Arcadia YF-19 coming in 2014

[Reïvaj]

Oh, one thing I realized... I remember someone wishing the canards folded down like the VF-4, instead of rotating. That actually wouldn't work, because unles they rotate backwards so the sweep is in the opposite direction, they'd probably be interfering with the hip joints.

Yeah, you're right there.

Anyway, sorry to see so many dissatisfied people around.

[Kanedas Bike]

Yeah, you're right there.

Anyway, sorry to see so many dissatisfied people around.

More like underwhelmed, or even disappointed relative to expectation of product or price. And yeah, me too - I like my toys and if people stop buying from one company or the other then the chances of me continuing to have the opportunity to buy said toys diminishes, and that makes me .

-b.

[Horatio Positronic]

Yeah, you're right there.

Anyway, sorry to see so many dissatisfied people around.

I haven't really chimed in on the thread much, but I figured I'd speak up to say that I'm completely satisfied with my YF-19. It's only my 6th big Valkyrie (3 previous Yamatos and two Bandais), but it's by far my new favorite. Mine has no major defects, it was easier to transform than I expected, and it looks absolutely great.

[Chronocidal]

I can't actually say I'm dissatisfied, or even disappointed. The only real gripes I have are that they changed the wing glove pivots, the knees look unfinished with the weird sliding tab they added, and they didn't change the ankles any. I might have to come up with a different gunpod design for all the F-19s to let it stay level though.. if they actually sat closer to the belly, I might mount them more often.

Could they have improved things? Probably, but it's still a beautiful piece of engineering. I've been waiting for a good one for so long, the little quibbles don't amount to enough to detract from it in any serious way.

As far as not predicting that the backplate might scratch the cockpit though.. remember, this is inheriting most of the engineering behind the VF-19s. None of those had any paint on the nose, so it was never an issue.

Edited April 11, 2014 by Chronocidal

[HG Blows]

Yup thats how I try to keep them. I hate scratches because once I see the defect, my eyes are automatically drawn to said defect and it bugs the hell out of me The gloves are for the fingerprints, cant remember who told me this when i was young but they said oil from your skin damages finishes and ive been paranoid since. Dont know if it was true or not but now its just hardwired into my brain

I checked to see if mine had the battroid rubbing issue, and it doesn't but I still want to mask it just in case. But will leaving the tape on too long, and eventually peeling it off take the paint off as well? I usually don't mess with my figures much once I get them posed on my shelf, so that's why I'm asking.

[Mommar]

An interesting thing I've noticed now that my non-broken one has arrived from HLJ. The wings aren't even on both sides. Now that I'm not distracted by the broken wing (though I did go back and compare), on both YF-19's it's like the angle of the wing is slightly different on the left side. It's more noticeable with the missiles on. But it drives me nuts. I've checked out the metal bar inside the wing glove and something is mounted ever so slightly different. That stupid high speed mode as ruined something else about this thing.

[anubis20]

I checked to see if mine had the battroid rubbing issue, and it doesn't but I still want to mask it just in case. But will leaving the tape on too long, and eventually peeling it off take the paint off as well? I usually don't mess with my figures much once I get them posed on my shelf, so that's why I'm asking.

I use low tack masking tape from tamiya and it hasnt caused a problem on any of my valks.

[mechaninac]

Got mine from HLJ today; no defects or breakages that I can detect. It looks impressive, but like many previous posters, I too am a little underwhelmed... not as much as I was with Yamato's version, however.

[Chronocidal]

An interesting thing I've noticed now that my non-broken one has arrived from HLJ. The wings aren't even on both sides. Now that I'm not distracted by the broken wing (though I did go back and compare), on both YF-19's it's like the angle of the wing is slightly different on the left side. It's more noticeable with the missiles on. But it drives me nuts. I've checked out the metal bar inside the wing glove and something is mounted ever so slightly different. That stupid high speed mode as ruined something else about this thing.

