Salamander

[inflammatory and hypercritical response harping on my hatred of a particular aspect of toy X]

[musings about how company X has a much better track record than company Y with regards to toys using a very selective memory*]

[*including ignoring the repeated breakage of bar Z on G toys, unfortunate loosening/breakage of S on toys from M, L breakage on toys from the same series, the unending bazillion of recolors, and the horrifying suck of the single toy released for E

(Abbreviations have been chosen in such a way that they can apply to both company B and Y.)

I am glad that Yamato die-hards didn't come out to slash Bandai, but, honestly, those who defended Bandai's neo-chunky monkey (sometimes with aggressive fanaticism) and said this VF-25 was going to be the most sturdy modern valk toy ever made should at least apologize for some of the unnecessary display of violence.

I don't think anyone ever said the bit I bolded there. As for my initial enthousiasm for the VF-25, it indeed did cool down pretty much after getting my armored VF-25S. First of all because of two wrong parts in the box (which thankfully HLJ was able to replace), and then after I got the replacement parts I discovered one of the back hinges had cracked on the first transformation . That Kawamori's design put a buttload of stress on two small hinges holding the wings to the rest of the Valk does not help.

I still regret cancelling my Macross Quarter pre-order while not cancelling my armored VF-25S order. The opposite would have been better.

It is clear that when it comes to transforming expensive toys, no manufacturer gets perfect scores and Yamato is not alone in making toys engineered for breaking apart sooner than the price tag suggests.

I have a question: how does the figher mode hold when the backplate itself is already dislodged? a broken shoulder can be disguised (my 1/72 kit already lost an arm but looks perfect in fighter mode and the arm will not even budge.

If it's only cracked it will hold together fine. If a piece is broken off, you better recycle the Valk into a "broke apart while flying"-diorama until someone makes replacement parts that don't break or some kind of brace...

Does the article only mention Imai's Macross molds, or also their Galvion, Mospeada, and other molds?

You could also compare it to the old 1:100 Takatoku...

Is it really a sticker, or a decal? If the former, I hope someone will scan it in and make thin decal versions so it doesn't look like crap when applied. Furthermore, it looks like the stickers are slightly oversized when compared to the animation model...

Because Ranka with no underpants is not "special" ?

I do hope they manage to get rid of the stand (or come up with one that looks less intrusive). I do fear that it will be between 15,000 and 20,000 yen if it's as large as a DX VF-25...

Just to let you know I had one too and I made the connection between Jetfire being too similar to a Valkyrie or Veritech as it was known back in 1985-1986 but f you look on the back plate you see Bandai's logo it was the for the suppossedly Macthbox SDF-1 which had the Bandai logo and the Macross logo on the bottom of it's feet.

Of course, since they were both licensed releases. Hasbro got the license and mold from Bandai to produce Jetfire (and also Roadbuster (Mugen Calibur from Dorvack) and Whirl (Gazette Ovelon from the same show), while Matchbox got the licenses and molds from Bandai to produce several Robotech toys.

Wow okay where to start, first off I want to say I'm not being derogatory or whatever and that I'm actually enjoying this debate but anyways I never said Yamato has more experience in manufacturing and design over Bandai period. I said Yamato has more experience in manufacturing transforming Macross Mecha IF you take into account the number of released items. I don't see what the problem is, if you just take into account the 1/60 Ver.2 VF-1's by themselves your easily in the double digits and that's not counting with or without Fast/Strike Packs. If you add the various VF-0, YF-21,YE-19,YF-11, YF-22 and so one your easily adding another 14-15 different models and that's still not counting Weathering, Anniversary editions let alone 1/60 Ver.1, 1/48's, or the 1/72's and on. It's just a fact that Yamato has produced more variations of the VF-1 than Bandai and have produced more Macross Mecha than any company period.

You can also count non-transforming Macross items from both companies Yamato has I believe close too 10 figures in it's non-transforming all plastic figure line and that's not including the 8-9 variations of the 1/60 Destroids. You can also add re-issues which Bandai has done and Yamato will be doing with the re-issued 1/48's and still Bandai has produced less product.

If you count non-transforming figures, you can as well count model kits, SD figures, and gashapon/trading figures. But why not give your list of Yamato products, so we can make a true comparison?

Actually Bandai took over production from a pre-existing toy in the 80's the 1/55's. They did create 1/72 scale Valkyrie for the HCM series and the VF-17/19 but if you look at actual released items per company Yamato has a longer history making Valks with far more released items.

