Chronocidal

I'm okay with subtle tampo, but I also really don't want them splattering the logos all over any of them. The hard part is going to be balancing the details with the cartoony aesthetic Macross 7 ran with. The VF-19s never looked like real aircraft in the show, so I'm not sure realistic aircraft markings will look that great on them. I have seen good looking squadron markings and other sorts of insignias done well on the Emerald Force valks. I also have very little faith that Bandai would ever use something so sensible as just putting the modex numbers in logical places. Maybe they'll go with the Master File as a pattern? That wouldn't be too bad, but I still find the Emerald Force logo an eyesore just from how much it clashes with the colors of the actual planes. I'd really rather they just used a realistic tail code.

I love these short scenes so much. They don't even need words, and still say so much.

Ugh... the metallic is the worst part though.

Well crap, looks like I'll have to figure out how to make the shops I bought mine from hold them to ship until next year.. Going to be out of contact while I help some family move.

This is feeling like one of those cases where it feels like they should just leave it unpainted to keep the costs down, but maybe the costs are already high enough that they're just painting it to make it feel more worth the money? I don't know. The colors are really just obnoxious, and I have no idea why they would make them glitter. And frankly, isn't the entire point of this figure so you can put it inside the Regult? Why paint it at all, when one of the primary functions is just going to scrape it all off?

Wow, Bandai. That's not even "New Hat" level. That's an alternate glossy feather for the hat.

What are those, anyway? They.. kind of look like foil-wrapped chocolates like the bunnies you see around Easter.

Oh good freaking grief.. yeah, I would absolutely believe they'll base popularity of transforming toys on those.. whatever they are.

The folding/collapsing inner leg mechanism on the YF-19 is as overly complex as it is ingenious, but it comes with a couple of annoying detriments. Primarily.. I miss being able to extend the feet in fighter mode. I like displaying fighters standing on the feet vertically, it's just a nice way to save space. Otherwise though, I think that mechanism also contributes a little to how.. sloppy the arm alignment feels. It doesn't seem to line up well, and the arms don't feel solidly attached to anything in fighter mode. They just kind of float with the shield, and it means the gunpod is also sloppy.

I just don't even want them to try it, I'm sick of having to screw with the crappy mechanisms they come up with to make the wings stay in place. I would crack up if they included VF-1 fast pack mounts for it though.

Yeah, it definitely looks like they just blasted it with spotlights for that picture. Really not helping sell it.

Except this "variant" is a reboxing of their very first release, but now including things that should have been included from day 1 in the box. "Oops, guess maybe we could have included the missiles before. As an apology, we'll let you buy it again."

The YF-21/VF-22 get passes because there is nothing physically impossible about just angling the wings and tails. Real life aircraft can do that just fine, even without the fancy bendy materials the YF-21 used. I don't think the VF-22 was actually supposed to be able to do that either, but I don't know off the top of my head whether that was directly stated. There was never any evidence that the VF-19 Advance could do it though, at least not in the few seconds of footage it was shown in. Bandai just did it because that release was a sneaky way to get an alternate license to make a YF-19 to compete with Arcadia. The high speed mode as seen in the animation is physically impossible, just like the way Basara folded back the wings on the Fire Valk in that pic above. The wings only ever rotated on their main pivots, and would have to pass directly through the legs and arms. The only toys that ever did this were the Doyusha 1/144 die cast ones, because they didn't have to transform. Was the YF-19 supposed to have the same flexible morphing materials the YF-21 did? Who knows. But the way the wings are shown folding back cannot work with solid objects. I do give Arcadia and Bandai credit for trying, and appreciate that they managed to come up with a physical hinge that can relocate the wing to achieve something almost like what the animation showed. I wouldn't even mind the high speed mode being an option if anyone could mechanically execute it in a way that doesn't suck. So far, we're 0 for 2 in achieving a functional mechanism.

Ugh.. thanks for the reminder of how much of a janky mess the v.1 Bandai Frontier valks were. The extra armor packs just don't fit well at all.

I mean.. actually it's kind of worse. Remember Episode 11? This is even less physically possible than the wings folding back like the YF-19's.

