Chronocidal

Actually, not even close. They're great for smaller scales, but if you start getting anything bigger than a 1/60 valk, and they won't support anything. Especially the ball joints, since those have about the same staying power as a Bandai DX ball joint. Legos are just heavy. The problem is, Lego doesn't make any joints with any sort of tension in the form that I need them... specifically, they don't make any strong turn-table style joints.. the kind of thing you could mount hips or shoulders to.

Too bad this didn't happen when the dollar was higher, or we'd be getting them for about $45.

Grr... they just had to release a DYRL CF now, didn't they? Considering I never leave my valks in anything but fighter, the option parts don't really interest me that much, but getting a CF in in off-white with a DYRL head is tempting. Call me when they re-release the VE-1 though. I'm up to 17 VF-1s, and I'm trying to draw the line at an even 20, so I've got 3 spots left, and one is going to an Elintseeker. The other two... who knows? But a DYRL CF would be nice, and I might try for a Virgin Road.. you know.. as long as I'm going bonkers and being a completionist about it.

I hope they just come to their senses before releasing a new one. Or at least release HD updates of the old games. I really would love to play Ace Combat 3 one of these days, especially if they bother to port the story this time.

You know.. I don't get it. Is Bandai getting paid under the table to create a shortage of these things? It makes no freaking sense. Maybe they're just upset that the re-released chunkies got overshadowed by Yamato, and are determined to make themselves into some kind of legend like the original Takatokus? I don't see how that would EVER benefit them though, because they're not making anything off the crazy prices the hoarders quote when they sell these to collectors.

Why not 1/60? Then it'd be in scale. Actually, a 1/60 bridge bust with a clear stand mount to have the VF-4 flying alongside would be rather awesome. Just so it includes a Captain Hayase figure saluting out the window.

Good point, it's not just the diecast that messes it up. I'm just tired of losing paint. I do think though that if they molded the intakes out of plastic, it'd be much easier for them to mold tabs/slots into the intakes to make them stay on. The one word that comes to mind with those intakes is "imprecise." The casting just is not anywhere as crisp as the plastic, and I think that's part of what hurts the way the armor attaches.

I think it's just very random which ones do and don't like to stay attached. There are small tabs on the corners of the pieces that should clip around the intakes, and sort of hold them on.. but as I ranted about in another thread, Bandai's stupid obsession with making random pieces diecast metal really hurts the way these can attach. The tabs are very small, and are meant to clip around the edges of the intake. That all would be fine, except the edges of the intake aren't exactly sharp, and the clips will slip off without much pressure. It's just the nature of how diecast parts are made, they're not going to have very sharp edges. People have resorted to a few types of materials to hold them on, but I wonder... Given how Shapeways seems to keep solving problems with Valks, I'm tempted to see if I could make a custom set of intake cover replacements that would just glue into the backs of the hip armor, and give the armor a decent mounting point. You'd just have to remove the intake covers, and snap the hip armor in where they go. Between that connection and the existing clips, that might be enough to keep them on better.

Absolutely, I just can't seem to get there at the moment.. could be my work computer not letting me for some stupid reason. Our network loves to block random things. I can look later when I get home, just wondering which is actually correct.

Cross-linked pic from the 1/72 Wave Phalanx thread, since I'm not sure this pic appeared in this quality here before... and I've got a question for anyone who might know. This one clearly shows a more refined version of the arm section, along with a detailed tail and conformal missile mount, but I'm wondering.. what exactly are those missiles supposed to look like? Most pictures I've seen seem to show the missile with a standard back-end exhaust, and the four panels on the tail end look like pop out fins. But in this case, it looks like the missile is entirely streamlined, and the four darker panels look like they might be separate directional nozzles. Anyone have detail drawings of those missiles that indicate one or the other as correct? Or maybe they're just two types of missiles it can mount? I honestly never really thought about it before now, but if the VF-4 was meant more for space than atmosphere, the multi-exhaust design does makes more sense.

Nice to see the UK realizing what a bad idea the C model JSF would be... I mean.. do they even own any carriers that could launch it?

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.