Mommar

No, I mentioned the VF-19S ankles would be improved. Basically, the tray that holds the ankle ball joint on the VF-19S will now have a metal plating, compared to just being painted as on the VF-19Kai. Using a metal plating allows Yamato to control the thickness of the plating more accurately compared with the layer of paint on the VF-19Kai. This should increas friction and have less wear compared to paint.

I don't know about the VF-17S ankles, whether they are ball or ratchet joints. I have emailed Yamato today to ask.

Graham

I thought there was something about increasing range of motion as well but maybe I'm going crazy.

To avoid all this "Too much force" ambiguity, Yamato should put a video guide for all of their Macross products on Youtube!

They did it for VF-19Kai and I'm pretty sure it helped the owners a lot.

That is a pretty good idea. Though we did still find ways to break it in many spots.

Hmmm.........perhaps people should try using a little less 'force'.

The words "force" and "transforming plastic toys" are never a good mix.

Seriously, if I had a spare junker VF-19, it would be an interesting experiment to see how much force is needed to force the socket apart. Haven't experienced this problem on my two VF-19 and I'm not gentle with them either. Not rough, but not gentle.

Graham

No offense to anyone here but I've always been curious what the definition of "force" has been for most of the guys around here. It makes me think back to a video I saw concerning men and the complaints women had about sex with them. 90% of men thought they were being gentle when in reality it was more like they were punching a woman in the crotch. I know based on a lot of the video reviews I've seen I've always felt like there has been way too much force applied to most of the toys during transformations and wouldn't be surprised if some of those toys eventually broke.

I know lol, but in the chance that the VF-25 is flawed, its a smaller hit to take compared to the VF-17. Now, if the VF-17 has ratchet ankles, I'll definetely re-consider!

I'm pretty sure Graham already said the ankles are going to be ball joint but that Yamato is reworking them to be better.

To be honest a few of my 1/60 V2 Yammie VF-1's also have wings that are curved up a little so it's not like this issue is limited to Bandai. Both my 1S TV Roy and 1A Anglebirds have slightly upturned wings.

It's not like there isn't a precedent set for this.. I don't remember Hikaru ever getting an instruction manual.

As far as the VF-17T is concerned, the changes would be a little more drastic than the VF-19s. Unless they somehow can elongate the cockpit backwards (which I don't think is accurate, because I remember the nose being longer), the entire chest area will need to be reworked to cover the bigger canopy. The nose length itself

I went back and looked at the two schematics and I really don't think it would take that much to rework the nose for a 17T. While it's true the neck/cockpit need to be longer the transformation is the same and the addition of extra long neck also makes hiding the extra long cockpit easy and doesn't change the transformation in the torso at all. It's still more tricky than the VF-19 changes but shouldn't be too difficult. It would still be easier to just slap the paint scheme on a regular 17 and change the head though.

It's not like there isn't a precedent set for this.. I don't remember Hikaru ever getting an instruction manual.

As far as the VF-17T is concerned, the changes would be a little more drastic than the VF-19s. Unless they somehow can elongate the cockpit backwards (which I don't think is accurate, because I remember the nose being longer), the entire chest area will need to be reworked to cover the bigger canopy. The nose length itself

The forearms also have to be changed to cover the cannon ports which may or may not affect the transformation depending on how Yamato has implemented it right now. They COULD always cheat and just do the paint scheme without modifying the body at all.

What I like is that there are actually mounting holes on the bottom of the wings for missiles and such. Not that stupid clip system they offered with the web-exclusives for the previous versions. Hopefully Bandai includes some in the box!

Frankly it's not quite all that I hoped for but it appears to light years better than what they put out before and will defiantly be worth a purchase.

After all you can't be in this hobby and not be able to turn a blind eye "to the little things."

I really don't think those in-dents are going to actually hold missiles. I think they're just there for looks.

They even have a glimpse of the VF-19ACTIVE's Gerwalk mode. It's so badass

How did I miss that? I can't seem to find it.

