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Official 1/100 BANDAI VF Hi Metal VF-1J Valkyrie


Black Valkyrie

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  • 3 weeks later...

do you guys think that this line will stop from here?

I sure hope not. These by far have my favorite size and proportions for Macross toys. As far as Plus being announced...yeah, but it'd sure make me less nervous about Hi-Metal's future if we saw some development images or something. I mean, we saw a prototype sculpt of the YF-21 I think it was February of last year? And haven't heard ANYTHING new about it or a YF-19 since then. Despite having the VF-19S and VF-19Kai completed, even.

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I like the idea of tiny high quality toys for people without any space or people who want pocket valks.

It seems to me that the smaller the size, the more fun in displaying them in a group.

Originally I only cared about having something to display next to the konig monster but I like the look of these toys.

This is the direction yamato should have gone instead of the GNU super pose stuff. ie "high quality banpresto - banpresto but with durability" :D

There are some people who just can't justify the cost of the larger stuff but would pay a good amount of money for high quality small stuff.

Remember when yamato was going to do the vf-0 as a "parts swapping toy" in 1/100 and everyone groaned and said they want the bigger scale? and Then we got the 1/60 vf-0? (about the size of a 1/48 vf-1)

I don't see why bandai can't achieve a Perfect transformation vf-0 at 1/100 now that they've done vf-1.

-Simpler transformation,

-bigger size in general (more detail cna be crammed in?)

and

-there is still demand for valks that havenn't been done by yamato yet. (vf0d)

Enemy mecha at this scale would be cool too.

Edited by 1/1 LowViz Lurker
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I think that was over a year and a half ago. They released one photo, and then nuffin'. <_<

Eh? Really? First time I heard about it was after Blazer Valkyrie and VF-1S Strike Valkyrie release which was last fall/winter (like 2010 November-ish?).

Actually i don't remember seeing any photo of it. It was just announcement in hobby magazine interview article.

My guess is that Bandai will announce something during 2011 summer toy conventions?

Edited by kyekye
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Eh? Really? First time I heard about it was after Blazer Valkyrie and VF-1S Strike Valkyrie release which was last fall/winter (like 2010 November-ish?).

Actually i don't remember seeing any photo of it. It was just announcement in hobby magazine interview article.

My guess is that Bandai will announce something during 2011 summer toy conventions?

There was a photo of the YF-21 prototype (maybe someone can dig that up?). And I'm quite sure that was before the Strike release, because I remember being in my old apartment and I moved over a year ago.

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You have to realize the way an adult "plays" with a toy is not the way a child does. Kids cooperatively play with each other, creating new narratives, role playing, re-purposing toys from other lines, etc. It's a much more involved process than simply having something they saw from a TV show.

And while there are sandbox type games, most games are not this. If you play halo you're playing halo. 99% of games don't allow the user to create their own narrative, create their own figures and even many multiplayer/cooperative games today don't even have a shared console mode thereby removing the social aspect of group play that's vital and necessary for kids to develop social skills.

Toys also help develop spatial and engineering thinking that, again, most games don't offer. Just because a game may feature "physics" doesn't go nearly as far in teaching a child how physics actually work compared to building something out of blocks, legos, or other other comparable toys.

I'm a parent and I see a huge difference between children who play with toys and have little to no screen time, compared to children who spend the majority of their play time watching tv or playing games. Greater attention spans, better socialization, increased vocabulary and more complex sentence structures (grouping of words and ideas and concepts).

AMEN to that, every last word...

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There was a photo of the YF-21 prototype (maybe someone can dig that up?). And I'm quite sure that was before the Strike release, because I remember being in my old apartment and I moved over a year ago.

I see what you mean. Yeah.. now I remember seeing the photos.

post-6978-0-79711400-1306006073_thumb.jpgpost-6978-0-80011100-1306006080_thumb.jpg

Somehow I thought their next release will be YF-19, so it was disconnected in my memory somewhere..

These were from early 2010, and they changed this to Blazer and moved on to more VF-1 variations and add-ons.

