1/1 LowViz Lurker

Amiami offered me a 1500JPY refund... $15 dollars, really? Thanks a-holes.

Oh, even better. $14 in store points!!! Thanks, crooks.

Your story scares the crap out of me. I had a nightmare that I dropped mine and it broke lol.

Keep up the pressure and warn all customers to all the stores to please check stock before shipping it out to customers. Get the stores to all work together to get a count of how many defective/damaged goods are floating around out there.

If its a high number you will save a lot of pain in future by not putting these damaged ones up for sale in your stores and it will save the stores' reputation/s.

Please don't "stay calm". You were ripped off plain and simple. Get the word out, go to forums that have collectors on them who into science fiction and anime, and ask others if they have had experiences like yours. Share information. form a group (more people = more power) that investigates it and email bomb the crap out of the sellers who sell damaged crap. Yes you might only be a small number out of hundreds of happy people but that's not the point. You want something done. If nothing is done you got to damage that seller in some way or the manufacturer (for failing to quality test) for not doing a good enough job. Standards must be raised. Saying "oh well nothing I can do" ...is not going to make you happy.

Maybe what I would suggest is buy another one from HLJ.com, (!!! I know they are expensive but hear me out first) put the non-broken one from HLJ.com in your house. Put the broken one in the box that HLJ.com sent and complain to HLJ.com that yours was sent damaged ( I know you are lying ) and ask them: "can I please get a refund or exchange it for 'store credit' to buy something else from your store?"

I know I know it's evil and it makes you into a bad man. Because it puts a burden on a good shop, but it might be a way to solve the problem dude.

1. buy one from hlj.com (that isn't damaged - you might get unlucky twice lol)

2. take the good yf-19 out of the box and put the busted yf-19 into the hlj.com box

3. send box back to hlj.com and tell them it arrived broken ad get refund.

4. pray this plan works so you don't have to deal with this crap in future.

5. Keep in touch with us in the boards so we know whether you succeed. If you get ripped off it is your duty to tell the story so future events like that can be avoided. These are so expensive!

If you use the above plan and you get a non-broken yf-19 and refund you will be happy. If it doesn't work, please don't track me down to kill me ok? I am just trying to help.

Loving the bot mode so far. Have it posed right next to the VF-11B. Way better looking than those glossy maccross 7 valks with faces lol.

No loose arms or shoulders on mine.

I agree certain transforming bits are a bit too tight but I think over time these can get loose. Just keep transforming it. The GERWALK joints in the legs were very tight on mine.

Ok. Thanks bro.

this is it right?:

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLa_TGlrVFoxcw0G1ZRaBiAgTOLgBpBgvB

I'll do index page thingy soon.

My suggestion is go with HLJ.com and in future if you have to preorder, request they check their stock of those big ticket items for you (before they ship it off), if they have the time. Sure it won't be in truly unopened mint condition because it has been opened by someone before you. But that is a small price to pay to ensure you don't get a dud.

These are premium quality so that should also mean the standards for checking for this should be a bit higher than for mass production cheaper toys because of the amount of money involved. If you buy multiples of the same thing it is even more important. Since they all have english speaking support it means you can get quick response too. I think a bigger business has more leverage than the smaller ones which have limitations?

For me I'd like the standard release to include fast packs but no extra missiles which were not seen in the show.

The reason is that in robot mode the FP actually look good despite just being tiny bits. It kind of completes the robot mode look. But I am not crazy about the look of the extra missiles in fighter mode as I like it better with these off.

There are some cool repaints they could do of yf-19 still so if yours is busted you should ask for a refund of money from arcadia in the form of credits you can use to buy the next yf-19 release with those credits. This way the money still goes to them and they give you something that isn't a pile of broken crap. That is assuming the next thing they release isn't a mess either.

I disagree with the groups that say bitching doesn't work. In my experience you keep doing it they will cave just to shut you up but you have to go about it in the right way. Spread as much FUD as you can to potential buyers so they have to play nice. You would be doing the community a service anyway by exposing their behavior. You got to think of it like you are helping society too by pointing out the mistakes so that these businesses can't continue to rip more people off with impunity. It's not just about you. It's not just about emotions and getting angry. Its using the angry emotion and putting it to constructive use for future victims. Otherwise they will say "ha ha I could get away with it. Now in the future I will just repeat mistakes instead of taking responsibility and eating the cost of damages".

