Graham

So, I had a dinner meeting with Yamato last night and I kicked butt and took names. The main topic of discussion was the shoulder pin issue and I took great pains to ram home just how much of an issue this was. Other items were also discussed. Here’s a point-by-point summery of the main points of discussion and the decisions reached: - Shoulder Hinge Issue Yamato did not know that some VT-1 toys were supplied with knurled pins. The VT-1 toys were supposed to be supplied with the smooth pins. Somebody at the factory screwed up, either intentionally or unintentionally. There was a big meeting at the factory over this last Friday and apparently it resulted in somebody from the factory getting fired. I mentioned that many members had been waiting months for replacement VF-1 shoulder hinges from OverDrive. Yamato said they will as quickly as possible make available to OverDrive a large number of white shoulder hinges with smooth pins. Also some of the cream color shoulder hinges for use with the VT-1/VF-1D will be made available. Hopefully, these should be available with a few weeks. Replacement shoulder hinges will also be made available through an alternate source. Please PM me for details. For the Hikaru VF-1J with GBP-1S Armour set fiasco. All I can say is this is stupidity on Yamato’s part. There had been no reported cases of the first run of VF-1J Hikaru’s cracking, so Yamato assumed they would be OK. I explained to them that even sitting in storage or display and not being touched, the knurled pin will stress the plastic of the shoulder hinge and cause it to crack. Yamato sincerely apologies for this and promise greater availability of spares through OverDrive and elsewhere (see above). Yamato say they will revise the metal parts checklist and add extra steps and take greater care during the manufacturing process to insure that only the smooth pins are used in future. Yamato will look into changing the shoulder hinge design when they get back to Japan. I’ve told them the plastic needs to be thicker. They will look into it. I will follow up with them about this in a few weeks. You will be happy to hear that I was told the VF-1S Hikaru and VF-1S Fokker reissues that come with the flashlights are new manufacture, not old stock and Yamato say they have the smooth pins. (posted edited and some info removed at the request of the big boss). Graham

Experten, who previously went by another name (who's name eludes me for the moment) also sold transformable YF-21 and VF-22S IIRC. And on Yahoo Japan auctions, they have soold for 95,000 yen. Graham

So I heard Dollhouse was cancelled by Fox after the end of season 2 right? I'm honestly getting reluctant to start watching any new sci-fi shows, espcially those by Fox if they are going to prematurely cancel them all the time. First Firefly, then Terminator SCC and now Dollhouse. Really, it's just seems not worth bothering to invest my time in a show and get to like it, if its just going to get cancelled. Graham

If it has the shoulder pins that are smooth on both ends, it should be fine, unless you handle it like a 300lb ham fisted ogre. It is supposed to have the smooth pins, but these days you can never be too sure. I'll check mine when I get home tonight. I think I've got it in Battroid mode in my display cabinet. 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