{"id":1240,"date":"2011-09-11T05:50:09","date_gmt":"2011-09-11T05:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/anymoon.com\/blog\/2007\/01\/21\/yamato-160-vf-0s\/"},"modified":"2024-06-28T05:43:48","modified_gmt":"2024-06-28T05:43:48","slug":"yamato-160-vf-0s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anymoon.com\/blog\/?p=1240","title":{"rendered":"Yamato 1\/60 VF-0 Toys"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Mega Review: Includes stand alone and ghost bundle releases
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Packaging & Extras:<\/strong> (4\/5) standalone releases
\nEach Yamato VF-0 toy comes in the same style box that the 1\/48 VF-1 toys came in.\u00a0 You should expect the box to be a little too large and not particularly attractive.\u00a0 Earlier releases come in a box with a flip-top lid, the later VF-0A toy with upgraded shoulders came in a less fancy box that dropped this option.\u00a0 Each stand alone VF-0 toy comes with the following:
\n1) 4x Missile trees (three missiles per tree, individually detachable from tree)
\n2) Gun (featuring an extending stock and collapsing handle)
\n3) Pilot figure (gummy and well detailed)
\n4) Leg armors
\n5) 2x Yamato display stand connector pieces (for use with Yamato Launch Arm stand)
\n6) Stickers and instructions.
\nThe figure included with what I call the “unknown soldier” release of the VF-0A is discernable from the Shin included with the Ghost Bundle set by the color of their helmet visors, Shin has a red visor.<\/p>\n

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Packaging & Extras:<\/strong> (5\/5) ghost bundles
\nThe ghost bundles came in a box the size of a Yamato 1\/48 VF-1 with Super Parts bundle (a bit larger than the stand alone release box).\u00a0 These bundles retained the flip top lid and came with everything in the standard release plus the following items:
\n7) Ghost toy
\n8) 2x Ghost connector pieces
\n9) Replacement head for Ghost (to create autonomous variant)
\n10) 4x Gun pods (two attach to hard points, other two attach to humps on top of VF-0 toy)
\n11) 2x Replacement humps with connecting points
\n12) 2x Fuel pods (attach to wing hard points)<\/p>\n

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Charm & Collectability:<\/strong> (2\/5) standalone releases
\nMacross Zero was not the most popular Macross series so it would have taken a truly great toy to make the toy collecting world crave this product… and Yamato failed to deliver.\u00a0 This toy had a tax inclusive MSRP of 17,640 Yen at release which was steeper than the 1\/48 VF-1’s MSRP of 15,540 so expectations were high and demand was limited.\u00a0 Many people did the math and said “I like the VF-0 less than the VF-1 so I’m not going to pay MORE for a VF-0.”\u00a0 They might have changed their mind had reviews of the VF-0 touted the new design elements instead of lamenting the lack of structural rigidity and a number of other build quality issues.\u00a0 The second release in the line was a toy that looks very similar to a Shin Kudo release but is not a Shin Kudo release.\u00a0 Rumor had it that Kawamori decided that Kudo should not have had a unique hero scheme, and that there shouldn’t be any brown cannon fodder VF-0 vehicles, and instead Shin and the cannon fodder pilots would have all flown the paint scheme featured in Yamato’s second release (which I call the “Unknown Soldier” release).\u00a0 To spit directly in their customers eyes, the next release in the line was an actual Shin Kudo paint scheme (ghost bundle).\u00a0 So Yamato had misled customers into purchasing a non-canon paint scheme under the guise it was as close as they’d get to a Shin Kudo paint scheme and then followed it up with the proper paint scheme.\u00a0 For those who can get beyond all the issues and still want a VF-0 toy, Yamato compounded their problems by not creating new boxes for later re-releases until their most recent effort which finally put an Unknown Soldier toy in a new box… but what sense does it make to re-release that toy when far more people would have jumped at a standalone Shin Kudo offering?
\nVF-0S Roy, April 2006, 16,800
\nVF-0A Unknown Soldier, September 2006, 16,800
\nVF-0S Roy Ghost Gift-set, October 2007, 19,800
\nVF-0A Shin, May 2007, 19,800
\nVF-0S Roy, April 2010, 16,800
\nVF-0A Unknown Soldier, May 2010, 16,800<\/p>\n

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Charm & Collectability: <\/strong>(3\/5) ghost bundles
\nWith the standalone releases becoming shelf warmers as more and more disgruntled owners sought ways to find replacement parts for their broken toys, Yamato released ghost bundles.\u00a0 The Shin Kudo ghost bundle got the ball rolling and many people took the plunge expecting Yamato would have, by this point, fixed all the flaws of the original releases… sadly that was not the case.\u00a0 The rumor goes that Yamato, half way through the Shin gift-set production run, finally figured out there was a problem with the way the toys’ shoulders were being installed.\u00a0 The latter part of the production run allegedly got shoulders that were assembled differently and should be less prone to breaking but there’s no way to tell them apart from any other release.\u00a0 The Focker ghost bundle that followed was the first release officially declared safe.\u00a0 There was a standalone Focker reissue that followed some time later but it was packaged in the same box as the first edition so buying one is very tricky.<\/p>\n

