zanderwitaz

92612!

Hi everyone, I'm an industrial design student working on my graduation project and I've decided to design a toy in hopes to someday be a toy designer. I haven't decided if it is going to be a macross/gundam/star wars/gi joe etc toy yet, but I need people to answer 10 quick multiple choice questions to help me decide exactly what I should design. I also do not have friends with children, and I know a lot of you do which would help me even more. If all goes well, I will post the final concept development here, and possibly even the finished product/model after next quarter. Thanks for the help! http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/VPB8WVZ oh, and I would love to hear your ideas/dream toy, so post it up! I have to make something, so theres a chance your idea might help get it made!

I regret my v2 1/72 yf-19 and I only paid 20 bucks for it. The paint was shipped/bubbled to hell. so I stripped it, primed it, painted 4 coats base, 3 coats clear, 1 dull coat. It still chips. pisses me off. and the gerwalk mode is god awful. I also regret the v.1 1/60 vf-1a I have. I only paid 45 for it within a year that it came out and I still regret it. I argued on the forums that the 1/55 chunkey is a better toy, and I still stand by that. partsformer, yellowed when it was MIB out of sunlight (random parts too) and the paint wasnt sprayed properly. on some die cast parts the metal shows through and is a bit rough. the landing gear doors have poor fitment, and to top it all off the tab B broke under normal stress. What a POS. I do love my 1/48s, and even my 1/65 series. (original and bootlegs) but my favorite value is the toynami 1/100 line.

I've wanted toynami to finish their line of 1/100 valks, but I dont think they ever will. so, I got started on my own VE-1 using hikarus vf-1j as a base with the markings sanded off, and the movie super pack as parts for the armor. I got a few parts done tonight so I decided to post. Ill do a few things tomorrow and update, hopefully. wish me luck!

yeah, the shoulder problem was mainly caused by the pin. But, Yamato also got overconfident with the design of the shoulder. the outside sections where the cracks formed on the hingle are too thin. way too thin. and then yamato decided to make those thin tabs beveled. (with holes through them already...). they made them thin so they could make the plastic swaybar that the whole assembly pivots on thicker. (the hinge has to fold onto/ overlap itself) which is dumb, because its like .4-.5 inches thick compared to the 1/16th of an inch or so on each end of the shoulder hindge. they should have compromised and shrunk the width of the swaybar.

Not just detail, bandai also has to worry about nominal wall thicknesses, tolerances (wich are harder to maintain at a smaller scale) and other manufacturing nightmares at that scale. the fact that it looks as good as it does is astonishing. although the v2 yammie is twice as much as the bandai and the bandai is twice as much as the toynami, i still think the bandai vs toynami is a more fair comparison considering they both had the exact same manufacturing challenges from a small scale. anything is easier in a bigger, larger budget scale. (toy-wise) when yamato tries to make something small and transforming, then we'll talk. it really comes down to shelf space, price, availability, brand loyalty, and which one people have already invested in. Bandai is at a disadvantage considering the last factor, but im sure both of these toys will please whoever buys them.

I love flame baiters. it looks great. Though, sadly I wont be able to buy one until the market is saturated and the price comes down. On the bright side, since it is small it will be easy to coat/tighten the joints if they are anything like the 1/100 vf-25 series.

thanks maiden yes, new head, all arm parts, etc. in the works

in progress

what happened is toynami forgot to factor in the thickness of the knee part that goes between the polycap and the thigh. as a result, the arms go too far back in jet mode and get pulled out of the upper sockets because the tab holes in the legs are too far back. if you have a v1, (your vf-1a hikaru is) then you can easily take these knee spacers out. wave 3 and 4 have slightly different (better) knee polycaps and are much harder to pop off.

finally got a CF for the right price but it looks like its a later pull and the mold has degraded somewhat (no, it isnt mold flash. onenose cone half is significantly lower than the other and the bottom nose cone mold parts are slightly recessed) I sanded it down and repainted it, now it looks near perfect. but still, beware. check your wave 4 valks carefully before purchasing! Also, I have a fix for the joint problems of the v1 wave. stay tuned!

why must they release the first one in the most boring paint scheme ever. im also not too happy about the uber flat backpack complete with holes. I might stick to my toynamis on this one. (I do love them)

1/72 f-105 http://data3.primeportal.net/page_images/aircraft/f-105d.jpg

I would use the bandai vf17 as a base for sure. If you want to include all the exact details and proportions and make it look like yamato made it, it could take years. I hope you're a master model maker if you plan on scratch building this. good luck!

my best 1/55 custom was a knock off. (except the nose cone assembly.) the light weight parts allow for ball joints that arent stressed from too much weight.

first thing I do is strip the entire valk and sand it. I use steel wool, but 400-500 grit sandpaper should work fine too. Its a must for valks you plan on transforming.