They benefit from being slapped on the wrist too because it forces them to have to avoid this in future. It is for their own good whether they realise it or not because people will be more confident buying in future.

I guess I don't really see what someone who lives in Japan is really going to be able to do about it?

They can say theirs is busted and obtain support from the company since they live there. Then give the replacement part to their buddy living in the other country. If you can't speak their language and don't live there and they can't speak english to help you, then you will need a proxy of some sort.

If you are not in japan they have the ability to ignore you and pretend you don't exist.

But lets say there is a critical mass and the internet explodes with complaints....that is a different story. You victims of bad treatment need to network with each other to get things done. That's how it was done when the xbox 360 had the RROD problem. You got to show on youtube how bad the product you bought was to punish them before they begin to take notice and act nice to save their share price from dipping. lol David vs Goliath. Who won? The big coporation eventually ended up having to admit they made a piece of poop and fix it to save the future image in the public eye.

Worst of all it is made-to-order which means getting replacements would be harder than retail release of a valk.

So is skullmilitia taking lead on getting this situation cleared up with Arcadia?

My one and only order from Ami Ami is looking like this:

Piece ended up all the way up here and probably scratched the piece up already before I could even touch it.

And Mommar is right its not the shipping. No dents on the box and completely fine. So what I'm not allowed to post this on Arcadia twitter and facebook now? I think I have the right as a consumer to point it out. Damn their reputation if they can't back it up.

I'm having HLJ open the rest of my orders to check for anything broken.

Unbelievable this thing that's suppose to be solid yet better than the V.1 19 is disintegrating before coming out of the box.

Going to email Ami Ami now.

Good idea. Although mine isn't damaged, from now on, I am going to ask for the guy to check for damage before sending it off. I'd rather they opened the box and inspected the toy before they send it off, I see it cracked up, and have to use a complaint form. "Prevention is better than cure".

I would get it in a heart beat if it sold for around 200 but more that ouch. You may collect one thing but I got 4 runs on different genres, Chogokin, Hot Toys, 3rd Party and Macross. Although I have traded off collecting macross for Gundam and Sentinel.

It just sucks when I spend 300 bucks on a 19 anniversary special to be told its garbage. Which is funny since thats what folks were talking like when they came out with the 1/60 and said the 1/72 is garbage. Now its Version 3 and version 2 is garbage. I mean what do you do with all the old ones. Anyway I am passing on this. Too expensive, saving up for my Hot Toys Ed-209 and RoboCop. Would like to get a Hot Toys hulk but Ill see. Would like to get a better version of the 21 but I suppose that thing will cost 400 bucks

Ok for me when the old yamato came out I said I liked it but was disapointed by the small gupod and the gullet. I'm not saying you can't love the old one but for me it is miles behind the new. hehe

It doesn't mean the toy was garbage but saying the new one isn't an improvement would be a lie. Of course, not all newer things are necessarily superior to older things.

Some examples from video game systems: the older model playstation 2 are better than new cheaper ones, the new nintendo 2ds is worse than the older 3ds, the new playstation vita is worse quality than the older ps vita which had an OLED screen for better screen quality. (they went with LCD for the newer model in order to make it more affordable)

..But in this case the robot mode is much better imo. Having chest lock for one makes it easier to handle. Should have been in the old yamato imo.

The old toys were good for their time (compare the old yamato monster to the new bandai monster) but standards have gotten higher. Otherwise we'd all be displayig chunky monkey toys not spending money on new stuff. I sold off my old yamato once I knew this was being developed.

Whether you get value for money is another topic altogether though. Prices are getting out of the reach of many people so they are looking for reasons to hate on the new stuff without looking at the flaws of the older stuff honestly. Let's not even look at the price for a minute but just what has improved. If what has improved is all we talk about and not whether it is worth paying for those improvements, then we can come to the conclusion that overall the new is better than the old just looking at things like poseability, look, the accuracy to the show etc. Nobody is saying the old was garbage but you have to be honest with yourself and see the flaws for what they are. Toys shouldn't lose their form when you put it upside down for a second. haha

If you feel you can cut and edit and do an even better job than what is around out there by all means do it and then link it here in the thread. For example you might have done a review of a toy but then decided to seperate the review from the actual transformation portion. You could cut out the review part and make a video remix which only has the TF instructions only so people get an even quicker reference vid.

