Jump to content

YF-19 leg cracking


Lolicon

Recommended Posts

Man, as much as I love the YF-19, it's just been one disappointment after another. First the crooked gunpod, then the landing gear that don't come down all the way, then the exploding arms, and now I've just noticed a big crack that's appeared on the back of my YF-19's right leg. Has this happened to anyone else?

I'd like to note that I don't transform my valkyries that often, nor am I particularly rough with them. My YF-19 has been transformed maybe five times in the five years since I bought it. This is just disappointing.

post-5703-0-78677900-1324784862_thumb.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

this is not because of the choice of material(ie: metal)..but because the platic is not high in quality..

although yamato is good at their parts count and detail, their qc is just horrible...

It was poor back when they where making stuff out of a low rent factory that used sub-spec materials. Now that they've upgraded to a better manufacturer things are significantly better.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, portions of the YF-19 were made in plastic that was really similar to the explodium used in the VF-0s. It cracks, stresses, and disintegrates if you breath sideways. The YF-19 just isn't in as much stress as the VF-0 was, so it didn't happen as fast... for the most part anyway. I do recall people reporting that random bits of the plane would just crack.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd like to note that I don't transform my valkyries that often, nor am I particularly rough with them. My YF-19 has been transformed maybe five times in the five years since I bought it.

I've mentioned this before, but because of the tensions and tolerances involved, these kinds of toys with lots of moving parts have to be played with and moved around every so often. That thing came out in 2006, it's almost 6 years old. To have transformed it 5 times only in that time is probably what made it brittle. Think of it like regular exercise. If you sit on the couch every waking hour you can't expect to run a marathon and not collapse.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've mentioned this before, but because of the tensions and tolerances involved, these kinds of toys with lots of moving parts have to be played with and moved around every so often. That thing came out in 2006, it's almost 6 years old. To have transformed it 5 times only in that time is probably what made it brittle. Think of it like regular exercise. If you sit on the couch every waking hour you can't expect to run a marathon and not collapse.

Trying to shift blame away from Yamato for choosing crappy materials and blaming the user for not playing with it enough because plastic "atrophies" from disuse like human muscle is pretty goddamn retarded.

This thing came out in December 2006, so it's exactly 5 years old, not "almost 6 years" old. And I've had my 1/48s even longer, they're handled about as frequently, and they haven't had the slew of problems that the YF-19 has had.

I guess from your point of view, all those people whose VF-25s became floppy messes and cracked from sitting on the shelf are to blame too, because they should've played with their valkyries more. It's definitely not Bandai's fault for bad engineering and materials.

Hey, my Takatoku SDF-1 toy is over a quarter of a century old, and it also gets transformed about once a year, with no signs of cracking anywhere. It must secretly be hitting the gym when I'm not home. :p

Edited by Lolicon
Link to comment
Share on other sites

yeah, there was a definite decline in quality from the 1/48 vf-1 to the vf-0, konig and yf-19. The yf-19 had problems with the plastic cracking from over tightened screws when it first came out. It's not surprising that other stress points would suffer as time goes on.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Trying to shift blame away from Yamato for choosing crappy materials and blaming the user for not playing with it enough because plastic "atrophies" from disuse like human muscle is pretty goddamn retarded.

This thing came out in December 2006, so it's exactly 5 years old, not "almost 6 years" old. And I've had my 1/48s even longer, they're handled about as frequently, and they haven't had the slew of problems that the YF-19 has had.

I guess from your point of view, all those people whose VF-25s became floppy messes and cracked from sitting on the shelf are to blame too, because they should've played with their valkyries more. It's definitely not Bandai's fault for bad engineering and materials.

Hey, my Takatoku SDF-1 toy is over a quarter of a century old, and it also gets transformed about once a year, with no signs of cracking anywhere. It must secretly be hitting the gym when I'm not home. :p

I guess I'm "pretty goddamn retarded", then! Merry Christmas!

I do think that Yamato chose crappy materials to begin with: people broke YF-19 arms and VF-0 shoulders because of this. But I think leaving it alone does not help at all, either. I would say it is a combination of the two.

When did the Protogarland come out? I bought that either last year or at the start of this year. Anyway, so many things just crumbled right out of the box -- and this was supposed to be the most robust one. I have a Factory Color Garland that has no problems whatsoever, but the Proto just fell apart. Also the PVC Shogo rider's head just came clean off. I attributed all of that to sitting in the box for years as much as poor materials; it wasn't used, it was "new". Sometimes MISB is not the best measure of quality when talking about toys from a certain period.

As for the Takatoku's, yeah, I guess SDF-1s in general are good and free from these pitfalls. But compare it to some of their Orguss M-Lovers, for example. Good luck finding one that isn't broken these days. If you do, don't be the first to touch it in a decade, it will crumble.

And Bandai's VF-25s are nothing but wretched piles of putrid garbage so that's a whole other thing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hm... Does anyone know if these problems were delt with or at least managed with the newer reissues of the 19? For one, I do know that the gunpod and landing gear issue was settled after the first few waves.

The Gunpod and landing gear stuff was settled after the second production run, way back in the day. There have been so many reissues of the 1/60 YF-19 that I honestly lost track.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

i dunno... perhaps this is simply a case of luck or something... perhaps it's all due to production batches.

perhaps there was even some dimwit in the final assembly line that was putting some of these key stress regions together wrong,

and weakening their already flawed materials in the process.

my -19 was just recently picked up off a fellow MWer, and he says he transformed it around ten times at most

since getting it new back sometime close to the initial release date.

it has a smaller version of the same crack that the OP's copy has.

the gunpod was crooked, and the original owner had corrected it at some time in his ownership,

so my sample is definitely from an early production run.

i have almost completely dismantled this thing, using my electrician's tape technique

to tighten up all joints in the process, and i theorize that it now must be as tight as the DN/BOP releases,

if not tighter yet.

all that said, i believe i must have transformed it perhaps 40+ times so far

in my two/three months of ownership now,

and i can proclaim with confidence that it has held up so far absolutely beautifully,

better than i ever hoped it would...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's just what you get when you use subpar plastic, parts will dry out and the tension from being assembled will cause cracks. The theory of playing with your toys to keep this from happening is somewhat correct, it will keep parts from shrinking and staying "static" in a certain position (like keeping a certain toy in a single mode or pose for awhile and the first time you change it a arm or leg snaps off) but it also causes wear and at the end of a day parts that are made from low quality plastic or are overstressed from either too much weight or aren't strong enough will break down no matter what you do.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...