ThreeZero ROBOTECH (Macross) Toys

[grundee]

Finally got to the checkout page but, uh no.

Guessing it sold out?

edit: Oh, looks like I got one after all (at the normal price)

Edited October 11 by grundee
Got one!

[jvmacross]

I have come to appreciate ThreeZero's VF-1...went ahead and PO'd the 'Weathered' version...I see the VF-1S finally sold out....

[no3Ljm]

26 minutes ago, grundee said:

Finally got to the checkout page but, uh no.

Guessing it sold out?

edit: Oh, looks like I got one after all (at the normal price)

Maybe it's an error? 1340 is for HKD. Not USD. Hope you're not paying that amount in USD. 

[jvmacross]

So these are ready to ship now?

[grundee]

1 minute ago, no3Ljm said:

Maybe it's an error? 1340 is for HKD. Not USD. Hope you're not paying that amount in USD. 

Yeah, it was just a pricing error I found funny while refreshing the page trying to check out, I think the site was still recovering from crashing.  I removed it from my cart and added it back and it was the correct USD 169.99 and that's the amount on the email receipt.

[jenius]

I kept refreshing until I could buy one. Seems like we had lots of success for only 30 being available.

[rsvictor1976]

On 9/28/2024 at 5:37 PM, lmtsuper said:

One of the wing is crooked a bit. Is this a common issue, or just I got a bad one?

Mine had the same thing, but not that bad. I tried bending it straight lightly but didn't do anything. Hopefully it gets fixed in future releases.

[rsvictor1976]

1 hour ago, jenius said:

I kept refreshing until I could buy one. Seems like we had lots of success for only 30 being available.

Blocking Japan was probably a big factor to it. Plus we're not exactly as big of a community as the Gundam and Transformers fanbase.

[PNW_Sweetie]

Received my -1J last night from BBTS, and I’m pretty darned impressed. There are some small things that I don’t like, such as the chunky stand, landing gear color, floppy rudders, and the minor annoyance of the pilot hands not being on the cockpit control column.  But all in all, this thing is fantastic! It definitely has a hefty, quality, feel to it and I’m digging the clear parts also. Very happy with this purchase.

[no3Ljm]

10 minutes ago, PNW_Sweetie said:

Received my -1J last night from BBTS, and I’m pretty darned impressed. There are some small things that I don’t like, such as the chunky stand, landing gear color, floppy rudders, and the minor annoyance of the pilot hands not being on the cockpit control column.  But all in all, this thing is fantastic! It definitely has a hefty, quality, feel to it and I’m digging the clear parts also. Very happy with this purchase.

Is it safe to assume that you don't own any DX Valks esp the VF-1's?  

[Radioguy]

So, 30 Weathered were available for the 3Z site, but how many will be available through retailers?

[grundee]

1 hour ago, Radioguy said:

So, 30 Weathered were available for the 3Z site, but how many will be available through retailers?

They said they're making 2000 units, but I don't think anyone knows how many are still left after the event sales they've already done.
 

https://www.threezerohk.com/the-limited-edition-robo-dou-robotech-vf-1j-veritech-rick-hunter-weathered-edition-with-a-worldwide-limit-of-2000-units-will-make-its-appearance-this-summer-with-a-battle-worn-appearance-inspired-b/

Edited October 11 by grundee

[no3Ljm]

Also, seeing that BBTS listed it as 'BBTS Exclusive', we're not sure how many are actually allotted to them from the said 2000 limited units.

https://www.bigbadtoystore.com/Product/VariationDetails/276874

[PNW_Sweetie]

6 hours ago, no3Ljm said:

Is it safe to assume that you don't own any DX Valks esp the VF-1's?  

I have the -1D, -1S, and GBP DX’s. Beautiful pieces for sure. 

Edited October 12 by PNW_Sweetie

[no3Ljm]

1 hour ago, PNW_Sweetie said:

I have the -1D, -1S, and GBP DX’s. Beautiful pieces for sure. 

Nice. I only asked because the things you pointed out earlier on regarding the ThreeZero VF-1J's, it's also the same issue with the DX VF-1's -- Chunky Stand, Floppy Rudders, Ugly Landing Gear color. 

[Chronocidal]

Never had too much of an issue with the tails on either the DX or ThreeZero versions, but the gear are an ever-present point of silliness.  

Biggest issues I have with the ThreeZero are just that the arms sag so low in fighter that they plant the gunpod on the ground, and that it doesn't have any transforming hands that can hold the gunpod, which is something even the HMR VF-1s have.  The amount of paint and panel lining is a "concern," but I won't say it doesn't look good.

It's just in this weird middle category right between all of the other releases.

