Macross Toy Reviews

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Gerwalk mode:











Transformation!



Battroid mode:

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Features and differences:

The head sculpt is superb. Obviously different than the VF-25F, I think this is one of the best head sculpts for a valkyrie out there. Bandai really nailed it here, with the clear visor and the shiny paint behind the visor. So awesome. The head also sits up better than the one on the VF-25F. The neck plate sits up nicely and stays put, and the head is on a ball joint that can be pulled up or down, depending on which mode you are transforming it to. When in fighter, the head actually sinks in and snaps into place. Bandai also included a separate set of head lazers. The ones that come with the toy out of the box are of a soft PVC, but the additional set is a hard plastic. I have opted to use the hard plastic ones here, since they don't warp easily. Also, lots of jeweled plastic pieces in this toy. The visor, the forehead, the shoulders, etc. Bandai really paid attention this time.





Because of the new head sculpt, some retooling had to be done around the head area. As you can see, behind the head, there's a lighter gray panel with the handle of the sword painted on. This actually can pop off during transformation. Dont' worry; it's designed to do it to aid the transformation. You just clip it back on afterwards.



Ozma comes with her sister, Ranka, and like Alto's VF-25F, it can also be a two seater. I don't believe Ranka really flew with her brother at all, so I'll be keeping her with Alto. What's nice is that you get a fully formed Ranka with both her legs, unlike the 2/3rds Ranka that came with the VF-27 (review in the first couple pages of the thread).





Vent covers, diecast landing gear and ankles.







Like the VF-25F, the knife can be stowed in the shield, and the gunpod can be mounted in Gerwalk mode.





As a strange design choice, Bandai decided to give Ozma a dark gray/black gun pod. The gun pod is supposed to be purple, but it still looks great. Looks better, in fact. Purple always seemed like an odd choice for a gun.



Final thoughts: Just buy it. Seriously. There are no QC issues on mine, except for one of the wings which is sort of loose. But beyond that, it's a near perfect valk. The transformation is sturdier and fits together more tighter than the VF-25F. Banda fell flat on their face with their initial version 1 Messiah offerings, but they knocked it out of the park this time. If there was an award for valk toys, Bandai would get Most Improved Player.

Original MSRP is 14,000 yen (about $185 CAD), but I got mine from Amiami at 10,150 yen (about $135 CAD). This thing sold out FAST. And it sold out everywhere except at BBTS, which has it for $214.99 + shipping. Bandai has been playing it strange with their Macross items. There haven't been re-releases when it seemed obvious there should be. eg: YF-29 sold out really quickly and there is still a high demand, but over half a year later, still no noise of a re-issue. These are already going for $290 on eBay, so I recommend you try to pick one up sooner rather than later.

There is an armoured set being released for Ozma later in the year. It's a Tamashii web shop exclusive, so that means for us North Americans, we need to order through a third party that will charge a premium to do so. I already have a set ordered, but it's not set to be released until July. Just to give you a taste of what it looks like all suited up:



Totally bitchin'.

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Ammendment attached to my VF-17 review. If you're too lazy to go back in the thread to check it, here's what I added:

AMMENDMENT (January 27, 2012): I changed my mind. I've had this toy for almost two weeks now, and I've completely changed my opinion on this. I don't do this often, since my first impression is usually correct, but I love this toy now. It's really grown on me. At first I was like, "Yeah, it's nice, but it's no VF-19 Kai or VF-25F renewal." But now I'm like, "THIS IS AWESOME!" I finally figured out how to make the gunpod not rattle around when inside the leg in fighter mode. (There's a tab inside the leg itself that the gunpod tabs into, thus preventing it from rattling inside the leg whenever you try to swoosh it around. Yeah, I said it; I swoosh my toys. Whatcha gonna do about it? SAY SOMEFIN!?!?) The fighter mode is so sleek looking and so tight, I just love it. I still have problems with the exposed knee joints and the metal bar scraping the face if you're not careful, but I've changed my opinion on this toy, and I consider it right up there with the 19 Kai and the 25F/25S renewals. In fact, it's seen more off-shelf time than my 25F renewal. It sits on my coffee table every day, all day, ready for me to pick it up whenever I feel like it. It drives my gf nuts, since she has to move it every time she wants to eat breakfast.

I've just upgraded this from "Buy it if you can find a bit of a discount," to "But it now. You owe it to yourself to own such an awesome toy."

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I'm covering something different in this post. If you own a Bandai DX Chogokin Valkyrie, eventually joints will go floppy. They just will. It doesn't matter if you have a v1 VF-25, or a v2, the VF-27 or YF-29. It's just a matter of time.

I found this out with my VF-27, which had tight joints until I recently transformed it, and even though it has been in fighter mode for months, it seems to have spontaneously overnight gone loose and limp in the shoulders. I was pretty pissed when it couldn't hold its own gun up. I really like my VF-27 - it's my favorite valkyrie design from Frontier. I really hope they do a renewal, but until then, the v1 is good enough, if a little outdated looking next to the renewal VF-25 Messiahs.



Thanks to some instructions from a person on another forum, I've managed to fix the joints. Here's a how-to for those who want to tighten up the joints in their Bandai valkyrie. While this is specific to the VF-27, it will work on any Bandai DX Chogokin valkyrie.

1) First you need your tools. A simple screwdriver for glasses will work. You also need some crazy glue. You need to find the one with a brush application that is resealable. It took me forever to find one; all I found were the disposable one-and-done versions, until I went to my local art store, Michael's, where I finally found one.



2) So when you pull the legs down you expose the shoulders. There are several screws that hold the shoulder joint together. The first is obvious, the others are inside the shoulder, which you will have to completely take apart.



