neuromancer

I received mine on Friday. One of the hips was fine, the other was loose. It wasn't floppy like the video someone shared earlier in the thread. I'm using Pledge Future Finish on both hips (I like my joints to be on the tight side), and at first it didn't seem to be working on the looser side... But then I remember Pledge can take some time to set and in those ball sockets, things are likely to dry more slowly. One of my shoulders had a bit uneven tightness (where parts of the range of motion were a little loose). Not really a big deal... But I'm picky... so I'm tightening both there as well. The crotch on mine holds on pretty snuggly. When I hold it by the crotch and shake it a little, it doesn't budge... And neither do the shoulder and hip joints suggesting they're setting nicely (I won't try moving them for a few more days to allow it to fully set). I have a 2nd one coming on Friday or so... We'll see how that one goes. I'm mostly worried about loose crotches, because I'm not so sure those are fixable. Maybe one could do it by bending the 2 sides of the locking metal piece somehow (depending where the looseness is caused)... But I'm sure I'd mess something like that up if I tried so hopefully my 2nd one doesn't have that particular issue. It's ridiculous that we have to fix $200 toys... But it's great that most of the common issues (so far) are likely fixable. Otherwise, I'm absolutely loving this thing. I really like the matte. I have the 25F and 25S in storage... But I was hesitant to handle them due to the gloss (but maybe I was overthinking it). Anyway, is this all due to QC issues? Mold degradation? Both?

Quick follow up... A moment after my previous post, I somehow managed to get the valkyrie to hold its gun pretty securely. I guess it takes a little practice, or at least it did for me.

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.

I'm mostly not saying anything that hasn't been said, but I'm throwing my $0.02 in here for further confirmation, etc. I finally got mine today from HLJ, and just finished transforming it directly to battroid mode... A harrowing experience to say the least... But wow... I really have to agree with what other forum members who have the thing have said... It really has a presence in battroid mode... And it definitely looks better in person. Even the tabs on top of the chest are slightly less annoying/grating . I think a lot of the presence of this thing comes from the fact that the VF-2SS has always been striking to me, especially in battroid. Fighter is definitely a floppy mess, but it's less floppy than the CM Legioss (at least as far as I can remember, my Legioss toys have been in storage for years). The legioss is overall a better built toy with higher quality plastic. Some pledge could go some way toward fixing the floppiness issues in fighter mode, but I don't see it being eliminated entirely (I'll try pledge some time over the next few days and post how it goes if anyone is interested). Given the slots on this thing that are clearly meant for the SAP, it's possible the SAP could also alleviate some of the fighter mode floppiness as some others had suggested. Time will tell. Now that I have it in battroid, I'm definitely thinking about the Nexx... But I haven't made up my mind. I REALLY hope enough interest is shown here to prompt Arcadia or Bandai to give us a proper 1/60 VF-2SS... But for now... this Evolution Toy version makes a nice decoration that I'll probably rarely touch.

I created an account here several years ago to facilitate lurking and so this is my first post... The end results of this thing sounds awful so far, but I'm not at all regretful about my preorder. In fact, this is about what I expected from a small company with no transforming toy experience. I preordered to "take one for the team". I preordered for the future of the VF-2SS (and hopefully the metal siren, and the 2JA). If HLJ doesn't lag on shipping it, I should have mine next week... Maybe I'll just never transform it. ...I really hope enough interest is shown for this thing that we get a better version down the line whether it's from Arcadia/Bandai, or a V2 from Evolution Toy. It would be nice if Evolution Toy could eventually make a good VF-2SS down the line... I think we need more players in the Macross toy field.