Their last product was 2010 November according to their website

Their last online-shop item was Super Parts Set to be released in July 2011 according to their website

I think there is still some hope Bandai will continue this product line.

We will see during the summer toy conventions. - crossing my fingers :ph34r:

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And while there are sandbox type games, most games are not this. If you play halo you're playing halo. 99% of games don't allow the user to create their own narrative, create their own figures and even many multiplayer/cooperative games today don't even have a shared console mode thereby removing the social aspect of group play that's vital and necessary for kids to develop social skills.

Toys also help develop spatial and engineering thinking that, again, most games don't offer. Just because a game may feature "physics" doesn't go nearly as far in teaching a child how physics actually work compared to building something out of blocks, legos, or other other comparable toys.

I'm a parent and I see a huge difference between children who play with toys and have little to no screen time, compared to children who spend the majority of their play time watching tv or playing games. Greater attention spans, better socialization, increased vocabulary and more complex sentence structures (grouping of words and ideas and concepts).

It really depends on the game though.

Most mindless shooting games put you into a linear path set by the designer of the levels of those games so that they can keep the game pace flowing quickly and so people don't complain that they got lost. (this happens sometimes in game where the environments look the same everywhere you go, like say inside a dungeon where the tiles are identical etc people of today have less free time? Or maybe not as patient? In the old days of the PC "dungeon crawl" people had to map the area in their brain or on paper to know what they didn't do or where they didn't go, but today people have the map and most gamers don't have the patience to explore or plan how they will explore something)

But there are games that do work a kid;s brain (see some of the nintendo ds titles like scribblenauts, animal crossing, brain training) and some games have level construction kits in them (I think since halo 3 they started to add a level building tool) so if they wanted to design something they could.

I would say the most social games are the massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG for short), because it requires good planning to achieve things but these have destructive effects too because you get addicted to being in the game and forget the outside world around you.

The more brainy games seem to be featured on pc (possibly because parents are going to see the connection of "computer with education" and "programs with educational tool" more than on the videogame console where it is "pure entertainment" like watching a movie or tv show. Videogame Console = dedicated for games. Personal Computers = tool that can be used for doing work or other things. Like hobbies where you can create things. (we are living in the "digital age" now where photos, movies music is easily editable because the information is bits and bytes ones and zeroes which is the language our machines speak in. What you couldn't do in the past you can do today just using the right computer program)

It's not fair to generalise but lets just say that if you play too many games that are mindless (Call of Duty for instance - one of the most "scripted" first person shooting games out there) you are not working your mind nearly as much as say a tactical war game (ghost recon on the 3ds or Advance Wars) where there are many choices you can make and the outcome will hinge on being the better long term planner and thinker.

Lets just say it differs from game to game and as a parent you should educate yourself on which of the games are the "mindless entertainment" (gears of war where you are stuck on linear path according to the story) and which games have some social aspect to them where you can design and be creative inside them. (sony's "mod nation racers" or "little big planet" for example)

Some might be a combination of BOTH. (for example Bangai-O Spirits on the nintendo DS has a really cool level editor that allows you to use all the in-game objects featured in the game and create your own levels and share these levels with others online - sadly I don't see many people using it and many sites with custom made levels anywhere :( I just wish more console games did this but it's obvious the game companies make money on providing extra content - AKA "DLC" for the xbox live crowd - so it might actually get in the way of them making profit.)

If you want your kids to be imaginative buy them a pc, and get them programs that can teach them management stuff (sim city) or at least allow them to make modifications to existing games and share these with others online (known as MODs - these are plug-ins to enhance existing games on the market to tailor the game to your own preferred experience - people who are good mod makers can become game designers and might even get work in the game industry if the skill they demonstrate is good enough).

