jvmacross

Miscellaneous pics:

Part 4: As before, the fighter look good only in certain angles....mainly any angle that does not expose the underside mess...... If you have the Silvie....this one is basically the same thing....the failures are in the same locations.....there are no significant improvements in the fit.....but the SAP does make it look better....it will make a nice display piece in the mode that you finally decide to leave it in.....but make sure you decide quickly and do not transform it too many times because I do not think it will hold up to too many transformations...... Based on the Silvie, I am sure the battroid mode will be the most solid mode once again.....I will take some pics of it in battroid once I have taken some time to get over the disappointment of this release....the SAP Armor could have been designed so that it would work in holding the fighter mode much tighter....but for whatever reason ET opted to do nothing....... Final assessment......looks great with the SAP in gerwalk and fighter......pick a mode and then "set it and forget it".....still looks good among other 1/60-ish valks..... Until the ultimate 1/60 DX is released......this is still the only game in town if you want to "display" one among the rest of the 1/60 valks in your collection.....

Part 3: I basically just transformed it into gerwalk mode from fighter and added the SAP armor....like the previous Silvie version.....the transformation process was an excercise in patience and frustation.....keep at it....you'll eventually get it all put together...just be very careful with it..... I have to say...it looks very menacing with the SAP armor on it.....even the gerwalk, which was IMO the worst mode, looks pretty good with the SAP mounted..... I am really liking gerwalk mode with the SAP armor......I guess I can consider this an improvement over the non-SAP equipped version.....maybe I am trying too hard to come up with something nice to say....but no....gerwalk mode really does look better to me with the SAP......

Part 2: So, lets just move on..... Like the Silvie plain valk....it looks good dressed up in the SAP armor in certain display positions. The SAP is decent enough...it does lack detail, but it matches the amount of detail of the valk it is being mounted on.....basically it looks like a non-detailed model kit.... The SAP has some cool features, like opening missile bays, arm armor gun storage gimmick, rotating bits and pieces, etc...... I would suggest to use an x-acto knife blade to open all of the small hatches and missile bays.....they are kind of tight and seem very fragile.....

Part 1: Basically, nothing really has been improved on the VF-2SS Faerie Squadron Type over the Silvie Gena version previously released. With two exceptions. Two insignificant exceptions really. And one of them blows up anyways just as the last one did without the "improvement". The first change was the ability for the valk to hold onto it's gun. It seems there may have been some tweaking to the hand mold as it does a better job that the hands of the Silvie version.... ...it is still not perfect, but it holds the gun better than before.... The second "improvement" is in the tailfins.....to everyone who has the Silvie, you were most likely frustrated (probably the least of the concerns) with how the tailfins would barely "lock" in place with the poor fitting tabs..... On the Faerie version, they added a groove into the tab that holds the position somewhat "better".....however, what little improvement this offers on this Faerie Squadron VF-2SS is quickly....and by that I mean after just a few handlings....offset by the fact that the tailwings will easily come apart from the ball joint connection.....mine was so bad that I just gave up and removed them entirely....they are pointless and barely noticable when in gerwalk or battroid...and definitely unneccesary once the SAP is mounted.....sorry if the groove is not easy to see in the pic...but it is there....and not there in the Silvie..... As with the Silvie VF-2SS....the biggest failure in the design is the complete lack of any tabs or locking mechanism strong enough to keep the arms/legs connected while in fighter mode..... Sadly, this failure is continued with the SAP armor parts used in this same area...the connection between the arms and the legs..... There is NOTHING......NADA.....that holds the arms and legs together in SAP mode......why? to those that will eventually get your SAP or SAP combos....you can easily see how this could have easily been achived...this bird is not going for any prizes in lineart accuracy...so adding some kind of brace that would connect the legs armor to the arm armor would have been greatly appreciated.....I am sure someone could easily come up with something via shapeways to "fix" this problem.... No tabs....not even crappy ones! ...Perhaps I missed something and there are some tabs there.....some magical tabs that will hold everything together! So basically, the hope that maybe ET would have at least figured out a way to make the fighter mode more solid via the SAP armor has been squandered.

No good news I'm afraid.... More pics and commentary to follow.....

Bandai can get maybe 7 VF-1's from the amount of plastic used to make one Monster....sucker's big!

Pretty sure Bandai plans their production quantities to match both local and international consumption. They may not want to know or care where in the world their Macross products are ending up, but they have to know that there is not that much demand for Macross in Japan alone that the quantities they are producing all stay in Japan. In short, whatever is being produced is more than what is required to satisfy Japanese consumers. Otherwise, these toys would be much more difficult to get if everyone had to compete with just the amount available to only meet Japanese demand.

I cannot say the entire new batch is doomed on the basis of one twit post....if it becomes a pattern, then that is another story.....maybe the guy isn't lying....maybe he is....All I know is I have never seen any collectible in that state of QC failure straight out of the box without even being handled, transformed, played with, etc... there have been plenty of pics showing the VF-2SS next to a variety of other VFs from Bandai and Yamato/Arcadia....appearance-wise it holds it's own and fits right in....it is basically a "set it and forget it" display piece......do not even think about transforming it too many times or you are asking for trouble.....I wanted a VF-2SS in my collection, and until a better one comes along....this ET version does a good enough job for me.... ....that, however, has nothing to do with it's quality, which obviously cannot hold up to anything other than maybe a toynami.....it is what it is....I cannot make any arguments in its defense for the QC, build, or engineering that went into it...or didn't.....but I give credit to ET for having the ballz for even attempting to make it.....A+ for dreaming it.......F- for execution... And I do hope the HMR version doesn't turn into more Bandai vaporware...we all could use more Macross II in our collections ....

They are not great, but as long as they do not implode out of the box, they are good enough to display next to any Bandai DX or Yamato 1/60. Those pics posted earlier probably were the aftermath of someone dropping it on the ground.....and in all fairness, that could happen to a Bandai or Yamato.

Glad everything worked out for you! Now post some pics!

If you have't called your local PO...do so immediately! Or head down there now as they may still have it if they just tried to deliver it yesterday.....good luck!

Great cels...thanks for sharing them!

Arcadia and Bandai reps:Wait...after the VF-2SS debacle...you guys can't possibly think collectors will buy more of your crap!? ET rep: Why yes...yes we do...and yes they will!!!

I'd say at least 50% by Black Friday....unless the retailers can't wait that long....no idea how they could release the green stripe version...I doubt it....probably just a custom for display only.... Not sure how they think they could pull off the Legioss....

Well....based on the only pics posted so far...I'm praying it'll stay together long enough to get the SAP armor on....

I find myself appreciating the genga more these days.

No one has a SAP combo in-hand yet? Another box pic....maybe we should just keep it in the box!

Physically, is it different from the VF-4G? I am not referring to performance or weapons...just looks. Hope the book's release date holds!

Sold for 50,000 JPY.... http://page6.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/f184852233

Which is the version we see in FB2012?

"Free" shipping... http://www.yesasia.com/us/dx-chogokin-macross-delta-vf-31j-siegfried-hayate-immelman-custom/1051198253-0-0-0-en/info.html

LOL....what a crazy PO last night. Worst one in a long time. Woke up this morning and realized that my payment to AE had double posted. UGH. Now I need to make sure they refund it and hope they don't screw up and cancel out the whole order! This ever happen to anyone?

SV-262 next?

http://auctions.search.yahoo.co.jp/search?p=マクロス+VF-31J+DX&aq=-1&oq=&x=31&y=39&ei=UTF-8&slider=0&tab_ex=commerce&auccat=0