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Chronocidal

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  1. Chronocidal
    Those aren't the mushroom pegs, those are the removable pegs that you pulled out to swap the wings. It doesn't look any different than what's on the old version. The "mushroom" peg is the one on the left, and is the actual pivot point of the wing. The cap on that peg is generally very easy to snap off when removing the wings, but it doesn't actually matter most of the time, since most of the force of holding the wing on is done by the larger removable peg on the right (provided it actually stays in, of course). Sad to see there's really no improvements other than the finish though. The 171s never were really missing any markings to begin with, but if they really wanted to improve them, all of the changes should have been made to the armor packs. I don't know if the chest panels were ever shown to open, but they could have at least added working hatches to the quad pack on the arm.
  2. Chronocidal
    You assume that the instructions are actually clear and comprehensible. If this is anything like any of the third-party transformers I've bought, I expect they come with an A4 sheet folded in half three times with a 5-step transformation.
  3. Chronocidal
    Honestly, it wouldn't even be hard to completely negate the swappable wings. Just install a screw instead of the mushroom peg, and they're in for good, with no changes to the molds. Stupid pegs always broke off anyhow, so it's not like they ever did anything.
  4. Chronocidal
    I might spring for one, just because of the matte finish. I only got one of these the first go-around. Still, funny to me that we're getting a re-release of this one, rather than a tan one with Hayate. What, was he not as popular as Alto or something?
  5. Chronocidal

