Bandai 1/60 DX Chogokin Macross Plus YF-21

[ArchieNov]

I think it looks better with the brace. The brace helps fill in the gap between the back and backpack. And it's better to use the brace to put less strain on the joints long term.

One of the main reasons I don't mind the huge backpack the DX has is because it looks like a jet booster backpack attachment instead of being the actual back of the battroid. It also looks more similar to the Queadluun Rau's huge back.

Now if the DX's backpack was flat like the Yamato and had the same gap, it would look ugly. Kinda like the Yamato VF-17 which has a big gap too.

[mog_kupo]

Thanks to those Youtube videos the transformation wasn't a big issue for me, I had more trouble trying to secure the arms/hands back on fighter

However the quality of the fast packs is complete garbage, I'm thinking of sanding them myself and doing some light top coat 

 

[davidwhangchoi]

that looks worse than a beginner's gunpla build

[ArchieNov]

I wonder why they're still called Fast packs when they don't make them faster lol. But the ones that do have extra boosters (e.g. VF-1, 25, 27, 31, etc) are called Super/Strike/Armor parts instead.

[PointBlankSniper]

The "fast" in fast pack refers to how much time bandai takes to rip them out the molds and rip out the sprues and then slam them into the blister 🤡

On a serious note, I think a couple rubs from a nano glass file should clean those massive nub mark up good enough to look better than those hinges beside them. Still disappointing that this quality of finish is made like its proper for the price point though.

[IIymij]

46 minutes ago, ArchieNov said:

I wonder why they're still called Fast packs when they don't make them faster lol. But the ones that do have extra boosters (e.g. VF-1, 25, 27, 31, etc) are called Super/Strike/Armor parts instead.

i think it's supposed to stand for 

 Fuel And Sensor Tactical

 

from the grave

[ArchieNov]

Oh thanks for the clarification!

[ArchieNov]

15 hours ago, ArchieNov said:

I think it looks better with the brace. The brace helps fill in the gap between the back and backpack. And it's better to use the brace to put less strain on the joints long term.

One of the main reasons I don't mind the huge backpack the DX has is because it looks like a jet booster backpack attachment instead of being the actual back of the battroid. It also looks more similar to the Queadluun Rau's huge back.

Now if the DX's backpack was flat like the Yamato and had the same gap, it would look ugly. Kinda like the Yamato VF-17 which has a big gap too.

Sorry, couldn't edit my previous post anymore. But wanted to add this reference pic taken from anymoon.com to show what I was talking about with the VF-17

Edited July 15 by ArchieNov

[MKT]

Unboxed my DX YF-21 from HLJ.

The shipping box was in pretty much near perfect condition - no crush damage anywhere except for a small partial puncture halfway into the shipping box wall on one side. Inside, the toy box was in a plastic shrink wrap, but oddly enough the wrap wasn't attached to anything else - HLJ used to shrink wrap items to a piece of cardboard at the bottom. The space on top was covered with 2 layers of air cushions.

Screengrab from unboxing video:


 

So, the tension was building as I slice the tape seal. The air was thick with suspense as I pulled out the triple stacked trays from the box. And then.... nothing, because the instruction manual also slid out along with the top tray & covered the valk. Set the now empty box carefully aside, put hands together in a brief prayer, and gingerly removed the manual.

And bingo, I won the Bandai'ed lottery. 

 

From what I can see, I think it's pretty much impossible the clamshell packaging being responsible for this. There was plenty of clearance between the laser and the bubble all around the top & sides. The bubble is also hardened plastic, there isn't an iota of deformation or crush damage on it. This is as compared to say, the bubble at bottom of tray surrounding the right wing - that is soft plastic which deforms easily, & already deformed because the wing tip rests on it (no clearance) & the next tray set below.

The clamshell cover was quite tightly fitted to the tray just like any other new Bandai toy, there was absolutely no slack between them, and the valk was held down quite securely. There were no signs of cover having in any way dislodged in the toy's multiple long journeys. The head laser articulates pretty easily, so any pressure from above, would just move the laser down instead of making it bend sideways. I tried rocking the bubble sideways and the shape of it relative to where the bending occurs on the laser just doesn't align.

For me, the conclusion is that the defect very likely came from somewhere at factory level.
Some of us may think that HLJ's packing style be a contributing factor for the head laser defect. After all, add this one up to HLJ's continual poor record of defect-free lasers in this thread. But early reports of head laser defects, and there were lots of those, came from Hong Kong by customers who physically bought the goods from retail stores there and the goods were shipped directly by Bandai to these stores.
I'm speculating mishandling in factory at certain production batches or lines, and HLJ happen to receive whole batches of it. 

