1/60 Macross 7 VF-19S Blazer Valkyrie Emerald Force Unit Announced

[eugimon]

It's hard to take the ankles apart because you have to pry the feet apart in order to separate the two halves of the foot/socket assembly.

The problem with the loosening isn't with the ball portion wearing down or not having enough friction but that when you push the foot too far forward or backwards, you end up prying the two halves apart at the seams. I'm not sure what is causing this since the socket looks like it was designed to accommodate the range of movement. I was thinking either it was because the paint was welling up in the bottom of the socket, or the plastic half of the ball wasn't being glued on properly, either way, causing an ovaloid shape the pushes the socket apart rather than allowing the ball to rotate freely

Edited December 3, 2011 by eugimon

[Frogze]

There were members reporting this problem in the other VF-19 thread I think, but mine came out of the box with one loose ankle (still one of the best toys I've ever handled though)

I think Graham mentioned something about paint causing the loosening problem on the ankle balljoint of the Kai and the fix being a naked piece on the 19S. Can anyone confirm the fix worked?

[jenius]

I can confirm that the ankle is naked on the 19S and that mine is very stiff... for now. My 19Kai toy's ankles are still pretty stiff but definitely not as stiff as day one. I'd be curious to see if the 19Kai reissue no longer has paint on the housing the ball joint fits into.

[VF5SS]

http://collectiondx.com/toy_review/2011/vf19s_emerald_force_color

No poniez this time

Youtube's gotta chew the video for a bit. It should be live soon.

[Chronocidal]

On the good side of things, I don't think stressing the head guns is too big an issue. Yes, they're thin, and probably relatively fragile, but they also are not attached firmly to the head. Put them under any significant stress, and depending on the direction, they may just pop off the head instead of bending.

I'll have to compare these ankles to the ones on the Fire Valk like I did before. I still do not understand the thinking behind the ankle design one bit, because the ankles still have that stupidly huge side-to-side range, and still allow next to nothing in the way of front to back motion.

I do know that one of my ankles is floppy already, because I pushed it too far. It's sad, on such an otherwise well-designed Valk, the ankles are next to useless. I might have to see how hard it would be to disassemble and rework the ankles so they actually bend a useful amount.

[Frogze]

I can confirm that the ankle is naked on the 19S and that mine is very stiff... for now. My 19Kai toy's ankles are still pretty stiff but definitely not as stiff as day one. I'd be curious to see if the 19Kai reissue no longer has paint on the housing the ball joint fits into.

Thanks, jenius!

[Raptor One]

http://collectiondx....ald_force_color

No poniez this time

Youtube's gotta chew the video for a bit. It should be live soon.

Nice! Thanks for the review, the pics are great, especially the fighter mode ones. It's crazy how sleek the design is. The video review was super detailed as well, as usual. Thanks again.

[Reïvaj]

I'm not sure if anyone is willing to try this on their's but can the feet be pushed back for aggressive gerwalk mode without risking the ankle problems as on the Kai? Anyway I'm glad there are no complaints of loose ankles out of the box, it seems that problem has been solved

Don't push back the feet for an aggressive gerwalk mode, it's not really necessary. Just bent forward the legs completely and by doing so you’ll get all the aggressiveness you want and no loose ankles at all. This is a photo of my Kai I’ve posted before in order to illustrate what I’m trying to say:

[Frogze]

Thanks for the tip Reïvaj. I did also try to use the ankle joint without pushing the foot backwards as I read what other users had experienced with their Kai. There are indeed many ways to pull off great poses without pushing the ankles back as the engeenering of this toy's joints is truly excellent

[Chronocidal]

Don't push back the feet for an aggressive gerwalk mode, it's not really necessary. Just bent forward the legs completely and by doing so you’ll get all the aggressiveness you want and no loose ankles at all. This is a photo of my Kai I’ve posted before in order to illustrate what I’m trying to say:

Ok, the only problem with that.. pushing the ankles to where they match your pose is pushing them too far. Mine don't move anywhere near that much without stressing the joint, and moving them enough to pose mine the same way made the ankles go floppy when I straightened them out.

One other thing I noticed.. it's only happened on one of my shoulders, but be aware, the black section on the tip of the shoulder plates is not black plastic, it's blue with black paint. Prying the shoulders up away from the legs with my fingernails has completely worn the black paint off the tip of the shoulder already. Nothing you can really do about that, it's kind of the only place to lift. Fortunately it's still dark blue plastic, and easy to touch up. I'm going to go dig out a sharpie, and see if that covers it.

