1/55's revisited

[jvmacross]

On 10/15/2021 at 12:19 AM, TheLoneWolf said:

Welcome to the board! At first glance, I thought those were just relatively new Jetfire knock-offs, but I can see that they're vintage by the oxidization on some of the die-cast metal parts.

I think you're absolutely right, these certainly look like QC failures. Like you, I also figured that Bandai's excess surplus of Jetfire armor was due to Jetfire QC failures (the armor would've been much easier to manufacture and assemble compared to Jetfire himself). But it's nothing short of amazing to see that Jetfire's QC failures actually managed to survive for three decades and find their way to store shelves. Better late than never?

I'd love to buy one just for giggles, but that ¥20,000 pricetag tho.

Thanks for sharing your findings!

https://page.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/u1084996092

[nightmareB4macross]

And people say nobody wants a knock off because they have no value. Pfft.

[jvmacross]

buy low...sell high

 

[Shawn]

Did anyone here win that?

[masarujasu]

9 hours ago, Shawn said:

Did anyone here win that?

No, but I own two if you have any questions about it.

[Shawn]

On 12/27/2020 at 3:02 PM, nightmareB4macross said:

Now for the VF-1S Strike Valkyrie

There are two versions the one with the black stickers affixed to backplate are TT.

As for the TT version it comes with the textured box just as the Takatoku I tended. Left is Takatoku, right is later released Bandai.

 

 

I saw this auction 
https://www.ebay.com/itm/255933878560
it has the textured box, but a non-taka backplate. Perhaps it is a general rule, but like all Macross products there would be variants?

 

And another sticker variant-2 vf-1S, 0 bandai
https://www.ebay.com/itm/255933863549?

 

Perhaps the only way to see if you have a Taka strike vs the Bandai strike is to look in the window...the black stickers covering the Takatoku logo look like they are visible

[nightmareB4macross]

Interesting.  
 

i just came across this new listing where the seller states the first run or edition of the VF-1S DYRL is left from the VF-1S Super from Takatoku. Never heard of this before. Anybody want to chime in.

[nightmareB4macross]

Then there is another VF-1Strike listing that has no Bandai stickers and only the bare Takatoku stamping. The description is more generic but does not add anything to the validity that is was every released this way. But who knows. Time blurs as it passes. Odd thing about this one is that it has straight cannons like later released Jetfires. Anyone care to chime in on this too.

[Shawn]

Eggshell color? So this isn't discoloration, but it is the orig color of the taka super?

 

Wings vs Arms...is that white vs eggshell?

[Shawn]

Holy Overspray Batman

[nightmareB4macross]

3 minutes ago, Shawn said:

Eggshell color? So this isn't discoloration, but it is the orig color of the taka super?

 

Wings vs Arms...is that white vs eggshell?

That I couldn’t say for sure. It was an interesting tidbit I found.

[Shawn]

Your double sticker is another interesting find...its only been 2 years so I forgot

 

I just got a pic of another VF-1A and it has just the one application. Yes-I would agree with you that if you peeled off that sticker it would say VALKYRIE VF-1S
Maybe someday we'll see some pics someone took from the factory these things were assembled at with just bins full of left over parts from the previous variation.
Mass produced = many possible of variants on every single part

[strikevalk]

hmmm, I remember those black stickers from the first Strike I purchased early 2000s. I pulled out the 3 I have now, took some pics.

Strike 1

Strike 2

Strike 3 (slight over spray chest)

[masarujasu]

15 hours ago, nightmareB4macross said:

Interesting.  
 

i just came across this new listing where the seller states the first run or edition of the VF-1S DYRL is left from the VF-1S Super from Takatoku. Never heard of this before. Anybody want to chime in.

 

I think there is a little truth to this - yes, the first edition was made from the inventory Takatoku had produced (via Matsushiro) whilst they were slated to produce the DYRL figures. 

"In May 1984, Takatoku filed for bankruptcy. As fate would have it, however, they were about to put the toys of the film "Macross: Do You Remember Love" on the market. After Takatoku's bankruptcy, the valkyrie molds scaled 1/55 were entrusted to the official manufacturer, namely Matsushiro..."

It could be argued this inventory was very much 'Super' stock rather than 'Strike' stock, as the interviews in Figure King and Tamashii Web indicate that the decision to market the Strike, and the naming of the Strike was something that happened under Bandai's tenure. However, it also appears that the early Strikes were painted under Takatoku's watch, so they presumably had knowledge of the DYRL color scheme and designs, and were producing something somewhat new for the toyline to tie-in the movie. In lieu of Bandai's direction and hypothetically, if Takatoku never went bust it might have been called Super something, but who is to know? 

