Chronocidal

If you've got the ability to build a prototype in some sort of computer CAD or graphics program, I'd definitely recommend it. It's not impossible to do without it, but a computer model (depending on how it's built) will let you play with the transformation and mechanism to make sure everything fits together before you ever start building the parts.

Normally they are, most of us just don't live in their normal customer service area.

I wonder if there are actually 3 types of pins then.. early heavy knurling, completely smooth, and later light knurling.. Actually, considering how knurling is done, the difference between the two types may be somthing as simple as changing a single setting on the machine that does it.. maybe these smaller knurled pins are a stopgap that was introduced before the smooth pins went into production? Maybe that's what Yamato meant when they told their quality control people to be more careful.. not necessarily during assembly, but during the knurling process for the pins. I almost can't imagine they'd actually use manual knurling for something mass produced like this.. but then again, it was put together in China.. Heh.. I wonder. If local Japanese customers get the stuff made in Japan, and the foreign-made stuff is used for export, that might explain why Yamato didn't hear of these breakages from within Japan.

Well, bit the bullet and took apart my 1D and Hikaru 1J to check on them both out of curiosity. Wound up leaving the pins in on both, but I can tell the ones on the 1D are knurled to some extent, since the edges of the ridges are just barely visible at the edges of the hinge (no idea about the 1J). Now, this may not be a problem at all. There are no stress marks, the hinges rotate just fine, and nothing is cracked. I think for the time being we shouldn't panic on these. It doesn't look so much like they went to entirely smooth pins as it looks like they reduced the size of the knurling. Really, removing the knurling entirely wouldn't work so well, because the pins would gradually work themselves out of the joint (at least, the hand-made ones I used to replace them do a lot ) What I do know is that there is a noticeable difference in these smaller knurled pins compared with the ones on my VT-1. The original knurling can be seen clearly from the end of the pin, so these are like version 1. The newer version 2 pins are smooth capped pins with smaller knurling that you can't see unless you push the pin out. So far, I don't see any stress from the version 2 pins. For now, I'm going to try not to worry about the 1D pins, or any other ones without obvious knurling. They may break, they may not. I'll wait to bomb that bridge until I come to it. Anyway, onto the pics. These worked out better, I forgot to tweak the ISO last time, and I maxed out the resolution. These are my first two V.2s, Roy, and Hikaru 1A. All four shoulders were stressed, and two were cracked. I superglued them all, and replaced the pins, but you can still see the cracks a bit. The stressed hinges don't show up at all on camera after I worked on them. Btw, I checked the pin rotation, and yes, even the smaller pins rotate with the outer shoulder piece, not the inner joint to the fuselage. EDIT: Oh, one last thing. One thing I learned to do while taking these things apart is to loosen the main shoulder joint that is screwed to the back plate. If you unscrew it too much, the shoulder joints will slip around and not stay above the support tabs in battroid, but loosening it a little (maybe a quarter to half a turn) gives you more room to raise the shoulder joint over those nubs, and reduces the stress to that joint during transformation.

Double checked, and something weird is afoot. I think even the FIXED pins have a small amount of knurling, just not as much as the first releases. Technically, this makes sense, since you need something to hold the pins in.. completely smooth ones would be more likely to fall out. I think the newer pins might just have reduced knurling. I checked my VF-1D, and the pins look to be smooth on the ends, and look considerably smaller than the first editions, BUT: I looked behind the hinges, in the gap between pieces, and I can see a ridged section of the pin inside the joint. My 1D is also stress mark free though, so either it's brand new and the pins haven't had time to stress the joint, or they are actually smaller. Can anyone confirm that the newer pins are actually completely smooth? I realize, this requires taking apart valks that seem to have nothing wrong with them, but I know there are customizers out there that do it all the time (I'm afraid to do it personally, since removing the pin might break it completely ) Are the newer shoulder pins completely smooth, or do they still have a small amount of knurling?

Good to hear the Roy reissues are fixed, I might actually consider ordering one, and leaving my first edition in fighter mode. Out of curiosity, do either the Roy or Hikaru have the new nose hatch?

While it can become just "I'm waiting for this..." discussion, this thread has served a bit of a purpose recently, and is good for a few things which I've seen discussed in separate threads before: -Up to date comparison for relative shipping times/methods/service for various vendors, and opinions on which might be the best to use at the moment -A nice summary thread for people wondering what's popular at the moment, and where good deals can be found (instead of a new thread every time someone has a sale) -Some simple first impressions and recommendations without having to dig through extended discussion about individual toys Not to mention, it makes a nice valkaholic support group. Maybe the best thing this has been doing recently is consolidating the typical "Why haven't I gotten my *insert recently ordered product here* yet?" threads, and making it a little simpler for people to share info when a shipping delay occurs (like seems to be happening with the Macross Quarter).

There's actually a really simple solution to this, with very little effort on Yamato's part. Since they already have the unassembled kit version in production, just overproduce the particular sprue that contains the shoulder hinges, and send that out with the pins. After all, there's no reason to waste good labor on assembling complete arms just to have them cannibalized for the shoulder hinge. I'd like to see the parts breakdown of the kit version to see how practical this would be. If the shoulders are on the same sprue as the fuselage, wings, etc. Yamato might not like the lost plastic, but even if we get a sprue with the parts for two full arms, Yamato would still save money since they don't have to be assembled. Only downside I see to this is that all the spares would be bright white, instead of color matched to the valk. Not a problem for the GPB sets, and maybe not so bad for DYRL valks, but they'll stick out like sore thumbs on VT-1s and VF-1Ds.

I'm almost wishing now I hadn't glued mine, it makes it almost impossible to see the damage. Maybe I'll get "lucky" and the VT-1 will fall apart in the next few days.

