Chronocidal

Wow.. I wasn't actually planning on getting this at all, but it looks to have completely blown the VF-25 out of the water... And... intake covers ftw (even more so if they're actually integrated, but I'll take what I can get. )

Ok, I have pretty much no anime figures, and I'm not really of the figure collecting type... but if I ever did get one, that Miku Hatsune remix would be it. That thing just screams at me to buy it. It's just something about that face.. it's kind of haunting.

What's great about these kits is that they're finally in the same scale as a Yamato, so they can finally share parts. Basically, Hasegawa is giving us all those spare TV heads that people wanted for making Max 1A custom jobs. The head swap operation on a 1/48 couldn't be too difficult. Honestly, it looks like Hasegawa is doing one of two things though... either they're superdetailing the head just for the folks they know will make custom variable conversions.. or they're going to share parts with an already planned battroid kit. Seriously, the head is so hidden in fighter, I don't see any other reason to detail it so much. Sheesh, it even looks like the heads have working neck joints!

Ok, I honestly have a hard time believing that. They gave you the entire stand, except the part that lets you actually stand it up?? That's ridiculous.

From the pics I've seen, it looks like it uses almost the exact same transformation as the 1/60 YF-19, except maybe without the sliding back joint. The nose still has the same type of mechanism to make it shorter. I'm not so disappointed to hear about the amount of metal as I am that Bandai used the name as an excuse to gouge the fans. I can't see any reason this should cost so much. Is the Macross license that expensive? It's in the same size range as a mid-sized transformer figure (about 7 inches long in fighter), yet it costs around 7x as much. And it doesn't even launch any missiles! I dunno. I guess you could apply this reasoning to all the Yamato valks as well with regards to pricing. I just hope Bandai gets it together before the VF-1. If they charge this type of price for a 5 inch valk... oy.

The one thing that worries me most about this one is the nose tab, the one that snaps to the plate on the back in battroid. If that tab ever gives way, the nose won't hold up.

Jokes indeed. Best part about this one? It was the gundam from Sweden.

It does look very good. If they make a YF-19, I might have to get one, but I still don't like this pricepoint for something this small. The thing that's frustrating to me personally though.. Yamato needs to take note. THIS is how you make the gullet look decent: DROP THE NOSE. The nose on the Yamato is just too thick (at the front near the cockpit, I'm not even talking about the front gear area), and the tip aims so high it ruins the overall curvature of the plane. It's simple: drop the nose tip till it's level with the centerline of the engines. It does wonders for the design. I pretty much prefer the proportions on this to the 1/60 YF-19 in almost every way, honestly. Bigger wings, wider wing roots, and a nose that looks directed into the airstream. The gullet's still there, but with the nose lowered so much, it doesn't stick out. I just wish it was bigger.

You know, I might have been interested in this (and might still try it if I can peel myself away from the games I already play), but I think the mechanics used for the game really spoiled something that could've been very interesting.. It's an MMO. You have tons of players. And yet, every single person gets to captain their own ship? Maybe I'm too interested in some semblance of accuracy to how combat would actually work on ships or the ground, but I would've loved to see some sort of character class system here, and I don't mean races of aliens. I mean the classic divisions of command, communications, tactical, medical, science.. you get the idea. Sure, you could still use AI characters... they make great red shirts. MMOs in general are a mixing of character classes, and it takes the skills of all types working together to do well. As it is, this just sounds like a more multiplayer-ized version of Bridge Commander crossed with a third person shooter. Granted, having a player designated just for command could lead to problems, but I'm pretty sure you could figure out something, even if it's just steering the ship while other people get to do targeting and damage control. It would probably wind up making the game very lackluster in terms of single player content... but if you want to play solo, why are you playing an MMO? To me, it's the same thing that killed off Galaxies: everyone wanted to be a jedi. Here, everyone gets to be captain. Personally, I'd much rather have dedicated human players that I could trust to do their jobs, instead of having my AI doctor get stuck behind a rock while my science officer tries to scan my rapidly dying body for signs of life. Maybe the fanbase for something so complex would be small-ish, but I know it exists. I mean, look what Team Fortress 2 did (and did well): you have a range of classes available, all with specific jobs and limitations, and it takes teamwork to do well. I just wish they would have tried that here.

