Bandai VF-31AX Kairos Plus - Hayate Type

[Mommar]

On 1/27/2022 at 9:48 AM, no3Ljm said:

Aside from all the things that been said about this, I really hate that rectal thermometer. 

 

I find it odd Kawamori came up with this dynamic weapon pod idea yet every implementation is inelegant and/or completely stupid looking.

[Sildani]

The one on the YF-30 Kronos is cool…

[no3Ljm]

20 hours ago, Angesdad said:

My guess is it's just a drawer + hinge type of design solely for aesthetic purposes. This way the fold pieces retract sitting flush to the chest until you decide to transform. Otherwise there'd be ugly hinges visible on top of the chest. 

18 hours ago, Chronocidal said:

Agreed 100% on the thermometer.  Mine's carrying the spare charger pack from my Hayate with the sound booster.

I'm guessing the folding chest pieces are just a holdover that they left alone since the original release had them, and it was easier than re-molding the chest plate.  They might play a bigger role in giving clearance to the other head designs.

Thanks guys. Yeah, I realized down the line that it might help the other head designs that has antenna/lasers on the side of the head during transformation.

7 minutes ago, Mommar said:

I find it odd Kawamori came up with this dynamic weapon pod idea yet every implementation is inelegant and/or completely stupid looking.

True. And we always lashes things out towards Bandai. We keep on forgetting to blame the main guy.  

3 minutes ago, Sildani said:

The one on the YF-30 Kronos is cool…

Yup. Still love that one and @Xigfrid's Strike Cannons.  

 

[Mommar]

2 hours ago, no3Ljm said:

True. And we always lashes things out towards Bandai. We keep on forgetting to blame the main guy.  

 

I’ve criticized his habit of sticking large objects at the end of long thin bits like huge engines on the end of the wings.  But that is partly due to Bandai not being able to 1) engineer some sort of stabilization mechanism to compensate or 2) make lighter frakking add-ons.

[Lolicon]

On 1/27/2022 at 10:21 AM, MKT said:

Finally got my copy of the VF-31AX today. Opened and immediately spotted the problems everyone else mentioned in Fighter: the bad alignment of the various arm panels & guns, plus the wings not tabbing properly to the legs.

After spending a better part of 2 hours fighting to get everything aligned properly, and frustrated along by the design of it where there are sharp points everywhere - the serrated wings, dogtooth canards, stinger end, head antenna, I'm giving up.. It is just sloppy tolerancing on Bandai's part on those problematic areas, and it appears to be at a level that's more akin to toys made about 20 years ago in the earlier 2000's, what with all the misaligned paint on the shoulder pieces, the panel gaps, and the tabs not fitting properly. Of the top of my head for comparison, the Yamato v2 VF-1 and VF-19 molds that are at least a decade old now were really the high point on how everything fits perfectly together without any slop.

I then took out the previous VF-31s to compare, and have renewed appreciation on how sleek everything looked under and around the wings. I also pulled up Bandai's promotional pics of the 31AX in Fighter mode, and am not surprised if they photoshopped away all the gaps including the misaligned shoulder paint stripes everyone else has in their pics and review videos. 

But at end of day, these issues will not bother me that much as they will be mostly be display pieces. Just holding out some hope Mirage's AX will have these issues fixed. 

 

But... But... Bandai valks cost less than Arcadia! 

I fully expect Mirage to have all the same problems. Bandai doesn't admit or fix problems. They double down on them. 

[Anasazi37]

9 minutes ago, Lolicon said:

But... But... Bandai valks cost less than Arcadia! 

I fully expect Mirage to have all the same problems. Bandai doesn't admit or fix problems. They double down on them. 

001 is *exactly* the same as 100. What problems could you possibly be referring to?

[Lolicon]

2 hours ago, Anasazi37 said:

001 is *exactly* the same as 100. What problems could you possibly be referring to?

It's not a bug! It's a feature! 

[jenius]

My 31AX arrived from Luna Park! I am happy to report that, though it was in an Amazon box, it was well packaged and had a Luna Park "thank you" card inside the box. They even threw in a green tea Kit Kat. 

