Just an FYI, I heard from a friend in Japan that Yamato did, in fact, make a change to the shoulders. I guess the initial reaction was to build the shoulder more carefully but then, before the second run of the VF-1S Focker (no idea when that was), there was a slight change to make the plastic stronger. He says it can't be ascertained visually though and it amounts to a microscopic additional amount of plastic. I'm pretty sure this word was passed along to him by someone at Yamato and I'm afraid the only way to really verify it would be to buy an upcoming VF-1 toy and put the shoulder area on a scale and compare it to the weight of one of the original VF-1S Focker hinges.