Beware of Blast

Oh! Oh! Give us a two-seater 1/48 VF1D. Yeah, the one with green sausages for a kissy mouth head. If Yamato does that, all will be forgiven unless they screw up again.

Quiet, silent farts have killed more people than the major ones. In Yamato's case both thier silent and major ones are equally deadly.

Off the top of my mind... 1) Can Yamato 1st issue toy releases be bought without taking dopamine? 2) Will Yamato's future minor flaws not trigger one's Tourette's Syndrom so much? 3) Will Yamato pack a separate baggie of replacement parts / fixes for their previously flawed releases on their newer releases for their international customers? 4) Will Yamato ever use anything else but plastics? 5) Will they refund my money for my VF0S and YF19? 6) Will they lower their future price points? 7) If not, can they bundle something along with the VF toys (something of a substantial perceived value, please) for collectors' spouses? Will post more later if more Qs comes up. TIA!

Quick!!!! Somebody go get the defibrillator!!!!

D a m n. It just occured to me that the plastic sockets holding the landing gears are made similarly like the 1/48 VF1's hip sockets. Although the VF0S's plastic seems thinner. indigofx28, get ready for another heart attack when you dismantle the VF0S's shoulders.

LOL! You are right. That sig was written with the colloquial accent that I speak, in mind. Singaporean English or Singlish. The whole thing was also a direct ripoff of Neil French's XO beer print ad.

nugundamII, aside from reviewing Yamato's Macross toys and revealing some consented insider scoop, Graham has no extraordinary ties with that company.

What eugimon said. But when it comes to Yamato, it's Pieces Of Manure.

Parts replacement should be free and the full shipping fees borne by Yamato. The reason is simple - We have paid our dues, Yamato have not. The onus is on them to make things right. Remember:- Yamato is only facillitating this service thru its Japan-bound retailers and for international buyers, only those who have bought from HLJ are eligible (and you might have to pay for shipping on top of that). I disagree with having to pay for that shipping. Now many of you may appreciate the fact that Yamato is making an effort to replace parts, I'll sit back and see how far-reaching and satisfactory their patch-up work will go. Making damn sure the toys come out right the first time would've saved Yamofo the hassle.

I worked as contract designer / consultant for Hasbro Malaysia for about 5 years, 5 years ago... during the Furby, TF Beastwars, Transmetal, SW Ep. 4 & 5, Pixar Disney Toy Story 1 & 2 up till Monster Inc craze. I come in when Hasbro US or it's Asia regional HQ, Australia did not provide sufficient retail advertising support for its Malaysia and Singapore branch offices. I was appointed by the Malaysia office because internationally, Hasbro was engaged to its own ad agency and their retail advertising and visual mechandising billing was astronomical. So my job was to help them save money in a small way. During my time there, I had the opportunity to get my hands on some hard-to-get SW and TF merchandize, saw and played with toys not due in the marketplace for another 6 or so months. Working for them has been fun but helluva stress too because retail and merchandising design = long hours, VERY tight finished visual deadlines, many dead brain cells, enduring the monotony of design repetition, adaptation etc... Aside from expanding one's experience and portfolio, I had the privilege to work with some of the most brilliant marketing, production people in the market, see and learn from what they do. The experience was precious and good.

When it comes down to it, I choose lovin' money over Yamato. Dat doesn't mean hate baybee!

Damn!

Why do that? Let Yamato pick up the tab.

Heh, they cut ya abit, then they provide the bandages after yer almost bled to death. Hope no one hafta pay for the band aids or the shipping ta git them.

According to legend, the only Yamato Macross stuff with decent diecast metal contents are the 1/72 Macross plus valks, YF19, YF21 and the VF11B and their fast pack versions. There is no faspack version for the 1/72 YF19. You also get quite abit of diecast metal on the legs and back of the 1/60 VF1s. Those releases have also completely deplete Planet Yamato of their metal.

Yup, and it might not even stay together after that.

That's what I did when I have to re-install the screws after I loosened the screws and found that this wasn't exactly a solution. I was kinda thinking for the long term after many many transformations in mind - the plactic threads will wear down eventually.

Loosening the screws will worsen the problem in the long run becoz the grey plastic halves are suppose to be as tightly attached to the tan plastic as possible - I tried loosening mine but they were glue on as well. Here's something to think about - what happens should the screw threads on the tan plastics' side get worn down and they no longer hold the black metal screws and they won't tighten no more no matter how we try to fasten it?

My 1/60 YF19 has stress marks on the grey plastics halves of the fuselage hinge, one of them is cracked. The left side of my fuselage surface also sustained minor white stress marks on the tan plastic. I got mine on 15/12/06. Btw, I have been one of Yamato's long time supporter and I've got almost all of their Macross products. Almost all because so said ineptitude. If my rants and postings are to be seen as bashing by Yamato, then to bad for them. I'll just have more money to spent on something else.

No offense to you, but I disagree. Yamato's flubs are not recent. As I have pointed out in the other 1/60 YF19 thread, Yamato's been unable to make a perfect toy ever since they start out back in the day. Every release would spring us AT LEAST one unpleasant surprise, however minor. We even get problems on the Yamato 1/48 VF1s rehashes. And that Takara being a bigger company and all reasoning is as they say in management, "the economics of volume"... ie:- The bigger you are, the better are your resources, options, quantity, quality etc, etc... - I think is pure bull shite - That's just a professional sounding excuse that managers use to report to their bosses / shareholders to cover their arses. The point is, it's either ya got it, or ya don't. Yamato don't got it, is cuz they assumed that their job is done after they've gotten their CAD drawings and sculpt approved by Kawamori and Co. They obviously did not work hard enough on ensuring Build Quality and Finishing, unfortunately for us

Graham, thanks for taking time to address my post. But they weren't exactly directed at you. On your points that Yamato have made fixes, certain faulty product incidences that are rare or advice self-help fixes... I can only say that money is spent. Time is wasted. The only things unresolved (broken toys, less than perfect toys, frustrations, anger and unburied hatchets with Yamato) still remain. But thank you Graham, I have always been grateful for your reviews and enjoy them. However, I think you efforts on the YF19 demo is wasted on Yamato's obstinate culture - seeing that many of us here faced problem with the transformation - especially David Hingtgen.

I wonder just how much more thorough do they need to go! See, they have been at it for six years and every friggin' release would spring AT LEAST one unpleasant surprise. We even get QC or Design problems on the Yamato 1/48 VF1s rehashes! If we as collectors, can fix the problem, fine. What if we can't? Further still, should we even be bothered to do such fixes to begin with? The problem doesn't lie with Yamato being thorough enough or not. It's just an excuse so fingers are not pointed their way when something fvcks-up. It's safer to bet they'll end-up screwing the SV-51.

Face it Yamato, you should start looking beyond plastics. The toy-making industry is sturdy-material rich, if you care to look. Machined Aluminium Alloy comes to mind... Yamato may think its much vaunted POM plastic can do a good job; it's not indestructable. Just look at the horror show that are your products. If you still don't understand, fecking hire a TRANSLATOR!

He's not. We've been talking about this ever since Yamato roll out their first 1/72 Macross plus valks:- 1) The prone to breaking / stress marks plastic shoulder slider of the YF21. 2) The VF11B hip bars 3) The plastic hinge for the 1/48 VF1 backpack 4) The cracking of the 1/48 VF1 intake block due to inner paint chip and rubber seepage 5) The VF0A/S plastic shoulder blocks. You may think it's something interesting to consider - but Yamato as always, think they know better.

$125 or so for a nicely sculpted piece of crap is still alot of money!