This was bound to happen...gray market VF's?

[rdrunner]

55 minutes ago, WaferMouse said:

These specific things match my experience too, though I still want to try fiddling with it a bit more to see if I can get the legs flush.

That's right, just the figure with no packs from ShowZ.

Thanks WaferMouse, that’s helpful to know it’s probably not a quality control issue and that these “flaws” seem to be consistent between KO copies. 

I even weighed the KO vs the Arcadia with no gunpod and the weight was only 1 gram off (Arcadia = 194 g, KO = 193 g)!

 

[SpaceCowboy]

So is this the only place to get these?
https://showzstore.com/valkyrie-factory-1-60-vf-1s-arcadia-compatible_p0290.html

$50 - $80 shipped I'd do it, but at $130, it seems a bit steep for a KO.  

Is there a better place to get it?

[Vi-RS]

58 minutes ago, SpaceCowboy said:

So is this the only place to get these?
https://showzstore.com/valkyrie-factory-1-60-vf-1s-arcadia-compatible_p0290.html

$50 - $80 shipped I'd do it, but at $130, it seems a bit steep for a KO.  

Is there a better place to get it?

The Yamato was 80 back then. Things change.

[aaajin]

1 hour ago, SpaceCowboy said:

So is this the only place to get these?
https://showzstore.com/valkyrie-factory-1-60-vf-1s-arcadia-compatible_p0290.html

$50 - $80 shipped I'd do it, but at $130, it seems a bit steep for a KO.  

Is there a better place to get it?

At those prices, it's better to get a used Yamato IMHO, esp with the upcoming release of DX chogokin, maybe (or maybe not) there will be a panic sell? 

Edited October 28, 2018 by aaajin

[rdrunner]

7 hours ago, SpaceCowboy said:

So is this the only place to get these?
https://showzstore.com/valkyrie-factory-1-60-vf-1s-arcadia-compatible_p0290.html

$50 - $80 shipped I'd do it, but at $130, it seems a bit steep for a KO.  

Is there a better place to get it?

Tao bao prices have also skyrocketed from about $63 USD (preorder back in April or earlier) to the now $95 USD price before shipping, and with shipping to the US, it might get to about $110+.  

To me it does seem expensive at $110 for a KO, considering the lower quality finish (quite obvious in a few places) and the quality of the plastic used. 

I just wish they would do a -1A bootleg at $63 or less, and I think it will be rather popular for army building etc. 

Edited October 28, 2018 by rdrunner

[rdrunner]

On 10/26/2018 at 8:30 PM, Vi-RS said:

These KOs are getting better and better, and I wonder if it's the same tooling in China's factory that Arcadia hires to make their version.

From what I can tell, I am not sure they have used the same mold for 100% of the pieces. There are parts with clear differences in shape. I am guessing that they may have gotten the molds for 95% of the parts and retooled the missing ones and made sure they fit together. 

Which is a good thing - these being easily distinguishable from the Yamato/Arcadia originals mean that people cannot pass these as orignals by box-swapping in the secondary market. 

Edited October 28, 2018 by rdrunner

[SpaceCowboy]

I really like KOs.  I usually have 1-2 original items, but I'll buy a KO for stuff I want to leave around the office, or let kids hold/play with.  BUT, they have to be in a certain price range that I consider reasonable for a KO product.  Feels like lately I see KOs inching closer and closer to the price of the real item (mostly speaking of Transformers), which, in that case, no thanks, I'll just buy the higher quality original for a few bucks more.  Generally my rule of thumb is it needs to be less than half, and preferably closer to 1/3rd to 1/4th the original price to be interesting to me.  In this case we have it at $130 for an old broken mold Arcadia KO vs $170 for a brand new state of the art Bandai Chogokin (yeah, I realize it's not the _exact_ same mold, but for $40 more I can get a state of the art original).  

I'd love to see these in the $50-$80 range, and understand first mover risk/advantage, but yeah above $100 and these become unappealing.

[spacemanoeuvres]

Yeah if you managed to snag a DX VF-1 at Nippon Yasan it would be ~$160 shipped (SAL). A little more at Amazon.jp

$130 is too much for a KO of an old mold. Would have grabbed one if they were <$100 shipped. 

Edited October 28, 2018 by spacemanoeuvres

[Sandman]

Yeah I’m not too impressed by the Ko. It’s way too expensive to bother with. You might as well pay a little extra for the real thing.

ive only had about 15 mins with the Ko but right away I e notice the plastic feels cheaper. Some of the yellow doesn’t colour match with other yellow on the valk. Also the lower part of the tail fin fell out when I bent them. Finally when I shake it I hear a rattling like there is parts inside rolling around. It seemed to be the nose cone plugs. After securing them the rattle wasn’t as loud but it was still there.

