wm cheng

Woohoo!!! It's back up at NY for 19,950... only a 750Y mark up, I can live with a $8 markup for sleep. They e-mailed me. Good luck everyone!

Yeah, $140 is just too much, I'd pay 1/2 that.

That was my first thought! Have it in a hanger with all the access panels removed undergoing a major systems overhaul, tons of wiring and plumbing everywhere. I wished I was independently wealthy and didn't have to work... ah, I can dream.

Got nothing yet again... at least this time I didn't stay up all night for it. I sure hope they are available at release time, what happened to it being a non-hero valk? Oh well, it wasn't a "must have" anyways, but I do want it now more than before since I wasn't able to get it - funny how things get when you "can't" get one ;-) Now the Ozma 25S is another story - I really hate why Bandai makes us go though this mess everytime.

Yeah, I think its too much for a naked Valk, but what can you do? It's not worth it, but I'll probably still try to get it. I only wished my job had raises like these toy prices! I'm still a little disappointed from my Arcadia YF-19 purchase for the amount they asked for it!

Well, those photos were better than the previous ones, enough to make me bite. As long as I can get one of these without staying all night for - I'm just not going to go through that again. Lets hope there's some available in the morning for us in North America - otherwise I'll just wait to take my chances at release time. Either case, its not such a great loss on this one. Now, Ozma VF-25S I just HAVE TO GET - come on and re-issue that!

Pretty funny tanks on top (MZ wasn't that far off eh?) http://sploid.gizmodo.com/the-typhoon-looks-like-a-futuristic-combat-jet-with-the-1566389209 ...not to conformal if you asked me.

That's great news, I'd be all over that when it comes out. Where can I buy it? I don't see it here; http://shop.funimation.com/Shop/ShopMain.html

What is this "Funi's release of the live action Yamato movie" - where can I find any more info about it? Is it a fan made dub, or an actual licensed proper dub? Is it a BluRay release? Where can I get it? I too would love to take in all the great visuals that I missed trying to read the subtitles.

Cool! So does "The Ark of the Stars" happen before the Comet Empire (are they still doing that for TV?) or instead of?

Great news, who is this designer? What was he responsible for? Was he the mech designer? Pls. link when available (preferable anywhere other than Amazon - crazy shipping prices!)

LOL!!!

Hi promethuem5, I'm sorry if my initial comments came out wrong. I thoroughly enjoyed your review and thank you very much for putting the time and effort into it. I just meant that the overall tone of the entire review was overwhelmingly positive. I am happy that was your experience. Although you did mention a few points here and there, it was mostly drowned out by the glowing reports and it didn't make an impression on me after taking your review as a whole. I value your opinion and certainly didn't mean to spark any criticism of your excellent review. Don't get me wrong, I am happy with my toy, just not overwhelmingly ecstatic about it. There are improvements here and there and some WTF were the Arcadia engineers thinking about moments here and there. I agree with Lowviz, I do like the toy, its probably a great $200 toy, but I don't think its a $384 toy. Arcadia would need to justify that extra 90% premium surcharge with some tampo printing and at least a stand (not to mention better ankles or engineering refinements) - come on, if you include stand adapters, then you should either have a stand included or at least sell the stands separately - what is this, just a tease for something you can't get?! If Arcadia wants to charge these premium prices, then I expect a premium product and I will be more critical of it than a cheaper alternative. I am not going to criticise a Chevy Cruze for handling like I would a BMW M3, basically we've got a Lexus, its better than decent, but its way overpriced for what you get. IMHO ;-)

Hmm, that was a glowing report, no mention of the criticisms at all.

Yeah! And stickers just don't cut it!!!

I can't wait either.

Great mod, so does it still fit in the gear well? Do you have to take the mod out to retract the gears and close the doors or does it telescopically retract?

That's fantastic!!! Its exactly what I was thinking was wrong, just the front gear looks a little short. I bet now the gunpod hangs better too. So does it telescopically collapse to retract the gear into the wheel well?

Or this is the v1 (remember all the ugly gaps on the v1 VF-25s) and they'll rape us again with a v2 in a year or so. I'm not sure about the nose section as seen from the side, the canopy just seams to jut up from the forward fuselage in a very non-sleek way. I'm more on the fence now with this one - the aircraft mode is all that I will ever display it in anyways. Just not sure.

TRIPLE THAT!!! Your decals are my favourite 1/48s in my collection. I NEED you to step back in please! What a wonderful collection of customs, I'm glad they're all in one place!

