Review: Listen to My Review!
Packaging & Extras: (4.5/5)
The box is decently compact (28.5 x 20 x 7.5 cm), constructed from relatively thick card stock, decorated with fantastic art, and features a window on the back that shows off the figure. The back window is preferable since it makes it less likely the toy will be exposed to sunlight while sitting on store shelves. Inside is a tray that includes the figure as well as:
1) Basara pilot figure
2) Gun – Speaker pod launcher
3) Landing gear (R/L rear, 1 front)
4) Neck cavity filler
5) Fighter mode shield
6) Battroid mode shield
7) 5 pairs of fixed posed hands: Smaller perfect-transformation fists (installed), fists, gun-holding, open, and grasping
8) R/L replacement shoulders for speaker gimmick
9) A pair of straight head lasers for fighter/GERWALK modes
10) Battle mask
11) Sound booster attachment part (sound booster sold separately)
Behind this tray you’ll find a second that includes:
12) Tamashii Stage Act display stand with custom Fire Bomber base (consists of base and arm)
13) Three display stand adapters (fighter, GERWALK, battroid)
14) Black & white fold-out instruction packet (on glossy paper)
The toy will come mis-transformed, requiring the hips to be rotated into their battroid position and the flaps below the uniboob to be folded up. As frequently happens with Hi-Metal R (HMR) toys, the included parts can be overwhelming. Accessories like the landing gear and the replacement shoulder parts indicate items that would be preferably integrated but were compromises for the HMR scale and price point. Some may have hoped Bandai would include the sound booster.
As a Tamashii web exclusive, the second release, the Zola VF-19P, was distributed in a brown shipper box. Within the shipper is a retail quality box with the same dimensions as the Kai, also adorned in fantastic art, but this time abandoning the window on the back of the box. Contents are the same as the Kai release with these changes:
1) Pilot figure is Basara sporting his look from Dynamite
2) GU-15 standard military gun pod
8) Gerwalk mode shoulder covers with the speakers rotated
Items 9-11 are omitted as those are specific to the Fire Valkyrie but this release also included items 12-14, the Tamashii stand and adapters for its use. The inclusion o the GU-15 is debatable as the VF-19P was being used for a sound experiment on whales and a speaker pod launcher (this time white) makes more sense and is included in some line art. Since Bandai already made the speaker pod launcher, you would think they would have jumped on the opportunity to reuse the mold but let’s hope the inclusion of the GU-15 indicates the 19F and 19S may be in future plans.
Charm & Collectability: (3/5)
This toy was seemingly over-produced leading to massive discounts. The Fire Valkyrie and Macross7 may be huge fan favorites in Japan, but they don’t have much of a worldwide Macross following. Since Macross7 pre-dates the heavy use of CGI in anime projects, the vehicles in the show all enjoy massive proportion shifting to accentuate attributes and stylize the vehicles. Macross7 features sleek fighters that transform into formidable, thick, and curvy battroids with no regard for balance or realism. While fun from an animation perspective, it creates a challenge no toy manufacturer has overcome, and the Hi-Metal R is no exception. Like the Yamato 1/60 VF-19Kai, which it heavily borrows from, the toy impersonates the stockier battroid, in part, by collapsing the torso. The HMR is a small 14.8 cm (about 15.2 with the ankles extended), which makes it about 1/105 scale in battroid and 19.8 cm in fighter mode (1/93). In contrast, the original Hi-Metal (OHM) toy was about 15.5 cm tall (1/100 scale) in battroid and 21 cm long in fighter (1/88).
Sculpt, Detail, & Paint: (8.5/10)
As mentioned earlier, the VF-19 is one of Kawamori’s most stylistically influenced designs creating a very difficult challenge for toy manufacturers. Given how sleek the VF-19 fighter is portrayed, the taller, more slender features of the OHM probably better represent how a VF-19 SHOULD look in battroid mode. The Hi-Metal R shrinks the Yamato 1/60 design to present a closer line art approximation. The legs look beefier, the area between the cod piece and uniboob is smaller, and the head is better proportioned. If you’re going to pose the toy with its arms down, you’ll immediately notice that it has simian arm proportions with the hands near the knees. This problem is made worse by the included fixed posed hands which run large. The hips are forward of the center mass in battroid mode.
As you move to GERWALK you’ll get a chance to appreciate the pilot figure. For how tiny this pilot is, he’s very nicely painted and does a good job catching Basara’s likeness. Once you put him in the cockpit, you’ll find the canopy is so blue that you can barely make out the pilot inside. GERWALK mode does a good job catching the likeness of the line art and the extensions in the knees and ankles allows a better angling of the legs than the OHM toy was able to accomplish.
For as much effort as this toy puts into capturing the look of battroid mode, it’s most impressive mode may be fighter. The HMR sheds the OHM’s chunkiness through the neck and knee area to make for a much more aggressive profile. The overhead schematic may be the best example of how radically parts shift from one mode to the next in the art. Here the legs are narrow, the shoulder covers are short, and the shield tapers dramatically toward the rear of the craft. If the Hi-Metal R captured those elements, then battroid mode would look ridiculous. Still, the toy only compromises a little, adding some chunkiness on the back-end of the craft, and the result is a fine looking plane.