You realise that Bandai has been making transforming toys since the mid-to-late 1970s? Sure, they weren't all Macross toys, but they've made hundreds, if not thousands, of transforming toy designs...Metal Hero, Sentai, Machine Robo, Gundam, etc.

So it's displaying the armored Ozma in fighter mode that's causing the breaks? Interesting...

Considering the weight that that poor little hinge has to support, I am not really surprised. If there's parts that could have benefitted from being metal, it's both sides of that hinge...and even that might not solve the issue. I don't blame Bandai for that problem, I blame Kawamori for the anorexic design there.

I suspect it might also be a problem on the VF-27, albeit more minor due to the lower weight of the wings and engines.

Methinks someone else could better have reviewed that toy - obviously the writer thinks it sucks mostly due to folding in the middle in ship mode (like the SOC Irongear) and having lots of little sharp corners (like, oh, most of Bandai's collectors' items). :|

I did some research on the shipping, and EMS provide a tracking number for the customer, same for Air parcel.

But SAL does not comes with the tracking number for us to track but according to my local office and japan post, they have ways to track it as well.

Thus that is why i wan HLJ to start asking about the parcel.

There is no way i could get in the contact with japan post and blame them since they do not provide email address for me to enquire on.

The reason i am unhappy with the HLJ customer service is that they give u such standard SOP answers, and it does not answer my questions when i need clarifications. imagine you're asking a question on XXX, and they give you an answer to question YYY.

Until today when i received the email replies then i am satisified with the explaination and clarification ( This time round they did a better job in explaining as it is not the usual SOP answers) But i am still waiting for the parcel still.

HLJ likely didn't ask you to contact Japan Post yourself (BTW, you can find them by googling for "Japan post"), but to wait for more time (if they told you the 45 days and 90 days thing). Japan post can only investigate missing packages after 90 days, like many other post companies around the world.

Only SAL large parcels come with a tracking number that you can use on the Japan Post site. These start with CC or CI. The others (small packages) do get a number, but cannot be tracked online.

If you want to use future, I'd say go with that. It's safer to use than the acrylic lacquer. I found the lacquer can pick up color from the plastic and cause some color bleed so it was best to do light mists to minimize the chances of that.

That's not picking up color, but rather because either the propellant or the clearcoat itself slightly melts some of the plastics - I had the same issue with a model kit and a spraycan of automotive basecoat. You better keep the spraycan at a safe distant while clearcoating the toy, or it might end up damaged.

For those with pre-orders at HLJ, you can always log into your account when a pre-order comes into stock and request shipping. This usually speeds up the process (for me, at least). Did that saturday evening, got the payment request yesterday.

I recently purchased the GE-44 VF-25G Messiah Michael Custom. Everything was fine except for one piece from the display stand it came with was missing some parts that held it up on battloid mode. I also own the 7 VF-25S Armored Messiah Ozma Custom so I knew which piece was missing.

This is from the GE-47 VF-25S Armored Messiah Ozma Custom and is what it should look like:

This is what I got with the GE-44 VF-25G Messiah Michael Custom:

Anyone else have this problem? Any suggestions on how I can get a replacement?

Contact the store you got it from and have them request a replacement part from Bandai (if they're in Japan). Otherwise, have the toy replaced by one that isn't incomplete.

Not really, because they lack the sticker. On the other hand, the very broken strike I have in my pile of parts also lacks the sticker, so perhaps the Strike never came with the sticker in the first place...

Both of my Strikes have a regular Bandai copystamp ("BANDAI TOKYO JAPAN").

You could try peeling off the sticker by carefully lifting it using an X-Acto blade. This usually works with minor to no damage to the sticker...

Looks great and I'll definitely buy one, but really................the gunpod can't attach in fighter mode?

C'mon shame on you Bandai, that's a no-brainer! What is this the 80s'?

Especially since the gunpod does attach to Bandai's mid-1990s 1/65 Fire and Blazer Valks. Granted, it sits so low that the Valks can't be displayed in fighter mode with extended landing gear with it attached, but still...

Heh, the trailer on Youtube got its audio disabled because it used music from Michael Bay's Transformers movies. Way to get started.

I hope this TV Tropes page is more to your liking than the Wikipedia page:

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main.AstroPlan

Please do not edit it to be more negative!

However, if you can tell me what other anime besides the obvious get ripped off, that would be great!