That's... interesting, at least. Obviously not a transforming prototype, they're pulling the same shenanigans they did with the VF-31s being solid models for so long. Can't really predict anything about how the hips/LEX/fuselage are going to transform, but you can tell it's based on the YF-19 mold (same stupid bulgy panel under the nose with the opposite curvature, because of course they're going to double down on the worst-looking aspects as if they're some kind of trademark). I'd actually love them to curve the LEX more, like they did with the HG kit, so it intersects further behind the cockpit. Still looks like the same rough shape as the Yamato/Arcadia design, which.. why bother at that point? Try something different already. I can see where it'll be a similar comparison to the fighter mode differences though, and I'll be happy to grab as many VF-19 variants as I can, provided they actually make them. Will probably wind up a similarly more skinny battroid at the end of the day. They still need to make the canards angle up further. I'm going to go against the grain though, and say just nix most of the tampo, especially the intake markings, or just print them in either a different color, or an outline only. They look entirely out of place, and clash horribly with the red plastic. Boy I hope not.

Hold up a moment.. are they going back to the old style diagonal-zip suits from the second gen space sets?

For what it's worth, if you're going with fighter displays, the Advance is a better option anyway, since the feet on the YF-19 version are so bad in fighter mode, and the markings are much less excessive. The benefit of the YF-19 update is mostly the extra knee joint, which doesn't matter in fighter anyhow.

Yeah, VF-1Js are not specifically the problem. This is just the classic Bandai "No one likes anything but the main character" strategy on blast. And this isn't even a Hikaru problem, this is specifically re-releasing the single most common hero design repeatedly.

Had to dig a bit for this topic, just noticed this is getting a re-release next summer. https://anime-export.com/index.php?product=86121

Double post, realized there was a dedicated thread for the 1/48 Swordfish.

Man.. Bandai is just allergic to making their products actually available to the people who want to throw money at them.

It is kind of a dumb issue to have, but it really comes down to how the part arrangement on the different sprues works out. So for instance, the YF-21 comes with the jagged yellow markings over the intakes molded in yellow. That's a separate piece. That's great to not have to paint that part. But then you get to the M&M VF-22s, and suddenly that part needs to be the same color as the main body. Whoops. You're left with two options here. Either you're going to include alternate sprues of the correct color for that part with each version, or you're going to take the cheap way out and tell the customer to paint it, or include a sticker to cover it up. Bandai has done both in various kits, and I have to assume it just comes down to what makes the most financial sense. The HG Fire Valkyrie kit includes several sprues lifted straight from the YF-19 release for some of the joints, and even includes parts that won't be used until they make a normal VF-19F/S. You get a ton of spare parts, but that's something that works into the price. The Mirage Sv-262 was hilarious for this, because the dual white and magenta scheme basically meant you had another half a kit's worth of unused parts when you were done. In the VF-22's case, I'm just guessing it didn't make any financial sense for them to include an entire sprue in gray, rather than letting the modeler paint or decal over a single black part that needed to be gray. Edit: Just opened my kit to look, and I'm assuming this is about the upper arms. Yeah, they're the color of the main body, because the upper arms on the YF-21 are blue, and each of those two parts are spread across two of the larger sprues containing a large amount of the main body of the valk. Including a spare copy of those sprues molded in gray would be been incredibly excessive, and very likely increased the cost of the kit substantially. Otherwise they would have had to make a dedicated sprue mold of just that part for this release. This one was already a massive price hike over the YF-21, so the extra cost to include those parts in their proper color just wouldn't have made any sense. Although... I'm really curious why they included the barrier punch effect in gray. That's just really strange. This won't be a problem on the M&M versions, since they have their upper arms molded in their main body color like the YF-21. However, like I said above, they don't have the upper intake zig-zags, so we're getting stickers for them the same way.

Yeah, lumping a ton of items that people may or may not want all together is a bizarre way to arrange it. And aside from that, until they can actually meet dates they set, that list really means nothing.

I find it (and most of the 31 series) much easier to handle if you remove the canards. It's not the best option, but it does give you a nice place to pick up the valk by.