The 19P toy isn’t just a repaint of the Fire Valkyrie, it has several unique elements. I was surprised to find that Bandai gave us a Dynamite 7 accurate Basara figure only to hide him behind a canopy tinted so dark you can’t see him. The unique head sculpt is the most obvious change, it features a clear panel with mechanical details behind it. The toy also receives new legs that have a fin on them (like the VF-1) and micro missile ports. The red piping along the wings is curiously done; the paint lines don’t look perfectly straight on the leading edge, the line doesn’t seem to perfectly carry onto the next part, and when the line transitions to the base of the wing, it dramatically tapers instead of maintaining its width. This may be an aesthetic choice by Bandai but I found it distracting. Though you can find times in the animation where the stripes looked different, I prefer Yamato’s interpretation.
Design: (7.5/10)
Here’s a list of the improvements over the OHM line:
1) (Nearly) Perfect transformation – The OHM toy had no hands and needed all of the protrusions on the head to be installed on the way to battroid. Here you’ll want to swap out the straight/angled head lasers but that’s about it (and the 19P keeps the same lasers throughout). Yes, there’s a neck cavity filler but even the Yamato 1/60 toys included those as separate parts.
2) Whereas the OHM had a pilot glued into the cockpit with a fixed canopy, the HMR line includes a separate pilot figure and removable cockpit canopy.
3) The OHM toy was not able to stow the gun in fighter mode. The HMR speakerpod gun has a sliding handle that facilitates its storage in fighter mode.
4) Plug in landing gear! The OHM had no landing gear doors, simulating them by resting the vehicle on landing gear with doors that plugged into a base. The HMR has the landing gear doors with hidden extending hinges that expose the connection points for the separate, plug-in gear.
Specific to the Kai, there are a couple additional features:
5) This toy adds the shoulder speaker gimmick that was absent from the OHM. However, it’s not an integrated feature. Bandai has given us optional top shoulder parts that don’t have that diamond and sit in the extended upward position to show off the interior speaker detail.
6) The OHM Fire Valkyrie had no leg missile bays with only the Blazer Valkyrie simulating them with swap out removable side panels that could be replaced with open panels exposing three pairs of missiles. This feature is now integrated on the Hi-Metal R (though I needed a pry tool to lift the missiles high enough to rotate on their pegs).
7) Like the OHM, the toy can swap the face with a sort of battle mask. It’s a new way of handling the swap and it’s very secure once complete.
There’s a clear distinction between the HMR and more deluxe toys. Features like a hinged opening canopy, hinged head lasers that don’t require swapping for transformation, and integrated landing gear with spinning rubber tires were all sacrificed. This toy is not a step forward from existing toys, it’s an effort to capture as much of the Yamato 1/60 scale VF-19 toy as Bandai could at a much smaller size and price.
Included with these toys is a Bandai Tamashii Stage Act display stand. The display stands continue to be practical accessories. While there’s no weight to the base, it’s suitable for elevating these very light toys for more dynamic poses. A rotation point and pivot at the base and a pivot at the top of the arm make it easy to find a good balance point. The peg at the end of the arm is circular allowing the connector to rotate for greater options. It’s not as nice as the stand included with the OHM VF-19S or sold separately for the OHM VF-19Kai, but it’s sufficient.
Durability & Build: (8/10)
Though metal is scarce, it’s present on the most critical joints, where you would want it. Though the hip swing bar and the hips themselves were very tight out of the box, after some minor handling all joints provided the appropriate amount of resistance. The only issue I’ve had so far is a bit of glue not holding on the sleeve inside the GERWALK joint.
Articulation: (9/10)
The head can look up and down, and swivel 360 degrees, but I was unable to angle it left/right. As with all VF-19 toys, the shoulders are hinges for transformation which allow for great sweeping the shoulders back poses. The pauldrons can rotate 360 degrees and the arm is hinged allowing it to go 90 degrees from straight down to straight out. A double-jointed elbow allows a full 180 degrees of motion. The hands connect via ball joints allowing them to rotate around and angle in any direction. The leg can kick forward or back to be parallel to the ground. At the hip there’s a pivot point that allows the legs to swing outward for a full, cod piece to ground, splits. Like the Yamato toys, the GERWALK joint might not swing as far forward as you expect but the deep knee swing and far extending ankles allow plenty of lower body mobility in GERWALK mode. The extension at the knee allows about 80 degrees of forward swing while the toy can achieve about 120 degrees of back swing. The ankles are ball joints that allow an impressive motion of up/down and left/right angling while also allowing the toe to spin a full 360 degrees.
Total Score: (40.5/50)
While the Hi-Metal R is a significant and worthwhile upgrade over the original Hi-Metal toys, it does not compete with the old Yamato toys from a decade ago. If Bandai weren’t currently double-dipping by also introducing a line of DX Macross7 toys, the Hi-Metal R could have been a way for people to scratch their Macross7 itch while avoiding the old Yamato toys, many of which are now suffering from broken joints. The promise of Hi-Metal R, which the line has NOT been living up to recently, was a more complete universe of toys that included less popular mecha, including enemy figures. It was supposed to be a way for Bandai to take risks without breaking the bank… but companies don’t like taking risks and now Bandai is competing with themselves by launching their DX line which promises to cover the same territory. The Hi-Metal R VF-19 series will only appeal to those with limited funds, a casual interest, or limited space. Fortunately, for those it does appeal to, they will receive a fun, well-built toy that, while expensive for its size at MSRP, will remain significantly cheaper than the DX line.