DatterBoy

He's pretty good about not eating no edible things, so I'm not worried there. The wood thing.. I totally wanted to do that. Not for a kid's toy, but for like a hobby venture. Would love to see it done, but I don't have the tools to make it happen. But a simplified, durable wood valk would be awesome! :Dat

that's true, but the question is can he find them for cheap? And can he find them at all? I think the reissues VF-1's are easier to find and cheaper to get. Exactly why I went with the reissues. Easy to find, cheaper tham a Yammie, and I hoped more durable.. but the wings... so flimsy and thin.... I'm worried... :Dat

HAHAHAHAHA...

MAYA... Another test fitting. :Dat

Ah, but he recognizes and loves the VF-1s specifically, those just would not do... :Dat

So my son turns 2 in about a week. And dude loves valks. So I went n got em one er.. rather... 3. VF-1S Roy, VF-1A CF, VF-1A Hikaru DYRL, all Bandais cuz everyone here says chunky Monkey is the way to go. If you guys remeber me, I'm the one who let em play with my current collection, much to my chagrin. here's the casulty list: - YAMATO 1/60 VF-1A Custom Paint - busted tail fin - Rohby JM recast, busted leg - Toynami Morpher VF-1J Max, busted leg - 2 Banprestos, torn to shreds So my wife thinks I'm a fool for letting him play with em in the first place, and I'm pretty much gonna side with her. Did he get hurt at all in any of this destruction? No. But damn me cuz I really enjoy watching him play with valks. Dude just loves them to death. All broken cuz he's trying to transform them. The CF is gonna take one for the team. Don;t think the wings are strong enough.. flimsiest wings I know of compared to the Yammies 60 and 48. really thin plastic. And he holds the toy by the wings, everything else, solid. I'll give him the CF, and when he's 4 or 5, give him the other two. :Dat

Hey AZ, how ya been. man! Took a look at your armor on your posed valk and decided it was time to get abetter set. Have not had a chance to do the little cut out for the leg flappy thing (I have a total lack of avition technical terms for airplanes) but realize I'll have to at some point soon. I can see the armor cutting through polys there and that just can't be acceptable. It may be a bit short in the rear for the back leg armor, but I think if an adjustment needs to be made, I'm only willing to scale for the adjustment now. The leg armor side is a real pain to mode. Such an odd shape that I have little to no flexibility with big adjustments. The difference between this set of armor and my older set is that this one is being built based on the Hasegawa plans, but since I used the same plans to remodel the lower leg of the valk, they seem to match up pretty good. Chances are I will simply model the rear leg armor to fit this side leg armor and that will be that. Next up: Strike Cannon. My old one was pretty decent so I may just stick with it. Depends on how well it fits with a booster that is modelled on HASEGAWA. PANDAREN, Welcome! Have fun! the answer to your question is: HASEGAWA. I'm sure you can find the prints somewhere. Let me know and I'll hook you up if you can't. :Dat

Booster:

Lookin Great WOZ. I can see you're modelling all the panel lines in, just like the DOK. Been working on my fast pack set. Test fit: leg armor

Been awhile. Decided to redo the fast pack set, hopefully will get much better quality in modelling than I had before. Not looking forward to the leg armor. :Dat

I pretty much would only wnat the 2 seaters but voted for the O since you can make a D from O parts. Would just need a head. :Dat

For reals. My cousin and I who both have 2 year olds get together and often say, if we let the women raise them all sheltered, they're gonna grow up to be... marshmellows. Boys do boy things, in this case... play with spring loaded rocket launchers and valkyries! But man.. if he pokes an eye out.. man.. will my face be red... :Dat

If it won't kill or maim him, I may just give it to him anyways. I know a lot of people are hyper protective of their kids, but I say a few knicks and marks give character... I love my boy, if I thought it would seriously injure him, I'd keep him away from it. I'm not too worried about these. Now, if it mildly injures him then I'll go for it! :dat

Only now, after 20 years do I discover that COLLECTING the Bandai Strike, Super Ostrich and Elintseeker was a waste of time. I guess I should sell mine for $1 a piece since they're not collectors grade merchandise. I meant in terms actual playability... :Dat

