Bandai 1/60 DX Chogokin Macross Plus YF-21

[505thAirborne]

2 minutes ago, graphic revolt said:

finally got mine

One for each mode... Nice!! 

[wsna]

I was really hoping when Bandai was showing off their DX in those official release pics was a prototype getting its last bugs figured out - such as those pathetic stubs showing off is penguin belly-glow. I am giving my PO's a serious re-think. On my Yammies, I use brass rods for struts to prevent landing gear collapse. This was not the fix that I wanted paying a premium then when they first were released. I wonder if there is going to be appearances of modified Yammies seeing what Bandai has given us...thoughts?

[graphic revolt]

Opened the 1st out of the 3 and what I witnessed is a bent antenna. Really. I guess $260 + above has a lower tiered QA. I hope the rest of the unboxing goes smoothly.

 

[Bolt]

I would definitely try the hot water trick. Then, while holding it in proper alignment, hold it in cold water. 

[WhatBoutMyStar]

I just wanted to add a picture of mine that was preordered from Hobby Genki that was not broken or bent. I feel extremely fortunate but at the same time very sad for others having to deal with this mess for such an expensive collectible.

[graphic revolt]

Fast pack w/ faux gun pods will barely get off the ground really suffers the Yamato 1/72 belly flop. Overall the fit and finish is stellars above Arcadia/Yamato. The fast pack has a fair amount of detail and it’s gratifying to receive a product with some heft. It’s like a brand new car experience when you shut the driver’s door and the weight of the door slamming onto the chassis sounds a well built package and it doesn’t sound like a tin can. I’m impressed so far. Moving onto the other modes.

[Sildani]

Please let us know your shoulder assembly situation!

Bandai Engineering - it’s Not Just Good - it’s Good Enough!

[treatment]

DHL delivered mine today, after miserably failing yesterday.  The head laser on mine is fine:

 

 

whew!

Damn Schroedinger Bandai...

 

[treatment]

fwiw re: bent lasers...

Beginning to seem like it's really at the Factory assembly packing stage for both when and where the head-laser bending/breakage happens.

The clamshell's got suffiicient clearance and firmness, and the valk is quite snugly fit. At least on mine.

Still, Bandai could've at least included and packed an extra head-laser to mitigate this issue...

 

[treatment]

seems another QC defect issue on the DX YF-21...

https://x.com/ousama_T/status/1808283459116569046

web-translated:

[jenius]

40 minutes ago, treatment said:

fwiw re: bent lasers...

Beginning to seem like it's really at the Factory assembly packing stage for both when and where the head-laser bending/breakage happens.

The clamshell's got suffiicient clearance and firmness, and the valk is quite snugly fit. At least on mine.

Still, Bandai could've at least included and packed an extra head-laser to mitigate this issue...

 

It's very hard to imagine that though right? Much easier to imagine it is getting banged after the fact. At least with the volume this is happening, Bandai will definitely research it.

[treatment]

here's an interesting comparo:

full-scale pics at  

https://x.com/muko037/status/1808064935403938095

web-translated:

highlighted re-scaled sample:

 

[graphic revolt]

Ok! It took me this long to finally compose the gerwalk mode since my last post which is almost 1 - 1/2 hour. There were parts poppin out. Lots of “Bandai-esque” decision to complicate the transformation but towards the end of the process, the overall appearance is worth it.
 

Solid piece in this mode and as you can see from the pictures, this half zentradi can hold his liquor since there were no weak joint on the knees and I’m great full to Bandai by adding the ratcheted articulated point near the ankles enables the figure to have poses that weren’t possible with Yamato/Arcadia. So far, two out of the three modes holds a gold star above the Y/A offerings. 

[Angesdad]

24 minutes ago, graphic revolt said:

Ok! It took me this long to finally compose the gerwalk mode since my last post which is almost 1 - 1/2 hour. There were parts poppin out. Lots of “Bandai-esque” decision to complicate the transformation but towards the end of the process, the overall appearance is worth it.
 

