Chronocidal

My main concern is the development cycle time.. I mean.. It's been a long time since Yamato gave us a new release. We've had the V2 VF-1 which came out in 2008... but everything else they've made in the past few years has been a rehash of something they made long ago.. YF-21 gave us the VF-22.. VF-11B was repainted to the VF-11C... It's been easy to miss due to the influx of Frontier merchandise and Bandai stuff, but Yamato hasn't built anything truly new for 2 years now. Granted that gives us some good time for development, and stuff may be going on behind the scenes all the time.. but they're just now re-releasing the YF-19, which indicates to me they don't have another one even on the table yet. Can't be old stock, since they remanufactured the YF-19 with lighter colors. I should vote yes, because I really really do want a better YF-19.. but not right now. There are other things I'd rather see first. Besides.. the more time they spend doing other stuff, the better they'll get at engineering Valks, and the better the YF-19 V2 will be when it eventually becomes a reality. Besides.. we know they're going to milk this VF-19 for at least a few planes (I'm hoping for a lot) In the meantime, they can be working on a VF-0D. And honestly... since they've begun making Sound Force, the natural progression would be to make the VF-11MAXL, followed by a VF-17, and possibly the Jamming Birds. Jamming birds are a no-brainer.. just slap a new cockpit assembly on the existing VF-11 and you have it, since the cockpit isn't even involved in the transformation. You just need new booster packs. Ray and Veffidas' VF-17 is a unique one.. but I can't imagine them making the two seater without making Gamlin's D-model, and maybe a Millia custom red one. The MAXL might be a tricky one.. but I know more than a few people who want one, even if it has the speaker boobs. Plus, I can think of a few easy methods of making those completely hidden in fighter, so it's easy to imagine them being retractable. Anyway... yeah.. a bit off subject, but my point is there's a long line up ahead of a new YF-19.

I might be partially misunderstanding what you mean, but I think I agree. The underside of the nose is supposed to be flush with that plate in one way or another, but that plate should meet the nose at an angle. I think the plate has to be wedge shaped to achieve this though, and that's how we wound up with the gullet on the YF-19 in the first place. The only way to make that plate sit flush against the nose and remain angled down toward the waist is for it to be much thicker, like the YF-19's was. Ideally, that plate would be thick, and be sunk mostly inside the upper nose in fighter, then lay flush against the underside of the nosecone in battroid, but there probably isn't enough room to store a thick nose plate in that area with all the other internal hinges that have to fit in there. I suppose it would be possible to keep the gullet, and just angle the nose down more, but I'd rather see it gone entirely. Considering the compromises for both battroid and fighter on the YF-19, I can deal with the gappy torso much better than I can deal with the plane looking like a pregnant goose. All in all, I think they managed to do a nice job on the battroid. I like the idea of hip fillers though. No qualms admitting I'm a fighter guy, but on the flipside of that.. part of why I don't care for the YF-19 battroid is the goofy cutout on the hips. I know Yamato doesn't like using swappable parts, but having something to fill out the legs would really help that. Unfortunately they're probably in the same realm as VF-1 side covers as far as being on the Yamato care-o-meter.

As much as I want a YF-19 that doesn't look like ass in fighter mode, I'm not sure I'd say I want one bad enough that Yamato should just ignore all the other designs they could do. If they do choose to do it, and can pull it off well this time, sure, you'll get one of the biggest "FRAK YEAH!!" moments in history outta me... but there are other valks I'd rather see first, like a VF-17, or a VF-4. Considering how long development on these takes, it'll likely be a while before we see another project of this magnitude. I forget which valk was directly before this one, but it's been a while I think since we've seen a brand new design.

After seeing some of the versions in the master file, I'm really hoping they do those paintschemes, but what I'd love to see is some of the other variations of the VF-19 design, especially the mid-sized wing that is a mix between the full forward swept YF-19 style and the later very clipped VF-19S one. I'm really starting to love those wider spaced tails too, they seem to give the plane a more balanced look (not to mention simplifying the leg transformation.. those sliding tails on the YF-19 were kind of an odd thing). If I could pick any custom variant to see, it'd be a white VF-19 with the mid-sized wing, and a YF-19 head I think (canards optional). Once the blazer comes out, I might make a custom set of those mid-sized wings actually.. should be simple to make out of spare aircraft model parts, or even just some sheet styrene. What I want more details on though are those canards... it appears they couldn't make them solid like the Hi-Metal, but I hope they stay in place better than the YF-19's. I kind of hope they stay removable too, but that's just me. Oh, and only one problem with primer... the more coats of paint you add, the thicker the plastic gets, and the more it's going to scrape off, especially on a valk with as many contact points as this one. The entire nose section and fuselage has to rub against itself to transform, so you can count on the paint on the forward fuselage getting pretty mangled. Again, that's my vote for unpainted white ones.

