Hi-Metal R

[Lolicon]

Whoa whoa whoa I didn't know DHL actually delivered on Sundays! Woohoo! 

[Lolicon]

Fiddling with it a bit in battroid. A few parts like the feet are kinda loose and fall off easily, but unlike the VF-1, the VF-2SS actually feels much more like a premium toy, and there's a lot of diecast internal parts. It costs as much as the renewal VF-25 did, so it better damn well be better than the disappointing VF-1.

My lame attempt at recreating the Macross II opening pose. 

[sh9000]

2 hours ago, Dobber said:

I wish bandai would re-release the super parts.

Chris

I’d buy a couple of HMR sets.  I have few more HM Super Parts coming in.  They look good on the CF.

[Dobber]

25 minutes ago, sh9000 said:

I’d buy a couple of HMR sets.  I have few more HM Super Parts coming in.  They look good on the CF.

Yes they do. Seeing your pictures is making want some too. Unfortunately the ones that I can find are ridiculously expensive.

Chris

[505thAirborne]

3 hours ago, Lolicon said:

Whoa whoa whoa I didn't know DHL actually delivered on Sundays! Woohoo! 

DAMN!!!!!! That is awesome Lolicon, one for each mode!! 

[SuperHobo]

2 hours ago, Lolicon said:

Fiddling with it a bit in battroid. A few parts like the feet are kinda loose and fall off easily, but unlike the VF-1, the VF-2SS actually feels much more like a premium toy, and there's a lot of diecast internal parts. It costs as much as the renewal VF-25 did, so it better damn well be better than the disappointing VF-1.

My lame attempt at recreating the Macross II opening pose. 

Is that the closest you can get the heat shield to the cockpit without doing any mods? 

[Jadis]

I got mine delivered yesterday.  It is overall an amazingly beautiful figure.  The right size, not too big or small (I felt the HMR VF1's were a tad too small).  As a VF-2SS fan from 1992 it is great to finally, after 25 years, have a fully transforming, high quality figure of this.  Yes the Macross 2 anime story sucked but the Valkyrie design is my favorite by far.

A few criticisms: 

• Some pieces fall off way too easy.  For me these have been:
  • One of the small white triangular plastic covers on the side of the legs wouldn't stay in.  I discovered if swapped with the one on the other leg they could both stay snug.
  • The white right shoulder piece keeps falling apart completely if I so much as wiggle the figure.   The left shoulder is fine though.  I think I will need to use some plastic cement.   Thankfully I'm an experienced plastic scale modeler and this will be a simple fix.
  • There is a white "neck cover" behind the back of the head.  It also falls off sometimes during transformation or manipulation. It is not a necessary part at all in my opinion - it's not visible from any angle 99% of the time
  • The SAP covers on the forearms don't stay pegged on very tight - they sometimes pop off during manipulation
  • the small hands that are on the figure by default come off very easily during even light manipulation.  The larger hands in the box don't have this problem.
• The SAP backpack with the canon does not easily snap on completely.   It's always a struggle to have both sides "clip in" - at least one side keeps wanting to "clip out" unless I fiddle a lot to get it just right 
• I believe the neck (grey piece) on mine was assembled incorrectly.   The head/chin would end up protruding very far ahead of the chest.  I had turn the grey neck piece 180 degrees and it seems right now
• In jet fighter mode  - which is still overall excellent - it is not quite as "tight" as the HMR VF-1 series.  The VF-1's in fighter mode would peg in very tight and solid.  You could probably toss them around on a couch and everything would still be in place (except for the wings).   If you did that with the VF-2SS the legs, arms, and "fins" would not still be in place.   

Pros:

• The inner frame and joints are all tight and lots of high quality metal and well designed.  This includes the arms, shoulders, elbows,  knees and feet.  Joints are not floppy at all anywhere, tight and poseable.   The one exception to this is the hip joints, they are a little floppy - not like the shoulders and elbows which stay EXACTLY in whatever pose you put them in and won't budge
• In robot mode, even with the SAP pack on, it stands and balances well without issue.  I remember the old Bandai plastic model would easily topple over because it was back heavy.  Not so with this HMR.  
• I was amazed to discover that the SAP armor for the forearms and legs each have built-in missile covers that open and hinge!  That seems an amazing feat at this scale and is far more a joy to play with than say, the armored VF-1's which are nightmare of spare parts and fiddling to open up missile hatches.
• The gun can peg into the bottom of the jet mode (the handle pegs into a hole in the backpack which is flipped down).  It's slightly off center though - but close enough.  This can't be done with the SAP armor on because in that mode the backpack needs to be flipped up.

