Bandai DX Chogokin 1/48 VF-1

[MacrossJunkie]

Oh man, I don't have the FAST packs yet, but I can imagine the weight of them probably pulling down the arms in fighter mode while being handled. They're better than the Yamato 1/48's arms in fighter mode, but that's as meaningful as saying eating dirt is better than eating crap. You'd rather have neither.

[Chronocidal]

So, I will say they are slightly better than the Yamato 1/48 with fast packs.  Smooth as they are, the awkward pressure fit of the legs on the friction tabs does a fair bit to hold them in place, just so long as you don't actually try to adjust the arms.

Try dropping the legs for a half gerwalk pose though, and the combined weight of the packs and gun will very likely leave your arms dangling free of the pegs.  That's no different from the Yamato 1/48 though.  The only solution we've seen to that problem is the v.2 1/60, where they locked the arms to the underside of the backplate with a clip around the biceps.

What I did notice after my last session trying to shove the fast packs further onto the leg tabs though.. they're physically impossible to push all the way on.  Bandai contoured the underside of the wing glove just perfectly to mesh with the upper surface of the leg, so the legs match flush in normal fighter mode just fine.

That doesn't work when you attach the fast packs, because the contoured recess for the leg wasn't meant to hold a box. 

That's why the leg tabs have no latches.. they couldn't have a locking mechanism in place when they didn't design the wing glove to fit the fast packs.  As a consequence of this, the arms can't reach all the way up their pegs either, because they actually do lock in decently against the legs, and the legs being pushed down pushes the arms down in turn.

After all the steps they seem to have made to accommodate fast packs from the get-go, they still manage to invent ways to fumble their designs in new and interesting ways that no one got wrong before.   

Edited July 25, 2020 by Chronocidal

[MacrossJunkie]

Well, that's a little disappointing to hear...

[Chronocidal]

I should say to take everything I say with a healthy helping of salt though, really.  I'm hyper-critical of what I would consider sub-par engineering, when someone else has demonstrated a better solution.  I'm extremely disappointed in Bandai, because time and time again, they seem to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory by intentionally ignoring the solutions others have already demonstrated, and then going forward with a less-effective solution of their own.  It's just frustrating, and I can't come up with any logical reasoning as to why they would handicap their own designs that way.

Does it hold together?  Yes.  It's just not as clean as the Yamato 1/60 v.2.  It works, and it's not going to fall apart on its own.  It just looks like Bandai still has issues figuring out how to develop a coherent product line that's meant to fit together seamlessly.  They did a great job with the VF-31 line, and the sloppy design involved with these friction tabs is just a huge step back to me.

As a small side gripe.. I hate sliding-tab landing gear doors with a furious passion, and wish every manufacturer would abandon the design style.  They're terrible in function, they're a pain in the arse to open, and they really just don't look anything like actual landing gear doors.

That's one thing the old Yamato designs will always have over everything since those hinges appeared on the Fire Valk: that is how landing gear doors actually work.  The hinges are recessed into the walls of the bay on a hooked swing-arm, and swing outwards to clear the edges of the bay.

Edited July 25, 2020 by Chronocidal

[davidwhangchoi]

Bandai stupid

[Lolicon]

5 minutes ago, Chronocidal said:

I should say to take everything I say with a healthy helping of salt though, really.  I'm hyper-critical of what I would consider sub-par engineering, when someone else has demonstrated a better solution.  I'm extremely disappointed in Bandai, because time and time again, they seem to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory by intentionally ignoring the solutions others have already demonstrated, and then going forward with a less-effective solution of their own.  It's just frustrating, and I can't come up with any logical reasoning as to why they would handicap their own designs that way.

Does it hold together?  Yes.  It's just not as clean as the Yamato 1/60 v.2.  It works, and it's not going to fall apart on its own.  It just looks like Bandai still has issues figuring out how to develop a coherent product line that's meant to fit together seamlessly.  They did a great job with the VF-31 line, and the sloppy design involved with these friction tabs is just a huge step back to me.

