DX VF-25 Renewal Series (Part III)

[David Hingtgen]

The old one had a clearer/better canopy, the new one is darker, harder to see inside.  Not as bad as the -31's are, but someone at Bandai clearly has a thing for overly-tinted canopies.  

 

::edit::  Head lasers are straighter in the old one, but can't be sure if just this particular re-release copy is warped, or the whole batch is like that.  

[Lolicon]

15 hours ago, treatment said:

from https://twitter.com/simsim5479/status/1652163601673891840?cxt=HHwWgMDRydmC1e0tAAAA

 

Hmmm I guess Bandai misplaced the molds for the SMS base. 

 

8 hours ago, David Hingtgen said:

The old one had a clearer/better canopy, the new one is darker, harder to see inside.  Not as bad as the -31's are, but someone at Bandai clearly has a thing for overly-tinted canopies.  

 

::edit::  Head lasers are straighter in the old one, but can't be sure if just this particular re-release copy is warped, or the whole batch is like that.  

Canopy is heavily tinted so it's harder to see how badly painted the pilot figure is.

Also someone forgot to pull out the lower stabilizers on the left one.

[jenius]

The SMS base was tossed back when the YF-29 was revived. No painting on this base and it's universal... Win/win for Bandai.

[seti88]

44 minutes ago, treatment said:

vf25f-revival unboxing with loungey bgm...

ah yes...like to review my valks sitting in my tufted leather chair sipping my drink of choice... for the sophisticated collector..

[MKT]

I don't mind if the cockpit is tinted slightly heavier, or different color tint, as long as the base plastic is not frosted & still clear like the 'revived' YF-29 Alto full-pack.

At this moment even in the videos, it is a bit hard to tell if the cockpit plastic for this revival VF-25F has some bit of frosting going on. I really hope not. 

[seti88]

16 minutes ago, MKT said:

I don't mind if the cockpit is tinted slightly heavier, or different color tint, as long as the base plastic is not frosted & still clear like the 'revived' YF-29 Alto full-pack.

At this moment even in the videos, it is a bit hard to tell if the cockpit plastic for this revival VF-25F has some bit of frosting going on. I really hope not. 

From the second video, it looks like there is a light grey film/tint? in the underside of the cockpit glass. Maybe other videos would show it better.

Edited April 30, 2023 by seti88

[Lolicon]

1 hour ago, MKT said:

I don't mind if the cockpit is tinted slightly heavier, or different color tint, as long as the base plastic is not frosted & still clear like the 'revived' YF-29 Alto full-pack.

At this moment even in the videos, it is a bit hard to tell if the cockpit plastic for this revival VF-25F has some bit of frosting going on. I really hope not. 

We'll find out when we get it in hand. Should have mine in a few days.

I'm just hoping Bandai shored up their QC and this isn't another WWM VF-25. 

[treatment]

from https://twitter.com/MTM_025_8_S04/status/1652297397157105664/photo/4

Hope the "Revivval"-version (left) don't yellow like that Renewal-version on the right....

[Chronocidal]

One would hope Bandai would eventually discover that they need to change something about the formulation of their plastic to prevent that.. but they seem remarkably resistant to making obvious improvements.  

[David Hingtgen]

Well, Hasbro seems to have made things worse with some recent batches of plastic----some recent Transformers parts yellow so fast, they're yellowing on the shelves.  (seems to affect light grey parts more than white, but it's a worrying trend)

[Lolicon]

9 hours ago, treatment said:

from https://twitter.com/MTM_025_8_S04/status/1652297397157105664/photo/4

Hope the "Revivval"-version (left) don't yellow like that Renewal-version on the right....

Damn that one on the right must have belonged to a heavy chain smoker or something. Also, he should dust his toys off every once in awhile. 

[mog_kupo]

15 hours ago, treatment said:

from https://twitter.com/MTM_025_8_S04/status/1652297397157105664/photo/4

Hope the "Revivval"-version (left) don't yellow like that Renewal-version on the right....

Seeing those pictures makes me very hesitant to put my collection on the display cabinets

[treatment]

couple of new tweets regarding fit issues with the new Revival version:

(use auto-translate from your browser)

https://twitter.com/MTM_025_8_S04/status/1653211038026973184?cxt=HHwWgIDSxcKrsfEtAAAA

 

 

https://twitter.com/simsim5479/status/1653212366086209536?cxt=HHwWgIDQren4sfEtAAAA

 

 

[Bolt]

So is it just the HMR line that Bandai is getting right..?

