Alpha OTS

23 hours ago, jenius said:

Here's a pic that might help:

I'm working on my review now. Apples and oranges with the WAVE since it has metal and is perfect transformation. Obviously the MegaHouse does better in the gaps department. I think saying "it's a good little model" is a pretty good description. Not a very good toy but a good little prebuilt model that has some nice toy-like aspects.

Ahh, the Takatoku.  I actually ebayed one of those off in anticipation of the Wave.  I have good memories of that figure despite its partsforming and age.  But wow that's a great picture comparison of the wave vs the megahouse from above.  The megahouse is hitting the cruiser mode in a way I prefer over the wave.  Less gaps, more, compact.  Plus I've always been partial to the tv series ship arms.

Thanks for the info, guys.  The megahouse is definitely on my want list now.

Haven't been on this forum in ages, but just found out that this thing exists.  If you already own the wave, and that's the relative scale you want, is the megahouse better or worse?  One of the things that I always disliked about the wave is that by using diecast for the feet that it really makes the cruiser mode unstable as there's no pegging or locking mechanism really holding the front together while gravity pulls the back of the ship downwards and with it the cohesion of the front of the ship.  On mine in particular the leg ratchets aren't perfect on the one side which really makes the left side vs right side ship alignment look off when the thing does manage to stick together.  I had to invent a brace for the stand to support and balance the leg/rear-thruster weight so that the front of the cruiser mode could look relatively gapless.

Anyway, does this have the same problem of holding together in cruiser mode?  Are there diecast parts and does the diecast work against it staying together?  How's the overall build quality of the megahouse vs the wave?  The partsforming stuff doesn't bother me much as long as each mode looks right.  I like the wave, but always thought the cruiser mode engineering was lacking.

Help!

I recently made an impulse buy for a VF100 1/100 VF-25S Messiah Ozma Custom. You know, that partforming Bandai figure? I had it for a few days, and enjoyed it in battroid mode. Then I tried partforming it into plane mode and while trying to pop the left arm off of the left shoulder, it tore off instead of popping off leaving the ball joint inside the arm and leaving me with a useless shoulder part.

I've since managed to remove the ball joint from the arm socket without damaging anything, and am considering what to do to fix the shoulder. A new part would fix it right up, so I'm asking before I go down that adventurous path.

Does anyone have a junker Ozma that they could sell me just that left shoulder battroid part? Or a junker Ozma for a reasonable price that includes that part?

Thanks.

HA Bumblebee is awesome and there is a really easy mod if you want to make more accuarate legs, I don't have soundwave yet but I do have the rest of the HA line, I would say Leadfoot is the worst and Jazz is by far the best, with Bumblebee and Barricade second, and the twins being third.

Depends on how you transform HA Leadfoot. The default transformation in the instructions looks terrible.

This looks much better.

I saw a few Movie War Machine figures over the last week. Didn't like the paint job on a one of them.

I have to second that. I buy pretty much any "female mecha" figure that exists in any form, and I passed on ROTF Arcee without a 2nd thought. It's just a mess of a figure.

It's accurate to the movie design. Garbage in, garbage out.

I think the Human Alliance motorcycle sisters are the best versions so far even if the base colors are wrong. At a larger scale like the deluxe, it makes the aesthetic design look much worse. At the slightly smaller HA scale, it's not nearly as bad. The legends Arcee is decent too.

Yeow, that is one yellowed Jetfire!

Great pics!

Well, I've been gone away from home for nearly one month at the hospital after coming down with a bad case of pneumonia followed by ARDS and I finally got back home. I know my collection is pretty dusty, so I was wondering what some of you guys use to clean off your Valks if you haven't handled them in a long time.

Most of my collection is Transformers and Godzilla figures. I use a feather duster and a can of compressed air for some of those tough to reach nooks and crannies. Just be sure to keep the compressed air at a distance.

I am dumping toynami's for this, looks much better IMHO.

I'll dump my Toynami as soon as this gets a fastpack.

