Bandai 1/72 fully transform able VF-1 plastic kit for Macross 30th Ann

[Duymon]

I would say this build is sorta fun until the legs. OMFG THE LEGS.

[mechaninac]

... it's offensive to have to buy a "beta" kit until Bandai decides to release a better version and buy it again...

I mostly agree with your stance that Bandai half-assed this thing from the very start where most of their engineering and aesthetic design choices are concerned, leg Fighter/GERWALK-to-Battroid transition mechanism notwithstanding, but I don't get this statement at all. Where is it written that you HAVE to buy this "beta" kit? As the consumer, you make the decision if their product is worth your money.

To me, this 1/72 VF-1 model by Bandai is not worth half what they're asking for it; in the past I was willing to dip my toe at 40%+ off MSRP, but after all the reviews and seeing all the pictures I think I won't bite until I see it at better than 60% discount.

[Shaorin]

oh hell, i finally just pitched mine straight into the trash. i paid $60shipped from HLJ for a very pretty, very expensive model box.

i gave the model the best skills i know. i even fully dismantled then re-assembled the whole works, gluing assemblies all the way through this time.

you know what? the thing was STILL a floppy mess, and the backpack hinge up and broke on me, to add tasteful insult.

HONESTLY, BANDAI; what good do all those metal pins do when the model's still full of absurdly loose and fragile vital jointwork?!?!

Edited July 14, 2013 by Shaorin

[Hikaru1234567890]

oh hell, i finally just pitched mine straight into the trash. i paid $60shipped from HLJ for a very pretty, very expensive model box.

i gave the model the best skills i know. i even fully dismantled then re-assembled the whole works, gluing assemblies all the way through this time.

you know what? the thing was STILL a floppy mess, and the backpack hinge up and broke on me, to add tasteful insult.

HONESTLY, BANDAI; what good do all those metal pins do when the model's still full of absurdly loose and fragile vital jointwork?!?!

I might just keep mine in the box or maybe sell it to Hastings, or eBay, or give it to a friend of mine.

[Shaorin]

Hastings?!?

[Loop]

In my post on the last page I also forgot to mention that I also dislike how the Super Parts splay outward when attached to the fighter.

It's funny I am mostly a toy guy, but I do like a lot of the gunpla kits out there. My wife has all of the 1/72 VF-25 kits and I thought the results of the one she built up were far better than the examples I have seen on this VF-1 kit. It seems it would be easier to make a proper VF-1 kit than the Bandai effort. I was so excited about this announcement, that I told my wife she should try one out, but when the pics started coming out I told her to hold off. I am so glad I did as we avoided all the disappointment.

[Shaorin]

a Plastic Model-building Wife?!? WOW!!!!

Edited July 14, 2013 by Shaorin

[Duymon]

I have Built 8 VF-25's. I have 5 more in my closet and I just got a second YF-25 (for only 1900 yen from surugaya lol).

The VF-25 Kit is way better than this kit, no joke.

I HATE THIS THING.

The way the legs attach is awful and is not going to last more than a few transformations.

The whole leg attaches to this one tiny T-shaped piece of plastic.

I don't even understand WHY it's a plastic to plastic connection considering you PUT this separate piece on

Anywho, that Panel that holds the leg is held on to the body by this TINY plastic peg

These "secure connections" give you, at best, this.....

Here's where it gets funnier. IN the age of freaking CAD-designed models, Bandai's Lock point for the back of the leg is a full 2 millimeters to the INSIDE! This is what is causing all the inward angled legs on everyone's fighter modes.

This is how it's supposed to look

Unfortunately, now I have to somehow make a new lock point onto freaking piece of plastic that is only 1 millimeter thick. That gives us no space for magnets or just about anything else to correct this issue, meaning if you want a correct, flush look on the back legs by removing the incorrectly placed tab you are gonna have Imai-style leg lock on the back (ie, NO FREAKING LOCK)

OH wait, I also forgot, the backpack is not locked into place at all on fighter mode. It's TOynami 1/100 Floppy baby!!

[Shaorin]

so, in sum, i've personally theorized this model to be the ultimate product of least one of two possible thought processes;

1. BANDAI's very expensive (for them) thumbing of their collective GUNDAM-addled nose at both YAMATO/ARCADIA and stalwart MACROSS fans in general,

2. a product designed by clueless committee, so flawed that they themselves could clearly see it, but brass decided to kick it on out the door anyhow,

as they'd at least break even on sales to the gullible/naive/devoted/desperate out there the world over...

Edited July 14, 2013 by Shaorin

[Chronocidal]

Here's where it gets funnier. IN the age of freaking CAD-designed models, Bandai's Lock point for the back of the leg is a full 2 millimeters to the INSIDE! This is what is causing all the inward angled legs on everyone's fighter modes.

