Bandai 1/60 DX Chogokin Macross Plus YF-21

[Bolt]

3 hours ago, Chronocidal said:

but I'm definitely interested in seeing where the prices go.  If they take a plunge after the release hits the US like the Max YF-29 did, I might pick up an extra

Same here. And, at this point, I'm expecting a renewal version. Or it completely disappears from the line up and we never see a Yf/VF-21/22 again. 

[M'Kyuun]

Cheers @jenius for a great series of reviews and show-n-tell vids on the DX YF-21, and on Macross toys in general over the decades.  Always super helpful and greatly appreciated!

2 hours ago, Graham said:

Damaged head lasers aside, the other things that really annoy me about the Bandai DX YF-21 and spoil my enjoyment of the toy are:

1. The too short nose in fighter mode.
2.  Excessive and IMO ugly tampo printing, especially all those additional stripes that were never in the anime or line art. They just really bug me for some reason.
3. Incorrect front of canopy sculpt, it's missing that V cut out from the line art.
4. The huge shelf behind the head in battroid mode.
5. The silly removable clip.
6. the crap quality of the FAST packs.

Honestly, due to the craptastic and capricious nature of Kawamori's original lineart, the fighter proportions don't bother me as much. I honestly prefer the forward fuselage be a bit smaller to favor battroid, my preferred mode for display. Granted, Yamato found a good fix years ago and Bandai could have shamelessly copied it; I doubt anyone would have faulted them and it would have given the bird an appropriately longer nose section. Alas, no. I like the copious tampo, especially in contrast to Yamato's YF-19 which didn't even have the intake markings. The lack of the canopy V-cut is lamentable but I can live with it. The shelf and the methodology of handling the backpack is another matter entirely; on a high-end toy commanding a $300+ tag, and with a decade+ old toy available to use as a framework for what works, Bandai made inexplicably poor choices that fall short or far short of what Yamato accomplished with their version in terms of engineering, accuracy, care and diligence. For the price, especially in terms of what we're getting from third party companies making Transformers these days at similar or lesser price points, the DX YF-21 feels like a half-hearted effort. However, as a battroid fan, it definitely addressed my primary gripe with the Yammie, those skinny legs and wobbly hips. Proportionally, the DX looks really good in battroid, and as Jenius pointed out, it has apropos stability allowing for posing. Mostly though, from most angles, it just looks really good to me and the fact that it'll stand on its own makes me anticipate my copy. I hope I won't suffer the bent laser, but time will tell. It's a hell of a bitter pill to swallow for those who have suffered it, and other flaws, on an expensive new release. I hope Bandai ultimately does right by their consumers.

 

Edited August 22 by M'Kyuun

[M'Kyuun]

1 hour ago, Bolt said:

Same here. And, at this point, I'm expecting a renewal version. Or it completely disappears from the line up and we never see a Yf/VF-21/22 again. 

I think a renewal version is highly dubious; they had five or so years to tweak and massage the various kinks out of this toy and yet they seemingly did little to improve it. It's a second fiddle valk toy manifesting any number of departures and odd decisions, especially all the partsforming involved. It smacks of one-and done, just get it out there so we can wipe our hands and move on to something else, like Gundam!

[MKT]

Before watching @jenius's review, I didn't realise there were all these sculpt & design issues with the FP in Fighter mode.

I'm wondering if the FP pieces are supposed to have any markings on them? There's so much tampo on the main valk (not a complaint) but the FP have none, and with the plain grey plastic against the valk, they look little better than plain 3D printed pieces.

[Graham]

1 hour ago, M'Kyuun said:

Cheers @jenius for a great series of reviews and show-n-tell vids on the DX YF-21, and on Macross toys in general over the decades.  Always super helpful and greatly appreciated!

Honestly, due to the craptastic and capricious nature of Kawamori's original lineart, the fighter proportions don't bother me as much. I honestly prefer the forward fuselage be a bit smaller to favor battroid, my preferred mode for display. Granted, Yamato found a good fix years ago and Bandai could have shamelessly copied it; I doubt anyone would have faulted them and it would have given the bird an appropriately longer nose section. Alas, no. I like the copious tampo, especially in contrast to Yamato's YF-19 which didn't even have the intake markings. The lack of the canopy V-cut is lamentable but I can live with it. The shelf and the methodology of handling the backpack is another matter entirely; on a high-end toy commanding a $300+ tag, and with a decade+ old toy available to use as a framework for what works, Bandai made inexplicably poor choices that fall short or far short of what Yamato accomplished with their version in terms of engineering, accuracy, care and diligence. For the price, especially in terms of what we're getting from third party companies making Transformers these days at similar or lesser price points, the DX YF-21 feels like a half-hearted effort. However, as a battroid fan, it definitely addressed my primary gripe with the Yammie, those skinny legs and wobbly hips. Proportionally, the DX looks really good in battroid, and as Jenius pointed out, it has apropos stability allowing for posing. Mostly though, from most angles, it just looks really good to me and the fact that it'll stand on its own makes me anticipate my copy. I hope I won't suffer the bent laser, but time will tell. It's a hell of a bitter pill to swallow for those who have suffered it, and other flaws, on an expensive new release. I hope Bandai ultimately does right by their consumers.

