DX Chogokin VF-171 Cannon Fodder

[Pedro2k6]

Just received my VF-171, a little reward for myself.

It's a fantastic valk and a brilliant design. No QC issues. No pieces missing and the triangles are good.

HOWEVER. The darn canopy hinge (the one you have to pull up) was so damn tight that it was impossible for me to lift up the cockpit hatch. I applied a little too much force and SNAP. Off the canopy went. Brilliant. Fantastic. Had the toy for only 5 minutes and it broke.

I thought I got it wrong and applied force at a bad angle or something, but I used a pair of pliers to pull out the hinge and found that it required significant force to pull out. It's as if some glue got into it and stuck it in place.

Oh well... In the end, I just put the pilot figure in and glued the canopy shut. No openable cockpit, but at least everything else is fine...

Same problem here but with yamato's VF-17, broke my toy 10 minutes after arrive. In the end i take out the pilote figure and superglue the canopy, is a very dark one so is very hard to see inside, now i had a extra pilote figure.

[raptormesh]

Well in the instruction booklet it was suggested that you use a pointed tool to lift the canopy up via small hole at the rear before you start angling.

[Pedro2k6]

Well in the instruction booklet it was suggested that you use a pointed tool to lift the canopy up via small hole at the rear before you start angling.

Too late .....miss that part.

[grymg]

Well in the instruction booklet it was suggested that you use a pointed tool to lift the canopy up via small hole at the rear before you start angling.

^^THIS. But I found out myself through trial and error.

[Loop]

On all 3 of my copies, I waited to open up the canopy until I was working on the chest area during transformation to battroid. It seemed to allow me more room to finagle the cockpit up to get the pilot in. It was too hard to do in fighter mode.

[skullmilitia]

damn, just opened my second one, and it has a cracked Black triangle.

fuddddggggeee!

[Actar]

^^THIS. But I found out myself through trial and error.

I did use an implement to try to raise it up, just like in your picture. But the cockpit wouldn't budge and it got to the point where it was warping due to the amount of force I was using... Why they didn't use a detachable hinge or make the connection looser is beyond me

Though, I guess the real question is why I decided that the use of such excessive force was necessary...

Edited July 6, 2013 by Actar

[xrentonx]

damn, just opened my second one, and it has a cracked Black triangle.

fuddddggggeee!

I just checked both of mine recently and I can see very small (smaller than hairline) fractures in the plastic. They haven't shattered yet and are holding but they are there if I look at it in broad daylight. Heart sank a little but I'm not very worried and I'm certainly not gonna rage out about it. I'm just gonna wait for the inevitable shapeways fix.

[wm cheng]

The amount of tampo printing is pretty amazing though... I think they've gotten everything from the anime.

[DyNo]

Has anyone contacted VF5SS about designing a replacement part yet?

[Actar]

If you guys don't mind, for those who have the Yamato VF-17 (S/D), how does that compare to Bandai's 171 (Alto/CF) in terms of sturdiness, transformation and overall quality? For the price, is it worth the extra cash to obtain?

[1/1 LowViz Lurker]

They are pretty sturdy and I have had no problems with mine. It is a simple transformation though. The main fault of it is that it is not loyal to the anime for how the gunpod stores.

Edited July 7, 2013 by 1/1 LowViz Lurker

[Gakken85]

the cockpit is so easy to open.

[raptormesh]

^^THIS. But I found out myself through trial and error.

Don't jam your tools in there lol, may scrap the edges. Here's a way to do it:

Lift it up via the rear hole, it should rise up nice and easy.

[grymg]

Don't jam your tools in there lol, may scrap the edges. Here's a way to do it:

Lift it up via the rear hole, it should rise up nice and easy.

worked like a charm, thanks. These tiny features are really hard to see.

[Actar]

Well, now that it broke, I don't suppose there's anyway of fixing it save for gluing it down permantly.

[Guest davidwhangchoi]

hlj are restocked again anyone need to order one or return one from breakage.

http://www.hlj.com/product/BAN980635/Sci

had them marked as discontinued for the second time prior.

