They have the rights to the VF-1S. Basically, any color scheme. In recent years, they’ve released the DYRL VF-1S Hikaru through Toynami
Yea yellow wouldn’t look as good. Never had the original from Matchbox nor this release. Is the plastic for the landing gear fragile and do the wings swing together or separately?
HMR Monster for 19k yen (unopened, heavy box damage) Mandarake Online Shop HMR Defender for 10k yen (unopened, box damaged) Mandarake Online Shop
the catch to lock the nose gear in deployed position eventually snapped on mine, and wings are independent of eachother. i did a gradual hack-job on mine back in the day, first to achieve an approximation of a GERWALK mode, and, eventually, a truly floppy, ham-fisted approximation of a BATTROID. Oh, how i LUSTED after the 1984 BANDAI VF-1A Ichijo DYRL 1/55 seen in this JULY 1996 GAME PRO magazine article. it was, indeed, mid/late 1996, and i had no idea what that marvelous-looking thing in the photo actually was, only that it was obviously some manner of decently-sized, fully transformable VF-1 toy that i had had no clue whatsoever had ever even existed, up to that point, and that i indeed wanted it, Fiercely. Oh, how long and hard i had once so jealously drooled all over this stupid little photograph; and now, -all of these years later- i finally have it... in an arguably vastly superior form;
i guess mine was hardly a unique experience for it's day, huh? unless you happened to be the right person in the right place at the right time, the 1990's seemed a rather inopportune period in which to be discovering a budding passion for MACROSS and the VF-1 Valkyrie...
Yea it was. Even back then the sight of a marked up transformable Macross kit at Hungates was enough to excite me to the point where I felt like I had to have it. Lots more options these days especially in toy form thankfully.
Huh. coincidentally, somewhere in late-1996, my mom took me to a newly-discovered Comics'/collectables' shop near downtown PORTLAND, OR. that had the partsforming BANDAI MAC 7 1/100 variable VF-19F/S, a $20-some-dollar kit, marked up to $40. double price or no, i had to have it. mom bought it for me, and i had my very first "transformable" VF in any form...
My fire Valkyrie kit was also $40 back in 97 from Hungates. Battroid mode was good. Tabs for the LERXs and the elbow hinges were very prone to snapping off. Makes me happy we have a lot of toy options for Macross now. Polystyrene just doesn’t lend itself well to transforming model kits, especially Valkyries.
Back in the early 80s I had a handful of the model kits sold under the Robotech name, where they had three of the Valkyries, and also added a bunch of the mobile suits (or whatever they were referred to in that other mecha anime from that time, Dougram (i really don't know the full name). Had the VF-1S and VF-1J (Vexar and Axoid), somewhere around 1/60 or 1/72. But being a sloppy 9 yr old, and no paints anyway, I put them both together unpainted. They weren't bad; pretty posable for that time. There was some partswapping involved with transformation, as you removed the plane's cockpit portion of the fuselage and substituted it with one with a faux heat shield, and pegs to plug the legs in. But yes, highly fragile.
yes revell released the "robotech convertors" and the "robotech defenders". They were rebranded japanese kits if i remember correctly. very nice kits for the time. i also remember looking at the packed in catalog for a long time. some pretty cool mechs including from dougram as you mention and orguss as well as some destroids from macross as well as the repair bay. by the 90s all i could find was the VF-2 kit in what was known then as "yaohan" (now mitsuwa)...of course i got that and loved it.
I would have been tempted to pre-order or pick up this up, but I'm not seeing anything too innovative about this GBP other than it has some sick amount of tampo printing.
It looks way better than the Yamato. I'll bet it doesn't fall to pieces every time you look at it sideways like the Yamato. You can alreday tell that it has more articulation than the Yamato. I don't tink that there is any argument that the Bandi DX's feel like they are better quality than the Yamato. As far as "innovation", what do you think a toy company can do to innovate? Seriously, I'm curious.
I actually was not comparing it to the yamato 1/48, but the 1/60 V2 Arcadia. The 1/60 arcadia GBP provided a much slimmer profile had a solid amount of tampo printing and with the limited releases provided smoke effects for the micro-missiles launching. As far as innovative ideas with the GBP I would like to see more effect parts to replicate the itano circus. The Arcadia/Yamato ones were a good start but they could have used more paint for a more convincing look. Additional opening mechanical hatches on the armor for added display value would also be welcome for that added level of detail. I'm curious to see how well the articulation is intact on this new GBP armor and hope to see some new workaround ideas there. I also was not impressed with the Bandai DX VF-1 super packs other than having a wonderful amount of tampo printing. There were very little to no hatches to expose internal mechanical detail and they did not feel as firmly attached as the Arcadia 1/60 V2 super/ strike packs . It just felt like Bandai checked off a box without giving it any extra polish or features. As far quality on the Bandai DX VF-1s my copy of Hikaru's 1S had the common issue of the left hip not being assembled correctly leaving a janky and ready to fall off left leg. The only way to fix it involved taking most of the upper thigh apart and super glueing and finding a longer screw that actually went through the entire assembly to hold the intake/ thigh properly together. I have also felt after the max 1a release the paint has been getting sloppier with more scuffs and chips especially to the shoulders tailfins.
Apples and oranges. If they did all of that you would be complaining about the price. Again, and apples and oranges comparison. No manufacturer of anything comes out with something that has all sorts of extras for the same money as what proceeded it. EDIT: Let's talk about price. The Yamato adjusted for today's dollars would cost you $385 retail. The retail cost of the DX was $300. I paid the "late fee" through Luna Park and I paid $385. I don't think there is anyone on this green earth that is being intellectually honest that would say the Bandai has to have a whole bunch of features to be "worth it". It's going to be better than the Yamato alreday, no argument. So, what you're asking for is even more stuff for less money. That's ridiculous. Cool story. We're not talking about SSP's though. I have 17 VF-1 DXs. No issues. EDIT: You say "common issue". Do you know what percentage of DX's had issues? That was rhetorical. You don't. All you have your biased "internet maths". Every product has a failure rate. None of us know if the DX's are higher or lower than the standard 1.5-2% (most industries).
