SayuriUliana

The best thing about the Max Jenius version? It's a retail kit, not a P-Bandai kit. Considering it's a rather obscure variant from a video game, the possibility of it being P-Bandai is all but assured.

Hoping they officially announce the Super Packs soon, the prototypes for it already look great.

Hmm, checking out images of the 1/72 VF-25F kit, and I think I see them now. They're very, very small, more like RCS than engines, but they're there. Just leaves the 31 as a mystery here I guess. Might just take the Master File's word for it and just think there's engines on the place they say there is.

So Shoji Kawamori is known to be a mecha designer with meticulous attention to detail, and indeed that's one of the reasons his Variable Fighters are so alluring as they are. Nonetheless, with Kawamori's more recent designs I think he may have forgotten an important aspect of the transformation sequence: how GERWALK mode propels itself. From the VF-1, VF-11 up to machines like the VF-19, variable fighters are shown to have a second set of engines that appear during GERWALK mode, which handily explains where they get the forward thrust to move while their actual engines are pointed straight down to the floor, or in the case of the YF-21/VF-22 their engines simply don't change orientation at all. On the other hand, designs like the VF-25 and the VF-31 are most definitely lacking in visible secondary engines for GERWALK propulsion. While Macross Frontier TV Episode 2 does have a scene where we see the VF-25's GERWALK mode come out of the rear of the hull centerline (just in front of the place where the Shield would normally be stored in fighter form), this location in many of the VF-25's physical manifestations like the DX figures do not show any such engines at that location. The VF-31 supposedly place their secondary engines at a similar spot (at least according to the VF-31AX Master File), though again neither the figures nor the show reflect this. The issue of GERWALK propulsion goes away when you equip them with SUPER Packs, though that seems quite the unfortunate kind of solution to this issue. For further inconsistency, designs like the VF-27 and the YF-29 don't have this issue due to having very large wing-mounted secondary engines. Where am I going with this? Dunno. Just felt the need to point them out.

USA Gundam Store also has them for preorder.

From a plamo parts perspective, it'll be more like 30% or so commonality with the VF-25, considering how many new parts the YF-29 has like a different head, shoulders, arms, legs to accommodate the new missile launchers, wings, spine, gunpod, etc.

The HG YF-19 primarily tries to be anime accurate within the engineering limitations of being a 1/100 snap-kit plamo that's a fraction of the price of a HMR. It's kind of clear that the HG YF-19 actually prioritized Battroid mode, and that one is quite accurate to the lineart. Unfortunately the YF-19 was one of those old designs that needed a bit of anime-magic to look good in all three forms, unlike the YF-29. Yes it does.

What's the issue with it? It's labelled "HG". They're not trying to fool you with what it is.

The YF-29 looks to have more common parts between each other, which should make partsformation and color coordination between modes easier. You can also readily see the pegs where an eventual Super Parts add-on would be attached to.