HMR Macross Zero VF-0S Phoenix

[MKT]

15 hours ago, TheLoneWolf said:

Tbh, Arcadia's VF-1 toys have been sporting similar transluscent plastic for years and there haven't been any durability issues. I agree that it's likely due to the color of the plastic than thickness, since it's not that apparent on any non-white parts.

Attached photo is courtesy of davidwhangchoi.

I suppose, any single-layer white parts will show some translucence when held up against direct light. In the Arcadia VF-1 pic, other than the wings and backpack flap, other places remain opaque.

I was a bit bothered about this VF-0S, because places like the arms and chest, still show some translucence I've not seen in the other HMR when taking pics of them in the usual lighting conditions.

Anyway, I took the short wings of the VF-0S, VF-1J Hikaru, and the VF-2SS, taped them against a lamp shade, and this is what I got:

 

When I measured the thickness of the wings using a vernier caliper, this is what I obtained. But take the absolute figures with a grain of salt, because the wings are not flat and molded with surface curvature, especially so with the VF-1 wings. The thickness varies on different areas of each individual wing, but the takeaway is that the difference in thickness across all 3 are pretty consistent.

 

Although the opacity of each wing appears to correspond to their thickness, the degree doesn't seem to be. The VF-0 is about 5% less thick than the VF-2, but to my eye the light filtering through look to be much more than that...    

 

 

Edit: Well, forget the thickness measurements above. Did another translucence comparison test, and the results are self-explanatory lol..

 

 

Edited November 10, 2022 by MKT
Added another comparison pic

[Angesdad]

Still working on customizing my 0S, hopeful that one day I will finish.🤣

some show missiles with red tip, some with yellow so I went with focker yellow. Whitening landing gear is real easy on this one.😁

Edited November 11, 2022 by Angesdad

[no3Ljm]

^ Nice!  

[Angesdad]

On 11/9/2022 at 12:45 PM, no3Ljm said:

Anyone attempted on painting their VF-0S chin?

There you go @no3Ljm, hopefully gives you an idea how it looks with a blacked chin..a plus me thinks.😀

Edited November 12, 2022 by Angesdad

[Angesdad]

Finally finished! Had a blast panel washing and some decals a task not too overwhelming thanks to its pocket size.🤪

[Lolicon]

2 hours ago, Angesdad said:

Finally finished! Had a blast panel washing and some decals a task not too overwhelming thanks to its pocket size.🤪

Looks awesome! Great job at making the rest of our VF-0s look like garbage!  You could post those pics as the 1/60 Arcadia PF version and probably fool people who aren't as familiar with the toys. 

I've said it before and I'll say it again: HMR is a line of half-finished toys. The fantastic decal and paint work you added is the minimum level of tampo we should have gotten out of the box for the price Bandai is charging (overseas) customers.

[MKT]

Nice work @Angesdad! I thought something look quite off with the default head, but the black chin was the one thing that made it look right. 

[Froy]

5 hours ago, Angesdad said:

Finally finished! Had a blast panel washing and some decals a task not too overwhelming thanks to its pocket size.🤪

It would be nice to have downsized payload for battroid mode to improve a bit the possibility. Like those that Revoltech did long ago. 

 

[ValkAddict]

Awesome work @Angesdad!!

 

[Angesdad]

Thanks very much everyone! I will try different modes and some action poses next.

Edited November 12, 2022 by Angesdad

[Big s]

4 hours ago, Froy said:

It would be nice to have downsized payload for battroid mode to improve a bit the possibility. Like those that Revoltech did long ago. 

 

They really only did that because those had the retracted wings rather than the extended fighter ones.

[Angesdad]

Gerwalk.

Edited November 13, 2022 by Angesdad

[Angesdad]

Fighter and that’s all.🙂 Looking forward to zero line continuing with this new mold Bandaisan.

Edited November 13, 2022 by Angesdad

[ValkAddict]

Great work @Angesdad!! I wish I had customizing skills. Too scared to "try it" on expensive Macross toys.

