Review: The battle for the best “Robotech Veritech” is heating up
Packaging & Extras: (4.5/5)
This toy makes a good first impression with a box that feels reasonably sized (29 x 24 x 10 cm), is attractively decorated with pictures of the toy, made of reasonably thick cardboard, and featuring a flip-top opening so you can admire the toy without removing it. Inside, the toy and accessories are bundled in plastic clamshells with extra plastic baggies placed around the toy and various parts to prevent paint wear during shipping. Beyond the toy, you’ll receive the following accessories:
1) Gun with strap
2) 3x pairs of fixed posed hands (Salute, open, gun grip). A pair of fists come installed on the toy.
3) 4x clusters of TV style missiles
4) Guardian mode antenna
5) Pry tool for help opening tight spots like landing gear doors
6) A pilot figure is included already in the cockpit
A second tray includes:
7) A display stand consisting of a base, arm, and adapters for fighter and guardian/battloid
Behind everything you’ll find a baggy containing:
8) Instructions
9) Warranty card
I left a little room off the top of this score that would be included for something like a Heavy Armor or Super Parts bundle.
The second release in the line was a BBTS exclusive ‘weathered version’. ThreeZero didn’t cheap this one out by slapping a sticker on the regular release box. Instead, we’re treated to a highly reflective black and silver box with red highlights. Inside, the contents are unchanged from the first release. It’s a nice touch that the instruction manual receives the same darker cover art from this release’s box.
Charm & Collectabilty: (3.5/5)
Collectability in the fandom usually centers around five elements: popularity, perfect transformation, scale, quality, and scarcity. It’s unclear what the impact will be of this being branded a Robotech release instead of a Japanese product under the Macross name. Regardless, as the protagonist mecha from what remains the most popular Macross and Robotech series, there’s still an audience for VF-1 toys, particularly perfect transformation VF-1 toys like this ThreeZero offering. At 20.5 cm tall in battloid mode, the toy stands just a half centimeter shorter than the Arcadia/YamatoV2 1/60 scale VF-1, making it close enough to 1/60 scale to fit the de facto scale of the Macross toy universe. Heft is often perceived as a key element of quality and at about 320 grams, the ThreeZero is very similar in weight to the venerable 1/55 VF-1/Jetfire of the 80s and substantially heavier than the Arcadia/YamatoV2’s paltry 190 grams. While the toy is too new to judge this category properly, it has all the elements that should lead to it being demanded with only market saturation/competition and the likelihood that there will be sufficient quantities regularly available keeping its secondary market value stable. The first release sold well enough to warrant the limited edition ‘weathered’ version. Though it’s unclear how many ‘weathered version’ toys were made, if it’s scarce, this may become a sought-after collector’s item.
Sculpt, Detail, & Paint: (9/10)
As we’ve come to expect from premium efforts, this toy has clear accents on the leading edge of the wings, on the spotlights near the backpack, and on the landing gear doors in the legs. The pilot figure has human proportions, excellent paint, and looks to be about the right size. The cockpit has a nice with blue translucent HUD panels but is light on paint. While other companies have been content to leave the red cicles on the back of the legs as painted dots, ThreeZero has added red translucent plastic there as well. It would have been nice if the same treatment was given to the red dot below the fists. ThreeZero went the extra mile painting on the warnings throughout the toy, comparing very nicely with Bandai’s DX effort. Some of these markings make more sense than others… is the vertical stabilizer really filled with propellant? Is the sensor on the nose really going to cause a blast (yes, there’s an animation error where they do fire in the show so maybe we give that one a pass). While the DX might have a few more markings, ThreeZero adds prominent markings like the warnings below the intakes and the “VF” above the feet that are wonderful callbacks to Takatoku’s toys. More debatable is the work ThreeZero has done with their panel lines. Yamato strived to have the finest, most subtle panel lines that the owner could choose to accent and many users felt they were too subtle. Bandai went slightly more pronounced, and feedback was generally positive. ThreeZero’s lines are like Bandai’s but then accentuated with black paint making them leap off the surface of the toy. Some people will love it, I thought it was too much.
