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

[aaajin]

I can still clearly remember the first time I transformed Arcadia's YF-19. It was pretty smooth, from fighter to battroid and back to fighter.

Initially I was a bit afraid that it would be a complex, floppy-mess, as I remembered when handling Yamato's YF-19 (I did not own the new Yamato's VF-19 line) but I was surprised by how smooth the transformation was. In fact I would rate it to be even easier to transform than the VF-1 ver2.

Bandai's version looks pretty, especially with all the tampo prints and its action "mecha" looks, but its a shame to hear complaints on the transformation and gappiness, since the transformation sequences should be almost identical to Arcadia's.

I will prolly get one of these if they release it in a different paint scheme. Hopefully by that time Bandai will at least revise the sheild design to cover the gaps between the legs in fighter mode. For now, I'll just feast my eyes with pictures from this thread.

Edited July 4, 2015 by aaajin

[cyde01]

honestly after transforming it back the first time i don't see what the big deal is. there are certainly more steps than the arcadia but it really was relatively painless. there were complaints about the arms having 9 joints or something(?) but i got the arms to fold in the right position almost immediately, and as long as you focus on where the tabs are and massage them in you can remove the gaps relatively pain free. my initial problem was that i couldn't keep the leg swing bars in the down position while transforming the rest of the torso but once i figured that out i was pretty good to go.

[ArchieNov]

Personally, I enjoy the transformation process on the VF-19Advance. Lots of steps that make me appreciate the engineering that went into the design. And when I'm done not only does it look beautiful, but it feels like an accomplishment as well.

If I wanted a simple transformation, I would've been satisfied just buying some of the cheaper transformers (which I've long since sold off).

Edited July 4, 2015 by ArchieNov

[jenius]

I wonder if it's just production tolerances or something but I feel like I am CONSTANTLY fighting gaps. Maybe I'm just way too anal because I'm taking pictures and all but man, it seems like there's always some line somewhere that is wider on one side of the toy than the other. The worst offender for me tends to be anything related to the right leg in fighter mode. I have found a couple items I would say to watch out for if you're experiencing similar issues:
1) The crotch guns, they seem to slide pretty easily so if things are fighting you double check that they're tucked away properly

2) The angle of the arms. As others have mentioned, put the gun in and then make sure the gun is fairly tight to the crotch in fighter mode. If it's not, your arms aren't angled properly

Everything else seems like it should take care of itself... but for some reason I'm constantly trying to massage the lines tighter. I may get it just right but then I'll handle it and things will get tweaked again.

[Offswitch]

I don't think it's necessarily production tolerances so much as that almost everything on this guy is crazy stupid tight out of the box.

Even after a half dozen transformations now (and I even loosen the hip screws as suggested), it still takes quite some effort to push everything into their proper positions in fighter mode. But once I do, for the most part everything lines up nicely with minimal gaps as others here have shown.

Regardless of level of gappyness, I'm really looking forward to your review/comparison, Jenius!

Edited July 4, 2015 by Offswitch

[OzmaLee74]

Got some goodies yesterday!

[no3Ljm]

Nice, OzmaLee74!

Looks like everyone is enjoying their VF-19 Advanced. From people who's having hard time to transform it, like me. To the people who doesn't encouter any problems transforming it. Guess, that's one great Valkyrie out there. Congrats guys on our VF-19! Happy 4th of July!

[spanner]

I know some have commented on the forward canards not being angled up enough but the more I look at the Advance the more im liking the shallower angle!

You can't really tell how angled they are from the few seconds its visible in the anime and most real life jet fighters that have canards they aren't aggressively angled either..

So yeah that was my brain storm for the day..

[cyde01]

so i finally successfully transformed it to fighter with the fast packs and rear leg bits on. this is how i felt during the process:

after fiddling with the loose leg bits for over an hour i finally got it to work, and there IS a trick to it to make it easier.

first, as jenius said, definitely make sure the vulcan guns are slid in the forward position, as they easily get out of place. make sure the arm angle is right. the grey part of the arms should be angled a little down rather than going straight back.

now, the trick to transforming to fighter with the leg bits still in

1. make sure the tan inner shoulder flap is not in the highest or lowest position, but maybe 2mm below the highest position. the shoulder flap is what gets in the way of the leg bit and keeps knocking it out, it has to be at the exactly right position for the leg bit to stay in.

2. make sure that the shoulder armor and leg are slid back before you attempt to attach the leg with the shoulder fast pack. then, attach the shoulder fast pack to the back of the leg. once the shoulder armor, shoulder fast pack, and leg are locked together, you can then slide both the leg and shoulder armor to the front. sliding it to the front will usually make the shoulder and leg automatically lock into place with the bottom tab of the leg fitting in to the central fuselage automatically. after that you can secure the wing glove into the leg fast pack and you're done.

i personally haven't had problems with gaps once i have followed these steps, except for the wing root tab coming loose from the leg fast pack every so often.