"It should also be remembered that, when we began discussing the distribution of the Hi-Metal version, we discovered that Matsushiro still had a lot of inventory available. So some of the Strike Valkyrie were distributed with Bandai stickers covering the Takatoku writings."

"Super Valkyrie and Armored Valkyrie were made by Mr. Takatokutois, and I thought that they wouldn't want the same thing. In that case, I decided that it would be better to do the movie version of Valkyrie, which was the latest work at the time."

"The name Strike Valkyrie wasn't there from the beginning. But if you change the product name to Super Valkyrie, it will be the same as the previous product. I wanted to make a difference. One more thing, just like the F-14 fighter has a nickname of Tomcat, wouldn't it be nice to have a name for each model of the Valkyrie? There was also an idea. So I consulted with Mr. Kawamori, and what he gave me was "Strike Valkyrie". Mr. Kawamori also named the Super Ostrich and Elint Seeker that were released after that."

From these citations, regarding the claim, I think that:

1 - the early Strikes were made from inventory left behind from Takatoku's bankruptcy

2 - they are not actually leftovers from any released toyline i.e., the Super

However, earlier in this thread @jvmacross said that the early Strikes were repaints of Takatoku Supers. @jvmacross did you mean they were yellow Supers literally repainted over in red, or just repaints in the sense of 'same toy, different deco'?

@nightmareB4macross on page 3 you mentioned a rare white Takatoku VF-1S you had which was red painted over yellow chest. Do you still have this? A clue to this question perhaps?

On other claims, are these the rarest of the rare? I don't think so. Might they be sought after for being 1st gen? Sure.

With regards to eggshell, I do feel that the TT stamped white Valks are a different shade of white. I think the Bandai version are a more brilliant, but 'colder' white. But this is really anecdotal, I'd like to hear other opinions on this claim.

Edited March 27, 2023 by masarujasu

[nightmareB4macross]

18 hours ago, masarujasu said:

I think there is a little truth to this - yes, the first edition was made from the inventory Takatoku had produced (via Matsushiro) whilst they were slated to produce the DYRL figures. 

"In May 1984, Takatoku filed for bankruptcy. As fate would have it, however, they were about to put the toys of the film "Macross: Do You Remember Love" on the market. After Takatoku's bankruptcy, the valkyrie molds scaled 1/55 were entrusted to the official manufacturer, namely Matsushiro..."

It could be argued this inventory was very much 'Super' stock rather than 'Strike' stock, as the interviews in Figure King and Tamashii Web indicate that the decision to market the Strike, and the naming of the Strike was something that happened under Bandai's tenure. However, it also appears that the early Strikes were painted under Takatoku's watch, so they presumably had knowledge of the DYRL color scheme and designs, and were producing something somewhat new for the toyline to tie-in the movie. In lieu of Bandai's direction and hypothetically, if Takatoku never went bust it might have been called Super something, but who is to know? 

"It should also be remembered that, when we began discussing the distribution of the Hi-Metal version, we discovered that Matsushiro still had a lot of inventory available. So some of the Strike Valkyrie were distributed with Bandai stickers covering the Takatoku writings."

"Super Valkyrie and Armored Valkyrie were made by Mr. Takatokutois, and I thought that they wouldn't want the same thing. In that case, I decided that it would be better to do the movie version of Valkyrie, which was the latest work at the time."

"The name Strike Valkyrie wasn't there from the beginning. But if you change the product name to Super Valkyrie, it will be the same as the previous product. I wanted to make a difference. One more thing, just like the F-14 fighter has a nickname of Tomcat, wouldn't it be nice to have a name for each model of the Valkyrie? There was also an idea. So I consulted with Mr. Kawamori, and what he gave me was "Strike Valkyrie". Mr. Kawamori also named the Super Ostrich and Elint Seeker that were released after that."

From these citations, regarding the claim, I think that:

1 - the early Strikes were made from inventory left behind from Takatoku's bankruptcy

2 - they are not actually leftovers from any released toyline i.e., the Super

However, earlier in this thread @jvmacross said that the early Strikes were repaints of Takatoku Supers. @jvmacross did you mean they were yellow Supers literally repainted over in red, or just repaints in the sense of 'same toy, different deco'?

@nightmareB4macross on page 3 you mentioned a rare white Takatoku VF-1S you had which was red painted over yellow chest. Do you still have this? A clue to this question perhaps?

On other claims, are these the rarest of the rare? I don't think so. Might they be sought after for being 1st gen? Sure.

