MacrossJunkie

Finally got my armored Ozma 25S today.

I picked up my Armored 25S from the post office today. I know people said the box was big, but I didn't really realize how big until I had the box in my hands. At least it was big for a reason. It was fully packed with pieces. Here's my take on it: As far as the basic valk goes, it doesn't look like any real improvements have been made other than straighter head lasers (although mine still aren't perfectly straight, but still good enough). The wings still have that upward curve (which I thought was supposed to be fixed). The paint application is spotty quality with chips and scratches out of the box and stray bits of colors spattered on adjacent areas. The neck extender doesn't stay in very well and often times the head will pop off while fiddling with it. The sculpting of the armor seems a lot better than that of the VF itself. The edges and details seem more defined to me. I was impressed at the level of detail they put into the armor such as the bronze colored vents in the boosters and the little rivets in parts of the armor. However it seems inconsistent. It's like they spent a lot of time on certain areas and then they ran out of steam and decided to skip other details like the vents on the top part of the wing missile launchers or the leg mounted launchers. In many pictures I've seen, the armor looked greenish. I was happy to find out that isn't the case when looking at it in person. Some if the pieces like the knee armor I felt could have been a slightly darker color, but that's probably just my preference. The leg armor doesn't restrict the knee movement like the super packs do. There's a lot of clearance in the back to bend the legs. The hip armor however does seem to restrict movement a bit. At least the hip armor definitely clips on this time. It's very snug for both sides and isn't likely to pop off. I really hate the arm pieces though. It's as bad as the hip armor for the super packs from previous releases. They just keep falling off. Speaking of falling off, I had my 25S in battroid mode when I put on the armor pieces. Trying to transform it to fighter with the armor still on was one of the most frustrating things I've tried to do in a while. Pieces that aren't normally supposed to come off (like the knee armor and armor piece that partly cover the canopy) were popping off all over the place while trying to align pegs or reattach things. And reattaching one piece often caused another piece to come off in the effort. The next time I try to transform this thing, I'm just leaving the leg armor on sans launchers and leave the rest of the armor off and reapply after transformation. Kind of like cheating on a rubik's cube by taking all the stickers off and putting them back on. The armor hides most of the bad design of the toy in fighter mode. Also, I've always felt that the VF-25 seemed a bit small somehow compared to the other 1/60 valks I have. However, this sucker is huge with all the armor pieces on. It just looks massive in fighter mode. It's no longer a fighter, it's a mobile weapons platform. Despite some problems I have with it, I like the toy and am having a hard time deciding what mode to put it in as well as finding a space to display it.

Ouch... seriously? So in addition to the hips being too high for battroid causing the LERX to get in the way when posing the legs, the alternative method of using the GERWALK joint to move the legs forward is not possible either? Speaking of which, doesn't that make GERWALK mode difficult to do as well? The color of the armor has been bothering me a bit. The sculpt looks good though. I'll reserve final judgement when mine arrives.

I call that a gundam style transformation. Bend the legs, tuck in the arms a bit and stick a pointy shield over the head or crotch and voila! Instant "plane".

I guess they're just holding out for summer wonderfest.

As far as the Bandai DXs go, I already have the Armored Ozma custom pre-ordered and will pre-order the Quarter next month and then holding off on any further purchases of DX releases until they come out with a VF-27 or VF-171. I'm not satisfied with the VF-25 DXs enough to complete the quartet by getting Alto's VF, particularly the movie one which looks like Bobby got his hands on it while Alto was not looking. As for Yamato, I don't have any further immediate wants except to get a 1/60 VF-1D after it's gone down in price by maybe $10 or so. I guess I'm holding out for a VF-0D after that.

I think the reason retailers have gone so low on things like the SV-51 is because they weren't moving them out of inventory at the old price. I'm sure they figured it's better to just take a hit and drastically slash the price to get them sold off and at least get some money back rather than not selling them at all and having them just take up space in a warehouse, not because they can still make a profit out of it. And after that, you can probably bet that there won't be any further re-releases since it was so hard to sell off the current batch. I hope they are still able to sell the VF-11B at current prices for a while and are able to move inventory quickly enough. If they have to slash the prices just to get rid of them without having already sold a certain expected number, it would indicate to Yamato that there isn't much interest in the VF-11 and that would probably be the end of that. No repaints or other variants.

I think I would prefer a decently done 1/60 Konig Monster over a Mk II. A Mk II is still way bigger than a Konig. A 1/60 Konig would still be somewhat manageable. A 1/60 Mk II would just be ginormous. Plus, I love the fact that it can transform and still retain the look of its predecessor.

I think the saggy shoulders are because it looks like it's still just a painted resin prototype. Once it's closer to release, I'm sure they'll eventually show one in plastic. I wish Bandai had some competent people to display and transform their stuff. I really want to know if the leg will extend further at the knee or thigh since the "knee cap" goes up too high and makes the legs too short. But knowing them, as they did with the 25 DX, they will continue to make the same transformation mistakes even through the production version with sagged shoulders, unextended legs, and splayed out left foot just to keep us guessing until someone actually buys it and shows personal pics of it.

