1/1 LowViz Lurker

One thing that I think should have been done is putting clicky bits for the wings like the 1/48 vf-1. This way you can have the wings in swing back mode more easily without having to manually line them up yourself. They can click into position easier. And what do you think of the cleaner look compared to the 1/72? Do you prefer having more panel lines or just bare surface?

Ahh I finally get it now. I was playing around with it this morning and I was determined to get the heatshield to sit firmly shut this time and not fall down. Everything is fine now. I am even more happy with this toy now. The trick I had to do: 1. put my finger on the upper half of the heatshield to ensure there is a like a tiny gap between the top edge of the the orange part, and the grey edge. This ensures the top lip is always going to be as close to meeting the bottom lip as possible. If the orange heatshield upper lip is too close to the grey edge, it's harder to get that to meet the bottom half of the heatshield. 2. Then I had to shake the lower heatshield half until it sat all the way out as far as it could go (I must have not pulled it out all the way last time - it's like a stretchy foreskin ). This is very important because many times when I thought I had pulled it out as far as it would go I realised there was like a tiny bit more it could slide. So if you don't 100% pay attention to this part going as far out as possible (not just 98.9999% forward, but 100%) you might have problems with the heatshield. I always double check to make sure this is completely out now. 3. Then finally push the little lever on the bottom so that the cockpit windsheild being pushed 'up' (ascending) would hold the heatshield halves firmly with friction. And yes, DO make sure you feel that nice 'click' when pushing the lower lever forward all the way which is the no.1 thing. I found that if I didn't do ALL those 3 steps properly I would get problems where the lower part of the heatshield always wants to slide back down again. Now that I figured it out I can keep the thing shut consistently. For a noob it might seem like this was a flaw of the toy but it's just one of those things you have to be patient with so all parts meet together exactly. If you are off by even a little bit, it won't work.

Double post

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I think yamato should do this: while they are waiting to do MacF valks, see what they can do about mospeada. Come on people. Admit it, you all know toynami and CMS were not able to please the fan with their legios and tread combo. I want to see how yamato could have done this so I can throw those other overpriced things in the bin and not have to wait 50 years again until another company will touch it. Beagle's Ride Armour toy was the last and best mospeada toy we got. What they achieved with that toy I want to see yamato do the same for the legioss and tread.

Bandai kits look ok to me. Why is diecast so important?

Yeah I didn't like how they gave conan magic in the xbox360 hack n slash game. lol

The only thing I didn't like about arnie in the original movie, was the idea that someone like him only being a good fighter, could be tricked or decieved easily because he isn't really a smart guy. A guy who can barely read is more likely to be used and manipulated by a bad guy. Personally I wouldn't mind a more cunning barbarian with a bit more of a brain who is a thinking man's warrior that can survive on his wits as much as fighting. If some random fantasy monster is just too tall or big to have its head and balls chopped off, he shouldn't waste energy trying to be the typical tough guy and fight with a big heavy sword at close where it is dangerous, or wrestle it or strangle it to show how manly he is, but instead use a bow to hit the thing in the eye to blind it fro ma safe distance to survive. That requires a bit of patience and skill, not raw power. A barbarian that can think and make wise choices (using his knowledge and skill of all weapons) might be better for a remake conan. Something for fans of gladiator with startegy vs mindless action like 300? But I won't lie: I really just want a sequel movie that just continues on from the old one. Similar to how stallone continued with rambo and rocky so fans who were there earlier don't have to worry about them changing things to suit a new audience. No more remakes!

It's just the fear of wrecking it that's why I look at instructions. There are some things you might miss. For example on the 1/48 people forgot to push the thing that sticks out when adding the FAST packs. Or small features that you might might forget exist (after a long time not transforming it for ages). Like the antenna on the head of the VF-11 being able to be adjusted forward or back. I usually never touch my yamato after the first few transformations. I just leave it in one mode for a long time like it were a kit or something.

