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Official Bandai 1/60 Scale DX Toy Thread Ver.3


Graham

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which sucks! the design is awesome bandai just really killed it, its just really annoying. I mean why not just share the love on this license thing, which will have competition and toys will improve better, because of it, for example the mospeada alot of company took on this line and tried to make it the best in design in order to sell to the crowd. I hate bandai coz they are just plain greedy thats the way how i see it. its like the macross 7 line I would love to see a better toy for this. Its just plain irritating how they ruined a beautiful valk. I really hope bandai can see all the ranting of people and making them suffer for trying to mod their valks to look better. this toy is not worth the money it should be cheaper for this quality,I'd say this toy should only be $40-$50. yeah its sturdy but it still sucks. The 1/100 toy should only cost around $18 with all that part swapping.

As much as I agree, there's nothing we can do. The fact is we won't be getting an accurate VF-25 anytime soon or ever. I hope I'm wrong and some miracle happens and Bandai does make a revision or they let Yamato take a crack at it.

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to be honest i'm still really disappointed with this toy i know this still could have been done a lot better i feel like they just did like a rush job and try to sell as much as possible then move on. its just so in accurate in every aspect. its true though they did a good job at packaging. saves up tons of space wish yamato can learn from that save shipping and everything. Over all I still think yamato should have done this job, coz I know they care about being accurate. one more thing wish the license is not just for bandai alone, I hope that other companies can do a take at this line and do justice on it.

One day if Bandai put Macross series into soul of chogokin, the VF series will become perfect. :lol:

Because VF-25 is not in soul of chogokin series, it is still not perfect.

In my opinion, the elite design group in Bandai only desgins soul of chogokin series.

Other series just for junior toy designers to increase their experience.

Anyway, Bandai still gives us a good toy for play not for display.

Not like Yamato Macross series, you need play it carefully, otherwise you will need to order spare part for your skull team.

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One day if Bandai put Macross series into soul of chogokin, the VF series will become perfect.

I think that's the standard I was pretty much expecting when it was announced that Bandai would handle these. Instead, I feel like they gave Frontier the Powerrangers Megazords treatment...

Then again - we'll see what I say when I actually get mine.

Pete

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Great, waited soooo long to get my VF-25F, and the left arm felt right out of the toy. Upon inspection, it is the screw holding together the shoulder that have broke in half. Can't seem to be able to get it out. I am so disappointed.

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No more small lo-res stock photos of the VF-25G. Amiami.com has finally uploaded the full set of hi-res stock photos.

Thanks for the pics. I've been sitting on the sidelines watching the new VF-25 toys for a while. Heck, I haven't even watched MFrontier yet.

(ducks from thrown tomato)

But thanks to this blue valk, I'm biting.

Besides, Valks are best in blue. Max's VF-1J, YF-21, etc :ph34r:

Edited by Warmaker
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Ok I'm feeling pretty stupid, just got my Ozma and I can't get it to stand in gerwalk mode properly. The feet and ankles seem to floppy and wont hold a position. I can get it to stand without falling over only with the fuselage parallel to the ground. Anyone have any tricks or ideas what I am doing wrong? Is it fairly sturdy in this mode...or does it require delicate balancing? Thanks for any help

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Ok I'm feeling pretty stupid, just got my Ozma and I can't get it to stand in gerwalk mode properly. The feet and ankles seem to floppy and wont hold a position. I can get it to stand without falling over only with the fuselage parallel to the ground. Anyone have any tricks or ideas what I am doing wrong? Is it fairly sturdy in this mode...or does it require delicate balancing? Thanks for any help

it's a balancing act. the pegs on the intakes have to be disconnected and you have to meddle with the legs and feet to achieve a decent looking A stance.

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Great, waited soooo long to get my VF-25F, and the left arm felt right out of the toy. Upon inspection, it is the screw holding together the shoulder that have broke in half. Can't seem to be able to get it out. I am so disappointed.

It's an easy fix (if there is a little stub left, to grab onto and twist out): Replace the screw.

First, try to twist out the broken piece of the screw - I used a pair of pliers to do this. Try to grab onto the broken piece as hard as possible, then twist & turn as if removing any other screw.

The pliers kept slipping off, so a tight grip is needed.

For a replacement screw:

- Either ask at a hardware store

- Or use a screw from another toy/figure. It may be hard to find the right one, though - I used a small screw which was located on the back of the head of a very old Bandai VF-17.

