actually Big West is the Japanese company, Harmony Gold is the American company as in the one who holds the rights for distribution of Macross under the Robotech branding outside of Japan which caused problems as Japanese companies cannot import Macross merchandise because of Harmony Gold blocking the distribution unless it is under the Robotech label and no new Macross media such as anime, manga, and games being officially translated for international markets in favor of Harmony Gold's own in-house made Robotech sequels which are awful in their quality compared to their Japanese counterpart.
oh man, I remember seeing their VHS tapes recorded on Extended Play mode so they could save money they'd literally come with intros that say "hey, make sure your VHS player is tuned right or it's gonna look like trash!" lmao, scumbag company
Whoa. Sure didn't expect to see this on here. I built the -1J version a bit ago, and it was tons of fun. Hope to see you had a good time with this as well. edit: Just some notes as I'm going through. - 0:38 - I think you're referring to Harmony Gold, not Big West. HG is the American Robotech company, Big West is the Japanese Macross company. - 0:50 - The artist is Hidetaka Tenjin, who's done lots of Hasegawa Macross box arts. IIRC, he's done a few for Bandai as well, maybe not necessarily Macross-related. - Some "lore" on the kit: Apparently, "Operation Bullseye" is a mission set during the original TV show to rescue the main characters when they are trapped behind enemy lines. The TV show naturally follows the main characters while they're interrogated by the Zentraedi alien forces, so the operation takes place largely off-screen; it consists of several (three?) Armored Valkyries - heavily armed even by Armored Valkyrie standards - punching a hole in Zentraedi defenses and holding it open long enough for a rescue and escape attempt to be mounted. - You can really tell the difference between the new parts and the old. The older Battroid and Super Battroid parts, where the majority of seam lines will be, were created with traditional modelers in mind, hence the monotone colors, seam lines, etc. They're far less concerned with being, for lack of a better word, "user-friendly." The Armored parts, on the other hand, with their largely snap-fit assembly, hidden seams, and color molding, reflect modern Hasegawa's turn towards a more Bandai-esque design philosophy. You see even more of this in their 1/72 Regult kit, which is almost completely snap-fit, color-molded, etc.
I just remember seeing that at another hobby store (that I am not going to mention ) and I really am impress with this. I forgot that this was announce and to see it up close made me want to get it I can't at the moment. I can see they are parts swapping the missile door on the shoulders and legs area but at least you can open the chest doors. Those other door can be customize with some left over polycap parts so you can make it open and close. The belt on the rifle can also be replace with a belt from a doll or figure kit.
Nice! Got the VF-1J released previously, though haven't painted it. I'm pre ordering the 'Part 2', but hopefully will be able to get this one as well in the future. I'd love to see you paint this VF-1A if you got the time 😁
It’s beautiful! I love me an armored VF-1. Chonky boy, he can’t even transform when he’s got the armored pack, it’s battroid only. Do you plan to pick up the HG 1/100 Yf-19?????
I’m sure I’m not the only Macross fan that’s curious about Bandai and their upcoming VF-19 kit from Macross Plus. Hope to see a review for it. I know it’s got a lot of partsforming, but it looks awesome in battroid and appears to pose well. Again, please throw in some time for a review of that kit when it comes out for us Macross fans
@@NeoSlashott the YF-21 is my favorite from Macross Plus. I’d love a kit of that one too. A few years back Bandai teased some prototype pictures of an HMR toy that never happened. Hopefully the kit happens since they’re on Macross Plus items.
Do you think that it would be possible to kitbash the armor (mainly the missile launchers) of this with a Gundam kit with only a little bit of modification or would there have to be a lot of modification
Sad the armors are not cast off, missile hatches don't function without a hinge. But still It looks more nice as a display piece. If only Bandai made a VF-1 as an RG-Kit with perfect transformation, and detachable Super Packs set. My 1/48 Yamato VF-1S is so old lol. 😋
@@BLAZE084 now that you mention it, I haven't searched or no idea Bandai already did have a 1/72 transformable model kit. 😋 Yeah, it's waay old though.
Nice I just started rewatching Robotech yesterday and this just make me want to get one. But I've always had a problem the MS/Mecha with ammo/missiles in the chest near the cockpit. Always thought if the MS/Mecha gets shot in the torso and the explosive would have a higher chance to kill the pilot.
You can think of it as reactive armor where if ever chest gets shot the explosives are setup in such a way they explode outwards and negate the impact of the thing that hit the chest.
Almost 90% of macross kit is not friendly to straight build..... Bandai still makes the good one. Like 1/72 line) I wish we can get a slightly cheaper line and with newer modeling technology.
I'm glad you took a look at a Macross kit from Hasegawa. I have a different Macross kit from that same company and found it to be a massive pain. This just cements a hard pass on any kits from Hasegawa which is a shame because I wanted to try out more of their kits but they all seem to be suffering from the same lack of quality from other model kit companies. I hope Bandai gets to do more Macross kits in the future.
Which Macross kit? I've built a few Hasegawa kits and have gotten great results. From my experience, they certainly aren't for the snapfit/Gunpla crowd though.
I think the frustrating thing is that Hasegawa went the distance in making a super nice and inexpensive new Regult (and a variant!) but they can't put in that same effort to Valkyries which are arguably several orders of magnitude more desired. Instead they slap "new" parts on an ancient kit base that, by all rights, shouldn't even cost half of what they retail for. Like a lot of mecha properties, they get squandered on companies lacking the strengths that Kotobukiya or Bandai have.
Was excited seeing what it was, Loved Macross but the kit just seems like 15 years or so behind the quality of Gundam Kits, Terrible articulation, not even a Base adapter bit of any kind and can't transform, with all the hatches being parts swapping... Hope they can take some notes from HG or MG kits
@@ZakuAurelius thats ok. think it was 2 years ago they redid alot of that deal and Macross stuff is supossed to be coming to the US now. which likely will have the Harmony Gold and Big West logos on them.
