Down to brass tacks. . .

[DARKWIND]

Let's not jump to conclusions. . .

I'm just curious if anyone had the same problem occur or not.

So far so good it seems, but in light of the cost to get replacements. . .

Sure there all supposed to be fixed now which is cool.

But are we in for another round of hurt?

Edited June 6, 2007 by DARKWIND

[Swoosh]

Got problem with yours?

[DARKWIND]

No, like I said so far so good. . .

Don't get me wrong I'm not trying to turn this into a witchhunt,

I'm just trying put together a concensus per se.

To help other members out to make the decision to buy or avoid.

Sure if one or two people ring in it might sound like a minority trying to push it.

On the other hand, if we all put our heads together, the info will be constructive and useful to all of MW.

Edited June 6, 2007 by DARKWIND

[Graham]

Just got one today, but won't have a chance to open it until tonight.

I've been told that the arm parts that were cracking on the original VF-0S/A have been changed to POM plastic on the Shin type VF-0A, which is supposed to be stronger than ABS.

Graham

[DARKWIND]

Just got one today, but won't have a chance to open it until tonight.

I've been told that the arm parts that were cracking on the original VF-0S/A have been changed to POM plastic on the Shin type VF-0A, which is supposed to be stronger than ABS.

Graham

That sounds cool.

And as much of a fan of Yamato I am, again I'm not trying to start a flame war.

I, like many other collectors here, just want feel more secure about this purchase.

[Swoosh]

Yeah, so far so good for the Shin Type, no complain at all : )

Actually I thought I broke the original 0A on the same day when I bought the Shin 0A, the upper arm came off when I was trying pull it out, I found the "broken" part looks sharp and clean, and there are a rubber washer surrounding it, I continue to tranform it into battriod mode, then clip the upper arm back to the shoulder part, it stays there and remian posable, but I am not try to put any more force to it again...

So I don't know if they are actually some seperate part or I am so lucky that I broke it in a "correct" way.

[vanpang]

so far so good, phew ! Okay lets keep it that way, huh Yamato !

[1/1 LowViz Lurker]

All the people buying it: posting your pics when/if the breakages occurs would help anyone thinking of maybe buying one based on factors of durability and "scariness to touch".

We need to share info to know if it was just an isolated case or widespread. (similar to the xbox 360 overheating issue)

*crosses fingers that these don't 'self destruct' one day just from looking at them*

Getting all their stuff to be around 1/48 VF-1 levels of durability, would be a good goal for yamato to measure their newer releases against as I am happy with all the ones I have of this, and given how it has been out longest for thier large sized mecha.

The bigger something gets, the overall danger increase of one part failing (small hinges needing to support heavier, generally 'longer' bits which need pressure applied to it during transformation), and more anger (due to increased price of the toy) when something bad happens. If parts were chunky and short rather than long and skinny, the leverage applied to one area to get it to move in a direction, puts less pressure on a single point for that point to snap. Similar to a short stick in your backyard, being much harder to break in half than a really long stick of equal thickness. (your hands can grip it from spaces further apart from the centre of the stick to help add pressure, making it easier to snap it in two pieces than the shorter stick which would force you to use your own strength as your hand is now forced to try to grip it from the centre of the stick to break it. Doesn't make it unbreakable, but it requires more effort to break as your hand has less leverage on shorter sticks than for 'long' sticks for it to snap easily.)

So anything that starts getting real big in size with smaller hinges needing to support it, longer pieces for you to grip, and stiffer joints for you to have to need to push/pull heavily to get to move: ...generally need much more strict tests than the smaller toys, because of the extra pressure you will apply (due to *longer pieces) in any kind of transformation just to get parts to move around naturally or as a result of joints just being stiff, which requires your fingers to grip harder and push and pull harder just to pose them.

*for example having a stiff shoulder joint, and choosing to grip the wrist of the arm to pose the shoulder vs gripping the shoulder directly to pose it. Less pressure on the shoulder if you gripped it from the shoulder of the arm directly rather than from the extreme end of the arm at the wrist. the longer the arm, and the further from the joint you apply the pressure, (like gripping the arm from the wrist) the more easy to break.

Edited June 6, 2007 by 1/1 LowViz Lurker

[superevans]

I am definitely one of the members that is waiting for the response. I've really wanted a VF-0, but was scared away by the problems. The promise of fixes has me hopeful, but I don't want to plop down the $200 until people have noticed the difference.

[Graham]

Great toy so far. Transformed between all three modes last night. No problems yet.