I think I've seen that battle before. Mr. Rogers won.

I have noticed that one of mine on my YF-21 tends to pop off on it's own, so that is possible.

NO! They can take our plots.. Imitate our planes... but they can never take.. OUR VALK-GIRLS!! Also, LOL:

oh lol.. ok, glad I stopped before making the engines 36 sided Actually, on second thought, maybe the world needs a good high detail Gnerl model. ^^

What's your definition of medium poly? I haven't done any new models for a while, and this might be something fast I can churn out to satisfy the itch.

My last three orders from HLJ all took a day or less in customs (one was in and out in 3 hours, according to the tracking info). All three went through San Francisco. That time of month again (payday lol), and I splurged a bit on two separate orders: #1: 1/72 White Glint with overed booster (ebay store in Colorado, should be here fast and cheap ) #2: 1/48 YF-19 kit, TV Max VF-1A, and a second strike pack from HLJ I was planning on a TV CF-1A, but the sale died on that one, and I don't need anymore 1Js, so the Max 1A was next in line. Second strike is mostly for my Roy (couldn't justify getting the new one, even if it did mean fixed shoulders), but also for a dual strike Max 1J. I just hope HLJ doesn't screw me over and ship all those items at different times. Course, the restocking might delay the payment a bit, so that's not a bad thing.

pfft, if I can get them for $10 I might be inclined to put some of my spare yammie stickers on them, and do a double rip-off. Blasphemy, I know, but ever since Yamato increased their tampoed markings, I've had nothing to use all those spare kites on. Heck, I might even paint these up in prototype markings, and turn em into designs that lost out against other actual Valks. I mean, they already look like rejected VF-25 variants.

Seriously, they've already got one leg up on Bandai (or two).. this thing already has the thigh swivel. What'd be kinda hilarious actually.. if those planes get the Jetfire treatment, and when Hasbro has to cut down on production costs, they import these planes as new versions of Starscream et al. Honestly, I dunno what to think here.. yes, it's an utterly blatant rip-off, but I gotta say this.. China has the blatant rip-off down to an art form. If this ever gets over here, I wouldn't mind watching it actually. I'm sure it'd be hilarious, and probably excellent fodder for an MST3K treatment using Macross dialogue. All it's missing is combining mecha, and this would be the most epic rip-off of all time. The best analogy I can come up with... it's like a giant horrific wreck of a bullet train full of Hollywood celebrities that collided with a bus full of costumed transvestites on their way to an "I Love Lucy" convention.. you don't want to stare... but holy crap, stuff this stupid actually does happen in real life!

Looks good yes (mostly), but not at this size and price. I do hope they make more, but I hope bandai can finally figure out the fact that valks are AIRCRAFT, and the little details matter. They need those little things like wheels, and such. Plus those shoulders look hideous in fighter mode. I know they're huge (and rightly so), but as long as they're going for the bulky super robot look, could they at least try and streamline the forward shoulder pivot? Those pivots look like they're half the size they should be for those shoulders. As it is, the whole front of the shoulder looks like some spare intake. Meh, don't mind me, I'm uber picky about YF/VF-19 shapes. I still want to see a side profile too.

Wow. That shot of it in someone's hand really puts things in perspective... Yeah... not happening. Maybe if it hits $50, but that thing is just far too tiny for me.

I actually have to agree for the most part, it doesn't really work at all, and was pretty pointless to do, since setting that up was actually more work than a full transformation would've been. But I did find it amusing.

That is much better with the leg fins. Good thing the ones on the kit are a bit oversized, they look perfectly to scale here. Now, figure out a way to recast those godawful warped wings. Of all the problems I have with the DX, that one is by far the worst. At least you can hide the landing gear, but those wings are an utter eyesore to me.

