PLAMAX 1/72 VF-1 Valkyrie

[KOG Water Dragon]

This is just me being picky, but I hope the articulation is stuff that would be consistent with what's possible in a hypothetical transforming version.

Right now, I'm not sure if those upward hinging blocks that the shoulders connect to would work with a transformation to gerwalk/fighter. Where would those blocks wind up going?

[Big s]

2 hours ago, KOG Water Dragon said:

This is just me being picky, but I hope the articulation is stuff that would be consistent with what's possible in a hypothetical transforming version.

Right now, I'm not sure if those upward hinging blocks that the shoulders connect to would work with a transformation to gerwalk/fighter. Where would those blocks wind up going?

These are the anime magic versions. So they probably have joints in many spots that would probably be tough for a real life transformation. The outward swing of the hips would be very tough to do realistically where the intakes and nosecone would be.

personally, it doesn’t matter much to me since this is designed to replicate poses from the anime that aren’t exactly possible in a real world design without a lot of redesigns

[KOG Water Dragon]

1 hour ago, Big s said:

These are the anime magic versions. So they probably have joints in many spots that would probably be tough for a real life transformation. The outward swing of the hips would be very tough to do realistically where the intakes and nosecone would be.

personally, it doesn’t matter much to me since this is designed to replicate poses from the anime that aren’t exactly possible in a real world design without a lot of redesigns

At the end of the day, I can just leave the shoulders lowered, so it won't bother me much.

[Bolt]

I'm very much looking forward to the possibilities for dynamic posing with this kit. I wonder how difficult it would be to stuff it inside the armored parts. Of course that would limit it's articulation, bit it might still look cool. 

[Big s]

2 hours ago, Bolt said:

I'm very much looking forward to the possibilities for dynamic posing with this kit. I wonder how difficult it would be to stuff it inside the armored parts. Of course that would limit it's articulation, bit it might still look cool. 

I’m curious if they would do extra armor or a dedicated kit. They may just do a model with mostly brand new parts for the armor to allow more movement than it would have if just had added armor 

[Raikkonen]

17 hours ago, KOG Water Dragon said:

This is just me being picky, but I hope the articulation is stuff that would be consistent with what's possible in a hypothetical transforming version.

Right now, I'm not sure if those upward hinging blocks that the shoulders connect to would work with a transformation to gerwalk/fighter. Where would those blocks wind up going?

Considering how this battroid version however true to it's source, is completely out of proportion for it to ever accurately transform into a plane. So we can sleep soundly that those blocks would also magically shrink when transforming. 

12 hours ago, KOG Water Dragon said:

At the end of the day, I can just leave the shoulders lowered, so it won't bother me much.

Logically articulation that parallels the show's magic bothers you due to not being possible in a transformable version, yet the Mickey Mouse gloves don't bother you? 

[KOG Water Dragon]

4 hours ago, Raikkonen said:

Considering how this battroid version however true to it's source, is completely out of proportion for it to ever accurately transform into a plane. So we can sleep soundly that those blocks would also magically shrink when transforming. 

Logically articulation that parallels the show's magic bothers you due to not being possible in a transformable version, yet the Mickey Mouse gloves don't bother you? 

They do.

[Raikkonen]

21 minutes ago, KOG Water Dragon said:

They do.

Then why even contemplate these? These are with the intent of replicating the drawn art with all it's liberties. There's plenty of other lines with the functional design. 

[KOG Water Dragon]

33 minutes ago, Raikkonen said:

Then why even contemplate these? These are with the intent of replicating the drawn art with all it's liberties. There's plenty of other lines with the functional design. 

Because despite my misgivings about hands that don't look like they can fit inside the arm openings and chunky hinged shoulder blocks that don't look like anything I've ever seen in artwork or animation, I still like the overall look and they bring back fond memories of both watching the show on TV and building the old 1/100 Arii kits when I was a teen. And I fully remember that those old Arii kits took a lot of liberties and had sections that looked totally different from mode to mode.

I don't do toys, only kits. So my options these days are primarily offerings from Bandai, Hasegawa, Wave, and Max Factory. I prefer 1/72 so I'm not really looking at Wave for VF-1. I like the Hasegawa line, and I have a number of their battroids. Unlike their fighters, the battroids are only offered in a few flavors, so I don't have all that many battroids compared to fighters. And then there's Bandai... these also didn't get released in many versions, and they're pretty hard to get for a reasonable price now. I still haven't been able to get the p-bandai max/miria versions. That brings me to Max Factory as my main option to supplement my Hasegawa battroids. And as I said, I do appreciate the more anime-ish styling.

Also, neither Bandai nor Hasegawa (or even Wave?) has done the VF-1D battroid, so it's kind of the only game in town for now...