Battloid mode has a couple notable improvements over previous sculpts. First, the head is larger than most contemporary toys. Every toy manufacturer since Takatoku has been shrinking the head in favor of a sleeker fighter mode. Second, the forearms have a nice thickness to them though the shape of the forearm armor above the elbow deviates from the line art. Otherwise, battloid looks very much like a shrunken Bandai DX toy with all the improvements it offered over previous toys. The DX does a little better job getting the base of the neck in the proper location in the recessed portion of the chest but the ThreeZero still improves upon Yamato’s V2 placement. Something went wrong with this toy’s elbow implementation. The section immediately below the elbow looks like it should pivot, and in the pictures of the toy that portion does pivot, but in the final assembly it is fixed. Fortunately, this doesn’t impair the elbow’s range of movement, but it does make the elbow look awful in some positions.
Guardian mode incorporates the best elements of fighter and GERWALK modes to look impressive. The black antenna piece is a bold color choice but it works well enough.
This toy’s larger arms are optimized for battloid and guardian modes and introduce issues in fighter mode. I would have suggested ThreeZero make the backpack very thin to accommodate the thickness of the arms. Instead, the arms stick out well below the bottom of fighter mode ruining this mode’s profile. The funky shape of the upper arms is necessary to prevent a big gap in fighter mode where the arms hang down too low. Very strangely, you have to angle the arms a bit to get everything to seat tightly around the backpack. Ignoring the issues caused by the bigger arms, the toy manages to capture all the other important elements of fighter mode and looks good from higher angles that conceal the arm issues.
Design: (9/10)
This toy includes all the elements we’ve come to expect from premium VF-1 toys:
1) Opening cockpit (may require pry tool)
2) Removable pilot figure
3) Removable intake fan covers (may require pry tool)
4) Integrated landing gear that lock into position with an articulated tow bar on the front gear (may require pry tool)
5) Perfect transformation including integrated heat shield. If you want an antenna in GERWALK mode, that requires plugging in a separate part. The toy performs better with the ‘optional’ side cavity fillers installed (discussed more below).
6) Ability to stow the gun in fighter mode while on the landing gear and on the arm in battroid mode. Sadly, the gun drags on the ground in fighter mode when on the landing gear.
7) Gun with extending stock and trigger mechanisms
8) Articulated air brake. Unfortunately, the air brake doesn’t peg into the closed position and can droop a bit in battloid mode.
9) Side cavity fillers – optional but they do lock the chest into position
10) Rear landing gear that pivot outward
11) The ability to drop and pivot the head in GERWALK and fighter modes
12) Hardpoints on the wings that effectively hold the missiles and allow them to twist depending on the sweep of the wings. Though the fit is so tight that it flexes the wings a tiny bit, you can leave the missiles attached with the wings closed in battloid mode which is a rare feat for a VF-1 toy.
13) Peg in connection for the gun strap
The extension gimmicks in the feet and knees take some getting used to. While other manufacturers have simply allowed users to yank on a limb or foot to extend it, ThreeZero requires you to press hidden buttons in the legs. The method feels unnecessarily complicated after having handled DX toys for a while and will no doubt frustrate users who feel they’re well-versed enough in VF-1 toys not to need to look at the instructions.
The toy is more dependent on the side cavity filler parts than previous VF-1 toys. The Yamato 1/60 V2 VF-1 toy was designed without the consideration of the side cavity fillers making them truly optional when they were introduced for aesthetic purposes. Yamato’s chest and back both lock firmly in place without the cavity fillers. Bandai’s DX VF-1 toy uses the side cavity filler as a way to lock the chest in place but the leg bar latches securely into the back of the nosecone so the back is relatively solid whether or not the side cavity fillers are used. The legs on the ThreeZero latch less securely to the nosecone. The side cavity fillers lock the back to the chest which pinches the leg bar making the whole upper body solid. ThreeZero copied the Bandai DX toy’s back to chest connector at the base of the neck which prevents the back and chest from flopping too far out of position, but there’s still enough movement at the abdomen to make the whole thing feel sloppy when the side cavity fillers aren’t used.
In many ways, this toy is a small DX toy with panel lining. Unfortunately, that means the toy retains some of the DX toys weaknesses. I was let down to find the arms in fighter mode are locked into position only by tiny completely vertical tabs that slot into the elbow just like the DX toy. This system doesn’t work well for either toy with neither toy feeling as secure as Yamato did on their 1/60 V2 toy. Similarly, the legs slide onto a vertical peg which makes sure you have them in the right spot but doesn’t lock the leg like the lipped peg of the Yamato toy did. Fortunately, the joints in the legs are strong enough that this isn’t a problem for a bare VF-1 but it seems like it could cause issues for a Super Parts accessory when one is introduced later.
