Bandai 1/72 fully transform able VF-1 plastic kit for Macross 30th Ann

[Vi-RS]

Scott T. Hards built the kit too.

http://www.hobbylink.tv/gunpla-tv-121-macross-vf-1as-retro-macross-toys

[valky-001]

Got mine 75% built, just need to build the other leg/nacelle assembly and it will be done. Fighter mode is really nice, once you have everything positioned correctly, much more accurate to the line art, which I love. Mine will be semi permanently glued in fighter mode using Goop. May or may not add the Strike parts when I get Roy's in, haven't decided yet.

*Edit* If Bandai EVER does a 1/60 toy version of this and addresses the faults with the kit as a whole, I. WILL. BUY. IT.

PICT0291.JPG

-Kyp

Hikaru’s valks color in DYRL are white with black and red and his identity number is 011, the 001 number belongs to Roy’s skull one VF-1S in black and yellow, So do the decal’s give you the options to switch to 001 Roy’s identity because with the fist kit I’ll be getting soon, I want to make in in to a Roy’s black and yellow skull one VF-1A.

[Hikuro]

Hikaru’s valks color in DYRL are white with black and red and his identity number is 011, the 001 number belongs to Roy’s skull one VF-1S in black and yellow, So do the decal’s give you the options to switch to 001 Roy’s identity because with the fist kit I’ll be getting soon, I want to make in in to a Roy’s black and yellow skull one VF-1A.

In DYRL, Hikaru eventually becomes Skull Leader after Max "disappears" and fights with Miriya as a Zentradi. So naturally Hikaru's valkyrie becomes 001.

[sketchley]

The kit has both 011 and 001 stickers and decals.

[MinoRem]

The hands are absolutely horror to put together, took forever and it kept coming off so I decided to glue the back hand. I like this way better than the vf-25s in terms of look and building. I'm very tempted to get the other vf-1s Roy version coming out in September.

[Hoptimus]

It will be interesting to see the mods for this kit. Who is first to try and tweak the legs?

[Valkyrie addict]

The kit can be built as an A or an S model, naturally it will bring the 011 decal for the A and 001 for the S.

For some reason, skull leader is always numbered 001 in DYRL eventough they are not the same airframe.

So, everyone enjoying fighter mode, how's the transformation process?

[Kyp Durron]

Put the other leg nacelle on, what is up with the upper side of the legs being turned inwards towards the back pack in fighter mode?! WTF...over?! They're supposed to be level, not turned upwards and in towards the back pack/tail fin section.



-Kyp

[Cesar Enrique]

I think it is UGLY, it is a TOY, not a model, and is not well proportioned, it is fat as a plane, and it is very thin as battroid, it´s bandai anyway.

I will stay with Hasegawa. I will not buy this.

[joscasle]

I think it is UGLY, it is a TOY, not a model, and is not well proportioned, it is fat as a plane, and it is very thin as battroid, it´s bandai anyway.

I will stay with Hasegawa. I will not buy this.

It's not a toy, its a bad model kit, that's all.

[Valkyrie addict]

Lot of latin hate.

[nexxstrait]

I'd like to know if all the haters have actualy had the chance to build or see the model in hand, hehehe

Mine is coming, I'll try to have a review when I finish it

[sketchley]

I'd like to know if all the haters have actualy had the chance to build or see the model in hand, hehehe

They haven't, and are basing their hate on low rez pictures.

E.g.: the hate on the shape of the nose and how it repeats Bandai's earlier reprints, when the sliced-off nose-tip faithfully emulates the anime.

[Mommar]

The Battroid pics with the A head almost look alright. That S head looks like a little kid with a giant head wearing a helmet. Atrocious proportion there.

[mechaninac]

If it ever goes on sale for 40% off or better I'll get myself a copy; otherwise, I'm not spending anywhere near full price for this ungainly looking thing... even 35% off isn't good enough to entice me to pull the trigger on purchasing one.

[Hikaru1234567890]

Probably all the haters will get one eventually.

[Mommar]

Do I count as a hater too because I don't like a lot of the proportions? I'm still interested in seeing the engineering of how one goes together so I've considered buying it for that.

