual design of the 171 to a point, and it does have some points over the VF-17 for how well it locks into fighter mode, it's also the absolute least fun to transform of any valk I own. It's fiddly, the wings go flying, the legs jam up and won't rotate correctly due to the shoddy rotation mechanism, and every time I look at it, I'm expecting the shoulder pieces to explode. I love the design, but it's just not any fun. On the other hand, the VF-17 is pretty much a plastic tank. It uses significantly less die-cast, and isn't as pretty, but it's solid as a rock. It can still be a beast to transform correctly, but it's actually enjoyable, because I don't feel like I'm fighting against mechanisms that don't want to fit right, and I'm not worrying about scraping paint off all the time, or the wings flying off. I'll admit, I'm biased toward the Yamato designs, because I just prefer the simplicity and functionality of their designs over Bandai's mess of overcomplicated mechanisms. It's the same thing for all the Bandai valks really, I just don't enjoy transforming them.
  16. Chronocidal
    So, a word of warning... don't let things get too hot around the printer... found out the hard way on this one. To keep the area warm around the printer, I got a small space heater, and set it near the printer. Apparently, it was just too close, because it actually caused one of the belt drive bearing mounts to warp out of shape. Why they made this piece out of plastic, I don't know, but it bent enough that it lets the table driver belt slip off, killing the forward to back motion. The piece is just a simple plastic bracket that holds onto the belt bearing, but it's tilted sideways in a way that won't hold the belt on anymore, so I'm going to need a new one. Probably will be quick and painless to replace, since I already disassembled the printer to get the part out, and it was easy to get to. I might even just see if I can make a metal piece to replace the part entirely. I work near a metal shop, and someone might be able to machine me a metal bracket to do the same job without the risk of bending or warping if it gets too hot. So, lesson learned, don't let the mechanisms themselves get too hot. I might just wait until it's warmer before trying any serious prints.
  17. Chronocidal
    I really don't care about a stand for this mold, since they clearly haven't learned to mount them further back yet. Suppose I can't be too disappointed, since it's the same stand mount as the other VF-19s had, but it's still just as useless in fighter mode. The VF-19 series just has to have the single worst stand mount out of the entire line of 1/60 valks (either Yamato, or Arcadia). Every single other one at least pegs into something solidly, but the one time I tried using a VF-19 mount, the plane toppled backwards out of that clip the instant I let go of it.
  18. Chronocidal
    Yeah, you see that term used a lot if you start discussing star trek ship designs. "Warp nacelles" is just the "proper" term for what most people will just call warp engines. A lot of times on aircraft, you won't see it used because the engines are integrated, and they just become part of the fuselage. F-14s, Su-27s, MiG-29s, etc all have distinct tubes where the engines are housed, while planes like the F-15 and F-22 have them buried in a big box. Anyway, looking forward to seeing how this comes out. I admit, I'm probably going to chicken out and do mostly white schemes on all the unassembled VF-1 kits I bought, just because I love to fiddle with things, and the idea of scratching paint makes me paranoid. Too bad they couldn't cast these in a plastic that would look like bare metal, so when the paint scratched off, it would look like weathering.
  19. Chronocidal
    Also, the main thing I noticed on there? You can see the blurred out panel lines of the back edge of the wing.
  20. Chronocidal
    Actually, unless I'm remembering completely wrong, I think Shin spent more time in the VF-0D than Hikaru ever spent in the VF-1D. He got the VF-0D in episode 2, and didn't get the VF-0A until the last battle, right?
  21. Chronocidal
    Actually, I wouldn't really call them "weak" so much as they were just misdesigned somehow. The joint never worked right. Hopefully that's been sorted out now.
  22. Chronocidal
    That's your decision, and if you feel it's so stupidly overpriced, I'm sure the people producing it could explain where the costs come from. Otherwise, if you're not interested, it'd be easier if you just ignored the entire subject. Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing how they change the overall mold from the original. It's one of those weird cases where the original was already plenty accurate, just needed a little polish on the molding, and materials. I wonder if they are actually able to use any of the old molds, or have to start from scratch?
  23. Chronocidal
    Please.. just say "NO" to the jet-ski packs. Those things are abominations. As far as the VF-25 packs go, sure, it would be funny to see them fit on this YF-19, but honestly... I don't understand why everyone is so enamored with that particular kitbash. They look ok in fighter, but they would pretty much fail in every other mode.
  24. Chronocidal
    At that size.. you could probably embed a fairly hefty nerf-style blaster in it.
  25. Chronocidal
    I haven't looked at my stand closely to check, but if it's anything like the SV-51/YF-21 stand, it should be possible to rotate the tip of the stand, and mount it sideways so you can roll the jet. I'm not sure about roll and pitch though. The old stand had a different mount than the standard Yamato stand adapters, and had a big peg that would accept the adapters at several angles, so you could mount the valk sideways, tilted, backwards, etc, to get the maximum variability out of the stand. You would have to angle the base in some weird ways to display the valk that way though. Edit: Yeah, just looked at my stand, the tip that accepts the stand adapters can be attached at a lot of angles, looks like either 12 or 16. All you have to do is mount the tip rotated, and you can get pretty much any angle of bank and pitch you want, as long as you don't mind the base being angled on your shelf.
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