Chronocidal

So I'm annoyed at myself.. I shoved the transparent covers for the fast packs back in the box so quickly that I forgot they existed... and those would have been the perfect parts to repaint for alternate markings. Might still be easier just painting the black stripes than having to match the shade of red at least, but I'm also glad to have a backup in case something goes wrong.

I actually did look up the original packaging to compare, and they very specifically removed ONLY the Autobot logos from the original box design. I'm amused that that's somehow the line they couldn't cross to skirt copyright laws. I'm also slightly irritated at myself. I didn't even think about the fact that this thing comes with spare fast pack covers that I could just paint completely from scratch, rather than having to strip and mask off the black section on the UN SPACY ones. Still might be easier than matching the shade of red though, so we'll see.

Nothing fancy so far, just happy I stripped them without damaging the red paint on the rest of the parts, since they are coated overall. I did try brushing both an enamel and an acrylic coat to see how smooth it would come out, but neither wound up looking good, so I re-stripped, and will just spray them (once I remember how to airbrush ). I will say I miss the smell of enamels though. I was thrilled to see my ancient Model Master black was still good, and while it didn't coat without showing the strokes, it still went on smoother than most acrylics I know.

So, if you ship things via FedEx, they do this on purpose. FedEx offers different tiers of shipping, with different delivery priorities and speeds. So, if you pay for the cheapest version, they're under absolutely no obligation to deliver something before the expected date, regardless of where that package is coming from. When I ordered the monitors I have on my current computer, they were shipped from a warehouse about a two hour drive from my house. They arrived at my local FedEx office the day after I ordered them. I then watched the tracking information tell me that the trucks were driving my monitors around town for two days without delivering them. I called them on this. They told me they were "not due for delivery." I had a lot of choice words for them about the entire situation,, and then drove to the local office, and just picked them up to end the stupidity. Anyhow.. Back to Jetfire-related things. So, I had one amusing success. A quick gundam eraser application took off the UN SPACY label from one of my leg packs without really touching the undercoat. Awesome. Tried that on the second one.. and the paint came off in the reverse order. The black stripped out from around the lettering. In the end, I stripped off the entire stripe, and now have that one prepped to spray. I don't know if I'll try and strip the black off of the second one, or just spray over it, but I'm betting it'll have to be stripped down to get a good coat sprayed. We'll see how it goes.

Little update/summary, now that I've opened up both of my copies, and had a chance to mess with them. All in all? Pretty solid. Definitely not the level of polish you'll find in the official releases, but nothing is outright broken or non-functional. Some of this might have been mentioned about previous Valkyrie Factory releases, but I never picked up any of those releases. The main things I noticed, both positive and negative: 1. The arms are probably the source of the vast majority of what I would label "problems," and they're not insurmountable, just a little annoying. The shoulders are insanely tight out of the box, and the first thing I did was spread the shoulder covers slightly, and slide them off so I could loosen the shoulder joint screws. As a reference point, I loosened them to the point that they were level with the actual shoulder block, since they had been massively tightened down. Even loosened, they are generally very squeaky, probably due to different materials used for the friction pads. The elbows are also a little bit troublesome, but in opposite ways on the opposite arms. One the right arm, the first elbow joint is fine, while the second ratcheted bend is incredibly stiff.. while the left arm's second bend is decently clicky, but looser than the first joint. You can tell there's some sort of assembly issue going on with that joint on the stiff one, since the arm halves aren't quite pressed together all the way. I'm hoping the glue on these will pop easy enough to just pull them apart and reassemble them better. Lastly, the hands are really stiff to pull out, and the covers tend to flop open pretty easily. Pretty minor, but you may want to just leave the hand mounts rotated out and swap in posed hands instead. 2. I did remember it being mentioned that the chest plate locks into the backplate much more solidly on these, and takes more force to pop loose. That's easily fixed by filing the tabs under the chest panel down so they don't lock into the shoulder tabs so solidly. Doesn't change how solid it is in fighter at all, since the chest is locked between the back and the nose. 3. The feet are kind of interesting. Not a problem, but they seem to have a different ratchet behavior than the originals, with one more click of spread to them, 4. You may need to file the tabs of the small boxes that snap into the backs of the legs to mount the fast packs, since they look oversized, and are really difficult to snap on or remove. Overall, just a really solid and entertaining release. It's also really funny to say that the box is one of the best parts. They absolutely went above and beyond to replicate the original G1 box, and I find it hilarious that the original G1 box contents description is still pretty accurate, because the fast packs still use nine pieces. Being honest though, I do wish they had left off the UN SPACY markings and kite logos, just to make it easier to customize. I'll leave one in its all of its mashup glory, but I intend to convert one into a more accurate Autobot scheme. I won't be replicating all of the stickers or anything, but just removing the text and kites, putting Autobot logos on the boosters and canopy cover. What's slightly annoying is that some of the paint isn't actually black, it's some sort of dark metallic, so it might be tricky to match. I was able to strip the skull off of one of the canopy covers very easily with a gundam marker eraser pen though, then buffed the plastic clean. I might get creative, and pull a few parts out of one of my unbuilt kits to replace the arms, and maybe start with a set of bare wings and tails, but we'll see.

