GabrielV

Before I got this, I was definitely in the camp saying the VF-4s battroid mode looks crummy. Now... I think it's a genuine sentiment and not just justifying my expensive toy... but I think battroid is much better in person than images portray it as. In pictures it looks like an oddball, but yesterday I had it standing alongside all my other Valks and it fit in just fine/didn't look like an oddball at all. It's winning me over.

Mine came in today! Woot! So far I've transformed it from fighter to battroid and then back to fighter. The leg missiles are fairly secure. All the other ones pop off if they are breathed the general direction. Accidentally popped the fin on the bottom of the fighter off while trying to peg everything together for battroid mode. It took some effort but I got it popped back on. I never did get the final peg at the crotch of battroid mode to lock, but everything hung together anyway, so I didn't worry too much. Feet are floppy as hell. But it can balance if I stand it carefully. Pilot rattles around. Is there any way to get that guy locked in? Other than that, he looks really nice. Best pilot on any of my Valks so far. Transformation from fighter to battroid was a royal pain, but for some reason battroid to fighter just flows naturally. I'll just have to see how this ages as I transform it in the future. The landing gear were a real pain. Then on one of them the tire flopped off. I fitted it back on, but it was a bit irritating because I had struggled with that damn fin just a few minutes before. Despite the negatives, I'm in the happy glow period of ownership. Very cool toy.

I'm going to take it as a good thing that I didn't know what those two terms meant and had to look them up.

So, do you think the VF-0S will be available for a while? I'd like one, but I'm tapped out for a while. I probably overextended by going for the VF-4G, and then I have some other pre-orders requiring payment in the next couple of months. It will probably be mid to late summer before I'm able to revisit the 0S. Think it will still be available then for a "reasonable" price? Or have I simply missed out?

The last two pics make me remember something. Bear with me here, because I'm about to delve a little into personal stuff. When I was a wee tyke, my father flew in F-111s. He also had a model of an F-111 on his desk. It was painted in a camo pattern, like this: http://img.wp.scn.ru/camms/ar/793/pics/3_22.jpg I was fascinated by that model. It was a tangible talisman sympathetically connected to my father, who I hardly ever saw. The wings swung back and forth, and I remember entertaining myself for what seemed like hours just swinging the wings on that model back and forth. The motion was so smooth. About 20 years ago, my father was freaking out about something or other. See, my family is full of vultures, and he was worried that I was going to sue his daughters out of their inheritance or something. I reassured him that I was going to do no such thing. I told him that the only two things I really wanted as an inheritance were his greek themed marble chess set and his F-111 model from his time in the service. Within two months of me telling him that, he gave the chess set to a relative of his wife and sold the F-111 model to a collector. I'm never going to have that model. And I have to say that it pisses me off. But as an anticlimax to that story, I realize I'd kind of like a VF done up in that paint scheme.

The only Fans Toys bot I have, indeed the only third party Transformer I own, is a FT-03T Quake Wave. In terms of construction, I think it's the best transforming toy I've ever owned, beating out classic G1 toys and easily beating the Bandai VF-19 Advance. Of course, on that latter comparison, the FT-03T is a different kind of toy than the VF-19 so it's like comparing apples and oranges. But Quake Wave is extremely solid. I take it from the comments about Fans Toys quality that Quake Wave is an extreme outlier, and their average quality is far, far below?

Got my tracking number this morning.

That's more the result I was picturing people describing.

Thank you for that. From what everyone had been saying, I was expecting the legs to flop down limply as soon as you picked it up.

Yeah, I've salivated over the low vis variants for years. That Phantom Sword scheme looks sexxy as hell too. I never got far enough in Macross 30 to get a YF-30. I think I stalled out around the VF-11 with the boosters and got frustrated that I couldn't find the quest items I was after due to the language barrier. However, if I had got the YF-30, I probably would have flown around at least sometime with that Skywarp job. I also really like Blue Roses and the VF-21/22 that seti88 posted. I guess I just like the reserved types of vfs.

Same here. I didn't have to wait long on that pre-order.

Everyone's excitement here is infectious. I've also been watching review after review of the Yamato figure which all say that the VF-4 is a (if not THE) high bar for Macross toys. I was going to skip this because, after all, it's only in Macross Flashback 2012 for maybe 2 or 3 seconds. But, I'm sucked in by the excitement. And I have to admit that even those precious 2 or 3 seconds mean something to me because of how early I saw them in my Macross fandom. I freeze framed those seconds and examined every single line in the quest to make stats for the RPG game. I put in a pre-order with Ami-Ami. Now it's time to wait.

I used to paint gaming miniatures and model kits, and those hobbies taught me I have no skill whatsoever at painting. So for toys, I find myself at the whim of whatever repaints companies decide to offer. Yet, none are my dream paint scheme. In a way, my ideal variable fighter paint scheme has already been done, and it has already been done on the fighters I would choose to have it for. The catch is that one color was wrong, and there was text in the paint scheme which I wouldn't want. The schemes in question are the Macross 25th Anniversary VF-1 and YF-19 toys with their predominant black coloration and skinny golden lines. The problem color is the gold. If the gold were red instead, then those would be just about perfect. I'm a bit amazed that particular color mix doesn't pop up as a variant a lot. To me it's a very striking look, evoking the SR-71. Maybe it's just me. As far as I'm aware, the only variable fighter toy done up in those colors is a limited release by Toynami of a 1/100 VF-1 with the heavy armor pack. But there is no way in hell I'm paying $170 for one of those things. Maybe if it was $20, but even then I'd have to think about it because of all the quality issues I've seen regarding their 1/100 toys. Anyone else have any seemingly obvious dream color variants that simply don't exist for one reason or another?

