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

[Shaorin]

FOR CHRISSAKE, how'd this ever make it to production?!?! i mean, JEEZ!!!!

(( EDIT; notice the RED/BLUE navi-lights on the legs are on the wrong sides? damn panels keep falling off, and i had put them back on wrong last!!!! ))

Edited July 10, 2013 by Shaorin

[Noyhauser]

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

Please don't put words in my mouth. There is a significant difference between traditional and gunpla modeling; its just ignorant to suggest they are the same. Gunpla are designed for a younger market, with less modeling skills, and an interest to handle them. You can build one with a nice set of clippers, a modellng knife and gundam marker. That's very different from traditional modelers, who tend to be older, able bring advanced modeling skills and are interested in display and accuracy. And I should note that there are many people who produce awesome works applying traditional approaches to gunpla and producing stunning works. Does it make any group less legitimate? Not at all. Its just a different interest and market. And I can appreciate both sides. I'll let you in on a little secret. I've got maybe a dozen HGUC kits and I often pose them. Ooops I guess I've lost my street cred... maybe I should start posting in toys.

Okay I jest. In reality I can fully understand why people like this kit. However as someone who is primarily interested in traditional modeling I and others here have views and desires... which the bandai kit does not fulfill. Its not a slight against gunpla builders to say that we think this kit sucks. If you take that as a personal slight... well... there isn't much I can say about that.

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'm not lumping you in. In many ways you're probably smack dab in the market segment that bandai envisions for this kit. Bandai wanted to make a kit that is accessible to more casual modelers. I'll be honest, the hasegawa kit is actually a fairly difficult kit to construct (particularly the strike version). In relative terms to other injection kits I'd put it in the upper 70% due to the need to align the legs properly with the arms, the wing swing mechanism that makes fuselage joining difficult, alot of small details like antennas and the strike packs. With most models you construct/assemble and paint. With Hasegawa you need to construct, paint, assemble. That's actually pretty difficult, and is out of the reach of most casual modelers.

[Duymon]

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...

Honestly it doesn't look that bad to me, but perhaps my standards are too low.

The majority of Bandai Models were never meant to be hard-core, but if you gave Bandai-Models hard-core treatment you can make them look amazing.

For around 35 bucks new Macross fans or people with no prior knowledge of Macross can get a decent transforming kit of the Iconic VF-1 that is leaps and bounds ahead of the Imai / Arii kits of the 1980's that came out in an Era before snap-together Gunpla arrived on the scene.

That in itself is something to be happy for, as more Japanese Macross fans is NEVER a bad thing.

This kit should really be compared to the Imai 1/72 variables that it is meant to replace. In that respect, it is a million times better which it should be as it's been 30 years.

You really can't compare this kit to the Hase VF-1's. The Hase VF-1's, like Noy said, are traditional kits. That means lots of love to fill the seamlines / etc to make the kit look good. Hell, I'm sure only a small fraction of people here know how much "fun" it is to smooth out the intakes on some traditional aircraft kits, something that you will never have to deal with on the Bandai VF-1.

As for Yamato fanboys who keep bashing this kit... why do you care? You have your Yammies......

[anime52k8]

Please don't put words in my mouth.

as you said:

No, the problem with the model is that its really not a model. Its a gunpla...

So gunpla aren't model kits therefore building gunpla isn't model building.

:edit:

As for Yamato fanboys who keep bashing this kit... why do you care? You have your Yammies......

I don't know, why do all the glue and paint people keep bashing on this when they've got their Hase kits?

Edited July 10, 2013 by anime52k8

[Graham]

Kudos to Bandai for making this kit, even though several of the design choices seem questionable to me. In there end, the more choice of Macross merchandise we have the better for us fans.

We should all be happy. Traditional model builders have Hasegawas/Wave, toy fans have Yamatos/Bandai/Arcadia and those who like snap fix transforming kits have this new Bandai kit.

I will say it's not for me though. Although I used to buy the old Imai/Arai/Bandai Macross kits back in the 80s and 90s, the only reason I did so was because the Takatoku and Bandai VF-1 toys were not available where I was back then or were too expensive at the time, whereas the kits were easy to buy and relatively cheap.

