1/1 LowViz Lurker

The 1/60 has better battroid mode proportions imo. No skinny arms, oversized chest or chicken hands that can't support the gunpod. But it more than makes up for that in terms of detail. The skinny arms really stand out when you put gbp on.

Totally agree here. But still hope toynami find some way to improve on what is good, to make it even better if possible.

Yamatos are made in china though aren't they? (look under the wing) Hopefully the prices for valks don't go up. (maybe toy collectors hoping to sell their collections one day are happy if they do though ) If the price gets to unreasonable level maybe they could sell the valks as pieces that you can assemble yourself like a gundam model? Would save so much space too.

those pics are of a mod so they wouldn't qualify as comparison pic, but the legs are normal which is why I posted them. (just to illustrate that it can do a A stance) http://www.geocities.com/duom/gundam/ultban/ultban.html Even though its less detailed and less sturdy than the toynami one, I still like the fighter mode sideview better. I wish they updated the banpresto and gave it toynami "kneecaps", swivel joint in legs like others, and removed the swingbar entirely. (pegs for battroid mode, and the usual "hole in the back side of front chest plate" for gerwalk mode, with swivel joint handling the dramatic stance instead of balljoint) In other words a combination of the best parts of the toynami (canopy) with the better parts of the presto. (eg 1S head, shoulders etc)

Fair enough. But it can do the A stance like the others and sit lower down which I thought was important to point out. with super FP: with strike FP: Shows "dramatic anime pose" of gerwalk mode. I have mine placed on a desk with gunpod reversed (ie DYRL Max style) inside the little gap in the forearm (as if it were an arm cannon) with arms swivelled outwards and it looks awesome.

The banpresto legs can do the A stance in gerwalk if you unlock the intake part from the chestplate and just use the balljoints to rotate them outwards. The way it's been posed looks horrible. (the legs are stretched to make it look tall instead of bent back in a relaxed stance like the others. It looks even worse than the chunky munkey in that comparison - it might be better to try to get each valk posed in the same stance when doing non-vehicle mode comparisons to be fair) The advantage of those ugly balljoints is that you don't just have a swivel joint but can have the feet wide apart without necessarily swivelling them. From a distance it looks pretty good and has an attitude. (rather than stiff and robotic as shown above)

The backpack of the toynami sits a bit high. If they lowered that so it sits flat like the banpresto that would be good.

For all those who wish for enemy mecha: would it matter to you if the mecha were to scale with these valks? I ask because if the mecha are bigger than them the price I think might vary. (say a Qrau with more heft and less accessories might still cost more) My question is would you still buy it if they were not to scale and just thought of as a standalone figure that shouldn't be displayed next to the valks? The motivation for me wanting 1/100 destroid is more because I want to put some of them near other 1/100 stuff. But for stuff like the Qrau, I pretty much don't care about scale as much. (I will probably just put them on the stand by themselves away from the valks) If toynami ever get around to doing similar sized toys (note: I said size, not scale) for mospeada; hopefully that hold together, then I will be happy. Handling a legioss and tread would be much easier if they first start with a small scale equivalent that has all the basics of the PT. Learn from mistakes and keep making small incremental improvements rather than taking a huge gamble with an expensive toy and then not geting right and having people return the thing in disapointment.

It's like Convoy is hidden from view on that box. As for low vis SS: since they are aiming the toy at an adult collector who probably outgrew the cartoon it kinda makes sense that they would go the non-anime look. Maybe it's a case of: the more high visibility the toy the more kiddy it looks. It kinds makes sense when you take into account that part of the reason the adult collector go for alts is thier realism in vehicle mode. They are probably tapping into the adult market first since they have the spending power to afford something like it. Unlike other TF the alternators emphasis is on thier realism and accuracy in vehicle mode, that when transformed would pass as a 1:24 model of the real car. Just like how they are aiming for the car fans with alts, they are probably using the same logic here with jet fanatics. Either way they win as eventually they will just release both at some point. (similar to the yamato credit card valk, followed later by the stealth) Think of it as like a staggered release. Like when nintendo release different colored nintendo DS to keep awareness of the same thing fresh and alive in the minds of the fanboy instead of releasing different colors simultaneously. My view is that when you grow up, you kinda outgrew the look of the toys and as an adult you now look back and think: what was I thinking as a little kid? These toys stink! Crap articulation, no resemblance to the cartoon character, kibble all over the place. Hell I don't care about nostalgia as I am not a fan of the cartoon anymore, all I care about is how cool the toy looks to me so I won't look like a nerd when people come into my house and see this on display". As an adult, you become much more image conscious too. You want everything to look expensive and sophisticated, not cheap and tacky. (perhaps that is why overly bright pastel colors tick some people off - just plain looks ugly un less those high vis colors are functional for vehicle mode in some way: like a training vehicle or something) At least with alts everything has one dominant color for the body and a few others to break it up a little in bot mode. The bonus is that the disguise would really work since the emphasis was on a good vehicle mode to begin with. Don't you get a kick when you reveal to others that the little 1:24 car on your desk is actually a robot in disguise? And transform the thing in front of them as they watch in awe at the engineering that went into its complex transformation? Have we all lost track of what made these toys so fun to begin with?

