Chronocidal
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Funny how ordering the bundle actually does save you money.. about 13 cents. Really though, depending on how it's shipped, you might save some on shipping. The VF-17 packs aren't that bulky in fighter mode, and they don't change the overall dimensions of the valk, so they could potentially package them already attached. They'd need to redesign the plastic tray, but I bet they would fit in the same box that way. Not sure what I'll do yet, but I already preordered the bundle, since that's the VF-17 I wanted to start with. Only reason I got the S model was due to HLJ's sale. If they release a Millia 17S later, I might just sell my black one, since I don't think I can justify having three of these (I might make an exception if they release Ray's later, and ESPECIALLY if they release that two seater in the orange and white trainer scheme ). Speaking of the Sound Force version though.. I'm curious. This may have been brought up before, but what are the two hidden slots in the very tip of the backplate for? They obviously don't hold on the super packs, and the instructions even point them out, but I don't have a clue what they're for. Is Yamato just planning ahead for a possible mount for the sound booster?
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I'm actually pretty interested to know if anyone's legs and back hinges aren't incredibly stiff. Forget popping the wings off, I had to push the back so hard I was worried the backplate would snap in half.
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For as important and prominent as those little shoulder flaps are, I'd probably just remove the other one too so it matches. Though, these days, it's probably plenty easy to make yourself a replacement. Heck, for a piece like that, you could probably build out out of scrap from old model kits, because using something like Shapeways for it would be overkill.
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Ok, before I forget, a couple of things I noticed transforming this thing that might be handy to be aware of. First, obviously, the hips are going to take a lot of force to pivot 180 degrees. They are incredibly tight... but more so on the left leg than the right, which did not help my peace of mind at all, since the collapsing hip bar mechanism is made of two differently sized shafts that collapse into each other, one of which is smaller and has a detent in it to snap into place.. well, guess which hip has the smaller shaft. Second, the back plate.. another set of freakishly tight metal joints attach it to the shoulder bars that go around the head. I honestly thought they weren't meant to move when I first transformed this thing. I had to work these joints back and forth a few times very carefully (taking several minutes each time.. they were so freaking tight, I almost grabbed a pair of pliers to do it with). Honestly, you can transform the thing decently even if you don't do this particular step of the transformation, so if you can't get these to move, it might not be worth the frustration. The only consequence is that either the torso snap or backplate snaps won't connect, because the backplate is too far to reach. Third, and this goes directly with the previous thing.. Be careful with the linkage holding down the chest plate and shoulder bars to the torso. Underneath the chest plate are two independent swing bars that hold it down, and the aforementioned shoulder-to-backplate connections are similarly independent hinges. If you are not careful, and do not rotate the hinges on both sides evenly, you will cause the entire framework to twist, and put nasty stresses on the connections. This is particularly bad with the backplate hinges, because in my case, the hinges were so stiff it was literally impossible to move them both at the same time, because they each took both of my freaking hands to move them. Bandai needs to get it through it's thick head that these types of hinge structures are a bad thing. They've used them on every Frontier valk so far, and if you aren't careful, you can tweak the framework and wind up shattering the connections. I remember seeing several people reporting that their version 1 DX VF-25's had one or both of the main connections holding the backplate to the torso completely shatter. There's nothing keeping those hinges in line with each other, and if you move one more than the other, you twist the entire structure off kilter, the hinges won't be lined up, and the whole thing could snap in half if those hinges get stresed and fail. Not to cause a panic here, but just be aware.. this problem did occur on older DX valks, and could happen again, since the mechanisms are similar. There's probably warnings in Japanese about how you should keep those multiple hinge joints lined up, but most of us can't read them. I haven't read of this happening on any of the VF-25 renewals, so maybe the materials were designed to be more flexible (the plastic is certainly higher quality). So just be careful. Lastly, about the way the hip bars wobble if you don't snap them in.. I'm not sure if there's any guidance in the instructions about this, but the nose gear doors can definitely get in the way here. One of my hips didn't want to lock in, because the gear door was keeping it from snapping down. I don't know if there's a good way to prevent this, but you can definitely sit the gear doors on either side of the hip bars. No idea yet if one position causes more stress on the doors than the other.
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If you ordered them together, be aware that they won't ship them until the armor packs come in this winter. I had to email them and request to split the order, which they did without a hassle, but they will ask you to pay the difference in shipping (came to about $12 for me I think). It was easy enough to do with Paypal for me, but I only needed to do that since I paid up front.
