Bandai DX YF-30 Chronos

[borgified]

Make sure that your also looking for signs of cigarette smoke @TommyWMan as some collectors can be heavy smokers and leave either a yellow film on the item or it totally reeks of nicotine. 
Humidity and other issues will add to the problem and the previous owners will not often disclose it. 

[Lolicon]

The fact of the matter is if you're buying an unopened Bandai valkyrie that's several years old, you're playing Schrodinger's yellowing. 

If only there was a front flap and window so you could see the valkyrie without opening it... 

[borgified]

Did you just re-dig up the Chronos from storage or had this done from years ago @jenius? 

[jenius]

Here's how that came about:

1) Start doing review of VF-171EX toys. Pull all of them and their armor parts out of storage

2) Remember that the missiles from the armor parts fit on YF-30 toys so I pull that out too

3) Test to see if the missiles work on VF-1 toys. Then start using VF-1 missiles on other toys. 

4) Get a bunch of pictures of the YF-30 with some other missiles and go to add them to my YF-30 review and realize that it's not up to the standard of my more recent reviews

5) Update the YF-30 review with lots of new content and, seeing as it only had a transformation guide in one direction, make one of those also

6) Finally put the YF-30 toy away and turn my attention back to the VF-171 i was SUPPOSED to be reviewing all along. 

Shorter answer: It's new! 

Edited March 12 by jenius

[PointBlankSniper]

I thought it was just to flex how it has not horrifically yellowed 😂

[borgified]

There was one member that posted a Chronos that looked like it came from a restaurant that cooked curry and slathered in brown (bay leaves) and yellow (curry power) on the wings a few years ago. It was actually from a Manda listing and it got sold for ¥27k. 

[Lolicon]

All this talk of YF-30 yellowing made me concerned for the spare YF-30 I had in storage so I pulled her out of her box to make sure she was okay.

Does she appear yellow at all or is the color imbalance between the painted parts and the plastic just the usual poor Bandai color matching? My other YF-30 is has been modified so I can't use her as a point of reference.

[Bolt]

23 hours ago, jenius said:

Here's how that came about:

1) Start doing review of VF-171EX toys. Pull all of them and their armor parts out of storage

2) Remember that the missiles from the armor parts fit on YF-30 toys so I pull that out too

3) Test to see if the missiles work on VF-1 toys. Then start using VF-1 missiles on other toys. 

4) Get a bunch of pictures of the YF-30 with some other missiles and go to add them to my YF-30 review and realize that it's not up to the standard of my more recent reviews

5) Update the YF-30 review with lots of new content and, seeing as it only had a transformation guide in one direction, make one of those also

6) Finally put the YF-30 toy away and turn my attention back to the VF-171 i was SUPPOSED to be reviewing all along. 

Shorter answer: It's new! 

Haha. Awesome!

 

1 hour ago, Lolicon said:

All this talk of YF-30 yellowing made me concerned for the spare YF-30 I had in storage so I pulled her out of her box to make sure she was okay.

Does she appear yellow at all or is the color imbalance between the painted parts and the plastic just the usual poor Bandai color matching? My other YF-30 is has been modified so I can't use her as a point of reference.

she looks pretty white on my iPhone..

[MacrossJunkie]

2 hours ago, Lolicon said:

All this talk of YF-30 yellowing made me concerned for the spare YF-30 I had in storage so I pulled her out of her box to make sure she was okay.

Does she appear yellow at all or is the color imbalance between the painted parts and the plastic just the usual poor Bandai color matching? My other YF-30 is has been modified so I can't use her as a point of reference.

Hard to tell from the photos. Could be my eyes playing tricks on me or the lighting, but the wings and the fuselage don't look the same white as say the lower thighs and knees or the missile pod attachment arm, for example. I'd say it's white enough still in any case. 

[MKT]

1 hour ago, Bolt said:

Haha. Awesome!

 

she looks pretty white on my iPhone..

I remember there is slight difference in tone between parts when new.. some are slightly cooler and other areas are warmer white. So your's look pretty much as good as new.

[Lolicon]

On 3/12/2024 at 11:42 PM, MacrossJunkie said:

Hard to tell from the photos. Could be my eyes playing tricks on me or the lighting, but the wings and the fuselage don't look the same white as say the lower thighs and knees or the missile pod attachment arm, for example. I'd say it's white enough still in any case. 

 

On 3/12/2024 at 11:54 PM, MKT said:

I remember there is slight difference in tone between parts when new.. some are slightly cooler and other areas are warmer white. So your's look pretty much as good as new.

Thanks for the input.

Before going back into storage, she's getting a panel wash and a topcoat in the hope that it will prevent future yellowing. Damn Bandai and their cheap plastics.

[Uxi]

A shame about the yellowing.  And the Mission Packs are apparently a different size from the VF-31 Delta toys. Would be nice to see a v2, perhaps with a variant of one of the color schemes from Macross 30 (blue stripes?) And VF-31 Mission Pack compatibility. 

