Chronocidal
-
Posts
10821 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Events
Gallery
Everything posted by Chronocidal
-
I dunno about anyone else, but I'm seriously considering scouting out places to drill strategically placed holes in my various valks, and rig up some decent stands using metal armatures. I would just drill out the centers of the engines/feet, but those aren't the sturdiest things to mount them on due to their flexibility. I just really abhor having to use some additional bracket to mount a plane on a display stand. I am hoping that these will use the YF-21/SV-51 stands though. They might have to, due to the leg length, and that is what the display model was using. Plus.. I mean, those are they only Yamato stands I have.
-
Bandai only includes a stand because they know their joints won't support a valk that's actually on display. Value maybe, but they still have a long way to go to reach the quality of engineering in the VF-19.' Also, as far as shipping costs went, I did save on shipping for two, even with EMS. Total came to about $783 for both shipped. What's actually hitting me though is that I generally don't include shipping in my thinking.. now that I think about it, this is about the same price as the Super VF-17D set, and I already preordered that.. this is pretty much the same thing.
-
You know what.. August is one of those rare months where I get three paychecks. I'm springing for two. And yes, I'm a valkaholic.
-
Also, what helps me.. I look at it in terms of how much I could be paying for cable or satellite tv. Since I started relying on the internet for my entertainment (intertainment if you will), I find it a lot easier to justify over-the-top purchases for other things in general. Of course, you might also have to weigh these sorts of things against having very little social life to speak of, and whether the money might be better spent on something that might conceivably somehow contribute to the pursuit of the opposite gender. And no, I don't mean flying to Japan to search for that rare female Macross fan who would share your enthusiasm for all things valkyrie related.
-
You might be thinking of the VF-19F, that's being released at the end of this month. Far as I remember, the VF-25G is set for September, the VF-17D for October, VF-19P for November, and the VF-4 in December... and that's following up the VF-25S, the VF-25 super pack releases, the YF-29 re-release, the Yamato option-part re-releases, the VF-171EX, the Cavaliers VF-1, the VF-25 armor packs.... Seriously... for years, everyone was sad because no one was making valks.. now we're getting one a month. It feels like it's been almost a solid valk per month for most of this year. Continue into last year, and you had the fall occupied by the VF-19S, VF-25F, VF-17S.. The fan in me is happy, but my wallet is holding a gun to my credit cards.
-
Hmm, so $400 a piece it is.. maybe slightly less with shipping combined for more than one, but probably not. I'm still tempted to buy two.. actually, I'll be honest here. I'm tempted to buy three, wait a few years, and sell one for enough to pay for the other two. Not like I would be able to convince myself to do it once I have them, but I think this will likely wind up being in the same realm as the VE-1/M&M VF-1Js in a while, unless Yamato opens up mass production. Going to have to think a bit about this one, $400 is crossing the line from "hobby purchase" to "monthly rent/car payment." And I still want two, on top of it. The painful part is, regardless of what reason I come up to justify spending $800.. I still will be spending $800. The last thing I spent that money on at once was a computer.
-
I don't think there's any particular rush here, since they're taking orders as if they intend to fill them, not that they've already got a production run number set. I think the date was on the previous page, October 15th? If so, I can probably afford to save up and get two before the window closes. Since it seems people can order directly from Yamato without any trouble, are they shipping to the US, or would a group buy from Yamato make sense in this case? I don't want to volunteer anyone, but it'd be awesome if we could set up a bulk purchase from Yamato directly.
-
Shapeways to the rescue? I know it's not the best solution, but lately, I've been amazed at the things people can crank out of services like that. That's a pretty simple part, wouldn't surprise me at all if someone can come up with a good replacement.
-
Yeah, I don't know if I'd want to change the gloss coat, it looks so pretty that way.
-
Macross Zero Valks - any chance for 30th re-releases?
