PLAMAX 1/72 VF-1 Valkyrie

[KOG Water Dragon]

I feel like the front of the lower legs is just a little too rounded for my liking.

The thing I like about the Hasegawa kit is that it's believable as a jet that can somehow origami itself into a humanoid shape to find giant aliens. You see a lot of the jet DNA in the battroid.

The Max Factory kit is fun and definitely brings back memories of watching the show, but it also feels like something designed to look like a cool robot, without needing to acknowledge realities of the other modes.

But I'm not kidding anyone, I will be getting a copy, along with any other variants in the pipeline.

I do wonder if these will include a decent amount of decal warning stencils and such. The demo in the photos doesn't even include the U.N. Spacy text from the gunpod and the side of the legs. Or the ID number on the lower stabilizers.

[Big s]

1 hour ago, KOG Water Dragon said:

I feel like the front of the lower legs is just a little too rounded for my liking.

The thing I like about the Hasegawa kit is that it's believable as a jet that can somehow origami itself into a humanoid shape to find giant aliens. You see a lot of the jet DNA in the battroid.

The Max Factory kit is fun and definitely brings back memories of watching the show, but it also feels like something designed to look like a cool robot, without needing to acknowledge realities of the other modes.

But I'm not kidding anyone, I will be getting a copy, along with any other variants in the pipeline.

I do wonder if these will include a decent amount of decal warning stencils and such. The demo in the photos doesn't even include the U.N. Spacy text from the gunpod and the side of the legs. Or the ID number on the lower stabilizers.

Most of the pictures have a definite curve that is easier to see in the lines in the upper part of the lower legmost toys and kits usually have it very flat though.a couple poses that I liked that weren’t on the previous page. Not sure what the decal sheet will look like and I’d imagine we’ll get a pretty good idea when the VF-1J battroid kit comes out , but this is definitely very anime compared to the hasegawa realistic style. The leg on this can clear the wings as shown when posing the legs forward, which is great to see.

[KOG Water Dragon]

I think it's easier to be OK with the curve in a simple anime style drawing, but it's a bit more obvious in a 3d physical object. It's mostly that the front of the upper leg is SUPER squared off and flat, while the lower leg is super rounded. Kind of a weird incongruity between the 2 sections. 

Plus the hands don't look like they can fit inside the wrist openings.

I grew up on the animation, and yet my adult self prefers the 'real world' style.

But I DO like the poses these Max Factory ones can do.

[Bolt]

1 hour ago, KOG Water Dragon said:

Plus the hands don't look like they can fit inside the wrist openings.

This always bugged me. 

 

1 hour ago, KOG Water Dragon said:

I grew up on the animation, and yet my adult self prefers the 'real world' style.

Same. 

 

1 hour ago, KOG Water Dragon said:

But I DO like the poses these Max Factory ones can do.

Yup. Though I'm only interested in the battroid kits. Will stick with Hasegawa for fighter mode.

[Big s]

3 hours ago, KOG Water Dragon said:

I grew up on the animation, and yet my adult self prefers the 'real world' style.

I’ve seen enough of the real world style stuff that I’m glad that there’s finally a modern option for the anime style. I personally prefer it. Even with other brands like Gundam. They’ve put out real grade and mg ver.ka of the Sazabi and others that go way more overboard with details, but I prefer the hguc version of the Sazabi since it looks more like the anime.

there are times when i think a redesign is fine and Hasegawa did a pretty good job of redesign while still keeping the feel of the original. But I still like the max factory versions better and hope that hasegawa can update their designs a bit more for better action 

[KOG Water Dragon]

I'll probably enjoy the Max Factory kits more with a bunch of warning stencils and other decals added on.

Now the Hasegawa YF-19 battroid in the other thread... THAT has me excited. I hope Hasegawa stays in the Macross game long enough to bestow us with at least a YF-21 and VF-11 battroid series. If they continue and do battroid versions of the VF-25 and VF-31... that would be amazing. 

Now see, I love RGs and MG ver Kas, so that probably explains my taste in Macross kits. Further, I got started on scale model kits (jets, wwii prop planes, cars) well before I got near any anime/mecha stuff, so that also informs my preference for complexity and detail. Like... I know what an F-35 looks like. I know it would have to be simplified a lot if it were to appear in an anime. In my head, I understand that difference. And I sort of reverse engineer that thinking when looking at anima mecha, and I think about what they'd look like in real life. And that's how I like my kits, since they are also 3d physical objects and not artwork on a screen or concept art sheet. I only own a few HGUC kits, really only stuff that isn't available any other way (Hathaway's series, the big GP03 dendrobium, AOZ stuff).

All that said... the Max Factory kits do hit a fun nostalgia button. Looking forward to seeing if they do supers. I think art indicating they might was floating around before. Also hoping for VF-1A, VF-1S, and Max/Miria VF-1J at minimum.

