Chronocidal

*sigh* Time to add them up again, I've been splurging. Yamato- Total: 16 1/48: Super Hikaru 1J 1/60: V.2 Roy, Strike Hikaru 1A, Hikaru 1J, M&M 1Js, Max TV 1A, VF-1D trainer, and VT-1, YF-19, YF-21, VF-11, Miria VF-22S, VF-0A, SV-51 CF and Nora Bandai- Total: 4 1/100: Hi-Metal Fire Valk 1/60: DX Michael, Movie Alto, and Brera Plan for this month is a VF-11C, and Max VF-22S, but that might be put on hold for more Frontier model kits.

Unless you mean the wings are curled up (stupid molding flaw they have no excuse for by now), yep, the shoulders are too wide to fit in the space between the thighs. It's easy to fix technically.. you just have to unscrew the arms and take them off. Then the wings sit perfectly level.

Actually.. I figured I'd take a chance on the Fire Valk since it was on sale, and I'm pleasantly surprised. It's kind of disappointing size-wise, but the ingenuity Bandai put into making this work is nice. I think any problems seen with a bulging back, or gaps in the wing root are from mistransformation, because I don't see that at all. It's not perfect, but I very much prefer the shape of this one to the 1/60 YF-19. Even with the gullet it has, the nose is angled down to where the plane looks much better than the Yamato version. It's not perfect I know.. the legs are spaced a bit too far apart in fighter, and the shoulders pop up far too much (actually.. really, the red shoulder pivots are just too small, but in this size you need that space for the mechanism). Plus the hand wonkyness, and no gunpod or landing gear. What I really am hoping though is that Yamato will adapt some of the ideas put into this one, and make their own version a vast improvement over the YF-19. Between the two designs, I think all the ideas are there to produce an absolutely beautiful 1/60 Fire Valk, and I'll eagerly await to see what Yamato can come up with for that.

Well, the later the release the better probably... and given the sale on HLJ recently, the movie version Alto is probably the easiest to get right now. I haven't noticed any serious issues with mine.. though it's only a couple weeks old. It does come with the super packs and painted stand, so that's a nice addition, if you don't mind the blue-ish tint of the plane and armor. The sale price at HLJ put the movie version at around the same as a V.2 Yamato 1/60 with strike packs, so it's not a bad deal.. that's the main reason I got that one. Besides, it's nice not having to hunt down the stupid exclusive packs for Alto. And honestly, I don't think the movie version has sold as well as others, so it might be easier to find that than a stand-alone Alto or Ozma. Btw, just checked... sale is still on, it's in stock, and it's actually only 12,000 yen, so cheaper than a V.2 Strike VF-1. Plus several of the 1/72 kits are discounted, so you could grab them at the same time if you wanted (I bought four of the little suckers. )

Ok, this is starting to get irritating.. I don't know why this happens, but it's the second time now. So, I follow the tracking info on my package from the USPS website.. it says "Out for delivery or available for pickup" all day today. I figure "Great, I can leave work a few minutes early, and get to the post office before it closes to pick it up." WRONG. I don't understand it one bit. I get there.. they can't find it. All the trucks have reported back in, so the package has to be on the premises, but they can't find a package sent to my address. I tell them, "It's gotta be a huge box covered in Japanese characters, you can't miss it." No dice. I head home, and sure enough, the "Missed Delivery" slip is in my box, telling me I have a package to pick up. The kicker to all this, and the part I REALLY don't understand... it says the package will be available for pickup tomorrow. WHY? It's obviously in town, you obviously had it on the truck, and I was right there, probably within 100 feet of the package when I was at the front counter asking them to look for it. Why can't you give it to me?? Is there some arbitrary rule going on where they punish you for not being at home during business hours? I don't understand it. I plan on asking about this tomorrow... I wouldn't be so irked if they'd just tell me that I can't get it till tomorrow, so I wouldn't waste the time leaving early from work and making the trip across town just to have them tell me they don't have it, when they obviously do.

