Chronocidal

I know exactly how I feel about it.. that was a stupid design choice. They could have molded it in color, saved money on the painting process, and saved us all a lot of frustration from scratched paint further down the road. As many improvements as they've made, it still baffles me why they would choose to mold a single color piece in the wrong color, and then paint over it. If it's a case of the parts being cast from the same mold, it's just terrible planning and lack of foresight.. or possibly cutting corners cost-wise so they don't need separate molds. Either way, it sucks. It also concerns me that when we get to Michael's, we'll have even worse problems with paint, because they will have molded the entire thing in blue, and painted all the white over it, including the whole freakin' lower wing glove. At least with Ozma, the entire thing is shades of gray. You can get away with that on a display model, but painting entire major sections of a transforming toy is just asking for that paint to be destroyed. The hand touch-ups would go a long way to explain why I've got so many uneven shades of the same color though.

Not in terms of mechanical complexity. The Sv-51 has the most ridiculously complex shoulder mechanism I've ever seen. It works well, but there are just so many ways you can move them... As far as a new YF-21 goes though.. yes, improvements would be nice, especially the gear locking, and maybe getting the belly plates to work better... but they will have to pull off something miraculous before I drop any money on more of them. I've got 3 already, and I'm plenty happy with them, so unless they figure out a way to make the wings morph, I'm probably not going to be buying any more. Now, getting a new YF-19 would be very nice, and once the momentum gets going, sure, more people might start wanting a matching YF-21. But for the moment, two things keep it from sounding like a good idea... the falling dollar, which will probably mean $350 plus prices for it, and the common discount status for the current YF-21/VF-22, which makes it look like they can't sell what they have. Granted.. a saturated market has never stopped companies from making more VF-1s, but I don't think the demand for the YF-21 is even in the same ballpark. Even if they did improve it greatly, would enough people buy it to make it worth the effort and expense to develop?

Here we go.. it was a ridiculous mini-flame war over the YF-21's proportions, which... considering the thread just started about a v.2 YF-21, is oddly relevant again. I'll have to re-read the entire thing later to find the funny parts, I just remember the term battying being used repeatedly, and I don't even know what started it, or who used it first.. again, I'm gonna read it all when I get home. Here's the biggest use of the word I think, then it goes on to wish people would go back to just calling each other mentally deficient, and posting Zardoz pictures. http://www.macrosswo...ndpost&p=545382 The debates still get heated, so nothing has changed there, but ridiculous things tend to happen when the arguments flame out and people are left with nothing new to post about. I'll have to find more later, but here are the threads about the YF-19 and v.2 VF-1. http://www.macrosswo...showtopic=19382 http://www.macrosswo...showtopic=24556

I don't recall if I was even around for the old board, or if I actually posted there... What I do find fun from time to time is re-reading the huge threads dealing with new releases, specifically watching all the panic button mashing. I think my favorites are the 1/60 YF-19, YF-21, and v.2 VF-1 threads. I remember one specific discussion involving far too many uses of the term "battying" that's always funny to re-read. Oh wait.. wow, I actually did join back then.. early 2003. Had a total of 7 posts before the new board.

You know, for what it's worth.. you may have dodged a bullet by getting the old one by accident. The early releases of the v.2 VF-1S had a design/manufacturing/assembly flaw that caused the shoulder hinges to break quite often. It's been fixed on later releases, but buying online is a crapshoot, so you never really know how old the stock you find could be. While not quite as pretty, the one you got is probably plenty sturdy. Not having a cockpit figure sounds odd though. I'm not familiar with the v.1 1/60 releases, but I thought they came with pilots.

Well, since they're designed to be lowered one notch in fighter mode, the legs don't lock in as tightly as the VF-25. I've never understood that particular feature of the thing. I might have to pick one up once this re-release happens though, the design has grown on me a bit. Though I'll be heavily tempted to paint it a nice flat gull gray color. That paint makes the thing look a bit like a chameleon caught in a pimp's wardrobe.

... Molotov Valktease?

