MKT

I’d get one, just cause I like the Vf-27 a lot & it’ll be nice to have it in matte finishing.

I get the impression that the original Tornado packs weren’t very popular.. I wonder if this is Bandai’s new strategy for WWM DXs? Release everything as a set. In this case, there’s quite a few sets left: VF-25F Armored set. VF-25S Super set. VF-25G Tornado set. RVF-25 Super + Ghost set. VF-171 Nightmare Plus Armored set.

The normal 1J arrived. Gotta say receiving it this many months after release somehow cooled off my mix of curiosity & tampered excitement for it, so I let it sit in the shipping package for a couple days before unboxing. I've only messed with in Battroid so far, & it did take quite some time to see how it stacks up in this mode against the established competitors. Seeing & reading all the reviews so far gave me a very good idea of what to expect, but time and again as always, there's nothing like having it in-hand. Lifting it out of the blister, this thing has some serious heft. I didn't calculate, but I bet this 1J is proportionately heavier than the DX. Coupled with the excellent paint finish throughout, I can see how on just the initial qualitative feel of this toy feel alone it is so much more impressive than others of its size - namely the Yamcadia & definitely over the KCs. I won't really go into what others have already said, which for the most part I agree with, but mostly noting what stands out to me or stuff that are outside expectations. Firstly, the built is pretty solid, the joints of key limbs are sufficiently tight and move pretty fluidly throughout their movement range,that feels more like a DX. It doesn't feel at all fragile while testing the articulation and putting it through various poses. What I really like is how the waist twist is so much more accessible than the DX (which I never bothered to use). Although this feature was figured out quite some time ago when ThreeZero first unveiled the 3D animation footage, it's still pretty satisfying to see this ingenious design in action. I also like how the hands are on a dumbbell peg system, with the balls going into both the hands and the wrist. This allow a greater range of motion for the hands to get more expressive poses. I think this has been done on other action figures before, but it is the first time for a valk, and done well in my opinion. I do remember another toy I have having this system (can't remember which though), but it was fiddly because every time I try to pop off the hands, the whole peg came off at the wrist instead at one end and then I have to subsequently try to wrangle the hands off the other end of peg. No such shenanigans here with this toy, so ThreeZero definitely got the tolerances right with the appropriate tightness on both ends of the dumbbell peg. It's little details like this that endears. We know that the knees and ankles are on slider extensions that are activated using the hidden buttons. What I think hasn't been covered sufficiently is that the sliders actually have 2-click positions - half and fully extended. Due to the way the mechanism works, we by default will always pull them out to fully extend, but if we slowly push the knees or ankles back in while releasing the button, the middle position will click in place. On the ankles, half extension to me look best for normal A-stance poses. What is surprising, is that the ankles are not on ball joints as with virtually all other modern VF-1 toys. Though the feet obviously open/close plus move back and forth, the ankles are on sideway rockers only. So even though there's that nice movable inner flap to allow more sideways movement of the ankle, the lack of ankle twist point limits the fine tuning needed for the more dynamic poses, so the twist is quite sorely missed. Thus, a step forward on the ankle flaps but a step back on the ankle articulation. The knees also proved to be an eccentricity in design and turned out to be a bit of bugbear for me. For the HMRs, Yamcadias & DX-es, we are used to twisting the knee at will and the kneecap if in closed position automatically adjusts out of the way. On the ThreeZero, the kneecap in closed position physically blocks the knee from twisting, so we have to first open the kneecap. Even after opening that, the knee still won't twist and will only do so after the knee is also extended. Visually there doesn't appear to be anything blocking the knee twist in an un-extended position, but it looks to be that just a 10-20% extension of the knee finally allows the twist. This is definitely a bizarre design, complicates stuff more than necessary, introduces stress point when handling this area, and having the knee extended with kneecaps opened for twist do break the sculpt in certain ways depending on the pose to be achieved. ThreeZero reinventing this area that doesn't need reinventing really does make me realise how much I've taken for granted some of the established designs of the other erstwhile mentioned brands. If we extend both ankles and knees halfway as what ThreeZero probably intended, it stands about the same height as the Yamcadia. It absolutely does not feel smaller than the latter; any differences in dimensions in Battroid is really down to sculpt differences than outright scaling and I'll be perfectly happy to mix in ThreeZero's among the Yamcadia 1/60's for display. So far, the positives quite outweigh the negatives in Battroid. Pic to end this post:

I stand corrected on the cockpit issue. More reason why the Kairos is awesome compared to the Siegfrieds.