Crap. Now I'll have to hope the sale on the Max VF-22 and VF-11C holds out until my paycheck this weekend.

Funny, I know everyone seems to be getting stuff from AmiAmi really fast, but my VF-27 seems to be taking it's time. Order was confirmed on the 23rd, payment sent on the 24th, and shipped on the 25, which sounds reasonable. Unfortunately, it got held up in customs in San Fran for a solid day for some reason (all my other orders have cleared in a matter of hours). Could be due to the giant box to hold the VF-27 poster, but oh well. It got into customs the afternoon of the 26th, and didn't leave until afternoon on the 27th. My last order was in and out of customs in an hour or two on a friday, and made it to my door by saturday afternoon. So, I'll probably wind up with a note in my mailbox tomorrow, and get it either tomorrow afternoon, or tuesday after work. I guess I'm not worried about the timing so much as I am about the delay in customs this time.. I have this fear I'm going to find that everything in the box has been worked over by customs. Granted it's a big box (VF-27+poster, VF-22 Miria, and Hi-Metal Fire Valk) but I can't imagine it being much bigger than my last order from HLJ.. they sent me a crazy 3'x1.5'x1' monstrosity of a box (I could almost fit myself in it), but that didn't get held up at all. Either the customs folks just got lazy, and didn't process it due to the weekend being so close, or this is going to be the one box to rule them all.

Grrr.. either that giant box for the poster is causing a hassle, or the customs folks in San Fran are on holiday. It arrived yesterday afternoon, but I probably won't get it till next week some time now.

Don't talk to me about nightmares.. last night I dreamed I got my Miria 22 in the mail.. and it was a knockoff, bootlegged Chinese bastardization, using half Max and half Miria parts, painted up in Thunderbirds markings, with incorrect figures of Max and Miria jammed into the one cockpit, and landing gear stolen off of a masterpiece Starscream. Oh, and both kneecaps were missing, of course. Well...I guess maybe that doesn't qualify as a nightmare, because it was flipping hilarious when I woke up... or maybe I was laughing at the portion of my dream where I watched a pug wrestling with a midget alligator... They better make another run of these, I might buy a couple (being all white-ish, they're prime stock for customs). I put this one (and a Max 22) off til next month, since I already bought a boatload of Frontier stuff this month.

I'm curious, how is the leg/foot articulation on this? I know the thighs have their swivel finally, but do the feet pivot enough to let you get a really wide pose, and still stand up? And are the thigh swivels tight enough to do it? I'm really looking forward to this one, the fighter mode is beautiful. I'm just really glad Amiami has that half off shipping deal going.. before the discount, this box was going to cost upwards of $80 to ship. Payment is sent, now lets see if I get it before the end of the week. Maybe not likely, but if they're as fast as everyone is saying, it might happen.

*Sigh* Well, I broke my "one order a month" rule after seeing Amiami's deals. Got the Brera, Miria VF-22, and Hi-Metal VF-19 all for 25% off, with 50% off ems shipping (I hope). Could have gotten Max's 22 as well, but I'll save that for next month, and get it with a VF-11C. Hopefully the sale holds out till then, even if the shipping discount doesn't. It's really sad though, they have the Nora SV-51 for 50% off there too... out of stock though. Now I just wonder how they'll package it... I didn't specifically request the poster, but it might make things complicated if they include it. I already got a ginormous box from HLJ (4 vf-25 kits and alto DX), and combining the VF-27 with a VF-22 might make for interesting box proportions...

I know I'll probably have to get one eventually since I really prefer this sculpt to the model kit (the VF-27 kit's intakes look huge). Are the major colored markings (just stripes and such, not the tiny surface details) engraved like on the 25? Would make repainting everything easier if it does wind up flaking off. As it is, the paint chip Graham showed just looked very much like they tried painting something that needed primer first. Didn't even leave residue, it just chipped off, as if it was never there (technically a plus if you plan on redoing it, since it simplifies removal). That mold release agent must be killing the applications. Oddly though.. the worst one I've seen so far was from a marking over a painted surface, not bare plastic. The markings printed on the rear gear doors to my Michael may as well have been printed in rubber ink the way they peeled off from finger contact.

