1/1 LowViz Lurker

I recently broke a little fast pack thruster nozzle on my 1/60 vf-1 v2 hikaru vf-1s because I took the cover off too quickly. Yamato should have made that nozzle soft rubber plastic imo. (like gunpod accessory hands) I got to superglue that back now. Playing with these is risky even if they are mostly tough.

But what if bandai secretly come out with the vf-171 like tommorow? Then you are screwed.

I think they'd do it. Everyone whines about no locking chest and the gullet. Plus these new fatter robot modes make people go nuts. They'd be fools not to revisit imo Maybe macross plus isn't as popular in japan as 7, but the yf-19 is popular. I like this one the most because to me in robot mode it doesn't look like it is wearing pants. That frame around the ankle look bad imo.

They should reboot SDFM with a new cg animated tv series imo. There is so much badly drawn valks in it that kids of today won't watch this show just because it looks old. Let that be the 30th anniversary project. It would make future vf-1 toys easier to make so fans don't whine about how it's not canon enough to lineart. haha This way toy companies have the cg plane as the guide and no more arguing about which is the real shape and which is the imaginary fan-fiction ideal of what the valk should look like. The tv series hasn't aged well. After seeing macross zero I always wondered what it would be like if they did that.

The only thing "short nosecone" fans could do is just to make it so that piece is swappable with a short nosecone for battroid mode (like the swappable hands) and a long nosecone for fighter mode. Nobody seems to mind that you have to swap hands for more artwork-loyal display in battroid mode so I see this as the only way of solving the crotch problem. Besides the nosecone is a great weapon to use on a zentradi soldier if you have no weapons to fight one with. You knock him to the ground to topple him over, then you use the nose/crotch of the vf-1 to stab the lying soldier to death by teabagging him when he is vulnerable on the ground unconscious from the fall. Jump in the air as high as you can using the boosters in your backpack and feet to gain height, then fall on top of him with your crotch. Instant death. Shorter nosecone only lessen the effectiveness of that move. In the old days they didn't have the gunpod bayonet or the knife from macross frontier. They had to think outside the box. (shortages of ammo during space war I called for more conservative usage of limited resources) Yes I'm only kidding around but I think it would be fun to see that in a fight lol.

I remember him saying it won't have the shiny look of the vf-19. I'm not a fan of shiny finish. Yeah maybe there is some anime reason for why things must look shiny like sportscars (beam resistant coating, girls will look at you showing off in the valk more, giant zentradi oil is poured onto it before each mission in order to more easily escape being grabbed by them and thrown in a wrestling match at close range combat etc) but I prefer flat look. Follow the example of the vf-11b and vf-22s yamato: After going to the pictures thread I just ended up ordering another vf-22s thanks to hlj sale. lol I hope more pic of this come out in color soon. Show me all the gimmicks. Enough teasing.

still no pic of its gunpod. I want to compare the size of it to the old yamato 1/60 yf-19 version since I thought that was a bit undersized.

that one was taken to space during a shuttle mission. don't always trust the bullshots. (or the much cheaper alternative using photoshop) ..still going to take a risk with bundle.. hurry up and tell us plans bandai. Maybe you'll make so many otaku angry that they'll blow up the 1/1 gundam statue in protest? lol

Yeah I'm going through that tough decision right now too. I would rather buy the bundle than a standalone of each thing. Ozuma is my fave of the bunch. I am a big fan of the grey valks. (vf-11b, shin's vf-0, low visibility vf-1 etc)

Apart from the massive knee armor and fatter arms in the lineart the toy looks to be accurate. Good job. just got to wait for misterfanwank's youtube review before I take the plunge. Just kidding lol I think everyone on macrossworld should subscribe to his channel though. Yeah and there is a gap in the chest. Come on give bandai credit where credit is due. The little 1/100 still looks better in that one area.