The second casualty. I wonder how many others are defected.

Edited by OmegaD3k
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It will be interesting to see how many VF-25DX toys suffer from this problem and if certain MWers come down as hard on Bandai as they have on Yamato. I suspect not, as Bandai seems to get cut more slack around here.

Graham

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It will be interesting to see how many other toys suffer from this problem and if certain MWers come down as hard on Bandai as they have on Yamato. I suspect not, as Bandai seems to get more slack.

Graham

Indeed, Yamato has, admittedly, a whole first run of V2 1/60s that suffer from cracked shoulders... That are easily fixed with a dab of super glue. But there is rending of garments, and people begin making claims that they will "never buy a V2 1/60 (or a Yamato product) ever again!". (Let's not forget that "putting a dab of superglue on a crack" is considered an extremely high level of "do-it-yourself" modding/repairing in this case)

Yet, the Bandai suffers from an issue that's an actual problem (breaking screws) and yet, it's not the garment-rending issue it would be with a Yamato, it's as simple as "Oh yeah, just pull the stub of a screw out, get a new one from the hardware store and you're good as new." Which, if anyone is taking notes, IS a high level of do-it-yourself repairing.

I guess it just goes to show, you just can't win for trying :( I'm always surprised Yamato has stuck it out this long. Must be the Japanese fans (the only ones they really HAVE to care about) are much kinder and realize the service they are doing for them ^_^

Vostok 7

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Indeed, Yamato has, admittedly, a whole first run of V2 1/60s that suffer from cracked shoulders... That are easily fixed with a dab of super glue. But there is rending of garments, and people begin making claims that they will "never buy a V2 1/60 (or a Yamato product) ever again!". (Let's not forget that "putting a dab of superglue on a crack" is considered an extremely high level of "do-it-yourself" modding/repairing in this case)

Yet, the Bandai suffers from an issue that's an actual problem (breaking screws) and yet, it's not the garment-rending issue it would be with a Yamato, it's as simple as "Oh yeah, just pull the stub of a screw out, get a new one from the hardware store and you're good as new." Which, if anyone is taking notes, IS a high level of do-it-yourself repairing.

I guess it just goes to show, you just can't win for trying :( I'm always surprised Yamato has stuck it out this long. Must be the Japanese fans (the only ones they really HAVE to care about) are much kinder and realize the service they are doing for them ^_^

Vostok 7

ok, here you go:

This is absolutely RIDICULOUS! what kind of crap is bandai trying to pull?!? It wasn't enough to make an ugly, chunky, poorly articulated, shiny plastic abortion of a product and sell it for $100+. no they just had to go for the gold standard A game of suck and ship it with a inherent defect that will cause catastrophic failure. at least with Yamato products you get something that looks good even if it runs the risk of breaking. If Bandai is going to try and push there chucky crap on us by saying it's more durable, then the should probebly make it strong enough to not BREAK RIGHT OUT OF THE F***IN' BOX!

maybe Bandai's banking us being complacent and gullable enough to just accept it, but I'll tell you this much, there not getting one measly cent out of me until they get there act together and make a halfway decent product! :angry: :angry:

[/angry tirade]

there you go, now we've got angry totaly blown out of perportion rating all around.

by the way, if you've got these and haven't had any breakages yet, "take you're toy and loosen a screw" is a lot lower on the hassle meter that "be very careful and regularly inspect you're toy and if you're lucky you'll be able to attempt a repair with glue before the whole arm falls off." :rolleyes:

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You know better than that. At least two real-world examples come to my mind. I'm sure you could think of more.

You're right, I do know better. Just not at that moment when I posted. (though I'm still trying to determine if the F-14's are perfectly vertical or canted--I could swear they were angled like 2 degrees but everything I can find looks vertical--I'll have to go through my DACO book tomorrow)

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I can't believe it.

is Macross CURSED?

I mean - does every single Macross mecha product HAVE TO have a defect, independent of who produces it?

I never complained about Yamato, always liked and bought their stuff, even if sometimes I had a defective one.

Still - if anything, I was looking forward to this NOT being a problem with Bandai...

Add to this the somewhat cheap plastic feel (particularly around the rear-wing area) and the lasers/neck problem on Ozma...

These figures are moving further and further down my list of priorities.

Such a same, as Frontier is such a beautiful anime.

Deserves better really.