Definitely looks much better. Only negative I see is that the feet are too small, but it has an ankle joint, so it's really hard to complain. Fighter mode looks MUCH better than the Toynami. I hope the QC ends up as good as it looks.

I picked up the Mark I today. Much better detailed than the movie 1 line's 6" figure. Much better sculpted too so that the legs look more natural. It's hard to imagine someone actually wearing the Mark I armor from the previous line without getting a severe case of bow-legging. The 3.75" figure doesn't have that problem, and it looks more like someone in a welder worksuit wearing armor, and the paint deco does a good job of showing that unlike the previous movie line figure.

Unfortunately the flame thrower accessory SUCKS. It's a ridiculously large for the figure missile launcher. Thankfully it's not needed to complete the look of the figure as it's pretty complete as is. It still bums me out because I was expecting an action accessory as cool as the ones that came with Comic War Machine and Comic Origin.

Also picked up a Marvel 3.75" Silver Centurion. It's decent, but it looks a little too comic booky.

On a whim I picked up War Machine(comic book) and Original Iron Man. Very very nice figures. I'm surprised at how detailed and articulated they are for their size. I like the translucent "weapon action" accessories quite a bit too.

I think I like that movie War Machine you have better. Going to keep an eye out for that. For comic WM I think I would have preferred the shoulder pads be a part of the arm instead of connected to the torso. The figure doesn't look right if you try to raise the arms. Given how much the figure's doing right, I can easily forgive that.

Also, I almost picked up Iron Monger because it looked quite a bit better than the movie 1 figure I have. Is it as good as it looks?

My memory on what Starscream did in that episode is cloudy - but anyways, Octane was the Decepticon triple changer who initially "found" Starscream's ghost in the underground catecombs. He was being chased down by Cyclonus and the Sweeps for apparently trying to betray Galvatron (we never saw the actual betrayal, just Galvatron...or rather...well...there was an animation error..so...in the scene where Galvatron was yelling at Cyclonus to find Octane...all we saw was Galvatron's empty throne...)...

IIRC, the later episodes where Octane were featured were originally supposed to feature Blitzwing whom Galvatron thought betrayed him in the Five Faces of Darkness. But Octane was on store shelves at the time, Blitzwing wasn't, so that's why the switch.

http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Blitzwing_(G1)

When the Quintessons arrived on Chaar to bribe the Decepticon army with promises of energon and revenge, Blitzwing was the only one of his comrades to turn down their offers. He had met their kind before (or at least he thought they seemed familiar to him for some reason) and did not trust them, though he could not remember why. Upon the triumphant return of Galvatron, Blitzwing was the only Decepticon left to greet him. Five Faces of Darkness, Part 3

It's the look of absolute shock on Galvatron's face that sells this.

Later, during an assault on Cybertron, it was Blitzwing who discovered that the Quintessons were lying to Galvatron and plotting to destroy all Transformers (instead of just the Autobots, which Blitzwing had no problems with). He tried to report this to Galvatron, but when he could not convince the Decepticon leader, he turned to Rodimus Prime for help. Together, Blitzwing and Rodimus were able to stop the Sharkticon commando team that had infiltrated Cybertron. Galvatron, unfortunately, suspected that Blitzwing was trying to betray the Decepticons and steal the "Decepticon Matrix of Leadership" for himself and threw the Quintessons' nullifying switch, deactivating Transformers galaxy-wide until Spike Witwicky destroyed it. With the Quintessons' deception revealed, Galvatron attempted to renew hostilities with Rodimus, but Blitzwing drew his weapon and targeted Galvatron, stating that the battle was over for now. Seething, but seeing little alternative, Galvatron accepted and withdrew his forces from Cybertron, but banished Blitzwing from the Decepticon ranks forever. Five Faces of Darkness, Part 5

Note: In the original script for Five Faces of Darkness, after Blitzwing's banishment, Rodimus extended his offer to Blitzwing a second time, and in this instance, he did not accept, but did not refuse, saying that he would think about it. The later episode, "Starscream's Ghost" was originally written to feature Blitzwing, but was later re-written to be about the newest Decepticon Triple Changer, Octane, although there is no explanation offered for why Octane is friendly with the Autobots. It would seem that this would have originally been Blitzwing following up on Rodimus' offer. Blitzwing would reappear briefly in several crowd scenes, such as "Fight or Flee" and "The Ultimate Weapon", likely as the result of carelessness in production. Then again. Galvatron did forgive Scourge for his antics. Plus, Galvatron is pretty insane.