Graham

[ruskiiVFaussie]

Cool thanks Graham, mine is due here in a couple of days..... keep the good reviews coming.

[mechaninac]

Got mine a few days ago. And straight out of the box I noticed a few QC problems with my 0A; none of them insurmountable but all of them annoying. I can't vouch for any materials improvements or problems... I didn't notice any stress marks or hairline fractures or anything of the sort; the problems with mine are entirely assembly line related (not mistransformed... misassembled).

One minor problem was insufficient use of cement to attach the control pannel to the pivoting seat. The darned thing just came undone upon the merest touch. This was easily corrected with some super glue once I had the entire fuselage dismantled.

Another minor problem was not enough cement used to assemble the left leg foot thruster heel part to the thruster block. When I splayed the foot open the part came off in my hand and I noticed that a very small amount of solvent/glue had been used. This "deffect" was also corrected without fuss with some plastic weld.

Yet another glitch, one I haven't corrected since it is not that severe, is the left hip ball joint being looser than the right... it can hold a pose fine but I would've preffered a bit more friction -- how do you take the air intake block appart? I removed all the screws but the assembly where the ball-n-socket are located would not separate... is this glued? If so, I think I'll just leave it as is or just feed some white glue in there to stiffen it up.

Lastly and of most visual impact, and possibly the biggest detractor from my enjoyment of this piece, was the missaligned cockpit fuselage. The way the toy came out of the box the nose of the plane just drooped and did not lock with the heat shield. I had to take the whole thing appart in order the reassble it so that the LERX would align with the fuselage tracks. It also appeared to me that the sliding track part of this metal piece was a bit warped or bent so that the whole assembly was thrown out of wack. After reassebly everything lines up correctly and the toy looks and works great.

Like I said, none of these issues were impossible to correct, but I should not have had to. After all, this is a $200 collector's piece and I should think Yamato would show a bit more pride in their products and use more stringent QC to prevent similar occurences from souring prospective buyers of their products.

As for the Ghost... completely trouble free and a beautiful hunk of plastic parts. And to my surprise it looks considerably darker in person than I was led to believe from the posted images or even the box pictures.

So, am I happy with my purchase? Now that I've fixed what Yamato neglected, I am. But I'm growing more leery with my SV-51 preorder.

Edited June 11, 2007 by mechaninac

[DARKWIND]

Sucks to hear about the trouble you went to. . .

But let's keep the constructive info coming guys.

[kensei]

Nice to know that it can be fixed. Pity that you actually had to do it in the first place. To remove a leg, you do the same as a 1/48.

Transform to battroid. Spread wings up. lay it on it's back. pull the leg from the intake sideways (along the surface of the table). It should come off, and you should be able to access the ball joint.

[Deimos]

I took a brief inspection of my combo set, the only thing so far that annoys is the slightly bend nose cone antenna at the front.

too bad my combo set came shrink wrapped, if not I shouldn't have this imperfection

[Dio]

No cracks, but the left rear landing gear on my Ghost does not want to go back in, it seems like the screw was tightened down too much.

Does it only require removing the 5 screws from the underside (4 toward the rear and one at the nose, 3 which are hidden under caps) to access the landing gear pivots?

[ruskiiVFaussie]

My observations -

* Legs are a little loose not bad but noticeable.

* Arms are very tight, i can't see any problem.

* One seamline on part of of the arm hasn't been glued correctly together,

has nothing to do with the cracks people had with previous releases.

I'll post a pic later.

* Only slight droopiness of the fuselage/neck area. Not a concern.

* Feet are ok.

* Find it somewhat lacking in no ability to hold the Ghost at the back end

to stop it coming away from the Zero if hanged upside down.

* Does anyone find it lazy of Yamato to not have the hands 'dissappear'

into the arms like the VF-1 1/48's do? Or is this part of the lineart? I

need to check my books.

* Left LEG does not lock correctly (too small peg) into the hole. I should

be able to fix this of course. But that's a blunder.

Everything else is ok! I need to play with it more, maybe i'll find something

else to point out, not that i want to find anything of course.

Edited June 16, 2007 by ruskiiVFaussie

[eugimon]

My observations -

* Does anyone find it lazy of Yamato to not have the hands 'dissappear'

into the arms like the VF-1 1/48's do? Or is this part of the lineart? I

need to check my books.

this is anime correct, the VF-0 does not have retracting hands.

[kensei]

this is anime correct, the VF-0 does not have retracting hands.

Yeah eugi is correct for once.