[68whiskey]

On 4/29/2023 at 5:19 PM, Lolicon said:

 

 

Canopy is heavily tinted so it's harder to see how badly painted the pilot figure is.

 

[ArchieNov]

On 4/30/2023 at 12:08 PM, MKT said:

I don't mind if the cockpit is tinted slightly heavier, or different color tint, as long as the base plastic is not frosted & still clear like the 'revived' YF-29 Alto full-pack.

At this moment even in the videos, it is a bit hard to tell if the cockpit plastic for this revival VF-25F has some bit of frosting going on. I really hope not. 

I just got mine. The canopy isn't frosted.

[MikeRoz]

On 4/30/2023 at 12:15 PM, Lolicon said:

Damn that one on the right must have belonged to a heavy chain smoker or something. Also, he should dust his toys off every once in awhile. 

Not the source of that picture, but I had something similarly bad happen. I don't smoke though.

Plenty more examples here:

EDIT: Didn't notice your username at first, you're even in that thread. Is there something in that particular yellowing pattern that screams 'smoker' versus the sun-based and spontaneous-in-box examples in the yellowing thread?

Edited May 2, 2023 by MikeRoz

[ArchieNov]

2 hours ago, ArchieNov said:

I just got mine. The canopy isn't frosted.

I tried transforming it to battroid and back to fighter to check for QC issues. My right shoulder ball joint was relatively loose out of the box at certain angles. I'm sure I could fix it by unscrewing the shoulder and adding some kiki's joint fluid, but didn't bother since this will go back into the box.

The shoulder swivel joints were much tighter than I would like, making it really hard to swing them out. This is troublesome because I always take extra care when swinging these out as it can scratch the paint off if it rubs on surrounding parts. This made the transformation much more painful that it should be.

The hip ball joints were also not as tight as I hoped. They're not floppy (yet), but not that stiff. Again, I'm sure kiki's joint fluid might help here.

All in all, while I'm happy to have an Alto VF-25 again (this is actually the 5th time I bought a Renewal Alto), I'm still skeptical about its long term resilience. All the other Altos I've owned in the past either I've sold because it was an extra, had a broken crotch joint, or have yellowed. I'm not sure how well this matte version will be against yellowing, but I hope it's not as bad as the gloss versions.

[MKT]

3 hours ago, ArchieNov said:

I just got mine. The canopy isn't frosted.

Thanks for confirming this aspect, and also your initial impressions. 

All things considered, we can regard the revival mold as a straight up reissue with matte finish. Any engineering improvements can be treated as superficial & doesn’t really solve the issues it attempts to fix.

Bit of wasted opportunity on Bandai‘s part; they could have done more robust re-engineering like what they did from v1 going to v2.

Still love this design though, & hopefully they push through to give us the revival RVF-25 with ghosts & 25S with armor.

 

[treatment]

mine should be delivered today.

in the meantime, Bandai doing Bandai things...

https://twitter.com/MTM_025_8_S04/status/1653343340493152257/photo/1

 

 

[treatment]

received my VF-25F Revival today from HLJ via fedex.

oob:

 

Canopy is not frosted, but does have a very light tint.

Annoyingly, out of the box, the right head-laser on mine is a bit raised up and not laying flat/flushed as the left head-laser:

 

Haven't messed with it nor transformed it, yet, so I'm still hoping it was just packaged that way and will be properly flushed after it goes thru all the TF forms/processes.

Also, the right knee-cap on mine  is not quite as flushed compared to the left knee-cap, either:

 

 

 

[David Hingtgen]

That's insanely fast, my AmiAmi hasn't even shipped...    May I ask how much FedEx cost?  

[treatment]

34 minutes ago, David Hingtgen said:

That's insanely fast, my AmiAmi hasn't even shipped...    May I ask how much FedEx cost?  

hlj charged 4490y for their fedex option.

[sh9000]

Already have all of the Renewals but I think I'll still buy all of the Revival releases.

