See this the VF-1S came second in my childhood mind after the Transformers robot named Jetfire (pictured to the right). Jetfire had armor and jet packs and transformed into a nifty F-14 Tomcat jet. In the pictures below we have the toy that predated Jetfire by about 3 years-- the VF-1S and GBP-1S Armored Valkyrie. Takatoku actually made the first Valkyries and then Takara/Hasbro redecorated the jet to make the Transformers toy Jetfire.
Armored Valkyrie GBP-1S / VF-1S Specifications
This particular GBP-1S set came from a good friend over in Japan. It was purchased new and displayed; now we can share pictures with fans. You will notice that the armor is a much bulkier super armor and has hidden missile compartments on the chest. Additional missile batteries are on the shoulders, along with side mounted waist missiles. Jetfire came with a slimmer armor set and a more safety compliant nose cone.
The 16 year old character Hikaru Ichijo 一条輝, a lieutenant in the Skull Squadron, piloted this particular robot in Macross, Do You Remember Love? . You can see the box art and stickers pay homage to our fan favorite character. The black circular stickers with slit opening are the Macross war insignias.
Each piece of armor has a clam design that clips onto the legs, arms, and abdomen of the transformed valkyrie. Four of the gun missiles can be stored in the waist armor. Then of course this early toy has firing missiles that launch from the gun. An extra jet pack can strap onto the robot's back.
Most of the legs and nosecone is made of diecast. Additionally the front and rear landing gear is diecast and flips down with high-powered springs. Watch out for this knuckle busting design!
Takatoku made both this gift box set and also sold the Skull Leader valkyrie and GBP-1S armor separately. As always, the japanese gift box pictured below seems to have extra graphics and an extra collector appeal.The box has a military semi-gloss finish with the texture of an orange peel.
I tip my hat to the Takatoku engineers that made this legendary kid-friendly, sturdy, detailed, and heavy toy. Right now you can recapture this essence in a smaller scaled toy by the company Yamato of Japan. Long live the Valkyries!
Ed