I noticed something that seems kind of similar, but I'm not sure what the cause is. Mostly.. it just looks like there isn't an actual "solid" place where the wings are supposed to sit. If you press them fully against the legs, the pylons are mounted at a very slight outward angle (similar to how a superhornet has them).

The metal rotation bars for my wings were actually fairly loose, so I put a drop of thin superglue onto the metal to tighten it up, and it's worked fine so far. But yeah, the tolerances on those hinges are very tight, and any foreign material in them could make them not align correctly.

[Guest davidwhangchoi]

i'm overwhelmed with the transformation. i need to go find some low tack masking tape before i even start.

[close313]

You guys also need to be careful with the grey paint under the chest area next to the tube like machine gun things( no idea what they are). Whenever you snap the chest over the nose, that part can get scratched by the red transparent plastic. I have scratched mine already.

[Kanedas Bike]

Wings on mine are even/symmetrical.

Also want to clarify my earlier post, I'm happy with my purchase and don't have any "issues" with the release. I was say I'm also sorry to see/read that others are less than pleased.

It could be a vocal minority or just the theme for this 19 iteration.

-b.

[fr4nklin]

its not that scary to transform. i did mine with brute force ( hahaha ) and its still intact in good shape

[no3Ljm]

Just want to share this. Something to look besides the metal backplate scratching the black paint on the cockpit. I got this small dot scratch the first time I transformed the valk. The black paint on the top of the fuselage that rests on the backplate swivel part towards the buttocks area. It's better to put some cushion on there too for precaution. Hope that helps.

[Kicker773]

Ugh....will try to transform one of them. Checked the sets from hlj. No broken wings as I look through the flaps. One box has a very small dingon te edge. Surprisingly hlj didn't ship them in Arcadia sealed boxes. i guess to save on shipping.

[1/1 LowViz Lurker]

Just checked mine and yes!! You are right!!

The hinge on mine is stiff, I didn't know that the metal bar can actually slide towards the nose cone, after using some force, finally got it right!!

Thank you!!!

You see? This is why Mr.K needs to give us videos of the transformation with proper commentary.

There are going to be people who know they did something wrong but because parts are tight they are too scared to pull and push too hard for fear it might break something that was not meant to be treated roughly. What a video does is show everything moving in motion. So if you do have a very tight piece you can take satisfaction that you've seen that part move before in the video and not guess.

There are also things videos may show that might not even be in manuals. Oh well.

Edited April 11, 2014 by 1/1 LowViz Lurker

[Renato]

But the transformation is 99% the same as the Yamato VF-19 series, and lots of people including Mr. K have already uploaded dozens of transformation videos of those.

[barurutor]

I checked to see if mine had the battroid rubbing issue, and it doesn't but I still want to mask it just in case. But will leaving the tape on too long, and eventually peeling it off take the paint off as well? I usually don't mess with my figures much once I get them posed on my shelf, so that's why I'm asking.

Dumb question: why not apply the tape on the metal part rubbing the cockpit instead?

[Chronocidal]

That will still cause rubbing against the paint, though. You want to avoid direct friction with the painted surface.

[Sam]

Chiming in that my two from HLJ are fine out of box and absolutely LOVE the look of this valk! Only transformed a few times so far but its good quality, only noticed a couple of paint rubs *one on the head stripes when it was pushed in for valk mode only a small one*

Wish my poor 21 could stand up beside it unassisted ! I too would like another attempt made at it =-)

[1/1 LowViz Lurker]

Well, after 7 days in transit via EMS... I finally got my hands on this toy. I agree with everything already said about this toy, but still am a bit disappointed, especially factoring the $300+ cdn price tag (in fact it was closer to $390cdn after shipping, I didn't get the Black Friday sale - but luckily I escaped customs or duties, so NY comes through again, although a bit late for charging a steep 5,400Y in EMS that took 7 days!). Luckily my copy is fine, no breakages yet. I have the non-aligning right tail fin (how did you correct that again? - the other one is fine) and one of my little gullet doors don't close flush (how was that corrected again... where was the excess glue? - these threads move so fast, I couldn't find the solution back 10 pages!) Maybe we could start a new thread or pin these corrections to the front of this thread (along with sanding the rear backpack as to not scratch the black paint). I'd just thought for such an expensive toy, we wouldn't have to make all these corrections right out of the box!

