He...he...thanks to Rob from Samurai Monkey, my YF-19 FP arrived this week and I finally had the guts to transform it after reading all the YF-19 threads.
Put aside what ever hidden problems there may be, my first impression of the YF-19 battroid mode is that the sculpt of this guy kicks ass. I was never quite happy with the Yammie 1/48 VF-1 and 1/60 VF-0 battroid mode, they just look a little too skinny and too angular to me.
The proportion of this YF-19 battroid is perfect. It has a pair of beefy legs with enough sexy curves to make it anime accurate. The body just looks right (I just realise the YF-19 has a very samurai feel). Considering it can do perfect transformation, I have to take my hat off to Yammato. In battroid mode, it is also much more robust than than the VF-0S.
My only complaints are:
1. the rather loose pin hinge with the bicep - [edit] no longer a problem, I just need to read the instruction
2. the cover plate under the nose in battroid mode is a little floppy (you can see it in my pic), a better locking mechanism would be nice.
3. a swapable chunky hands to replace the chicken would be nice.
As for the fold fast back, the green dildo is a wast of time, it does nothing to the fighter mode and it is ugly (blame SK for this one). I am keeping the FB on the battroid to make it look more aggressive. If they had a better colour scheme, I might get it to put on my fighter, otherwise, I am happy to leave my fighter naked.
Overall, I am very happy with this YF-19. Now let's hope I don't find out any exploding arms in the coming months....
PS..Yamato is such a cheap skate, where are my batteries????