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

[mechaninac]

A 50% off purchase or not at all... I'm fine with either.

[Ghost Train]

Looks a bit off ... first reaction:

[joscasle]

It looks so ugly in aircraft mode! Its exactly as I suspected, its ok in battroid (which is Bandai's robot heritage) but its pretty dismal otherwise. The nose seem to have that wierd nose down slant that some of the earlier 80's ARII kit had - aside from the fact that there is no sleekness or refinement to it at all - its a throw back to the Chunky Monkey days. Painting this puppy will be a b*&%# due to all the rubbing and transformation gimmicks. I don't think I'll be touching this with a 100 foot pole! Bandai can never get aircraft landing gears right (look at their Yukikaze 1/100 DX models) - they just do robots!

Quite disappointed despite my low expectations.

Mr. Cheng totally agree with you. I don't even like how it looks in gerwalk mode

[Shaorin]

And we got new scans:

vf-1-72n2.jpg

oh, and in regards to those CAD renders; what is this? 1997?!

Edited April 24, 2013 by Shaorin

[Hikuro]

Guess I'm the only one who will enjoy it for what it is.......a model kit I can do things with, and not feel like I broke it and wasted a hundred and fifty bucks cause of lousey arm hinges.

[UN Spacy]

Wow...even wm cheng is hating it. That's not good.

[ahiachris]

Mr. Cheng totally agree with you. I don't even like how it looks in gerwalk mode

That's why they never show you how it looks while in Gerwalk mode.

[Vifam7]

I'm going to wait until I see the final painted up model before I make too many judgements. The nose shape is my big concern. It looked okay on Bandai Hobby website (below pic) but not so good on the above magazine photos.

Edited April 24, 2013 by Vifam7

[Shaorin]

Guess I'm the only one who will enjoy it for what it is.......a model kit I can do things with, and not feel like I broke it and wasted a hundred and fifty bucks cause of lousey arm hinges.

you have a point...

[Black Valkyrie]

Not bad, waiting for final pictures.

[Jefuemon]

Still not feeling it. I'll be sticking with Hasegawa, thank you.

[Reïvaj]

Yeah, I'm still not in love with this kit...

[JET7]

if it is cheap like hasegawas.. im in to it. but if it expensive just because its an 80s macross thing.. hell no.

[Shaorin]

$35/45 less shipping... cheap enough, i figure...

Edited April 25, 2013 by Shaorin

[Chronocidal]

Yeah.. uh.. someone needs to tell them. The VF-1 does not use the same knee joint as a VF-25. I don't care how far the knee can fold forward, it looks like crap with that kneecap flapping in the breeze. It doesn't hinge there on the VF-1, it's supposed to pivot inside the thigh for gerwalk, and practically disappear.

Plus.. yeah... that nose is terrible. I don't get it. It's kind of like they've said "Well, Yamato did it this way, so we're not going to do it that way, even though it was right."

All in all.. yeah. Unless this thing gets some massive changes before the final printing, I probably won't bother. It's smaller than a Yamato 1/60 kit, and not even that much cheaper.

Edited April 25, 2013 by Chronocidal

[jenius]

So many Yamato V2 comparisons. I think we all agree that the super parts are too small, I think we might disagree on HOW too small they are.

Yamato actually went a bit big with their's, and they went WAY big with their arm armors. You might say that Bandai is off by the same margin but in the other direction and since super parts are meant to be SUPER it's easy to argue a bit bigger is a bunch better. Nosecone shape is really tough to judge in that pic above because it looks like the fit was poor in the landing gear area.

[Chronocidal]

I'm not even thinking about that picture of the nose section, I mean the entire nose looks off in every picture I've yet seen. It's like they decided to make the nose a cylinder, instead of the flat bottomed shape pretty much every other picture I can remember shows. Plus, the nosecone itself looks like the profile is wrong, but that might be the perspective we're seeing it at.

