MacrossJunkie

I think the VF-2SS is just one of those things that people either love or hate with very few who have an opinion that lies somewhere in between. I for one wouldn't buy it as the fighter mode just seems rather unattractive to me with the intakes and legs sticking out to the sides as well as forward as much as they do. Also, a lot of the appeal of the valkyries to me is the inspiration taken from real world fighter designs which lend a "realistic" feel to the designs, imo. The 2SS is more like just taking the VF-1 and trying to make it look futuristic by rounding it out more and then adding Star Trek nacelles to the valkyrie.

Added weathering to the Mac Plus valks in fighter mode using the same kits. Can't seem to get the subtle touches like paint fade to show up in the pics I took. Oh well. Did some on my VF-22S also.

I second the suggestion for sticker/decal sheets and the 1/60 scale ground crews + support vehicles.

Wait, what? Are you talking about the GBP that was released years ago for the original (v1) 1/60's? If so, it would not fit. The sculpts are far more different than you think with different proportions and the V2 is taller than the V1 as well. If that's not what you mean, then nevermind.

I assume you're asking me? Just do a search for Tamiya weathering master to find a store selling those. I used kits C and D. Mine were probably bad though. I ended up having to use my fingers because it was too dry and hardened for the brush to pick up anything and the foam applicators ripped quickly I masked off all the clear plastic pieces and sprayed a few layers of gloss clearcoat first over the destroids to make the stickers more even with the rest of the surface and to protect them, then I applied the panel lines with thinned out smoke colored tamiya acrylic paint and added the weathering using the kits. I finished with 3 or 4 layers of a matte finish. It was the first time I went through that much trouble to do weathering, but I liked the end results.

Those are great pics Vic. I love the poses. How high can you raise the arms when the shoulder armor is not plugged in?

Are they around the same scale or is the megahouse bigger?

Or could we have a separate poll for each of the VFs listed? Have choices along the lines of "Would buy/On the fence/Wouldn't buy" or "Strongly Interested/Slightly Interested/Neutral/Slightly Disinterested/Strongly Disinterested" Being able to pick only one is misleading as it doesn't give any indication as to what other ones besides their top choice that people would buy. If we have polls for each one, it would be easy to tally up and see which ones have the most potential for sales.

I finally got around to doing weathering on the couple destroids I have. My first time using the tamiya weathering kits. I think there was something wrong with the kits I got as the stuff in both kits were dry as chalk and very hard and I understood they were supposed to be slightly damp and more like cosmetics consistency. Anyway, I tried to make the best of it.

Yes, I know what its design inspiration is from. Just saying the design of the VF-17 doesn't seem to fit together as well as other valks do. With the shoulders overlapping over the chest area and from that point back, the dorsal side doesn't seem to flow very well, unlike the F-117 or the VF-171.

Where did you get those cabinets? They look pretty good and are wider than a detolf which is nice.

Wow, all those pics are making it really hard to resist getting one. Why couldn't they have made it really crappy?

Voted for the VF-0D. I love the fighter mode a lot with its delta wings and it's a 2 seater. But I would be equally happy with a VF-4. The VF-4 would be great because we lack that generational step between the VF-1 and VF-11 in toy form. Wouldn't mind a mass production 19, though not the kai. I wouldn't vote for the 17 because I think the fighter mode looks a little cobbled together and ill fitting, which the VF-171 completely fixes and looks really awesome. I used to love the VF-2SS back in the early 90's, but I guess my tastes have changed. I used to take a high preference of battroid mode over fighter, but as I've gotten older, I've gotten to appreciate the fighter modes of valkyries more to the point that the design of the fighter takes precedence over the battroid modes. The fighter mode of the VF-2SS looks terrible to me now, though the battroid still looks pretty good, but it mostly just looks like a modified VF-1 mixed with some VF-0 elements which to me is nothing that particularly special after we've been flooded with so many VF-1 toys.

Nice. We all knew that M&M's VF-22s were coming ever since they had their names and other stuff printed on the sticker sheet for Gamlin's 22. I love Max's color scheme. If I didn't already buy Gamlin's, I'd be getting that one.

The color of the armor just doesn't look right on Alto's VF.

Doesn't look like much has changed from previous pictures. I'm still waiting to see if the legs will extend properly. I wonder what is the purpose of being able to remove the elevator pads from the deck. At first, I thought it was to simulate elevating a valk to the deck, but then the area at the bottom should be painted to look the same as the piece that was taken off.

