Graham

Got round to transforming to Gerwalk mode. You can get quite a good 'A' stance, due to the swivel joint below the hip. However, the knees actually have very limited forward bend, so you cannot get a good deep crouch pose in Gerwalk. In the attached photo, you can see the limit of the forward knee bend. Also, the Gerwalk mode does not balance well with the feet open and wants to tip forward. Like in most of the publicity photos, you have to close the feet in Gerwalk mode to get it to balance on the tips of the front and rear foot sections. Graham

As has been explained many times over the years, toy licences in Japan are mostly non-exclusive and given to multiple licensors, unlike in the US, where often just one toy company is granted the master toy licence to manufacture any and all toys related to that franchise. In Japan, toys licences for a franchise are often granted on a scale or type basis to different companies. At the moment, Yamato holds licences with big west for the 1/48 VF-1 toys, 1/60 SDF, DYRL, M0 & M+ toys as well as the GNU and VFC figures. Bandai holds and exclusive Frontier licence and a 1/100 licence for all shows. The reason Bandai holds an exclusive licence for Frontier, is because were the major sponsor of the show and paid several million US$ to fund the production. Still, word goes that this exclusivity is only good for a few years. However, the same was true of Macross 7 and Bandai have been using their muscle to sit on the licence for over a decade, despite their exclusivity technically expiring. Graham

Been spending a bit more time with the toy in battroid mode. Overall posability is actually pretty good. The swivel joint just below the intakes gives the legs a few more options for posing compared to the DX. Both the knee and the elbow joint on the 1/100 can bend 90 degrees. Sholder posability is a bit more limited than the DX due to the fixed nature of the 5-dot shoulder block, but not too bad. On the 1/100 the shoulder block non-movable (fixed in 1 position), and the shoulder connects to a ball on the 5-dot block). The lack of an open hand for holdingthe gunpod foregrip is a bit of a bummer though. Will try to post some pics later. Want to take some comparison pics with the DX. I'm warming to this thing slightly, although I still like the DX much more. Definitely prefer battroid mode on the 1/100 though. The non-locking wing gloves are a PITA in fighter mode. When you hold it in fighter mode, the wing gloves and wings constantly want to hing upwards due to the lack of any form of locking. Still haven't transformed it to Gerwalk mode yet. Graham

I mean next new non-VF-1 PT variable 1/60. But anyway, this is the Bandai VF-100's thread, so no more Yamato talk here please. Graham

The 1/55 Max DYRL VF-1A was a step in the right direction IMO, but I'm sure if Bandai had first reissued the 1/55 VF-1S Hikaru Strike Valk, VT-1, VE-1 and GBP-1S, sales would have been much improved. Too late now though I guess. Anyway, I think the impending summer release of Yamato's VT-1 and VE-1 V2 1/60 will likely kill most of the residual interest in the 1/55 versions anyway. Graham

I've had my fair share of Throbbing Accidents! Graham

My take on this is that you are never going to see a deal between BW and HG, too much bad blood there. Ditto, you will never see a deal between Toynami and Yamato, also too much bad blood. Both Yamato and I'm sure Bandai as well would love to be able to officially sell Macross goods outside of Japan, but I think BW will do their best to stop any deal dead as long as HG is still in the picture. Yamato are actually quite happy to work with HG, as are it seems Bandai, but BW will block any attempts by their licensors to do business with HG. And of course HG will block any attempts by Japanese companies to sell Macross into the US that try to bypass them, e.g. Sunwards. Graham

Edited the topic title to remove the "Coming in July", as it is no longer relevant. Graham

I will say that it is on the short list for the next 1/60 PT VF, but not the top contender. There are 3 different VFs in the running and I know which one my money's on. Graham

As I said I my mini-review, my opinions may change the more time I have with the toy, but for now, I'm rating it a fail. If it had say 25% less parts removal and locking wing gloves in fighter mode, I'd be much more keen on buying the other 1/100 VF-25 variations (RVF, S & G). Also, I gotta measure the thing, as I can't belive it is really 1/100 scale. Seems far too small. Although I also suspect that the dimensions that Kawamori assigned to the VF-25 are way off (far to small). Graham

As I've said, Bandai may be crap-hot when it comes to designing Gundams or SOCs, but for Macross they are still playing catch-up. Well, at least they are rugged and lock together well. Holes 'an all I still like them and still plan to buy at least 1 of each DX, finances allowing. Hopefully, in 3-4 years, Yamato will be able to show us what they can do for Frontier. Graham

