Bandai 1/60 DX Chogokin Macross Plus YF-21

[derex3592]

6 hours ago, treatment said:

Nope.  The 1/72 YF-21FP is quite significantly purple'ish.

David's correct. The original 1/72 YF-21 had closer colors to the anime.

add/edit:

from the Legacy page:

https://www.macrossworld.com/macross/toys/yf21fp_sample/_yf21fp_sample.htm

sample:

EITHER one of those colors looks miles more accurate to the anime I remember than Yamato 1/60 or the new DX honestly! 

[Lolicon]

I want my purple YF-21! 

[Chronocidal]

I do remember thinking when the VF-19S/F came out that Yamato should have re-released the YF-21 in that same shade.

[nightmareB4macross]

1 hour ago, Chronocidal said:

I do remember thinking when the VF-19S/F came out that Yamato should have re-released the YF-21 in that same shade.

That blue would work for me too. All we really want is a close as possible  to true anime color. And of course a nice Battroid, Gerwalk, and Fighter mode.🙂

[na2tt]

1 hour ago, Chronocidal said:

I do remember thinking when the VF-19S/F came out that Yamato should have re-released the YF-21 in that same shade.

It's SUPER TRIPPY to see these colours on the YF-19

[nightmareB4macross]

2 hours ago, na2tt said:

It's SUPER TRIPPY to see these colours on the YF-19

How come?

[Bolt]

Someone hasn't seen M7..

[MKT]

Yammie VF-19 Blazer is my first Yamato valk and whenever I see one it brings me back to the day how amazing it felt taking it out of the box. Top 2 Yammie valk till today.

[Lolicon]

Need 3 for Emerald Force!

[Chronocidal]

And nine if you want to display all the modes!  

I... didn't get quite that many.. but the VF-19 is by far the largest portion of my collection behind the VF-1.

[Bolt]

I had two of the Emerald Force 19's. The S was my favorite, of the two. Alas they have new homes now.. Sliming down the 1/60's..

[Lolicon]

I always preferred the F which was always the more expensive to get on the secondary market, and you needed 2 for Emerald Force. 

As for the Bandai 21,ill get one because I'm a completioniat but it won't be replacing my Yamato. 

That's a pretty common refrain because no wonder what Bandai does, they always halfass something which makes their toy slightly inferior to the old Yamato imo, like the DX VF-1 vs 1/60 Yamato. 

[M'Kyuun]

5 hours ago, Lolicon said:

I always preferred the F which was always the more expensive to get on the secondary market, and you needed 2 for Emerald Force. 

As for the Bandai 21,ill get one because I'm a completioniat but it won't be replacing my Yamato. 

That's a pretty common refrain because no wonder what Bandai does, they always halfass something which makes their toy slightly inferior to the old Yamato imo, like the DX VF-1 vs 1/60 Yamato. 

Well, for Yamato, and I'm sure in part for Arcadia, Macross is a passion, and their attention to the minute details has always been part of the appeal of their toys. They weren't always perfect, but there was still a lot of love put into those things. Bandai's passion is Gundam; all other priorities rescinded. 😁

I was pretty securely onboard with getting the Bandai YF-21 if and when it releases, but with the announcement that Arcadia is reworking their YF-21 to fix the leg proportions, I may just wait on that, as the rest of the toy is par excellence.

[nightmareB4macross]

9 hours ago, Lolicon said:

I always preferred the F which was always the more expensive to get on the secondary market, and you needed 2 for Emerald Force. 

As for the Bandai 21,ill get one because I'm a completioniat but it won't be replacing my Yamato. 

That's a pretty common refrain because no wonder what Bandai does, they always halfass something which makes their toy slightly inferior to the old Yamato imo, like the DX VF-1 vs 1/60 Yamato. 

QFT.

[aurance]

10 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

Well, for Yamato, and I'm sure in part for Arcadia, Macross is a passion, and their attention to the minute details has always been part of the appeal of their toys. They weren't always perfect, but there was still a lot of love put into those things. Bandai's passion is Gundam; all other priorities rescinded. 😁

I was pretty securely onboard with getting the Bandai YF-21 if and when it releases, but with the announcement that Arcadia is reworking their YF-21 to fix the leg proportions, I may just wait on that, as the rest of the toy is par excellence.

