Chronocidal

Yeah, I'm going to wait for them to display a new prototype. That thing is so old at this point, it's literally falling apart. Not that I expect them to actually change anything. This is Bandai we're talking about here.

It definitely looks like the backs of the calves open up to let the feet and ankles flip up inside them.

I'll probably try and get at least one of these just to have it, but I wish Bandai hadn't just gone so far down their "we know better" path and flat out ignored so much of what makes the design attractive in the first place. There's just so much where they must have decided "nah, we don't need the line-art." I honestly have no idea what they were going for here, because every mode comes out worse than the old Yamato version. Yes, the legs are better. That's it. That's a whole lot of ugly to swallow for one improvement in one mode. That being said, I am definitely curious how they got those legs into the belly, and it's probably why the back end is so chonky. I also wouldn't be surprised if they pulled some plastic origami like the YF-19's legs, and made the legs collapse somehow. Kind of feels fascinating, like watching a train wreck in slow motion.. and I really want to know.. well.. did they hire Liefeld for the design work? Because that's the only thing I can think of for that torso. ALTHOUGH... to be entirely fair.. making the top of the shoulders that broad does give the head an unimpeded area to spin around, rather than getting stuck between the portions of the backplate.

I'm thinking HLJ is on Bandai's naughty list for not buying enough of their big ticket items to sell. Given the pre-order server DDOSs Bandai's stuff usually causes for them, I kind of don't blame them wanting to avoid the mess.

Apparently HLJ FINALLY got stock of these, my order from release just got charged. Yeeesh.

The angle might be ruining the perspective, but it's telling that all of that collapsing still leaves the backplate looking so much taller than the Yamato version.

Off the topic for this thread, but I think I'm more blown away by the fact that Microsoft is adding a Dune expansion to Flight simulator. That's gonna be wild.

Yeah, I'm going to make the wild guess that they're probably going to focus on the next-gen Navy platform, and play to their strengths, rather than compete with the USAF's golden child Lockheed Martin.

Yeah, but the difference there is that Bandai's has five trunks' worth of junk back there, and has to collapse twice. There look to be two separate sliding actions involved, with both the forward streamlined fairings and the rear boxy portions all moving up. That's what I feel is the biggest detractor from the fighter mode, the giant chonky butt this thing has. If they had extended the arms to be longer (which is also very much needed) and stretched the wings further back, putting the tails more toward the exhausts, it would have helped the wonky proportions a lot, but the tails look so close to the center of lift that it would actually render them useless as control surfaces.

Wow.. I don't think we'd had any pics from those angles before. That torso is deep.

I seriously don't think they could have made that look any less impressive to present if they had tried. It looks like a skeleton hanging on a rack. Maybe it's because it's a "villain" valk, they just have no expectations that it will sell?

Yeah, the fact that they're still showing the display we originally saw means they haven't done squat to it. I'm glad it's getting released, but I have absolutely zero expectations for it, and would much rather just see a PF Arcadia release. This thing is ducking fugly in fighter mode.

Freakin hell. Fix it first you dingbats, it's got issues.

I really just have one very specific request here.. Can we just get THAT stand for every VF-1 release ever? Because it looks awesome, and doesn't need a stupid bracket eating half the underside.

Seriously, all things considered, it really looks like they tried to just do a miniature DX. It's nice being saturated with good VF-1 products, but I just can't convince myself I need another scale to mess with, especially not when it costs more than I paid for my old Yamato 1/60 copies with super or strike packs. I know that's an outdated standard, and everything is more expensive, but I don't see it as an improvement in any way that matters, and I'm pretty well at the saturation point for the VF-1.

If the measurements are right, it's something like 1/67th, so right in between the KC and Yamato scales.

I have.. absolutely no idea what's going on with that weird VF-1J-ish thing. Are they trying to make one of the custom versions seen in some of the old video games? The fighter mode... looks not good.

Giving me flashbacks to a bad batch of guacamole I ate once.

So, it's about an inch shorter than a Yamato 1/60... which basically points to it being some oddball middle point about 1/67.

I guess we hadn't seen any neo-cubist takes on the VF-1 yet.. glad someone stepped up to fill that gap.

Yeah, those arms are drooping hard, and you can the gun has a tilt to it like the HMRs do. Funny they did Bandai one worse with the landing gear.. forget metal, they just made them black. (Probably a dark metal if they expect to have any stability at that scale, but still.)

I just noticed they actually split the secondary missile box on the Legioss in half so each shoulder gets a piece. I'm not sure if that makes sense exactly, but I like that it doesn't just hang off of one shoulder that way. It's actually looking pretty good, I think the pilot looks a little less cramped in that cockpit than on the Sentinel version, like the beefed up the overall scale a little. I don't know if I would pre-order, but I might try and get one if the price turns out reasonable. It looks a lot like the Sentinel version, with the legs tucked underneath nicely, so I'll have to keep an eye on it.

I have to say, I love the fact that it looks like his office shelf is literally crammed full of organizers full of LEGO bricks.

I would only say sort of. Sentinel got the design accurate, but it absolutely lives by the rule of anything flying with enough thrust. Those wings and tails aren't what are keeping it in the air, and the design is mostly a giant bucket of drag. I've just always thought it would be interesting to make something with the same essential transformation, but expand it out into something closer to a Hornet in size, and actually streamline the rear of the cockpit.

I keep hoping someone will take the Alpha sometime and just go all out on a reinterpretation that stretches it out into something that looks airworthy. The proportions of the battloid mode don't really work with it, but it's a fun thought experiment at least.