[Pedro2k6]

hlj are restocked again anyone need to order one or return one from breakage.

http://www.hlj.com/product/BAN980635/Sci

had them marked as discontinued for the second time prior.

Amiami restock again. 12500 yens.

http://www.amiami.com/top/detail/detail?gcode=TOY-RBT-2966&page=top%2Fsearch%2Flist%3Fs_keywords%3Dmacross+chogokin%24pagemax%3D100%24getcnt%3D0%24pagecnt%3D1

[mechaninac]

Seriously done preordering any Bandai Frontier DXs. It would appear that these toys will finaly be readily available post release. I'm going to enjoy sleeping through the feeding frenzy of initial preorder postings, avoiding inflated N-Y and Nin-Nin and other's prices, skipping pay-upfront shops like CD-Japan and AE, ignoring post-release ebay gouging, doing away with the frustration and disappointment and feeling of getting ripped off that this whole process has entailed since the Ozma renewal hit the market.

Thank you Bandai for finally seeing that the huge demand for these toys more than justifies increased production runs so that being able to buy a copy is not such a chore, but just a normal purchasing experience. I just wish I had known this before overspending on the one VF-171 I got from N-Y and the one RVF-25 I foolishly purchased from Nin-Nin. Live and learn, and believe me, I've learned; I'll wait for post release restocks on the upcoming 27, 25A, probable 25S reissue, and any subsequent release that comes down the pipeline.

Edited July 8, 2013 by mechaninac

[Loop]

At this point I am OK with msrp or just a tiny bit more. I am not sure how the 25S re-release will play out or the 25F release for that matter. I think I will be canceling another NY 25F though as I have seen some pre orders go up that will be cheaper with faster shipping options to the 1x 25F I still have at NY with slow shipping lead time.

[skullmilitia]

The VF-171 Regular is completely off HLJ, not even the listing exists.

That must have been the last few.

[Duymon]

after getting tinged by overpaying for 6 vf-171's it's MSRP or below or none at all for me now. The Preorder madness really was not madness at all since It seems like I'm on night-shift and totally free to participate whenever the windows open up.

[Loop]

I mean tiny increase in MSRP like not very noticeable. But yeah after getting bent over for the 3x 171 CF's I got, I think that will not happen again. I was up on those pre-order nights with you but some how got screwed on a bunch of them and it became more of a game trying to find the lowest priced open pre-order. I can't remember which pre-order it was but I had no luck. I would get up to go to the bathroom to take a leak and miss it. I dozed off for like 30 seconds and lost it. On night 2 of the same pre-order waiting for another opening on a particular site, I dozed off again for a few minutes and I missed it. My wife even knew I was trying to get a pre-order in, walked in to my office and left me because I looked happy and so deep in sleep she did not want to disturb me.

Edited July 9, 2013 by Loop

[Guest davidwhangchoi]

The VF-171 Regular is completely off HLJ, not even the listing exists.

That must have been the last few.

that happened the last time it was discontinued. the page was taken off entirely. but today it magically showed up restocked. as well as amiami's site.

[Valk-1S]

Bandaied!!!!

[raptormesh]

Ouch, sorry to see that. Told ya that keeping Vajra pets ain't a good idea...

[David Hingtgen]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure the entire -171CF is made of explodium at this point. Explodium, held together by copious amounts of tampo-printing...

[TCracker]

Bandaied!!!!

What the fudge??

wow. That looks really distressing.

side note (referring to the pic) : I discovered the rotation of the legs will have to be done in conjunction of a click which releases the gears for it to be transformed in between modes.

I had a CF171 with very loose swivel on the left leg and there was no friction or clicking mechanism of any sort. After taking it apart, I found out that you will have to pull doen the knees to engage the gears in the swivel for it to be released / extended in Battriod mode.

hence my observation is - If the first few attempts you can get the legs to swivel and it is not budging, try extending the legs (where the thigh and knee meets) a few notches up or down and turn the leg swivel. chances are the gears needs to align in order to extend or retract.

