Chronocidal

I'm going to guess that the bottleneck there is entirely LA. Everything just stops dead there and sits in limbo for weeks. FedEx and DHL have the benefit of taking alternate routes, from what I can tell. FedEx seems to come in through Alaska, and DHL always seems to go through a hub in Ohio.

Don't blame you, it's not even illustrated in the instructions. This is why I am so confused as to why the parts even move to begin with. The two sides of the arm not attached to the folding arm shield are not directly attached to the arm itself, they're on sliders. There's really no good way to grip it, but if you push the outside of the arm toward the elbow, it helps the guns sit level in fighter. Photos will probably help. I might have missed something in the instructions, but couldn't read them anyhow. The part with the blue paint slides. It actually moves farther than I thought, making a weird quarter-cuff around the wrist in the full extension, and moving back behind it in the opposite direction. Here's a different angle, showing the blue section pushed back toward the elbow. The bit outlined in pink is part of the wrist that should be sticking out past the blue slightly to make sure the gun has enough clearance to lay flat against the arm. It's entirely possible I missed this as a step in the instructions, but I didn't see anything calling out sliding those panels in either direction. This is exactly what's happening in the pics above, but like I said, I didn't see it in the instructions at all, and those pieces are a royal pain in the arse to actually move, because there is nothing to grip them by (and I think mine may have even been glued down by a sloppy assembly). If those armor bits aren't slid as far toward the elbow as possible, they inhibit the gun from rotating enough to lay flat on the underside.

Make sure to check for whether the arm's outer panels are slid all the way toward the elbow. There should be a bit of a flat gray panel in the wrist protruding out when the arm is in the right position.

So, filed the tabs down to actually fit into the legs, and those are secure now. Pain in the backside to have to fix Bandai's shoddy work, but the tolerances on this thing are just all over the place. Speaking of which, I decided to test the hardpoints using one of the Sv-262 drones. Yes, they fit fine under the wings... but no they do not fit on the new hardpoints hidden in the wing fold hinges. The central peg looks to be the right size, but the space between the tabs is too wide for them to lock in place. I don't trust any of the measurements on this thing, so who knows if they're actually supposed to be a different size for the packs or not. Also, I eventually managed to fix the droopy cannons. I'm utterly baffled as to why, but two of the outer panels on the forearms slide. No clue why they would even bother with this (maybe they just desperately wanted to give that elbow armor panel more clearance?), and it's a royal pain in the butt to get them to move, so I'm guessing someone slopped glue on them. They seriously must only move one sixteenth of an inch, so I cannot begin to understand why they thought it was necessary. Either way, if you don't shove the moving part of the arm as far toward the elbow as it will go, the cannons don't sit flush correctly, and they'll droop. As an addendum to that.. don't snap the cannon mounts down at the back edge of the underside of the wing, or it'll make them droop. Those tabs just do not line up correctly. On a lighter side note.. yeah, the old VF-31 pods look much better than the thermometer sticking out the back end. Gray paint isn't quite as dark, but I had a spare from my sound booster 31 anyhow, and much prefer being able to stand it on the feet in fighter mode.

Ugh. Yeah, can confirm, this thing is just all sorts of sloppy compared with the earlier 31 releases. Don't know how they could quite do so much to mess up a good thing. Wing tabs are far too large to lock into the legs, some of the arm locking tabs are actually at odds with each other and only serve to pull things out of alignment when properly seated, and the overall additional complexity is worrisome. The little folding arm panels to accommodate the bulkier arms are all looking like they're asking to be broken off, to the point that I wish they'd left well enough alone. I was particularly startled to see how tight the arm cannons' rotation point is, combined with how microscopically tiny the plastic pivot joint holding them to the arm is. Don't move those cannons without holding the base, or you're liable to snap them clean off. Like the overall shape and design (minus some quibbles about how the new canopy shape leaves the nose section with a kind of janky-looking profile), but I'm not impressed with the engineering at all. Don't think I can call anything they did an improvement. I would call the cockpit an improvement, except now there's enough room to put two people in the front seat, and all that extra space only highlights how blank the control panel is. Edit: Taking a closer look at the leg/wing tabs.. looks like they are completely surrounded by a ridge from molding. I actually don't think I've ever seen that sloppy a molding from anything I've ever owned from Bandai before. There are actually little molding giblets all over this thing. I just trimmed a few blobs of plastic off of the arm joints hoping it would help things lay flat better, but no luck there. One arm cannon just hangs down about 5 degrees, no matter what I do with it, and that's when I leave the rear-most tab unlocked. Snapping that in place doubles the droop.