I wonder what is in your environment that is causing your plastics to yellow for those of you that have yellowing plastic. Like what other factors care causing it if it's not necessarily sunlight. Could it be caused by pollutants in the air or something? Ambient temperature and humidity? I have 1/48s back when they were originally released some in display and a couple boxed and neither show any signs of yellowing. The 1J I have is as pristinely white as the day I got it. I now keep all my valks in detolfs, but originally for a couple years, I had a bunch of them just displayed on open shelves that would have some indirect sunlight reflected onto them during a certain time of day. I live in northeastern part of the US and so the conditions vary greatly between cold and dry to hot and humid. I do live in the suburbs though so if air pollution is a factor for yellowing, I probably have very little of it. Going back on topic, I think I feel the same way as a few people here where I'm tired of all the VF-1s. I STILL haven't convinced myself to buy one of the 1/60s yet. My only motivation to get one is just to have one in scale with the other 1/60 mecha. I'm not really complaining though because they find time to work on putting out the other valks including taking chances on some of the more obscure ones. I'm glad that Yamato is generally improving both QC and just the overall quality of the products. My own experience with Yamato's Macross stuff has been pretty good.

I couldn't find any other improvements at least compared to the 25G or RVF-25 releases. The wings are still curved upwards, the leg position hasn't changed in fighter mode, doesn't look like any changes were made to the crotch locking mechanism so YMMV. I haven't had any problems with that with any of mine, so I probably lucked out. Paint is still shoddy, etc... So no, other than the tack on neck extension and the straighter head lasers, there's really no improvement cosmetically or otherwise that I could determine. On an unrelated note, the night I got mine, I discovered that the wing root near the folding hinge on the right side has developed a crack starting from the hinge outwards, if it wasn't there already. Probably due to stresses placed on it by the connection between the peg and the position of the hole in the leg armor or something. It may have caused it to split. The left side seems okay still with no stress marks or anything yet. I've only transformed it once to battroid and back again with armor on and left it like that and I don't think I've mishandled it as I'm pretty gentle with these things. I'm guessing a material defect. I recall another person earlier in ver 5 of this thread had the wing cleanly shear right off with no effort. I hope that doesn't happen to mine over time

Yeah I did some panel lining to bring out the detail. It really helped since Bandai did little to put markings on it.

He means these. The armor sits as high as the legs should have been able to without the armor on, but due to the design of the toys, the legs sat about even with the backplate instead of rising above it like the line art does.

Finally got my armored Ozma 25S today.

I picked up my Armored 25S from the post office today. I know people said the box was big, but I didn't really realize how big until I had the box in my hands. At least it was big for a reason. It was fully packed with pieces. Here's my take on it: As far as the basic valk goes, it doesn't look like any real improvements have been made other than straighter head lasers (although mine still aren't perfectly straight, but still good enough). The wings still have that upward curve (which I thought was supposed to be fixed). The paint application is spotty quality with chips and scratches out of the box and stray bits of colors spattered on adjacent areas. The neck extender doesn't stay in very well and often times the head will pop off while fiddling with it. The sculpting of the armor seems a lot better than that of the VF itself. The edges and details seem more defined to me. I was impressed at the level of detail they put into the armor such as the bronze colored vents in the boosters and the little rivets in parts of the armor. However it seems inconsistent. It's like they spent a lot of time on certain areas and then they ran out of steam and decided to skip other details like the vents on the top part of the wing missile launchers or the leg mounted launchers. In many pictures I've seen, the armor looked greenish. I was happy to find out that isn't the case when looking at it in person. Some if the pieces like the knee armor I felt could have been a slightly darker color, but that's probably just my preference. The leg armor doesn't restrict the knee movement like the super packs do. There's a lot of clearance in the back to bend the legs. The hip armor however does seem to restrict movement a bit. At least the hip armor definitely clips on this time. It's very snug for both sides and isn't likely to pop off. I really hate the arm pieces though. It's as bad as the hip armor for the super packs from previous releases. They just keep falling off. Speaking of falling off, I had my 25S in battroid mode when I put on the armor pieces. Trying to transform it to fighter with the armor still on was one of the most frustrating things I've tried to do in a while. Pieces that aren't normally supposed to come off (like the knee armor and armor piece that partly cover the canopy) were popping off all over the place while trying to align pegs or reattach things. And reattaching one piece often caused another piece to come off in the effort. The next time I try to transform this thing, I'm just leaving the leg armor on sans launchers and leave the rest of the armor off and reapply after transformation. Kind of like cheating on a rubik's cube by taking all the stickers off and putting them back on. The armor hides most of the bad design of the toy in fighter mode. Also, I've always felt that the VF-25 seemed a bit small somehow compared to the other 1/60 valks I have. However, this sucker is huge with all the armor pieces on. It just looks massive in fighter mode. It's no longer a fighter, it's a mobile weapons platform. Despite some problems I have with it, I like the toy and am having a hard time deciding what mode to put it in as well as finding a space to display it.

Ouch... seriously? So in addition to the hips being too high for battroid causing the LERX to get in the way when posing the legs, the alternative method of using the GERWALK joint to move the legs forward is not possible either? Speaking of which, doesn't that make GERWALK mode difficult to do as well? The color of the armor has been bothering me a bit. The sculpt looks good though. I'll reserve final judgement when mine arrives.

I call that a gundam style transformation. Bend the legs, tuck in the arms a bit and stick a pointy shield over the head or crotch and voila! Instant "plane".

I guess they're just holding out for summer wonderfest.