DX Chogokin VF-171 Cannon Fodder

[Valk-1S]

Thanks Valk ,so you have to put a screw driver to force out the center piece first before the two halves can be taken apart ?

Yes that's correct. Once you get the center piece out the other parts can easily be taken apart. I have glued it back a few times, but nothing seems to really fix it. Last I did was to also glue the pin together with the broken parts in the hope that it will hold the broen pieces together better, but since then I have left it in fighter mode and have not transforms it again.

[ophio]

Yes that's correct. Once you get the center piece out the other parts can easily be taken apart. I have glued it back a few times, but nothing seems to really fix it. Last I did was to also glue the pin together with the broken parts in the hope that it will hold the broen pieces together better, but since then I have left it in fighter mode and have not transforms it again.

Oh my ....Guess mine will be fighter mode forever ... : ((((

[Chronocidal]

For a detailed set of pics of the disassembly, check this earlier post, I tried to color code everything to help explain how all the parts go together.

http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=37652&p=1135989

The big obvious part that needs to be replaced is that giant hollow plastic pin that actually locks inside the upper thigh, but that particular piece is why I want to smack the engineers who designed it. I've got a detailed pic of how that pin is supposed to work in my previous post, and it is the most pants-on-head RETARDED design I've ever seen for a pivot joint. It's not bad enough that you made the entire joint rely on a plastic pin for friction.. now you had to use a HOLLOW plastic peg, with a friction pin down the center.

How they expected that joint to ever survive the stress of even posing the leg, let alone the stupid torsion marathon it takes to get the legs back into fighter mode, I'll never know.

Edited March 13, 2015 by Chronocidal

[ophio]

For a detailed set of pics of the disassembly, check this earlier post, I tried to color code everything to help explain how all the parts go together.

http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=37652&p=1135989

The big obvious part that needs to be replaced is that giant hollow plastic pin that actually locks inside the upper thigh, but that particular piece is why I want to smack the engineers who designed it. I've got a detailed pic of how that pin is supposed to work in my previous post, and it is the most pants-on-head RETARDED design I've ever seen for a pivot joint. It's not bad enough that you made the entire joint rely on a plastic pin for friction.. now you had to use a HOLLOW plastic peg, with a friction pin down the center.

How they expected that joint to ever survive the stress of even posing the leg, let alone the stupid torsion marathon it takes to get the legs back into fighter mode, I'll never know.

Thanks for the insight Chronocidal ,looks like it is pretty much a gonna ..btw ,how do you remove the center piece ? by forcing a screw driver into it too ?

[Chronocidal]

Which center piece do you mean, the big cover cap on the thigh? I think I just had to keep prying under it with a screwdriver until it popped off. I kept the prying on one edge that's hidden in fighter mode at least, but it's just a ton of glue on that piece.

The rest of my leg kind of just fell apart, so I didn't have to do much prying.

[ophio]

Yup ,the big cover cap on the thigh .Looks like it's gona to be tough to get it to pop ..

[Duymon]

When this happened to one of my CF's I didn't bother trying to make a traditional repair. I filled the thigh with Epoxy and after it cured drilled a hole into it. Then I pinned the lower leg and glued it permanently in fighter position and left it it fighter mode

The overly engineered design plus the shoddy plastic makes a lot of the CF 171's dodgy.

Best of luck

[Axelay]

I'm probably one of the few (if not only one) that still has their triangles intact with no cracks. Good thing too since I only have one copy. I've transformed it back and forth probably half a dozen times before during the first couple of weeks after getting it. Haven't transformed it in a while though since most of my valks are in fighter mode display.

But as most people keep saying, purchase at your own risk. If you don't plan on fiddling around with it too much or are able to be extremely careful when handling, I'd say go for it as it is a nice looking display piece IMO.

Well, for as much as I am afraid that I will jinx myself by saying this, I can also claim to have no damage to mine. (Knock on wood.) I've transformed mine at least 15-20 times since having purchased it back when it first came out. Mine is wearing the super packs, too, and it's been standing in battroid mode in my display cabinet for a very long time now. I came out of my bedroom the other morning to find that one of my cats had been jumping vigorously on top of my Valkyrie display cabinet to the point that I found my 171 face down on the top shelf. I was certain that it was going to be broken... but nope. Not yet, anyway.

