ComicKaze

Just waiting for Capt. Rico to post...

The reason why smokescreen was given the scheme he was given, was because the original smokescreen was also based loosely off a real race car I think. Smokescreen was based upon the Electramotive Devendorf Datsun 280ZX Turbo Racer in the bottom corner of this picture.

FD3S > NSX anyday in my book. The NSX is just a piece of aluminum on wheels. It's beautiful, but it's performance is sub-par for the price. The performance of exotics doesn't even count in my book anymore, as many have been eclipsed by the Lancer Evolution. Recent runs by Top Gear Television in the UK have had the Evolution beat out almost all exotic cars they've tested on the track, even the Lamborghini Murcialago.

What's ironic is the original Autobot RX-7, Camshaft shouldn't technically have any cams.

Although personally, I hate ricers and tuning crap, I can't resist a Silvia. BT Smokecsreen is pretty much entirely diecast on the outside. Feels like any other 1:24 diecast car...Except that he can open his trunk while many others can't!

Vroom Vroom!

Same here. A really easily broken spacecraft.

Guys, this is only $9.99. This is very cheap for anything on ebay. No need to blow it out of proportion. This is indeed a rare part and it could be the last thing somebody needs to complete their 1/55. Sure Chunkies have lost most of their lustre but remember, that 1/55 Supers used to sell for $1000. Since this is a Jetfire part, it is actually very cheap for Transformers parts.

I really wonder how that VF-19 got there. Because you said VF, that can't be a Yamato. Maybe it is a bootleg? Is it a real Bandai VF-19? Fire Valk or Blue Blazer?

I too am craving news but the companies are very tight-lipped these days and even Graham's contact can't say much to him. If you really want news, I'd suggest you hire a ninja or a Solid Snake/Sam Fisher type and do some espionage.

Yamato states its replacement service does not offer heads. And the rest of the replacement service has pretty much useless now.

One caveat...the fast packs aren't that blue, but a greenish color when you take them out of the box.

So are Takatoy's stickers and Anazazi's water-slide decals? Which would you recommend?

Strangely, I don't need this part at all. There is absoletely no tension on it, meaning that it is not carrying any weight or supporting anything. It just falls out when the Valk is turned upside down. The fast-packs are megatight without them. VF-1S Hikaru improvement?

Wow, all you need now is to stencil a red STi onto the intercooler. What bugs me about Smokes though, is his nose is really too fat and high for an STi. It's really bulgy if you know what I mean. Compare it to the picture of the Rally Impreza included in the manual. I think a solution might be to get rid of all the annoying "bling bling" chrome in the front. I was thinking of cutting away the chrome under his bonnet and on the bumper intake leaving a little peg to hold the Subaru logo. Then maybe add some fine black mesh behind it. Would also need to color the hood vent in front of the scoop black and the scoop also needs a lip. Good luck with your other mods. Would you consider cutting away his chrome grille?

Ah damnit I forgot what that is called. Its not blue it has soemthing to do with the CCD chip that digital cameras use to capture light. Its an error in processing. Liek cheap shitty digital cameras, if you take a picture of soemthing black it doesnt come out black you get other speccks of color thats what that blue thing is Oh but it has to do with light not shadows. Yes, what is that called anyway? I hate how all my digital pictures have all these rainbows of colors specs all over the place. How do I minimize them?

I guess my 1/48 froze in transport and the glue was weakened or something because a different panel fell off my wing. I guess this helps Yamato mold the hardpoints. Just thought I'd post it because I haven't seen anybody show this piece before. Might help some customizers if they want to add internal detail to the wings or maybe mount lights or modify the hardpoints. It's a ready made panel that can be opened or displayed as a maintenance hatch or a new aileron/airbrake or just let you access the hardpoints.

The hinge still reaches the backplate. You are missing a crucial step in the transformation where the backplate does something you don't expect - it locked INWARDS toward the Valkyrie instead of being pulled out. Just push it in until it clicks on two tabs so it is indented. That locks the arm tighter and keeps the fastpacks tighter.

None in Canada here. What are the other Galaxy Defender bots?

Those are definetely illegal. Can you imagine the legal fracas Nintendo would have to engage itself in to aquire the liscense and rights to these games -which while originally published for use on the NES/Famicom- ARE the intellectual property of their respective developers and liscense holders. Nintendo would never even farm out licenses for their own in-house Nintendo games like Mario, Tennis, Zelda, etc. because they are selling them for $5-$10 a pop for the GBA EZ-card reader. And of course they are shaped like N64 controllers. Bootleggers copy everything.

That's much too sad. There are definetely major QC issues with many of my parts including factory dents in the plastic and the worst...warped plastic on the backpack.

YAMATO DOES NOT AND WILL NEVER MAKE MPCS! That's blasphemy!!!

It's not tight, my arms fall out too. It's just a design problem. No giant tab like on the 1/60s

Are you guys pushing in the backplate TWICE? It locks deeper than it normally does in fighter mode. Then you use the tab on the tailfin. The extra piece was pretty useless for me, but that may be because of improvements on the Hikaru 1S.

Sorry guys, I didn't see this pinned topic here and I made another thread elsewhere so I'll just transcribe my problem here. I have a serious problem with my Hikaru 1S, I was wondering why the backpack wasn't folding properly and I found that there was a huge gap between the top and bottom pieces. It's not caused by loose screws or anything, but the plastic arrived bent/warped from the factory. (part BP1) I've tried using hot water to soften it and bending it back into shape but all that has created is stress fractures. There is a huge seam and the engine wash flap falls right out. It's lopsided too and it curves upwards. There is no way to solve this as the plastic's natural shape has taken the curve and even glue and clamps would probably fail, the plastic bending itself back into a curve eventually. I've tried pressing it but no-matter what I do, it just bounces back out. I've disassembled it to make sure there wasn't anything in the way. It's clean inside. The corner is too far from the screw for the screw to have anything to do with it. The edge is simply warped. The second major problem is the cover that goes ontop of the pack (part BP11), it has a huge gouge in the top of it along with some black marks like dirt. I said in the other post, it looks like somebody at the factory made a dent with a greasy screwdriver or something. I see scratches around this area too, like it was scraped. Please see the attached image. How can I get replacement parts? Help! I have the gaps in fighter mode issue too. The problem isn't as simple as a mis-transformation. It's that the legs pieces are slightly different and the joints are started to slip-out/stress. I can see the black washer popping out of the ball-joint. The legs just don't match flush with the arms and the clips on the back of the fighter or the backpack. Because of this, the front section - the one with the intakes is always popping out. The clips are too weak and shallow so a lot of the Valkyrie has gaps and supposedly locking pieces just pop right back out. If I force them to stay together, it pulls the bottom of of the chestplate down and creates the gap. It's definetely not a mis-transformation, it's that the parts don't align right. There are also black specs of paint and dirt here and there. I can live with those, but gap and fitment issues and dents are really irritating. There's a small gouge on the forehead from sloppy separating from sprues by the factory! The wings have a good clean stripe paintjob though. My problems are all mechanical/structural. Anyone tried putty to fill in gouges? The problem would be that I would have to repaint the toy.