Chronocidal

Plus the whole lineup of YF-29s, it's nice to see Ozma's get some love again.  

I think this is just the typical Bandai quality lottery at this point.  Mine didn't have these issues that I saw.. I got two of the Alto, and one was loose, one wasn't.  

Also got two of the Max YF-29s, and one was a quality control disaster (mis-aligned holes and parts, incredibly sloppy transformation and articulation), while the second was pretty much perfect.

The only thing consistent is how inconsistent they are.  

I really do wish Bandai's different divisions would acknowledge each other's existence, and maybe communicate.  This thing fixes pretty much every complaint I have about the DX YF-21, and I'm not even talking about transformation.. this one gets the details correct, where the DX decided "screw the lineart, I know better."

And it's already on backorder before my order's filled.  

Boy HLJ is just useless for these.

What does the full sprue look like?

I know they released SMS stands for the original 1/72 VF-25 kits (just a variant base for one of their standard mecha stand designs), and bundled them with the armored kits, but I wouldn't expect this to use the same size stand as those.

Given how much prying it can take to raise those shoulder pads, I kind of wouldn't expect paint in those locations to survive anyhow.  

5 hours ago, Lolicon said:

Opened my Arcadia VF-19 and holy moly they painted the diecast shoulder joints a much brighter shade of red than the rest of the valk. The red paint sticks out way more than it did on the Yamato VF-19.

Aside from that, the yellow parts now being gold, and the tinted canopy, it's identical to Yamato's.

I can see why some don't like the canopy tint. Instead of being totally transparent yellow (like the RVF-25) there's a glittery texture to it, similar to the VF-31 toys, though not nearly as bad. It ends up kinda making the canopy glass look dirty, like Ray is gonna walk up to it and write "WASH ME" with his finger. 

Are the shoulder joints actually brighter, or did the rest of the valk get darker?

I might make a frankenvalk, and slap together the best-looking parts of both the new and old releases, depending on how difficult it is to do.

6 minutes ago, Froy said:

From EP 44

This one is a reaction missile

Yep, that's the one I was thinking of.  It's been a long time since I saw that episode, and I though I remembered some bit from that episode about unloading the smaller missiles to make room for it, but that might just be my imagination.  

I don't think there was anything "micro" about those missiles.  As I recall, they stripped out everything else, and loaded him with reaction torpedoes.

It is a lot more to start, but you have to consider you get it shipped for $4, which really does cut down on the difference, assuming you're shipping it on its own.

Pre order from AE was about $280, but if you wind up paying $70 in shipping, you're right back at that price.

1 hour ago, wm cheng said:

THIS!!! This is what I'm hoping for since the YF-19 is still available even now (and even at a discount too! - at least on Amazon.com)  I'm to chicksh$t 🤣 to wait for a discount, but I'm hoping to order it once its available there.  Doesn't look like the scalpers bought up all the YF-19 when they went on sale.  I just have to wait till they list it which is killing me already!

I'm thinking the YF-19 re-release is getting lower attention just due to Bandai stripping out all of the extras it originally came with.

Check HLJ again, they went back up for a moment, and got one!

Assuming both go through, that's two for me, and I'm out.  Might get a third if they pop up later on Amazon, but I'm good for the night.

Good luck all!

Gogogo!

https://anime-export.com/index.php?product=75697

And yeah, cart-jacked in seconds at HLJ.  Site died.

4 minutes ago, jrhudson311 said:

Will HLJ  be selling tonight?

Maybe, but finding anything on their site during a pre-order is almost impossible.  Their search doesn't work, and they sell out in seconds to people with inside info on the product pages.

I do like the fact that they made it possible, but I rarely perform that particular step.  Unless I really really want to pose Basara sitting halfway out of the battroid hatch, it's easier to just leave canopy closed.

Yeah, it's really sad, I would buy the crap out of any 262Ba releases.. but Bandai just cannot be arsed to care about all of the potential shelfwarmers they've focused their new series on.

I think they may have darkened the overall plastic, without darkening the paint on the shoulder blocks.  They are standing out rather starkly on almost every photo I see.

Little ridiculous.. but I might even grab one with their coupon, just to have one in the hole.

Been planning on getting one of these for my brother, and I want to get a pair myself.

Good to see them working!  I definitely oversized the tabs, since I figured it would be easier to sand them down than build them up.

I'm laughing right now because this reissue (with the sound booster) actually cost me less than the original release.  

Don't know if anyone has need of these, but had forgotten this topic exists when I went to make them.  

Still a rough test, and I think at least two people are trying prints, but my first test print seemed to fit well enough.

2 hours ago, locidm said:

I put the VF-1S with fast pack on the fighter stand that came with the first release VF-1J. It’s wobbly perhaps due to the extra weight from the fast pack but seems to hold. Anyone else doing this? Any concerns with the durability of the flight stand if left on display long-term?

 

I would definitely say so.  I mounted mine on there and that stupid clear plastic mount formed a stress fracture in a matter of minutes.  I'll see if I can find the photo.

Here it is:

On 12/26/2023 at 11:00 AM, no3Ljm said:

Did Bandai included a canopy shutters accessory part to go along with the helmet-less Isamu with this release? The Full Set from what I remember didn’t have it. Thanks.

I've actually been surprised that no one has ever included that extra rear canopy cover.

It would be pretty easy to make a 3D print of though, just a solid plastic printed copy of the existing canopy, with the paneling detail, and a fixed tab to slot into where the hinge mounts.

I don't have one handy to take a look at, but I believe the entire arm assembly is a sandwich of panels that are not intended to ever come apart.  It looked like the sleeve that slides on the arm was glued together around the arm, leading to the inevitable mess when the glue seeped between the layers, and locked the sleeve in place.

Who knows if it could ever be safely disassembled.  I think one of mine was stuck so badly that I had to resort to bludgeoning the thing with a rubber mallet before it slid properly.  I think I used a pink eraser as a chisel.

It's not even that the thing ever really took that much force, there is just nowhere to actually grip it.  The only part easy to grab would be the folding elbow armor, and there was no way I was going to exert any type of force on that fragile-looking linkage.

Yeah, a fix to the plastic won't cut it.  They need to send the thing back to the drawing board and re-engineer it from the ground up not to suck.