Lynx7725

The article mentions the ship will carry F/A-18C Hornet, F/A-18E/F Super Hornet strike fighters, E-2C/D Hawkeye, EA-6B Prowler, EA-18G Growler and other future aircraft-carrier based aircraft. I hope "other future aircraft-carrier based aircraft" means VF-1, VF-1 Super Strike fighters and ES-11D Cat's Eye.

Technically, I hope not. Because that would mean I have to relocate, NOW, to a little Pacific Island.... or get vapourized a few years later.

Just an FYI, I made a quick post of observations on the Weathering Edition Tomahawk.

Eeek. That doesn't look like weathering, that sorts of look like a glancing kiss from a laser.... Pass. And if the weathering do rub off, it's somewhat not worth the cash IMO. I'll stick with my pair. Thanks for the review!

I was thinking that part looked familiar. It's the piece holding in the rear stabilizers to the arm in Fighter mode. It's because you had been moving the stabilizer fins, and they gradually worked themselves outwards, hence popping the piece loose.

It's not broken or anything, just press it back in and it's fine. It's actually a bit hard to break a YF-21, but I'm sure somebody will try...

How is the poseability and how are the features?

Only has the 'Hawk at the moment, but they are decent. Good upper body articulation -- given the design -- hips are a sore point, not very there as they are constrained by their leg armour -- could have been better, honestly. Legs are ok, but the joints can be a bit loose.

The lack of good hip articulation, while in line with the design, has quite an impact on posability. You can't get the "out of there" action poses, but poses more in line with heavy line busters/ brawlers are possible.

Update for my Fokker -- both hinges are now cracked. I'd transformed it to Battloid after my initial post and had left it thus for the last few weeks. I've loosened the screws too. Today I just transformed it back to Fighter and noticed the new crack.

Pass again. While it looks to be good quality, the OD green looks not-quite-correct to me; I'll stick to Tan.

Just got my Tomahawk, lovely toy but one of the first things I notice is that you can't really bend the legs forward, which really limits poses. So much about it seems designed for great poseability, but then the fact that you can't bend the legs forward makes a lot of the great leg articulation pointless.

It only helps a little, but you did lower the hip joints into the "dynamic" lower slot, right? It gives it a little bit more clearance; not a lot but still better than the upper "static" slot.

Not going for weathered or OD version. I think the basic version is good enough, so I'm not going to pay more for weathering or colour change.

Going for the defender, but I'm doubtful you can achieve a FrankenTroid. For one, the Defender has a sensor moving mechanism on its left side, which I don't think the Tomahawk has, so it's doubtful whether the Tomahawk body can fit in.

Weathered version and "OD" version Tomahwaks to come out sometime in the future.

Dunno what "OD' means.

Olive Drab?

Ok, bubble-popping time...

For those of you who just got their Tomahawk, or am contemplating one, here's a few things to watch out for. (to WATCH out for, not a problem, ok?)

1. The cockpit is a bit hard to open and I have genuine concern about how long it can last. I'd advise not opening and closing it too often.

2. Watch out for the antenna.

3. I'm noticing wear on the missile hatches. Nice grey plastic underneath though.

4. The cannon arms are plug-ins and not glued on mine. The long barrels aren't a problem -- you tend to noticed that they are missing, after all -- but the back end of the arm is similarly plugged in; one of mine fell off but luckily it was in a bag. Reattachment isn't a problem.

5. Waist joint is annoyingly loose -- the 'Hawk would tilt forward and back without much warning. Annoying but not fatal.

6. The "heat sink"/ "boxes" on the thighs are slotted in, not glued on my pair. If you look at the Defender's legs, you can see the slots where they are supposed to go. Be aware that they can fall out, so check it every once in a while.

7. Hip mobility sucks and hence affects the whole leg's posability. There is two modes -- an upper/ "normal" mode where the hip bar is in the upper position, and a lower/ "dynamic" mode where the hip bar is in the lower position, giving slightly more room for dynamic poses. Unfortunately, the thigh armour doesn't allow for much mobility, so it's largely wasted.

I do wish Yamato took some liberty with the clearances here to give us a much better toy than a good looking model, but them's the breaks. This is my largest displeasure with this toy.

On the positive side, it's a nice solid metal bar. It's a single bar for both hips though, so some issues there, but nothing you cannot live with.

8. The left knee seems to be consistently stiffer than the right knee on both of mine. You might have to use a bit of force on the left knee to get it to go past the detents.

9. The ankle and foot assembly is a marvel. Metal/ rubber/ plastic assembly, quite intricate. I like it, except that one of my 'Hawk's foot had already became a bit loose. Still, nothing too terrible.

Overall this is a good toy, nothing fundamentally fatal. Nice solid brick, good to see that after the frustrating YF-21 and VF-1 v2.0. I feel it's worth the price -- provided nothing breaks suddenly.