As others have said, quality on this toy is similar to the HCM-Pro line and most parts are made of ABS, with a few hard PVC parts (gunpod, optional head lasers and possible a few others (not sure?)). As Alex, I think stated, there are a few parts that you do need to be quite gentle with so that you don't break them when attaching or detaching them, these being the rear landing gear and the shield, as the rear of the shield is very thin plastic, so don't push down too hard on the face of the shield when attaching it to the arm. Also of course be careful when removing or attaching the rear landing gear, so you don't snap them or the pegs. Paint application is overall pretty good on the toy, but the black or dark grey paint is a bit sloppy on some toys around the mouth and also on the groin. Disappointing that no stand is included for the toy and only stand adaptors are included for Battroid and Gerwalk modes I think (haven't really studied the adaptors yet). The toy is a bit overpriced and I think a retail price point of 3,500 Yen or not more than 4,000 Yen would be more reasonable for what you get. Graham

Didn't that have some guy with a chick's name in it? Shia LaBeauf, or something like that (actually sounds like a Tranny's name, quite apt really). Graham

Not necessarily true. Graham

Here’s my mini-review, based on my somewhat limited time spent with the toy so far – 1 hour and 1 transformation. My opinions/impressions may change later. OK, so I finally received my 1/100 VF-25F from HLJ yesterday, but had to wait until after my son went to bed at 9pm, before I could open it up. My initial impressions from the packing are that Bandai loves sticky tape. I think they must have used a whole role of the stuff, not only on sealing the box, but also on taping the many clear plastic inner trays together! So after cutting my way through all the tape, I start separating the inner trays. Boy, are there a lot of them. Just when you think you have got to the last inner tray, you find there are still more, each with tons of tiny little parts. Which brings me neatly onto the subject of parts. Now we have all seen the hobby magazine photos and known for months that this thing is going to have lots of small parts, but the sheer number doesn’t really hit you until you have them spread out before you. Lots and lots of small fiddly, tiny, little parts. So I take the battroid out of the box. Not too bad, feels a bit flimsy and fragile, but that is to be expected given the size. It probably isn’t fragile in reality, but time will tell I guess. The back plate hinge seems quite loose and keeps wanting to flip up when I’m handling it, no big deal, means I just need to hold the toy a different way. The joints in battroid mode seem reasonably tight, but as these are ABS ball in ABS socket type affairs, I’m sure they may loosen up after a while. As I mentioned in an earlier post today, the appearance of the 1/100 VF-25 appears almost identical to a scaled-down DX, right down to the cut-out on the underside of the nose and the incorrect hip positioning (both unnecessarily copied from the DX). Next I take a look at the black and white photo instruction sheet, which overall is pretty clear and easy to follow, except for the part about removing the battroid mode crotch piece, which isn’t very clear at all. I was a bit nervous during my first transformation from battroid to fighter, as the instructions didn’t show (and I wasn’t sure), which way I should pull the crotch piece to remove it. Anyway, besides that, the rest of the instructions where pretty clear and simple to follow and transformation was fairly straightforward, if somewhat time consuming (took about 20 minutes) and fiddly, due to the small size of many of the parts. During transformation from battroid to fighter mode, I bent the tips of one of the fingers of the Karate-chop hands while trying to get it into the shield. That is a very fiddly part of the transformation. Luckily I was able to get the finger tip straightened again. Some members have posted that fighter mode locks together well, while others have posted it doesn’t. My experience is that the chest, nose/cockpit, hips and upper legs, arms and shield all lock together solidly. Hip guns sit in place nicely, although they are not locked. However, the wing gloves and lower legs do not lock at all. When you pick up the toys, the lower legs want to droop down slightly and the wing gloves want to hinge up at the slightest touch. This is the most disappointing aspect of fighter mode IMO, that there are no locking pegs for the wing gloves. Fighter mode sculpt is improved over the DX in the following areas: - 1) The ventral lower leg fins are now angled out correctly, unlike the DX, where they are hang straight down. 2) The wings now sit parallel to the ground when viewed from the front or back, unlike the DX, where the wings are angled up. 3) Landing gear is longer and more detailed than the DX, but also far more fragile. My other major concern is the worry of some of the small parts such as ventral leg fins, tail fins, rear landing gear doors, even rear landing gear falling off and getting lost during play. Some of these parts are only held in place by friction fit and not too tightly at that. Some parts like the rear landing gear, I was scared to push them in too tightly for worry about snapping pegs on removal. As with other members who have posted reviews, my PVC fighter mode (closed) gunpod was as bent as a banana, but a short dip in hot water, followed by a bit of bending to reshape it quickly took care of that And before somebody asks, there is no sticker sheet and all the markings are printed on. My conclusion so far is that this is a fairly nice looking toy, although to be honest not much different in proportions from the DX. However, it is quite fiddly to transform and there are a heck of a lot of parts to keep track of. Also, there is the nagging worrying that parts are going to fall off during play and I won’t notice and will lose them. This is not the toy to take outside to play on the grass. One of the things I love about the DX is that is easy to transform, fairly rugged and given that it is (near) perfect transformation, there are minimal parts to worry about (hands and gunpod clip basically). I can transform and play with the DX without worry. The 1/100 on the other hand, doesn’t give me that carefree feeling of enjoyment. Instead, I constantly find myself checking the damn thing to see if anything has snapped or fallen off. The jury is still out on whether I will buy any more of these. If Bandai releases 1/100 VFs that are not available in other toy lines, such as a VF-171 or VF-2SS, I will likely buy them. For VFs that are already available as other better toys, I will probably pass on the 1/100. For the VF-25, I think I will stick with the DX. Graham