[Angesdad]

22 minutes ago, jenius said:

My 31AX arrived from Luna Park! I am happy to report that, though it was in an Amazon box, it was well packaged and had a Luna Park "thank you" card inside the box. They even threw in a green tea Kit Kat. 

Nice! There’s still hope with LP. Looking forward to your 31AX review’s up soon!

Edited January 29, 2022 by Angesdad

[jenius]

8 minutes ago, Angesdad said:

Nice! There’s still hope with LP. Looking forward to your 31AX review’s up soon!

Probably not soon... still working on the house. Maybe if permits slow me down I can squeeze it in.

Edited January 29, 2022 by jenius

[weiser21]

52 minutes ago, jenius said:

My 31AX arrived from Luna Park! I am happy to report that, though it was in an Amazon box, it was well packaged and had a Luna Park "thank you" card inside the box. They even threw in a green tea Kit Kat. 

They probably know you’re a YouTuber and want a positive review. 

[jenius]

I suppose it's possible but nothing about my order is linked to anything and I've never brought it up.

[Sanity is Optional]

I think mine came with a green tea KitKat also, but not the metal robot spirits wing zero I got from them. 🤔

[aurance]

Got mine from LP also. Big Amazon box with the smaller box inside, with like one sheet of packing paper maybe 4 bubbles. I got lucky; this could easily have been damaged in transit with this crap packing job.

No Kitkat no card no nothin’. Not that I care about that stuff, but the variation between packages is interesting.

[pengbuzz]

Yeah, you gotta watch it with some of these sellers. Their packing jobs can leave a lot to be desired, and a rough trip vial postal/ delivery can mean some nasty bumps for a prized collectible.

Edited January 31, 2022 by pengbuzz

[aurance]

@Chronocidal @MacrossJunkie @manfred17

I’ve played with this and transformed it back and forth a few times now. Unfortunately the wing/gun fitting issue doesn’t seem like a QC problem; rather it appears to be careless design so it will plague all copies of this. The fixes mentioned by the three fellow members listed above will ALL help, namely: 1) push back the forearm sheaths as far back to the elbow as possible for fighter, 2) shave down the wing-to-leg pegs, 3) shave down the block to which the rail guns are attached. I’m sorry I don’t know how to quote all the appropriate posts but they all have posted very helpful pictures in this thread.

Edited January 31, 2022 by aurance

[pengbuzz]

1 minute ago, aurance said:

@Chronocidal @MacrossJunkie @manfred17

I’ve played with this and transformed it back and forth a few times now. Unfortunately the wing/gun fitting issue doesn’t seem like a QC problem; rather it appears to be careless design so it will plague all copies of this. The fixes mentioned by the three fellow members above will ALL help, namely: 1) push back the forearm sheaths as far back to the elbow as possible for fighter, 2) shave down the wing-to-leg pegs, 3) shave down the block to which the rail guns are attached. I’m sorry I don’t know how to quote all the appropriate posts but they all have posted very helpful pictures in this thread.

Just hit the "quote" button under their posts and it should show up in your reply box. Then, just add your reply.

[aurance]

On 1/13/2022 at 6:40 PM, MacrossJunkie said:

I used an Xacto knife to shave down the pegs in the wings some. No left over scratches and looks pretty clean that way. 

Now it fits in snugly.

Fixing that I think also helped other fitment issues or maybe it's because I transformed it to battroid and back again. 

I don't have to extend the tip of the gunpod anymore to get the peg at the tip to slot into the hole at the underside.

Also the arm/bicep covers now no longer really have a gap on either side or at least it's to a degree I find acceptable. It's mostly in how you position the arms.

Instead of having the arms pushed up against the underside of the wings, I pulled it down at the elbows as much as I could.

 

On 1/11/2022 at 11:34 PM, Chronocidal said:

Don't blame you, it's not even illustrated in the instructions.  This is why I am so confused as to why the parts even move to begin with.

The two sides of the arm not attached to the folding arm shield are not directly attached to the arm itself, they're on sliders.  There's really no good way to grip it, but if you push the outside of the arm toward the elbow, it helps the guns sit level in fighter.