But this is why I was a bit peeved at the hand design with the VF-0 when it came out....sure its an improvement in the fact that they actually click in to the gunpod, but the hand design could have been so much better cause there is no limitation of having to fit into forearms. They should have been a bit bigger, and fully articulated almost like an MG hand, or even better.

[Phren]

Is there is a noticeable improvement from the 0A? If so, do you think they'll re-release the 0A with the changes made?

I haven't made the jump to the Zeros yet, still looking for one without nightmarish structural flaws (IE, I'm sometimes clumsy). Off topic, but visually, what's the difference between the original 0A and the Shin0A? All I notice is the white line on the chest. - there aren't a lot of photos that I've seen, and most are with the ghost covering it up

Edited June 17, 2007 by Phren

[eugimon]

there are a few differences.

the shin type has more tampo printing, such as shin's plane number on the nose.

There's some difference in the paint app as well, besides the white stripes, the head is actually dual tone, with the main central body of the head being one shade of grey and the side flarings a slightly different color.

The other and main difference is the reported material change in the shoulder/upper arm assembly, the internal assembly should now be made of more durable POM rather than the ABS plastic that the 0s and CF 0a were released with.

By all accounts, the shin type has the other fixes that the CF0a had, that is, stiffer joints, feet that lock out and a backpack that stays up in battroid mode.

[ruskiiVFaussie]

Yeah eugi is correct for once.

But this is why I was a bit peeved at the hand design with the VF-0 when it came out....sure its an improvement in the fact that they actually click in to the gunpod, but the hand design could have been so much better cause there is no limitation of having to fit into forearms. They should have been a bit bigger, and fully articulated almost like an MG hand, or even better.

cool lol and i too also wondered why they couldn't make the hands larger seeing that there was room.

[TheLoneWolf]

cool lol and i too also wondered why they couldn't make the hands larger seeing that there was room.

Maybe the hands wouldn't be 1/60 scale if they were bigger.

[eugimon]

Maybe the hands wouldn't be 1/60 scale if they were bigger.

I think the chicken hands look just right for the VF-0 series, the smaller arms and the fact that the wrist mechanism is partially hidden make it look very natural... unlike how they look on the 1/48s... weird and slightly too small.

[Kicker773]

I got mine a few days ago and slapped on the ghost and noticed the same problems some of you have mentioned. Anyone care to do a step by step on how to fix some of these problems?

Got mine a few days ago. And straight out of the box I noticed a few QC problems with my 0A; none of them insurmountable but all of them annoying. I can't vouch for any materials improvements or problems... I didn't notice any stress marks or hairline fractures or anything of the sort; the problems with mine are entirely assembly line related (not mistransformed... misassembled).

One minor problem was insufficient use of cement to attach the control pannel to the pivoting seat. The darned thing just came undone upon the merest touch. This was easily corrected with some super glue once I had the entire fuselage dismantled.

Another minor problem was not enough cement used to assemble the left leg foot thruster heel part to the thruster block. When I splayed the foot open the part came off in my hand and I noticed that a very small amount of solvent/glue had been used. This "deffect" was also corrected without fuss with some plastic weld.

Yet another glitch, one I haven't corrected since it is not that severe, is the left hip ball joint being looser than the right... it can hold a pose fine but I would've preffered a bit more friction -- how do you take the air intake block appart? I removed all the screws but the assembly where the ball-n-socket are located would not separate... is this glued? If so, I think I'll just leave it as is or just feed some white glue in there to stiffen it up.

Lastly and of most visual impact, and possibly the biggest detractor from my enjoyment of this piece, was the missaligned cockpit fuselage. The way the toy came out of the box the nose of the plane just drooped and did not lock with the heat shield. I had to take the whole thing appart in order the reassble it so that the LERX would align with the fuselage tracks. It also appeared to me that the sliding track part of this metal piece was a bit warped or bent so that the whole assembly was thrown out of wack. After reassebly everything lines up correctly and the toy looks and works great.

Like I said, none of these issues were impossible to correct, but I should not have had to. After all, this is a $200 collector's piece and I should think Yamato would show a bit more pride in their products and use more stringent QC to prevent similar occurences from souring prospective buyers of their products.

As for the Ghost... completely trouble free and a beautiful hunk of plastic parts. And to my surprise it looks considerably darker in person than I was led to believe from the posted images or even the box pictures.

So, am I happy with my purchase? Now that I've fixed what Yamato neglected, I am. But I'm growing more leery with my SV-51 preorder.

