I'll never buy another thing from amiami and I'm blocking their account so they can't attempt to steal anything else from me. And even if paypal won't get me my full refund I'm taking this to my bank and informing them it was a criminal action.
The boxes were perfect, this is purely a manufacture issue. But Harmony Gold, etc... Arcadia can't do anything legally (which I feel is a great excuse for no customer service... which seems consistent with everything else in Japan so far.)
They said they can't replace the item because it's out of stock bu they can offer 1500 JPY store credit. That's $14.42 US. There's no either/or, I just rounded because what's the difference between that and $15 when compared to what I paid.
Kind people on the messageboard have already tried to contact Arcadia for me, they always go back to the legality. Personally I don't see why Mr K can't send his "Nephew" a toy from the confines of his own home... which would also be a hell of a PR stint for them.
Blacklist them, Amiami are obviously underhanded. Other people have experienced it. I almost didn't order from them thinking about what happened to other people but went ahead anyway. Should have listened to my instincts.
In other news I'll review how I felt about the YF-19 upon first touch and other things that aren't "broken" with it. David Hingten (SP) is correct, the color has a bit of green-ish tone to it and I think it is actually quite terrible personally. Upon first touch the thing I noticed, and I compared it to my other Yammies, is that the plastic does not feel as high quality as the VF-4, 17 or even the shiny 19's. Touching this thing gave me the same feeling I got when I first opened my V.1 19 after having a few V.2 VF-1's, it was disappointing and cheap feeling compared to previous efforts. Could someone who owns both a YF-19 and the VF-19's tell me if they all fit together the same way? One thing I noticed immediately is that the gear doors, which are the same between the VF and YF releases all fit together perfectly and line up on my VF-19's. They are decidedly gappy, and don't align properly on the YF-19. They seem a bit warped, but that seems consistent where any thin plastic on this toy comes into play.
One other thing I noticed are some triangular bits on the forearms that appear to be glued on. If you turn the YF-19 over in Fighter mode you can easily see them. I'm assuming they're screw covers, or something like that. On the VF-19's they're square and they sit flush with the rest of the arm, you can see it's not a single piece but it sits flush and isn't anything you would immediately notice. I certainly never noticed them. On the Yf-19 they're triangular shaped and they're horrible. They're crooked, gappy, don't sit flush at all. I noticed it immediately and wasn't even aware there were glued on squares on my other three VF-19's until I compared them. The flaps next to the head are also a terrible fit, I've had the same problem David did where one doesn't sit properly and the shape isn't uniform between both sides.
The piece beneath the cockpit that folds down and has the two little flaps that fold up and form the lower portion of the chest area when in Battroid fit horrible as well. Those two small flaps are warped and do not create a nice flush fuselage, unlike my three VF-19's which all hold together nicely. Following on from that my three VF-19's all have nose cone sections that pop into place and stay. Like another member here it seems the YF-19's nose cone is held my friction and it wants to be forced downward. It never really feels like it's in place.
How come the YF-19 doesn't come with a part so you can attach just one of the long thin missiles? Or that there's no way to use the t-shaped piece for them instead? I think it looks better when they aren't paired up but you can't do it. I've had fun swapping out the missile pairings on the wings to see what it looks like with different loadouts. I wish the odd-shaped green... things (I don't know any of the names, the green missiles without the tiny dots) had removeable attach points so you could put them on the T-Shaped mounts as well, I think they would look really cool that way. The gimmick for high speed mode is horrible and affects the orientation of the missiles. The hard points on the wings aren't lined up straight, the only way to adjust them to be straight leaves a gap between the wing at the fuselage in the back and it doesn't hold well.
I haven't transformed it, I'm assuming it will need to be mailed back to somewhere eventually. Now that I think about it since it's broken I should see just how far those ankles can be pushed while I still have it.
Overall, this thing cost what I paid for the VF-17D when it was originally released and I think the plastic/fit/etc... are inferior. It certainly isn't anywhere in the league of the VF-4G, and only twenty or so dollars cheaper. And in a lot of ways it isn't even as good as the VF-19's IMO (I personally don't like the shiny plastic, but if it would have made a more solid product I would take a shiny YF-19 with better fit over this matte one now.) I don't think it's worth the price, honestly, not taking into account my issues with Amiami and broken wings. I can still largely compare the fit and plastic quality in fighter mode to my other Valks and I think it's a large step back. Most of the new, added gimmicks affect the playability. High speed mode. And of course some people don't like the added price for all of the missiles, even if I do enjoy them. The odd little plastic bits on the shield to close the gap in fighter feel cheap and don't really slide or line up well. I was really excited for this release but the overall product is really a step back IMO, considering the prices keep rising. If you're going to charge me like it's a VF-4 I expect the same quality as the VF-4 and it's simply not here on the YF-19 I received.