I am highly curious if the forthcoming white EX model with the Sheryl decal will have improved/redesigned joints, but I'm not terribly hopeful. I think my green 171 is a prime candidate to go back into its box to be replaced in my cabinet by the new white one as soon as it's in my hands.

[anubis20]

Well I bought another 171 from another member for $50. This one had cracked shoulders but they hold just fine. The one you see with no armor pack is the one I had before with completely crumbled shoulders..

So i go to apply the shapeways fix to the one with no armor and wow they work great.. but i swear this toy has a mind of its own because as soon as i fixed that, this happened.....

Chest hinge crumbled.... No matter what it wants to remain in junk mode with something broken It actually holds in battroid with one hinge but i believe it will only be a matter of time before the other hinge breaks.

[Guest davidwhangchoi]

wow! what a hunk of junk.

[Chronocidal]

Things wouldn't be quite so bad if they had made it easier to disassemble and repair, but Banda seems to have a fetish for covering their screw covers in glue, and/or gluing large panels over the screws themselves so you have no hope of disassembling anything without nearly destroying the parts.

The lower leg is absolutely terrible about this, and it's why I have nearly an entire 171 in my spare parts bin. The lower leg is screwed and glued together, and then instead of molding a large section of the leg into the rest of it, they slapped a massive glued-on panel over the seams, so you cant even pry it apart without destroying the added-on detail panel.

Maybe someday someone will make a shapeways replacement for the thigh/knee section, but the work to even open the leg to potentially fix it makes it seem like a lost cause.

[ErikElvis]

It makes me sad this things has so many problems. Its one of my favorites. I pieced one together that seems ok. Of course I haven't looked at mine in a while and don't plan on it. Maybe I can pick up a few EX's for extra parts.

[spanner]

Well I bought another 171 from another member for $50. This one had cracked shoulders but they hold just fine. The one you see with no armor pack is the one I had before with completely crumbled shoulders..

So i go to apply the shapeways fix to the one with no armor and wow they work great.. but i swear this toy has a mind of its own because as soon as i fixed that, this happened.....

Chest hinge crumbled.... No matter what it wants to remain in junk mode with something broken It actually holds in battroid with one hinge but i believe it will only be a matter of time before the other hinge breaks.

yikes! I know these things are notorious for breakage but yeah no matter what you repair it seems they just want to break again some place else!?

The 171 Scream Man gave me has had good shoulders fitted to it but I haven't checked too many of the other joints for issues.. Makes me think that I dare not touch it too much as it might turn to dust on me!

But don't they look a lot better all beefed up with the armor parts eh! It would have been nice to be able to stow that huge cannon some where else whilst in battroid mode though.. unless you can and im not aware!?

Edited March 13, 2015 by spanner76

[Chronocidal]

Actually, that chest hinge looks like it might not be too hard to make a replacement piece for. What I don't know is whether a 3d printed part would have the strength necessary for that kind of joint, depending on how it's attached. You might be able to put it in with a metal pin.

[ophio]

Tried to glue the broken parts together ,but it will not hold .So have redo everything all over again .The red plastic was from a pail handle knob which is super tough .Will be sanding it down and colour spray it as the final process .Hope it holds ..

[Chronocidal]

Really don't need to paint it, since that will be entirely concealed inside the joint, but that looks like it might work out pretty well! Here's hoping it holds up, and fixes the issue.

[ophio]

The red plastic was meant to be a pail knob from the handle which the entire pail can hold 15 kg of water .It is super tough ,i got cuts all over my fingers while sanding it into shape . I'm not worry about it breaking but the original plastic on the actual toy is what that worries me most .

Edited March 18, 2015 by ophio

[Xigfrid]

I opened my alto 171 and I think I figured out why the CF pictured broke. On my alto, the metallic pin is fixed into the foot side plastic (the red portion on the picture above), on the CF it is fixed to the plastic inside the thigh (black on the picture above) and this is why when rotating the leg, this pin literally eats and sand the plastic on the leg side, which is compressed by the knee spring, therefore this plastic explodes.

On the alto, the pin is fixed to the knee plastic, and "eats" the plastic inside the thigh, this piece is made of a heavy duty/self lubricating plastic, so it doesn't explode.