I believe the theory is that styrofoam will gradually let out gases over time that will contribute to yellowing. Always depends on many factors, but this is why I've kept my styrofoam-packed valks wrapped in plastic as well. Who knows if that'll help any, but it can't hurt.

Yeah, think I'll remove the thermometer pod, and just slap on one of the spare charger packs from my armored 31s. The long probe also ruins my usual display method of the 31s, since I like letting them stand on the feet in fighter mode.

Ugh.. that just looks like a ton of tiny complicated parts to achieve what used to be a pretty simple arm joint. I hope it's not anything fragile.

May be, but that was always a problematic thing for the original VF-31 as well. Those guns always were a bit sloppy, and it looks like they had to add more moving parts to this version to get it working.

Anyone have pics with the regular 31 pod? Thinking it would look a lot better without the thermometer.

Yeah, I might shoot for a black scheme (whoever it is), but I'm already considering selling some of the extra 31s I have. I'm not feeling the need to collect the whole set at this point, but a Mirage/Hayate pair isn't a bad way to go. Course, this is all off the table if more 31As show up.

Just got an email from Anime Export that my Hayate 31AX is in stock, and ready to ship. Guess they came out a couple days early. Time to see how Luna Park performs under pressure.

I think being technically at least partially canon as a costume from the show helps it, I decided to pick one up. The Klan 25G is an awesome kit, but the weird micro/macro Klan mish-mash is a little weird. This one at least looks like a straight-up copy of Ranka. Now come on, and give us an Armored Cathy 25S!

Yeah, sad to say it's probably just never happening. I bit the bullet and bought some lower-priced second-hand Hayate and Messer supers to use on those two. If I'd been thinking more clearly, I would have looked for Mirage's so I got extra reaction missiles with them, but Messer's and Hayate's would probably be less work to cover if I decide to repaint them.

First thing that came to mind: Could be entertaining though, will wait to see more.

I haven't seen the GITS movie, but it wasn't for a dislike of the adaptation so much as I just prefer the characters in SAC as opposed to the movies. Alita I'd never watched or read, so the movie was my introduction to the series, and loved it. Going back to watch the anime afterwards startled me with how insanely spot-on the casting was for a few of the characters. I think my attachment from Bebop is entirely the music and design work. I've seen a few of the episodes, but never sat down to watch the entire thing, so that may work in the Netflix version's favor if I ever decide to watch it.

It's really the same situation as with the VF-4s, if you think about it. They're nigh identical, just at different sizes, and with a couple of different features.

I am so unbelivably happy about the fact that this set exists, solely for the fact that it includes the perfect parts to complete the boosters for the Kingsknight shuttle stack. I've been waiting.. probably literally thirty years for LEGO to release a larger cone element at the same slope as the small 2x2 nosecones, and this is a double whammy win, since it also includes white barrel tubs for the nozzles. I'll need at least two of these. The quest for more orange elements for the tank continues, but this is a huge step toward completing the stack in that scale.

If it were run multiple times I might actually have a chance to see it, but traveling a couple hundred miles on a tuesday night is just not happening.

I would hope it's at least improved that much, but considering how sloppy the big rocket packs on the massive armor pack are, I really have no faith in their ability to make anything stay in place. I know Bandai can make sturdy ratcheting joints.. they just frequently choose not to, for some reason.

So.. just like the VF-19 Advance boosters then? They really had a good thing going with the original VF-31 booster mounts, I really really hope they don't screw it up.

I'm still astounded that they have just kept on rolling with the crappy generic hexagonal bases they first came up with for the VF-171 (I think). It is utterly baffling that they didn't just straight up make a new kite base for the VF-1s. Like.. why could you not do what probably thousands of home 3D printers have been used for? Is it that freaking expensive to redesign their packaging? Their limited edition stands are a bit better in terms of style at least, but they still fail to produce what I'd consider an aesthetically pleasing display due to their inability to mount anything without a ginormous honking bracket clamping all over the valk. Would it be so hard to integrate a mounting point into the valk that doesn't completely suck?

Hoping the quality control on this one is a step up from the Ivanov. Besides the ankle snafu, mine came out of the box with a mis-assembled/useless shoulder that spun like a pinwheel.

I wish I could use my garage for storage, but the 110+ temperatures in the summer don't really make that a good spot for storing collectibles. No walk-in closet either.. I just have them piled in my "hobby" room in the closet, and along the walls with my LEGO collection.

See... this is why I want to see it in the theater. Not even for the movie itself, but the concerts, music, and insane visuals. It's an amazing sight.