[nightmareB4macross]

On 10/11/2024 at 8:35 PM, Chronocidal said:

Never had too much of an issue with the tails on either the DX or ThreeZero versions, but the gear are an ever-present point of silliness.  

Biggest issues I have with the ThreeZero are just that the arms sag so low in fighter that they plant the gunpod on the ground, and that it doesn't have any transforming hands that can hold the gunpod, which is something even the HMR VF-1s have.  The amount of paint and panel lining is a "concern," but I won't say it doesn't look good.

It's just in this weird middle category right between all of the other releases.

I recently purchased one out of sheer boredom since my flight was delayed home. I do have to agree with you on the thought of this as being somewhere in the middle. The fit and finish is actually satisfying. The design choices however have me a bit withdrawn. The weirdest designs are the front landing gear assist panel and those ugly ankle panels.

All the paint on this is a nice touch, but those hideous painted panel lines, yuk. The heft gives it a nice feel as does the smooth articulation. But I will say the ankles seem as if they will give out quick after standing in Battroid (Robotech) mode for some time.

Here if the VF-1J fighter with Optimus Prime standing in as the Macross.😅

 

[MKT]

On 10/20/2024 at 10:41 AM, nightmareB4macross said:

I recently purchased one out of sheer boredom since my flight was delayed home. I do have to agree with you on the thought of this as being somewhere in the middle. The fit and finish is actually satisfying. The design choices however have me a bit withdrawn. The weirdest designs are the front landing gear assist panel and those ugly ankle panels.

All the paint on this is a nice touch, but those hideous painted panel lines, yuk. The heft gives it a nice feel as does the smooth articulation. But I will say the ankles seem as if they will give out quick after standing in Battroid (Robotech) mode for some time.

Here if the VF-1J fighter with Optimus Prime standing in as the Macross.😅

 

 

That is one big Prime! 
I'm guessing it's the one by Lewin. Was so tempted by it at one time.

[MKT]

The Korean reviewer with the super long livestream review has received the Weathered 1J:
 

 

[Radioguy]

The fact there's no paint loss, especially on the red areas, undermines the weathering for me. Applying a wash as dirt is fine, but seeing everything is an additional layer on top of the original paint application makes it boring to me.

[jenius]

I got mine in! And I should be getting my regular release today also.

[Chronocidal]

Will look forward to seeing your review/comparison when you get to it!  It's an interesting mix of features to process.

[Paco Grande]

I have one of the regular releases if anyone needs one. I’m in Canada but willing to ship anywhere. 

[rsvictor1976]

I'm all for weathering, but I'm not a fan of that large burn mark on on of the wings.

[jvmacross]

ThreeZero VF-1J 'Hikaru' Weathered Edition...

Feels the same to me as the 'regular' release....besides the 'weathering' ThreeZero also created a special box for it...looks good....I am glad I ordered a weathered VF-1J from them...

 

 

 

Edited October 25 by jvmacross

[Chronocidal]

Interesting.. it does look funny without any of the red striping or other markings worn away, but judging by how mine arrived, it might not be hard to damage them yourself if you really want.

On that note though, ThreeZero came through on my scratched up wing.  Replacement came in a bubble-wrapped ziplock baggie in a cardboard envelope, and in perfect shape.

Might be a while before I install it though, I've got the figure in a nice pose, and don't feel like taking it apart to swap it out at the moment.  

[Hiriyu]

Notice that the elbow joint weirdness returns on the box artwork for the weathered version, showing the articulated lower bicep that doesn't exist on the actual toy.

[MKT]

The normal 1J arrived.

Gotta say receiving it this many months after release somehow cooled off my mix of curiosity & tampered excitement for it, so I let it sit in the shipping package for a couple days before unboxing.

I've only messed with in Battroid so far, & it did take quite some time to see how it stacks up in this mode against the established competitors. Seeing & reading all the reviews so far gave me a very good idea of what to expect, but time and again as always, there's nothing like having it in-hand.

Lifting it out of the blister, this thing has some serious heft. I didn't calculate, but I bet this 1J is proportionately heavier than the DX. Coupled with the excellent paint finish throughout, I can see how on just the initial qualitative feel of this toy feel alone it is so much more impressive than others of its size - namely the Yamcadia & definitely over the KCs.

I won't really go into what others have already said, which for the most part I agree with, but mostly noting what stands out to me or stuff that are outside expectations.

Firstly, the built is pretty solid, the joints of key limbs are sufficiently tight and move pretty fluidly throughout their movement range,that feels more like a DX. It doesn't feel at all fragile while testing the articulation and putting it through various poses.