Quick note, I can confirm that that extra "click" you hear when you pull the tails out farther is them jumping outside their normal track. If you pull out the feet, and look at the rear of the tail, you can see there's a tab on the bottom edge of the tail, and a wedge of plastic it bumps up against on the outer leg panel. Pulling on the tail enough will let that tab jump over the angled plastic track piece, and wedge the tail tightly between the two sides of it's track. Now, this doesn't look like it's stressing the tail once it slips past, but I don't know what kind of stress this puts on that tab, or the internal structure of the leg. Once the tab is past the stop the tail seems to be kept from rotating out any more, but I don't want to take the leg apart to look at why this happens. Really, the leg internals look like they might be built to do this on purpose.. from the rear, you can see there is a small gap that looks like it will let the upper portion of the tail mount flex, and allow the tail to squeeze between the tracks. This might be a question for Yamato actually. One of my tails does this fairly easily, and it makes the tail stay put nicely, but the other is tighter, and I'm afraid what might happen if these tabs get broken off. Their only purpose seems to be to keep the tails from rotating out further, but I'd like to be sure before I start leaving the tails in this position for extended periods. Actually, the biggest evidence I see against this being the intended tail position... when you do it, the paint line at the tip of the tail isn't level anymore. It's tilted up, as if the back of the tails is too high. All the line art I remember seeing has this line drawn parallel to the aircraft's flight path.

Nice to hear about the shoulders, I'll look forward to getting those fixed. Canopy tint, meh.. I never really cared one way or the other, it just looks ugly when it starts flaking away. Hmmm.. You know, I've been looking at the VF-17 and VF-171 recently, and they aren't that different. The shape of the tails, wings and nose changed, but it's the same transformation overall. With Yamato's love of sleek fighter modes, if they actually do make a VF-17, it might wind up looking close enough to the VF-171 to just paint it up, and call it a day. Maybe if they make a VF-17 and it sells, Bandai will change their minds about the VF-171. Or, heck, I never was a huge fan of the M7 VF-17, it always looked kinda stubby to me. I doubt it would happen, but it'd be funny if they just decided to retcon the VF-17 to look more like the VF-171, just with a few subtle differences. I do hope we see a VF-4 or VF-0D, but oh the possibilities. Given the M7 license, there're a lot of options to be explored. I kind of think we'd see the VF-17 first, since Bandai has their VF-19 coming. But considering they already did the YF-19 and VF-11... it would require a lot of new molding, but it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to do a Fire Valk and MAXL. I dunno how the licensing would work on those though, even if they are in a different scale than Bandai's. Probably the easiest thing to do though: VF-11D Jamming Bird. It's just a VF-11C with a bigger nose, booster/sound packs, and a new head. Since the nose unit is a self contained piece, and folds down over the front without really attaching to anything, the existing VF-11 transformation wouldn't have to change much, if at all. You'd just need to figure out some way to do the double cockpit shield, which given the bigger nose, might not be impossible.

I don't usually buy TFs at all, I think I have had a total of maybe 3 over my entire life.. but when I saw MP Skywarp finally hit the shelves of my local Walmart, I couldn't pass it up. I had to make an exception for one of the very few relatively kibble free TF jets. And it was very much worth it. Not perfect, but for something I can drive to the other side of town and pick up, I have a hard time not buying a couple more for customizing. Looks very nice next to my Yammies. Now the question is whether they'll make a Ramjet later on. Would probably be a pretty simple custom actually.. If done right, you could eliminate the hip panels entirely, and just have the big delta wing in one large folding section, but you'd have to move the pivot point.. put it in the same place, and those delta wings would pop way over his head. Might be possible for a custom, but you'd need an entirely new wing mechanism. After getting this, I looked through this thread, and there were a couple of posts about custom jobs done. The best one I saw cut the hip plates into two pieces. The part with the tails they attached on a sliding joint to the lower legs, and the forward section they just permanently glued to the underside of the wing plates. It looked very good. I'm kind of surprised they didn't keep the original design, but I think understand why it was changed, even if it did mean adding FAST packs to the normal F-15C design. That forward section ahead of the wing would've been pretty fragile I think, and it dipped low enough to cause leg posing problems as well. I'm up in the air about the leg panels really.. I'm not a big TF purist, so I'm happy to have a nicely transforming plane that looks like it could fly, not like a plane they glued a robot to underneath, and hoped no one would see. I do like the customized look, so I might buy a second and try that later though. On the other hand, if it weren't for the leg panels, this'd probably never work.

I was debating doing that.. but I don't have the guts to break mine again on purpose. I may try shopping it off later though.