 

[Casual.Plamo]

I think it's actually fine/good that the plamax kit is going the anime route.

Because that means we have more options and variations of kits.

Hasegawa for the 'real' robotic look, Plamax for the anime style design and articulations, and... I guess Bandai for transforming kits(though in 1/100) that is playable/posable like a toy(solid build) but won't damage the paint job(much) because it's a parts former.

[Big s]

34 minutes ago, Casual.Plamo said:

I think it's actually fine/good that the plamax kit is going the anime route.

Because that means we have more options and variations of kits.

Hasegawa for the 'real' robotic look, Plamax for the anime style design and articulations, and... I guess Bandai for transforming kits(though in 1/100) that is playable/posable like a toy(solid build) but won't damage the paint job(much) because it's a parts former.

This is definitely the best way to look at things. I have the Bandai hg YF-19 and love it even if it’s not perfect and now Hasegawa has a much more boxy looking one that will appeal to those that already have their fighter kits and Max Factory may have one as well since they showed off the VF-19 that looks more poseable than the hasegawa kit and gives a different option over the Bandai hg version in size. 
Different options for different tastes and space are a good thing and I hope all the companies keep on going with more Macross 

[KOG Water Dragon]

I'm just bummed there's still no Hasegawa VF-1D battroid, since the plamax won't look at home with the other Hasegawas.

[Big s]

3 hours ago, KOG Water Dragon said:

I'm just bummed there's still no Hasegawa VF-1D battroid, since the plamax won't look at home with the other Hasegawas.

I have a feeling that there will be a Plamax version soon and maybe a little down the line Hasegawa will do their battroid version 

[Anasazi37]

I caved and PO'd the 1D. It just looks too darn good in the painted sample pics.

[Big s]

1 hour ago, Anasazi37 said:

I caved and PO'd the 1D. It just looks too darn good in the painted sample pics.

I did the same, I told myself that I didn’t need it before they showed a prototype, but after the prototype and seeing it in color with the extra peeps, I couldn’t resist 

[Anasazi37]

VF-1J Battroid release date is delayed again. Moving from May to June:

https://www.goodsmile.com/ja/news/5853

Quote

[Release month change]

- May 2024 → June 2024

"PLAMAX PX06 1/72 VF-1J Fighter Valkyrie Vermilion Platoon (Ichijo Teruki)" JAN: 4545784013762

 

[Bolt]

All good as long as i get it this year !

[Chas]

1 hour ago, Anasazi37 said:

VF-1J Battroid release date is delayed again. Moving from May to June:

https://www.goodsmile.com/ja/news/5853

 

That says "fighter" and my per-orderofthe battroidkit has a different JAN code, namely : 4545784013502.

So, are we sure that delay notice is for the battroid kit??

[Big s]

3 minutes ago, Chas said:

That says "fighter" and my per-orderofthe battroidkit has a different JAN code, namely : 4545784013502.

So, are we sure that delay notice is for the battroid kit??

The one I got from hobby search was regarding the fighter kit

[Chas]

Yeah, the PX06 moniker and that JAN code are both for the fighter kit.

Funny thing is when I translate the page @Anasazi37 linked to into English (using the 'laguage' button on the bottom of the page) all the info about the fighter kit disappears, and it just shows the Rei Ayanami, the 2 Dougram kits, And the Asuka Langley product delays -- weird !

Edited April 29 by Chas

[sketchley]

58 minutes ago, Chas said:

Funny thing is when I translate the page @Anasazi37 linked to into English (using the 'laguage' button on the bottom of the page) all the info about the fighter kit disappears, and it just shows the Rei Ayanami, the 2 Dougram kits, And the Asuka Langley product delays -- weird !

It's a common problem with machine translation.  The workaround is—in the translation site of your choice*: 1) translate individual sentences, and if that doesn't work, 2) break the sentences into sections (e.g. break at a comma [,]).

It's super annoying, but that's the way it is... 

 

* DeepL is my current go-to site.  However, Google Translate should be sufficient most of the time.

[pengbuzz]

5 hours ago, sketchley said:

It's a common problem with machine translation.  The workaround is—in the translation site of your choice*: 1) translate individual sentences, and if that doesn't work, 2) break the sentences into sections (e.g. break at a comma [,]).

It's super annoying, but that's the way it is...

some things will never change....

[Anasazi37]

7 hours ago, Chas said:

That says "fighter" and my per-orderofthe battroidkit has a different JAN code, namely : 4545784013502.

So, are we sure that delay notice is for the battroid kit??

I stand corrected. I forgot that the Fighter kit was also originally scheduled to release next month. We've seen the Battroid kit delayed enough times that I just assumed it was for that one. Good catch. Will it be delayed again? I hope not.

7 hours ago, Chas said:

Yeah, the PX06 moniker and that JAN code are both for the fighter kit.