Yeah I was thinking along the lines of a feedback poll or something like: "Which of the following mecha would you like to see made?" "What would you pay for a toy of such and such scale?" "Is PT preffered over part swap if the part swap makes the toy more accurate in respect to each mode vs a compromise of all three modes in PT version?" It would be interesting to see the results if everyone (not just MW) had put in votes to see what are the most likely things to come out. As for stickers: if they tampo print more stuff it can make a big difference in the overall look of the toy for some things. Especially for mecha with not much marking. The VB6 is a good example. How hard would it have been to just print the eyeball marking on the side of the mecha FFS? Compared to vf1, (which has the unspacy kite) there is really no excuse for that. And if they can get back into panel lining, that would make it look even better in the box. It would count towards the whole presentation of a toy when they look at it from the window so it might be the deciding factor that turns a disinterested customer who thinks it looks cheap, into one that really apreciates that extra level of detail they put into the toy and becomes a repeat buyer. I would be willing to pay the extra money for the toy if it meant they were panel lined and had decent stickers or more tampo printed markings.

Macross 7. So the heatsheild shouldn't be a prob then.. Hmm I say they start on vf11 before 21. But for me I think the battroid mode is skinny. That will be displayed in fighter most of the time. Can't wait for more pics of the 19.

Interestingly though, I have just been lurking for a bit on the RT forums. They don't seem to like the idea of smaller scale vf1. But would jump at the chance of other mecha. It just goes to show people are sick of vf1. Too crowded. (competes against mpc vf1, yamato vf1 in two scales, bandai chunky munkey, banpresto, those little gashapon things etc enough already!) Toynami should start on other macross mecha as well to interest people. Give us the destroids at least. I need some 1/100 to stand next to the monster I have on display. But at the same time up the QC of stuff.

I think the reason some won't get the bandai though is more because for the size, you can get better valks. The competition is much more fierce at the larger size and there are other factors to consider like posability and what not. But for tiny valks it might be a bit more forgivable in terms of detail for them to be crappy. (that is until better ones come out to kick its ass) As for quality control: nobody knowingly buys stuff expecting them to break. I agree here, the stuff shouldn't be breaking at all. I hate it when that happens. Luckily I wait until everyone else buys stuff before jumping in early. But for me I can forgive this if the attitude of the company is that they will listen to your concerns and try to improve and then succeed in making the improvements. Especially for stuff you really want to buy but just wish the quality was good enough to not fall apart. I'm still waiting to here news on improvments made to the garland before making any commitment. Like the alphas, they look all good in pics, but until they are sturdy I'm not touching them. I don't want mine to self destruct just by being on the shelf and from no fault of my own. (it's not quite the same as say the 1/48 backpack hinge which is reasonably strong if you don't abuse it)

I'd end up getting the 19. I think it has a cool looking battroid and fighter mode. And the head turret is what makes it stand out. (much better than the other two) It has the best looking gunpod, and the transformation looks the most complex. But yeah I want all of them. I especially like the vf11 because it is the coolest CF in all of macross universe so far. I get a funny feeling they won't be able to fit a PT heat shield inside the skinny body of that anorexic valk though..

