for oob builders RG is a good alternative to MG. Smaller, cheaper, good details without having to paint it urself but to custom builder MG is still the preferred choice. Not only is there more choices of design, its also bigger hence more surface area for us to work on and easier to do custom panel line, custom paint job, masking etc etc. For inner frame lovers MG is the better looking of the 2, some like to hav partial armor on to reveal its mechanical details RG frame is not suitable for this since its more functional then aesthetic. Also unlike MG RG don hav a fix release dates, MG once a month will release a new model RG currently the most is 3 per year. Bandai would hav to increase its production significantly to catch up with the other lines (dun even compare numbers with HG, that line is unassailable), something that i dun c happening since RG and MG eat each other markets.

The attachment on the fuel tank to use it as a stand is crap, ur better off without it then with it. Generally nobody likes to put those on, not only does it consume shelve space it makes it uber back heavy and as a stand its completely useless. Not to mention it protrude at an odd angle making it seems like its being impale by it rather then attach on the gundam and u cant adjust the angle without modification.

Due to the transformation gimmick the entire kit by itself is abit wobbly. Those who hav build the normal unicorn would kno where the weak point is, compound that with the ridiculous weapon assortment on FAU and u will feel the wrath of Bandai engineering fails. Not only that its ridiculously top heavy, bcuz of the weight distribution from front to back is disproportionate with or without the fuel tank it'll still fall backward.

My advise, ignore the dam fuel tank and put it on an actual action base.

Certainly possible but not in the near future. So far all RG is main character suits from the tv series, novel/ova/manga/msv has not been made and the 1st is certainly not gonna b from seed. Look at the history of release from their main line and u will notice uc always get 1st dibs. If RG line is to venture into novel/ova/manga/msv territory its gonna b uc 1st, not seed.

Bandai only conduct votes/polls in Japan. Only the Japanese market opinion/preferences is taken into account, other markets hav no say whatsoever.

hd not ver ka

then tey'll hav to do the same for the rest of the gat series. If u r seed fan hu buys all of this to complete the set, having 1 in extreme detail while the others is plain is abit too distracting. Might as well make it less detail to match the rest of its brethen. Not too smart to redesign the rest of the series so early, and to redesign it just for the sake of strike is abit too much.

My ver ka sarcasm meter is set to long leg, short hand, small waist, massive decals and unbalance. This is the 1st i've actually seen ppl attribute short face to ver ka, should i add this to my sarcasm meter?

"paintable" is a wrong word to describe, a more accurate term would be paint-friendly.

its not advisable to paint over ABS especially with lacquer. The chemical in it makes ABS brittle, if u r lucky nothing happen but it could crack randomly. Of cuz u can fix this by priming it 1st but some ppl r lazy n just paint over it directly. The new frame is made of PS much like the outer armor, u can directly paint on it without worrying bout it breaking apart.

Yes and no. Yes in that ppl r lazy to prime and paint and r doing it wrong, no in that if u follow the proper step ur gonna increase the number of layer and will make the joint uber tight may even scratch off the paint job as u move it into position.

From a business perspective u nid to consider the wider appeal it will generate. If u r Bandai of cuz u wan to make it as easy as possible for ppl to build n customize to expend ur market range, sure skipping that xtra step is not really a big improvement but an improvement nonetheless and u can tag it on the advertising as something new and improve to generate interest. Also consider that by doing priming ur adding more time to ur schedule of completion, the faster we can complete a kit the more we can build in a given time and the more kits we will buy hence more profit for Bandai.

This post has been edited by TheAdmiral: Mar 26 2013, 05:24 PM

certain kit the joint r tight by itself (be it by design or just that random 1 of the batch) hence by adding 2 more layer (or 3 if u added top coat as well) it'll make a difference.

the whole " i'll buy something after i finish" while may not be the majority of the customer base, there r some hu does so. Also company run base on numbers and statistics, they can never get accurate number on their customer base its just ridiculous so what most company do is extrapolate; not accurate but it'll gets u there. Since this parameter (however small it might be) is a part of the equation, any improvement to it will make the numbers look good and anything that will giv positive return however small it may be will be pursue by the company. When a company commit into doing such stuff they hav to kno this numbers atleast arbitrary to justify them spending money developing and researching it. The end result may only increase sales by 1% or .5% or even .1%, an increment is still an increment. At the very least we kno it'll not be a factor in the case of decreases sales since it really doesn't negatively impact the quality nor hinder any1 be it u r lazy or not. Business is all about numbers really.

i do agree with u ABS can be painted on can just nid more time n effort, however there r alot a lot of lazy ppl around. This is just a way Bandai do to satisfy more ppl, both the lazy and not.

