Chronocidal

Exactly... I'm really freaking sick of Bandai's marketing for these stupid exclusive add-ons. I mean come on... throwing in heavily requested accessories for completely unrelated valks in with a tornado add-on pack? This is like if Yamato said they were going to make the GBP-1 stand alone armor pack a web exclusive, and then decided to throw in a strike cannon and RMS missiles for the VF-1, and make it so the only way to ever have a full strike VF-1 was to buy the exclusive armor. The situation with Yamato for the fast packs and fold booster for the YF-19/YF-21 was bad enough, but still nowhere near as bass ackwards as this.

Ya know, there is one thing I have never understood about the transforming Monster... Why on earth does the nose have to fold under? For battroid, okay, it makes the torso a little less pointy. But seriously, in gerwalk, it just looks dumb. It's like, "sorry, the nose is just too heavy, I think we'll let it dangle for no reason." In the process, they introduce the potential for a floppy joint that just lets it dangle. The only reason for it I see is to make it look more like the original Monster... which makes absolutely no engineering sense. Anywho... Is the SP version a newer Ranka Guard from the movie? Because, that's definitely not the Monster Girl nose art I remember... and it looks hideous pasted over the shark mouth.

Well shoot.. I might have to get a dozen or so of these. I kinda hope that they paint up an Ozma version with a chibi SD skull marking. I'm thinking something like Yoko's skull hairpin. Btw.. is it wrong that I like this sculpt better than the DX? I mean.. sheesh.. even in SD form, I feel like this has better proportions.

Oy... thank you for that... now I have to try and sleep with a nosebleed. Agreed though.. out of character or not, it's a beauty of a figure. I just wish I could justify it (and I don't really mean the price ).

Just a thought... but why not see how well it goes together without any glue at all? I imagine some parts might be impossible to do without it.. but on the whole, when I build one of these, I plan on using the absolute minimum amount of glue possible. I like to take things apart and tinker with them, and glue will only frustrate that possibility (looking at you, 1/60 YF-19 ). For example.. I do know that the lower legs will stay together entirely with screws. I had to take apart a couple of mine to fix sloppy leg strakes (another bonus of the kit, you can just fix things like that from the start), and I wound up breaking a locator pin clean off one when I popped the glue.. but the screws in the leg were plenty to hold things together.

All hail Lord Helmet! And to think I was sure they were done with the "homages" to other famous franchises.

I'm not entirely sure what to think of the "improved" ankle joint.. if only because we never saw the feet work that way. It does make posing easier, but at the same time, it's not how the feet are supposed to pivot. Don't mean to sound like I'm complaining really, as it's a nice innovation. I suppose you've gotta account for magical bending metal somehow.

Actually, if you loosen up the screws holding those shoulder pivots a bit (something like a quarter turn or so) it gives a little more room to move the shoulders over those bumps. Go too far, and the shoulders will fall down past the stops in battroid, but if you do it just right you'll really reduce the stress on those parts when you move them.

Well.. one problem with the YF-19 in general is that they used a ton of glue to hold it together. Short of prying the entire shoulder assemblies apart, there's nothing you can really do to tighten them up. Mine are too floppy to hold their own weight up, let alone a gunpod. Frankly... I've kinda come to terms with the YF-19... or maybe just given up. I didn't pay nearly full price for it, so I don't mind too much. But I can't see myself spending any more money on that mold. Compared with Yamato's more recent work, it's just an incredibly flawed design.

