DX Chogokin VT-1 Super Ostrich

[nightmareB4macross]

On 9/23/2024 at 7:52 PM, jenius said:

The DX had removable vertical stabilizer so they should have given us regulation and small stabilizers. The real problem is that the DX doesn't have a backpack lock so Bandai used those new clips (repeating Yamato's mistake). The 1/48 Yamato had the top hook that would have solved this problem but there are so many more elegant solutions to a backpack lock that should have been employed all along. Blah!

I don’t recall the Yamato 1/60 v2 VT-1 having a hook lock due to the tail panel folding over the dorsal part of the fighter. This having the clips for the vertical stabilizers Instead.

[jenius]

47 minutes ago, nightmareB4macross said:

I don’t recall the Yamato 1/60 v2 VT-1 having a hook lock due to the tail panel folding over the dorsal part of the fighter. This having the clips for the vertical stabilizers Instead.

Correct, Bandai appears to have used the Yammy V2 as its inspiration on the DX VT-1 backpack which is too bad. The statement earlier about the brace making the toy friendlier to handle is a fair point. It would put a lot of pressure on whatever backpack locking mechanism Bandai had chosen if the go-to move is to lift the toy by the boosters in battroid mode. Still, if Bandai ever does release that 1/32 VF-1, I would hope they would go with a locking mechanism rather than a non-canon bracket. It really wouldn't take much engineering. Imagine if there were pegs that went down into the arms in fighter mode that then rotated backward to prevent the backpack from having room to swing back down in battroid.

[nightmareB4macross]

1 hour ago, jenius said:

Correct, Bandai appears to have used the Yammy V2 as its inspiration on the DX VT-1 backpack which is too bad. The statement earlier about the brace making the toy friendlier to handle is a fair point. It would put a lot of pressure on whatever backpack locking mechanism Bandai had chosen if the go-to move is to lift the toy by the boosters in battroid mode. Still, if Bandai ever does release that 1/32 VF-1, I would hope they would go with a locking mechanism rather than a non-canon bracket. It really wouldn't take much engineering. Imagine if there were pegs that went down into the arms in fighter mode that then rotated backward to prevent the backpack from having room to swing back down in battroid.

I see where you’re going with and that is an interesting approach to a potential solution. But before Bandai goes and creates something like this I would rather they address the back slung backpack in GERWALK which is the same issue of the low slung backpack in BATTROID mode. If this issue was addressed first, new better proportioned vertical stabilizers can be materialized.

[kkx]

Side Seven finally sent my order and I just got it today.

 

There is no paper tent?

[Chronocidal]

27 minutes ago, kkx said:

Side Seven finally sent my order and I just got it today.

 

There is no paper tent?

It's in the instructions, Bandai expects you to photocopy it rather than cutting up the instructions, and makes sure to say so (in Japanese, of course).

There are places with the pattern in PDF format to download, and I believe Anymoon.com has it in the DX VF-1 review page segment about the VT-1.

[jenius]

Yep, I have just the page up on a PDF if you want to download it and then print it. I started updating the page for the VT-1... then I got distracted by the 50th anniversary... then I got distracted by another toy. Sigh.

[Chronocidal]

I was wondering if you were going to add more to the review page for it.   Still looking forward to that, but take your time.  It's been a very busy year.

[grogall]

1 hour ago, Chronocidal said:

I was wondering if you were going to add more to the review page for it.   Still looking forward to that, but take your time.  It's been a very busy year.

I second that! 😉

[Shawn]

I hunkered down and bought a 2nd Ostrich, and was super nervous opening the box...No Broken Tail fin! Whew!

😛

So I am 1 and 1, even Steven.

[Chronocidal]

Glad to hear this one came out alright!

Now you can basically recreate all three modes it was seen in.. spaceflight, tent-mode, and crashed into the dirt.  

Though I do have to say, the tails look conspicuously normal in that pic.. I almost wish I'd gotten a broken one so I wouldn't feel so bad about disassembling it to use different tails.