Just to make sure, the F model has white stripes while the S has yellow, correct? The yellow scheme never looked quite right to me.. really close to Blue Angels, but neither the blue nor the yellow were the right shades to look right. And yeah, the S version lasers always looked like ridiculous overkill. My favorite is still the YF-19 head.

Might be too much to hope for, but I'd love it if they put out an unassembled kit of this one... or rather, a blazer version with interchangeable large and small wings and canards to customize it. I know it doesn't have the same overwhelming amount of repaints as the VF-1, but there's so much potential for customs with this one, and the only canon schemes we're likely to get are all bright colors that'll be nasty to try and paint over. I would LOVE to get a solid white F model with stripes of some type on it.. though, picking a color for the stripes would be tricky. I'd probably go for black initially, but adding some red or yellow would be really tempting. Maybe even an SMS styled scheme.. Actually, if you think about it, white with black stripes was the standard scheme on the VF-11s, no reason standard model VF-19s shouldn't get that too. I think Emerald force only got fancy colors since they were a special forces group. Once the VF-19 replaced the VF-11, it'd probably get the same colors.

I'm trying very hard to restrain myself from producing a hideously girly squeal of delight in front of my unsuspecting coworkers at this very moment. I'm being partially successful, but I feel I will need to run outside shortly in the hopes that a nearby aircraft will mask my fanboy enthusiasm. Holy frak am I SOLD. I feel a little tempted to buy a dozen of these things and customize them all. For the first time, I could actually see myself buying every single one of the valks based off this. Possibly in multiples. I do still want to see a side profile, but it looks so awesome already.. even if the gullet is a little droopy, everything else is so beautiful, I know I'm buying one at the very least. If this doesn't spawn a new YF-19, I will be SEVERELY disappointed. They fixed sooo much that was wrong with that design.. big wings, sleek nose.... That being said, I will have no qualms about sacrificing my old YF-19 for parts to customise one of these into a YF-19/VF-19 hybrid. Probably just take the head and gunpod really.. I really really really can't wait, for this, or the inevitable Emerald Force. Graham, we need you to start petitioning now that they pull some alternate schemes out of the Master File, hopefully a white/light grey one with black stripes, or a Skull 1 tribute. I want a low vis VF-19 sooooo much right now. The YF-19 got kinda shafted in the repaint department, and they need to pull out the stops on this one.

I think that fighter pic is an accurate render of the valk, it's got all the same features you can point out, especially the placement of the lex and such. Now the big question I have... is this one going to have ball and socket joints for the hips, or are they going with type of joint Bandai used on the Hi-Metal? It looks like the intakes can pivot outward on those plates they're attached to, but only time will tell. I honestly really like the way the Hi-Metal's hips work, so I wouldn't mind them doing that at all really, as long as the joints are tight.

Nice. The battroid looks awesome, I'm really looking forward to seeing how they improved on the YF-19 design (especially those cruddy shoulders ) I can't wait to see the fighter, since that will definitely decide it for me. Judging by that illustration and the pics though, I have hope. It looks like the nose is angled significantly downward as it should be, and even if the gullet is still there, not having the nose sticking up will mitigate that a lot. The plane in that pic actually looks aerodynamic, not like it's turning up it's nose to the airstream. That lower nose flap that goes under the nose in battroid looks a lot slimmer than the YF-19 one too, judging by the battroid pics. I do still think the nose is a little short (I think the lex should start under the canards, not ahead of them), but if that's how they got the torso so compact, it's absolutely worth it. Plus, it won't be as noticeable on the F/S models without those canards there. Edit: Oooh, lookie what I see.. are those slots to lock the wings to the chest in gerwalk?

I fiddled with my Fire Valk a bit, and discovered that the angle you set the upper arms at can make a big difference in how the shoulders sit. Mostly it's because the upper arms have so many ways they bend, and I don't even remember how to do it off the top of my head. It just takes a little fiddling with the upper shoulders, and I can usually get my shoulders to lay perfectly flat into the backs of the thighs.

