New Pics of Yamato VF-0S 1/60

[kyatsu]

hey V4lkri3,

thanks for posting the close-up pic. i may try that on one of my 1/48. it looks pretty good and cheap. you are one cool guy. kyatsu

Kyatsu,

I'll let you be the judge from the pictures I posted previously.

In addition to those, I'll post some close up pictures as well.

I like it, personally as they are not too thick as I found the gundam marker is too dark and too thick.

The cotton bud and alcohol are to remove excessive lead, and I also use a small flat head screwdriver covered with the wet cotton bud along the panel lines to further clean the excessive lead.

I used to do the panel lines using the tamiya enamel paint and thinner but I ran out of thinner that day, and I'd like to try the pencil method anyway.

[Aegis!]

I got my VF-0S last Friday from twinmoons and both pointy bits on the tailwings were hanging by a thread.  There was nothing I could do but break them off.  It took a few attempts but I superglued them back on.  No other problems except the joints seem a bit more loose than the 1/48's and the gunpod does not mount on the arms.  It even sags a bit in fighter mode.  However, it seems better engineered and it's my new favorite toy.  I love all the details and how the arms tuck up far into the belly.

I don't know if anyone else brought this up, but I noticed there were stickers for a two seat cockpit (two pairs of triangles).  I sure hope that means Yamato plans on making a VF-0D.

399458[/snapback]

I´m sure they designed the VF-0 with the Ghost add-on and the GBP armour in mind from the beggining.

I´m thinking Yamato has taken note of what happened with the 1/48 in the sense that they can safely bet we´ll buy whatever variant or accesory they release. Or even if they didn´t expect the Zero to be as successful as the 1/48 at least they designed the toy that way just in case it becomes a sudden success.

[doodler7]

my vf-0s arrived wednesday from tmpanime.com also...everything's cool except with the right chest armor stub (which at first looked as if it cracked off the chest plate) ... it's just loose.

very nice indeed.

yamato should have made this vf-0s into a 1/48 scale, even for a $190 price ... i think we'll still buy it ... it's inevitable ... we macross/robotech fas are all grows-up, makin' money ... no way you'll pass on these valkyries.

overall, i think these are by far the best representation of valkyries by a company; looks, durability, customization and details...er, until some new materials are created for joints to pave way for more poseable versions (like those revoltech joints).

9.5 for me, out of 10.

Edited May 15, 2006 by doodler7

[treatment]

just being a Macross fan

don't have the 1/48 Focker-1S, so the Hiki'es should do.

Edited May 15, 2006 by treatment

[Graham]

Wow, missed it when I was writing my review, but I just noticed over the weekend that the instument panel is also Tampo printed on. I love this toy.

Graham

[Extra Large Mumma]

No doubt when it comes to look, Yamato is the better toy maker. But durability, give me a break, man. This VF-0, just by being stared at, smoke, exhaust, and oil start to come out of it.

[Graham]

I find it pretty durable. Some joints may be loose, but that has nothing to do with durability.

Graham

[doodler7]

Durable, as in better than model kits...you know, just based on materials used and functionality (don't forget the detailed forms)...these valkyries are well balanced.

Of course, there are parts we wish Yamato would create as die-cast parts.

For the price we're paying, these valkyries are meant to be displayed, and transformed once in a while...you can't treat them like Sigma 6 figures.

Heh, and they're perfect for illustration references!

[wolfx]

Again, i personally think die cast can do more to break a toy more than actually making it durable.

Joints become looser, toy is heavier hence harder fall should they fall, parts break off easier especially on transforming toys as the joints can handle the weight, paints chip off easier, etc etc.

I agree with Graham that despite loose joints, the VF-0 is very durable.

One minor complaint to add that nobody has said, is the hook above the air intakes. On the VF-1, it was an actual hook that hooks the intakes on to the body of the fighter or gerwalk so the legs/intakes stay stuck to the body. On the VF-0, i can't see clearly but the hook is now a hexagonal nub that goes into a cavity in the body, and no longer a hook. Due to this, the intakes don't stick as well to the body as the VF-1's did.

