vf-24

Sorry to hear about your misfortune. Do what you said and what everyone has suggested, call HLJ or e-mail them and explain the situation. If you e-mail them, show them the pictures. They seem to be very understanding and hopefully you'll get a replacement of the whole craft. If that doesn't work, then move on to the next step which is to try to repair it yourself with the suggestions that everyone has offered you or purchase another fighter. Take the damaged fighter and sell it for parts and maybe you can make a profit or break even. Or you could always keep the damaged fighter and save it as your spare parts just in case the backpack hindge breaks (which is common) or any other part breaks off. Since Yamato isn't dealing with overseas customers in replacing parts, this might be your best back up to have for spare parts. Btw, just as a suggestion, I have bought 1/48s at BigBadToyStore.com here in the states and have had good success with them. I haven't checked prices lately and compared them to HLJ but they are roughly about the same. the plus side of getting a new valk in the states is that if there is something wrong again, it might be quicker and easier to deal with exchanging and shipping costs. Look at their policies. some offer free shipping if something is damaged when you send it back to them. Basically no cost to you. Good luck and keep us posted.

Well I wouldn't go that far into using surgical gloves. I know you're kidding but if someone out there is seriously thinking of doing that, that almost kinda defeats the purpose of owning one. In that case, you might as well not take it out of the box. But feel free to do what you want with your valk, after all it is your valk. Anyways, there are a host of reasons why the plastics turn yellow. I think everything that everyone has mentioned could be the cause...oils, uv, humidity, etc but I don't believe that it is just one thing that causes it. We'll probably never find out. Doesn't hurt to keep theorizing. Keep the suggestions comin'!

plastic being damaged by the oils on the fingers causing the plastic to yellow over time. A lot of toy collectors who have experienced this have suggested to wipe your collectibles with a cloth before storing your collectibles for a long time. This is especially true on some diecast car collectibles. with the SW toys I mentioned above, part of it was because of the type of plastic, part was oils, and part was because of the paint that kenner used to use back then...but that's another discussion entirely. But this is just one possibility out of many that could cause the yellowing.

one possible reason for the yellowing could be the oils from our hands from handling them. I've had this happen to my old bandai valk. haven't touched it for years until recently and found out that my valk was turning yellow. and the majority of the yellow was coming from the areas where i mostly touched it. the same goes for my old 1977 Star Wars figures. so it could be a possiblity that your valk is turning yellow due to oil resdue if not from anything else.

ditto. <_<

here's my 2 cents, take it or leave it. yamato is a business in creating adult collectibles. they produce nice work, the mechanics or the materials used for the products may need some tweaking. their custormer service and quality control, probably needs a lot of tweaking. they, like any other business out there are out to make a buck. do they care about their customers? do they listen to consumer complaints, suggestions, etc? no one knows except those who know yamato. but companies that do listen to their consumers and try to satisfy them, are good companies. and those that don't listen are bad companies. ironically though in the world of business, sometimes the bad companies make the most money but that's an entirely different issue for elsewhere. the bottom line, in my opinion, is are you satisfied with your purchase? no? then don't buy from them anymore. yes? then continue to buy from them if you want.

1) i think you'll find different answers to the first one. for me, they seem to hold pretty well and i have 2 FPs. The front missile portion is held together with the main booster by 4 tabs which seem to be pretty solid. not so hard to fall off, take off or push in. 2) instructions are pretty much like the instructions for the 1/48 valks...straight forward. I don't think you would have any problems. the only minor problems as you might've already read is that the rms missles tend to fall off easily and the micro missiles seem to pop out easily. i haven't experienced the micro missile issue cause i'm too lazy to cut them off the sprues. the other minor problem i have is that the arm armor is pretty snug when it snaps onto the arm. very nice looking. but when you try to take them off, gets a little scary for me cause you have to bend the tab a little to release them. other than that, the FPs are pretty cool.

hope this helps. there's an extra piece in the FPs which fits in between the head and the back panel. also make sure the back panel is pushed in pass the two tabs on the fighter. refer to the picture. i never knew that i had to push it in further until someone posted a picture of it.

Does anyone have pictures to show the difference between the yamato and taka toys stickers?

did you happen to have any problems taking the arm armor off also?

I remember this discussion too. It's o.k. to complain and vent as long as you state some possible solutions to the problem otherwise you just sound like a complainer and no one can help you or ease your discomfort. no one likes to hear a complainer...gives us all headaches. remember to just buy what you like and don't buy what you don't. for me, I bought a vf-1s and a max 1-a. i'm disappointed on the construction of the backpack hinge and made suggestions to yamato as to how they could improve it but until they do, i choose not to purchase anymore of their fighters cause i don't think it's worth my money. my choice and my contentment. like hurin stated, nothing is perfect and by keeping that in mind, work on satisfaction. if a product or a company doesn't satisfy you, learn from that experience and move forward. bare in mind, i'm not trying to "knock anyone down", just trying to help.