[Loop]

Damn that sucks, is this the most broken toy in MW history by now?

[valhary]

at least by side of bandai yes

[Chronocidal]

side note (referring to the pic) : I discovered the rotation of the legs will have to be done in conjunction of a click which releases the gears for it to be transformed in between modes.

I had a CF171 with very loose swivel on the left leg and there was no friction or clicking mechanism of any sort. After taking it apart, I found out that you will have to pull doen the knees to engage the gears in the swivel for it to be released / extended in Battriod mode.

hence my observation is - If the first few attempts you can get the legs to swivel and it is not budging, try extending the legs (where the thigh and knee meets) a few notches up or down and turn the leg swivel. chances are the gears needs to align in order to extend or retract.

That entire idiotic leg design is the problem. There is no freaking reason they needed some overcomplicated interlock mechanism in the leg. It just made it a royal pain in the backside to rotate the legs, because the interlocks are so stupidly twitchy. All they had to do was make a decently sturdy rotating joint for the lower leg to twist on, but noooooooo....

I was honestly wondering how long it would be til someone snapped a leg off due to that stupid mess.

[Reïvaj]

Is it still correct the 5% failure rate that I saw in the Scorched Earth Toys review?

Durability & Build: (7/10)
This score is preliminary but so far the expected 5% failure rate seems to be correct. Most flaws people have found out of the box are minor and I have yet to see any catastrophic failures.

[grymg]

I'm not sure who else is not chiming in, but mine is perfectly fine. I transformed it around 5-10 times between all modes. I got mine from Amiami after it restocked.

Edited July 9, 2013 by grymg

[Valk-1S]

I'll say it's more than 5% for sure. I have 7 of them and 4 have issues. Some are really minor. One broken leg, one broken NUNs triangle piece, one crack black triangle piece below the NUNs piece, and one with broken black triangle piece below the NUNs and crack on the other side. The plastic used are of poor quality. Seems brittle and over time, I am afraid that more peices might start breaking if you tranform it regularly.

I transferred all the broken piece to one vf-171 and fix it using super glue. Finger were covered with super glue yesterday That one is going to stay in fighter mode and I am probably going to avoid transforming it much.

The NUNs piece is the most annoying piece to fix as mine broke to 5 seperate pieces. The leg was easy to fix. Didn't really pay attention to how the leg work, but I can see how stress is being placed at that joint. A piece in there is not circular so when rotating the leg at the knee you will get some restriction and I guess that is where the click sound comes from when returning it to fighter mode. Btw, my leg piece broke when I was first transforming it to check for QC issues.

Update:
The rotation of the leg back to fighter mode rotates in a different part of the leg as compared to where is broken for mine. I think the click sound should be okay as that is caused by the rotation below the knee. The broken part is the rotaion part that sits higher on the leg.

Edited July 11, 2013 by Valk-1S

[zzgundam010]

I'll say it's more than 5% for sure. I have 7 of them and 4 have issues. Some are really minor. One broken leg, one broken NUNs triangle piece, one crack black triangle piece below the NUNs piece, and one with broken black triangle piece below the NUNs and crack on the other side. The plastic used are of poor quality. Seems brittle and over time, I am afraid that more peices might start breaking if you tranform it regularly.

I transferred all the broken piece to one vf-171 and fix it using super glue. Finger were covered with super glue yesterday That one is going to stay in fighter mode and I am probably going to avoid transforming it much.

The NUNs piece is the most annoying piece to fix as mine broke to 5 seperate pieces. The leg was easy to fix. Didn't really pay attention to how the leg work, but I can see how stress is being placed at that joint. A piece in there is not circular so when rotating the leg at the knee you will get some restriction and I guess that is where the click sound comes from when returning it to fighter mode. Btw, my leg piece broke when I was first transforming it to check for QC issues.

The crack on the inside of the black triangle piece below the NUNS is not noticeable unless you take the shoulder apart. Folks may not realize that it is there at all.