Graham

Sorry, I'm not buying that at all. The Arcadia YF-19 was released 15 months ago. Photos of the gimmicks were shown in hobby mags and online several months before that.In all that time, there was never even the hint of a whisper of a rumour that Bandai were working on a competing 1/60 scale 19. It's interesting that the gimmicks that Bandai blatantly copied (removable head cover, internal leg missile bay with single large missile and high speed mode using flat metal hinged bars) are Macross Plus anime specific (not shown in the Frontier movie appearance) and have only ever appeared in toy form on the Acadia toy. This is clearly a case of Bandai cribbing from Acadia. Graham

HK$1,980 from Animate in Wanchai.

Anyway, I have to say, I like this toy so much that I just bought a second one locally at a retail store, so I can keep one in Fighter mode and one in Battroid mode. This toy just does it for me and screams to be handled, played with and touched. I thought the Arcadia YF-19 would do the same, but it was just underwhelming to me and sits untouched, unloved and unplayed with. I think though that given that Bandai directly copied several of Arcadia's gimmicks, such as the removeable head cover, leg missile bay and hi-speed mode wings, I'm going to call this a 'Bancadia'......hahahah! Graham

While I think overall this toy looks gorgeous in all three modes, I do have a few minor gripes about the apperance: 1) My number one gripe in Fighter mode is that I think the canards are not angled up enough. They are a bit too horizontal, this is really noticible to me and quite jarring. 2) The gunpod is positively anorexic, especially the handguard/barrel area. Yamato with their VF-19S/F/P and Arcadia with the YF-19 absolutely nailed the gunpod sculpt as far as size and shape (although the Arcadia was missing the cooling vents on the barrel cover). 3) The gunpod does not sit close enough to the belly in fighter mode, despite the banana bend. Bandai should have made the pistol grip telescope into the body of the gunpod a couple of milimeters, which would have allowed the gunpod to be 1mm to 2mm closer to the belly. Or allowed the gunpod to be a bit thicker (see gripe # 2). 4) The gap between the shield and legs in Fighter mode is a bit annoying. With all the other clever stuff they did with this toy, you would have though they could have found a way to get rid of the gaps. Graham

Received mine yesterday from CD Japan. As others have mentioned, the surface details and tampo printing are amazing on the Bandai and put the Acadia to shame. I transformed it once from Fighter mode to Gerwalk mode and then to Battroid mode, which was fairly quick and easy, although I did use the instruction manual as all the small folding panels are different from any other 19. The only minor issue I had with transformation was getting the wing roots unpegged from the leg slots in fighter mode and the chest slots in Gerwalk mode. They were so tight, I was worried about stressing or breaking the tabs when I pulled them out. Not sure how many transformations the wing root tabs will survive, but I probably won't transform this toy much. I attached all the Super parts to battroid mode, apart from the large boosters, as I think they look silly in battroid mode. The Super parts all seem to attach pretty firmly in battroid mode. Haven't tried attaching the Super parts in Fighter mode yet. Overall the toy seems to lock together pretty well in standard Fighter mode, Gerwalk mode and Battroid, although I do wish the Battroid mode chest and nose locking was a bit more secure, given the large number of tabs involved, as the nose/chest area seems to come start fairly easily when picking up and handling the toy Anyway, the toy looks great in all three modes, although I do have a few minor gripes about Fighter mode, which I'll list in another post.

Awesome start to season 2.

Hey, don't give Whoremoney Gold ideas, or they'll be retroactively suing the producers of Top Gun. Graham

Macross Pyramid! Or maybe......... Macross Pointy Thing

Saw it yesterday with my wife and son. Enjoyed it well enough, typical Hollywood leave-your-brain-at-the door summer-blockbuster fare. Chris Pratt was enjoyable enough as usual. Have to say I've never been a huge fan of any of the Jurrasic Park movies, thought they were OK, but they never blew me away. I think I definitely rate Jurrasic World higher than any of the original three. As to how it ranks on my enjoyment level of movies so far this year, I enjoyed it more so than Age of Ultron and rate it about the same as San Andreas. But my favourite and highest rated movie this year so far is without a doubt Fury Road. Graham

Still no confirmation whether or not the missiles from the Arcadia YF-19 can fit on the Bandai VF-19 Advance?