Honestly, for a company like Bandai, I can't believe this is even an issue. Scratching during transformation I can understand, but for something that was designed to be "playable" and "durable"... I don't get it. The markings all over these "toys" are clearly neither.

Heh.. best tip I know? Scrape off all the lousy markings they did, and repaint them yourself using something that won't peel off from friction with the air. I'm actually seriously considering doing just that if the paint damage gets bad enough on my VF-25s (they're not damaged much at all yet, but only time will tell if my fingers start rubbing paint off). I'm not going to use the stickers on the 1/72 models, so I have spare markings for lettering and such, and almost all the major stripes/markings are actually engraved in the plastic (except the wing stripes, and the markings behind the head on Alto), so it would be simple to mask them off and spray them on with enamels, or heck, even hand paint them. The VF-27 wouldn't be so easy to do that with due to all the little markings, but I'm sure the major ones could be painted.

If you check back a ways in this section of the forum, there was a post about scratchbuilding a VF-171. I posted a good collection of high resolution screencaptures of the VF-171, so they may work well as references. Some were nearly planform views.

That's really impressive for a first try, beautiful job. It is a shame about the missiles though.. Considering I've got a pair of super VF-25 sets to build (Alto and Ozma), I might have to come up with a fancy solution for that. How hard would it be to completely drill out the missiles, and replace them with spare sprue, or maybe metal tubing? I just made an absolute haul from HLJ this week from that sale.. Oy.. 4 kits (Michael, Super Ozma, Luca, and Brera) plus the movie edition Alto DX... the box was huge. Now I've got enough Frontier kits to probably last me several years.

I hope they go beyond just improving the joints.. there's so many other little things they got right on the 27 that it puts the 25 to shame. That being said though.. just got my movie version super alto today, and I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised. No damage or greasy residue that I can find (yet, just transformed it once), and the only bit of missing marking is a very small segment of the 7 on the back of the right leg, which is covered by the wing in fighter. The little changes though have made a big difference, especially the remolded pins that join the wings and legs, and the way the hips mount to the fuselage. On my Michael, I can't put the thing in fighter mode without the hips being slightly out of joint, and the wings constantly flap up in the air (the entire wing section, not from the curved wings). The adjustments to the pins make the wings sit much more level, and the wings themselves are quite a bit less curvy on this one. As for the super packs.. yes, they're blue, but and I don't mind the color that much, and the benefits of the new version packs are worth it. Hip armors are nice and sturdy on this one, and they revamped the wing booster connection a bit, it's nice and sturdy with very little play (they reworked the inner lip to cover more of the inner edge of the wing probe). Only issue I have are that the front gear doors don't seem to be seated quite right, and love to pop open. Oh, and the crotch lock isn't bad, but oddly it's not quite as tight as my Michael, which is very sturdy. It stands okay on it's own for now, but it did pop out once while I was posing him.

As for the silver gear, it can really depend on manufacturer/era/country I think. Most modern planes do paint the gear white (I think a part of that is it makes fluid leaks easier to spot), but I remember a lot of older aircraft that just left their gear silver. I think for some time, the white was mainly a navy color, with the air force opting to leave landing gear bare, or sometimes even using green (don't remember any green gear struts, but the interiors of the gear wells certainly were).