Like I said, read the SDF-1 thread. You want stronger plastic? SOMEONE HAS TO PAY FOR IT.

Gosh. Of course, an alternate choice could be to choose less brittle plastic, which doesn't need to cost more. I mean, I have never seen a chunky monkey with shoulders that shatter like those on many of Yamato's products (unscrewed, yes. shatter? no.).

You want toys made of plastic stronger than steel??? You must be already living in the macross universe, cuz short of overtechnology, it's not going to happen IN A TOY.

Lots of plastics are stronger than steel, in a sense. Of course, it depends on the type of steel you're talking about. I mean, I use high-quality steel knives for lab work, but those will still shatter if they are bend. Other steel tools will bend (and can be bend back up to a degree), but are made from considerably softer steel and might get damaged by applying relatively little force. Likewise, if I use the wrong type of plastic container to hold aggressive fluids, the container will be damaged and might shatter. Flexible plastic is generally better to hold nasty solvents like xylene, hard plastic usually doesn't like the solvent, nor any applied heat. The same containers happily withstand the very nasty fixative (strong acid + formaldehyde) I use, while that fixative will damage (corrode) the aforementioned high-quality steel knives...

If it were that simple, sure, they should just make every valk out of carbon fiber composite pieces, and you'd have your sturdy transformer-ish valk, at a price only slightly less than a new freaking BMW.

Eh, no. It does look like a Valkyrie contains about as much plastic as, let's say, a competition R/C buggy, while the engineering is also comparable (in fact, the buggy needs to be more wear-proof...). Competition-grade R/C buggies start at about 300-400 bucks a piece. Not that much more than a 200-dollar Yamato Valk.

Materials that strong are usually reserved for military and industrial applications (ie, weapons, armor, automotive parts). You put that in a toy, and no one will be able to afford the stupid thing. Toy companies make toys because they want to make a profit off them, not cater to every hope and dream of potential customers. If they can't make a profit selling them, they simply won't make them at all.

See above. I suggest you start at Tamiya, and from there move on to companies like Associated, Losi, Kyosho, etc. Of course, they likely have larger production runs than any Yamato Valk, except for their really high-end products.

I'll repeat, do some research. Read the SDF-1 thread, and see what effect using fancier materials has on toys. There are things called production costs that come into play, and they will KILL the product. The recent rage over the $2000 SDF-1 should make this abundantly clear.

The high cost of the SDF-1 can easily be explained by Yamato having no previous experience in manufacturing fiber-reinforced plastic, molds for that kind of molding being expensive, choosing to make a limited release item in too large a scale (as in 1:2000), etc.

It would help a lot of people on here if their opinions were at least a little bit more informed.

Actually no, the plastic quality is similar, but Hasbro TF subject their toy to more safety focused design, so they have no pointy sharp fin and only have weak spring loaded guns.

You, Sir, have never handled Europe-released G1, G2, and BeastWars toys. Hello missiles firing over 3 foot far at high velocity!

I have a small numbers of Yamato and TFs, and oddly enough only a TF suffered breakage - back hinge on a transmetal megatron broke when I was careless. A few of my Yamato suffers from lose hinge (YF-19, SV-51) or poor fit (1:60v1 VF-1A), but no pieces have broken yet.

TM Megatron is one of those TF toys that sadly suffers from a certain type of plastic (charged with gold plastic particles) that becomes extremely brittle over time...

There is nothing wrong with plastic. Just because a toy has less metal part, it doesn't mean it's a bad toy. I bet you barely handle with injection plastic kit.

Yamato valkrie is more like an assembled plastic kit with lots of details like a plastic kit has. It's not a typical toy. They can have metal hinge on the shoulder, what you get in return is paint chipping. When I think about diecast metal, I can't avoid to think paint chipping off, discoloration, uneven seam. These 3 factors can easily translate to plastic as an solution.

You...have never handled a SoC figure, or other Bandai chogokin figure from the last decade, have you? Because those certainly aren't toys with diecast parts like the chunky monkey...they have diecast, but are pretty model-like in most of their other qualities.

Of course, this usually does not include design and quality control problems like Yamato's products tend to have...

Will the particle cannon fit underneath?

Michael's sniper rifle wasn't able to on the VF-25G.

It does look like the barrel can split like in the anime - there's a seam running along the entire barrel that's visible in the Gerwalk pic, and the Battroid pic seems to show a hinge at the base of the barrel. So possibly...