VOTOMS

[mpchi]

Ha. I recently got my shipment of some AGs too. The Reeman set, the Big Carryer, as well as a Berserga & Ground Fatty B. Will be having fun adding some simple weathering to them very soon.

[paladin]

Roboto, which AG is that? Is that the "Second Version" AG or some kind of exclusive?

[roboto]

mpchi said:

...the Big Carryer...

Did you mean the "AT-Transporter"? I couldn't recall the name of this item until I looked at the box. Likewise, the toyshop manager jokingly referred to it as an "Iraqi taxi cab" and offered to custom-paint it yellow. (Okay, it's not very PC for the manager to say this, but he did have a point. Our troops need more protection out there.) On the other hand, I don't think he'll need to custom paint this AT-Transporter because the plastic looks yellow enough.

[roboto]

chet said:

...which AG is that? Is that the "Second Version" AG or some kind of exclusive?

Here are photos of the box.

[mpchi]

Roboto, the Big Carryer (officially called Big Carry actually ) is the one similar to this yellow one, but is grey and without the cargo top. It has a retractable ramp on each side instead. Its the one used in the OVA The Last Red Shoulder. That truck actually had a lot of screen time in the show. LOL. It also comes with a Scope Dog Turbo Custom with all the hand gun weapons.

www.hlj.com/product/TKT71882

Does your Turbo Custom has loose ankle joints? I found out mine, as well as the Reeman Scope Dogs all has somewhat loose ankles. The Ball joints are a bit loose, while the swivel right above is the worse. But then all other joints on the body is nice and tight. Don't seem to be that easy to disassemble the ankles either to get them fixed. Only able to open up the feet, but not the ankle or lower legs. Fortunately, these things are so small and light that even if the ankles are loose, they seem to balance ok without much of an issue. Just the fact that its loose bothers me a bit. The Ground Fatty Type B on the other hand is great. Solid everywhere. Hope I can find a Type A sometime.

While these AGs are very small and fiddly, they are great if you want to make a squad or diorama. Fun stuff.

[mpchi]

Just finished doing some simple weathering on a 1/48 Red Shoulder (Reeman Set), using enamel paint wash and a silver marker for the metal wear. Not a fantastic paint job by any means, but looks pretty good for a couple hours of work and the skill of a beginner. The enamel paint wash is very forgiving and easy to apply, and the weathering does make a big difference on these otherwise very plasticy-looking little guys. Fun stuff.

[roboto]

That's an excellent custom painting. As for me, I tend to leave my Takara 1/48 scale Scopedog figures the way they are. If I attempt to custom paint a toy, I ended up ruining it because of my perfectionist tendencies.

Anyway, I like the last two pictures most because they seem to show action.

[roboto]

mpchi said:

The Ground Fatty Type B on the other hand is great. Solid everywhere. Hope I can find a Type A sometime...

Yup, I agree.

Fatty Ground Custom Type B





Be careful with the attennas. They seem breakable; in fact, I almost broke one of them while transporting this Fatty to my friend's place. Fortunately, I was able to bend the attenna back in place, but there's probably a stress mark now.



Speaking of which, I should've transported the Fatty in its box or in the AT-Transporter. All these Fatty Scopedogs fit inside the AT-Transporter.

[mpchi]

Cool stuff. I finally got to paint all 3 Reeman's squad, as well as finding a Fatty Ground Type A. The Fatties definitely look great side by side, and the different details do complement each other nicely. Will add some weathering to them soon.

[mpchi]

Wow, just WOW!. DMZ-05 will be Scoprdog Turbo Custom! However, it doesn't look like its the Red Shoulder version in Roots Ambition with a huge backpack. Its more like the all green version in The Last Red Shoulder.

[mpchi]

www.hlj.com/product/TKT77245

Even an early bird is up at HLJ. That was quick!

[mpchi]

Pics from Toysdaily

What a surprise! Rabidlydog actually already arrived when I got home from work. So how was it? Very nice, but not without flaws.

