Comments on: SV-51 Nora Type

Nice Review!

Demokritos — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 08:08:30 -0400

Thanks atom for the review you made for the SV-51y(Nora) I just received mine yesterday, no kidding it's huge and I love it! Its a real beauty! I like handling it a my hands as I stand in awe, truly a work of art and engineering.
Thankfully every thing was alright out of the box, there we're no defects on my unit, I spent until midnight playing with it, my sympathies for the unit you received had a flimsy wing, as I've seen on your video review.

Thanks again!

Yamato 1/60

l_q_long — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 14:54:29 -0400

hi atom,u are totally right about it,i just got the new prefect transformation yamato 1/60 vf-1s roy focker,it really flawless,can't see any bad point of it,and i can really play with it without any worries.all parts are tight,transformation its a bit tight,but overall,prefect toy and collection.i really looking forward to see your review on this masterpiece.so that everyone will know the greatness of it.thanks.

Diecast, what a misnomer

happosai8 — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 23:26:50 -0400

Yamato has been claiming diecast contruction. Well screws and joints dont count!!
SOC makes macross look like crap in relation to diecast.
I have been awaiting a real diecast Valkyrie forever. If it came out it would probably be $600.00, since people are paying $200.00 for plastic.
Sure its nicely detailed, I think I paid about $40.00 for my RID plastic optimus prime.
Sorry about that it did have metal screws, thus diecast RID optimus prime.
For $200.00 buy a Godmars which you can kill someone by throwing it at their head.

Skip the 1/48th and go for the new 1/60 Valkyrie

Atom — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 12:42:49 -0400

Just got my new 1/60 Strike Valkyrie.... blows the 1/48th away. Yamato seems to have succeded in making a Valkyrie toy. However if your really want a "classic" get one of the 1/55 reissues, then go out and get the 1/60. :) Seriously it rocks. Review coming as soon as I finish God Cloth Seiya. :)

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Special SHOUTOUT to quinjester for the SV51 tip!

Atom — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 12:37:53 -0400

Dude! Thank You... this totally makes a difference. I'll update the review in the next day or so to reflect this info.

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Re: GogDog

Atom — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 12:25:38 -0400

No worries, it's cool. I don't expect everyone to agree with every thing I write. I don't write to be agreed with or liked. I write to share the passion for this hobby. One thing I will promise is that I am honest about these reviews. Saint Seiya is an example of that.... I love that show and really like the figures I have, but I know it's not popular with most of the robot collectors (or American's in general) yet I still share them with the community. So GogDog take what you like and leave the rest...

People who tend to take the most umbrage with my reviews seem to not actually read everything I write. They just take the parts that upset them and forget the rest, paraphrasing what I write or say (it tends to be worst on the Youtube feedback.)

Apparently the leg breaking is a newer development. The same day I got mine someone posted the same issue on Macross World. The floppy wing is more common (to be fair a couple dabs of crazy glue to create more of a ridge, would hold it in place.)

In this economy I know most collectors can't really afford every $200 + dollar toy that comes along so when I get one I do expect it to be perfect out of the box. Maybe some can affourd to eat $200 toys for breakfast but I'm not one of them. We strive to be objective and I have to call them as I see them. ;)

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A lot to think about

Gareth Infinity — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 17:04:23 -0400

I will certainly take all of this into consideration, thanks. Though I do admit there are some other things higher on my priorities list, which is very important to maintain with such limited cash flow as mine...

Recomended

Mark M — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 14:21:39 -0400

Hi Gareth Infinity,
I am not long on this site either. For Macross toys, I would highly recomend the 1/55 Bandai Valkyries. I got the VF-1S Super Valkyrie when I was 18 in the summer of 2003. The original 1/55 are great, actual toys. The Yamato 1/48 are excellent looking but more complex than the original, you might be better to wait for the new 1/60. Do not go for the original 1/60 series they are not great. I have owned a Toynami 1/55 MPC Valkyrie, it had a lot of quality control issues, the 1/100 look cool but it might be a waste of money. Bandai and Toynami are re-releasing the original 1/55.

SV-51 Shoulders

quinjester — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:37:26 -0400

Something to note about the SV-51 that NOBODY ever does, and relates to a comment in your review where you say the shoulders do not lock in (and which I think can be completely blamed on Yamato's substandard instructions with regard to this section of the figure), is that the shoulders pivot inward and upward slightly so that the pads rest above the rest of the chest. It slims the shoulder area slightly and looks a fair bit better.

You have to pop the shoulder pauldron downward (pressing on the outer edge), then pivot the entire piece, which is on a (VERY stiff) hinge, upward. The end result will look like this:

(I'd take a picture of just the shoulders, but I'm at work and I have this one handy).

And for the record, my own Nora has a few problems, mainly in the area of the wings (one droops), so I wouldn't say it's flawless, but it's certainly better than the Yamato norm.

