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Bandai DX Chogokin YF-29 Durandal Valkyrie


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My YF-29's arm is loose out of the box. So is the crotch. Sometimes it collapses under its own weight. Heard that it's not a common case, but we have a case here at least.

Only transformed it once to Battroid and stay that way thereafter.

P.S. A thought: Yamato staff may have broken samples, and I wonder if Bandai staff (for the DX line) touched any.

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Thanks TwoDucks. Is it possible to tighten up the screws again or are the ball joints becoming hopeless now?

The trick still works but I won’t be able to do it again. I have the screws as tight as I can get them with a screwdriver. I think that if this happens again, I'm going to have to use nail polish or other more elaborate fixes.

My 27 has perfect legs after all this time, just a very loose left arm.

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Can the legs be removed by undoing the screws? I'm out of town so I can't look at mine right now. Do you think you can expose the ball and then use Saran wrap or a piece of clear tape to fix the joint without doing anything permanent?

Edited by jenius
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Just checked mine. It's been in Battroid mode for weeks, and the left hip joint is loose again after having tightened the screws on the hip assembly earlier. It's only been transformed three times, with minimal posing between modes. Alas, it'll go back to fighter mode and stay that way for the foreseeable future. I was going to buy the rest of the squadron if they ever come out, but I've already been disappointed once by buying the earlier versions.

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Can the legs be removed by undoing the screws? I'm out of town so I can't look at mine right now. Do you think you can expose the ball and then use Saran wrap or a piece of clear tape to fix the joint without doing anything permanent?

Yes, you can easily remove them from the hips to expose the balljoint. It’s half metal with the tip being plastic. Same thing, I think, with the two pieces that clasp into the balljoint: metal but with plastic parts. See the pics (sorry, don’t have the good camera right now, but you can see the grey parts that I think are plastic).

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Used clear tape but nothing special. Tried with packing tape and finally got stiff joints… but they sloooooowly fall victim to gravity. Not loose but I can’t have the legs hold 90 degrees for long.

Going to let it rest with the legs wide open to see what happens.

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I think you guys should re-review the toys after about 4 months when you do the initial reviews.

That way you can guage durability of a toy better from a bit of use.

Have the update in the review at the top. So people can see what new problem arises after a certain time.

Than maybe a few pictures of things like cracks, floppy limbs syndrome (use a youtube video to demonstrate that) or stuff like paint chipping after a few transformations. (have counter that tells us how many time you transformed it) as features in the update.

These are all ways you can better your reviews for people who think the price is really high and still nervous and waiting and too chicken to commit.

Make this a standard for all reviews from now on so that anyone who is scared (no replacement parts for overseas buyers) can get an overall picture of durability in the long term. A toy might be durable when you first get it but maybe the thing explodes like a ticking tomebomb or something like that like the infamous balljointed toynami stands for their VF-1 PT 1/100 figures. hehe

Edited by 1/1 LowViz Lurker
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While those are good ideas they only really work if the one toy I own happens to manifest the flaws that others are complaining about. Since I handle my toys infrequently and usually keep them in fighter mode I see a lot fewer problems than other people do. As such, I rely on word of mouth through sites like this one to give me the information so I can add a sentence or two on my website. I can't really add pictures or a Youtube video since its someone else's toy that has the problem.

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Thanks TwoDucks. Is it possible to tighten up the screws again or are the ball joints becoming hopeless now?

Don't have this toy, don't mean to insult anyone either, but have you tried the old clear nail polish trick to add friction to the ball joints? In MOST (not all) ball joints you can use clear nail polish or super glue (if you're brave) to tighten those joints.

I have even seen this trick work on "stripped" plastic parts.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Not sure why Bandai doesn't do another batch if demand is high enough that people will pay that much for one.

Bandai would release another batch if demand is strong enough. So try emailing sellers (HLJ, Amiami, Anime Export, HK Collectibles etc) and ask if they are expecting more. That way Bandai's reps are more likely to be informed of demand.

It also takes a while to purchase materials, book a factory and train workers to mass produce high-grade toys. It looks like Bandai are currently focusing on the new batches of VF-25s.

The YF-29 is rather badly flawed tho. They may not want to revisit it.

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Bandai would release another batch if demand is strong enough. So try emailing sellers (HLJ, Amiami, Anime Export, HK Collectibles etc) and ask if they are expecting more. That way Bandai's reps are more likely to be informed of demand.

It also takes a while to purchase materials, book a factory and train workers to mass produce high-grade toys. It looks like Bandai are currently focusing on the new batches of VF-25s.