I wasn't speaking of the tails in this case, I meant the actual boosters. Pressing the boosters' pegs fully into place will squeeze the tails in vertically, if they're allowed to move. If the tails are locked in the outward position, the boosters will just be canted outwards a few degrees at the front. It's not enough to be noticeable from any angle but directly overhead at least, but if you're mounting the boosters without the tan bracket underneath, there's very little tab holding them onto the backpack. They don't seem like they'll just fall off since they're held together solidly by the extra backpack panel, but they're just lightly clipped around the backpack, with the boosters' orange tabs sunk about halfway into their sockets.

Just saw this, and I don't actually think this was ever part of the Yamato design? It doesn't need the pegs to hold the arms up, because they're solidly clipped in under the backplate.

Yeah, I'm stupid happy that this exists. First copy from ShowZ arrived today.. amusingly, the upgraded version with the stand, which I ordered very close to release, rather than the one I pre-ordered months ago. As someone who was barely too young to see the original G1 toys, it both floors and cracks me up that I can just have this on my shelf now. Box got a little crushed in the back, but mostly in good shape. Packing was the shipping box, wrapped in bubblewrap, and covered in a bag. I can definitely see little bits where the KO production lacks in refinement, but it's a solid toy. Wings are a little loose, but not bad, and everything fits together decently. One thing to keep in mind is that this mold still has the issue with the booster packs pressing on the tails, and forcing them to unfold a little. I messed with some of my original Yamato packs, and filed out a cutout to allow the tails to lay more flatly, and avoid them bending, but they don't seem as tightly nested as the Yamato mold. They're definitely pressing on the packs a bit, but the tails don't seem to be bending, and it helps that I'm not worried about them pressing on the spinal antenna and scratching the tails. One interesting feature, was it mentioned before that they added a steering nosewheel strut? One other note, the red parts are mostly molded and painted red. The flexible parts like the booster mounts and arm clips are bare plastic, as well as the backsides of the leg packs, but the outer surfaces are all painted.

I don't think toluene-based styrene glue will work well with the ABS these tend to be molded from, but maybe keytone-based thin glue would work a little better? I've never tried it myself, so I would defer to anyone with experience testing such glues with ABS. The nuclear option would just be nail polish remover, which is mostly acetone, and will just melt ABS. If you have scraps of ABS plastic in the same color, you can dissolve it in a small jar of acetone to make ABS putty. In this case though, CA glue is probably just the safest to use. With small-enough application it probably shouldn't fog, but getting a hold of that low-bloom would probably be best, if you can. I hadn't heard of it before myself. I hadn't even considered this, but it's mostly true. If you're not mounting the boosters, the tails don't have to move at all. Mounting the boosters on the backpack does press on the tails though, and they don't sit entirely in their sockets with the tails pushed outwards. They look like they'll still stay on fine, but they might be canted outward toward the front.

Honestly, the YF-21 is past the point I care now, that's the same price I got one from Amazon, and it was here in a day. I think if HLJ is going to be this bad about actually delivering on orders, they should stop offering the items for sale at all, unless they throw a massive disclaimer about how long it may be to receive it. They just need to be honest, and tell people what the restocking rate is so they can have realistic expectations on how long it may take to get an order.

If the tracking is accurate, I should be getting one from ShowZ tomorrow, so will compare notes then.

Just to be clear, waiting "a while" could be up to a year. HLJ has made absolutely no attempt to explain to me why my YF-21 is still backordered, beyond a copy-pasted "filling orders in the order received" excuse.

I hadn't even considered how weird that is. If their stock is that restricted by Bandai, why are they even allowing more than one per customer in the first place? Or is Bandai being more generous with this one because they don't expect it'll sell well overseas?

I don't even care about mold changes, I STILL just want this one produced officially.

Yeah, no kidding. I directly emailed HLJ support about the delays, and all they had to offer was "short supply, we're addressing orders in the order they came in." Seriously though, I'm still waiting on my the YF-21 I ordered almost a year ago, while I was able to order multiple copies from Amazon that arrived in a day. They need to get this nonsense together, or they're going to start losing business.

I think with a little creative use of paint for some of the striping, it shouldn't be too bad to cover both with one set. Might need to source some kites from other sources, but I'd think some of the 1/72 Hasegawa markings might be close enough to cover those. I'd be really interested to see exactly where they expect a lot of those markings to go, though. That is a massive pile of tiny bits to place on such a small kit. What's a little concerning to me, in a "why would you do that?" sort of way.. why did they include the zig-zag decals for the panels behind the intakes? I know on the YF-21 kit those are yellow parts.. did those get molded in white, so they included decals to cover them up?