However, being that I'm a toy guy, more than a model guy and I always end up beaking transforming kits after a few transformations, I'll stick with my Yammies, Bandais and hopefully soon to come Arcadias.

But for those of you who do like snap fix kits good for you, you now have another choice.

Now can't we all get on please.

Graham

[sketchley]

I'm not lumping you in. In many ways you're probably smack dab in the market segment that bandai envisions for this kit. Bandai wanted to make a kit that is accessible to more casual modelers. I'll be honest, the hasegawa kit is actually a fairly difficult kit to construct (particularly the strike version). In relative terms to other injection kits I'd put it in the upper 70% due to the need to align the legs properly with the arms, the wing swing mechanism that makes fuselage joining difficult, alot of small details like antennas and the strike packs. With most models you construct/assemble and paint. With Hasegawa you need to construct, paint, assemble. That's actually pretty difficult, and is out of the reach of most casual modelers.

This is very true. I have a pair of unbuilt Hasegawa battroids (VF-1 and VF-0), that have been gathering dust for well over half a decade in the closet. I recently restarted on the VF-1 (had originally finished the arms before losing interest/being overwhelmed with the painting required), but got as far as mostly assembled because the shoulder pegs broke (I'm putting that down to the glue I used when I first did the kit, as some of those glued parts started to separate (!)). Long story short, I got overwhelmed by the kit again after installing newly fabricated shoulder pegs.

This VF-1 kit is, after 3 sittings, almost complete (just gotta assemble the last leg and gun pod), and what's completed so far is kilometres ahead of the similar stage that the Hasegawa kit is at.

So, I fully agree that this kit is aimed for casual modellers like me.

That said, the majority of the pieces that fall off when handled can be solved by more careful handling (it isn't a toy after all) and a few drops of glue on the right places. I'm going to have to unearth my crusty old modelling skills from 25+ years ago (when I was much more "hardcore") to figure out the best way to seal some of the gaps in the leg (the problem seems to be stemming from slight miss-alignments in assembly and the natural springy property of so many pieces of plastic being snapped together wanting to seperate).

All in all, the kit is quite satisfying as the joints for the knee cover are fairly firm (after a few transformations, the VF-27's knee covers went floppy and never recovered), and nothing's broken so far (can't say the same when I was at this stage on the VF-27...)

The main point of frustration on the build comes from the hands (but they're basically the same as Bandai's MG kits - the Zeta Gundam had similar ones), and figuring out the instructions - even being able to understand Japanese, the pictures still require some deciphering. And I'm not a fan of these grey-scale 3DCG instructions. Give me B&W lineart instructions!

I also fully agree that the VF-1S head is on the bloated side of things (I'm building the VF-1A head, and by golly, it rocks - which is head and shoulders above the cannon fodder VF-27's head; never could get that to fit into the fuselage right.)

The knee covers are also the one place that I would've liked to have seen something a bit different, but I fully recognize that they are the way they are out of compromise - there's just too much other stuff going on in the upper and lower legs!

Anyhow, I'm sure any of the "hardcore" modellers worth their salt could improve upon and fix some of those places with a sharp blade, putty, and plaplate.

Edited July 10, 2013 by sketchley

[nexxstrait]

FOR CHRISSAKE, how'd this ever make it to production?!?! i mean, JEEZ!!!!

(( EDIT; notice the RED/BLUE navi-lights on the legs are on the wrong sides? damn panels keep falling off, and i had put them back on wrong last!!!! ))

doesn't look that bad to me!

[Skypoet]

FOR CHRISSAKE, how'd this ever make it to production?!?! i mean, JEEZ!!!!

(( EDIT; notice the RED/BLUE navi-lights on the legs are on the wrong sides? damn panels keep falling off, and i had put them back on wrong last!!!! ))

IMHO when you don't know about the froppiness of the kit (which doesn't show from the photo) this kit does not look too bad... Do you believe that this (beta indeed) kit could be made more acceptable with a modification of the hip hinge mechanism? Or are there really a dozen of other annoying issues when it comes to the articulations?

