{"id":1695,"date":"2015-06-19T18:10:30","date_gmt":"2015-06-19T18:10:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/anymoon.com\/blog\/2007\/09\/02\/yamato-1100-konig-monster\/"},"modified":"2016-08-09T16:31:06","modified_gmt":"2016-08-09T16:31:06","slug":"yamato-1100-konig-monster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anymoon.com\/blog\/?p=1695","title":{"rendered":"Yamato 1\/100 Konig Monster"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Yamato<\/a><\/p>\n

Review(updated): A Monster that Won’t Fit Under Your Bed<\/p>\n

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Packaging & Extras:<\/strong> (2.5\/5)
\nThe box has the same, somewhat large, dimensions that Yamato uses for its 1\/48 products (36cm x 37cm x 14.5cm).\u00a0 The flip-up display panel is present and the art and decoration are fair. The toy is secured to its plastic tray via twist-ties and the plastic clam shell is taped closed. There’s really nothing here that would be considered an extra.\u00a0 Besides the toy you get the following:
\n1) Instructions
\n2) Stickers
\nSince the toy lacks landing gears in shuttle mode a rudimentary display stand seemed a prerequisite so its absence was conspicuous. It’s also worth noting that this toy seemed to garner the most complaints per capita from users (who couldn’t read Kanji) who insisted the transformation instructions were insufficient.<\/p>\n

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Charm & Collectability:<\/strong> (2\/5)
\nThis toy is from the VF-X2 game and it had not appeared in\u00a0animation\u00a0when Yamato released this.\u00a0 The Konig is a much smaller, transformable, version of its older brother, the MacII Monster from the original Macross series. \u00a0When this was first released on December 28, 2004 (MSRP 14,800YEN) it lacked the charm of being in the original animation, and the diecast of vintage toys, so there wasn’t much demand.\u00a0 Since its first (and only?) reissue the Konig did appear in the newest Macross series, Macross Frontier.\u00a0 For a brief moment that made the Yamato toy very popular but since then Bandai has released a DX Konig toy which is far superior (albeit at an odd, slightly smaller scale).<\/p>\n

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Sculpt, Detail, and Paint:<\/strong> (6\/10)
\nYamato didn’t bother doing much tampo-printing on this toy\u00a0so some of the large surfaces look a bit plain.\u00a0 Most of the toy’s color comes from the molded plastic but the little paint applied appears to be well done. \u00a0There were definitely opportunities to add colored translucent plastic in a few places and Yamato opted to use paint instead… if anything at all. The large cannons are detailed nicely but it seems like some real simple weathering would have gone a long way.\u00a0 The rocket launchers of the arms are just black indents rather than tubes which is fine but again, it’d be nice to see Yamato go the extra mile.\u00a0 Most the line art I’ve seen for this vehicle is pretty stylized but given what Bandai accomplished with their DX offering, it’s clear this was a sub par effort. The shuttle mode sculpt is particularly bad. The shape of the front of the vessel is wrong, almost as if it’s been flipped upside down (though that is the one place where some nice work was done with some silver painted details). The droopy legs create gaps and make shuttle mode worse. The toe can’t point upward enough and the canards look too low. Things definitely improve in GERWALK mode but there are still plenty of shortcomings. The kneecaps are too large, the crotch dangles too low, and the turret has been reduced to a tiny peg that pops out.<\/p>\n

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Design:<\/strong> (5\/10)
\nIn 2007 I gave this toy a 7\/10 for this category noting that i felt I was being a bit generous. I was very impressed by the unorthodox transformation. \u00a0The instruction manual left a lot to be desired so we relied on fan-made tutorials. Today you can check out my HD video guide if you want to pull your beast out and put it through the motions. \u00a0If you’re struggling getting the toy back into shuttle mode, you’ll know you’re done when you look at it from the side and the gaps aren’t so big you can stick a finger through.\u00a0 There’s an\u00a0issue\u00a0with some of the joints being unable to handle the weight of the toy\u00a0but I’ll\u00a0address that more in the build section.\u00a0 During the production process Yamato aborted a planned missile bay for shuttle mode so you can pop open a panel to see a plastic sculpted missile on some toys but on other toys this panel is glued shut. It seems like it was aborted because it doesn’t really function properly, the missile is only visible if you apply continuous pressure to the door. It may have also been aborted because without a proper way to lock the door closed it may have drooped open when in GERWALK mode. Okay, so why the low score:
\n1) No cockpit\/pilots. Canopy is just silver paint.
\n2) No landing gear or skids, integrated or attachable (though I have never seen line art of how this works)
\n3) No detents at the canards to let you know you’ve hit the right spot
\n4) No detents in the transformation mechanisms and you often times aren’t 100% satisfied everything has been transformed correctly… particularly getting back to shuttle.
\n5) The toy feels floppy and awkward. Parts seem to sag that should be sturdy, like the legs in shuttle mode, which in turn make the entire mode look worse.
\n6) Failed missile gimmick in back
\n7) Gaps, you can see through to the other side of the toy in several places you should not be able to in every mode
\n8) Insufficient locking mechanisms. The cannons just lie on top of the toy in GERWALK mode so be careful where you lift from.<\/p>\n

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Durability & Build:<\/strong> (6\/10)
\nThe number one complaint about the Konig comes from stress marking.\u00a0 A few of the areas that are absolutely essential to transformation are comprised of plastic so thin that a strong enough light will shine right through it.\u00a0 The good news is that a stress mark doesn’t leave you with a broken toy, the bad news is that a stress mark can be pretty obvious and, in some cases, can be a precursor to eventual breakage. Macrossworld member Sithlord created this list of areas susceptible to stress marks:<\/p>\n