With regards to eggshell, I do feel that the TT stamped white Valks are a different shade of white. I think the Bandai version are a more brilliant, but 'colder' white. But this is really anecdotal, I'd like to hear other opinions on this claim.

I actually gave it to friend so they could sell it and make some money which they were in desperate need of. I had no clue what it was. I just assumed it was a customized Valkyrie. The overspray was similar to what I am seeing here, but I do recall it having Takatoku head lasers and not the 84-85 Jetfire smooth headlasers.

Years later, now I know why it was like it was.

[nightmareB4macross]

Here another tidbit I was not aware of. The first run Matsushiro Jetfires came with this catalog and not the standard version.

 

[masarujasu]

2 hours ago, nightmareB4macross said:

Here another tidbit I was not aware of. The first run Matsushiro Jetfires came with this catalog and not the standard version.

That's the 1986 European catalog. 

[nightmareB4macross]

15 hours ago, masarujasu said:

That's the 1986 European catalog. 

Thanks for the clarification.

[Spark-O-Matic]

Glad I reread this thread last night, I sent my Takatoku Variant Strike Valkyrie to CAS to be graded while putting 1985 as the date, but it should have been 1984? late year? they are getting it from Fedex this afternoon.  I got mine from a guy who thought it was used from all the bad overspray, runny paint & poor quality control on plastic parts(factory dirt/dust). it has never been removed from foam I used my cameras I use to check inside engines for damage to look underneath it. never removed so I cleaned it with gentle OLED TV Screen cleaning wipes then it looked a lot better, I sent the grader a note about its condition and reasons(hopefully they are as knowledgable as they folks in this thread). its possible they just archive it with no grade.

[Skull Leader]

I've got three strike valkyries, 2 in the box, that I now want to pull out and inspect. I feel like at least one of them had a takatoku marking on the back that I initially put down to possibly just being frankensteined. 

One of mine also has fairly wicked overspray, I'm wondering if this was one of the repaints?

[nightmareB4macross]

So, here is an interesting tidbit. 

Joon’s was an importer of goods located in Koreatown in the 80s and 90s. Joon was actually the name of the owner. He and his wife had a stall in swap meet inside a former Jon’s Market on Western Avenue in Los Angeles. The items were produced by another company with name JOON’S on the box (Could be Popye Corp Toys).

The original VF-1J set in grey, red, blue, and green all were released at the same time mid 80s. 1996 is when the AngelBird-esque VF-1J came to market.

During their release there was a proposal made to Joon to create the VF-1S and VF-1A head with the original four color schemes. Head of a VF-1A sculpt was handed to Joon, but it cannot be confirmed if they were ever made or commercialized.

Long story short. Joon was just an importer who had no idea what Macross was with an over seas friend who had access to these molds in S. Korea. All he new was he could make money selling these for 20 bucks each at that time.

This just blew my mind when I heard the in depth story, first hand.

[transjet]

On 6/4/2023 at 7:15 AM, nightmareB4macross said:

So, here is an interesting tidbit. 

Joon’s was an importer of goods located in Koreatown in the 80s and 90s. Joon was actually the name of the owner. He and his wife had a stall in swap meet inside a former Jon’s Market on Western Avenue in Los Angeles. The items were produced by another company with name JOON’S on the box (Could be Popye Corp Toys).

The original VF-1J set in grey, red, blue, and green all were released at the same time mid 80s. 1996 is when the AngelBird-esque VF-1J came to market.

During their release there was a proposal made to Joon to create the VF-1S and VF-1A head with the original four color schemes. Head of a VF-1A sculpt was handed to Joon, but it cannot be confirmed if they were ever made or commercialized.

Long story short. Joon was just an importer who had no idea what Macross was with an over seas friend who had access to these molds in S. Korea. All he new was he could make money selling these for 20 bucks each at that time.

This just blew my mind when I heard the in depth story, first hand.

Thank you for your valuable information.

Here is a commercialized JOON'S VF-1A.
The painting of the eyes is omitted, and of course the body is the same as VF-1J.
I have only this blue color, but JOON'S VF-1A seems to have been manufactured for a short period of time, so it is rare to see it.

I found the green color here, but have yet to see the other colors in person.
https://order.mandarake.co.jp/order/detailPage/item?itemCode=1113590256

[Shawn]

Joons VF-1A??!! No way! Awesome information and pics

Collecting the knockoffs is truly a never ending adventure. There always seems to be something new right-it is pretty dang awesome.

[Shawn]

The Mandarake green variations side by side

After all these years...NEVER seen a VF-1A, just crazy!

 

[nightmareB4macross]

On 6/6/2023 at 10:28 AM, transjet said:

Thank you for your valuable information.