Looks like it outdoes the Toynami in every way.

I'll say. That cockpit detail is unexpected and awesome!

How tall is the Q-Rea? 5" ?

Was it a video for the Hi-Metal VF-19 or the VF100 VF-25? They're two VERY different beasts.

There's nothing on the VF-19 that could be called loose, and there's literally just one or two pieces here and there that actually come off, vs. the VF100 Messiah valks that, as you say, are more like a lego set.

It was a video for the VF100 VF-25.

The Hi-Metal VF-19 looks really nice, but unfortunately I'm not a Macross 7 fan. I'll wait for a Macross Plus version.

Thanks for the pics Eriku. I like what I see and when I have a little more cash plan to pick this lil guy up.

I'm still hesitant. I saw a youtube video of the partsforming and it sort of scared me off. It seemed like more of a lego kit than any kind of figure. The joints looked real loose too. It might have been the way the guy cut the video though to put it in a negative light, but I wasn't prepared for what I saw.

I've been fiddling with the stand and fighter mode. One of my complaints was that the stand had difficulty balancing the fighter mode. I've found that if you use the revoltech joint intended for displaying the battroid on the stand that you could achieve pretty much the same poses without the balance issues.

As you can see, the back of the gun pod works as a rest for the joint. The stand on the base is reversed as well. This helps change the center of gravity so it's no longer tip prone.

This level pose isn't quite as level as you can achieve with the standard revoltech joint in the stand, but the difference is that this is balanced perfectly and is in no danger of tipping at all. However....

The back of the gun pod does have a different size fin on the bottom vs the top. I don't think its accurate if you turn it around, but if you do, you can level out the fighter mode. So this gives you a little more play in how you want to display it. The important thing is that in either of these level poses, if I tap the nose of the fighter, it's not going to tip over plus the *entire* bottom surface area of the base is cleanly against the ground. You can't do that with the regular joint.

This last one is pretty nice because you can then put this on your top shelf and have it look like it's swooping down. You're not intending to touch it again anyway, so you may as well have it look good in a spot you don't intend to reach for. You can do this pose with the regular joint, but I wouldn't recommend it because it's in even more danger of tipping over than the level pose with the regular joint.

peaugh has a youtube review up. He says that he used some nail polish on those problem joints. I was thinking you couldn't get them apart without breaking them. I'll have to take a closer look. His is definitely making clicks that mine doesn't.

Hmmm... seems like the QC might be more to blame than the actual design of the figure. I still like the look of it better than the Toynami, as Exo pointed out, but if it's floppy and doesn't hold together than it's basically worthless. It's weird tho... I've got like a dozen Revoltech figures, and never had a loose joint, I think on any of them, PVC-on-PVC or the Revolver joints.

It'll hold together as long as you don't handle it. So yeah, display piece.

And the regular revoltech joints on this are fine. It's the new smaller ones, some of which are double ended, which are the problem. They're supposed to be tightly held together so the ratchets inside mean something, but more often than not they're not and there's a visible space between them as is the case in the hip joints. It'll be interesting to see if the VF-1J tightens these up.

as bad as he revvie is... and it's bad... it still has better proportions than the toynami... seriously... why the long face, veritech?

The VF-1A and 1J have MUCH better head sculpts, and they don't make their figures proportions look as off as the Fred Gwynne head on the VF-1S does. I like the Toynami 1/100's. They have their obvious faults, but I never had the amount of disappointment with them that I had with the Revvie. I still regret selling my Max with fast pack. He probably had the best paint job out of the line.

The video review suggests using the Revoltechs for display? Uhh lol? I would have thought that was one of Revoltech's weakest characteristics.