Actually.. given how the fold system works, I think the barrier is one of the simpler things to explain, at least in the sense it was used in the tv series. For a long time, it looked like the PPB system (trackball interface and all) was actually more like a mobile wormhole than a shield. If you think about it that way, as if you're literally holding open a fold, and moving the entry point to intercept weapon impacts, it makes a decent amount of sense. They were just folding the incoming beams and missiles elsewhere in space. It even works on the larger scale attacks, if you imagine that they were forcibly folding portions of the ships they punched with the field (the PPB punch from Mac+ though treated it entirely like an energy barrier). In terms of where it came from... well, the fold system disappeared, leaving some sort of energy field behind. Considering it happened during a fold, that could essentially mean that the fold they entered might have never entirely closed. It still is a bit of handwavium at best, considering the fold system itself is so vaguely defined in terms of real physics. But after seeing Frontier, I'm starting to think the PPB is essentially a small scale fold fault, or something similar. That concept in itself isn't very well described to begin with, but if we make the comparison to the idea of a "hyperspace" dimension similar to the Star Wars universe, I think it's supposed to be approximately what a "mass shadow" is in the EU... basically, an obstruction in real space that has secondary effects in hyperspace. The Vajra queen's massive spherical barrier toward the end of the last episode seemed to be similar to the one the SDF-1 generated (although stable), and I think it was called a "fold barrier" or something. In order to get through it, the Vajra drones had to open a fold to the other side of the barrier, and it had already been established that they could fold through faults. Anywho, PPB theory is probably better reserved for another topic. What I kind of wonder about in terms of what plants and animals survived... I don't think the idea was even really mainstream at the time the tv series aired, but aren't there storehouses of various seed types stored in random remote locations? I don't know whether they contain samples of animal DNA as well, but you could argue that after learning about aliens existing, it'd be common sense to make a storehouse containing all sorts of backups in case the Earth was toasted. Of course, the SDF-1 naturally was carrying enough sample material to recreate pretty much anything that originally existed on the island (considering how much of the island and ocean it dragged with it into space). Assuming Zentraedi cloning techniques just need a sample of DNA, it'd probably be simple to start mass producing any lifeform that got sucked into space with the ship. Now, even assuming you could theoretically clone a majority of the important plants and animals from Earth.. what I really wonder is whether those species were transplanted to other planets directly. Both Eden and Lux were shown to have distinct lifeforms of their own, even though they were relatively similar to Earth in most ways. It'd take some interesting tricks to force Earth animals to adapt to new planets. Part of me thinks though that they may have tried to salvage what DNA samples they could, even from the burned out Earth. It's probably very far-fetched, but having to mix and match bits of what they found could explain things like the hippo-cows.

Considering how green the area was around the ship Khamjin was working on repairing, I don't think the devastation was total. I'd want to think they focused on killing population centers above all else, so any fairly well established civilization would probably be gone, at least as far as cities. On the other hand, some undeveloped portions of the world might have remained relatively intact. It's never addressed directly in the series, except for the shots you see of the surviving jungle. If areas like that survived, I could imagine some large sections of Africa, Southeast Asia, South America, and Australia could have remained relatively habitable (at least as habitable as rainforests, deserts, and jungles are to start with). I don't remember exactly what the plan was when they attacked Earth.. was it officially "sterilized" or did they just target humans in particular? As far as DYRL goes though, there seemed to be really nothing left, with radiation to boot (I don't remember the beams used in the tv series being inherently radioactive).

The thing to remember about YF-19 paintschemes... it doesn't look very good with standard marking types used on round nosecones (at least to me). The sharp edge around the nose breaks up any smooth markings, and the only way I know that actually looks good is painting the entire nose a solid color, starting at the separation line ahead of the cockpit. Painting an anti-glare panel might work if done right, but because of the complex curve of the nose, it tends to look funny to me. I've seen people paint just the front half of the nose a different shade, and it looked completely out of place, since there's no existing dividing line there. Now... because that sharp edge on the nose makes a solid dividing line though, painting a variation of the 70's navy scheme might work. Just don't do the wavy white line, and use the existing fuselage edges as borders. Btw... don't go by that F-14 model photo for colors. That blue is ridiculously bright.

Awesome. I don't mind double dipping on Roy if I get a bright white one with a TV figure. Makes me glad I picked up that set of TV packs last HLJ sale, so I can just stick with the plain version, and use a spare Hikaru figure if I want. Now if I could just manage to get a second strike pack... but those seem to have disappeared off the face of the earth somehow.

I'm glad to see they're milking this mold, but I don't think the YF-19 has the greatest lines for using schemes like this one... the nose design just doesn't lend itself well to a darkened panel along the top. Plus, I don't quite care for how flashy this scheme is. I can see the cues from existing squadrons, but it's just a bit too much (mainly the wings are over the top to me). Now that they've begun the milking though, I want to see more like this, with more subtle sets. I still want my low-vis set, and the supernova schemes in this scale. Plus... while I don't think the YF-19 has the best form for adapting old style navy squadron styles, it's got the perfect layout for some Russian style schemes (clipped tails and everything). Heck, the thing is half Su-27 already. I want them to make some agressor sets, especially a Dobber-style one.

