MacrossMania

Lolicon, you need to work for Bandai and make a weathering version happen. I would snap it up in a second. This is a textbook example of weathering. All faded panel lines with the ghost-like imprints. I'm wondering though. Has anybody every thought to expand the universe of tools that modelers use to achieve the weathering look? I guess I mean like added little touches. If you notice some of the old F-15's, F-18's, F-16's and F-14's up close, they do have that wash around certain edges where exhaust fumes or water stains must have flowed off the edge of the surface mid-flight. It's like the stains of a waterfall or something and speaks to the years of service the plane must have seen to achieve that kind of look. Only hardened exposure to repeated flights over the years would produce it. And it goes beyond simple panel lining. Has anyone ever thought to do it? Here's a stock photo from wikipedia. The force of the wind over the wing's trailing edge has created what appear to be water stains there. The same is true of the stabilizers and the ailerons. Has anyone thought to replicate this effect in the modeling world? It would add a lot of realism.

Couldn't agree more. It's simplicity and elegance still stand head and shoulders above the rest. And what seems to be clumsy of its age, the "chunky" in chunky monkey, seems to me to be more of a deliberate choice by Takatoku designers (Kawamori) to be more evocative of the cartoon-like design. This is clearly evident in the 1/100 scale valks put out by Takatoku later on. I mean the ones that didn't transform. They have the rabbit ears and the chunky calves. Given that history, I don't think it's too far of a stretch to assume that some of that "clumsy" design work was a deliberate choice by Takatoku to make the robot mode more evocative of the robust action poses in the cartoon and movie, the zenith of which can be seen in Bandai's VF-19/YF-19, which in my opinion is the best toy that combines both the sleekness of the jet mode with the anime poses of the robot mode. But as far as simplicity of transformation and elegance of design, no way. The chunky monkey wins hands down. No other toy comes close in my opinion.

I have to say that it is a bit satisfying to watch Shizuka come around to the chunky monkey. At least your interest is piqued. I guess I just find that interesting given your affinity for the modern valks, not unexpected of course because of your age. But all the more satisfying to watch. IMHO the chunky monkey still stands as a preeminent achievement in toy making, and a must have for any serious macross collector.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who likes these valks. I always loved that version of the jetfire, although compared to my AFA graded G1 counterpart, it's more like a favored stepchild. But I still like it though. Same with the 1/48. I would say this and the VF-1J super parts were the 1/48s "that got away." Love em both.

This entire set up is my dream. Toys, books, and a place to write. Love this set up. I have something similar, but just not the space to play with.

Incredible. Really makes it stand out.

I can't imagine what it would have been like if that was my DX VF-1J??! I would have chartered the first flight to seller's house and personally tested the idea that the DX is tougher than the chunky monkey.

This review is EPIC!!! Easily the best review I've ever seen. There's nothing more satisfying than watching a pissed off toy collector drop F bombs all over the place.

I went to the industry toy fair last year in NYC. Got a special pass and talked to several folks there. Really cool. Bandai was one of them and we discussed all sorts of things. Also spoke to the guys who created the arcade here. Really cool. Wanted one then and want it now. If you ever get a pass to an industry toy fair, I highly recommend going. You get a peak of their upcoming releases for the new year. No reveals as such. All highly confidential (Hasbro had a walled off area you could only through with press passes!), and most of that is reserved for Asia, but still very cool.

So due to my clumsy American hands, my DX Chogokin masterpiece took a shelf dive this morning. Actually more like a coffee table dive, but onto a hardwood floor. Everything's fine though. No scuffs, marks, or broken pieces. Really speaks to the superior quality of this piece.

Playing with this guy almost every day. He's definitely not a shelf warmer. Just proof to me that he's still the GOAT, so far. But my wish list for the 1/35's are: integrated intake covers integrated side covers between the back and chest. The one on the DX 1/48 is definitely unsightly! a locking mechanism for the neck tougher head lasers. Mine feel just a tad on the fragile side on the DX 1/48. LED lights on the head, knees, wings and backpack a locking mechanism for the backpack detents on the wings and wing flaps (I have no problems with the wing flaps on my copy) tougher tail fins and a locking mechanism/detent for the tail fins shooting gunpods (with a robust spring! Ah the 80's! Bring them back!) mechanism that allows you to choose between symmetrical movement of the wings and head lasers (somebody mentioned this in a previous post) shooting gunpod (again, do we really need to worry about child safety laws for adult collectibles? This was a charming addition to most 80's toys that I don't think makes it any less of a collectible) tougher leg fins with detents/locking mechanisms.

