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1/72 VF-1A/S Valkyrie (Ichijo Hikaru) review – Part 1

1/72 VF-1A/S Valkyrie (Hikaru Ichijo) Available From HobbyLink Japan Hlj.com

Shoji Kawamori ‘s famous transforming take on the F-14 Tomcat from Super Dimension Fortress Macross comes home using Bandai’s newest plastic model technology.  (In)famous also for its appearances in Robotech and Transformers, let’s take a look at Ichijo Hikaru’s machine in all three modes as part of my first shot at a photo review.

Valkyrie rrobb box

Great cover art, with a modern take on the 80s design showing all three modes, with the Gerwalk mode appropriately taking a back seat.

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Great cover art showing all three modes, with the Gerwalk correctly being the least prominent.

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Will the tradeoffs needed for the transformations into all three modes hurt the stability of either the Fighter or Battroid mode?

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10 plates in total, with 4 baggies and 3 sheets of decals.

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3 plates have color variations on them, and Bandai planned from day 1 to remold this into a nice Sempai yellow.

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Scroll to the bottom of the post if you want to see all the individual plates.

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Identical marking seals and water slides, so pick your poison if you don’t like seals, but the manual lays out the instructions in color.

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Regular seals are also included, with most of the colors of the rainbow.
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Metal shafts included in various sizes, and the kit will require glue for the figures, and for a couple other places during the build.

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The manual cover would never lead you to believe there’s a Battroid ready to appear at a moments notice.

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The manual is well laid out, with useful pictures all over the splash page. Looking at the technology and planning that went into designing this kit is a treat.

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Overall, a fun unbox.  The plastic colors are bright and vivid, and a flip through the manual will impress you with the transformations.  The real questions?  How does it work in practice.

Starting the build

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The other thing to keep in mind besides copious amounts of decals?  Copious amounts of lining required.  Here I’m trying out black and grey on both the white and black plastic.

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In the end, I went with black on white, and brown Gundam lining marker on the red.

All the plates

Valkyrie rrobb (5)Valkyrie rrobb (6)Valkyrie rrobb (7)Valkyrie rrobb (8)Valkyrie rrobb (9)Valkyrie rrobb (10)Valkyrie rrobb (11)Valkyrie rrobb (12)Valkyrie rrobb (13)Valkyrie rrobb (14)

More to come!

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7 Comments

  1. What a pleasant surprise to see you posting a review here rrobbert. The Valkyre does look really good, and am I the only one tempted to show it off in its Gerwalk mode when completed? I feel tempted to get this kit, so I’ll be keeping a close eye on this.

    Reply
  2. Thanks for the great review!! I can’t wait for mine to arrive!!

    Reply
  3. You seem to think Gerwalk’s not terribly valuable… To each their own, of course, but to me there’s nothing more distinctively Macross than Gerwalk mode.

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    • Agreed. There’s nothing else that comes close to this kind of design.

      Reply
  4. it’s….it’s rrobbert184! 2R 2B!!?

    Reply
  5. I’ve never done a macross kit but I’m definitly interrested in this one 🙂

    Reply
  6. Good start to the kit review. I always enjoy watching builds from start to finish, and the nice thing about photos is that they are great for showing detail and demonstrating comparisons (the panel line colour test photos, for example). Being a Robotech fan, I’m looking forward to watching the VF-1A’s progress.

    Reply

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