[Mommar]

On 3/12/2024 at 8:37 PM, Lolicon said:

All this talk of YF-30 yellowing made me concerned for the spare YF-30 I had in storage so I pulled her out of her box to make sure she was okay.

Does she appear yellow at all or is the color imbalance between the painted parts and the plastic just the usual poor Bandai color matching? My other YF-30 is has been modified so I can't use her as a point of reference.

It's Bandai's standard sloppy matching.  Both of mine still look like that.

[Graham]

I wish Bandai would re-issue the Chronos.

[PointBlankSniper]

6 hours ago, Graham said:

I wish Bandai would re-issue the Chronos.

With reworked built in braces. From my understanding, it barely even needed the extra braces, so some tiny internal additions should be enough. And then a less prone to yellow plastic or finish. That or do the two other colors that they are definitely never gonna do lol

[MKT]

8 hours ago, Graham said:

I wish Bandai would re-issue the Chronos.

+1. It could be the only DX mold Bandai hasn't milked yet.
31A Kairos is another, but its technically 89% the same as the other Siegfrieds.  

[NoctisTalem]

Hey so the clip that connects the parts to the shoulder broke finally, and I was wondering if there is any  3D print replacement parts for it

[MacrossJunkie]

9 hours ago, MKT said:

+1. It could be the only DX mold Bandai hasn't milked yet.
31A Kairos is another, but its technically 89% the same as the other Siegfrieds.  

I really wish they made more of the 30's.  I really wanted this:

I personally think the YF-30 with its wings and stabilizers looked better than the 31's implementation, especially the forward swept wing variants. The A and AX were alright, but still not as appealing to me compared to the 30. 

[Chronocidal]

I do think they needed to merge the designs and replace the YF-30's tails though.  Those were probably the weakest feature, both aesthetically and structurally, of the entire design. 

Yes, even worse than the stadium lights.  

They just needed to slide them forward and mount them to the wings solidly like the VF-31 series had, and it would have been a solid improvement all around.

That actually reminds me, I think I did start on a design for a replacement set of tails to just snap over the existing stubs with something that blended smoothly into the base of the hinge fairing.  Not even a difficult thing to do either, those tails come of extremely easy... which is part of the problem.

Edited September 25 by Chronocidal

[MKT]

I'm just musing, these Macross 30 paint schemes or molds will likely not be reissued, unless the game itself is remastered in some way for modern consoles as a tie-in. After all, any new fans coming into Macross collecting can still easily pick up media for any of the old series - but Macross 30 is really quite inaccessible now. 

[PointBlankSniper]

I personally like they orange one more. The main color covers more of the plane and makes it less monochrome looking. Maybe the purple one would grow on me if I could see it in a different lighting that makes the gray parts pop out against the black.

If they really wanted to milk the molds, I think there are ways to do it without the game. They could just promote it in an SRW game for example. Or pull off a random year anniversary and give it a one shot 5 page eplilogue manga or a minute of animation. If not, they could always just cameo it with Leon in the next series. Isamu only needed 2 seconds of screen time to make a comeback after all lmao.

[Chronocidal]

8 hours ago, PointBlankSniper said:

I personally like they orange one more. The main color covers more of the plane and makes it less monochrome looking. Maybe the purple one would grow on me if I could see it in a different lighting that makes the gray parts pop out against the black.

If they really wanted to milk the molds, I think there are ways to do it without the game. They could just promote it in an SRW game for example. Or pull off a random year anniversary and give it a one shot 5 page eplilogue manga or a minute of animation. If not, they could always just cameo it with Leon in the next series. Isamu only needed 2 seconds of screen time to make a comeback after all lmao.

Agreed, I always wanted that red one made.  

Though I think Isamu's cameo was more of a sly move by Bandai to squeeze into the YF-19 market by way of introducing a "legally distinct, totally not a YF-19 (even though it looks exactly like a YF-19)" product.  I'm not privy to all of the background copyright/licensing shenanigans involved, but it certainly was surprising seeing Bandai casually drop a direct competitor to Arcadia into the market, when we generally hadn't seen the two companies with any directly competing licensing before.

[Mommar]

15 hours ago, MacrossJunkie said:

I really wish they made more of the 30's.  I really wanted this:

I personally think the YF-30 with its wings and stabilizers looked better than the 31's implementation, especially the forward swept wing variants. The A and AX were alright, but still not as appealing to me compared to the 30. 

Outside of the rear stabilizers being attached to a twig, I agree.

[Mommar]

14 hours ago, Chronocidal said:

I

That actually reminds me, I think I did start on a design for a replacement set of tails to just snap over the existing stubs with something that blended smoothly into the base of the hinge fairing.  Not even a difficult thing to do either, those tails come of extremely easy... which is part of the problem.

 

...You have my attention.

[Chronocidal]

I'm kind of debating whether it makes sense to try and print something, or just make the hinge mounts by slicing the noses off a couple of spare missiles, and cutting the tails out of plastic sheet.  I'll have to take some measurements, now that I'm thinking about it.  

Sadly, this is exactly the type of thing I would have tried to get from Shapeways, just because of how rugged their materials were.

Edited September 25 by Chronocidal