My current faves from yamato are: SV-51 (I love the fighter mode and unque look of battroid mode - it's distinct from the 'good guy' valks) VF-11B (all modes look nice. Unlike yf-19 from yamato this locks everything together nice) YF-21 (fighter mode mostly) VF-22 (gamlin just has a nice paintscheme)

My only problem was getting the heatshield thing to stay up in battroid mode. Mine seemed a bit loose and the lower half wants to keep sliding back down. I have worked out that not fully closing the heat shield (just leaving a tiny gap) can sometimes help to keep it up. And then sliding the mechanism underneath the cockpit so it goes about half way on the track as a way to push the canopy outwards and provide a bit of friction against the heatshield does the trick. Don't think that's how you are supposed to do it though... Looks like I failed to get both halfs to clamp together so that edge of the lower and upper half touch like in the manual. err I'm guessing that's why the funny title for the thread?

Maybe you can help the guy in the VF-11b thread who can't find any trnasformation vids of the yamato 1/60 toy? Doesn't seem to be reviews for this one, and it is my fave of all 3 of the macross plus OVA variable fighters that Yamato have done. (clean look, easy to handle, good look in all modes etc)

I know it requires a bit of patience the first time, but I found the instructions pretty clear. Just look at them in reverse to go back to the mode you started with.

I like his TF reviews too. Can't seem to find half the things being reviewed on youtube at my local toys shops and department stores. Still looking for all the human alliance line (movie toy equivalent to alternators ) of TF but doesn't seem very easy to spot.

don't worry so much about matching scale. go with whatever makes you comfortable. As an example the sv-51 is still a massive plane at 1/60 and it seems to be the right size for displaying taking up a lot of shelf space. But the vf-1 is small so you might want a 1/48 just because you like something that tiny to be at a larger size to be able to see more detail. (finer parts like the cockpit and pilot for example) Personally I would get the 1/48 first, and then 1/60 after all the problems with shoulders are fixed completely. I say this because when I came in late with the 1/72 macross plus toys, I was happy to take advantage of the fact that the last release in that line (vf11 with fast packs) seem to have had the shoulder problem fixed. This problem with shoulders on 1/60 v2 is like a repeat of what happened years ago when people were complaining about 1/72 stuff breaking. lol (ie last release containing fixes, earlier buyers left with broken stuff and buyers remorse) In the case of 1/72 I think it was the hips breaking on the earlier non-fast pack releases.

I think I remember seeing a part in the mars base episode with misa. They rolled a few of the destroids down a ramp including a monster. I suppose the SDF1 did make good use of them after all. When you think about it, when dealing with aliens you can't really know how effective a certain thing is until an actual battle. Keep in mind the fighting may vary depending on what the enemy is doing. If they are trying to sneak up on you the way kamjin did with his reguld then I can see a destroid being useful there and at least slowing the ground mecha down a little while valks focus on fighting in the air. Hiding in a canyon, to avoid radar, a fast flying vehicle can be dangerous to pilot. But a mech that is close to the ground might be more suitable in that situation. Since valks can transform they are better all-round robots, but you got to understand that unlike in the gundam shows there are limits to what was available and it seemed to me at least humans didn't actually stand a chance against the zentradi whether they liked it or not. So throwing everything that was available to them was their only choice. Destroids on the skin of the ship? Go for it. Destroids punching and kicking zentradi in a post apoc world where there is a shortage of ammo after earth was scorched (factories blown up?) and the zentradi had no way of making more of their own weapons because they are too dumb to know that? Go for it! Using the front of a carrier as a fist to punch a hole in a ship to blow it up from the inside out by exploiting the destroids' superior firepower compared to the bare bones valkyrie's little gunpod? Go for it. You see, they had to use unconventional tactics which the aliens weren't ready for. But not to beat them! Just to survive and buy time for people on earth to think of a plan. Humans are outnumbered. You needed ALL the robots (even the semi useless stuff) to pull their weight. If the zentradi wanted to, they could have easily sent everything they had at once but they were afraid of encountering what they believed were the PC. When you are surrounded, on all sides with giants playing around with you, you are going to need every gun you can get. You don't want any of them getting inside the ship and killing civilians. This is where I think a destroid would be able to fillfull an important role: whenever a group of reguld manage to finally break through the human defenses outside, and the last layer of defense are the guys on the ground. (this is actually what happened in the opening DYRL scene when hikaru had to disobey orders to shoot the few that slipped through the cracks - I'm pretty sure if a few destroids were there to assist in guarding the inside they could have freed him up to focus on his job out there fighting in space) Yes valks might be cheaper and more effective NOW. But back when the valk was a government secret and they didn't expect aliens to just appear out of nowhere without time for preparations...they had no choice but to rely on it. I think the destroids did provide a useful secondary line of defense for when situations called for less speed and more firepower. The zentradi have far more resources, could have blown up the sdf1 easily, but they were being careful and many times called off attacks. Humans were completely in a defensive position for the majority of the war. So yeah although they are not as useful as valkyries, they were cheaper and probably easier to maintain at the time, and given how many zentradi there are compared to humans, you can't be too fussy and expect the best pilots to be like superman and be everywhere at all times. (anymore than you can expect a gundam to single handedly defeat the enemy in a war by expecting the enemy to fight one to one instead of exploit their advantages of time and numbers - in gundam federation only had mobile armors and were behind the zeon in robots, so similarly the humans in macross had limited resources and battle experience, which would require using anything available that they had: destroids, probably tanks, dedicated fighters, drones etc) That's why I mentioned that if humans were outnumbered again (which probably won't ever happen again since they have cloned themselves) then the destroid might still be useful since they would be easier to control than a vakyrie which requires you know how to fly. The training just to control 3 modes is much harder than standing still and guiding a gun only focusing on shooting stuff. Likewise a Qrau pilot using a QRAU and fighting in open space where you can get overwhelmed on all sides, would probably need more skill and discipline to move about in than a reguld pilot using a reguld on the ground which are seen just hopping around and shooting and hiding behind things and using cover. (less speedy reflexes required from you - hiding behind buildings to avoid a miscromissiles swarm is a safe tactic you could use, whereas that wouldn't be an option in space where you have to really dodge or shoot it down with speed) But because humans have joined forces with zentradi, they are not in a position of weakness anymore and don't have to rely on those unconventional ideas. But SW1 did see a good use for the destroid if only to help fill in any gaps left in the human defense against superior numbers. (just by merely being there to distract or slow down enemies would be useful)

