Chronocidal
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I think the big issue right now is the price. If we had a better idea, we'd probably gain a few buyers who are unsure, and maybe lose a few who would be priced out. I would actually love to get three of these if I can, or maybe even more for potential customizing, but being a limited release hurts that quite a bit, since we don't know how long they'll be around. Even if they're $400+, I could see myself buying more than one, but only if I could space out the purchases over a year or two. If we're talking about a short term production, I'm not going to drop that kind of cash for a single order. The "limited" aspect of this is probably doing more harm than good to the numbers, because people know they only have a set time to save up until release, and a relatively short window to buy them in.
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Eh, I can't say it's lazy, or what. They've obviously already created a masterpiece to get this thing looking as good as it is already, so they clearly know what they're doing. MIssing a big detail like that just seems oddly uncharacteristic. This actually reminds me of something I did once with a computer model though, so it might be exactly what Mommar mentioned, and they're waiting to fix it until bigger issues are resolved. Design wise it should be very simple to get the wing surfaces at the right angles, but they might not have the alignment of the other components finalized, or something like that. It might make sene to wait and fine tune things. If there's a good reason for things not to line up, then that's fine, I'm just glad to (maybe) have a chance to get one of these after so many years.
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I think you're missing the point. We've been trying to raise the issue so that Yamato becomes aware of it before it's too late to fix. So far, we've heard nothing from Graham at all about this, but if they're still working from resin prototypes, then the molds probably haven't been cast yet, and there's time to fix it. If not, oh well, people here can (and will) resort to custom mods to fix it. The problem is, for as much as we're likely paying for this thing? I'd expect to not have to fix it myself right out of the box. Really.. my personal issue with this is that it's stupid to not make it correctly. Obviously no one's going to make a perfect product, but if there's one thing I absolutely loathe in any type of work, it's using the fact that it won't be perfect as an excuse to slack off and not fix obvious errors that everyone can see. I'll be very honest though.. I'm weird about this type of thing. The actual error doesn't bother me that much. I'm more bothered by the fact that they seem to have just completely overlooked it. I see way too many things like this in my regular job, and they always grate on me. In the case of this valk in particular, I'd think making the aircraft mode look as good as possible is kind of a big thing, since I really don't know of anyone who's planning to buy one because they love the battroid mode. If it can't be fixed before production, oh well, we'll live. You should know by now though that this forum practically runs on debates about inaccuracies though. If you could generate electricity by nitpicking, we'd probably solve the world's energy problems as a whole.
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Anime magic isn't an issue here, because none of the surfaces we're complaining about being misaligned has anything to do with properly transforming the plane. There are no compromises that need to be made with the wings and tails. They don't affect the transformation (they're actually just kibble in this design really), and you could easily change the mounts yourself to line them up if you want, just by reshaping the supports by filing/superglue/etc. It's like saying the size of the rear view mirror on a car somehow effects whether the headlights are bright enough. They're not even related, so there should be no reason why the transformation should limit what angle the wings are positioned. They just didn't do it right, and it's been that way all along.
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Here's the thing. Those hips? There is no way to not force that freaking swing bar. I'm positive that I damaged the mechanism trying to rotate the hips to transform it. They would not move at all. I thought I was going to snap the legs off trying to move them. Basically, unless you found some way to loosen the hips before trying to transform them, you probably stressed the hell out of that hip bar joint before you even learned what it does.
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I said two, but it's dependent on it not costing $500 or something. I'll preorder one at least.
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That'd be great if they actually had any tension between the two, and acted something like one piece, but my left hip behaves as if there is no connection between it and the right hip bar at all. It slops no matter what I do with the other side.
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That is not nitpickery, that is asking for people to be accurate to the source material, and it shouldn't be that hard to do this. This is in the same realm as asking people making an F-18 replica to make sure they angle the tails out, because it is one of the defining characteristics of the aircraft. It's not asking too much for them to make sure they get it right. It won't make or break the product, no. But it looks sloppy, and to ignore that sort of detail entirely is asinine. Unless there is a very good reason for it, there should be no reason not to make those angles accurate. Given that all the control surfaces already angle all over the place anyway, and the angle of any particular control surface besides the canards has absolutely no bearing on any other mode besides fighter (since they ALL can bend to whatever angle is required), there should be absolutely no reason why they can't design the aircraft so the wings sit at the proper angles. It's not picky to ask people not to be sloppy in their work, and this is definitely sloppy. It still might be a great product, but entirely missing something like this for so long is stupid. Really the bottom line here? Yes, it will probably be stupidly easy to fix ourselves once we get these in hand, either by sanding or building up the hinges so the wings are at the right angle. But if it's so easy to do, why didn't they do it in the first place? We're already going to be paying through the nose for these, and we shouldn't have to be doing their work for them to fix mistakes in the design.
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Honestly, the logos all over the 171 are one thing I have never, and will never understand. It makes no freakin sense to plaster the name of your plane all over it. Public demonstrators sometimes have the name on them (I'm remembering the F-16 demonstrator aircraft), but stuff actually in service should look.. you know.. not like a flying billboard. As much as I love the attention to detail, I'm tempted to strip half the markings off my 171 because they just look stupid.
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The cockpits on the two are definitely different shapes. The normal 171 had a much more flat and wide triangular shape to it, with a very different side profile and edge shape. It was much closer to the original streamlined VF-17 shape, instead of the bubble on the 171EX. The original's canopy was definitely wider at the base, and had a larger cockpit section that folded upwards. I'm not sure the tolerances in the EX are so tight in battroid that they couldn't still fit the bigger cockpit under the chest plate, but they'd need to make a new piece for the upper half of the nose to hold the wider cockpit. On a side note though... is this a photoshop, or did someone have a purple VF-171?