How did it make into production? Well... dunno... maybe Bandai thought: "it does look acceptable from the pictures, and an irremediable "big-crunch" economic crisis is imminent, and nobody will buy it after the final crunch starts, so let's sell it and enjoy the booze we can buy from the revenue while there still is booze to buy"

[Skypoet]

... or maybe did Bandai trust its virtual CAD prototype design methodology a little bit too much!

[Hoptimus]

FOR CHRISSAKE, how'd this ever make it to production?!?! i mean, JEEZ!!!!

(( EDIT; notice the RED/BLUE navi-lights on the legs are on the wrong sides? damn panels keep falling off, and i had put them back on wrong last!!!! ))

Now where is our comparison with your 1/72 HCM?

More pics!

[Horatio Positronic]

I'm really enjoying building this kit. Usually when I build something like a Gundam kit I burn through it very quickly and don't bother with stuff like glue or paint. For this one I've been taking my time, doing the panel lines in Sharpie and carefully gluing things.

So far I haven't accidentally glued anything that's supposed to move. There's a lot about this kit I like. The proof will be when I'm done and can transform it for the first time, but so far the mechanical bits seem to work well, and the details and proportions look nice.

[Skypoet]

Now where is our comparison with your 1/72 HCM?

More pics!

Aha! You make a point!

[Skypoet]

I'm really enjoying building this kit. Usually when I build something like a Gundam kit I burn through it very quickly and don't bother with stuff like glue or paint. For this one I've been taking my time, doing the panel lines in Sharpie and carefully gluing things.

So far I haven't accidentally glued anything that's supposed to move. There's a lot about this kit I like. The proof will be when I'm done and can transform it for the first time, but so far the mechanical bits seem to work well, and the details and proportions look nice.

Very pleasant to read you! I have ordered one and it still hasn't arrived in the mail. I'm planning to join the two hip-joint-axes together with a metal rod and completely remove this assembly while the kit is in gerwalk or fighter mode. Does this seem to be feasible? From what I understand, this hip joint is the major issue with this kit (the VF-25 had similar issues, the hip was very complex and fragile, and after a piece of plastic broke, it no longer was possible to make it stand properly in battroid mode - I solved that issue with a pair of magnets...)

[tetsujin]

This kit should really be compared to the Imai 1/72 variables that it is meant to replace. In that respect, it is a million times better which it should be as it's been 30 years.

Nonsense.

I mean, if Bandai were unable to surpass a 30 year old transforming glue-kit, that would be monumentally embarassing. I think there are better transforming Valks out there, but this kit doesn't need to be put in an exclusive league where it only has to compete with an early-'80s kit in order to look good by comparison.

No comparison is going to be perfect, or perfectly fair, but everything's fair game for comparison, at least as long as one maintains a realistic perspective on what conditions are different, and why. So Hi-Metals, Yamatos, Hasegawas, etc. are all fair game

You really can't compare this kit to the Hase VF-1's. The Hase VF-1's, like Noy said, are traditional kits. That means lots of love to fill the seamlines / etc to make the kit look good. Hell, I'm sure only a small fraction of people here know how much "fun" it is to smooth out the intakes on some traditional aircraft kits, something that you will never have to deal with on the Bandai VF-1.

Let's not forget one of the primary reasons you will never have to deal with smoothing out the intakes on the Bandai VF-1...

The Bandai VF-1 doesn't have intakes.

As for Yamato fanboys who keep bashing this kit... why do you care? You have your Yammies......

I think probably a lot of the Yamato fans feel like I (as a Hasegawa fan) feel: It is pretty frustrating to see people gush over the Bandai VF-1, act like there were no modern VF-1 kits or modern transforming Valks on the market until Bandai swooped in to save the day, or go on about how gorgeous the kit is and how amazing Bandai's engineering is. To me, the level of love the kit's receiving from its fans seems more than a little undeserved - and I swear, some of these folks must be showering the kit with love just because it came from Bandai... I can find no other explanation.

I can appreciate Bandai's VF-1 for what it is, and the things I think it does well - I just am not inclined to overlook the kit's shortcomings.