[wsna]

I'm counting down the days when I get mine...these pics are awesome!

 

[sh9000]

On 11/8/2022 at 4:41 PM, jvmacross said:

Haven't handled mine enough to know...but not surprised if it can't do those extreme poses

I'm not sure if the legs can be removed like the VF-1 and I haven't tried it but if they can then maybe there's a way to angle the left leg.  Even without the posing of the left leg it doesn't look like anybody has got the pose as close as possible to the original art so I still plan on doing a version 2.  For mine, I just need to lean the torso back, adjust the head, and lift up the left arm while still maintaining the angle of the gunpod.

[Lolicon]

6 hours ago, Angesdad said:

Fighter and that’s all.🙂 Looking forward to zero line continuing with this new mold Bandaisan.

Now you have to customize all future Zero releases so they'll match your 0S. 

[jvmacross]

49 minutes ago, sh9000 said:

I'm not sure if the legs can be removed like the VF-1 and I haven't tried it but if they can then maybe there's a way to angle the left leg.  Even without the posing of the left leg it doesn't look like anybody has got the pose as close as possible to the original art so I still plan on doing a version 2.  For mine, I just need to lean the torso back, adjust the head, and lift up the left arm while still maintaining the angle of the gunpod.

Looking forward to what you come up with...

[sh9000]

2 hours ago, jvmacross said:

Looking forward to what you come up with...

It turns out the legs are removable so maybe I'll do a version 3 with the extreme left leg pose.  

Other than that here's the pose as close as possible to the art.

 

[Angesdad]

5 hours ago, Lolicon said:

Now you have to customize all future Zero releases so they'll match your 0S. 

You know you’ve just given me ideas…ya think?😂

[no3Ljm]

On 11/11/2022 at 11:05 PM, Angesdad said:

There you go @no3Ljm, hopefully gives you an idea how it looks with a blacked chin..a plus me thinks.😀

Black chin. Now it's complete.  

On 11/12/2022 at 12:05 AM, Angesdad said:

Finally finished! Had a blast panel washing and some decals a task not too overwhelming thanks to its pocket size.🤪

Nice 'Premium Finish' treatment.  

On 11/12/2022 at 8:43 AM, Angesdad said:

Thanks very much everyone! I will try different modes and some action poses next.

11 hours ago, Angesdad said:

Fighter and that’s all.🙂 Looking forward to zero line continuing with this new mold Bandaisan.

Love the mood (red cast) lighting.  

 

[Lolicon]

So I had the misfortune of opening my HMR VF-0S after seeing @Angesdad's excellent customized version and, well, it's a bit disappointing. Once again Bandai is charging full price for a half-finished product.

Why do I say it's half-finished? Well, let's compare it to another Bandai transforming toy of near identical size, complexity, and price which I happened to have close at hand.

The Zeta has sharp paint application with lots of details printed on, while the 0S looks like a 2500 yen gunpla kit someone couldn't bother applying all the stickers to. 

Please don't get the impression that I think the HMR VF-0S is a bad toy by any means. I'm actually damn impressed that Bandai gave us a near perfect transformation 0S at this small scale. It just seems to me Bandai cheaped out towards the end and couldn't bother giving it the same level of accuracy and detail that they afford their other toys in the same price range.

[Angesdad]

😜

[Anasazi37]

...and now I'm thinking about opening up my second 0S and customizing it like @Angesdad, mainly so I can feel like I have a complete toy....

[Lolicon]

4 hours ago, Angesdad said:

😜

Maybe, but I'd rather spend the time on the many 1/60s that need attention. 

1 hour ago, Anasazi37 said:

...and now I'm thinking about opening up my second 0S and customizing it like @Angesdad, mainly so I can feel like I have a complete toy....

Would love to see the finished product! 

