Chronocidal

Yeah, that sort of issue would probably also go a long way to explaining why the VF-19's feet have issues.. the stupid ball doesn't even come out round. and you wind up with completely uneven tension on the joint. I don't understand what was so hard about just using what worked before. This wasn't an issue on the original VF-0, 1/48th VF-1, v.2 VF-1, or pretty much anything else using either all plastic or all metal ball joints.

Actually, I'd love to see Bandai take on the further developments of the VF-19 airframe, especially the other SMS designs, and the Macross: The Ride variants. Heck, I'd probably buy almost any variant of that plane regardless, but I still want a low-vis VF-19F. Would love to seen Bandai's take on the Macross 7 designs. Personally, the pink doesn't quite do it for me though. It's just a pink YF-19, which I have plenty of. I much preferred having Aisha fly some of the other planes in the game anyway... I think by the end I had everyone flying assorted YF-29s.

Does anyone have any insight into why anyone would even use a joint that does this? I mean... I have never had issues with the ball joints on any Yamarcadia valk, up until the VF-19s and their goofy ankles, and everything that followed that design. Is there some benefit to using a composite metal and plastic ball that I'm just not seeing? Because so far, they're pretty much 0 for 2 with them, and the failures are getting progressively worse.

Wait, did they actually make it incompatible? I mean, gluing the pods down to the chest piece is inconvenient, but it's by no means permanent. I was able to pry the pods off my 0D with a little work.

I'm still sad that the game version of the wings is not only wrong with regards to the angle they sit at, but I also think it looks much better that way. The droopy wings always looked weird to me.

I wish Alter would make more of the craft, would love a Fand I and II at some point. I picked up both a Mave and Sylph last year when they re-released them, but they took so long on the Mave I wasn't even able to ship them together from HLJ. Not a huge deal though, they're both beautiful little kits. I dream of the day I get my 3D printer up to snuff, so I can print myself a set in 1/48th.

I'm fairly sure that the ONLY Yamato/Arcadia molds to ever not use actual clear parts for those lights was on the YF-19 and VF-19, and it had a good reason, because the wing had to fold into that space. I want to say that pretty much every single valk going back to the 1/48th VF-1 has had those as clear inserts. (I don't remember at the moment if the VF-4 had them, but I'm not sure it was supposed to have lights in the wing roots, so might be missing on that one too). I've actually been tempted to chop out the ones on the 0D, and glue actual clear plastic inserts in there. It doesn't look quite so bad on that one because it looks like an actual formation light, but painting the lights in black is just pitiful. I just don't get it.. I can't imagine the cost savings would even be worth mentioning in terms of parts, so maybe it's just the factory threw a fit about assembly? Those lights are pretty easy to lose.

Wow, was really hoping the painted-on wing lights were just an oddity due to being different on the 0D... that's freaking lame. The lack of a solid mounting point for the hips is also a vintage problem from the old Yamato versions. Was pretty disappointed that they really didn't change anything about that on the 0D. I don't know what to think.. between the color shenanigans, lack of tamo, and being generally unimpressed with the "improvements" from the first version, I don't know if I'll be able to convince myself to get another 0S.

What sort of material are those in? Guessing resin, but the rough translation on the description doesn't sound like it.

I still don't understand why they thought it was necessary to cover a gap that's existed on nearly every single valk in existence, and that I've never once heard anyone complain about at all (and that's saying a lot for this community ). One thing I'm curious about, can anyone confirm that those triangles don't get in the way of the arms when going to gerwalk mode? The legs still popping off isn't really giving me a great feeling about buying a 0S when they come out, but I suppose it won't matter for fighter mode. I just hope they fix the paint.

It's not something that'll be fixed in this design I think, because it's just an inherent problem with the ball joint itself. Never quite made any sense to me why the joint doesn't work well, it's apparently just molded unevenly, and doesn't hold its stiffness across the entire range of motion.

Funny realization time.. You know figures are bad when the LEGO versions actually have more articulation.

I think the wingtip lights were just painted the opposite colors from what they're supposed to be (red on left wing, blue/green on right).

Wouldn't be anything new, Yamato used to do that all the time on their prototype shots. Difference is, they would actually tampo the stuff they added onto the final product. Personally, I understand the reason to cut back on the printing, and it doesnt really bother me that much. It's the lazy coloring nonsense that gets me.. if they're going to ignore what the colors are supposed to be, they could just save everyone more money, and sell an unassembled one to paint ourselves.. One thing about the Zero valks though.. because everything was CGI, the whole "the markings weren't always drawn" argument is entirely nullified. All of the markings were there in every frame of animation, because they were drawn into the model textures.

You would think people would be aware of the "Megaflicks effect" by now.

So, why is it so hard for them to color things correctly? With all the blue and gray nonsense on the others, sure, I suppose there is some room for interpretation, but I just don't see it on the 0S.

Maybe we'll get lucky and see another Black Friday discount on this one? Otherwise, yeah.. no plan to spend that much money on something that's intentionally inaccurate.

