Yamato VF-0A/S Replacement Parts

[odr78]

Whoa..... When I handled with precaution the shoulder to take the photo of the crack on the biceps.... The arms has exploded in 2 parts..... You can see the little crack on the shoulder too.. ( fuzzy I know.. )

Yamato send us auto-destruction arms for ours VF-0S ???

Ok I'm going to suicide myself...

Good bye cruel World....

[Swoosh]

I have exaclty the same problem on my VF-0A (not Shin)...

Looks like the replacement part you got is still made from ABS?

Edited June 26, 2007 by Swoosh

[recon]

Thats sucks man! really feel for you odr78 having paid a substantial amount to get the replacement "POM" parts for the VF-0S but the end result is still the same. These defintely dun feel like pom even for the VF-0A shin, more like they are just regular ABS or maybe worse, inferior quality ABS, which i dun doubt so especially when cost cutting measures are being employed in the toy industries nowadays.

On a side note: perhaps this should come with a warning like:

1) Transform at your own risk!!

2) Do no attempt 3 or more transformations!!

Edited June 26, 2007 by recon

[do not disturb]

as i suggested many posts back, its not the shoulder housing thats off, but the ball joint itself.

i don't think the balljoint is a perfect sphere but rather somewhat oval.

this would explain why all the shoulder pieces are stressing one after the other.

POM, ABS, steel, it wouldn't make a difference what you used if the balljoint itself is not a perfect sphere.

[Shin Densetsu Kai 7.0]

In a case case like this I think Yamato should just redesign the shoulder joint as a ratchet joint vs ball joint.

This is bad. This shouldn't be happening on the new POM shoulders, especially a replacement.

[Matt Random]

I guess I don't have to worry about ordering those replacement parts now. This is depressing since I really like the Zero design and would love to have a durable version of it.

[xsjado]

Ok I'm going to suicide myself... sad

i feel for you man. i hope hlj loses my email about getting replacement arms.

on a side note, that's funniest & saddest sentence ever.

Edited June 26, 2007 by xsjado

[eugimon]

haha, it would be just like yamato to replace the SHOULDER with POM, but leave the lower part of the part the same craptastic ABS.

[ruskiiVFaussie]

lol, Yamato you sick bastards, f u big time.

Don't worry about Graham giving us any report or closure, this is enough closure we need to know that we got f'd a third time.

What they say? Three strikes and your o...?

I was really looking forward to the YF-21, now... i dunno.

Edited June 26, 2007 by ruskiiVFaussie

[Magnus]

Aw man. That's disappointing news.

[Rabidweezil]

After reading all of this and seeing the result. I'm thinking that what HLJ sent out are not the Yamato replacement parts. It's just arm parts from a regular parted out 0S.

That would explain the price and why the whole arms were shipped...along with the fact that it broke just like the regular arms did.

[Beware of Blast]

Whoa..... When I handled with precaution the shoulder to take the photo of the crack on the biceps.... The arms has exploded in 2 parts..... You can see the little crack on the shoulder too.. ( fuzzy I know.. )

Yamato send us auto-destruction arms for ours VF-0S ???

Ok I'm going to suicide myself...

Good bye cruel World....

Wow, the bicep cracking is a new one! Don't worry about the picture being fuzzy. I can see the minor stressmark on the shoulders clear enough.

And contrary to your statement, I think it's more like the mofos at Yamato just suicided themselves with their customers. More and more, I'm beginning to enjoy seeing Yamato fail and I anticipate this to reflect on their sales performance, Others may say that they have tried to remedy their failures, but I don't think they are sincere. It's more like they offered you guys the same faulty arm just to shut you up - but at $30 a pop.

Yeah, I much preffered to be proven wrong and eat my words, at least we can all have perfect our VF0A/S, but too bad, Yamato is no different than any stick in the mud.

[Chet]

Hmmm. Guess I won't be getting that reissue VF-0S after all. At least, not unless these issues are resolved. Or until I find the reissue at a RIDICULOUSLY low price. I really don't mind having to loosen the screws on the arms, but I'm certainly NOT going to pay SRP for a toy that has such built-in defects.

[Ignacio Ocamica]

After reading all of this and seeing the result. I'm thinking that what HLJ sent out are not the Yamato replacement parts. It's just arm parts from a regular parted out 0S.

That would explain the price and why the whole arms were shipped...along with the fact that it broke just like the regular arms did.

I don't think they're from parted out 0S. See the black O-ring at the end of the bicep? That wasn't present on the previous VF's, I think they're to reinforce the swiwel joint.