Loose parts falling off happens sometimes. My sv-51 had an armor plate on the back of the hand fall off after I was a little rough with it while transforming. I put it back on but it's loose from now on and probably wont ever be the same tightness ever again. I had to use a bit of bluetac (gummy plasticine like material used for holding posters up on walls) to add some stickiness in the hope I don't one day lose this piece (like screw covers) whenever I attempt to transform it again.

I had a huge beef with that for 1/48 lol and nothing happened. Maybe its like the ole "multiple swappable heads in each release" request and they see it as bad for business? I also wished for smaller versions of the oversized mechanical GBP hands be put in for all the 1/48. ...Nothing. Not having side covers is like not having the gunpods in the first release of the 1/72 yf-21 imo. Just seems like part of the robot is missing to me..

I agree too. It would also save moderaters time so that they don't have to delete or lock so many threads. Regulars on the boards can direct them to the sticky and you won't see copies of the same thing appearing from non-regular posters who are unaware of older threads. *sigh* If only these had the sturdiness of a 1/60 Qrau or something.

To the OP: I'd buy a 1/48 cheap, and if you like what you see, go and get the 1/60 v2 after the problems are all fixed just like the problems were fixed for later versions of the 1/72 vf-11b all those long years ago. As long as yamato keep improving and applying fixes to the problems at some point in time you are going to want to eventually get the stuff. But make it an informed purchase and read the feedack the toys get. I'm paranoid as hell about stuff so I never commit until I think I'm going to be getting a release which is problem free. My fave is the 1/60 vf-11. Get one of those. Best out of the macross plus valks imo in terms of looking nice in all modes. I even liked this the best in the 1/72 line.

ah sorry. Haven't been here in a a while. Will search that thread then.

