1/1 LowViz Lurker

The S looks better anyway. The gold trimmings make look like a higher ranked soldier. Much like the gold trimming on the VF-1S that Roy used. Don't get why everyone is into the silver/white trimmings. S has more bling bling.

I'm willing to pay a good price so long as we don't run into any of the old classic yamato quality control with arms breaking off. I hope they take their time on this one. (there isn't really much else they can be doing after this) The missiles coming out of the leg gimmick should be interesting. Will they be bringing back the gimmick from the older yf-19 where you could remove the head piece to reveal internal details underneath? If this is $300+ that will be hard for many to swallow but if they include load of extras like the FP that would make it worth it. I don't want to pay the shipping of having a seperate package just with FAST packs. I think given the size of them on the YF-19 they should just chuck them in together. Maybe put the fold booster with underarm grenade launcher in a seperate pack instead. BTW will there be that underarm grenade launcher made? That was the one thing we wished for last time but it didn't get done. That and the VF-11 C full armor. :-( If they are going to revisit the VF-0, then I hope they get to do Roy's Reactive Armor too BTW.

If you love yamatos there may be a chance to see more VF-1 toys under the arcadia name but they might cost a bit more. Good news for noob collectors who entered into the scene late. There isn't much to improve over the current 1/60 VF-1. Hopefully the YF-19 sells well. Macross Plus was popular in the west and it was untouched by the evil Harmony Gold as it snuck under their radar. This gives it more exposure for this toy (compared to stuff like macross 7) and boosts the chance it will be recognised by more anime watchers and older people who remember it from the 90s who have grown up and have more money to throw at collector's pieces. If you know of people who were fans of Macross Plus you can help by spreading the news of a new toy coming out from this anime. The more these things sell the easier to justify bringing out other mechs. (ie stuff from macross zero which wasn't as popular as the original SDFM tv series. I thought the destroids with wheeled feet were cool in this. It actually makes more sense than the original destroids seen in SDFM. ) I think the chicken-legged destroids look cooler than the normal ones. If there was a remake of SDFM with updated mecha design that would be the first thing I would change. Make it so they can leap and boost jump (just like Glaug and Reguld) and roll on wheels a lot more than what you see in the original anime to make them at least more agile than a mere humanoid-shaped gun turret that stands in one spot like an idiot and dies instantly without moving around or strafing. What I can imagine is the modern Spartan destroid would have a "gun lance" type weapon with a big shield in one arm, and it can store its shield on its back for using chest weapons when needed to attack from range. The melee weapon (pointy spear weapon which is also the barrel of a canon) would be used to pierce through armor and shoot an enemy in the gut (point blank range) killing the pilot instantly where the cockpit usually is for close combat. And it's legs would transform for "hispeed mode" on the ground if it needs to move quickly or dash into enemies with its shield in front of it to ram a mech to the ground. (It would have boosters on its back for quick acceleration and the mass of the armored robot would be enough to knock a mech down without itself getting hurt because of the shield held up in front of it) Too bad macross doesn't have an equivalent of "Gundam 8th MSTeam". Kawamori could make a sidestory about ground robots and loosely relate it to macross. Fans of armored core would watch it.

I think it was mentioned before that yamato/arcadia is not going to do the non-canon valks because it might make shoji kawamori pissed since that show was not an approved show haha Isn't the reason yamato/arcadia can claim to be more authentic to the shows is because they have access to him to ensure accuracy to his original mech design? If they do a VF-2 it would spoil that relationship wouldn't it? (since he had nothing to do with M2) Maybe that is why they haven't done it? Personally I would like to see one. But I'll be honest here: I am more interested in whether yamato ever decide to make the mospeada Legios and TREAD. These are toys that I think all the current macross toy collectors would buy since they were basically rip offs of the valkyrie with some combining feature. Engineering-wise all the current companies have failed to capture the original spirit of the 80s mech that we all want. CMs did a decent job but it has little detail, and the tried to make it look too skinny in robot mode. And the link up with the TREAD wasn't very good.

The balljoints on mine are actually tight. When they do get loose later on I will do that. But I just think having lighter feet is better than heavier feet. I understand why they do it: it makes it more stable when standing upright by putting all the weight to the bottom. But to solve this problem I usually put some blutack (a sticky gummy material to hold posters on walls) on the bottom of the feet so it doesn't fall over if there in the rare instance of an earthquake. If they do add hard material it should be for finer things like the headmounted lasers. (give us the flexible ones or the option to put the metal ones which don't bend) When the original 1/48 FAST packs came out I thought the idea of a heavy material only makes the toy worse. Because it adds extra weight to it but it also puts more pressure on the hinge. They don't need it imo.