3) When you unscrew the above circled screw, where the arm meets the shoulder, you can pull the arm out at the socket.



Once you unscrew it, you are left with the screw, a small plastic piece, and the arm. The plastic piece sits inside the shoulder and this is what gives some friction to the arm. As you can see, it is very small, and a big reason why the arm goes all loose after just a few transformations.



4) There is a second ball joint where the shoulder meets the main body. You'll have to unscrew the joint next to it. Do this for both sides.



So you end up with this:



In order to get at the second ball joint, you'll have to unscrew it from the main plastic chest piece.

5) Once that is apart, you can then take the shoulder apart by removing the final screw. At which point once it is undone, you can remove the other balljoint from the socket.



6) Once you have everything apart and all the ball joints exposed, you just take the crazy glue and apply it with the brush applicator. Just brush it on the balljoint itself. DO NOT apply to the stem or inside the socket.



Remember to let it dry first before putting it back together. It will take about 5-10 minutes. When you put it back together, just do everything in reverse.

7) When putting together the first ball joint (the one for the arm into the shoulder socket), remember to put the little purple plastic piece in the proper way. It should sit flush like so:



8) When you're all done, the joints should be nice and tight. My VF-27 couldn't hold its own gun up before. Now, you can see, it has no problems doing it with one arm. I didn't do the legs since mine were still tight, but the overall process is the same.



If you do what I did, your joints will be tighter than when you first got your toy. Some helpful tips:

- Itemize which screws go with which parts. A couple times I got them mixed up, and I even lost the little plastic bits. Took me ten minutes to find them again! If you are worried about losing pieces or losing track, just fix one joint at a time, and keep the pieces in a tray somewhere so they can't roll around or be blown off the table.

- Wait until the pieces are completely dry before re-assembling. I don't want PMs from people yelling at me.

- Finally, be careful screwing it back together. Don't strip the screw. All it takes is a little bit of pressure to make the screw just snug. No need to go nuts and over-tighten.

[pud333]

So the right wing on my renewal VF-25S was loose right out of the box. This is a problem that many people had when they got their valk. Simple solution that involves, yet again, krazy glue:

1) Get your krazy glue. Again, the one with a brush applicator works best.



2) I dabbed two very small amounts of glue at the joints, circled in green, at the underside of the valk. That way no one sees it. You only need a very small amount. Don't go crazy.



3) Once you have that applied, just fold and unfold the wing all the way. It's important you fold the wing all the way it can go. You have to keep bending and unbending the wing for as long as it takes for the glue to dry. DO NOT let it just sit there, or else you will permanently glue your wing. After a minute or so you will feel the wing tighten. Keep moving it back and forth all the way, and once it is dry, your wing should be good as new!



UPDATE: YUS! I just scored a sweet deal on a VF-19 Blazer. So that will be my next review, probably some time next week.

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Another day, another Macross toy review. This one is a quickie, so let's get at it!

This is the Yamato VF-19S Blazer valkyrie from Macross 7. It is in the 1/60 scale, which is the dominant scale for Macross toys these days. This particular valk was part of the Emerald Force squadron. As you can see it bears a lot of resemblance to the VF-19 Fire valkyrie. This review will mostly just show off the differences between this one and the Fire valkyrie. The transformation is the same, so if you want a more detailed review, just check out the Fire valkyrie review and pretend it is blue. There's just no point in me regurgitating the Fire review.





The toy comes with an instruction book, sticker sheet, extra anime accurate shield, gun pod, pilot, stand pieces, and pastic parts covers.



Fighter mode:

For reference, I used the Master Files to figure out which stickers I wanted to apply. This is not anime accurate. If you're looking for anime accuracy, leave the stickers alone.















Gerwalk mode:







Transformation!

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Battroid mode:













The differences:

As you can see, the Blazer is missing the little fins on the side of the neck that the Fire valk has.



Gun pod is different, and bigger.



Wing shape is different. It's much shorter.



The head sculpt is obviously different, with the typical double lasers on the side of the head like all S valks have. Also the shoulders are different. You don't have the speaker pods on the inside that the Fire valk had.



Overall, it's another great valk by Yamato. Where the toy lacks in a feature or two that the Fire valk has, it gains in the cooler head sculpt and overal better paint job. The one thing that does bother me is the wing. It's very thin on the backside of the wing. Since the plastic is razor thin, it easily chips. I already had one or two dings in the wing right out of the box. I don't know if you can see it here in the photo (looks worse in person), but it did sort of annoy me.



Other than that, it's a solid entry into the Yamato line of valkyries. You can find it for 19,800 yen (approx $240 CAD) at most places like HLJ and Amiami. but I managed to get mine at a steal for 14,000 yen (approx $170 CAD). Honestly, I am glad I got a nice discount. I don't enjoy Macross 7, so I didn't feel like paying full price for the 19S. If you're a big Macross 7 fan, then this toy will not disappoint. I still recommend the VF-19 Kai over this one, since you can get the sound boosters accessory and it makes one kickass display piece. But if you don't like the McDonalds color scheme, then by all means pick this one up. It's still a winner.

Also, this is one spiky valk. I think I nearly drew blood on the pointy tips, so be careful!

[Pascal]

So that's the one I forgot to buy... It was on my list but I ended up getting that other dark blue Valk I already forgot the name of first...

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OH NO! IT'S THE VAJRA!!!

[antilles]

Thanks for the Blazer review as well as the Vf-25 joint tips (haven't opened mine - an all too common occurence these days - but nice to have the info in case).

Good job on the stickers for the 19S. Whereas the Fire Valk is more cartoony and thus I think anime is where I'd lean, the military/mass production nature of the 19S Blazer lends itself nicely to the extra detailing you provided (regardless of whether the show itself paints everything somewhat cartoony)