Thanks for the

Gareth Infinity — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:16:24 -0400

Thanks for the recommendation!

I have just a little bit of extra cash left after buying the Soul of Chogokin Spec XS-09 this morning. I only recently started to try and buy somewhat heavily into lines other than Transformers (you guessed it, I'm pretty young; just turned 17 today). If I decide not to do the wise thing and save what cash I have left, I may go just go for one of those 1/100s. That, or about a dozen other things I'm trying to decide between, ha. Mostly Evangelion and Transformers stuff.

More on topic...not being as informed about or as into Macross as I'd like to be, given more time (again, young noob here), some of the more expensive pieces like this one are immediately of questionable merit. Storage space is also becoming an issue, so until I clean up more around here, larger pieces are also just a tad bit worrisome. This is why the Toynami 1/100s seem perfect.

With the original Ivanov

GogDog — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 10:34:15 -0400

With the original Ivanov version of the SV-51, there were some issues. Nothing as bad as the VF-0 being so floppy it couldn't hold a pose or the VF-0A having shoulders that disintegrated after two (or less!) transformations. But it did have wing joints installed on the opposite wing (as in two left joints instead of one of each) and some floppiness. All of those issues are indeed unacceptable for a $200 toy, and most Yamato fans have learned the hard way not to buy ANY first release of a Yamato product.

With that said, the Nora release was a significant improvement. There were no real widespread issues that I have seen, and it has garnered a good reputation for being a safe Yamato buy. That's why it is disappointing to see Atom get a dud. For the Nora release, it's not a widespread issue.

It is a shame, though, after how many Yamato valks, that with the recent release of the YF-21, only now is Yamato getting their first releases issue-free.

It will be interesting to say the least to see what Bandai can do with the Macross Frontier license.

I was wrong

GogDog — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 10:12:44 -0400

You are right. I actually just came back to edit my comment, but now it's too late. I have a habit of sticking my foot in my mouth and dealing with the consequences later. I wasn't trying to attack anyone's thoughts, I just was just disappointed that he got a bad one and that is the rep it now has on CDX. I don't spend a lot of time on Macross World, but of all the people who got them there, this was the first I have heard of the problem. Maybe i missed the other ones, its entirely possible. Still, that is no excuse for coming across as I did.

The grammar comment was funny at first, but was not meant to be taken seriously. Either way, there was no place for it here. I came back to edit it as I have the issue of put my foot in my mouth and think about the consequences later.

Atom, please accept my apology and disregard my immaturity. The LAST thing i want to do is start a flame war on CDX. I love this site, and while I don't always agree with your reviews, I should take it up with your privately and more politely, if at all. Please accept my apology, there is no good excuse for my comments.

when you're ready to drop

The Big R — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 09:54:46 -0400

when you're ready to drop the big bucks, go for the 1/48 scale Yamato valks. They're huge, detailed, look great... I've had a couple over the years, and there was not a scratch, loose joint, or broken part.

The new perfect transformation 1/60-scale line looks great too, but i can't recommend those as i don't own one.

Again, both of these are pretty expensive, but then again, I'm not a fan of Toynami (it seems any robotech/macross toy they make has some QC problem of some type) but those 1/100 seem to be a nice start to the most addictive drug of all... Macross toys!

c'mon, that's just

The Big R — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 09:45:37 -0400

c'mon, that's just ridiculous. are you REALLY that upset about this review? Atom isn't flipping expectations on anyone! His review is his honest opinion. And correcting people's spelling/grammar is very snarky and cheap.

Maybe you love this toy- share your thoughts as to why. Don't attack someone else's thoughts, it does nothing to further your argument, it just makes you look petty (which I know you're not!)

YOU may have gotten a perfect one, but there's TONS of people who had the SAME problems as Atom- take a look around the net.

maybe you have hundreds of dollars to blow on Macross toys, but not everyone does.

it is 100% fair

The Big R — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 09:36:43 -0400

...to say it in a review! That's *why* a review is useful to those who don't have the toy in person! And that's why Comments are useful in reviews like this- so different people with different experiences can share their thoughts. I think you can see based on all of the reviews on the site, there's a tendancy to not recommend a modern era toy with problems if it costs over $100. It's not cool to spend a lot of money on something you might have to fix out of the box! If i want to use model glue on my toy, i'll buy a model. You can see it across the board- a perfect example is the CM's Beta fighter set- while Josh says it's a cool set, it's not $300-level cool, so it's not recommended, and I think we all know how people were ready to make apologies for the set ahead of time for such a desired mech. I've seen that with this piece it seems to be split 50/50 with good ones and bad ones, 100% expected from Yamato with such a complex design. It's definetly falls into the "hardcore macross" category, and if you're one of those, you're used to buying one or two to ensure a "100% perfect" example of a valkyrie toy. I wasn't into Macross Zero, so it's a pass for me- but what a cool design! This is definetly one that will be tough to find in a few years.