I really hope they make a Nexx version with the extra gun that mounts into the leg for storage - that was such a cool feature of the Bandai plastic model kit

 

[sh9000]

Good review of the VF-2SS.

It would be cool to see 6 together:  Battroid, Gerwalk, and Fighter along with Battroid, Gerwalk, and Fighter with SAP.

My order from NY shipped.

[F360]

20 hours ago, seti88 said:

Thats interesting! Does it mention any breakage or will unscrewing detach the bottom and any translations of the text?

the fsw vf-2 seems like a natural evolution of the vf-2 lol....

I think you have to clip the points off from pic number 2 , and also glue something to the bottom of the cockpit area.  

don't have an VF-2SS to check it out yet.  

[Jadis]

1 hour ago, sh9000 said:

Good review of the VF-2SS.

It would be cool to see 6 together:  Battroid, Gerwalk, and Fighter along with Battroid, Gerwalk, and Fighter with SAP.

My order from NY shipped.

Thanks.

Somebody already did take a ton of pictures of all the modes etc.  Here is the link from a few pages back in this thread:  http://blog.livedoor.jp/hacchaka/archives/52016411.html

 

[yman1437]

when will the super VF-1A Hikaru go on preorder?

[Lolicon]

5 hours ago, 505thAirborne said:

DAMN!!!!!! That is awesome Lolicon, one for each mode!! 

Yup! Time to prepare the decal sheet too.

4 hours ago, SuperHobo said:

Is that the closest you can get the heat shield to the cockpit without doing any mods? 

Not with the stand. The adapter clips to the underside of the nose and prevents the front and back halves from tabbing together properly. I'll fiddle with it more when I return home.

59 minutes ago, F360 said:

I think you have to clip the points off from pic number 2 , and also glue something to the bottom of the cockpit area.  

don't have an VF-2SS to check it out yet.  

I might try the mod if the heat shield gaps becomes too annoying for me. 

[505thAirborne]

Does anyone know what stand is being used in this pic? Would love to have the Squires & Silvie together. 

Lolicon, Look forward to seeing your 2SS's all decaled up! 

[F360]

5 minutes ago, 505thAirborne said:

Does anyone know what stand is being used in this pic? Would love to have the Squires & Silvie together. 

Lolicon, Look forward to seeing your 2SS's all decaled up! 

Looks like Tamashii Stage ACT.4 stands.  looks like 2 of them.

http://www.amiami.com/top/detail/detail?gcode=TOY-IPN-1623

[505thAirborne]

Thanks F360, I'll check it out! 

[aaajin]

21 minutes ago, 505thAirborne said:

Thanks F360, I'll check it out! 

Knockoffs of the same stand are also available on ebay for $2-3 shipped.

[ArchieNov]

I just got mine too and transformed it for the first time into fighter. For those of you who were complaining about the VF-19Advance and VF-171 being overly complex, you're probably not going to like this one. Personally, I loved transforming the Advance and 171. This one, not so much. I think it's because of the scale and the fact that there aren't enough locking tabs for gerwalk and fighter mode IMO. 

If you're OCD, you're gonna spend time fiddling with the arms, legs, wings, fins, etc in gerwalk and fighter mode since this thing had a TON of moving parts, and no markers to let you know you have them in the correct spot.

I also have one annoying QC issue. One of the small leg covers was a duplicate of the other side. They're not supposed to be the same since the shape should be different. It won't be an issue if I always have the SAP on since you have to remove those pieces, but it's still irksome. 

Overall, I think it's nowhere near perfect, but it's still a great attempt to make a VF-2SS toy, even greater considering the scale.

 

Edited November 27, 2017 by ArchieNov

[Graham]

AmiAmi still haven't shipped my two yet

[Saburo]

9 minutes ago, Graham said:

AmiAmi still haven't shipped my two yet

I got a shipping notification from AmiAmi for mine about an hour ago, you should be receiving one soon.

 

[F360]

29 minutes ago, ArchieNov said:

I just got mine too and transformed it for the first time into fighter. For those of you who were complaining about the VF-19Advance and VF-171 being overly complex, you're probably not going to like this one. Personally, I loved transforming the Advance and 171. This one, not so much. I think it's because of the scale and the fact that there aren't enough locking tabs for gerwalk and fighter mode IMO. 

If you're OCD, you're gonna spend time fiddling with the arms, legs, wings, fins, etc in gerwalk and fighter mode since this thing had a TON of moving parts, and no markers to let you know you have them in the correct spot.

I also have one annoying QC issue. One of the small leg covers was a duplicate of the other side. They're not supposed to be the same since the shape should be different. It won't be an issue if I always have the SAP on since you have to remove those pieces, but it's still irksome. 