Ok, for those interested, I removed the Made in China and Copyright information markings on the underside of the wings. Rubbing Alcohol works, but you really have to rub it with a paper towel, but the time I got it all off, I made a tiny little shiny spot (took away the rough semi-gloss plastic texture). I also tried Lacquer thinner, that works too, melts the ink, but because of the textured plastic, removing the stained melted ink took lots of wipes and it "stained the texture" a tiny bit. I used an eraser to rub away the stain, but the time I got rid of any stains, I created a tiny spot that was a little bit shinier than the rest of the matte plastic. So the end result was about the same. I will clear coat the whole bird after I decal and weather it, so that will go away after that process. I do notice that this plastic does seem cheaper, slightly more swirls when you look at it in different light. Why the heck does Yamato/Arcadia insist on mounting the stand mount so far forward away from the center of gravity of the toy?! It could be better hidden under the toy and create less stress on the stands when its further back. I just don't get their thought process, its already a bulky non-elegant solution to have this claw, it really can be adapted to be anywhere.

Well, after 7 days in transit via EMS... I finally got my hands on this toy. I agree with everything already said about this toy, but still am a bit disappointed, especially factoring the $300+ cdn price tag (in fact it was closer to $390cdn after shipping, I didn't get the Black Friday sale - but luckily I escaped customs or duties, so NY comes through again, although a bit late for charging a steep 5,400Y in EMS that took 7 days!). Luckily my copy is fine, no breakages yet. I have the non-aligning right tail fin (how did you correct that again? - the other one is fine) and one of my little gullet doors don't close flush (how was that corrected again... where was the excess glue? - these threads move so fast, I couldn't find the solution back 10 pages!) Maybe we could start a new thread or pin these corrections to the front of this thread (along with sanding the rear backpack as to not scratch the black paint). I'd just thought for such an expensive toy, we wouldn't have to make all these corrections right out of the box! I am more critical of this toy because its a 50% increase in MSRP - I don't get a 50% increase in pay for doing nothing, I expect that much better quality or design. If it were a 5% increase or something geared to inflation, then I would expect the same quality as before. What if the cost of living just went up 50% - wouldn't people expect more or be more critical? No denying its a beauty, but that's got more to do with the original K design. I don't mind the plastic, its way better than the glossy finish which I think looks cheap & toylike IMHO. How come no one has mentioned the really low hanging down tilted gunpod, its almost touching the ground when the landing gears are out - if only the gears were a few milimeters taller. I find there is excessive gap on the back between back plate and intakes that really detracts from the aircraft mode - I was hoping that it was just mis-aligned, but it I see it in all the photos and now I see that its the design of the toy. Funny how some panels have a great tight flush fit like the little doors around the head, but you've got huge gaps at other areas. That collapsing side panels on the shield still creates a huge gap either side when they're extended - why create the collapsing panels when they don't even cover much when they are extended. It just seems unnecessarily complicated / over-engineered to the point that its more fragile than fun to transform. I wished there was a simpler canopy hinge that doesn't involve a partial transformation to just open or close the canopy or I really don't see why the tail fins needs that extra hinge to fold back that part, it really doesn't contribute to the look in anyway. Then on the opposite side of the coin, why not hinge the canards like the VF-4 instead of pulling them out and rotating them / a very non-elegant awkward (parts-former) solution. I just don't get it - what could the Arcadia engineers be thinking? The real lack of tampo printing really bothers me - especially when they chose to not include waterslide decals yet they do for their VF-1 releases. I have to give Bandai props for printing everything on the toy. Some panel lines are impossibly faint too (such as the grey stripes on the top). Overall, I'm happy they revisited the YF-19 (I never bought the original because of the fat gullet) but I'm not overly impressed with Arcadia. I was hoping for a VF-4 quality toy from here on out, but I'd say its below Yamato VF-4 and SDF-1 around the VF-11 quality - maybe even below Bandai VF-25 renewals as at least they are fun to transform and have everything printed on them AND INCLUDES A STAND (excluding the pre-ordering fiasco!). I no longer have as high hopes for the VF-0D... which is too bad. I just hoped the first new Arcadia toy would just hit one out of the park! I think a lot of people are letting Arcadia off easy because they spent so much for a toy (people tend to like stuff just because they spent a lot of money on it, its like self justification) - I on the other hand feel overly critical because they thought they could charge so much for a toy of this level. I'm glad I didn't get more than one, I had thought to get 2 since I actually think they really improved the Battroid mode the most but I don't feel they deserve my second purchase. I am "satisfied" with my one copy and will display it in the "This is Animation" cover configuration after I had corrected it, with decals, light weathering and panel lining - I just really wanted to be "over-joyed" with it. I think THAT was my biggest disappointment. Now please, can someone print true white and make us some aftermarket waterslide decals? Pretty please??!

I just bought a 1/700 PE parts set for a navy destroyer to detail up the Bandai GX-64 toy and it seems to have most of those parts (at least all the railing, landing and stairs stuff with grills that can be used for the radar too) - I wonder if there's a 1/500 set for some destroyer that would work (although 1/500 isn't that common of a scale for ships).

Yep, the VF-4 was the height of Yamato - its my favorite by far! It's what made me buy into the YF-19 sight unseen... however that's disappointed me a bit especially after the VF-4

Exactly my feelings too...