Wait what announcement?

[no3Ljm]

1 hour ago, aurance said:

Wait what announcement?

There’s no official announcement. It’s one of those Twitter replies from Mr.K to other users. But nothing concrete yet. Just take it with a grain of salt.

Here’s the link to @treatment‘s original post:

 

Edited November 24, 2022 by no3Ljm

[treatment]

On 11/21/2022 at 11:44 AM, nightmareB4macross said:

Now looking at this, the 1/72 might be a bit too purple and dark.

 

On 11/21/2022 at 12:11 PM, Chronocidal said:

It is a good point, but I also think that particular screenshot looks unnaturally dark, and I have to wonder whether the perception of the YF-21 being darker could be based on how dim the Manga DVD release was.

I do think it looks better darker, though, and the color on the original 1/72 pretty much nailed it.

 

On 11/21/2022 at 6:35 PM, derex3592 said:

EITHER one of those colors looks miles more accurate to the anime I remember than Yamato 1/60 or the new DX honestly! 

 

I think Jenius' group-pic was a bit more processed or something, as I don't think my own Yammie 1/60 has that kind of bright blue coloring in real life.  Rather more dark drab than brightened.

As such, here's my yammie yf-21 group-pic:. 

fwiw, I skipped out on the original 1/72 YF-21 as it had some issues back then that I don't remember anymore.

Guess we'll all have to wait and see if the DX YF-21's final coloring will be the same or different than the TN-show prototype(s) they've been showing off...

 

 

[IXTL]

https://mobile.twitter.com/keiu0321/status/1596362882039844864

 

[Duymon]

If it actually is coming RIP my wallet I need to complete my YF-19 / YF-21 set

[Chronocidal]

Do they show anywhere that it mounts the gunpods to the belly, or did they just skip that?

I'm kind of wishing that the whole mention of them still working on the licensing means Kawamori saw it and went "NOPE."  Even with all of the other issues set aside, how do you put the tails that far forward and conclude it looks good?  

[Bolt]

Maybe there's a difference from  the previous prototype , I can't really tell. Sure is still a busy tampo job. As much as this may have some better engineering and thicker legs than the Yammy. Can't say it looks right to me, overall. 

[M'Kyuun]

29 minutes ago, Chronocidal said:

Do they show anywhere that it mounts the gunpods to the belly, or did they just skip that?

I'm kind of wishing that the whole mention of them still working on the licensing means Kawamori saw it and went "NOPE."  Even with all of the other issues set aside, how do you put the tails that far forward and conclude it looks good?  

Yeah, the more I look at it, the more I see those flaws, and with Yammie's nigh perfect fighter mode as a tangible benchmark, you'd think they'd want to replicate that while improving their take on the battroid. Appearently, no.

Zoomed in on the hand holding the gun, and it looks like the hand extends weirdly from the arm. maybe for clearance.? IDK, but it looks awkward.

1 minute ago, Bolt said:

Maybe there's a difference from  the previous prototype , I can't really tell. Sure is still a busy tampo job. As much as this may have some better engineering and thicker legs than the Yammy. Can't say it looks right to me, overall. 

It's a mixed bag- they made the legs look better, but as @Chronocidal is apt to point out, their fighter mode took a number of hits not related to making the legs more proportional for battroid. Too, the backpack section is really thick compared to the Yammie. Yamato came up with a novel way of shrinking the nose length a bit for b-mode, and one wonders why they wouldn't attempt the same, although in truth, that bothers me far less than others. The forearms are too small and too short, the aft arm guns protrude erroneously in fighter, the vertical stabs sit about an inch too far forward in respect to the exhaust section, and the hands are a little on the small side.