[mpchi]

Finally got to play around with my newly arrived VF-0S. Transformation while similar to the VF-1, but some areas seem less straight forward to figure out. Funny that the instruction left out a couple tricky areas (like the bottom hinge of the backpack to lift it so the back pack sits closer to the back of the Battlroid mode, and the way to close the nose cone cover when storing the leg sway bar). Need to really take my time to figure out how to get those right, without forcing any fieces too much and snap it off.

QC-wise, mine is pretty good overall. But I do find both upper arm swivel and knee swivel all pretty loose. I fixed them by looping those swivel joints a couple times with dental floss. If you do it right, you can hide the floss pretty good inside the gap with an Xacto knive. Just be careful when cutting the floss and pushing it in without scraping the plastic. Now they are nice and tight, with a bit of cushiony feel. One of the head cannon is looser, but not enough to cause an issue. All the other ball joints, ratchet and wings are nice and solid.

Love the painted markings, and those fast pack snaps on marvelously. Magnet is pretty strong, working better than I've expected.

Pretty happy with it overall, regardless need to do some minor fixes. Good stuff.

[mpchi]

One minor complaint to add that nobody has said, is the hook above the air intakes. On the VF-1, it was an actual hook that hooks the intakes on to the body of the fighter or gerwalk so the legs/intakes stay stuck to the body. On the VF-0, i can't see clearly but the hook is now a hexagonal nub that goes into a cavity in the body, and no longer a hook.  Due to this, the intakes don't stick as well to the body as the VF-1's did.

399562[/snapback]

Yeah. I find that too. Wonder why they do away the hook and just use the hex nub.

[wolfx]

Finally got to play around with my newly arrived VF-0S. Transformation while similar to the VF-1, but some areas seem less straight forward to figure out. Funny that the instruction left out a couple tricky areas (like the bottom hinge of the backpack to lift it so the back pack sits closer to the back of the Battlroid mode,

Dude they did. Page 16, item 13, side picture.

and the way to close the nose cone cover when storing the leg sway bar). Need to really take my time to figure out how to get those right, without forcing any fieces too much and snap it off.

They did again, page 15, item 12.

QC-wise, mine is pretty good overall. But I do find both upper arm swivel and knee swivel all pretty loose. I fixed them by looping those swivel joints a couple times with dental floss. If you do it right, you can hide the floss pretty good inside the gap with an Xacto knive. Just be careful when cutting the floss and pushing it in without scraping the plastic. Now they are nice and tight, with a bit of cushiony feel. One of the head cannon is looser, but not enough to cause an issue. All the other ball joints, ratchet and wings are nice and solid.

Genius. Keeps the valk minty fresh too.

I'm gonna try it with that plumbing tape (the one u use to wrap around water pipe joints) which is soft and discreet.

[GutsAndCasca]

Finally got to play around with my newly arrived VF-0S. Transformation while similar to the VF-1, but some areas seem less straight forward to figure out. Funny that the instruction left out a couple tricky areas (like the bottom hinge of the backpack to lift it so the back pack sits closer to the back of the Battlroid mode,

Dude they did. Page 16, item 13, side picture.

and the way to close the nose cone cover when storing the leg sway bar). Need to really take my time to figure out how to get those right, without forcing any fieces too much and snap it off.

They did again, page 15, item 12.

QC-wise, mine is pretty good overall. But I do find both upper arm swivel and knee swivel all pretty loose. I fixed them by looping those swivel joints a couple times with dental floss. If you do it right, you can hide the floss pretty good inside the gap with an Xacto knive. Just be careful when cutting the floss and pushing it in without scraping the plastic. Now they are nice and tight, with a bit of cushiony feel. One of the head cannon is looser, but not enough to cause an issue. All the other ball joints, ratchet and wings are nice and solid.

Genius. Keeps the valk minty fresh too.

Hey - is using nail polish better, or using dental floss and the like?

I'm gonna try it with that plumbing tape (the one u use to wrap around water pipe joints) which is soft and discreet.

399602[/snapback]

Hey - is using nail polish better, or using dental floss and the like?

[GutsAndCasca]

That last post sure came out looking like crap.