Considering the way Bandai loves to design joints, there's really not a good way to tighten them... those pins they use are a pain. You might try forcing some superglue into the joint from the underside, or even into the center of the hollow pin, but there's not much room to get the glue in there, and any leakage will really show on the dark gray plastic.

You know, a funny thought hit me earlier. With them including the reaction missiles with the armor parts, they're cutting into the release scheme they used before. I wonder if they're just going to start including the stuff people had to order separately last time? Would be nice if they just went ahead and included the fold quartz booster and speakers with Michael's, and the ghosts with Luca's. I wouldn't mind shelling out a bit more if I can get everything in one package.

The wings and tails are all really badly shaped, but they are just flat slabs on that drawing. I imagine they'll be much better shaped later on.. I'm counting on it really, since those tails are nowhere near the right shape.

Look at the shape of the wings, that's a very rough cad model. They aren't even airfoil shaped yet. I'm not worried about the shape of the wings/tails/etc much because honestly, for this design they play absolutely no part in the transformation. They barely even move, so there's really no reason they shouldn't make them detailed later on. What does concern me a bit is the overall shape, which is a bit off in the nose, and such. They'll be using this model to plan how the transformation mechanism works, so key parts for the transformation like the nose and feet should be fixed at this stage.

Looks like a good start, but yes, I expect they'll be adding a ton of detail over time. That looks like a very basic computer model just laid out to get proportions. The wings are all slabs with flat edges, so I can imagine those will change a lot (I hope.. the tails are the wrong shape entirely so far). I agree about the proportions though, the nose doesn't look long enough, or rather the neck.. the overall size looks pretty good, but the canards look too far back, and much too small. As for the feet.. I think I can see a bit of why they wouldn't want to use the original design, but copying the VF-1's feet won't look good. I think if you figured out a good way to make a dual panel foot that extended, and then bent twice, it would work, but it might not be very sturdy. I'll have to see if I can get the model I have to make a gif. It doesn't look terrible, but having flat toe/heel panels sticking out from a longer piece looks a bit odd.

Honestly, I wouldn't let that stop you. Even if there is a re-release, the exchange rates might not be in your favor. Though, who knows if the re-release price would be less than what sellers want now.

Actually, I was kind of glad that the panel behind the head pops off easy. It made it easier for me to get the head transformed, and snaps right back on easily, and stays put if I don't pull on it. When I first transformed mine, I was worried I was experiencing an accidental return to the old turtle-neck problem. The head must have gotten some glue under it, because it would not budge off the plate. When I finally got it loose, the head came clean off in my hand. Fortunately nothing broke, and it just snapped back on, but yikes. One issue with mine I already was able to fix, with a razor blade of all things.. I noticed the left wing glove wasn't snapping all the way down, and was catching on the edge of the shoulder block. Well, I took the blade and shaved off some plastic from the underside of the wing, and along the edge, and it now sits perfectly flush. If things aren't sitting right, make sure to check for leftover mold release plastic, so you can trim it down. So far, I've only hit minor issues all around. My intake covers don't stay on (I'd just glue them in, but we might need to mount super/armor parts in their place later), my left wing glove flops back and forth easily, and my head was stuck down when I first got it. Actually, I should say the paint coloring is very weird. And this is definitely not a lighting issue. In the past, I know people have noticed issues with plastic colors matching, but I don't recall anyone saying that they had mismatched paint. I've got a lot. The lighter gray panels seem to be painted with all manner of shades, as if someone mixed up separate batches, and repainted certain parts. Some pieces are noticeably lighter, as if they gave more coats. The weirdest one... it looks like someone already weathered the underside of my left wing glove. It was definitely painted with two separate shades, and the brighter second coat didn't get into the detail, so the panel lines look like they are pre-shaded. I've also got mismatched painted panels on different halves of the same leg, right above the knee. Among others. The dumbest thing about some of these problems though.. particularly the wing gloves.. why on earth did they even paint those? The entire part is one color, so why would they mold it in the wrong color, then paint it to match? They've been doing that with some pieces since the v.1s, and for everything they've improved, this particular practice still makes no sense. I'll take some pics later to show what I mean, and in the grand scheme of things, it's not a big deal, but it's still.. well, just dumb.