Does anyone know of a trick or an easier way to remove the Fast Pack armor off of the arm for the 1/48s? Everytime I take it off I feel like the tabs are going to break off. Any help is most appreciated.

after looking at the dyrl cockpit and the vf-1j, looks like the only difference is the head rest on the 1j is more curved to fit the head and it also looks like the center stick is molded to the pilot. other than that, the cockpit is pretty much the same.

Is there anyone out there who can provide some photo examples of the difference between Takatoys decals and Yamato decals on the 1/48s? I don't mean examples of the decals sheets but the decals on the fighters. I keep reading that Takatoys decals are better than the Yamatos and just would like to see some examples. Thanks.

I was wondering if anyone knew if the Furuta Defiant is in scale with the Bandai Enterprise-E (1/1700)? If not, what scale is the Furuta Defiant?

over here in ca. in the bay area there was an awesome local kids program called captain cosmic which showcased alot of the japanese shows such as space giants and ultraman. I can't remember the villians name but I also remember an old wise man who was with the family. There was also a kid with a whistle. Whistle 3 times for Gam, 2 for Silvar, and 1 for Goldar I believe. And there was that cool noise when they transformed into the jet fighters. Pretty entertaining show.

I would also like to know if I am on the list as well. Thanks for all your efforts Rob.

1) price is too high 2) I have a life 3) Star Wars/ Nascar collection takes a priority over Macross 4) Not too happy with qc and customer service of a certain manufacturer

tamiya spray paints and brush on paints have been good. hardly any brush streaks. as for spraying, you probably already know this but spray lightly and build up. also warming up the spray can has helped give a better spray from what i've read on other car modeling sites. apparently what some hobbists do and suggest is that they take the tamiya can and let it sit in some warm water for a couple of minutes and then they spray. mind you, don't put it in hot boiling water. that would be bad! there's some science for doing this. if i can find the info on this i'll post it here. Testors in my opinion takes too long to dry and can get messy. at least with the tamiya acrylic paints, they're easy to manage and clean up. plus it doesn't smell as much as testors. but that's just my preference.

....ugh, where is the sense of innocence in this place. This quote comming from an individual with an avatar of a big-breasted woman running... gotta throw in that star wars quote "look at the size of that thing!"

might i also add...it is better to move forward than to just stand still.

-hurin yeah. totally agree with you. i've been around for a long time too (there's a joke that can be made with that statement but let's keep it clean ). I understand the upset that alot have posted. thanks for pointing out skull one's disatisfaction. i mistook it as a complaint or maybe i just got it mixed up from another post that i saw on the forum. but i guess to put it in another perspective, maybe buying yamato fighters is like buying a computer. once you buy a computer, a few weeks later a new improved, faster computer is out. ya can't keep up with technology.

imo, i think skull one's complaint is valid. you pay what you get. in this case, it seems that if all of us are shedding out $130-$200 for a toy, we're expecting high quality. in some sense, we all got high craftsmanship which i think we can all agree on. quality...well, as the saying goes, "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" the crooked skull, the nose, and the flaps....i'm not bothered by it. i don't even notice a big difference or changes between the 1s and the max 1a which i both own. the only quality issue i have and i think everyone might be on an agreeement is the back pack hinge. some of you guys were lucky that it didn't break and some of us weren't so lucky. me? my 1s broke when i first transformed it even when i was extremely careful but my max (which was my second purchase) didn't cause i knew what to do and was extra careful. even though now i know the trick, i'm still cautious but i think yamato should offer replacement parts to the consumer without having to go through the painful runaround that rob from monkey-n has so hard try to do. (which by the way we should all thank him for doing us such a generous service. ) but if yamato gave that option to the consumer, i think it would keep alot of its regular customers faithful to the company and offer a peace a mind to the consumer. at the moment, i'm holding off from buying anymore macross fighters until that issue is resolved. if it isn't, then i still have my two collectibles in my collection and the more for the rest of you guys. but the point is, it's my choice and my satisfaction/contentment. i think we should all continue to voice our complaints about the fighters cause i think that it not only helps us vent our anger but i think it also helps yamato create a better product. nothing is perfect except for imperfection. if none of us ever complained or pointed out the nose falling off, the canopy not staying up, the flaps falling off, the crooked skull....we probably wouldn't have seen those changes done on the max and the low-vis. like what some other hobbist said, alot of these problems can be fixed, it's just a matter of do we really want to make that extra effort to go fix it? that's all i have to say so i will step off the soap box now.

Rob, If it's not too late I need - Backpack Hinge - #BP8 - VF-1S and Backpack Hinge - #BP8 - VF-1A (Max type). Thanks. -vf-24