 

I'm primarily a fighter mode guy and my display percentage for my toys is something like 75% in fighter mode, 20% in Battroid mode and 5% in  GERWALK mode,

[Ignacio Ocamica]

Tried to rub off some tampo and those god awful stripes with alcohol, but norhing happened!!!

Will try wet sanding, but must figure out the correct sandpaper grit to avoid scratching or polishing the plastic.

[Mog]

6 hours ago, MKT said:

Before watching @jenius's review, I didn't realise there were all these sculpt & design issues with the FP in Fighter mode.

I'm wondering if the FP pieces are supposed to have any markings on them? There's so much tampo on the main valk (not a complaint) but the FP have none, and with the plain grey plastic against the valk, they look little better than plain 3D printed pieces.

As @jenius pointed out, at the very least the belly/hipguard armor is supposed to have those big trapezoid sections filled in in black.

Don’t recall any other markings that are suppose to be there.

[Bolt]

9 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

It smacks of one-and done, just get it out there so we can wipe our hands and move on to something else, like Gundam!

It kinda does. 

[rematron]

I'm a fighter-mode guy.  The shorter nose would be fine if it weren't for the big belly and would be a little reminiscent of a real-life SU-57, which I love.  But if an SU-57 had a big belly, it would throw off the whole look.  The combination of short nose and big belly makes my head go straight to penguin-mode.  Like, every time I look at the thing, I cannot unsee the belly flopping penguin.

Now, if I were a battroid-mode guy, I would appreciate the new pose-ability but the small arms would bother me the same way a lot of people are annoyed by the skinny legs of the Yamato version.  And then there's the whole new addition of a giant hunchback...

[wsna]

17 minutes ago, rematron said:

I'm a fighter-mode guy.  The shorter nose would be fine if it weren't for the big belly and would be a little reminiscent of a real-life SU-57, which I love.  But if an SU-57 had a big belly, it would throw off the whole look.  The combination of short nose and big belly makes my head go straight to penguin-mode.  Like, every time I look at the thing, I cannot unsee the belly flopping penguin.

Now, if I were a battroid-mode guy, I would appreciate the new pose-ability but the small arms would bother me the same way a lot of people are annoyed by the skinny legs of the Yamato version.  And then there's the whole new addition of a giant hunchback...

I'm not quite sure but I think the trend for most fighter design these days is on the more "fleshier" side (I'm looking at you F-35). You're right about the penguin. I think Bandai gave us an entirely new type all together. It's a Pengroid-Fighter. 

If and when (or if they are still around) Arcadia revisits the YF-21, they're a lot of tricks that Bandai uses that could make the Yamato design even better.

We'll see in time, as soon as my wallet heals.

[sjoebarry]

14 hours ago, Graham said:

I'm primarily a fighter mode guy and my display percentage for my toys is something like 75% in fighter mode, 20% in Battroid mode and 5% in  GERWALK mode,

This made me count. I have 68 total (not counting the Ride Armors). 31 are in battroid so 45%, with 37 in fighter or 55%. No gerwalk modes. 

Edited August 22 by sjoebarry

[optimuspint]

Well… got a bent fin.  Messaged BBTS to see whats what.

[Shawn]

Wow-you are almost at 90 degrees there sorry

Is this little mark a camera artifact/reflection or something in the packaging itself?

[M'Kyuun]

3 hours ago, optimuspint said:

Well… got a bent fin.  Messaged BBTS to see whats what.

Oh man, that's inexcusable. I ordered mine through BBTS as well (it's in my Pile of Loot waiting to see if any of my other POs come to save on shipping) and I'm most definitely curious to see how they'll handle this for you in the event I have the same issue. Best of luck!

[Reïvaj]

Got one from Nin-Nin-Game, perfectly packed and with a straight head laser, lucky me...

[Usagi]

On 8/18/2024 at 7:28 AM, lmtsuper said:

This piece fell out from the toy when I first transformed it. Does anyone know what this is?