Well if they do just more re-releases of existing V2 vf-1 1/60, I think it would be wise they just add in option parts to give a tiny incentive to those who already have existing v2 to kinda "upgrade" which from a business perspective at least gives them an excuse to keep making VF-1 toys. The existing owners of older release are not going to complain since it is essentially the same thing with some side pieces. And make the box art look cooler to make it more presentable and noticeable from a distance. (eg the font look a bit boring) Personally I think things like the side pars for robot mode complete the toy. If the VF-19 gets all kinds of optional covers to tidy up the robot mode why didn't the VF-1? So in future I hope yamato just include that piece for all the future VF-1. Bandai gives you a stand for their 1/60 toys, so yamato should at least include the extra pieces to cover the robot mode up imo. Overall the battroid mode is actually why some people like this over 1/48 with its tiny hands. (that is until they decide one day to do a "definitive" VF-1 toy at 1/48 which looks more balanced but includes all the little gimmicks of both scales in it too)

The HiMetal is fun to play around with. The use of diecast in the feet is unecessary imo. By making the feet heavy it actually put more pressure on the baljoints to make them more loose. If they didn't actually use heavy feet it wold be a better toy overall imo. If Bandai decide to ever come back to the himetal line and resurrect it from the dead they could tighten up all joint and make 1/100 GBP version. Yes yes, I know it's called Hi-"Metal" but we all know that name "metal" is meaningless LOL. Having having material in only the feet doesn't make the toy any more appealing to me. It's not like that holds some special significance.

I think yamato/arcadia should do Mospeada way more than VOTOMs. Yeah it might not make much money but they can make it a preorder web exclusive like the vf-4 project. Who here would not buy a Legios with TREAD toy? You guys would be insane. I think all the guys on robotech.com would go crazy for that. lol Robotech was popular and represents a huge opportunity for yamato in the west despite maybe not being so great in japan. These are guys who would be in their 30s and have enough income to afford a high priced toy and depending on how cheap arcadia could do all the variants without much problem since they all look the same. Even though this is a macross board and everyone hates robotech you have to admit if yamato/arcadia were to make a really good Legious w/TREAD they would be the only game in town and could have this market all to themselves while they wait for bandai to get tired of macross frontier. For any unsold stock they can have robotech.com store buy it up, rebadge it as robotech toys, and sell as masterpiece collections. Yeah I know: it helps the enemy and all that. But this lowers some of the risk too. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

GERWALK was so underused in the show. They need to make a macross plus 2 where Dyson goes to prison for damaging the SDF-1 because nobody realised it was hacked and all witnesses to the event were hypnotised so they didn't believe his story after he explained what actually happened. They also blame him for Guld's death and do some testing to see if his corpse has any clues to what happened and they assume he was murdered. YF-19 is given brainwave control system and is upgraded and a new test pilot must master the machine. It has an autonomous mode which kicks in after a pilot is not inside the cockpit so it can fly by itself but this can be switched off at will. Problem is, it becomes self aware through natural means and keeps making the pilot look like a fool in front of the girls and it falls in love with the pilot causing the first Mech to Human romance in the macross universe. The military are about to scrap the project as a new transforming drone is created to replace pilots again and the test pilot and machine work together in defeating it. The mech gets hacked by the transforming drones (which are secretly AI controlled and not mere programs running under human program controls) and the mech turns against the test pilot ejecting him from the plane. Only singing will awaken the yf-19 to revert back to its old self and the mech whisperer test pilot regains control over it so he can defeat the evil drones which have an AI controlling them. The mech flies down and rescues him by grabbing him with its arm in GERWALK modes just like Hikaru saving minmay. YF-19 makes a tactical decision: fight inside the SDF-1 to take advantage of the limited space and kill the transforming drone in GERWALK mode by shield ramming it and blowing it up with a close quarters gunpod death move (pin point barrier on the tip of the gunpod nozzle). After the drone's decisive defeat, everyone is happy that humans combined with autonomous robots are victorious. (the autonomous robot doesn't let the human's brainwaves and thoughts do dangerous things and acts like a co-pilot if the pilot does something reckless) Because it was too expensive they later take out the brainwave controls and the autonomous mode of the yf-19 and that is why no VF-19 have this system in it. The end of macross plus 2. Everyone celebrates the importance of the YF-19's GERWALK mode because without it, the test pilot would not have been able to defeat the drone if he couldn't have the mech sweep down and save him in time despite its butt-ugliness.