As far as the packs are concerned, I don't think they're big enough for the strike cannon to even pivot down to face straight ahead. It looks like it would get hung up on the shoulders, and never hit 90 degrees.

[jenius]

Yeah, it almost looks like they made the strike cannon the exact same size as the missile boom.

[Shaorin]

that's Lame...

Edited April 25, 2013 by Shaorin

[joscasle]

Why you compare these bandai with yamato,?? these is a model kit, Yamato's are toys IMHO. You can compare these bandai with Hasegawa or ARII but no with Yamato, totally different.

For me these Bandai VF-1 is terrible, the nose is really bad (shape and size), wing size are too big in Battroid and too short in fighter, Gerwalk dosn't look good, so what's the point, the arms and legs are off in fighter mode, etc etc etc... Well is just mi opinion, I know a lot of people don't agree with me.

[jenius]

Yamatos are definitely toys, it's no matter of opinion. It's a transforming vf1, that's why you're seeing the comparisons. If it didn't transform you'd see more model comparisons.

Edited April 26, 2013 by jenius

[ahiachris]

Why you compare these bandai with yamato,?? these is a model kit, Yamato's are toys IMHO. You can compare these bandai with Hasegawa or ARII but no with Yamato, totally different.

For me these Bandai VF-1 is terrible, the nose is really bad (shape and size), wing size are too big in Battroid and too short in fighter, Gerwalk dosn't look good, so what's the point, the arms and legs are off in fighter mode, etc etc etc... Well is just mi opinion, I know a lot of people don't agree with me.

We're keep on comparing the coming kit with anime magic linearts or the Hasegawa kits that don't transform and which uses different parts to match the line arts. Why don't we compare it with the old Bandai transformable kit? For me it will be more interesting to see how I might be able to fuse the coming Bandai kit with the Hasegawa kit.

[JET7]

again, arent we all hard to please.. eversince the reign of Yamato in the macross toy scene...we are just so damn hard to impress if any new macross toy comes around.

To me im just happy we have these toys eventhough the Anime/Cartoon no longer exist. Then again maybe its because most of us are complaining on this kit because we are "mature audiences, collectors"..we are the late 70s'-80s cartoon kids.

im not happy if its too expensive. heck i like 'em all if i can afford it

just my .2 cents.

Edited April 26, 2013 by JET7

[Chronocidal]

Well, I guess that's my main complaint here.. It doesn't look as good (or accurate) to me as the Yamato 1/60 in several ways, it's significantly smaller, much more fragile, and it's not that much cheaper. A couple of the Yamato 1/60 kits I got for about $5 more than this kit will cost, and while I have serious doubts about the durability of this kit, I know for a fact that the Yamato design can handle dozens of transformations, because it was designed to be played with.

I can appreciate that they're trying new things with the design, and I like the way they're trying to do the hips accurately, but at the same time I've got serious reservations about some of the changes they're making, because I really don't like how they look. Even if those ankle joints make more sense, and the knees can bend a lot further forward with those kneecaps, I really don't care for them, and they're nothing like the original animation to boot.

[anime52k8]

Wow...even wm cheng is hating it. That's not good.

WM Cheng hates everything that isn't old school glue and paint fumes. how is this any surprise.

[GMK]

Still useful for the 'hanger maintenance diorama' ....

[Shaorin]

WM Cheng hates everything that isn't old school glue and paint fumes. how is this any surprise.

well... enamel plastic model paint and toluene-based model cement is a perfectly legal way to get high and kill brain cells simultenously...

[kyekye]

well... enamel plastic model paint and toluene-based model cement is a perfectly legal way to get high and kill brain cells simultenously...

Mask and ventilation!! Otherwise you gonna end up like one of my old hobby-shop owner whose shaky hand couldn't hold his coffee cup...

[wm cheng]

WM Cheng hates everything that isn't old school glue and paint fumes. how is this any surprise.