Unfortunately, now I have to somehow make a new lock point onto freaking piece of plastic that is only 1 millimeter thick. That gives us no space for magnets or just about anything else to correct this issue, meaning if you want a correct, flush look on the back legs by removing the incorrectly placed tab you are gonna have Imai-style leg lock on the back (ie, NO FREAKING LOCK)

OH wait, I also forgot, the backpack is not locked into place at all on fighter mode. It's TOynami 1/100 Floppy baby!!

Yep. Sorry, Bandai, there's no excuse for that kind of thing. Ten minutes of actually testing and thinking about how those things would have an effect on the final product should have told them it was a stupid idea. The complete lack of any kind of locking mechanism, and the tabs being in the wrong place is just unbelievable.

Next time, they should come out of their cave and actually do some research on how many ways the problems they failed to address have been solved by other companies (or, in this case, even other departments from the same company) for the past decade.

The hip mechanism and waist joints would have been great ideas if they were used on something that didn't have so many other problems that everyone else already solved.

[Duymon]

My Poor floppy Battroid

[Loop]

Now if you could just have the crotch do that, you would have a nice crotch thrusting valk.

Hey Duymon, does Surugaya ship direct to the US without a proxy or using Raku?

[Duymon]

Now if you could just have the crotch do that, you would have a nice crotch thrusting valk.

Hey Duymon, does Surugaya ship direct to the US without a proxy or using Raku?

Not as far as I know I always used Rakuten to buy from them and have had no problems up to this point using their Tenso Service, which is cheaper than most proxies.

Edited July 14, 2013 by Duymon

[Loop]

Not as far as I know I always used Rakuten to buy from them and have had no problems up to this point using their Tenso Service, which is cheaper than most proxies.

Thanks for the reply! Yeah I suspected that was the case, but if I can go direct that's even better. I have a friend in Japan I send stuff to that is a real slacker sometimes and I want things fast sometimes, but you know how that goes.

[Kyp Durron]

Yep, already came to the conclusion that I would have to remove the tabs to have the legs sitting flush like they should, but then you'll see that the bottom leg stablizer fins will no longer be at the right outward angle. They litterally designed it to have the legs canted like that, I think that was to minimize the gap between the legs and the backpack. Which is still retarded, they only needed to make the backpack wider and they would'nt have had that issue in the first place.



-Kyp

[Frogze]

New more pics, from the looks of it Bandai must hurry and produce the DX version.

WOW, do I see a rainbow canopy in these pics?! Is it the basic look of the clear canopy or is it an effect added as for Yamato's first v2 releases? I'd love to get a tip on how to do this in order to restore the rainbow effect on my VF-1A Hikaru.

Btw thanks to all of you guys who took the time to build this and share your experience building and posing the kit.

It's kind of ironic that Bandai's model team was so willing to share infos about the early stages of this kit on a regular basis, there was at least 4 posts on this on Cybergundam with various corrections if I remember correctly, even showing that they had enlisted SK as a consulting design director. The final product however felt awkward from the first pictures although I was still hopeful at the time, knowing how pictures of the prototypes can make it look bad.

I'll wait for an eventual DX, hopefully the guys who did this won't be involved.

[Shaorin]

WOW, do I see a rainbow canopy in these pics?! Is it the basic look of the clear canopy or is it an effect added as for Yamato's first v2 releases? I'd love to get a tip on how to do this in order to restore the rainbow effect on my VF-1A Hikaru.

sorry, plain-jane transparent parts with this kit...

Edited July 14, 2013 by Shaorin

[Frogze]

Thanks Shaorin. Well that's good news then, the modeler must have done the effect himself using whatever magic potion. I've been looking for tips on various modeling forums to do this but never found a clue, this build is the first time I see it done by a modeler... unless it's just a trick of the light. Could it be residual soap from the first step when you're supposed to wash the parts by letting them rest in a bowl of water?

[Skypoet]

I have Built 8 VF-25's. I have 5 more in my closet and I just got a second YF-25 (for only 1900 yen from surugaya lol).

The VF-25 Kit is way better than this kit, no joke.

I HATE THIS THING.

The way the legs attach is awful and is not going to last more than a few transformations.

The whole leg attaches to this one tiny T-shaped piece of plastic.

WP_001177.jpg

I don't even understand WHY it's a plastic to plastic connection considering you PUT this separate piece on

Anywho, that Panel that holds the leg is held on to the body by this TINY plastic peg

WP_001180.jpg

These "secure connections" give you, at best, this.....

WP_001187.jpg

Here's where it gets funnier. IN the age of freaking CAD-designed models, Bandai's Lock point for the back of the leg is a full 2 millimeters to the INSIDE! This is what is causing all the inward angled legs on everyone's fighter modes.