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Actually no, this only happened starting with the YF-29 re-release. Both VF-25 renewals were pretty darn easy to get comparitively, because the windows each lasted at least a few days, possibly weeks. I remember I got in pretty late on my order for Alto's, and still got one from HLJ with no trouble. I think it's because people didn't trust Bandai after ther first versions. And, I think Ozma's preorder went up before a lot of people even had a chance to get their Alto version, so the initial preorder wasn't bad, but once people got their hands the Alto and discovered it didn't suck, everyone ate up the orders fast. Now, it's like a feeding frenzy for the preorders. On the other hand though, now that the VF-171 release has come to pass, I think it's not quite as bad as it seems from the preorder. People can still get the 171 through Nippon Yasan, and HLJ opened up orders right after release (they seem to have skipped preorders entirely). I wouldn't call them necessarily easily available, but there isn't the absolute shortage that the preorder makes you expect.
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Yeah, screw it. Not interested enough in this to care anymore. If they had actually made it somewhat resemble Roy's scheme, I might've been willing to try and get one now, but that paintjob is nothing like it. Maybe someday Bandai will get off it's backside and finish the 1/72 kit line. All I really want is fighter mode in a non-"3-year old with a pack of crayolas" paintscheme. If Nippon Yasan or HLJ manage to have some in stock around the release date like with the VF-171, I might try again then, but I've spent too much in the past month already.
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Ok, I know exactly what caused my problems earlier. That double hinge on the backplate that lets you move the back closer to the head to attach to the hip mount plate? It would not budge. I seriously thought it wasnt supposed to move, until I found the little image of how it's supposed to fold over. So, when I pulled that plate toward the back to lock it, it was too far away to reach the snap under the nose section. Works now, but I cannot believe how incredibly difficult this thing is to move the metal parts.
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Is it wrong that I kind of want to suggest putting a couch in the cockpit? You know.. Actually, if I ever did make a Falcon kit, I'd probably rig the hatch to be able to be opened, and rig a couch prop to hang out of it, with a tiny obese Han figure hanging off of it.
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Wait, Ozma's seriously had the stripes in the game too? I just have to ask, WHY?? They're freaking fugly. This plane would be so nice looking if they just didn't try to make the paintscheme some pimpmaster mc spazatron tricked out deal. Seriously, it reminds me of those cars you see all covered in tribal tattoos and crap. This paintscheme is about as much a tribute to the VF-1S as a leopard print couch would be a tribute to the Thundercats. Same colors, but not even remotely similar in style or taste.
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That's pretty awesome. If your kid doesn't pick up the habit of putting things in their mouth, they're a fun thing to play with from a really early age. My parents started buying them for me at age 3, and they used to all fit in a single 1 gallon ice cream bucket. Now I've got about 4 of those, plus a few 5 gallon tubs full. I really need to finish designing my 1/32 VF-19, and get the pieces to build it someday. I've basically been designing a double scale Yamato version, and the transformation of the nose works fine so far (minus the cockpit details, there's just no room for it with Lego). I've got the whole planform and dimensions laid out in that Lego digital designer thing, and have built everything forward of the hips now. It'll be beautiful provided I can find ways to make it all transform, even if it's nowhere as posable as the Yamato one. I really should clean out a bookcase so I have some room to display stuff one of these days. I don't use any of those old 386 era games anymore anyway.
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You know, I'm not sure about all types of engines, but don't many of them actually have a stator stage first in the compressor? Or, if not an actual stator, just an inlet guard of sorts with blades to block large objects from entering the actual engine? That's the engine in the JSF, and I know Hornets and Tomcats both have those stationary vanes before the actual blades. I know it's fun to see the fans spinning, but I think you only see that on podded turbofans, where you've got a huge bypass ratio, and most of your thrust is actually coming from the fan (turbofans are more like ducted turboprops at low speeds). Actually, here's one thing that I always considered as a solution to the "compressors should be further back" problem we get so often.. The blades you see? They're not the actual engine. Most lineart puts the bulk of the engines in the lower leg, with what looks like a secondary compressor on it anyway. What if those blades are actually just a complex set of multi-axis inlet ramps? If you consider the segment of leg going through the knee joint as one big ducting system designed to kill off shocks, and focus the air into the actual engine, then there's no reason you can't have that system so close to the front of the intake. Granted though, that's conceptually how it could work, but probably not how it was animated. People love to see the engines spin, whether the part they see spin should be spinning or not. The intake covers can sort of act as inlet ramps as well, since they're similar in shape to the F-14's variable ramp structure, but they're just too close to the front of the intake. Actually, now that I think of it, that's probably also what those side vents on the intaes are meant to be: compressor bypass. Similar to the big vents on the upper surface of the F-14's wing glove. If you're narrowing the inlet to stop shocks, you've got to have somewhere for that extra air to flow to, and that might very well be what those vents were meant to be. They're not nearly in the right place for it unfortunately, but it might have been the general idea behind them. They'd have to be farther back, and there'd need to be an opening in the inside of the intake for air to go through there. It's looking really astoundingly beautiful so far, I can't wait to see more of it detailed up. Though, I do have to nitpick one thing about the intakes.. the front edges just look a little too thick/blunt. Granted, with the VF-1, you're already kinda throwing concern about drag to the wind because of how much base drag the design has (caused by not streamlining the back end.. those arms are a HUGE source of drag), but the intake walls just look odd to me squared off as much as they are. I don't know how hard it would be to make that change just to see how it looks though, so it might not be worth bothering with. Intake edges are always a pain to model since they're generally a mass of chamfer operations that builds up polygons quickly. I know you're not concerned with that too much on this model, but my "this is too detailed" sense tends to kick in. Too many years spent building flight sim models.