 

you can live without this stuff... I did transform and play with YF21 without backpack lock in battroid and without this pin...
but such stuff prevent backpack from moving so if you plan to set fighter mode on long time display it is better to instal it

[optimuspint]

On 8/23/2024 at 1:50 PM, M'Kyuun said:

Oh man, that's inexcusable. I ordered mine through BBTS as well (it's in my Pile of Loot waiting to see if any of my other POs come to save on shipping) and I'm most definitely curious to see how they'll handle this for you in the event I have the same issue. Best of luck!

They already shipped a replacement figure.  Hopefully that one is good to go.

[nightmareB4macross]

My Guld is trying to keep baby Isamu from shooting his eye out.

[Lolicon]

On 8/23/2024 at 8:38 PM, Reïvaj said:

Got one from Nin-Nin-Game, perfectly packed and with a straight head laser, lucky me...

Now that's a fantastic pic that really shows off how good it looks in battroid!

Unfortunately it doesn't fair so well in fighter. Like others have pointed out, the forward fuselage looks too small connected to its overiszed bulbous body. It's like they stuck the Yamato 1/72 nose on a 1/60 airframe.

[Actar]

Hm... the knees on mine are becoming a little too loose for my liking. I'd really like to go in and do something to tighten them, but knowing Bandai, I'd suppose this would be too difficult/impossible a task?

[PointBlankSniper]

I really didn't want to necro this after weeks of quiet with nothing meaningful to add, but since it's been resurrected anyway, I'll just cry here.

I really don't know what's going on with YYK. After coming back with a good antenna from their photo inspection, it took multiple ways of contacting them for 3 weeks for a reply after I asked for secondary inspections, since I asked for something stupid like open it up to check for double shoulders. When they finally answered, they went above and beyond and actually half transformed the thing more than neccessary because of iffy understanding of the toy and my request. But ultimately, I got to inspect the shoulders and they were fine. I think I've vaguely mentioned this much along the way on this thread.

Since that's been done, I replied to go ahead and ship my order, which includes the 21 and a P-bandai gunpla kit. It's been nearly another 5 weeks since then. I even gave them the benefit of "August holidays in Japan" before I even tried to contact them again for a couple more times in the last two weeks. 

Even a local store has finally got the YF-21 in stock without too ridiculous of a markup. In fact it might even be about the same price or cheaper after accounting for unpredictable shipping fees and import taxes...

 I'd hate to escalate things after they've done so much extra work, and get an even more unresponsive mess while potentially losing out on my p-bandai kit or money... I also have my Ozma revival order placed with them too... Here's to hoping crying about it here will just magically make things move along again soon... 😭

[Angesdad]

13 hours ago, Actar said:

Hm... the knees on mine are becoming a little too loose for my liking. I'd really like to go in and do something to tighten them, but knowing Bandai, I'd suppose this would be too difficult/impossible a task?

I set it up in my display case and shut the closet door with it in. The excitement went away rather quickly and that seems to help with any joint problems.

Edited September 9 by Angesdad

[PointBlankSniper]

It seems crying about it here has magically worked. YYK finally responded saying they are very understaffed while having a big boom in business. Shipping fees look real hefty with no surface option, but they have offered to cover half of it to compensate for all the delays in correspondence. Now to wait for them to actually charge me and reach the point of sending the box out... Let me keep on crying till we get to that point. 😭

Just for reference, anyone know if YYK normally offers slow boat shipping at all? They quoted 8k-9k yen (18k DHL doesn't count, wtf) for the various shipping methods, at the weight of 3000g. It should include the YF-21 and a master grade gunpla. Do those numbers sound right? I would think that is within the weight limit for surface shipping, but it doesn't seem like they offer that service at all.

[Slave IV]

21 minutes ago, PointBlankSniper said:

It seems crying about it here has magically worked. YYK finally responded saying they are very understaffed while having a big boom in business. Shipping fees look real hefty with no surface option, but they have offered to cover half of it to compensate for all the delays in correspondence. Now to wait for them to actually charge me and reach the point of sending the box out... Let me keep on crying till we get to that point. 😭

Just for reference, anyone know if YYK normally offers slow boat shipping at all? They quoted 8k-9k yen (18k DHL doesn't count, wtf) for the various shipping methods, at the weight of 3000g. It should include the YF-21 and a master grade gunpla. Do those numbers sound right? I would think that is within the weight limit for surface shipping, but it doesn't seem like they offer that service at all.

It's not published but when I ask for it, I get surface options and there shouldn't be a weight limit for surface since it technically can support the largest shipments possible. My VT-1 is currently at sea courtesy of YYK.

[Sokeijon]

On 8/6/2024 at 3:08 AM, Duymon said:

@$$#$@?$!#?$?@

 

I iust realized my yf-21 is missing a chunk out of the fighter canopy 

It's clearly missing the other side that should also have a tab

"Give me five" bro. I had the same exact issue like yours. At least, mine still have the broken piece attached.