They are pretty sturdy and I have had no problems with mine. It is a simple transformation though. The main fault of it is that it is not loyal to the anime for how the gunpod stores.

For noobs: the only teams you should care about collecting are skull team. These are the "heroes" of the macross series from the original tv show. Roy Focker - big brother and cocky fighter jock who teaches the main character about war and the reason for the transforming robot mode of the VF-1 Valkyrie which is a secret until the earth is first attacked by the giant aliens. Pilots the VF-1S and test piloted the original Valkyrie and acts like a dick sometimes when drunk. Hikaru - stunt pilot who is equally cocky but insecure at shooting others. Torn between chasing a girl and defending the giant ship the Macross which he is stuck on after the initial alien invasion that started the human vs alien space war. This is the main character and the focus of the original tv series. Events are centrered around this one guy and we see what it is like to experience the war from the perspective of this character who has no knowledge of the military planes. (this gives the audience an introduction to the transformation of the VF-1 to help us understand the real purpose of it) Max - humble character that has high skill but eventually becomes a main character in later series Kakizaki - not as skilled as the other guys but does his best to keep up and gets himself into trouble (usually the least popular character in terms of sales lol) Think of him like Slippy from the "Star Fox" games. Hikaru has to babysit him and watch that he doesn't screw up.. Milia - I won't spoil it but she is a main character later on. She is an ace pilot that does all the special ops for the aliens. When you buy your toys look for the name of the character and see if you can get all the guys within the skull squadron as a start. They are easiest to obtain since they are canon to the original story. There are lesser known characters that might have appeared in games or OVAs but these will be the harder to obtain stuff given that they didn't get as much exposure as tv series characters. The reason a noob should start with SDFM is because it was where it all began. And there are a lot of toys released from that one series so it shouldn't be hard to find stuff related to it. Usually the most popular characters are the most desired but sometimes the rarity of a certain toy drives up demand for it just because it is hard to obtain so collectors buy those just to get everything. The only time ships ever combine is when the deadalus and promethues are used as spare carriers to launch mecha from the SDF-1 but technically they don't combine by docking to the main ship (Macross). Instead they become permanently attached to the ship itself and the whole things flies in space together as one big ship instead of three seperate ones. At the very beginning of SDF Macross, you will see two big space carriers (ARMD 01 and ARMD 02) get slaughtered by the giant aliens and these were originally supposed to be combined to the SDF-01. But instead of that happening the Deadalus and Prometheus end up becoming the carriers as their replacement. There was a later movie edition of the tv series released called "Do You Remember Love" where the humans have the ARMD01 and ARMD02 attached to the SDF01 but this is not considered how the real event played out but rather a hollywood movie re-imagining of the events of space war 1(not historically accurate within the macross universe). that people watched within the macross universe. In later OVA like Macross Plus you actually see the ARMD01 and ARMD02 attached but I assume that is because humans just attached the new proper space carriers later after the space war was over, since at the end of the SDFM tv series, those two space carriers were destroyed. There hasn't been a major war in macross since Space War I in SDF Macross. At the end of the tv series humans do not want to repeat the mistakes of previous cultures who wiped themselves out in wars so they focus on bringing peace and spreading humans onto as many livable worlds as possible. (which to me makes sense considered the earth just got destroyed and almost made humans extinct) It is believed that humans might have originated from "the Protoculture" (since we are exactly the same according to the alien giants) but it is considered a theory. As the macross universe becomes fleshed out with new OVA and movies and tv series they add a little bit more but basically if we are "the protoculture" that the zentradi aliens fear to attack (or were mind controlled into never harming so that the original creators of the giants could keep themselves safe), then it stands to reason we undo the mind control of the giants who were only created for one purpose: fight wars and obey orders without question. This is the main theme of the singing which acts like a tool to bringing culture back to the giants who forgot their true origins and had lost it as mere mind-controlled tools of destruction. (or "Satan's Dolls" which is what one character likes to refer his race as) Ironically the lack of understanding is actually the key to the giants defeat because the mind control they were given; which is to never harm the "protoculture" (human sized beings) becomes the last resort weapon to getting them to stop attacking. The pop idol's singing does play a part in it since they are aware of music making them feel good, and liking it, which turns them against their leaders who demand they just follow orders without questions, but without the fear of the "prophecy" (that bad things will happen to those who are exposed to protoculture/humans) the aliens would not hesitate so much in taking actions, and this becomes the basis for why some high-ranking zentradi defectors offer to aid the humans in the tv series, because they fear total destruction if they proceed to attack humans which is due to ignorance from the mind control the protoculture planted into them. The warrior alien race interpret destruction of their race as some kind of punishment from god, not because they were lied to by whatever religious leaders planted the fear in their heads through mind control and manipulation. But regardless of why they defected: once that control is broken, they are just like us humans again. They become us and we become them. Since all humans had fought bloody wars long before aliens accelerated the earth's destruction so we are not much different to them. The tv series kind of reminds me a lot of "The Thing". (John Carpenter horror movie about an alien that shapeshifts into humans to disguise itself as one of us causing humans to get paranoid and fight each other thinking their own buddies are aliens) The theme being that we are "the thing" when we go and senselessly kill each other due to fear.

