Yamato VF-0A/S Replacement Parts

[PsYcHoDyNaMiX]

Pics FTW... Kind of hard to say thats a chemical reaction b/w two of the same plastics. Either poor engineering or poor assembly.

My conclusion for the engineering theory is that they made the male connector too big in diameter (or the female too small in diameter) and they made the pilot diameter hole (for the screw too small). Therefore, after putting the tight fitting male into the female connector then inserting the slightly larger screw (either from the diameter or from the threads) the plastic will stress and possibly split.

Oh yes... My theory for the common chinese factory worker (I am chinese, but not a factory worker from china).

If it's already a tight fitting piece and all doesn't split or stress; if the factory worker decides to put glue to hold it together the glue will weaken the plastic then harden to refine it, but in all cases can cause the plastic to stress as well.

For what I was talking about last night:

http://macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?s=&a...st&p=505002

The following pics are the replacement arms from HLJ straight out of the production bags. Completely unused.

Edited August 9, 2007 by PsYcHoDyNaMiX

[kensei]

On a side note, I was complaining about these arms to my wife, and jokingly asked her if she could have them milled for me in aluminum at her work and she said very seriously, that at her old job she could have but not at her new one. She changed jobs about two months ago.

Nice job Flanders. Shoulda have said something sooner!

[Sumdumgai]

Hmmm, if male connector is too big... Use Lube.

Your explanation makes sense to me psychodynamix. But I'm betting that the chemical reaction is just the nail in the coffin when combined with your theory. So Yamato doesn't seem to think it's the ball joint being ovular as opposed to spherical that's causing the problems.

[Scream Man]

id say its the chemical reaction combined with the pressure u have to put on the shoulders to pull the arms out.

[PsYcHoDyNaMiX]

Those pics of the arms I have above were the replacement arms sent from HLJ. They were not taken off my current VF-0S, so they should've not experienced any kind of pressure from the ball joint.

***EDIT***

They were completely unused from what I'm aware of. They're straight out of the production bags.

Edited August 9, 2007 by PsYcHoDyNaMiX

[Lonely Soldier Boy]

Nor they've been in touch with the ball joint, so the "chemical reaction" argument don't work here. This is weird. Those shoulders are about to explode already.

[eugimon]

Okay, I took a look at my busted arms, and I noticed something. The sides with the most damage, are always the side the rubber cap was predominantly attached to. The one arm with the least amount of damage, had a loose rubber cap that wasn't glued to the inside of the ball joint.

So, there's some ancedotal evidence to back up yamato's chemical reaction story.

[Lonely Soldier Boy]

In any case, I'll keep holding on the Zeroes until we hear of a more convincing solution from Yamato, like free of charge problem free replacement parts. That's too bad, I wanted to buy a new Roy and a Shin eventually.

[Sumdumgai]

I'm not too tickled pink about my VF-0A CF myself. I only intended to get the CF version (unless a 0D came out). I have it now, and don't intend on getting anymore, including repaints. Not worth it to me if they're just going to bust. The replacement arms so far aren't sounding that great. And, I am still waiting to hear how the VF-0A Shin will be holding up to scrutiny.

[Graham]

ohhhhhh... first post... first... ah... that makes sense. And it's so much nicer than the word I was thinking of.

Nope, the 'F' doesn't stand for 'First'.

Graham

[Vermillion21]

Belated thanks for the info Graham.

Guess I'll wait on confirmation if the new fast pack VF-0's have the new shoulder part treatments ....

[Graham]

Still waiting to hear why HLJ charged for the arms. From what I'm understand they weren't supposed to, well maybe just a small handling charge, certainly not 1,500 per arm!

Did anybody here order arms though another online Japan based retailer, besides HLJ? If so, did they charge?

Graham

[eugimon]

Thanks again for taking the time to follow up on this stuff for us.

[PsYcHoDyNaMiX]

Still waiting to hear why HLJ charged for the arms. From what I'm understand they weren't supposed to, well maybe just a small handling charge, certainly not 1,500 per arm!

Did anybody here order arms though another online Japan based retailer, besides HLJ? If so, did they charge?

Graham

They charged me 1,500 (Yen) per part including per head (which I ordered two of... for my poor crying VF-0S) and they charged me for shipping which was the damn SAL shipping that took almost a month to get to me (I live in NYC).

Four Left arms 4x 1,500

Four Right arms 4 x 1,500

Two Heads 2x 1,500

And yes... many thanks Graham for looking out for the people on your forums. XD

Edited August 10, 2007 by PsYcHoDyNaMiX

[kensei]

Nope, the 'F' doesn't stand for 'First'.

Graham

I knew that too, but give me those privileges that make it seen!

[kensei]

Still waiting to hear why HLJ charged for the arms. From what I'm understand they weren't supposed to, well maybe just a small handling charge, certainly not 1,500 per arm!

Did anybody here order arms though another online Japan based retailer, besides HLJ? If so, did they charge?

Graham

I tried to go through Rob, but they were very rude to him, and basically told us to buy another whole VF-0, so that we could have many spare parts.

[Valk-1S]

Still waiting to hear why HLJ charged for the arms. From what I'm understand they weren't supposed to, well maybe just a small handling charge, certainly not 1,500 per arm!

Did anybody here order arms though another online Japan based retailer, besides HLJ? If so, did they charge?

Graham

Graham are Japan retailers the only way of getting the parts or can Yamato also provide to Hong Kong retailers. It seems that HLJ wants to make a profit on it and other than them I can't think of any places providing this service. As Kensei said Rob tried but they refused to help. Unless we are willing to pay HLJ prices, we are basically screwed.