Edited December 3, 2011 by Chronocidal

[eugimon]

don't use a sharpie, use a gundam marker. Sharpie on plastic isn't black, it's a deep purple color.

[Chronocidal]

Well, only reason I'd use sharpie here is that on this dark blue plastic, I can't really see a difference. That, and I don't happen to have any gundam markers.

Seems to have covered it fine in this case. It's a little different shine than the other black paint, but it is a very small area I'm talking about, so it's hard to notice.

[Mommar]

My mini-review. This thing frakking blows if you're a Gerwalk fan. I wouldn't say my ankle is loose, but the two moving toes are. And with the fact the ankle/toe cannot angle back plus the upper thigh cannot fold underneath another click the forward heaviness of this thing pulls it over every single time for me. To be honest I'm seriously disappointed in this thing. Fighter is cool, I haven't messed with it in Battroid yet. Gerwalk is next to useless for me, though, which is too bad because that's my favorite mode.

[Reïvaj]

Ok, the only problem with that.. pushing the ankles to where they match your pose is pushing them too far. Mine don't move anywhere near that much without stressing the joint, and moving them enough to pose mine the same way made the ankles go floppy when I straightened them out.

[...]

So my picture isn’t of much help as I thought it could be, probably due to the angle it was taken from… The feet are only pushed out and rotated inwards due to de A stance, so they still keep their –small- front and back range of movement.

This is what Graham said regarding the VF-17 ankles, also applicable to the new VF-19S:

Confirmed the VF-17S ankles are ball joints, but the ball joint tray that holds the ball joint will be chrome plated on the inner surface that hold the ball joint (same as VF-19S), which should make it tighter and more durable compared with the VF-19Kai ball joint tray, which was just painted on the inner surface.

From http://www.macrosswo...ndpost&p=937563

[Chronocidal]

K, I think I understand what you mean. You basically twisted the feet sideways enough that the stupidly huge side-to-side range actually acts to let you point the toe more. I guess that works.

I still want to rip the entire assembly out and rotate it 90 degrees. Having that much side to side motion makes no freaking sense at all when the foot won't even rotate 10 degrees forward or back.

[anime52k8]

I really hate that hand off period between foreign and domestic post where neither tracking system will update; as if the packages is just floating in space somewhere over the pacific ocean for 48+ hours.

[Mommar]

With the ankles as they are now I will not buy an F and possibly not the P either. It's a really poor design especially for a $300 toy. At the very least the rear "toe" needs to click backwards so you can tuck the lower leg farther beneath the body of the 19. Right now all of the weight is precariously forward and the forward "toe"/ankle do not hold well enough for me to trust this. I'm pretty disappointed by this thing already.

[jenius]

With the ankles as they are now I will not buy an F and possibly not the P either. It's a really poor design especially for a $300 toy. At the very least the rear "toe" needs to click backwards so you can tuck the lower leg farther beneath the body of the 19. Right now all of the weight is precariously forward and the forward "toe"/ankle do not hold well enough for me to trust this. I'm pretty disappointed by this thing already.

Keep in mind, it's really just GERWALK that doesn't jive well with the ankle design. This toy has two other modes it does fantastically and it can do GERWALK... it's just a bit more awkward than it should be. I do like the toy and all the thought that went into it but I was tempted to drop the design score down on my most recent revision since there's no evidence of fast pack support on the 19S and that GERWALK mode is just not quite as sweet as it should be... but since I'm not a fan of the GERWALK mode on 19 at all and the super parts on the 19S look like a child came up with 'em I just left things as was.

EDIT - I understand if a toy would need to be perfect for you to spend $300 on it, that's a ton of scratch so I don't mean to make it sound like you'd be foolish not to buy future variants if this does bother you.

Edited December 4, 2011 by jenius

[Mommar]

Gerwalk is my favorite mode for most Valks. And you have to keep in mind that Gerwalk is one third of it's purpose. If two modes are near perfect and one is almost completely useless that's a fail in my book. I'd give it a 6 for a really tight fighter, awesome looking Battroid and 95% useless Gerwalk. I didn't like the Hi-Metal 19S because the Gerwalk wasn't poseable at all. I was hoping this release would fix that but the horribly broken Ankle design means that even though the legs can be displayed you really can't do much with the Gerwalk mode (not that it was a terribly poseable mode to begin with.) I'm really worried about the 17 now as well though that's one of the few I wouldn't bother with Gerwalk as much... it still needs to function correct regardless.

