Banpresto Perfect Transformation Super Valkyrie
VF-1A/J/S“Cannon Fodder”
(Reviewed by Prometheum5)
(Last updated 21st February, 2006)
First let me start off by saying, these little guys can be a lot of fun, but are universally feared by Macross fans straight out of the box for their floppiness and delicate parts. Let’s take a magical ride and see if this one lives up to expectations.
Box:
With
not a lot of wasted space... really just enough air space to keep the toy safe
the way its packed.
The box is really one of the nicest parts of this toy. It’s made of sturdy
enough cardboard (think cereal box) and it looks really nice. The front is cutouts
to the clear plastic trays showing and labeling the Valk in Battroid mode, the
GU-11 Gunpod, and the Super Armor. The sides of the box are designed to look
like a side profile of the back boosters of the Super Armor, so they have carrier
designations and the missile doors on them, along with a skull squadron marking.
The back of the box shows Roy’s VF-1S regardless of what’s inside
the box, and in the corner are all three Valk heads, all shown from the Hikaru
set as shown by the red arrows and stripes. It’s a really nice display
piece all setup in the box, partially for clever design, partially because once
you get the toy out, you might wish you’d never opened the box.
Opening the box isn’t too bad; it’s all just taped shut and comes open easily. The one problem is that there is a string for store racks I assume, that blocks the opening, so you can’t remove the tray inside without cutting this string.
The box contents are as follows: -
One last thing I observed was that the fit of the blisters on the tray to the parts is very, very tight, making it difficult to get some of the armor parts out of the tray.
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Toy Overview: (Individual modes to follow)
Parts fit:
Valkyrie: Poor
to really bad. Fighter mode doesn’t stay well at all because the chest
plate and back plate don’t align properly, making the whole body do a
slight jog when viewed from the top. The tail fin backpack and flip up part
of the back plate are also incredibly loose and won’t stay in any pose
you put them in. The heat shield is removable and held on by one super tiny
tab, which means, not held on at all. You basically have to tape the heat shield
on if you want it there. The most feared part of a Banpresto, however, is the
shoulders. This PVC on ABS joint has the tensile strength and supportiveness
of a wet paper towel. The shoulders fall off if you look at them funny. If you
don’t touch it, it can look nice. Almost all the details and such are
accurate to the line art, you just can’t touch. One more problem is that
while the inclusion of all three heads is nice, it is a bear to remove one head
for another... the socket on the neck is impossibly tight, and you will fear
breaking the toy trying to remove the head.
FAST Packs and Super Armor: Weak.
The Boosters fit tightly onto the booster mounting plate, but the mounting plate
doesn’t site securely on the back of the Valk. The leg FAST Packs are
the best part of the, sliding on from the side.. Only problem is, they secure
with this large ugly white bracket on the front of the leg that also mounts
the landing gear, completely inaccurately. The arm armor is the worst, because
it actually simply will not stay on. It has little clips on both ends that try
to snug to the ends of the arms, but because the ends of the arms are rounded
and slightly longer than the clips are meant for, they don’t fit at all.
They were taped on for this review.
Paint:
Decent.
The paint is in all the right places, but there are lots of little over-sprays
and actually a small stray dot of black on the chest plate. The biggest problem
is the color consistency. The brown color used is simply wrong, looking much
more like a beige appropriate for the VF-1D. It gets worse because the molded
brown parts and brown paint are completely different. The tail fins, heads,
heat shield, wings, legs, and fuselage are a horrid fleshy color while the chest
plate, back plate, hips, and lower arms are the molded beige color. The feet
and intake covers are a sepia color, which seems too light for what they are.
The best part of the paint is the UN SPACY Decals on the legs and gunpod, which
are clean and look nice.
Materials:
ABS and PVC
PVC parts: Heads, hands, shoulders, wing bar (possibly,) gunpod,
tail fins, Booster mounting bracket, and possibly the feet (I’m not sure.)
One problem that arises is that the head antennae are PVC, making them incredibly
fragile because of their diameter.
ABS: Body, limbs, Super Armor, wings. One note, this is possibly
the cheapest ABS ever seen... really brittle and weak stuff.
Articulation:
Awesome! (If you can get it to hold together!) 2 ball joints in each shoulder, ball jointed hips, articulated elbows, knees, and feet (the feet have a really wide range of motion... better than a 1/48.) The potential is there for this to be a very dynamic and fun toy...
Battroid Mode: Right out of the gate, the hands don’t fit properly because the peg is too thick... meaning you have to cram them into the socket, only to have them pop back out again. The trigger grip hand is much too soft, so the gunpod constantly falls out. As stated above, the heat shield is a waste of time and the shoulders fall off very easily. This can, however, be a very fun toy if you can stand it... lots of articulation. Only problem is that the balance of the Battroid mode is iffy because it is top heavy, especially with the armor on.
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GERWALK Mode: The shoulders hit the wings a lot, so there is basically no shoulder articulation unless you completely sweep the wings back. When transformer exactly to the directions, the legs are ramrod straight at the hips, but if you don’t peg in the tab that holds the hip to the body piece (PICTURE), then you can have an incredibly dynamic GERWALK mode.... better than a Yamato. The Balance is also really good in GERWALK mode because of the low center of gravity and low weight of the toy.
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Fighter Mode: This mode is most solid out of all three because there are almost no moving parts to fall off! The fighter mode looks odd because of how far down the gunpod hangs due to the trigger handle. There are also no landing gear without the FAST Packs mounted. With the FAST Packs mounted, the landing gear don’t sit flat with the gunpod mounted because of how far low the gunpod sits. One more problem with the FAST Pack armor is that the leg mounting bracket is ever so slightly to long, warping the whole fighter mode, giving it an ‘arched back look.’ All that and, the painted canopy and big screw between the tail fins look like crap. Gunpod aside, the fighter mode does look really sleek and cool.
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Conclusion:
A
Banpresto toy is sort of like an underpriced blind hooker: good for a cheap
thrill, but frustrating in the long run.
Pros:
Articulation, 3 models in one box (S/J/A,) Perfect variable, swing
bar not too noticeable, accessories are a nice thought, toy looks nice from
a distance, the box displays well, extendable gunpod stock, and it’s cheap.
Cons: Cheap material, fragile beyond belief, floppy joints, falls apart easily, terrible parts fit, weak paint application and colors, landing gear too short to sit fighter with gunpod, delicate PVC parts, and awful heat shield.
Addendum:
Wait! It gets worse! While working on getting complete pictures for all three modes, the toy broke! Yes, in less than an hour it broke... one of the two brackets that holds the two body halves together broke where it connects to the back, meaning that the toy will never stay together again. I must admit, this one started out much better than any other Banprestos I’ve owned, being ever so slightly less floppy in the beginning, but in the end, it didn’t fail to deliver.
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Final conclusion:
Something
nice to glue in a pose and display on your desk at work with no fear of loss
for the price maybe, but no real play value.