HardlyNever

It almost sounds like this VF-1 would be in the Soul of Chogokin line, rather than the DX line, as sort of the "definitive" VF-1. But that's going off of extremely limited info. Hopefully we'll know more (and have pics) soon.

I'm holding out for a 1/60 VE-1 and VT-1 from Arcadia, so I'm passing on the HMRs of those for now. It is good to know these are an option if we don't hear anything from Arcadia next year, though. I'll take all the enemy mecha, please Bandai.

Pretty excited about this. I'm going to ship the regults and vf-2ss together, so I'll finally get my hands on the vf-2ss. Maybe I'll get them in time for Christmas? Or at least my x-mas break.

I own the Yamato launch arm, what you're calling the "crane." It is compatible with the Arcadia valk you linked (I have that and used it with the launch arm). The vf-4 also works with it. I don't know if I would recommend it, as I got mine as part of a larger purchase. It is also optimized for vf-1 fighter mode in order to recreate the visuals from DYRL (but it actually fits on the wrong way for practical purposes). But it does work with all modes (it just receives the display stand adapter that comes with the figure). Arcadia also made a stand, and there are several 3rd party options.

Also got the notice from AE, but I'm holding off on shipping until the regult release next month. As much as I want to get my hands on a non-vf-1, I gotta be sigh reasonable.

Probably one of the best shots in "official" animation of the underside of the reaction missiles (granted, it's DYRL). It looks like two separate hard points? But it is kind of hard to tell. Either way, I can't really fault toy makers for going the easier route and making 2 hardpoints for all 3 types. Maybe a next-gen vf-1 could have reaction missiles that look farther apart or something.

No big deal, I know there isn't super accurate terminology for this stuff. And yes, one post/pin/nub is/was bigger than the other, which caused the cap on that side to protrude out farther. For me, this didn't cause a break until I went back to fighter mode. Had I known exactly what the issue was before hand, it might have been avoidable, but short of a warning that says "Hey, we screwed up and one of the caps on the backpack will stick out farther than the other, be extra careful when transforming," I don't see how it would have been reasonably avoided. I have other grips about the variance in quality in Arcadia releases, and even within the same toy (landing gears being more difficult on one side than the other, etc.), but I don't want to derail this into a "Arcadia QA sucks," thread. I'm just glad to see these issues are coming to light within the community, as I believe they might be becoming more common.

One nub on my flap was 100%, without a shadow of a doubt, bigger than the other. And the guy above me is saying the same thing (as far as I can tell). It seems like the Roy release might have had it worse than others, for whatever reason. Based on this thread, it looks like some of the Milia's might have the same issue (I didn't buy one, so I couldn't tell, and I doubt it is ALL of any one release). I think what I'm calling a nub, you're calling the pins. It is the two protrusions on either side of the folding flap. One of mine was larger than the other (it was "fatter" around and a tiny bit longer). So what I think happens is one side of the "cap" (as I think you're calling it) gets pushed out farther than the other, when you transforming it, due to one of the "pins" being bigger than the other.

Yup, I discovered the same thing. But it took 3-4 re-glues before I realized what was going on. After I really took a look at it, and sanded it down, I haven't had a problem since. But I can't accept "have your toy break, then do this fix and it is fine" is ok for a $200+ toy. But that is me, other people are fine with that scenario.

I guess my overall point is that I'm surprised this exact issue hasn't been talked about more (but this thread has changed that). I think at this point it should be a highlighted known weakness of the design, somewhat akin to the shoulders of the early yamato v2s (it's not as wide spread, and not as bad as when it breaks, but I think I've seen 10+ people reporting this exact problem, and I'm not an authority on it). I hope this sort of raises awareness of the issue, as even people who have experience with yamato/arcadia v2s seem to run into this problem, having not known about it before. I doubt Arcadia will ever get wind of it, unless a lot of Japanese customers are having the same problem. But I think it would be good to raise the awareness of this issue within this community, at least.

Like I said, there is some degree of user error. But it seems odd that a design would be so weak that you need to consult an online community before you transform the thing once without breaking it (the instructions don't go in this much detail for the backpack part of the transformation). I think there is more to it than that. Jenius, who has to have handled dozens of v2 vf-1s over the years, has this picture on his website: It's the same break I had. At some point, you have to wonder if that is a weak point in the design, or what % of breaks is acceptable.