Chronocidal replied to lechuck's topic in Toys
The pitot tube I never keep on the things anyway, since I always pose my valks standing on the feet, and those pitots would be leaning against the wall, bending out of shape. There probably are a lot of things that could be improved I guess, I just don't know if Yamato would be able to turn a profit on a new mold. The design itself is fine, but tweaking the small things could make it better. At the very least, I wish they'd tampo the nose markings. I don't like stickers, so I never use them, and my VF-0s forever have a blank spot on the nose because of that. I'm actually tempted to mask them off, and paint those markings on by hand, because it would just look better. -
Well you know... there's a good reason the VF-17 isn't as impressive as the VF-19... it's nowhere near as complex to make. Sure, it's complicated, but the VF-17 isn't one of those valks where you go, "this will never work, there's way too much anime magic involved here." Obviously, yes, there is a lot of shapeshifting involved, but the VF-19 is well known for being nigh impossible without major parts swapping. I don't think anyone's ever considered the VF-17 that difficult to make a transforming toy of. Heck, the original 1/65 Bandai figures weren't even that bad, and people still love them. They were bricks, and not really posable, but Yamato made theirs extremely posable, and decently sleek without too much trouble. It's just that compared to the VF-19, the VF-17 doesn't look nearly as hard to do. The only previous attempt at the VF-17 was Bandai's, and they surpassed that without really having to try, while improving on the previous YF-19 seems a much more impressive feat.
-
If Yamato makes a VF-0D at this point, I'll be incredibly amazed. I'm just hoping that they release a reissue of the Macross Zero stuff they have already, since it'll make it much easier to get spares to use with this kit, and with the armor set when that gets made. Best case, I'd love to see an unpainted kit version because it would make this conversion a breeze, but I'm not really expecting that.
-
For what it's worth, the VF-17 was never my favorite design to begin with, but I do like having at least equal representation for main characters along side those doofy Emerald Force planes. I think the biggest thing that bugged me about this one was that the nose shape looks weird. Not even that it was thicker than it should've been, but the way the nose was scooped out underneath. There was really no reason to do that, and the nose looks strange drooping that way. That, and the front gear seemed half-baked with the way the front door works. But overall, it's a nice representation.
-
Yeah, I would still love to get two myself, even at this price. I can probably afford it, unfortunately I'm actually coming to the realization that while I actually currently do have room for all these valks, they're going to be a royal pain to move out. We'll have to see what it comes to once shipping and proxy buying comes into effect, since that will definitely impact the price.
-
Yeah, I've been considering cancelling my Yamato preorders for the VF-19F, VF-17D and VF-19P because of this. If HLJ opens up orders again before they come out, I might do just that, but for now I think I can deal. Short of anything completely catastropic, I've had a lot of experience repairing my yammies when needed, so I tend to think I might be able fix them myself.
-
Apparently AmiAmi doesn't do replacements at all unfortunately. A few people have given up buying from them just because of this. HLJ has a much more dependable policy, and will replace things if they're damaged. On the other hand though, if the damage isn't bad enough to prevent you from transforming or displaying it, I wouldn't worry about it. It's not fun having to live with damage, no, but a lot of people do because it's easier than getting a replacement. A lot of us will try and repair things ourselves if it's possible, and it often is to an extent. I'm guessing the piece is the big shoulder hinge though? That is tough.. it's a heavy duty joint, so it might be tricky to fix. It might be one of those things that's just best covered up by using fighter/gerwalk mode, or you could attempt to glue it.
-
Ick.. wish this was a couple years ago. Won't be the first time I shell out that much, but it might be the last. That's pretty close to the super-packed VF-17D bundle. Hopefully this will get a wider release, and the prices will drop a little later, but I will at least get one.
-
Well then. Anyone up for making replacement hips in something that's NOT DIECAST? Freaking bandai.
-
Macross Zero Valks - any chance for 30th re-releases?
