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Chronocidal

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  1. Chronocidal
    I wouldn't necessarily go so far as to say it all sucked. The first few episodes of the series up until the nuke dropped had a decent amount of promise, and the first movie felt like a much more coherent telling of the story in general. The second halves of both versions just fell apart as they progressed.
  2. Chronocidal
    Fair, and I would as well, it's an amazing design.. though I would definitely rather see it in solid colors than covered in rainbow neon pinstripe. The movie.. I dunno. It had its moments, but it just felt weird and cobbled together from leftover ideas that didn't get fleshed out enough to mean much.. and the ending just felt so wrong on so many bizarre levels, it was hard to process. Or maybe the 31AX soured me on it with how crappy Bandai managed to screw up one of their own best products? I don't know. I think the 303 fits in perfectly with all of the other products that Bandai designed, and then refused to market from that series.
  3. Chronocidal
    I mean, I don't know how popular the movie was? Probably did fine, but I don't remember the valks getting much focus from any part of the movie. Given the showy presentation with all of the singers, it doesn't surprise me that the 303 was just buried into obscurity even in its own movie. For me, that movie is just firmly in the "okay that was weird" category, which generally doesn't push it very high up my list of things to rewatch.
  4. Chronocidal
    Honestly, if they can't even print as many markings as the HMR gets, that's just the end of it for me. I'm not spending that much for stickers.
  5. Chronocidal
    So I'm curious, how much of the markings are actually tampo'd on the VF-0? The earlier Arcadia releases were entirely dependent on stickers to actually have any of the main markings (they didn't even print the text on the sides of the legs).
  6. Chronocidal
    I kind of don't blame Bandai for not including that particular feature. Holding the nosecone from another valk is a supremely niche one-off display option, and including it introduces several structural compromises. It was an easy step for the Yamato to make since the nose already needed to slide, but the Bandai nose section doesn't move. On top of that, I don't think it would even be possible to display a VF-1 in that configuration in fighter mode due to the design of Bandai's display stands, so you'd just be stuck keeping it in battroid. Though, on that note, I'm not even sure the Yamato stands would work either, but I think the bracket being so far forward might allow it. Far as the HG situation goes though, I'd agree. While I've always had a certain amount of sour grape feeling associated with Robotech*, the primary reason to avoid their products was just their obvious inferiority to Japanese Macross merchandise. To me, the ThreeZero VF-1 really feels like the first Robotech-branded VF-1 toy produced at the same level of quality as the native Macross releases. *Note - one caveat here, my first transforming VF-1 was a actually a Robotech Milia Joke Machine. Those toys fall into a unique category though, since they might be the only case where an official Japanese Macross VF-1 toy got a direct Robotech import version in the US. It would have been really interesting to see if anything would have played out differently if Jetfire had never happened.
  7. Chronocidal
    Cargo area aside, yeah, that's more like it. Both the new Renegade and the Invader set suffered from a lack of good wing structures on the nose, and that looks much better than the dinky wedges they used. Love the bigger engines too, and the much more subtle use of yellow. I'd really like to find a better canopy though. I know they love getting use out of the parts they have on hand, but I'm frankly just tired of seeing them re-use the UCS X-wing canopy on everything now. Only other option I know of for a recent yellow canopy is much smaller though, just the longer skinny one that came from the Invader, which I actually have spares of from the Buzz Lightyear ship set a while back, so I might make more detachable pods. I might also scrounge some bigger black wing panels and structure from some of my Batman sets.
  8. Chronocidal
    Hah.. darnit, all I want to hear from them is more info about the possibility of a White Glint in that line.
  9. Chronocidal
    I always felt part of the struggle with 7 was actually that the early episodes really fall into that "monster of the week" formula you get with so many Japanese shows (sentai-especially), where you have a pile of nearly identical episodes that all start out with a minor plot point, and then resolve exactly the same way when the big bad gets driven off by the main characters using their designated super power. I don't remember how many of those episodes there are, but I feel like it didn't really pick up until I got 10-20 episodes in, once they actually developed the setting a bit more. The series could probably be easily condensed down into a 26 episode run with a little editing.
  10. Chronocidal
    Oh, that was fast, apparently people really want that one. Will just have to wait for the release then, I've still got two more waiting in my warehouse there. Hopefully the stock isn't backordered to Bandai levels once it releases.
  11. Chronocidal
    Holy crap. That's insane and beautiful (though agreed about the dangling flap, which I hope can be folded up somehow). Yeah, I'm ordering two of those. Maybe I'll repaint one as Yellow 13. Kind of makes me a little sad that as good as it is, the Zeta Blitzwing still turns out looking like a cartoony F-4E, rather than the near-perfect Su-27 they've pulled off. I honestly wonder if anyone could do better at replicating a Phantom while keeping the bot proportions so accurate.
  12. Chronocidal
    It's irritating for those of us who appreciate the more obscure designs, but I think both Bandai and Arcadia are coming to the conclusion that the only things the vast majority of customers are interested in are the one or two iconic designs from each series (though the mentality of Bandai is forever inscrutable, because they just outright refuse to release some of the most iconic ones ). With Arcadia, it feels like all of the less well-known designs depend on sales of those cornerstones to fund them, but it also feels like the market has reached a complete saturation point where everyone who wants those few iconic valks already has them. Starting to feel like Arcadia needs to go back to the method they used for the original VF-4 sales, where I think they didn't even decide to produce it until they received enough pre-orders to fund it, almost like an in-house kickstarter.