So with all the complaining about the shoulder issues on the yamato v2 1/60, what do you guys think could be done to improve this toy if they ever decide in a few years time to redo the whole toy altogether? Should they go back to 1/72 days of using diecast and risk making the toys heavier again? Maybe give us better ratcheted joint so that even if it is heavier those joints are stiff enough to not wear out as much? Who here wants a version 3 yamato that is more expensive but more durable? (thicker, a bit heavier, hinges that are tougher) The thing I like about the 1/60 vf-1 v2 are the general more balanced look in all modes and better posability over the old 1/48. But I'm turned off by the cracking issues of this. Would be great if they gave us chunky munky levels of durability with all the features of the latest yamato toys. So what do you predict will be the future for yamato in 4-5 years from now? Would you still be colecting in that time? I tend to go for expensive toys that have durability so I can wait a long time. (I didn't cave in and buy those cheaper and crappier mospeada toys that came out recently and instead chose to buy the superior beagle versions for example) Do you want collector's grade stuff that is expensive and durable or are you the type to want a slightly cheaper toy that isn't as good but allows you to buy lots of different things that appear in the macross universe because they are cheaper? (eg revoltechs getting the regulds where normally this would be risky at large size) One thing I liked about the 1/48 was that being larger allowed for more thickness but then some of the things like the backpack hinge were plastic holding up diecast FAST pack. With a bit more thought, a version 2 1/48 with no weaknesses would be great for those who aren ot interested in going the "pokemon" route in their macross purchases. (ie "gotta catch em all")

Fair enough but if given a choice, I would choose macross mainly because of the scale of the fights. One is war the other is western. I just thought the robot in the show seemed like it couldnt be used to its potential so it made me think that they only use was to get people down to the surface and from then on it would be only semi usefull from there. Taking up more ammo (which has got to be in shorter supply than what a valk could use by flying back to base for resupply), being bigger than the motor bike armor thing, and being easy to spot. So why was it put in? They just needed a shameless clone of the macross flying vehicle and it kinda worked but without it doing anything that made it stand out the way the valkyrie does with all the scenes of swooping down in gerwalk mode and rescuing females and ascending vertically out of the hole in a wall like superman grabbing a trapped victim in a burning building in time. You just have that mode because its cool to do it. Like how action movies might put matrix style bullet time effects because it cool and trendy to do it, even though it's not suitable for the story. (in the matrix they existed in some kind of computer generated environment to that effect made sense) In other words: "let's just cash in and exploit this trend" is why the robot was chucked in. But it wasn't as interesting as how macross made use of it. Gerwalk is helping it to dive and descend a bit slower, fighter could be done to fight at a high speed, and robot mode is the missile spam mode. Cool.... But did it actually matter to you in the battle scenes what mode the hero was using in mospeada? Nope. In macross you saw gerwalk making a graceful landing (like rollerskating on air) after transforming from fighter mode and continuing to fight in that mode and it was a cool scene. Then turning into robot mode from gerwalk to exploit cover in front of your eyes. You were convinced that form that one scene, those modes had some purpose dpending on what kind of action they wanted. Fighter coming in for a landing, goes into a walking chicken mode with legs hanging down, then from chicken mode and after coming to a stop, it goes into human mode to fight as if it was a giant soldier itself. It made sense. In mospeada half the time it didn't really matter if the guy blew up a group of aliens in fighter mode or in robot mode. It all just seemed the same because the battles didn't demonstrate how the mode gave you a strength to exploit. ie fighter mode to dogfight flying enemies, gerwalk to use the hand to rescue the girl, battroid for ground to ground combat etc. Macross was more well thought out. Had more interesting battle scenes (when the destroids were used to board enemy ship and blow it up from the inside for example) and a sense that human were suffering casualties from those battles with important people dying suddenly. (more realism) In mospeada you didn't feel like there was any danger of the main characters dying since it went with a more formuliac way of telling us the story. Every single episode if someone was to die in a heroic way, you could easily predict it would be one of the non-main characters. After watching a few you could predict that the new guy that features in the ep was going to do something like sacrifice himself so that others can live or something like that. Predictibility! Also it goes without saying that just because it is a western doesn't mean it has to have characters that are not deep. Why couldn't for example the blonde biker chic have fallen in love with that cyborg dude on the bike and we see him as a regular character in the show instead of him having to be killed off within that episode? Would have added more dimension to the show and people who don't mind a bit of romance might have been drawn to it too. They could have a story where ray has to compete with the cyborg guy for her attention or something like that heh. Macross wasn't just action only, so you could more easily care what the characters were doing in it.