[valhary]

two things I seem interested the laser cannons and the gunpod have the same size than the yamatos 1/60 I will try later to put on yamatos head look promising

[Chronocidal]

To be fair, I think Yamato's gunpods have always been a bit small, but it never bothered me. The head thing is a bit ridiculous though.

They haven't, and are basing their hate on low rez pictures.

E.g.: the hate on the shape of the nose and how it repeats Bandai's earlier reprints, when the sliced-off nose-tip faithfully emulates the anime.

Most of the pics are plenty high-res to see what people are disliking. The shoddy alignment, the wonky proportions, plus those ducking fugly knee joints that have been an eyesore since the first prototype pics surfaced. And that's before you even look at the redesigned super packs.

As far as the nose goes, the sliced off nose tip isn't the problem, it's the entire shape as a whole that's off. It's perfectly possible to match side and top profiles of a shape, but still be a completely different shape. I don't think it's as bad as the early prototypes were, and it's not terrible, but the shape of that nose has entirely different profile curves than pretty much every VF-1 ever made. I could go into details about exactly how it's different, but I'm thinking in terms of how you would duplicate the shape in a 3D modeling program, and it gets complicated. Whether it matches the lineart or not, I just find this interpretation ugly.

Really, most of the problems are pretty minor, but it's just the overall combination of weirdness that kills it for me. For all the ingenuity that went into some features, there are other bits that I just can't comprehend how anyone could think they would be a good idea.

[Vifam7]

They haven't, and are basing their hate on low rez pictures.

E.g.: the hate on the shape of the nose and how it repeats Bandai's earlier reprints, when the sliced-off nose-tip faithfully emulates the anime.

The hate is probably more about being so accustomed to the Yamato or Hasegawa sculpts that they just can't accept a new interpretation (even if it is one that was worked on and signed off by Kawamori).

That or just plain Bandai hate.

[sketchley]

As far as the nose goes, the sliced off nose tip isn't the problem,

Then you missed the point I was making. The postee was hating on the nose precisely because he was under the impression that the tip of the nose was not sliced off - because of a single picture that was at an angle that was unflattering to the mould - and the pic was low rez.

The hate is probably more about being so accustomed to the Yamato or Hasegawa sculpts that they just can't accept a new interpretation (even if it is one that was worked on and signed off by Kawamori).

That or just plain Bandai hate.

I'd say it's a little of column A, with a lot of column B - hating on a brand name is so pastiche these days.

Anyhow, 'nuf on the hating stuff. Off to contemplate how to strategically glue the leg assembly. The snap-build is decent, the gaps that open between the pieces when the leg is manipulating are not.

Edited July 9, 2013 by sketchley

[valhary]

I told you

[Noyhauser]

Probably all the haters will get one eventually.

I think you'll be surprised by just how ignorant that statement is.

The hate is probably more about being so accustomed to the Yamato or Hasegawa sculpts that they just can't accept a new interpretation (even if it is one that was worked on and signed off by Kawamori).

That or just plain Bandai hate.

No, the problem with the model is that its really not a model. Its a gunpla... I wouldn't go as far as calling it an unassembled toy as shaorin stated, but its not a classical model either.

I don't know if you're aware of this or not (I think you might be), but MW actually has a lot of very highly skilled modellers. Its skewed well above the average from what you see in a modelling forum. Look at Cool8or's destroid he just posted. (hope he doesn't mind)

That's a largely fixed posed model. Outside of this thread almost every kit someone posts in MW's modeller forum is of the fixed display type. Its not a type that gets handled at all. As I've stated in this thread, the modelling techniques and others here use will not be able to withstand repeated handling by human skin (most flat coats can't).

The reason why hasegawa has done so well is because they produced traditional, high quality models of various Macross VFs. They weren't transformable, because they were intended to be displayed beside their traditional 1/72 aircraft lines (The one that has over 3,000 models in its catalogue). They had realistic panel lines (not exactly canon, but stuff you'd expect on a real fighter), and box art by famed illustrator Hidetaka Tenjin.

That is fundamentally different from what Bandai produces, and has produced here. That's the reason why Hasegawa is releasing a VF-25 despite bandai's initial offering; traditional modelers want something different. Look at how people in that thread (most of whom are very skilled modelers are already gushing without even seeing a mold.) Why? Because hasegawa builds products designed for their interests.