I do like the battroid, though. I like the foreshortened belly plates, one of my least favorite design choices for this Valk. It's about the only Valk design I can think of that's essentially a shellformer, as generally the legs either form the entirety of the powerplant or somehow coalesce into the fuselage in a meaningful way, or both in the case of the VF-4 and the Variable Glaug. The YF-21 is an oddity in that the legs serve no function to the fighter mode except as cargo, which required a lot of mass-shifting animation magic to squeeze them into a too-small area for fighter, and then balloon up for battroid. It's one of Kawamori's crappiest designs from that POV, if only to try and project the look of the Queadluun-Rau onto the battroid. That's fine, but I wish, like the majority of his other variable fighter designs, he'd used the legs as the powerplant, even if they were partially concealed by panels to cover their curvy shape. I've looked at the line art many times and wished he'd done something different and more practical with the design that would make creating a three-dimensional model or toy much more translatable. It simply relies far too much on animation magic to affect the proportions which does toy makers no favors.

[nightmareB4macross]

Well the biggest plus, no pun intended, is the design, style, and overall look. It will match Bandai’s stylized YF-19. If it looked more closer to the anime, there would be a greater chance that they would appear unrelated from all points mentioned above.

Just a thought.

[Bolt]

I'm assuming Bandai designed it to stand apart from the Yammy. No borrowing ideas. I still prefer the look of the Yammy, personally. So Bandai reinvented the wheel..🤷 I will say, personally, that I really love Kawamori's design. He made some interesting choices. It still stands apart from most of the others, (like the SV-262 does) and holds up well as a future looking VF. Yes, there is a lot of  anime magic going on with this design, hence the difficulty in translating into the real world for all 3 modes. 
For those that are excited about this (supposed) release, I don't mean to be a Debbie downer. I'm sure you will be stoked when it's in your hands. 
Having said all that, I can't imagine this toy being too much of a shelf warmer. 

 

Edited November 26, 2022 by Bolt

[Lolicon]

Why are the stabilizers in the middle of the plane? 

[Reïvaj]

2 hours ago, Chronocidal said:

Do they show anywhere that it mounts the gunpods to the belly, or did they just skip that?

 

[nightmareB4macross]

1 hour ago, Bolt said:

I'm assuming Bandai designed it to stand apart from the Yammy. No borrowing ideas. I still prefer the look of the Yammy, personally. So Bandai reinvented the wheel..🤷 I will say, personally, that I really love Kawamori's design. He made some interesting choices. It still stands apart from most of the others, (like the SV-262 does) and holds up well as a future looking VF. Yes, there is a lot of  anime magic going on with this design, hence the difficulty in translating into the real world for all 3 modes. 
For those that are excited about this (supposed) release, I don't mean to be a Debbie downer. I'm sure you will be stoked when it's in your hands. 
Having said all that, I can't imagine this toy being to much of a shelf warmer. 

 

Yes to everything.

that is the reason why this doesn’t compare to the Yamato version. It is very different and meant to pair with Bandai’s version of the YF-19.

Hopefully, a couple of years later, Yamato will release their version of the YF-21 that will match their designs. And hopefully after that they will issue a revised version to their YF-19.

[Chronocidal]

1 hour ago, Bolt said:

I'm assuming Bandai designed it to stand apart from the Yammy. No borrowing ideas. 

This right here is the part that baffles me.  It's like Bandai is saying "To avoid possibly looking like we're stealing ideas from someone else, we're going to do our best to not imitate any of the things they got right about the design."

There are some decent points there I can see, but the whole thing screams "We have no concept of what actually looks good."

[nightmareB4macross]

2 minutes ago, Reïvaj said:

 

It’s probably the larger rectangular slot near the rear of the armor plate.

[Chronocidal]

I was thinking that rear slot couldn't possibly be for the gunpods since that would put them all the way back under the exhausts, then I remembered the panels have an extension under the back half of the plane.

  

37 minutes ago, Lolicon said:

Why are the stabilizers in the middle of the plane? 

It's kind of hilarious to think that at that position, they might actually be de-stabilizers.

Edited November 26, 2022 by Chronocidal

[Reïvaj]

48 minutes ago, Chronocidal said:

[ It's like Bandai is saying "To avoid possibly looking like we're stealing ideas from someone else, we're going to do our best to not imitate any of the things they got right about the design.]

And then Bandai releases the HMR VF-4, VF-0 and VF-19Kai... 😆

[no3Ljm]

Like what I commented on the HG YF-19 kit thread, DX Chogokin team should take cue from the HG kit team and just do a diecast partsformer. 

