ZeroOmegaZX

its not that i've been hard on the thing, i've transformed it once. Before it was transformed i was told to look and lone behold there were already heavy stress marks. For $250 this thing should be a lil more rock solid, a part like that should be tempered pvc or die cast, or at least shaped different so that so much stress is not held on a weak plastic type like that, especially to have it come in box like that. Its a shame Takaratomy can't get a hold of making macross toys. The transformers masterpiece line for HALF THE PRICE is alot better than these come. Masterpiece convoy is rock solid, even the hasbro version got knocked off my shelf once and its super fine. I play with that one every day while the MP Convoy sits on a special shelf. MP Starscream was a bit shoddy but again its less than half the damn price. A $250 takara Valk would kick some major ass and prolly survive a fall off the roof.

Well i spent my lunch hour and a few hours tonight devising a part. I wound up trying 2 things. First i took a very smal metal washer and cut it with wire cutters to sort of a shaved C to get it to fit on the area without interfereing with the big hinge. it seemed to hold very well and i was careful not to screw too tight. It will DEFINATELY give added support, however in fighter mode the lower lip that usually covers this part is held up a few milimeters because of the added thickness. I am now in the process of using some thin but heavy strength paper to cut it in the same shape to try and produce the same effect without the thickness. I have some other ideas based on this to try as well. Basically it looks like its going to work, nevertheless i think yamato should consider either strengthening this part or modifying it with a groove to fit their own metal washer to add support. Its all it would take to strengthen this part so that it could be played with alot more than it can currently take.

I just got my YF-19 with Booster packs. i watched Ghrams Video on how to transform him, and after breaking my first VF-1S 1/48 even though i was careful, I took extreme caution with this piece. Still no matter what i did, the stress marks under the 2 screws appeared. I was very upset. However, the engineer in me has come up with a solution that may solve the situation once and for all without any glue or extreme customization. My plan which I will try tonight after I get home from work, is to grab 2 small metal washers, remove the screws, and place them between the screw heads and the plastic. This will provide a greater surface area against the plastic, which will prevent such stress being centered on the one spot we all seem to be getting the stress marks and breaking, and will spread out the force along a greater area along the plastic piece as well as provide a reinforcement against the plastic to keep it straight. I hope this will work, it will have to be an extremely small washer so that it wont interfere with the housing around the area. Can anybody try this before i get the chance in about 7 hours?