Also.. while it's kind of a lame way to justify broken shoulders.. you really didn't see much of the VT-1 using its arms at all, did you? I got bad shoulders in mine, but never actually discovered it until someone suggested looking, because I never transformed mine past dropping the legs. Most of the iconic shots of the VT-1 in DYRL were either pure fighter, or half gerwalk, so I've never really had the urge to take it all the way to battroid.

Picked up mine after work, and very nice overall, but I wish Bandai could get a handle on their paint shading issues. I have to give them credit for trying, because the paint scheme on Ozma's VF-25 is nothing simple, but I've got varying shades of the same color all over the place, as if it was touched up with different mixes. Can't wait for the armor to finally get released, then this thing will be complete. Oh, should say, my intake covers don't stay in at all. Won't be a problem once I get the armor, but it's annoying.

Bingo, payment sent around 3:00 am today. And yep, I think I'm just gonna go ahead for both armor sets. I skipped the first release, so don't mind double dipping to get both Alto and Ozma, especially since they include the reaction missiles this time.

Know what I'd love? If they could figure out some way to ditch all the goofy extra attachments their stands always require. I honestly wouldn't mind if they could just put a few random reinforced holes on the bodies of the valks in obscure positions (under the main body, into the centers of the feet, etc), and then gave me a stand with a metal peg on the end that I can set at a variety of angles.

Well crap.. ok. Now I want both sets, just to make sure I get the painted set I hope they standardize them more than those pics, because having that many differences is just frankly... bizarre. I mean, besides the paint, they made multiple door designs? And the paint is terrible on the Ozma.. Why do I think the Ozma pics are of an earlier prototype? Happy to see the reaction missiles are being included from the start though. In for a group buy on both I think though. Definitely on Ozma, assuming they fix his paint, but might be fun to have an Alto as well.

The early pics showed the paint matching pretty badly as I recall. Probably partly due to the lighting used, but I do remember some people saying that the shades of gray used weren't put in the right places. As for the 30th anniversary logo... anyone else find it funny that we're getting that on a toy from the series that celebrated the 25th anniversary?

Maybe we'll get a red one first then?

Given how different the feet on this one are, I am interested in seeing what they do They're basically much more like actual thrust vectoring paddles than feet in this case, and they have to extend a lot to become the heel and toe. They're really just pads that hit the ground flat.

That's actually what always made me wonder how the VF-4 even functions.. I did see a transformation sequence once that detailed it, but it's messy. The upper legs are basically right down the center of the wing structure, and meet the engines sideways. When they drop down, the thigh does some magical rotation and winds up pointing out of the intake. With the arms out of the way, the tops of the intakes are open, so the thigh kind of rotates into that space. Looking at the pics a couple pages back, I think I see how it works now actually.. the thigh meets the side of the engine at about the middle. When the legs drop down, the lower leg rotates 90 degrees (toe outward) so the thigh is on the back of the lower leg, with the knee joint bent 90 degrees. Then the entire knee joint slides toward the intake, placing the knee right inside the intake duct. Good thing these things don't actually need air to run the engines. I really am anxious to see how they pull it off with a toy myself.

Still not sure I like the way Yamato seems to love making gappy knee joints in fighter lately, but I will probably still get a pair of these. I'm going to hold off for the D though, and pick up Millia's S model.

Well, I'm trying to remember.. wasn't Gamlin's VF-22 supposed to be web exclusive? Or was that just a limited release? Either way.. if they can engineer this to the same level as the VF-19, I'll pick up at least one (assuming HLJ keeps up their habit of selling the Yamato exclusives). Extra paintschemes would be nice, but we've only ever seen one canon scheme in the anime, so I'd expect that to be the first one. However, given where the major markings are, and how few moving parts are near them, I can see this being a rather easy one to customize.