Photos will probably help.  I might have missed something in the instructions, but couldn't read them anyhow.  

The part with the blue paint slides.  It actually moves farther than I thought, making a weird quarter-cuff around the wrist in the full extension, and moving back behind it in the opposite direction.

Here's a different angle, showing the blue section pushed back toward the elbow.  The bit outlined in pink is part of the wrist that should be sticking out past the blue slightly to make sure the gun has enough clearance to lay flat against the arm.

It's entirely possible I missed this as a step in the instructions, but I didn't see anything calling out sliding those panels in either direction.

  

This is exactly what's happening in the pics above, but like I said, I didn't see it in the instructions at all, and those pieces are a royal pain in the arse to actually move, because there is nothing to grip them by (and I think mine may have even been glued down by a sloppy assembly).

If those armor bits aren't slid as far toward the elbow as possible, they inhibit the gun from rotating enough to lay flat on the underside.

 

 

On 1/22/2022 at 4:05 PM, manfred17 said:

I was still not happy concerning the mis-aligning canons issue.

So here what I did : sanding again, little by little, and check the result each time.

It is long but I managed to get quite a good result.

On the first pic, you can see were I did the sanding.

Here we go 

[Mommar]

And people want Bandai to make a 21...

[ValkAddict]

23 minutes ago, Mommar said:

And people want Bandai to make a 21...

Fair point ...

[505thAirborne]

47 minutes ago, Mommar said:

And people want Bandai to make a 21...

I'd prefer Arcadia to build a 21 but that's just me.

[no3Ljm]

Just now, 505thAirborne said:

I'd prefer Arcadia to build a 21 but that's just me.

Same here. I want their updated take on it.  

 

[505thAirborne]

28 minutes ago, no3Ljm said:

Same here. I want their updated take on it.  

 

[Sanity is Optional]

14 minutes ago, no3Ljm said:

Same here. I want their updated take on it.  

Same, I think their 19 is probably the best of the 3 versions (Yamato, Arcadia, Bandai).

But if they do people will just incessantly complain about the cost...

[no3Ljm]

2 hours ago, Sanity is Optional said:

Same, I think their 19 is probably the best of the 3 versions (Yamato, Arcadia, Bandai).

But if they do people will just incessantly complain about the cost...

Even if they do, people are still willing on paying 'Premium' releases.  But if Arcadia YF-21 gets made, I'll only get the regular release.  

2 hours ago, 505thAirborne said:

'Air' High Five? Hahaha!  

 

[lechuck]

4 hours ago, Mommar said:

And people want Bandai to make a 21...

Yes we do.

I have little desire to pay 300+ Euros for something that would probably only favour fighter mode and have Battroid/Gerwalk be some vague afterthought again.

[Lolicon]

Just like their DX VF-1, Bandai's 21 appears to favor battroid. 

I'll buy Bandai's version for that, but for fighter mode I'd prefer it if Arcadia designed a new 21, because Bandai clearly makes fighter mode an "afterthought." 

[rematron]

Yeah. I want Bandai to make a 21. I want them to make a 21 with the same dedication they made the original 31 series and the revival 25s.   Nobody wants a crappy 21 from Bandai or anybody else. 

[no3Ljm]

I gotta say, up to this point, I think Yamato is the only company who nailed YF-21's Battroid and Fighter mode as close to lineart. Outside kits and resin. Fighter in their 1/60 Kanzen Henkei line and Battroid from their GN-U Dou line.  

That being said, I don't think there will be a company who can work to have both modes like that in a figure. It's not going to happen. 

Photos courtey of @jenius' Anymoon.com site.

Edited January 31, 2022 by no3Ljm

[last_raven]

On 1/22/2022 at 4:05 PM, manfred17 said:

I was still not happy concerning the mis-aligning canons issue.

So here what I did : sanding again, little by little, and check the result each time.

It is long but I managed to get quite a good result.

On the first pic, you can see were I did the sanding.