[Mowe]

ARHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! F*$%, I AM NOT BUYING ANYMORE YAMATO VF-0 !!!!!!!

This is straight out of the box, from a reliable Japanese supplier from Japan.

This guy is staying on the shelf for display only....may be I should start lodging my shoulder replacement from Yamato again...

[attachmentid=43052][attachmentid=43053]

Edited June 18, 2007 by Mowe

[Mowe]

Calmed down a little and did a bit of digging around, see post #47 from Omni Existence from Robot-Japan...Link

Don't know who to believe anymore...

Anyone else have similar stress marks?

On the other hand, all joints (knee, elbow, and the back pack) are very tight and the Shin has no problem holding the ghost, and he does look handsome. I still think people should loosen the screws at elbow and shoulder. I honestly hope the stess-marks do not spread out this time...

Edited June 18, 2007 by Mowe

[recon]

Did loosen mine both biceps and shoulders area as a precaution. But before doing that, did now observe any stress marks as shown by Mowe..crosses fingers.

Mowe, think you should not have to worry too much about it as the stress marks are probably cause by over tightening of screws by over enthusiatic yamato workers or mishandling by them. Remember the mp starscream by takara did have stress marks here and there but so far no cracks or broken pieces. If the shoulders start to crack, then maybe yamato should give us a proper answer

Edited June 18, 2007 by recon

[ghostryder]

WTF??? My heart sinks for you. Best case scenario, the shoulders are indeed POM, but the stress marks are just from hasty careless assembly, and the cracks won't propagate and shatter (like eugimon's avatar).

[ikhii]

Guys, you won't believe what i've got.

My Shin Kudo VF0 has a very 'BIG' Mouth. Man, he looks like one of the character in South Park ... err. Terrance & Philip... or what ever. I just wanted to tilt the head and the top part came off. Just like that. No pressure given. I think the glue they applied didn't stick.

When i transform the thing, it doesn't feel like as tight as the VF0A that i've got. Everything just falls off by itself. The top replacement part that holds the guns with the Ghost will fall off easily when transform it. The joints are ok but still feel not as tight as before. Err... i think I like the finishing color on the 'one sheet of sticker instructions' where the lower part of the valk is lighter. Maybe i'm going to paint it similar color with the nose con. It would look awesome.

Anyway, about the head, i think i won't glue it first, may wanna custom build it with some LED lights. Maybe can find a way to make the 'eyes' glow. hahahhaha... i know some macross forumers has done that in 1/72 models. Maybe should seek some advice from professionals here.

also, feel free to shoot Yamato for their QC. I think they didn't do a good job on this one. I have to buy a superglue just to fix their silly problems.

[aaajin]

wow, from improved ABS shoulders, to crisp paint job & now its opening head cockpit ! Yamato never stop to astound me with their attention to details....just wondering, will they include this feature in the 0S as well?

Edited June 18, 2007 by aaajin

[miriya]

Guys, you won't believe what i've got....

...also, feel free to shoot Yamato for their QC. I think they didn't do a good job on this one. I have to buy a superglue just to fix their silly problems.

Thanks for the report and the photos. I like the color scheme on this now that I see a real photo of it.

I am really wanting to get a 0A but can not choose between the first release and the Shin with Ghost. Since you have both what would you recommend?

Also if you have more photos of your new Shin0A I would love to see the whole thing in B mode to scope the color scheme as a whole.

[Shin Densetsu Kai 7.0]

Wow......

I will wait till we get full confirmation on which VF-0 ultimately has POM shoulders and no problems.

I'll wait it out, the VF-0A looks cool in wolfpack markings, if it comes out with improvements as stated above, I might pick it up.

[Dante74]

Thanks for the report and the photos. I like the color scheme on this now that I see a real photo of it.

I am really wanting to get a 0A but can not choose between the first release and the Shin with Ghost. Since you have both what would you recommend?

Also if you have more photos of your new Shin0A I would love to see the whole thing in B mode to scope the color scheme as a whole.

Want to see pics of the VF-0 with the Ghost? check this thread. the last couple of pages contain lots of battroid pics.

[TheLoneWolf]

Guys, you won't believe what i've got.

My Shin Kudo VF0 has a very 'BIG' Mouth. Man, he looks like one of the character in South Park ... err. Terrance & Philip... or what ever. I just wanted to tilt the head and the top part came off. Just like that. No pressure given. I think the glue they applied didn't stick.

I'm sorry to hear about your VF0

The problem is that Yamato should've used a screw to hold together the head in the first place. Leave the glue to Toynami. *coughAlphacough*