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Bandai VF-19 Advance....!!!


Scream Man

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Maybe not the molds themselves (except for some internal parts possibly), but the proportions of the design definitely carried over, and it's partly why the knees on the YF are so gappy.

I'm guessing they didn't want to rework the positioning or proportions of the legs from what worked on the VF-19, and it just didn't work well with the different shape of the YF, giving us the knee design we wound up with.

Edited by Chronocidal
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The Yamato GnuDou sounds up your alley.

Oh, I'd forgotten about that, despite owning two of them. (No FAST packs, though, sadly.) Yes, something like that scaled up and perhaps with slightly better articulation I'd gladly pay a pretty penny for. Otherwise, I'd love to see Kawamori revisit the 19 the same way he revisited the VF-1 in the VF-25.

Great review. I've recently started watching your reviews on Youtube, surprise surprsie to see you frequenting this forum. Keep up the work. :)

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Another option is to wait and hope Bandai makes the yf19, they might include wing weapons and maybe they'll listen to the feedback and change the leg fast packs to tab in. If you're quick you might also save a bundle getting in on a pre-order.

Eh? Bandai making a YF-19???

I also prefer the Arcadia YF-19 because it fits in better with my Yamato collection. I think the bottom line is these 2 valks are great toys. It really boils down to personal preference.

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Arcadia YF-19 doesn't reuse any of the VF-19 molds. Don't know why people keep repeating that these two different variants share the exact same molds.

In any case, why does this need to be a zero sum game?

It is not that Arcadias YF-19 reuses the VF-19 molds but that it has the same transformation scheme, the same part albeit in a different shape and I think one of the problems with the Arcadia YF-19 is that the designer couldn't free himself from the design of the VF-19 which leads to many of its problems. The hallow thighs, the same faulty design in the ankle joint and the gap in the chest are all traits that continued from the Yamato VF-19 design and hinder my enjoyment of the toy. With the feedback Yamato got from the VF-19 these problems shouldn't be present in the toy.

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Honestly, there are fewer mechanical issues with the Bandai (complex transformation notwithstanding) than exist with the arcadia. I'm not saying the arcadia is bad, I still want one. It's just that it's fit and finish is sub par. You're paying BMW money for a Triumph, is basically what it amounts to.

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Honestly, there are fewer mechanical issues with the Bandai (complex transformation notwithstanding) than exist with the arcadia. I'm not saying the arcadia is bad, I still want one. It's just that it's fit and finish is sub par. You're paying BMW money for a Triumph, is basically what it amounts to.

To add to that, it's incredibly frustrating because the quality of the Arcadia toy "feels" absolutely top notch. It's not that things are too loose because of mild imperfections in the mold or something. Everything is perfectly crisp, the lines are sharp, but it's as if several parts were made a micron too big or small. My canards fell out constantly. The intake covers fell out constantly. The top of the head fell off constantly. The back of the gun would slide off if I grabbed it by the gun in fighter mode. That's all without mentioning the ankles and the wings which again, SEEM like they should be good designs but somehow just come out as floppy. I really feel like, if Arcadia could do a second release of this toy and just make tiny changes in a few places, it could be excellent but I think Bandai has intentionally moved themselves to a position to prevent that from happening.

Edited by jenius
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I wonder how much of that is due to manufacturing tolerances at the plant?

Considering that the Arcadia YF-19 has a lot of common parts with the Yamato VF-19 line, that just doesn't fit the case, given how reproduceable computer assisted machining is, no I think it's more likely that the tolerances were engineered in. If it were a tolerance issue, you'd have a lot more variation some stiffer and some looser, Yamato/Arcadia Y/VF-19 joints are consistently loose, the joints on my 19F are a bit tighter than most people's which makes me think my example is slightly tighter tolerance, or that I haven't played with mine nearly as much as others.

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Received my VF-19 Advance today. Boy is it gorgeous. The review posted above is phenomenal! I too observed some of the sticking points of it, but regardless it is still a marvelous little piece. My last 19 was Yamato's 1/72 YF-19 that I sadly had to sell due to uncontrollable circumstances... First thing that crossed my mind was how ridiculously far they've come with the details and quality of these figures.

I'm ultra-excited to see how nice my VF-4 will be next year.

Now waiting for the Hi-Metal R Strike, but feel like it would've been better to get that one first, THEN the VF-19. I can't help but feel once I get the Hi-Metal I'll likely be disappointed after fiddling around with the 19.

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was surprised to see it in stock when i was just browsing hlj. took me a couple hours to bite the bullet but after i placed my order it's out of stock again so maybe i got the last one.

You probably did, I'll bet someone the other day found a box of these hiding in the stockroom. Congrats on getting one, you'll definitely enjoy this VF-19!!