Kids can still learn some of the skills they get from doing activities at school through videogemas. One exmaple I can think of is in the Role Playing Game genre. In RPG you must read a lot of text (at least in the games where there are no voice acting) and just like with comic books, this can encourage them to develop reading and comprehension skills. One thing I've noticed is that when you watch a youtube video which is just text, it forces your brain to pay attention to the words and their meanings of those words, vs a youtube video where the guy speaks to you with only his voice and you only hear him say stuff. The latter style of video doesn't grab your attention as much since you are just hearing sound and you tend not to pay as much attention to what he is saying vs those videos where they just have text descriptions. In RPGs kids who have trouble reading can get better if they play the game a lot and always have to read what the NPC (non-playable characters) are saying to them in order to progress. Since they are having fun playing the game, and constantly reading, they are killing two birds with one stone and you can't say the game is mindless or doesn't help them.

With toys the kids might not care about playing with other kids just like with computer games where there is only a single player mode for it. But look at a lot of games today where there is a co-op multiplayer mode in them (most nintendo games these days encourage this - one of the recent mario games allows you to play the game with another person together in co-op so you can teach your less-skilled buddy what to do) and how most consoles these days have online modes.

So it's not ALL bad and antisocial. Don't believe the media hype. They need to sell stories and scare parents in order to get your attention. They are in it to profit and sell papers too. So just keep this in mind. Yes it is true the most mindless stuff (call of duty, gears of war, halo, most fast-paced action games with repetitive choice in actions) is in the top ten in sales, and people recommend playing them because they are fun. But those other games (working your mind, or forcing you to use your imagination) are there if you look for them. Most of the kids of today just choose what's popular though. And parents of those kids are just happy that they can keep them busy so they don't have to watch over them. It's sad, but it's true when they say the videogame console is the new babysitting machine. :p

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Kids don't play all games though.

Just look for the ones that are not the ones that are mindless and have online co-op modes..

I can think of quick examples (ones that are popular):

Monster hunter. You can talk to people, type stuff out, and you can trade items to develop friendship with those who are active. More effort you put in: the better the rewards you'll get for the team. The better and more inteeligent the team work, the faster you can grind to gather more powerful weapon or armor. Available on nintendo wii. It also requires brains to defeat the monsters you hunt, because they all have very subtle differences in their pattern of attack. (real animals act in certain ways that go by a pattern too which they've learned from their environment and experiences) It has other aspects to it like fishing, trading, and even pet sim is chucked inside so that kids have to consider how they want to raise their own kid when they beceom a dad. heh (ok it's just so you won't die on the field too easily in single player mode without partners to play with, but you know what I mean :p)

World Of Warcraft. Grinding to high levels and calling on healer and buffers to keep you alive, while you concentrate on combat with a tough monster. Without the healers and buffers (and debuffers) you won't do nearly as well because games like these were designed so that you need to think about team play. (just like in sports like soccer or basketball where each position has certain roles and you specialise in something for the group to survive)

Halo 3. Contains a level making tool for online mode. If you got bored of the stuff that existed you can get off your fat butt and make stuff yourself and share this.

Far Cry 2. The map editing is even better than the one from halo 3.

Of course most kids (you know) don't play that way but parents shouldn't act like their kids or the kids they see are 99% of all kids in the world should they? Seriously guys back up your arguments with some examples like I do. Don't cherry pick your examples to suit your position. Actually look at both sides before judging.

The reason I defend the videogame hobby is that I play from experience. Not just read what the papers or mainstream media say, or what so-called "experts" (media hires them to say anything that can boost the view they have to suit the angle of the story which the writer wants to give - often these are crackpots with no hard evidence of what they are saying) want you to believe.

As open world RPG games gain in popularity (fallout, oblivion) I predict they will start to like the less scripted stuff in time and learn to customise the experiences to how they like. But in the past (when the japanese companies that imagine "RPG" to be more like "a graphic novel..in animated form" than a interactive experience) kids had LESS choice. All they had was stuff like Final Fantasy which is all about using pre-generated characters which take on the usual character archetypes we see in most movies and force you to "role-play" as them. lol If you didnt like the main character you couldn't make one that is closer to how you view a hero because all the CG animated movies they paid money to create all feature that character model and fit the story they made for that pre-generated character. (limited the kid's choice in how they want the character to look and behave)

BUT.....Things are changing all the time. Maybe one day those kids will grow up and start working in the game industry and start making games that are not the mindless "stuck on rails" experiences.