I dunno if that one was so bad, it was just blasted hard. Old fashioned pseudo-3D games always were when it came to any kind of precision flying (ie landing). I had that trouble sometimes with the original Wing Commander... you'd get right up next to the carrier, and suddenly the sprites would change, making you slam into the side of the durn thing. Course, funniest thing.. we had Top Gun for our NES, and the last time I had friends over, everyone was curious how hard it actually was (being familiar with the AVGN review). So I pull out the NES, and load it up, and in the process of ranting over how stupid nasty the landing sequence is... I land the thing perfectly, for the first and only time ever. The AC tunnel/trench/canyon levels are an oddball to be sure, and kind of a cop-out for added difficulty. But AC5's was very epic. I remember the relief from finally beating it, and it was worth it. Compared with AC5, all the other trench levels seem like a piece of cake. While on the subject of trench/tunnel levels though, the third Rogue Squadron game was.. well, I can't say it was horrible all the way through, but it had more than it's share of bad. The single player game was pretty dull, and the walking levels sucked utterly. But it seemed to redeem itself decently with what it did right (the actual Executor attack run, probably one of the best speeder bike levels ever made, plus the only game I can remember where you get to drive an AT-AT). The thing that really saved it for me was the co-op version of Rogue Leader though. Running the two Death Star runs, Hoth, or Endor with a competent wingman (instead of idiot AI) is just epic. Plus having a wingman made it possible to beat Razor Rendezvous with a gold medal in about 15 seconds.

Even if it might be possible to rotate the nose there, I'm not sure how you could ever use that joint while keeping the transformation intact, since this version doesn't have the slight side-to-side swivel in the swingbar that the 1/48 did. On the other hand... I wonder what would happen if you removed the swingbar from the hip bar entirely, and just left the legs detachable. Kinda kills the whole "perfect transformation" bit, but it could be interesting to see what could be done with that bar out of the way. I don't think it would have any great effect on how the legs attach in fighter/gerwalk modes since they clip in by the hip bar, but I don't know if the nose hatch and attachment point there would be enough to hold the legs in in battroid. Also, the swingbar clips into the backplate pretty firmly in battroid, so you'd lose that sturdyness as well. But it could be interesting to try.

Best one I know of: Aerofighters Assault for the N64. Yes, it was a 3D adaptation of those old top-scrolling shooters with crazy weapons and flying turret-platform bosses, the plot was entirely nonsensical, and you could use an F-15 with a crazy superlaser weapon to shoot down a flying saucer flying over the moon. But none of that mattered, because the flight mechanics were great, and the head-to-head dogfighting mode was awesome. HAWX on the other hand I never could stomach enough to play more than the demo. My brother gave me the PC version to try after he got sick of it, but I got so frustrated trying to configure the controls (until I found out YOU CAN'T), I gave up and went back to AC6. It was all I could do not to snap the disc in half, frankly. I wanted so bad for it to be decent, but after I found out you need a gamepad to play it decently, I lost all interest.

It is rather sparkly, but they didn't fix the different shades of red (depending on lighting conditions I would assume). I dunno what their obsession is with using wrong colored plastic and painting it to match, but there are many sections of the plane that are made from different plastics using different colors (mostly a dark gray, like the flap under the cockpit). The painted parts are clearly a lighter shade of red on mine, more of a tomato red, and very stark against the rest of the plane. Why they couldn't just mold these in color is a question for the ages (probably due to shared part molds), same as the landing gear doors on the VF-25 DX (Michael's rear doors are molded in blue, and painted white, meaning the paint chips like crazy if you open or close them).