Also.. funny, it looks like the VT-1 does have an airbrake in the normal place.  Makes me wonder.. Did Bandai just copy the features from the Yamato 1/48, but skip the brake on the VT-1 because they didn't have anyone to copy this time?  

Edited October 7 by Chronocidal

[Powered Convoy]

Mine is taking it's time getting here. Almost two months so far. 

[grogall]

4 hours ago, Powered Convoy said:

Mine is taking it's time getting here. Almost two months so far. 

Who or where did you order from that it's taking so long?

[Powered Convoy]

4 hours ago, grogall said:

Who or where did you order from that it's taking so long?

Store Akihabara / Japan Geek & Games. Never ordered with them before. Chose surface shipping to save money. 

[Duymon]

Oooh yeah surface shipping can take up to 3 months 

[PNW_Sweetie]

Mine is en route from Fred, and I’m excited since this is only my 2nd DYRL release (I prefer the aesthetics of TV SDFM aircraft).

I’ll definitely check the tail fin when it arrives. Now to find a DX Kakizaki

 

[Shawn]

I'll still stand on that hill and yell..the VT-1 has normal freaking sized tail fins. Unfortunately Yamato may have started the downfall of the design with their shrunken tailfins on the original V1 design and it subsequently became the 'way to cheat' to get the backpack to sit like that.

 

 

 

And can I also scream PAINT THE STUPID LANDING GEARS WHITE!. Tell me how this doesn't look 100% better.
Oh grumpy old man rant over for the day. Thanks for listening.

[grogall]

Ah, @Shawn Having a bad weekend? 😂 I can understand somewhat about the size of the tail-fin, but honestly the DX version isn't all that bad! the wing lights would have been nice to mach the other Valk's... But what really bugs me about this Bird is that the went ahead and did the mold for the "Mech-guts" version and then just left it unpainted!? like WTF!? Although I did see that someone on FB did paint it, sadly I don't us FB so I wasn't able to download the pic...

Ok found it picture from Atto Kempler FB account...

Edited October 19 by grogall

[Chronocidal]

Honestly, the solution to the tails for me is just to only display it with the boosters, or in gerwalk.  

I still am interested in kitbashing a different backpack together for one though, just to see how it would change.

[Lolicon]

On 10/19/2024 at 11:33 AM, Shawn said:

And can I also scream PAINT THE STUPID LANDING GEARS WHITE!. Tell me how this doesn't look 100% better.
Oh grumpy old man rant over for the day. Thanks for listening.

Wow! Whoever did that must be incredibly handsome and have a higher than average sperm count.

[wongwk38]

Just got my VT-1 with the tail fin issue. Trying to contact Bandai but no reply yet. I am in Canada, and I believe it would be very difficult to get any solution from them. I brought this from a China online shop, they cannot do anything either. Disappointed Bandai product! Sad to say that I have the YF21 too, with antenna issue too! DxxN!

Edited October 21 by wongwk38

[grogall]

36 minutes ago, wongwk38 said:

Just got my VT-1 with the tail fin issue. Trying to contact Bandai but no reply yet. I am in Canada, and I believe it would be very difficult to get any solution from them. I brought this from a China online shop, they cannot do anything either. Disappointed Bandai product! Sad to say that I have the YF21 too, with antenna issue too! DxxN!

First Welcome to our forum! Sad that you're Ostrich was delivered with a broken tail fin, You might in the future use Mandrake in Japan since they check the model before it goes out! But it would probably be best to glue the tail fin.... If you are not used to doing this, I'm sure there there is a model group somewhere around you that can help!

But like Anne says "Don't fall into the depth of despair" 🥵

Edited October 21 by grogall

[Radioguy]

2 hours ago, wongwk38 said:

Just got my VT-1 with the tail fin issue. Trying to contact Bandai but no reply yet. I am in Canada, and I believe it would be very difficult to get any solution from them. I brought this from a China online shop, they cannot do anything either. Disappointed Bandai product! Sad to say that I have the YF21 too, with antenna issue too! DxxN!