1. yukikaze 2. 08th ms team 3. area 88 4. ghost in the shell 5. akira

After doing almost everything I can thing of to the 1/55 line of valkyries, I moved on to a more difficult project. what caught my eye was the transformers armada starscream/thundercracker jets, which are about as big as the 1/55 scale valkyries. It is sleek, macross plus looking, and the nose and cockpit look very close to the vf-11b, my fav. valk ever. since I cant afford a thunderbolt, I decided to copy it as close as I could. Now, keep in mind people, this thing is scratch built, and my first attempt. its not going to be perfect. I started by taking apart the armada starscream I got off ebay. (no wings, no wing mounts, no missles, no launchers.) My god did they overdo it. they use these weird screws all over the place that have no heads. it looks like they shave the heads right off after theyre screwed in, so getting the two main halves apart was accomplished with lots of force. the wires from the electronics were glued in place, so saving the electronics was more work than its worth. the thrusters on the top also had to be forced off. lucky for me nothing broke, just a few stress marks (but im painting it,duh) the thruster intakes were saved for later. after i got everything off, i started on the cockpit assembly. I was orginally going to swap in a clear canopy and some 1/72 cockpit details but prying the halves apart looked more than its worth. the cockpit assembly clicks into an up position and a down position. the up position still pointed down too much, so i sanded it to allign where it should. then I glued it. then i moved on to the underside. man, what a chunky underside. this thing is like 2 inches thick underneath. I ditched the whole bottom half of the jet mold except for the hinge where the "swaybar" mounts. one of the reasons I thought this was a good project was the sort of swaybar thing it had going on. the legs attached via ratchet joints to this swaybar, which locked in in jet mode and robot mode. Since I changed the transformation to be like the macross valkyries, i had to "thin down" the swaybar and move it more towards the front of the jet, so that the legs could mount lower in battroid mode. I liked the upper legs the jet came with, but they were wayyyy too close together. (almost touching) I moved them farther apart by ditching the ratchet joints and adding ball joints. The knees of this toy have ratchet and swivel joints as well, so I decided to keep them. however, the lower legs didn't look anything macross looking and folded towards the front of the jet instead of the back of the jet. (no gerwalk mode for starscream) So, I swapped out some bootleg 1/55 VF-1 legs. then I cut the small fins of the transformer legs that look exactly like the thunderbolt rear fins and put them on the VF-1 legs. The top half of the jet had to be cut horizontally so it could fold in half. this toy originally had the head pop right out of the middle of the chest in robot mode, since the chest faced upwards in robot mode and jet mode. On mine, the chest is designed to face forward. So, after making the cut, I added VF-1 bootleg hinges and scratch built the mounting points using styrene. the head is a ball jointed 1/55 vf-1 bootleg head. I linked the lasers and mounted it back on the 1/55 flip up head platform. I trimmed it down significantly and glued it with some styrene inside of the chest . now the head can flip up between the chest halves, just like the 1/55. the wings were one of the hardest parts. getting the overall thunderbolt shape, layering them, and then making them swivel. I only had a few milimeters to work with. I used some super skinny lego mounts, and some shaved down lego posts to go in them, and glue to the wing. It took many tries to get it right, as the mounting point is not in the same plane as the rest of the jet. here are the pics so far. As you can see, I designed it to have a gerwalk mode ( a good looking one, too) along with the basic modes. I still havent figured out how im going to mount the arms. on the original transformers toy, they just stayed where they are, and stuck out in the front. It looks ugly so im trying to get them to fold between the legs like they should. once im done with that, I'll detail the underside, chest, and mount the other intake that i salvaged. Ill post updates as soon as I can I havent decided on a color scheme, so help me out.

They were released in the transformers armada line. pic: theres a starscream, skywarp, ram jet and thundercracker which are nearly the same. Does anyone have one and really like it? Im thinking about shelling out for a complete one. I have an incomplete one that I'm drastically modifying. I saw one customized with a V tail, it looked pretty cool.

That thing is too cool man, good job!

good ol' styrene and patience. the lasers are made from vf-1s lasers sanded down drastically. then I added styrene tubing and paper clips for various thickness.

thanks guys. I just scratch built the head. I want to panel line it but im not sure what to use. sometimes I use a mechanical pencil and then I seal the paint on my aircraft models. maybe I'll try that.

I think I got most of the detials, except for the little black circle things. should I do the thin black stripe on the arms and backpack? I havent painted the inside of the tail fins, but I'll do that soon. let me know what you think! UPDATE: no, I havent panel lined anything. I added the famous swivel thigh mod to make this an official super poseable valkyrie! wohoo! ball jointed shoulders, ball jointed head, ball jointed thighs, svivel thighs, swivel wrists, independent thruster nozzles. all the joints were tightened up , including the backpack hinge. theres no wobble anywhere in this thing! will post new pics when finished painting. enjoy!

Hey guys, I made a bandai parts exchange thread in the Toys forum. please check it out, and post your lists. thanks!

since the 1/55 fans are resurfacing, and the other parts thread is yamato parts only, a bandai parts thread is in order! I'll start. haves: some of these parts have old paint on them but are useable. the chest plate is slightly warped on one of the intakes, but it is from a bootleg, so no loss there. There are two sets of ratchet plates, one for arms and one for legs. (thighs) the vf-1s head has linked lasers (very very snug fit, too.) and has a ball joint inside. will include the neck post upon request. custom ball jointed leg set. made from jetfire legs with jetfire intakes and bootleg swivel bars. the thrusters are also bootleg, and can be independently positioned. wants: 2 sets of arms, bootleg or original. 1 clear canopy. jetfire/bootleg backpack armor and fast packs. jetfire/other arm guard armor.