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Macross Valkyrie

"The following is a guest review.  The review and photos do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Michael Crawford or Michael's Review of the Week, and are the opinion and work of the guest author."

Ardiatma checks in tonight with another of his terrific guest reviews.  Oh, it's not a movie transformer, but let's not forget there are other Transformers out there - take it away, Ardiatma!

Hello guys. I’m back with another review. Today’s menu is… Toynami’s Valkyrie from the animated film Macross. Let’s get strated. 

Macross is one of those famous 80’s mecha show that I love very much. So famous that Macross is being imported to the US with a new name… Robotech. But relax… I’m not going to rambling about how this show being treated. 
As for the story, Macross is a spaceship build by alien which human use to fight alien (ironic isn’t it). The ship can carry fighters called Valkyrie (F-14’s Tomcat look-alike). The Valkyrie’s famous gimmick that it can change to 3 modes for adapting with various environment. The transformation is perfected over decades by companies such Bandai, Yamato and Doyusha. And now Toynami trying to join the game. Will they make it… Let’s find out. 

Trivia: Valkyrie once become Skyfire for Takara’s Transformers. So basically it’s a Transformers. And speaking about Transformers, in my country, the movie will open on 28 th June… Yay…








Packaging - ***1/2
As you can see in the picture, it’s a window box with flap. The flap itself only cover the accessories tray. Inside, the toy being held by two clear plastic tray, sandwich together for safety. With that way of packaging, Toynami decide to not using twisties. Good one. The space is used quite efficiently. The back panel also give fair description too… Nice packaging.

Sculpting - **1/2
At Battroid mode, it’s stands about 6 inch tall. At Gerwalk mode, it’s about 4 inch tall. And when at Fighter mode, it’s about 6 inch long. It’s labeled as 1/100 scale. Compare top other Macross toys like Bandai or Yamato, this one is quite small. The proportion for Battroid mode is a little of since it has to accumulates the transforming process. But not a big problem for me. 

The sculpting for this toys is good, considering it’s size. The panel lines fairly sculpted. The Skull in the chest is wonderfully sculpted too. Very-very good, Toynami. The one thing that let me down is the cockpit parts. They didn’t bother to sculpt a simple pilot seat. I’m not asking for highly detailed cockpit set, but seeing this plane without a pilot nor a cockpit making it a little weird in my book. 
The toy is made with plastic that not as strong as those in Bandai’s. A toy with this kind of transformation needs a strong plastic and even some metal parts. More about the transformation things later. 

Paint - **1/2
I pick the Roy Focker version (cause I think his the real ace in the show). Roy’s version is colored yellow and black with very soft brown/white. The good thing is they all wonderfully painted. Every light and small things is painted with no evidence of paint blob. But why the two and a half stars. Well… my favorite things of the show is the Jolly Rogers insignia in the tail binders. Rather than painted the insignia, logo and serial number, they decided to throw some stickers. And it’s not those cool water slide or dry transfers stickers. It’s those rather thin usual stickers. First of all, I HATE stickers. It makes 20$ toys to 2$ bargain toys. It almost totally ruined everything. Now I have to find those rather expensive water slide decals to make my Valkyrie shine. 

Articulation - ***
At Battroid and Gerwalk mode, it posses around 16 joints. The neck had cut joint, while the arms had pollycaped joints. The hand is interchangeable with ball joints. The leg surprisingly had ball joints, but this is rather a waste because the wings from transformation process prevent it form working perfectly. In gerwalk mode, the legs joints became even more useless, since it has to support the body from falling like a drunken monkey, as you want to keep it as steady as possible. In fighter mode, the only important thing is the wings can swivel.

At Battroid mode, it can perform some good poses, with or without the stand. Too bad some poses are hard to perform courtesy of the ailing leg joint. 

Transformation - **
The good things first, the transformation mechanism is good, so Battroid mode looks less like a gorilla. The most perfect mode is the fighter mode where it truly true to the shows. The transformation can be done almost without removing parts (only the cockpit glass being removed). With all of this incredible mechanism, the poorly made joint ruins everything. Transforming must be done carefully to avoid parts breaking up together. And locking mechanism can be tricky.

Accessories - ***
This is the standard version of Valkyrie (not that super valkrye with those amours). So when they add 2 pairs of microrocket packs, 2 pairs of missiles, gunpod, rear and front wheels, display stand, I am happy. Well, that happy (I could use some pilot figures, but probably I’m asking to much). These weapon sets and stand more than enough to make a plus value.

Fun Factor - *1/2
With weak joints, it’s a toy that kids destroys less than a minute. Even I wouldn’t transform it very often since it can hurt the joints. 

Value - **1/2 / *1/2
I picked up this one at the price of 10$. Because it’s a sale price, I intended to know what the real price is. Later I found out that bigbadtoystore charge 59$ for three sets, which means around 20$ each. For 10$ this is a good deal. You got transformable toy with license. But at the 20$ price tag, it is fairly overprice since the quality is far cry from Bandai’s. 

Things to Watch Out For -
The joints and limbs can break up easily. My suggestions is to take out the legs and arms before you make the transformation. After that, pop back the limbs back. 

Overall - **1/2
With 10$, you get fully transformable, lot of weapons valkyrie with weak joints and fragile parts. Not bad deal, but not a good deal also. It just average in my book. Knock a star if you bought it with full price. 

To me, Toynami is making better and better toys. But with the eastern counterparts is doing right now, they might to considered making it a more detailed and better stuff (joints, koff koff). 

Thank you for reading my review. Transformers is playing this week, I hope it’s up to my expectation. 

SCORE RECAP:
Packaging: ***1/2
Sculpting: **1/2
Paint: **1/2
Articulation: ***
Accessories: ***
Value: **1/2/*1.2
Fun Factor: *1/2
Overall: **1/2

Where to buy-
Lot of internet stores sell this stuff. Go to Toynami’s website to find out the stores. You might want to find a good bargain. 


Figure from the collection of Ardiatma Mardhika.

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