Lord_Of_Tetris

To anyone that has theirs already: How necessary is it to detach the legs? Does keeping the legs attached on the bar completely negate hip articulation?

Uh. It really doesn't fill me with confidence that those images for the VF-31J KO preorder are actually of Bandai's 1/72 model kit...

Oooooooh, cool, whew. I feel stupid. It was late last night, and I thought the blue orb was the WHOLE pilot figurine. BAHAHAHAHA. I find it ironic that the pilot figure is so many pieces, for ease of painting, yet large portions of the jet are one solid piece. It looks like the "heads" are the top 1/4 of the head and it's the same piece as the fuselage, which will make it very difficult to paint.

Uh. Maybe I'm missing something. In what way is this a pilot figurine? I just see a blue orb of some sort with a peg on it.

Uh. The plot thickens. The original poster seemingly returned and deleted all of his earlier posts.

So uh. I know I'm late to the party. But, uh, I just got my Bandai DX YF-19. The head laser is just fine (yay!), but one of the tail fins falls off if you so much as stare at it. Has anyone found a solution to this problem?

Question. Anymoon's review says: "Both the VF-19Advance and YF-19 come with very stiff hips that have led to people breaking them. I encourage you during your first transformation to unscrew the two screws on the hip and then remove the housing and loosen the two screws you’ll find underneath it. Doing this will make completing transformation easier and make it less likely you’l break your toy’s hip some day. " Can someone demonstrate this with photos? I ordered a YF-19. It hasn't arrived yet, but I want to be ready when it arrives.

Whew! I'm glad it's only going to be more-or-less the cost of a VF-2SS HMR. I got the $300 price tag from one of the first posts in this thread that had a price tag on it. Speaking of which, why does that post have a price tag of $300?

So...uh...is it really going to be $300? I had no problem paying ~$150 for a Hi-Metal R VF-2, but that was really pushing it. If this costs $300, that's more than a DX Chogokin VF-31 figure...

It seems that Bandai is using the same marketing tactics of the third-party Transformer companies, which reveal frustrating "teaser" images that are intentionally blurred, pixelated, or ridiculously zoomed in so all you see is, like, a hinge and a joint. That figure could be anything. Tekkaman Blade?

Hmm. Personally, I think the VF-31 is the best engineered transforming jet toy I've ever handled, but I also admit it's not my favorite design. With some of the more-recent Valkyrie designs, it really doesn't look like it should be able to fly. For example, the YF-19 and VF-31, in Gerwalk mode, have their wings connected to the body of the jet by some very-thin wing kibble. I'm fine with suspension of disbelief, but if I think too hard about it, it looks like flying too fast or making too sharp a turn would snap off the wings. By contrast, the VF-1's wings (in Gerwalk mode) are connected to the body just as strongly as the connection in fighter mode, and so it looks like something that can actually fly and maneuver. The insect-like design is...eh...an acquired taste. When I first saw the head of Messer's VF-31F, my first thought was, "What? I'm NEVER buying that...Waspinator-like...THING." Shrug. It's now one of my favorite Valkyrie head designs. I like the uniqueness. It still reminds me of Waspinator, but hey, Waspinator is awesome, so...shrug. The large wing kibble is...eh...something I can live with. For better or worse, the Macross jet designs don't transform the wings, per se, but more like the wings fold away somewhere. (To illustrate: Studio Series Starscream transforms the wings in various places, and Starscream's robot mode doesn't have huge chunks of wing kibble hanging off it). The Valkyries that best fold away the wings (in my opinion) are the VF-17, YF-21, and VF-11. Pretty much every other Valkyrie has a huge wing kibble problem. The VF-0, VF-1, and VF-2 have the wings folded up in the back like a large board. The animation cheats it with some mass-shifting wings, but even then, seeing such a large wing backpack on a toy makes it look very impractical. The YF-19 has huge wing kibble on its thighs. It looked cool in the 1990s, and it still looks cool today, but having it on a toy really shows you how impractical it is. Seems pretty easy in combat to, say, grab the YF-19's wing kibble and tear it off the thigh and bam, it can't fly anymore. Heck, it seems pretty likely in combat to accidentally break off the YF-19's wing kibble. The VF-31's wing kibble...eh...isn't that much worse than most other Valkyries. It's impractical, but not moreso than the VF-1 with a board behind its thighs, or the YF-19 with huge kibble that can break off or an enemy can grab. It looks to me that it's pretty easy to shoot at a VF-31, miss, but hit the huge wing kibble. Bam, can't fly anymore. But.....ehhhh..........I'm pretty good at suspending my disbelief. I don't mind impractical designs if it at least looks cool. I don't need mecha to actually look like real combat machines (though that would be nice), as long as it looks convincing enough in the animation. I grew up with Transformers, Gundam, and Robotech. Off the top of my head, I have no problem with Starscream, Blitzwing, or the Arialbots walking around with gigantic wing kibble on their backs. Shrug. It looked cool. Omega Supreme walked around with half-circles of train tracks on his shoulders, but it looked cool. Plus, have you seen certain Gundams? Wing Zero Custom's angel wings. Yikes! Seems like any sensible bad guy army should just bum-rush Wing Zero Custom and tear off its wings, but nobody ever does. My point is, I'm willing to look the other way if the robot looks cool and convincing enough, and I think the VF-31 passes that test. Plus, the positioning of the VF-31 wing kibble kind of reminds me of the Hyaku-Shiki from Z Gundam.

Uh. What depressor tabs?

It's official. I'm dumb. I've had the toy for YEARS and never knew about that. Thanks!

So uh. I feel kind of dumb, because I've owned my VF-19 Advance for over a year and I've transformed it several times already. But, uh, the gun points slightly downward in fighter mode. Is there any moving part on the gun pod so that it points more straight in fighter mode? Is there an add-on part that holds the gun pod more straight? Or is the gun pod simply a piece with no moving parts, and it's supposed to point slightly downward in fighter mode? I feel odd reviving an old thread, but I don't have a Bandai YF-19, so I didn't want to post this in that thread.

Could it be that the YF-19 is going through some mold degradation issues? When a Transformer toy is reissued with slightly different tooling, or in different colors, there eventually becomes a noticeable drop in fidelity. There's a subtle degradation as parts sometimes don't fit as flush, or pegs are a bit loose. I have a Bandai VF-19 Advance. Is it fun to transform? BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! NO! But once you get it into each mode, everything lines up. Every peg pegs in with perfect tolerance.