I've raised the head laser defect with HLJ. Let's see what HLJ comes back with, and I just wonder if there's a new update by how HLJ resolving this now with Bandai other than 'within variance' proffered by Bandai.
 

In the meanwhile, I partially transformed the toy to check on the shoulders (no twin shoulders thankfully). Just some thoughts, in no particular order:

1. I can see how challenging it is to transform the toy back into Fighter. I didn't watch any reverse-transformation videos, but by just tracing back the mere few steps I took to lift up the shoulders, aligning and closing the belly plates and side panels would be quite a fine task. I think it is also compounded by the forearms not really locking or tabbing anywhere along the sides of the leg, other than the arm cannon sort of loosely hooking up to the wing base adjacent to the engine nacelles. If both arms are not rotated symmetrically at the biceps, there's possibility the rear stabilizers will not be symmetrical in Fighter and it would be quite a task to readjust them.

2. The toy is really quite heavy, and no doubt due to the amount of weight in the legs to make it stable in Battroid. Conceptually then in Fighter it carries a lot of dead weight as the legs does nothing in that mode lol. There's also the initial dissonance of holding quite a bit of weight in one hand, and then try to delicately manipulate parts around for transformation with other hand whilst still mostly belly-up in Fighter, because of not wanting to put it down for fear of (further) damaging the head laser.

3. A surprising discovery is that the weight may work against it with landing gears down. It is unfortunate that Bandai has not made the landing gear posts thicker or with support struts, because so much weight rests on the 2 rear gears. Although they lock nicely, roll back and forth, they wobble anytime slight sideway pressure is applied to the toy, and there is a real possibility one or both of the gear posts may snap if one accidentally bumps the toy. Perhaps this is the true reason why Bandai didn't want to make the gears longer (they did admit to deciding against longer gears in one of the HJ Web YF-21 preview article) to avoid the transformable guns dragging, as the wobbliness issue would be even more pronounced with even higher risk of breakage. And so we get those atrocious partsforming guns.

All the weight though, will likely make the rubber wheels deform in a short time if displayed with gears down.

4. The wings and stabilizers are too thick. It doesn't feel good to touch those areas and part of why it is so, is that the rounded edges drop off in a more abrupt slope rather than a more gradual angle we are used to in other valks. These areas just feel chunky, yet when it comes to the stabilizers, they are held up by very thin-looking joints at the forearms, joints that also need to slide back & forth with soft lock at both end positions. This looks to be potential failure point, and one we've already seen out-of-the-box from couple pages back.

Will gradually transform it over the coming days, and perhaps post more thoughts later if noticing anything not already mentioned in the thread.

[treatment]

2 hours ago, MKT said:

Unboxed my DX YF-21 from HLJ.

The shipping box was in pretty much near perfect condition - no crush damage anywhere except for a small partial puncture halfway into the shipping box wall on one side. Inside, the toy box was in a plastic shrink wrap, but oddly enough the wrap wasn't attached to anything else - HLJ used to shrink wrap items to a piece of cardboard at the bottom. The space on top was covered with 2 layers of air cushions.

Screengrab from unboxing video:


 

So, the tension was building as I slice the tape seal. The air was thick with suspense as I pulled out the triple stacked trays from the box. And then.... nothing, because the instruction manual also slid out along with the top tray & covered the valk. Set the now empty box carefully aside, put hands together in a brief prayer, and gingerly removed the manual.

And bingo, I won the Bandai'ed lottery. 

 

From what I can see, I think it's pretty much impossible the clamshell packaging being responsible for this. There was plenty of clearance between the laser and the bubble all around the top & sides. The bubble is also hardened plastic, there isn't an iota of deformation or crush damage on it. This is as compared to say, the bubble at bottom of tray surrounding the right wing - that is soft plastic which deforms easily, & already deformed because the wing tip rests on it (no clearance) & the next tray set below.

The clamshell cover was quite tightly fitted to the tray just like any other new Bandai toy, there was absolutely no slack between them, and the valk was held down quite securely. There were no signs of cover having in any way dislodged in the toy's multiple long journeys. The head laser articulates pretty easily, so any pressure from above, would just move the laser down instead of making it bend sideways. I tried rocking the bubble sideways and the shape of it relative to where the bending occurs on the laser just doesn't align.