The included display stand feels and acts like a smaller version of the standard Bandai DX offering. The display stand offers no points of articulation or ability to bank the toy, it simply elevates the toy to relieve it of the need to balance on its feet or use its landing gear. The adapters don’t grip the toy tightly, opting instead for a loose grip that might be unsettling for some but should be enough to keep things safe. There are only two and ThreeZero changes things up by making on adapter work for both battloid and guardian modes while the other is exclusive to fighter whereas Bandai does a combo fighter/GERWALK adapter and an adapter just for battroid. The weakness of the ThreeZero design is that you can’t pull off the VTOL pose (Guardian with the legs swept forward) because the arms interfere with the adapter position and the fighter adapter can’t be used when the arm is in the elevated position.
Durabilty & Build: (8/10)
This toy appears to be completely painted rather than molded in color which will lead to paint wear issues after moderate handling. For those who don’t touch your toys, this might be beneficial because the toy may be less likely to yellow. Friction points, like where the gun attaches, will bear the worst of it. My VF-1J Rick has an incredibly tight fit on one intake cover, so tight it would easily snap the pry tool if I only relied on that. I used the other intake cover to pry it off and it flew across the room and I was lucky to recover it. While I was thrilled not to encounter any loose joints, there were a few that were so tight I didn’t realize the full extent of their range of movement until after handling the toy for a while. The shoulder sliders are too tight which makes transformation downright scary. This is surprising since the shoulders lock into the front or back position and thus only require minimal friction when between modes.
Articulation: (9.5/10)
Though the head is on a ball joint, the range of movement is limited relying heavily on the hinge at the base of the neck to look up or down but the head can cock in either direction. Head lasers attach via ball joint that lets them rotate freely around and also angle outward independently. The shoulders are pegs that sit on a hinge allowing the whole arm to pivot back and away or forward adding to the toy’s reach. The shoulder housing can rotate on the peg allowing the arm to rotate 360 degrees and also to extend away from the body. A swivel above the bicep allows the arm to rotate 360 degrees. A double-jointed hinge allows the elbow to achieve a full 180 degrees of motion. There are no articulated hands but the included fixed posed hands attach to a ball joint at the end of a peg which itself connects to the arm via a ball joint. This double ball joint system allows hand to shift in any direction and then allows the hand to twist and pivot on its own ball joint. The waist is a clear improvement over Bandai’s DX toy allowing it to twist about 45 degrees in either direction without disconnecting any housings. Ball-joints at the hip allow the leg to spin all the way around and angle inward (pointing the toes toward each other). While the hip only allows minimal outward leg angle, a second joint below the hip allows the leg to angle further outward (as first seen on the DX toy and now recreated by KitzConcept and ThreeZero). There’s a hinge below the hip allows you to bring the leg forward about 90 degrees either for Guardian mode or for moving the leg forward without concern about the wings in battloid. The knee allows about 75 degrees of movement in its most compact form or can be extended to get closer to 120 degrees back and a full 180 degrees forward for Guardian mode. A second joint within the thigh can be engaged to allow about 160 degrees of total knee bend. Within the knee is also a swivel joint that lets the leg spin a full 360 degrees. You must move the knee cap out of the way to engage the knee swivel which can be awkward. The ankles are essentially fixed in their highest position but can be lowered to allow impressive forward and backward movement of the foot. In their extended position, the ankle can also rock inward aided by a flap on the leg that was first seen in Bandai’s VF-1 models. I was surprised the foot wasn’t a ball joint, you won’t be able to twist the toes left or right, you’ll need to rely on the swivel in the knee to rotate the entire lower portion of the leg instead.
Total Score: (43.5/50)
This toy doesn’t knock Bandai’s DX VF-1 off the top of the mountain, but it’s easy to say that this is now the premier 1/60(ish) scale VF-1 toy. Finally, a company has managed to best the now 16-year-old Yamato V2 mold at this scale. There are some fit issues that I hope are resolved on the future releases. While it’s a very good toy bordering on greatness, the flaws of fighter mode may still be a deal killer for some VF-1 fans. We’ve grown accustomed to toy manufacturers prioritizing fighter mode by giving us small heads and thin arms so now that someone has prioritized “battloid”, it feels wrong. Fighter mode also emulates the weaknesses of the DX toy in the way it all pegs together. So, there’s room for improvement, but this is the toy I would recommend at this scale.