What are the best Macross Plus toys to buy?

[Druna Skass]

I'd say the Yamato VF-11B.

After messing around with my 11, my brother liked it a lot better than his 21, which he call a piece of sh*t.

[Hitman]

If Yamato has not decisive plan to bring the newly rescultured VF-19 to the market, there might be other companies smart enough to take a piece of the pie. I'll buy anything good from anybody~

As far as the Macross Plus toys, my beloved 21 FP!!

[GreenGuy42]

The VF-11B FP Version has to be the best of the lot, IMO.

All of the QC issues (as far as I can tell) have been fixed. Excluding the rather small tailfins and boosters, it's an impressive little toy.

[1/1 LowViz Lurker]

Anyone know where I can get hold of a sticker guide for yf-21fp?

Thanks in advance.

[eugimon]

Anyway I'm looking forward to any 1/48 MP toys that will be done in the future. I have only got a few model kits of Macross plus and am dying to finally get a transformable toy in a decent scale.

There will not be any 1/48 Macross Plus toys ever. They would be too big and too expensive.

There may be new 1/72 scale or perhaps 1/60 scale versions released sometime in the future.....or not. With no news for such a long time, perhaps Yamato has given up on Macross Plus toys.

Graham

you gotta start leaning on the yamato company guys you know!

I would love love love to see a a 1/60 scale yf-19 and 21... I would love and pay to see those made...

I know you got that new kid and everything (congrats on the way)... hey, maybe you could invite some yamato people over to say hi to the kid and casually slip in a, "Hey, you know it would be a shame if my kid grew up without a perfect version of the yf-19 and yf-21 from yamato..."

what do you think?

[Graham]

you gotta start leaning on the yamato company guys you know!

I would love love love to see a a 1/60 scale yf-19 and 21... I would love and pay to see those made...

I know you got that new kid and everything (congrats on the way)... hey, maybe you could invite some yamato people over to say hi to the kid and casually slip in a, "Hey, you know it would be a shame if my kid grew up without a perfect version of the yf-19 and yf-21 from yamato..."

what do you think?

Yamato have stopped talking to me for a few months already. They just do not reply to my emails anymore, no explanation or anything and the phone calls have stopped as well

Not sure why this has happened. Well, actually I have a few theories, but I'm not going to air dirty laundry in public.

Graham

[eugimon]

you gotta start leaning on the yamato company guys you know!

I would love love love to see a a 1/60 scale yf-19 and 21... I would love and pay to see those made...

I know you got that new kid and everything (congrats on the way)... hey, maybe you could invite some yamato people over to say hi to the kid and casually slip in a, "Hey, you know it would be a shame if my kid grew up without a perfect version of the yf-19 and yf-21 from yamato..."

what do you think?

 

Yamato have stopped talking to me for a few months already. They just do not reply to my emails anymore, no explanation or anything and the phone calls have stopped as well

Not sure why this has happened. Well, actually I have a few theories, but I'm not going to air dirty laundry in public.

Graham

ah... sad to hear...

[Graham]

I was just wondering what people thought of the Bandai Macross 7 versions of the VF-19s and VF-17s?

The Bandai 1/65 scale VF-19Kai & VF-19S are very sturdy toys, but are extremely badly proportioned in all 3 modes, lack any hip articulation and have poorly designed, terrible looking landing gear. Also, the VF-19S comes with an incorrect gunpod. Some metal is featured on the joints and hinges, but mostly the toy is plastic.

The Bandai 1/65 Scale VF-17D/S Stealth Valkyrie toys are actually among my favorite Valk toys. Although they have zero metal content, they are increadibly sturdy toys. Bandai's sculptors also did an excellent job with the panel lines giving the toy a high level of detail. Actually these toys have more panel lines than the more expensive Wave and Yellow Submarine VF-17 garage kits. On the downside, the toys feature limited knee articulation and look overly chunky in fighter mode when viewed from the side (although they look great viewed from the top IMO). The Bandai VF-17D/S also suffer from poorly designed ugly landing gear. Despite the negatives, I love my VF-17 toys so much I now have 10 of them

I've never forgiven Bandai for not releasing the VF-17S Milia and VF-19F toys that were displayed in prototype form at a Japanese toy show back in 1995

Graham

[UN Spacy]

Yamato have stopped talking to me for a few months already. They just do not reply to my emails anymore, no explanation or anything and the phone calls have stopped as well

Not sure why this has happened. Well, actually I have a few theories, but I'm not going to air dirty laundry in public.

Graham

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that Yamato has dumped the proposed NEW 1/72 YF-19 w/ Fast Packs.

Besides, it's better that I think it's not coming. Rather than keep my hopes alive like many other MW'ers.

Sorry about the "silent treatment" between you and Yamato. They should be a little grateful for what you and Shawn (and all the other MW'ers) have done for Macross fandom in the United States (and abroad).

[eugimon]

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that Yamato has dumped the proposed NEW 1/72 YF-19 w/ Fast Packs.

Man, I hope that isn't the case... my last hold out for hope was yamato releasing the FP versions of the other mac plus valks...

but since it has been such a long time with no word and no pics, perhaps it is best to just let this one die.

but still... sob sob... a 1/60 yf-19 would be so very nice... though I want a 1/60 yf-21 even more.