I don't want much else from Arcadia (I'm only interested SDFM stuff), so it wouldn't really be that hard for me to be done with them. If the SDF-1 comes out fine, I'd definitely be willing to give them another shot, though. I've seen this issue several times now, across several releases. I can link to the other places I've seen it, but I don't want to derail this thread that far. That said, I'm not saying everyone is having this issue. I am saying that anyone having this issue is pretty bad for the price Arcadia is asking now.

This has been my biggest beef with Arcadia. I'm sure some people get great copies, but for the price we pay for these things now, quality control should be way better, and we should all be getting nearly identical toys. My Hikaru GBP / vf-1j was nearly flawless (gripes about the "pinkness" aside). If all their releases where of that quality, I'd have no complaint, but they aren't, and that is a huge issue at this price. They better nail these premium SDF-1s, or I might be done with them.

I'm not sure why more people aren't talking about this, but this has been an issue with Arcadia since (at least) their strike Focker release of August 2016. The backpack hinge area is ridiculously tight out of the box, which means if you keep going with it, one of the halves of the holes that hold the peg of the backpack flap could break off. Mine did on the first day I got it. And while I'm willing to take some of the blame for not being more careful with it, there is no way this should be breaking right out of the box with only minor mishandling (basically transforming the backpack too quickly). I wish I had a solution for you ZorClone, but my Focker broke on day 1, and I had to glue it back on. After several re-breaks, I sanded it down and glued it to a point where it is 100% functional, but the crack is still visible. My Arcadia vf-1J had a similar issue, just not nearly as bad (it strained that area a little bit when I transformed it, but nothing broke). I'm guessing it is because it was an earlier release. I'm not saying every Arcadia release has this issue, but some definitely do, even before this Miria release, where it seems to be more common. Edit: I'm probably not the best guy to give advice on this, but if I had to do it again, I'd take it incredibly slowly, with a lot of little wiggling back and forth. I would also try to hold/clamp the notches that hold the folding backpack flap, as there is the mostly likely place for it to break. That's my 2 cents, ZorClone. I've seen other people recommend sanding down that area. I think after you transform it a few times (if you dare), it will loosen up enough. Went back and looked, it was actually my first post on this site:

Nice pics. Where's that hydralisk from? That doesn't look like the late 90's/early 00's one.

As the release approaches, does anyone have recommendations for display cases/shelves for this thing? I've got a detolf, but I don't think it will fit in there, even in "storm attack" mode (it might squeeze in, but I don't have the space anyhow). I'd like something that could accommodate both modes for display, if possible.

"Though mass-produced like the other destroids, only two Monster Mk II units were onboard the SDF-1 Macross during the outbreak of Space War I. During the conflict, the Macross onboard factories made use of equipment for several more Monster mecha and produced a third unit to accompany the original two. Most of the other Monster units were destroyed by orbital bombardment from the Zentradi fleet. The few Monster Mk II units aboard the SDF-1 Macross distinguished themselves as very capable war machines during Space War I. While many destroid units suffered heavy losses, most of the Monsters aboard the ship remained in active service during the war. Near the end of the war the Monster was distinguished yet again by utilizing the capability to launch reaction warheads in battle against the Bodol Zer Main Fleet in February 2010." Taken from the Macross Mecha Manual monster page. Kind of confusing to me. I can only assume "unit" in this case used in the military sense (like a group of soldiers)? And not unit = 1 monster mecha. And I would recommend getting one, I just got one last month, and the shear size is awesome. They can fit in a detolf if you angle the cannons upward.

What is that gun the vf-1 is holding? Is that from Macross the First?

Got Neca Thrall and Sylvanas for my bday. This completes my Neca Heroes the Storm collection. Unfortunately, the line has been killed off and we aren't getting anymore.

Was a fan of the first one, but I'd be the first to admit it had its issues. This one, however, is fantastic. My only concern is that *spoilers:*

I'll probably pass on this, but I gotta say... had this been out when I bought my first Arcadia vf-1, I might have gone for this instead. I'll be interested in seeing its release quality.

Never say never, but I'd say it's highly unlikely. But you can always enjoy this guy's amazing custom:

Good eye. It's actually the 1995 exo-squad re-release. It has the fast pack from the original matchbox, though, as I like the color more and that has the UN spacy kite on it (the re-release doesn't). The zentradi warrior with the glaug and regult is an original matchbox release (not sure if they re-issued that, I don't think so). Both are my childhood toys (started very young ).

Great pics. Sometimes I wish I had the materials to do dioramas like that.

Been collecting for just over a year now (except for the 2 vintage pieces). Still a tiny collection compared to some of the vets here, but I've gotten all the previous releases I wanted. I told myself I'd only get the Focker vf-1S when I started (new collectors, you've been warned ).