Sorry couldn't resist. Like I say, less risk if toynami do go down a cheaper alternative path. If they attempt another masterpiece people would be 5 times more angry just from the sheer shock of discovering it doesn't match the price they feel was worth it. Update us on any other breakages in time. Hopefully they fix these probs so in future others don't go through the same. More power to you. But considering the flood of yamato releases, I can see where people are coming from if they don't have any spare change to even get one of these.. Sheesh the vf1 is done to death. Nevertheless there were some people who complained in the past that they can't afford to get yamato valks, so these might be filling in a gap for those people. (ie they are really only interested in 1 or 2 and really happy with what little they have) Personally I am more interested in the fact that there is a small scale line than due to price reasons. (I will buy and prefer expensive toys if the quality justifies it)

Well I still want PT, just that the legs and arms should also detach as a gimmick or option you know what I'm saying? (like the sidecovers or different hands for 1/48 vf-1) This way both camps are happy. When I think about it: I'm not too disturbed if there is a tiny gap (though I prefer none) since the yf-21 is supposed to be able to still fly without any limbs in fighter, right? If it can fly around with no belly the same way the vf1 can fly with no arms (see tv series when hikaru gets them blown off) then it's not like it is going to prevent me from buying the thing.. I hope they take thier time with it though: perhaps it would be better they bring out the vf11 first?

Looks cool. No battroid mode pics?

Oh btw those are yf21 belly pics. The vf 22 belly plates look different. edit: VF-22 belly In any case I hope they make the legs and arms detachable (they were in the show weren't they?) and then have optional side covers for those who don't want to see the arms. (that is if they can't fit these rounded bits in the belly)

I've just looked at the side of the yf21 lineart in fighter mode. To me it doesn't look perfectly flat but bumpy and is actually the surface of the arm. (It might be that the lines were flattened out and deformed to make it look aesthetically pleasing, or that in the animation they just drew it a certain way when fighter mode was shown) edit: here is some belly lineart I've compiled for people to judge for themself: kind of reminds me of the fat bulges you always see for the yf19 in battroid mode.

Nice lego valks.

I hope there is still some love for CF color though. I want to see a brownie with 1S head turret.

If I were an owner of them I would still want the best possible version of a 1/60 and have no problems selling them off. Just happy that improvement were made. It's been a long enough time since those came out anyway, right? If improved versions of the 1/48 came out, I would have no probs getting rid of the old to make way for the new. (provided those improvement were a big step up)

Nah more like independance Day when the humans beat the more advanced aliens by reverse engineering thier tech by studying thier best weapons to figure a way to use them against thier creators. Why waste money creating your own when you can copy and clone something by stealing? UN were getting thier asses kicked up until the vf0. Maybe. But I think it would send the people into a panic by letting them know you are up against giants. Hikaru was frightened like a little school girl at the sight of one. I bet people would start to ask questions like why did we spend all this money on such a stupid design when we have destroids! 20 times cheaper! I think in the english dub roy makes mention: now you know the "secret" or something to that effect after shooting it in the back. Why wouldn't roy have just told hikaru about it from the beginning? It possible he never expected one to come out of the cockpit for people to see and that "it will only be revealed when necessary to avoid the panic it would cause" Edit: From ep2: H:"what's the deal with these crazy fighter planes turning into robots?" R:"sorry I really can't get into that right now" H:"Ooooo! Some military secret!" R:"Bingo!" R:"But I can tell you if you join up. How 'bout it?" ..indicating that the public was kept in the dark and not be given any info on the aliens. So roy had no real intention of letting his own friend know about it until his first encounter with the giant. (it would make no difference at that point, but my guess is had the giant not crawled out of the mech, Roy wouldn't have told hikaru anything, unless he accidently let slip while drunk or something.)

I'm pretty sure only the plane mode was what the airshow was for. In episode 1: why is everyone (civilians) so surprised that the plane transforms into a robot? Thier reaction being like it is something new or unheard of? Hikaru didn't even know he was inside one until he got out and asked what it was he was standing on. Also the anti-un "stole" the transformation info in macross zero as if to say that it must be something valuable or "new" or a thing so important that it could change the tide of the war. (if the enemy has it you are doomed) I think of it as the macross equivalent of the gundam v project plans or the death star plans or something. "If the plans fall into the hands of the enemy it could change history" kind-of-thing.

Will the new GBP have any kick of fix for the door mechanism? I hope someone who gets on of these can post pics if there is any difference between this and the original GBP.