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The black nose on this one makes me wonder actually.. are those pieces molded in black, or would I have the option of sanding it off? I mean seriously... if it weren't for the half and half paint on the nose, I'd be all over this. If I had both, I'd be tempted to swap the cockpit/nose areas to give this one the white nose. Actually, I admit.. I'd be tempted to strip the paint entirely off this thing. The nose is the worst part I think, but the yellow intakes make me think some guy just got bored and started randomly clicking spots with the "dump" tool on photoshop to see what looked interesting. It's not quite as facepalm-worthy as the Doublenuts and BoP YF-19s were, but it still doesn't make sense. Well.. not that Bandai has ever shown any understanding of why certain parts of aircraft are painted certain colors, but still. The intakes just look gaudy.
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Well, it was nice dreaming I might get one. You know, I'd love to see a comparison of numbers between orders for things like the super and armor packs, and numbers of VF-25s actually produced. Actually, who knows. It seems Nippon Yasan has a pretty good relationship with Bandai as far as getting stock of things, so I'll see about ordering with them once the preorders show. Heck, they still show the Alto YF-29 as being in stock. Then again.. eh, I don't know if I like it enough to justify the price. Guess we'll see when the preorders roll around. I've spent too much in the past month already.
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So, is this an exclusive (meaning made to order) or a regular release? I'm actually hoping for exclusive, because I might actually get one that way. I'll gladly jump on this one since i couldn't get the "normal" scheme. Still though.. what dingbat do they have coming up with these schemes? It's just another palette-swap of the original, and it still has the dumb tiger stripes I wanted gone from the first one. I mean, it still looks awesome don't get me wrong, but when I think "VF-1S Scheme" I think of the tribute schemes in the Master Files book.. not this. If I could get ahold of the original, I'd swap out the forward fuselage too.. painting the entire upper half black just looks... dumb.
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Actually, the legs are still going to have to rotate completely sideways to stay attached to those ball joints.. the ball joint will just have to come out the top of the leg, instead of rotating around the side like on the YF-21.
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"Very tight" hip joints would be like calling the sun "a little warm." Mine could rotate side to side a little, but rotation was almost out of the question for mine. I'm almost tempted to disassemble the hips and file down the ball joints, because they are scary to move. I mean, "holy crap, I feel like I'm going to break this thing in half" scary. Or.. you know.. I could always just leave it untransformed in fighter mode for a few months. The hips will probably be nice and loose in no time.
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Wow. This could be awesome. You know, I've never appreciated how useful it is that you can just pop the tails off the VF-0 until now. Fun question though.. aside from replacing a few parts, what mods will this require to the original parts? The legs and wings are plenty easy to swap in and out, so the majority of the work looks like it wouldn't even require any permanent changes to the stock VF-0. You could potentially change it back and forth as you liked.
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Well if you fold the thighs into the engines, you can't have a perfect transformation. I know people think there would be room there, but I doubt there will. Plus, most line art shows the thighs housed in the center of the wing, so I don't know why they would change that. What does need to happen is that the knee joints will probably be somewhere mid-engine in fighter mode, and will have to slide forward into the intake. I've seen various ways people have covered that gap in the past, and it might just be as simple as a sliding cover that pulls forward along with the knee joint. One thing that does concern me a bit is that the hip joint will likely be very similar to the YF-21's, since it will need to rotate sideways and fold flat. While I don't think we'll have the balance problems the YF-21 has, I know the hips on mine aren't very stiff (though that may be due to the way they're designed to disconnect).
