Graham's Review of Yamato 1/60 Scale YF-19

[David Hingtgen]

That's my "last resort" option. It holds fine with just one peg, but when they're TOGETHER you see problems.

[Scream Man]

yeah id go with putting plastic on the handle. muh less invasive.

[myk]

Couldn't we.....enlarge one side of the hole on the handle itself, to compensate for the misaligned pegs? I suppose it'd be easier to just saw off one of the pegs...

[David Hingtgen]

I plan to spend hours investingating/testing, but not today. Based on how it only becomes misaligned in that last little bit of putting the arms together (you can have them 90% connected and the gunpod still straight) it has to be just a TINY little thing that is in the way---so IMHO no need to cut off an entire peg. More like shave off .1mm of one side of a peg. Just have to figure out which one, and where--otherwise you'll end up sanding/shaving all over, and eventually just have a loose, floppy gunpod.

[myk]

Which way does your gunpod point?

(Ok, how else would you have asked that question?)

[Scream Man]

i fixed mine, but i think it was to the left

[rikiryou]

Alternatively the simple solution I did: fold paper, slip it on one side of the gunpod grip, and voila, tight and straight gunpod.

[falcon14141]

So while I was prying off the bottom screw cover, my knife slipped and went thru my thumb.... bled all over EVERYTHING but luckily I wiped it off the toy real quick and didn't leave any marks.... ... the bloodloss Ive already suffered from this toy has me kinda angry...

Don't be angry, you're the first of us to be bloodfriend to an YF-19

I'd be interessted in the shoulder mod.. I haven't quite fullly understood what you did, and where, to make this thing hold in place

[Fly4victory]

Launch bar is NOT a tow bar.

Brings back memories of flight school and every check ride since…. “Use common terms and phraseology.â€

You should be Macross World’s first standardization pilot.

Rather like, it was not a crash but an “un-commanded departure from flightâ€.

Back on track, if the gun problem is due to the shield can the arms be positioned correctly in fighter mode and then the shield placed back on the fighter?

Edit: deleted the strange boxes and symbols that resulted from copy/paste.

Edited January 19, 2007 by Fly4victory

[nightmareB4macross]

Back on track, if the gun problem is due to the shield can the arms be positioned correctly in fighter mode and then the shield placed back on the fighter?

Edit: deleted the strange boxes and symbols that resulted from copy/paste.

No, the pegs on the shiel will tweak the alignment of the arms. Thus, resulting in a crooked mounted gunpod.

There are several things than need to be done to make this work properly. The shield's right arm peg needs to be shave from the rear, while the mounting pegs on the arms both need to be reshaped. And lastly, the cavity where the gunpod rests needs to be opened a bit more from the rear of the right arm.

It's not as much work as it sounds, but it will allow you to mount the gun on either arm without resulting Peyronis' disease.

[do not disturb]

2. Launch bar is NOT a tow bar. It is used for attaching a plane to the catapult. The tow bar is much larger, mounted lower, and not part of the plane.

Finally, an F-18 with a tow bar attached---it's MUCH bigger, and below the launch bar:

i said tow hook, not tow bar....unless they're the same thing?

you mentioned yours came with a launch bar...

The launch bar on the nose is grey instead of white. Is it painted white on everyone else's? Mine is bare plastic.

i always thought that particular part was called a tow hook since thats what everyones been calling it for god knows how long....though i could be wrong since my knowledge of planes is limited compared to yours.

[do not disturb]

so got to playing more with my 19 and theres a few things that kind of irk me about it....

gerwalk mode kind of sucks. the upper part of the body doesn't lock down whatsoever, it just sits there resting on top. i understand sacrifices had to be made for the good of the cause(a good battroid and fighter mode) but i'm a big fan of gerwalk mode and its a big let down on the 19. it also doesn't help that theres no locks for the hips, i mean if you do any kind of posing, the legs automatically pop out(5mm slack) and you get a floppy mess. honestly, they could've made some kind of little locking mechanism to prevent this annoyance but no.

the gunpod/forearm attachment doesn't make sense? you can't attach the GP to the forearm in either battroid or gerwalk mode...WTF? they made it so you can rock the shield in either arm but not the GP on either of them? you can sort of attached it to the inside of the forearm but it looks totally stupid, try it out and you'll see what i'm talking about. basically, your valk has to hold the GP at all times, except in fighter mode where it sits crooked...yay!