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Sculpt, Detail, & Paint: <\/strong>(9\/10)
\nYou can’t fault Yamato’s effort in this category which set a new benchmark at the time of release.\u00a0 Yamato really went wild with the tampo-printed details (a bit less so on the Unknown Soldier release since they couldn’t put any pilot-specific details on that toy).\u00a0 Care was taken to reduce seam lines and conceal construction methods, you won’t notice any obvious pegs in the head like you would on a 1\/48 VF-1J toy.\u00a0 It really is the little details that will take you by surprise.\u00a0 When you open up the front landing gear doors you’ll see conduit\/hydraulic detail molded into the plastic.\u00a0 The cockpit features a thin piece of clear plastic which emulates the heads-up-display.\u00a0 The insides of the feet have a gold hue and turbine detail.\u00a0 There are only a few liberties related to sculpt\/proportion which stand out when one compares these toys to the line art.<\/p>\n

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Design:<\/strong> (7\/10) first edition VF-0S Focker
\nThere are a number of minor tweaks on this toy that show some evolution over the 1\/48 VF-1.\u00a0 The first new feature you’ll likely experience are the rear landing gears which now angle outward after being removed from their bays.\u00a0\u00a0 Those landing gears then hold their position well with free spinning wheels so you won’t have to worry about the landing gear collapsing every time you move the toy on its shelf (which was more of a problem back in the 1\/60 V1 VF-1 days.\u00a0 The design of the feet allows the afterburner ring to stay in one piece as the feet open unlike the 1\/48 VF-1 which had this part split in two.\u00a0 Next, the pilot’s seat actually reclines so that you can have the pilot in the proper position in battroid.\u00a0 This gimmick is entirely gratuitous since the pilot isn’t visible at all in battroid so I think I’m more bummed about the extra money this gimmick probably cost me than excited about its functionality.\u00a0 The hook for the landing gear carrier, a piece not on a valkyrie toy since Bandai’s Hi-Complete Models in the late 80s, stows nicely on the backpack and can be brought down to capture your imaginary hangar cables.\u00a0 The transformation of the VF-0 is slightly more complicated than the transformation of the VF-1 and Yamato did a very good job concealing the necessary mechanisms.\u00a0 The upper legs conceal a bit more extension mechanism for the forward angling of GERWALK mode which lets the VF-0 really get into some aggressive GERWALK stances.\u00a0\u00a0 So with all this good, why didn’t this toy score higher?\u00a0 First, the feet lacked a lock in the extended position. Once the toy was in battroid mode the feet would open and then they might start retracting into the leg when the toy was stood up.\u00a0 Generally, this wasn’t as bad a problem as it sounded, but it was something people had come to expect and its exclusion proved bothersome.\u00a0 Second, the elbows of the toy lacked the necessary friction to keep them in one position.\u00a0 When trying to pose battroid an arm might swing around at the elbow joint ruining your pose.\u00a0 Third, the pitot tube on the front of the fighter mode toy needs to come off during transformation which might make it easily lost (you pull it off, transform the toy, then put it back on facing the other direction).\u00a0 Finally, the most glaring problem, the toy lacked the necessary structural rigidity for everything to work as designed.\u00a0 This issue became known as the “broken back syndrome”.\u00a0 The intakes from the legs would not stay locked in because the sagging of the body would deprive the area of the tautness necessary for the pegs to fight tightly into their slots.\u00a0 This made GERWALK and fighter modes a lot less fun.\u00a0 One last hiccup, the included Launch Arm display adaptor for fighter mode inexplicably had the screws that held that piece together pointing forward rather than being hidden to the back of the plane.<\/p>\n

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Design:<\/strong> (8\/10) subsequent standalone and ghost bundles
\nYamato made two big improvements after receiving input from owners of the first edition VF-0S toy.\u00a0 First, when the feet extend from the leg they now lock into place.\u00a0 Second, a rubber ring was added to the elbow so it wouldn\u2019t swing around so freely.<\/p>\n

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Durability & Build:<\/strong> (3\/10) first edition VF-0S, (4\/10) for all releases until VF-0S ghost bundle
\nThe very first edition of the toy probably deserves a slightly lower score since the factory workers were in such a rush to package the toy they hurled it into the plastic tray, often snapping off the spikes on the tailfins.\u00a0 Yamato had a conversation with the factory about this and it’s very rare to get a later re-release that has damaged tailfin spikes before it has been handled.\u00a0 The first VF-0S release also had more occasions where the wrong magnets were installed in the legs which repelled the included leg armors rather them against the leg.\u00a0 The backpack also has a long thin door which can be broken through normally handling but was far more frequently broken by the uninitiated who felt that door should swing upward in battroid and cover the backpack nozzles (like the VF-1).\u00a0 This doesn’t happen so don’t try it.\u00a0 The real deal breaker for this toy though was its incredibly fragile shoulders.\u00a0 Rumor has it that the shoulder design was actually sound but the manufacture mechanism essentially breaks the shoulders to get them installed.\u00a0 The arms with their shoulders would be assembled separately from the rest of the toy and then added at the last minute by simply being pushed onto the ball joint.\u00a0 This method would put stress cracks on the plastic which would then become full cracks over time.\u00a0 The first thing you should do when purchasing any VF-0 toy is remove the shoulder covers and examine the assembly to see if there are cracks already present.\u00a0 Generally there seems to be a nearly 50% chance the arms will eventually fall off your VF-0 toy (if it’s one of the earlier releases).
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