[sidearmsalpha]

They charged me 1,500 (Yen) per part including per head (which I ordered two of... for my poor crying VF-0S) and they charged me for shipping which was the damn SAL shipping that took almost a month to get to me (I live in NYC).

Four Left arms 4x 1,500

Four Right arms 4 x 1,500

Two Heads 2x 1,500

And yes... many thanks Graham for looking out for the people on your forums. XD

Yeah, that's what I paid for the 4 sets I bought plus the SAL shipping from HLJ that also took about a month even though I live on the West Coast. I didn't buy the VF-0's from HLJ, but I guess since I'm a customer, they let me get the replacement arms at a cost. Maybe, that's why they are charging. If they don't keep track of who bought VF-0's from them, they don't want to send free replacement arms to just anybody who claims they need them. But then again, weren't they replacing the defective parts on the Yamato Garland at no charge except for shipping, or was this just for their customers who bought the Garland?

Off topic but somewhat related, can just about any part of the VF-0's be ordered through HLJ? I need a couple of the pitot tubes that go under the noses on account of that jerk who goes by agr33 that ripped me off when I bought a loose VF-0A and VF-0S from him. He promised he would send me the missing parts months ago but never did.

[do not disturb]

i completely disassemble each of the arms on my 0A and figured out what was causing the breakages.

its basically the rubber insert pieces being too thick and/or too much of it within the ball joint of the shoulder as well as the rotating section of the forearm....its even worse here than the shoulder.

i removed the shoulder rubber pieces, clean off excess flash, and trimmed the rubber cap down a bit for a cleaner fit...this was pretty easy to do.

i then took apart the forearm section only to discover that there was more broken pieces that i could've imagined...grrr! after glueing everything back together, i cleaned up the rubber piece A LOT cause its way too thick for the purpose it serves and for the amount of space that is available. then i took some fine grit sand paper(800) and sanded around the rotating sections(bother inner and outer) as its was not completely semetrical and too tight of a fit even without the rubber o-ring. after making sure everything was fitted properly and looked as it should(no pieces bending or stressing), i assembled everything back together.

so far so good but i have a feeling the replacement arms will also suffer from these issues since they come assembled by the factory. they should consider offering all the repleacement pieces disassembled so that we can do it right, instead of relying on yamatos factory worker.

[eugimon]

yeah. I posted this same information when the arms came out. But those of us who got the 0S arms are in a worse place, because the arms come glued together.

[PsYcHoDyNaMiX]

Off topic but somewhat related, can just about any part of the VF-0's be ordered through HLJ? I need a couple of the pitot tubes that go under the noses on account of that jerk who goes by agr33 that ripped me off when I bought a loose VF-0A and VF-0S from him. He promised he would send me the missing parts months ago but never did.

They might seeing they got me the two extra heads. The least you could do is send them a pic of the part along with an email request.

[eugimon]

Graham,

Any update on whether the combo sets got the new shoulders?

[Vermillion21]

Graham,

Any update on whether the combo sets got the new shoulders?

Great question eugimon, I am curious too ....

[Scream Man]

i think they would have.

[eugimon]

I would too, but the timing is weird...yamato didn't release the replacement arms until the same time as the shin combo... if they had them around to install on the combo, why wouldn't they release them before? And even if the 0a arms were in short supply because of the impending release, why would that affect the 0s arms?

[odr78]

Ok.. I read all.... And did you confirm that I believe to have understood please ??

The set of arms that I received is the true "Replacement Parts" from Yamato ? But.. they still weak ?? They are still not reliable parts... ?? ( mines are already broken Great ! ).

So what let us can be done to preserve us vf-0's arms ??

thanks in advance...

[drifand]

So there we have it: YAMATO were not aware of a 'well known phenomenon' before producing a complex transforming toy that relied on over-optimistic CAD tolerances.

No further questions.

[ruskiiVFaussie]

Just need to know whats going on with my Shin.... will eit for eva be in faitah mood!

[Kicker773]

Well, I was really concerned when i saw some sort of stretch marks, well not really stress marks i guess since its not a different color, but it was enough to scare me from transforming it. However I finally managed to gather up the courage to transform it last night, actually two of them back to valk mode.. phew what an ordeal. Luckily nothing is broken and the stretch mark looking thing is still intact. Dodge a bullet there.. phew. I do have an OS that has remained in valk mode ever since i've read people's issues, I was looking ot get the combo but will definitely wait until i get some good confirmation on its durability.

[do not disturb]

as i said on the previous page....

....i have a feeling the replacement arms will also suffer from these issues since they come assembled by the factory. they should consider offering all the repleacement pieces disassembled so that we can do it right, instead of relying on yamatos factory worker.

[eugimon]

no update?

[Scream Man]

*shameless bump*

[Dante74]

...*and another*

[sidearmsalpha]

For those that have purchased the replacement VF-0S arms and have put them on, was it a hassle to put them on the ball joint considering that the shoulder halves on the arms can't be taken apart completely because of the collar that is glued together at the elbow joint? It totally sucks that Yamato couldn't use the elbow collar with the screw from the VF-0A and just mold it in white. I'm concerned I'm going to crack the shoulders halves trying to slip them over the ball joint.

[eugimon]

I lined mine up as straight as possible and just popped them on. The other major problem with yamato gluing the 0s replacement shoulder together is not being able to check the o-ring in the bicep swivel. As I said in my review, there's a good chance that they left a lot of flashing on it and the extra material is going to stress that joint.

Said it before, and I'll keep saying it, the whole arm design is just crap. The way it's designed, that whole shoulder/arm assembly needs to be milled out of aluminum to be able to handle the stresses of being yanked around during transformation.