{"id":6072,"date":"2012-10-08T05:14:19","date_gmt":"2012-10-08T05:14:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/anymoon.com\/blog\/?p=6072"},"modified":"2014-07-11T05:41:30","modified_gmt":"2014-07-11T05:41:30","slug":"accessories-for-bandai-160-dx-renewal-vf-25-toys-armored-parts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anymoon.com\/blog\/?p=6072","title":{"rendered":"Accessories for Bandai 1\/60 DX Renewal VF-25 Toys: Armored Parts"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Observations & Critique: The Renewal VF-25 Armored parts, not original release
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These Tamashii exclusive super parts come in the standard brown shipping box with a two tone interior box (blue box for Alto, black box for Ozma).\u00a0 The parts are packaged much better than they were for the original release and since there’s no longer a display stand included everything fits in a much more reasonably sized box.\u00a0 Inside the box you’ll get the following:
\n1) Armored Parts
\n2) Battroid back support and extra crotch armor to accommodate it
\n3) Display stand adapters for each mode
\n4) Instructions (above)<\/p>\n

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The only thing that seems to be able to limit demand for these armored parts is the persistent demand for the long sold out stand alone VF-25 toys.\u00a0 If people can’t find those toys to purchase they don’t have much of a need for buying these armored parts.\u00a0 These renewal parts, released July 2012 for 8,190 Yen were released three years after Bandai’s original effort priced at 6,500 Yen.\u00a0 For the additional cost you get a much better looking product with lots of detail improvements.\u00a0 You don’t get a stand though and the price increase seems a little much and this is compounded by what the exchange rate has done in those three years.\u00a0\u00a0 Ozma’s armored parts always seem to be a little more popular than the Alto custom as Ozma got more use out of the armor in the show.\u00a0 Similarly, Alto’s super parts seem to sell better than Ozma’s super parts.<\/p>\n

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As you can see in the pictures above and below, the Renewal Version Armored Parts do an excellent job emulating the computer model from Frontier and look more natural on the toys.\u00a0 The detailed pictures up above also compare all the renewal parts to the original parts so you can see that each part has been reviewed and improved for the renewal.\u00a0 Hinges have been hidden, additional paint details have been added, there are more panel lines, interior missile detail is improved, everything is better.\u00a0 There was still some room for improvement.\u00a0 When you think about the individual missiles on Yamato’s 1\/48 and 1\/60 V2 GBP Armor for VF-1 toys you’ll definitely be a little let down by even the improved missile detail here.<\/p>\n

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The original armored parts had lots of flaws in the design department, most have been addressed here.
\nOriginal Armor Parts Flaw 1: GERWALK mode required separate parts to support the weight of the back half of the plane, the supports came up from the back of the legs making GERWALK and immobile disaster.\u00a0 Choosing not to use the support parts for GERWALK made the mode nearly unmanageable, if you accidentally bumped the toy it would come crumbling down.\u00a0 On the Renewal Version the toy has a built in support that makes this whole system unnecessary.\u00a0 The toy handles perfectly fine in GERWALK mode.
\nFlaw 2: The original armored parts that cover what I refer to as “Wing roots” was infuriating in how easily it became dislodged as they only stayed on the toy when in very specific angles.\u00a0 On the renewal parts the pieces connect in such a way where they stay on well, can be articulated with a wide range of motion and can even be used as supplementary support for the back of battroid mode.\u00a0\u00a0 The original hip armors also clipped on in a way that wasn’t particularly secure.\u00a0 On the renewal version you now need to remove the intake shield and the hip armors plugs in using the same connector as the intake shield did.\u00a0 While this is a notable improvement you’re going to want to make sure you don’t lose your intake shields.
\nFlaw 3: On the original armor parts the gun couldn’t fit on the toy in fighter mode.\u00a0 This perplexed me since that toy already required a separate gun attachment piece and all Bandai would have had to have done would have been to include a longer gun attachment piece.\u00a0 On the renewal version, you don’t need a separate gun attachment piece.\u00a0 Unfortunately, there’s one additional part you probably will need, a plastic clasp that keeps the legs tuck together tight enough as to keep pressure on the gun.\u00a0 The solution isn’t ideal but it’s a step forward from the original version.
\nA forth flaw that went largely unaddressed was the lack of a stopper in the leg landing gears.\u00a0 The landing gears pull forward but there’s nothing that stops them from being pushed back.\u00a0 On the renewal version toys the landing gears need a tiny bit more pressure before they go back down but it’s nowhere near enough.\u00a0 There are also some other design improvements here.\u00a0 The way the shoulder missile pods attach now requires removing an existing part on the toy and replacing it with a new part.\u00a0 Any time you have to swap parts out that means you have one more part to track so some people aren’t going to like this.\u00a0 The benefit to this is that the new part allows the shoulder missile bays a much broader range of movement which better allows you to emulate the line art.<\/p>\n

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Perhaps the biggest improvement made to the renewal parts over the original is that the armored parts no longer break the VF-25 toy.\u00a0 On the original toy the armored parts created stress on a hinge leading to it cracking.\u00a0 While the toy could usually function with these hinges show cracks it looked like the kind of thing that might some day lead to the toy splitting in two.\u00a0 I haven’t seen any such problems on the Renewal version.
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