Bandai 1/60 DX Chogokin Macross Plus YF-21

[Chronocidal]

27 minutes ago, jenius said:

At least the super parts are included.

Which makes the new YF-19 Empty Set all the more ridiculous, honestly, since its packs are even less material.

Edited October 24, 2023 by Chronocidal

[orbitalharvest]

7 hours ago, Graham said:

New pics just seen on Facebook on Macross Fans United page, posted by Stone Cheung.

In my opinion, both modes look pretty bad. 😓

 

omg... we're so close!!! 

[rematron]

5 hours ago, Lolicon said:

Are the intakes supposed to look that wonky or am I just too used to Yamato's?

They look weird to me too.  Flared out at the bottom edges which looks okay in battroid but throws off fighter mode for me. 'Wonky' is a good word for it.  They seem to have taken a ton of artistic liberties for their design.  Another example of Bandai prioritizing battroid mode over fighter mode.  But as has been discussed at nauseam, they failed at making battroid that much better to justify the sacrifices made to fighter mode. 

 

Edited October 24, 2023 by rematron

[treatment]

7 hours ago, Graham said:

New pics just seen on Facebook on Macross Fans United page, posted by Stone Cheung.

In my opinion, both modes look pretty bad. 😓

 

 

 

6 hours ago, Chronocidal said:

I really hope that's just the magazine photo artificially foreshortening the fighter mode, because that looks REALLY squished up front, like bizarrely out of proportion.

I kind of want to say the battroid looks a bit better?  But it's probably just my reaction to not seeing it splattered with five gallons of tampo.  Hips are still Urkel-high, canopy is still entirely the wrong shape, and the upper arms still look like spaghetti.

The arms in particular are just painful to look at.. I can't comprehend how they could blow out the backside of the thing to as big as it is, and not use any of that space to give the thing beefier arms.

If the Yamato version needed Omega Pants, this one needs Omega Arms.  

 

hmmm.

seems even the "socks" and "cape/sideguards" are quite Urkel-high...

 

 

 

gif courtesy of this site

[Ignacio Ocamica]

Better scans (taken from toysdaily forum):

[MKT]

27 minutes ago, treatment said:

 

 

hmmm.

seems even the "socks" and "cape/sideguards" are quite Urkel-high...

 

 

 

gif courtesy of this site

Now I can't unsee this! 

[Reïvaj]

12 minutes ago, Ignacio Ocamica said:

Better scans (taken from toysdaily forum):

Gracias, Ignacio!!! This is exactly what I wanted to see!

[rematron]

Ugh... If only they had made the nose a few millimeters longer and wider... It looks like a prototype of the VF-21.  Almost a different plane.

[borgified]

Sunny Side up egg punch effects? How un-original.. 

After all this complaining, who here Is not (I repeat Is Not) getting this version of the DX YF-21 at all ‘cause its not faithful to the  original Anime Series? 

After all said and done, there’s still someone that changes their mind and says: “Oh screw my budget and my original thoughts. I will still get it due to FOMO and I want to be part of the gang in getting one. I want to be like the Joneses and stay in trendy with the times. The others are so out of style”. 

[mechaninac]

5 minutes ago, borgified said:

After all this complaining, who here Is not (I repeat Is Not) getting this version of the DX YF-21 at all ‘cause its not faithful to the  original Anime Series? 

 

[MKT]

25 minutes ago, Ignacio Ocamica said:

Better scans (taken from toysdaily forum):

Very nice scans 

The front quarter view of Fighter doesn't look bad to me. Perhaps we have just been too conditioned by Yamato's interpretation, but in the anime the YF-21 does have a very widebody look with shorter nosecone.

Some of what was previously speculated a few pages ago on the transformation turned out to be accurate, namely the rotating ankles into the calf.

The 2-stage backpack shortening feature is interesting - if I recall Yamato's only had one.

A difference in this Gerwalk, is that the belly plates are free hanging from the hips like in Battroid. In the Yamato's and as per line art, the belly plates are supposed to attach to the backpack in a fixed position. Perhaps a mis-transformation in the pics?

I can't help but think that to reduce the Urkle-like proportions in Battroid, Bandai could have implemented the nose shortening feature that Yamato did. As far as I can tell, doing that will not affect the rest of their modified transformation scheme. 