[maxi]

Just to put my to cents.... I`ve just ordered mine and I`m very exited!! There are two reasons why I bought this kit:

1º- Like some people said the more interpretation of macross valkyries the better!!!!

2º- For a guy like me living in Argentina, the price for a yammie is way beyond what I can pay for, I only have the hikaru 1/60 vf-1s and had to save for over a year to buy it...real life issues..... my country has extremely high import taxes, plus the shipping I end up paying 3 times the price of the valk. This is a much more cheap option and besides all those facts that you guys talk about, I really like it.....

[tetsujin]

See, there's the odd thing, Bandai's chara-figures are usually 1 whole mold, not several pieces. That's why I'm scratching my head on their decision to do this not only on the pilot figure, but Minmay as well.

Most injection molds are just two parts, which means parts can't have under-cuts relative to the direction of mold separation. Minmay has to be molded from the front, so they can have some detail on her face and hair... But her arms have to be molded from the side, so she can have elbows, and detail on her hands and clothes.

Likewise, the pilot figure's body has to be molded from the front to put detail on the chest, but the arms have to be molded from the sides so they can put the controls in his hands and properly detail his hands. Then there's the helmet - the body has to be molded from kind of a high angle to get both the chest detail and his legs and feet, but the helmet has to be molded from a lower angle in order to get the facemask under the visor.

They could mold these as one-piece figures by altering the poses - for instance making the pilot rest his hands on his legs instead of having them on the controls, make Minmay hold the mic closer to her face and put her left arm down by her side or up in the air instead of allowing it to be straight forward... These are the sorts of compromises you'd typically see on a MG Gundam pilot figure. Splitting up the figure allowed them to make the figure better - and that's something I always appreciate.

And seriously, it's like two drops of glue!

[Shaorin]

Honestly it doesn't look that bad to me, but perhaps my standards are too low.

doesn't look that bad to me!

it does appear serviceable enough in BATTROID, in most photos, but therein lies the rub;

one has to actually have this disasterpiece in their hands to play around with before they really start to grasp it's considerable degree of total suckitude.

once you pick it up in any mode to pose and/or admire, the whole thing starts coming apart faster than a Texas Wedding.

hell, i just finished assembly of my copy yesterday, and one of my kit's shoulders is already loose enough to continually pop off it's mounting.

so many poor design choices here, they're really too many to list. for one, the damned thing is fiddly to the extreme.

you'll frustrate yourself trying to get it to hold together properly during transformations,

and once you finally got it in desired mode and pose, all you can really do is look at it.

now, don't even think about playing with it, lest things start falling out of kilter and/or off.

and despite the numerous metal shafts used in assembly, the thing still has so many vital joints that continually tend to come apart during transformation.

hell, several of the self-adhesive decals aren't even sized properly, especially the tail-fin labels.

really, skilled modelers can most likely rend something of a diamond out of this rough, but as a "GUNPLA-style" casual consumer-friendly product,

this model well and truly fails as soundly as just about anything ever has in my personal experience...

I'm really enjoying building this kit.

do enjoy the build; i all but guarantee that you'll probably find it to be the most rewarding aspect of this model...

As for Yamato fanboys who keep bashing this kit... why do you care? You have your Yammies......

why? because this model could have been WORLDS BETTER had BANDAI taken a moment to learn from all the great aspects of the 1/60v.II,

rather than going all wacky-doodle like this and eschewing all the fantastic advancements in design YAMATO toiled so long and hard to pioneer...

Edited July 10, 2013 by Shaorin

[Horatio Positronic]

really, skilled modelers can most likely rend something of a diamond out of this rough, but as a "GUNPLA-style" casual consumer-friendly product,

this model well and truly fails as soundly as just about anything ever has in my personal experience...

I think one of the biggest problems with this kit is the fact that it's portrayed as a "Gunpla-style" kit, which would imply no glue and lots of simple, sturdy polycaps. It's really not. It's somewhere between a Gunpla kit, and a Hasegawa kit. It definitely needs glue and patience.

It may be easier to transform my Yammies, and my Hasegawa kit may have sharper little details, but I think this Bandai kit does not deserve all the hate it's getting.