As a small side gripe.. I hate sliding-tab landing gear doors with a furious passion, and wish every manufacturer would abandon the design style.  They're terrible in function, they're a pain in the arse to open, and they really just don't look anything like actual landing gear doors.

That's one thing the old Yamato designs will always have over everything since those hinges appeared on the Fire Valk: that is how landing gear doors actually work.  The hinges are recessed into the walls of the bay on a hooked swing-arm, and swing outwards to clear the edges of the bay.

Oh, I love reading your critiques of Bandai's poor solutions to problems that others have already fixed with much better solutions. I'm always noticing how poorly designed things are every I go, especially as I get older.

Case in point: when I visit a certain friend, in order to get into the neighborhood, you have to enter a code at the gate. However, the keypad is on the right side of the driveway, meaning that unless you're Mr Fantastic and can stretch your arm from the driver seat out the passenger window to hit the keypad, you'll have to get out of your car and walk around to the keypad to enter the gate code. Oh, and the driveway isn't long enough to accommodate anything longer than a Yugo, so the back of your car will be sticking out into the street the entire time.

It's 2020 and Bandai still hasn't learned that relying purely on friction to hold things in place is goddamn stupid.

[jenius]

I wouldn't be surprised to see minor tweaks on future releases like a lip on the leg pegs and a sliding lock for the arms. They can be done so easily and would be big improvements.

[DewPoint]

Leave room for future "innovation"?  Fix it in the next version and advertise it as a "new" feature?    Then make us all buy it again! 

[treatment]

5 minutes ago, DewPoint said:

Leave room for future "innovation"?  Fix it in the next version and advertise it as a "new" feature?    Then make us all buy it again! 

They'll call it DX-R, with the innovation/fixes being just white landing gears and a 15k-yen bump on the msrp...

 

[MacrossJunkie]

21 minutes ago, treatment said:

They'll call it DX-R, with the innovation/fixes being just white landing gears and a 15k-yen bump on the msrp...

 

lol. Sadly, I can totally see that happening. They'll also finally fix the number on the fins so that they'll be like 001 instead of 100, but then flip the one that was previously correct to 100.

[skullmilitia]

DX Renewals, buckle up Kids.

 

 

*I like the DX's, but I'm also not very picky*

[borgified]

1 hour ago, davidwhangchoi said:

Bandai stupid

Then don't buy anymore Macross stuff @davidwhangchoi and leave for the rest of us. Put them on your to ban list or if you do buy more, I'm more than happy to take a flight to Toronto and take it off you hands.  

[davidwhangchoi]

14 minutes ago, borgified said:

Then don't buy anymore Macross stuff @davidwhangchoi and leave for the rest of us. Put them on your to ban list or if you do buy more, I'm more than happy to take a flight to Toronto and take it off you hands.  

i might sell some stuff but not sure yet. i have 5 copies of Dx Max 1A, all sealed just sitting in brown shippers.  I only have 3 roys on pre-order. i missed one at amazon japan bc they wanted me to send me a 4-code digit to verify my account and couldn't check out at hlj.  

[jenius]

2 hours ago, DewPoint said:

Leave room for future "innovation"?  Fix it in the next version and advertise it as a "new" feature?    Then make us all buy it again! 

They did already fix the super loose nosecone after the first release. There is room for hope! That's honestly why I haven't grabbed another Hikaru 1J... I'm hoping they'll keep make minor improvements and then I'll grab another Hikaru 1J when it gets reissued in a couple years....

[davidwhangchoi]

remember, Bandai never reissued Michael. 

 

 

[Kyp Durron]

5 hours ago, jenius said:

I wouldn't be surprised to see minor tweaks on future releases like a lip on the leg pegs and a sliding lock for the arms. They can be done so easily and would be big improvements.

If Bandai had just done that for the legs and arms, I could overlook the other things and would be saying to get these unless you're invested in the 1/60 V2 line. BTW, the leg fins can be pulled completely out, they have a lip on the peg so you can put them back and they'll click in. Very tempted to take superglue and just put a tiny drop on the hinge joints to keep them at the proper angle. 

[Chronocidal]

If you never plan on using the GBP armor, you're probably pretty safe doing so.  Actually.. I mean, if you can just pull them out, there was no reason to fold them in the first place.  Just remove them, and have the leg armor peg into the slot.  