[eugimon]

meh, honestly, I'm perfectly fine with the ankle articulation. It's the knee ratchets on my kai that are too loose for GERWALK mode.

Gonna have to see what I can do to tighten them up. Hopefully the screws are just loose and it doesn't involve me sourcing stronger springs.

[Mommar]

Fighter looks great and it's really one of the most fun Battroid modes I've ever played with. That's why it's such a disappointment that Gerwalk is pathetic/awful.

[VF-18S Hornet]

I guess I'm putting this up for color reference. The blue of the VF-19S is pretty close to my 'Dremel' hobby clamps, almost near the 'BIC' blue rubber grip and darker than a blue 'Sharpe' cap.

The ISO on my phone's camera was set at 1250 with a brightness level of 2 and under my room's daylight bulb.

Bwahaha... I got my VF-19Ss from AmiAmi in! I thought I wouldn't see them until Monday since I'm located on the east coast.

***EDIT***

I'm actually pretty stoked... since I didn't get to pick up the VF-19Kai. This will be my first impression of the improved 'lineart' models of the 19 variants.

Dammit I hate you for getting yours first. HLJ is still processing mine for shipment

Edited December 4, 2011 by VF-18S Hornet

[jenius]

Fighter looks great and it's really one of the most fun Battroid modes I've ever played with. That's why it's such a disappointment that Gerwalk is pathetic/awful.

I don't think I'd say "pathetic/awful". That's more how I'd describe the DX VF-25 version 1's Gerwalk mode. The 19 toys at least come together and look very nice and GERWALK... they're just a whole lot better with a stand.

[David Hingtgen]

I personally think that these wings are too thin. As in, the molds are so tight, there's almost not enough room for the plastic to flow in and actually fill out the wing. We're talking the wing almost looks like an incomplete shape (the back edges of mine are scalloped around the control surface engravings, it's definitely not a straight edge), it flexes extremely easily, and I can see light through the edges. I definitely appreciate the precision of the mold, but I'm worried the back edge of the wing is just going to snap off because of how little plastic is there.

Edit: Oh, also, the small amount of plastic does seem to have let the wings warp a bit. They don't meet up with the tails nearly as well as the Fire Valk's wings did. They're not flapping, or drooping, but they seem to have gained a bit of extra camber.

Graham, can you comment on this/forward it to Yamato?

[Chronocidal]

Well before anyone panics, I might've gotten just a bad molding on the wings. But I'd suggest everyone else look at theirs for anything similar.

Two things I noticed: the back edge of the wing might be uneven, and the trailing edge of the wing root on mine has a tendency to droop below where it should connect with the tail. I can press the wing root up to meet with the tail, and it might stay for a while due to the peg on the tail, but it doesn't stay connected long, and springs back down.

[MacrossJunkie]

Got mine yesterday and got to mess around with it today. This actually feels like one of the easiest to transform toys next to the 1/48 VF-1.

I have already transformed it back and forth several times and have been impressed with how well the pieces all fit together and how I don't need to struggle to get certain pieces in place in exactly the right way like I would have to with the VF-22/YF-21 or even the VF-11.

I was going to put a flat coat on mine, but after seeing how this transforms, I decided it would be an ill-advised and futile effort. The way the nose cone locks in battroid mode would mean scraping the clear coat off every time I try to transform it. Oh well, not a big deal, but I just don't like how the glossy surface easily shows the out-of-the-factory scratches and is a finger print magnet. Another minor gripe that probably only I care about is that the panel lines are too shallow. So shallow that even paint mixed with thinner is useless. I had to use *gag* gundam markers for the job

Strangely, they didn't include any sticker placement guide, but that was no big deal. It looks like they took the markings right out of the master file book. Even the side, top and bottom view of the fighter on the sticker sheet was copied directly from it. So I just used the marking diagrams on pages 90 and 91 from the VF-19 Master File book as my guide. Again, only relevant to the 5 or 6 people in the world that bother to put the stickers on

Overall, I was surprised just how well this thing was engineered, especially compared to the YF-19. The gaps are minimal and the tolerances seem pretty tight. I love that it uses a lot of die cast in it. Bandai needs to take some lessons from Yamato regarding color matching. The die cast spine area seems to have the blue paint matched nearly perfectly to the blue plastic. The battroid mode seems to be very poseable as well. Not having the Kai already, I was pleasantly surprised to see the range of movement available in the legs which the YF-19 was utter fail at without looking awkward.

I'm looking forward to the VF-17 even more if this is the level of design I can expect.