I am more critical of this toy because its a 50% increase in MSRP - I don't get a 50% increase in pay for doing nothing, I expect that much better quality or design. If it were a 5% increase or something geared to inflation, then I would expect the same quality as before. What if the cost of living just went up 50% - wouldn't people expect more or be more critical?

No denying its a beauty, but that's got more to do with the original K design.

I don't mind the plastic, its way better than the glossy finish which I think looks cheap & toylike IMHO. How come no one has mentioned the really low hanging down tilted gunpod, its almost touching the ground when the landing gears are out - if only the gears were a few milimeters taller. I find there is excessive gap on the back between back plate and intakes that really detracts from the aircraft mode - I was hoping that it was just mis-aligned, but it I see it in all the photos and now I see that its the design of the toy. Funny how some panels have a great tight flush fit like the little doors around the head, but you've got huge gaps at other areas. That collapsing side panels on the shield still creates a huge gap either side when they're extended - why create the collapsing panels when they don't even cover much when they are extended. It just seems unnecessarily complicated / over-engineered to the point that its more fragile than fun to transform. I wished there was a simpler canopy hinge that doesn't involve a partial transformation to just open or close the canopy or I really don't see why the tail fins needs that extra hinge to fold back that part, it really doesn't contribute to the look in anyway. Then on the opposite side of the coin, why not hinge the canards like the VF-4 instead of pulling them out and rotating them / a very non-elegant awkward (parts-former) solution. I just don't get it - what could the Arcadia engineers be thinking? The real lack of tampo printing really bothers me - especially when they chose to not include waterslide decals yet they do for their VF-1 releases. I have to give Bandai props for printing everything on the toy. Some panel lines are impossibly faint too (such as the grey stripes on the top).

Overall, I'm happy they revisited the YF-19 (I never bought the original because of the fat gullet) but I'm not overly impressed with Arcadia. I was hoping for a VF-4 quality toy from here on out, but I'd say its below Yamato VF-4 and SDF-1 around the VF-11 quality - maybe even below Bandai VF-25 renewals as at least they are fun to transform and have everything printed on them AND INCLUDES A STAND (excluding the pre-ordering fiasco!). I no longer have as high hopes for the VF-0D... which is too bad. I just hoped the first new Arcadia toy would just hit one out of the park! I think a lot of people are letting Arcadia off easy because they spent so much for a toy (people tend to like stuff just because they spent a lot of money on it, its like self justification) - I on the other hand feel overly critical because they thought they could charge so much for a toy of this level. I'm glad I didn't get more than one, I had thought to get 2 since I actually think they really improved the Battroid mode the most but I don't feel they deserve my second purchase. I am "satisfied" with my one copy and will display it in the "This is Animation" cover configuration after I had corrected it, with decals, light weathering and panel lining - I just really wanted to be "over-joyed" with it. I think THAT was my biggest disappointment.

Now please, can someone print true white and make us some aftermarket waterslide decals? Pretty please??!

I agree with the whole "people give them an easy pass because they spent a lot of money on it". But the company went belly up so that might have something to do with it too. People are generally afraid no future releases from yamato/arcadia. Unlike Bandai they are a small company.

However.... A lot of people who say I will only get one are usually full of crap. They say that about 1/48. Then ended up getting as many as they could afford. If you can afford it (whether or not it is worth the money) it is usually wise for smaller company to set a high price first, sell out, then create more, release it at lower price for those who didn't pay the high price on the first release, etc than to just price it low and then overproduce. This way it creates demand from the collectors who feel that the appeal of the toys are in getting things nobody else can have.

