Bandai VF-19 Advance....!!!

[Xigfrid]

Thanks, guys, for the input!

I think I may try going with the styrene idea and take the discount. The styrene may be the easiest route for me. I've got no knowledge or skill with how to make stuff for Shapeways. I toyed with the idea of epoxy putty, but that stuff is really hard for me to shape or use. I just don't think I could make it look right.

I am sorry for you, I don't have this VF-19, but if you can take measurements of the antenna I can make a replacement.

In WSF or even steel so that it won't break again!!

[xrentonx]

Man, that kinda sucks it doesn't tab in.

I wish I could make quality review videos.

[VF5SS]

I should have mine soon. I will do a video before the text review.

[Chronocidal]

Managed to pick mine up at lunch today, since it arrived at the local post office after the trucks went out, and wouldn't have been delivered until tomorrow, but they had already processed it.

Been piddling around with it a bit, I had to mostly transform the thing to gerwalk to actually get all the parts lined up, because whoever packed it had basically left everything as gappy and disheveled as possible. Looks good in fighter so far, though getting everything aligned is a real trick.

And as creative as the neck cover/shield connection is, I wish they had just left them apart, because that entire setup is just a pain to deal with.

[anubis20]

Got mine today, i have to say very nice but not fun to transform. Attaching the fast pack was a joy unlike the Arcadia one. Still as far as transformation goes the Arcadia wins in my book. Also the chest dislodging when moving the arms is big con

[xrentonx]

Did you make the legs look shorter somehow?

[Sandman]

Got mine today, i have to say very nice but not fun to transform. Attaching the fast pack was a joy unlike the Arcadia one. Still as far as transformation goes the Arcadia wins in my book. Also the chest dislodging when moving the arms is big con

Its funny how changing a few parts can make the 19 look like a whole new design.

[anubis20]

Did you make the legs look shorter somehow?

I have no clue i just transformed it by what i remembered from the transformation video

[Loop]

Renton, I think he just actually transformed the legs correctly. They are designed like the Yamato VF-19's that had a mechanism to bring the legs up.

[Graham]

Still loving the Bandai far more than the Arcadia.

Although there are a few visual nitpicks (that I've already listed), no toy is perfect, I just can't stop playing with the Bandai.

I've got the FAST packs (sans wing boosters) on my first one in Battroid mode to give it a Macross Plus vibe and my second on is pure bare Fighter mode, as I always prefered the 19 in Fighter mode naked without FAST Packs.

Anyway the PROS as I see it:

• The level of surface detail and tampo is amazing and looks great. Really makes the Arcadia look unfinished by comparison.
• Toy transforms relatively easily between all three modes (without FAST Packs), once you get used to the various extra folding panels. Yes therere are more steps than the Arcadia, but it's not rocket science.
• Joints are nice and tight (Yay for ankles, hips and shoulders so far.............touch wood).
• Toy locks together well and can be handled in a mostly fairly carefree manner in all modes, without fear of it coming unlocked.
• Good posability.
• Looks awesome! Ha said already, but it really does.

The CONS:

• Difficult to attach FAST Packs in Fighter mode (mind you Arcadia and Yamato were the same also in this regard).
• Feet stick out a bit too far in fighter mode (minor visual nitpick). I can live with this.
• Gunpod is too skinny (minor visal nitpick). I can live with this.
• Small gap between sides of shield and legs in fighter mode (minor visual nitpick). I can live with this.
• Canards would look better if they could angle up more in Fighter and Gerwalk modes (minor visual nitpick). I can live with this.

Anyway, love both mine and have no regrets about buying them.

Graham

[calubin_175]

If the YF-29B sells well, they may do a VF-19 Hamaval color from Macross 30, unless they just want to focus on Hi-Metal R.

[xrentonx]

Renton, I think he just actually transformed the legs correctly. They are designed like the Yamato VF-19's that had a mechanism to bring the legs up.

Good news if it was because that looks better! I'll find out in a couple days.

[MacrossJunkie]

I am sorry for you, I don't have this VF-19, but if you can take measurements of the antenna I can make a replacement.

In WSF or even steel so that it won't break again!!

Thanks for the offer! I appreciate it a whole lot.

For now I'm going to give the styrene a try first. I already ordered some sheets of styrene and a pin vise from Amazon and hopefully I'll be able to do something with it. Hopefully it's not too hard to work with. I've never tried something like this before. I'm guessing I'll need to use some modeling putty as well to fill in the gaps between layers and smooth it out.

[Chronocidal]

Honestly, you might not even need to. The laser has two engraved lines circling it, so I'm guessing it probably broke at one of those? If you round the edge of the new piece you attach, you'll just keep the detail there, and it'll hide the seam nicely. Might not even need to sand it, it'll just be a clean butt-joint.

