Graham

As well as the rapidly loosening shoulders and hip joints, I also consider the design of the shoulder armour attachment to be seriously flawed. The damn shoulder armour pops of at the slightest touch and I find that transforming the toy, especially to and from fighter mode is an exercise in frustration beacuse of this. I've already had one incident where I seriously lost my patience with the toy after the shoulder armour popped off for the twentieth time during transformation and ended up throwing both shoulder armours at the wall as hard as I could. One of them came apart at the seam line. Luckily I could glue it back together. When a toy is this frustrating, it ceases to be fun. It was lucky it was only the shoulder armours I threw. I nearly ended up throwing the whole toy at the wall in anger. I'm very experienced with VF toys and usually extremely calm and patient, but the YF-29 and Bandai 1/60 v.1 Armoured VF-25S Ozma have tested my patience like no other toys ever have. Basically, out of the two VF toys purchased recently (VF-19Kai & YF-29), the YF-29 has become a 'don't touch' shelf warmer, where as the VF-19Kai still gets handled and transformed all the time. Graham

VF-17S should be shipping late Dec or early Jan. Graham

Just to note, the magazine on the gunpod will be the standard gunpod magazine, not the beam adaptor, so should be grey, not orange. Graham

OK, from time to time, I've seen people on this forum complain about the appearence of the v2 1/60 VF-1 neck. I've gotta ask, what exactly is the problem? To me the neck has always looked fine. Could somebody please post a clear pic with text and arrows (if necessary) explaining what it is about the neck that they think looks off, as I just don't see or get it. I will then possibly raise this issue with Yamato. But I do need a clear illustrated explanation, perhaps including comparison pics with the lineart. Thanks in advance, Graham

Hmmm.........perhaps people should try using a little less 'force'. The words "force" and "transforming plastic toys" are never a good mix. Seriously, if I had a spare junker VF-19, it would be an interesting experiment to see how much force is needed to force the socket apart. Haven't experienced this problem on my two VF-19 and I'm not gentle with them either. Not rough, but not gentle. Graham

No, I mentioned the VF-19S ankles would be improved. Basically, the tray that holds the ankle ball joint on the VF-19S will now have a metal plating, compared to just being painted as on the VF-19Kai. Using a metal plating allows Yamato to control the thickness of the plating more accurately compared with the layer of paint on the VF-19Kai. This should increas friction and have less wear compared to paint. I don't know about the VF-17S ankles, whether they are ball or ratchet joints. I have emailed Yamato today to ask. Graham

Note the FAST Pack attachment points on the photo Graham Dunno, I've only seen pics, haven't acctually handled a test shot yet. Graham The scale is 1/60, same as all Yamato's recent VF releases As for the size, in fighter mode, the VF-17 is shorter that the VF-19. Roughtly about the same length as the VF-11, or maybe a tad longer. In Battroid mode, it's pretty tall though. The top of the VF-17-S's head (excluding head lasers), comes to the top of The Fire Valks head fin. Graham

Heh, just noticed a bug or modelling error in the WTF game. When you use the VF-17S with Super Packs, the super pack under the right wing is missing in fighter mode. In battroid and gerwalk modes, where the pack is located on the leg, it is present. They got it correct with the VF-17D and Milia's red VF-17S, which have the packs under both left and right wings in fighter mode. Anybody know how to unlock the VF-19S? Graham

Sorry to all those who didn't receive hinges during the two periods where I was posting them in 2009 (or was it 2010) and 2011. Many (or most) people on the list did receive them and I posted out hundreds of pairs of hinges. Unfortunately, there was never going to be enough for everybody. I even didn't keep any back for my own toys. As I've posted previously, I was going though some health and family problems in 2010 and disabled my PM box for most of that year, as I was getting spammed by too many requests which I didn't read and will not read. Basically, I have no intention of going back and reading all those old unread PMs. Sorry for all those who PMed me then, but it was just a bad time in my life, when I had no interest in doing much of anything. Basically, some of u just bugged me (spammed me) at the wrong damn time in my life, sorry. Graham

Just to clarify, in the anime, the gunpod does not split into two pieces. The shoulder stock splits lengthwise down the middle and then folds up around the barrel/magazine of the gunpod and then the folded gunpod is stored completely in the right leg. What you may be getting mixed up with is the orange color beam gun adaptor, which is stored seperately in the left leg. When Gamlin wants to convert the standard 40mm gunpod to a single use high-powered beam weapon, he ejects the orange beam gun adapter from the right leg, removed the gunpod's standard shell magazine from the gunpod, attaches the beam gun adaptor and then fires the single use high powered beam. I'll confirm that the gunpod will store internally in the Yamato toy. However, due to space limitation caused by the size of the gunpod, the storage is not 100% anime accurate. With the knee joint, ankle joint, cross pegs for screws, landing gear, there is space limitation in 1/60 scale. And yes, the actual physical sculpt looks much better than those 3D CADs. Graham

