Graham

Yes Graham

Here's a couple of pics of baby stickered up. Pics will be taken down after a while, please don't repost before Dec 28th. Graham

figured out how to solve the lose left shoulder armour problem, I wasn't pushing it up high enough in batroid mode. Geting faster at transforming from fighter to Gerwalk mode, but going back to fighter mode is still a struggle, due to the time and care you need to take geting the hips past the arpit LERX. Graham

Get the Blazer, it's a beautiful bird. Graham

Further comments. Have emailed Yamato to ask when it's OK to put up photos, as they don't like me puting up photos before the official release date. Transformed this thing a few times now. As Renato and Save noted, it does feel very heavy and solid in the hand., The weight is especially noticeable in fighter mode. However, engineering-wise, it does feel half a step backwards in some respects, compared to the VF-19. The good news is the ankles joints, while still ball joints seem to be an improved design over the VF-19 and feel more stable and solid compared to the 19's ankle joints. Mine has a lose left elbow joint (doible-jointed joint) though and also a loose right shoulder armour connection, so that the shoulder armour often sags down a few degrees. I'm also not 100% happy about the hip joint design as well, as the left and right metal hip joint pegs, which slide inwards into the body to lock in place, rely on a friction fit only, which may give issues later down the road. And as mentioned, transforming the hips past the LERX to go from batroid mode back to fighter mode, without chewing up the tips or edge of the LERX can be an exercise in patience. Otherwise, it's a fantastic looking and extremely posable toy. While the VF-17 has long been my favourite VF, I think design-wise as 'fun toy', I actually prefer the VF-19Kai/S. Not saying the VF-17S is a bad toy, but it does have some quirks that need to be learned and accepted. Gets a 7 out of 10 from me so far. Graham

I'd say that's a prety good guess. And I'll give a hint, it ain't the first one. My main concern is whether it will be un unpainted, unassembled kit (I hope not), or a full assembled, painted toy (hope so). Graham

There's a leaflet with the manual, that contains an announcement that will in turn excite a great many fans, but also at the same time, likely piss off just as many. Graham

I probably shouldn't post this pic, but what the heck. Initial observations: 1) Many sharp, thin, pointy parts. In fact there's a whole page of the manual that warns you about these. 2) Easy to transform from fighter to Gerwalk or Fighter to Battroid. 3) More difficult to transform back to battroid, Maybe I'm just not familiar enough with the transformation yet, but I found it a major pain in the ass getting the hips back past the LERX to get it back into fighter mode and in fact I dinged up the thin and pointy LERX doing so. 4) Looks cool in all three modes and extremely poseable. 5) One foot poses possible, just like the publicity pics. Graham

I'll probably draw some flak for saying this, but I don't think any of the VF-19Kai have had loose ankles out of the box. From what I've read so far on this site (excuse me if I'm wrong), but the loose ankles reported here, seem to have all been caused by trying to force the ankle joint in ways it was not designed to go, which then causes the joint to loosen. Again I may be wrong, but isn't it only 2-3 toys reported so far that have suffered this problem IIRC. I don't consider this a QC issue, but perhaps it is fair to say the ankle joint could have been better designed to withstand wear-and-tear and to give the joint a wider range of movement, to anticipate all the poses which owners may wish to place it in. All I know is I haven't tried to force the ankle joints on my 2 x VF-19Kai and 2 x VF-19S past their design limits and all are still fine. Graham

Just took my soon to see Arthur Christmas and spotted an upside down 1/55 in fighter mode, in the first few minutes of the film, in a kids's bedroom. Graham

I'm guessing mine is production standard as it's came in the box with the instructions and stickers. I only opened the box breifly when I received it from the courier yesterday, just to verify whether it had tampo printing or not. It was tough resisting temptation, but I didn't even remove it from it's plastic tray. It just went straight back in the box and was wrapped up in Christmas paper. Call me crazy, but I wanna wait til' Christmas morning to open it with all the other presents, with my son and wife together. Anyway, I've waited so long for a decent VF-17 toy, I can wait one more day. Graham

Hahaha! Graham

It only needs 3 markings, the 2 UN Spacy kites on the chest, plus the Diamond Force emblem, so I can't understand why they wouldn't tampo print them on! Graham Wrapped up, to be put under the Christmas tree and opened on Christmas morning. Graham

It only needs 3 markings, the 2 UN Spacy kites on the chest, plus the Diamond Force emblem, so I can't understand why they wouldn't tampo print them on! Graham

Hmmm.........either I've received a pre-production sample, or their really is no tampo printing! Just shot off an email to clarify. Graham

What happened to episode 13? Did it not air? Is the show taking a break or something? Graham

I love Clash too. Looking for a DVD copy, as although I still have 2 VHS tapes, I no longer have a VHS player Graham

I discovered Macross through the old Arai and Imai Macross model kits which were selling in UK toy and model shops in 1982 or maybe it was 1983. So I was 12 or 13 then. I bought a whole bunch of the kits then, well at least as much as my meagre pocket money would allow. I fell in love with the kit designs and the Yoshiyuki Takani box art and promised myself I would one day track down and watched the anime they were from. I didn't actually get to see any Macross anime until catching a few episodes of the TV series on Hong Kong TV in 1986 and then I was lucky enough to get to see a summer rerun of DYRL at the Cinema in Hong Kong in IIRC 1988, which I watched several times. That's really what really got me hooked for life on Macross. Nothing beats DYRL on the big screen! As far as TV series go, I actually identity and prefer Macross 7 more, as unlike the original SDF Macross TV series, I was able to watch Macross 7 from start to finish as it was airing in 1994-5 with only minimum delay, via bootleg VHS tapes, which arrived in HK only a few days after the episodes aired in Japan. However, I love all Macross and there's not a Macross TV series, OVA or movie that I dislike. I've never actually watched much Robotech, as I don't think it ever aired in either UK or HK (at least not while I was there/here). But from what I have seen, the dubbing and songs really make me cringe. Graham

Plus we had the Bandai YF-29 recently. I'd hardly call it dead. Graham

I'm hoping the VF-17S's gunpod has the 7-barrel muzzle detail. The lack of muzzle detail on the gunpod was the only thing that disappointed me with the VF-19S. Graham

Oh, we'll definitely get a VF-17D and VF-17S Millia and FAST Packs for the VF-17 and of of course a VF-19F and VF-19P. And somewhere in the release schedule there will be the very exciting next VF announcement. Graham

Not a production sample, as no tampo printing. Lilkely, correct colour test shot. Note that test shots go through several generations in the process of getting the bugs worked out, gaps minimized, joints tightened up, parts fitting improved etc. Even after molds are cut, they will be modified several times in order to get everything just right. Even with CAD/CAM, the first generation test shots, will be loose, gappy etc., so the engineers need to figure out how to modify the molds, then a second generation test shot is made, gaps, tightness fitting is again checked, if futher changes to the molds are required, this is done again a third gen test shot made and checked, until everybody is happy and then it goes into production. Graham

I love it when people get all panicky, pre-release about resin prototypes or ABS-test shots, which are often loose and have gaps, before final modification of the tooling. Graham Just want to point out, the coloured shoulder stripes are also visible on the fighter mode underside of the Bandai 1/65 DX VF-17S/D toys. Graham

Ho Ho Ho! I've just heard that Santa may be leaving a nice 'stealthy' present under my tree in time for Christmas. Oh, what a nightmare........heh, heh. Graham

Yes, but on the original resin prototype, the yellow stripes on the shoulders were too low down. After this was pointed out to them, the stripes were moved higher up to the more correct poosition. Graham