What I really like is how the waist twist is so much more accessible than the DX (which I never bothered to use). Although this feature was figured out quite some time ago when ThreeZero first unveiled the 3D animation footage, it's still pretty satisfying to see this ingenious design in action. 

I also like how the hands are on a dumbbell peg system, with the balls going into both the hands and the wrist. This allow a greater range of motion for the hands to get more expressive poses. I think this has been done on other action figures before, but it is the first time for a valk, and done well in my opinion. I do remember another toy I have having this system (can't remember which though), but it was fiddly because every time I try to pop off the hands, the whole peg came off at the wrist instead at one end and then I have to subsequently try to wrangle the hands off the other end of peg. No such shenanigans here with this toy, so ThreeZero definitely got the tolerances right with the appropriate tightness on both ends of the dumbbell peg. It's little details like this that endears.

We know that the knees and ankles are on slider extensions that are activated using the hidden buttons. What I think hasn't been covered sufficiently is that the sliders actually have 2-click positions - half and fully extended. Due to the way the mechanism works, we by default will always pull them out to fully extend, but if we slowly push the knees or ankles back in while releasing the button, the middle position will click in place.

On the ankles, half extension to me look best for normal A-stance poses. What is surprising, is that the ankles are not on ball joints as with virtually all other modern VF-1 toys. Though the feet obviously open/close plus move back and forth, the ankles are on sideway rockers only. So even though there's that nice movable inner flap to allow more sideways movement of the ankle, the lack of ankle twist point limits the fine tuning needed for the more dynamic poses, so the twist is quite sorely missed. Thus, a step forward on the ankle flaps but a step back on the ankle articulation.

The knees also proved to be an eccentricity in design and turned out to be a bit of bugbear for me. For the HMRs, Yamcadias & DX-es, we are used to twisting the knee at will and the kneecap if in closed position automatically adjusts out of the way. On the ThreeZero, the kneecap in closed position physically blocks the knee from twisting, so we have to first open the kneecap. Even after opening that, the knee still won't twist and will only do so after the knee is also extended. Visually there doesn't appear to be anything blocking the knee twist in an un-extended position, but it looks to be that just a 10-20% extension of the knee finally allows the twist. This is definitely a bizarre design, complicates stuff more than necessary, introduces stress point when handling this area, and having the knee extended with kneecaps opened for twist do break the sculpt in certain ways depending on the pose to be achieved. ThreeZero reinventing this area that doesn't need reinventing really does make me realise how much I've taken for granted some of the established designs of the other erstwhile mentioned brands.

If we extend both ankles and knees halfway as what ThreeZero probably intended, it stands about the same height as the Yamcadia. It absolutely does not feel smaller than the latter; any differences in dimensions in Battroid is really down to sculpt differences than outright scaling and I'll be perfectly happy to mix in ThreeZero's among the Yamcadia 1/60's for display. So far, the positives quite outweigh the negatives in Battroid.

Pic to end this post:

 

 

Edited October 30 by MKT

[jvmacross]

After 4 months of handling....this ThreeZero VF-1 is as solid as the first day I received it...

It has grown on me and look forward to adding more....I have even gotten used to the bulbous noggin...lol

The VF-1S head may take a bit longer to like....but who knows, may look better in-hand...

[Chronocidal]

The head really doesn't bug me.  What I find funny is that it actually does a better job of streamlining fighter mode than either Yamato or Banadai, since it's big enough to pretty much cover the shoulders from the front.

Just funny to me, since fighter is probably this one's "worst" mode.  Not that it's even particularly bad, it's just that the innovations ThreeZero made all benefit the other modes more, and the arms are just too big for a streamlined fighter.

It's definitely in its own category compared with the other options, and feels much less like a toy, and more like a display piece, mostly due to the overall paint, rather than the bare plastic both Bandai and Yamato/Arcadia use.  It's interesting to transform and pose, but all of that paint is definitely telling me to pose it, and leave it alone.

[MKT]

Over the past few days I slowly transformed the 1J into Gerwalk and then Fighter.

I didn't want to rush it and resist muscle memory from years of handling HMRs, Yamcadias & DXs because although the transformation scheme is broadly the same, it's the little nuances that ThreeZero did that makes handling feel different.

I think some of us saw the side fillers details look pretty ugly, so I first took them off to see how Battroid did without them. Basically ThreeZero's sculpt is such that the chest is made rather thick, so when flowing to the lower torso the hips are now positioned further forward relative to the wings at the back. This increased clearance then allow the hips to swing much further forward before the intakes start hitting the wings.
However because of the thick chest, not unexpectedly without the fillers there's a huge see-through cavity. With other VF-1s the fillers were always optional to me as they never look particularly bad without them, but here having the fillers removed undoubtedly makes the toy look worse than without them, bad filler details non-withstanding.

