Chronocidal

I've got a good few of these now, and while I've built some of the figures, the primary reason was to get a few valks in HMR scale, since the sizes are just about perfect (I think something like 1/85 scale or so).  I'm currently tackling a couple of the VF-31s and plan to consolidate boxes since they're so bulky, and all the parts come on tons of sprues.

One thing that always strikes me about these kits is that the color breakdowns for various versions are so sloppy, for lack of a better term.  They make all of these kits in so many colors, but when it comes time to release new ones, they only need one or two parts in a different color.. so they just say "sprue it" and throw an entire extra sprue in the box.

Some of them come with so many extra parts, you can almost build a second fighter mode just from the spares.  The orange and tan Kairos is probably the most excessive for this.  I know it's not like they're wasting plastic (in theory), but it definitely inflates the costs of the kits when they have that many extra bits.

Once I get the parts clipped off for the Monster kits, I'll probably be moving all of the actual kits and figures into one of those boxes for storage, and just fill the other with the spares.  

I am glad I decided to splurge and only get the PF back in the day.  I'd be kind of terrified to imagine the price increase for that one now.

Assuming you mean the upper triangles that sandwich the shoulder joint, and not the lower ones?  The fact that there are two sets per valk has always been a small point of confusion.

Judging by the way I saw my upper ones break, I'm not sure if it was related to bad plastic, bad assembly, or a combination of the two.  What I think happened with the upper triangles is that the assembly line took a shortcut, and instead of screwing the shoulders together around the ball joints, they screwed them together, and then jammed them over the ball.  The actual process of getting those parts together is a three-handed job, so I can understand why they would use the shortcut, but it caused a lot of the parts to crack.

The lower triangles are just a nonsense design to begin with.  Expecting something that fragile to survive shoving a metal spring pin into was too much to ask, especially if the plastic was already flawed.

I did have some success repairing a broken pair of those though.  It came down to extracting the spring pins, then carefully gluing and sanding the parts back into shape to slide on one another correctly.  Afterward, I replaced the spring pins with a section of insulated wire the right thickness to fit.  The rubber coating wound up providing a nice amount of friction in the rotation, without stressing the parts.

All things considered though, those parts should be discarded entirely, and replaced with something that isn't so fragile.  I came up with a rough design for a replacement that copies the design from the Yamato VF-17, but have never gotten around to making a set to test, since I didn't think my filament printer would be up to the task.  After those VF-11 intake covers came out so well though, I might give it a shot.  It might take some very fine drilling to get a sturdy hinge made.

The tricky part is probably making a part precise enough to fit in the same slot as the existing green part.  That's a really thin part, with a really small screw holding it on.  Otherwise, I think that folding panel would accomplish the same thing as the stock parts.  It might dangle down from the chest, but I think it might even fit rotating 180 degrees to fit under the chest panel.

Of course the other option is to just yeet those lower triangles into the abyss, and deal with the slight lack of streamlining.  They're small enough to kind of just overlook in the long run.  

8 hours ago, Sandman said:

Didn't the same designer work on both the VF-17 and Vf-171?

If they did, it has to come down to the different specifications that Bandai and Yamato had for their designs, because the two could not be any more different in execution.

Yamato's VF-17 is very pointy, but it is an absolute unit of a chonky valk that is deceptively simple in its function, and feels rock solid in hand.

Bandai's version is the most overcomplicated and overengineered pile of self-combusting explodium I've ever seen.

I think it should be obvious by this point that the people setting up Bandai's displays usually have no idea what they're doing.

Think that's just the parts being sloppily installed, the promo images have them in the right place.

Course.. they've been known to photoshop things before.   Still, even if the release version has that, it wouldn't be too difficult to fix, relatively speaking.

1 hour ago, treatment said:

err...

What, and admit they screwed it up?

Don't mind me, just geeking out over the classic space sets I see nestled between the transformers.  

I was always sad I never actually got any sets with the classic inverted Triforce logo.  

5 hours ago, recon said:

Lets hope bandai takes up the torch and releases them under the DX line

Just being honest here, I don't want Bandai's fingers anywhere near any new VF-17-based release.  I don't want any more valks exploding from their idiotic design logic, and I would not be even slightly surprised if any new VF-17 from them would have all of the same problems as the 171.

Once they've made this mold, there's really no reason not to make both.  The major differences are all in the cockpit and chest transformation, so once that's figured out, everything else is just an add-on part.

10 hours ago, Sildani said:

Yeah. Don’t. It’s the plastic, it weakens over time. I think the CF variant has a metallic sheen to the dark grey plastics, which did something very not good when it was injected-molded to be made. No other 171 has this metallic plastic, so they don’t have nearly this many problems. 