Funny thing is when I translate the page @Anasazi37 linked to into English (using the 'laguage' button on the bottom of the page) all the info about the fighter kit disappears, and it just shows the Rei Ayanami, the 2 Dougram kits, And the Asuka Langley product delays -- weird !

I discovered a while back that when you switch the language from Japanese to English on their site, it's not necessarily doing the machine translation you think it is. For at least the sections related to news and shipping updates, there seem to be separate Japanese and English versions of the text, with the Japanese version being more complete (probably because it was written first). I just focus on the Japanese version and let my browser auto-translate the pages. 

 

[VF-1A Grunt]

I hope the Max / Kakizaki VF-1A fighter still arrives in June. I’d like to pick it up while I’m visiting Japan.

[Big s]

7 hours ago, VF-1A Grunt said:

I hope the Max / Kakizaki VF-1A fighter still arrives in June. I’d like to pick it up while I’m visiting Japan.

I’m not too sure on that since I kinda wonder if they’re trying to spread out releases. The 1J fighter release may only be a change in head piece and decal sheet. I don’t know if they went as far as changing any other details from their other fighter kit. And the fighter got pushed back a month almost seemingly to make room for the battroid that got a lil delay. So maybe the 1A’s will be pushed back as well. But who knows for sure at this point

[Anasazi37]

We now have a release date for the VF-1J Battroid kit: 13 May!

https://www.goodsmile.com/ja/news/5858

Quote

Shipped on Monday, May 13th
Max Factory
“PLAMAX 1/72 VF-1J Battroid Valkyrie (Ichijo Hikaru)” JAN: 4545784013502

(I made sure to double-check that the update was for the Battroid kit before posting)

As with past updates, if you switch from the Japanese version of the page to the English one, the VF-1J entry disappears. I just noticed that the kit isn't offered on the US Good Smile site, so maybe it's a licensing thing? Why bother to provide an English update on a kit that won't be available outside of Japan? 

[no3Ljm]

From Shizuoka Hobby Show 2024.

[KOG Water Dragon]

21 minutes ago, no3Ljm said:

From Shizuoka Hobby Show 2024.

VF-1J is looking good with the stencil decals on.

And dang.... the VF-19 Kai looks quite big and beefy next to the VF-1s.

[no3Ljm]

[Raikkonen]

Just watched a video on these, and I'm amazed by the genius articulation. The addition of the small figures is such a great touch!!! 

Only pity for someone like me with little time to build and paint these, is that they came in already as built action figures... 

[lechuck]

Yeah, the attention to articulation and the innovative approach to it – like for example, the increased range at the hip joint and therefore omitting thigh or knee swivels – is really making the Plamax kit stand out.

[Raikkonen]

29 minutes ago, lechuck said:

Yeah, the attention to articulation and the innovative approach to it – like for example, the increased range at the hip joint and therefore omitting thigh or knee swivels – is really making the Plamax kit stand out.

Yup, and impressive is the shoulder and hidden multi chest joints... we can already expect all the kung-fu and day at the beach poses with these 😅

[Chas]

16 hours ago, Raikkonen said:

Just watched a video on these, and I'm amazed by the genius articulation. The addition of the small figures is such a great touch!!! 

Only pity for someone like me with little time to build and paint these, is that they came in already as built action figures... 

Link to the video?

[Big s]

17 hours ago, Raikkonen said:

Just watched a video on these, and I'm amazed by the genius articulation. The addition of the small figures is such a great touch!!! 

Only pity for someone like me with little time to build and paint these, is that they came in already as built action figures... 

I’d love to see that video. I’ve been curious about how much knee bend there is on the VF-1 . I see that the hips and shoulders got a lot of love and those are usually my main concerns, but the upper body movement would be nice to see as well 

[Raikkonen]

48 minutes ago, Big s said:

I’d love to see that video. I’ve been curious about how much knee bend there is on the VF-1 . I see that the hips and shoulders got a lot of love and those are usually my main concerns, but the upper body movement would be nice to see as well 

Here you go, and where it starts... (But no knee bends, just the shoulder and chest/back. 

Edited May 11 by Raikkonen

[Big s]

2 hours ago, Raikkonen said:

Here you go, and where it starts... (But no knee bends, just the shoulder and chest/back. 

Those wings definitely won’t be in the way of the intakes with that kinda crunch. Looks amazing 

[Raikkonen]

7 hours ago, Big s said:

Those wings definitely won’t be in the way of the intakes with that kinda crunch. Looks amazing 

"crunch" that's the word that kept fleeing my mind yesterday 😅

[Big s]

1 hour ago, Raikkonen said:

"crunch" that's the word that kept fleeing my mind yesterday 😅

Honestly, I wasn’t sure if it was the right term since it has a fuselage instead of abs and with everything going on with Boeing lately, it may have been a bad choice, but it’s the term that popped in my head at the time