[jvmacross]

FOR CHRISSAKE, how'd this ever make it to production?!?! i mean, JEEZ!!!!

(( EDIT; notice the RED/BLUE navi-lights on the legs are on the wrong sides? damn panels keep falling off, and i had put them back on wrong last!!!! ))

this pic is the best effort I have seen at "making" the battroid legs and waist look "normal".....but the head still looks huge!!!

I get the feeling that Bandai will pull a "Frontier DX Renewal" move all over again....it will probably "redo" this kit in a 1/48 scale and perhaps release it as a fully-built "HCM" 21st century update or simply release it as a DX toy...

[Shaorin]

.....but the head still looks huge!!!

it is. the clearances through the body hatch for BATTROID head position are tight.

they made sure to get that head every little bit as large as they possibly could while still clearing that hatchway.

if only they could have directed all that effort elsewhere...

Edited July 10, 2013 by Shaorin

[Duymon]

Nonsense.

I mean, if Bandai were unable to surpass a 30 year old transforming glue-kit, that would be monumentally embarassing. I think there are better transforming Valks out there, but this kit doesn't need to be put in an exclusive league where it only has to compete with an early-'80s kit in order to look good by comparison.

No comparison is going to be perfect, or perfectly fair, but everything's fair game for comparison, at least as long as one maintains a realistic perspective on what conditions are different, and why. So Hi-Metals, Yamatos, Hasegawas, etc. are all fair game

Last time I checked nobody with a major manufacturing base and distribution channels has tried to market a snap-together transforming Valkyrie kit to the mass-market.

Yammies and hi-metals are toys right out of the box aimed at collectors. The Yammie kits came in drab cardboard boxes aimed at established fans. The Hasegawa kits are aimed towards traditional aircraft modelers. They are on the opposite side of the playmodel spectrum from the Bandai kit.

Truth be told Macross is close to non-existent in most hobby shops or the hobby toy sections of retail stores in Japan so who wouldn't be happy that somebody is pushing Macross into all those main-stream outlets? The thought of stopping by "Ito Yokado" and seeing Macross at all, even if it's an iffy kit like this one, is better than none at all.

Think of it as a gateway to better Macross products.

Let's not forget one of the primary reasons you will never have to deal with smoothing out the intakes on the Bandai VF-1...

The Bandai VF-1 doesn't have intakes.

Which was my point exactly.......you can build a bandai kit with a pair of snippers and nothing else.

I think probably a lot of the Yamato fans feel like I (as a Hasegawa fan) feel: It is pretty frustrating to see people gush over the Bandai VF-1, act like there were no modern VF-1 kits or modern transforming Valks on the market until Bandai swooped in to save the day, or go on about how gorgeous the kit is and how amazing Bandai's engineering is. To me, the level of love the kit's receiving from its fans seems more than a little undeserved - and I swear, some of these folks must be showering the kit with love just because it came from Bandai... I can find no other explanation.

I can appreciate Bandai's VF-1 for what it is, and the things I think it does well - I just am not inclined to overlook the kit's shortcomings.

Who's gushing? Are we even reading the same thread because I sure as hell don't see any Bandai Fanboyism in this thread. Apparently saying something not negative about the bandai kit now equates to Bandai Gushing? Have you not read my multiple criticisms of this kit throughout this thread?

I think people are just happy that at least somebody is trying to make an effort to push Macross into the mainstream at all. As Yamato's past financial troubles indicate sometimes it's difficult to survive catering to a hardcore audience alone

Edited July 10, 2013 by Duymon

[valhary]

as I see this is a preview of the improvements we might see in a future figure whether it's an arcadia v3 or vf 1 of bandai since in this model kit is a paradox itself with an advanced system of transformation or at least the most faithful to the original lineart but pretty bad proportions so skinny with hydrocephalic head but who knows maybe wear a gbp dont look so bad

[anime52k8]

Most injection molds are just two parts, which means parts can't have under-cuts relative to the direction of mold separation. Minmay has to be molded from the front, so they can have some detail on her face and hair... But her arms have to be molded from the side, so she can have elbows, and detail on her hands and clothes.

