What do you guys think of the Hi-Metal R's ? I don't own any, but they do look good in photo's albeit tiny.
I resisted them at first but after getting a few I will say that HMR is the greatest line of Macross toys ever made. If you just want a Valk toy, probably pass but if you want a whole collection of toys that display well together and includes enemy and supporting mechs, that is where the line shines. The Regults, Glaugs, Monsters and other Destroids are the best figures in the Macross HMR lineup to me and the whole line in general is very fun to play with and setup. The main thing I don't like about the Valks is you need to part swap the canopy with the heat shield to transform and have it look right. Now that they are starting to make Valks from other Macross series, that is a cool way to have a bunch of Valks from several series.
Sure do remember them days! I also remember when the V2 1/60's were 9800yen sans FAST packs and 12800yen with them and FAST pack sets being 4000yen or so. Which is why I don't think the KO sets are worth it since they cost substantially more. Hell I remember routinely being able to get a V2 1/60 for $60+ sans armor and both Kakizaki's languishing online for $30 and not selling. Who knew all it took for Macross secondary market prices and paranoia to shoot up was for a company to go out of business? For Macross, 2010-2011 was the prime time to buy anything Macross. After seeing preorder madness from Frontier to present, there are still sellouts but NOTHING compares to the instant sellouts of the Frontier Renewal days. Most items lately that sold out had preorders open multiple times afterwards, like the DX VF-1J, HI METAL R stuff, at al. DX VF-1S Focker? I'm not worried. Fun to transform and I like that they are including more obscure VF designs as well as enemy mecha. However, I think another draw is that they are a cheaper alternative to Arcadia. One thing to keep in mind though, for a HI METAL R VF, though they're small, you're not just buying 1 figure, you're literally buying at least 2 trays worth of optional parts. Small parts= higher tooling cost. Those toys come with a lot of small option parts. The HI METAL R VF-1 is a slightly retooled VF-1 from the VF HI METAL line. That line did not last long because the Yamato 1/60 V2 VF-1's were bigger, perfect transformation and didn't cost that much more. VF HI METAL eventually died out and even their exclusives like the VF-1J Max and VF-1A Max/Hikaru/Kakizaki and movie FAST packs were cheap on the secondary market. $10 for armor is unheard of these days but for those, I saw those prices on a regular basis. I like the line for the most part. It'd be nice if the TV super Valkyries had the correct arm armor and if the VF-2SS actually came with Nexx and if the TV VF-1 pilots weren't tiny compared to their movie counterparts.
Don't forget that they don't take up a lot of space if your displaying it in on the shelf than compared with the 1/55, 1/60, 1/48 scaled valks in fighter mode.
Pre-orders for Bandai's 1/48 'DX CHOGOKIN VF-1J VALKYRIE (ICHIJO HIKARU CUSTOM)' are back open at nippon-yasan.com if you are willing to pay the premium.
Just received an email from Amazon.co.jp, letting me know my DX VF-1J was going to be sent out earlier than expected. It's happening!
Oh shit...hopefully not too much earlier. Xmas shopping season is always the WORST time for expensive toys to come out early.
Hmm...lemme run my email though Google translate: "The items you ordered and the scheduled delivery date are as follows. "DX Super Alloy Super Dimension Fortress Macross VF - 1 J Valkyrie (Ichijyo Takumi) (First Press Limited Edition) About 300 mm (Fighter) ABS & Die Cast & PVC Made Painted Movable Figure" Estimated delivery date: 2019-01-01 - 2019-01-04" Ok, maybe not THAT much earlier
Where you expecting Boxing Day Macross Valk release? I think the initial date of release is the 29th of next month.
Yup. For $26000 Yen too. When they cancelled my preorder for it during the mad rush preorder night, they listed it back up within 30 minutes at 25,000 Yen. And they keep e-mailing me about it as if to rub it in. But I already got it through Amazon JP so...they can suck an egg.
Not counting any preorder discounts that were there at various places, it was about 19,361¥ (about $170USD) at NY.
Maybe it is, the email shogun221 quoted specified an estimated delivery date...maybe the customer who got that email is stateside? EMS takes a little longer than it used to so a release on 12/26 with arrival to a US customer on 1/4 is possible
It's been a long time since we had a Macross Christmas. Last time was maybe 2011 or 2012? Made it a blue Xmas with a VF-19F and VF-25G Renewal. Can't wait to get my hands on the DX VF-1J. Hey @Rewind has your Yammy V2 VF-1 unpaint version yellowed over time?