10.20.06
Yamato 1/48 VF-1A AngelBirds
Observations & Gallery: A day at the Airshow
This product is reviewed with the Yamato 1/48 VF-1 (Second Releases). Since there are so many second releases now I thought it would be appropriate to give the product its own little section and show some photos of what it looks like with some of Yamato’s available accessories. The toy comes with the usual assortment of extras although it’s odd that it does not come with fixed-posed hands since that’s supposed to be the indicator of a “TV-style” valk and this valk certainly did make an appearance in the TV show and not the DYRL movie. I think relatively few of these valks were produced but they’re not limited editions so you can probably hold off on buying one to try to get the best deal and know that if they get sold out that they may very well be re-released at another date. On-the-other-hand, I expect demand for these to be too low to warrant a reissue (anytime soon at least) so this might end up becoming quite a hot collector’s toy at some very distant date. Much like the Stealth, this is another Valk I didn’t really like from the photos of it I had seen on the Internet and you may feel the same way. However, when I actually began handling the product it grew on me pretty quickly. There are some flaws I found on my sample and you may want to be on the look out for them as well if you plan on purchasing your own. First, before I even took the valk out of the plastic tray I could see that the air-brake behind the cockpit was extremely loose. In fact, I was relatively certain that it was broken. To my great relief, nothing is broken in any way… there’s just not very much friction holding the plastic flap down. Second, the trap door in the back of one of the legs (where the fast-pack accessories connect) is permanently recessed. This flaw does not affect the ability to install or remove fast-packs though and is a very minor cosmetic issue. The most concerning of all the flaws has got to be the blue paint. After transforming this toy just ONCE I found blue paint beginning to chip away from the hip area in battloid mode. Yamato does have a pretty poor record when it comes to the durability of their paint applications. Since I hadn’t really noticed similar problems on my other 1/48 releases I thought Yamato had put that behind them but apparently they still have a little ways to go. I took the pictures of the valk “naked” without its gun or missiles since that’s how it appears in the first episode of the show. I added weaponry when taking pics of the toy with other accessories.
Gallery 1: The Naked Valk
Gallery 2: The Stealth Angel
Gallery 3: The Angel with Grenades
Gallery 4: The Angel in Red
Gallery 5: The Strike Angel
Gallery 6: The Angel in Blue
Here are some ending pics of the paint flaw and the floppy airbrake. You can see the other flaw I mentioned in the intro in the Naked Angel gallery on the back leg in battloid mode. You may also notice in some of the pics above that the plastic piece attached to the front landing gear is a bit crooked when seated properly.