So that's the source of dislike. For a lot of the traditional modellers here transformation is engineering is really something we will never use or care about. Model accuracy is my main concern, as well as ease of construction. I personally spend about an hour or two a day building. I spent about five hours last week building flap covers in 1/72 scale for hornets from aluminum... because I wanted to make it look as accurate as possible. I know others here have done the same. To put it another way, I spent more time on one small detail on a 1/72 model than a lot of the people in this thread will spend building the entire bandai VF-1 model.

The transformation sequence creates issues that make it less appealing for me because it makes the kit less accurate in scale. Most of us only care about how it will look in one mode. Lets take battroid... and the legs. In order to make them operable in fighter mode the landing gear bay doors needs to have a bit of a gap. To me that's unsightly. This is an F-15 that I recently built that was for an in flight display:

No gaps, thin panel line as you would expect in a real aircraft. Now compare that to the legs in mimorem's post:

That's a problem and to "correct" it that isn't easy. It requires a backing piece, thin glue, puttying, and rescribing. That's about a day's session for me, for something that isn't a problem on a hasegawa battroid. And honestly, I like the proportions of the hasegawa battroid better... mostly because it looks more like what I see in the anime and line art. getting it to transform into three modes requires compromises. It is a different interpretation, but not for stylistic reasons... its the compromises from lineart that are required to get it to transform. I'm sure at that meeting with Kawamori Bandai engineers said "we had to make the head larger here and the legs had to swivel here to make it work" and he said okay I approve. Just like 13 years ago Hasegawa engineers said; we made it 100% accurate to the lineart and added some more details and Kawamori approved it then.

That's not to look down on why people want to buy the bandai model; I'm interested in display models and others are interested in a gunpla. That's great. I'd love if more people got into classical modeling as a result of building this model. And there are some classical modellers who will want to build it as well. But for a lot of us, the choice between a hasegawa kit and the bandai one is that the latter costs over double, requires more work and has worse proportions.

So please, keep that in mind when you think we're just ignorant haters. A lot of us have invested thousands of hours into this craft. When you see a lot of the people who are very skilled at this hobby voicing our concerns its because it doesn't fit your views, that's because we are particular about what we look for and need... not because we just throw hate at things irrationally.

Edited July 9, 2013 by Noyhauser

[wm cheng]

.... So please, keep that in mind when you think we're just ignorant haters. A lot of us have invested thousands of hours into this craft. When you see a lot of the people who are very skilled at this hobby voicing our concerns its because it doesn't fit your views, that's because we are particular about what we look for and need... not because we just throw hate at things irrationally.

THANK YOU Noyhauser, very well said, and my sentiments exactly. I was just about to give up and unsubscribe to this thread, as there would be nothing I could add that would be constructive to this thread. I'm a bit surprised at how this thread has "de-evolved" into as its not characteristic of MacrossWorld. Thank you for bringing it back.

[electric indigo]

I'm still under the impression that a lot of the traditional modelers bash the Bandai kit for not being a traditional model, which it wasn't meant to be from the beginning.

[Valkyrie addict]

I'm not a very good modeller so you can chalk me up to blind Bandai hate.

Wise words Noysauser.

[Noyhauser]

THANK YOU Noyhauser, very well said, and my sentiments exactly. I was just about to give up and unsubscribe to this thread, as there would be nothing I could add that would be constructive to this thread. I'm a bit surprised at how this thread has "de-evolved" into as its not characteristic of MacrossWorld. Thank you for bringing it back.

I'm still under the impression that a lot of the traditional modelers bash the Bandai kit for not being a traditional model, which it wasn't meant to be from the beginning.

I think that's the case for sure indigo, and I'm guilty of that too. However to go to MW's observation, alot of the heat coming out of this thread is the result of two different communities interacting. I see a lot of traditional modelers coming into this thread (in the subforum they generally post the most in), see the kit and go "that's not for me." Then there are a lot of casual modelers who don't really frequent this area (and have different interests, such as toys) get angry because they can't understand why people would be so negative. Both sides take it as a bit of a personal slight... which reflects a clash of cultures.

