DYRL VF-1S

Hey guys, I'm super excited to share with you a project that I consulted on:

Labels & Stickers for Labels for 1983-84 VF-1S BATTROID VALKYRIE - Toyhax
Labels & Stickers for 1984 STRIKE VALKYRIE ARMOR - Toyhax

These are repro labels for the 1/55 Strike VF-1S (the pics shown on their site are actually my Valk). For those who aren't familiar, ToyHax is an amazingly high quality repro label company. They're really well known in the Transformers collecting world; particularly, in refurbing G1 toys. They used a designer friend of mine to create them (he has designed for Adult Swim, Coca-Cola, to name a couple and happens to also enjoy Macross - though not on the board here) and I consulted on the project, tested prototypes etc.

If this goes well, they'll produce more for the 1/55 line and possibly the old school TV SDF-1, Regult, etc.

* Disclaimer: This isn't a sales push, and I don't receive any money for purchases, etc. I simply had an idea, presented it, and consulted on it. I'm just excited to share with fellow collectors who have long been looking for quality replacement decals.

2 hours ago, crackpot said:

Rule of law with Bandai pre-order madness nights: Get it wherever you can.

Yuuuuuuup

42 minutes ago, Slave IV said:

Damn...I should get one someday.

18 minutes ago, sqidd said:

Hmmmmmmm, if only I had a few extra sets..........

LOL... and a VE-1.

3 hours ago, Slave IV said:

Only ordinance worthy is the clip on missiles that some came with. Another accessory I don’t remember much about but I think that same Hikaru Strike came with them?

Yesss siir. Only the Strike IIRC.

There's a lot of "Please stay on topic" floating around - me included. So, I thought this would be a fun way to direct traffic as an overflow thread whenever someone wants to get off topic. Just suggest they post it here to the "island of misfit toys" where being off topic is welcomed.

Be random. Rant. Post what you want as long as it is completely off topic!!!

1 hour ago, SilentH said:

For the first time ever, im hesitating to open these toys.

thanks to @mantisfists for the Mandarake tip on Max

thanks to @sqidd for Hikaru and Kakizaki

Welcome!!! Enjoy them.. They are fine specimens - half toy / half collectible / 100% fun.

On 9/25/2020 at 1:28 AM, tekering said:

I managed to squeeze another shelf into the 1:60 corner...

On 9/25/2020 at 1:33 AM, Slave IV said:

Your talent of finding another place to add a shelf is as or more impressive than your collection. 

No doubt! 

2 hours ago, spanner said:

I'll sell ya one of mine but it's gonna cost ya some big bikkies!! 

2 hours ago, seti88 said:

english site of this years virtual event..

https://tamashiination2020.tamashiinations.com/

Hmmm.... no hidden pic or mention of anything macrossy yet(?)...

If I recall, wasn't that the case this summer as well? And then we wound up getting the Supers if memory serves right

9 hours ago, RedComet said:

Oh man, well that beats my project to do the same by a good 2-3 months. This guy did a solid job on it! Seeing it though, I like leaving the kites but I don't think I wanna leave the 001. Also, I feel like it would look better with the blast shield, perhaps with an autobot logo where the skull used to be. Best thing about seeing this is it really answers a question in my mind about if all the little "no step" etc. decals would be a distraction on a transformer, and I think the answer to that question is no.

6 hours ago, sqidd said:

Man, no heat shield with logo or dick sticker? Shameful. And why is there a pilot...........in a robot?

He won the battle. But you will win the war. Yours is going to be better.

4 hours ago, nightmareB4macross said:

Looking forward to Red Comets efforts 2-3 months from now.  Plenty of time to track and record what should have been better on an already achieved attempt.

But given what Red Comet has done I have faith and hope he pulls through.

 

I'm looking forward to it as well @RedComet! I think you'll crush it.

12 minutes ago, nightmareB4macross said:

I appreciate your feedback and don’t take your comments as confrontational. We’re all good.

This thread is about the “1/55 Revisited” a somewhat official and unofficial history of the mold and what transpired from it. The reason for reminiscing on the pioneers and their championing was to further develop what transpired from the original Takatoku through out history from official through KO manufacturing and how the bridge kept the mold alive through the “dry spell.” This was a time when there were really no options to acquire an official mold without breaking the bank and so your recourse was to either acquire an expensive KO and customize it using various talented artists found here and elsewhere.

Believe it or not, at one point a MIB Takatoku could run as high as 3K. A Jetfire could Run from dirt cheap to 1K. And those who wanted options sought out alternatives and that’s part of the history of the “1/55 Revisited.”