[Mommar]

17 hours ago, Lolicon said:

So I had the misfortune of opening my HMR VF-0S after seeing @Angesdad's excellent customized version and, well, it's a bit disappointing. Once again Bandai is charging full price for a half-finished product.

Why do I say it's half-finished? Well, let's compare it to another Bandai transforming toy of near identical size, complexity, and price which I happened to have close at hand.

The Zeta has sharp paint application with lots of details printed on, while the 0S looks like a 2500 yen gunpla kit someone couldn't bother applying all the stickers to. 

Please don't get the impression that I think the HMR VF-0S is a bad toy by any means. I'm actually damn impressed that Bandai gave us a near perfect transformation 0S at this small scale. It just seems to me Bandai cheaped out towards the end and couldn't bother giving it the same level of accuracy and detail that they afford their other toys in the same price range.

This pic verifies what I had been thinking about the 0S, the white plastic does not look good at all.

[twich]

So I have had the Bandai Hi-Metal R VF-0S for about a week now, but was only able to really do anything with it this morning due to work.  When trying to get the landing gear bay doors open and get the landing gears connected to the talk within those bays, I ran into the fact that the tires on the landing gears are a rubbery plastic (TPU?) and the tires come off!  Someone commented earlier that the landing gears were an improvement, I would agree!  I am really liking this representation of the VF-0S, since I have been unable to afford any other version out there, and hope that they continue to Macross Zero line in the Hi-Metal R and give us the VF-0D shin custom and the VF-0A Shin custom, along with the Ghost set!  Let us hope that Bandai continues with Macross Zero for Hi-Metal R!

Twich

[jvmacross]

At this point, I would expect a VF-0A release before a Tomahawk or Phalanx....maybe those will roll out in time for SDFM's 50th? 

[sh9000]

51 minutes ago, jvmacross said:

At this point, I would expect a VF-0A release before a Tomahawk or Phalanx....maybe those will roll out in time for SDFM's 50th? 

A VF-0A would be great.

[Lolicon]

On 11/15/2022 at 8:42 AM, Mommar said:

This pic verifies what I had been thinking about the 0S, the white plastic does not look good at all.

Looks like it's made out of wax. 

[jvmacross]

2 hours ago, sh9000 said:

A VF-0A would be great.

Maybe even deliver on the "Soldier" type that Arcadia had teased years ago...

[seti88]

5 hours ago, sh9000 said:

A VF-0A would be great.

VF-0D ftw!

3 hours ago, Lolicon said:

Looks like it's made out of wax. 

^this. the edges/grooves arent sharp/defined somehow imo. 

If this is the new direction of bandai...well....hmm....

[Mommar]

4 hours ago, Lolicon said:

Looks like it's made out of wax. 

The molds were always a little "soft" looking on the previous HMR's but that looks REALLY bad.  You're right, like wax.

[MKT]

Yeah its kind of strange.. panel lines are quite soft looking, I would say perhaps even more so than the VF-1? But whereas VF-1 was an old mold, the VF-4 has the sharp and fine lines.

On other hand, if we look at areas like the wing gloves, the edges can be really sharp and well defined.

The whole thing has the sculpt of an Arcadia VF-0, but the color and panel lines remind me very much of Yamato's..

 

[Lolicon]

45 minutes ago, Mommar said:

The molds were always a little "soft" looking on the previous HMR's but that looks REALLY bad.  You're right, like wax.

Or like an N64 game with way too much filtering and everything ends up soft and blurry.

31 minutes ago, MKT said:

Yeah its kind of strange.. panel lines are quite soft looking, I would say perhaps even more so than the VF-1? But whereas VF-1 was an old mold, the VF-4 has the sharp and fine lines.

On other hand, if we look at areas like the wing gloves, the edges can be really sharp and well defined.

The whole thing has the sculpt of an Arcadia VF-0, but the color and panel lines remind me very much of Yamato's..

Yeah, it feels like they took Yamato's old molds and scaled everything down except the panel lines and edges.