Good find. No more mcdonalds paintscheme. Notice how they left out the gunpod? Was it just too cool to display to us? I wonder how big it will be compared to the old yf-19 1/60 version?

Bandai is awesome now. lol at the risk of being a troll on these boards, they did a good vb-6 monster. The macross quarter was fine. They did the himetals. And now they are doing the vf-25 using people yamato used. If yamato want to survive they got to take my advice and make perfect transformable vf-0 at 1/100 scale bringing the cost of the toys down a bit for those who have no space (and to lessen the effect of rising prices on the average joe in the US) and at the same time lessen the shipping cost so the toys become more of an impulse purchase. This is what toynami did with the little vf-1 toys. When they finally make Reactive armor for the vf-0 they wont have to worry about breaking arms and stuff due to excess weight and other issues that would normally plague larger toys where joints can barely handle all the stress bearing upon them. Then they can fight at 3 fronts: 1/100, (vb-monster and enemy mecha) 1/60 (most valks) and 1/48. (collector grade details and gimmicks ie version 2 1/48 vf-1.. ) If bandai employees are listening: non-glossy valks in future thanks. And less web exclusives. You have too much money but you obviosly made a fool of yourself with the vf-25 v.1. Listen to the critics. And for god's sake continue the himetal line. YF-19 and YF-21 news please.

Those are good pics of the monster. Find a place with a crack on the ground and pose it with the foot stepping down onto it.

The adaptor just fits into the bottom of the fighter mode and the gunpod fits into the adaptor. Actar's video review of the vf-19 fire valk accessory set: (skip to 5:44 in the video to get to this part of the review or skip to 7:14 in the video to see the adapter piece and how it attaches) What I was wondering is: "does the blazer include its own version of this in the box for free?" If not, "is there a way to get the fire valkyrie adaptor working on blazer valkyrie gunpods so I don't have to mod?" (since the handles of the gunpods are different aren't they? not much info out there for guys like me regarding blazer release - we can clearly see landing gear and stand comes with it in pictures, but no mention of gunpod adaptor, which imo bandai should have included .....grrr) Bandai didn't need to do stuff like that for vf-1 himetal but when they did it for the vf-19 it was a deal breaker for me. They just handed yamato free money. ....unless they make it easy in future to get the pieces later on? I love the himetal line as a whole (I think it is the perfect scale for the enemy mechas like the Qraus, and larger mechas like the VB-6 Monster) just not the way they handled the accessories for the vf-19 valks. You'd think they would want to strive for higher review scores by including the basics but whatever...what is done is done.

HLJ have been pretty reliable for me. But I have heard they take a while to send things. I always tell them "not to combine my shipping with anything else" and to "send immediately when the item is ready to be sent". Sometimes they'll do this thing where they ship only after they are 100% sure you will not add anything to your shopping cart at the very last moment while on the website, just as a way to save money by trying to cram as many items into a single order. (like it is assumed by default you want to buy more than one thing so they won't process your order until they have to) They want to use up as much space in a box as possible I suppose.. The ability of them to understand english helps because at least you know they will be able to respond to the emails you send lol.

