Bandai DX VF-31

[no3Ljm]

7 minutes ago, Wurz said:

Doubt there's gonna be any preorder's from NY at this rate. Maybe on monday? 

You never know. 

 

 

[Lolicon]

2 hours ago, MacrossJunkie said:

If someone figures out how to take the fuselage for the 31 apart, please do tell me.

Just to see how it would look, I tried painting up the sensors with transparent smoke color so that the whole thing isn't just bright red like in the show.

It just doesn't have the sense of depth. Ideally, I'd strip the paint off completely and paint up the underside with red and smoke and then put chrome over the the red portion to make it more reflective while the top side would be clear and shiny. But I can't find a way to take it apart.... frustrating. A least I was able to fix the thigh paint rubbing off when using the GERWALK joints. Just had to shave off some plastic with an xacto knife to gain more clearance. I think I matched the blue pretty well if I do say so myself.

*snip*

Looking good!

Unfortunately, Bandai glued pretty much everything together. Even parts held together by screws are also glued, just to make extra sure you can't get at anything. Bandai probably wants you to buy their model kits if you want to customize anything.

There's a few things you can remove, like the backplate and arms, though that involves breaking some glue.

I was able to take off the backplate, which made adding the missing shoulder sensors 10x easier.

[MacrossJunkie]

2 minutes ago, Lolicon said:

Looking good!

Unfortunately, Bandai glued pretty much everything together. Even parts held together by screws are also glued, just to make extra sure you can't get at anything. Bandai probably wants you to buy their model kits if you want to customize anything.

There's a few things you can remove, like the backplate and arms, though that involves breaking some glue.

I was able to take off the backplate, which made adding the missing shoulder sensors 10x easier.

 

Good to know. Thanks!

[MAC-X]

Yup, looks like it is Monday

[yman1437]

Except of a conversation between 2 NY employees this morning:

A: O no! (Daihandesu!) we were on vacation, forgot all about putting in the order for the Messer valkyrie 

B: don't worry, we will scalp all the available ones, mark them up 100%, and THEY WILL STILL BUY IT!

A: true....true....

Both burst into hysterical laughter 

Edited January 7, 2017 by yman1437
typos, grammatical erros

[brouken]

4 hours ago, Graham said:

I'm 47. Damn, we're becoming a bunch of old farts....haha

Still not secured a Messer pre-order.

It should be interesting to see statistics on those who purchase Macross toys/collectitbles nowadays. I wonder how many would be in the 15 to 20 years category. These valks are rated 15 and up after all. It should also explain the direction Kawamori-san is taking with the anime franchise.

Sorry to hear that you haven't gotten a Messer pre-order yet Graham. Must be all the young and tech-savvy millenials finding ways to exploit the pre-orders while we old farts are stuck hitting F5. >-D

[505thAirborne]

I completely forgot about the VF-31 Pre-order!! 

[zzj]

1 hour ago, yman1437 said:

Except of a conversation between 2 NY employees this morning:

A: O no! (Daihandesu!) we were on vacation, forgot all about putting in the order for the Messer valkyrie 

B: don't worry, we will scalp all the available ones, mark them up 100%, and THEY WILL STILL BUY IT!

A: true....true....

Both burst into hysterical laughter 

That's funny, unless you are the one on the receiving end...

[Lolicon]

12 minutes ago, 505thAirborne said:

I completely forgot about the VF-31 Pre-order!! 

I think we should let Messer speak for everyone who didn't get a 31F preorder last night:

[seti88]

ah yes the aspiring subtitler in the making *chuckles* 

[505thAirborne]

5 minutes ago, Lolicon said:

I think we should let Messer speak for everyone who didn't get a 31F preorder last night:

Agreed!!!

[recon]

For those who havent got a VF-31F in their preorders, they will soon be experiencing the V type syndrome otherwise known as vexing syndrome, including me...

[Andy NYK]

15 hours ago, derex3592 said:

Thanks B.  I was shocked that I actually scored one out of the gate, as AmiAmi preorder literally was gone in 2 seconds. Now I will have one Messer and Keith in 1:60 DX. That's all the love (money, except the little TomyTec kits) I'm giving to Delta..which is probably more than that dumpster fire of a Macross series deserves if I'm honest....

Managed to PO a Messer thru HLJ for a friend. But for me, I'm just getting Arad's and Keith's (PO-ed) DXes. With their respective Tomytecs too, for 3-mode completeness.

[wmkjr]

Do you guys think NY will be open on the 9th if it's a holiday or is it not observed by everyone?

