Chronocidal

You know, I don't think the cannon fodders from DYRL and SDFM were really that different. Probably the biggest thing is the pilot, which is easily replaced, and not using the TV style hands. I could be wrong though, I'm not sure if they had the exact same paint scheme. I don't think the TV packs sold well, because when they were in stock, they seemed to be constantly on sale. I picked up a single set, but I think people just prefer the DYRL packs with the strike cannon.

That... ok, my head hurts. You know how people complain a lot that CGI never looks as real as an actual model? Well.. I'm torn. This is absolutely backwards, and I don't know whether saying "that model looks exactly like the CGI!" would be a complement or not.. Either way, that's amazing.

That feeling is kinda scary.. that point where you don't consider yourself "grown up"... but you suddenly have a job, and all this money to spend on all the stuff you couldn't buy as a kid. I've bought a ton of junk like nerf guns and Legos, but Macross stuff has certainly taken the largest chunk of my disposable income since college.

Actually, no, they don't exactly "pop apart"... but they will definitely loosen up severely if you try to achieve anything approaching the normal ankle range of any other Yammie. I know they looked over it for the VF-19S, and it was improved, probably because they just decided to go with not painting the metal pieces. But for whatever reason, the ball joint still isn't round enough to be called a "ball joint." It's probably due to the combination metal/plastic ball they use, which is a nice concept, but has one very serious result: you've got a heavy stress joint with inconsistent material properties. The plastic and metal will not behave the same way when put under stress, and you're going to get a very uneven distribution of friction, which is what I'm pretty sure causes the ankle problems. Anyway, this isn't about the VF-19/VF-17. Given Bandai's past history with their stupid metal joints, I'd actually be thrilled to find out they used the same design as Yamato did on the VF-19 and VF-17, because it would mean that at least when the joint goes limp, there are screws to tighten it again. Honestly, I'm beginning to think the reason Bandai always includes a stand is because they're fully aware of how little wear and tear their joints will take. Yamato's got enough faith in their ankle joints to figure you'll be fine without a stand, but I don't think Bandai has ever intended for these to be displayed standing on the ground.

Gah, I was never that into MMPR toys/figures to begin with, but I did want the original gun/sword/thing.. when I was nine years old.. I can't believe I'm seriously considering buying Power Rangers toys again. But that gun is probably the best looking weapon they've had in a long while, and awesome that it doubles as their henshin device. Dangit, I don't even buy figures. But this series is just too funny to not support the franchise.

Eh, I can't vouch for the 17's ankles, but the fire valk's were a disaster. Tons of side to side motion, but almost nothing front to back. Maybe 10-15 degrees each way at most? It's why so many people complained about gerwalk; the ankles aren't capable (without some tweaking) of pointing the toe enough to stand up in gerwalk. To get a good gerwalk pose, you have to stretch out the joints, which makes them completely loose anywhere near center. The real problem though is just in the design of the ball joints. There's no reason a ball joint should have such an uneven range of motion, and it shouldn't get tighter depending on where you move it. Center the feet on my fire valk, and they'll spin like a propeller around the ball, but push them to their limits and they tighten up. The VF-25's feet do have a good range of motion, but we all know the tendency of Bandai's ball joints to go limper than a wet noodle over time, so I don't expect them to hold out. The VF-171 will likely be the same. Bandai just has seems to have this stupid obsession with using metal for their joints, and while yes, it might have different strength than plastic, honestly? I've never had a problem with plastic joints, or plastic on metal, etc. It's always metal-on-metal joints that go limp, and Bandai seems to have this horrible fetish for them. Really, I'm sick of die cast. I don't mind it for making certain parts stronger, but 90% of the time, it's more trouble than it's worth, and all it winds up doing is inevitably losing paint. There is no good reason for why they need to make JUST the hip joints on the VF-25 metal. It does nothing but give you a piece that will lose paint, has a stark contrast in detail (since they can't seem to finely mold diecast like they can plastic), gives you limp joints over time (because they can't seem to figure out how to make their metal joints last), and even winds up having a negative effect on the super packs, since I'm sure if they just made the hips out of plastic, it'd be an incredibly simple task to engineer hip armor that would snap on securely, instead of having to clip around an object with inherently rounded edges due to the casting.

I hope I can have something similar someday, though that'd be after I actually get a house (with a hobby/music room). I'm lucky if I have room to display four or five valks in this apartment.

So.. is this the first time in history where a (sortof) Sentai mecha was released in the same scale as the action figures? I mean, generally, the robots are huge, so it'd be crazy impractical.. but in this case.. it works awesomely.

