>>7168630>>7168665I'm here! I've just changed monitors and desks, haha.
Aside from the leg armor issue, which you're already well-informed on, there's not a whole lot to particularly watch out for while handling a Hi-Metal. They're pretty durable little suckers, and areas which could be weak-points (such as small hinges) are designed so that the part simply pops out when undue force is applied instead of snapping something. The shoulder joints can be pretty tight, so I'd make sure to get a firm grip on them when articulating them to avoid applying too much torque stress onto that area, but the shoulders are diecast and really shouldn't be in any danger even if you're careless with 'em (I've heard of one person breaking their shoulder, but they discovered it was due to a manufacturing error that created an air bubble inside of what should have been a solid diecast part). Of course be mindful of the antenna, haha. If you treat your VF-1A with the normal care you'd exercise with a pricier toy, you should be A-OK!
One tip I'll give you though, is for the VF-1's backpack in gerwalk/battroid mode. After you fold the backpack over onto the top of the gerwalk, pull the backpack straight back (or straight down, if you're in battroid). This both locks the backpack into place and brings it MUCH closer to the valk's fuselage.
In the attached pic, the VF-1S on the left has had it's backpack properly pulled back, while the VF-1J on the right has not. As you can see (sorta, sorry, it was pretty dark out when I took the pic), it makes a pretty big difference! I had the original Hi-Metal VF-1S (before they added the 'R' in Hi-Metal R) for years and never realized you could do this. It improves the gerwalk/battroid so much, especially when you've got Super parts attached to the backpack.
>>7168705Red, ideally with the "Action, Satisfaction" tagline, haha.