[Frogze]

Ouch, seeing those wingroot tabs right there garanties I'll never even bother pulling the super parts out of the box...

[protostar8]

Just an FYI moment:

I have only ever ordered 2 or 3 times from AmiAmi, so I have never dealt with customer service. I placed an order for the VF-19 when the second batch hit their store. Now I'm a LONG TIME HLJ customer, so if I order something and decide to cancel, all it takes is an email to them and they cancel it no muss, no fuss (assuming I haven't paid for it yet, never paid for an item then asked to have my money back haha). AmiAmi is more expensive than MSRP on the item (MSRP is 23000Yen, AmiAmi is 24840Yen). They replied back that they do not honor any sort of price matching (which I guess is fine albeit bad customer service and customer retention). But they also said that they don't do cancellations and if I "badly" wanted one, they would leave a note on my account about it. So, in conclusion, I think AmiAmi's customer service is pretty bad. I doubt I'll ever order from them again considering they are price gouging and have bad customer service compared to HLJ.

[valhary]

http://www.bandai.co.jp/support/faq/201506/detail719.html

[AlphaOne]

Same here, I've been a loyal HLJ customer and they're customer service has always been great. In my experience, they communicate very well and even when the whole debacle happened with the secured site for the vf-19, they kept me informed of what happened and apologized repeatedly.

Ami Ami, however the fact they have stock for items, have been a nightmare for me. From returns for faulty items to cancellations, the final straw came I had a vf-19 in my basket when preorders opened, and when I tried to checkout, found out my basket was picked. Their response was a "sorry, this happens" - ever since then, I refused to give them my business (which just means one more person has a better chance of getting what they want from them).

[Actar]

For those who have problems installing the leg fast pack in fighter mode, here's a video of how I do it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dF4pix00Yk

A little bit more tricky to transform it into fighter with them. According to the instructions, the rear leg panel is out in battroid mode (page 20 bottom right) and slid in when in fighter mode (page 22 top left). Because of this, I do not think that it is meant to be transformed with the fast packs attached because of the notch on the rear leg panel preventing it from sliding back when the fast pack is attached. If you ignore page 20 and leave the leg panel slid in in battroid mode however, there is enough clearance to do it relatively easily:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_4fpwjaGI4

Also, the two leg fast pack pieces are different, so be careful that you put the correct ones on the correct leg. The sides are molded differently to align with the sides of the forearms.

Lastly, the inner shoulder fin/armor thing is on a double hinge and remember to retract it all the way.

Edited July 4, 2015 by Actar

[Knightdramon]

Just an FYI moment:

I have only ever ordered 2 or 3 times from AmiAmi, so I have never dealt with customer service. I placed an order for the VF-19 when the second batch hit their store. Now I'm a LONG TIME HLJ customer, so if I order something and decide to cancel, all it takes is an email to them and they cancel it no muss, no fuss (assuming I haven't paid for it yet, never paid for an item then asked to have my money back haha). AmiAmi is more expensive than MSRP on the item (MSRP is 23000Yen, AmiAmi is 24840Yen). They replied back that they do not honor any sort of price matching (which I guess is fine albeit bad customer service and customer retention). But they also said that they don't do cancellations and if I "badly" wanted one, they would leave a note on my account about it. So, in conclusion, I think AmiAmi's customer service is pretty bad. I doubt I'll ever order from them again considering they are price gouging and have bad customer service compared to HLJ.

I stopped ordering from amiami many years ago, but just because I found it easier to cancel elsewhere.

On the price matching---do you know of any other Japanese online retailer that does it? Nippon Yassan has the VF19 for 29.000 yen, I sincerely doubt that anybody that requests a price match will get it. While I do not agree on price gouging on preorders, it can be standard practice on released items. Once your supplier runs out, you need to find another one which might be price-gouging anyway...and so on.

Amiami, NY and probably other japanese websites do not let you cancel orders, even unpaid ones, without any sort of reprimand. Fair play to them, because different countries/businesses might have different systems.

Amiami's customer service used to be great but I think they got too big for their own good once they opened up to overseas sales in the past 6 or so years.

[cyde01]

Ouch, seeing those wingroot tabs right there garanties I'll never even bother pulling the super parts out of the box...

yeah they literally didn't bother to add any hole for those tabs to go with the fast packs. Aside from the difficulty of getting the leg bits in it is my main gripe with this valk. Still happy with it overall though.

Edit: wow actar that method has literally never worked for me. Might be that i'm not retracting the shoulder flap all the way.

