Chronocidal

I will happily pick up as many VF-31As in any format as I can afford.

I guess I get it, but nostalgia is a very confusing drug that way. Having bare metal landing gear on a high quality scale model feels like someone refusing to upscale a blocky 8-bit texture from an old video game when it gets an HD re-master. For the moment, I just want them to get around to a VT-1.

Not a bad little survey, I was tempted to beg them to start painting landing gear white, but I don't really want them to start now and have to rebuy everything to match I did say I really wanted them to get the YF-21 done, and do a VT-1 though, and put a final note that they need to release a weapons/fold pod pack for the VF-31s, since none of them have anything to use, and asking people to buy another copy of Hayate's plane just to get the pod is silly.

I'm usually just content to slice the seals to open the boxes, and leave them on. Too easy to tear the packaging trying to remove them.

Definitely an impressive beast! DHL just dropped my combo pack at the door, and I gave it a once-over. Not going to open it up and fiddle just yet, but I have to say, that's probably the nicest packaging presentation Bandai has put together for any of their DX line so far. Really like the windows, and the black plastic tray layer to hide the rear trays is a nice touch. Only two minor downsides: 1. I hate the thought of wrecking the bending side of the box to peek inside the windows. 2. It probably shouldn't surprise me so much, but goofy Engrish for well-known words gets me. While I appreciate the effort in the window box, the labels weren't really necessary, and listing the armaments of the VF-1J as a "GUTTLING GUNPOD" and "RASER GUN" gave me a hard facepalm.

They did this with the HMR release, so I think it's entirely possible, and hope they do it, but I would definitely rather skip the stickers personally. I think the only ones they would need would be ship names (Prometheus vs SDF-1/ARMD nameplates). Maybe a selection of pilot names, if they want to let people be creative. I know the escape system markings on the chest plate are different on the TV releases, but I'd just as soon stick with the simpler DYRL version since it looks less busy. The ejection seat markings should never be missing. Parts-wise, a TV/DYRL version would need two pilots, two heads, two sets of hands, and two cockpit console pieces, all of which are readily swappable on all of my DX VF-1s. The cockpit console sometimes gets held in by glue, but for the most part I've been able to wiggle them all loose with very little effort. A nice bonus would be including a couple sets of tampo-printed strike pack inserts with DYRL squadron markings to use on strike packs, since I know one or two were shown in the movie.

Speaking of the shop website.. Anyone notice this one? https://shop.eaglemoss.com/us/hero-collector/bc-304-daedalus-model Sadly the only couple I think I'd be after aren't on sale (or in stock at the moment, so I'll hold off for now. I might eventually pick up the Mk VII Viper and modern Raider, but the quality lottery on their Trek releases doesn't feel worth playing to me.

No joke, that Merrick figure is beautiful. Tempting to get this just for him (if I can even get one), but I think I have a box of at least four or five of these X-Wings I haven't opened in years, all begging for me to go to town with my 3D printer. As much as I appreciate the modularity of the nose section in the updated fuselage mold, I do wish they had stuck with the original shape for it. The first release of that had a dead-on nose cone sculpt, and I think the front gear was a little further back, with no barn door cover over it. I can appreciate a functional door as a feature.. but personally I think that looks worse than none at all. Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the new nose mold did-away with the rubber nose cone entirely, so it's not something you can just swap out anymore. I've picked up two or three partial or completely wrecked copies of this one, just to salvage the nose cones, and stick them on the other versions like the Wedge and Red Leader releases, which got theirs replaced with a blunted stubby cone. Boy I miss the days of toys with pointy corners.

I'm also seeing a lot of this plane as an influence, especially in the tails. Really looks like someone mashed up that, the Mave, and the X-02 from Ace Combat.

You know what, I don't want to ruin that cover art for anyone, so I'm going to spoiler this, but I just cannot not see this.

My armor-only set from BigInJapan is out for delivery today, but I caved and grabbed a combo set from Okini after I saw the packaging.

I honestly wouldn't mind if we had a wider selection of worm-drive enclosures. It's not ideal for easy posing, but I was able to get the arms of a 1/18th scale VF-1 to work almost flawlessly with four each (shoulder forward/back, lift, bicep twist, and elbow). You just needed a crank to pose the arms one joint at a time. I agree though, I would love some compact ratcheted turntables for shoulder and hip joints. Really, the weak link once you get to larger models is that you get past the point where a standard axle is sufficient to support a limb, and you need dedicated turntables to distribute the load.

I've always found it a pretty awesome design, but I think the biggest detractor is the tail design. They just.. kind of sit there, looking primed to snap off in a stiff breeze. Depending on the manufacturing, they may or may not spin like pinwheels. I've had had a rough idea for a new set of tails to just snap over the original mounts and integrate the tails into the wings more like the VF-31 did, but never got around to making them.