 

[wm cheng]

Oh great!  I was pretty satisfied (not overjoyed) till you pointed out where the rudder/stabilizers were - argh!  Yes, its a bit fat through the middle, but that's anime magic that can't exist in the real world, but that rear rudder placement is pretty bad I have to agree.

@Chunky001 I'm definitely in the minority here, but I do prefer the Bandai over the Arcadia.  The Arcadia definitely has captured that old 80's anime more bulbous rounder style and has better landing gears I'd give it that.  Its really naked and needs a lot of decals to bring it up to an acceptable level.  I find its not as fun to transform, I feel its more plasticky and it makes me more careful of the joints and swivels.  The joints are also bigger, clunkier and not as hidden as the Bandai.  I'm not a fan of how the forward canopy opens and has to lift up quite a bit to tilt forward, sometimes bending the nose down which exaggerates the overall swan neck curves even more.  I find the Bandai has slimmed down the design a bit and made it more sleek and thinner which I like.  The articulation is much better and more fun to transform and therefore more poseable.  I've played/picked up both my Bandai VF-19/YF-19s more often and I leave my Arcadia not touched all the time.

Not having held or seen the original Arcadia YF-21 - its hard for me to make the comparison, but I do tend to generally like my more modern Bandai toys over the older Yamato/Arcadia toys.  I do prefer the optimization of fighter mode over battroid as I tend to leave my toys in fighter/plane mode most of the time in the display cases.  I really hope Kawamori can convince Bandai to improve on their YF-21 and get it into reality soon!

[Bolt]

1 hour ago, wm cheng said:

I'm definitely in the minority here, but I do prefer the Bandai over the Arcadia.  The Arcadia definitely has captured that old 80's anime more bulbous rounder style and has better landing gears I'd give it that.  Its really naked and needs a lot of decals to bring it up to an acceptable level.  I find its not as fun to transform, I feel its more plasticky and it makes me more careful of the joints and swivels.  The joints are also bigger, clunkier and not as hidden as the Bandai.  I'm not a fan of how the forward canopy opens and has to lift up quite a bit to tilt forward, sometimes bending the nose down which exaggerates the overall swan neck curves even more.  I find the Bandai has slimmed down the design a bit and made it more sleek and thinner which I like.  The articulation is much better and more fun to transform and therefore more poseable.  I've played/picked up both my Bandai VF-19/YF-19s more often and I leave my Arcadia not touched all the time.

Mmnot sure if you're actually in the minority. As critical as many are, most are still going to get one. And as much as i obviously love my Yamato's, i still have my Bandai VF-19 Isamu Advance. I have zero complaints about it. I think THIS particular design really emphasizes Bandai's current priorities and limitations. 

[MacrossJunkie]

I like both the Arcadia and Bandai YF-19. However, I do feel the Bandai one edges out the Arcadia one, because of the tampo printing (although a bit too much. Two steps forward, one step back...), the lack of a deep groove in the inner thigh (I hated how the Arcadia version required separate pieces to cover that groove), how the space on the inner side of the legs for the arms to fit into the leg is covered up nicely, lack of gap in fighter mode at the knees, integrated neck cover built into the shield (makes it actually perfect transformation), and included heavy weapons attachment which was a nice extra. Also the ankles were not floppy like the Arcadia. 

The Arcadia wins with regard to how the wings fit better with the FAST packs on and doesn't have that stupid tab sticking out like on the Bandai. The official photos with the supers on were basically false advertising.

IMO, the Bandai one was executed better overall.

 

However, based on what we were shown of the Bandai YF-21 so far, I have to say that the over-14-years-old toy from Yamato is superior to what Bandai was able to come up with. If we can't have something that's great in fighter and battroid modes, I'd prefer something that at least excels in one mode instead of something that compromises greatly on and looks mediocre/bad in both (yes, I've left out GERWALK simply because it's a mix of the other two modes. If it's bad in the other two modes, worrying about GERWALK is a moot point). It's sad since I've been wanting a new YF-21 made to modern standards. My hopes were high after what they were able to pull off with the VF-19 Adv/YF-19... 

Here's to hoping that Arcadia can pull off a great revision to the YF-21... and put out a premium finish for it because I'm so done with stickers and having no perfect waterslide decal alternatives.