Already found it. Thanks.

Reminds me of this scene in Jackie Brown: "You never got into the CD revolution?" "Oh I got a few, but I can't afford to start all over again. I mean I've invested too much time and money in my albums." "Yea, but you can't get new stuff on records." "I don't get new stuff that often." Cue Delphonics: "I gave my heart and soul to you girl. Didn't I do it baby, didn't I do it baby?"

Ah, now I somehow queerly understand this phrase now more than ever. The dead king lives by the ghosts of his own deeds and legend. His reputation carries him forth from the grave, tears him from the pages of history and into the realm of legend. He lives beyond the grave, but in memory only. So it is with the 1/48's. I shall always remember you, my love.

I wonder how this thread is doing in light of Bandai's release of the DX VF-1J.

Reminds me of the fantasies I used to have about toys when I was a kid and I hadn't yet purchased them, or my parents hadn't at least. Or maybe the days and weeks leading up to Christmas, when I would sneak into the closet and just stare at the toys my parents hadn't yet wrapped for Christmas Day. One time my mother even discovered me and scolded me for it! I guess some things never change lol.

LOL. How collectors love anticipating the next big thing. They turn it over in their minds endlessly!

If it was a false equivalency, Bandai wouldn't have gone to the lengths that it did to make the DX as durable as it is. It's leagues above the Yamato 1/48's, which clearly deserve the name display piece. I just think there's room for improvement if you really want to make the absolutely perfect toy. It's the perfectionist in me. It would be nice to have durability that lasts a decade or longer with more than just time spent on a desk or behind a glass walled cabinet, and the occasional swoosh by an admiring collector. You don't have to look any further than the Metal Build line to see the kind of durability that Bandai is capable of. Of course, those do not transform, and so maybe there's a lot more room to play with in terms of the amount of heavy plastics and nigh bulletproof die cast that is used in those things, and so maybe we're just right back where we started, teasing the mind with possibilities that simply can't exist in the real world.

You never had to be this gentle with the Chunky Monkey's. I know I'm harping here as a self-proclaimed "protector of the franchise," I guess you could call it that anyway. But the reality is you never had to even consider that with the 1/55, and yet now, this many years later, we do. Maybe as fans this is something we should come to expect out of our chogokins. Durability that lasts. Still have immense love for the DX, just sayin'.

This is what I was initially pointing out when I gave my first impressions on the figure. The leading edges of the wings and intake covers are extremely fragile, at least they appear that way to me. Of course this is a necessary byproduct of creating something so beautifully and perfectly designed. Those leading edges have to be thin to make them so sleek, but of course it impacts durability. I'm not surprised, if still a little disappointed. This doesn't really impact my overall impression of the figure. I still think it is the best currently out there, better by far than the 1/48 or 1/60 V2. But it does point up my earlier comment that we are living in era of toy making where the pursuit of perfection, which entails extreme detail and preening (some would say overweening) design, necessarily means compromises in durability.