Pete

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I noticed that on the VF-25G fighter with the SP, the legs sit even lower than the non SP. Is it yet another a mis-transformation or did Bandai f*** up again? The general belief is that they made the legs lower in order to fit the fast packs to give it a proper look right? So WTF??

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I can't believe it.

is Macross CURSED?

I mean - does every single Macross mecha product HAVE TO have a defect, independent of who produces it?

I never complained about Yamato, always liked and bought their stuff, even if sometimes I had a defective one.

Still - if anything, I was looking forward to this NOT being a problem with Bandai...

Add to this the somewhat cheap plastic feel (particularly around the rear-wing area) and the lasers/neck problem on Ozma...

These figures are moving further and further down my list of priorities.

Such a same, as Frontier is such a beautiful anime.

Deserves better really.

Pete

I wouldn't say it's limited to Macross.

The sad fact is, gone are the days of mostly die-cast and ABS Japanese Robots that could fall off a two story building and still look minty fresh (except for all the paint chipping off the die-cast :lol: ). But of course, we remember those toys fondly but forget they were horribly inaccurate monstrosities that were built like tanks.

Now-a-days, those kids are grown up and when they want a "toy" they want it to be much more accurate than those original toys were. This means a change in philosophy on design and materials usage. Look at Yamato's evolution in their Macross line and you will see what I mean.

But I think one of the biggest reasons is the move of manufacturing to China. Now, I should preface this by saying I am not one of those mooks who thinks that we shouldn't buy anything from China. But the fact is, comparing a "Made in Japan" toy to a "Made in China" one, you will see big differences in quality. The best way to see this is to compare old original Bandai and Takatoku Chunky Monkeys (which were made in Japan) to the more modern reissues by Bandai (which are made in China) and you will see what I mean. VASTLY different levels of quality, and we're talking about the exact same designs and nearly the exact same material usages! The biggest reason for this is the Japanese tend to have pride in workmanship, because of their culture. So you see this expressed in products made in Japan. (not that cheap crappy products aren't made in Japan just the same as China, but the tendency is for Japanese products to be of better quality) You can see this illustrated well in the quality of Japanese cars when they were made exclusively in Japan versus when they began building building them in America and other countries as well as Japan.

That's not to say that Chinese manufacturers can't do a good job, it's just that compared to a Japanese manufacturer for the same product, the Chinese workers have to be watched over like a hawk by a supervisor that actually gives a darn. In the case of Japanese products, that usually means sending over a few Japanese supervisors to crack the whip a little bit.

And it's not just the toy industry. I work in an industry that deals closely with the Chinese in what has now become one of their biggest markets (electronics). The industry I'm in is somewhat of a niche industry in electronics, but my company has the distinction of being one of the companies that sells TO China (mostly because they haven't figured out how to copy what we do... Yet. And they have tried!). As good as they are at whipping out electronic products like you wouldn't believe, when it comes to the processes that my company deals with, the Chinese manufacturers were in essentially the stone age less than 10 years ago. They were using processes that at that time was over twenty years old! And the craziest thing about it, they were happy trucking along with the huge losses they were getting from using inferior equipment in those processes, because they just didn't care. And partially, because they didn't know better.

So no, I don't think Macross is cursed. I think the whole toy industry is cursed. In some ways, it's very much a parallel to the automotive industry in a lot of ways when you think about it. And like the automobile industry, there's no way to fix it. (Well, at least the Automotive industry could abolish unions and that'd be a big step forward but it still wouldn't change one major deciding factor: Worker motivation)

And thus ends my Pete-channeling diatribe. I'll go back to one to two line posts now ^_^

Vostok 7

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Just got my VF-25F from Angolz... Thanks for nothing, UK Customs! They actually opened the box to check in insides and wrecked the box--Luckily the toy is ok. Haven't transformed it yet though. Initial thoughts-- when I open my Yamato toys, there's a big WOW because they are just so pretty-- Bandai doesn't do that for me. The shiny plastic is about the same as my 1/72 Yamato VF-11B, and the rest of the toy seems to be at the same level-- good, but not great. Hopefully my shoulder doesn't fall apart on me-- shall try transforming it now.

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It's an easy fix (if there is a little stub left, to grab onto and twist out): Replace the screw.

First, try to twist out the broken piece of the screw - I used a pair of pliers to do this. Try to grab onto the broken piece as hard as possible, then twist & turn as if removing any other screw.

The pliers kept slipping off, so a tight grip is needed.

