HMR VF-2SS + SAP Silvie Gena reissue

[M'Kyuun]

14 minutes ago, sh9000 said:

Most stores are selling it for around 13000 to 15000 JPY but Mandarake had an unopened one listed for 8000 JPY so I ordered it.

Good catch! Hope you enjoy it!

[MKT]

20 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

Mine just arrived, a day early no less! I've been wanting a good toy of the VF-2SS for a very long time, and I've skipped every release until this one. In hand, it's a beautiful piece with a great deal of articulation, even the doors on the leg packs, which makes the point of making the landing gear partsform seem ludicrous by comparison, but IIWII. Anyway, compared to the HMR VF-4 and VF-0D that I own, this is a bit fiddlier and fragile. The legs tab into the arms in fighter, but the arms themselves don't tab into anything, at least that I could see or saw in the instructions, so they basically hang there by din of friction and your calibrated eyeballs to set them in the approximately appropriate positions. The left arm pauldron falls apart extremely easily on my copy and I may have to figure out the best place to add a touch of glue to keep it together without affecting its functionality. Those things are very small and easy to lose, especially when they're just hanging off the bottom of the plane and could fall off with the merest provocation. Thus far, I've only played a bit with the battroid, checking out the articulation (the knees are particularly involved) and then transforming it to fighter. In doing so, I was more acutely aware than ever before how much inspiration this took from the VF-1 and the intention by the Macross II creators for this to be its successor. While I believe in canon that role fell to the VF-4, a righteously awesome design in its own right, the VF-2SS indeed feels like an advancement of the original Valkyrie (VF-0 notwithstanding 😉) while being its own unique design. I think it's beautiful and I'm so glad to finally have a pretty accurately designed and well-articulated figure of it in my collection. After addressing that pauldron, I'll probably attempt to attach the SAP bits and get her all armored up.

Word of caution- those head antennae are really, really thin and fragile. despite having a plastic spacer in the box around the head to protect them, one of mine was ever so slightly bent so I moved to bend it straight and though I didn't break it, it felt like it gave a little too much and I'm rue to touch it again if I can help it. Fortunately, it comes with spare antennas, but I'd rather not break the ones I have so I'm trying to manipulate them solely at the base as much as possible. Probably goes without saying for most of you, but I'll put the caution out there anyway. 

To quote Stevie Wonder, "Isn't she lovely? Isn't she wonderful?"

 

I agree at this size everything just manages to hold together, and the same engineering at larger scale will not work.

Once the SAP packs are on in Fighter, it teeters into handling nightmare territory, as the lack of arms tabbing into anything will drive one slightly crazy trying to align them symmetrically whilst trying not to bump other parts off position.

Other than that, the plastics feel strong and Bandai made a good choice designing a central metal frame holding most parts together.

But yes, the sculpt is really beautiful and I just wish there's officially more adventurous color scheme for it, rather than just sparse, re-colored stripes for the other pilots.

[sh9000]

3 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

Good catch! Hope you enjoy it!

Thanks @M'Kyuun.

[Chronocidal]

I'm glad they actually made a decent representation of this one, but I don't think you can really make this design any bigger without the weight of the design itself fairly well ruining the experience.  In the realm of sci-fi designs, this one works out just slightly better than the floating/detached nacelles
in the most recent Trek designs.

The backpack on this one bugs me though.  I'm not sure if it's actually supposed to close?  It just seems to be stuck permanently detached/opened somehow. 

I'd love to see one in 1/60 if they could get the limbs stable (maybe some kind of sliding lock that would hold them in place?), but I'm not expecting anyone to take that gamble. 

[M'Kyuun]

8 hours ago, MKT said:

 

I agree at this size everything just manages to hold together, and the same engineering at larger scale will not work.

Once the SAP packs are on in Fighter, it teeters into handling nightmare territory, as the lack of arms tabbing into anything will drive one slightly crazy trying to align them symmetrically whilst trying not to bump other parts off position.

Other than that, the plastics feel strong and Bandai made a good choice designing a central metal frame holding most parts together.

Agree. Regarding the SAP, I had some trouble getting it to wrap around the back jet boosters in fighter and GERWALK modes. I finally managed to get it to stay on, but it didn't give that satisfactory feeling of being completely secure. Today I transformed it from G mode to battroid, and that antenna finally broke. Fortunately, Bandai must have been aware of the issue (those parts really should have been made of metal for durability) and gave us two extras, so that problem was remedied. Anyway, once I got the thing into B mode, the SAP went on perfectly, no issue. Ironically, I figured I'd have a worse time in battroid, but nope. Even with all that weight, it stands and poses like a champ. 

Having been handling Macross toys for 20+ years, I was a bit surprised that the arms just float in fighter mode without any method of securing them into a "proper" position. Like I said earlier, it's purely up to the handler's discretion how high or low those arms hang, and subsequently the legs by din of their tabbing into the arms. The legs don't have a hard tabbing point either, merely tabbing, just barely, into the arms, which leaves a lot of room for interpretation. I try to keep the arms up as tight as I can under the body so the legs follow suit. I keep enough space for the wings to sweep freely without hitting the legs, and that looks right to me.

Everything regarding the build does feel good. The central metal frame was indeed a smart decision. The knees, too, benefit from some metal parts, so this toy, far more than my VF-4 or VF-0D, lives up to the "high-metal" name. Screws don't count.

8 hours ago, sh9000 said:

Thanks @M'Kyuun.

Welcome. Cheers!

7 hours ago, Chronocidal said:

I'm glad they actually made a decent representation of this one, but I don't think you can really make this design any bigger without the weight of the design itself fairly well ruining the experience.  In the realm of sci-fi designs, this one works out just slightly better than the floating/detached nacelles
in the most recent Trek designs.

The backpack on this one bugs me though.  I'm not sure if it's actually supposed to close?  It just seems to be stuck permanently detached/opened somehow. 

I'd love to see one in 1/60 if they could get the limbs stable (maybe some kind of sliding lock that would hold them in place?), but I'm not expecting anyone to take that gamble. 

While I don't think it's an impossibility, I do think that this particular design is very well served at this scale where smaller metal hinges can be utilized to bear the weight of the entire toy. On a larger scaled toy, common sense and physics dictate that more robust joints will be needed, and as those joints become larger, so too does their obtrusiveness as they impact aesthetics and the overall mold. This toy was executed very well. It's not perfect, but what is?  I'd still love to see companies like Sentinel, Moderoid, or Arcadia tackle it. Heck even a company like Touch Toys, with their proven track record of innovative transforming aircraft, would likely produce a pretty good toy. Since Macross II is pretty much the black sheep of the franchise, I doubt they'd take as much issue letting other companies outside of Bandai make toys or models of it.

The backpack on mine closes fine so long as the long double-hinged panel within is situated properly depending on the mode. Perhaps check that hinge to make sure it's not getting jammed up on something. I do find it odd that it has no latching or tabbing mechanism to keep it securely closed. Like the design itself, this toy is an oddity amongst its valk brothers and sisters.🙂