Holy cow. Yeah, I'll have to get one now, that thing looks awesome. Honestly, I'm not so worried about articulation so much as I am that it just LOOKS BETTER. Know what kind of ticks me off though? The reason this looks so good is because they did almost everything to it that they should have done on the 25 in the first place. Let's see..Good landing gear? Double check- nice and long in front (articulated catapult bar even), detailed aircraft-looking gear in back. Integrated gunpod clip? Check. Legs that actually fit where they're supposed to, and lock in place with tabs on the sides of the legs? Double check. Collapsing shield design? Check, and they even included the stabbity thing. Removable intake covers? Check, AND THEY MADE THE INTAKES BLACK INSIDE. (Bandai got you there Yamato, sorry to say.) Thigh swivel? Oh yes indeed, check. Inner foot/engine details? Quadruple check, feet and boosters. Non-limp-looking nosecone? Check. Better jointed arms? There's at least 45 degrees of outward motion at the joint this time, not to mention double jointed elbows. Less fiddly head mount? Certainly looks that way, though only will be able to confirm in person. Gobs of surface details? Check (although I'd take quality markings that don't flake off over having even more of the same cruddy applications) It's like a quantum leap over the 25. I just hope the quality is there to back up how good it looks. And interestingly.. they added the thigh cut out for the shoulders. This is something the VF-25 kit did, but not the DX. The shoulders are supposed to fit into a recess on the inner surface of the lower thigh joints, and they forgot to do this on the DX. That's why the wings never sit level in fighter, but drop to the right position in gerwalk - the arms don't fit between the legs without that cutout. I tested this on my DX once by removing the arms at the dotted block. The result? Perfectly level wings. If I hadn't just ordered my box of fun for this month, I'd be putting in an order now. Oh well.. at least I'll have the model kit to tide me over for a while.

Yeah, I don't see any way those wings would be able to fold. They'd look huge and hang way low in battroid, and then look tiny in fighter.

Personally, I actually like the DX better with the packs on, since the wings actually sit somewhat level. Aside from that though, the fastpack attachment for the legs just seems.. well, poorly thought out. Even though the packs go on the back of the legs, you don't actually have to bend the legs any (like the VF-1's packs require)... they just kind of droop down so the packs fit, making the legs hang at a different angle. Either the hip joint is just sloppy enough so it doesn't matter, or it's taking some nasty bending stress.

Well, it was tampo'd on top of a piece that was painted, so that might explain it. Why they cast the rear doors on the VF-25G in blue plastic, just to spray them white, I'll never understand. Makes me glad I ordered a second G kit, so I'll have a lot of extra stickers.

I went ahead and ordered that one, because right now the discount on HLJ makes it roughly the same cost as a V.2 VF-1 with fast packs. I don't care for the pack color as much, but considering how bad their marking system is, I might as well repaint them in enamels. I literally had one of the SMS markings on one of the rear gear doors on my 25G peel off.. it was like they put the markings on using some sort of rubberized ink, and it rolled up and peeled off in big chunks. I'll probably eventually just strip off all the cruddy markings, and replace them with stickers from the 1/72 kit.. at least I can touch those.

K, I'm curious about VF-0 releases, and the re-release coming up. I know the first VF-0A was NOT Shin, and the second was. Are they re-releasing both, or just the Shin version? And, if only the Shin version, are there any differences in color between the arms of the two? Recently got a VF-0A CF, and the shoulders are holding out, but just barely, so I might try and order replacements from the re-released A. Edit: After a bit of looking.. ok, I know the shoulders are the big problem on the VF-0, but has anyone ever had their upper knee joint just... well, shatter? It looks like the secondary knee joint (the upper portion that pulls out of the thigh) is made of the same explodium as the shoulders. I pulled the knee down into gerwalk, and noticed a huge crack running across the piece. Taking it apart completely, it looks like the piece is about to completely shatter, from the stress marks criss-crossing the inside. Has anyone ever had this particular thing happen? It's a joint that's not used as often as the shoulders, so I could see it being missed. Better yet, does anyone know if Yamato changed the material for that piece when they fixed the shoulders?

I'm not sure, I've never bought any before. Considering they're 800 yen a piece, I might pick up a few when they get back in stock. A few pics of the models on HLJ use a simple black stand, but I've seen recolors of that same stand all over HLJ in different color schemes, for different Gundams. I can't say about the regular stands, but the SMS edition has mounting points for Luca's ghosts if you have them (the ghosts in his kit come with a mounting arm to attach to the base).