Needs re-issue and hopefully get rid of the frosted cockpit in the process.

I keep thinking why the proportions look strange, before realising they are the ones from the recent movie lol. Which company made these?

The Korean reviewer with the super long livestream review has received the Weathered 1J:

There's more new concept art posted over at https://aic-r.com/. But this 'Garland Dresser' totally has Motoslave vibes all over it.

That is one big Prime! I'm guessing it's the one by Lewin. Was so tempted by it at one time.

This sure sounds like exactly the kind of thing Bandai would do lol

It seems the sketches were done 40 years ago when he was in school, and he's showing them off for the first time.

I keep telling myself I don't need the YF-19 PF lol.. Over time I do prefer Arcadia's interpretation over the DX, & the PF represents the ultimate version of it.

Pilot / Glugerr finally being adressed, though still no timeline given. Also, Recon Battlepod is mentioned.

I played this a lot on the Saturn last time, and forgotten this track existed. Great memories lol.

Nice review @jenius This is probably one of rare instances where the lights justify the trouble of batteries & fiddling with the switches etc. The cockpit interior looks absolutely amazing. Now we know why the legs sometimes look a bit weird before. It's not so much the upper legs are thick, but more of the ankles and feet are large lol. Another minor nitpick: The grey plastics seem to be multitone at different sections. For eg, some parts are definitely a warmer / yellowish grey, while other parts are of a cooler shade.

Does this belong here..? https://chowbrick.com/jiestar-58144-sdf1-macross-w-lights_p5977.html

I remember seeing the NECA Spinner before, was hesitant then because would like the doors to open for something of this size. Now TZ's gonna make it with more details, but unfortunately the size is quite a bit smaller..

I don't have any Pose+ products, but I'm more impressed by them for each new product they put out. The amount of thought that goes into design & engineering, whilst maintaining the aesthetics of the source material is just amazing. Based on the way the blue paint reflects on the Tri-charger, it looks like it's gonna be metal for the majority of the toy, akin to Arcadia's Garland. I love how the display monitor have various graphics that can be swapped out. But I think the star of the whole package is JJ himself. Just the way he integrates well & articulates with the Tri-charger really brings character to the toy. No surprise based on Pose+ previous works in combining man & machine in a way that I haven't seen from other toy makers. Pose+ even went as far as designing extra adapters to accommodate other 1/18 figures to ride on the Tri-charger. We have been waiting for new interpretations of BGC Motoslaves for some time, and always thought Arcadia and perhaps Sentinel would be best candidates to realise them. But after seeing this, I think Pose+ would be the best toymaker to handle it, since slave mode really demands good integration between rider & slave.

Black & Gold limited version to be up for order at TZ website on Oct 11. Limited 30 units.

Anyone wanting the Weathered 1J can order through Threezero on Oct 11. Only 30 units available.

Quite interested in this. Having spinners from both the original and 2049 would be cool. Another item I wish someone would tackle, other than resin kits, would be the Bubbleship from Oblivion.

Ditto on the 21's landing gears. It barely seems to support the weight of the toy. I don't have it readily accessible now, but I also remember the rear landing gear bay doors are quite thick plastic, so it's a bit of dissonance to handle beefy bay doors but with a weedy gear popping out of them. It may be a small detail, but it does add up to the other weird feeling stuff overall on this toy.

I like that despite it has the same transformation scheme from the 25, the 27 looks so different & unique.