I'm just saying as a parent you have the choice, but if you put no effort into how you raise the kid don't blame the games. Just look for those games that fit your idea of good for kids. It's like when people say "movies are mindless pieces of entertainment and offer nothing of value" and then point to the transformers michael bay movie as their prime example to strengthen their arguments. lol Just because something is getting a lot of exposure doesn't mean it represents all examples out there. Look harder.

Do mindless actions movies represent all movies out there? No. But they are popular to kids. Doesn't mean we should only accept them as example to back up our position. Same with videogames. If little kids had only a PC and the parent encouraged them by buying only games that were good for developing their brain a bit, then you wouldn't see sales of all the mindless action titles dominate the charts. I think it's easy to attack those games because these are games that got the most media exposure due to the budget behind them which cost a lot of money. The more hype a movie/game gets usually its' because it uses the latest graphic technolgy and so that's why they push it onto us so hard. (avatar is movie-equivalent example - it had an average story and was not as interesting to me as district 9 in terms of originality. D9 was hatched after the failure to make the halo movies, and it turned out being a solid action thriller with a bit of politics inside it. But Avatar was hyped as the next big thing thanks to the 3d gimmick yet it didn't deliver a good story. )

The fact is if you don't educate yourself and buy the games that are out there which are not the million sellers but which do allow for you to use your imagination a little bit, you are part of the problem rather than being part of the solution. It doesn't have to be this way where only the dumb masses are catered to and the ones with brains are ignored. People just have to avoid the crap games so it won't send a message you want more of them. It's all about the money. Without the mases of people devoting so much of it to the onrail's experiences, the faster the giants will learn to put more interactive elements into the games so that you don't feel like you are just "being the person the makers of the game want you to be" and more like how you think a person should act in a given situation.

I could cherry pick my arguments too and say "all lego is about, is following instructions." And then only point to lego starwars toys. But I don't do that because it would be stupid. It doesn't represent all cases. It's the same with games. Generalising about it just encourages people to think no good example exists. I'm sure those who were old enough to remember "text based adventures" (where everything is just story and you had to read) would disagree with the view that games don't require skill or work a person's imaginations. They are good examples to counter the argument that games don't work a person's reading ability. But what I'm saying is that just because these games are not popular today, doesn't mean we can assume "all games are like that, so kids don't get anything from games".

The example I gave about RPGs is an example of what I mean: in the past kids only had linear RPG where you couldn't break from the original creator's vision of how that character would behave and act and you felt like you were herded from place to place like an on-rails theme park ride. Today we have games where your choices greatly affect how the NPC react to you and you can be the villain if you want or a good guy or a neutral or a combination of those. Things are changing.

Oh and I agree with the point that "just because a game has physics doesn't mean it teaches kids about physics", but there were actually games on pc that have stuff where you play around with the phyics to get to the solution to a problem on PC. I can't remember the game anymore but it was an example of having to use your brains to solve problems and makes the kids use their creativity to succeed. Videogames are an easy scapegoat because the mindless action games get the most exposure. In the same way that Avatar got so much hype just because it cost them a lot to make that compared to a movie like Distrct 9.(which the creators had to put effort into after the fact that they couldn't do the halo movie, unlike Avatar which many critics claim borrowed the story from other things)

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:rolleyes:

Bandai should read this thread.

Do you see, Bandai?? Your procrastination is forcing us to discuss World of Warcraft!! That's how bored we are! Get off your asses and finish off the line, already!!

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Sure,as a parent I have a choice but wow, halo, far cry, etc aren't good games for my 5 year old to play and for him to get the sort of world building, free form, social activity he can by playing at the park or with his friends through video games, he needs to fight through the software, deal with online predators, and just a general collection of aggressive idiots.

Can it be done? Sure, but it's not the natural mode of play for those video games. Even stuff like wow or fallout, you're not creating your own world, which is what my kid does every time he picks up his legos.