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Oh, I wanted to point this out earlier, but forgot. Those hand-holds on the nose would definitely be there, but they'd be flush when not in use. Slots like that have spring loaded covers that push or fold inwards for use, but push out flush with the surface afterwards to keep from disturbing the airflow. I'll be really interested to see what kind of new details you're going to add by redoing parts of the nose. It's already so pretty.
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This is one case where I would happily grind away their paint. The black upper half looks stupid to me.
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It hasn't been released yet (september) so you've got plenty of time to preorder one from a few shops (provided they actually fill their preorders).
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Whether they get rejected or not, I'd like to put in my vote for whole replacement wings. They just seem like they'd be much simpler to implement, and much less of a hassle all around. Not to mention, I'd love a set in white that I can just slap on my VF-11C. I'm lazy, and would rather avoid having to paint stuff.
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I ordered one with them first thing actually, figured it couldn't hurt to try. After they managed to keep offering preorders for the VF-171 up to (and even past) the release date, I'm glad I did. They seem to have a pretty stable supply from Bandai. I did decide to pay ahead though. There is a way to wait, but I like using Paypal, and that defaulted to the instant payment option. I don't mind that if it helps the chances that my order will get filled fast come release day.
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I think the word you're looking for is "whorrible."
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You know, that's actually funny in a way, and just reinforces my thought that Bandai always includes a stand because they don't intend for these toys to be displayed standing on their own. Unless you put it on the stand, the hips don't have anything to hold them in the right position. So, basically the hips just don't lock.. or at least the left one doesnt. My right one doesn't really move, but the left one flops around because there's no tension in that joint. I wonder what dripping some glue in there might accomplish.
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The trick to those nubs is, they were always too small to hold the intakes in place to begin with. This might make them actually useful. Looking awesome, I guess the only real way to do this would be to get a spare VF-0 to kitbash then, because most of the parts will have to come from an original. Any particular reason you're modeling the intake covers and internals though? If we have to take the whole leg apart anyway, we'll have the original pieces to use from there, and it'll save you some material cost.
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Ok, for the leg twist... seems that extending the leg joint at all locks the twist. Bending the knee might too, but its not consistent. Looks like the best way is to ensure the knee is fully collapsed and unbent to twist the lower leg. As fo the hips... good grief. I can't understand what they were thinking. There is no room for the gear doors. At all. If you look at the diagram for attaching the stand in battroid, you can see that they really do intend for you to rotate the hip bars forward, but there is no lock in that position... unless you try to push the hips back in. I nearly snapped off my gear doors trying that. There just is no safe place for the gear doors to go if you transform the hips the way you're supposed to, at least not that I can see yet. The instructions don't say a thing about it either.
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I've had issues with the leg twist to fighter mode too, and I don't know what exactly it is that locks/unlocks that. I'll experiment a bit before I sleep and see if I come up with anything. I think it's something to do with the extension and collapse of the knee extension that triggers it, but I don't know what does it exactly. I've definitely had to extend and collapse the knee multiple times sometimes before the twist got unlocked. You might be right about both halves of the hip bar shifting forward, but I could never get the right hip to rotate that way. Only the left one has that range of motion, and I don't think it's supposed to. On the other hand, twisting it forward doesn't do anything about it colliding with the gear door. I still think maybe the best solution is to just not entirely lock the body together. It's not that unstable, it just doesn't quite lock.
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No, the doors definitely get in the way. If you flex them, you can actually force them to lay outboard of the hip bars once you push them in, but that's one step the instructions really doesn't detail at all. Honestly, I'm tempted to say that it's just better to not collapse the backpack shoulder hinges, and keep the hip plate snapped to the back without locking down the nose. Doing that pushes the hip plate away from the gear doors, and solves this problem entirely, because you've got room to push the hip bars back toward the center to lock them.
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Ok, I don't think the hip bars are actually supposed to move at all. The left one definitely is sloppy on mine as well, but those bars aren't supposed to rotate at the upper point. What's supposed to happen is that once you get to battroid, you push the bars back in toward the nose, and they lock. The pull/push locking mechanism for the legs is what unlocks the entire sliding underside plate to let you move the legs down from fighter/gerwalk position, and once they're down there, it re-locks them in place by pushing the hips back in. The problem is, the gear doors get in the way. If your legs aren't locking in, the gear doors are probably getting caught under the bar, and keeping it from seating correctly. I had to actually pop the gear doors over the bar to the outer side of it to let the hip reach the locking position (only on the left hip of course). I'm not too worried about the doors getting stressed, but it might not be good for them. This wouldn't even be a problem if the hips weren't such a royal pain in the ass to move. Every time I transform this thing, I'm worried that left hip is going to snap off.
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1/60 VF-1 Accessory Parts from Yamato displayed at Wonder Fest
Chronocidal replied to Graham's topic in Toys
You know, I entirely forgot that the VF-1J kit with accessory parts comes with the M&M baby pod. XD -
K, good to know they detach easily then. Really looking forward to that armor set when it gets released. The arm and leg pieces might be a pain, but I'm really looking forward to getting the wings with hardpoints. Once I have them on, I'm supergluing the pins in place.
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I see I'm not the only one who hasn't bothered to transform the arms completely. Those double shoulder joints (the joint shown for moving the arms out further from the chest) just wouldn't budge on mine. I thought I was going to snap the shoulder covers off.