Does anyone know if Yamato had any Macross items on display at the show or was it only Bandai?

I appreciate the fact that, for once, the back of the leg armor actually rises up to the proper height past the back in fighter mode (even if it still can't without the armor). Other than some details missing here and there compared to the rendered cg art, it's got most of the detail down and the armor's proportions seem more accurate than the toy itself in comparison. At the very least it hides a good bit of the flaws in the toy's fighter mode. I'm going to have a hard time deciding what mode to display it in since I'm only going to bother getting one. Originally I was going to put it in battroid, but now, I think fighter looks pretty darn good as well.

In addition to hoping the shoulders can be angled upwards like in the show, I hope the feet can be positioned upright instead of how it has been kind of splayed out like in existing pics of the toy.

A 0D would rock. I held off on buying the Shin 0A because I have been hoping they would eventually make the D. And they also better include Edgar if they make it!

You would have a good point, but unfortunately they are also like that in the magazine scan that Graham posted back on page 33 which are definitely not individually re-scaled. Not that it matters too much in the end. I'd be getting the MQ for the toy itself and not the bonus minis... but it would still be nice if they were scaled properly.

I have no idea how big they are compared to the MQ toy, but those mini figs seem grossly out of scale with each other.

The YF-21 is hands down my favorite. It's sleek, I love the design, and the toy is so well made. The VF-22S is a close second. The downsides of it is overall, it's not as tight as the 21, I don't like the canopy and faceplate as much, and there's no where to store the gunpods in fighter mode, though that's not really Yamato's fault. Upside is I like the dark color and the look of the integrated guns and missile launchers on the bay doors.

I assume you mean the bay door cover attachment. What I was saying is that the joint in the yellow area in the pic is fine. It's nice and tight and stays in place. The area with the red oval is where it just flops around regardless of if it is pushed in or pulled out until it clicks. Neither of my 21s do that. They stay in place. Does any one else's kinda flop around or is mine just broken? And yes, both sides have that problem. On different note, I liked that bisecting line in the visor in the line art and since you can hardly see it in the toy, I just drew a line with a pen to make it more visible on mine. I think it helps a lot and doesn't make the visor look so oversized compared to when you couldn't see the line. I also found the white and yellow stickers a little too stark in contrast to the dark gray surface which made it look a lot more sticker-ish. So I took a GM02 gundam marker and stained the stickers to make them look more blended in with the darker areas.

Got my 22 today. I think the color and canopy looks better in person than it did in the pics and it's growing on me more. The plastic came with some scratches and uneveness in texture. a lot of parts are looser than the 21s I have. The legs, arms, wings, vertical stabilizers, and bay doors are all fairly loose in comparison. Particularly the bay covers when you pull them out to give more space between them and the legs in battroid mode. They flop around. Not the part that swivels but where the grey metal piece attaches to the covers and that you pull out until it clicks. That part doesn't seem to be attached firmly to the covers themselves and thus it causes the covers to flop around. The swivel joint in the knee area used in gerwalk is also fairly loose so it's hard to pose in that mode on a smooth surface. The knee joints themselves also don't have as much resistance and makes it harder than the 21 to pose in battroid. Overall, the whole thing just doesn't seem as tight. I'd have to say based on what I got, the first release 21s had much better QC than this 22. I don't know if it's because the molds got worse as they got used more or what. Don't get me wrong, it's not floppy by any means in comparison to the VF-0 releases. Just not as tight as my YF-21s. Strangely, the rear facing head turret on the 22 is a better match in color to the yellow stripes on the 21 and the turret on the 21 is a lighter color closer to the yellow on the 22. So I did a swap between the 22 and one of my 21s and it looks much better now for both.

it's up on Anime Export as well http://www.anime-export.com/u_productpage....rodotti_id=5395

Before or after Gamlin was done with it?

Thanks for the pic of the sheet. Hmmm, judging by stickers 3 and 4, are those hints that the Max and Milia variants are coming?

Great job on modifying the display cases. They look really good. You'll probably want to be careful with using those left over long pieces of glass as shelves. The figures and stuff should be okay, but careful with filling any left over shelves with heavy books. Not sure what the weight tolerance would be before it might start to crack.

Interesting. I wonder what they color changes they would be making. Is it really just color changes and not improvements to the paint applications? I hope the vf-27 or the 171 are coming soon now that they're pretty much done with all they can do with the 25's short of releasing the CF versions (can they be called CF since we never really see even a single one get shot down?) or making incremental improvements.

I still slightly prefer the closed, less bulbous canopy and more alien looking faceplate of the 21, but I'm really liking the color for the -22. Anyone got a pic of the sticker sheet? Also, is the sticker sheet more like the old style still like the 21's or the newer thin type. Awaiting for mine to arrive. Still won't be for a couple more days at least.

I took a few quick shots with the tailfins locked in place and landing gear extended. The lighting isn't that great, but you can see the clearance of the gunpod.