Yeah but there isn't much left to protect. Earth is a shithole with everything of value destroyed. Clones of ace pilots like milia would have sufficed in place of hikaru, and I think the story was rushed a bit because in all fairness the major threat was dealt with and only a few dumb aliens working alone were all that were left after the big battle. It's not like they needed hikaru by that point imo. They just say that to make it look like he is the savior of the entire human race to make it seem more like he singlehandedly saved everyone's butts and the destroid pilots and cannon fodders who died were insignificant in helping. I'm sure if 1 guy went with minmay because they were sick of fighting due to actually failing to protect their family on earth, it would not have meant the end of the human race. They just get some other guy to do that job; filling in for him, and let new guys have the opportunity to prove themselves. I mean, it's not like Hikaru is the only guy who can fly a plane or anything; like Amuro ray having to pilot gundam because it is just convenient at that point. Personally I think it would be more interesting if the inbit just evolved into a mechanoid race by copying the black legioss and becoming organic versions of that. lol Then they decide to just act like the transformers and hide from the people whose planets they invade. It would be kind of like that game "Phantasy Star" where the CASTs were just living robots treated as just another race by the humans and elves ("newmans" - the closest thing to a newtype in that universe). Just pretend you are not the inbit but a robotic race who had nothing to do with the last war.

It was a great clone of macross with the 3 form transformation and a single-minded character (stick) who is really misa hayase in a man's body. Both stories seemed to have characters obsessed with duty and serving something bigger than themselves versus settling down, relaxing and enjoying the peace that has resulted after a nice long fight against evil aliens who can pwn (or have already pwned) humans without much effort. My view is that it's all hyposcrisy since the aliens (zentradi) in macross represent perfect workers who are single minded and who got beaten by humans who are not single minded or obsessed with one single thing. So making it out that settling down with minmay isn't important and starting a family is low priority goes against the message of "love is what the world needs more of". Same in mospeada: the main character abandons his woman (like hikaru abandoning his boyhood fantasy to be with minmay) to be in the arms of his father (the military) which he serves more lovingly than himself. (choosing to see his adventure as merely a mission and not caring about the friends he made on the way) Lesson of the two shows is that it is more unselfish to serve the military than to settle down with a member of the opposite sex and procreate to replenish the lost lives from wars. Minmay continuing to sing because she can be used by the government is her mission, while hikaru being proud to kill is his mission so if everyone stops acting 'childish' maybe they can all be happier that way by forgeting about sex and acting more like misa (or the mind controlled zentradi) at the beginning of the show more afterall? (ie where serving duty to protect people by being pilot instead of passing on the role to someone else is more heroic) I see macross as better than mospeada in epic feel because they fight in space, on the ground, and you see ship battles so you sympathise with the crew as well as the individuals in the robots. As well as that you have characters that prgress from one episode to another. In mospeada you felt like each ep was better for being a self-contained story, but it got predictable how at the end of every episode there would always be some fight. Good show, good mecha, but let's be honest: macross > mospeada. Stick is not as deep as misa hayase, and the robot in mospeada (although it looks cool in robot mode) seems only half-useful within the story. (not being able to use it all the time because it will turn up on inbit radar and give their position away, making it more a liability than anything - I'd be very annoyed if I had to put up with that) I like the aliens in macross better too. Instead of evolving, they were manipulated into being warriors and part of a warrior cult that values destruction. The aliens in mospeada have no limits! They can transform into a ball of energy like the leader and just vanish whenever they feel like it. This part bothered me about the show because if they could just leave the earth so easily and effortlessly like that, it brings into question why the leader doesn't annihilate humans with those powers from the start?? The zentradi obviously had an excuse: lets take our time and observe these creatures first. So they held back for fear of some ancient prophecy handed to them by their controllers who were using fear to manipulate them into being frightened so that they could use them. Seeing humans frightened them because of that mind control, so they can't concentrate due to programmed fears making them act like little kids scared of getting cooties from whoreish girls. Humans noticing this irrational fear, used this as a psychological weapon to scare the poo out of them and beat them because of the mind control and enslaved the warriors using tricks. Out of the two, which one sounds better? Aliens that have magic powers but don't use them? Or aliens that hold back for special research purposes because we might be a part of ancient history and too precious to destroy?