[sh9000]

59 minutes ago, Ignacio Ocamica said:

Better scans (taken from toysdaily forum):

Thanks for the pics.  Still ordering 2.  It will probably be limited to 1 to order from the online Japanese stores but I'd rather secure them there instead of the US stores.

[orbitalharvest]

Just now, sh9000 said:

Thanks for the pics.  Still ordering 2.  It will probably be limited to 1 to order from the online Japanese stores but I'd rather secure them there instead of the US stores.

multiples! i'm not hatin' over a few mm's...  like f1/lewis nonesense...

[jenius]

It will be mine....

[Chronocidal]

38 minutes ago, MKT said:

I can't help but think that to reduce the Urkle-like proportions in Battroid, Bandai could have implemented the nose shortening feature that Yamato did. As far as I can tell, doing that will not affect the rest of their modified transformation scheme. 

This, x1000%.  That's just the weird nature of the YF-21 in a nutshell.  The vast majority of the fighter mode has little to no effect on the battroid, because it's essentially a shell-former.  The nose is a free-floating part, and can be any length they want.  The arms are dependent on the overall length of the plane, and the legs have to fit under the belly, but Bandai just went off the rails in this case, making the main body huge to fit the legs, and then slapping on pathetically shrimpy arms that don't take advantage of the space they have, when making them longer and bigger would improve every mode.

Fortunately comparing all of the images can give a mostly complete picture of how the top view will look.  The tails are just.. not in a good place.  The underside view shows how everything is packed into the belly, but if they had tried to collapse the hands or make them into fists or something, they would have had a ton of extra room to make the arms bigger, and the whole design is worse off for it.

This isn't scientific in the slightest, because I tweaked the trailing edges of the wings in the original art to match better, but this gives a nice overview of why the back-end bugs me so much.  I filled in the tails by overlaying the underside view, and lining them up.  The proportions of the back end of the plane just feel out of whack.

All things considered, this doesn't look terrible in these shots, but I think they're obscuring the problems by not showing the whole plane in view from the top or bottom.  The length of the arms just throws so many things off.

I'm honestly undecided if I'll grab one.  I feel like I'll probably try, but if I can't, I probably won't be terribly heart-broken.

Edit: Just as a what-if, imagine if they actually extended the arms, and then made the tails as big as the line-art (and the accurate shape, while we're at it):

Edited October 24, 2023 by Chronocidal

[rematron]

Yeah, I'm still getting 2.  My reasoning may sound strange though.  I don't display Bandai next to Yamato/Arcadia because the scales look off to me, specifically cockpit and canopy and pilot size.  Putting a 1/60 Yamato VF-1 next to a 1/60 Bandai VF-25 just looks wrong to me.  Sooooo, I need a Bandai YF-21 to display with my other Bandai stuff.  I'll get used to the differences.

[Angesdad]

The legs are sooooo long that it touches the shite display stand...PREORDER CANCELLED! (wait, it hasn't even begun yet.)

[Actar]

Ah! As I had suspected, in order to fit in the larger legs, they store vertically in fighter mode and go up into the engines. It's really reminiscent of the first 1/72 Yamato. I really wonder if there's really any more space in fighter mode to beef up the arms... They look really squished in there as is...

[treatment]

49 minutes ago, Chronocidal said:

All things considered, this doesn't look terrible in these shots, but I think they're obscuring the problems by not showing the whole plane in view from the top or bottom.  The length of the arms just throws so many things off.

 

Yeah.

In one of the shots, they're not-so-obviously obscuring what seemingly looks like a whalebelly that's possibly due to their unrotated legs feature of the fighter-mode:

 

[MKT]

Storing the legs vertically in Fighter & resulting in a fatter side profile is one thing, but I feel sad seeing a ton of space between the legs in Fighter mode. That space could have somehow been used to squeeze the legs tighter together & have more space on the sides for bulkier arms..

[borgified]

Are you sure that you’re not going to get this version of the DX YF-21 @Angesdad as it looks un proportionate and an ugly mess? 
 

Edit: Down in the deep depths of your soul, you’re still going to get it. 