Likewise, the pilot figure's body has to be molded from the front to put detail on the chest, but the arms have to be molded from the sides so they can put the controls in his hands and properly detail his hands. Then there's the helmet - the body has to be molded from kind of a high angle to get both the chest detail and his legs and feet, but the helmet has to be molded from a lower angle in order to get the facemask under the visor.

They could mold these as one-piece figures by altering the poses - for instance making the pilot rest his hands on his legs instead of having them on the controls, make Minmay hold the mic closer to her face and put her left arm down by her side or up in the air instead of allowing it to be straight forward... These are the sorts of compromises you'd typically see on a MG Gundam pilot figure. Splitting up the figure allowed them to make the figure better - and that's something I always appreciate.

And seriously, it's like two drops of glue!

But Bandai has used multi-part molds and multi-stage injection processes before on their gundam kits. If they wanted to they could have made the pilot a single solid piece or at the very least molded them in such a way that the pieces could be pegged together without requiring any glue while still having the same sculpt and pose.

[tetsujin]

Last time I checked nobody with a major manufacturing base and distribution channels has tried to market a snap-together transforming Valkyrie kit to the mass-market.

Never said they did. Nevertheless, other companies (and other divisions of Bandai, for that matter) have been making Valkyrie-related products. So I think it's ridiculous to claim that comparing with these other products is inappropriate. Just, like I said, you have to keep some perspective.

Like exposed hinges and proportional compromise come with the territory of a transforming kit - so when comparing Bandai's Valk to the Hasegawas or something, you've got to cut 'em some slack. But it's still a valid comparison, as long as one doesn't unrealistically apply expectations from one product on the other.

Likewise, the Yamato isn't a model kit... (Well, you know, except for the unpainted, unassembled Yamatos that were sold as model kits...) But model kit or not, the Yamato had to solve the same set of problems for their Valk design that Bandai did - the two took different paths obviously, and there's actually a great deal to be learned from a comparison like that - the strengths and weaknesses of the different approaches.

Comparing to the 30 year old Imai variable just seems silly to me. When a new MG Gundam comes out nobody bothers comparing it to the original 1:100 Gundam, because hardly anybody bothers with that old kit any more, and it's generally assumed that a new product will be better in every way.

Let's not forget one of the primary reasons you will never have to deal with smoothing out the intakes on the Bandai VF-1...

The Bandai VF-1 doesn't have intakes.

Which was my point exactly.......you can build a bandai kit with a pair of snippers and nothing else.

Yeah, you could even chew the parts off the runners with your teeth and slam your forehead down on the table to press parts together, if you wanted...

More seriously: My point doesn't invalidate yours. I just thought it was pretty funny that you pointed out that you don't need to sand the inside of an intake on the Bandai kit given that it hasn't got intakes. That's like saying "You'll never have to clean your fingernails again! I've cut off your hands." It just would have been a much more impressive example of Bandai's ability to simplify model kits, if it had been an example that didn't involve them eliminating the part they were supposedly simplifying.

Who's gushing? Are we even reading the same thread because I sure as hell don't see any Bandai Fanboyism in this thread. Apparently saying something not negative about the bandai kit now equates to Bandai Gushing?

Dude, I didn't say you were gushing. Some of this happened on other sites - the Gundam crowd tends to have a very distorted view of Bandai's merits versus those of its competitors... I vent about it here because it's a more sympathetic crowd.

I say things not-negative about the kit, too, actually. I think Battroid mode is pretty good. Amazingly enough, there are even aspects of Bandai's battroid that I like better than Hasegawa's - which surprises me, frankly, because Hasegawa's Battroid is IMO just about the best mecha kit ever. And while I didn't like the battroid proportions at first, they have grown on me: I've found that one thing I enjoy about transforming kits is that, because the proportions have to work for transformation, the resulting kit is a more "honest" representation of how the machine could really look...

[tetsujin]

But Bandai has used multi-part molds and multi-stage injection processes before on their gundam kits. If they wanted to they could have made the pilot a single solid piece or at the very least molded them in such a way that the pieces could be pegged together without requiring any glue while still having the same sculpt and pose.

