Official Yamato 1/60 Scale GBP

[regult]

that avatar gif image is damn painful to watch...

[Macross73]

Its been forever since I checked the board

here and I find this news

So this Breakage has me worried.

I now have to go and check my recent purchases

What a bummer.

[David Hingtgen]

We need to set up a poll for MW members who need VF-1 shoulders, so Graham can request the appropriate number---that'd also let Yamato know just how many more have broken than they are aware of. (I assume they're aware of all the ones that have been replaced).

[BlueMax]

My theory is that the 1J's included with the GPB sets are overstock 1J's from last year with painted visor trim. This would also explain why they have the old style nose hatches instead of the 1/48 style, easier to use hatches seen on the newer releases like the ELINT Seeker, low viz 1S, et al. Some of us were wondering why the old hatch was used on the GPB 1J, and if these 1J's truly are overstock from last year, with painted visors, we have our answer(since those didn't have the new nose hatches).

I tend to believe this is the case as well. Think their priority is to get clear stock yet to be packaged and they probably figured that they rather do this and endure a little bit of shoulder breakages.

I also belive that whatever the reason is, most likely they would not give Graham the full truth as to what happened. At most some 1/2 truths with loads of justification why this is so.

I can endure cracked shoulders , no biggies... but broken ones, well, thats another story.

[EXO]

Can we replace the pin before it starts to break? I haven't had any of the defective stock yet but I would want to avoid it.

[Macross_Fanboy]

I wish OD would hurry the F- up and get some stock so they can ship my damned order that's been placed since November. I can't wait to panel line that baby up.

[QuinJester]

Unless they did an overrun of like 5-10k VF-1J's on their initial production there's no way these are back stock valks. The added costs of pulling figures out of existing packaging, repainting, and repackaging them would make that kind of practice anathema.

No, it's more likely a case (same with the old crotch lock) that the physical assembly design specs for the J were never updated for this new production, so they went right back to building it the way they were originally told when it was first made. They got new painting data, but for the rest were probably told "it's the same as before".

[nexxstrait]

Are there pics of the 1J (or any other VF1 model) with GBP side and neck covers only? I'm eager to see how it looks!

[Ignacio Ocamica]

Over Drive shipped mine!!!!

Can't wait to get it

[MacrossMan]

Picked up the Yamato V2 1/60 VF-1J with GBP yesterday and also the VF-2SS Max at the Ins-Point shopping center in Yau Ma Tei.

Now there’s some good news and some bad news.

First the good news:

The GBP-1S Armour is absolutely beautiful IMO. Yamato have really outdone themselves. Yamato obviously designed the V2 VF-1 from the ground up to be compatible with the GBP Armor. The folding leg fins on the VF-1 really mean for the first time ever that we can have lower leg armor that is in proportion.

And talking of proportions, the new V2 GBP has absolutely the best proportions of any GBP toy to date IMO.

It’s packed full of detail, lots of nice little touches everywhere and I’m so happy that all the major markings are actually tampo printed on this time.

The GBP not only looks good, but it is extremely playable as well, as all the armor pieces stay on very well and nothing falls off. It's a huge improvement on both the original 1/60 GBP and the 1/48 GBP.

The side torso covers attach very securely and actually clip into place into the U-shape brackets that hold the hip bar in F/G modes - another nice touch that shows the V2 VF-1 was designed from the beginning with the GBP in mind. The cover behind the neck (another nice touch), also clips into place very securely.

Now for the bad news:

I took the toy home last night, unpacked it, transformed the included Hikaru VF-1J from fighter to battroid mode, so I could fit the GBP armor and on the first transformation, the shoulder hinge broke, which means the arm now falls off!

I was surprised to see that one end of the metal shoulder pin is knurled. I thought the factory had stopped using the knurled pins ages ago. In my opinion, the knurling does put too much pressure on the plastic and makes it very easy for the plastic around the end of the pin to crack.

See the attached photos, which show the broken plastic part and also the knurling on one end of the pin.

I have many V2 1/60 VF-1 toys and have transformed them dozens of times, but this is my first time that I have personally experienced a cracked shoulder. I'm pissed that this happened, when I thought the problem was fixed.

I've written to Yamato and am awaiting their reply.

For now, transform the arms with extreme care.

Graham

Seeing that these pieces are causing such a head for Yamato and fans alike why not cast the entire swivel piece in metal and solve the problem?

My washing machine recently had its water pump replaced for the third time in 7 years. The Sears repair guy gave me the part number and showed me how to make the simple repair. The damn pump has metal bearings to make the gears rotate smoothly, but the bearings are tracked in the housing of the water pump which is made of plastic. What does that mean? It means that every 2-3 years, depending on usage, the water pump will eventually begin to leak over time as the bearings' heat from rotating melts through the plastic. According to the repair guy it is Sears way of making money for service calls.

