Shin Densetsu Kai 7.0

Man given the current market, Yamato VF-1s are going to be out for a long time, they are newer, therefore easier to track down in the long run. Best to get the classics while you can man. Swoosh said the arms/shoulders weren't as tight, and the tightness definitely contributed to stress on the flimsy shoulder hinge, which some members already had breakages with.

Jesus christ man, WRONG FORUM!

Take your time man, the juicy morsels of info will be worth the wait.

That mkII is farting beautiful. Damn..... Oh yea I found the Iron Man repaint as Captain America armor with shield at Walmart. The design its derived from is nice, the actual toy is just a repaint, and the figure itself looks..bland... Left it on the shelf.

Oh okay, I was like...wait a minute...lol

\ Oh it will stay tight too, thats the brilliance of that toy's design, over time there is rarely joint looseness.

You're one of the biggest Hikaru valk fans I know, and you haven't watched Macross?

Whoa...thats interesting...that might explain why Yamato's approach to the VF-1 toys was very different and dissimilar to what Takatoku did.

I'm intrigued by this, I've always wanted to know where the designers of the 1/55 from Takatoku ended up as their careers progressed. It would be interesting if some of them ended up working for Yamato and had a hand in developing the numerous VF-1 toys that Yamato has put out since 2001. If they didn't, I wonder what they think of the new VF-1 toys? The Takatoku is a classic, legendary some might say, with regard to transforming mecha toys. Not until Yamato or any other company makes a modern VF-1 toy as accurate as Yamato's, and as durable than the Bandais/Takas(or even more durable), will I say the best VF-1 toy has been made. Some say its impossible, given the compromises, but toy technology and practices have increased and gotten so much better from 10 years ago, even 5 years ago. Its improving exponentially quick, so I think its possible. At the end of the day, I also wonder what Kawamori thinks of the various VF-1 toys. Also, I guess the Dorvack toys that made it into Transformers are 1/55 cousins too, I think they are in that scale as well.

I noticed that even in the manual, there is a section and photo that highlights a guy pulling on the backplate to help get the swing bar out of the nosecone. This works by making the swing bar bend at an angle, upwards.

I'm waiting to see what it looks like with the wings opened up. The original looked completely bad ass with the panels blown off, and the wings open.

ULTRAVIOLENT PURPLE! FTW! I think thats only for the Skull 1's

Swoosh, any problems with the shoulder hinge on the one you bought?

Bandai has the Macross 7 license. Yamato has Macross Plus, so they are making a 1/60 VF-11B, which to me is much more appealing than the VF-11C from Macross 7. Nonetheless, if full armor is compatible with the B model, then it can be made, as it was not exclusive to 7(it was shown in games).

Its mainly tricky because the swingbar hinge is tight. It should loosen over time. The best way I can think of, is this, and I just did this now, which is very easy. First, angle the swing bar, this will push the back out a bit. You will feel a noticeable "click" when you do this. You won't hear it, but you will feel it. Its a soft locking mechanism for the swing bar. After that, grab both legs, and rotate them forward 90 degrees. Doing this will slightly push the nose panel open. After that, push the legs/hip bar forward, and voila! Bar released from nose!

Corporate espionage Actually no, I don't think they let him test the prototype, they have people that already do that working for Yamato, I think they just let him handle samples out of friendship, since he has been friends with them since they made the first Macross Plus toys. An easy way to tell, is if you wake up one morning an see a poo ton of pages added.

One thing is, some of the original takatokus and jetfires from 20+ years ago are still in one piece today. Thats a testament to the durability. Its also the reason I had no problem paying $75 for my origin of valkyrie hikaru, I know it will last for a very, very long time. Its a beautiful piece to, it screams high quality. Its not the most accurate, but hell its the best at what it does.

I think full armor is inevitable, and since tooling for the 1/60s is expensive, I have a feeling the first 2 releases are not the only ones. So I would wait to see if full armor is coming with Ozma, or seperately. My plan is to at least get a Super Alto and armored Ozma. If bandai announces seperate armor sets, then I will probably preorder both valks and order the armor when it becomes available.

Not anytime soon, not until Bandai's license expires.

One is already out with the Hyper space ring, its a TRU exclusive. The other one coming out is an updated Clone Wars version from the new movie, bubble canopy, all new mold, room for an astromech droid in the middle, and wings that pop out once the nose is pulled. None mentioned

To collectors yes, but as at the time, the toyline was mainly marketed towards kids, and at that, it failed. Around the time those toylines were released, I, and many others in the joe fandom kept wondering why there just wasn't enough effort put in for marketing. Compare it to other brands that Hasbro had at the time, and marketing for joe was definitely lacking. They may have had marketing in most channels covered, sure, but it wasn't enough, there was no consistent push.

I don't mind a VF-1, if it turns out much better than the Toynami version, and has swap parts solely for the landing gears.

Already listed overseas in the Supreme size class, which ROC Prime is already in. I would not be surprised if we saw this for Xmas or spring.

Yep, I noticed that, and it was designed that way to free up more sideways movement for the shoulder. When the armor is done, the shoulder cannot move the side is much. The shoulder does the movement, though with that guard in place, it looks like the arm is moving. Same here, 1 click for gerwalk does not give you the full range of motion, and full range of motion on the ankles can be fully appreciated when in gerwalk mode. It is annoying to have to do that. I prefer Bandai's way since it feels like a soft ratchet, and there is an audible click. On the 1/48, the detents would definitely loosen over time, it was all tension based. With the FAST packs and reaction missles on, I twist the outside ones as far as they will go, since they bump into the missle box, this keeps them aligned. Then I sweep the wings back enough that the missles are visually aligned, parallel to the intakes. True, and that is a rather unfortunate predicament for anyone who has broken shoulders on their toys, or if anyone wanted to buy parts just in case. At this point, I don't even know how to access the 2 screws underneath the shoulder armor. The only solution I can think of, would be to loosen both of those screws. Then we will get shoulders that may loosen over time, and will dissapoint us further, since shoulders being able to hold position without drooping is a great aspect of this toy. God damn I hate compromises. Even if we find a way to get to those screws, we can choose from shoulders that are tight and a hinge that may eventually break, or looser shoulders that might loosen over time, with less worries of the hinge breaking. Not sure why the hinge was overlooked during r/d.

The bonus wave from last year sucked compared to what we got immediately afterwards. I predict the same for wave 12, wave 13 will probably blow it away. With that said, we have 6 months left of classic joe product left before the launch of the movie line, which is either june or july.