The stress marks are also different. They were like thin hairlines before, now they are wider and fuzzy. It shows that:

1. The shoulder housing is too tight.

2. The balljoint is too big.

3. The workers at the assembly process are screwing the shoulder halves together first, and then popping in the shoulder thus causing the stress marks.

The shattered bicep is inexcusable though

Once when I was transforming my VF-0S from fighter to gerwalk, the forearm popped out from the bicep when I pulled the arms out.

DISCAIMER: I'm not saying that odr78 used too much force, but the added screw in the ultra thin bicep weakens the whole area.

I'm very lucky with my two Zeros. The VF-0S has no stress marks and the VF-0A CF has a tiny hairline crack in the left shoulder.

[Swoosh]

I am sure that CF 0A have that o-ring, too...

Mine was broken in the same way... but I just snap it back and it is still functional....

Edited June 27, 2007 by Swoosh

[Ignacio Ocamica]

You are right, I checked the VF-0A and it has the o-ring, but the VF-0S doesn't.

[eugimon]

for transforming from fighter to battroid/gerwalk, I would recommend popping open the back hatch, and pushing the shoulder mounts out that way, instead of pulling on the arms themselves. This should alleviate some stress from the shoulder, but more importantly, the BICEP which is just pulling apart for a lot of people, myself included.

[odr78]

For transforming from fighter to battroid/gerwalk, I wouldn't recommend to transform yours Yamato.. It is not built for that.... They sell the first "auto-destruction Toys" of the world.

When you begin to transform a Yamato.. You can hear from the toy :

"Warning ! The Self Destruction Sequence has been activated. There remain 3 transformation before explosion. Thanks for playing and see you next time"

Yamato = Umbrella ? ^^

And when you buy a new Yamato, You can hear from the toy :

"Same player shoot again" or "Extra ball !!!"

Edited June 27, 2007 by odr78

[eugimon]

I receieved my replacement arms for the 1/60 yamato VF-0 series valks today. Total was 6 arms, 2 sets for the 0s and 1 set for 0a.

First, let me say that the 0s arms do have the bicep swivel o-rings... so they are nice and tight now. However, the bicep armor itself, is still glued in place. the screw design of the 0a arms was not brought over.

I found 3 of the 4 0s arms to have their shoulder halves GLUED together. This probably occured when the rubber cups were glued into place. The bicep armor was also glued on as well as the two halves of the elbow assembly. This didn't thrill me, as it meant that for 3 of the arms, I would have to force the shoulders on over the ball socket, something which I suspect the factory workers do in China, which can cause stress marks or out right cracks.

Well, for the 0a arms, I found everything screwed together with no glue application, except on the rubber cap on the shoulder. This allowed me to take the entire arm apart. What I found in the bicep swivel in one arm was disturbing. The rubber o-ring that yamato used to tighten up the bicep swivel had quite a lot of rubber flashing still on it. More conjecture on my part, but I think the extra material is contributing to the biceps breaking on some of the 0a types out there. Using an x-acto, I cut away the flashing and re-assembled the arm on the valkyrie, starting with the shoulders, the, the bicep/elbow and then finally the fore-arm itself.

While the replacement arms did not come with any stress marks, I'm kind of paranoid about them as i had to FORCE three of the arms on, thanks to the oh so happy glue gun of some factory worker. I'm also concerned that there maybe flashing on the bicep o-rings on the 0s arms as well.. but unfortunately, as everything was glued together, I can't tell. I'm hesitent to pry open that piece for fear that the stress will weaken or break the retaining ring on the bicep swivel.

Was it worth paying 1500 yen, per arm, to fix my three VF-0 valks? Yeah, i guess so... but all in all, I'm not totally satisfied. I think the design is just unworkable with tolerances yamato's chinese factories have.

1. there's was quite a bit of variation from arm to arm in the build quality as far as glue application goes as well as how carefully the flashing was removed on the rubber inserts.

2. I'm not convinced that POM, if they are even POM, can handle the stresses invovled, considering how thin the pieces are.

I personally think yamato needs to scrap the arm design and re-engineer the entire part. The bicep swivel has precious little plastic on it, and that part will fail if tugged on during transformation to gerwalk from fighter.

All in all, this is definitely the last Vf-0 design I purchase from yamato. Having seen the replacement arms, I have no faith that these arms will fair much better than the original arms. And while I would love a Vf-0d... I just can't bring myself to spend 150 dollars on a transforming toy that I'm afraid to transform.