I can't say it was just the CFs though, I know my Luca version had the same metallic sheen to it, and I didn't trust it.

It's more than just the plastic though, I think the 171's leg design might possibly be the most incompetently designed product I've ever owned.  The design as a whole has some serious issues, and at the very least it's the worst designed transforming toy I own.  The entire hip/knee joint should be ripped out and rebuilt from scratch, and the stupid little collapsing triangles on the underside should have been replaced with the version Yamato used on their VF-17.

"Bandai: Why use one part, when you can use five to do a worse job instead?"

6 hours ago, Raikkonen said:

The omission of a 1/48 is rather odd... 

Not really that odd, considering how rare and unpopular "enemy" units are with the anime fanbase in general.  

I'm just assuming Hasegawa decided not to make it based on sales figures for the 1/72 version.

12 hours ago, Lolicon said:

Thanks @Angesdad!

I started looking into fixing up the CF 171. I took my main 171 out of the display case and started taking it apart, being very careful with the shoulder triangles. When I tried to open the canopy, it snapped off at the hinge. Wonderful.

So I pulled out my second MISB copy. The first time I tried to transform it and the leg completely snapped off at the knee. Goddammit. F U Bandai. How the hell do you screw up the second release when the first release (Alto) had none of these problems?

All I can do now is hope I can frankenstein together a single working CF 171 using parts from these two broken toys.

Yeah, that right there is the CF-171 experience in condensed form.

You don't buy one toy.  You buy a bunch and hope you get one good one put together out of the pile of broken parts that come out of the boxes.

8 hours ago, Mog said:

Hasbro’s The Vintage Collection (TVC) line.  For all intents and purposes, it’s the 3.75 inch scale line with better articulation for the figures.

Basically, they’re releasing the E-Wing version that showed up in the Ahsoka series.

Oh, I know.  I'm more commenting on the name as I always associated it with being used for the OT/PT-related releases, since a lot of the items released were retools of actual older toys.

I guess they never really intended that.

Think that's jus a pure red, always see it specified as "insignia red" when instructions tell you what color to paint those.

I'm not sure the T-45 trainer scheme even counts as orange anymore.

Though, speaking of the YF-16, I wish they had stuck to the red for the YF-25. Would have looked amazing.  

Considering how Bandai just completely abandoned the Sv-262, I don't think you have to worry.  They really just don't want to invest in adversaries.

Not quite the same, since it's not pure white, but I wouldn't mind a version painted in these colors.

Sorry to take a bit, finishing work things up.  It's kind of okay-ish, but I'd definitely rather have an HMR YF-19.

Maybe weird to say, but I think this kit needed more parts-swapping between modes, just to look better overall.  Battroid and gerwalk are pretty much fine, but fighter mode took all of major compromises.

Boy they made it stubby... did it look like that in the show?  Or am I just fixated on how the old EU version looked?

Also.. ok, wtf does "vintage" even mean then?  This wasn't in the OT, not even in the sequels, and it's based on an EU design.  

Yeah, the YF-19 is definitely smaller than HMR scale, it doesn't really match up very well.  The pilot shenanigans is just Bandai's nonsense scaling issues with the HMR TV pilots.

I basically slapped together the YF-19 without the instructions (I love treating these kits as a puzzle, since they snap together so easily), and honestly I was not very impressed with the shortcuts they took.  Lots of parts that should be mirrored were duplicated instead, which made the assembly a little more complicated, but it wasn't too bad.

I just wasn't impressed by the end result very much, at least not in fighter mode.  Battroid is fine, but the fighter proportions and shape took a beating in the process of making a good battroid.

It's a decent little fighter, and would probably look pretty good with some paint and detailing, but it needs new feet, and a fix for the ugly uncovered crotch block.

Will see if I can get a side-by-side pic a little later,.

Heck.. I'm still upset Hasegawa never came out with a matching 1/48 kit for it when they did the YF-19.

6 hours ago, Sanity is Optional said:

That Tantiv IV looks like someone shrunk its head.

Yeah, the cost of scaling down when you have a fixed resolution to work with, and LEGO has an abysmal lack of variety when it comes to cylindrical elements.

I was actually really waiting for a PF Ostrich, would have loved to pick one up.  

At this point though, I think they're better waiting to do that until a little after Bandai's VT-1 releases.  That way, they can profit from the market that missed Bandai's release, and offer something (hopefully) a little easier on the wallet.

Ok, yeah, if that happens, I will absolutely grab one.

That and another PF YF-19 please.  

Not really surprising, I think Isamu's YF-29 is probably the only TWE item I ever saw go on clearance.  

Pity about Ozma's though.  That one needed another run.