[Vi-RS]

It's not that they have to pay royalty to BW..... 

 

[Jwwu]

I saw on Taobao that this KO manufacturer has a bunch of other Arcadia / Yamato KO products on the way... e.g. YF-19 fold booster, Regult, Max and Milia etc.

[Xigfrid]

I recently asked for the Regult, and they said it was post-poned to 1st quarter 2019, I am skeptical that M&M VF-1Js would go through. The YF-19 fold booster has already been produced to my knowledge but who knows what can be produced next

[Sandman]

I waited over a year and a half for the vf-1s. I wouldn’t order anything till it officially gets released. You could end up waiting for a while... a long while.

Also I’ve seen some Bandai stuff announced like armour parts for the vf-25, super parts for yf-29(including rods!) and missle set (which were released already). I won’t hold my breath for the other stuff though. Hopefully they come through for the supers and armours as I think it’s a great idea since Bandai makes it hard for us to get those if we don’t get them at the time of release.

[vfxraven19]

I picked up my 3 from the post office yesterday. I opened one of them to handle, but checked on the other two to make sure nothing seemed broken. The KO's come in a unlabeled brown box, no logo or anything (unlike the KO Super/Strike Armor which comes with a "Valkyrie Factory" brand brown box). No instructions, and no decal sheet included. All you get is the toy with the accessories. Like other's mentioned, fitment issues in various spots. My hands were reversed, the nose cone plugs rattle, and separating the chest plate to transform from fighter to battroid was quite the pain in the butt. My tail fins transformed fine, and no sign of plastic stress or cracks/breaks. One of the feet did just pop off, and one of the gray cover piece that locks the wrist swivel during transformation came off (can be fixed with glue). The right arm ball joint seems to be a bit tighter to rotate the arm. It's definitely not that bad for a KO. But, if you managed to pre-order at $50 or so, I think it is worth it (flaws and all) IMHO. But at $100+? Not worth it...

 

 

 

 

[Scyla]

1 hour ago, Sandman said:

I waited over a year and a half for the vf-1s. I wouldn’t order anything till it officially gets released. You could end up waiting for a while... a long while.

Also I’ve seen some Bandai stuff announced like armour parts for the vf-25, super parts for yf-29(including rods!) and missle set (which were released already). I won’t hold my breath for the other stuff though. Hopefully they come through for the supers and armours as I think it’s a great idea since Bandai makes it hard for us to get those if we don’t get them at the time of release.

Uuuh, I‘d love to get Super Parts for my green VF-27 beta. 

[no3Ljm]

On 10/28/2018 at 5:27 PM, Vi-RS said:

It's not that they have to pay royalty to BW..... 

Don't you mean HG? It's outside Japan after all. 

 

Edited October 31, 2018 by no3Ljm

[Vi-RS]

I’m sorry if these have been brought up before, but it seems like they are invading everything Yamacardia did.

[Ignacio Ocamica]

Well it's not a straight Yamato Regult KO. The Yamato Regult is bigger and has mold differences. That Regult looks like an upscaled HMR. I'd like to get one.

Pics of my Yamato Regult:

[skullmilitia]

I know there’s a lot of dislike for KO’s but when there’s a lack of product and a high demand it’s bound to happen.

I’d totally grab a Regult 

[Pulltoeject]

Hey people, just picked up my super space parts, and have yet to fit them on a valk. But from what  I can see, they look good. Will try and see if I remember how to upload pics.........

[JET7]

My space parts is still sitting on Canada post.. Darn labor strike

[Roy Focker]

4 hours ago, skullmilitia said:

I know there’s a lot of dislike for KO’s but when there’s a lack of product and a high demand it’s bound to happen.

I’d totally grab a Regult 

KO's are great when you love your expense fragile toy but rather have a stunt toy to actually play with.  KO's are bad cause you can never buy a used legitimate toy again on eBay.  All future purchases have to be new releases from well known stores.

[Slave IV]

KOs arre great when they are better quality and cheaper than the originals, which is the case with many Transformers. This VF KO seems like worse quality for almost the same price so not so great. I might have to bite on those Regults though. Upscaled HMR sounds fantastic to me.

[spacemanoeuvres]

I haven’t been on taobao for a bit. Are the regults up for PO?

[borgified]

1 hour ago, JET7 said:

My space parts is still sitting on Canada post.. Darn labor strike

I just got my VF-31f Super from Manda yesterday and I'm in YVR,  unless you're in one of the cities that has it totally shut down.

Edit: I was just wondering if the KO valks will fit in the GBP armour with no issues (or will there be any) if anyone is willing to try.  