Yep just the angle. The actual sculpt looks awesome. Graham

Yamato is using a completely different and much better factory these days. The factory they use now is not the same factory that made the VF-0 and YF-19. Of course the downside to using this better factory is that they charge Yamato much more. Of course whether the same grade of plastic is still in use, I don't know, but I hope not. I will try to ask. I do remember with the VF-0 arms Yamato told me that there was some chemical reaction occuring between the grey ABS plastic of the arms and the rubber or PVC in the joints, which weakened the plastic, causing it to crack. Unfortunately, they only found out too late. Graham

And Graham's Hinge Supply is now closed for business. All out of hinges now. Graham

Photos of the breakages attached. Graham

Will take some pics when I get home tonight. It was strange, cus the toy was standing there fine in the cabinet, but as soon as I picked it up the joints literally crumbled before my eyes. Graham

Damn, one of my display 1/60 YF-19 toys suffered a spontaneous disintegration of the right shoulder joint and left knee joint at the weekend  This was a first release YF-19 that had been standing in battroid mode in my display cabinet, untouched for several years. At the weekend, I decided to have a reorganization of my display cabinet. I carefully lifted out the YF-19 and the arm and lower leg just suddenly fell off. The grey plastic in the affected areas had literally just crumbled away. I’ve seen this happen to VF-0 shoulders and elbow joints before, but never on a 1/60 YF-19. Will post some photos of the effected joints later. Anybody else had this happen on their YF-19 before? Graham

Alex, If you know somebody that lives in Japan, have them telephone or email Yamato Customer Service and ask if they have the part you need. Please be aware, Yamato Customer Service will only supply spare parts to people iving in Japan. They will not ship spare parts to people living outside of Japan. Perhaps you can ask one of our Japan based members like Save or Renato to help you? However, as the 1/48 hasn't been in production for a while, it's probably unlikely they have many spares (or any) spares in stock. And to be honest, the 1/48's wing is not a part that I've heard of ever breaking before, so they many not have stocked that part. Oh, and forget OverDrive, the person there who was responsible for handling overseas orders and was really helpful and responsive left the company ages ago and the present staff and management don't seem interested in responding to overseas enquiries. Graham

1 pair of cream hinges remaining. Graham

Hopefully, it's an Android game and something similar to MUF.

Ha, I remember seeing this in the cinema when I was like 10 or 11 and quite enjoying it. Graham

Status Update Down to 9 pairs of cream hinges only. Graham

I'm sure he's a nice guy and all, but I just can't get into his artwork, it's always looked too rushed, unfinished and minimalistic for my tastes. In fact he's one of my most disliked comic artists. No matter how well a story is written, I just can't read it if it's drawn by Yeowell, especially his black and white stuff. If it's coloured, I can sometimes tolerate it. I don't mind simplistic and minimalistic art, by other artists, like Jock for example, but there's something about Yeowell's art that's always bugged me. Graham

In no particular order and representing British comics, which have been noticably absent from this thread so far: 1) Brian Bolland - Judge Dredd. 2) Mike McMahon - Judge Dredd (Pre-80's era only). 3) Bryan Talbot - The Adventures of Luther Arkwright / Heart of Empire. 4) Carlos Ezquerra - Strontium Dog / Judge Dredd. 5) Kevin O'Neil - Nemesis the Warlock / Marshall Law / LOEG. Honorable mentions to: 6) Steve Dillon - Axel Pressbuton / Preacher / Judge Dredd / Mean Arena. 7) Ron Smith - Judge Dredd. Mark Harrison - Judge Dredd / Glimmer Rats / The Travellers. 9) Dave Gibbons - Rogue Trooper / Watchmen. 10) Cliff Robertson - Judge Dredd. 11) Jesus Redondo - M.A.C.H. 1 / The Mind of Wolfie Smith / Timequake / Return to Armageddon. 12) Alan Davis - D.R. & Quinch / Miracleman. 13) Ian Gibson - The Ballad of Halo Jones / Robo Hunter / Judge Dredd. 14) Massimo Belardinelli- Meltdown Man / Ace Trucking Co. / Inferno. 15) Colin Wilson - Rain Dogs / Judge Dredd / Rogue Trooper. Graham

Same here. I like most FAST packs and love the ones for the VF-1, VF-11 & VF-17, but I just can't bring myself to like these, or the YF-29 much either. As others have said, it just looks too busy. Perhaps after watch the second Frontier movie I'll like them more. Graham

Now down to 12 pairs of cream colored hinges. Once they are gone, that's it. Graham