auberondreaming

Oh look HLJ sneakily posted their entire return policy right in a page called Returns, Refunds, and Cancellations. https://support.hlj.com/hc/en-us/articles/204318480-Returns-Refunds-Cancellations I feel for you on this one and I would be super pissed, but disparaging HLJ because you didn't read the terms of service isn't their fault. Not fair to crap on them like this was some sort of hidden gotcha and go frakk yourself move. This makes me nervous about Arcadia products however, especially the vf-4 if they have shifted to a crappier factory. That toy demands high precision in it's parts to fit together correctly.

And this is why Walmart is successful.

I could not get into Frontier, too cliche anime for my tastes compared to SDFM. This looks....worse? SDFM was a great war story that was relatable and had characters who weren't magical teens in high-school (yet somehow also on the front line as fighter pilots) who were the chosen ones. I'm in the camp that Plus was the last great Macross property (which wasn't even really Macross anyway). Guess we will see, not excited for this sadly. As for the valk, yeah it looks nice, but remember when a new vf number meant a radical redesign? I am tired of the chest folding for battroid, crotch plate jutting, too similar legs and feet, and wings on the back that don't fold up. It's going stale for me. I'm more interested in this than the 30 design, so I will probably get one, but yeah. Macross is losing me, and that makes me sad. I have a single 29, the only frontier toy I own because I liked the design and it was easy to get. I own a vf 21 because it was super cheap and it was in plus, I own a vf-11 because it was in plus. So out of 7 and frontier I own 1 valk toy based purely on design. I own 9 vf-1's. Realizing that for a long time transforming plane mecha was the only reason to stay in the game as apposed to liking the property those mecha are featured in is making me sad.

I think they are talking about the modes. The vf-4 feels really solid in fighter mode, so much so that you would be forgiven for thinking it wasn't a transforming toy. I have friends who have looked at it in my collection and been surprised it was fully transformable. The modes on this toy look fragile and sloppy.

Well then. I was all for giving them a chance, and I am grateful they chose to give us a good look a the product, but they lost me on this one. This is not worth the asking price. How hard is it to crib the swing bar mechanism from Arcadia or bandai? Or rotating knees? Or that giant plank coming off the backpack? Unfortunately the thrusters next to the back pack are all the way up in battroid mode in this pic, so that's wrong too. I was positive about this project till they gave me a reason to go negative, and they surely did do that. Is a grail worth keeping if looking at it makes you mad? These images show why I love the vf-2, and this toy is just, wow. And here is a custom 1/100 that get's it more right than this. Maybe not perfect, but this is a single person doing a hobby job. http://valkyrie.cloud-line.com/modelart/fly4v/

Whelp I was incorrect! Now I can get a second! Any chance the Arcadia one can go ahead and glue the damn missiles on this time? That's a gimmick that should be packed away...

Maybe a vf-4... but where are the blue pixels coming from? And what is all the darkness behind the canopy section? The vf-4 canopy is a lot farther away from the main body than this picture would indicate. The nose cone is also not long enough. I get where you guys are coming from, but I look at those pixel blobs then look at mine and see too many discrepancies. Could be, but the nose cone just looks too short. Looks like it has a kite on the wing as well, so if they are tampoing that on this go around it's not a direct re-release. It's certainly a different color scheme if it is a vf-4. Could it be a vf-1 with super parts?

If this was the end of Arcadia it would be the end of Macross collecting for me. Bandai toys don't compare in quality for me, thus worth the extra money.

