Chronocidal

I think it should be obvious by this point that the people setting up Bandai's displays usually have no idea what they're doing.

Think that's just the parts being sloppily installed, the promo images have them in the right place. Course.. they've been known to photoshop things before. Still, even if the release version has that, it wouldn't be too difficult to fix, relatively speaking.

What, and admit they screwed it up?

Don't mind me, just geeking out over the classic space sets I see nestled between the transformers. I was always sad I never actually got any sets with the classic inverted Triforce logo.

Just being honest here, I don't want Bandai's fingers anywhere near any new VF-17-based release. I don't want any more valks exploding from their idiotic design logic, and I would not be even slightly surprised if any new VF-17 from them would have all of the same problems as the 171.

Once they've made this mold, there's really no reason not to make both. The major differences are all in the cockpit and chest transformation, so once that's figured out, everything else is just an add-on part.

I can't say it was just the CFs though, I know my Luca version had the same metallic sheen to it, and I didn't trust it. It's more than just the plastic though, I think the 171's leg design might possibly be the most incompetently designed product I've ever owned. The design as a whole has some serious issues, and at the very least it's the worst designed transforming toy I own. The entire hip/knee joint should be ripped out and rebuilt from scratch, and the stupid little collapsing triangles on the underside should have been replaced with the version Yamato used on their VF-17. "Bandai: Why use one part, when you can use five to do a worse job instead?"

Not really that odd, considering how rare and unpopular "enemy" units are with the anime fanbase in general. I'm just assuming Hasegawa decided not to make it based on sales figures for the 1/72 version.

Yeah, that right there is the CF-171 experience in condensed form. You don't buy one toy. You buy a bunch and hope you get one good one put together out of the pile of broken parts that come out of the boxes.

Oh, I know. I'm more commenting on the name as I always associated it with being used for the OT/PT-related releases, since a lot of the items released were retools of actual older toys. I guess they never really intended that.

Think that's jus a pure red, always see it specified as "insignia red" when instructions tell you what color to paint those. I'm not sure the T-45 trainer scheme even counts as orange anymore. Though, speaking of the YF-16, I wish they had stuck to the red for the YF-25. Would have looked amazing.

Considering how Bandai just completely abandoned the Sv-262, I don't think you have to worry. They really just don't want to invest in adversaries.

Not quite the same, since it's not pure white, but I wouldn't mind a version painted in these colors.

Sorry to take a bit, finishing work things up. It's kind of okay-ish, but I'd definitely rather have an HMR YF-19. Maybe weird to say, but I think this kit needed more parts-swapping between modes, just to look better overall. Battroid and gerwalk are pretty much fine, but fighter mode took all of major compromises.

Boy they made it stubby... did it look like that in the show? Or am I just fixated on how the old EU version looked? Also.. ok, wtf does "vintage" even mean then? This wasn't in the OT, not even in the sequels, and it's based on an EU design.

Yeah, the YF-19 is definitely smaller than HMR scale, it doesn't really match up very well. The pilot shenanigans is just Bandai's nonsense scaling issues with the HMR TV pilots. I basically slapped together the YF-19 without the instructions (I love treating these kits as a puzzle, since they snap together so easily), and honestly I was not very impressed with the shortcuts they took. Lots of parts that should be mirrored were duplicated instead, which made the assembly a little more complicated, but it wasn't too bad. I just wasn't impressed by the end result very much, at least not in fighter mode. Battroid is fine, but the fighter proportions and shape took a beating in the process of making a good battroid. It's a decent little fighter, and would probably look pretty good with some paint and detailing, but it needs new feet, and a fix for the ugly uncovered crotch block. Will see if I can get a side-by-side pic a little later,.

Heck.. I'm still upset Hasegawa never came out with a matching 1/48 kit for it when they did the YF-19.

Yeah, the cost of scaling down when you have a fixed resolution to work with, and LEGO has an abysmal lack of variety when it comes to cylindrical elements.

I was actually really waiting for a PF Ostrich, would have loved to pick one up. At this point though, I think they're better waiting to do that until a little after Bandai's VT-1 releases. That way, they can profit from the market that missed Bandai's release, and offer something (hopefully) a little easier on the wallet.

Ok, yeah, if that happens, I will absolutely grab one. That and another PF YF-19 please.

Not really surprising, I think Isamu's YF-29 is probably the only TWE item I ever saw go on clearance. Pity about Ozma's though. That one needed another run.

Probably silly, but I wonder if anyone would make a helmeted version of the Minmay figure so we can have generic passengers.

The YF-19 was a really quick build, maybe a couple hours, most of which was just cutting and trimming the parts. Really wish they would consider doing full 1/72 kits like they did Frontier and Delta designs, I'd build a ton of those.

I don't think it's anything about the individual singers, they all sounded great in the series. I think Delta suffered horribly from having way too many characters to manage, and the music not being good enough to stand out above the solo work in Frontier. That's just what you get with a group, and the more corporatized approach to music, when compared with Yoko Kanno writing solos and duets for the only singing characters you need to carry through the series. But we're -way- off of the topic at this point. I will bring it back around and say that I think the music in SDFM and DYRL is carried more by nostalgia than anything else for people outside of Japan, since I don't think that sort of sound was really ever that popular in the US. I guess it pretty well falls into the "city pop" genre which definitely was popular in Japan back then, but I don't know about the US.. maybe if you go back to the 50s and early 60s? Like it feels really weird to make the comparison, but Minmay would have probably been a good fit on the original Mickey Mouse Club.

Gotta admit... I kind of feel bad for all the VAs for Delta. I'm glad they've got ongoing work of a sort (and I don't follow anime enough to really know much about whether they're doing other series as well), but it feels like a far cry from the megablitz of everything we got from Frontier (and are even still getting).