In battroid, it is a good display piece. The damn thing is growing on me even more because of the color deco and better battroid proportions than the Toynami. Just don't touch! He gave it a 6/10 for display. Considering battroid's the best mode, and the weakness of the aesthetics of gerwalk and fighter, I'd tend to agree with that assessment. I also fully agree with the 2/10 for playability.

It looked really floppy in that video. if it wasn't so flimsy and parts came off, he might have been the toy i buy to travel with

He's not really exaggerating anything in that video. Mine's legs are just as floppy. That thing he did, shaking the top of the figure back and forth, and the rag doll like legs dangling like they do? Mine does that too. The wings on mine are just like his too; it doesn't take much for them to pop off. The backpack on mine doesn't fall off like his does, BUT, the upper back door behind the head that opens during transformation to let the head come through falls out on mine if I turn it upside down. Once the torso's locked in so those dual mini revoltech joints don't move, the arms joints are pretty good, on mine at least.

One of the redeeming aspects of it as a travel piece is the parts box. It's just the right size, but I don't know where you'd be able to store the wings.

Found this youtube reviewer who pretty much says exactly what I said. He's probably more negative about it than I am though, but he does admit he's anti-revoltech. Anyway, major reason I'm posting this is because it shows all the flaws I was talking about. He gives the flaws a good amount of video time, and you can see in the rear of the gerwalk those mini dual revoltech joints I was talking about and why they're a problem. English is obviously his second language, but he's effective at making his points.

2010 Revoltech Yamaguchi - Macross Valkyrie VF-1S Review Pt 1

2010 Revoltech Yamaguchi - Macross Valkyrie VF-1S Review Pt 2

He also agrees with me that it looks really nice, but playability is pure frustration.

I didn't feel like grabbing the Jolly Roger shield for the Toynami out of the box in the closet, so I left it as is with the normal cockpit. The Jolly Roger shield lets the top part of the chest connect firmly to the cockpit, you can see the small tab for the connection right above the cockpit. Btw, you can't do that with the Revoltech, you *need* the Jolly Roger shield in place or otherwise the front of the chest won't connect as there's a peg sticking out of the top of the shield that's not present on the regular cockpit.

(obviously)Left is Revoltech, right is Toynami 1/100:

I know this last picture sucks, but at least you can make out the proportions. I hate to say it, but the Revoltech's growing on me, and that's mainly because of the color and deco. Battroid looks good, but I still hate handling the thing. It was frustrating trying to get it into a "stand at attention" pose because of the loose hips. I'll give them credit for having the thruster feet connect via revoltech joints. It's a minor range, but it does help with finding a stable pose. As you can see from the pictures, they're two very different figures. The Toynami's more of a "chunky munky". The Revoltech is very slender. I found out today that it has a peg to connect the hips to the cockpit. However, the peg isn't long enough, and I had a bit of trouble getting the connection to stay(go ahead and ask me how many times the wings fell off while I tried to make sure the connection was firm, I dare you!) It doesn't help at all with the loose hips, but it does help the rest of the torso hold more tightly together.

edit: Actually, if you look at the last picture, you can see that weight issue with the hand holding the gun pod that I was talking about earlier.

Alpha OTS, can you post some pics of your Revoltech next to the Toynami 1/100?

My battery has to recharge. I'll try to post more later. I found a way to get the gerwalk to stand and the shoulders to....work(you don't want to see it from behind).

My Revoltech VF-1S arrived today.

Here's what I like about it. I like the coloring, the tampos, and battroid looks good once you finally get it into a pose. That said, save your money or find the Toynami if you want something at this scale. Even though this is being advertised as a transforming figure, it's not. Technically it is, but parts fall off or pop off while you're going from mode to mode. Transforming is not a satisfying experience by any means.

Fighter mode holds together well, except for the wings. They're barely held on by their connecting peg. Moving them is a guarantee they're going to pop off. From the side it doesn't look right, and getting the revoltech joints in the legs rotated just right is difficult. The included stand has a very difficult time balancing the weight whether you have it supported by the nose or by the rear of the gunpod. It'll support it, but you can see it's very close to tipping over.