For me, the conclusion is that the defect very likely came from somewhere at factory level.
Some of us may think that HLJ's packing style be a contributing factor for the head laser defect. After all, add this one up to HLJ's continual poor record of defect-free lasers in this thread. But early reports of head laser defects, and there were lots of those, came from Hong Kong by customers who physically bought the goods from retail stores there and the goods were shipped directly by Bandai to these stores.
I'm speculating mishandling in factory at certain production batches or lines, and HLJ happen to receive whole batches of it. 

I've raised the head laser defect with HLJ. Let's see what HLJ comes back with, and I just wonder if there's a new update by how HLJ resolving this now with Bandai other than 'within variance' proffered by Bandai.
 

 

 

M+ actually has the proper theme for this Bandai Bent Head-Laser "Mystery" syndrome (epidemic?) ...

Edited July 15 by treatment
...

[Raikkonen]

12 hours ago, ArchieNov said:

Sorry, couldn't edit my previous post anymore. But wanted to add this reference pic taken from anymoon.com to show what I was talking about with the VF-17

Never knew till now how dreadful the profile of Yamato one is... 🤮

[no3Ljm]

18 minutes ago, Raikkonen said:

Never knew till now how dreadful the profile of Yamato one is... 🤮

Don't be so hard on Yamato. That's way back in 2011. They're still trying perfecting their design method.

Bandai, in 2024, is also trying to be dreadful. 

[davidwhangchoi]

3 hours ago, MKT said:

Unboxed my DX YF-21 from HLJ.

The shipping box was in pretty much near perfect condition - no crush damage anywhere except for a small partial puncture halfway into the shipping box wall on one side. Inside, the toy box was in a plastic shrink wrap, but oddly enough the wrap wasn't attached to anything else - HLJ used to shrink wrap items to a piece of cardboard at the bottom. The space on top was covered with 2 layers of air cushions.
So, the tension was building as I slice the tape seal. The air was thick with suspense as I pulled out the triple stacked trays from the box. And then.... nothing, because the instruction manual also slid out along with the top tray & covered the valk. Set the now empty box carefully aside, put hands together in a brief prayer, and gingerly removed the manual.

And bingo, I won the Bandai'ed lottery. 

man sorry to hear about the crooked laser.

This is really a bummer. 

[oshanmacross]

To remove the head laser, do you just pull it up?
Or do you guys suggest I heat the part that clamps the sides with a heat gun on low?

I won't bother uploding a picture of mine, looks like everyone elses....
I agree with it being an issue at the factory, looks like they pulled the piece out of a mold when it was still warm. If anyone has ever done resin casting, you really gotta wait until pieces fully cure before you pull them out of one part of a two part mold or they will misform (bend), especially flat pieces like swords.

Edited July 16 by oshanmacross

[MKT]

7 hours ago, treatment said:

 

M+ actually has the proper theme for this Bandai Bent Head-Laser "Mystery" syndrome (epidemic?) ...

This song needs to be played on every YF-21 unboxing lol.

[no3Ljm]

7 hours ago, treatment said:

M+ actually has the proper theme for this Bandai Bent Head-Laser "Mystery" syndrome (epidemic?) ...

11 minutes ago, MKT said:

This song needs to be played on every YF-21 unboxing lol.

Yoko Kanno got our backs.  

 

[Shizuka the Cat]

41 minutes ago, MKT said:

This song needs to be played on every YF-21 unboxing lol.

I think Dreamcatcher's "Justice" song would work very well with any Macross battle.

[Raikkonen]

9 hours ago, no3Ljm said:

Don't be so hard on Yamato. That's way back in 2011. They're still trying perfecting their design method.

Bandai, in 2024, is also trying to be dreadful. 

Undoubtedly Bandai takes the Engineer's Darwin award this year.

It's so fail. And the beefier legs are so not worth the compromise. The backpack and skinny arms are massive steps backwards. 

Edited July 16 by Raikkonen

[JIS]

1 hour ago, Raikkonen said:

Undoubtedly Bandai takes the Engineer's Darwin award this year.

It's so fail. And the beefier legs are so not worth the compromise. The backpack and skinny arms are massive steps backwards. 

In my opinion it's a step forward in some many areas and it's better than Yamato. But it could have been better and in some specific areas Yamato was slightly better, and that sucks.

In the end the Anime design is not using perfect proportions so there always will be some compromises.