The main thing to look for would be the pins that are knurled on one end. They've got a distinctive ridged edge on them that you should be able to see. Even if you only have stress marks now, they might need to be replaced over time. If you have stress marks without the knurled pins, breakage is less likely, but not impossible. We might need to clarify the poll a bit, I think I screwed up the topic some by bringing up the VT-1. At the start it was mainly about who had hinges that needed replacing, not about hinges that hadn't broken yet. I think I derailed that when I noticed my VT-1's pins, and figured I'd probably need a new set eventually.

Yeah, use those. I guess this would be one very solid reason to go for the unassembled valk kit.. you can make your own hinge pins, and avoid this problem entirely.

No idea, but it's worth checking out. Apparently not everyone got the same pins though. I wonder if an old stockpile of knurled pins got mixed in with the new ones, and no one noticed. I'd check every valk you own just in case there's a bulk order of spare arms put together. I double checked all my Valks tonight, and my 1Js are all safe, as is the 1D. My Roy and Hikaru 1A both broke out of the box, and while my VT-1 isn't broken yet, it's probably only a matter of time.

Wait, which version VF-1J, and when did you get it? I got my Hikaru in the past couple months, and it has the newer pins. Btw folks, check your VT-1s. Mine's not broken yet, it's just got a bit of stress on each shoulder. Apparently they let out a run of those with the bad shoulders too. So, that's up to six new shoulders for me, two pairs of DYRL white ones, and a pair in VT-1 tan which I'll probably need eventually.

Well, here's at least one with knurled pins. Note to self, buy a camera that doesn't suck. Sorry about the grainy quality, this was the best I could get. My macro focus just wasn't up to getting pictures of detail that small. The only real indication of the knurling is the jagged shadow outline around the pins, but that might be convincing enough. Hopefully someone else with the same problem has better equipment though. The good thing is that at least these pins are very barely stressing the plastic right now. And honestly.. considering we never saw the VT-1 with the arms out to begin with, I have no trouble understanding why there haven't been more reports of this before. Personally, I never even considered posing this thing with the arms out, so if it weren't for the recent problems, I probably would've never noticed the pins. What really doesn't make sense to me is how old stock Hikaru 1Js are having shoulder problems... I one that I bought from Overdrive in October, and it's got the smaller pins.

Will do, I just popped mine into Gerwalk, and there they are. Brand new, delivered in the past week, never transformed until just now, and both shoulders already stressed. I missed it the first time I looked, the stress marks are actually harder to see in that tan plastic. Pics coming momentarily.

I need to go re-examine my newer Valks now, since it seems the shoulder problem is reappearing..I think my M&Ms are ok, but I didn't look too closely at my VF-1D and VT-1 yet, and I think someone reported seeing the knurled pins making a comeback on some of those. Btw David, if you didn't already, please change my vote to the "multiples" option.. I voted "both" before thinking of that.

If you catch it in time, it's not hard to fix the shoulders preemptively. My first two VF-1s both had stressed/near cracked shoulders on both sides. I pushed the pins out with a sewing needle, soaked the pivot points in super glue, and replaced the pins with sections of a thick paperclip. The joints are much looser now, but they hold up well enough, and since my valks stay in fighter mode mostly, I'm just happy the arms aren't falling off.

Wheee! Got my VF-1D, VT-1, VF-11, and YF-21 all yesterday (along with a super alto kit), and spent the better part of the evening fiddling with them (mostly with the YF-21, geeez that thing is complicated ). Pleased to say that so far it looks like the only thing that got yamatoed with this shipment was my wallet. Haven't transformed them all yet, but nothing broken far as I can tell.

Both broken on my first two DYRL V.2s, Roy and Hikaru 1A, so 4 total. I mostly fixed them myself so I haven't ordered new ones, but I'd gladly take a set of new shoulders for both if they were available (and if Overdrive ever gets back to me.. I emailed them several months ago about a new Hikaru 1J head, still no help there ) Any chance you can add a "multiple valks/multiple shoulders" option to the poll?

Well, since my boxes are at the post office awaiting pickup, I suppose you could say they're still "in the mail." Come 4pm, I'll have 5 new valks to unpack (along with whatever other mail I wasn't expecting over the past two weeks). It'll be like Christmas day all over again. Work today can't end fast enough (and it's boring to boot.. everyone's just getting back from vacation time, and no one has anything to do yet ).

Woah.. this is new. I'm gonna wait and see if they get imported before buying, but 1/32 is a nice size for these. I think they're roughly the size of some WWII fighters, probably pretty small aircraft.

My stand alone 1J Hikky is fixed as well, the hinge pins are noticeably smaller. I did get two broken ones, both the stand alone Focker and the Strike Hikaru 1A, but they're fixed up just fine now. It's an annoying problem to be sure, but if you know how to fix them, I don't think it's worth skipping those versions entirely. You might even get a bargain for buying potentially cracked ones, then fixing them yourself.

Ditto on that, and her hair looks much more blue here than purple.. if it weren't for the chesticles, I would've thought that WAS Alto. Really.. she looks more like a cross between Grace, and that weird guy Foo-foo-head met with in that restaurant.. the eyes just don't look anything like her.. it's like they're too big. I wonder if this shot is mid-change between different external appearances. The hair and glasses do make a difference, but even with those changed, that doesn't look like her face.

And the Valkgirl Leekspin would be next, I assume? Oh wow.. my brain just did a crazy mashup mid-thought, and now I'm imagining Miku Apple. And if you used the latest Miku design style.. it could actually work. Edit: imagine Sharon crossed with this:

yeah, seems to be a complete crapshoot. I emailed them a LONG time ago that my Hikaru 1J needs a new head. In the months since then I hacked the original head apart looking for a way to fix it, and it's sorta fixed, but the head looks like crap now.