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You probably did, I'll bet someone the other day found a box of these hiding in the stockroom. Congrats on getting one, you'll definitely enjoy this VF-19!!

i believe so...and it's not just the vf19...there were some other collectibles that were long sold out that all of a sudden appeared on hlj as in stock again :)

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  • 3 months later...

Sorry for the Thread Necro, but I just had a terrifying experience and figured I'd let you all know so you can avoid this issue if you have it.

The intake began cracking as I tried to transform my VF-19. it's because the hips are so stiff, which is nice for holding a pose, but there is a range that is stiff as you transform the legs.

I haven't gone in and tried to fix the hip yet, as I got it around, but I'll have to sooner or later, and I'll need to get in there with a bit of superglue to fix the cracking.

Edited by Valkyrie Driver
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I'll get some pics up, but essentially what you need to do is take the intake off, and loosen the screws holding the two halves of the hip joint together. That should give you enough slack to avoid the cracking issue I had. I already went ahead and fixed it, however I still have some stress marks where it started.

Like I said I'll get pics up, I'm not at home right now, so I don't have access to the toy.

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As promised, pics!

Here's the break:

Slide1

here's the screws to remove the leg/intake assembly from the joint:

Slide2

here's the screws to loosen/remove the joint:

Slide3

now, after you remove the screws the joint won't just come apart, there are some grey-green-blue ish retainer/trim pieces that will continue to hold the joint together, those need to come off to completely access the ball. They can be a bit fiddly to get back together, but it shouldn't take long (I have big, ham fisted sausage mitts, so if I can do it, anyone can).

From now on be a bit more gentle with the hip rotation for transformation, grip it as high on the intake as you can and pinch while turning to avoid this problem!

I really hope this helped!

Edited by Valkyrie Driver
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Thanks!

So it's not the screws that provide the clamping pressure on the ball that you're having to loosen, right? I did the same thing when i first got the toy, as the joint was simply too tight to safely move the legs against. Perhaps I've already lessened the potential for breakage?

I posted pics as well but they're so many pages ago that I'm not sure I could easily find them.

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It's the screws in the third picture, the ones that clamp the ball that need to be loosened. The screws that clamp the leg/intake assembly to the joint housing should be as tight as you can get them so the leg doesn't just come free.

You might have lessened the potential for breakage if you have already messed with the joint housing. I'm going to need to be more careful in transforming the toy from this point forward to lessen the stress on that section of the toy.

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I saw this in person for the first time today in Akihabara. God, it was beautiful.

Unfortunately, I was priced out of this hobby a long time ago. I'd need it to be a third of what it retails for for it to be an actual option for me.

Jealous of all of you that own this toy!

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It really is a beautiful toy, and a real joy to play with (after you loosen those hip joints though, jeez that's scary). I picked mine up for about 260USD shipped, and had it within a week, and I feel lucky to have one.

I have a real love affair with the Y/VF-19 series, as they are just such good looking birds, in fact I started with the Hi-Metal VF-19S, then got a Yamato YF-19, then a Yamato VF-19F, and I still wasn't satisfied, and got the VF-19Adv, which brings my 19 total to 4, I own more of the 19 than any other VF.

Now, my collection is not extensive, by any stretch, and it has been at this point the better part of a decade and I have only 16 toys, 15 valks and a tomahawk destroid, 13 of which are 1/60 scale, and 3 are 1/100. My collection has been the better part of a decade in the making. Don't feel bad, It'll likely be a long while before I go purchasing any more of these.

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Welp, got my VF-19 in the mail today and it's a lovely piece all around. However I appear to have a defective right-wing booster part. The circle-nub and tab that let it clip onto the wing root are noticeably flattened, so the part simply refuses to tab onto the wing root at all. It just pops right out. The left booster on the other hand is perfectly fine and tabs in with no problem (and rather securely at that!)

I'm not sure if there's any recourse for me as I bought this off of Mandarake.

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Delta, that's a pretty common issue and almost makes me think the mold was cast that way by mistake. There are a few fixes for it, and it's possible I even posted something about it in this very thread. As I recall, it entailed using a hobby knife to cut off some of the extra flat part of the tab.

And I'm just recalling that it also clips into one of the hardpoints under the wing as well. Have a look and see if that helps at all.

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It's not a defect to my knowledge. You just need to tab it in properly. Like mikyg said, there are 3 pegs that you need to tab in. One on top the wing root, another below it, and one last one that clips into one of the wing hardpoints. Get those 3 in and it's gonna be pretty secure.

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No, there's definitely some weirdness going on between the two sides. I took macro shots of it, even. One side is sharply molded and the other is, well, not. It looks like the mold had some tolerance issues or something.

But to the best of my knowledge, it's so common that I wouldn't be surprised if they're all that way.

Someone with toy manufacturing knowledge can chime in here, but is it common to only have one tool for casting plastic parts? Would that be crazy? If there are multiple molds for the parts, you'd expect some distribution in said "soft" detail on samples.

Edited by mickyg
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