[Mommar]

Well before anyone panics, I might've gotten just a bad molding on the wings. But I'd suggest everyone else look at theirs for anything similar.

Two things I noticed: the back edge of the wing might be uneven, and the trailing edge of the wing root on mine has a tendency to droop below where it should connect with the tail. I can press the wing root up to meet with the tail, and it might stay for a while due to the peg on the tail, but it doesn't stay connected long, and springs back down.

That happens with mine too.

[MacrossJunkie]

Well before anyone panics, I might've gotten just a bad molding on the wings. But I'd suggest everyone else look at theirs for anything similar.

Two things I noticed: the back edge of the wing might be uneven, and the trailing edge of the wing root on mine has a tendency to droop below where it should connect with the tail. I can press the wing root up to meet with the tail, and it might stay for a while due to the peg on the tail, but it doesn't stay connected long, and springs back down.

Mine has the trailing edge dipping below the tail fins about 1mm where it ought to be level with the horizontal part of the tail piece.

[aurance]

http://collectiondx....ald_force_color

No poniez this time

Youtube's gotta chew the video for a bit. It should be live soon.

Great review Andrew!

Also blast you, now I'm seriously thinking of buying one... Argh pocketbook

[PsYcHoDyNaMiX]

Excellent review VF5SS!

I have to agree with Chronocidal about the wings being too thin. My 19 seems to suffer from the same engineering issue (scalloped wings around the control edges and transparent edges especially with any white/bright background). I don't think the molds are clasped together too tightly, but the CADs for the wings were extremely accurate (perhaps too accurate).

Just some words of advice... don't let anything tip, tap, nick, press or even lean up against the wing edges... they will easily dent/bend. I already have a small two small nicks on mine.

[Archer]

Wow, how can they get the wings to be sooo thin and still succesfully pour the molds correctly?

Anyhow, can someone post a picture of what you guys are talking about. I want to kind of see the magnitude of damage before I order any future short wing variations of the VF-19.

Thanks in advance

Edited December 4, 2011 by Archer

[PsYcHoDyNaMiX]

I hope my phone's camera can capture the wings well enough. If not then I'll just take pics with the DSLR and add them later. I just thought that Yamato would've foreseen some of the production mishaps (possibly due to scale) with making the wings too line are accurate.

I wouldn't say the wings are detrimental enough to the VF-19S to detour anyone from getting it. Yamato's rendition of the VF-19S is awesome! I just wonder how the wings are on the VF-19Kai (since I don't have this one yet).

[Frogze]

From your phone's picture I would say it looks like the wing on my Kai have the same thinness/transparency on the edges. I can hardly see any dents here though.

Have you too experienced Chronocidal's problem connecting the wing root to the tail?

[Chronocidal]

Those pics are kind of hard to tell from, but you can definitely pick up the transparency. I might just have gotten a particularly bad case, which is bound to happen every so often.

What I notice the most though.. Angle the wing into the light so you can see a reflection on it, then run your fingernail along the underside of the trailing edge, pressing very lightly. When I do that, I can see a sharp bump in the surface of the wing, caused by my fingernail.

Here's a few shots I took of what the edges look like. What this really reminds me of is the mold flaws that happen in styrene kits, where either not enough plastic gets into the mold, or excess plastic forms a jagged edge along the back edge of a part.

The first pic really shows it best, especially if you look at the reflection. The edge is really uneven, and there's a definite curl to the surface.

In comparison, the Fire Valk's wings are indeed thin, and you can see a little light through them, but no where near as much as the S-model. The wings are much thicker feeling, and the edges are nice and straight.

I should say though... as precise as they are, none of my Hasegawa valk kits have wings anywhere near this thin at the edges. They're so thin, I can nearly shave off material by scratching at the edge. It wouldn't surprise me at all if the wings get damaged just from being ejected from the molds.

Edited December 4, 2011 by Chronocidal

[Mommar]

Don't push back the feet for an aggressive gerwalk mode, it's not really necessary. Just bent forward the legs completely and by doing so you’ll get all the aggressiveness you want and no loose ankles at all. This is a photo of my Kai I’ve posted before in order to illustrate what I’m trying to say:

My 19S can't do that pose. The ankles will collapse forward and it will crash the nose into the table if I try that. The only way I've been able to keep it up is to adjust the legs inward (killing any sort of A-stance) and I STILL have to move the ankles back as far as they can go or else it will fall forward. I've played with this thing for a good long while and though in the Kai thread I thought I had this figured out it turns out that, no, these ankles are horrible and this Gerwalk is horribly implemented.