I almost hope they'll release some sort of screwy version like the blue Alto again, if only because it was a cheap way to get a super bundle. And the colors weren't bad honestly, they just weren't canon. Found a fix for the backplate, by the way. It wasn't warped, the piece on the underside of it that forms the mount for the thruster just wasn't pressed in completely, and it was colliding with the spine. Couldn't press it into place the rest of the way, so I just filed that big tab down so it won't hit anymore.

Wait.. I haven't bought or played it (past that terrible demo) but you mean they seriously gave you a rail shooter mission in an A-10?? And to think I considered picking it up if I found it cheap. Thanks for the warning.

Oh, if you mean how much it burns into the image, I see what you mean. The valk one looks more intense in general, though that might be due to lighting. Probably due to the fact that the surface of the plastic is no where near as smooth as the actual canopy of an aircraft.

Just picked mine up, shipped safe and sound. This forum owes Nanoplasm a drink or ten. HUGE improvement over the first version, but not problem free unfortunately. Only a few small things, but given what's come before, there's about five Picards worth of facepalm going on with regards to a couple things. Mainly.. the hips. I don't understand it. I can't even contemplate a logical excuse for this, but Bandai just keeps on trying to get milk from that bull. You'd think after THREE tries at desiging hip armor that can stay on, they'd try something different.. but nope. In fact, they regressed. That blue movie Alto they released actually had fixes in place to get the hips to stay on, and they worked. Those fixes are nowhere to be seen here, and the method they attach is pretty much identical to the first release, and just as ineffective. They pop off if you breathe on them funny. Also, the aforementioned crotch plate. No explanation, it looks like they actually forgot it existed, and threw it in at the last moment without realizing it doesn't match anything. The outer portion should be cast in the same dark colored plastic as the rest of the packs. They wouldn't even need paint for this. To make it accurate they would have to paint the actual pattern around the edge, however colored plastic would still be much better than what it is. Aside from that mountain of stupid though, only a few minor things. I've either got a warped backplate piece, or a warped backplate on my Alto. The forward panel with the probe and thruster doesn't attach really. It'll stay on, but only two of the four pegs will stay in at any one time. Also, be careful with your moving panels. They're not attached all that well, and they may pop off rather than move. My missile doors did this the first time I tried to pop them open. The little flippy panels on the hip plates also can pop off easily. Now, a couple things people might want to try fixing themselves. First, the crotchplate on the V1. VF-25 is actually correct. I actually wonder how hard it would be to just adapt it to snap on over the standard plate for battroid mode, and just not worry about it in fighter. Second, I think they forgot to paint a few of the circle/bar thrusters on Alto's set, specifically the shoulder packs (outer and inner side on each). Ozma's packs have them painted correctly. Third, if you have trouble with the little hip flaps refusing to fold up and stay streamlined, check the little pegs on the hinge. I popped mine off accidentally, and noticed that the prongs on the flap had a decent amount of excess plastic, like you'd find after cutting from a sprue. Trimming that let the flaps lay down nicely. Now.. two things I noticed that made me go "hmmm" (this is turning into a list of lists, I aologize ) One, the boxes are identical in length and width to the actual VF-25 package, so bundles are probably inevitable at some point. Two, the packs are built to be compatible with Luca's sensor suite, so we can probably assume that'll happen too later. Anywho, they definitely look nice. I just hope these can hold me over until the armor packs start shipping later this summer.

Simple answer, Bandai forgot. Long answer, check back a few pages, it's been discussed a lot.

Any specifics on how remappable that thing is, and whether it can be reprogrammed outside of the games you use it in? That seems to be a serious pitfall of console HOTAS systems, since it seems no two development teams can ever agree on what buttons you should be able to use for what. Interesting though, that particular throttle looks like a slightly reworked Saitek X45 throttle. Also nice to see someone finally realizing that a full analog hat switch is a must, since consoles tend to stick with auto-centering view controls (that particular issue made me want to strangle the devs for hawx.. they didn't realize that PC hat switches don't work that way, and it wound up making the view control absolutely useless). Honestly... given the option, I wouldn't mind using something like this on my PC instead. It's at a much better price point than all the other recent PC sticks. Actually, now that I think of it, I'm really impressed.. Including the buttons to do L1/R1 and L2/R2 simultaneously is something that EVERY flight controller should have. It's one of the problems that a multitude of developer miss entirely when going between mappable functions and axes. You can't simultaneously push the throttle both directions. I've seen some really stupid mitakes by some development teams in games, where they give you the option to use a joystick/throttle as a control option, but don't have the sense to realize that a key game function requires you to activate the "throttle up" and "throttle down" functions at the same time.