Didcha say something sonny?! can't hear ya over my hearing aids

[VF5SS]

Modcineaste and I are going do a review of this for CollectionDX when it comes out. He's more of a serious modeler than me but I have the toy perspective so you can get both views :3

[Excillon]

Well, I guess that's my main complaint here.. It doesn't look as good (or accurate) to me as the Yamato 1/60 in several ways, it's significantly smaller, much more fragile, and it's not that much cheaper. A couple of the Yamato 1/60 kits I got for about $5 more than this kit will cost, and while I have serious doubts about the durability of this kit, I know for a fact that the Yamato design can handle dozens of transformations, because it was designed to be played with.

I can appreciate that they're trying new things with the design, and I like the way they're trying to do the hips accurately, but at the same time I've got serious reservations about some of the changes they're making, because I really don't like how they look. Even if those ankle joints make more sense, and the knees can bend a lot further forward with those kneecaps, I really don't care for them, and they're nothing like the original animation to boot.

If this were 6-7 years ago, I'd be with you. However, being a Gundam/Bandai fan (I know, boo) their kits have really come a long way, even since the frontier kits. Hell, MG Delta Plus seems extremely durable and it's transformable as well, and it's transformation is far more complex than a VF1. And if you did compare it to Frontier, I think the durability of the VF1 will be enhanced due to it's simpler design. As far as decal/paint abuse, I wouldn't be surprised if the chest pieces/wing trim were molded in the correct plastic already.

I will concede that I don't like the FP, but I don't see what the big deal about the nose is.

[Chronocidal]

The simpler design of the VF-1 isn't going to help much in this case, because they're actually making it much more complicated than the VF-25 ever was. Most of it isn't bad, but the leg mechanism they're trying to implement is probably going to need to be made of metal to survive more than one transformation.

[Chas]

We had this conversation before, or one very similar to it when the Bandai VF-25's came out.

There has never been a fully transformable (non parts-forming), inejction moulded kit of the VF-1.

That has only existed in the toy end of the spectrum. Due to their nature, toys do not have, and cannot have the, fine details and precise fit possible with a finished model.

Given that Bandai attempts to fuse these two dichotomous elements together there are bound to be comparisons to both sides; and given that what they are attempting is neither of these and both of them, at the same time, the comparisons work and don't work at the same time. They are fair and unfair at the same time.

Bandai has set themselves apart from both toys and models: they have essentially created a hybrid, or chimera. I am not saying that one cannot, or should not compare them to, say Yamatos or Hasegawas. I am simply pointing out that any direct comparison will be inherently flawed due to the differing nature of objects being produced, and perhaps this needs to be taken into account when making the comparisons.

For myself I think a more interesting question, and possibly more fruitful, for us as individuals is to ask Why would I want a transforming model? What are the advantages and disadvantages to this strange new beast? What do I plan to do with it when finished? What is possible with this that is not possible. or too difficult with either of the existing options?

When the VF-25 kit was released I went through this process of questioning and came to the conclusion that it was simply not something I was at all interested in. With this offering from Bandai I am very close to the same conclusion, the only thing that has me considering it is the possibility of modeling the VF-1 in mid-transformation, in transitional positions. That is something that appeals to me that I see this kit possibly making much easier than any previous or existing kit. So I am still on the fence and will have to wait until the final release to decide.

[Shaorin]

The simpler design of the VF-1 isn't going to help much in this case, because they're actually making it much more complicated than the VF-25 ever was. Most of it isn't bad, but the leg mechanism they're trying to implement is probably going to need to be made of metal to survive more than one transformation.

a VF-1 in 1/72 is indeed small.

generous application of die-cast or POM plastic would probably assure durability,

but typical BANDAI ABS used in anywhere in the transformation mechanism would likely be far too delicate

to last multiple transformations under anything but the gingerist of handling...

Edited April 27, 2013 by Shaorin

[jenius]

Diecast and POM are great for toys, not models... Unless you want really expensive models.