I'm sad to say that Bandai Spirits told me, in Japanese, that if you bought it from ANYONE but them directly, you're out of luck. The store is responsible. End of story. 

I'll have an update in time, but I still remain in the midst of dealing with my retailer over the same issue.

[davidwhangchoi]

Everyone in the US, going forward, pls buy domestic when the option is available so Blufin covers us for the valks that are legal to be sold in the US to minimize risk.

It's probably going to be a rip off vs. buying overseas but better with peace of mind.  

Regardless, we are SOL with sdf-1 macross merch such as the VT-1 and p-bandai exclusives as we are forced to import all SDF-1 related valks since they are banned for sale by US distributors.

 

Bandai, the masters crappy factory Quality Assurance checks.  

[Radioguy]

Can't disagree with that. Although it's BANDAI-NAMCO now. They ate Bluefin.

Now, I have to say, I haven't had an issue until now with something at this scale since a SHMA Heisei King Ghidorah that had a neck that wouldn't stay on. At the time, Bluefin sent me a WHOLE NEW FIGURE for that issue alone (Go check the MSRP if you wanna see how much that cost; forget the aftermarket). I was stunned, and couldn't imagine a more generous resolution. It made me feel so safe in buying Bandai stuff there on out.

Now, maybe when Bandai took over they scaled things back on how far they'd go to resolve things, I don't know. Maybe had the VT-1 been available domestically they would have done the same, but maybe not. I just know I don't feel the same faith in my Bandai purchases now.

Edited October 22 by Radioguy

[Chronocidal]

So I had a thought the other night, and decided to try a quick and dirty concept model.

It would take some very high-precision molding or printing to make the proper parts.. but maybe with the right tail design, we can have our cake and eat it too.

The folded tail is not going to look very nice.. but when you fold it up, it's covered by the booster.  Keep the overlap on the inner side of the tail and it might not look bad.  If you had the molding capability, you might be able to get really fancy, and have the lower half slide inside the upper, but that would be much harder to pull off, while keeping the tail looking good when extended.

Edited October 24 by Chronocidal

[Bolt]

On 10/20/2024 at 3:47 PM, Lolicon said:

Wow! Whoever did that must be incredibly handsome and have a higher than average sperm count.

[tekering]

39 minutes ago, Chronocidal said:

So I had a thought the other night, and decided to try a quick and dirty concept model.

That's quite a brilliant engineering solution. 

[Chronocidal]

1 hour ago, tekering said:

That's quite a brilliant engineering solution. 

It needs some work to not be ugly depending on the angle, probably with some tweaks to the shapes, but I think it has potential, especially if the upper half could be a sleeve that covers the lower when collapsed.

But yeah, the thing that gave me the idea was just the original art.

Look at the angle of the tip of the tail compared with the root.  The tails just look like they're swept back.

Folding in the tails the way I showed would actually be more accurate to the art, since it would be angling the tips the same way.  The shapes of the tails just wouldn't be the same, and the panel lines wouldn't line up properly, since it's clear that the art just has them morphing like the YF-21's wings.

Edited October 24 by Chronocidal

[wongwk38]

Why it was me again!!! Just open the box and questioned why its structure was so loose (in Fighter mode), when i transform it........WTF....just realized it was broken before i do anything on it!

Sorry off the topic it is a VF19

[no3Ljm]

2 hours ago, wongwk38 said:

Why it was me again!!! Just open the box and questioned why its structure was so loose (in Fighter mode), when i transform it........WTF....just realized it was broken before i do anything on it!

Sorry off the topic it is a VF19

Sorry to hear about that. If it's just a newly purchased item, try to reach out the store and see if they can help you get a replacement or something.

Link below is the Tiny Session thread in case you want to post it there.

 

[Powered Convoy]

On 10/14/2024 at 8:46 AM, Powered Convoy said:

Store Akihabara / Japan Geek & Games. Never ordered with them before. Chose surface shipping to save money. 

Mine arrived last week. Thankfully the tailfins are okay. Beautiful valk. Haven't transformed it to battroid mode yet as I love it in fighter mode.