What file did you use @manfred17? Did you just go across the entire face evenly or did you make an initial rough pass in that 'groove' you highlighted? May just be my stanky old wizard eyes but in the first photo it looks like you did a first pass on that 'groove' at the bottom of the 'slope' and then went across the face of the entire section evenly from there in the second. Definitely achieved desirable results. A shame that Bandai dropped the ball on this one.

[sqidd]

19 hours ago, Lolicon said:

Just like their DX VF-1, Bandai's 21 appears to favor battroid. 

I'll buy Bandai's version for that, but for fighter mode I'd prefer it if Arcadia designed a new 21, because Bandai clearly makes fighter mode an "afterthought." 

I hope no one makes one. I've got four 21's. If someone brings something out I'm going to have to decide if I'm going to replace them. I don't even want to think about that!

[VF-Zero]

I love big robots and i can not lie... The other bothers can't denia 

Guys and Girls, i wasn't around since the 2008, Is Yamato still making Transformable 1/60 Valkyrie models ? I bearly remember hearing something like Yamato bankrupted or someting at some point... But i didn't check the information out. I want to live in denial, If it's true. I only have VF-0S Transformable model from Yamato. I'm a Big Macross Zero fan.  I was going crazy for the Macross Models, Yamato were doing back in the day, but i was just a student back then.... I didn't have the money... 

Now, i'm back to get all the Yamato Valkyries i want, if they didn't bankropted... If they bankrupted ( i don't see any Yamato models on BBTS), i will get the Bandai ones. Is Bandai the Flag Carrier after Yamato for VF models ? The upcoming VF-25 Massiah anniversay edition looks amazing, i will definetly get it.  

Edited February 1, 2022 by VF-Zero

[jenius]

Yamato is bankrupt. Many of the folks from Yamato started a new company called Arcadia. Arcadia even owns some of the old Yamato molds, like the VF-1. Arcadia makes much fewer products than Yamato did but they DO support the Macross Zero line. The Arcadia VF-0 toys are generally big improvements from the Yamatos and they also have an improved SV-51 you should check out. Do note that Arcadia toys are built in much smaller quantities with much higher price tags. 

Bandai is also about to release a Hi-Metal R VF-0 toy that should have an attractive price point for a smaller (1/100ish) toy. 

[manfred17]

20 hours ago, last_raven said:

What file did you use @manfred17? Did you just go across the entire face evenly or did you make an initial rough pass in that 'groove' you highlighted? May just be my stanky old wizard eyes but in the first photo it looks like you did a first pass on that 'groove' at the bottom of the 'slope' and then went across the face of the entire section evenly from there in the second. Definitely achieved desirable results. A shame that Bandai dropped the ball on this one.

I used this tool to reduce the thickness of the part shown in red frame, in order to have more clearance and make everything align correctly.

Any other equivalent tool ou sanding tool can do the job. As you can see, it is not perfect, but the result is fine for me.

I also used this same tool to reduce the thickness of the wing pegs.

 

Again, if you plan to do this, do it little by little and check the result, in order not to get the issue become worse...

 

 

[no3Ljm]

36 minutes ago, VF-Zero said:

I love big robots and i can not lie... The other bothers can't denia 

Guys and Girls, i wasn't around since the 2008, Is Yamato still making Transformable 1/60 Valkyrie models ? I bearly remember hearing something like Yamato bankrupted or someting at some point... But i didn't check the information out. I want to live in denial, If it's true. I only have VF-0S Transformable model from Yamato. I'm a Big Macross Zero fan.  I was going crazy for the Macross Models, Yamato were doing back in the day, but i was just a student back then.... I didn't have the money... 

Now, i'm back to get all the Yamato Valkyries i want, if they didn't bankropted... If they bankrupted ( i don't see any Yamato models on BBTS), i will get the Bandai ones. Is Bandai the Flag Carrier after Yamato for VF models ? The upcoming VF-25 Massiah anniversay edition looks amazing, i will definetly get it.  

It's a great time for you to come back to this hobby. Lots of good stuff.  

Be warned though. It's always a matter of how much our wallets can support this plastic addiction.