VF-1Guy

I don't think there will be a problem. I'm sure there are plenty of people who plan to buy both, myself included. I want the 1/60th version to fill out my 1/60th collection and I want the 1/48th version (which I'm sure we'll see) for the added detail and other bells and whistles.

I remember a time when constructive feedback was welcome on this board. Without it we may not have seen the dozens of improvements that have went into Yamato products. No two Yamato products that have come from the same basic mold are the same. Examples: tailfins and tab B on the YF-19; profile and shoulder sliders on the YF-21; hips on the VF-11; back pack, landing gears and insignias on 1/60 line; flaps, nosecone and front landing gear door on the 1/48 line. I doubt we would have seen any of these if it wasn't for constructive feedback from us (through Graham) and from the Japanese consumers. These are prototypes we are seeing, so there is still time to give feedback. I haven't really noticed too much b****ing in this thread (it is a favorite human past time after all), but I have noticed constructive feedback from a number of people, especially about the size of the hands.

The suggested retail is 14800 yen which is around $135. While looking up the retail on HLJ I noticed that they have nice picutres of the J with & without FAST packs. Both pictures show a heat shield with a line on it that looks quite nice. Hopefully this is what we will get. Thanks to everyone posting all these great pics!

Is it really a "poor" solution? I don't remember anybody complaining that the heatshield was shiny until now. And, it's pretty rare that someone complains that they are "brittle." As for it being cheaper and them having a "couple hundred thousand" waiting to be painted. . . First, I'm assuming you were intentionally exaggerating the number. Second, that doesn't sound "cheap" to me, it sounds like a cost effective way of managing resources. You might want them to custom-cast each heat shield for each valkyrie, but doing that would increaes the price of each valkyrie. And then, of course, we'd have even more people bitching about the price. Yamato just can't win. H I don't so much see this as complaining but more so asking why they are taking an approach like this on a $140 toy. The glossy heat shields on the DYRL valks don't bother me at all since they are a different color than the valk. In fact, I find them classy. However, I think that the huge glossy white shield on the J cheapens the look. I was also hoping that they would put the line on it (which isn't really needed on the DYRL stuff due to the skull). I have no doubt that this is the first of many 1/48 TV valks. They went to the trouble of making new hands and a new pilot. Why not a new heat shield as well? At the very least, molding the thing in white saves the cost and time for the paint app. The extra clear ones that they may have laying around can go to the Hikaru S and released Roy.

Thanks for the larger pic. I don't have to squint at the tiny one anymore The head looks like it tucks about as snugly at the 1S. Not bad. The pilot also looks nice (and I'm not a fan of TV pilots). This will add some nice variety to my shelf.

I think i remember someone saying it was so it was less likely to scratch the skull...? I think this was the original intention, but the skull actually ended up on the outside. I think that the 1/48 J would look better if the shield was solid white, but that's just a nit pick.

Why or why do they insist on putting a glossy chest shield on that 1/48 J?

The size looks about right for a 1/60. The top of my 1/60's shoulders comes up to the top of the 1/48's elbow. The slight discrepancy in the picture can be explained by the position of the legs on each valk and the position of the 1/48's arms. I wonder why they put 1/48 sized hands on it I also wonder if there will be a second hand that can hold a gunpod.

The hands make me wonder if this is a non-transformable valk with the armor permanently attached. I would like to see a better picture. I would also like to see a better picture of the 1/48 pilot.

Is it a Yamato? The hand doesn't look like the standard 1/60 hand.

I noticed that when the VF-1J with and without FPs was announced a lot of people jumped to the conclusion that TV FAST packs were available without the J as well. I think that at least one online retailer may even have listed a pre-order for a very brief period. Some people were even speculating that the HLJ VF-1J with TV FAST Packs was just a bundle being put together by HLJ. I never quite understood where this speculation was coming from since HLJ never had a listing for TV FPs alone.