I mean, they printed the stripes, if those count? It's.. interesting to look at, I'll give it that. Definitely not something I'm going to try and pick up though, so I'm happy to decrease the demand a little. Hope all of those coated bits are done with a heavy enough coat to not rub off in a stiff breeze.

Glad to hear you finally got it, and without any broken bits. The tails do feel a little more fragile due to the limited motion, but staying in gerwalk is a pretty good method to keep them from getting knocked around, whether you have the boosters mounted or not. I wouldn't recommend the clips on the backplate though, I just don't think they're necessary, and snapping the tails into them seems like a good way to stress them. Really does make a nice fighter display though, in any configuration.

Yeah, that is a relief, I picked up two of each, and two decal sets. I might cancel one before the order happens, but I'd like to have the option to display two modes of each. Plus.. I forget, did Milia use Basara's sound booster, or Mylene's? I can't find the pic right now.

You can't really go wrong with the HMR VF-4, the only real difference between it and the Yamato/Arcadia 1/60 is that the gear have to be swapped, and you might need to plug in the hands (which you would probably want on the 1/60 anyway, because the folding ones are so tiny). Regarding the YF/VF-19s in particular, if you're not a fan of the "normal" colors, your best bet might be to hold out for an HMR VF-19P, since the Yamato is hard to track down now. The stripes tend to be a little on the brighter side, but the base color is white, and there have been a couple of really good examples of how that one is easy to customize just by stripping or painting over the stripes. That really depends on how much (if any) you would want to customize anything though. There are just very few options when it comes to the VF-19 schemes, since aside from the P-model, they're either beige, or bright shades of red and blue. I hear you on the Master File schemes though. I was really hoping we'd see something like that before Yamato went under, but it never happened. I picked up a couple extra VF-19Ps on clearance as custom fodder, with the intention of converting at least one to the shorter wing style via 3D printed parts, and decorating it in black striping.

Yeah, I'm not expecting anything even remotely "good." I mean, just from the concept. You're mashing up a line of robots that transform into vehicles.. with a vehicle that transforms into a robot. There is nothing to "mash-up" about this. The thing you're combining it with is the thing it already is. "For my next trick, I'll turn this Swiss army knife into a screwdriver!" The only "good" way to do this would be to re-style an existing Fire Valk toy with Transformers aesthetics and maybe a head mold. Otherwise you just suffer the curse of the standard TF jetformer: a robot glued underneath an airplane.

I don't really mind having extras of this scheme, it just opens up alternate display options. I just wish Bandai would.. you know.. They have teased exactly how many versions that we have seen nothing of since the original tease? Seriously. Just finish a line for once, Bandai. I might even forgive you for abandoning Delta if you just give me the rest of DYRL Skull Squad, M&Ms, and finally give us a brownie VF-1A.

I think the only thing that bugs me about it being just a custom VF-1 is the upper intakes being red, which is completely an "I'm 6 years old, I have a marker, and I'm not afraid to use it" sort of detail. I did convince myself to get both versions, so I might take each in the opposite direction. Clean up one to look like a normal VF-1 (very minimal), and tweak the other to be fully Jetfire.

Yeah, screw you too, Bandai. Should have had the missiles from the start.

I mean, I would say these are mushy by design, because Bandai doesn't understand gravity and material properties, but that's maybe too cynical? But no, if by "mushy" you mean that the arms just pop back off, yeah, that's how they're designed. Same for the legs to some extent. Nothing ever locks together on the DX VF-1, it just fits "mostly snugly" and you pray it doesn't squeeze itself out of place over time. If you're careful with a nail file, you can help this a little by sanding down just the base of the tabs. They behave as if they're tapered smaller at the tips, so you basically have to invert that taper, and make them narrower at the base. That way, the mushiness will work in your favor, and the natural "squeeze" direction will actually keep the arms in place better. I only did this a tiny bit on the VT-1 to get my arms to stay in place better, and only on one copy that was especially mushy. Also, keep in mind, this is Bandai we're talking about. The sloppiness is by design. No, I'm not kidding. The "properly seated" position for the legs and arms with the fast packs installed is NOT fully pressed onto those pegs. That's why they're sloppy. They left wiggle room because, for some reason, they're just incapable of making arms, legs, and fast packs that lock into a solidly defined position. I really wish I was kidding, but you can see for yourself when you mount the leg packs. With the leg packs mounted, it is physically impossible for the legs to fully seat on the pegs, because they collide with the underside of the backplate. The slop is completely on purpose, because if the tabs locked solidly like the Yamato version, the leg packs would never snap in place with the packs mounted.