Graham

I'd love to see the standard grey VF-0D as well, which should be an easy one, since they already have the mold from the blue VF-0D Shin type. I hope all gunpods are painted from series 3 onwards. It's wierd that they only painted the VF-25 and Hikaru's VF-1A gunpod in series 2. Graham

Great, keep em' coming guys. Graham

Many years ago, I spent a great deal of time studying the VF-17 line art, animation, 1/65 toys, 1/144 pla-models and 1/100 garage kits and came to the conclusion that there is very little storage space available in the VF-17's shoulders for the micro-misiles. I reckon the total is either 2, 3 or at most 4 micro-missiles per launcher, which would give a capacity of either 4, 6, or 8 micro-missiles per shoulder, but no more than that. The VF-17 has always been more of a gunship than a missile fighter IMO, given its extremely heavy gun armament (gunpod w/beam adaptor + wrist/elbow beam guns + chest beam guns + head lasers). Graham

Yes, the more pics the better. The last time I asked for pics last year, I got sent a grand total of 2 pics, which hardly goes a long way towards convincing Yamato that it is an epidemic. Well, we still managed to get them to change to the smooth pins...........or so I thought! Graham

That's 'Figure Oh' magazine from the middle or early last year. I've got that issue. I think it's been posted here before, but no harm to post it again. Graham

And just to reiterate, as long as your VF-1 has the smooth pins, it will be fine. Graham

I'm getting the impression that Bandai hates the VF-171, or is just not aware it exists, or just doesn't think it would sell. There has been absolutely no news of a VF-171 model. Likewise, there has also been a deathly silence regarding a VF-171 in any of the many Macross F toy lines. Graham

Aren't the Wave 1/100 VF-1S Battroid, 1/100 VF-1S Fighter and 1/100(?) Destroid Monster kits also coming out in this year? Graham

If I can have a pic of the crack, that would be great. The more evidence I have to show to Yamato, the more chance that I might be able to get spares for everybody. Graham

Can't believe this thread is at 8 pages. It must be the most uninteresting thread ever. I mean do people really care if others have a package in the mail? Well, I guess they do, but I mean.....yawn! OK, I have a package in the mail.........zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz! Graham

Will try, but getting parts out of them even for me has been like getting blood out of a stone. Graham

I don't recall hearing of any breakages with the smooth pin. Am I wrong? Anyway, Yamato's HK based production manager will be visiting the factory in China on Friday and will discuss the pin matter with them. Also, Yamato's big boss from Japan will be in HK next week, so I will again raise this matter when we have dinner. Graham

Need a replacement right shoulder for my VF-1J that came with the GBP armor. I should probably go and check my older V2 1/60 in my display cabinet. Graham

I think we've been lucky (in a way) with the VT-1 seeing no breakages, but just beacuse I'm guessing that few people actually bother to transform it. I know I've certainly never trasformed mine. It sits in fighter mode (its best looking mode) IMO) all the time. Graham

Interesting, I think we are going to need a survey to see how many of us have VT-1 with smooth pins and how many have the knurled pins. Graham

Knurled pins on those repackaged VF-1S? Graham

Received a reply from Yamato. According to them, the factory had been instructed to use the smooth (non-knurled shoulder pins), on all VF-1 toys, since I think late-July or early- August 2009. The exception being the VF-1J Hikaru that comes with the GBP Armor, as according to them, it is repackaged old stock and thus has the older style knurled shoulder pins. Yamato were surprised to hear that the VT-1 has the knurled sholder pins, as it should have had the smooth pins. I need a favor from you guys. Those of you with a steady hand and a camera with a good macro function, can you please take a photo of the shoulder hinge on your VT-1, which shows the knurled end of the pin in the hinge. Ideally, I need about 3-4 clear (in focus) photos to send to Yamato. Graham

Just sent a fairly strongly worded follow-up email to Yamato asking why the knurled pins are still being used on some recent releases, yet others have the smooth pins. Honestly, I went though all this with them already months ago in several meetings/calls/emails, even meeting with the factory owner and thought we had got the issue resolved by switching to all smooth pins for all releases. I'm hoping it is the factory's error or negligence (using the wrong pins and not informing Yamato) and not Yamato's error as they should be beyond this sort of frakk up by now. I'm busy enough with my own job without having to put out fires for somebody else's company! Not a happy camper. Not (too) annoyed about my toy breaking, after all I can likely get it fixed or replaced. More annoyed that this problem is still occuring after all the pressure I put on them previously and the supposed solution that was supposed to be implemented across the board. Graham

