MacrossJunkie

>.< Not long after my last post, I found out that Overdrive will have pre-orders up.

Argh. I was waiting on Anime-Export or Overdrive to have these up for pre-order, but if this is a limited run, it doesn't look like it will happen. The earlybird pre-order for HLJ has passed by now as well I don't understand why they would go through the trouble of getting the license to make this and then have a very limited run which would limit how much money they could make from it unless they think demand is going to be extremely low. And if that's the case, why bother to go through the trouble in the first place?

PT = Perfect Transformation I'm sure you can figure out VF

Could you take a pic of the area you mean? Do you mean the gap in the LERX area? If so, I wouldn't say mine was as large as 1mm in size, but there's not much that can be done about that. At least as far as gaps go, it's still smaller than any of the gaps I have in my YF-19.

Please, could we end this pissing match? At this point, it really doesn't matter who's right or wrong, it's gone on for several pages and hasn't really gotten you two anywhere. If this needs to be discussed further, could it be taken to PMs rather than in this thread? It would be much appreciated.

A couple more comparisons for those interested. The 1/60 Isamus are basically the same height. The perceived difference in size is due to YF-19 Isamu being... err... big boned. Size comparison of all the Isamu pilots from Yamato. Cockpit compare: 11B Isamu fits very nicely into the 19's cockpit. He certainly doesn't look out of place in there. In fact, he probably looks better in there than the 19's version does.

People think it's bad when they see a froggy face on the Tomahawk. Well, one day I was looking at my defender and I realized it reminded me of a koala... I've never been able to look at the defender the same way again.

Hmmm, I haven't noticed any springiness to the feet. Mine just fold open normally in much the same way the 19 does, no springs or other mechanisms involved. I don't even need to pull them out first. Does it look like some extra bit of plastic is keeping yours from folding open properly?

I haven't noticed any discoloration/yellowing on my whitish valks either. My 1/48 1J still looks pristinely white after all this time and I don't see any difference between the exposed areas of my other VF-1 valks and the areas that were covered with super parts the whole time. then again, I keep all my mostly white valks in detolf displays and usually don't have sunlight streaming into the room other than what gets through the spaces in the blinds. The extra layer of glass probably helps to further filter out UV. I have my study lit using fluorescent bulbs. I know the bulbs are supposed to absorb the UV light and convert it to visible light, but I don't know how much, if any, UV waves may escape. I doubt it's enough to make any impact though. I'd say the main thing is to keep your white valks away from direct sunlight, heat sources, and smoke. Check the fountain of youth thread for ways to whiten your 1J.

How the heck did you get them to stay in place with any sort of tilt at all? The way you have your Max 1S, 1J and 11B would have caused my stands to flop over immediately. For the past two nights, I've tried to have my 11 on the stand in fighter mode with no tilt or incline. Each morning, I find it the stand flopped over with my 11 upside down. From what I can discern, the elbow piece slowly tilts one way or the other through the course of the night until it reaches the point where it just falls over. Both stands are equally floppy. I want to just run these stands over with my car and be done with it. I've gotten to hate these stands a lot!

It holds very well. Unlike the VF-0 and YF-19 leg armor where they can slide around while you're holding it by the legs in fighter mode and relying solely on conformity to the shape of the leg to keep the thing in place, the VF-11B's leg armor has an additional peg closer to the knee joint which helps a lot to keep the leg piece from sliding around. The magnets seem stronger as well. I haven't once accidentally knocked the super packs off my 11 in fighter, gerwalk or battroid modes where that tends to happen to me a lot with the VF-0 or 19 while posing them or transforming. The shield is another matter though as I can't seem to do anything with it in battroid mode without the stupid thing falling off onto the floor. A mere jostle can make the shield fall off on mine. Grrrrr Fortunately the connections while in fighter mode function a lot better.

He applied the weathering himself.

Finished doing the panel lines and stickers on my 11B. Took some shots of it and my other M+ valks as well.

I took my old 1/72 out of storage and put it next to the 1/60. Of all the 1/72 M+ valks, the VF-11B was the best of them, but even then, it's just horrifically ugly compared to the new ones. It's just no comparison. Heavy black panel lines, toyish looking features and proportions, etc... Yamato has come a long way.

The main problem with the old stickers were that they were composed of multiple layers which tended to peel at the corners eventually. Also they were thicker and stiffer which made it difficult to fit them into panel lines as well and thick enough to cast shadows. I think if Yamato had some way to lock the swivel points after you get them in a desired position, that would have made the stands pretty great. If after you've had the chance to mess with the stands and have a different experience than what I reported in the stand thread, please do tell. I'm curious if someone might have more luck trying to get something like a 1/60 VF-1 with fast packs or any other valk prior to the VF-11 displayed on the stand in a position other than completely horizontal. I find the VF-11 toy to be surprisingly light weight. There is a very noticable difference in weight even between the VF-11B w/ packs vs a bare bones YF-19. It might even be comparable in weight to the 1/72 VF-11B. But even with the light weight, neither of my stands could support the VF-11 in any sort of dynamic position Disappointing since there are so many pictures with the VF-11B displayed on these new stands.