So, this is a slightly oddball subject, but I decided to pull out one of my VF-171s last night, and discovered that while it was mostly holding together, there were cracks forming on a few of the parts. Decided, "What the heck, let's fix this." I don't have pictures because my camera has recently died, but I discovered something interesting. The tiny little lower triangle pieces that fold under the chest have always been a fragile mess, because of the metal spring-pins forced into them. I was able to push out the pins gently, and salvage all of the original pieces, soaking them in CA glue to reinforce them and seal the cracks that had formed, and sanding them gently to fit back together. When I went to put them back together, I decided to look for alternatives to the spring pins. As it turns out, the spring-pins are roughly the same diameter as your run-of-the-mill plastic-coated wire-tie. I jammed a segment into each folding panel, trimmed off the excess, and they're almost as good as new, with just a little scuffing from where I sanded them. I also reinforced the upper triangles the same way, and fortunately neither of the upper halves or side flaps were cracked. I just doused the lower segments in CA, sanded them to make sure everything was still toleranced right, and put everything back together. So yeah.. plastic coated wire makes a nice easy substitute for spring-pins. The plastic gives a nice bit of friction, without the destructive grinding of the metal teeth.

Looks like it's back up at Okini, just checked it a moment ago... though don't know if they're updating at any particular rate.

So this is going to be a massive necro, but I wanted to post a long-term update on this release, since so many experienced breakage in the box on their CF-171s. I'd ordered two of the RVF-171s when they came out, and only ever opened one. It had a shoulder cover that popped off easily from a stripped out screw, but otherwise was in good shape. I think I moved shortly after, and never got around to opening the second one. So, in the middle of cleaning up my storage room, I decided to finally peek in on Schrödinger's valk. I'm happy to report that both my RVF-171s are in perfect condition after almost seven years in their boxes. I didn't attempt to transform them (though I did one cycle with my Alto 171EX, which is in similarly good shape, and it was every bit as annoying as I remembered), but I did drop the legs to check the plastic on the knees, and replace the wings with the hardpointed ones. The silver plastic on the knees is scary looking. I cannot tell if it's cracked or not, but the metallic plastic they used has so many flow lines, it's really difficult to tell whether the knees would disintegrate under the slightest stress. I'll probably poke into my CF-171s later this week to see how they're holding up, just for laughs. Not going to lie, I'm expecting the experience to be something like this:

Just got my shipping charge from Big In Japan, so my armor pack from there should be on its way soon!

Either that, or they're some sort of bizarre Gantz crossover. Could also be thrusters I guess.. but I have a generally all-around bad feeling about introducing another five singing characters.. from somewhere. It's not like they didn't have enough characters still waiting for some form of development from the series..

I think it's more the glasses. At that age, he'd more likely be purely gray, and the tint might be from his visor. Though.. whether he'd keep dyeing it blue forever does make a good question.

Ok, but honestly, I'm tired of that mold. It's... iconic. That doesn't mean I think it's the best looking, or even second-best looking design since who knows when. I would much rather have M&M VF-31s, of any variant. The 29 isn't bad, it just feels like a worn-out design at this point, and it's nowhere near as fun to transform as the more modern ones, because it still falls back to your classic "Better clear-coat the nose or your paint is screwed" Frontier standard. And as much as I like the idea of them finally following through with the armor packs for the rest of Delta squad (MAYBE GET ON THE SUPERS FOR ARAD AND CHUCK ALREADY), those armor packs are.. I don't know a good word for them really. They're impressive in the animation, but much like the Spruce Goose, what looked really good on paper is far too obnoxiously oversized and massively over-encumbering to be enjoyable. However, if the armor packs are the only way I can get another batch of VF-31As... so be it.

I think a related question would be how old Milia was during SDFM TV. They didn't grow up like normal humans to begin with, so who knows what her actual age is.

I think the folding back hatch was a one-time thing for the VF-1D, so it could give enough room for the different shape and size of the chest plate, back plate, and canopy shield.

Whoever that is might have gotten one of the armor-only sets as well. As for the comment about head-swapping being "difficult" I believe that comment was only about swapping between different valks. Mixing and matching heads between A/J/S versions isn't so simple because the necks are different, and you'd need to detach the entire swivel mount, rather than just pop the head off of its ball-joint. Gotta admit, that bundle package is pretty darn nice though, kind of makes me wish I'd sprung for the full set, but I already have three VF-1Js.

I keep waiting for a 1/48 YF-21.. I know the YF-19 is more popular, but seriously. That 1/48 Black Aces kit looks beautiful, but I haven't built the Hasegawa Super/Strike kits I have already, and those boxes are massive.... Maybe just one.. Really though, practically speaking, I don't need to buy another VF-1 kit just for those decals. I've planned on dressing up one of my kits in the old Monogram VF-142 markings for years.

So, shrinking the original eye image on the canvas is your problem, because shrinking a bitmap will gradually degrade the image as pixels get averaged. There are better ways to do this using vector drawings (which Paint cannot do), but what I would do is make your image in reverse. Start with the largest eye as your base, and then scale that one up to create all of your variations. That will result in a much larger pixel size for your base canvas, which will have to be scaled down to fit on the printed page, making the smallest eye at the same pixel density as your base image. Bottom line is you need your base image to have more pixels. If you stick with Paint, take the bottom right corner of the canvas, and drag it down to the right (scrolling when necessary) until the image no longer fits on your screen, and then zoom out, then just fill it with scaled up copies of your original eye. You can see the pixel dimensions of your image on the lower edge of the screen, and I would probably start at around 3000 x 2000 pixels. This is where your printer does come in. I think a typical printer's default setting is about 300 dpi? That's 300 pixels per inch, so for an 8.5 x 11 inch page, that's 2450 x 3300 pixels to start. That's probably the base size canvas you want to work on as a starting point if you don't want to see the pixels after printing.