Certainly this is not Yamato's intention because you have to fly through hell and hot water to even get replacement parts. I guess I'm back at my original comment...why not make the piece out of some type of metal or something stronger than the plastic that is prone to break. That way it shouldn't matter what type of pin is used.

[Vi-RS]

Seeing that these pieces are causing such a head for Yamato and fans alike why not cast the entire swivel piece in metal and solve the problem?

My washing machine recently had its water pump replaced for the third time in 7 years. The Sears repair guy gave me the part number and showed me how to make the simple repair. The damn pump has metal bearings to make the gears rotate smoothly, but the bearings are tracked in the housing of the water pump which is made of plastic. What does that mean? It means that every 2-3 years, depending on usage, the water pump will eventually begin to leak over time as the bearings' heat from rotating melts through the plastic. According to the repair guy it is Sears way of making money for service calls.

Certainly this is not Yamato's intention because you have to fly through hell and hot water to even get replacement parts. I guess I'm back at my original comment...why not make the piece out of some type of metal or something stronger than the plastic that is prone to break. That way it shouldn't matter what type of pin is used.

I guess casting the hinge in metal will mean you will have problem of paint loss since it swivels like you said or we have to live with it in Raw metal to prevent paint loss if they did do it in diecast metal.

[MacrossMan]

I guess casting the hinge in metal will mean you will have problem of paint loss since it swivels like you said or we have to live with it in Raw metal to prevent paint loss if they did do it in diecast metal.

I might be wrong, but this piece being metal won't have any effect the parts it's attached to for swiveling because it's just placstic. There are no painted parts either. I belive the part would make for a more secure shoulder if it was metal and there was a rubber bushing in the metal loop for the pin to "fit" inside to give the shoulders/arms better poseability without the fear of it falling apart. On some of my 1/48 Valks the front wheel bay doors are metal and I have no earthly idea why this is. I don't see why they can't put metal where it really counts.

[derex3592]

I'm SO NOT dropping coin on this until the shoulder problem is "resolved"---somehow-- Yamato can suck it.

[jenius]

I would guess that Yamato opted against metal shoulders for cost reasons. I think that plastic shoulders also works better in that there's some "give" to the part since it swivels and has two different primary positions. Essentially this "give" makes the shoulder connectors nicer to all the other plastic parts involved which allows the toy to be a bit tighter overall. Finally, the plastic can be molded in color whereas a metal part would probably remain unpainted metal. Personally though, I'd prefer metal and a shoulder that didn't break over those benefits.

[m0n5t3r]

IMHO, Yamato will never use metal for the shoulder hinge part coz it's still basically the same (at least similar) design as w/ the ones used for the 1/48 VF-1s and 1/60 VF-0s... and those haven't had any problems... the v.2 1/60 hinges are just smaller and less sturdy esp. when you factor in the fat-ass knurled end of the pin. They're not gonna spend knowing it works as long as they use non-knurled pins.

on topic... i really hope Yamato will finally announce that they will be coming out w/ the regular release standalone GBP armor... both canon and non-canon...

[Chronocidal]

Can we replace the pin before it starts to break? I haven't had any of the defective stock yet but I would want to avoid it.

If you catch it in time, it's not hard to fix the shoulders preemptively.

My first two VF-1s both had stressed/near cracked shoulders on both sides. I pushed the pins out with a sewing needle, soaked the pivot points in super glue, and replaced the pins with sections of a thick paperclip.

The joints are much looser now, but they hold up well enough, and since my valks stay in fighter mode mostly, I'm just happy the arms aren't falling off.

[eugimon]

meh, I just broke it off and replaced the offending area with metal. no fuss, no worries.

[Valkyrie addict]

and people jump on me when I said it was never officially confirmed by Yamato the hinge problem was fixed, hate to say this but...

I TOLD YOU SO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAA!

what a nice way to begin the year

Since Graham has finally been yamatoed, hope he can persuade them to actually fix this indefinite

Edited January 6, 2010 by Valkyrie addict

[m0n5t3r]

well... using the non-knurled pin/s is the actual fix... somebody just f@cked it up all over again...

Edited January 6, 2010 by m0n5t3r

[Graham]

Received a reply from Yamato.

According to them, the factory had been instructed to use the smooth (non-knurled shoulder pins), on all VF-1 toys, since I think late-July or early- August 2009.

The exception being the VF-1J Hikaru that comes with the GBP Armor, as according to them, it is repackaged old stock and thus has the older style knurled shoulder pins.

