Bandai 1/72 Scale Transformable Macross Δ Kits

[seti88]

anyways link to tag hobby was provided before for SV262 gerwalk...just putting up HLJ's pic here...

Edited May 12, 2016 by seti88

[Duymon]

something tells me I might skip the entire DX line if these models are solid in each mode (might just buy 3x each and secure them into one mode each. way more affordable lol)

[seti88]

something tells me I might skip the entire DX line if these models are solid in each mode (might just buy 3x each and secure them into one mode each. way more affordable lol)

Am sure many had the same thought too. Robustness and tight fit of the parts (as in after transforming) are always of a concern.

If they solve those, it would be a lifesaver for the wallet..

only thing you would have to build 3 sets if you wanted the 3 modes displayed...

Edited May 12, 2016 by seti88

[Jefuemon]

Like I said before, I won't be wasting my money on the Bandai kits, and give my money to Hasegawa instead.

[mickyg]

Bring it!

[Duymon]

Like I said before, I won't be wasting my money on the Bandai kits, and give my money to Hasegawa instead.

CiO4n7pUkAAo5Kc.jpg large.jpg

Different kits for Different folks.

Some people actually enjoy the snap-together toy-kits

[kajnrig]

I'm juat glad it isn't taking them years after the Bandai one to release theirs. I'll definitely be picking up a 262 or two from them.

[maxi]

While Hasegawa makes some wonderfull and more screen accurate and well proportioned kits, I do love transforming my valks but can´t afford a DX. So I´m totally in for this Bandai kits!

[mickyg]

Good point, Duymon. I enjoyed my experience putting it together and actually liked the whole process of painting and decalling too. Just didn't like the way it held together in the end. If they've fixed some of those issues, I may very well bite.

Different kits for Different folks.

Some people actually enjoy the snap-together toy-kits

[kamadoma]

I'm pretty sure they will be releasing these Siegfrieds with Walkure ita-decals like they did for the Macross F kits.

[seti88]

Is that a little bit of a unfilled connector below the FP's on further side?

Am wondering how the FP's connectors hold on to the wing in kit form...

[Skypoet]

Different kits for Different folks.

Some people actually enjoy the snap-together toy-kits

I definitely am one of those. And attempting to improve the articulations of the bandai kits, is also a great challenge for model builders, provided they have some interest for such tasks! Well maybe this has more to do with engineering than model building actually!

[Mazinger]

I might be in for these. I've only recently gained some experience painting from customizing 1/55's. I know my efforts won't be anything to brag about, but the price seems right.

Any idea what the difficulty level for assembling these will be? I.e. are they only for people with advanced GunPla modelers?

Also, will there be any screws to hold it together or will it require glue everywhere and delicate handling lest it become a jigsaw puzzle.

[Skypoet]

Mazinger, I think that the kit should be quite easy to assemble. From the pictures I've seen, some features are very simplified, such as the landing gear. The transformation sems quite simple compared with th VF-1 and even VF-25. The Bandai 1/72 VF-1 was somewhat challenging to build, with lots of small, very small parts, that had to be cut out very carefully from the sprues, or else they would not fit well. Highly detailed and highly fragile, beautiful in fighter mode, but very flimsy and unposable in battroid mode - unless you do some customizations, which I intend to do, with the help of a dremel, magnets, superglue, maybe some epoxy (we'll see how well it turns out, I'll post some pictures here if the result is satisfactory). This kit, as I was writing, reminds me more of the VF-25 which was not very expensive (35$ for a big, transformable kit, really not expensive by the way), with simple landing gear and very few very small parts, and somewhat robust when compared to the VF-1. And also good looking and quite sturdy if just built "straight out of the box". Not a kit for "advanced" gunpla builder, but expect the build to take between 5-8 hours of total time. And expect the build to be a LOT of fun. I used to be a builder of plastic model kits of airplanes, and no longer enjoy this other type of build ever since I switched to gunpla's.

Is that a little bit of a unfilled connector below the FP's on further side?

vf31J.jpg

Am wondering how the FP's connectors hold on to the wing in kit form...

Beautiful from this angle! totally love it! BEAU-TI-FUL!

Hmm yes, looks like some unfilled connector, though nothing that modellers' putty can't fix!

[sh9000]

Looks good.

[kajnrig]

Mostly Gundam, but the Bandai Macross stuff starts at the 20:37 mark, then resumes at 26:33 with the Hasegawa offerings.

Bandai - 20:37

Hasegawa (SDF-1) - 26:33

Aoshima (VF Girl) - 28:32

Edited May 13, 2016 by kajnrig

[IXTL]

Nice pics from the Shizuoka Hobby Show

Edited May 13, 2016 by IXTL

[Duymon]

Really looking forward to these kits. I won't be building them up as Delta Squadron, I'll get the DX'es for that.

I really hope the Draken includes clear canopy like the VF-27 Kits, Renewal DXes and the Gimix Draken.