Well darnit, after I already ordered through CDJapan. Actually though, what's the general method of cancelling an order through AmiAmi? Just email them directly to cancel? Their order editing page doesn't have a "cancel" option. On the other hand, if I don't cancel it, I'll have a spare standard version DYRL release to sell in case someone misses out.

I wasn't under the impression that the engines were ever meant to look different, and it was just animation inconsistency. But I havent read the Master File's take on it either.

Well, at least now we know why we haven't heard anything more about Yamato's VF-19P.

I just about died laughing watching the first clip where they tried to use the robot's attack... I'm finding this now. It's just epic funny in a can.

Here's hoping the mailman surprises me today, and doesn't pull the "I'm gonna just leave the slip and let him come get it himself" junk.

Well, the current hiatus is mostly due to them waiting for the inevitable bluray of Macross 7. They could sell a few now, or release the rest of the M7 valks simultaneously and reap a massive wave of nostalgia. I don't blame them for waiting, but sadly, it puts off any more releases. Given how little there is to change for the VF-19F, I'm pretty sure it's just been sitting ready for release for months now. We likely won't see any potential customs until the main canon schemes are out.

Actually, I think the canopy is the most realistic looking part of that last pic. It's the rest of the valk that's not shiny enough to match it. The trick is, real aircraft, when they're fresh from the factory, truly are as dull as a fresh Yamato.. but they don't stay that way. Wear and tear on the planes, and touch-ups in the paint over time actually turn the dull paint shiny, and you get uneven levels of gloss all over the aircraft. Normally, weathering techniques are used to add dirt and stuff, but rarely do I see people weather models purely in the specular range, which is where a lot of it happens. If I learned one thing from my time making mods for games, it's that there are multiple levels to what makes an aircraft model look real. Game models today use multiple texture maps to make things more and more realistic. You've got your base texture level, which is your traditional styled "picture of what the plane looks like." Then, you add your bump or normal maps for details that are too impractical to build into the model. On top of those, you've got your specular and reflectivity maps. Reflectivity is just how much of a reflection you can see, usually just a grayscale image that indicates levels between completely dull and a mirror finish. Specularity is basically your map of "What does the light reflecting off this surface look like." You know how some metals will look one color, but when the light hits them at a certain angle, they show up a different color? That's what causes this. I think games mostly only support grayscale specular maps, but high quality rendering software will let you have objects reflect colors that are very different than what they normally apear. Best example I know of is to go take a look at any ship in Star Trek past TOS. It's what made the Enterprise refit in TMP so impressive in that long cinematic intro. The individual panels are really not very different in color at all. But view them in different angles of light, and the panels jump out at you. If you really want to try something fun, try painting an aircraft in a standard dullcoat, and then add your usual light weathering to it. Then, to seal it, apply varying levels of gloss clearcoat to the plane. Start with flat, then start mixing some gloss in for the parts you want to look worn. Make the leading edges, access points, etc, shinier than the rest of the plane. Places where friction in flight would wear the paint shiny. Even completely dull aircraft very rarely have a dull nosecone, because it's constantly being polished by contact with the air. I haven't tried that myself yet, but I really want to someday, because I think it would look amazing.

Coming May of 2020: EXPENDABLES 3: BINGO NIGHT! I would still watch it, and it would still be awesome. And full contact bingo would become a new national sport. I actually didn't see the first one of these, but I might have to watch them both. This sounds like just too much crazy awesome in one sitting to pass up.

Honestly.. I was extremely disappointed with both of those schemes. I think they were a cheap, fast, and easy attempt to try and sell more off that mold, instead of actually designing a real custom scheme. All they did was swap colors in the paint machines, and the resulting mashup of randomly colored panels didn't make any sense, and just didn't look good at all in my opinion. They were probably attempting a quick and dirty approximation of the colors seen on those Supernova schemes that everyone loves, since the colors they used were similar, but randomly substituting bright orange for black in the painting process was just flat out stupid to do. A bunch of things that should have stayed black got painted bright orange. I know people do love them, and they don't necessarily look bad, but I think the best thing to do with those two is just strip them down and use them for customs (such as the actual Supernova schemes) since they're pretty close to white. After the new VF-19 though, I refuse to spend any more money on that YF-19 mold. It's so far behind even the other Mac+ valks, it looks really sad by comparison.

Shipping payment is on it's way. I do wish I lived in an area I could just walk into stores and buy stuff like this though.

Don't think those are new, I know I've seen them before here. Plus if you look at the full entry, he's got a second picture with the fully painted missiles, so I don't think it's going to be an issue.