[Graham]

I'm still hoping that one day we will see a resculpted, more accurate looking YF-19 from Yamato, hopefully in a larger scale (at least 1/60).

I suspect the problems and thus the long delays are caused by two areas of the 19s design which have always been troublesome, namely the shoulder/ lower-leg interface in fighter mode and the front landing gear/folding groin section.

In fighter mode, the original Yamato YF-19 had shoulders that sat far too high, giving the fighter a too bulky look, whereas in fact the shoulders should sit very low (actually down into the back of the lower leg) to give the 19 it's sleek streamlined anime look. If we look at other transforming YF/VF-19 toys and models, we see that getting the shoulders to sit down low in the back of the lower leg can be accomplished in the following ways: -

1) Have most of the rear of the lower-leg cut-away ala Bandai's 1/65 scale VF-19 toys. This is the most simple approach but means the battroid's lower leg looks ugly when viewed from the rear as most of it is missing.

2) Have an intricate 'origami style' folding rear lower leg section ala Studio Half Eye's YF-19 garage kit. The may be too delicate and complex for a mass production toy and it also makes it difficult to incorporate a rear landing gear as the inside of the lower leg will be partially taken up by the folding leg panels.

3) The third option, would be to have the back of the battroid's lower leg as a removeable piece which is taken off when the toy is transformed into fighter mode. This would be far the simplest option and would allow the shoulders to sit low enough in fighter mode. Personally, I could accept this, but such an approach may not satisfy the 'perfect transformation' or nothing crowd.

The other troublesome area with the YF-19 as mentioned above, is the folding groin section and the front landing gear. These two parts are so close together, that it is extemely difficult to get them accurate to the lineart within the limited space of a toy without the parts interfering with each other, this gets even more complicated when you add battroid hip joints into the mix. No mass production toy or model has gotten the folding groin section correct as per how it is shown folding in the lineart, not Yamato, certainly not Bandai (who didn't even try) and not even SHE. In fact only one custom transformable model kit from one of the hobby magazines ever got it correct. Basically the dilema is that if you make the groin piece correct, then you don't have space to put the front landing gear in the correct position or make it look correct. The SHE kit didn't have any landing gear and remember Yamato's awful partially expossed front landing gear on their YF-19! Even the beautiful custom IHP transforming YF-19 featured in Model Graphix magazine has removeable front landing gear. So, again, it looks like the only way around this problem is to have the front landing gear removeable, which will probably piss people off. However, please consider that the problem is not so much with Yamato, but rather caused by Kawamori, as the YF-19 employs more 'anime-magic' than other Valks in regarding to changing proportions during transformation and this really makes it tough to make an accurate, perfect transformation toy without parts removal.

Anyway moving on, I'd also like to see Yamato attempt a complete resculpt of the YF-21 and VF-11, as the present toys are inaccurate in a number of areas. I hope Yamato would consider using a better sculptor than Billy Wong who did the original toys, perhaps either Nishikawa-san who did the 1/48 or IHP's Sakuragawa-san.

And I would really like Yamato to try to get their hands on a toy license for Macross 7 & Dynamite 7, as I would really love to see a VF-11C in Macross 7 colors, not to mention a Max and Milia VF-22S as well as a Gamlin VF-22S.

Graham

[GobotFool]

I've never forgiven Bandai for not releasing the VF-17S Milia and VF-19F toys that were displayed in prototype form at a Japanese toy show back in 1995

eh? do you have a picture of these graham?

[Graham]

I've never forgiven Bandai for not releasing the VF-17S Milia and VF-19F toys that were displayed in prototype form at a Japanese toy show back in 1995 

eh? do you have a picture of these graham?

See the August 1995 issue of B-Club magazine: - Page 1 & Page 2.

Graham

[eugimon]

For a yf-19 that looks closer to the anime line-art, I really wouldn't mind too much some tinkering with the design or even removable pieces.

And while I'm not a big fan of Mac7, having nicer versions of the VF-17 available would be very sweet...

...

does the release of the monster mean that yamato will be looking at some of the other valks not featured in anime? like the 5000?

[Graham]

does the release of the monster mean that yamato will be looking at some of the other valks not featured in anime? like the 5000?

We can but hope

I'd also love a VF-5000B and an SW-XA1, VF-3000, VF-22S Max & Milia, VF-17 with FPs, the list goes on and on

Graham

[Wheels]

For a yf-19 that looks closer to the anime line-art, I really wouldn't mind too much some tinkering with the design or even removable pieces.

I too don't give a rat's hairy keister if there are removeable pieces. Just give me my anime line-art YF-19! In any scale!

[Sumdumgai]

For a yf-19 that looks closer to the anime line-art, I really wouldn't mind too much some tinkering with the design or even removable pieces.

I too don't give a rat's hairy keister if there are removeable pieces. Just give me my anime line-art YF-19! In any scale!

Careful what you wish for, or you might get a fugly YF-19 that operates just like the 1/100 VF-0 (or the bandai Macross 7 VF-19 "transforming" model)...

I'll celebrate if the 19FP ever gets released and looks good. But I can really understand the design problems if they're trying for high quality like on the 1/48 VF-1.

[Angel's Fury]

I'll celebrate if the 19FP ever gets released and looks good. But I can really understand the design problems if they're trying for high quality like on the 1/48 VF-1.

I second that, but I'm still keeping my hopes high!!!