I for one promote and support those who want to continue and support the mold. At one point I recasted many of the original molds and sold a few here when it was acceptable. I even recasted a VE-1 ElintSeeker Kit in Task3 which is very laborious and time consuming material. And was provided in color and natural. Those who have these kits can attest to their longevity and quality. It was done as a bridge and was never done to derail threads. 

As previously recommended, new “for sale” threads can be started. But there are other options to create interest as well...

Starting your own WIP progress thread and develop a following of your work could promote your work and provide interested parties your a view to your talent, capability, and intent as you take them through your process. If you then see there is plenty of interest, then you can start a “for sale” thread.

I am in no ways a mod, and do respect the work involved behind the responsibility. But I also respect others threads and try to maintain the course of the topic as that is the point of the thread. Does it deviate from time to time sure, but it is typically done without intent and then is brought back. This occurs by the actions of mid and yes many times from those who are interested in thread.

Thanks for the feedback.

 

Word. Thanks for taking the time to expound! I certainly appreciate the history and your involvement in it.

28 minutes ago, Sanity is Optional said:

With COVID anything goes, and expect cancellations/delays.

Very true my friend. I don't complain about it because I'm fortunate to be able to still collect these, ya know? But, looking forward to more announcements from Arcadia and Bandai when they come.

Nora would be awesome, but honestly, I'd even love it if they started going back to some of their VF-1 Premium releases and amped them up with the weathering and paneling. They could do that without the need for new molds if they wanted.

So. Which one of you awesome customizers are gonna create a 1/55 VF-1A version like this?

Inquiring minds want to know.

13 minutes ago, Sanity is Optional said:

Bandai has taught me that just because something's shown, doesn't mean it will be produced.

Arcadia too? (Which wouldn't surprise me)

22 hours ago, Sanity is Optional said:

Nora SV-51 is probably on the list, given that they've already released an Ivanov SV-51.

Pretty sure they showed a displayed prototype of Nora over the past year if memory serves correct. Wouldn't surprise me at all.

26 minutes ago, Slave IV said:

Great points and I agree...except the part about taking all the conversation to another thread that is not in this Toy section. Again, some people never look in those other sections and they are interested in Toys, which is what all of this is about. Anything that has to do with the love for or "revisiting" the 1/55 should start HERE at this point and then if it needs to move into another thread or its own, then it can. That is how a "discussion" forum should work IMO.

Anyways, it's unfortunate that someone who wanted to share something based on their love for these 1/55s had to be discouraged and whatever the case, let's get back to enjoying these wonderful 1/55s however we like.

Totally agree! I was just making a point (hopefully in a respectful way) of how if you're going to apply logic to one idea, you can't just single it out. You have to apply it to all similar things. And that is quite extreme when we just had a barrage of comments on something sooo similar in the last page.

So yeah. I'm with ya brotha! I guess it's a bit misleading when I say I'm all for keeping the topic strict. What I should say is that whatever the Mods want to do is fine by me. HA.

18 hours ago, nightmareB4macross said:

Your choice.

Thank for sticking to the subject.

It is much appreciated.

Hey man, I'm all about keeping threads on topic (just look at my comments from time to time on 1/48 DX thread). Nothing drives me more crazy than that. But to be fair, and since you're not a moderator, what Sqidd inquired about was very on topic - no more off topic than you and others reminiscing on the custom parts for 1/55 done by several members in the past (and many who are no longer active).

I'm sure he would create a new thread if it ever materialized. And a couple people have already showed interest in furthering convo here. Anyway, I'm not being confrontational about it, but voicing an opinion.

If you want to keep things strictly on topic (which I'm all for,) I'd ask that you and others move the reminiscing of custom parts from the past to its own thread as well and keep legit releases and recognized KOs to the topic here. Just giving perspective because we have a good community here and I happen to be a big fan of reading your input as well as Sqidds.

2 minutes ago, treatment said:

That's what discussions are all about.

We all challenge everyone's views and if there is something amiss.

Even tho I knew you were talking about feature-creep instead, I still took you up on the design thing since that is what the recent interesting discussions about the leg-FPs was all about. 

What was Bandai thinking when they glued up the leg-FPs?

Some factory guy messed up and so they juust roll with it?  

Or did their design really somehow just didn't work?

I mean, Bandai does have a reputation of over-engineering and over-designing rather simple stuff.

