Studio
Half-Eye YF-21 vs Yamato YF-21
Graham offers some comparison shots and a review of
the 1/100 Resin Model kit from Studio Half-Eye and the 1/72 Metal/Plastic toy
from Yamato. I singled out my favorite pic-titled 'Crash & Burn'! I had
a good laugh when I saw it! Now l hand over the mic to Graham...
Crash
& Burn Baby!
Due
to popular request (actually only one person asked me!) here's a point by point
comparison of the SHE YF-21 vs. the YAMATO YF-21, both of which I own.
The
winner of each category will be scored one point to decided the overall winner.
CATEGORY
# 1: LANDING GEAR
SHE
The
SHE YF-21 doesn't have any landing gear, so there's nothing more I can really
say!
YAMATO
The
YAMATO YF-21 has folding front and rear landing gear. The front landing
gear is housed in the nose section and the rear landing gear in the leg bay
cover panels. A neat feature is that each landing gear is covered by a folding
door when in the raised position unlike the YAMATO YF-19, where the front landing
gear is only semi-recessed and thus still visible when in the raised position. The
wheels on the YF-21's landing gear rotate and have black painted tires with
silver hubs. The only negative point in my opinion is that there is not too
much detail on the landing gear struts and they are painted in a very thick
white paint.
RESULT
The
YAMATO wins outright here, firstly for actually having landing gear and secondly
for having fairly well designed landing gear. Score one point to the YAMATO.
CATEGORY
# 2: LEVEL OF DETAIL
SHE
The
SHE features relatively little detail and many of the panel lines that are
shown on the detailed line-art drawings of the YF-21 in the Macross Plus artbooks
are missing from the SHE kit.
YAMATO
On
the other hand, the YAMATO YF-21 is superbly detailed with the full range of
panel lines. The difference between the YAMATO and SHE can clearly be seen in
the attached top view fighter mode photos where the additional panel lines of
the YAMATO toy are clearly shown.
RESULT
Again,
the YAMATO wins. Score one more point to the YAMATO.
CATEGORY
# 3: JOINT QUALITY & DURABILITY
SHE
The SHE
uses two types of joints. The first is the WAVE plastic ball and socket joints.
These are not normally supplied with the SHE kits, and it is necessary to
buy them separately. However, if you buy a SHE from Hobby Link Japan http://www.hlj.com/ then they kindly
supply these for you. The problem with the WAVE ball and socket joints is
that they do loosen up after a while and there is no way to tighten them.
The problem is now so serious with the ball and socket joints that connect
the feet to the legs of my SHE YF-21 that the feet fall off at the slightest
touch.
The
second type of joint in use in the SHE kit is simply were two pieces of the
resin parts are held together by a small hardware screw, for example the elbow
and hip joints. The problem with this is that after you have played or posed
the toy for a while the screws loosen up and require tightening. This is fine
for a while, but not for long term use as metal screws are much harder than
the resin and after a while of use, the metal screw cause the screw holes to
wear so that they can no longer be re-tightened. After about 3 years of relatively
light usage, my SHE YF-21's joints are now so loose that it cannot stand up
by itself. For the attached photos I had to lean it against a board and even
then it kept falling down all the time.
YAMATO
The
YAMATO uses ratcheted joints throughout, making the toy very stable. Even though
the YAMATO YF-21 is a new toy and thus it is not known how the joints will stand
up to several years of use, the level of quality is very high. From my experience
with ratcheted joints in other toys, there should not be any problem with the
long term durability of the YAMATO's joints.
RESULT
This
is getting repetitive, but again the SHE crashes and burns compared with the
YAMATO. Score one more for the YAMATO.
CATEGORY
# 4: BALANCE
SHE
Even
when new and just built, it was a labor of love to get my SHE YF-21 to stand
up straight in Battroid mode in even a simple static pose without toppling
over. This is partly due to the extreme top-heaviness of the design, partly
due to the poorly designed hip joints and partly due to the fact that even
when new the joints were not as tight as they could be. Now that my SHE YF-21
is 3 years old, it will only stand in battroid mode if supported and will
not stand up at all in Gerwalk mode.
YAMATO
Due
to the excellent weight distribution of the die-cast parts (legs and torso)
and the secure joints, the YAMATO YF-21 has no problem with balance as long
as the pose is fairly static. Any attempts at dramatic action poses can
be tricky though.
RESULT
Score one
point for the YAMATO.
SHE
The
SHE kit does not come with a gunpod, but one is available with the optional
FAST pack set which must be purchased separately. However, the gunpod cannot
be stowed internally.
YAMATO
The
YAMATO has no gunpod, but one is supposed to be in the works for the upcoming
FAST Pack version of the YAMATO YF-21.
RESULT
Score
one point for the SHE for actually having a gunpod available.
CATEGORY
# 6: ACCURACY OF APPEARANCE IN ALL THREE MODES
(Note:
This category will score 3 points, i.e 1 point per mode)
SHE
The
SHE has less overall detail than the YAMATO, but in fighter mode has a slight
edge in accuracy of appearance over the YAMATO due to the fact that the legs
fold flat onto their sides inside the leg storage bay so that the bay cover
panels sit higher against the belly leaving the legs far less visible when viewed
from the side.
In
Gerwalk mode, both the SHE and the YAMATO are faithful to Kawamori's design.
In
Battroid mode, the SHE has a pair of ugly struts connecting the back mounted
engines to the chest (intakes). These kind of spoil the appearance slightly
when viewed from the top and are not accurate to the original design.
YAMATO
YAMATO
YF-21 looks great in fighter mode and is very accurate to the original design,
except for the fact that the legs do not conceal inside their bay as well as
the SHE when viewed from the side.
The
Gerwalk and battroid modes are very accurate to the original design.
RESULT
In
Fighter mode, the SHE wins the point..... just for the better appearance from
the side, although both Valks look excellent.
In
Battroid mode, the YAMATO wins the point due to the better appearance
of the backpack/engine connection.
In
Gerwalk mode, both the SHE and YAMATO look very good, but the point goes to
the Yamato due to the higher level of detail.
CATEGORY
# 7: COCKPIT
SHE
The
SHE kit has a non opening cockpit.
YAMATO
The
YAMATO has an opening cockpit canopy with three transparent panels, a really
neat feature. The cockpit of the YAMATO also features a pilot seat.
RESULT
Score
one point for the YAMATO.
CONCLUSION
The
YAMATO is a clear winner with 7 points to the SHE's 2 points.
For
it's time the SHE YF-21 was a great product and a brilliant piece of engineering.
For several years, the SHE was the only choice if you wanted a variable YF-21.
However, the SHE is now totally outclassed by the YAMATO version in nearly
every way.
Being
largely based on the SHE, the YAMATO is in it's way a great tribute to the
SHE design, but with an improved level of detail, better balance and stability
and stronger joints.
Another
advantage of the YAMATO not mentioned above is that it will retain it's good
looks with far lower maintenance than the SHE. SHE owners will constantly
find the paint rubbing off the resin every time a transformation is
attempted, thus requiring constant touch up. The YAMATO is largely exempt
from this problem as the majority of the toy is molded in blue plastic.