Edited October 31, 2018 by borgified

[skullmilitia]

On 10/31/2018 at 12:45 PM, Roy Focker said:

KO's are great when you love your expense fragile toy but rather have a stunt toy to actually play with.  KO's are bad cause you can never buy a used legitimate toy again on eBay.  All future purchases have to be new releases from well known stores.

Exactly, especially with the MP KO transformers, can leave the nice one boxed and the KO ope for transforming. Although I've gotten my hands on KO TF's that are tighter and better quality than OEM. KO's really aren't the same as the old days. A lot of these companies are running out of the same manufacturing plants as the original makers. Especially when they make modifications that improve on the existing design.

[rdrunner]

On 10/31/2018 at 4:16 PM, borgified said:

I was just wondering if the KO valks will fit in the GBP armour with no issues (or will there be any) if anyone is willing to try.  

Ok @borgified as a fellow GBP fan I was also curious to see the results for myself. 

It feels just like me digging out a pair of old jeans, and go, meh that should still fit, but the moment I finish putting it on, the button and zip explodes...and that was almost exactly what happened to my GBP armor when I tried to fit it on the KO -1S. 

 There were clear gaps in the nappy area, the arm and leg armours will just not lock in properly, the chest falls off, and I only managed to get one shot of it in full armour before I stared at it too hard and the leg armours just disintegrated in front of me. 

Verdict? Don’t even think about trying to fit a GBP on a KO. I wonder if FextHobby’s 1/60 OWL (if it gets made at all) will fit better on it, but I don’t intend on trying. 

[DewPoint]

This would lead me to think that they made molds off of existing Yamato/Arcadia releases rather than the "same factory" or "reject" theories.  Copies of existing factory molds possibly?

[no3Ljm]

5 minutes ago, DewPoint said:

This would lead me to think that they made molds off of existing Yamato/Arcadia releases rather than the "same factory" or "reject" theories.  Copies of existing factory molds possibly?

We can speculate all that we want regarding the molds that they were using. But at this age it's not a wonder anymore how KO companies can copy 98% of the original.

 

[JET7]

On 11/3/2018 at 8:24 PM, skullmilitia said:

Exactly, especially with the MP KO transformers, can leave the nice one boxed and the KO ope for transforming. Although I've gotten my hands on KO TF's that are tighter and better quality than OEM. KO's really aren't the same as the old days. A lot of these companies are running out of the same manufacturing plants as the original makers. Especially when they make modifications that improve on the existing design.

Yep, best example of this IT-01 Megatron (MP megatron KO) all solid 101% better than takaras. 

[SpaceCowboy]

I have a number of TF KOs (a dozen or two maybe) and I have probably another dozen figma, and I can not say any of them are superior to the original.  All of them have obvious signs of being cheaply made.  That said the quality on them is still really good.  On Transformers, usually you get wheels that don't quiet spin well or are lower than they should be.  Otherwise it is fine.  The figmas usually have joint problems being somewhat looser or tighter or they used a different type of paint.  But the satisfying thing about the figmas is most of the problems are easily fixable.  Put a bit of nail polish on a loose joint, and it is as good as new.  Tight joints are trickier.  I had one Wolverine figma who had a hip joint that would not move.   It was like it was glued.  I finally popped it off, and saw that the yellow paint had not dried properly.  A bit of acetone, put it back together, and he is as good as new.

Edited November 5, 2018 by SpaceCowboy

[Ignacio Ocamica]

I've handled a copy of a friend and this KO is not better than the original IMHO.

The plastic feels different and seems of lower quality. It has some fit issues here and there. The paint applications have some details, and the copy I've handled has a notorious seam line running across the top of the nosecone.

I would define this KO as a not too well polished copy of a yamato/arcadia.

I have the IT-01 Megatron KO and the official MP-36, where the KO clearly introduced some modifications to make a slightly better product. Well fron the copy I've handled this is not the case here.

[ralliart209]

Seen this couple of mins ago, ugh no!, be better if it was 50 bucks 

Edited November 5, 2018 by ralliart209

[rdrunner]

11 hours ago, DewPoint said:

This would lead me to think that they made molds off of existing Yamato/Arcadia releases rather than the "same factory" or "reject" theories.  Copies of existing factory molds possibly?

I would agree.  The tolerance are all over the place but they have done a fairly good job in making sure that most of the transforming mechanism etc work as expected in the original toy. For a price of $80 including shipping, it was ok to get one "stunt" copy that I can play and break.  But at their current price point ($130) you will definitely be better off getting a used Yamato v2.

[rdrunner]

The KO Super strike pack fits well on the originals though. This is the KO set on my Yamato VF-1A DYRL. No notable issues.