Solid piece in this mode and as you can see from the pictures, this half zentradi can hold his liquor since there were no weak joint on the knees and I’m great full to Bandai by adding the ratcheted articulated point near the ankles enables the figure to have poses that weren’t possible with Yamato/Arcadia. So far, two out of the three modes holds a gold star above the Y/A offerings. 

Them legs, my ocd triggered!🙃

[m0n5t3r]

9 minutes ago, Angesdad said:

Them legs, my ocd triggered!🙃

 i was gonna say that GERWALK mode looks good but then read your post and realized the 21's pants are on backwards.

[Mog]

The lack of any ventral vents in gerwalk pisses me off even more.

[MKT]

16 minutes ago, Angesdad said:

Them legs, my ocd triggered!🙃

 

4 minutes ago, m0n5t3r said:

 i was gonna say that GERWALK mode looks good but then read your post and realized the 21's pants are on backwards.

Ha at least we know the legs are stabile both ways. 
 

@graphic revolt hope the other 2 copies head lasers are fine, & thanks for your pics. Love your displays as well. 

[treatment]

7 minutes ago, m0n5t3r said:

 i was gonna say that GERWALK mode looks good but then read your post and realized the 21's pants are on backwards.

Maybe @graphic revolt is just robotech-ing it for us...

 

😝

[treatment]

Haven't really messed with mine as much, but there was something that was bugging me with the various pics and videos.

This:

 

I took a BD-snapshot to check:

 

Seems the barrel should not be extended nor stay extended like in the DX when in fighter-mode.

Nothing in the manual about retracting it at all.

 

Edited July 3 by treatment
bd-snapshot

[Uxi]

Was about to say the additional hex panel lining on the Bandai looked better but treatment's screenshot shows the Yamato is more accurate. 

[Chronocidal]

15 minutes ago, Uxi said:

Was about to say the additional hex panel lining on the Bandai looked better but treatment's screenshot shows the Yamato is more accurate. 

Wait, expecting Bandai to actually care about accurate panel lines?  

Yeah, they basically tried to blind everyone with extra panel lines, while not actually paying attention to whether they were accurate.

[ArchieNov]

4 hours ago, treatment said:

fwiw re: bent lasers...

Beginning to seem like it's really at the Factory assembly packing stage for both when and where the head-laser bending/breakage happens.

The clamshell's got suffiicient clearance and firmness, and the valk is quite snugly fit. At least on mine.

Still, Bandai could've at least included and packed an extra head-laser to mitigate this issue...

 

Yeah this is what I was saying yedterday. The plastic shell feels very sturdy so I can't imagine the antenna being damaged during shipping.

[Bolt]

2 hours ago, treatment said:

Haven't really messed with mine as much, but there was something that was bugging me with the various pics and videos.

This:

 

I took a BD-snapshot to check:

 

Seems the barrel should not be extended nor stay extended like in the DX when in fighter-mode.

Nothing in the manual about retracting it at all.

 

That's just Bandai modeling the 2nd YF-21 prototype that could shoot enemies chasing its tail. 

[MKT]

3 hours ago, graphic revolt said:

 

 

Ignoring the legs, this shot to me encapsulates the design decisions Bandai made that gave us the YF-21 as it is. I can sort of understand the designer's thinking process now:

1. First make use of the engine space to fill the legs with, and so proceed with the excellent & innovative leg engineering complete with hiding the lower leg in the shins.

2. When getting to Gerwalk, the underside will then look strange because the engines will look really hollow. So let's truncate the hip skirts, and leave some of the belly plate there to cover up the cavity. Hence we end up with the situation where you have short hip skirts and but with the length added back from the fast pack.

3. When coming to the side panels behind the wings, there is also a cavity at the space where the arm occupied in Fighter. In canon Gerwalk transformation, and where Yamato faithfully followed, the cavity is tampered somewhat by the hip skirts which goes up to a fixed position to give an impression of mass along the sides. But oops, since the hip skirts are now truncated, let's give the job of hiding the cavity to the panel that covers the hands in Fighter (the one with the UN Spacy & NETFC tampo), and so we end up with that panel being lengthened but consequentially the forearms shortened, giving the look of the vertical stabilizers being a bit more forward than it should be.