Chronocidal replied to lechuck's topic in Toys
This feels kind of funny to say, but I actually would prefer reissues to a new mold, just because of the cost involved. If Yamato needs to retool everything, it's going to drive the cost up fast. The cost of a reissue is going to be high enough as it is compared with the original cost, but a new mold will likely put them up into the $300 range. And I really don't know how popular the VF-0 even is. I guess the real question here.. assuming all the material problems for the VF-0s were fixed, what else needs improvement? I know you could generally tune up a few features in terms of how well they work (the feet especially), but they're already pretty much spot-on in terms of how they look. Would Yamato sell enough of a new mold to make it pay off? For a VF-0D though.. looking through Kurisama's project thread, would Yamato be able to make their own "conversion" kit? They'd need a new nose section, new head, new head flaps, new wings, and new legs.. maybe a new backpack design with no tail mounts. The question is whether they'd be able to manufacture new parts to match the old VF-0 molds. If they did that, they could just release the replacement parts, or combine them with another production run of the VF-0, and put them together themselves. Painting would be an issue though, since the VF-0D had a unique paintscheme. But, what would be even better.. what if they decided to release an unassembled VF-0 kit? It's essentially the same transformation as the VF-1, it's easy to take apart, and there's really nothing difficult about the way it goes together. It'd make converting one to a VF-0D TONS easier as well. Graham, if you get the chance to pass on the idea to Yamato.. I think a lot of us would love kit versions of everything. Some things might not be feasible due to complex assembly methods, and I don't know how well the VF-1 kits have sold compared to the completed versions, but letting people buy unassembled valks seems like it's to everyone's benefit. Yamato can just print out blanks, and box the parts up, saving money on painting and assembly labor, driving the price of the kits down, and fans are able to buy more of them to do what they want with them. Honestly.. I love building mechanisms. I've taken apart most of my valks to see how they work, and even if I never paint the VF-1 kits I have, I'll be building them and taking them apart to fiddle with them for years to come. I'd love to be able to do that wth more than just the VF-1. One thing about kit versions though.. if they do happen, and if it's possible, I know a ton of people would love to get them molded in more colors than just pure white. Even if it's only two or three colors, a VF-0A-ish gray and a VF-1D tan would probably be cause for much rejoicing. Holy cow that got longer than I realized. Apologies for the wall of text. -
Macross Zero Valks - any chance for 30th re-releases?
Chronocidal replied to lechuck's topic in Toys
I wouldn't count on a redesign, the originals are already pretty darn accurate, they just suffered from serious material issues. I really don't think you'd get much better shape-wise, at least not better enough to warrant purchasing completely new ones. I also wouldn't worry about the custom VF-0C/D kit being a waste, because it's very unlikely that they're going to release it now. It's not impossible, but it's kind of the issue that Bandai faced with its original VF-25 DXs. Once the VF-27 came out, and the quality was so much higher, they decided the originals were worth redoing. I just can't see Macross Zero being that popular that they'd invest in making a set of new toys for it right now. If they did decide to make a VF-0D, it'd blow away the quality of the old ones, and make them look pretty bad by comparison (the YF-19 is already suffering from that due to the the new VF-19 line, not to mention the other Macross Plus valks). They can easily re-release the old ones with little effort, and capitalize on them again, but making new molds for a VF-0D at this point seems like there just wouldn't be enough demand to justify it. What this does however provide, is a good solid source for getting spare VF-0s to use with those custom kits. -
Macross Zero Valks - any chance for 30th re-releases?
Chronocidal replied to lechuck's topic in Toys
Well... I suppose that would be an awesome opportunity to round out my Zero collection and finally get an Ivanov and a NotFake Shin. I skipped those first time around, because I didn't feel like getting the first release of Ivanov, and didn't want a Zero until they fixed the re-release. I've got enough ghosts already, but having another one of the SV-51 stands could be handy. -
Ick, you know, I just realized I had it backwards.. and yeah, this plane may be entirely physically impossible. If the vents underneath are for lift in gerwalk, then I have absolutely no clue how those engines are ducted. Frankly, it looks entirely impossible, because you'd either need a microscopically small engine, or you have to be generating thrust directly out the bottom of the engine itself... as well as out the actual exhaust. I had figured the vents underneath were how the engines got air in battroid.. but then again, they don't really need air, since none of the other valks seem to need it. I also easily forget that the YF-21 doesn't have main engines in its feet (though I bet it doess have thrusters of some sort). I'm tempted to try drawing a diagram to show this, but I might lose my mind.
-
I think that head is actually the 1/48 resin version that someone has been making. I can't begin to guess what the 1/35 ones are though..
-
You know.. I honestly saw that "BD" as a face. I need to cut back on my internet consumption. So much stuff.. one of these days I hope to have a room to fill with my junk.
-
Good point. It's weird in the opposite direction though.. I mean, most sci-fi involves technology that gets around physics. This might be the same thing, but it's really hard to imagine something having all those effects at once without causing much more destructive damage than is seen.