In fact, No

Looking at this chart, being very sligthly taller than VF-19 in battroid mode is not big issue

"The top of the VF-17-S's head (excluding head lasers), comes to the top of The Fire Valks head fin."

Except in that chart the VF-17's head doesn't stand as high as the tip of the Fire Valks head fin. They're pretty much exactly the same here, as was the assumption. But being as tall as the head fin is adding quite a bit more height.

In Battroid mode, it's pretty tall though. The top of the VF-17-S's head (excluding head lasers), comes to the top of The Fire Valks head fin.

Graham

Not that it concerns me any but won't some people piss and moan that that's too tall? I thought the VF-17 was slightly shorter than the VF-19 in Battroid.

Color is wrong, and why is cockpit clear? Definitely a pass....

Juuuust kiiding!

Funny you should say that. I really like the way these molds look with the gray color. I'd probably prefer more realistic alternate colors to the actual animation on these birds.

With AmiAmi's discount, below 300 is a realistic amount.

I'm not going to assume AmiAmi has a discount. If I haven't seen it advertised as such then it isn't that cheap yet. As it stands it's $300+ with shipping. $290+ with shipping isn't a huge step up.

and 22,000JPY = 287.87USD. I see no problem here.

That price does not include shipping.

According to Cybergundam, the MSRP for the VF-17S is 22,000Yen, in line with the recent and current releases.

Source: http://blog.yahoo.com/cybergundam/articles/51229/index

That's not surprising but I was really hoping it wouldn't be $300+.

I hope the pics start coming fast and furious now.

Now that we've seen an official shot from Yamato is there anything else you can let us in on about them Graham?

@David Hingtgen

I always appreciate your immense knowledge about planes and I totally agree about the facts that you mentioned.

BUT

The problem is that I don't think Bandai has the same delicate reasoning like yours about curling up wings when it comes to producing plastic toys.

It also didn't appear like that in the animation either.

Just like it appears in the CAD image, this thing is going to have MONSTER shoulders.

Just to add, Yamato's website says this thing us due out in November.

I'd be really surprised if that gun fit in it's leg now.

BOMBAAAAA

Where'd you find this pic?

I guess from those slits we know where the super packs are going to attach.

I guess the Antenna will not splay?

IMO the difference is fairly obvious, but I did say it could just be an effect caused by the forced perspective of the CAD though.

Also the cockpit looks flatter than in the prototype.

Side-by-side you are right, it does look longer. I guess we'll find out how that winds up working out. Unless Graham wants/can chime in on this.

I agree.

There’s something I’ve noticed as well: the nose cone in fighter mode seems to be longer than in previous CADs and the only grainy pic of the prototype we’ve seen before, though it’s possibly only due to the forced perspective of the drawing.

It’s not that I don’t like it but it makes it look closer to a VF-171…

Really? I'm not seeing that the nose looks much longer at all. I do think the fighter mode here looks magnificent. I think the Battroid is not represented well at all though.

I'm one of those boring people who hardly transforms them. Maybe every six months or so. Mostly I tend to keep each Toy in their own configuration and only play with different poses/angles/etc... I do usually keep one around I mess with more than the others. Max being my favorite I tend to keep in one pose or another so there is less chance to breakage, but maybe the CF I'll fidget with a lot more because there's less loss if that breaks. I also have a weird tendency to keep one of each type of valk in one of the three configurations. So I've got a clean VF-1 in Fighter, one in Battroid, one in Gerwalk. Then another set with Fast Packs in Fighter, one in Battroid, on in Gerwalk. Everything is usually balanced like that, so if I want to play with a fighter, I pick up the one in fighter mode. Gerwalk, grab one in Gerwalk. It's odd and I have no honest reason why I do it but it works for me. Back when I only had my VF-1 DYRL Hikky (first edition) I used to transform it more but now I have the option to not do that and I figure it saves me many broken shoulders/tabs/etc that way. The 19S/F/P will be easy for me (not my Wallet!) because I can pull the same sort of triple configuration scheme there though I do really like the longer wings in both Fighter and Gerwalk.