[Shin Densetsu]

Takatoku Macross 1/55 VF-1 Valkyrie

This toy was a revolution in transforming toys. You compare it to other toys of it's day, and most do not compare. Even compared to transforming jet robot toys of today at mass retail, it has yet to be outclassed in many respects. Aside from the head showing from underneath the fuselage, you cannot even tell that the airplane transforms. You can even overlook the head and might think it's a huge FLIR/laser sensor/camera(which it actually functions as in the anime). The gloss finish, and nice heft add to the worthwhile presentation of this toy.

This toy transformed smoothly into all 3 modes, and was very sturdy and durable. Fairly realistic for it's time, and rereleased just a few times after the original line, as recent as last year.

The mold for the VF-1S Super valkyrie and VE-1 ELINT Seeker versions were borrowed from Bandai and used to make one of the most popular G1 Transformers ever, JETFIRE!. Jetfire used the Super Valkyrie mold with the forward fuselage section of the ELINT Seeker. What you have today is still one of the most revered and sought after Transformers from G1.

Even Classics Jetfire paid homage to the original G1 toy. The 1/55 VF-1 influenced a great many toys, arguably even Animated Starscream which features a very similar transformation and even goes into gerwalk mode(unofficially) in the show! Even Skystalker, from an upcoming wave of the Revenge of The Fallen line does too!

The 1/55 VF-1J went uncontested for years as the best VF-1 toy ever made, it wasn't until 2002 that the closest thing to a modern day equivalent was released, the Yamato 1/48 VF-1. That's a whole 20 years. 2009, 27 years later, and we have yet to find a VF-1 toy that matches the durability of the 1/55 VF-1. The closest thing now is Yamato's V2 1/60 VF-1.

Sure we have found modern VF-1 toys that outdo the accuracy of the 1/55 VF-1, but we have yet to see anything just as durable that can be transformed with as smoothly. That to me, is an achievement that you rarely see in the toy industry.