03.02.10

Yamato 1/60 (V2) VF-1S Super/Strike (including Anniversary Edition)

Posted in 1/60, Macross/Robotech TMS, VF-1, VT, VE Valkyrie, Yamato at 12:01 am by micronian

 

Review(updated): Where brilliant meets brittle

 

Packaging and Extras: (5/5)
Without a doubt Yamato did a fantastic job on both the package and the goods provided.  The missiles (both reaction and regular) take after the 1/48 in design but are more detailed and attach much more snuggly.  Similarly, the gun appears to be a shrunken 1/48 gun but oddly, while it features the attachment points for a gun strap, no strap is provided.  Fixed posed hands are also present as are attachments for the Yamato DYRL Launch Arm and an additional attachment letting you connect the fuselage to the forearm.  Unlike the original Yamato 1/60, the pilot included this time has both of his legs.  While the box isn’t as streamlined as it potentially could be it is much more compact than Yamato’s last effort at including full strike accoutrements with a VF-1 toy as seen in the comparison pic above (granted, it’s comparing a 1/48 toy to a 1/60).  Update 3/1/2010 – To commemorate their release of the V2 toy, in late 2009 Yamato released anniversary editions of their VF-1S Hikaru and Focker toys.  Both toys came packaged with mini flashlights that showed off the Jolly Roger when illuminated (the Focker with a silver tint demonstrated below, the Hikaru has a red tint).  The third box package picture above shows off the Focker release’s updated packaging.  The “plus” only means that this version of the toy comes with a mini flashlight, there are no other improvements on the toy and the V2.1 upgrades seen starting with the VT-1 are absent here.  Unlike the original release, the anniversary edition doesn’t come with a flip top lid to show off the goods within.  “But Micronian, if there is no flip top lid why does Yamato still insist on packaging the toy with the wings all spread out which necessitates a much larger box?”  I don’t know.

 

Charm & Collectability: (2/5 for original release, 4/5 for anniversary edition)
The first version of this toy was amazing and sold extremely well… and then an extremely high number had their shoulders break… some were broke without the toy ever having been touched.  My shoulders broke, I ordered replacements, and the replacements were broke before I even put them on the toy.  Rumor has it that the anniversary edition uses smaller pins and was constructed more carefully so it won’t be a problem but it’s hard to ever trust the shoulders since they look so flimsy and I’ve already seen FOUR (2 lefts, 2 rights) break in two.  I would hope that the anniversary edition really is safe and that’s why I’d leave its score high here.  As for your Yamato 1/48 and original VF-1 1/60 toys, expect their secondary prices to drop… and in most instances they already have.  I’ve included a quick comparison picture of those three toys below.  Unfortunately, I had way too many pictures of this new 1/60 2.0 toy to include too many comparison shots so I think I’ll have to do another post later.

 

Sculpt, Detail, and Paint: (9/10)
Yamato did an excellent job here in all respects.  It isn’t a perfect representation of the VF-1 but it’s darn close.  There is a loss in detail here related to the size, you won’t get the inner landing gear detail like you do on the VF-0 toys.  This toy would also react very well to a panel line job as the panel lines are now so thin that they’re barely noticeable.  The canopy is a little too bulbous but that’s only noticeable when taking a direct profile view of the fighter.  Note all the pre-painted detail!  Yamato didn’t skimp on the detail elements that originally made their 1/48 so lauded either, you still get a fan intake and thrusters in the feet (although this time they’re the vented style). Battroid mode is phenomenal in my estimation with the new head sculpt making the original 1/60 sculpt seem even more pathetic than it had in the past. 

 

Design: (9/10)
There are hints of Yamato’s previous efforts throughout this toy… some employed better than others.  Clearly this design borrows a lot from the VF-0 toy which shouldn’t be too surprising considering how much the VF-0 borrowed from the 1/48 VF-1 toy.  The first thing you have to know going into transformation (for all you hot shots who know VF-1 transformation like the back of your hand) is that this time the nose cone moves (and it does so before you swing the head around or attach the swing bar for the legs).  Speaking of the fuselage, it is removable so fans can reenact the infamous scene where the VF-1S saves the VF-1D in the introduction episodes of the original Macross.  The swing bar most resembles the bar used in the VF-0 toy as it has a hinge located higher up that needs to be angled properly to connect.  If you have the fuselage walked far enough up you shouldn’t have a hard time connect the hip bar or removing it.  The one problem with this mode of transformation is that the head now sits too high in battroid mode.  Nothing else on the toy really strikes me as bold new design efforts but everything does strike me as mild improvements over predecessors from the tightness of the modes, connections of the joints, even the articulation of the hands.  Some people might not be too fond of a few of the changes which include a new shoulder design that seems a bit flimsy and the hook that holds the backpack to the back (important when super parts are applied) is now part of the backpack rather than being hidden away like it was on the 1/48.  In my opinion the hook is so tiny it’s a non-issue but the jury is still out on the new shoulders.  The way the new super parts attach seems like a step backward but it works exceedingly well and leaves only the slightest of visual traces when viewed at the most awkward of angles.