The quality on mine is problem-free. It looks better than the vf-19 (I am not a fan of the cheap shiny plastic and the super robot look of macross 7 valks except the vf-17 and vf-11c - I don't care how much japan loves it and how great they think basara are I have better taste :-P ) and is a big enough improvement over the old yf-19 that it does justify the price ....to me. It is like comparing the Optimus Prime Masterpiece to the new optimus prime masterpiece. just look at the f*cking articulation. (to me this is a major improvement for robot mode fans.

But for those who feel the build quality isn't good enough I respect that. But you guys need to stop paying for stuff if you think it was crap. What that does is it sends a message to the company that you will still cave if they are lazy. And then they leave it at high price.

This is the way you talk: with money. If you bought one, you basically lost their attention because that is all they care about. The money. People like me can afford it because we don't own many different toys so I guess they are aiming for the desperate people first and working their way down to the least desperate. It is interesting that you mention the yf-19 is on the level of the vf-11 because I actually thought the VF-11 was awesome. It is a shame it didn't sell well.

What parts about the VF-19 that you think are better that the YF-19 is worse at? Apart from chunkier feel (due to the mecha design itself - the yf-19 has less overall meat on its legs for instance) to it, I really don't see what the difference is. The only thing I see is how the wings can get loose because of the hispeed mode. Perhaps people are complaining in the hope it goes down in price rather than the existing people going easy on it because they spent a lot on it? Those who spent a lot on it agree it is overpriced for them. But those who are complaining are not giving the examples needed for arcadia to address the issues they have. I don't have any loose parts, cracked pieces or quality control issues on mine. Hopefully those who are not happy with it can do a detailed review of all the things they do not feel satisfied with on the toy. Rate it out of ten.

I do agree about things like lack of tampo printing. There is no excuse for that. These are supposed to be premium. Why don't they do that stuff? It's not a model kit. It's a toy. I hate having to add stickers/decals on toys and they will eventually come off anyway. Just do the printing ffs. Then maybe later on release a plain unpainted version of the toy for those who want to make a custom paintjob that is non-canon.

Edited April 11, 2014 by 1/1 LowViz Lurker

[1/1 LowViz Lurker]

I rewatched plus last night and I had a question. It's specifically stated the point of the 2 yf's being tested is to include fold technology in them. I may have missed the line explaining it, but when isamu and the kid are heading to earth, why does the yf-19 need a fold booster?

It's meant as a special ops valk and to replace the VF-11 as the main fighter in future.

The fold lets them get great distance without needing a big ship. They can get deep behind enemy lines and do special missions like protect hostages and stuff which are more sensitive mission types that involve a bit of sneakiness. You'll note in the ova there is a scene where guld and dyson are involving in a target practice test and the bad guy targets have innnocent civilians in front of them as shields and Dyson shoots the innocent ones. (maybe not the best idea to have hot-head pilot for that test which requires a more cool-headed person) But he saved the girl in the end so who gives a sh!t. It's an anime.

Edited April 11, 2014 by 1/1 LowViz Lurker

[warrhead]

thats $100 off retail! too bad just got mine from a local seller and will pick it up tomorrow

Ordered.

http://www.hlj.com/product/ACA82042

and

http://www.hlj.com/product/DMG-1-ACA82042/Sci

...I'm confused, was the scratch and dent price lower than your link is indicating now? The scratch and dent listing is actually more than their regular item price. WTF?

Edited April 11, 2014 by warrhead

[close313]

http://www.hlj.com/product/ACA82042

and

http://www.hlj.com/product/DMG-1-ACA82042/Sci

...I'm confused, was the scratch and dent price lower than your link is indicating now? The scratch and dent listing is actually more than their regular item price. WTF?

When HLJ solds out an item. The listing reverts back to the original retail price Edited April 11, 2014 by close313

[Kurisama]

Got my scratch and dent from HLJ today - 4 days from japan to me in Aus - super awesome fig, nothing wrong with it except loose ankles :-/

[Scream Man]

I think things like the slightly loose ankles or minor scratches don't bother me because... Well, they're toys. I mean they cost a lot, and we can nitpick till the cows come home but it's still a really full on expensive child's plaything.

