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Denver, 5:52 AM
Tue Dec 1
64 posts in the last 24 hours
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05/20/09
05/20/09
05/20/09
05/20/09
It was HORRIBLE.
I really was expecting better, but I guess that's my fault for expecting something from a 20 year old game.
Controls felt clunky as hell
05/20/09
05/20/09
-- They are not sturdy an get knocked over very easily. The only way around this is copious amounts of blu-tack, which is unsightly.
-- Joints become lose with minimal use. Indeed, the Saturn lid is the worst, resulting in the CD dropping out constantly.
-- They come with interchangeable parts, yet parts will often break when you attempt to remove them, even with minimal force. Now poor of Fei-Yen will forever have an open hand.
-- They fade ridiculously easily, even when not in direct sunlight.
They honestly have the quality of a $5 action figure, not a $50 model. I seriously would recommend that everyone avoid purchasing one.
05/20/09
To be honest, all that just makes me wonder whether you really know what the kind of people who usually buy $50 models expect from them.
I mean, just for starters the expected use involves painting them, which means any fading isn't the fault of the model kit manufacturer. Most modellers I've known will pick one set of optional parts and one pose and leave the kit on display like that, so joints becoming loose or options being hard to swap in are pretty irrelevant complaints.
No insult intended, but it sounds like what you wanted was a $50 action figure, not a model kit at all.
05/20/09
Not all people actually feel comfortable painting them beyond a little detail work/panel lining. In addition just because "most" people "you know" just pose their models with one set of parts doesn't mean others don't like to swap parts and repose it occasionally.
Just because you've decided to make assumptions over what you think most people who buy these do with them doesn't mean you can wave away manufacturing faults. Even though quite a lot of people that buy this will repaint it that doesn't exactly excuse the fact that the plastic is poor and prone to fading.
05/20/09
Really, I'm just saying that the 'faults' described above are common to the majority of model kits of this type. (Well, I guess it's not so common to see all of those problems in the same kit at the same time, but none of them are rare alone.)
It's like complaining that you bought a crystal glass salad bowl and it broke when you turned it upside down and used it as a stool to change the lightbulb. Most bowls happen to be pretty strong, so maybe other glass bowls have worked for you when changing lightbulbs in the past, and maybe other manufacturer's glass bowls wouldn't have broken. Hell, maybe you have a family tradition of using upturned bowls for stools and so do all your friends and this is the first time one has broken - none of that changes the fact that "making it strong enough to stand on" isn't one of the normal design parameters for a crystal glass bowl.
Model Kits are different from figurines, statuettes, action figures or whatever. If the plastic fades significantly or the options are hard to swap in on an action figure, it's a reasonable complaint; if you're painting a kit, though - which is the expectation, just look at the pictures on the outside of the box - then who cares what colour the plastic is underneath?
From a practical point of view, it's probably not worth it for the manufacturer to risk the potential lost sales from jacking the price up so they can use more expensive UV-fast dyes. Making plastic kit moulds for relatively niche interests (military/trains > Gundam > insert-video-game here) is already an investment risk.
05/20/09
It's the way I remember it damn it!
05/20/09
05/20/09
05/20/09
I'VE GOT ENOUGH M.I.B's HANGING ON MY WALLS. I MUST RESIST.