The purple color is perfect, with a light sand grey airbrush sprayed all over, making the purple plastic with a soft light tone. Weathering is not bad, in quality similar to DMZ-01. However, the soft sand airbrush is all over all purple panels, making it very prone to scratches. It even came with some right out of the box, and really is quite unavoidable especially after some handling. Its quite a bit heavier than DMZ-01, partly due to the diecast claws and the slightly bigger size. No loose head dome or loose visor. While almost all joints are tight, the hips are looser compare to DMZ-01. Not real bad, but it made the figure harder to stand straight without holding the gun on the right hand because the claw on the left is weighing the figure down towards the left. When holding the gun, its much more balanced. The attachment of the backpack is also loose, making the backpack pops off quite often. You can add a piece of foam tape on the connection to give it more friction and stay more snug. The backpack is especially fun though. Awesome land mine dropping gimmick with retracting panels while you open or close the drop hatch. Buttons work well to trigger the drop. Though the reload hatch is harder to open without worrying scratching some paint with your nails. And the backpack swing joint lock for the down form is super tight. I almost thought I broke the thing when I finally got it swing all the way up. The claw is fun too, heavy and spring loaded, while the 'thumb' can be retracted to pop out the little cannon. The Chirico figure on the other hand is not so great. Same (sucky) microman body, but the helmet with clear visor wasn't executed very well on mine. Can barely see the eyes, and no painted blue hair inside where there is supposed to. Even worse, the Chirico head without helmet looks like a retard. The eyes were printed way too low on the face. Sad that this is supposed to be an improved version 2 Chirico. My version 1 actually looks better.

Here are some of my main gripes:

- Slightly loose hips & heavy claw made the figure somewhat harder to balance.
- Gun handle too small for the trigger hand to hold the gun securely. It wobbles a bit, even if you manage to keep the fingers from falling.
- Backpack hinge lock way too tight when you want to do down form.
- And here is the most disappointing one... They completely sealed the screw holes on the feet, making it almost impossible to take it apart without breaking something. Why? To stuff a whole bunch of coins to add weight to the feet, as well as tighten the loose ankle swivel joint that all DMZ has. This really hurts the playability of this figure as the added metal weight can let it do very extreme gliding poses, now not being able to do this simple mod like I did with DMZ-01. I managed to yank out the toes with a skinny screw driver without breaking it, while stuff as many dimes in there as I could (18 dimes each feet), sealed them with some kneaded eraser, then popped them back in. But the back of the feet is still hallow, so the effect is definitely not as good as my attempt on DMZ-01, which I basically filled the entire feet with dimes and pennies. This Rabidlydog definitely has fewer loose joints than my DMZ-01, but the way they tried to seal off some parts makes it harder, if not impossible to get those loose bit fixed, which is quite unfortunate. With the slightly unbalanced weight issue it has, it needs this mod even more than DMZ-01. Sigh...

Overall, still very happy with it, aside the sealed feet. The dog is great, with same level of execution as previous DMZs, while fixed some of the past issues. Chirico is more disappointing, but at least you get a new helmet. Especially when HLJ has it for 30% off, its definitely a great buy. (Still can't figure out why HLJ dropped the price of a new release like that).

[mpchi]

While not an ideal mod on the feet, with only added weight on the toes, it still helped on pulling some signature Votoms poses. It can lean pretty good as you can see. The weight of the claw did help on counter balancing in that pose. Imagine when both feet is fully stuffed!













As for the other fixes, I just left the backpack hinge lock unlocked. While it leaves a wide gap on the top of the backpack, it doesn't look bad. In terms of the hand, I did my usual super glue trick to thicken the finger pegs. Now they are pretty secure without being permanantly glued. While some foam tape are added on both sides of the gun handle. Now it even has soft cushy grip for Rabidly's comfort LOL. Now its pretty snug.





P.S. Real toy look more purple than these pics.

[KingboyD]

Can someone please enlighten me on the differences, besides size, between the 1/12 and 1/18 line? Is the 1/12 line all plastic with no real paint job to speak of, while the 1/18 includes metal, a nice weathered paint job, and figures? Are both lines recommended?

