Bandai DX Chogokin 1/48 VF-1

[Lolicon]

20 hours ago, Shawn said:

I found an old pic of one of the prototype Yamato 1/48s (from 2002), and I think to this day it looks incredible.
This one is hand painted and detailed, but I'd put this against the new Bandai 1/48 any day for sheer awesomeness. I like the flat white a lot!

 

That looks so good even 20+ years later.

And yet Bandai still won't give us a DX VF-1A Hikaru despite being a simple color swap.

Bandai also needs to take notes on what just the right amount of tampo printing looks like. And Arcadia needs to make all their releases "premium finish" because a sticker sheet is pretty lame for toys costing north of 30-40k yen.

[Phangry]

It feels like Bandai is focusing solely on toys they can release internationally at the moment... and it sucks because I would take any VF-1 variant over more Frontier/Delta. 

The last two years it's been what, the DX Super Ostrich, the ugly Anniversary VF-1J, the Hikaru 1S re-release, and the HMR Max and Kakizaki tv VF-1A's?

[grogall]

11 hours ago, Robin-11 said:

It is amazing. I believe the silhouette on fighter mode in the Yamatos 1/48 is still unmatched. 

Head drops down way too much, and the arms are also not flush with the legs! Bandai vastly improved both of these shortcomings! I also find that everything is very loose on the Yamato toys. and the very spars printing of the details is what put me of from the beginning... 

[davidwhangchoi]

13 hours ago, Lolicon said:

That looks so good even 20+ years later.

And yet Bandai still won't give us a DX VF-1A Hikaru despite being a simple color swap.

Bandai also needs to take notes on what just the right amount of tampo printing looks like. And Arcadia needs to make all their releases "premium finish" because a sticker sheet is pretty lame for toys costing north of 30-40k yen.

That Yamato looks amazing, Bandai smears tampo on like a girl with too much makeup.  

[Slave IV]

Yamato 1/48 is still the smoothest perfect transforming Valk and one of the best looking in fighter mode. Only main drawbacks are the hands and floppies when you start adding the optional parts to it. 

[ArchieNov]

On 2/9/2025 at 3:48 PM, Steady said:

Yeah, I have to admit that ThreeZero VF-1 toy looks pretty good.  I'm still aiming for a 1/48 Bandai DX.  YOLO.  😄

I have the Threezero VF-1J and 1S, and I will admit that these are best roughly 1/60 scale VF-1 toys so far. They're not perfect, but they do more things better than the others. So not everything with the Robotech label is subpar, or at least not anymore.

[m0n5t3r]

2 hours ago, ArchieNov said:

I have the Threezero VF-1J and 1S, and I will admit that these are best roughly 1/60 scale VF-1 toys so far. They're not perfect, but they do more things better than the others. So not everything with the Robotech label is subpar, or at least not anymore.

I'm jealous... still no sign of my threezero VF-1S arriving locally. I can't wait to get my hands on it.

Edited Tuesday at 10:36 AM by m0n5t3r

[MKT]

I think one factor that makes the Yammie 1/48 still endearing after all these years is how they are generally much more resistant to yellowing compared to Bandai's products. This, coupled with the other bad ass non-white schemes.

[BlueMax]

15 hours ago, MKT said:

I think one factor that makes the Yammie 1/48 still endearing after all these years is how they are generally much more resistant to yellowing compared to Bandai's products. This, coupled with the other bad ass non-white schemes.

I'm afraid I cannot agree with the part regarding yellowing. Yamato 1/48 plastics are just as prone to yellowing. Also, the grade of plastics used seem to be at teast a grade lower, and significantly worse so on the color molded plastic, at least in the blue. I have feedback from a friend who I sold a MAX 1A to feedback that the intake area of the thigh-hip tealed/ yellowed badly (even without exposure to visible light), and when trying to transform from plan to gerwalk mode, just CRUMBLED.

As for the sculpt, it was the absulute pinnacle of VF toy engineering back then circa 2002 (just 2 years shy of a 1/4 century after release!!), and the proportions in fighter mode, with proper paint apps, is still up there even compared to the Bandai DX.