In 10 years from now some guy might have bandai mac f toy ( he bought cheap off ebay perhaps it gets so hard to find them anymore when newer shows are popular) and needs some good vids to look at to help him change modes.

I just checked my YF-19 ankles from last night and it is still holding up in the same pose.

Will try to pose it in as low a crouch as I can get then leave it crouched for a time.

In my experience HLJ seems to be pretty reliable. I haven't dealt with many other sellers so perhaps I am being biased and there is something even better out there. But if it ain't broke...

As for the guy still deciding if it is worth the money to buy a YF-19.... stick with the TF stuff and see if the prices of these goes down a bit. If it doesn't, you don't have to worry since these are not of the standard you expected for the existing price to begin with. win-win for you.
But it IS better in quality than the old yamato for sure. Whether that means its worth the high price charged in a time when the economy is the way it is, is another story. For all we know it could have a problem nobody will see coming (like "sony timer" lol) until later and stuff breaks. But its the risk you take being an early adopter AKA guinea pig. I can only talk about my own experiences and my opinion might change in time. So far I am happy and since I saved up over long stretch of time rather than pay a lump sum I can eat the cost.

What are third party transformers BTW?

It's easy to say don't panic. But panicking is what I would do if mine came out of the box broken.

You want these guys to sweat so they'll compensate you ASAP. Ask early adopters of the first edition xbox 360 game console. lol Within 1 year everyone had the RROD and MS claimed it was just an isolated few. The internet disagreed. People ran polls on public forums to find out how many gamers experienced the RROD problem (it was huge percentage) and something was done to fix that problem after a certain critical mass of people complained. (which resulted in a permanent fix of the problem in later editions)

But yeah I'm not saying this means to not buy a YF-19. (I don't think it is a defect just that a worker screwed up) I am happy with mine so far. Just that if it happens to you, you got to get the word out and network with others who might have had the same problem as you to get something done about it. Because businesses usually only respond when you hit them where it hurts: the pocket. That only happens if you put their rep into question and hurt future sales of thier products by highlighting what they did wrong and how they can avoid it in future. And if they don't listen to valid complaints? They deserve to fail until they fix it. How fast they fix it = more happy customers.

A simple thing like getting the seller to check for damaged goods would have saved so much time. This way you let them do all the work and use their time and resources before sending it off, instead of you having to chase them up and waste your own free time and the hassle of having to send the item back or put up with the possibility that you won't get a response because there are piles of other people to attend to before they get to you. Timing their response can let you know how much they care. After all if we are not in the country the business is from, we are at the mercy of whatever they decide to do about it and they can decide not to care since we are overseas. It's much more risky than buying transformers and finding a defect and then going to the local toy store you bought it from and asking for refund or replacement.

Honestly, this thing was assembled by the laziest worker ever. None of the tabs are lined up or in. The chest portion isn't set correct. It almost looks like I have two left stabilizers. Certainly the right one does not fold over like the left one does. There's excess glue on the chest piece that is also preventing the flap next to the head from completely closing. The fit of all the panels is rough and really separated in spots. This is some of the worst QC I've seen on a Yamato/Arcadia I've personally seen.

Make sure to post about it on as many toy forums you go to so they have to help you out quickly.

More damage to their rep = the quicker they will get on to your case and get something done about replacements or refund. Also warn people to ask the seller to please check for defects before sending out.

Especially if you have to pay for shipping to send the toy back. ie that means you still lose money. Most good business will accept responsibility and pay for the shipping too. It's quite a lot of money down the drain. Time their response (about doing something for you) and let others know how quick they are to react. It could just be you were unlucky and vast majority of buyers had no problems but it doesn't matter. Its their problem/responsibility not yours. Quality checking should be even higher standard for items made in smaller qauntity. (since getting replacements may not be a option)

Normally with mass produced stuff (like bandai vf-171) you can wait for reviews before paying and it is an educated risk. Ppeople have the ability to give feedback and experience the flaws and defects and then get the word out to others on the internet before you take the plunge. Not so easy with preorder-only items. You are the guinea pig.

My YF-19 Anniversary Special never suffered any of the problems you mentioned. What about compared to the Yamato Fire Valk. That thing was a big improvement already. Im just concerned that spending 300 plus dollars is a bit much for transformer

Well normally I would say to this post: wait for reviews by others to be written up and then look at the comparisons they do between old and new, but since this is a made to order toy and you have to make decision quickly then I will just say that if you liked the fire valks and blazer valk this is the equivalanet of that for the yf-19. The improvements you saw are a big jump up.