Can't wait to hear the prices of this. Looks like I can finally get rid of the old yf-19 to clear space. The worst out of the 3 macross plus yammies imo. Can't believe yamato forgot to lock the chest to the rest of the body even though the 1/72 version had that. I like the yf-19 as a fan of the actual mech. But the toy wasn't up to the high standards I was hoping for. If transformers toys can have every mode lock together firmly, so should all macross toys. Sounds like the old 19 was rushed a bit. Much like the VB-6 Monster, it could have had improvements with little extra effort needed to make it feel complete.

Well people are working on this stuff for the ground: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4US851IaOc ^real life destroid. Only a matter of time before transforming robots become reality and they make space versions. Just need to have an alien invasion by genetically modified space giants now... With the help of kickstarter, I bet all kinds of macross fans will try to eventually build their own type of monstrosity (and sell them) given the amount you already invest in the toy versions of mechs. lol The next big thing is going to be commercial travel to space. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HO0EtiVH580 If you get attacked and eject in your escape capsule, and have no weapon you are going to need a little protective suit. The kurutas looks like it would be a good candidate for a "normal suit" (the small mobile suits in gundam that workers use in the show) in the near future perhaps when we colonise moon/mars? There is demand for volunteers to be the first mars colonists: http://www.space.com/21005-mars-one-colony-applications.html Hope they don't encounter space lobsters. It is a one way trip after all..

The 1/48 had clicky wings. Just saying. What if you wanted something even better...

Uh skinny girl arms, tiny little hands, shoulders that hang too low in fighter mode, GBP that looks nothing like the one in the anime with a huge chest that sticks out too far forward, posability that is not as good as a 1/60 v2, lack of two seater variants in that scale, FAST packs that are too heavy and add weight to the toy for no practical reason where plastic is fine, feet thrusters that look fake because when they split apart in robot mode the circular thing underneath also splits apart making it look super fake, the chest looks too wide in robot mode, the seat doesn't rotate upwards for robot mode, the panel lines are thick, certain details should be tampo printed (like the cockpit), the fact that 1/48 is not as easy to find anymore for the new collectors who just started to buy macross toys, and last but not least...the valk was never packed with side parts. So important for covering up the sides of the robot mode. The one thing 1/48 has over 1/60 v2 is how the fast packs attach. But the 1/60 v2 has gimmicks like being allowed to remove the nose so you can attach it to the arm of the robot. If they do a v2 1/48 you might get a better fighter mode without the robot mode looking weird. Combining the strengths of the 1/60 v2 (better robot mode than 1/48) with the strengths of the 1/48 (better fighter mode).but none of the weaknesses of either of them. The 1/48 VF-1 shouldn't be much different in size to a 1/60 VF-0. Maybe something for them to do years later after all the other stuff is considered.

This is a pretty big thread so I haven't read everything in it. But has bandai made a official announcement regarding defective batches? Maybe we can get them to give us hints about which might be the bad batch and when/if they ever re-release this one again in future we can easily figure out which are the fixed releases and which are the older "bad" ones, just like we did with the yamato toys. Sharing the info and having a hint system is going to save people a lot of pain. If say they change the look of the box art on the second release of vf-171 in future, then an ebay seller who is selling you the newer fixed-rerelease version can then reassure a buyer that "these are the newer fixed releases" to avoid confusion and doubt in a buyer's mind by showing the new box. (although if they were sneaky they could tamper with it and put an old release inside a newer release box but it is better than nothing) Maybe there is an ex-yamato or ex-toynami employee working at bandai now and they are the new guy in charge of QC. lol

Ok but you know what? What is a 1/60 vf-0? It's just a big updated vf-1 with more curves. LOL (the phoenix is bigger than a valkyrie) If they are going to do mac 0 toys at 1/60.....how much harder would it be to do vf-1 at 1/48? Wasn't zero less popular than sdfm? They just got to be careful at how much they produce and only go for popular characters. ie Max Mila Roy Hikaru. Include a stand this time and make these "webstore only" toys for the rich guy who can preorder in advance so they don't over produce.

