REVIEW OF YAMATO'S
VF-11B FAST PACK VERSION

INTRODUCTION

Ok, I know this review is very late (the toy was released in May 2003) but hey, Shawn is extremely busy with work and it’s taken me this long to get my head around learning Dreamweaver MX. Anyway, from now on toy reviews on Macrossworld should be much more frequent and timely, I promise……..Well, at least until my kid is born later this year, Ha, Ha, Ha!

As they say, onwards and upwards….or should that be downwards? Anyway, read on: -

BOX

The toy comes packaged in fighter mode, in the typical Yamato window box with clear plastic inner tray. No annoying twist ties thankfully. No real surprises with the box. It’s the same black box, made of flimsy card stock with photos of the toy on the sides and a photo-shopped image of the toy in action on the rear, that we all know and love (or hate), as the case may be.

TOY

The original VF-11B toy from Yamato quickly gained a poor reputation for being difficult to transform into fighter mode, especially in the shoulder area and for having a severe case of osteoporosis of the hip joint (extremely fragile hip joints). In some extreme cases, the hip joint broke right in the box before the toy had even been taken out! In others, the hip joint frequently broke after only a short while of gentle handling or a few transformations.

So has Yamato addressed these two major problems with the toy? Yes, I’m happy to report they have. The VF-11B FAST pack versions seems to fit together much more smoothly and easily when transforming to fighter mode.

And most importantly, Yamato has redesigned the fragile hip joints, by reinforcing them with a steel pin. I’m happy to report that more than half a year after the release of the toy, there has not been one reported case of hip joint breakage.

So what else ifs different with this toy compared to the original version? Well, it comes molded in a slightly lighter shade of grey plastic. It comes with FAST Packs (obviously) and the gunpod is painted in a lighter shade of green, plus you get a nicely sculpted pilot and the UN Spacy emblem is now Tampo printed on the wing, instead of being a sticker like on the original version. Apart from the aforementioned changes, the VF-11B is not much different from the original version.

FAST PACKS

The FAST packs consist of 2 packs for the back and two packs for the sides of the legs.

The leg FAST packs attach firmly to the outside of the lower leg by means of a small peg on the back of the pack, which plugs into a hole located on the lower leg of the toy and also by clipping over the lower leg ventral fins. The leg FAST packs attach firmly and will not fall off accidentally during normal handling. The leg FAST packs don't feature much detail, but they are fairly accurate to the official lineart.

The back FAST Packs attach via two clips on the underside, which connect to the toy's back thrusters. The back FAST packs attach very firmly, yet are easily removed when needed.

However, I'm not at all happy with the appearance of the back FAST packs. They are very inaccurate. Not only is the overall length too short (in battroid mode you can barely see the tops of the FAST backs from the front), but they are also too skinny. If you look at the line art of the VF-11's FAST packs, you can see they should be much wider. Also, the micro-missile launcher section is the wrong shape and should have more of a pronounced hump just before the twin top-mounted verniers, Also, the four rear bell-shape thrusters are far too small.

The FAST packs are fully compatible with the VF-11B first version.

PILOT

A beautiful pilot sculpt in my opinion, even though he is lacking legs below the knees. Certainly the best pilot figure Yamato has released for their smaller scale VF toys.

CONCLUSION

A big improvement over the first release. However, in my opinion, the VF-11B is one Valk that really would benefit from a total redesign. Yamato's present sculpt has several areas which detract from it's appearance, namely the ugly die-cast metal should bars in battroid mode and the lumpy wing pivot hinges, which really spoil the sleek appearance of the toy in fighter mode. And of course, the tail fins need to be much larger.

If you like the VF-11B, but were scared off buying the first version by the horror stories of broken hips, then fear not the FAST pack version is much more durable.

Graham
18-Feb-2004

BATTROID	GERWALK	FIGHTER

INSTRUCTIONS & STICKERS	BOX	PILOT & MISC.