Edited January 7, 2017 by wmkjr

[Lorindor]

2 hours ago, brouken said:

It should be interesting to see statistics on those who purchase Macross toys/collectitbles nowadays. I wonder how many would be in the 15 to 20 years category. These valks are rated 15 and up after all. It should also explain the direction Kawamori-san is taking with the anime franchise.

I'm 27. At least you older guys probably have secured a stable economy now to support your collection. I'm still a few steps from being fully comfortable with the costs of this hobby.

And if Kawamori thinks he made Delta for me, he's sorely mistaken...

[brouken]

17 minutes ago, Lorindor said:

And if Kawamori thinks he made Delta for me, he's sorely mistaken...

He certainly didn't make it for me that's for sure. :-D

[Shukenzero]

1 hour ago, Lorindor said:

I'm 27. At least you older guys probably have secured a stable economy now to support your collection. I'm still a few steps from being fully comfortable with the costs of this hobby.

And if Kawamori thinks he made Delta for me, he's sorely mistaken...

Well I'm going to hit 72 next year so maybe the age bracket is a little bit narrow if it's only 15-20. 

[no3Ljm]

3 hours ago, wmkjr said:

Do you guys think NY will be open on the 9th if it's a holiday or is it not observed by everyone?

If 'Seijin No Hi' is a national holiday in Japan, which I think it is, then they're close. 

 

[hachi]

6 hours ago, brouken said:

It should be interesting to see statistics on those who purchase Macross toys/collectitbles nowadays. I wonder how many would be in the 15 to 20 years category. These valks are rated 15 and up after all. It should also explain the direction Kawamori-san is taking with the anime franchise.

Sorry to hear that you haven't gotten a Messer pre-order yet Graham. Must be all the young and tech-savvy millenials finding ways to exploit the pre-orders while we old farts are stuck hitting F5. >-D

 

Good to know a lot of folks are older than me hehehe...In several years I'll be in that age bracket, this Macross stuff (and online shopping) is making me consider moving up my 'early' retirement.

On topic I wish Arad was next that gives me more time to save up for Mirage.

[arbit]

13 hours ago, Graham said:

I'm 47. Damn, we're becoming a bunch of old farts....haha

Still not secured a Messer pre-order.

45 young fart.

And don't worry, u will soon find it on ebay for USD 750!

[arbit]

10 hours ago, Lolicon said:

Looking good!

Unfortunately, Bandai glued pretty much everything together. Even parts held together by screws are also glued, just to make extra sure you can't get at anything. Bandai probably wants you to buy their model kits if you want to customize anything.

There's a few things you can remove, like the backplate and arms, though that involves breaking some glue.

I was able to take off the backplate, which made adding the missing shoulder sensors 10x easier.

Gotta be brave if the first thing you do with an expensive DX is to take it apart!

Edited January 7, 2017 by arbit

[Jasonc]

9 hours ago, Lorindor said:

I'm 27. At least you older guys probably have secured a stable economy now to support your collection. I'm still a few steps from being fully comfortable with the costs of this hobby.

And if Kawamori thinks he made Delta for me, he's sorely mistaken...

I think he specifically didn't make it for you, but that's why it was relatively successful, and enjoying a life after the show has aired. It wasn't really made for any of us here, but is certainly enjoying extra benefits from us, as many of us are here.

[mechaninac]

DX Chogokin VF-31F still available for preorder @ hobby TOKYO portal if anyone is interested, or too impatient to wait for N-Y's inevitable listing.

[MikeRoz]

Is that a reliable seller?

[Kanedas Bike]

26 minutes ago, mechaninac said:

DX Chogokin VF-31F still available for preorder @ hobby TOKYO portal if anyone is interested, or too impatient to wait for N-Y's inevitable listing.

 

18 minutes ago, MikeRoz said:

Is that a reliable seller?

Never heard of those guys before - mechaninac have you used them before?

This is from their site re: Pre-Orders;

Preorder items are depend on supplier company. Of course we try to deliver every our customer who pre-ordered on our site, But there are too populer poroducts may be short arrive to us from maker companies. In these case, we have to cancel some customer's pre-order from the tail. Sorry.

So...yeah.

-b.

[F360]

26 minutes ago, MikeRoz said:

Is that a reliable seller?

Never used them before , shipping quote doesnt even work for me .  

 

[sh9000]

The VF-31F is available at Amazon Japan.  They "supposedly" have the best price.

[F360]

15 minutes ago, sh9000 said:

The VF-31F is available at Amazon Japan.  They "supposedly" have the best price.

