Chronocidal

I'm betting the color difference is either between painted and bare plastic, or possibly different plastic types. Looks pretty good overall though, and I think those sorts of things pop out more in photos than you generally see in person. I'm guessing HLJ is out on vacation as well though, because my order with them has been "processing" for three days. now.

No, I think it's blatantly obvious that this has been a direct copy of the design from day one. The screw covers are all in the same spots, the details are all the same, heck, why do you think this and the VF-4 are the only models to have moving gear doors, rather than having them attached to the gear themselves? And yeah. The gunpod collision was fixed in later Arcadia VF-0 releases, but the VF-0D was the first new VF-0 mold they made.

I would love to see this scheme on an MP Ramjet. That's a beauty, and just makes me think of the splinter-schemed Sv-51 Dobber did back in the day.

It's always possible, it's just not usually how Bandai operates. Maybe this will be an exception, who knows. I totally get it about not wanting to focus so heavily on the negatives though. We're all just screaming into the void hoping Bandai will somehow hear us. Far as making my own version, I'm actually really tempted to try and tweak the Yamato design to fit bigger legs. I think starting from a version that already works well would be a better place to begin than starting from scratch. The design is slim enough that you could give it a little more bulk to the engines and underside without severely killing the looks, and there's actually some space in the upper backplate being wasted by the covers that make it presentable without the legs attached. Hollow out the underside, and experiment with some new ways to position the legs, and I bet there is a bit more space to work with. While I think Bandai went overboard on how long they made the back end, I do think making the engine humps wider and center space a little narrower might be worth it for the extra space. If you can get the feet inside the calves entirely, and then fit thicker calves under the engine blocks, you could at least get the legs a little thicker. I don't think the side profile has never been that bad, they're just really skinny from the front. A part of me is still holding out a tiny hope for the Bandai version that we've just been seeing bad angles that make the back end look out of proportion. Whatever the result, I do look forward to seeing some good top and side comparison pictures.

They do, but it looks like it's just the same shade as the other light blue plastic parts. I'll still take it over silver. Maybe Bandai got wise and realized how much money and effort they could save if they just left the gear the same color as the lighter plastic parts.

Nah, this debate isn't about which is better. The Arcadia and Bandai YF-19s are both beautiful, with slightly different takes on the design with regard to how curvy or realistic the plane should be. Arcadia went more animation-styled, while Bandai's looks more like a Hasegawa mold made to transform They both made choices with pluses and minuses compared to the other, but they both succeeded in making something that's actually pleasing to display as both a fighter and battroid. This YF-21 is not that. It's got severe deviations from the established look of the plane in both modes we've been shown, some of which have absolutely nothing to do with the transformation at all, and Bandai just decided, "Nah, we like our design better than Kawamori's." (I know it's the least of this figure's problems, but the fat cockpit cover bothers me to no end, because there is absolutely no reason to make it that shape. Nothing in the nose transforms.) Honestly, I know I'm exaggerating how bad I think it looks. But it's just passable at best, and the aesthetic choices they've made are completely baffling. It's not fun to look at in either mode, because your eye gets immediately drawn to the funky proportions. It's not like they compromised one mode for the other, like Yamato did by shrinking the legs to fit in a slim fighter mode. It's that all the modes look equally bad, because none of the proportions in any mode make it look good.

Yeah, it's definitely frustration. We love these designs because we love how they look, and when Bandai makes choices that screw with the proportions and overall aesthetic without offering any clear benefit, it's intensely irritating. This is not unique to this fanbase. Go look up 1/6 scale figure sculpts, or die-cast metal aircraft discussion forums, and you might be surprised at how civil and well-mannered the discussions here are. When people are passionate about a design, they will absolutely raise the torches and pitchforks for people screwing with what they see as how something should look. The part that gets me up in arms the most is that it's not that this cannot be made better, because it has been proven in the past with better iterations of the design. It's that Bandai is choosing not to use some obvious options to make all of the modes better. That's the frustration. It could be much better. But Bandai gonna Bandai, and they're going to shove this mess out to market regardless, because they probably don't have anyone on the design team passionate enough about the design to care that it looks like ass. And I definitely mean that in the literal sense, because the entire thing is utterly badonkulous. "It's not just good.. it's good enough."