If you want to defend video games and tv as good replacements for old fashioned toys and playing. Go right on ahead. For some kids, I agree with you. But study after study and my own personal experience shows me that most kids will learn more, and get more out of a box of wood blocks than they will from an xbox,

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Since we are going off topic I'll leave this as my last post. I just feel like I have to come to the defense of the gaming hobby since it is always getting attacked from so many angles due to how much money it generates these days.

And it is true that some games are getting dumbed-down to appeal to more people and further increase profits, but it's not ALL bad. Just upgrade your search skills. :p

If you want to defend video games and tv as good replacements for old fashioned toys and playing. Go right on ahead. For some kids, I agree with you. But study after study and my own personal experience shows me that most kids will learn more, and get more out of a box of wood blocks than they will from an xbox,

And I'm saying it doesn't HAVE to be like that. It's just that it seems like the games that don't work your brain are the most popular these days.

Only recently did sony jump onto this idea that PC games have had for years. Mod Nation Racers is not a violent title, nor is Little Big Planet, nor is Bangai-o (ok it's cartoony "shooter" but suitable for kids still - it's no more violent than pacman or space invaders)

I bet your research didn't include any of these games. These have the construction editing abilities that allow you to generate your own maps. (for 3d games these ARE the worlds and people who make maps are "creators of levels". If your kid can make a map that looks like the set of a scifi epic, then the child is using his imagination)

I'm not convinced of "toys work imaginations more than computer games can"

I DO agree that computer games NOW are dumbed down. But if you had played games like Dues Ex where you can specialise in how you want to play the game by creating and developing the character's abilities a little bit at a time or had experimented with games like Armored Core (this is a pseudo realistic mech battle game where you build your robot using various parts to add to a core) you'd know there is potential to make gaming more a hobby that uses a person's imagination like lego if it WANTED TO.

But it's just today's generation I think. People prefer lying back and relaxing more than creating. It doesn't mean games can't have all the elements you mention that makes "toys more good for kids". It's just that people seem to buy the mindless stuff and it generates the profits.

Just like people go to see transformers at the movies because they like that mindless stuff. Doesn't mean all movies must be like this. Just that people paying money feeds it and that's why you as a parent are partially responsible since kids follow what their dad does. If their dad is playing halo, they will want to play it. If you buy your kid a PC and give them a Sim City (ok a kid version of something like this :p) type thing, maybe kids will start to "create" more. But I just think parents just buy the game system to keep them busy and happy. They don't think about the development of their brain. So when a mindless game which doesn't work their brain entertains their kid, all they care about is peace and quiet. haha

But it wasn't always like this: in the past computers were used as education for kids too. Games like "Brain Training" are not going to be represented by you in your research primarily because "CALL OF DUTY is what all the cool kids are playing online right now". You want to cherry-pick the examples that support your argument and ignore the good examples that support the other side of the argument to win a debate, instead of looking for the TRUTH. I'm just convinced the truth is somewhere in the middle and both sides of the debate have good points but are deliberately not looking at everything just so they can win an argument.

If kids were encouraged to only play the good examples, then the child could develop all the skills you mentioned. You just got to know where to find those, and most parents don't want to do that. It takes effort. This then leads to the perception that "games can't be good for you" since so much mindless stuff is on the store shelves, but it's not true. It's just harder to find the good stuff because of how commercialised everything has become because the industry is bigger than before. The shelves are flooded with mindless action titles with very linear progress throughout the game and little control over the story or character development, because to make a game a bit too brainy would scare off the masses and might mean less profit for the companies that already make lots of money doing what they do now. (ie gears of war, "run through a a premade sci fi world ripped straight from the Pitch Black movies, and shoot stuff until you reach the next scripted CG movie which tells you where you must go next and repeat this until the end")

Edited by 1/1 LowViz Lurker
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Okay well times change people, kids aren't into toys, it's all about the internet, kids mature faster than they used to, and for some reason Call of Duty rules the world. Moving on, I would really like to see the YF-21 at least get finished, I mean if they had to wrap up the line, I'd be okay with the 21 being the closer.

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:rolleyes:

Bandai should read this thread.