My main problem is that, even ignoring the issues the VF-25 DX has in it's stand-alone version, the armor and super packs were not designed in such a way that you can use them without putting the toy in a stressed situation. If the armor pack was designed properly from the start to integrate correctly, the backplate would not be cracking. It's cracking because they did a lousy job designing the connection points, and nothing lines up the way it should. If the packs and plane were designed correctly from the start, everything would snap together solidly, without you having to bend the plane in ways it wasn't meant to move. I mean, the cracks are happening in fighter mode for goodness sake. That's the only mode where the wings have any kind of built in support at all, and it decides to crack then? That just reeks of undue stress on the back plate due to poorly designed connection points for the armor. I was actually considering buying an armored DX until these cracks started happening. Honestly.. the fit of some of the parts is so sloppy, I wonder if they even used CAD at all. *sigh* I do appreciate the fact that we have a transforming VF-25, and I enjoy the two I have (Michael and movie Alto)... but the VF-27 blows them so far out of the water, it's not even funny. I do want an Armored Ozma, but I'm not buying this iteration of it. If they get their act together and release a better VF-25 later on, I'll gladly rebuy the two I have, and just save the V.1s for posterity.. or children to play with.

The only problem with that... yes, Bandai has a significant amount of experience in all sorts of things. But for them to make such stupid mistakes with the VF-25, even with the benefit of that experience, makes those problems all the more egregious. The VF-27 is in a different league entirely (excluding the paint problems), but the one main thought in my mind with the VF-25 is, "Really? Come on Bandai, you should know better than this by now." I'm not going to defend Yamato for making rookie mistakes. On the other hand, I have no problem bashing Bandai for doing the same. I've seen what Bandai has done before. The quality of what came before the VF-25, and the quality of the VF-27 after it point to the only reason I can see for the problems it has: they just didn't care enough to try. It was designed sloppily and inaccurately, and gives me the impression that nothing was thought out to any decent extent beforehand (with regards to paint/material problems, accessories, etc). The stress problems the armor pack is giving it just puts a nice neon highlight on the fact that they didn't think things through. I'm sorry, you do not design a $100+ toy that requires you to place the structure under direct stress in order to display it in its intended manner. Whoever designed the VF-25 either had no education in terms of material stress/strain properties, or they just didn't give half a flying rat's ass. The super packs are the same way. In order to attach them, you have to bend the parts of the VF-25 around and snap them together in a way that they were obviously not meant to stay in. They don't fit well that way. The hip joints were not meant to sit at the angles necessary to attach the leg armor. The only reason it's possible is because there is a lot of slop built into those attachment points, and nothing was built with any kind of precision in mind. Building things sloppy to start with and using it to cover your lack of foresight is a freaking lousy way to engineer something.

Two things. 1. Stripes and markings still aren't there (really? this looks like a production picture and it's still missing that much?) 2. They flat out forgot the upper intake on top of the hip plate. The Fire Valk doesn't have this, it's got the weird strip-like indentation shown.. but the normal VF-19s all had a noticeable intake cut into that panel.

I've been trying to limit myself to one per month, but I overflowed around Christmas time. Since September, I've bought 22 valks of various types. I've stopped now for a bit, since my job may change location, but I plan to pick up a few more things later on, mostly the VF-1 kit version, and a VF-0S.

I think it has to do with some of the concept art for the series. There was a pic of a super Hikaru 1J in gerwalk on the main page for a while... where it came from I don't know, but depending on how it got published, it might have been what popularized the pairing. On the other hand.. the pairing makes sense market-wise. Hikaru's 1J was the only hero valk that didn't get to use the boosters in the TV series (well, if you don't count Max's 1A, but he got his 1J later too), so this is a way to give him some boosters, even if it wasn't canon. Plus, it makes for a nice trio of super 1Js, once you add in M&Ms. And while a TV Skull1 would be fun for collectors, it doesn't make much sense to make a separate packaging for it, since it would just be a repackaged DYRL Skull1 with TV packs and a Hikaru pilot figure. Given the choice of a Skull1 with TV packs, or a Skull1 with DYRL strike packs, which would you choose? That cannon is cool. Fortunately, Yamato had the guts to sell a separate TV fast pack set for the v2 1/60, so it's easy for us to make our TV Skull1. Whether this was a good idea financially though, I don't know. The strike packs tend to sell out fast it seems, while the TV packs seem to linger, and get marked down.

Glad to know that tab is fixable, that's been my one major concern with the VF-11. That tab holds literally everything together, both in battroid and fighter, and losing that means the whole thing would be a froppy mess. Every time I lock the back in battroid or pull the nose down, I worry this tab is just gonna snap.

I'm assuming it comes with a free can of prince albert?