[charger69]

If the YF-29B sells well, they may do a VF-19 Hamaval color from Macross 30, unless they just want to focus on Hi-Metal R.

Any visuals?

[neoexcaliber]

Any visuals?

The only other prominently featured VF-19 in the game is the the pink one. I'm assuming he's talking about that.

Edited June 26, 2015 by neoexcaliber

[calubin_175]

No visuals. It is an enemy unit that isn't playable. I would presume the colour scheme is identical to Rod's YF-29B Percival. Hamaval is the special task force he belongs to.

Edited June 26, 2015 by calubin_175

[neoexcaliber]

No visuals. It is an enemy unit that isn't playable. I would presume the colour scheme is identical to Rod's YF-29B Percival. Hamaval is the special task force he belongs to.

So there's a VF-19 that isn't pink? Interesting. I think I need to google it.

Is it this one? It looks like a VF-19F

https://youtu.be/vMfPksBm8qc?t=1m40s

I kinda like this scheme better since it's based on the YF-19.

Edited June 26, 2015 by neoexcaliber

[spanner]

finally got my troublesome boosters to actually stay attached! shaved away a small amount of plastic from the area that surround the winds and made the small locating hole a little deeper with a dremel which you can't notice at all and it holds on much more securely.

I went and fitted up all the fast pack parts but wasn't liking how the legs have to sit with the side bits fitted. It just doesn't feel like its holds together very well. And the shoulder bits look kinda crap so I pulled them off and only left the boosters and the little top filler bits. I think it looks much cleaner with just the boosters and the legs in their proper original position.

[calubin_175]

Yes, that must be the Hamaval scheme. It appears that they always have two NUNS VF-171EXs flanking them.

The default scheme for the player unit is an "actual combat realistic gray".

The game looks very smooth in terms of the transformations. Will get a second hand copy when I go to Japan.

[Chowser]

Wow, ordered mine on Saturday, it shipped Wednesday and is here today!

Now I wish the other stuff I ordered was being shipped EMS instead of SAL. But I gots to have the VF19 now so I chose EMS for it.

[wmkjr]

That scheme would be doable.

[jvmacross]

This is the best battroid pic of the VF-19 Advance I have seen so far....it does not have the "long, skinny leg" look of the 1/60 Yamato YF-19......not sure what you did right (or wrong?) in transforming it...but it looks awesome!

Your stock is rising, VF-19 Advance!

Edited June 26, 2015 by jvmacross

[Mommar]

finally got my troublesome boosters to actually stay attached! shaved away a small amount of plastic from the area that surround the winds and made the small locating hole a little deeper with a dremel which you can't notice at all and it holds on much more securely.

I went and fitted up all the fast pack parts but wasn't liking how the legs have to sit with the side bits fitted. It just doesn't feel like its holds together very well. And the shoulder bits look kinda crap so I pulled them off and only left the boosters and the little top filler bits. I think it looks much cleaner with just the boosters and the legs in their proper original position.

This is a pretty good idea given the horrible connection point and gappiness when the leg packs are attached.

[anubis20]

This is the best battroid pic of the VF-19 Advance I have seen so far....it does not have the "long, skinny leg" look of the 1/60 Yamato YF-19......not sure what you did right (or wrong?) in transforming it...but it looks awesome!

Your stock is rising, VF-19 Advance!

https://talkingpuck.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/dr-evil.jpg?w=283

Thanks man! And here I was waiting for someone to point out some transformation error since i didnt look at the manual

[no3Ljm]

finally got my troublesome boosters to actually stay attached! shaved away a small amount of plastic from the area that surround the winds and made the small locating hole a little deeper with a dremel which you can't notice at all and it holds on much more securely.

I went and fitted up all the fast pack parts but wasn't liking how the legs have to sit with the side bits fitted. It just doesn't feel like its holds together very well. And the shoulder bits look kinda crap so I pulled them off and only left the boosters and the little top filler bits. I think it looks much cleaner with just the boosters and the legs in their proper original position.

How clean is this one, spanner? No exposed wing locking tabs on the Fast Pack leg armors? Just had to ask since you remove those shoulder bits and place the legs in the proper position. Does it connnect all locking tabs to the Fast Packs? Thanks.

Edit: Wait, did you remove the Leg Fast Packs as well? If so, sorry. I didn't catch that.

Edited June 26, 2015 by no3ljm

[no3Ljm]

This is the best battroid pic of the VF-19 Advance I have seen so far....it does not have the "long, skinny leg" look of the 1/60 Yamato YF-19......not sure what you did right (or wrong?) in transforming it...but it looks awesome!

Your stock is rising, VF-19 Advance!

Yamato doesn't have a long leg. It's just all in the viewing angle. Hehehe. j/k

Thanks man! And here I was waiting for someone to point out some transformation error since i didnt look at the manual

Hahaha! Me too, I just look back and forth on the video transformation from Bandai. And when I couldn't put the tabs on the wing to lock in place in the leg Fast Pack armor, that's the only time I looked in the manual. And here's the thing, they didn't even clarify properly on installing those Advance packs. I mean, they're all in pictures and drawings and they didn't even put it there.