Yamato were surprised to hear that the VT-1 has the knurled sholder pins, as it should have had the smooth pins.

I need a favor from you guys. Those of you with a steady hand and a camera with a good macro function, can you please take a photo of the shoulder hinge on your VT-1, which shows the knurled end of the pin in the hinge. Ideally, I need about 3-4 clear (in focus) photos to send to Yamato.

Graham

[Chronocidal]

Will do, I just popped mine into Gerwalk, and there they are. Brand new, delivered in the past week, never transformed until just now, and both shoulders already stressed.

I missed it the first time I looked, the stress marks are actually harder to see in that tan plastic.

Pics coming momentarily.

[eugimon]

I would but my VT-1 has smooth pins.

[Vi-RS]

I guess the old crotch system is already a big hint that the VF-1J came from old stocks.

The repackaged Hikaru and Roy VF-1S for one year anniversary box are old stocks as well.

[Valkyrie addict]

Thanks for the info Graham!

[Graham]

I guess the old crotch system is already a big hint that the VF-1J came from old stocks.

The repackaged Hikaru and Roy VF-1S for one year anniversary box are old stocks as well.

Knurled pins on those repackaged VF-1S?

Graham

[eriku]

Wow, that's actually pretty crappy on their part to use old toys that are known to have problems. At least they admitted it.

[Graham]

I would but my VT-1 has smooth pins.

Interesting, I think we are going to need a survey to see how many of us have VT-1 with smooth pins and how many have the knurled pins.

Graham

[m0n5t3r]

if Yamato plans to sell off their old stocks some more, the least they could do is pack a couple of non-knurled replacement shoulder hinges in a little ziplock bag just like what LAFtoys did w/ the replacement screws for the v.2 flexidisplay stands.

[Ignacio Ocamica]

Just checked my VT-1 and it has smooth pins

My stand alone Hikaru VF-1J has no cracked shoulders so far.

[Chronocidal]

Well, here's at least one with knurled pins.

Note to self, buy a camera that doesn't suck. Sorry about the grainy quality, this was the best I could get. My macro focus just wasn't up to getting pictures of detail that small. The only real indication of the knurling is the jagged shadow outline around the pins, but that might be convincing enough.

Hopefully someone else with the same problem has better equipment though.

The good thing is that at least these pins are very barely stressing the plastic right now. And honestly.. considering we never saw the VT-1 with the arms out to begin with, I have no trouble understanding why there haven't been more reports of this before. Personally, I never even considered posing this thing with the arms out, so if it weren't for the recent problems, I probably would've never noticed the pins.

What really doesn't make sense to me is how old stock Hikaru 1Js are having shoulder problems... I one that I bought from Overdrive in October, and it's got the smaller pins.

[Rabidweezil]

Received a reply from Yamato.

According to them, the factory had been instructed to use the smooth (non-knurled shoulder pins), on all VF-1 toys, since I think late-July or early- August 2009.

The exception being the VF-1J Hikaru that comes with the GBP Armor, as according to them, it is repackaged old stock and thus has the older style knurled shoulder pins.

Graham

I'm not normally one to criticize Yamato, and I have yet to have a broken shoulder, but using old VF-1J stock and re-releasing it "as is" without repairing known breakage issues strikes me as pretty bad form. And it really doesn't show a lot of concern for their customers.

They had to know that if shoulders broke before, they most likely would again.

[Valkyrie addict]

ummm....if Yamato KNOWS the old stock is faulty, and KNOWS they are selling them repackaged, shouldn't they be sold considerably cheaper since they are FAULTY and will BREAK out of the box?? or at least put a freaking disclaimer...

c'mon guys, SERIOUSLY!!!

[Vi-RS]

Knurled pins on those repackaged VF-1S?

Graham

No graham. I didn't buy any of those, but the pictures suggest that these are old crotch. I assume these are repackaged old stocks like the VF-1J as well because it's very unlikely that factory will reverse engineered to use old mold on new production run.

http://www.1999.co.jp/itbig10/10102593a10.jpg

http://www.1999.co.jp/itbig10/10102589a11.jpg

[holytoledo69]

wow.. I was thinking of getting the VT-1.. now I'm scared. Anyone know if the VE-1 has any issues?

[bb_f1]

No graham. I didn't buy any of those, but the pictures suggest that these are old crotch. I assume these are repackaged old stocks like the VF-1J as well because it's very unlikely that factory will reverse engineered to use old mold on new production run.

http://www.1999.co.jp/itbig10/10102593a10.jpg

http://www.1999.co.jp/itbig10/10102589a11.jpg

I have those, old crotch but smooth pins, just like 1S Max.