Look the issue of the long neck is there. Graham asked what people were referring to and jenius provided his answer. Let's not turn this into a bandai vs yamato war. Besides I think even IF bandai did take something from the yamatos that so long as it resulted in a great toy then it generally means good things for those who want a good valk toy at small scale. Actually I think if they all bounce ideas off each other by looking at flaws of each other's work and trying to improve their own by looking at the mistakes of the other guy in the hope they don't repeat it themselves, then this means they will now have incentive to try harder the next time as they hear the valid criticisms of people who pay money out of thier own pockets to buy it and not just random attacks from employees who work at rival companies. That "need to please" then results in better things in the future thanks to feedback from fans. Theoretically you'll get better products in shorter timespan because both companies learn from the mistakes of the other company, as well as their own and then avoid the risks when they see what path not to follow. Personally I much prefer the 1/48 height of the chest but the 1/60 in general is a lot more balanced in proportions (1/48 still has tiny hands and non-realistic feet thrusters lol) so overall it is still the king of the vf-1 right now despite not being perfect. Once yamato sort out these little things everything will be better if they plan for another improvement down the track. One improvement I would like to see is the side part covering being on all future valk releases. This is part of the valkyrie as much as the intake covers are. Why should only the gbp release have this? Clearly we see hikaru fall over in the vf-1D and get a close up view of the side of the battroid closed shut, so why have yamato not provided side parts for non-gbp valkyries?? How much money would it have cost these guys to just include them free like the extra missiles, intake covers, pilot, and extra hands?? Graham please remind yamato that we would like to have this piece included in future. It is PART of the battroid just as much as the heatshield and intake coverings are. Not an add-on like the fold boosters, armor, sound booster, stands, fast pack, etc. These would be ok as seperate purchase. Also another improvement that would be nice is being able to angle the head lasers outward. I always like to do that for vf-1j and vf-1s when in robot mode. EDIT: The "too low" nose cone thing can't be helped since lineart of battroid mode has always shortened this part to make the robot appear more tough. I bet as a 3d cg object which doesn't cheat by using anime magic, the vf-1 would follow the lineart proportions of fighter mode more. To me fighter mode is the most important and I'm ok with a skinny valk. The vf-11 for instance does not look tough in bot mode, but it has a nice fighter mode. When vf-11 gets the armor add-on it looks normal. Paintings of the robot mode with large fists and fat short nosecones is just an artist interpretation. It's not important who the artist was, but that it is taking liberties whenever you see changes in size and shape to make the mode look more appealing in those drawings, so you can't always rely on them.

good pics. I would like to see you put photoshopped backgrounds in there. Like for instance take a blurry image of the sdf-1 toy, set that as your background and the take a focused pic of a brownie valk flying to the foreground and paste that image slighty to the side on top of the background to give the impression kakizaki is about to die as the sdf-1's full barrier is overloaded and is going to blow up and he isn't going to make it out in time.

I've got the hikaru vf-1s with super and strike parts too. (anniversary) If only bandai did things like that. Actually celebrate things like anniversaries and give us better deals. Maybe a "naked minmay in the shower" figure packed with every 1/60 toy that is released on that year?

*bump* very Late to the party here: just want to ask a quick question about the blazer release of this toy: If you wanted to get the gunpod attachment (for mounting the gunpod to the fighter mode without modding) do you need to buy the fire valkyrie accesory set? (option set or whatever it is called?) Or is there supposed to be a seperate accessory set for the blazer that I'm not aware of? (haven't done much research into the blazer despite reading lots of reviews for the fire valk) It's a bit confusing to me because I don't see much information about thr blazer valk and what accesories it comes with for free? I can see it already comes with a stand, it comes with a landing gear thing, and looking at picutures I see closed fists.. But what about attachment piece for the gunpod? Do you get one of those when you buy a blazer himetal? I love the small size as I am running out of space. I just get confused about this particular valk. I wish bandai just put as much effort into this as the VF-1 himetal. That toy already let you mount the gunpod in fighter mode without asking for more money from you. Don't understand how hard it could have been for them to do this with the VF-19 Himtels. Help out a brother. Please lLet me know what you get with the blazer and how I am supposed to attach a gunpod in fighter mode if the attachment piece that lets you do this, isn't included with the toy. I hope I don't have to buy the fire valk accessory set. Grrrrrr. So angry that bandai didn't get far enough to do the yf-19. Jenius You planning on reviewing the blazer Himetal at some point? I always like your reviews because you do such a thorough job.

You'd like the sv-51 ivanov from macross zero. Too bad it's not easy to find anymore though.

advantages of short stubby wings in robot mode over long ones in robot mode. ie "if you were starscream would you feel more comfortable with dangling bits or having those bits stuck to your leg?"