At 25790 yen .........

[Kanedas Bike]

14 minutes ago, F360 said:

At 25790 yen .........

That's all I found too, from what I can tell the only orders still available are from 3rd party. I'm sure the 31F was much cheaper through Amazon direct.

Which makes me wonder if anyone uses a proxy to buy through Amazon JP vs. HLJ, N-Y or the like.

-b.

[mechaninac]

45 minutes ago, Kanedas Bike said:

 

Never heard of those guys before - mechaninac have you used them before?

This is from their site re: Pre-Orders;

Preorder items are depend on supplier company. Of course we try to deliver every our customer who pre-ordered on our site, But there are too populer poroducts may be short arrive to us from maker companies. In these case, we have to cancel some customer's pre-order from the tail. Sorry.

So...yeah.

-b.

No, I've never purchased from them, preorder or otherwise.  They've been mentioned on this Forum before and I had them bookmarked; I checked and saw they still have the 31F available for 21600 yen + shipping (their shipping quote calculator doesn't work at all, at least not for me).  I already secured a copy with HLJ, so I don't need to try these guys, but I figured someone may want to take a chance... some brave/desperate soul may wish to volunteer as the guinea-pig in vetting hTp as future go-to e-tailer... once upon a time, N-Y was an unknown quantity too.

[MikeRoz]

32 minutes ago, mechaninac said:

No, I've never purchased from them, preorder or otherwise.  They've been mentioned on this Forum before and I had them bookmarked; I checked and saw they still have the 31F available for 21600 yen + shipping (their shipping quote calculator doesn't work at all, at least not for me).  I already secured a copy with HLJ, so I don't need to try these guys, but I figured someone may want to take a chance... some brave/desperate soul may wish to volunteer as the guinea-pig in vetting hTp as future go-to e-tailer... once upon a time, N-Y was an unknown quantity too.

Well it's not available there anymore, so maybe it was legit

[Mommar]

It's out of stock at BandaiOnline too.

[spanner]

not that my son wants to re-start collecting Valkyries or anything but he does like the VF-31J and as a cost alternative he was looking at the 1/72 transformable kits..

which are relatively dirt cheap compared to a full on DX machine (4k yen on Mandarake) but are they any good? They need to be assembled which im happy to help him with but no painting required yes? and apply stickers.. 

what you reckon? worth it for the price or are they junk..

Edited January 7, 2017 by spanner

[dero]

22 minutes ago, spanner said:

not that my son wants to re-start collecting Valkyries or anything but he does like the VF-31J and as a cost alternative he was looking at the 1/72 transformable kits..

which are relatively dirt cheap compared to a full on DX machine (4k yen on Mandarake) but are they any good? They need to be assembled which im happy to help him with but no painting required yes? and apply stickers.. 

what you reckon? worth it for the price or are they junk..

I had originally considered just getting the 1/72 model kits for my Delta displays.  Have purchased 05 and 02 so far and that's probably where I'll stop.

The build is easy.  The colours and matching of colours are fantastic to the show.  The shape and demonstration when displayed is amazingly accurate.

However.  If the intent is to be able to give them a play, transform them and play some more then I'd probably say no.  Some of the plastic pieces are very brittle.  The 05 head antenna snapped pretty much the first moment I tried to move it around.  The leg components have been pretty regular in coming apart.  Either it's because I've got a bit of a plastic dag left from where I cut it off from the frame or it's how I'm moving it that is making it come loose.  There's a number of extra pieces like covers and such for when you wish to transform it or move it into a new mode.  The under-arm gun-pods are detach from jet and reattach to arm style of assembly.

For me, it's not a big deal because I really like the dynamic poses which it is able to do in fighter form and that's pretty much how I'll be displaying it on their FlightPose stands.

As I said, I originally considered just getting the 1/72 model kits but I've now got a 1/60 DX VF-31F on pre-order because there's poses and transformations I want to make with it... and it'll couple up nicely with the also-delta-wing YF-29 Fokker edition I have.  Both delta wings, both pilots who's flames burned brightly and extinguished quickly.

[platypus]

20 hours ago, Lolicon said:

Looking good!

Unfortunately, Bandai glued pretty much everything together. Even parts held together by screws are also glued, just to make extra sure you can't get at anything. Bandai probably wants you to buy their model kits if you want to customize anything.

There's a few things you can remove, like the backplate and arms, though that involves breaking some glue.

I was able to take off the backplate, which made adding the missing shoulder sensors 10x easier.

Have you tried disassembling the knee cap landing gear and remod it? Any idea how to do that?