[Bolt]

As accurate as the over sized hands are to the og line art and animation. Those have always bugged me the most. But i can certainly live with it. The shoulder blocks don't really bother me. We'll see , once it's in my hands , how much i like or dislike these kits, compared to Hasegawa.  Speaking of which, considering how many Hasegawa kits i have (and need to build!) , I only plan on buying around half a dozen  of these Plamax kits. That includes any future batroid versions.

[KOG Water Dragon]

52 minutes ago, Bolt said:

As accurate as the over sized hands are to the og line art and animation. Those have always bugged me the most. But i can certainly live with it. The shoulder blocks don't really bother me. We'll see , once it's in my hands , how much i like or dislike these kits, compared to Hasegawa.  Speaking of which, considering how many Hasegawa kits i have (and need to build!) , I only plan on buying around half a dozen  of these Plamax kits. That includes any future batroid versions.

I'm certainly down for a VF-1A, VF-1S, VF-1J Max & Miria, and Super/Strike.

Despite having more Hasegawas than I can handle. But I DO wish that Hasegawa would release more custom VF-1 battroids, like they've done for the fighters....

[Big s]

57 minutes ago, Bolt said:

As accurate as the over sized hands are to the og line art and animation. Those have always bugged me the most. But i can certainly live with it. The shoulder blocks don't really bother me. We'll see , once it's in my hands , how much i like or dislike these kits, compared to Hasegawa.  Speaking of which, considering how many Hasegawa kits i have (and need to build!) , I only plan on buying around half a dozen  of these Plamax kits. That includes any future batroid versions.

Have you thought about replacing the hands with something like the ones Bandai has for gundam. The 1/100 scale gundam ones might work for these and the packs have small medium and large hand sizes in them and there are round or square packs

[Raikkonen]

2 hours ago, KOG Water Dragon said:

Also, neither Bandai nor Hasegawa (or even Wave?) has done the VF-1D battroid, so it's kind of the only game in town for now...

Hasegawa the closest with their Gerwalk of it.

[Bolt]

1 hour ago, Big s said:

Have you thought about replacing the hands with something like the ones Bandai has for gundam. The 1/100 scale gundam ones might work for these and the packs have small medium and large hand sizes in them and there are round or square packs

Yep. I have a few sets on standby. 

[kajnrig]

9 hours ago, Bolt said:

As accurate as the over sized hands are to the og line art and animation. Those have always bugged me the most.

10 hours ago, KOG Water Dragon said:

Because despite my misgivings about hands that don't look like they can fit inside the arm openings

I think it was one or both of you I spoke to a while ago (probably around the time the Hasegawa Armored Battroid was announced) about the anime-style hands and how they bother me, too. I had to come to peace with the laughably and literally sketchy lineart hands by headcanoning that they're "traditionally" mechanical hand skeletons covered in spongy and/or expansive materials that can squeeze into a small form factor for stowage. But just imagine the intricate mechanisms and tolerances you would have to design into that to make sure that they don't reliably catch on anything and tear while going through repeated transformations.

Or maybe they do, and that becomes an infamous design flaw of the VF-1. Mechanics complain en masse about re-stuffing filling and duct-taping holes after nearly every mission, and it becomes standard practice to replace entire manipulators instead. At the height of the problem, otherwise perfectly useful hands are being tossed every two or three sorties. Penny pinchers realize that nearly 15% of the NUNS procurement budget is dedicated to purchasing or refurbishing manipulator units. NUNS and Northrom get into a tizzy over it, it becomes a whole political scandal that sacks a prominent chicken down company and several generals, and all future VF designs are mandated to follow strict manipulator design specs. General Galaxy and the YF-21 lose Project Super Nova because, as one GG engineer puts it, "our wings could look like anything, but the brass could only see balloon hands."

Indeed, the gate of history turns on small hinges.

[Bolt]

Lol Woah 

[Raikkonen]

18 hours ago, kajnrig said:

I think it was one or both of you I spoke to a while ago (probably around the time the Hasegawa Armored Battroid was announced) about the anime-style hands and how they bother me, too. I had to come to peace with the laughably and literally sketchy lineart hands by headcanoning that they're "traditionally" mechanical hand skeletons covered in spongy and/or expansive materials that can squeeze into a small form factor for stowage. But just imagine the intricate mechanisms and tolerances you would have to design into that to make sure that they don't reliably catch on anything and tear while going through repeated transformations.

Or maybe they do, and that becomes an infamous design flaw of the VF-1. Mechanics complain en masse about re-stuffing filling and duct-taping holes after nearly every mission, and it becomes standard practice to replace entire manipulators instead. At the height of the problem, otherwise perfectly useful hands are being tossed every two or three sorties. Penny pinchers realize that nearly 15% of the NUNS procurement budget is dedicated to purchasing or refurbishing manipulator units. NUNS and Northrom get into a tizzy over it, it becomes a whole political scandal that sacks a prominent chicken down company and several generals, and all future VF designs are mandated to follow strict manipulator design specs. General Galaxy and the YF-21 lose Project Super Nova because, as one GG engineer puts it, "our wings could look like anything, but the brass could only see balloon hands."