This post has been edited by TheAdmiral: Mar 26 2013, 07:13 PM

thats like asking why a giant robot needs 2 eyes and a mouth. A redundant question really.

serious answer:
This is a show for the japanese ppl it was style to look like robot in samurai gear, the designer just take design cue from it and make it appealing for their audience. Whats more awesome then samurai wielding katana u ask? Why samurai robot wielding beam saber and pew pew lazer thats what. Since the look of it is so iconic the whole v fin 2 eye mouth slit is the very face of gundam, without it u cant call ur robot/show gundam. Just like u cant call a show macross without gerwalk (however redundant that mode may be).

in universe answer:
No function other then aesthetic. However subsequent gundam uses the same design motives as physiological warfare since the white devil was so effective in battle, having a gundam face would put fear to ur opponent and also to raise ur ally morale since gundam is the face of victory/justice/righteousness. Which is why u c alot of character hav some sort of reaction be it shock, awe, fear or anger when a gundam appear. At least in the Universal Century. Alternate universes u have to refer to serious answer above.

fan answer:
Function as communication antenna, relaying orders from ur superior officer. However this explanation is abit dumb since grunt dun hav this feature n tey can communicate with their superior just as well.

This post has been edited by TheAdmiral: Mar 28 2013, 10:59 AM

agito is not talking bout cost or physic, he's talking bout the humanoid feature in general ie hand, leg, head, etc.

u cant justify the existence of leg in space. In fact biologically ur own body will degenerate ur leg bone in prolong 0G environment. If nature deem it unnecessary, its hard to find reason for doing it deliberately other then for aesthetic reason.

but this is getting way out of topic.......

no legs, not gonna happen. Its been foreshadowed throughout episode 6 with quotes like "Standing the mobile suits on the floor, thats something tha ppl with soul still bound by gravity would think up". From an in universe perspective, it make sense to the Zeon also this type of mentality has existed b4 i remember hearing something similar either in the original 0079 or CCA or was it ZZ? Either way the point is this viewpoint is not new, and it wouldn't look out of place in the context of the story. It may look weird to us but its not much weirder that Alpha Azieru or Neue Ziel.

ms without leg will do fine in space. Infact leg is a hindrance, astronaut who lives on the ISS for prolong period of time their leg bone degenerated despite having rigorous excersice daily. Biologically our body is very efficient, recycling things thats is not needed and leg is one of em. So of cuz Char do well in it, actually if u put no name grunt in it it will still do fine (apart from the newtype thingy).

rd don hav a specific scale, some model r slightly smaller then the 144 counterpart some r similar of size. If u r displaying 2 same model but of different line then yes it'll look out of place but since xi has no counterpart, displaying it with other 144 would look fine. Not to mention the size of xi itself would tower almost everything even if the rd model height do not match up in scale to the actual spec height u wouldn't notice it anyway.

Hathaway's Flash

oh and just for ur information its pronounce as "ker-see" and its actual alphabet is Ξ if u try to search it as xi in MAHQ u probably wont find it.

its ker-see but the pronunciation of ker is less emphasize. If u speak fast enuf then the ker would sound like ku. Its abit hard to write it in english form

yes its a novel, but its non canon since it follows the novel ver of CCA rather then the movie ver.

to scavenge for parts for custom builds, replace broken pieces, or ppl hu hav no strong feeling for a kit and wouldn't buy 1 for full price but wouldn't mind 1 if its cheap.

gunpla reviews if u only wan c pictures then dalong is the place to go. If u wan blog abit difficult to find a decent wan, gaijin gunpla is pretty good. Or u can just watch youtube review by rrobbert184 or vegeta8259 (though he is more toward custom paint job etc) or jabman025

u can build it alone but u nid to do it out of order from the manual and u hav to lean the back glass panel against something. Generally just be creative when the manual says u nid 2 ppl but its doable.

No business would follow the xchange rate daily u'll be at the mercy of currency volatility. On a bad day ur business can collapse in a single afternoon, u might as well close down shop and start currency trading there is no difference anyway.

Generally ppl tend to stick to a fix rate for a period of time to hedge themselves against the volatility of xchange rates, the rate should be updated after some time; when? That is up to the owners. However most business r not so clear cut, since alot of behind the scene action is hidden from us buyers tey can just slap on a price tag base on the highest rate the currency were trading at (say yen at 0.037). Tey can always lean back on the excuse of "old stock , cant sell at new price or i'll incur losses" or the opposite "new stock just arrive yesterday at high rate, cant sell at new price or i'll incur losses". Even if those statements isn't true there is no prove on the buyers side to disprove it either since we dun know who/when/where did the stock came from. Worse is if they had some sort of agreement amongst competitors to fix it at a certain rate thus wherever u go it'll be the roughly the same. This is all normal albeit dirty business tactics but there is nothing we buyers can do about it.

no u r not too confusing, but what u r expecting is an honest business run by honest ppl. In reality this isn't the case, it never were.