Umm... silly question, but what's the hot pink monster I see underneath the VF-1S in that ad? And back on topic, Wewt! I doubt I'll get many hi-metal VF-1s (if any), but I might pick this one up. The backpack connection does worry me a bit, but I'm impressed they actually went the extra mile and put the booster internals in there.

Ok, I hope I'm not the only one here, but that face looks like she's wearing clown makeup...

I've actually so far avoided using any of my Yammie stickers, even on the 1/48. It's not so much that I don't like the detail, I just have bad memories of decals peeling off of old toys, and would rather not repeat that on things I keep on display like models. Plus, keeping them clean makes it easier to take them apart and fiddle, since you don't have to worry about scraping them off, or cutting the ones that go across seam lines.

I'd say it does make some sense for larger scales to make things easier, but that all goes out the window when Yamato starts throwing in cockpit transformations, retractable gear, and other stuff like that for the larger scale. Also, in terms of physics, the Hi-Metals have a very large structural advantage. They're so small and light, the joints don't need to be beefy to hold poses, or snap into place correctly. There are several mechanisms in the HM VF-19 that are key to the transformation working out so well (the sliding hips come to mind), but duplicating those mechanisms in 1/60 scale could possibly lead to a floppy mess that doesn't hold together because of the increased weight. Bigger scale is a double edged sword.. you can add more detail, but the weight penalty you pay for the size requires you to beef up the structure considerably. It's the same reason why my 1/18 Lego VF-1 never could support itself, but the 1/32 version holds together fine. I still have hope for the 1/60 VF-19 too, but to me the Hi-Metals have pretty much nailed the necessary mix of proportions for a good battroid and sleek fighter in the VF-19.

I remember those, though I only got the old Janes sims through the multi pack, Fighters Anthology. That was awesome for it's time, but the graphics were dated even by the time I had it. What I really wish we could see is more stuff on the same level as the late Janes sims.. in my opinion Janes F/A-18 Superhornet sim is the pinnacle of computer sims, just for it's completely interactive interface, depth of detail, and ridiculous accuracy. I've had the chance to fly an actual military Superhornet sim, and it was almost identical. The guy who got my brother and I in there was pretty surprised when I hopped in and started hitting all the right buttons without him saying anything. Hawx though... frankly, I can't believe these types of shovelware keep getting pushed, while Microsoft canned it's Aces team in charge of MS Flight Sim. I just got Afterburner: Climax for my 360, and spent a while with it.. before I realized something really really depressing. The models in AB:C are good. Maybe not Ace Combat good, but very close, and beatifully rendered... but they leave Hawx in the dust. I sat there and my jaw dropped as I realized that they actually animated ALL of the F-14's control surfaces, and even gave them appropriate reactions. The spoilers pop up to roll, the slats drop, and when the wings are out the flaps will even drop to the maneuver setting just like the actual aircraft when you pull hard turns. Is there just some cultural gap here? Both Ace Combat (Banco) and AB:C (Sega) were made by Japanese game companies, which seem to excel at putting fine details into their games. Hawx on the other hand... well, let's just say they lack try. I'm sorely tempted to post a rant to the Ubi forums that if they want to know how a plane is supposed to fly, they should go play Afterburner.

AHH! The screened decals! THEY BURN! I always have liked the mouth markings better, but for a while those decals were tempting.. not anymore. That one's been through a lot.. paint chipping everywhere, broken nose turret, scraped off decals.. they even had to prop up one of the guns with something to keep it on straight. Sheesh, what did they do, hand that thing over for QC testing by a 5 year old? All it's missing are spaghetti-o smears and crayon markings. Actually, after looking at it closer.. that might be a resin one. There's a good amount of brown paint chipping with white underneath too.

More accurate sure, but of all the problems the 1/60 YF-19 has, I would think the color would be at the very bottom of that list.

Ok, I might have to pick up one of these, especially since it comes with the stand. I'd rather have the white striped version, but I kind of doubt that would be an easily obtained version even if Bandai does make it.

Nice. First one is new I think, second is a better picture of what we saw before. Looks like I was right, they did get the upper hip plates to pull back away from the legs, and even got the legs to swing higher up to shorten the torso. I'm gonna anxiously await some fighter mode pics, but so far this is looking promising, at least as far as battroid is concerned.