OKAY WHAT'S THE BEST WAY TO TIGHTEN UP THOSE JOINTS? On the VF-s, I'm referring to. *hears people coughing*

[ikhii]

some shots on my VF-0, for those who love macro shots, here comes 'Super macro' . with proper lighting and angle, bam... u get some pretty shots. enjoy.

*.ps. use a microscope to check it out... nah..jk jk, just click and you will get the big picture

Edited May 15, 2006 by ikhii

[ghiblione]

Mmmmmmmmhhh.....Nice macro shots!!!Thanks man.

[Mechamaniac]

I LOVE that they tampo printed on the HUD display, that is just awesome.

[eugimon]

yeah, that is a great little touch

[mpchi]

Finally got to play around with my newly arrived VF-0S. Transformation while similar to the VF-1, but some areas seem less straight forward to figure out. Funny that the instruction left out a couple tricky areas (like the bottom hinge of the backpack to lift it so the back pack sits closer to the back of the Battlroid mode,

Dude they did. Page 16, item 13, side picture.

and the way to close the nose cone cover when storing the leg sway bar). Need to really take my time to figure out how to get those right, without forcing any fieces too much and snap it off.

They did again, page 15, item 12.

QC-wise, mine is pretty good overall. But I do find both upper arm swivel and knee swivel all pretty loose. I fixed them by looping those swivel joints a couple times with dental floss. If you do it right, you can hide the floss pretty good inside the gap with an Xacto knive. Just be careful when cutting the floss and pushing it in without scraping the plastic. Now they are nice and tight, with a bit of cushiony feel. One of the head cannon is looser, but not enough to cause an issue. All the other ball joints, ratchet and wings are nice and solid.

Genius. Keeps the valk minty fresh too.

I'm gonna try it with that plumbing tape (the one u use to wrap around water pipe joints) which is soft and discreet.

399602[/snapback]

Awww man, must be late night. I did see pictures showing the parts, but not circled or told me to pay attention to like they did on some other areas. Even read the smal print instructions, but I must have missed it somehow.

I picked the floss without minty or any flavor of course. Used that to fix some swivels of other toys before and worked pretty good. And you can always take it out later if you want to get rid of it. Just give the swivel more friction, while the floss can get to many tiny gaps like these. Works for me.

Nail polish(or super glue) is pretty good too, but I use it more on ball joints or thickening a loose peg. Probably would work on the swivel, but you need to take the legs apart to get to the swivel joint area you need to apply those.

Edited May 15, 2006 by mpchi

[holytoledo69]

I posted this on the other "VF-0" Thread. Im surprise no one noticed it..

So anyone managed to get the biceps open to nail polish them easily yet?  I thought someone said that they were glued together...

Yup, they're very lightly glued (the white armor parts) just pry them open with a tiny flat head screw driver, then unscrew the screw underneath that to loosen the joint out.

You can add nail polish, a piece of rubber band or use what I used.. a thin piece of neoprene rubber. It has a spongey texture with enough rubber for friction. Just wedge it inside the joint then put the bicep back on. Make sure to squeeze the two halves together tightly while your putting the screw back in.

Next is to glue (Model glue) the bicep armor back on and VIOLA!! no more loose bicep. It worked for me. I hope it works for you.

[UN Spacy]

Mine just came in and there aren't any major problems that I can see. Aside from having to sand the hole bigger on the gunpod handle it looks perfect. Although the area where the backpack and legs connect in Fighter Mode could have been designed a little better. They don't hold in place as well as the 1/48's.

How about a few more sunlight shots.

[Dobber]

Now that's what I call Low Altitude!!!

Chris

[holytoledo69]

My review is up at Robot-Japan.

VF-0S Review

397441[/snapback]

Are you the same Gdomino (in robot-japan forum) who had the neck hinge piece break off? Did you ever have it fixed?

[Graham]

Picked up a second VF-0S yesterday from a small toy shop in the town of Tai Po, as my normal supplier wasn't able to come through for me. I paid HK$880 (US$113).

From what I've seen here in Hong Kong over the last week, the VF-0S seems to retail for between HK$850 (US$109) the cheapest I've seen, to HK$980 (US$125), depending on which shop you go to.