 

[PointBlankSniper]

22 hours ago, Slave IV said:

It's not published but when I ask for it, I get surface options and there shouldn't be a weight limit for surface since it technically can support the largest shipments possible. My VT-1 is currently at sea courtesy of YYK.

Thanks.

Now I'm tempted to ask for it, but the risk of extending this loop of multi month correspondence... I wonder if I can intercept my own email, since they check email in large batches at a time it seems. Maybe I'll ask anyway, if they haven't magically responded very fast this time.

[Slave IV]

9 hours ago, PointBlankSniper said:

Thanks.

Now I'm tempted to ask for it, but the risk of extending this loop of multi month correspondence... I wonder if I can intercept my own email, since they check email in large batches at a time it seems. Maybe I'll ask anyway, if they haven't magically responded very fast this time.

I think they responded fairly quickly but I'd have to check my emails. But since you're going for surface shipping, no hurry right?😜

[505thAirborne]

 

[PointBlankSniper]

On 9/14/2024 at 9:44 PM, Slave IV said:

I think they responded fairly quickly but I'd have to check my emails. But since you're going for surface shipping, no hurry right?😜

Everyone else seems to have had quick responses from them. Idk why it seems like it's just me getting pulled and thrown into non regular response proceedures. I put in the surface request on top of the original shipping confirmation, and haven't heard back for either, so I assume I'm in for another month long reply loop again. I think it's been over two months since the thing released, of course there's no hurry. 🙃

Tbf, I go for slow shipping through national posts whenever possible. They tend to do a better job for the lesser cost and more convenient for me to pick up from, than expensive couriers with their additional brokerage extortion fees around here.

[Slave IV]

11 hours ago, PointBlankSniper said:

Everyone else seems to have had quick responses from them. Idk why it seems like it's just me getting pulled and thrown into non regular response proceedures. I put in the surface request on top of the original shipping confirmation, and haven't heard back for either, so I assume I'm in for another month long reply loop again. I think it's been over two months since the thing released, of course there's no hurry. 🙃

Tbf, I go for slow shipping through national posts whenever possible. They tend to do a better job for the lesser cost and more convenient for me to pick up from, than expensive couriers with their additional brokerage extortion fees around here.

So, I just checked and my email correspondence with them took 2 days total including their notice that my item was ready, me asking them for Surface option, them responding that they could with the quote, me confirming I wanted to use that method and them sending an updated invoice.

There are currently some holidays over there so maybe that has something to do with your delays?

[Uxi]

On 8/23/2024 at 6:38 PM, Reïvaj said:

Got one from Nin-Nin-Game, perfectly packed and with a straight head laser, lucky me...

First shot in awhile that made me kinda want this again. Can tell the backpack is too far back, but the proportions look great and works from this angle and tampo and accents are really making it pop.  Elbows and bicep area look really good too. 

Need a v2 from Arcadia.  PF would probably inflate the price.

Edited September 17 by Uxi

[Uxi]

16 hours ago, 505thAirborne said:

 

Looks much more stable than the Yamato design in transformation. Funny to see a similar t-bar design.  IIRC mine is cracked on my YF-21 FP (but I'll probably never transform it again since it's nice and tight in fighter) and looking perfect in it.  I transform the Gamlin VF-22S periodically though and had it in Battroid and Gerwalk for awhile but back to fighter for now. 

Love everything about those legs, especially the feet collapsing into the thicker ankles.  Arcadia could totally do something similar (telescoping in rather than folding but definitely would suggest better ankles and two piece feet). Ratcheted hips would be a must for stability, as well. 

 I also like the fixed lower rear fuselage area much better than the Yamato.  Always kinda gappy on the Yamato design. 

[davidwhangchoi]

On 9/14/2024 at 4:47 AM, Sokeijon said:

"Give me five" bro. I had the same exact issue like yours. At least, mine still have the broken piece attached.

 

wow, someone is taking a bite out these canopies from the factory

[PointBlankSniper]

On 9/17/2024 at 10:40 AM, Slave IV said:

So, I just checked and my email correspondence with them took 2 days total including their notice that my item was ready, me asking them for Surface option, them responding that they could with the quote, me confirming I wanted to use that method and them sending an updated invoice.

There are currently some holidays over there so maybe that has something to do with your delays?

They actually responded now. It's been the fastest in the past two months lol

Anyway, I paid and got a tacking number now, so it seems like things are finally moving along for me. Now to wait for the slow boat...

[Shawn]

Are you finding that sea shipping is significantly cheaper than the air options?
For smaller items the sea option is like 10% cheaper than some of the other options in my recent experience. Once time it was literally the same price.
My stuff goes to SoCal so perhaps my rates are lower than others. Just wondering.