My 1/48 scale VF-1S just arrived in the mail. I've seen pictures of people ripping their Valkyries apart at just about every hinge imaginable, so I'm treating this guy with the care that we'd afford to Masterpiece Megatron and MP-03 Starscream. My question is about the backpack hinge. I've seen pictures where the backpack sits flush with the backside of the Valkyrie. I also see that there's a hook that keeps it there. I've seen pictures where the backpack sits flush with the back without the help of this hook. There's a little white plastic piece hooking the backpack to the body. There is a bump on this little plastic piece. For some strange reason, my backpack piece won't go past this bump, and it's always at an angle to the Valkyrie's backside. Is it supposed to be this way? Currently, the backpack is sitting flush against the back solely with the help of that little hook. Without it, it sits about a 20-degree angle against the backside.
Check MacrossWorld. I think it's something like "Do the least-likely thing first, followed by the most likely, or you'll ruin the figure"
For the love of god, be careful because you're messing with the most fragile and most broken part of the figure. The part you're looking at is part "BP8", and if you do what you think you should with it, you will break it, irrepairably. DO NOT under any circumstances try to push it upward any further than it will go. At all. Don't. If you're thinking about it, stop. The way the backpack locks in (and forgive me, I'm going wholly from memory as my own 1/48 is 270 miles away), is that the triangular part that the hook hinges on will actually push IN, towards the head, past the shoulders about 2mm. It doesn't look like it should, it doesn't feel like it should, but it does, and when it pops into place its very sturdy. This makes the hook hold more tightly and will keep the backpack flush and locked tight. The piece that the backpack hinges on (BP8) does not fold up any further than it feels it should.
I'm so sorry, I honestly don't mean to sound like a troll or ungrateful, but would it be all right if you posted pictures of those steps? I hope I'm not asking too much, but I guess I'm having a hard time picturing what you wrote. It pictures are too much hassle, does anyone know a link to a handy faq that deals with this problem?
Unfortunately, as I said, my valk is a couple hundred miles away as I"m home for the christmas break. If you check on macrossworld, there's a bunch of posts in the history there about it. YOu may want to google "BP8 yamato 1/48" or something similar... it should pull up just about every post that's from MW about it on there. EDIT: Here http://www.macrossnexus.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=186&Itemid=399 and here: http://www.macrossnexus.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=188&Itemid=399
No pics, but I'll try and describe how it works. - Behind the head is a panel (it has a fin coming out of it and is attached to the triangular hook piece that clips onto the "backpack"). Push this panel in towards the head and it will click into place. - Fold the backpack up (as said ealier don't force it). Unce alligned so it is parallel with the back pull the hook/clip from behind the head onlto the backpack. This holds it in place, and is necessary to keep the part from flopping about. You can prop it up, but will fall back down with the slightest knock. - If you have the fastpack armour there is an additional piece that slides behind the head to provide additional support. I can't take pictures, but as the previous poster said, try the macrossworld.com forums for pics.
They pretty much covered it, but I must repeat. For the LOVE of GOD... do NOT try to force the pack up any further than it goes naturally.
Congrats on your first valk. I find the VF-1x[any model] to be one of my sturdiest and stiffest toys. I'm basically going to repeat what those guys said, but maybe be more practical. I'm both a member of macrossworld and have a VF-1 in arm's reach. When you've transformed the fighter to battroid [robot] mode, you need to push the back pack plate [the one that has a little shark fin protruding in jet mode] INTO the back of the valkyrie [think exactly the opposite way from where you pulled it to transform the jet]. You'll hear an audible click when this happens. Also make sure the little shark fin is pushed further down, rendering it completely non-protrusive. When this is done, pull the backpack with the tailfin flaps up to the point it will connect with the grappling "arm" on the top of the back. That's it. You need to take actual care when inserting or removing fastpacks onto that part. Wiggling the BP8 left and right will snap it, so you need to insert both fastpacks at the same time. When removing either, try not to force to backpack left or right.
And this is why I'm satisfied with a 1/55 Valk... It's pretty much unbreakable, and there's no confusing back plate stuff.
To Quinjester: Thanks! MY GOD MAN. That piece goes IN!? The damn instructions never said so! No wonder my strict adherence to the instructions was causing me to sweat like a maniac. I'll have to try again tomorrow...unlike, say, Walmart Starscream (which transforms in a breeze now), transforming a Yamato product always causes me stress.