Edited July 4, 2015 by cyde01

[yman1437]

One more at cdj

[F360]

The higher shipping price from them really slow down the sales. It probably would have been better if they increase the price of the item and lower back the shipping .

[Keiichi]

Thank you very much to all the folks posting their transformation tips and experiences. Have you guys noticed any particular areas where paint scratching is a concern while transforming? For example, on the Arcadia YF-19 you need to watch out that you don't scratch the black paint behind the cockpit when going to/from battroid. I'm guessing you'd need to be cautious of the same area on the Bandai?

HLJ has the cheapest EMS shipping as their rates are discounted rates and not the standard Japan Post rates. It was 2,980 yen to ship the VF-19.

Ah, that's very true! I'd forgotten about that.

One more at cdj

All gone! Still available at Nippon-Yasan... at 29,000JPY before shipping, ugh.

[Pedro2k6]

Off topic......

VIVA CHILEEEEE....CAMPEONES DE AMÉRICA.

Sorry but I have to say it.

[Lolicon]

24840 us the MSRP plus 8% consumption tax. All the "discounts" that Amiami gives are based on that price. Though I don't think the tax applies to overseas customers (at least it's not supposed to). I've never been charged it from any other retailer when purchasing online from the States.

[Sandman]

I got mine a few days ago. I like it a lot. Don't have much more to add that everyone hasn't said already. The engineering is incredible. Though the bendy gunpod was even more ridiculous in person than i could ever imagine. Even though having tons of fun with this bird.

[IXTL]

About Amiami's pricing. They add the local sales tax (currently 8%, to be raised to 10% in Oct) on top of their pricing.

They shouldn't do it actually and other Japanese export stores don't (e.g. HLJ, Hobby Search etc.), since the toys are for export.

[protostar8]

I stopped ordering from amiami many years ago, but just because I found it easier to cancel elsewhere.

On the price matching---do you know of any other Japanese online retailer that does it? Nippon Yassan has the VF19 for 29.000 yen, I sincerely doubt that anybody that requests a price match will get it. While I do not agree on price gouging on preorders, it can be standard practice on released items. Once your supplier runs out, you need to find another one which might be price-gouging anyway...and so on.

Amiami, NY and probably other japanese websites do not let you cancel orders, even unpaid ones, without any sort of reprimand. Fair play to them, because different countries/businesses might have different systems.

Amiami's customer service used to be great but I think they got too big for their own good once they opened up to overseas sales in the past 6 or so years.

Well, I've had price matching happen before. I won't say a lot about it b/c I don't know if it was just me getting a one time special thing or what? But it doesn't hurt to ask. Their response was kind of rude to me about it, which is why I mentioned it. But overall, screw AmiAmi. That's just how I feel about them at the moment. They are supposedly known for lower prices than HLJ on most items, so I was just calling them out on that. I don't honestly expect them to price match, but that's what the good business practice would be. Alienate a customer over a few bucks??? Nah, bad idea. That's why Walmart doesn't tell you to go suck a you know what when you come in and ask for a price match. It's good business to keep a customer happy in the long run even if you lose a little today (which AmiAmi wouldn't be losing anything to offer it at MSRP, which is WELL above what wholesale on items runs b/c I have a friend that gets a ton of Japanese items wholesale and does group buys, just not this particular item).

[calubin_175]

Wow, you could find instructions of all Chogokins here.

http://www.bandai.co.jp/support/faq/201103/detail174.html

They're pretty lazy with the images. Maruyama' 171 recycles the images from the cannon fodder. Ozma's super pack is recycled from the Alto's.

Edited July 5, 2015 by calubin_175

[Actar]

While I do know of the adage, "the customer is always right", I wonder if that's actually true and if customers feel a sense of entitlement and abuse the system. Of course, it varies from case to case, but I really wonder if AmiAmi's lack of follow-up service is actually bad customer service or if we're just getting used to the super customer service of HLJ (which I feel sets a very high standard).

For example, I've never heard of price-matching before for an online store, so that's a completely new one for me. It's always been a matter of "our store sells it at X price", buy it or not, especially with the fluctuating demand and supply of hobby items and Walmart's a pretty different beast entirely. I wonder if it's bad form to ask a store to lower their prices. Heck, my local anime shop sells the rarer stuff for much higher prices than their MSRP and no one bats an eyelid. They just turn elsewhere. It's a free market after all.

Are stores obligated to provide follow-up service? I know that HLJ does offer returns, spare parts and replacements, but is that something that every store provides? As a collector and customer of all of these stores and having experienced the customer service of all of them, I have to admit HLJ's impeccable. But I think it's unfair to demand the same thing from different stores that have different policies and rules.