[ArchieNov]

12 hours ago, no3Ljm said:

Don't be so hard on Yamato. That's way back in 2011. They're still trying perfecting their design method.

Bandai, in 2024, is also trying to be dreadful. 

My DX seems to have a slightly smaller gap. Maybe the other pic didn't have the brace fully pegged in. Yes there's still a gap but in person it doesn't look that bad. For some reason, photos make it look worse.

[treatment]

3 hours ago, ArchieNov said:

My DX seems to have a slightly smaller gap. Maybe the other pic didn't have the brace fully pegged in. Yes there's still a gap but in person it doesn't look that bad. For some reason, photos make it look worse.

 

The gap using the brace is the same as with everyone else's.

The skirts and stablizers positionings in your copy are probably just skewing the gap's view and perspective a bit on your end.

 

 

[Actar]

2 hours ago, treatment said:

 

The gap using the brace is the same as with everyone else's.

The skirts and stablizers positionings in your copy are probably just skewing the gap's view and perspective a bit on your end.

 

 

Actually, isn't that copy the one with the broken back piece? It does look to be missing a chunk from the back, making the gap appear larger.

[no3Ljm]

9 hours ago, ArchieNov said:

My DX seems to have a slightly smaller gap. Maybe the other pic didn't have the brace fully pegged in. Yes there's still a gap but in person it doesn't look that bad. For some reason, photos make it look worse.

I think this is the same gap when I saw it this displayed at Tamashii Store Tokyo weeks before it got released which I posted here a few pages ago.

 

 

[recon]

On 7/16/2024 at 6:57 AM, no3Ljm said:

Don't be so hard on Yamato. That's way back in 2011. They're still trying perfecting their design method.

Bandai, in 2024, is also trying to be dreadful. 

Still don't understand why the need for a huge gap between the backpack/nose cone. The gap could have been reduced by 1cm leaving room for folded wings clearance

[MKT]

On 7/16/2024 at 8:33 AM, oshanmacross said:

To remove the head laser, do you just pull it up?
Or do you guys suggest I heat the part that clamps the sides with a heat gun on low?
 

Yup just tug at it. Video from a few pages back of a reviewer removing it:

 

Also pic on how the head laser is connected to the head:

 

[oshanmacross]

1 hour ago, MKT said:

Yup just tug at it. Video from a few pages back of a reviewer removing it:

 

Also pic on how the head laser is connected to the head:

 

Thank you kind sir!

[Graham]

On 7/15/2024 at 6:10 PM, ArchieNov said:

Sorry, couldn't edit my previous post anymore. But wanted to add this reference pic taken from anymoon.com to show what I was talking about with the VF-17

Th Bandai 1/65 VF-17D/S are still one of my all-time favorite Macross toys.  I've always loved Macross 7 TV series and the VF-17 design. Gamlin was my favorite character.

The Bandai VF-17 toy is super rugged, even more so in my experience than the 1/55 VF-1 Chunky Monkey . I own about 10 Bandai VF-17  since they were first released in what 1995 and I have yet to have one ever break, despite the fact that they are all plastic with no diecast parts. Even with my son throwing them across the room when he was a child, they didn't break.

They are super quick and fun to transform and actually look surprisingly good in all modes, apart from the fighter mode side profile which is too thick. (look great from top down view in fighter mode though). Only other downside is he terrible landing gear.

I was actually really disappointed with the Yamato VF-17 toy. I really felt it didn't capture the spirit of the VF-17 very well.

Sorry for the sidetrack away from the Bandai YF-21 DX.

[pengbuzz]

4 hours ago, Graham said:

Th Bandai 1/65 VF-17D/S are still one of my all-time favorite Macross toys.  I've always loved Macross 7 TV series and the VF-17 design. Gamlin was my favorite character.

The Bandai VF-17 toy is super rugged, even more so in my experience than the 1/55 VF-1 Chunky Monkey . I own about 10 Bandai VF-17  since they were first released in what 1995 and I have yet to have one ever break, despite the fact that they are all plastic with no diecast parts. Even with my son throwing them across the room when he was a child, they didn't break.

They are super quick and fun to transform and actually look surprisingly good in all modes, apart from the fighter mode side profile which is too thick. (look great from top down view in fighter mode though). Only other downside is he terrible landing gear.

I was actually really disappointed with the Yamato VF-17 toy. I really felt it didn't capture the spirit of the VF-17 very well.