I'm no photographer, so the poses/shots/poor lighting will have to do in place of the truly inspired pics on this MB, but here's a few I took tonight as well as some of my thoughts below. Maybe some of the hardcore photographers on here can take some of my setups and do a better job. So my impressions are this: hands down the best valkyrie made, ever. I know that's a tall order, but true. First let's get rid of some of what I feel are the misguided criticisms. Bandai could never design this from scratch because of the momentous leaps and bounds that were made by Takatoku's original design. Remember, Takatoku virtually created the Transformers market with this design, along with many others, and set the bar high when it comes to elegant but simple transformation. There's just no other way to put it: there's one and only one way to transform the VF-1J, and that's the design that Kawamori and later Takatoku with the Chunky Monkey originally envisioned it. To say that the DX VF-1J falls short as a masterpiece because it isn't revolutionary in its engineering misses the point entirely. Bandai is clearly building on the work of its predecessors, and it was late to the "masterpiece" game in the first place, only seriously entering the market after Yamato blew it wide open with the 1/48's, and so it could only do one thing, use Takatoku's basic design and improve on the slight improvements that Yamato had offered with its own 1/48. And we also have to remember the fact that Yamato only really "improved" the Takatoku design by making the first serious undertaking of the VF-1J as a high-end collectible. That was what was truly transformative about it. It wasn't about reenvisioning the design from the ground up, but taking a beloved toy and launching it in the 21st Century, all dolled up with CGI effects and engineering. The perfect dream toy, if you will. Of course the shortcomings of Yamato's 1/48 toys were legion. They were fragile to handle, would break at a mere glance, and had very little if any die cast. And while the jet was certainly elegant, the robot mode was clunky and awkward, had a long nosecone, awkward limbs, skinny arms, and ... those hands! And herein lies the true glory of this masterpiece! Look at how beautifully designed she is! The trick, as for any valkyrie, is to make the robot mode believable and anime accurate while at the same time retaining the elegance of the fighter mode. And the DX nails it. And that is no easy feat, believe me. How quickly people forget the shortcomings of the 1/48 in this regard. Of course the 1/60 V2's were extremely popular, and typified the so-called "perfect" valkyrie design for the time period. But again, Yamato has always seemed far more concerned with the "masterpiece" side of toy making, at least in my mind obsessing over the real-life version of the toy to the exclusion of the more charming characteristics of its anime counterpart - the hyperbolic poses, the thick, almost Popeye-esque arms and legs, the quirky rabbit-like ears that form a V at the top of its head. All of that was missing from Yamato's versions, both the 1/48 and the 1/60 V2's. Moreover, Bandai seems to have learned the lessons from its YF-19/VF-19 outing. It's left the plane looking sleek and elegant as ever, managing to incorporate the Popeye-esque arms and legs into a compact, yet elegant, fighter mode. Performing that real-life anime-magic trick where all of the anime characteristics of robot mode disappear in fighter mode, which retains its elegance and beauty. Unless I'm missing something, this basic fact of the design and sculpt of the DX seems to have been overlooked in previous posts. I'm only pointing it out because I think the DX VF-1J deserves high praise in this regard. And the "masterpiece"/high end collectible market, at least when it comes to valkyries, was never about redesigning the transformation, but only about making the best possible rendering of the toy in real life considering design, sculpt, fit and finish. Yamata's entrance into the market with the 1/48's, and continuing with the 1/60's, was only ever about this strategy in my mind, and Bandai's too. In that regard, Bandai hits it out of the park. With all of that said, it is not perfect. Despite the far superior fit and finish, the superior die cast and plastic, it still tends toward the fragile in certain areas. The leg fins (by design) break off, when it probably would have been a better move just to make them a little thicker, smaller, and therefore without the need for a fail-safe detachable hinge. The valkyrie is simply too big to handle, and the most obvious way to handle any VF-1 is by the legs, behind the wings, which puts your hands right over the fins, flopping them all around. The same is true with the tail fins. I almost broke one of them trying to fold them for the backpack, and I can see that being a problem in the future. And just generally, while it is certainly elegant to look at on the shelf, much of the plastic on the leading edges of the wings and intakes is extremely thin and not hardy at all. And the same goes for the ailerons (while a vast improvement over Yamato's, which almost always broke off the wing, I am still very nervous about handling them). I suppose this is just a natural byproduct of making a high-end collectible, where a "real-life" rendering is prized over sturdy durability as a toy. But still, it is a shortcoming in my mind, and places the DX VF-1J still firmly in that sphere of Yamato's valkyries which were so often criticized as being nothing more than display pieces. I still long for the 1/35, and hold out hope that one day we will get it. But for now, the DX VF-1J is clearly the champion. The mother of all valkyries if ever there was one. It will probably reign supreme for easily the next ten years, and see no serious challengers without a license in the pipeline for a competitor, which I don't see happening given Bandai's dominance in the market and its status as a flagship toy company in Japan, indeed the world. That leaves the 1/35. Until then, I will be rabidly collecting all of the permutations of the DX 1/48's I can get my hands on, and consider myself luck to do so.

Unfortunately those days are over. Even the bios of the GI Joe and Transformers toys went to great lengths to vividly capture the flaws and virtues of their characters. And truth be told, they were well written. The millennials could benefit from a little imaginative fun like that. They're more at the stage you were at at 9 years old. Proust?! WTF?

Dude I love all of them. I saw a GI Joe episode the other day and the ranting and raving of Cobra Commander was spot on. Hilarious! And they were so damn articulate for being an 80's cartoon. Must have impacted my vocabulary for sure. I was definitely impressed.

Is this a rerelease some thirty years later?! I passed on the opportunity to buy the original about a year ago and still kicking myself for it. Like they say on American Pickers, you don't regret what you buy, but what you don't buy.

Boss haul.