For a replacement screw:

- Either ask at a hardware store

- Or use a screw from another toy/figure. It may be hard to find the right one, though - I used a small screw which was located on the back of the head of a very old Bandai VF-17.

The second casualty. I wonder how many others are defected.

Well, my case is a little toughter than yours. My screw broke inside the shoulder casing, and there is nothing to grab on to unscrew it out. To get it out I have to do reverse tapping on a 1.5mm screw that is made out of high strength steel. Not an easy fix. Either that or send it back and wait 5 wks to see another one again.

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You're right, I do know better. Just not at that moment when I posted. (though I'm still trying to determine if the F-14's are perfectly vertical or canted--I could swear they were angled like 2 degrees but everything I can find looks vertical--I'll have to go through my DACO book tomorrow)

That's the stuff. Yeah, F-14 was one that I thought of. Even if it does cant a few degrees, I figured it was close enough to vertical to rate a comparison to a toy. The other was the Su-27/30. I think that has to be vertical because of the stabilators. And really, that just happens to be about the extent of my knowledge. I generally don't know nuthin' 'bout no aero-planes. ^_^

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Ok, got it, and transformed it once-- I shall try to collate some of the minor tips that I've been reading on these forums, forgive me if I don't give due recognition to the inventor of the tips and throw in some of my own thoughts.

For the shoulder issue, I think the problem (at least from fiddling with my kit) is that the left shoulder ball joint is a LOT tighter than the right shoulder ball joint-- so to prevent any breakages loosening the screw of the hinge joint wont make a difference-- what you need to do is to hold the hinge joint to prevent any stresses on it when moving the left arm-- or else the screw in the hinge joint will be overstressed and crack.

My right shoulder ball joint, on the other hand, is as loose and floppy as my left shoulder ball joint is overly tight. This is either a QC issue or a problem with the tolerances on the moulds. Similarly, my left rear landing gear is loose while my right rear landing gear is overly tight.

The landing gear could have very easily been made longer-- the attachment point for the front landing gear is too far inside the toy which makes it look short-- if they moved it lower and closer to the outside the landing gear could easily be like the 1/100 model kit. The rear landing gear could also have been made longer using the YF-21 solution--rotating by 90 degrees so they lie flat in the bay. Because of this bit of laziness or misdesign by Bandai, the whole line is affected, especially the upcoming VF-25G, which will have no way of mounting the sniper rifle in fighter mode because of the poor ground clearance.

Also, I find that I like my figure more when the ventral tail fins are hidden-- they are just disgraceful!

On the good points, like I said, the gloss is reminiscent of the Yamato 1/72s, so its not too bad, and I like how everything locks together with tabs and studs-- this is especially important for the complicated wing glove area which is so troublesome on the 1/72 model kit but locks together nicely on the DX.

So far, nothing has broken yet so thats good (albeit I just got mine today and haven't played with it much)

Finally, some tips on getting your 'Perfect transformation' DX. There are two main issues with the DX, one of which is the Karate chop fighter hands and the other is the Gunpod holder in fighter mode. The need to swap these two parts prevent the DX from being more PT. However, because the hands are made of PVC as well, they can be compressed slightly to fit in the shield, so if you have the right hand that holds the gun and the left hand fist attached, they still fit into the shield in fighter so you can leave them on. This is in comparison to the model kit where the hands are of different widths and can never fit into the shield. Also, the gunpod holder in fighter mode can attach to the inside of the shield in battroid mode-- you orientate it so that the top of the Y is inside the shield, and the rounded off bit at the tail is pointing towards you-- the squared off bit at the tail will fit nicely in the slot in the shield and keep the piece in place-- taadaa! PT!

Edited by edwin3060
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That's the stuff. Yeah, F-14 was one that I thought of. Even if it does cant a few degrees, I figured it was close enough to vertical to rate a comparison to a toy. The other was the Su-27/30. I think that has to be vertical because of the stabilators. And really, that just happens to be about the extent of my knowledge. I generally don't know nuthin' 'bout no aero-planes. ^_^

Damn I should've instantly remembered the SU-27! Time to memorise my aircraft recognition charts again :(

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Well, my case is a little toughter than yours. My screw broke inside the shoulder casing, and there is nothing to grab on to unscrew it out. To get it out I have to do reverse tapping on a 1.5mm screw that is made out of high strength steel. Not an easy fix. Either that or send it back and wait 5 wks to see another one again.

High strength steel? This must be a misnomer if it's sheering in an unhandled plastic toy.

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