My 1/100 VF-25F arrived from HLJ yesterday. I’ll post more comments in a separate post, but for now, I want to discuss a revelation I had about the toy. OK, perhaps theory is a better word than revelation. Anyway, after studying the toy, I’m convinced the designers based the overall look of the 1/100 on the 1/60 DX sculpt, rather than the line art or CG art. Previously some members have commented that the 1/100 resembled the 1/60, but I didn’t really see it myself until actually holding the toy in my hands. After holding the toy in my hands. It’s obvious to me that the battroid mode is a near exact copy looks-wise of the 1/60. From the misplaced hip joints, down to the chunky legs. Even in fighter mode, especially from the side, the same thick legs and slightly down-turned nose are evident. There are two main points that make me think the 1/100 is based visually on the 1/60: - 1) On the 1/60 DX, the battroid mode waist joint leaves an unsightly cut-out in the underside of the fighter mode nose, that spoils the clean lines of the fighter. The 1/100 features exactly the same cut-out, which is completely unnecessary on the 1/100 as there is no waist joint. 2) The second piece of damning evidence is of course incorrectly positioned hip joints. As the 1/100 uses a completely separate crotch piece for battroid mode, there is no excuse for having the legs in the wrong place. Graham

As I've been saying unconfirmed rumor goes that, Bandai outsourced the design duties for both the DX and 1/100 to a tier 3, possibly non-Japanese, less experienced design team. I still like the DX though, warts and all. Graham

Feb 09 reissues!!!!!! February has come and gone already! Hmm, now I'm confused, I was under the impression that the VF-25F reissue wasn't until March or April and the VF-25S reissue not until April or May (I forget the exact month and can't be bothered to search), but I'm damn sure it wasn't as soon as February. Heh, anyway, poor Mr. VF-25 DX reissue has so many holes, he's starting to look like swiss cheese. Graham

Although be aware, with frequent handling the paint does rub off this toy quite easily, possibly due to the paint not adhering too well to the gloss plastic used, as several of us have found already. My advice, don't be afraid to handle and transform the DX, but try to avoid touching the black/red (VF-25F) and black/yellow (VF-25S) trim areas unnecessarily, to avoid the paint rubbing off premeturely. Graham

New thread as the old one has been retired to the hall of Super Threads. Still waiting for my VF-25F to arrive from HLJ. Managing to resist the temptation to walk a couple of hundred meters up the street and pick one up. Graham

Shouldn't that be 'CIWS' (Close In Weapons Systems). Graham

Will pass. Mecha with car bodies wearing oversize sneakers do absolutely nothing for me. As others have said, let's hope Kawamori gets this silliness out of his system before working on the next new Macross project. Graham

Hoping the line survives long enough that we at least get a VF-171.

Hopefully, we'll get a new head sculpt and a redesigned neck that can extend more. The present neck isn't too bad, if you know the correct transformation method (which some people still don't), but of course with the armor fitted a longer neck will look much better. Graham

Can't wait for this. It's my number one 'must have' purchase for 2009. I love the look of the VF-25S with Armored pack. I hope the Bandai sculpt does the design justice. Graham