My past keeps me from buying too much. I used to be out of control, seriously out of control. On day I realized it had to stop so I started on a long process of selling what I didn't need and applying all my bonuses and excess income to my credit debt in order to get things under control. The sell off process helped me to see that my true collecting loves are Yamato valks and David Mack Kabuki comics. Now I'm debt free (aside from the 0% car loan) and stick to a $1200 a year toy budget. So the short answer is that the very expensive lessons of my past keep me from buying too many valks.

The most I've spent on an item that is still in my collection is the $150 or so for the TRU 1/60 VF-1A CF. The most I've spent on an anime item would probably be the $150-$200 that I paid for various PG model kits and SHE valkyrie kits. The best deal I ever got was paying $150 for a MIB Bandai Strike. I later sold it for $800 when I realized that I needed to shed some of my tens of thousands of dollars of credit card debt (all gone now). I had spent some insane amounts of cash of digital cameras, computers, air soft guns, toys and other crap I didn't need.

The pose I did was quite stable. The center of gravity of the valk was slightly forward which was offset by the second rod on the left leg. I also did some 2 rod poses that were quite precarious. I think I could get a number of stable poses if I swapped one of the 4" rods for a 6" as Eric suggested, but I haven't worked up the ambition to try this yet. I'm a little lazy.

I'm totally undecided. My only must-have products from Yamato are the valkyries. I'll decide on the enemy mech. and destroids on a one by one basis. I'm certainly not getting the monster. It is way too big and too expensive. Anything bigger than 1/200 is just too big.

Here's a quick shot I took of my low vis. I need to redo it with the background under the stand and better lighting.

My first was Jetfire when it first came out way back when. I loved that toy! My second was the green Joon's. My third, which was my first official valk, was a Bandai Strike. Now my collection consists of 20 valks, all Yamato.

Well the one used in that pic is an "original" 4 inch rods you can use interchangable rods from other stands but I think this stand does it justice. I used the 4" stand too. I find the 4" stand to be more versitile than the 6" stand. I don't have the 2" and I haven't experimented with mixing the rods.

I have a picture of a VF-11 and VE-1 on the stands on my webpage. My Webpage

The Yamato VF-1D is one of their best IMHO. The lines are very sleek compared to the other 2 seaters (VE-1 and VT-1) and the colors are attractive. It also has the added benefit of being FAST pack ready.

Can you calculate the std. deviation and variance too? The graphs indicate that the numbers are really skewed due to the highend collections.

Maybe the color of the FP will be different? Also, since the FP version is 800 yen cheaper than bought separately, I wonder if the strike cannon will be included, considering the TV style hands will be bundled in too? The TV FAST packs are gray instead of blue. The front of the arm attachments has also been redesigned (angular instead of rounded-ish). I wouldn't ecpect the strike cannon to be included in the TV FP set. I don't see where HLJ is just selling the TV FPs. I only see the J and the J w/ FP.

I voted w/ FP. I plan to display the 1J w/o FP and use the FP on my Roy 1S (hope they fit). I know that it's not totally TV accurate (wrong flightsuit, wrong hands, wrong color detail on head, etc) but it's good enough for me! The Hikaru 1S will provide the strike for my display.

Mine both took around 4 weeks. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area.

I happened upon Macross through a winding road. I'm not sure that I ever saw the Robotech cartoon as a kid. My introduction to Macross (though I didn't know it at the time) was through Jetfire who was my favorite Transformer. I eventually learned that he had come from some other show, but I didn't know what. Fast forward to college where I fell in with a group of role players. One of the games they enjoyed was Robotech. This was my first real introduction to the series. I saw some of the original RT cartoons and learned that this was all based on an Anime called Macross. I used a shiny new thing called the WWW to track down info on Macross over the next few years. Thus started my quest to find a cool VF-1 toy. I picked up a Joon's, a Bandai Strike and some of the Bandai model rereleases, but none of them ever really did it for me. Then Yamato came along and the rest is history! The Yamato Macross line for me is a dream come true. Over the years since my junior year of college (over 9 years now) I collected Spawn, Star Wars, G.I. Joe, Transformers, Star Trek and countless other lines trying to find something I truely enjoyed and didn't grow tired of after 6 months. I finally found that line in Yamato's Macross stuff. In fact, Maross is pretty much the only thing I collect now.