I found a negative-sounding review of the fire valkyrie on youtube: "I can't stand it" "It's a crap toy." I thought it would be good to post in MWB to see what reaction I'd get while I'm bored waiting for these toys to come out. (you have to admit there has been barely any hype or coverage or pics of these upcoming toys lately) Does anyone here feel the same way as he does? Let me know if you want to sell your stuff cheap to me. thanks. lol I don't think I can afford all the variants and might be short on $.

What I would have done is allowed the dangly bit to be detachable and just have it attach to the underside of the arm like the underarm attachment thing you see in macross plus when dyson shoots a monster. They had a lot of deatchable things in SDFM: the cockpit could detach so roy could rescue hikaru and minmay, the arms could be ejected if they were damaged, the magic hands thing had little openings on the forearm to assist in repairs, you had the gbp which could just eject once all the missiles were used up etc Those dangly bits could have been used as shields that attach to the robots arm or something like that. You'll note that in the start of SDFM the space fighters that get owned in episode 1 at the beginning didn't have any wings. If the robot forgets to reattach the hip guns back to the hips again I think it would still be able to fight ok with no wings in space. lol

Yes but visually having long dangly pieces is not as 'clean' to me as short stubby ones for some reason. I think a majority of starscream fans didn't like the hip pieces on masterpiece ss. I know that the space-use vf-19 is better at maneuvering in space. But I'm talking more about drawing your gun quickly from a still position to shoot a small target to shoot something down. I find that if it is all long it means more effort to aim the shot. Shorter wing would mean less weight behind the hip gun and it would be easier to guide the shot with short wing version of that same gun. If you had to change the direction of the hip gun suddenly, I think the long one would be slower to turn than a short one imo. If there is like several little targets to shoot and they are moving around, the short wing version could shoot all with more ease than the long one. The hinge that positions the hip gun can 'handle' a short wing more easily than it would a long one. I think the extra length of the wing would only work against aiming the gun properly in bot mode compared to the short hip gun version. As for shields: I can see the arm fins on vf-22 being shields because we see that in the anime but the hip skirt stuff just look awkward imo. A clean robot design like the vf-25, vf-11, or vf-1 is going to be more practical imo. "Dangly bits" < no dangly bits. I'm just nitpicking lol. Don't take it too seriously.

The kai doesn't have as cool a gunpod though. I think overall the Blazer is a better valk in space combat for 1 reason: you know when the vf-19 transforms into a robot and can shoot those lasers from the hips which are supposed to be inside the wing? I think having shorter wings must equal better accuracy because the longer wing would mean it takes longer to point the gun in position before firing off a shot. Think of it like this: if two vf-19 were going to draw their guns at the same time, the vf-19 with short wings will win at being able to shoot first and get the first hit advantage. It's sort of like the advantage a yf-21 would have by using 1-handed wrist gun vs the two handed gundpod of the yf-19. The guy with the wrist gun would have less weight to deal with and draw the weapon quickly which means advantage for close range combat. I also don't like the idea of these long things dangling off the sides of a robot. It just looks bad and I can be ok wih the yf-19 having it because the long wings make sense for it in atmosphere while flying in fighter mode and we see the character Isamu Dyson (macross plus) always fighting in the air more than in space. But in macross 7 majority of the fighting is in space (loads of micromissiles spam to have to dodge or shoot down with your gundpod in robot mode as they come at you from all directions, no cover to hide behind like on earth) so I see the short wings as being superior in general for the average pilot in macross 7. Basara makes up for it by being the ultimate pilot so he has the "plot armor" saving his skin which just makes the fire valkyrie look good in combat. But after thinking about the VF-19, the shorter wing makes robot mode look cleaner and therefore better than the vf-19 variants with long wings, which to me makes robot mode look messy. (BTW the transformers masterpiece starscream toy having the dangly bits on his hips was a bad idea imo lol Don't know what they were thinking by making it look like a yf-19 instead of just going with the g1 transformation)