Yes it is a lot of money to plonk down. But like I said if you saved up a little bit each month to get one you will not feel as wallet raped. I guess if you are religious you could say it is like 'fasting' (going without eating) lol

This is why we should ALWAYS open up our boxes and check things when we buy them. The people that just look at the box from the outside and don't open it are runing risk of getting damaged good.

It's good policy for those of us who buy multiples of something. It is tempting to not bother to check all of them but you are putting yourself at risk.

MOTHER F**KER! The wing is broken on mine!

It's just snapped right in two. Some f**king factory worker broke it and packaged it up anyway!

this is what I fear being someone not living in japan. Sucks to be you right now.

If you got it from HLJ you could probably get refund easily. And this was a made to order premium toy too.

Edit: just looked at the pics. Definitely send those pics to the place you bought from. Even if you don't get refund maybe it will cause enough panic so they have to check the stock they sell (before sending it out) in order to save their reputation. You have moral high ground here even if these are imported item that are not 'supposed' to be sold to people outside japan and therefore we can't access support.

So how is this bird different from Yamato's?

Major differences are

-the lack of gullet in fighter mode from the side

-bigger gunpod

-more muscled look in robot mode which looks like the GNU or battroid mode lineart

-diecast (you'll notice it when you hold it)

-extra gimmicks like missile in leg as seen in the anime, shield opening/closing gimmick, the extra missiles that were not shown in the anime etc

-pilots are no longer chunky blobs of bird poop but people that can pose

-looks more poseable overall for battroid mode like the fire valk and vf-19S.

-everything locks in all modes. In the old days yamato only locked things in fighter mode and sometimes forgot other modes.

-high speed mode gimmick

.....and it seems like it might NOT crack in the arms or explode when you look at it wrong due to improvements in material over the years. Maybe it will break but its too early to tell yet.

Compared to bandai toys is it worth it?

That depends on how much disposable income you have to spare. I basically saved up for one year so I don't feel the wallet rape that bad. If I were collecting other toys I probably wouldn't have been able to afford it without sacrificing other things.

Personally I would have liked a stand similar to yamato SV-51.

So for those of you who have the Yamato YF-19 and now the new Arcadia version, which one do you prefer better? Is the Arcadia worth the price tag?

Is it worth the money to me personally? Yes. But each person seems to have a different idea of what something is worth. For example I liked the Bandai Himetals because they were quite nice to hold in your hand and play with as desk toys. And fun to transform since they were easier than yamato v2 1/60 with better shoulder system. But most avoided it because it was overpriced compared to 1/60 at the time of release. In general I am prepared to pay high price if it has the durabilityand doesn't feel like it is going to break when you look at it funny. (problem with many early yamato toys)

I think overall this is a better toy in the same way VF-1 v2 1/60 was over the old 1/48 vf-1.

With the sculpt and proportion of the 1/60 vf-1 v2, you don't get those tiny hands* of the 1/48 and everything looks better proportioned in the robot mode and looks more balanced for all three modes.

You also got the improvements like double jointed arms for better poses.

Some will still like the 1/48 in fighter mode over the v2 1/60 vf-1 yamato but overall the 1/60 is better than the 1/48 vf-1 and I think the same applies here with this new yf-19 compared to the old yf-19. The old YF-19 still doesn't have gap at the knee joint but so what. You get diecast, better pilots, missile in the legs gimmicks etc. Overall the strengths and improvements outweigh weaknesses. When they do repaints without all the extra missiles I will probably cave and buy another one. I already have two VF-19S because I like the toy a lot.

*the tiny hands looks ugly to me like the old yf-19 tiny gunpod and gullet are ugly to me. At the time I guess robot modes took a back seat to fighter modes when it was considered. Nobody thought of the mecha as 'action figures' that needed much pose-making features until the revoltechs came out.

So quick question, I'm seeing the yamato release on mandarake for around $120, is the Arcadia release $180 better than the yamato?

Yamato version is like a mutant brother of the arcadia release. Not many were happy about the look in fighter mode from the side. But if you only want to look from above in fighter mode it is actually ok.

robot mode though? It's not as close to the battroid lineart which goes for a more beefy muscled look to the armor frame. One thing that stood out for me was how small the yf-19 gunpod was on the yamato.