Ok, nose and gear aren't linked, but I think that mechanism is perfect. I might need two of these... And I feel like I want to mix the parts and make an XB-70 in the same scale now. I think my only concern for the set is that the stand will need a wider/heavier base, so I might need to get some more brown bricks to bulk it up with.

Yeah, glad I grabbed two of these. I can use the spare white landing gear on my VF-0S. I'll be really amused (read: screaming in frustration) if we start seeing them paint the landing gear on other valks after this.

I'd love to see them actually make something that would encourage Arcadia to put out more VF-11s, or better yet, some of those early-production VF-19 variants. I think the biggest problem with any of that happening is a mix of Bandai and Kawamori himself, though. You aren't going to stop Kawamori from designing fancy new VFs for every new release, whether they fit the setting or not, as seen with the VF-0. And as long as Bandai is funding the show, it's going to be driven by their desire to make as many fancy and colorful new toys as possible (even if they never bother to capitalize on the designs). Very likely that the best we're going to get is brief cameos of old designs, as seen in Delta. At this point, the best I'm going to hope for is that we get something without the insane airshow demonstration team schemes this time around.

Funny, I definitely got charged for my HLJ order.. but it's yet to make it to my warehouse for shipping, it's been in processing over a day now. Not in a rush, since I'm waiting for other things to come out before I ship, but still weird to see them take that long.

You know, after all that weird hype around the Roddenberry Archive, and those "765874" clips, I'm really hoping that they introduce Yeoman Colt in this series. I was thinking it would be fun to see them translate some of the comics with her alternate future trip into a several episode arc, but they would have to adjust the timeline quite a bit, since she'd already left the crew, and was well on the way to getting her own command by this point. If they're following the original events leading up to Pike's accident, they've got seven years in-universe before that's supposed to occur, based on what I'm reading, but I don't know how closely they're sticking to that, if at all.

That's a really fair point. Seems silly to make things for kids who probably have no idea what Star Trek even is. Though I guess they might be banking on the idea that parents will get their kids into the shows? It's actually kind of weird to think about, but to make a BSG reference, "This has all happened before, and it will all happen again." Consider the condition the Trek Fandom was in after TOS ended, and TNG hadn't begun yet. The franchise was being kept alive by movies, and when TNG first appeared, it was hated by a lot of the fandom. It took a couple of seasons before TNG found its footing. I don't want to make any sweeping generalizations about the quality/content of the current shows, but I can definitely see the parallel in how the fans are receiving the new material. If you string together Discovery and SNW as a single "show," we're kind of right back in the early seasons of TNG. We're back in a period where there's new content for kids to get into, whether that's SNW, Lower Decks, Prodigy, or whatever else. It's a great opportunity for kids to be asking their parents, "Hey, what's this space show about?" I know, because it's exactly how I got into TOS. I saw TNG on TV, and my dad went, "Hey, I used to watch something like this when I was growing up." (Ok, maybe embellished a bit, but I do remember growing up watching both shows with my dad). Or maybe they're just targeting the potential demographic of kids who see their parents' cool spaceships in the display cabinet, and want one of their own? I know I heard stories like that when Yamato first started making their new VF-1s, and some of the members with younger kids here were grabbing up Chunky Monkeys to give their kids so they had something too.

In current prices, sure, but the Art Asylum/Diamond Select ones were around $60 when they released, and I even saw some of those on clearance. And despite the saucer separation feature, the pictures shown so far don't have as much detail as the 1992 version. Inflation aside (because the original toy was $25 at the time), this is a pretty significant downgrade from that one, and it's pretty clear they really only intend to sell this to kids who don't care. I would argue the same for the TOS version, but that gets a partial pass, due to not having those sorts of details to begin with (but the screw holes are still incredibly obnoxious). I can't really fault them for targeting that market, but in the vacuum left by both Eaglemoss and Diamond Select either dying or ending their production, all this is doing is driving prices and demand higher for something targeting the collector market.