A scratch or nick here n there is just the nature of toys. Doesn't bother me much at all.

[1/1 LowViz Lurker]

I really think they needed a stand for this like the sv-51.

[auberondreaming]

It's meant as a special ops valk and to replace the VF-11 as the main fighter in future.

The fold lets them get great distance without needing a big ship. They can get deep behind enemy lines and do special missions like protect hostages and stuff which are more sensitive mission types that involve a bit of sneakiness. You'll note in the ova there is a scene where guld and dyson are involving in a target practice test and the bad guy targets have innnocent civilians in front of them as shields and Dyson shoots the innocent ones. (maybe not the best idea to have hot-head pilot for that test which requires a more cool-headed person) But he saved the girl in the end so who gives a sh!t. It's an anime.

My confusion is that they specifically say the point of the fighters is to incorporate fold technology. The red plastic on the nose of the yf-19? Thats a fold crystal, no? So I'm confused because I thought these fighter could fold WITHOUT the need of a fold booster, that was supposed to be built in?

[skullmilitia]

Fold crystals started in M:F. The red clear parts in the nose of the YF-19 are for cameras.

[Matt Random]

I really think they needed a stand for this like the sv-51.

I think every valkyrie should come with one. It just makes sense for something that spends most of it's time in the air or space. The toy looks more natural if it appears to be floating.

[Mommar]

I think things like the slightly loose ankles or minor scratches don't bother me because... Well, they're toys. I mean they cost a lot, and we can nitpick till the cows come home but it's still a really full on expensive child's plaything.

A scratch or nick here n there is just the nature of toys. Doesn't bother me much at all.

When it can't stand up in Battroid mode out of the box that isn't minor. If you can't stand it up, that's a broken toy.

[erikos0311]

This Valk looks really promising!! It will be my 1st YF- 19!! So, I got mine from HLJ and I recently moved to South Korea (APO) and I wanted to have my package delivered here but HLJ does not ship to APO?!?! What should I do? I was thinking of just have it shipped to Texas (parents house) and then here but I was wondering if there is another way for my package not to make a trip all the way across the ocean and back. LOL any suggestions??

[master of macross]

landed my 2x in "brown arcadia box" now GO GO GO PHOTO

[Deadeye_281]

This Valk looks really promising!! It will be my 1st YF- 19!! So, I got mine from HLJ and I recently moved to South Korea (APO) and I wanted to have my package delivered here but HLJ does not ship to APO?!?! What should I do? I was thinking of just have it shipped to Texas (parents house) and then here but I was wondering if there is another way for my package not to make a trip all the way across the ocean and back. LOL any suggestions??

Army postings can be a pain in the a$$ sometimes. Although I'm not US Forces, there have to be South Korean personnel that you could possiblly liaise with if there are any such personnel in your shop, IE: ask them if they'd be willing to let you use their mail addy for shipping purposes. Buy him/her a beer at the mess afterwards?

[Actar]

With one of my Finals out of the way, I finally got the time to take the YF-19 out of the package and transformed it to Gerwalk and then to Battroid. It's gorgeous and whilst not as durable feeling as the VF-19s, this one is undeniably a significant upgrade from the previous 19 which I've had for a good number of years. One can really appreciate the advancement of technology when comparing them side-by-side. Love all the in-built features and the improvements in terms of stability and engineering. But yes, I do suppose it's rather underwhelming when compared to the VF-19 due to the fact that we've gotten used to many of the new gimmicks and engineering. While I know it might not be accurate, the accurate Battroid cockpit gimmick of the VF-19 really impressed me and I can't see anything that matches that in this mold (perhaps the sweep wings?).

However, I can't not agree with the complaints of loose ankles. Thankfully, my 19 can at least stand straight up, but any overly dynamic pose is out of the question. Will most likely use the stand I got from the VF-1S.

Also, this is the first time I cut myself whilst transforming a VF. Sliced my thumb on the nosecone, of all things, when adjusting the chest.

Really want an updated 21 now!

Edited April 11, 2014 by Actar