No one is forcing you to buy anything, but that's how business works. Really confused by this line of thinking. They aren't holding a gun to your head or more accurately holding a "better Mac 2 valk" hostage contingent on you being a sap and giving them money for this "inferior one." This is their first effort. If you don't like it, don't buy it. But hopefully you understand how the market works, and if the sales are bad they won't risk more money improving this product line. That's not nefarious, that's not them being jerks, that is how business works and we as consumers should recognize that if you want to see something succeed you need to actually support it with your money. We should also be nuanced enough to figure out that the chances of seeing a product improve is entirely contingent on the company producing it feeling like they can make money by improving it, and making that reality a part of our purchasing decision. They aren't jerks for mentioning this in the interview, they are being honest about their (and everyone everywhere's) business practices. If you are upset about the situation, then that is perfectly fine. You are right., this is a super niche market, this toy doesn't seem to be at arcadia execution standards and yes if we don't support this we might get or else. As consumers that is something we need to consider: that supporting this product may be the only way it will ever improve. But they didn't create this situation, and getting mad at them is illogical. I'll reserve judgement for the final product as far as quality of build, it looks really good for a first effort in my opinion and for being super niche I am surprised they were able to come in at the price point they did. I will buy one happily, and I will happily crap all over it if when I get it in hand it is garbage. But I won't regret supporting an idea I wanted to see happen should the worst occur.

Confused by the criticism on the business side of things. If there is no interest in a product then why would a company make refinements to it and try again? Especially with a M2 property? Oh they want to make money, how horrible of a business! They are making future business plans around this property if it proves to be profitable, what a bunch of devils! You guys... I for one am happy that all we have seen is a non final prototype and are getting news that they are still refining it. We have the ear of a person who is talking to them during the refinement stage, that's awesome! Thanks Tochiro! I am excited that the fighter mode is getting refined as that was a bit weak in my opinion. If they are considering the tabs as well then bonus!

I'm happy with the look of this toy. The backpack hinges bug and the tabs on the collar are obnoxious, but otherwise it looks like a vf-2ss. There are things to nitpick beyond the these two points, but this is their first shot at a macross toy and it looks impressive considering they don't have any of the Arcadia or Bandai engineers who have been doing this for over a decade now. So yeah I'm happy, with the caveat of seeing the toy firsthand. If it's a floppy mess then of course they lose my business, but Ill give it a chance! As a fun little engineering question, how would you guys fix those hinges? Moving them into the body of the intakes(?) would create a channel through those bodies to allow the tab they sit on passage during rotation. The problem seems that it is a full 180 rotation of a rectangular body on a plane, thus the hinges would need to somehow move but they would still need to be outside of those intakes. Perhaps not perfect transformation since this might be a anime magic problem? Attach them to the body for fighter, detach and attach to the backpack?

Happy to hear from everyone who are enjoying this bird! It's great to see fans having a great time with a new release! Personally, I am happy I passed on this one. For me Bandais just don't feel worth the money, even though they are asking for less and give you more tampo they seem to turn into floppy messes. Again IMO, they also don't feel substantial I guess would be the word. I would like to see more yf-19/vf-19 side by side shots to see the difference in size, especially in battroid! Can't wait to see all your amazing photography skills in action!

Hmm ok. Not sure this is a noobie question but fine. Also yamato 1/60 super valkyrie. Perhaps a mod can go ahead and delete this topic.

Hi all, I have had my VF-1S Super Valkyrie set for about 4 years now (time flies!), and today I was looking through the box and discovered that it did not come with stickers for the strike armor. Was this true of all the gift sets or did I wind up with a bum one? Also, anyone have an image file for the strike stickers? I would like to get the kite on the boosters at least.

My collection is missing M&M. A reissue of the vf-4 would be cool, improbable but cool. I highly doubt they would ever venture into any mechs that don't have any screen time anywhere. Ill say the same old thing, 2ss. A renewal on the yf-21. I wouldn't mind a 1-6 or 1-48 vf-1 with lighting gimmicks, blinking trim lights in airplane mode would look awesome! How about articulated hands that look more anime accurate for the 1-60s?

HLJ all the way. I complained to them about my loose wings on my vf-22s (which was onsale to begin with) and they gave me 25% of the price in credit at their store. And asked about the fix that had been posted here to give other customers advice. NY has only ever been curt or unhelpful to me and lost my business long ago.

I don't see how you could make a hinge in the nosecone area that would be strong enough to maintain a semi crunch for posing and would be invisible in fighter and gerwalk mode. You would also want it to swivel, adding to the complexity. Ok I think I can envision a ratcheting swiveling joint in the nose cone, but that shoots down your less expensive mod . Also, once you crunch, how would you stop the wings from hitting the intakes that create the thighs? Your swivel will also be limited by wings hitting the legs as they rotate if you have any sort of aggressive wide leg stance. Anyway, my update would be a Max and Milia vf-1j reissued in colored plastic instead of paint. Blue and red plastic as the base please with white paint. And I would love for the 1/60's to come with gun pods that have slings.