I'm expecting something like my pre-built War of the Worlds Martian War Machine from Pegasus Hobby, just with a lot more joints.

The one decent shot shown of the Gerwalk mode of the VF-2SS in Episode 4, section B of the OAV shows the leg intakes way out to the side of the fusealage intakes. More or less position D or fighter position. The shoulders are resting on top of the intakes. Is there any way to connect the gunpod to the undercarriage? I've seen something that looks like this in a few shots. Incidentally, I don't think I've seen the fin coming down from the bottom center (slightly to the rear of the cockpit section). I take it that feature doesn't exist on this toy?

I agree. Those diorama shots kick ass.

If you've ever had a Toynami Masterpiece VF-1 is the floppiness worse or about the same?

As I've been looking at this, I've had this feeling that it looks similar to something else. The other day I finally figured out what it was. This reminds me of the semi-recent Transformers Leader class Jetfire. The plastic looks about the same quality. And both have some considerable levels of unsightliness when flipped over to look at their undercarriage. At least the VF-2 doesn't seem to have giant, gaping, glaring empty spots on the arms, but it does remind me of the Leader Jetfire toy in a very vague sense. Of course, Leader Jetfire is a $50 toy (which should probably be $30). This is a smidgen more in price. All that said, I can't wait to get mine. Even though the pictures are disappointing, they still, oddly enough, have me excited to finally get the Faerie Squadron version I ordered whenever it finally ships. In a way, I now kind of wish I had stuck with my Sylvie pre-order and foregone the SAP. I mean, the fighter itself doesn't look fantastic, but it looks sorta OK. I can see myself enjoying all three of it's modes without the SAP. And from all the pics it looks like the SAP is a total disaster unless all I want to do is display the fighter in Battroid mode forever. If someone decides to create that snap on cover part and offer it on Shapeways, then I'll probably pick one of those up. I'm wondering why the designers didn't do that to begin with, or make the intakes hinged and flip forward to reveal the swingbars or something.

Looking at that low angle pic really illustrated how the height of the SAP has been extremely overdone. It's probably about 4 times taller than it should be, which causes the main cannon and SAP wings to be way too high in jet mode. In all honesty, I have never, in all these years, noticed that antenna on top until now. I thought it had to be some kind of error or modification. But it's there in the original lineart. I guess I had just always edited it out in my head. Or maybe I had paid more attention to the model kit and Palladium RPG drawings where the antenna is not present. Yet another reason to watch the OAV again soon. The low angle pic definitely shows the port side SAP wing drooping. It's definitely being supported by the normal fighter wing. Although the one on the starboard side seems fine. Edit: And after freeze framing through certain parts of Episode 1, 4, and 6 on the BluRay, I can say that the antenna is not consistent. It is not present in the opening animation. I don't see it at all in episodes 1 and 6. Although 6 doesn't count, because it has the worst animation in the OAV. It is visible in several shots of the VF-2 that Sylvie uses in episode 4. Even though it appears in a sustained overhead shot of the VF-2 in episode 4, it's very easy to miss. I only ever spotted it on Fighter mode. The only times it is clear are when Sylvie and Hibiki are trying to lock in on Ishtar's tracer and at the end when they're in the derelict fighter presumably transmitting an SOS.

Another thing that concerns me from the pictures... The Faerie Squadron SAP they have in fighter mode has it's wings extended. The wings are not supposed to be extended with the SAP is attached. However, it looks like the reason they've done this is to prop up the wings of the SAP level. This is a problem on the model kit too. The SAP wings sag because they're on a up/down joint.

Bah! The VF-31A is unattached, so it can play the field. Delta wings are the smexyness.

Well, I feel it's kind of a damned if I do and damned if I don't sort of situation. I can see that it doesn't look very good, but it looks like it will be the only VF-2SS toy. I don't want to miss it. On the other hand, if I did skip it and it does turn out to be the only VF-2SS toy ever, then I'll kick myself for it for years to come. No, it doesn't make much logical sense. But that's how I feel about this particular Valkyrie. I have lots of emotion tied up in this one. In my imagination, I've flown this fighter more than any other. And it would have to be of pretty hideous quality to not at least surpass my old and battered model kit. But yeah, I'm not blind. I basically agree with all the naysayers. But I'm just gonna have to let myself get burned on this one. Call it battered toy purchaser syndrome. And if Bandai steps up after this and makes the ultimate dream edition VF-2SS, then I'm cool with that too.

I've been alternating between Battroid and Fighter. Both look good, but I'm the biggest fan of Fighter mode. It just looks so sleek and sexy. Even if I weren't intimidated by the sticker sheet, I'd still be leaving mine stickerless. I like how clean it looks. YMMV, but for me the answer has been Fighter and Stickerless.

oooh. So they're doing both versions of the SAP (or at least two versions of the armor for the right leg).

OK, my new order of preference is: VF-31A VF-31C (04) VF-31F (02)