The YF-29 is rather badly flawed tho. They may not want to revisit it.

How is the YF-29 badly flawed? I'm not aware of any issues other than the joint looseness and poor paint adhesion that plagues all of Bandai's DX valkyrie releases. I suppose one other issue I have on mine is that the pink area on one of the wing mounted engines is only half painted, but that's mainly a cosmetic detail as well.

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How is the YF-29 badly flawed? I'm not aware of any issues other than the joint looseness and poor paint adhesion that plagues all of Bandai's DX valkyrie releases. I suppose one other issue I have on mine is that the pink area on one of the wing mounted engines is only half painted, but that's mainly a cosmetic detail as well.

I was implying the loose shoulders and hips. I have only have a few DX toys (VF-25S v1, Macross Quarter, VB-6 Konig Monster), but they are all still fine. Well, at least as fine as they started out... ;)

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I was implying the loose shoulders and hips. I have only have a few DX toys (VF-25S v1, Macross Quarter, VB-6 Konig Monster), but they are all still fine. Well, at least as fine as they started out... ;)

The Quarter and Monster are mostly fine because they use a lot of ratcheted joints and lack any ball joints (other than the head and hands on the Quarter). The ball joints on the DX valkyries however have loosened up for a lot of people, myself included. I'm willing to bet money that the same joints will get floppy on the upcoming renewal releases of the VF-25 as well.

Thanks for the info. That's too bad, I would love to put a bunch of no step stickers etc on the upcoming VF-25 v2s

The upside is they tampo print most of the markings visible on the cg models in the animation which themselves don't seem to have any "no step" markings aside from the VF-171's.

Edited by MacrossJunkie
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How is the YF-29 badly flawed? I'm not aware of any issues other than the joint looseness and poor paint adhesion that plagues all of Bandai's DX valkyrie releases. I suppose one other issue I have on mine is that the pink area on one of the wing mounted engines is only half painted, but that's mainly a cosmetic detail as well.

As well as the rapidly loosening shoulders and hip joints, I also consider the design of the shoulder armour attachment to be seriously flawed. The damn shoulder armour pops of at the slightest touch and I find that transforming the toy, especially to and from fighter mode is an exercise in frustration beacuse of this.

I've already had one incident where I seriously lost my patience with the toy after the shoulder armour popped off for the twentieth time during transformation and ended up throwing both shoulder armours at the wall as hard as I could. One of them came apart at the seam line. Luckily I could glue it back together.

When a toy is this frustrating, it ceases to be fun. It was lucky it was only the shoulder armours I threw. I nearly ended up throwing the whole toy at the wall in anger. I'm very experienced with VF toys and usually extremely calm and patient, but the YF-29 and Bandai 1/60 v.1 Armoured VF-25S Ozma have tested my patience like no other toys ever have.

Basically, out of the two VF toys purchased recently (VF-19Kai & YF-29), the YF-29 has become a 'don't touch' shelf warmer, where as the VF-19Kai still gets handled and transformed all the time.

Graham

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Sorry to hear, uh, read that. It's somewhat confusing me as to why this still goes for a big price when the quality of the joints are that lousy.

coz it's the only YF-29 transforming toy that's available atm. i'm sure there are a lot of people willing to overlook certain flaws just to have at least one of every kind of VF that's available in toy form (1/60 in particular)... sad but true. :rolleyes:

the DVD/Bluray release of the 2nd MacF Movie is drawing near... re-issue of this might be possible... :unsure:

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Also because a lot of people aren't having joint problems. I only had a shoulder armor pop off once and didn't feel frustrated. The yf29 is in demand because lots of people love it... Most people don't know much about it so it's not like it's in demand because it's so iconic.

edit: in traffic I remembered a couple more times the shoulder popped off. There's one really tough point for me getting back to fighter mode.

Edited by jenius
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I've never had a toy make me so angry before as the YF-29, that it made me want to throw it full force against the wall and then stomp up and down on it.

Graham

I felt that way with the full armor 25S. That blasted thing was such a huge pain in the ass when trying to transform it with the armor on. It was less frustrating to just take it all off and put it back on again after transforming it.

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I've never had a toy make me so angry before as the YF-29, that it made me want to throw it full force against the wall and then stomp up and down on it.

Graham

Same sentiments here. I think I'll just enjoy it in fighter and gerwalk mode from now on. I'm still working up the courage to transform it back into fighter mode :wacko:

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