[Chronocidal]

Oh good freaking grief Bandai, learn how to make decals that don't suck already. These have that same stupid screen-printed pattern as the VF-25 ones did. It looks terrible in the close-ups.

[David Hingtgen]

It's surprising how different the -262's battroid proportions are compared to the DX. (And the DX looks WAAAY better IMHO)

[Graham]

I really like that close up pic of the VF-31S's head.

definitely my favorite of all the 31 heads.

Graham

[David Hingtgen]

Of course that's Graham's favorite-----it's the most VF-17S-ish head.

[Kelsain]

I've come around to liking the S as well. Hmm... S head on an A body?

[Skypoet]

The Tomitech SV-262 seems to look better... oh my... Wait it does not seem to look better, it actually does look better...

[Duymon]

We really need to stop posting pictures of other products in all these threads.

If it were a side by side I'd understand but it's getting a little out of hand now ;0

[Graham]

Gotta say the Bandai 1/72 Sv-262 looks pretty bad in Battroid mode, at least in the pics posted so far.

[seti88]

Battroid looks better with the sniper eye open and gun extended!

[captain america]

Gotta say the Bandai 1/72 Sv-262 looks pretty bad in Battroid mode, at least in the pics posted so far.

It also looks like a Power Rangers thingamabob.

[alvaro]

Another Wish !!

Since Bandai is a pro for model kits, I hope they do all the macross series into perfect transformation model kits.

Like this it will be more affordable and with smaller scale which i likes.

Whenever i go to toy shop outlets, it's hard to find macross model kits. I hope Bandai will get famous for Macross too beside gundams.

[Duymon]

That wont happen until a certain company no longer can have legal claim to the macross name and block macross products outside of japan

[alvaro]

Oh so that's the case, tks 4 e info.

then it is pretty strange to me that while bandai can produce but not able to sell outside japan.........................zzzzzzzzzzz

damn the legal claim! haha

[Chronocidal]

I dunno, I really wasn't impressed by the VF-1 kit they did. For some reason, the design team went way off of the line-art, and tried to reinvent a bunch of things that didn't need to change, while simultaneously getting a little too ambitious with the transformation mechanism and the tiny details.

I'm not going to argue about Bandai being able to design amazing model kits. It's when they start getting into things that transform, and decide to get "creative" with their interpretations of established designs that things start to fall apart.

I just hope they learned a lesson or two about designing these kits from the VF-25s. I've given up hope that they'll ever discover that you can just Google the term "landing gear" and get some wonderful design references, but at the very least they need to include tabs to actually keep the darn things from dissolving into a froppy mess in fighter mode.

[kajnrig]

If there's one thing I really dislike about Bandai's modus operandi, it's that they treat everything as a child-friendly High Grade Gundam kit. Pieces rarely fall below a certain thickness, and are even less likely to be anything approaching sharp, which is fine when you're doing low-detail Gundam models but an absolute killer when half a millimeter here or there throws the scale of a complex transforming airplane completely off. The thighs/air intakes on my RVF-25 are especially noticeably too thick, and try as I might I can never get rid of the ugly gap between them and the upper air intakes (this on top of the already too-thick plastics of the thighs/upper air intakes making that section look too big in fighter mode).

[captain america]

If there's one thing I really dislike about Bandai's modus operandi, it's that they treat everything as a child-friendly High Grade Gundam kit. Pieces rarely fall below a certain thickness, and are even less likely to be anything approaching sharp, which is fine when you're doing low-detail Gundam models but an absolute killer when half a millimeter here or there throws the scale of a complex transforming airplane completely off. The thighs/air intakes on my RVF-25 are especially noticeably too thick, and try as I might I can never get rid of the ugly gap between them and the upper air intakes (this on top of the already too-thick plastics of the thighs/upper air intakes making that section look too big in fighter mode).

I encourage you to pick-up one of their Star Wars kits, you will see that the child-friendly blunt edges and soft detail all go out the window: a testament to what they can do when they actually want to. I think it has more to do with the market segment they're targeting and possibly a need to keep costs reasonable.

The fighters themselves are Okay looking, but the battroids... Bleh!

Edited May 17, 2016 by captain america

[kajnrig]

The fighters themselves are Okay looking, but the battroids... Bleh!

That's interesting. I have the absolute opposite opinion. The Battroid looks okay in my eyes, but it's fighter mode with all the ugly gaps and empty space (exacerbated by aforementioned material issues) that looks terrible. With the Battroid mode everything is more spread out anyway, so you have less of an issue with segments not-quite-touching each other. And what unsightly issues do persist can mostly be hand-waved away as being part of the transformation process.

I do remember the SW kits looking mighty good, and had planned on getting an X-Wing or TIE to check them out, but at that point I was still bitter about Fine Molds no longer having the license and burnt out from Bandai-style modeling. I'll definitely check them out again soon, though, now that you've reminded me.