Gerwalk mode looks ok, but won't balance on its own and look right so you have to use the stand. Plus the tiny revoltech jointing mechanism used for the shoudlers has to be tight(which mine is not) in order for the arms to do any cool type of posing. Those cool pics on the back of the box and on the websites? Mine can't do those. I also don't like how the rear tail wing thruster pack folds up. It's not flush the way it should be and just doesn't look right.

Battroid's the best of the three modes. The shoulder joints have some support because they rest on one of the internal chest parts(which isn't there in gerwalk). As has been reported elsewhere, the hips are much too loose on mine too. I can get it to hold poses, but only after needless frustration. It does look pretty nice in Battroid, once you're done fighting with all the problems.

Compared to the Toynami 1/100 it's a slight bit smaller and has more slender proportions in battroid mode. Unlike the Toynami, there is no way the Revoltech could EVER support a fast pack. It has trouble supporting its own weight which leads me to one of the frustrating things about the figure: the hands. The right hand has a difficult time supporting the weight of the gun pod without falling forward out of place, which limits posing options because of gravity. Those little pegs inside the forearms are very frustrating, btw. Be VERY careful when putting the fists on the pegs because it's very easy to accidentally push the forearm pegs inside the forearms, past the point that's supposed to stop them. I had to create a metal hook and use some effort to pull the thing back out.

I never had the pains in transformation of the Toynami that I have with the Revoltech. It's easy to figure out how to transform the Toynami and get it into the mode you want fast, easy, and have it look exactly the way you wanted. Even on the Toynami VF-1S, which is a bit loose compared to the VF-1J, I never had a problem putting the figure into a pose. The stand on the Toynami(second and third wave) is much better too and has no real problems supporting the weight of whatever mode or pose you have the for the figure.

I bought the Revoltech because I was hoping to have something that I could pick up and regularly transform without worrying about breaking. It's not what I was hoping for. Yeah, it transforms, but gerwalk doesn't look right(made worse by the shoulder issue on mine), and fighter mode while a little better isn't a strong suit either. I kind of knew that going in though, and was willing to consider those modes gravy. So there's the idea that it transforms at least, which is dimished by the reality of it because transforming it is NOT fun which *is* part of what I was hoping for from this line. You really need to see the internal revoltech jointing/transformation mechanism that connects the shoulders. I've never seen anything like it before for a transforming figure, and I pray that I will never ever see it again.

I'm skipping the rest of the line, although if I have the opportunity for the VF1-J Hikaru for $10 shipped, I might bite because like I said, Battroid does look good once you have it posed. I felt I got my money's worth for the Toynami 1/100's, but this wasn't worth the money I paid.

Revoltech ought to make a VF-25, a Vajra, and a Queadluun and just put this project behind them. I am so sorely disappointed with the quality of these things. It wouldn't be so bad if they weren't so bloody loose.

We're long overdue for a Queadluun, imo.

When the series first came out I watched it regularly up until episode 12 or 13(the one where it ends with the planet being destroyed by a singularity weapon of some sort). I really don't remember why I stopped watching after that because I liked it and at that point the story was really revving up. I even had the episodes after that, just never got around to watching them.

I recently rewatched the original Macross, and wanting more, decided to watch Frontier from the beginning. I finally finished them tonight. Wow. That was good. I laughed out loud at the fun I was having more than once. I gave it a 9 in the poll. I liked the animation, the mecha, the characters, the songs, and the story.

One of the very few faults I can find in the series is that it's more for Macross fans than not. If you're not familiar with Macross, some of this just isn't going to click. The pre-episode summaries do help, but if you didn't "live" the previous Macross experience(s), I see a non-fan having a little trouble accepting the "science" of this.

The other fault(and why I knocked it down to a 9) is that the story is sometimes rushed in parts. Like a poster above said, during these expositions, if you're not paying attention, you might miss a vital fact(those little Grace bits especially). However, you really get to know and love the characters throughout the series. I was really bummed out about Michel and Klan Klan, but storywise it worked perfectly.

A definite good time.