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K, that makes more sense then. Not sure it will help hold the legs up any, but I'll find out later. Thanks.
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I probably just need to put pics up about what I'm saying later. I definitely got the backplate locked down into the ...well, whatever the plate is that the legs are attached to. That's part of the problem.. what is that plate even called? The fuselage is definitely supposed to lock directly into it, but it definitely won't stay there. Anubis20 definitely has the same issue (you can see the contour and the darker part that fits into it in his pic), with the fuselage structure sitting ahead of the little contour it's supposed to rest on. It's in the last page of the instructions, that diagram showing how the fuselage is supposed to fit directly into the curved recess on that plate. I can definitely press the fuselage in there, but there's nothing to keep it there. Probably will just have to wait til tonight after work. Just doesn't make sense without pics.
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Not sure what you mean about pushing it one click to the side.. side of the leg, or side of the fighter? I'll have to check later, since it sounds like what you're describing is that the knees have some kind of side to side motion. I'm pretty sure it's all lined up correctly though, because the legs line up just fine with the center belly plate, and they do click into place on the backplate, and with each other.. they just don't like to stay there, because they're too heavy. If I pick up the plane by the wings, the legs unseat themselves and drop down. The locator tabs on the backplate just aren't enough to hold them.
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Oh, hah.. I should have read that better.. I was about to ask if you'd be able to make blank wings with the hardpoints, instead of the clip on ones. I'd love to get some spare wings with hardpoints, especially for the YF/VF-19s, and VF-25s. Actually, what I'd love is a conversion kit to turn a VF-19P into a VF-19S.. but that would be a lot more extensive, and would need to include the entire wing glove assembly, as well as a new head and shoulders... but I'd settle for the wing gloves if you could pull it off.
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I'm still pretty confused if I'm transforming the chest/head correctly, since nothing actually locks to anything else solidly.. except the backplate to that flap that folds up the back. The head is just resting on that flip up panel from the chest plate, which isn't supported by anything either. That back flap definitely doesn't like to sit in the right place either, so I might be missing some tiny detail somewhere. I have to give them credit though, because fighter mode is rock solid, and I wish the 17's legs were designed more like the 171's. The lower leg twist, and the way they attach just works better. Getting the 17's knees in the right position for fighter mode is a pain (I don't know how many times I've extended or collapsed the knee joints too far trying to hit that middle detent where they fit), and they really don't lock in the up position very well at all. I'll probably have to give the super glue treatment to the long tabs under the backplate that align the legs, because they really don't do anything to hold them up.
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Ok, having received both my VF-17 and VF-171 on the same day, I think I can compare them in one word each.. VF-17: Beefy. VF-171: Overcomplicated. They're both beautiful, but in terms of the 171.. I have never been so worried I would snap a piece of metal in half. If Bandai has any flaws in the metal on the hip bar, the legs will snap off. Midway through the transformation to battroid, you have to rotate the hips 180... mine wouldn't budge. I had to force them to move at all, and that was horribly stressful to do. I've transformed them both a couple times now, and while I like the shape of the 171 better, the 17 definitely wins out on simplicity. In particular.. the little streamlining plates on the underside of the shoulders. Both the 17 and 171 do them, but in completely different ways. And Bandai decided to make them ridiculously over-engineered, and a royal pain to move around. On the Yamato, I just popped the panels off to transform it, and saved myself the hassle. One thing I do plan to do eventually.. when I get the super packs? I'm swapping in the hardpointed wings, and gluing those stupid pins in permanently. I can't believe Bandai was so.. I don't even know a good word.. that they didn't include the wings to begin with. It's needless excess, it serves no purpose, and all it does is add a few bucks to the cost of the parts. On the other hand, I prefer the nose gear on the Bandai, because it doesn't need that third front door the Yamato uses... it might be line-art correct, but it doesn't work well with the catapult bar. Bandai still haven't figured out that landing gear are supposed to be white, but they're getting better about making them reasonable shapes.. they even included the shock scissors on them this time. Call me satisfied with both for now, I just need to master transforming them. One trick I discovered though.. if your pins tend to fall out on the 171, swap them. I did, and both wings actually got tighter somehow. Also, I've never appreciated gummy head lasers as much as on the 171.. my first transformation back to fighter, I managed to catch one of the head lasers under the arm when I snapped it down. It was only bent for a few minutes before going back to its correct shape. Oh, one last thing.. Bandai? LEARN HOW TO MOLD WINGS THAT DON'T WARP ALREADY. Both mine are definitely curled up. Not a lot, but enough to make it obvious they still don't know how to avoid that.