[Scream Man]

i dont see how the torso COULD attach in Gerwalk. About the best I could think of was some pegs at the bottom of the torso secion that lock into holes at the fuselage. But even that wouldnt really do the job well...

[rikiryou]

Or alternatively they could have gone for a different design, similar to the 1/100 VF-19 kits from Bandai. In those ones, the hips are actually 2 separate pieces. So if that were the case, you'd have something similar to the VF-1 in Fighter mode's locking mechanism. Although there'd be no swing bar, but the locking would be less floppy I think. Not quite possible to pull it off properly though.

Back on track though, yeah, I believe those pegs are meant to be the 'locks' for the torso, but they hardly do their job right. For one thing, they're already being rubbed out of shape on mine thanks to my use of them as locks. Hmmm, now that I think about it, the hip joints might've been able to have yet another different design. For example, you could pop them outward, and inward, in a similar fashion as they already are, except you'd have two cavities within the joint itself to achieve a locking mechanism of some sort. Although over the long run, all that popping in and out would ruin the piece.

Lol, what a mess. If you stop and ponder about it, the design of the current 1/60 YF-19 is actually quite lackluster and mayhap albeit half-arsed? For starters, the neck's twin tab locks. Two tiny tabs as locks. Is that even practical?

[do not disturb]

i dont see how the torso COULD attach in Gerwalk. About the best I could think of was some pegs at the bottom of the torso secion that lock into holes at the fuselage. But even that wouldnt really do the job well...

well if they made it so the "nub" shown in part a(1st pic) would fit into a "slot" made in part b(2nd pic) it wouldn't be too bad, atleast it wouldn't be just resting there like they have it now. i htink it would also help keep the wings in a bit tighter...

[attachmentid=39718][attachmentid=39719]

i'll probably end up trying to make a grove in the torso for the nub. its sort of hidden so it won't be a total eye sore.

[Wicked Ace]

I didn't break it.

I did. My second YF-19 arrived today, and I wanted to see if the dreaded fuselage separation was more difficult -- it was. I encountered far more resistance than I ran into on my first -19. I got the difficult parts separated, then I reconnected them, noticing the square locking peg was too long, causing the gray plastice hinge piece to distort. Anyway, upon disconnecting the pieces the second time (with experience), the hinge piece cracked. I can fix this, but it sucks.

[Fly4victory]

It would work that is how the wings locked on the old 1/72 YF-19 and VF-19A.

http://www.macrossworld.com/macross/toys/v...nal_proto09.jpg

The link shows the open slot.

well if they made it so the "nub" shown in part a(1st pic) would fit into a "slot" made in part b(2nd pic) it wouldn't be too bad, atleast it wouldn't be just resting there like they have it now. i htink it would also help keep the wings in a bit tighter...

i'll probably end up trying to make a grove in the torso for the nub. its sort of hidden so it won't be a total eye sore.

[jenius]

My, the honeymoon seems to rapidly ending with the YF-19. I'm kind of okay with GERWALK being a bit sloppy... let's face it, the design of the 19's GERWALK is entirely sloppy to begin with. I've also found that sloppiness in GERWALK often leads to better pose-ability in GERWALK (the VF-0S is a nice example of this). Battroid though, that thing being sloppy is just sad. When I first picked up my 1/72 VF-19A out of its box I thought "crap, this piece of junk is broken" because nothing clamped the chest down. To hear it still works this way on the 1/60 makes me sad .

So with the breaking parts deal when transforming, is there a part everyone should immediately loosen the screws on to make transformation easier or do you not even see those screws until you've managed to transform it?