In a way, Bandai greatly prioritised Gerwalk just to give the whole back & underside a solid looking form, hence we end up with that short hip skirts in Battroid, and the different proportions in Fighter. Personally however, Fighter still looks great to me in the pics even if Yamato's is superior. I guess there's room for more than one interpretation on what looks good, sort of like the various VF-1 we get in toy & model kit form - Yamcadia v2 & Bandai DX look great in Battroid, but the new Plamax 1/72 Battroid with its exaggerated proportions also looks nice.

At this point, since so much stuff is already changed from canon, the little details like panel lines or shape of cockpit canopy doesn't matter so much. I'll treat the toy like a third party TF toy, and judge based on its aesthetics as it is rather than compliance to canon.

But nothing excuses the poor packaging or whatever factory SOP that led to these bent head lasers. The incidences feel to be much higher than the YF-19 Full Pack release, so it looks to be beyond numbers of packages getting crushed at the bottom layers of the pallet during shipping that was speculated for the YF-19.   

[pengbuzz]

25 minutes ago, MKT said:

But nothing excuses the poor packaging or whatever factory SOP that led to these bent head lasers. The incidences feel to be much higher than the YF-19 Full Pack release, so it looks to be beyond numbers of packages getting crushed at the bottom layers of the pallet during shipping that was speculated for the YF-19.   

Yeah, it feels like laziness or lack of attention to me. Surely they could have packed the boxes a bit more carefully, eh?

[graphic revolt]

Thanks for the embarrassing open fly moment there! 😃 I blame my lack of sleep and now I have migraine having to complete the battroid mode. I thought this mode would be my least favorite after all the early pre/order reviews, I have a change of heart, all due to the robot mode’s rock solid build with a really aggressive appearance that really captures the stylized appearance from the anime. The backpack appears to be enormous but that is due to the flat appearance of the photos we’ve seen before its release. You have to see it live in person to really appreciate Bandai’s talented engineers to pull off a difficult design to maintain an aesthetically pleasing profile for ALL modes. Now the shoulders are a big concern and a video demo guide is surely due to be produced which will avoid all the early reports  of breakage and identifying potential stress points. Thankfully none to be reported with this batch. Yeah I can see Bandai taking future portions of my pay stub by releasing M7 versions. Really rock solid product release possibly TOTY candidate! OK Bandai release the Thunderbolt!

[PointBlankSniper]

22 minutes ago, MKT said:

2. When getting to Gerwalk, the underside will then look strange because the engines will look really hollow. So let's truncate the hip skirts, and leave some of the belly plate there to cover up the cavity. Hence we end up with the situation where you have short hip skirts and but with the length added back from the fast pack.

Since they were always gonna have collapsing plates for high maneuver/delmiter mode, they could have just left the belly plates alone, and used that gap between the legs to stuff some separate gerwalk engine cover panels and even cap off the open end with some fold out HM/delmiter mode intakes instead. If that isn't enough space to stow panels, the whole fake engine thing could have been kept to the length of the hand covers, so some of those panels could have stowed in there as well. Then the giant partsforming HM/delimiter belly tub parts wouldn't be a neccessity. It would probably still have space to stow my proposed lock pin/battroid brace mechanism in front of all those panels. All these extra collapsing cover panels would have made the whole thing follow their own YF-19 design philosphy.

I can picture the mechanism now.

Fighter mode: A giant lock pin par runs between the knees into the bottom of what would be the crotch, spanning all the folds and panels. Engine body panels fold up and hide between the ankles. Everthing is hidden while keeping full sized belly plates.

Gerwalk: Since legs are gone, panels come out ot fake the engine body. The lock bar could then retract into the space where the cover panels were, while also allowing the backpack to retract forward. The bar could even just not retract all the way, and remain plugged in the bottom of the crotch to help support the backpack in both of their respective retracted forms.