    Hi-Metal R

    Chronocidal replied to joppewo's topic in Toys

    Definitely in the same spot, and I need to start thinning down what I hold onto. I have a lot of duplicates acquired just from the sheer nonsense of trying to make sure I get a single copy during pre-orders, and some specific cases like the VF-171s that I ordered multiples of just to make it more likely that I'd get one good one out of the bunch The HMRs are dangerous though, and it's really easy to justify multiples, since they're so much smaller. It falls into the same sort of logic as "if they have half the calories, I can eat twice as many, right?"
  6. Chronocidal
    Ok, those are absolutely beautiful. Considering the effort involved, I can see why they didn't do that themselves though. Would have been a good start if they molded them in more colors to begin with.
  7. Chronocidal
    What's going on with the release dates? Amazon's saying it's not out until October.
  8. Chronocidal
    Oof... looks like it doesn't even come with the second missile pack though. Just the strike cannon, and one spare clear one. Considering they're not actually symmetrical, I wonder which one they're actually including. Hope you don't plan on using the packs on something else.
  9. Chronocidal
    I recall hearing other stories that the MiG-23 airframe has a history of being difficult to handle, and who knows how fickle a Russian swing-wing aircraft would be. I recall one story about a captured plane being plowed in hard when a general steamrolled his way into getting to fly it, and could not handle it. Mostly just reminds me of this old meme though.
  10. Chronocidal
    It's actually really helpful for them to have not glued that, so I haven't minded. Makes it really easy to pull out to paint or decal it, or in the case of Roy's, you can pretty easily convert it between TV and DYRL versions by swapping the instrument panels. Still some other minor differences, but since Bandai seems like they have no interest in making a DYRL Roy, I'm happy to swap a few parts here and there. I just need a spare DYRL pilot to paint, and I should be good.
  11. Chronocidal
    I haven't seen any real reason to go for the knockoffs, but I might actually jump on this one. It actually includes something Yamato and Arcadia never did: A full set of painted TV missiles! I have enough other Yamatos to mess with that I won't really care if it feels sloppy, it'll be a great conversation piece.
  12. Chronocidal
    I'm not even sure I've heard of them doing replacement parts in Japan. Every time I've ever heard of them dealing with faulty products has been a full return/replace of the item.
  13. Chronocidal
    I thought whole sections of the lower legs and backplate in the 1/55s were metal as well? Not to mention the landing gear. The feet being metal on the VF-1 HMRs is a nice feature, and gives them some good stability, but the VF-0s don't even have that, because the feet are much more detailed.
  14. Chronocidal
    And no, the legs never fit all the way up the pegs either, because the packs actually collide with the backplate before they can sit in place. Bandai.. proving once again they can absolutely take a perfectly functional system someone else made, and make it worse in every way.
  15. Chronocidal
    Availability of either dependent, of course. Though, I did have a funny thought about why there are so many returns. How many people unfamiliar with the franchise and the Arcadia/Bandai marketing shenanigans in Japan may have bought this expecting the Arcadia version? The molds are almost identical, and Amazon doesn't have any pictures of the packaging on the page (though someone did post a series of photos in their review). I could see someone so blown away by the fact that they found a VF-0 on Amazon that they completely missed who made it. Far as shipping goes though, this one set a record. Purchase to door in under 20 hours. Packaging was bare minimum though, just a plastic bag over the box, so I can see a lot of folks receiving these pretty banged up, and returning them. Mine fortunately didn't travel far enough to get any damage, but not even using a bubble pack is pretty crappy on Amazon's part.
  16. Chronocidal
    I think people are disappointed in how cheap it feels, and maybe what feels like a lack of detail? I don't honestly feel like there's anything wrong with it, but I think part of the issue is that it's got even less metal than the HMR VF-1, so it's very light. I don't know what people really expected, considering it's a shrunken Arcadia VF-0 model.
  17. Chronocidal
    Sheesh, at that price, I'll take a chance on a second one.
  18. Chronocidal
    Nice work! Glad you got the proportions and measurements down so they work. I am a little surprised it's strong enough when printed that direction though, since I would think the layers would make the tabs much more likely to snap off. I've had half a mind to print some more realistic pylons based on something like the F-18 for a while, but hadn't gotten the motivation. Are you planning on selling these through somewhere like Shapeways, or just sharing the files when you're happy with them? The most annoying part for me with many of Bandai's weapons mounts is their inability to do a 5 minute google search to look for photos of how actual weapons mount to pylons. Those AMRAAM look-alikes would fit much better if they had the pylon attachment at the 45-degree point, making the fins into an X instead of a +.
  19. Chronocidal
    I think the complaint wasn't so much about Boeing making military hardware, because they've done Boeing planes before. It was primarily because the V-22 doesn't have any civilian version, even though it's been proposed (and ignoring the fact that LEGO made a knock-off Osprey before as one of their minifig-scaled sets). The structural concerns were real though, I watched someone build it up from the instructions that were leaked, and the gearing system designed to move all the parts was ripping teeth off of the gears. There were just too many stresses on them in different ways, and the shifting mechanism was causing hard stops and reversals. There were definitely ways to mitigate that, and I think they proposed a re-design, but they probably took the easy-out blaming the military situation.
  20. Chronocidal
    I'm betting the color difference is either between painted and bare plastic, or possibly different plastic types. Looks pretty good overall though, and I think those sorts of things pop out more in photos than you generally see in person. I'm guessing HLJ is out on vacation as well though, because my order with them has been "processing" for three days. now.
  21. Chronocidal
    No, I think it's blatantly obvious that this has been a direct copy of the design from day one. The screw covers are all in the same spots, the details are all the same, heck, why do you think this and the VF-4 are the only models to have moving gear doors, rather than having them attached to the gear themselves? And yeah. The gunpod collision was fixed in later Arcadia VF-0 releases, but the VF-0D was the first new VF-0 mold they made.
  22. Chronocidal
    I would love to see this scheme on an MP Ramjet. That's a beauty, and just makes me think of the splinter-schemed Sv-51 Dobber did back in the day.
  23. Chronocidal
    It's always possible, it's just not usually how Bandai operates. Maybe this will be an exception, who knows. I totally get it about not wanting to focus so heavily on the negatives though. We're all just screaming into the void hoping Bandai will somehow hear us. Far as making my own version, I'm actually really tempted to try and tweak the Yamato design to fit bigger legs. I think starting from a version that already works well would be a better place to begin than starting from scratch. The design is slim enough that you could give it a little more bulk to the engines and underside without severely killing the looks, and there's actually some space in the upper backplate being wasted by the covers that make it presentable without the legs attached. Hollow out the underside, and experiment with some new ways to position the legs, and I bet there is a bit more space to work with. While I think Bandai went overboard on how long they made the back end, I do think making the engine humps wider and center space a little narrower might be worth it for the extra space. If you can get the feet inside the calves entirely, and then fit thicker calves under the engine blocks, you could at least get the legs a little thicker. I don't think the side profile has never been that bad, they're just really skinny from the front. A part of me is still holding out a tiny hope for the Bandai version that we've just been seeing bad angles that make the back end look out of proportion. Whatever the result, I do look forward to seeing some good top and side comparison pictures.
  24. Chronocidal
    They do, but it looks like it's just the same shade as the other light blue plastic parts. I'll still take it over silver. Maybe Bandai got wise and realized how much money and effort they could save if they just left the gear the same color as the lighter plastic parts.
  25. Chronocidal
    Nah, this debate isn't about which is better. The Arcadia and Bandai YF-19s are both beautiful, with slightly different takes on the design with regard to how curvy or realistic the plane should be. Arcadia went more animation-styled, while Bandai's looks more like a Hasegawa mold made to transform They both made choices with pluses and minuses compared to the other, but they both succeeded in making something that's actually pleasing to display as both a fighter and battroid. This YF-21 is not that. It's got severe deviations from the established look of the plane in both modes we've been shown, some of which have absolutely nothing to do with the transformation at all, and Bandai just decided, "Nah, we like our design better than Kawamori's." (I know it's the least of this figure's problems, but the fat cockpit cover bothers me to no end, because there is absolutely no reason to make it that shape. Nothing in the nose transforms.) Honestly, I know I'm exaggerating how bad I think it looks. But it's just passable at best, and the aesthetic choices they've made are completely baffling. It's not fun to look at in either mode, because your eye gets immediately drawn to the funky proportions. It's not like they compromised one mode for the other, like Yamato did by shrinking the legs to fit in a slim fighter mode. It's that all the modes look equally bad, because none of the proportions in any mode make it look good.
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