I think one thing that YF/VF-19 molds tend to suffer from in general is that the nose gear is far too short. The gear loses out, because there's not that much room for a full length strut. Consequently, you get droopy gunpods that drag on the ground, and the planes look like they're leaning forward. Bandai sidestepped that problem a little by making the gear fold in half. End result is that the Bandai is the first 19 mold that actually looks level on the gear, so I have to give them major credit for that. I still think the gear looks goofy with such a short bay, and would gladly have traded the waist joint for a full gear, but that's just my personal preference, and I still have to give them credit for coming up with any waist joint at all. I think my two biggest gripes about the Arcadia are the bad wing mechanism, and the gappy knee design (besides the ankles, though mine aren't that bad). While I understand the knees give it a much beefier look in battroid, I think they could have easily extended the lower legs a little further forward without drastically changing the overall shape. The neck comparison is interesting, but I think that VF-19 pictured might a bit of adjusting in the nose area. Mine feels like the nose tends to sit lower than that, and adds a bit to the droop. The biggest detractor from the nose profile though, is that bulgy middle panel underneath. I can't imagine why they molded it that way, I don't think there's anything on the inside that prevents the panel from curving upwards further. They just decided to bulge that one panel downward, and I think it makes the VF-19 look like it's got something stuck in its throat. The droopy canards will forever bug me though.

Pretty much, yes. There's enough slippage to let you rotate the legs going away from fighter while the knees are bent, but it won't work the other way around. Only way I've gotten mine to rotate reliably in both directions was to make sure the knees are entirely straight. To do that, you have to drop the legs at the gerwalk thigh joint, instead of at the knee.

Ah yeah, I guess I should say, I only got started around the 1/48th VF-1 and Macross Zero line, so the earliest valk I have is a 1/48th VF-1J.

Joints being accessible is on a valk-by-valk basis, for both companies. Pre VF-19 series, everything Yamato made was incredibly easy to service. The v2 VF-1 series is like a dream to work on, and it's probably why we got unassebled kits of it. Lately though, every joint has become buried under layer after layer of glued-on parts, making maintenance a nightmare. Certain things you can still get to, but whereas Yamato and Arcadia started gluing screw covers over things, Bandai has a tendency to glue a screw cover on, and then hide the screw cover with a giant plastic panel that you would destroy trying to get off (speaking of the leg assembly on the VF-171.. they really don't want you taking those lower legs apart). Most of the ball joints can be accessed in one way or another, but I like to break down and rebuild my valks as far as I can to work on them, and that is getting harder and harder to do without damaging them. It also is getting that much harder to fix them when they break, because everything is glued shut.

Yep, exactly. It's not meant to replicate the YF-19, it's just Bandai's way of squeezing their own take on it into the market. Arguably, they had a slightly easier job, specifically because they could be more flexible with the interpretation.

Bandai took a few liberties with the YF-19 design to make their VF-19, and really, some of the changes work very well, even if they don't replicate the classic look.

I haven't seen any breakages reported, but I'm still very wary. I should say, the RVF-171 I opened has a malformed shoulder pauldron that would not rotate correctly without some work being done on it, and actually comes apart rather easily because the screw is stripped out. I don't think the lower triangles were a problem, but I haven't looked at it in a while.

The shoulder triangles seemed like mostly a tolerancing and assembly issue (I even had issues on one of my Luca RVF-171s with the shoulders not being assembled correctly). They might explode just from existing. The leg issue though is a seriously complex thing. It's a combination of effects from bad structural design, bad transformation instructions, and bad materials. On the structural design part, the entire thigh swivel is based on a metal spring pin inserted into a hollow plastic shaft that bears the brunt of the stress in moving the legs. On its own, that might fail over time from wear and tear. The transformation instructions are a problem because they don't tell you the correct sequence of lowering the legs, and the mechanism is sloppy enough to let you do it the wrong way. In fact, the legs should be dropped at the hip first, and not at the knee joint, like almost literally every other valk in existence. The reason is that the leg rotation only works correctly with the knee joint entirely straight. Note, the lower leg can rotate into gerwalk position while the knee is dropped one notch, but it isn't meant to. The only reason the leg rotates at that point is because the interlock in the rotation joint is sloppy, and lets it slip going toward gerwalk mode. The reverse is NOT true. Turning the leg back sideways to put it into fighter mode is the point where my leg exploded, because I had the knee bent. The mechanism is locked until the knee is straight, and since the directions don't give you a reverse transformation, there was really no way to tell that. Trying to twist the legs back into fighter mode without the internal lock disengaging means all the stress from that twisting was applied to the thigh rotation joint at a skewed angle. The off-center force destroyed the entire knee joint. I've got diagrams posted earlier in this (or another thread) showing exactly how it broke. The best thing I can do for that leg now would be to shapeways myself a solid replacement for the knee, and leave it in fighter forever. As far as materials go, I'm highly suspicious of the metallic plastic they used in the CF-171s. When my knee shattered, I mean it literally shattered into shards. The plastic broke along defined flow lines, leaving sharp edges like glass. Something about that batch did not work correctly. I can't say anything for the design improving on later releases, since I don't think Bandai would even bother, but I can say that I still suspect the plastic. One of my Luca RVF-171s has a hairline fracture in back surface of the knee joint, right along a flow line in the plastic. Consequently, I've stopped transforming any of them, because I don't trust them to survive. TLDR: Don't bend down the legs at the knee joints and expect the rotation to work. This is my favorite example of why I hate Bandai's engineering practices, because there is no reason that stupid leg twist interlock should exist. They could have saved themselves money on manufacturing, and saved buyers a lot of frustration with broken legs if they had just made it a simple twist joint. It even would have added to the articulation by letting you point the toes out further for battroid.