Edited October 24, 2023 by borgified

[Actar]

3 minutes ago, MKT said:

Storing the legs vertically in Fighter & resulting in a fatter side profile is one thing, but I feel sad seeing a ton of space between the legs in Fighter mode. That space could have somehow been used to squeeze the legs tighter together & have more space on the sides for bulkier arms..

Hm... I'm not sure about that. It looks like the legs go up into the engines. The shape of the legs makes it so that storing them horizontally would both make the fighter mode thicker and give the forearms less room...

[Corrinald]

I don't love it, but I don't hate it either. Will still be buying one 

[rematron]

It's hard to tell for sure but it doesn't look like there is a rotating chair in the cockpit.  It seems like it would be necessary to add that feature or at least some sort of canopy shielding to obscure the interior if they're ever going to release a VF-22 (which I hope they do).

On a side note, I'm really looking forward to a YF-21 that won't fall on its belly with the slightest touch because of unlocking landing gear.

Edited October 24, 2023 by rematron

[Mog]

Definitely NOT getting, and I’m one of the biggest fans of the -21.

But also, partly due to space limitations and partly due to me absolutely despising the design choices made by Bandai.

EDIT:  Say what you will about the Yammy’s skinny legs, but she looked clean in all three modes.

Edited October 24, 2023 by Mog

[505thAirborne]

As someone who was broke as hell during the Yamato 1/60 days and refuses to pay the really high 2nd market prices, I'll try and grab one of these. 

I love the YF-21 with a passion, while the Yamato 21 definitely looks better in Fighter mode all day long the DX Battroid looks ok to me. It will have to do until Arcadia tracks down its old molds for a reissue or builds an all new one... which will most likely never happen.

[enphily]

omg legs and waist will rotate to get into fighter mode

[treatment]

10 minutes ago, 505thAirborne said:

As someone who was broke as hell during the Yamato 1/60 days and refuses to pay the really high 2nd market prices, I'll try and grab one of these. 

I love the YF-21 with a passion, while the Yamato 21 definitely looks better in Fighter mode all day long the DX Battroid looks ok to me. It will have to do until Arcadia tracks down its old molds for a reissue or builds an all new one... which will most likely never happen.

 

Arcadia most likely still have their original YF-21 mould, but most likely BigWest is specifically not authorizing them to do a reissue or whatever due to this Bandai DX offering.

 

 

 

[nightmareB4macross]

9 minutes ago, enphily said:

omg legs and waist will rotate to get into fighter mode

This shot right here is why I need this in my life. The newly designed transformation is simply amazing.  The fact that the legs can be long and still manage to fit into the leg cavities is quite ingenious. There is only one drawback though. Those elbow double-hinges are the only parts that make me doubt durability of those particular articulated areas. Other than that this is a must have.

Overall, it’s simply stunning. Line art aside it works and looks well thought out.

Just my two cents.

[borgified]

The Yammie YF-21 had the legs turned over like the DX 171ex to fit into valk mode and the arms followed alongside unrotated too (am I correct?), therefore seeing the hollowed out guts underneath when the delimiter mode is deployed. 

[Mog]

Everything about Bandai’s choices with the bellyplates just drives me nuts.

And the joint that connects the hipguard to the leg better be a beast, because I don’t see a tab to lock it into place for Gerwalk.

[Shawn]

I love this shot, I get serious Psycho Gundam vibes. I'd buy one just to display it like this

Personally I think it looks really good. Agreed a sleeker fighter mode would be preferable-as that is how I display my items, but it still looks good to me.
I do like seeing the amount of metal they are using in joints, I think it is going to need all the extra help it can get to be stable without the stand.

 

[R0P3-F15H]

Oh damn this looks pretty good, sounds like ill have lest competition in the pre-orders now to heh,

[505thAirborne]

1 hour ago, treatment said:

 

Arcadia most likely still have their original YF-21 mould, but most likely BigWest is specifically not authorizing them to do a reissue or whatever due to this Bandai DX offering.

 

 

 

If all of the above is true, then that is messed up as I'd much rather get a reissue by Arcadia. 

 

[Lolicon]

5 hours ago, treatment said:

 

 

hmmm.

seems even the "socks" and "cape/sideguards" are quite Urkel-high...

 

 

 

gif courtesy of this site

This level of Urkel-ness hasn't been seen since the original line of Frontier toys.