[Lolicon]

9 hours ago, treatment said:

received my VF-25F Revival today from HLJ via fedex.

oob:

 

Canopy is not frosted, but does have a very light tint.

Annoyingly, out of the box, the right head-laser on mine is a bit raised up and not laying flat/flushed as the left head-laser:

 

Haven't messed with it nor transformed it, yet, so I'm still hoping it was just packaged that way and will be properly flushed after it goes thru all the TF forms/processes.

Also, the right knee-cap on mine  is not quite as flushed compared to the left knee-cap, either:

 

 

 

Man I'd forgotten how plain the stock VF-25 toys are. 

[MikeRoz]

I just noticed that my legacy 25F doesn't have all those No Step tampos. Nice addition, I think. Maybe they should have been red or orange though?

[nightmareB4macross]

Finally arrived.  Looks promising and I hope all goes well when I pull it from the box.

I just placed the Tiny Sessions there as a precursor pic for upcoming Father’s Day.

Happy Mother’s Day all!

[rematron]

Mine arrived today.  Ordered from KAPPA HOBBY. 

[David Hingtgen]

The stripes (and parts themselves) don't line up across the various panels as well as previous releases, (and one spot they actually made a change that is simply wrong) so I've been doing my best to try to improve the paint:

 

[chingu77]

On 5/27/2023 at 4:18 PM, rematron said:

Mine arrived today.  Ordered from KAPPA HOBBY. 

I got mine from Kappa today too😃.. I notice the plastic is not as good as the WWM version IMO.

 

Edited May 30, 2023 by chingu77

[Halfstep]

Is there an easy way to get to actual shoulder joints?  Specifically the ball joint connected to the white part that rotates out and has the back circles painted on.  Looks like it's in two halves held together with a screw and maybe a pin. I tried to open this part up but it would not give at all and i did not want to break it.  Tightening the screw did nothing.  My right arm is freely moving with no friction at all and it's a HUGE bummer.  Is there supposed to be ball joint cap in there cause if so mine feels like nothing is in there at all.  I got a little KiKis in there and it helped some what but wanted to peak inside to see why it's loose or maybe wrap the ball with clear tape or something cause it's quite bad.  Everything else is quite perfect on mine except this.

Edited May 29, 2023 by Halfstep

[David Hingtgen]

No easy way to open the shoulder any meaningful amount, my suggestion is just to put lots of thickener/joint stiffener in during multiple sessions and try letting it sit in different positions while drying to wick/flow its way around inside.  

*don't use nail polish, the plastic tip on the ball reacts.   

[Wewyllenium]

This made my day  Yollow parts solution XD 

 

[no3Ljm]

After 7 years, I was able to take out both my VF-25F and VF-25S and 25F's Super and Armored Parts out of storage and box to inspect if 25F Valk have some yellowing. Glad there wasn't any. However both figures are floppy mess. Most joints are loose esp on the 25F. Won't stand on its own and 25F keeps on bending backwards. Super Parts leg armors won't snap on the locktabs and hold properly. Armored Booster keeps the wing hinge moving. Super's shoulder missile pylon joints feels brittle. And the 25S nosecone hinge have crack. I'll probably do some joints tightening in the future.

Will all these issues at hand, would that warrant me to buy the Revival release? Probably not since what I'm doing now is sorting out and displaying my collection.  

[rsvictor1976]

5 hours ago, no3Ljm said:

After 7 years, I was able to take out both my VF-25F and VF-25S and 25F's Super and Armored Parts out of storage and box to inspect if 25F Valk have some yellowing. Glad there wasn't any. However both figures are floppy mess. Most joints are loose esp on the 25F. Won't stand on its own and 25F keeps on bending backwards. Super Parts leg armors won't snap on the locktabs and hold properly. Armored Booster keeps the wing hinge moving. Super's shoulder missile pylon joints feels brittle. And the 25S nosecone hinge have crack. I'll probably do some joints tightening in the future.

Will all these issues at hand, would that warrant me to buy the Revival release? Probably not since what I'm doing now is sorting out and displaying my collection.  

Did you tighten the screws on the legs? My 25G Michael Renewal was floppy too around the hips until I messed around with the screws. Unfortunately I couldn't do anything about the swinging shoulder joints. I was thinking nail polish but it would probably leave a mark.