Thanks. That seems to help. Though it takes me around 3-5 minutes of fiddling before I can get it just right after each time I transform it. I still think that such a hassle should not have been necessary in the first place. I wish it had more tampo printing as well. It seems like a backward step from the 1/60 VF-1s. At least the stickers are the thin kind that come with the new VF-1s and destroids rather than the sucky ones that came with the YF-21 and earlier products. Overall, I really like this toy though. It is definitely the easiest of the Mac+ valks to transform, though that's more due to the straightforward transformation of the valk's design itself. As a side note regarding the stickers, is there any material that shows where some of this stuff is supposed to go? I usually go by the Hasegawa model decal instructions but they never made a VF-11B. I have a general idea where to put most of them going by conventions used by the other valks, but just wondering if there might have been something that Yamato went off of to design the other stuff on the sticker sheet.

With a few minor tweaks to the stand, they could have made it pretty good for the 1/60 line, but some poor design choices make it unsuitable. I did improve it a little by wrapping the elbow joint connection with scotch tape and sliding it back in. It helps for the relatively light weight VF-11, but the YF-19 and VF-0 are a no go as they are too heavy still.

I have that issue too. Mine rocks back and forth with nothing but the tip of that little pointed plastic part on the slider to keep it elevated. It looks like there's little slotted pegs that are supposed to go into the slots on the side of the cockpit, but they really do nothing to hold the cockpit in place. Mine won't fall out when turned upside down, but it won't stay in place either. I'm a little disappointed how everything else about the toy has been designed very well, but the cockpit itself (I'm not talking about the heatshield, so please no one ask about the lower heatshield again!) just seems poorly designed in its ability to stay firmly in place in fighter mode.

I just got these stands today and it took me less than 5 minutes to realize these stands suck. I'm glad I only got two as I would be extremely pissed if I had wasted even more money on more. The problem with these stands is that they are too loose. Yamato put some ratcheting in a couple joints (even those are barely enough to hold up the weight of a 19), but the rest rely on almost non-existent friction to stay up. The crucial elbow joint that is used in conjunction with VFs like the 19 and 11B is one of those joints. I popped on my 19 and 11B onto the two stands and they inevitably start to fall over and could damage the wings or something else when the joint swings to the side. In the 11's case, the connector peg is smaller than the slot in the elbow joint so it's really loose. If it flops over, it will also have the added feature of catapulting your expensive VF-11B to the ground since the peg fit is pretty bad. Luckily I was watching it and propped it back up before it could do so. I don't think I could trust these stands to display any of my valks. They're just too loose and unreliable. I'd recommend just sticking with the flexi stands if anyone is wondering/on the fence about whether to get the Yamato stands or flexi display stands. edit: added picture The joints I have issue with in particular are the swivel I show along the green line and the swivel where the elbow joint connects into the stand shown along the blue line. They are both so loose that unless you display your valk at a nearly horizontal position, the weight could cause either or both of those swivel points to turn downwards and dump your valk on the shelf or the ground.

Six pictures down in this thread, there's a pic with the cockpit removed and you can see some styrofoam. Is it those pieces there that keep the cockpit up and puts pressure on the heat shield?

I hope Yamato is able to provide some sort of instruction on how to get the heat shield to lock. I find it hard to believe that they could come up with all these clever ways to do stuff like implement the integrated heat shield on the VF-11 and then frak it up by forgetting something so basic as making it so that the heat shield can stay in place. I mean look at the YF-21. Not only did they find ways to do stuff like hide the arms and the shoulders and make the nose shorter in battroid, they also engineered it well pretty much every step of the way. Very solid in fighter with no creaking or things coming loose and everything stays in place in battroid mode very well also. Also has the best looking poseable hands Yamato has ever made on a Macross toy and probably has the best grip on the gunpods as well. Sure it took a little while for people to find that you could lock the chest down as people had complained it flopped around. It turned out that it did have a way to lock it down. So I'm hoping this is the case here with the VF-11's heat shield and just no one has found out the correct way yet. *crosses fingers*

Proportions of the head and all look the same to me. Maybe it's just the angle that's making you think it looks different?

I hope overdrive or anime-export will have pre-orders for those available at some point.

Graham, Alex or whoever else has the VF-11B already... is there any merit to my observation on the previous page regarding the little bump on the heat shield? link to post

You probably just need to change the filter in your furnace more often. Also, in my experience from having one, the ionic air purifiers do dick in getting rid of dust and allergens in the air. Sure they catch enough dust to cover the surface of the attractors, but they don't move enough air to put a dent in the amount of dust floating around. From consumer reports and such, they pretty much confirm that as well. They also fill the room with ozone. If you want better results, you're probably better off getting one of those HEPA air purifiers that require filters.