Multi-stage injection doesn't do anything for this problem - after the first stage of injection, the later stages would still have to be arranged in such a way that the mold halves could neatly encase the later-stage part, and separate from it when injection was done. Unless they were going to make a pilot figure with moving joints (which would allow them to mold the figure in a different pose than it's supposed to be displayed in) it wouldn't help.

Multi-part molds (slide-molds) also don't help much, for various reasons. Again, there's the issue with the helmet - it tilts down and has that forehead visor - which means you need to mold the front of the helmet either straight-on or from a low angle to mold the face mask. But if you mold the head together with the rest of the body, then that same angle has to be used for the chest, the arms, the legs - about the best you could do would be to have a center slide-mold that slides in between the pilot's legs and arms and provides detail on his chest and helmet, and then another mold part coming from each side to mold his arms and legs. You would wind up with more mold parting lines and degraded details on the inner surfaces of the arms and legs...

The Minmay figure would have similar issues, but you'd need to consider the back of the figure as well (since she's not going to be sitting in a cockpit which conveniently covers that up) Getting the gap between the right arm and the body would be pretty tough, especially if the left arm were to be extended forward...

Slide-molds are also more expensive. Bandai would be spending more money to produce a lower-quality figure. Just doesn't make sense.

[valhary]

and almost no gaps from a top view in battroid mode also the leg lock system is really cool ironically no lock system for the chest/back

[Skypoet]

and almost no gaps from a top view in battroid mode also the leg lock system is really cool ironically no lock system for the chest/back

Wonderful! Thanks for the pic, this top view looks great :-)

[sketchley]

(...) To me, the level of love the kit's receiving from its fans seems more than a little undeserved - and I swear, some of these folks must be showering the kit with love just because it came from Bandai... I can find no other explanation.

It's a backlash against all the negativity.

Seriously, after Graham posted that we should all get along, how many long winded opinion posts have their been? How many Bnadai rants? How many on the actual build experience and finished kit by people who actually own and have built the kit?

I think I'm going to start ignoring this thread for its lack of constructive posts (echoing WM Cheng from 24+ hours ago)...

[joscasle]

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.

Oohhh man you are so right!!!!!!

Best post of the entire thread!!!!

[Shaorin]

- I Rest my Case...

Edited July 11, 2013 by Shaorin

[jenius]

It kills me that the arms could have been wider without extending past the bottom of the craft. It definitely looks like it could clip together better in both fighter and battroid modes.

[JET7]

any in hand no photoshopped glorified picture with the strike kit? just like shaorins' image?

[tetsujin]

Seriously, after Graham posted that we should all get along, how many long winded opinion posts have their been?

It's not as though the two options are mutually exclusive. Because people don't agree, and are willing to openly and frankly discuss their opinions, does not mean they don't get along.

[penta]

Here is another review with good photo: http://schizophonic9.com/re3/bandai_vf1s.html

[nexxstrait]

I think probably a lot of the Yamato fans feel like I (as a Hasegawa fan) feel: It is pretty frustrating to see people gush over the Bandai VF-1, act like there were no modern VF-1 kits or modern transforming Valks on the market until Bandai swooped in to save the day, or go on about how gorgeous the kit is and how amazing Bandai's engineering is. To me, the level of love the kit's receiving from its fans seems more than a little undeserved - and I swear, some of these folks must be showering the kit with love just because it came from Bandai... I can find no other explanation.

As much as I love the VF1 Yammie (but I still prefer the 1/48s over the 1/60s v2), the neck thing has always bothered me along with the huge side gaps later patched with side covers which should have been there in the first place, and some other nitpick things. Don't get me started on exploding shoulders, no one seems to remember that thing was an ominous design flaw (when and expensive toy bursts into pieces after the first transformation, praises are the last thing that comes to my mind). When the VF1 hi metal came out, I had hopes for a 1/60 version as I liked it much more than the Yammie (proportionwise).

So, to everyone its own, no nedd to fight among us!

I like to build Macross models and I'm eager to get my hands on mine and start building it.

Edited July 11, 2013 by nexxstrait