Haven't seen the Frontier movie yet, but all the CG pics and screen shots in the 3 movie guide books, plus recent hobby magazines show the movie version VF-25F with Tornado Pack as white, not bluish-white. Even Bandai's own 1/250 scale VF-25F Tornado Pack toy has a white Valk. I think the bluish tint on Bandai's 1/60 'so-called' VF-25F Super movie version toy, is just something dreamed up by Bandai execs to milk the molds and sell more toys, not an actual color scheme that appears in the movie. Graham

These are definitely my most played with toys at the moment. I get a few of them out pretty much every night and zoom them around having pretend dogfights while I'm watching TV in the bedroom. Annoys the wife no end. In fact I haven't touched any of my 1/60 Yamato or Bandai toys for ages. When I bought home the 1/60 VF-22S Max last night and took it out of the box, it just seemed too massive. I really hope we get some SV-51 toys in series 4 (if there is a series 4), along with of course VF-17. VF-171 & VF-11. I reckon with all the possible variants, Bandai could easily do 6-7 series and that's not even starting on Battroid or Gerwalk figures! Graham

Picked up the Max VF-22S yesterday and noticed the blue plastic of the back section seems to be a slightly darker shade that the rest of the VF. Anybody else notice this on theirs? Graham

My GBP armor is now happily being worn by my original VF-1J Hikaru, who has also had a head swap, so he now has the head with the grey visor. The newer VF-1J Hikaru with the broken shoulder is now sulking in fighter mode, to hide his injury. Graham

Haven't heard back from Yamato yet. Here's a theory, I thought of a few minutes ago: For every item Yamato has made, they give the factory a set of instructions, or a work guide if you like, which lists what they want made, the number and type of components it consists of, how it should be made, painted, tampoed etc, etc. Although the GBP is a new item, the VF-1J that it comes with is basically a toy from last year, with the exception of a small paint application change (the grey visor). Suppose Yamato just cut and pasted the work guide from last year's Hikaru VF-1J into the guide for the GBP + VF-1J and forgot to change the pin part number. This could explain why recent releases (I hope) use the new non-knurled pins and have had no breakages reported, but the VF-1J+GBP uses the older knurled pins. As I said, just a theory and probably wrong. Can anybody remember if the pins on the original VF-1S Focker an VF-1A Hikaru where knurled on both ends or on one end only? Also, can anybody check some of the recent releases now to see if the pins are completely smooth on both ends, or knurled on one end like in my photo of the VF-1J that comes with the GBP? Anyway, this is the first reported breakage (that I am aware of), in a long while, so the sky is not falling yet! Graham

The knurling is quite visible even on the intact shoulder, so I'm going to carefully check other recent VF-1 releases tonight when I get home to see if I can spot it or not. I'm hoping it's just a case of the factory using the wrong pins by mistake and Yamato not realising. Graham

Picked up the Yamato V2 1/60 VF-1J with GBP yesterday and also the VF-2SS Max at the Ins-Point shopping center in Yau Ma Tei. Now there’s some good news and some bad news. First the good news: The GBP-1S Armour is absolutely beautiful IMO. Yamato have really outdone themselves. Yamato obviously designed the V2 VF-1 from the ground up to be compatible with the GBP Armor. The folding leg fins on the VF-1 really mean for the first time ever that we can have lower leg armor that is in proportion. And talking of proportions, the new V2 GBP has absolutely the best proportions of any GBP toy to date IMO. It’s packed full of detail, lots of nice little touches everywhere and I’m so happy that all the major markings are actually tampo printed on this time. The GBP not only looks good, but it is extremely playable as well, as all the armor pieces stay on very well and nothing falls off. It's a huge improvement on both the original 1/60 GBP and the 1/48 GBP. The side torso covers attach very securely and actually clip into place into the U-shape brackets that hold the hip bar in F/G modes - another nice touch that shows the V2 VF-1 was designed from the beginning with the GBP in mind. The cover behind the neck (another nice touch), also clips into place very securely. Now for the bad news: I took the toy home last night, unpacked it, transformed the included Hikaru VF-1J from fighter to battroid mode, so I could fit the GBP armor and on the first transformation, the shoulder hinge broke, which means the arm now falls off! I was surprised to see that one end of the metal shoulder pin is knurled. I thought the factory had stopped using the knurled pins ages ago. In my opinion, the knurling does put too much pressure on the plastic and makes it very easy for the plastic around the end of the pin to crack. See the attached photos, which show the broken plastic part and also the knurling on one end of the pin. I have many V2 1/60 VF-1 toys and have transformed them dozens of times, but this is my first time that I have personally experienced a cracked shoulder. I'm pissed that this happened, when I thought the problem was fixed. I've written to Yamato and am awaiting their reply. For now, transform the arms with extreme care. Graham