[UN Spacy]

OUCH. Damn fellas.

This thread has definitely taken a 180. Now that we have our YF-19's all sorts of problems are popping up. Either that or y'all just messing with em too much.

[promethuem5]

Basically the only real big issue here is the clearance of those tabs in the fuselage, but if you just take that bit apart right off the bat and file down both the grey parts and the tan tabs, the toy is fine. It's a stupid and avoidable problem, but totally fixable with a minimum of labor (even tho we really shouldn't need any work to make it work.) I've got an anal retentive modelling mind anyways, so I always make some kind of stupid little tweaks to all of these high end toys I buy like a small paint issue or a small physicsal issue, so i wasn't really phased at having to do a couple minor bits of work to my brand new 19.... once finished, I'm totally in love with it and am so very glad it finally came out. This really is the Yamato toy I've been waiting for.

And as for the Gerwalk mode, I agree that msot of its faults are more due to the fact that the 19 just has a silly Gerwalk mode, but I've actually got mine on display in G mode right now and love it becausae of how posable it is.

[Kyp Durron]

Perhaps someone should post pics of the problem areas and the fixes.

-Kyp

[David Hingtgen]

I had the screws completely removed, and it still wouldn't transform. I later also had one grey piece removed (after it snapped the glue weld)--and it still wouldn't transform. How can you sand them down, if you can't get it apart in the first place? You have to transform it at least once to be able to access the tabs, but that first time can break it.

__________________________

Wicked Ace---your experience shows that there is variation--some are much harder to transform than others. I apparently had a VERY hard one, as is your 2nd one.

Perhaps take the ENTIRE forward fuselage apart, to get it apart? I would seriously recommend doing it prior to the first time.

Also---I have major stress marks right where yours cracked--and they were there before I ever even TRIED to transform it. The first thing I ever did with my new YF-19 was opening the "gullet" piece---and I looked inside and saw those grey pieces and they had big white stress marks.

_____________________________________

do not disturb--regardless of what you call it, the launch bar is not for towing the plane. I put up pics showing both launch and tow bars. The launch bar is for launching, the tow bar is for towing. No valk has come with a tow bar yet. (they're generic, there is no specific towbar for a specific plane) My point is, the launch bar is only for catapult operations, not towing it around the deck or an airfield.

______________________________________

prometheum5---the original YF-19 Yamato made had a rock-solid GERWALK. But that was due to slots in the chest---I'm guessing it was purely cosmetic reasons that the new one doesn't. I might try something like do not disturb suggested---kinda like the original YF-19 had.

[Lonely Soldier Boy]

It would be nice to have "How To Make Your Yamato 1/60 YF-19 Perfect" guide by Prometheum5 or some of our other gifted modelers here, along with tips to avoid breakeage or stress marks on the first transformation. The list of tweaks is growing and I'm finding hard to remember them all.

I'm not being sarcastic, I swear. I love the look of this toy and I'm definitely buying a second release. I'm just not sure that Yamato would make all the improvements needed and I don't want problems with mine.

[David Hingtgen]

We do have a thread like that, in the Customization forum.

[Wicked Ace]

Wicked Ace---your experience shows that there is variation--some are much harder to transform than others. I apparently had a VERY hard one, as is your 2nd one.

I knew this one would be trouble, when I noticed a gap, similar to the nose-gear-down gap on the 1/48 scale VF-1 fuselage. Clearly, the fuselage hinge pieces on my new -19 were stressed before transformation.

[David Hingtgen]

Great, now I'm wondering if my slight fuselage gap is normal, or "caused by extra-difficult transformation" and other people have seamless ones. Can someone post good side views of the forward fuselage in fighter mode?

[Wicked Ace]

Great, now I'm wondering if my slight fuselage gap is normal, or "caused by extra-difficult transformation" and other people have seamless ones. Can someone post good side views of the forward fuselage in fighter mode?

I already filed down the tabs, so there's no longer a gap for me to take a picture of. The square tabs on my -19 seemed to have what is most closely described as casting flash on model kit parts.