Overall, I think it's nowhere near perfect, but it's still a great attempt to make a VF-2SS toy, even greater considering the scale.

 

can you give me a pic of the leg cover so I'll know what to look for?

[Lolicon]

Alright Bandai, time to milk the mold and give us the rest of the squadron. 

Also eagerly awaiting a (good) 1/60 version with Hibiki figure to place in the rear storage compartment. 

[Graham]

17 hours ago, tekering said:

Do it, Bandai.

Why SDF-1 in Hong Kong?  LOL

[Lolicon]

Okay, so I transformed it to gerwalk and then to fighter. All done without the SAP.

The transformation is more complicated than the VF-1, but not too much more so. It's definitely no SV-262 level of transformation.

The VF-2SS gerwalk is pretty ugly IMO. It's just the design and not really the fault of the toy. Though the legs (specifically the intakes) just kinda hang underneath and don't really lock into place, unless I missed a step.

Transforming to fighter is pretty quick and easy from gerwalk. As noted by others as well, I wish there were more (or better) tabs to lock everything into place nice and lined up straight. As it is, it's a bit of a challenge to get everything all nice and straight.

Now that I have a good VF-2SS toy in hand, I have to say she's a really inelegant and not well thought out design that's pretty much all anime magic, and the engineers at Bandai did what they could to reproduce it faithfully within the limits of our physical world.

She can't hold a candle to any of Kawamori's valks.

With no SAP, she really only looks good from the top.

She's quite a turkey from the side.

Not much better from the front.

Good luck getting everything nice and lined up!

While a vast improvement over the ET version and probably the best we could expect from a real, physical model/toy of the VF-2SS, that underside is still pretty hideous compared to any Kawamori valk.

It's a good toy and easily the best version of the VF-2SS out there. Is it comparable to the quality of the DX VF-31? Absolutely not. Not even close. Partly because it's from a cheaper toy line, and partly because the VF-2SS design is just really wonky.

Will play with the SAP some and then she's got a date with a mechanical pencil!

[no3Ljm]

Hey everyone! Thanks for sharing all the photos and insight on this toy. Can't wait for mine. En route from AmiAmi.

 

[Black Valkyrie]

 

Wow nice VF-2S pics.   HMR YF-19 anyone . 

 

[ArchieNov]

I put the SAP on. It's actually pretty easy. The only "dumb" issue is how the large backpack connects to the back. It's just using 1 tiny tab (the same one you use to peg the gunpod on the back of battroid or underside of fighter. Though I guess it's not so dumb since it hasn't fallen off on me yet, but it is concerning especially if you are carrying it by its SAP.

Otherwise, I agree with Lolicon. There was too much anime magic in the transformation. It's almost unbelievable how Bandai was able to get it looking the way it does in each mode and at this size.

[Lolicon]

Dammit Bandai, that's just sloppy!  Time to break out the Q-tips and turpenoid...

[no3Ljm]

Paint smudge on the rail cannon?

 

[Roy Focker]

Mine was shipped 5 days ago and they haven't bothered to update its status yet.

I'm pretty sure that Japanese mailman who picked it up hasn't been driving his mail truck around in circles for the past 5 days.

[Zx31]

Shipped Saturday and hit Chicago Customs this morning.

[Dobber]

Mine arrived today as well. Pretty much agree with all sentiments here. Looks great, but is very finicky....especially in fighter mode....which unfortunately is my preferred mode. The arms are the biggest pain in the A** in fighter mode and the hands are very hard to swivel on my copy and keep popping off of their ball joints. I don’t expect much playability with fighter mode. It’s also a shame they made the knee area so large as it makes the engine nacelles very bulbous in fighter mode. The VF-1 is still king in toy form, but as Lolicon said this design is pretty out there. Looks great on paper or a dedicate 1 form model/toy, but making it transformable makes it very messy. Like was already said, it’s too bad they couldn’t find a way to look it together better.

Chris

[mechaninac]

I've got my copy, purchased from AE, waiting on the release of the Hi-Metal R Regult Missile Type Set and subsequent Riobot MOSPEADA Stick type to have everything shipped together, so I won't have mine in hand for a while yet and will have to enjoy the toy vicariously through all the pictures posted herein.  To all of you guys sharing images and impressions:  Thanks and Cheers!

[UN Spacy]

I got a retention noticefrom EMS Japan via USPS.

 

Does this mean it was attempted delivery or being held at the post office? 

[anime52k8]

I think it may have been a mistake to ship this registered SAL this close to December/Christmas. hopefully I'll see it before 2018 (kind of doubt it though.)

[derex3592]

Mine arrived in Chicago customs this morning from CDJapan, so with any luck it will be here tomorrow or Wednesday!