Graham

Hmm.....looking better than the previous pic from a few weeks ago and looks like there may be less parts swapping on the VF-19 than I suspected. Not much meat on the back of the upper legs though, although that is unavoidable on the 19, unless you have that part swapable. Graham

Heh, if the original short neck could be 'over extended', then it wouldn't be a short neck.......LOL! Graham

Those who didn't like or love MF, we have your names now and our operatives will be coming for you soon to escort you do the mandatory re-education camps. Do not try to flee. Resistance is futile.

The neck in that new pic is definitely much longer than the standard neck. If you look closely, it looks segmented. Big improvement on the standard neck IMO. Also, looking at the new pic of the fighter mode w/Armored pack, it looks like the tail fins do not have enough room to fold down. However, I then looked at the rear view pic of the battroid wearing the Armored pack and the tail fins do appear to be folded in that pic. Graham

Both Dragon Ball Evolution and Legend of Chun Li have been getting terrible reviews here in HK. No plans to see either of them. Graham

The hip armor has two teeny, tiny little tabs, that fit into extremely shallow little slots, one of those slots being the bottom of the hip gun joint. Basicallly, the tabs are useless, being only slightly better than friction fit. Graham

I tried transforming from Super Battroid to Super Fighter last night to see if the groin armor could remain attached in fighter mode. The bottom tab on the groin armour can definitely not remain attached as the hinge it goes over in battroid mode is folded closed in fighter mode, so there is no space for it. I still can't give a definitive answer, as I didn't want to try to force the groin armour into the very limited space available and risk cracking the plastic or scratching paint. It seems like it may just go, but it would be an extrenmely tioght fit and I'd be worried about possibly breaking one of the armoor's tabs. Drifand, can you confirm you did transform to fighter mode with the groin armor still attached? Graham

Like what Drifand said, fighter mode locks together nice and tight, with the Super Packs fitted, except for the blasted hip armor.

A few other observations on the VF-25G: - The backs of the hands now seem to be glued on, unlike the Alto and Ozma, where you had to glue them on yourself, otherwise they fell off real easily. Big improvement. The metal ribbed ankle section does seem to be a bit tighter when extended. For those of you asking how the sniper rifle attaches in fighter and gerwalk modes, it attaches via two removeable clips, one at the front and one at the rear. The rear clip is similar to but slightly longer than the standard gunpod clip and connects into the same hole. The front clip is much shorter and attaches to the part of the rifle that looks like the pump handle on a pump action shotgun. It then plugs into the sliding hatch on the back of the groin area (the female half of the battroid groin locking mechanism). Graham

Normal hinges. Has to be manually opened. Not spring loaded.

Normal hinges. Has to be manually opened. Not spring loaded.

Heh, in that case the dihedral is from end-user modification (gluing them in place), not as per factory spec. Graham

For those who are wondering, yes the VF-25G can stand unsupported just fine in battroid mode with the Super parts. And here's a few quick pics I just took in my bedroom at night, with flash, so they are not so good. Graham

OK, so just spent about half an hour with the toy. Started off in fighter mode and added the Super parts, then transformed it to battoid mode. The toy looks great with the Super parts in both fighter and battroid mode (haven't tried gerwalk yet), but there's a couple of negative points about the Super parts, I've found so far: - The hip/intake armor is really unsecure and falls off at the slightest touch. The crotch armor can only be attached in battroid mode and has to be removed for fighter or gerwalk modes. Oh and a minor complaint but one I knew about, was I would have liked the 'SMS' letters on the display stand to be prepainted in yellow, instead of being unpainted. Graham

Just back to HK today after a 4 day business trip to Singapore (absoulutely beautiful city, BTW, really would like to go back there again). Anyway picked up two VF-25G from my regular supplier in Tai Po at lunch today. Paid HK$1,300 each (about US$167.74 each). Won't have time to play with them until after my son goes to bed tonight though. Graham

They don't on the 1/100, they are parallel to the ground. Graham

Prices are dropping here in HK. Cheapest I've seen the VF-25F go for so far is HK$299 (about US$38.58). They do seem to be sitting on shelves unloved and unbought. Graham

I was also thinking that if they do a Super or Armored version of the VF-25, the Super Pack and Armour Pack would likely be non-removable. Graham

And IIRC (don't have the toy in front of me at the moment), there is a rotation point on the upper arm as well. Graham

Happy to report that all of my out of the box V2 1/60 VF-1, which is 6pcs (1 x VF-1J Hik, 2 x VF-1S Fok, 1x VF-A Hik & 1 x VF-1D) are still all fine, with no sign of cracks at all. Even gave my pre-production Roy to my son and he's really abused it, but the shoulders are still fine. He did managed to snap off the nose hatch though......LOL! And yes, as I previously mentioned, Yamato are planning to change to a smaller diameter shoulder pin, which should solve the problem. Unfortunately, it was too late to implement this as a running change for the VF-1D, but I've been told it will be implemented starting from the next release, which IIRC is the VF-1S DYRL Max. Anyway, seems like since Yamato tightened up assembly line QC after the initial problem with the first run VF-1S Focker, reports of breakages have been way, way down. Graham

Just to note, you get exactly the same stuff with the DVD release as well. Graham

Here's the links to the mecha pages of the official site: - Ozma VF-25S Armored. Michael VF-25G Super. Note 1. In episode 1, when SMS first launch against the Vajra, you can hear Captain Wilder authorise the use of Super Packs for normal ream members and Armored Packs for squadron commanders. He actually says "Super Pack" and "Armoured Pack" in English. Note 2. The VF-25's Armoured Pack, is the first full armor in Macross that allows transformation to all three modes. Graham

I definitely echo what most people have been saying. Spend some more time with your VF-25 toy! With the hinge joints and the 5-hole shoulder block ball joint, the VF-25 DX has the most articulated shoulders of any VF toy ever IMO. I really don't know how you can say there is no articulation. Although I initally had the paint rub problem with the hips rubbing on the swing bars in battroid mode, it's easyily avoided, buy opening the Gerwalk mode hip ratchet joints one click in Battroid mode, this keeps the backs of the hips well away from the swing bars to prevent them rubbing against each other. While 1 or 2 people have reported having a loose groin lock, on most toys, it's reasonably secure. Most of it is just learning the limitations of how to pose and position the toy. Of course, some poses will pop the lock, but must of the time it should stay together. Graham

I guess you have not watched the Macross Frontier anime? The VF-25 can be fitted with either Super Packs, or Armored Packs, to use the correct terminolgy, used in the show. The Super Packs for Alto's VF-25F and Ozma's VF-25S are being released as Tamashii webshop exclusives. IIRC, these will be shipped at the end of March or April. Both Michael's VF-25G (release date 21 March) and Luca's RVF-25 (release date 28 March), come bundled with the Super Packs. I forget if a Bundled Alto with Super Packs has been announced or not. An Ozma VF-25S, possible with slight retooling will be released with the Armoured Pack around teh middle of the year. The Armoured pack for Alto will be released as a non-bundled webshop exclusive. Graham

I may be remembering wrongly, but IIRC, I think that combining mecha was designed by Miyatake, not Kawaori. Graham