  13. Chronocidal
    Given Bandai's history, it's evident that lots of people are working on lots of things, but that doesn't mean Bandai has any intention of actually releasing them as a product.
  14. Chronocidal
    I don't see anything by them about a Thundercracker figure, but it took me a minute to figure out that the ThreeZero MDLX figure isn't by them, since it came up on Sideshow as a "related" item, and has pretty similar styling.
  15. Chronocidal
    I might bite on that one, it's pretty slick. Have to admit, I'm mostly waiting to see if they make a Switchblade though.
  16. Chronocidal
    It did take a while for Bandai to come around to understanding how bad it is to make significant transforming chunks of a valk in metal and then expect the paint to not flake horribly. I think the VF-31 series was the first time they didn't make the hips entirely out of metal, and I know I have at least one very sad-looking Ozma renewal that is only good for display with the armor at this point, because the paint on the hips got horribly pitted somehow.
  17. Chronocidal
    This kind of thing is why I'm so happy that 3D printing exists at all, even if the results are incredibly labor intensive. I wish there were more viable business options for selling printable/printed kits for assembly, but the only real differences between printed kits and resin garage kits are trading handcrafted master molds for detailed CAD models, and trading limited use molding materials for printer hardware and maintenance costs. Still, I'm just happy that these sorts of production technologies exist, and thankful that CAD modeling is so much more accessible than carving masters for resin casts. I've got a long list of obscure designs on my print queue.
  18. Chronocidal
    As much as I wanted a PF VT-1 back then, I think the Bandai kind of blew that desire out of the water. I'd still prefer it to the DX in some ways, but the reality is that it would probably wind up more expensive at this point, for less included features. The only way I think it would make sense to release it at all was if they included a stand, the same extra figures, an actual molded plastic tent, and gave it a full weathering treatment. Heck, if they're going to be blowing the budget on it anyway, just give us a terrain base for the campsite, and then I'd probably bite, since it would be a more manageable display in 1/60 than with the DX.
  19. Chronocidal
    I think both Evolution and the HMR used flip out pegs in some cases, but the only surface that's even viable is the side of the arm, which is just another moving part, and doesn't make it stable in the least because everything just shifts on its joints. Using magnets would be great, but all of the limbs are literally floating in space with no physical contact surfaces to secure them to. The arms don't touch the underside of the backplate, the legs don't actually touch the arms, and everything is just a pile of floating limbs. I like the design well enough, but every time I pull the HMR out, I spend the overwhelming majority of the time handling it simply trying to get the parts to line up. Nothing attaches to anything.. it's not inaccurate, it's just the nature of the design.
  20. Chronocidal
    I keep hoping someone will attempt a better 1/60 version, because the design is at least interesting, and it's a very unique take on what the "standard" features of a Valkyrie are... but this one has never felt much like a coherent aircraft design so much as a bunch of aircraft components that kind of shift around to make a robot. The loose association of parts makes it a difficult design to pull off well, since whatever compact joint system is responsible for giving the joints their posability is also responsible for holding everything in place in fighter mode, since the legs really are held on by nothing but their hip sockets.
  21. Chronocidal
    Eh, I don't know if the neck would really bother me or not. Annoying, but not my biggest issue with these figures in any case (stupid elbows ). I might have to buckle down and get this pair as well. The tail issues are probably just because of how fiddly the hinges are. They're really easy to knock out of alignment, which leaves the tails cockeyed and unable to fold flat. I think this might be the best shade of red yet for Millia's 1J though. I hope Bandai takes note, and makes their DX in that same color... if they ever get around to caring enough to release it.
  22. Chronocidal
    Yeah, sadly everything they make remains one of those event exclusives that disappear as soon as they appear. Decent inspiration to try and build something yourself, but the licenses they purchase for these mean they're never seen again. I wish they'd just ditch the event exclusives and sell the designs online to print them yourselves. Would make them a lot easier for more people to enjoy.
  23. Chronocidal
    So I just realized.. he's got Optimus Prime's exhaust stacks sticking out of his arms.. but they're positioned like the arm guns on the VF-31. Would be funny if they actually rotated out that way. I still don't know what they intend to do with that giant chest block, but the more I look at it, the more I'm thinking they might at least be able to pull off a mostly decent-looking VF-19 imitation for the robot to hang underneath. The parts are looking like they're all there, they just need to get them into the right places.
  24. Chronocidal
    Kind of feels like the only one of these worth considering would be the battroid, just purely due to the unique things it does compared with previous non-transforming figures. Fighter and gerwalk are already done better by fully transforming models though, and only including one pilot with the bundle is a dirty kick to the jewels.
  25. Chronocidal
    I mean.. I can see hints that look sort of like a VF-19. I think I see a nose section dangling off his back that'll probably fold over the head and give a very rough Fire Valk shape.. I'll at least be interested to see what the other mode looks like, but that giant chest block basically tells me everything I need to know.
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