[Lonely Soldier Boy]

I'm about to cancel my preorder with Tamim and order the YF-19 FP instead.

[ruskiiVFaussie]

sigh...

[Scream Man]

Sigh? Base don the fact nothing has changed?

I never did hear what Grahms sources at Yamato had to say on this...

[drifand]

I never did hear what Grahms sources at Yamato had to say on this...

'Ka-CHING!' ?

[ruskiiVFaussie]

Sigh? Base don the fact nothing has changed?

I never did hear what Grahms sources at Yamato had to say on this...

Yeah, nothing has changed, or atleast hasn't changed the way it should have changed.. i don't care... lol

Graham can't say jack about this. It's plain as day for most of us.....

With the re-releases of the VF-0S happening, i'd dare say it's best to avoid too right?

Too bad, i really want a 0S now, coz i just watched Macross Zero from start to finish on the weekend.

Damn that's an awesome anime... i never expect it to top Macross Plus (in my eyes)... totally unexpected!

I want the Nora, and i want the reactive armor'd Vf-0S. But lets just see how the SV pans out on it's debut release hey?

Should be interesting!

[Sumdumgai]

Just freaking wonderful. I check out my VF-0A to see how the stressmark in the right shoulder is and lo and behold...

The stressmark became a bigass crack. I'm extremely unpleased. Even more so that it sounds like if the retards at HLJ manage to process an order for a replacement shoulder, I'm going to get something that will break again. This sucks.

Grrr...

[eugimon]

Just freaking wonderful. I check out my VF-0A to see how the stressmark in the right shoulder is and lo and behold...

The stressmark became a bigass crack. I'm extremely unpleased. Even more so that it sounds like if the retards at HLJ manage to process an order for a replacement shoulder, I'm going to get something that will break again. This sucks.

Grrr...

The 0a shoulders are better than the 0s shoulders, since they probably won't be glued together. My advice, take the replacement arm apart completely. check all rubber gaskets for flashing and trim. Re-assemble the arm on the body, starting with the shoulders, then the bicep/elbow and then the arm.

[Scream Man]

Sumdumgai: Is that the older 0A, or the Shin version?

[Sumdumgai]

Oh, it's the older 0A. I've actually been wondering how everyone's 0A-Shins are holding up.

I haven't bought a replacement arm yet. I'm thinking about trying to fix the shoulder and maybe sand down the ball joint or something. Argh, it's been bugging me all day! I really like the VF-0A CF. It's currently my favorite valk that I own, despite the broken shoulder.

[PsYcHoDyNaMiX]

My Shin is holding up really nicely. -=]

It's got nice tight joints and no stress marks (I even loosened the shoulders up too).

[Scream Man]

thats good news. i know Mowe's ShinA busted, but its starting to sound like that may be the exception, and not the rule. Were there other reports?

[ruskiiVFaussie]

mines pretty tight. I think i've only done like 2 transformation cycles though.

[V2 Assault]

my reply from HLJ - the actual replies are in bold.

From : Takayuki Oishi <oishi@hlj.com>

Subject : Re: inquiry on yamato 1/60 VF-0S/A shoulder replacement parts

Dear Sir/Madam;

Thank you for your business with HobbyLink Japan.

>so, how much would it cost me to acquire a set of replacement shoulders for

VF-0 arms( 1set) price are 3000yen. It is not include shipping cost.

>my VF-0? also, are these replacement shoulders already "improved" and will

I am not sure that, but I think those replace arms are not improve.

Best regards,

Takayuki Oishi

Customer Service Representive

www.hlj.com

so it seems that the "replacement parts" are still bound to be broken like the originals...

and it seems that yamato is offering ORIGINAL replacement parts and not IMPROVED replacement parts...

Edited July 24, 2007 by V2 Assault

[eugimon]

thats good news. i know Mowe's ShinA busted, but its starting to sound like that may be the exception, and not the rule. Were there other reports?

I don't think so, but it maybe too early to be sure. I don't think the 0s arms started cracking right away either. and by now, I'm sure most people have heard, so they're likely to be much more delicate with the arms than they would have been before.

I hope that the arms have been improved.

As for what HLJ says, like I said before, they were unwilling to ship two items together in one box for me because I ordered them on seperate days... even though the two packages shipped on same day. I'm therefore distrustful of how much leg work they actually put into finding out the answer.

[eugimon]

double post.

Edited July 24, 2007 by eugimon

[Graham]

Stand by for the true skinny on the replacement parts.

Graham