My VF-4 is the highlight of my collection, and I am happy I got one at release thanks to this price increase. I think the general attitude at that time toward Yamato was both the reason they went under and why the VF-4 is so expensive now. People thought they could wait it out and get a deal when these became "shelf warmers" even though Yamato was explicit in stating they were made to order. No one believed that. No one knew they were going under, so everyone was waiting for the "inevitable mold milking." Go read jenius' review of this valk, where he has a section putting out this idea as part of the review! Yamato did this to themselves, they milked molds and made too many variants in too large of production runs. Thus made to order turned out to be a fairly small number of units being produced. And it's an amazing piece of work, the most impressive to this day in my opinion. As an aside, as you are new to the hobby I will tell you my opinion, this is why Arcadia is pricing toys at what those of us who have been collecting for a number of years consider to be high prices. We got spoiled on bad business practices. Yamato would give us every color variation in huge numbers so we could pick up vf-1's for under $100 shipped even back when the Yen was stronger. We gripe and gripe about $300 toys, but these are amazing works of art and real engineering accomplishments. I regularly pay $200+ for hottoys, and those are just highly detailed dolls. Yamato gave us amazing products for way cheaper than they should have, so now we sit around griping that "if I pay $300 for a toy, it better damn well be perfect in every minute detail." That's on Yamato and Arcadia is their ghost, trying to do a better business model with spoiled rotten fans. I feel bad for them, but that's where we are. Valks are going to be expensive, unless you can grab a Bandai, but 1) good luck with that, and 2) their product in my opinion is not as good as either yamato or arcadias.

I am so in for this!

Going to have to go with my vf-4. I just love the design, the fact that these were space planes really got expressed here with all the thrust nozzles. That fighter...man.

Getting the vf-0d in hand it was once again time to do the display stand shuffle to find a place to put this huge bird. Picking up and swooshing around some of the old toys was a great treat, especially the vf-11c... then I picked up my vf-22s sturmvogel. This is my least favorite piece in my collection. The high speed mode wings were crap. The landing gear collapses. It just feels bad compared to the other modern releases in my collection. So now I'm curious, what is your least favorite piece in your collection?

Received mine on Friday, and I really love this bird! I have yet to transform it as this is the most pointy, small surface/fin covered valk yet, and I think I need to handle it a bit more in fighter to wrap my mind around how to handle it during transformation. That said here are my initial thoughts, echoed by others in this forum. This is a heavy toy, it feels heavier than the latest YF-19 which is actually the larger plane mode. As stated above the 0D is pointy, I am worried about breaking or blunting surfaces during transformation. The design of the fighter is really eye catching in toy form in person. The vf-4 still is my favorite design, but this is a respectable second. Having it in hand it's amazing that none of the pictures posted capture what the shade of blue really is. I really like this figure, they did a great job. I do hope that the vf-0s/a come in at a substantially lower cost than this toy as they are much closer to the original vf-1 design and have much less material and overall engineering going into them. I wonder how many other people bought this solely on aesthetics, perhaps that would show the viability of a vf-2ss being successful? (will always hold out hope!)

Tighter than the vf-4? My vf-4 was alarmingly tight when I first transformed it. My 0d is out of customs in LA and heading home! EMS.

Perhaps this has been discussed before, and if so apologies, but from the shots I see the ankles look very similar to the vf-1 implementation. Is there a pivot I'm not seeing?

My wishes are a bit boring, but I missed out on the 1/60 Max and Milia vf-1j's. That would complete my 1/60 SDFM collection of hero valks. I would also love to get another vf-4, in 2012 colors. Still my favorite Macross release! (and a vf-2ss, yeah I know but if wishes could come true) edit: and if we are wishing, I would want them to fix the paint scratching issues I've heard about on the old M&Ms.