Do you see, Bandai?? Your procrastination is forcing us to discuss World of Warcraft!! That's how bored we are! Get off your asses and finish off the line, already!!

LOL!! :lol: :lol:

I think opposite. If Bandai sees this thread now, they will kill the line immediately. :o

So please, people.. focus on the topic title. :(

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lol Bandai has games based on their model and the gundam shows.

I have to balance my money between buying macross, with saving for the next gundam dynasty warriors that is coming out. :D

Tomino said that games are bad for you and the environment.

http://www.smashboards.com/news/blogs/88827/2314/tomino-thinks-video-gamesare-evil

"I think that video games are evil," says Tomino. "[Gaming] is not a type of activity that provides any support to our daily lives, and all these consoles are just consuming electricity! Let's say we have about three billion people on this planet wasting their time, bringing no productivity at all. Add 10 billion more people, and what would happen to our planet? Video games are assisting the death of our planet!"

This is particularly ironic, as his signature Gundam franchise and its many spinoffs are widely featured in games on all platforms, and have been since the series' popularity exploded in the 1980s.

I feel like I am creating more evil when I purchase gundam videogames. The creator wants to kill his creation. It is like that scientist in godzilla who was angry that he had just created the oxygen destroyer and now regrets that he created it and how it would be used for evil. (even though godzilla had just wiped out a whole city)

Ok Everyone save society don't buy gundam videogames from now on! :p

We should all be like basara in macross 7 and protect the space whales instead of fantasising about saving the world by nuking countries and beam-sabering robots to death.

Er what was that topic about again?

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I have a feeling even if Bandai continues the line we won't see any non-hero valks.

/attempts to rerail thread

Your attempts are appreciated very much.

Sadly, I kind of agree. Which makes me sad since I'd really like a VF-11B/C (although maybe Isamu makes the B count?) or a generic VF-1A in this line. Still, if that means we got a Hi Metal VF-25 and YF-19/21 I'd still be pretty happy with it.

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I think it would have made a lot of sense to make a Hi-Metal VF-25 during the second movie. The DX and VF100 are now old.

Or at least that Robot Spirit VF-25S Armored.

It didn't happen, and I doubt how many years it would take, or ever.

From time to time I dream about Yamato issuing the VF-25 series.

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VF-25 should have been thought about while they were making the vb-6.

-it's the "star mecha" of the newest macross series.

-vf-1 is done to death. They shouldn't saturate the market.

-the cheaper price of smaller toys means they can appeal to non-serious macross fans and serious fans. (even if it is expensive for a small toy, generally people like the idea of playing around with hand-sized versions. The big sizes are for people who want detail. The small ones are perfect for for displays involving a group and for those with limited budget and space to display stuff. Revoltech battlpods are one example. I'm sure many would bring these to work and put them on the desk just because they are small and stress-free to handle.)

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VF-25 should have been thought about while they were making the vb-6.

-it's the "star mecha" of the newest macross series.

-vf-1 is done to death. They shouldn't saturate the market.

-the cheaper price of smaller toys means they can appeal to non-serious macross fans and serious fans. (even if it is expensive for a small toy, generally people like the idea of playing around with hand-sized versions. The big sizes are for people who want detail. The small ones are perfect for for displays involving a group and for those with limited budget and space to display stuff. Revoltech battlpods are one example. I'm sure many would bring these to work and put them on the desk just because they are small and stress-free to handle.)

I remember a few months back we started a new thread discussing the idea of a hi-metal VF-25 and if it would sell, the response was overwhelmingly positive. Like I said I'd be okay with the YF-21 being the last release in this line, do I want it to be the last release? Hell no, I love this line to death, and I would kill to see releases that haven't been done in any other line, VF-4, VF-17, I'd also like to see Bandai pick up on their old 1/100 part swap VF-0 that was planned and recreate it in the hi-metal line.

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I too hope this line continues but I've noticed that Bandai often never finishes their toy lines. The way Bandai picks their releases just seems random and doesn't always coincide with an animated release which I think hurts their lines.

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