[Vifam7]

I think that's the case for sure indigo, and I'm guilty of that too. However to go to MW's observation, alot of the heat coming out of this thread is the result of two different communities interacting. I see a lot of traditional modelers coming into this thread (in the subforum they generally post the most in), see the kit and go "that's not for me." Then there are a lot of casual modelers who don't really frequent this area (and have different interests, such as toys) get angry because they can't understand why people would be so negative. Both sides take it as a bit of a personal slight... which reflects a clash of cultures.

That's a good point.

I'd like to believe that Macross fandom is large enough to support gunpla style kits like this, traditional Hasegawa style kits, and completed toys (DX Chogokin & Yamato) as I like to dabble across the lines.

[Lorindor]

I have only built some Gundam gunpla and enjoyed it greatly, but I have no interest in this one anymore. That you need to paint and glue is a deal breaker for me. That goes against the simplicity I like with Bandai's Gundam offerings.

Edited July 9, 2013 by Lorindor

[Shaorin]

just finished assembly on mine. first impression? Beta Product.

really, this wants to be a good GUNPLA style kit, and i want to like it just fine, but it just seems far too fiddly and complex for 1/72.

what i mean, is that 1/72 is far too small a scale for what BANDAI was attempting to accomplish here. 1/60, 1/48 better still,

but 1/72... too many compromises, too many fine complex parts... i can get slightly better play out of those hips than many examples i've seen,

but... it's just a bad design, IMHO.

those hands... PiTA!! pretty sure i won't be revisiting this line... the box is the best thing about it IMO... damned beautiful boxart!!!!

anyway... gimme another day or two, and i'll have this beast finished enough to be showing around...

Edited July 9, 2013 by Shaorin

[anime52k8]

I'm still under the impression that a lot of the traditional modelers bash the Bandai kit for not being a traditional model, which it wasn't meant to be from the beginning.

Don't you know, Gunpla isn't a legitimate form of model building.

[sketchley]

I think that's the case for sure indigo, and I'm guilty of that too. However to go to MW's observation, alot of the heat coming out of this thread is the result of two different communities interacting. I see a lot of traditional modelers coming into this thread (in the subforum they generally post the most in), see the kit and go "that's not for me." Then there are a lot of casual modelers who don't really frequent this area (and have different interests, such as toys) get angry because they can't understand why people would be so negative. Both sides take it as a bit of a personal slight... which reflects a clash of cultures.

Hey, don't lump us "casual" modellers with the toy lovers!

It's those toy lovers that are doing the hating, with their perception that it's a successor/rival/whatever to what Yamato/etc have produced over the years.

As a self-professed casual modeller, I quite like this kit. Especially since I haven't broken anything on it (yet. Fingers crossed, knock on wood). Which puts it light-years ahead of Bandai's VF-25/27 line (carnage, carnage, carnage).

I have only built some Gundam gunpla and enjoyed it greatly, but I have no interest in this one anymore. That you need to paint and glue is a deal breaker for me. That goes against the simplicity I like with Bandai's Gundam offerings.

Actually, you only need to glue the reverse thrusters on the upper legs. 2 pieces. Painting? All the stickers/decals you need come with the kit. Sure, panel lining will spruce it up, but if you're not inclined, you don't *really* need to do it.

(For the purposes of this discussion, I'm pretending the included figures don't exist ).

[alchemo]

Let's not compare it to Hasegawa non-transformable kit, or Yamato / Arcadia completed toy, just compare it to the MG gunpla or similar products from Bandai in the same size and pricerange, like those from short-lived R3 line, even so, this kit is under par, both in propotion and in engineering.

[Shaorin]

well, got a gust of ambitiousness tonight, got this gawdawful thing (IMO) mostly done, some sloppy painting to clean up a little, and some more decal work to do;

...man, was this turd one hell of a disappointment for me...

still, that cover art/design is divine, and i do have a 1/72 Minmay DYRL now, to add to my small-but-growing DYRL Minmay collection, so it's not all bad...

Edited July 10, 2013 by Shaorin

[David Hingtgen]

For some reason, skull leader is always numbered 001 in DYRL even though they are not the same airframe.

Follows real-world Naval practice. They don't re-number the planes every day or week, but over the course of a couple months/years, several different airframes from within the squadron may be painted up and numbered as "the commander's plane".