Happy to say this VF-0S was flawless. The tail spikes were undamaged, the paint job was crisp, Tampo printing was all straight. The joints were all sufficiently tight and the toy was able to hold any pose I put it into in any mode.

While it's true that the knee and elbow swivel joints are slightly looser than on the 1/48 VF-1, I wouldn't really describe them as 'loose joints' per say and don't consder these 'slightly less-tight joints' a problem at all.

All in all, I'm a very happy camper and will probably pick up a third one soon.

Graham

[buddhafabio]

All in all, I'm a very happy camper and will probably pick up a third one soon.

Graham

399726[/snapback]

a new addition to the valk horders society??

[Graham]

I wouldn't say a new addition. I've been collecting Valk toys for a long, long time.

While I'm not up there with the big guys like Godzilla as far as collection size goes, I still have a reasonable size collection.

Graham

[mpchi]

I wouldn't say a new addition. I've been collecting Valk toys for a long, long time.

While I'm not up there with the big guys like Godzilla as far as collection size goes, I still have a reasonable size collection.

Graham

399733[/snapback]

Man. No wonder some of you guys don't have much problem with looser joints. You have enough copies to pose in all modes that you don't even need to transform them. J/K

[mpchi]

Finally got to play around with my newly arrived VF-0S. Transformation while similar to the VF-1, but some areas seem less straight forward to figure out. Funny that the instruction left out a couple tricky areas (like the bottom hinge of the backpack to lift it so the back pack sits closer to the back of the Battlroid mode,

Dude they did. Page 16, item 13, side picture.

and the way to close the nose cone cover when storing the leg sway bar). Need to really take my time to figure out how to get those right, without forcing any fieces too much and snap it off.

They did again, page 15, item 12.

QC-wise, mine is pretty good overall. But I do find both upper arm swivel and knee swivel all pretty loose. I fixed them by looping those swivel joints a couple times with dental floss. If you do it right, you can hide the floss pretty good inside the gap with an Xacto knive. Just be careful when cutting the floss and pushing it in without scraping the plastic. Now they are nice and tight, with a bit of cushiony feel. One of the head cannon is looser, but not enough to cause an issue. All the other ball joints, ratchet and wings are nice and solid.

Genius. Keeps the valk minty fresh too.

I'm gonna try it with that plumbing tape (the one u use to wrap around water pipe joints) which is soft and discreet.

399602[/snapback]

Dooode. I just got home and checked the menu. I wasn't smoking crack afterall. The instructions you pointed out weren't the ones I was mentioning. It was the backpack bottom hinge, not the snap lock on the sway bar. The second one simply is that you have to put the sway bar & legs halfway in, then have the nosecone bottom cover close together. I had the bar all the way in first, then couldn't close the cover at all. The instruction didn't point that out. And in VF-1, you put the bar in first, then close cover. I know I am not that bad at following the instructions, especially I can understand a little bit of Japanese. Just to clarify.

Edited May 16, 2006 by mpchi

[wolfx]

Dooode. I just got home and checked the menu. I wasn't smoking crack afterall. The instructions you pointed out weren't the ones I was mentioning. It was the backpack bottom hinge, not the snap lock on the sway bar. The second one simply is that you have to put the sway bar & legs halfway in, then have the nosecone bottom cover close together. I had the bar all the way in first, then couldn't close the cover at all. The instruction didn't point that out. And in VF-1, you put the bar in first, then close cover. I know I am not that bad at following the instructions, especially I can understand a little bit of Japanese. Just to clarify.

399767[/snapback]

I'm not sure if we're both talking about the same thing, but if you say what should be there isn't there...... i'll take your word fer it.

Using graham's instruction scans to show ya:

The 1st one shows the new hinge (not in the VF-1) for the backpack that has to go up at a 45 degree angle so the backpack sits closer to the body. Not very sure about what the "snap lock on the sway bar" is. The circled part probably shows your sway bar, but look to the right picture as it shows the hinge folded up in and colored differently to highlight it. So you probably talking bout something else?