As for your transformation error, sad to say sir, there is. You missed something. On the chest area, above those vulcan/machine gun/sensor pipes, you forgot to pull it out.

[xrentonx]

This is the best battroid pic of the VF-19 Advance I have seen so far....it does not have the "long, skinny leg" look of the 1/60 Yamato YF-19......not sure what you did right (or wrong?) in transforming it...but it looks awesome!

Your stock is rising, VF-19 Advance!

It's the only set of pics where the legs don't look "Frontier lanky" to me. If he did it wrong, he should keep doing it!

[jvmacross]

It's the only set of pics where the legs don't look "Frontier lanky" to me. If he did it wrong, he should keep doing it!

he needs to disclose how he did it....there are ways we can make him talk.....or not ask him anything and just simply torture him....

[spanner]

This is a pretty good idea given the horrible connection point and gappiness when the leg packs are attached.

Hehe! people tell me always full of good idea's! but not always in a "good" way.. Yeah I just didn't like all the ugly gappiness when certain parts were fitted.. I much prefer the more simple clean look but I really like the boosters fitted!

How clean is this one, spanner? No exposed wing locking tabs on the Fast Pack leg armors? Just had to ask since you remove those shoulder bits and place the legs in the proper position. Does it connnect all locking tabs to the Fast Packs? Thanks.

Edit: Wait, did you remove the Leg Fast Packs as well? If so, sorry. I didn't catch that.

Hey Noel, She does look pretty clean and tight eh! I went through a partial transformation and even a partial dismantle & re-assemble in order to clean up some of the body sections panel margins. This one is going to stay in fighter mode! And yeah I removed the leg bits.. they just look tacky thin and inadequate. Unlike the VF-1 legs packs which actually have some volume and sophistication to them. Nothing really seems to lock up well the more bits you add. And the way the shoulder parts fit on in fighter mode looks like a total afterthought. Im going to do another minor modification to allow the forward canards to angle up a little more. There wont be much in it but it will be more..

So im gonna leave mine this way. Kinda like a "Custom" Isamu Dyson Custom! hehe!

Edited June 26, 2015 by spanner76

[MacrossJunkie]

So Saburo mentioned this earlier and I also noticed it last night when I was putting the Advance Packs to play with it in Fighter mode. From what it says in the instruction manual, the wing root tab to be inserted on the leg's Fast Pack were from the bottom part. So how come Bandai's Official Photo says differently? Like how's Bandai's photo shows the Fast Pack is overlapping the wing root area. I compared all the shown parts to the actual and somehow it shows the same, like how the leg is aligned to the shield/arm area, except for that leg's Fast Pack overlapping on the wing area. Even if the exposed locking tabs are erased via Photoshop, how come the Fast Pack is aligned somehow to the wing roots? I know all those 'actual products may vary' excuse, but why?

VF19_tab_comparison.jpg

That's interesting. The leg armor piece goes up higher and covers more of the leg in the pre-production pic. I wonder why they changed that. It would have filled in the atrocious gap a lot better and it doesn't look like it would have been in the way of anything.

[ArchieNov]

It's the only set of pics where the legs don't look "Frontier lanky" to me. If he did it wrong, he should keep doing it!

Actually, it's not that he did something wrong. It's just that he did the legs right. Some of the earlier review pics didn't have the legs transformed properly and hence they looked lanky.

Here's mine. (Pardon the crappy pic).

[Chronocidal]

I was looking at how to raise the canards higher as well, it looks like you'd just need to remove a little material from inside the pivot housing to allow them to rotate more.

I tried pulling off the canard mounts to make the mod easier, but they didn't want to come out of the fuselage. I haven't looked too closely at them yet, but let me know if you manage to get them off.

I did try one quick experiment that would have made the shield and neck cover work essentially like the Arcadia. I just popped the neck cover out of the sliding bracket on the shield. Unfortunately, in order to fully work, I would have to remove the sliding bracket as well, since it wont let the shield attach in fighter mode unless it's extended.

[spanner]

I was looking at how to raise the canards higher as well, it looks like you'd just need to remove a little material from inside the pivot housing to allow them to rotate more.

I tried pulling off the canard mounts to make the mod easier, but they didn't want to come out of the fuselage. I haven't looked too closely at them yet, but let me know if you manage to get them off.

*snip*

Yep that's pretty much how I was going to do it.. But I wasn't going to attempt physically removing them. I think there is plenty of working space to do the mod whilst they are still attached. Will post up pics when done.

[Moosey]

Mine has been stuck in customs for 2 days now.
Now it's the weekend.

Gonna be Wednesday at best before I get my paws on it.