Chronocidal

I do appreciate the fact that they listed the total available. I did see it go up and down a few times, but they didn't adjust the price. I think the question will be whether they re-open later with a price increase.

Yep, certain sites just open early for some reason, probably to streamline the order process from their allocated TWE order slots. Others just wait until it opens for real. Not sure if there is any benefit to either, but I guess ordering after they are opened might be more definite, since you're dealing with orders already placed? Hard to say.

Eh, if the recent reviews are decent, I'll give them a shot. AE is lagging behind tonight. Maybe I'll order a third as a backup when they open...

That's good to know then. I would still love to know exactly how all of that played out, but it's probably lost to history now. I am rather surprised I'm not seeing email spam from Luna Park about this one yet though, usually they're the first to send me ads.

Despite being so "rare" and unique, the VT-1 never seems to be a really huge seller in the end. I got both the original Yamato and HMR releases on clearance.

Got one at Big in Japan, debating whether I want to gamble on Yoyakunow, or wait until I see AE's listing. Edit - Yeah, if that's the case I might wait on that.

Hobby Genki's page is up https://hobby-genki.com/en/dx-chogokin/29076-dx-chogokin-vt-1-super-ostrich-the-super-dimension-fortress-macross.html Also, for those not aware, yes, this is happening in a few hours, because today is the 25th, and it's already the 26th in Japan.

Boy, yeah, in for two of these, but I need to find what places will offer them. The last few exclusives have been a one and done deal for me.

Got mine from AE today, did a quick unboxing and dropping the legs to check on them. Doesn't look like they've really changed anything about the locking mechanisms, but I think this one is going to be a pure fighter mode display forever. Not worth the risk, since I can see mold flow lines in the knees marking exactly where they will break if I ever stress them. Lower shoulder triangles have a factory-fresh stress mark where the pin was inserted as well. Will just keep this one in fighter for display, and leave the original release for transforming and posing. The shoulder triangles do look like they are an entirely different plastic this time though, both upper and lower. Obviously they're not glossy like the original release, but they're actually a very dark gray, more like a "rubber" color paint would make them. Might be for aesthetics, but I wonder if it's a more durable/flexible plastic than pure black would be. Wing mounts are definitely an improvement though, more like how they should have been all along.

Michael's.. I kind of get. Same super parts as Alto, easier to streamline the production. I wouldn't even be surprised if they do a Luca first as well. Ozma's is going to take a unique production to make all those parts though, so it'll probably be later. Maybe we'll even get an Alto armor set while they're at it. (And I still want that red Klan VF-25S )

I don't really care about Luca's enough to want another, but I hope they at least address the screaming elephant in the franchise and finally release an armored Ozma pack, just to satisfy the demand that has gone completely unanswered for over a decade.

Considering the massive depth of the shoulders on the DX, no, I don't think there's any way you're ever getting that kind of angle out of it without the backpack sticking out an obnoxious amount, possibly to the point that the stand won't even support it. Bandai's doing an admirable job of distracting from the thick torso in most of their shots, but this thing's body is really deep. I don't believe for a second it's standing unassisted in any of their pics.

No, because if they admit it wasn't on purpose, they're going to have the entire community who purchased the original release demanding spare tailfins to fix it like they did this one. That's why it's called "optional." Calling it a "fix" would be admitting they were wrong.

These two comparisons are eye-opening, especially as compared with the DX. Frankly? I think they even came up with a slightly better shape than the Yamato, at least from the top down. The bigger wings and tails look better overall, and while some of the changes might be related to the parts-swapping, the wings and tails really don't have any effect on the other modes.

Yeah, really is sad, those little 1/100 kits were great, I bought a ton of them. Nice little builds, and really affordable.

Plus the whole lineup of YF-29s, it's nice to see Ozma's get some love again.

I think this is just the typical Bandai quality lottery at this point. Mine didn't have these issues that I saw.. I got two of the Alto, and one was loose, one wasn't. Also got two of the Max YF-29s, and one was a quality control disaster (mis-aligned holes and parts, incredibly sloppy transformation and articulation), while the second was pretty much perfect. The only thing consistent is how inconsistent they are.

I really do wish Bandai's different divisions would acknowledge each other's existence, and maybe communicate. This thing fixes pretty much every complaint I have about the DX YF-21, and I'm not even talking about transformation.. this one gets the details correct, where the DX decided "screw the lineart, I know better."

And it's already on backorder before my order's filled. Boy HLJ is just useless for these.

What does the full sprue look like? I know they released SMS stands for the original 1/72 VF-25 kits (just a variant base for one of their standard mecha stand designs), and bundled them with the armored kits, but I wouldn't expect this to use the same size stand as those.

Given how much prying it can take to raise those shoulder pads, I kind of wouldn't expect paint in those locations to survive anyhow.

Are the shoulder joints actually brighter, or did the rest of the valk get darker? I might make a frankenvalk, and slap together the best-looking parts of both the new and old releases, depending on how difficult it is to do.

Yep, that's the one I was thinking of. It's been a long time since I saw that episode, and I though I remembered some bit from that episode about unloading the smaller missiles to make room for it, but that might just be my imagination.

I don't think there was anything "micro" about those missiles. As I recall, they stripped out everything else, and loaded him with reaction torpedoes.