Edited January 20, 2007 by Wicked Ace

[Wicked Ace]

I just discovered something else, the pinky finger on the Battroid's left hand has a nice little stress mark. Keep in mind, this thing hasn't even gone a through a full transformation -- I just now folded out the hands.

edit: the pinky is not hanging on by a thread; I bent it back, and it's functional, for now.

Edited January 20, 2007 by Wicked Ace

[recon]

I did. My second YF-19 arrived today, and I wanted to see if the dreaded fuselage separation was more difficult -- it was. I encountered far more resistance than I ran into on my first -19. I got the difficult parts separated, then I reconnected them, noticing the square locking peg was too long, causing the gray plastice hinge piece to distort. Anyway, upon disconnecting the pieces the second time (with experience), the hinge piece cracked. I can fix this, but it sucks.

Sorry to hear abt that. This breaking of parts, stress marks seems to be a growing trend with the recent releases, VF-0S/A, YF-19. Wonders if its the cheapo plastic being used, over tightening of screws or other reasons like misalignment/size of internal parts? Havent got any of the abovementioned due to the problems, hope these problems will be resolved in the future reissues/releases

Edited January 20, 2007 by recon

[myk]

I wonder how the Japanese buyers are faring with their units?

[Mowe]

Holy smack!!! I have been keeping it in fighter mode and thought what a great toy. With all these problems, I am glad I kept a blind eye. Might have to wait for a re-issue before I see it in the other 2 modes....

Um....once again, how much did we pay Yamato for a less then perfect toys....

With these QC issues, Bandai's SOC Gunbuster should win the Toy of the Year 2006, it is faultless, more metal, more details, better package, more gimicks, more robust, and cost about the same. Yamato, stop giving us faulty toys!!!!

[Kyp Durron]

Guys, I just tried "breaking the neck" of it and it completely broke apart!!!

JK!!!!!!!!!

Seriously, I did it with no problems whatsoever, no stress marks, no problems and it went back together just fine!

I haven't transformed it the rest of the way, I just wanted to see if I had you guy's dreaded neck issues that appears to be croping up left and right in the last day or so.

The ONLY "issue" I have with mine is the gunpod being off-center, otherwise, it's perfect, even the rear landing gear.

I guess I lucked up and got me a good one! I won't be transforming mine, I think I will keep it nice and minty since it appears that I have a rare first issue whose only problem is the gunpod.

I'm really sorry to hear about all the problems the rest of you are having.

-Kyp

Edited January 20, 2007 by Kyp Durron

[do not disturb]

the fuselage section is definitely nerve racking but the more times you do it, the easier it gets. its takes a little time to figure out exactly how much force/torque to use to split the sucker open, but once you figure that out(with practice and multiple tries) it works every time.

i didn't sand down anything and i don't need to remove any screws to TF it, actually it TF's to battroid mode without any problem or fear of breakage. think of it like the first time you got the 1/60 VF-1, it took a while to figure out exactly how to "break" the fuselage away from the chest plate. its kind of the same thing with the YF-19.

anyhoo fellas, i'm sorry to hear about all the breakage thats going on. it sucks paying that much for something and having it break within the first couple of days of owning it. hopefully graham(or someone) will find a way to offer replacement parts.

[Macross73]

I have to admit that i'm really surprised by all this - Graham man-handles his 19.

I still havent gotten mine its at the UPS office waiting to get picked up.

Work is getting in the way . Well as soon as I get mine i'm gonna check out everything

and perhaps I'll have to start repairs . Thats not at all what i was looking forward to.

Edited January 20, 2007 by Macross73

[Wicked Ace]

Just an observation -- the problems vary from unit to unit. For example, my first -19 is great, no problems. The second one I just received was, well, I already posted about it. Could there be a bad batch of these released?

12/22/06 YF-19 just fine.

01/19/07 YF-19 with fuselage breakage, and broken pinky (LH)

Edited January 20, 2007 by Wicked Ace