Hah, is there any reason the wing needs to extend on this one, or did they just do that to get around not having room for the hinge pin in a stationary location? Frankly speaking? I might just glue the wings in place extended. Screw that noise.

Truth! I don't have any qualms about displaying a couple of HMRs at the office both for the lower price, and smaller footprint. They're just good for swooshing during conference calls.

That "special" stand adapter to use with super packs was a mistake, or at least the clear plastic was. Mine cracked the first time I tried to mount it.

Honestly, at this point? I'm tempted to buy a Bandai version just for the legs, and hack them up so I can swap them onto the Yamato YF-21 for battroid, and be done with the whole mess.

Also keep in mind, a large amount of most valks' forward hip motion comes from the gerwalk joint, not the hip itself. For whatever reason, they decided not to pose it using that.

I would be all over a re-release of that version, or any other version they would make. None of the Art Asylum/Diamond Select releases even approached that amount of detail.

I can't say they ever really bothered me that much, but I agree, the full-sized tails would look better. I do think the shorter ones are canon though? I know the HMR VT-1 has the same shortened ones that the Yamato design used. The only one I know of that didn't was the original 1/55 Chunky, and it caused the boosters to be notably tilted. I hope you're right, for multiple other reasons though (and I really really do want them to do a 1/48 VT-1 ). Adapting the swappable tail mechanic as the standard design for the DX VF-1 would open up a lot of fun options for making alternate tail markings, especially if they released some sort of blank set for customization.

Oh I would absolutely believe they would do this. This is just the second level of "screw you" to the people who complained about their "artistic decision" (read: production screwup) with regards to the backwards numbering. The first step was when they included the decals to make both tails match, with numbers both backwards and forwards, just in case you wanted them all wrong. They really will go to any length to avoid admitting they screwed up. They're including both copies this time to cover their backsides, because otherwise, not including the incorrect one would imply they were admitting that it wasn't correct. This is just a giant pile of lies at this point, all because someone got a number backwards, and they decided instead admitting it, they would just run with it for multiple releases like it was intentional. If they wanted to make this truly right, they should be issuing replacement tails for every single stupid backwards numbered release they put out. I bet you a bunch of people will be trying to offload the replacement tails for insane amounts, too. Thanks for nothing again, Bandai.

I wouldn't be even remotely surprised if the parts were always fully molded, and Bandai just glued everything shut to save on painting until they decided to release the clear version. If the super/strike packs weren't so freaking rare and expensive, I'm sure more people would have cut them open by now to find out for sure.

For comparison though.. the current conversion puts that at about $350. Maybe my sense of value has inflated with the times, but that doesn't even seem that outrageous to me. You won't find one for anything close to that on ebay, but a quick check on Mandarake shows one copy of the VF-1S for 38,000 yen, and a previously sold set of packs for 11,000, so that's almost even. I'm not going to pay that much for a fixed tail marking and some clear plastic parts I would never use, but I have no idea how difficult these will be to get through any of the usual sources, if they're even available. I have no idea how this lottery is going to work.

I have to laugh at their assumption that they'll have any stock to sell, but I would be curious if they pull it off. Anyone want to roll the dice with Luna Park? https://www.lunapark.store/product-page/dx-chogokin-vf-1s-strike-valkyrie-ichijyo-hikaru-movie-ver-mechanic-edition?utm_campaign=bc86ee0d-0427-4865-a327-de1136f1e473&utm_source=so&utm_medium=mail&cid=3cb4813b-ea08-46ac-a1f9-6603f5d43a6b Hefty mark-up, but might still cheaper than getting a first-run version and strike packs.