Here is a commercialized JOON'S VF-1A.
The painting of the eyes is omitted, and of course the body is the same as VF-1J.
I have only this blue color, but JOON'S VF-1A seems to have been manufactured for a short period of time, so it is rare to see it.

I found the green color here, but have yet to see the other colors in person.
https://order.mandarake.co.jp/order/detailPage/item?itemCode=1113590256

Would you mind opening the head to see the inside? I wonder if these were recasted resin. It has a very different finish from the body. And the green head version does as well. 

Finally, I can now rest assured I did see a VF-1A Blue and Red Joon’s. Years ago I had seen the listing on eBay and figured the heads were custom colored resin so I passed them up. The pictures I saved are on an old hard drive that crashed years ago. I was able to recover thousands of pictures but have never been able to locate the ebay listing. Many times I have made mention of those VF-1A and no one recalls them until now.

This is so vindicating for me.

[transjet]

Here's what's inside.

[nightmareB4macross]

3 hours ago, transjet said:

Here's what's inside.

Thank you. I really appreciate you doing this.

Do you happen to have a Bandai VF-1A for a side by side comparison?

Now the hunt begins, again.  

[transjet]

Unfortunately, I do not have TAKATOKU or BANDAI's 1/55 VF-1A, so I cannot make an exact comparison, but the obvious difference is the injection gate marks on the eyes.

[nightmareB4macross]

1 hour ago, transjet said:

Unfortunately, I do not have TAKATOKU or BANDAI's 1/55 VF-1A, so I cannot make an exact comparison, but the obvious difference is the injection gate marks on the eyes.

As many times as I see this picture in great detail, the head just looks like casted resin. The finish is not smooth at all. Almost like release spray pattern on the surface. The gates are like those of casting. Details are a bit blurry and double layered at the rear under the vents.

Sure wish I had one to compare it in person.

These are just my observations.

I am once again ever so grateful. Thank you deeply.

[transjet]

I'm glad I could help you.

And one more thing, did you know that JOON'S VF-1J comes in two different red colors, light and dark?
Sometimes there are individuals with dark-colored bodies and only light-colored arms.

This may be surprisingly unknown to you, so I will introduce it here.

[strikevalk]

Okay @nightmareB4macross, you were right... it's really cooking in here!  The mythical Joons 1A!  Just incredible.  Since we're on the topic of Joons, just last week I found that the "1996, Patriot" colored Joons leg fin had either blue paint, or left blank.  I had my original from the late 90s that I converted to a 1S, with Jetfire arms and legs, repainted most of the valkyrie to a Max blue.  Fast forward to a month ago... worked on reverting that same Joons back to its original colors and parts, minus the 1J head... which had been traded away over 2 decades ago.

Here's the back of the leg fin from my originally purchased one late 90s. Blue paint.

 

Here's one from a listing online.  Blank.

 

 

 

Here's a friend's one from Wisconsin.  Blank.

Here's a friend's one from Northern California.  Blue paint.

Seems like the ones with the blue paint on the back of the fin also have the top quarter of the outer leg painted blue originally, then painted over completely with red paint.

I finally completed the "restoration" of the "converted to Max 1S Joons that I had... he still has a 1S head, inspired by Alex's earlier pictures from this thread.

 

Hmmmm, I also found this listing on the web... it was sold in 2017?  Claimed it was not tampered with... could this have been an end of the run, just get rid of left over stock version?

[nightmareB4macross]

7 hours ago, transjet said:

I'm glad I could help you.

And one more thing, did you know that JOON'S VF-1J comes in two different red colors, light and dark?
Sometimes there are individuals with dark-colored bodies and only light-colored arms.

This may be surprisingly unknown to you, so I will introduce it here.

This is pretty cool. I only associated this color with the SBS TV types. I had no idea Joon’s had two color types. Were these released at the same time as the 1980s set? 

[nightmareB4macross]

@strikevalkMark those are really excellent finds. Thanks so much for sharing.

you could right about that mismatch being a leftover compilation build from the factory. 

You guys are on fire!!

[Shawn]

@transjet your knowledge of these variants is remarkable, thank you for sharing!
I had no idea there were VF-1A Joons, and also never knew about the Red variations

Is it a camera/picture/lighting issue, or is the cockpit darker on one?

[transjet]

This darker color was marked on the box as having been produced in 1995.
We cannot be certain, but we believe that the darker colors were added in the 1990s.
The ones released in the 90s did not have the sticker on the center of the chest at different times, but so far I have only seen the darker colors without the chest sticker.

The canopy is also slightly different in color.
There are slight differences in transparency depending on the time of release.