You guys said it all. Seriously... YAMATO is awesome, 48's rule, but I can't see really how you can compare the two from a collectors standpoint... I mean.. it's like comparing the VF-0 and the VF-1... one is a newer form of the other given better technology... although the ) supposedly came before the 1... Anyhow, I digress.. All I know is that I am developing the fan in my boy, and he will grow up the same as I did, first with the 1/55, and then the YAMMIE... 1/55's are truly charming toys, durably made to take punishment, and the perfect toy for KIDS... YAMMIE's are for COLLECTORS. :Dat

HAHAHAHAHAH!!! Yeah, bought used ones for the boy, but they look as good as new! I figure, if I don't plan to keep in the box for all eternity, a NM used in box is pretty damn good. :Dat

Holy crap.... Bigger Pix! Also, can you share your high level technique? Would love to try that myself. Airbrush? :Dat

Completely aware. And like most of the poeple here, he seems to prefer jet. Problem was that i started him on Yammies when in reality, you should probably work towards one... :Dat

Actually, I thought it might be fun to make a model after this CM, and then animate a fight... The Chunky would of course just stand there and raise his arms up and down while the YAMMIES would try and pose the sucker down... Seriously, both versions have their own charms. :Dat

You mean that off-white Chunky Monkey he had in that picture (from your other thread)? He broke it already? Explain. Yeah, that's the one. Basically, he took REALLY good care of it. So there's this thing he does, where if I have a gun, and he has a gun, and I shoot him, he pretends as though he got shot and keels over. Well.. he keeled over on the valk while the tail fin was off and.. SNAP!!!... I decided to get him a Chunky Monkey... But.. I also had the impression that it was Metal.. and it's not... :Dat

Hello All, Just wnated to give you guys my first impressions as I just had the opportunity to acquire a couple bandai reissues. 1. It's not Metal. is there a reason why i thouht it would be? I seem to recall a youth where I had an original taka or bandai and it was metal... If that was the case, why are the reissues not metal. Also, I got this for my son's first birthday as Yamato's are too expensive for a 2 year old and I understand the bandai are much more sturdy. 2. Solid tranformation. They may not look as fancy and clean as the Yamato, but when you tranform em, they stay where they are, everything locks. That's the best. 3. Limited poseability. but what did you expect? toys back in those days weren't too concerned about points of articulation. GIJOE was the best there was at the time for posing. 4. Printed details. Really nice. I love how the details are printed on the valk instead of all relying on the sticker sheet. Huge plus. With or witout the sticker sheet applied, it looks pretty darned good. 5. Spring loaded landing gear. Again, was this always the way it was or something they added for the re-issue. I don't recall any sprin loaded action back in the day. 6. 1/55 is pretty huge. Same as Jetfire, of course, only, back in the day (cuz I have this memory of the old valks I had a long long time ago) didn't seem to be this big. Was there a smaller metal valk released a while back. perhaps those were bootlegs? 7. My son can still break this thing. I bought it for a two year old thinking - metal, indestructable, gonna have to rethik that. Anyhow, thought I might share those impressions with you all. BTW, I posted a bit back thepix of my son playing with my yamatos which I allowed him to do for a bit. He basically broke the fin of my custom repaint on the 1/60 by falling on it while playing guns, and he busted a leg off of Rohby's recast... I should have known better. Was hopin these Chunky Monkey's would be the end all of valks, but now that I have my hands on some, I give it 2 or 3 dys till something comes off it... Cheers!

Very nice. One thing.. the tabs in the front on either side of the nose cone on either side just under the chestplate but above the upper legs in fighter mode... (sorry, not so technical) I believe should be extruded or jutting out a bit more. other than that, looks great! Can't wait to see that thing smoothed. :Dat

HAHAHHA...!!!

If i could have REALLY chosen, hikaru 1A would be a max 1A. I should do a repaint CF or TV MAX on that one. MPC Prime and YAM 48 are among the best toys made to date. Must haves. But you have the simpsons poster, that places you a notch above the rest! Now Spiderman.. most poseable toy made to date... period... :dat

They're really not that poseable.... my setup: :Dat