Even if it didn't, I loved the demo of IL-2, and need to remember to grab the full game. I think part of the problem with IL-2 is that the WWII aircraft genre has been done to death on PC already though, and the people who love those games won't bother with a console version. On the other hand, console players seem to love lots of missiles, jets, and explosions, which Hawx obviously tries to cater to. Honestly, I wouldn't have so much of a problem with Hawx if the game wasn't built so.. well, incompetently. There's no other way to describe how bad some features are. I had to replay the demo to remind myself of how bad it is, and, yes, it really IS that bad. Let me put it this way: Hawx is the only flight game I've ever played that completely ignores the physics of flight in atmosphere. There is no gravity, there is no drag, you can't turn by banking, and a stall isn't a loss of lift that can be mitigated by thrust, it's more akin to your plane suddenly having its wings ripped off just because you slowed down too much. That's not even adressing the interface and control problems. For starters... the artificial horizon is wrong, the speed and altitude units are entirely non-sensical, the scale of everything is completely off... oy. The people who made the game didn't do a lick of research, plain and simple. Seriously, how hard is it to look up aircraft speeds on wikipedia? Even if I put aside my personal pickyness about flight games... when you have an F-15 going 1200 knots at minimum throttle.. it's a very obvious indicator that something during development went incredibly wrong.

That'd be a VF-19 though, not a VF-1. By this point in time, I'm pretty sure VF-1's would be permitted for personal ownership, though obviously minus the weapon systems (wasn't there a specific civilian version available?). While it might be something from that old zent's collection, I have no trouble believing Ozma could have a personal tricked out VF-1 for stunt flying. Actually.. then again, I just had a really, really goofy thought. Since Sheryl seems to get the monster in this one, what if Ranka winds up flying out in this? Probably piloted by someone else, but still, I suppose it's possible. Probably much more likely though that Ozma's VF-25 gets completely trashed in this one, and he pulls out the VF-1 for his gung-ho "I will protect Cathy!" rampage.

Good grief. I can't believe the first one made enough profit to convince them a second game is a good idea. See even with the corny plot/dialog, AC has tons of aircraft eye candy, and is actually fun to play. HAWX didn't even have that, and the PC version was a half assed console hackjob that never worked worth a damn. I'll be cautiously optimistic for now that they will actually listen to their users and maybe do something right this time, but I'm not getting my hopes up. Oh, and one more thing. If Ubi can make IL2, they have no excuse. If those dipwads don't do some research and actually learn what a stall is this time, I will personally go to Ubi HQ and slap all their developers upside the head with my college aerodynamics textbook.

Frankly, the military hasn't had any inclination to paint aircraft anything other than grey for about 30 years now (excepting showbirds and CAG planes). There's no way anyone other than Focker should have anything other than shades of grey on his plane. If this were real, the only accurate valk would be the Low-Vis V1. Macross Zero actually came close to getting this right, the only planes not greyish were Focker and the anti-UN ones, which don't have the same military color standards to begin with. The only way the colors really make any sense is if you consider that they were fighting aliens who's sensors were gonna pick them up anyway, regardless of how they paint the planes. At that point, it makes sense to paint the planes colors you'll be able to see in space, at least a little, if only to avoid collisions.

Ok, just to clarify things: worn edges ARE deformation by definition. The peg is no longer the proper shape. Now that I think about it, that metal bump that seems to be holding the legs in so tightly could have gotten larger over time. A small detail like that would be easy to damage during the process to remove the metal parts from their mold.

Well, from what I can tell about the YF-19, some of the plastic is along the same lines as the explodium used in the VF-0's arms. It's not as bad, but it's still a little fragile, I've noticed cracking around the slots where the hip ball joints plug in, and had to tighten those joints up with glue. Actually I managed to make one important improvement on my YF-19 since I took it apart. I was able to tighten up the wing section pivots on the hips very well, so they stay where I put them in battroid.. that was a really tricky screw to get to. I bent a paperclip with pliers into a short hook, and jammed it into the gap to try and hold the screw in place, then just rotated the wing assemblies to tighten the screws. Also added some glue to tighten the hips up. As for the arms.. they're a lost cause. Can't get to the joints without breaking the arms apart worse than they already are, and can't tighten anything on them. Makes you really appreciate how many screws (uncovered screws I might add) Yamato has used on more recent releases. Really, I'm glad that I like to display my valks on the feet in fighter, because that's the only way the YF-19 looks decent on display to me. It was okay at the time it came out, but Yamato's other Mac+ valks are so far ahead of it it's an embarassment now. It just doesn't compare to anything they're currently making.