Indeed, the gate of history turns on small hinges.

Yeah... I'm sticking to the official story of 80s line art. 

[Big s]

Anime magic is the true Space Fold technology 

[GMK]

Just got my in stock notification for the VF-1J battroid from Hobby Easy. 

[Big s]

5 minutes ago, GMK said:

Just got my in stock notification for the VF-1J battroid from Hobby Easy. 

Yeah, I just got my email from hobby search. Looks like everyone’s getting their 1J’s sent out soon. Can’t wait to see it in hand. It’s a great time to be a Macross fan

[Big s]

Incase anyone is curious Hobbysearch has the full instructions up as well as contents pictured

[Raikkonen]

15 minutes ago, Big s said:

Incase anyone is curious Hobbysearch has the full instructions up as well as contents pictured

https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10984651 - For everyone curious. 

[Big s]

I’m a bit on the tired side, but is this spelled wrong?

I thought it was Ichijo

[Raikkonen]

1 hour ago, Big s said:

I’m a bit on the tired side, but is this spelled wrong?

I thought it was Ichijo

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hikaru_Ichijyo

https://macross.fandom.com/wiki/Hikaru_Ichijyo

Edited May 15 by Raikkonen

[Big s]

4 minutes ago, Raikkonen said:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hikaru_Ichijyo

https://macross.fandom.com/wiki/Hikaru_Ichijyo

I guess Max Factory wasn’t sure either 

[Raikkonen]

Good catch.

Doesn't bother me though. Translated pronunciations are usually open to various interpretations. 

My Italian name can be written in numerous different ways depending on the different English pronunciation.

Edited May 15 by Raikkonen

[Big s]

32 minutes ago, Raikkonen said:

Good catch.

Doesn't bother me though. Translated pronunciations are usually open to various interpretations. 

My Italian name can be written in numerous different ways depending on the different English pronunciation.

I figure that if the Y bugs anyone, they can trim it out easily 

[KOG Water Dragon]

10 hours ago, Big s said:

Yeah, I just got my email from hobby search. Looks like everyone’s getting their 1J’s sent out soon. Can’t wait to see it in hand. It’s a great time to be a Macross fan

I was looking at these comments and thinking 'what? where's mine? why haven't I heard from HLJ?'

And then, sure enough, I check my HLJ account and the VF-1J is in my private warehouse. I check my email, and yup, there's the payment confirmation email. Excellent. Going to be time to arrange a shipment soon.

[KOG Water Dragon]

7 hours ago, Big s said:

I figure that if the Y bugs anyone, they can trim it out easily 

Quite so.

I believe JO and JYO are 2 different valid ways of romanizing the same japanese characters, we are just more used to seeing JO.

That said, I probably would snip out the Y myself just so it looks more 'right' to my eye.

EDIT: Just noticed, It's spelled Ichijo on the box. 😆

Edited May 15 by KOG Water Dragon

[Big s]

5 hours ago, KOG Water Dragon said:

EDIT: Just noticed, It's spelled Ichijo on the box. 😆

Yeah, that’s why I posted the above pictures. It’s like they weren’t exactly sure either. The box has one spelling and the decals have it different.

[KOG Water Dragon]

12 minutes ago, Big s said:

Yeah, that’s why I posted the above pictures. It’s like they weren’t exactly sure either. The box has one spelling and the decals have it different.

Yup yup.

I will say though, I'm pretty happy that the battroid mode still has pilot stencils for the cockpit area. Do the Hasegawa battroids include pilot name decals? I can't recall at the moment.

[Big s]

Just now, KOG Water Dragon said:

Yup yup.

I will say though, I'm pretty happy that the battroid mode still has pilot stencils for the cockpit area. Do the Hasegawa battroids include pilot name decals? I can't recall at the moment.

Yes

[teons]

Hi guys

I'm a near total noob when it comes to building plastic models (did a few Gunplas and that's it - loved the fact the no glue is needed for those  ) but I do love the look of the Valkyries in plane mode. I've gotten a hasegawa kit in the past, but it was simply too difficult for me and never got around to completing it. Would you say the Plamax models are substantially easier to build? If so, I'd probably pick one up. 

Thanks!

[Big s]

1 hour ago, teons said:

Hi guys

I'm a near total noob when it comes to building plastic models (did a few Gunplas and that's it - loved the fact the no glue is needed for those  ) but I do love the look of the Valkyries in plane mode. I've gotten a hasegawa kit in the past, but it was simply too difficult for me and never got around to completing it. Would you say the Plamax models are substantially easier to build? If so, I'd probably pick one up. 

Thanks!

Definitely far simpler.

[Raikkonen]

13 hours ago, Big s said:

Yeah, that’s why I posted the above pictures. It’s like they weren’t exactly sure either. The box has one spelling and the decals have it different.

Definitely a case where the decal department is separate from the box cover department.