So I received mine today... I must say... I'm not happy with it... In fighter mode, it seems pretty good at least..
Here are my personal thoughts on it:
1. The nose folds down... and it does so rather easily. It will stay in if you touch it, so it's not floppy, but it's not particularly tight either. It technically tabs in, but there doesn't seem to be any tension from the tab. I feel like this a minor issue, but is an issue (at least for me). See my picture to see what I mean though:
2. There's a door just behind the cockpit area (you can see it in the picture just above the heat shield)... The door opens up to show some detail, but I'm not really sure what purpose is served by it, I feel like it could break off kinda easily, but fortunately, it seems to stay closed decently, though it doesn't tab in. Fairly minor.
3. With the default articulate hands, the gunpod is held quite poorly. I struggle to get it in, and it doesn't stay in very well at all. I felt this was a problem on the v2's, but it's much worse here. This is a less minor issue... but I will say that at least without the gun, the hands themselves are otherwise definitely way better than on the Yamato/Arcadia v2's FWIW.
4. The fins on the legs don't really lock into any position, so they to end up being moved out of place very easily (see my picture).
5. And finally the legs... As soon as I started moving from gerwalk to battroid mode, both of the legs popped off... And they're clearly designed to come off. After being very careful, I was able to transform into battroid mode without popping off the legs, and it was easy to get them plugged into the nose correctly (other than the effort to keep the legs attached). So I'm not sure why they went with this design choice. It's pretty clear that this was a deliberate design choice and not a QC issue. The legs have a little plastic door mechanism so you can attach/detach the legs pretty easily... And although there's some decent tension on this door, it's not enough due to the weight of the legs. To me at least, this is a pretty big deal... How long has the v2 been out now? Since 2008? I know I got my first one in 2010... Yamato got this right 8-10 years ago on a 1/60 scale toy. I feel like they probably did this so people could just detach the legs to make the transformation easier, but as I said, it wasn't hard at all for me to get them into position while keeping the legs attached.
What's really disappointing to me is that, other than the issues, this would be a fantastic toy. The limbs otherwise feel REALLY good. The plastic is great. The tampo is awesome. I really like the look of the gunpod (I haven't tried attaching the strap to it).
There's a new arm delivery mechanism that's pretty cool, though I don't know that I think it's ultimately better than the Yamato/Arcadia approach, but it's definitely well designed.
I'm going to think about it for a few days, but I think I may just end up selling it. Different things bug different people, but the detaching leg issue is a going to be a deal breaker for me. Makes it feel a bit partsformer-esque.
Definitely looking forward to what other people have to say about this toy. There is a lot here that's really good and therefore others may end up loving it.