I've been a loyal customer of AmiAmi for years (like 5-6 years) and have been purchasing from them regularly every month. I'll admit that their customer service is non-existent and buy from there mostly because of their consistent lower prices. Even if I encounter a problem, I personally am okay and prepared to deal with things myself. Either fixing it myself, selling it and getting another or just make do with it if it's not that bad. It's true that the lack of cancellations is pretty shitty, but it's also true that I placed the pre-order. But that should be more of a critique of this culture of pre-ordering than anything else.

But of course, that's just my philosophy and approach to things and yours may be different. (^.^)

Edited July 5, 2015 by Actar

[spanner]

I've done my dash with AmiAmi and won't be ordering anything from them period. They are just rude and their customer service and certain policies are yet to be desired.

Nippon Yasan has been really good to me and the one time I have had to cancel an order with them they were totally fine about it. "not a problem at all, happy we could help" if I remember correctly was their response.. But then again I have spent a 5#!t load of money with them which probably helps..

Bought a decent amount of stuff through HLJ too but never been in a situation that I needed to call upon their customer service but I have had more pre-order cancellations by them themselves not to mention more cart jacking incidents than any other seller.

And the store who has always been the most straight forward and no nonsense especially when it comes to shipping goods upon release was CD Japan.

Again I have never called upon their customer service (that I can remember) so I cannot comment on that.

Ouch, seeing those wingroot tabs right there garanties I'll never even bother pulling the super parts out of the box...

Yes there are certain parts that can be skipped but the boosters themselves do look very good fitted! If they fit on ok which is the catch..

The leg covers and shoulder parts can definitely stay in the box! The whole thing looks a lot neater with only the boosters attached in my opinion. The other parts are just unnecessary and tacky looking garnish.

[treatment]

I don't think any japan-shop (online or not) does any price-matching once they put their price-signs up. No haggling.

As for ami's non-existent cs, I don't think ami has any cs staff at all. Maybe if you're in Japan they'll provide some sort of it, but you're pretty much screwed if you're not located in Japan.

[abdner]

Woo, Bandai has the ability to change the variable fighter which is designed in last century into DX Chogokin style. The VF-19ADV looks like YF-29 more than YF-19, especially mounting on adv pack. Here's my pics, enjoy it!

[barurutor]

pretty good comparison pictures. i suppose you can get them to match height if the bandai vf-19 doesn't do the michael-jackson style pants (fully lowered ankles)?

[Actar]

pretty good comparison pictures. i suppose you can get them to match height if the bandai vf-19 doesn't do the michael-jackson style pants (fully lowered ankles)?

Then again, fully lowering the feet is necessary as it locks the inner thigh panel in place. I guess you can push it back up, but you have to be careful when handling it.

[abdner]

pretty good comparison pictures. i suppose you can get them to match height if the bandai vf-19 doesn't do the michael-jackson style pants (fully lowered ankles)?

I suppose if lower the feet, I wont keep them touching ground fully

[Actar]

I don't think there are enough kick-ass Gerwalk poses with the FAST pack~

Thank you very much to all the folks posting their transformation tips and experiences. Have you guys noticed any particular areas where paint scratching is a concern while transforming? For example, on the Arcadia YF-19 you need to watch out that you don't scratch the black paint behind the cockpit when going to/from battroid. I'm guessing you'd need to be cautious of the same area on the Bandai?

I'm going to be very honest. For this toy in particular, I wasn't all too careful with it. I pose it roughly, I transform it over and over and actually play around with it. It has held up spectacularly with regard to the paint. I suspect it's because of the matte finish. If anything, the only areas that I've had any scratches and markings are the beige metal bar on the back and the wings when putting on the FAST pack boosters.

Edited July 5, 2015 by Actar

[Valkyrie addict]

finally got some time to play around with my 19, I agree with almost everything said here but I don't find the transformation that daunting, I guess since it shares a lot with the Arcadia I found it much easier than the YF-29 and YF-30.

I really like were Bandai is going, they still have some room to improve tough, those landing gears, was it so hard to paint them white? and they tampoed the whole plane but ignored the cockpit. I also found funny how they somehow implement a lot of gimmicks we were expecting on the Arcadia YF-19, its like they read our forums and took ideas from us to get the edge on certain gimmicks over the Arcadia.

[Bariaburu Faita]

Many Japanese people do read our forums.

finally got some time to play around with my 19, I agree with almost everything said here but I don't find the transformation that daunting, I guess since it shares a lot with the Arcadia I found it much easier than the YF-29 and YF-30.

I really like were Bandai is going, they still have some room to improve tough, those landing gears, was it so hard to paint them white? and they tampoed the whole plane but ignored the cockpit. I also found funny how they somehow implement a lot of gimmicks we were expecting on the Arcadia YF-19, its like they read our forums and took ideas from us to get the edge on certain gimmicks over the Arcadia.