This is how it's supposed to look

WP_001184.jpg

Unfortunately, now I have to somehow make a new lock point onto freaking piece of plastic that is only 1 millimeter thick. That gives us no space for magnets or just about anything else to correct this issue, meaning if you want a correct, flush look on the back legs by removing the incorrectly placed tab you are gonna have Imai-style leg lock on the back (ie, NO FREAKING LOCK)

1332814788254.jpg

OH wait, I also forgot, the backpack is not locked into place at all on fighter mode. It's TOynami 1/100 Floppy baby!!

WP_001190.jpg

Solution: dremel + CA + magnets

My Poor floppy Battroid

Disco dance! Yeah :-D !!!

[Chronocidal]

Solution: dremel + CA + magnets

Dremel what exactly? The plastic is only 1 mm thick there. The VF-1 really is a very tiny aircraft.

[Hikuro]

when finished and photographed like that, the model looks a solid WINNER without doubt.

it isn't until one gets hands-on experience with an example that the reality truly comes slamming down...

Those photos really make me feel like I just didn't do my build correctly or I'm just not understanding something.

The nose cone panel wont lock when I put the legs in, the panels that need to keep the front and back halves of the Torso just fit into place but don't lock or stay there they kind of just dangle.

The locking panels on the back of the legs are a joke and useless. Why they decided to do that just didn't make sense, I'm sure those legs can stay straight and locked if they could be pegged either into the booster pack or into the forearms.

I really think, the only good thing I like about the model, is the cockpit and the amount of detail the model has overall. It's fairly good. But that just isn't enough to keep me interested.

so for now, this thing is sitting back in it's box.

[Hikaru1234567890]

Hastings?!?

Yeah I have a local Hastings and I might sell it to them.

[Horatio Positronic]

Got mine all stickered and was finally ready to transform it into Battroid.

Looks pretty good, I think the battroid porportions are... why the heck does the door holding the legs on keep opening on its own?! Gah. It's pointless to put your robot in a cool standing pose when ts legs keep falling off.

Now I'm building the strike parts and wondering why the accessory released along with the Hikaru kit is strike-only when you have the option to use the VF-1A livery and head. Come to think of it, why is the super-only kit being released with Roy's VF-1S? Roy only flew with Strike parts I think.

[Shaorin]

Yeah I have a local Hastings and I might sell it to them.

i used to myself, they folded like three-odd years back. they'd buy it from you? or you're being facetious?

[Hikuro]

Looks pretty good, I think the battroid porportions are... why the heck does the door holding the legs on keep opening on its own?! Gah. It's pointless to put your robot in a cool standing pose when ts legs keep falling off.

Pretty much the problem i got too.

[Chronocidal]

Now I'm building the strike parts and wondering why the accessory released along with the Hikaru kit is strike-only when you have the option to use the VF-1A livery and head. Come to think of it, why is the super-only kit being released with Roy's VF-1S? Roy only flew with Strike parts I think.

I don't think Bandai knows what the word "optional" means. But the Roy one is because it's actually Hikaru's valk again, just the TV version.

Save the strike cannon and you can switch it out later, but yeah, that's just stupid.

Edited July 15, 2013 by Chronocidal

[Jefuemon]

My friend is gonna be in Harujuku the next few days. Anyone know where he can get these for a decent price?

What's the normal price for these?

Any hobby shop, or probably the toy section of the big box electronics stores (Bic Camera, Yamada Denki, Yodabashi Camera). You'll probably find them there at a shade under MSRP.

Or, Mandarake might be getting some stock in now. They would probably have the cheapest price, if they've got any yet.

[Hikaru1234567890]

i used to myself, they folded like three-odd years back. they'd buy it from you? or you're being facetious?

One of my good friends work there so his boss lets him buy stuff off of me.

[vtx]

damn i just bought one of this from HLJ...after reading all the comments...im regretting

[Shaorin]

say, anyone here have one of the sticker sheets from this kit that they haven't, nor plan on using?

i could use one, as many of them (UN SPACY labels, RESCUE insignia, etc,) are actually just about perfect for the 1/100(ish) BANDAI HI-METAL VF-1...

Edited July 15, 2013 by Shaorin

[valhary]

like I said before I have hope this serve like test to a future toy sufficient to recall that originally DX macross frontier were awful and the renewal version was based on the model kits

[Duymon]

like I said before I have hope this serve like test to a future toy sufficient to recall that originally DX macross frontier were awful and the renewal version was based on the model kits

Oh god no. Bandai would best use the VF Hi-metals as a base for a DX not these atrocities.

[GMK]

Bandai n00b here: what does DX mean?

[Shaorin]

DX = DELUXE

(common sub-descriptor for premium Japanese toy lines, especially in the "golden age" of the 70's/80's. BANDAI was hardly the only company to use the tag-line, BTW...)

Edited July 15, 2013 by Shaorin

[Frogze]

It stands for DeluXe I believe and it designates a highend Bandai toyline