I think the entire folding mechanism is just because we saw it happen once in the show, but even then, they folded the other way in the animation.

[Kyp Durron]

8 hours ago, myk said:

I was just going to post or message you about your DX.  Looks like you have the same concerns as I do about the design.  The cons you mentioned actually bother me-the Yamato '48 was a brick solid fighter and that's why I loved it so much.  

Another thing you mentioned is having to coat parts with whatever; it's annoying to me that a piece costing me this much requires any sort of modification at all.  I got into RC cars, drones and whatnot after I got frustrated with self destructing yamato variable fighters, and you can spend hundreds, thousands of dollars like you will on these valkyries, but the difference is those RC vehicles are 100% good to go out of the box and will take a beating on top of it.  And they can actually fly and move around and stuff!

 

For something that's rock solid, especially in fighter mode, the Yamato/Arcadia 1/60 V2's are far superior. IF Bandai can make those pegs locking tabs like Yamato/Arcadia, then I would say that this is a superior product. If Bandai refuses to at least fix these two issues, then after the TV Roy, I'm absolutely done. 

Edited July 25, 2020 by Kyp Durron

[Kyp Durron]

1 minute ago, Chronocidal said:

If you never plan on using the GBP armor, you're probably pretty safe doing so.  Actually.. I mean, if you can just pull them out, there was no reason to fold them in the first place.  Just remove them, and have the leg armor peg into the slot.  

I think the entire folding mechanism is just because we saw it happen once in the show, but even then, they folded the other way in the animation.

IKR? When I realized you can just take out the damn leg stabilizer fin, I was like "Really Bandai? Really?!" Makes absolutely NO SENSE whatsoever if we can just remove the damned thing.

I would be calling this series a success if not for Bandai's poor decision with the arm and leg pegs. I have this on it's stand in fighter mode, I have to say that it's very solid on the stand and isn't going anywhere. 

[kkx]

1 hour ago, Kyp Durron said:

IKR? When I realized you can just take out the damn leg stabilizer fin, I was like "Really Bandai? Really?!" Makes absolutely NO SENSE whatsoever if we can just remove the damned thing.

I would be calling this series a success if not for Bandai's poor decision with the arm and leg pegs. I have this on it's stand in fighter mode, I have to say that it's very solid on the stand and isn't going anywhere. 

If we need to remove that to fit GBP then it will not be perfect transformation and that removed piece will need to be stored somewhere.

You might not mind that, and I am not too upset by that too. But there will be a lot of people that really value perfect transformation, I think.

[Kyp Durron]

48 minutes ago, kkx said:

If we need to remove that to fit GBP then it will not be perfect transformation and that removed piece will need to be stored somewhere.

You might not mind that, and I am not too upset by that too. But there will be a lot of people that really value perfect transformation, I think.

I suppose that's a fair point, they need to use Yamato's solution for that as well, at least it was more stable than what Bandai did. 

[Duymon]

I actually glued my wing flaps in place with superglue because I was so sick of them moving :0

[davidwhangchoi]

for those that pm'd me, i'll definitely get back to you once i decide to sell. thanks guys for the interest!

[Duymon]

49 minutes ago, davidwhangchoi said:

for those that pm'd me, i'll definitely get back to you once i decide to sell. thanks guys for the interest!

The Thirst for valks on this board is real

 

[Chronocidal]

10 hours ago, Kyp Durron said:

I suppose that's a fair point, they need to use Yamato's solution for that as well, at least it was more stable than what Bandai did. 

This is really the main gripe with the leg fins.  Yamato's design for them is just superior in every way, because they decided to do the extra work, and include a more complex interlock system where the fin still pulls out, but it locks into the stubs attached permanently to the leg. 

Bandai didn't bother with a lock, they just decided to let the fin swing freely, and depend on the tension of the sliding tab to hold the root surface of the fin flush against the leg.