 

Durability & Build: (4/10) *for the original Focker release, releases since then would vary with the list provided below.
Handling this toy made me realize just how poorly built the Yamato 1/48 series is.  If you’re reading this and thinking “The Yamato 1/48 series is built really well!” then know that I agreed with you before handling this toy.  Now my thoughts of the 1/48 are marred by the memories of loose airbrakes, wing flaps falling off, reaction missiles that never fit properly, fast packs that fell apart during transformation, and various other fit and finish issues.  I used to have extremely high praise for those toys but now I’m going to go back and revise their score in this section downward (but just tiny bit).  Update 3/14/09:  My original review noted that there had already been some reports of broken shoulders but they seemed far and few between.  After a bit more time it was clear that the first edition of the version 2 1/60 series had extremely fragile shoulders.  Some people received their toys broken in the box (still pretty rare) and many more had their’s break after only minor handling.  I had my toy out for several reviews and transformed it a handful of times and during my photo shoot for the VF-1D the shoulders showed the cracks I’d seen others complain about.  A Poll at Macrossworld showed nearly 20% of early adopters had their toys break and there’s a good chance that many of the other 80% simply hadn’t handled their toys much at all.  The good news is that there are very few reported broken shoulders on the subsequent releases.  Check out the picture below to know exactly the break to be afraid and see the list for which V2s were particularly susceptible to the broken shoulder issue.  Fortunately, Yamato’s new method of attaching super parts seem to take the strain of the backpack which was the 1/48’s major weakness.  There are two other weaknesses of the new 1/60 line that should be noted.  First, the paint on the tail fins is prone to chipping off so do not use the backpack hook with any V2 variant with painted tailfins (like the Focker toys).  Second, the rainbow effect painted on the cockpit canopy has a nasty habit of peeling away.  There’s no real fix to this but the effect can be rubbed away easily to make for a completely clear canopy.  Beginning with Yamato’s VF-11C toy they’ve done away with this canopy effect which is SUPERB news for all of us as it means we’ll have a way to tell future reissues apart from first editions with weak shoulders.

1) Focker VF-1S with Super Parts (V2) – Worst shoulders ever, avoid
2) Focker VF-1S stand alone (V2) – bad shoulders
3) VF-1A Hikaru with Super Parts (V2) – bad shoulders
4) VF-1A Hikaru stand alone (V2) – bad shoulders
5) VF-1J Hikaru with Super Parts (V2) – Potentially bad shoulders (far less frequency than the first four releases.. allegedly Yamato urged the factories to be more careful at this point… hell of a fix.
6) VF-1J Hikaru stand alone (V2) – potentially bad shoulders
7) VF-1S Hikaru with Super Parts (V2) – potentially bad shoulders
8′) VF-1D Trainer (V2) – I haven’t heard of a single broken one… rumor is that this release has smaller shoulder pins but I can’t substantiate that
9) VF-1S Max (V2) – Rumored to be safe (if you have any insight, please leave a comment)
10) VF-1A Max TV (V2) – Rumored to be safe
11) VF-1A Max DYRL (V2) – Rumored to be safe
12) VF-1A Hayao TV (V2) – Rumored to be safe
13) VF-1A Hayao DYRL (V2) – Rumored to be safe
14) VF-1J Cannon Fodder (V2) – Rumored to be safe
15) VF-1A Cannon Fodder (V2) – Rumored to be safe
16) VT-1 SuperOstrich (V2.1) – potentially bad shoulders (!)
17) VF-1S LowVis (V2.1) – Rumored to be safe
18) VE-1 Elintseeker (V2.1) – Rumored to be safe (review pending)
19) VF-1D Virgin Road (V2.1?) – Rumored to be safe (Let me know if you own one if it’s a V2 or V2.1)
20) VF-1J Miria (V2.1?) – Rumored to be safe but has some delicate paint
21) VF-1J Max (V2.1?) – Rumored to be safe but has some delicate paint
22) VF-1S Focker Anniversary (V2) – Rumored to be safe
23) VF-1S Hikaru Anniversary (V2) – Rumored to be safe
24) VF-1J Hikaru with GBP (V2) – Reissue of stand alone with potentially bad shoulders

 

Articulation: (9.5/10)
This toy is a ton of fun to play with and many very exciting poses can be had.  The arm mobility has been improved over the 1/48s in a rather large way which makes for new, exciting poses that can be achieved.  Two small concerns: the toy no longer has limited twisting ability at the waist and 2) you can’t really cheat the legs out of the hip any more to achieve a wider A-stance.

 

Total Score: (38.5/50) (45/50 for anniversary edition if the shoulders really are good)
What does it all boil down to?  If Yamato fixes the shoulder issue this is a better toy than Yamato’s 1/48 series.  Sure, it loses lots of bells and whistles but most of the 1/48s neat little tricks sounded way better on paper than they were in reality.  The hidden nose radar, the wing flaps, the airbrake, the individual mini missiles in the super parts, the antenna in the backpack, were all awesome details that ended up popping off during handling, getting bent, interfering with transformation and each was one more area that spotty quality control could leave the owner of a very expensive toy unhappy with its purchase.  Is it the perfect VF-1 toy?  No, but it’s likely as close as we’re going to get.  Sure, it’s expensive, but it’s not ridiculously so especially if you opt to buy just the VF-1S toy without strike parts (or buy the strike parts separately and have them for any number of upcoming releases).  No need to go tossing your 1/48s though, they still would make superior diorama pieces with all those extras that these 1/60s have eschewed.  At this point, with all the issues of the V2, I think it’s highly likely that Yamato will release a V2.5 at some point in the not-so-distant future with clear improvements to this original V2 so that we will all be able to double-dip yet again on the toy and this time do so with the security of knowing we can actually handle it without the arms snapping off at the shoulders.

NOTE: This review was updated in 2009: it now includes evidence of the fragile shoulders I was only suspicious about when I did my first impression review.  It was updated again in 2010 to include the anniversary edition and expand the conversation of the various weaknesses of the V2 line and which toy are more prone to shoulder failure than others.

Original Post Date: August, 2008

First Update: March 14, 2009

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