Also received shipment notification email from CD Japan today.

If I was Arcadia, I'd probably sue Bandai over the amount of gimmicks and design features directly copied.......hahahah

It would make more sense to pose it next to the Acadia rather than the old Yamato.

Ya' know it's weird, I love the Yamato 1/60 scale VF-19 series (Kai/S/F/P). I have 8 of them in total and have never had any problems with any of them. They all look great. lock together perfectly, still have tight joints, nothing's broken and none of them have loose ankes (although I'll admit I rarely put them in Gerwalk mode). And they are fun and easy to transform. The 19S and 19F are probably my all-time favorite Yamato toys in terms of design, appearance, quality and fun-factor, and in my opinion, the pinnacle of Yamato's design and engineering prowess. So in theory the Arcadia 1/60 YF-19 with it's Yamato VF-19 design heritage should have hit a home run. On paper at least it ticked all the right boxes in terms or proportions, design, gimmicks etc., but there is something about it that just leaves me cold and it has ended up my least touched and least handled VF toy. I'll admit the Arcadia 1/60 YF-19 has far better proportions than it's Yamato 1/60 YF-19 predecessor. However, in my opinion it just looks too plain with the minimal Tampo printing (I think I've been spoilt by Bandai). The ankles were very loose on one of mine out of the box (haven't even bothered to test the second one), the folding rudders were more of an annoyance than a fun gimmick and the high-speed mode on the wings was terribly implemented. In fighter mode, the wings won't hold a fully swept forward postion due to the loose high-speed wing joints. The problem is further exacerbated when you add missiles to the wings. Somehow, the Arcadia YF-19 at least for me managed to lose all its fun-factor. And for me at my age, and the current place I am in my life, fun-factor, ease of transformation etc., currently takes priority. In the Macross universe, I love the YF19/VF19A design, it's probably my second favorite VF design after the VF-17 (VF-1 is third in case anyone was wondering). I'm actually quite excited about the Bandai VF-19 Advance. The Bandai VF-19 Advance certainly looks better with all the Tampo printing. Although their gunpod is definitely worse (too narrow in the upper and lower handguard area). But overall the Bandai has me far more excited than I was with Arcadia's effort. Anyway, the proof of how fun and enjoyable this toy is will be in the handling when I finally get my hands on it . Graham

Hmm, as expected, 95% similar transformation to Arcadia, apart from a few extra panels, front landing gear and shield neck cover. Well after all there are only so many ways you can design a transforming YF-19. Anyway, looking forward to getting mine. Hopefully the wings in fighter mode won't be as froppy as the Arcadia version, which really annoys me. Graham

I'm the opposite, I love Macross II despite all its many flaws and adore the VF-2SS design, espcially with the SAP. Graham

My view........it's the first (and probably last) ever fricken transforming VF-2SS toy we'll get. As long as it locks together reasonably well in fighter and battroid mode, looks approximately like how it does in the anime (if I squint), then I'm sold. Evolution toys can shut up and take all my money. I've wanted this for so long. As long as it's not a total froppy mess, I'm way past the stage of nit picking.

MOAR PICS!

Yeah, surprised me too. I did want a VF-0D for many years, but kinda just lost interest somehow. Maybe I'll pick one up if they do the standard grey version. Graham

I have to say, I haven't been as excited about a Valk toy in a long, long time. I passed on the Ozma YF-29, the Percival, the VF-0D, the Arcadia VF-1J w/GBP, the greenie VF-27, the RVF-171 and the 171 girly markings version. Only recent Valk I've been mildly excited about and preordered is the VF-19 Advanced. However, I'm hugely excited about the VF-2SS. Really wanted someone to make a transforming toy of this for so long. Anyway, this thread needs some new pictures. Graham

I wanna see if there is still a big gap between the shield and legs in fighter mode, like in the earlier pics.

I think this would have been my ultimate toy if the ankle joints were tighter (they are far, far looser than all my many Yamato VF-19 toys) and with no high speed mode, which I really hate, as the wings don't hold fully forward swept position in fighter mode, especially loaded with missiles and tend to creep backwards.

This thread needs new pics!

Damn, saw a new post dated today and thought it might be new pics from the Shizuoka Hobby Show

Did anybody review this thing? I don't think I saw any reviews yet. Graham