The Octos from Macross Zero: -Roy's VF-0 but with the reactive armor this time -Redo VF-11c but with Full Armor (my fave looking cannon fodder in mac 7) Make sure the arm joint is REAL GOOD to hold that massive gunpod. lol -revisit VB-6 Konig Monster (this time make sure the locking nubs are super strong, everything locks together so the cannon barrels don't flop around freely, and tampo print the eyeballs! Add clicky joints for better poses) -Variable Glaug -1/48 VF-1 version 2! (make this superior to the 1/60 in ALL modes. Although the 1/60 is "balanced" the old 1/48 still look a bit better in fighter mode imo) The last one can be when they have pretty much nothing left to do. lol When they release it, make sure the robot is designed with the GBP armor from the start though. Bring back the gunstrap! We never got 2-seater variants of the 1/48. With all the money they make from 1/60, this line can be for those who just want 1 particular high detail model to display. (which replaces the old 1/48) 1/48 will probably take up more space but look better up close. Maybe they could try to add superposable features to rival a revoltech toy but in big form?

Maybe in the future with commercial space travel some crazy rich guy (who made his fortune in space tourism) actually makes a real shuttle that transforms into a robot like that for the military? We already have the drones everywhere now so perhaps in future the next step is shuttles that can kill enemy in space war by turning into a big robot?

That's more of an artillery bot though. (ie destroid) Yeah it can fly around like the birds but it is fat and most of the time when it fires it is going to need something firm to keep it falling over hehe. I like that one too though. But the variable Glaug looks like it can hop around like a giant bunny as you saw the regular looking version in SDFM. You can't get that kind of agility with monsters. You saw how easy Kamjin blew off hikaru's arms with one. The zentradi are the king of GERWALK. They had their version long before humans made humanoid robots bend over backwards to put their head in their butts and call that a mode.

variable glaug = best GERWALK imo When people complained about the VF-4 not having really posable shoulders I kind of didn't mind this since I know it originally wasn't even supposed to transform into a robot. I hope that for the yf-19 they mostly aim for good fighter and robot mode. In the show it was mostly in these the most. (now that they finally got the hint to the importance of having a locking chest with the VF-19, not having one for yf-19 will be inexcusable lol. V2 YF-19 committed the sin of not being lockable in all modes and is pretty much fighter mode all the time for me.)

Ah ok. I usually keep all my valks in plane mode. The VF-19 was obviously for the robot mode fans because it looks posable in that mode. And keeping the feet heavy may help in that form. (In macross 7 most of the action of the fire valk is basara in his robot mode singing) But unlike VF-1 as a GERWALK the 19 series has always looked a little weird to me so I never pose it in that mode. Maybe they neglected it because they didn't think many give a crap? (sort of like how the original 1/48 has tiny little hands because it was going for F-Mode the most?) Out of all the modes the YF-19 is best in Fighter and Robot mode the most for me. VF-4 is fighter mode. (how they got it so slim I don't know) And VF-1 I think GERWALK, fighter and robot modes are roughly about equal in love. Has it been confirmed if this will be glossy like the macross 7 valks?

Looking good. So about the ankles? Will they just go with the vf-19 ones? I remember all the complaining about how you could not do the GERWALK mode pose where you place the feet forward as much as possible and the butt of the plane further back to make it more balanced due to the design of the ball or socket. People felt this made the GERWALK look like it's nose was sticking too far ahead and gives the GERWALK mode a less aggressive appearance. If you have a stand and use that to pose GERWALK mode none of that matters much since you don't have to keep the feet flush to the ground. But for those who like to pose a GERWALK on flat surface it can make the mode look cooler. Will they be redesigning the ankles so you can pose the feet at more extreme angles forward and back without wrecking anything?

The recent BluRay must act like a type of ad for this toy. (ie more people are going to know and want this, after watching) Is it coming packed with the fold booster this time? Will that thing light up like a christmas tree light?

If you can't afford one, why not spread the word to get as many people to pre-order, that it becomes easier for the company to guage the interest so that they don't under-produce? When they make stuff in low number usually that means paying premium as people are willing to offer more when it is rare. The reason vf-4 is expensive is it didn't really get as much exposure in a show as the yf-19, so it's more risky. I would be surpised if this was more expensive than the VF-19 if it was not limited release item.