The YF-19 stabilzers, the symmetry stuff, etc, etc.

:shrugs:

 

 

Haha I'm with ya! I don't disagree with any of that.

For all we know, the Macross DX line gets all the "early in career" designers who cut their teeth on it. We all know that other lines bring in the bucks for them like Gundam and DBZ, etc. We're over here trying to decode intent and design when it really could be F'ups to your point LOL.

18 minutes ago, mantisfists said:

'm not a design engineer, but I don't agree with this at all.  I could be (and probably am) wrong, but I think that if Bandai were looking at every feature and weighing the investment vs return, they could've removed a lot of the features.

18 minutes ago, mantisfists said:

They know the people and market who would be targeted with these products would pay for more, not less, features.

I respect your opinion on this and appreciate your approach to the topic. I know it might seem counterproductive but I think a good way to explain it is the old adage "less is more." Most design goes through a process that includes understanding your target audience (as well as outside of your audience,) and then streamlining the design to meet budgetary restrictions or needs. Trust me, most products or even intangibles such as software could have waaaay more features than do. It's not a design limitation but a balance of not over complicating the experience and keeping with budget.

"Feature creep" is a term used to describe how some designers stack on incremental features to improve a design and in turn over complicating the experience. I personally feel like this is what Yamato did with their SSPs. Are they cool? Sure, to look at once. I never use them though. It seems to me that Bandai thought it unnecessary even if it meant losing a cool factor.

Bandai proved they could design the SSPs in a similar fashion as Yamato when they displayed prototype drawings, etc. before the DX 1J released. They decided not to move forward with it for whatever reason. I'm just explaining why that action doesn't surprise me. And my logic is in the proof that people are still buying the SSPs.

17 minutes ago, treatment said:

Gluing up a part with moulded details to hide it?

What other plausible explanation other than they didn't design the cover properly to secure and detach properly?

I find it to be a simple explanation - they already had the molds when they ditched the design for whatever fiscal reason they decided to ditch it for. They didn't complete the design. It didn't make sense to create new molds nor to offer a fully functional SSP that exposed the parts. That's my best guess. But that's where my expertise/educated guess ends because we just don't have all of the details available to us, ya know?

I got nothing but Macross love for ya Treatment, but if you aggressively challenge my opinion, I'll aggressively defend it. No tangents going on here - just discussion.

Oh and just in case you aren't familiar with the term "feature creep:" https://lmgtfy.app/?q="feature+creep"

1 minute ago, treatment said:

Design creep?

Bandai's FPs actually have similar albeit somewhat nerfed designs on their FPs like the old Yammies, as they've shown in the TN event DX-Macross annoucement,

They then inexplicably glued the leg-FPs together once released years later.

That's not really design-creep.

Maybe more of a design-failure on their part...

 

Do you know much about design? Like, are you a subject matter expert? I know what I'm talking about (albeit, I meant to say "feature creep" and revised my post to reflect that). My profession is to communicate design. Any engineers, designers or UX designers care to comment?

It's not a matter of design failure at all. As you pointed out, they are capable of the design and have displayed it as such. You also see detail when prying open as you mentioned.

Am I incorrect in stating that most people on this board who own SSPs from the 1/48 Yamato also own SSPs from Bandai for the DX - all while knowing that they didn't have the same features as Yammies? Bandai chose to be light on SSP features because it wasn't necessary. Even if end users complain, we still buy them. What we don't have insight to is what budget Bandai allocates to the DX line for Macross. They obviously took resources that could've been spent on (what I would call) overly designed SSPs and used them to deliver something else in the line. For all we know, something we really enjoy about the DX line is due to that very thing.

On 10/5/2020 at 9:35 AM, sqidd said:

Can I make something better. OH HE!! YES I CAN! Will it price those items out of the market? Probably.

Yup, design is an interesting beast. To me, the SSPs of the Yammies are simply a matter of feature creep. Most of it is so unnecessary. And honestly, how often does anyone here actually use it? What, like maybe one Valk armed with SSPs that show the inside for a photo or one for display? If I'm Bandai, I realized that early on and put my design dollars somewhere else.

The fact is this: Most of you own the SSPs from Bandai if you own them from Yamato 1/48s. What does Bandai care as long as you're buying them? What tips the scale is if the lack of design means you won't buy them. Otherwise, they deemed another feature more important and placed resources on that priority.

It's not a matter of not being able to design something vastly improved over Yamato; it's a matter of weighing the investment against return on investment based on budget.

They’re like an abusive relationship I tell ya!