MKT

Great you found the root cause for the nosecone gap @Lolicon Whether it is due to the new matte formulation, the generally tighter fit or both, the plastic on the revivals qualitatively feels more tactile and stronger - although both revivals and renewals weight the same. I very much hope it is stronger though, as beyond the loose joints of the renewals (easily fixable), the other more serious issue is the cracking of the hinge that holds the upper and lower torso in Battroid together (the hinge between the intakes in Fighter). It seems the plastic for this joint rot over time and gives out even if there is no tension on being in Fighter mode.

LOL are the Q-Rau-looking pods sprouting from her back or sits on top of her head? For some reason, from that angle it reminds me of Queen Armidala. Still, I like this quirky design though.

It just so happens I got my VF-25F Revival in yesterday, and this after handling the renewal VF-25S recently. The nosecone gap issue is definitely still present though. The pics on the box itself shows the gap pretty clearly, but at end of the day it's not really that bothersome, just conspicuous when u put it side by side with the renewals. Great that your copy has no issues on that front , so perhaps it is not something that affects every copy. For the gunpod in Fighter, it was based on earlier 25 WWM reports on one of the arm tabs not properly fitting into the gun handle slot, and I incorrectly surmised it would affect display in that mode. I tried it myself on the Revival 25F, and whilst it appears to retain the ill-fit on one of the arms, the gun can still be angled very much straight; just that the affected arm will be ever so slightly rotated, as @Halfstep experienced above. Again, this is something not very noticeable visually as the arms are mostly blocked by the gunpod. So far, I would say these 'defects' in Fighter are not really big deals because you do find certain other gaps here and there that were also present in the renewals that were characteristic of Bandai Macross molds of that era. However, most of the movable bits in Fighter (haven't transformed my copies yet) for the revivals are definitely much stiffer than the older renewals. The firmer snapping of the wing roots to the legs, the much-reduced slack between each position of the wings' swing angles, the stiffer cockpit opening/closing motion & its tighter fit - every part appear to have been made a tiny hair's width thicker. As I'm typing this, the thought crossed my mind that, if we assume both renewals and revivals came out at same time, it is as if Bandai KO'ed one of their own mold of the other. I don't have a Valkyrie Factory VF-1 KO, but from the reviews of them, the varying differences of tolerances compared to Yamcadia originals sounds like the kind of differences we are hearing of the Renewals vs Revivals today.

Cute and looks like balls of fun!

Whether it’s due to mold degradation or not, but off the top of head there are a few fit issues observed for the VF-25 WWM scheme that weren’t present in the older renewals: 1. The nosecone in Fighter doesn’t seem to close as well as it should, leaving a slight gap. 2. The gunpod doesn’t fit properly into one of the arm tabs in Fighter, so it would be very hard to display Fighter with its gun. Gun can still be angled straight though, but one of the arms will be rotated every so slightly offset. 3. The crotch lock in Battroid is not as tight, & so unbuckles rather easily during handling. Not sure if these issues have been fixed for the new 25F Revival though.

I only appreciated how hard it was to not have kibble underneath jets or flying craft when collecting Macross, when in other ground vehicles these robot bits can just be hidden away in their undercarriages. I think the VF-25 itself supposedly take design elements of different VF’s that came before it, in keeping with its homage theme for its 25th Anniversary. As an aside, when I first watched SW Episode 7, for better or worse I came away from it thinking how similar it was to Frontier in homaging the original show within their respective universes.

Chogokin VF-25S is among the early valks in my collection, thought I'll get some shots of it before the inevitable Revival version.. Fighter-only for now though. The VF-25S's insignia / logo appear to be the very first insignia to appear on a VF's back, and IMHO its design still looks the best today after a multitude of them started being used in Delta. The insignia matches nicely with the best color scheme of Frontier VFs, and being on a top favorite VF-25, they collectively make the VF-25S have arguably the best scheme of any VF in the Macross universe... Still amazed at how Macross VFs throughout 40 years always have rather tidy underbellies in Fighter in comparison to other transforming jets, and the VF-25 is no exception. I would have taken off the intake covers for this shot, but the unpainted intake detail bug me more so I left them on.

Thanks for confirming this aspect, and also your initial impressions. All things considered, we can regard the revival mold as a straight up reissue with matte finish. Any engineering improvements can be treated as superficial & doesn’t really solve the issues it attempts to fix. Bit of wasted opportunity on Bandai‘s part; they could have done more robust re-engineering like what they did from v1 going to v2. Still love this design though, & hopefully they push through to give us the revival RVF-25 with ghosts & 25S with armor.

Love the wall mount method!

Thanks @Lolicon I only turned the whole diorama box sideways.

I don't mind if the cockpit is tinted slightly heavier, or different color tint, as long as the base plastic is not frosted & still clear like the 'revived' YF-29 Alto full-pack. At this moment even in the videos, it is a bit hard to tell if the cockpit plastic for this revival VF-25F has some bit of frosting going on. I really hope not.

Agreed on the magic hands, and the atmospheric booster which was floated by Fext Hobby at one time, but never came to be. Bandai’s new thigh joint can now be seen as the biggest innovation for VF-1 toys. Quite the game changer in articulation, that any new VF-1 molds without it would be quite the regression. I wish the HMR VF-1 revivals had included this too.

The blue kinda looks like the v1 version.

I’m jealous too of his very white renewal Alto.

Those chest mesh vents in previous prototype appear to be gone now. Unpopular opinion, but I actually kinda like that creative interpretation, mainly because there are already so many sculpt-accurate VF-1 in other scales.

Early impressions of the VF-25F Revival: https://hacchaka.net/archives/52094372.html Some pics pulled from above link:

This is starting to come into stock at JP retailers.

Not so hung up about the variant or colors, but still very much excited because it is a new mold. And we know Arcadia has never shown any new mold and then KIV-ed it. *cough* DX YF-21 *cougghhh*

Thanks @Pontus Was about to say I'm seeing hints of Lamborghini too in the VF-17, but yeah some Lambos and Tumbler have all been associated with the F-117 in some way or other in their designs, hence the commonalities between all of them.

I'll likely get one of this new Intruder ride-armor. When the concept drawings were first revealed nearly a year back, it looked pretty meh, but the changes to its design & colors to its current toy prototype have quite won me over. The original drawings looked so drab:

Yamato's interpretation of VF-17 from some angles reminds me of The Tumbler with Angry Birds face.

The box art looks a lot like a panel lined & nicely weathered toy.