It is a big enough difference to make buying the upgrade worth it. Some people like the slim look though so this is just my opinion. But one thing to keep in mind is that the new one is more posable in robot mode and includes the gimmicks like high speed mode so you are getting more "features" along with the improvements like better pilot detail which are posable.

Certain complaints like the chest not locking in robot mode of the old yamato yf-19 (I like to call it v1 because I don't include the 1/72 yf-19 as part of the line since they are different scale) are really inexcusable imo. That was also a problem with the Yamato VB-6 Monster too where the cannon just sat on top of the toy using gravity only, without something holding it to the rest of the toy. Having everything lock together is a big deal for me. It's the difference between the toy feeling like it was rushed and one that the maker considered what it feels like to hold in your hand. If you can grip something from the torso without it losing original form, it feels a lot better to touch and hold. You actually want to pick it up and look at it and pose it, not just stare at it. I felt like YF-19 yamato is more for just looking at like the yamato VB-6 monster. Whereas the arcadia is getting closer to what we would call a toy in terms of feel.

That same pose with my VF-19S completely ruined the ankles. So that's good if they're staying tight like this here. You can't fold those legs at the knees any farther under and move the ankles any farther back can you? So the body of the plane is still horizontal but it's in a really tight crouch?

I know what you mean. The pose where the plane is as low to the ground as you can get and the feet have to be flat against the floor with the front toe stretched forward all the way. I will try to get it as low as I dare to again tommorrow and see if it can't handle it. I like the low agressive stance where it looks like it is getting ready to pounce. I think GERWALK looks good that way but given that you don't see valks bounce like rabbits the way regults do in the show, it is kinda useless and only meant to look cool.

Yes the knees are bent as far back as they can go. But like I said what if another guy was just unlucky and got loose ankles? It's all about luck which I hate. If they used clicky joints on everything like large transformers toys, it would be better imo.

I will try to update the first post to make an index as often as I can. There are only so many toys ever made where people want videos of. If it gets too much I just hand the control of the first post for a mod or regular member to edit. There may be more than one.

I encourage people to download this to hdd in case the authors ever take it down for whatever reason in future. In firefox browser for instance I download youtube vids using the Download Helper plug-in. I'm going to sleep now so don't expect index to be current to the second new things appear.

We should add every single possible YT video here

Anything that is super expensive and complex to transform really benefits from video and commentary.

There are certain things about the older yamato stuff to really pay attention to like how the VB-6 pegs can break easily if you are not careful, that need to be mentioned in videos for first-time owners.

The money people spent on something can vary. If you got yours at bargain price maybe you are not so cautious but for those who bought it 2nd hand out of box, no manual, but in ok condition and at high price, (it's old and out of production so you had to go to ebay as last resort for instance) the video can save them guesswork. It can be scary the first time you transform something.

What if say arcadia goes belly up and prices of existing toys skyrocket to insane prices so that it requires big care not to ruin it? What if the manual burns in a fire or nobody remembers where they left it? (girlfriend threw it out in the garbage bin?) It's all worth archiving. I may sound paranoid now, but look how hard it is just to get bandai mac f toys without living in japan. They deliberately make it hard for us to get it. So if you get it 2nd hand and the guy who owned it previously didn't keep the manual or box, you only have vids to go by.

Just a suggestion, but whenever a link is posted, would it be possible to edit the original post to index them all? That way we wouldn't have search through the entire thread, since I foresee there being a lot of responses.

Maybe I delete this thread, hand that responsibility over to mod and we start this again since they are going to be the most active here. With me I go through periods where i am not active in the boards and suddenly more active and so on which means it won't get updated as reliably. If it is important enough to get pinned then I think that would be a good idea. But if only a few people use it then maybe just leave it as is.

Are the ankles anything like the VF-19? Cause im wondering how the feet are able to point down enough for gerwalk mode legs which are more forward than the VF-19.

I wish they did not use friction joints for ankle but had clicky mechanisms. Balljoints are fine for small figures but bigger stuff needs clicky "shark teeth" ones imo. Certain space use mecha like the QRau require stuff like that. Remember the hips on the 1/60 yamato QRau? There is no way that is going to stand up straight without falling backward. It's that kind of stuff that benefits from having a stand of some sort. But if they make the joints not rely soley on friction alone, but instead those spring mechanism click joints, then we won't have to worry about loose joint syndrome. As it is now it seems down to luck if yours are tight.