Also, how well do the Microman figures (designed for the Takara 1/18 sets) fit into the Yamato 1/12 bots? The Microman figures are about 1/3 the price of the Yamato figures. I personally find it hard to drop at least $35 for one of the 1/12 figures!

Thanks!

[mpchi]

kingboyd said:

Can someone please enlighten me on the differences, besides size, between the 1/12 and 1/18 line? Is the 1/12 line all plastic with no real paint job to speak of, while the 1/18 includes metal, a weathered paint job, and figures? Are both lines recommended? Thanks!

You are correct. Yamato's 1/12 is bigger, have some opening panels for inner mechanical details, and the whole thing is plastic with minimum to none painted decals. It does have stability issues from what I've heard, and have trouble holding the extra weapon sets that go with them, so its more for display than play. Though the pilot figures (sold separately) that match these are way nicer than the Takara micromans. Takara's 1/18 is smaller (around 10-11 inch tall, so still quite big) lacks inner details, but have some diecast (not a lot though) and gimmicks like spring loaded arm-punch and others. The construction is very sturdy with some strong ratchet joints, and the whole figure fully painted. Some models have weathering & painted decals, others have a clean paint job. The microman pilot kind of sucks on the face sculpt, but not too bad if you consider it a free accessory and put the helmet head on.

Overall, I feel that Takara's is a better buy (very highly recommended). Both are expensive, but you get a fully painted dog that is both a nice display and a fun toy to play from Takara. But if detail is your thing and it needs to be very big, Yamato is nicer on that, given you are going to take apart the thing and give it a full paint job. It was designed with that in mind. But now that Bandai released the much cheaper & more detailed 1/20 plastic model kit, I don't know if picking Yamato's to do a paint job is that great of a choice anymore. Yamato's line has been around the longest, so it sort of losing the battle, unless for collectors that already had been following the line and keep collecting the same 1/12 scale.

Takara is going to release a 1/18 Turbo Custom Scopedog. So you might want to take that into consideration, if you are not planning to get more than one.

Oh, and the microman won't look right in a 1/12 cockpit. Too small.

[KingboyD]

Thanks, mpchi. I just ordered a 1/12 Melquiya which I found on sale for pretty cheap. It was hard to pass up for that price. But all things being equal, I think I prefer the look of the Takara ones. I'll have to keep my eyes out for them.

[daltron]

Does anybody have a pic of the 1/12 and 1/18 side by side with figures?

[demizer]

kingboyd said:

Thanks, mpchi. I just ordered a 1/12 Melquiya which I found on sale for pretty cheap. It was hard to pass up for that price. But all things being equal, I think I prefer the look of the Takara ones. I'll have to keep my eyes out for them.

So did I and I'll bet you're why mine was delayed.But I wanted one of these since they came out,couldnt resist that price.

[Ben-Ohki]

demizer said:

kingboyd said:

Thanks, mpchi. I just ordered a 1/12 Melquiya which I found on sale for pretty cheap. It was hard to pass up for that price. But all things being equal, I think I prefer the look of the Takara ones. I'll have to keep my eyes out for them.

So did I and I'll bet you're why mine was delayed.But I wanted one of these since they came out,couldnt resist that price.

Heh heh, ditto here! I suspect we're all talking about the same place... placed an order this week for all the accessory packs - I can't wait (despite the likelihood I'll get dinged pretty bad on border fees and taxes).

[KingboyD]

Sorry guys, but if its any consolation, I LOVE mine!! I can post some pix if that would help until you receive yours.

This thing is HUGE and looks better than I expected, especially with the decals applied, although I imagine that the 1/18s will still look nicer. I too would love to see a comparison pic on size. To me, bigger is usually better!

I was considering picking up the standard green scopedog, too, but I really have to control spending. Plus I wanted to make sure I really liked this line before grabbing any more. Hopefully, the pilot figures will come down in price, too.