wintermute

I snagged a 1/60 Super Hikaru 1A for 50% off. Woot.

In case people didn't realize, this is from the second page of the gamu review: http://gamu-toys.info/goukin/yamato/vf11b/02.html Has a couple new pics, and wasn't up when I was looking a couple days ago -- just noticed it today when I was scrolling through the page to show a friend the new OBJECT OF MY DESIRE

Ditto. I have been wondering how much of the loose groin connectors people have been mentioning on the DX are because of different amounts of use. I've transformed mine a handful of times -- no more than 5 or 6 -- and everything is nice and tight (except for the left calf armor and the infamous intake covers). What the average level of "use" among people with DXSGS (DX Soft Groin Syndrome)?

Lulz

My 25G smells great. New valk smell. Someone will try to bottle it, like they did with new car smell, and they'll fail. The sad thing is that this is my first "real" valk toy, for which I paid a handsome sum. Already, though, I'm like, this guy needs an ally or an enemy, and the VF-11B and the 1/60 v2 VF-1D are in my sights...

One thing that I noticed last night on my 25G is that the outer piece of the left leg that lifts out for the stabilizer with the unit number on it (I'm sure that there's a more technical name for them, but I don't know what it is) doesn't click together at the bottom of the shin. The right one does, however, and stays together very nicely. Has anyone else experienced this on a DX?

Dude, I'm right there with you. My DX 25G came yesterday, and the 11B is probably next on my list.

My 25G arrived today. I haven't had time to go through all of the accessories (still haven't gotten to the sniper rifle or the included stand). Initially, I'm quite pleased. The toy has a very solid feel to it and is a real eye-grabber when you're in the room with it. The heft and large size give it a very solid feeling in the hands. This reminds me a lot of my jetfire from when I was a kid, although I'm remembering now that I had a broken piece on the first day of owning that. Some initial reactions and data-points to the implicit survey we've been taking among 25G owners: There are two different colors of blue used on the toy without accounting for the armor. I would definitely have noticed this even if I hadn't seen it discussed on the forum, but it's not bothering me. Everything locks together fairly well in fighter mode. The one place where I have to keep pushing things back together is the connection of the arms to the backplate that forms the dorsal edge in fighter mode. The left arm keeps coming unplugged. No problems with the groin connection in battroid mode. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised that the crotch area looks more proportional in person than in the pictures. Seeing mine in person makes me think that some of the pictures exaggerate the size of this area, almost like the battroid has its hips thrust out like it's proud of all the weight it's lost or it's new pair of high water pants or something. The printing is pretty good -- no scapes or lost paint after a transformation to battroid and back. The shoulders are okay, but the left shoulder connection from the intermediate shoulder piece (the one with the five vents or holes) to the arm is a bit tight. I'm wondering whether to loosen the screw on the back of the white piece, but I'm not attempting anything like that for now. The hip armor is flimsy. Here's a more complete description of the hip armor situation -- excuse me if someone has already written this up in detail. The hip armor uses tension between two points to stay attached, as far as I can tell. On the outside of the hip, a tiny tab fits into the bottom of the ball joint between the leg and the machine gun / hip binder (I suppose, however, that this is more gundamn than Macross vocabulary). On the inside of the leg, there is another tiny tab that fits into a similarly tiny depression slightly aft of the metal ball joint connector between the leg and the groin. The tension exerted by the piece is just enough so that the little tabs stay in. I've only added the armor in fighter mode so far and it's fallen off a few times in the few minutes I've had it on. The rest of the armor was easy to add, but I haven't taken it off yet. I could see the missile pods requiring extra attention to remove without putting stress on the tiny ball joint or the cross piece that it's connected to. The armor looks awesome, but I think it's going to be a pain to transform this thing with the armor on. I don't think I'll be attemping that until I can transform it from fighter mode to battroid and back with my eyes closed, Forest Gump style. The one let down for me that I saw coming is that this toy, in my opnin, does not do Gerwalk mode terribly well. The leg motion is limited, and the gamu review shows that you can get the toy into some decent Gerwalk mode poses, but poses like the one in Macross Plus (crossing the streams, I know) where Isamu is in Gerwalk mode (I don't remember if he's in an 11B or the 19) and the limbs are splayed out dramatically as Guld is pushing him into the ground are out of reach. Hopefully when my real valkyrie arrives, it will be able to attain these poses. That's about it for now. Overall, I'm pretty pleased, but as I've said before, this is my first variable Macross toy since childhood, and I'm in the honeymoon phase with it now. That said, I read this thread quite a bit before my purchase so I think I had fairly realistic expectations when I decided to make the purchase.

Oh snap. I just want my (hopefully awesome) toy. I am patient about many things in life, but waiting for new cool stuff from the internet is not one of them.

Reading all of these replies is making me think of how those of us who can't just stop over in Akihabara and pick one of these things by hand off a shelf are at a bit of a disadvantage when pursuing the collection of such pricey goods. I'm keeping my fingers crossed and hoping that my 25G will be a good one. I'm hoping especially for a positive experience since this is my first major valk toy purchase (I had forgotten in my prior post that I have a revoltech VF-1J as well as the chunky from way back when). On another note, HLJ says that my order has shipped, but I haven't gotten a shipping number yet. My other purchase from them have been shipped via SAL, so I don't know if this is typical or not. Any insight you guys could provide would be appreciated.

Thanks! I've never been a fan of the VT-1, probably for the reason that the head of the VF-1D is embedded deeply in my psyche from watching the first few episodes of Macross probably hundreds of times (at the start of my Macross fandom, we could only find the first 3 or 4 episodes of Robotech on VHS tape from FHE. I watched those things over and over and over). The missing trapezoidal markings on the chest from the VF-1D and the FAST packs also look weird to me.

I love that you can recreate the scene from the beginning of the series where Roy puts the nose of the VF-1D onto his arm, but the head on the v2 1/60 VF-1S looks a little too high up to me. It would also have been nice to have some internal detailing on the inside of the socket created when the nose is removed. Anyone else notice that about the head on the other 1/60 v2s? The VF-1D doesn't seem to be affected.

Sweet, dude. Thanks!

The gamu review raised in my mind the question of whether the regular gunpod is also included with the 25G (I don't read Japanese). Can anyone who has one indicate whether this is included?

Hey folks- This is actually my first post on these boards. I've been a fan of Macross for more than 20 years, but the only toy I've owned from any of the series was the old jetfire repaint of what I'm assuming is the "chunky". Reading this thread covinced me to order the 25G. Gotta love those blue valks....