To be honest though, my problem (cracking) is more cosmetic than functional. It doesn't impair functionality as it's a crack and not a total break (with parts falling off), and it doesn't actually compromise the shoulder at all since the lower joint is holding fast.

Cracking might be a good thing, since it relieves stress on the joint. Layering superglue that fixed the problem, but I really should have gone with putty or even epoxy. Still, underengineering by Yamato there, so it should be addressed.. I think, for one, the pin used is just slightly too big and placed undue stress on the part.

I've also went and loosen the screws on the swing arm, shoulders, biceps and lower arm. I think overall the VF-1S had been overly tightened, and any new owner can benefit from just loosening the screws on the whole arm assembly by an eighth of a turn.

Hmm, my shoulder cracked even though I didn't play much with the valkyrie (left it in Fighter mostly). However, I can't vote in this poll....

... because it was the left shoulder.

Why me?

No Glaug. No Regult. No CF Q-Rau. What is this?

Defender's confirmed, and the Phalanx is almost a shoo-in (because the lower body is more or less the same, so economics of scale kicks in). The Spartan is a bit more iffy, since there's only one or two parts that can be re-used.

What I really one is a 1/60 Glaug.

And a 1/60 SDF-1 is ridiculous. Shipping overseas is ridiculous because it cannot fit into a standard 40 ft container -- you have to specially handle it. The cost is exorbitant!

Well, my two Tomahawks have just arrived -- and I hadn't the chance yet to open them up fully. But I can tell you one thing I LOVE about these new products.

The instruction manuals are all of 4 pages. No more studying for the "Transforming Valkyrie 10X" Exam!

:D

Best Destroid gallery so far. Yamato added an LED light system too?!?

Hmm, actually, that's a damn cool idea. At least it's functional -- if I need light in the middle of the night, I can just reach over and tap my Tomahawk...

(Imagine the same on a Defender? Or a Phalanx. Man..)

Unfortunately, my digital camera battery just ran out of power, so gotta charge it.

You took that many photos?

Did you order a pair of Tomahawks or is there another Destroid I have not seen?

I ordered a pair. I like the 'Hawk design well enough.

I'm actually happy that there's no transformation involved. A lot of the problems Yamato had was with material weakness under stress of transformation, so having something suitably non-transformable should provide less weak points.

HLJ just released my pair for shipping.

My perception is more biased towards my wallet. Ow.

I don't really have a big problem with delayed toys, simply because (1) it's a luxury item anyhow, and (2) taking it positive it just might mean the company is taking time to make it better.

Yes, it can be frustrating if you really WANT something... but after many years, I realise "want" is not "need", so I tend to take it as it comes.

On the flip side, having the toy delivered on time also doesn't trigger the throes of joy some of you go through. It's something nice to play with and to display, but as before, "wants" vs. "needs" -- I could have lived without.

EDIT: Having said that, I do have 2 Tomahawks on pre-order. It would be nice if they come in soon, but I've got enough stuff from other hobbies to keep me busy for some time.

So, with any luck the Yamato Destroid, CMs VR-41, and CMs Dark Legioss are still scheduled to be out this month.

Good luck or bad luck?

Too bad about the grey instead of black detailing though.

Not that that's particularly hard to fix...

Original photo off Yamato site, "decals" from WAVE :D , colouring courtesy of Photoshop..

I think what I don't quite like about the Yammie version is the potbelly look. I don't quite need to be reminded of my own spread...

Wonderfully articulated, but Yamato does have a rep for having joint failure.. so I'm not too sure at the moment.

However, I haven't ordered anything from them in awhile and recently, the shipping via SAL may have gotten much slower in general and that's what I was trying to get at and ask about. I was just curious if anyone using SAL to the US has seen a recent slow down in package arrival speed. And since HLJ ships a ton of stuff, I figured someone else would know.

In general, the shipping industry is facing a slowdown due to the recent economic downturn. It's not just SAL, it's generally across the board -- the ships just aren't leaving port as fast. Add to that the trend of going for bigger and bigger ships (we're into the era of ships carrying 8000+ container units in one go, much bigger than in previous generations), you can see that sea cargo is now being delayed by waiting for loading to complete, and running the risks of "eggs in one basket" during the journey.

I've been with HLJ for a number of years and almost always SAL'ed (except with very expensive items). SAL is ok for me, but it depends largely on your location. I'm in South East Asia, so SAL almost always work out within 2 weeks. I've had HLJ parcels take a round trip but generally it gets in.. eventually.

For the States, I can't say much about it. SAL is "if I can squeeze it on an airplane, it goes flying, otherwise it goes by ship." Odds are good that a Stateside order is going by boat, which is long and often a bit rough. So anything sufficiently urgent and/ or fragile is a bit hit and miss there.

HLJ Preorders are up. Two for me.

Hitting the opponent with one round isn't a problem, like Phyrox says, just give it a shot. The problem is hitting the opponent with enough rounds to bring him down, and at the speeds the birds are moving, it still pays to get as close as you can before filling the space he is going to occupy with as much lead as you can muster.