Additionally, there was mention that the outer chest plate doesn't lock down without the fillers and this is true. The fillers do hold the chest plate down, and without them, the chest plate sort of sits in place mostly by gravity, and easily jostled during handling.

These above factors almost push the use of fillers to be almost mandatory. I just wished ThreeZero made them smaller & more inset into the chest so they are not so visible while also doing the work of covering up the cavity. In this regard, I think the DX does the best job here in terms of side filler aesthetics.

The waist joint that I was quite happy with in Battroid turned out to be an additional handling complication once untabbed from the nosecone for transformation. Basically all the freeplay at that rail joint now makes it more involving to line up the intakes to the underside of the chest plate, and the weight of the legs makes it all the more easy for the crotch T-bar to detach from the rail. Essentially it is not unlike the issue some have with the DX’s detaching legs although the reasons are different.
 

 

Going into Gerwalk, the lack of ankle twist is felt even more keenly here. The good thing is there are no problems achieving that deep Gerwalk stance that KC and even HMR struggle with, but the feet angle will be look a bit strange without that twist. On the upside, the intakes lock very solidly onto the chest plate; handling it in this mode with all that weight is as solid as a DX.

I feel the backpack could be better engineered though. There’s really no complains about it once the stabilisers are in proper position in Fighter – they are very symmetrical, with hardly any gap at the stabiliser root. But they are quite fiddly when trying to fold them over one another, there’s quite a bit of freeplay at the sliding channels so the stabilisers always want to move crooked.
The entire backpack does sit quite slanted in Battroid and doesn’t look upright enough. It doesn’t have the collapsing backplate feature the Yamcadia or DX has to allow the backpack to be more upright. Neither does the HMR, yet somehow the angle here is steeper. We don’t really notice it so much in Battroid since it’s usually out of view, but becomes quite egregious in Gerwalk because the backpack looks mis-transformed with that huge sloping angle. Another nitpick is that the backpack flap (if not wrong acts as a blast shield) does not have a stopper when unfurled open, so one has to eyeball the appropriate position.
 

 

In Fighter mode, the toy feels rock solid in-hand, and in fact the heft, weight distribution, and nice paint makes it feel like what @Chronocidal mentioned as a nice diecast jet, even if the construction methods are different.

The way the legs tab onto the backplate is similar to the DX, but the fit is tighter here compared to the latter. Arms also suffer the same design issue as DX, they don’t plug in securely, and mostly hang in position squeezed by the legs. Having the gun installed actually make the arms more secure in place because the gun is the only thing that ties the arms as a unit. If ThreeZero makes Super Pack for this mold, then it is likely going to suffer the same issues as the DX with arms and legs hanging loose with the added weight, unless the packs somehow have additional engineering to hold everything together.  

Some have commented one side intake cover is really tight, and mine is no different. The cover is so firmly wedged in that the included plastic tool felt like it could break while prying it out, so I used a metal tool instead. Once the covers are off, they reveal nicely sculpted & painted intakes which look to be lifted directly off the DX.

The cockpit canopy is lovely here. The clarity of the transparency is good, and the frame fits very nicely against the sill with absolutely no gaps, yet not too snug that makes it difficult to open. Hikaru / Rick sitting inside is sharply molded and painted.

Overall silhouette of Fighter looks more like an upsized HMR though, in the shape of how the canopy flows to the back, and the width of Fighter towards the rear when viewed from the top.

Now, by far the BIGGEST problem when getting to Fighter is the shoulder sliders. I don’t know what ThreeZero were thinking releasing a product with this insane level of tightness, in my books bordering on defect because from their Battroid / Gerwalk position, it is near impossible to get the arms to its appropriate position in Fighter. This basically explains it:
 

On 11/2/2024 at 2:36 AM, Chronocidal said:

They required so much rocking back and forth around the shaft to slide at all that there was no physically possible way to slide them without completely detaching the legs to get them out of the way, meaning pushing them between the intakes to go to fighter mode was just not happening.

The nice, beefy solid sleeve-over-rail design that we saw in the early videos turned out to be a mega HUGE bane. Short of disassembling the whole backplate and various other stuff to separate the slider components for modding, there’s really nothing that can be done to ease the tightness. The sleeve wraps around the rail so snugly that lubricating the rail and then forcing the sleeve to move over it hardly does anything to ease the tightness.

There was moment when I was just sitting and staring at it for a good while trying to come up with solutions to move the arms up between the legs. In the end, I just used a solid tool, butted it against the flap area adjacent to the sleeve and brute-forced slid both arms into place.

