1. It never was completely metal, just the inner halves of the legs, the swingbars, parts of the air intakes, landing gear, IIRC. Back in the day, a 10 year old kid (me) managed to break the nose landing gear, one of the cannons of the Vf-1J head, but everything else stood up to the beating (and I took it apart a few times as well)
2. Agreed, and it transforms in less than half the time needed for any Yamato 1/60th or 1/48th. No floppiness.
3. Poseability traded off for stiffness.
4. I like these too (on the reissues), again IIRC the Takatoku original I had, used stick on decals.
5. Yes, they always had springloaded landing gear, it always slaps hard against my fingernail when I try to open it.
6. Its bigger if you had the VF-1S Super version, but the 1/48th Yamato is naturally bigger.
7. Just buy a cheap used loose one, or better still one of the plastic bootleg variety that pervades ebay. Expensive Valks are like breasts - only dads get to plays with them.