In Bandai's defense, this mostly works, unless you set the valk on it's belly, or add more than a gentle pressure to bottom of the fin, which will eventually cause the fin's mounting tab to slide out, and let the fin collapse outwards.  The fast packs actually solve this entirely, because they have a small nook for the fin to rest in, and hold it stable.

One interesting thing that initially threw me off though is that I believe Bandai designed the fins to sit naturally at a shallower angle than I expected.  I believe the Yamato's tend to sit at between 30 and 35 degrees off vertical.  The Bandai fins are completely floppy at that point, and I kept feeling like I had to adjust them.  However, if you push them further out, closer to 50 degrees outward off vertical, they do hit a gentle stop, when the root of the fin matches the surface of the leg, and if you don't keep pushing, they'll stay there.

Comparatively speaking, I think they're about as effective as the tail hinges on the VF-0D.  Not what I could call sturdy, but stable if you don't touch them.  Again, just emphasizing that I don't think Bandai designed this to be played with.  With the saturation of the market, I can't really fault them for that.

[Lolicon]

6 hours ago, davidwhangchoi said:

for those that pm'd me, i'll definitely get back to you once i decide to sell. thanks guys for the interest!

Whoa whoa whoa you're selling your stuff off? What are you selling? 

[borgified]

5 minutes ago, Lolicon said:

Whoa whoa whoa you're selling your stuff off? What are you selling? 

I think I pushed him over the edge @Lolicon... Guilty as charged. 

17 hours ago, davidwhangchoi said:

i might sell some stuff but not sure yet. i have 5 copies of Dx Max 1A, all sealed just sitting in brown shippers.  I only have 3 roys on pre-order. i missed one at amazon japan bc they wanted me to send me a 4-code digit to verify my account and couldn't check out at hlj.  

 

6 hours ago, davidwhangchoi said:

for those that pm'd me, i'll definitely get back to you once i decide to sell. thanks guys for the interest!

 

[Lolicon]

Oh, just Bandai DX stuff. Boring.

[davidwhangchoi]

2 hours ago, Lolicon said:

Whoa whoa whoa you're selling your stuff off? What are you selling? 

notthing yet 

2 hours ago, borgified said:

I think I pushed him over the edge @Lolicon... Guilty as charged. 

haha, yeah i got even a bunch of more pms after i last posted.

thanks guys for the pms, hard to answer them all repeating the same thing so i haven't opened my pm's (i see them though). but if i do, i'll definately let you all know before posting it on the boards and see if you're still interested then. I haven't sold here in a while as i've been in another hobby that's damn pricey (Sony PVM's / BVM's).  

Edited July 25, 2020 by davidwhangchoi

[weiser21]

11 minutes ago, davidwhangchoi said:

notthing yet 

haha, yeah i got even a bunch of more pms after i last posted.

thanks guys for the pms, hard to answer them all repeating the same thing so i haven't opened my pm's (i see them though). but if i do, i'll definately let you all know before posting it on the boards and see if you're still interested then. I haven't sold here in a while as i've been in another hobby that's damn pricey (Sony PVM's / BVM's).  

You do retro gaming?

[sqidd]

Stance appropriated from @peter

[davidwhangchoi]

30 minutes ago, weiser21 said:

You do retro gaming?

yeah! this is my grail (throwing it in spoiler tags)

Spoiler

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

btw, this is the same set George Lucas used for production of his Star Wars films (they're that good) edit: i was so lucky to get one. these things are extremely rare and expensive. 

Spoiler

 

 

 

Edited July 26, 2020 by davidwhangchoi

[easnoddy]

Hallelujah, SSP's finally arrived from NY!

[sh9000]

2 hours ago, sqidd said:

Stance appropriated from @peter

Nice pose.

[Slave IV]

5 hours ago, davidwhangchoi said:

yeah! this is my grail (throwing it in spoiler tags)

  Hide contents

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

 

 

 

btw, this is the same set George Lucas used for production of his Star Wars films (they're that good) edit: i was so lucky to get one. these things are extremely rare and expensive. 

  Hide contents

 

 

 

Oh nice! I have a couple production monitors from my old editing studio I’ve been keeping around for gaming on. Those Sony’s are fantastic. 

Edited July 26, 2020 by Slave IV