The exploded knee plastic piece should be easily made on shapeways using polished steel, the major problem is that it is very difficult to get access to this part and replace it...

I have opened it up to pictures shown, but now I got to open the leg from the ankle side to open the knee, not done yet!

Edited April 6, 2015 by Xigfrid

[mickyg]

Love all the work you're putting into the 171 line and can't wait to get my triangle parts in!

[Xigfrid]

Love all the work you're putting into the 171 line and can't wait to get my triangle parts in!

They are almost ready, you will get them very soon!

[spanner]

@ophio.. that's quite ingenious of you sir! nice work! Now this just needs to be refined and submitted to Shapeways!

[ophio]

Thanks Spanner ,hope it helps for those who suffer from broken parts for the 171 .

This 171 is really a nightmare ... the chest hinge of mine broke too , but luckily it can be fixed also ..

The tamiya epoxy was apply into the empty holes and let it dry and set for 24 hrs , then the rest is not so much of a difficulty .

Edited April 30, 2015 by ophio

[Rabidweezil]

While I was rearranging my display case I moved my VF-171 and a piece of one of the triangles just fell off of one side. And the other side is about to do the same thing.

I have NEVER transformed this Valkyrie. So for those of you thinking that staying in fighter mode will help keep this from happening, it won't.

Thanks Bandai.

[Mommar]

While I was rearranging my display case I moved my VF-171 and a piece of one of the triangles just fell off of one side. And the other side is about to do the same thing.

I have NEVER transformed this Valkyrie. So for those of you thinking that staying in fighter mode will help keep this from happening, it won't.

Thanks Bandai.

171.jpg

My theory is that due to the angle of the arms/attachment in fighter mode it's actually the most likely to break/crumble if you keep it in fighter.

[McFly!!]

Thanks for the warning, man!

[Valk-1S]

While I was rearranging my display case I moved my VF-171 and a piece of one of the triangles just fell off of one side. And the other side is about to do the same thing.

I have NEVER transformed this Valkyrie. So for those of you thinking that staying in fighter mode will help keep this from happening, it won't.

Thanks Bandai.

Yup, it will crack without doing anything. I had 7 of them, opened all 7 of them to check when new. Only one with crack NUNs and crack smaller triangle, and one with broken knee joint. Thought all good, left in box. Few months later decided to sell some of them, opened up the boxes and another 3 of them showed cracks on the NUNs and/or smaller triangle. It's just really bad plastic used by Bandai which crumbles easily.

[Chronocidal]

There definitely are some plastic issues going on with the 171s, but I also think they severely over-tightened the screws holding the shoulder triangles together. I've loosened all of mine as a precaution, and haven't had any of mine disintegrate so far.

[McFly!!]

There definitely are some plastic issues going on with the 171s, but I also think they severely over-tightened the screws holding the shoulder triangles together. I've loosened all of mine as a precaution, and haven't had any of mine disintegrate so far.

thanks for the tip! I have 3 misb and now I'm thinking that it may be necessary to bring them out and loosen those screws... Any tutorial vids?

[Chronocidal]

Not that I've seen, but it's just the single screw holding the triangles together. One of mine had that screw tightened so tight, it was visibly warping the lower half of the triangle by pinching it in the center. The damage on that one might be done in fact, but it's still holding for now.

[McFly!!]

thanks, Chronocidal! debating with myself on whether to open them or sell them misb at this point

[Scyla]

thanks, Chronocidal! debating with myself on whether to open them or sell them misb at this point

Sell them as Schroedingers Valks. It's a unique selling point for people who like to gamble.

[Chronocidal]

If you do wind up selling them, I'd actually prefer to know what to expect. Though, I'd actually like to get a cheap busted one with a good leg I could use to repair the one I have laying in pieces. Most of it is good, but the leg is just destroyed beyond repair.

[funkymonkeyjavajunky]

Has anyone every thought to build a diorama of a valk graveyard, with all of their destroyed Cannon Fodder's? At least you'd get some use out of the various broken parts and pieces.

[Graham]

I threw out all 4 of my 171 in disgust about 6 months ago (2 x CF & 2 x Alto).

[barurutor]

so even the Alto triangles broke?