Once the arms are set properly between the legs, the bigger problem now is sliding them out! Fortunately, I managed to use another metal tool to crowbar them out at again the shoulder flaps. The thing is, this may not be a long-term repeatable solution as the flaps might give way with all the wrangling sliding them back and forth, even if they look very robust.

This singular factor is giving me pause on the whole thing, because it detrimentally affects transformation in and out of Fighter. I’m not sure if this affect all copies, as not all of us have reported it. Also, not a single of the many video reviews I’ve seen pointed it out, though I now remember the very first reviewer video posted on these boards likely has the same issue. If we recall, we were debating on that huge gap between the arms and head in Fighter, so in hindsight it is likely the reviewer suffered the same stiff shoulders but somehow didn’t mention it.

Lastly, the landing gears also have their eccentricities. That mystery flap at front that hangs down just ahead of the.. head, turned out to be some kinda helper flap to nudge the gear out of the bay. Once the gear is out of the bay though, the flap doesn’t want to stay back in & flops down at the slightest movement of the toy. This is a curious design because the front gear is always the easiest to fish out by pulling at the tow bar thingy, yet the rear gears have none of these and still need to be fished out using the plastic tool.. 

The rear gears have camber articulation similar to the DX, but the rearmost doors do not swing widely out of the gears’ way as per DX. Fortunately, when the gears butt up against the door, it looks like the wheels are at just about the right perpendicular angle to the ground.  

Very unexpectedly, the gears are made of plastic, and I thought metal would be common sense given how much weight the gears have to support, and even more so if the Super Packs come to fruition. Unfortunately, I can’t really test the sturdiness of Fighter with wheels down, because…
 

A whole gear assembly is missing. That side was actually the first bay I opened, and for a brief moment I thought I was grossly mistaken in it having integrated gears and instead thinking that the gears are plugged in ala HMR.

I’ll be contacting my local vendor to explore solutions. That cute warranty card that ThreeZero included with suddenly doesn’t look so much from a bygone era now. 

In finality, this mold made me realise that the DX have much more in common with the Yamcadia than I have ever given consideration of (did T-Rex also design the DX? I can’t recall.). So fixated was I with the differences of DX over Yamcadia, that Threezero’s actually have far more distinction than either of them, and it really shows when handling it. The toy really seems to be a highlight of what Threezero is best at: articulation, paint, sturdiness, whilst showing some inexperience in the transformation aspects.  

I was quite set on ordering Roy’s 1S, but that was before I got it into Fighter. Now, I’m not so sure. The shoulders are a major deal breaker. Will Threezero fix the shoulders going into Roy's 1S, or will they leave them as it is?

[Chronocidal]

Definitely take advantage of that warranty card, they should have no trouble getting you either a replacement landing gear, or replacement leg to fix that issue.  It took a few weeks to get to me, but I did receive the replacement wing they sent me to fix the scraped up paint issue I had.

The shoulder slider issue really is baffling, and your experience makes me wonder if people are just accepting of that?  I'm not sure.  Maybe we just both lost out on the QC lottery.

To be clear though, the fix for it isn't actually what I would call difficult, because the entire thing can be easily disassembled with screws.  The whole backplate comes apart easily, and will let you completely remove the arms from those sliding rails, making them much easier to work on.  The best option is that specifically sized drill bit I mentioned using, but I'm sure the same effect could be achieved with a narrow enough file to widen the hole in the shoulder slider.

At the end of the day?  I think this is a solid battroid display model more than anything else.  I have my DX and Yamato versions for all the fighter mode display I could ask for, but this one's leg joints give it a much wider range of poses possible, so I have no trouble displaying it that way, and will probably keep my Roy pre-order to display the pair together.

[MKT]

I agree, it makes for a nice display in Battroid due to the dynamic posing possibilities and paint. The wonky panel lining design on the wings are also not so visible in this mode. 

The weight really does feel nice whenever handling it, though technically Yamcadia has shown it has no bearing on how good a toy can be. I'm impressed that ThreeZero has managed the weight well by having stuff lock well with good tolerances on all the stress joints handling said weight. Parts that don't bear much stress, such as the backpack and canopy shield can be finicky to handle, but mostly do go into position without issues. Put another way, the final mode in each form is pretty good, just that the process of getting there is rather more involved than needs to be.

I guess disassembling the shoulder is not so hard after all, but I'm reluctant to permanently mod anything during the warranty period. We never know if another issue pops up down the road, that requires unit to be sent back to ThreeZero, and they can certainly point to the modded shoulders and invalidate the whole warranty if they want to.