Item 13:

http://www.macrossworld.com/macross/toys/v...ructions-16.jpg

For the 2nd one i admit it isn't very clear but i didn't have a problem with it. Cause the picture shows that you have to put the hinge on top of the hole but not pushed in. You have to cover the nose cone flap over the hinge.....then press it in and it all goes in easily. The right side picture shows how the hinge should be outside the nose cone flap when its pressed into place.

http://www.macrossworld.com/macross/toys/v...ructions-15.jpg

But overall i didn't need to look at the instructions. I just watched out for "new parts" and made sure i didn't moved things where they weren't made to move. It was simple enough.

[R_Deckard]

Just got my VF-0S from Hobby link yesterday. Overall I'm happy with it, but I must say it was a little disapointing because of the fit of parts, otherwise it could be the best Yamato VF. I am much more impressed with the VF-1 Stealth, it looks awesome and it is by far the tightest fitting and most solid Yamato I have so far, its like a rock. Pictures of both are on the way.

I avoided all the major problems, but when opening the box one of the tail fins was snapped off and laying loose in the box. It snapped back on fine, but I stressed it a little to get it on. Also one of the screw plugs on the inside leg was missing and no where to be found.

The design is amazing, the sculpt is amazing, the proportion is good, Tampo printing is perfect, but the assembly and fit are absolute crap compared to the VF-1 models. Someone here said it best that they took 2 steps forward and 2 steps backward.

Its not that one or two parts are loose fitting, pretty much the entire toy has a loose fit on everything. It is difficult for it to hold a pose. In fighter mode the whole front nose and cockpit hang limp at the heatshield joint (I found that if you smash the head against the shoulders it stiffens it up nice).

The thing that really kills me is why Yamato eliminated all of the locking pieces from the VF-1, the locking head, chest piece, backpack, back flap, hips/turbines in fighter mode. On the VF-0S none of these parts lock/snap in place like the VF-1. It really feels like they cut production costs on this one and then jacked up the price??

[myk]

Well, they jacked up the price to recover the development and retooling costs of this new design, not to mention inflation. I'm sure that if the VF-1 had debuted now, the price would be close or around what they're charging for the VF-0.

Your information does worry me though, as the VF-1 debuted as a mostly tight and solid toy all of those years ago. If the 'Zero starts out like this now, will it ever get better?

[Fly4victory]

Well, they jacked up the price to recover the development and retooling costs of this new design, not to mention inflation.  I'm sure that if the VF-1 had debuted now, the price would be close or around what they're charging for the VF-0. 

Your information does worry me though, as the VF-1 debuted as a mostly tight and solid toy all of those years ago.  If the 'Zero starts out like this now, will it ever get better?

399909[/snapback]

Yamato improved both the YF-19 and the VF-11B so there is hope.

The VF-1S was not perfect for the first run with the falling of nose cone.

I have to agree with those that are both amazed and disappointed in the Zero.

I just guess we are spoiled by the mature VF-1 design when compared to a new introduction.

Amazing enough that is what pilots say when new aircraft models are fielded.

[easnoddy]

I finally got one for $160 shipped off Ebay. Not a bad price IMO. Got it pretty quickly as well from HK.

Mine has no obvious defects. The arm-peg/gunpod is a tight fit, but work well enough. Tail spikes are good. Biceps and thigh-swivel are very loose. It has a hard time posing with the gunpod. I will fix this when I fix my VB-6's arms using superglue.

I like the tampo-printing, but IMO they should have gone the extra 3 feet and printed the kites on the sides of the fuselage.

It also seems lighter than the 1/48 and am not too fond of the color, but I like the toy overall.

This toy really makes me wonder...when is Yamato going to make a large-scale YF-19??? This thing screams "the 19 is next!"

[Graham]

I like the tampo-printing, but IMO they should have gone the extra 3 feet and printed the kites on the sides of the fuselage.

399999[/snapback]

They can't Tampo print in that location, because there is a seam line between the upper and lower fuselage parts.

Graham

[David Hingtgen]

Never stopped Takara/Hasbro, they paint and tampo print along opening transformation seams all the time.

Anyways---HUD printing? I'd love to see that.