Arg. Well, I got it into Battroid mode. I gotta say, while I still vastly prefer the sturdiness of MP Prime and (USA edition) Starscream, the difference between the 1/48 VF-1 and the 1/60 VF-0 is like night and day. While by no means at the same level of playability as MP Prime, the VF-1 actually holds poses, holds his gun, and has a transformation that had fewer perilous steps than the VF-0 and MP-05 Megatron, which shall eternally stay in gun mode. However. I still can't get the backpack right. I'm taking people's word literally when they say not to force the backpack up any further than it naturally goes. I have depressed the little "behind the head piece" into the body toward the head, but this seems to have no effect on the backpack. It actually doesn't look half bad, but the backpack is still at about a 20 degree angle from the back. It stays in place with the hook, but I have a feeling that that's stressing the plastic. Edit: I downloaded a picture of a MW member's Valkyrie, circled the part in red, and made some MS Paint drawings because my camera is unavailable at the moment: Am I supposed to push the backpack up until the circled part goes inside the backpack? With the way I'm doing it now, the circled part is staying outside of the backpack assembly. I can sort of intuit that pressing that into place will do the trick locking the backpack parallel against the body, but the moral of this game has seemed to be "do NOT force the backpack." So I've been scared to force that piece to lock in. Although my camera is currently unavailable, I made some quickie MS Paint drawings to show what I'm asking. Here's what I'm doing, with the BP8's little bump in red: My question is, am I supposed to push it so the red piece locks in, like this? Edit: Okay, so it seems like picture #2 was NOT the right way to go. A quick look at Macross World has revealed many broken Valkyries from doing that. Which still leaves my Valkyrie looking like Picture #1. The only way it will be parallel to the body is if I push it in with my finger and clip it on. It is one TIGHT fit, and if the clip is NOT on, it goes right back to looking like picture #1. In other words, putting the backpack "clip" will bend the plastic. This can't be the correct way...right?
Yeah, look at my macross threade and you will notice I broke one of the hinges on my brand new stealth that way. Be VERY careful. *goes to cry now*
Try and fold the tail fins in the opposite order. For some reason I thin that they'll get in the way if they aren't folded in the right order.
Agreed. I have some of the Masterpiece figures and they are flimsy as hell, so much I only dare to keep them in their boxes. Instead I collect 1/55 Bandai... can't beat ease of transformation and super sturdiness.
Thanks for the help, guys. Again, I really hate to sound like a troll, but I've done all of your suggestions, and the problem isn't any better. I've taken pictures this time. I'm aware that there are two hinges on the BP8: one on the backpack itself, one on the back of the plane. From what I can tell, both are fully deployed. This is the result: As this picture shows, I have not moved the piece past the bump that I colored red in my drawings: So, from what I can tell, the two backpack hinges are both fully deployed. Any more movement, and I'm stressing the plastic. There's a 1cm gap between the backpack and the hook: I can get the backpack to sit flush with the back if I simply apply pressure with my hand and put the hook on. But this way seems to bend the plastic, and I don't want to keep doing that. It can't be the way it's supposed to be, right? I've seen tons of pictures where the backpack sits flush against the back all by itself, no need for the hook.
The entire process of attaching the fast pack really blew my balls, esp. with the add-on clip for support. The end prodcut is very pretyt, so keep at it!
Someone at Macrossworld told me to open up the backpack to see what the problem is, but I really don't think that will help. The "backpack-to-bp8" hinge (EG, the ones on the side away from the bump) seems to only want to hinge 90 degrees. There is no way for mine to go past 90 degrees, because the plastic pieces literally stop each other. It'd be like trying to get MP Prime to do a bicep curl; his arm simply won't bend past 90 degrees, and neither will the backpack. Oddly enough, someone on MW seems to have his hinge bend more than 90 degrees. The angle in question is the one I colored green. Below is the same picture without my green art. I've circled the lack of the hook on top, and how the angle between BP8 and the backpack seems to be acute. I have no idea how this is supposed to happen... Below is one of the pictures from my earlier post, with the 90-degree angle highlighted in green:
It's a double joint. Move the part that is attached to the opposite end of the stopping nub and it should form that acute angle.
edit: I totally misunderstood what I was going to quote from an earlier post. My bad. Is this what you mean, MasterOfPuppets?