Sorry for the sidetrack away from the Bandai YF-21 DX.

I feel the same; the Yammie VF-17 just feels wimpy up top. I'd love to see Bandai do another take on it!

[JIS]

16 hours ago, no3Ljm said:

I think this is the same gap when I saw it this displayed at Tamashii Store Tokyo weeks before it got released which I posted here a few pages ago.

 

 

I think the black support makes the gap even worse. It doesn't look that bad in my figure.

[Angesdad]

On 7/15/2024 at 3:33 PM, MKT said:

I've raised the head laser defect with HLJ. Let's see what HLJ comes back with, and I just wonder if there's a new update by how HLJ resolving this now with Bandai other than 'within variance' proffered by Bandai.

Hey @MKT, have you received any updates? I've submitted my ticket earlier in the month nothing but radio silence so far. I assume a good number of people purchased from HLJ were affected by the bent head lasers so possibly they're waiting on everyone with the defect and do a batch claim to their supplier all at once.

[Chronocidal]

Out of curiosity, is there some holiday going on in Japan right now?  Ordered my YF-21 (and a pile of other warehouse items) shipped out from HLJ on Friday via EMS, but the tracking has yet to update past the origin posting.

[MKT]

1 hour ago, Angesdad said:

Hey @MKT, have you received any updates? I've submitted my ticket earlier in the month nothing but radio silence so far. I assume a good number of people purchased from HLJ were affected by the bent head lasers so possibly they're waiting on everyone with the defect and do a batch claim to their supplier all at once.

After I submitted ticket couple days ago, they got back to me the next day saying they will put in request to supplier for ‘antenna’ replacement.
I’ll be following up with them in a few days if I don’t get any updates from them.

However I’m not really optimistic on getting a replacement laser, as couple of others with same issue on FB have gotten responses from HLJ this week that Bandai won’t be giving replacement parts.
If it comes to that, I’ll be more interested to know why the double standards by Bandai supporting domestic customers who wrote in directly to them, but not HLJ who is also JP based.

 

17 minutes ago, Chronocidal said:

Out of curiosity, is there some holiday going on in Japan right now?  Ordered my YF-21 (and a pile of other warehouse items) shipped out from HLJ on Friday via EMS, but the tracking has yet to update past the origin posting.

My YF-21 was also via EMS from HLJ. The tracking went from date of origin posting, straight to arrival at destination country a week later. There were no updates of parcel having left origin country this time. For a day or two, I thought my parcel got lost. 

[Chronocidal]

Interesting, guess I know what to expect then.

As a side note, YF-21 just popped up as available at Anime Export.

https://anime-export.com/index.php?product=81635

Edited July 17 by Chronocidal

[no3Ljm]

27 minutes ago, Chronocidal said:

Out of curiosity, is there some holiday going on in Japan right now?  Ordered my YF-21 (and a pile of other warehouse items) shipped out from HLJ on Friday via EMS, but the tracking has yet to update past the origin posting.

I Google’d and they had a holiday last July 15 (third Monday in July) celebrating Marine Day.

[jenius]

9 hours ago, Graham said:

Th Bandai 1/65 VF-17D/S are still one of my all-time favorite Macross toys.  I've always loved Macross 7 TV series and the VF-17 design. Gamlin was my favorite character.

The Bandai VF-17 toy is super rugged, even more so in my experience than the 1/55 VF-1 Chunky Monkey . I own about 10 Bandai VF-17  since they were first released in what 1995 and I have yet to have one ever break, despite the fact that they are all plastic with no diecast parts. Even with my son throwing them across the room when he was a child, they didn't break.

They are super quick and fun to transform and actually look surprisingly good in all modes, apart from the fighter mode side profile which is too thick. (look great from top down view in fighter mode though). Only other downside is he terrible landing gear.

I was actually really disappointed with the Yamato VF-17 toy. I really felt it didn't capture the spirit of the VF-17 very well.

Sorry for the sidetrack away from the Bandai YF-21 DX.

But the knees only bent in the wrong direction! Otherwise, I concur, I really liked that toy. Yamato was very fighter focused as a design preference which shows in their YF-21 and VF-17. On the 21 that was well received but Macross7 leaned heavy on chunk for battroid so their skinny fighter mode effort backfired with a lot of fans... Their VF-17 also feels needlessly complicated after handling Bandai's toy... Of course, then Bandai have us the DX 171 which introduced a while bunch of new problems.