Battroid: The engine panels could stay deployed, while the lock pin bar swings out to plug into the waist to hold the backpack up, in place of that unsightly battroid brace.

High Maneuver / Delimiter mode: Of course the panels stay deployed for their main job. The lock bar returns to fighter mode. it could double as the central ridge of the delimiter tub, as in that blue part that seperates the two gray intake tracks. Since fighter mode is held up by the girthy lock bar, all the fighter mode bracing and lining layers could be done away with. All that could be replaced with the gray tracks painted onto the underside of the dorsal body panels.

Bandai hire me pls.

[Graham]

So, all 3 of my Bandai DX YF-21 have a very slightly bent (but not broken) head laser. About 5 to 10 degrees of bend at the tip and a slight white stress mark. I'll live with it I guess......I mean it's not like I have choice.

It would have been so simple for Bandai to completely avoid this problem by shipping the toys with the head laser unattached, as they did with the thrust vectoring panels, but whatever.

And I'm sure it would have not seriously hurt Bandai's profit margin to have included a spare head laser..........but again, whatever!

 

[ArchieNov]

22 minutes ago, Graham said:

So, all 3 of my Bandai DX YF-21 have a very slightly bent (but not broken) head laser. About 5 to 10 degrees of bend at the tip and a slight white stress mark. I'll live with it I guess......I mean it's not like I have choice.

It would have been so simple for Bandai to completely avoid this problem by shipping the toys with the head laser unattached, as they did with the thrust vectoring panels, but whatever.

And I'm sure it would have not seriously hurt Bandai's profit margin to have included a spare head laser..........but again, whatever!

 

Ouch! I can't even imagine your pain. 3 out of 3 units having issues with the antenna is a nightmare. I guess I should be partially happy that I had only 1 of 2 with issues. Those who only got 1 and didn't have any issue with it were the lucky ones.

By the way, is it really a laser? I can't see how this can shoot lasers. So I call it an antenna although it's probably just a head fin.

[Actar]

15 minutes ago, ArchieNov said:

Ouch! I can't even imagine your pain. 3 out of 3 units having issues with the antenna is a nightmare. I guess I should be partially happy that I had only 1 of 2 with issues. Those who only got 1 and didn't have any issue with it were the lucky ones.

By the way, is it really a laser? I can't see how this can shoot lasers. So I call it an antenna although it's probably just a head fin.

According to Bandai, it is. Also, hope this is what you were looking for.

[Chronocidal]

16 minutes ago, ArchieNov said:

By the way, is it really a laser? I can't see how this can shoot lasers. So I call it an antenna although it's probably just a head fin.

It's just traditionally been a laser, even if it can't face forwards like the VF-1.  The YF-19's can't either, but you see Isamu use it as a trailing deterrent against Guld while dogfighting, which is perfectly in line with where the 21's is.

[Graham]

Will take and post pics later.....mine only have a slight bend, so not as extreme as some of the other cases posted.

As mentioned I can live with it.

[ArchieNov]

2 hours ago, Actar said:

According to Bandai, it is. Also, hope this is what you were looking for.

Thanks! That's exactly what I needed to see

[Test_Pilot_2]

Lol, I just can't help but think that someone at Bandai was reading all the grief across the macross forums comparing the DX-21 to everything else and said...

I'll show you something to complain about... /drops pallet on assembly line of "Erlikon AAB-7 anti-aircraft laser..." Camera trails away with maniacal laughter while at the end of the assembly line drops hundreds and hundreds of effed antenna...

Meanwhile the assembly workers are like, "Whelp, it's all busted, but I'm not paid enough to care," /clicks jacked up antenna onto figure.

First world problems, but the anxiety is real.

[100mega]

I've been wanting the 21 so bad for so long, but I don't think I can handle the head-laser snapping lottery 2.0. I think I'll be sitting this one out until there's a second run or I'll preorder from Amazon and do exchanges until I get a good one. It's insane that nothing was learned from the previous issue with the YF-19 and it really makes me hate Bandai.