Bandai 1/60 DX Chogokin Macross Plus YF-21

[Radioguy]

1 hour ago, Chronocidal said:

I'm almost tempted to pick up a third, that's about $15 lower now than I paid for my copy from HLJ at release.  

 

Too late. Amazon has it for $325.58 now.

Galactic Toys on there has it for $254, but I think they always do.

[sjoebarry]

4 hours ago, Chronocidal said:

I'm almost tempted to pick up a third, that's about $15 lower now than I paid for my copy from HLJ at release.  

 

I don’t want it but I may just get it at that price 

[Radioguy]

1 hour ago, sjoebarry said:

I don’t want it but I may just get it at that price 

You may be in luck then, as it's no longer available at that price.

EDIT: Actually, $220.83 now. Let's see where that goes.

[David Hingtgen]

Anyone ever tried to get a wing off?  

On a related note, I swear my landing gear doors used to close flush, but now the right one won't stay down.  The gear itself just won't go *all the way down*--only by like 1mm, but it's enough to keep popping the door open/up.  

[Apok451]

I'm still salty about getting an opened box that was sold as new with the damn antenna missing.  I hope the person that did that poops their pants in a very public setting.

[Chronocidal]

That's entirely on Bandai for failing to understand the entire point of rotating the gear.  They made the wheels so tiny, and the wings so thick, there's no point to even folding them flat.

I've had this happen before as well, and it's generally because there's a specific angle that the wheel needs to be at before it will slot into the bay deep enough to not interfere with the door closing. 

I've had to experiment with finding the proper angle, and I can't remember which direction it is, but it's not exactly vertical.  You might need to rotate the strut while pushing it into the bay.

Edit: I was able to sneak in a quick look on my way out the door, the trick I've used is to tip the upper half of the tire slightly inboard to get it to settle into a cutout in the metallic details inside the bay.

Edited April 30 by Chronocidal

[Radioguy]

6 hours ago, Apok451 said:

I'm still salty about getting an opened box that was sold as new with the damn antenna missing.  I hope the person that did that poops their pants in a very public setting.

Always tell Amazon. They will make it right.

[borgified]

Even if it says returned item from Amazon (such as the DX 21 and other related Macross related items), you never know if it’s replaced with a totally different item, missing parts or totally destroyed. No one is going to do a complete check as it a high paced environment and everyone it in a very tight time crunch. 

Your well off getting it from a place that does a very deep and proper inspection.

 

[Actar]

How are the knee ratches on your copies holding up? I've since just relegated mine to the display stand, but after a couple of week's worth of posing, they got really floppy.

[VF8000G]

Anyone know how to disassemble the foot?  Specifically, removing the lower front feet that's pointed?  Does it just pop off with a bit of force?  These Bandai figures with their lack of screws are so annoying to fix.

[PsYcHoDyNaMiX]

8 hours ago, Actar said:

How are the knee ratches on your copies holding up? I've since just relegated mine to the display stand, but after a couple of week's worth of posing, they got really floppy.

Mine has been holding up for the most part, being the two modes I've been utilizing are gerwalk and battroid mode. In the past two months maybe changing it b/w the two modes 1-3x a week.

10 minutes ago, VF8000G said:

Anyone know how to disassemble the foot?  Specifically, removing the lower front feet that's pointed?  Does it just pop off with a bit of force?  These Bandai figures with their lack of screws are so annoying to fix.

Sorry I do not. Are you attempting a repair?

[VF8000G]

31 minutes ago, PsYcHoDyNaMiX said:

Sorry I do not. Are you attempting a repair?

Yes, the left toes are stubbed on both of my copies.  Trying to frankenstein a "good" one together and replace the bad toe with the good one from the other figure.  But Bandai has welded the legs and feet together in such a way that there's no method I can even discern to disassemble either the legs or feet other than the obvious delimiter mode, which won't help here.  It's a lot different from the old figures which had lots of screws, even if they were behind screw covers.

I think this might be another common defect that people missed, given the other more catastrophic issues with the figure.

Edited Monday at 12:09 AM by VF8000G

[PsYcHoDyNaMiX]

19 minutes ago, VF8000G said:

Yes, the left toes are stubbed on both of my copies.  Trying to frankenstein a "good" one together and replace the bad toe with the good one from the other figure.  But Bandai has welded the legs and feet together in such a way that there's no method I can even discern to disassemble either the legs or feet other than the obvious delimiter mode, which won't help here.  It's a lot different from the old figures which had lots of screws, even if they were behind screw covers.

I think this might be another common defect that people missed, given the other more catastrophic issues with the figure.

Aww damn... I'm sorry to hear. Yea on one of the copies that I've checked (thoroughly) had a dented/bent foot tip. I'm sure it was rushed/jammed in the calf compartment by the assembly workers. I ended up using hot water to kind of sculpt it back into place with one of my metal CSI Creos 'T' rulers. I had the same thought process that if in the future if one of the other copies I has the same issue I could attempt a swap, but I have not checked as to disassembling it in depth yet.

[VF8000G]

4 hours ago, PsYcHoDyNaMiX said:

Aww damn... I'm sorry to hear. Yea on one of the copies that I've checked (thoroughly) had a dented/bent foot tip. I'm sure it was rushed/jammed in the calf compartment by the assembly workers. I ended up using hot water to kind of sculpt it back into place with one of my metal CSI Creos 'T' rulers. I had the same thought process that if in the future if one of the other copies I has the same issue I could attempt a swap, but I have not checked as to disassembling it in depth yet.

Someone else on another forum also just mentioned their YF-21 having a stubbed left foot.  I can safely conclude that this is indeed probably another widespread defect.  As if this figure didn't already have enough.  🤦‍♂️

Quote

Looked at photos yep mine was the left! You can see that the left foot is stubbier than the right, don't have the other photo of the foot specifically anymore.

[Actar]

I filmed a video of just how loose my YF-21's knees have gotten.

https://youtu.be/wGxk-op1rLA

Seriously, of all its faults, this is the most egregious in my book...

[MKT]

28 minutes ago, Actar said:

I filmed a video of just how loose my YF-21's knees have gotten.

https://youtu.be/wGxk-op1rLA

Seriously, of all its faults, this is the most egregious in my book...

This blows. The loose ball joints on previous DX'es were bad enough, never thought ratchet joints will have the same issue..

[Froy]

By the sound I can assume the teeth of the ratchet are very small maybe for having a good range of positions.

Replacing the spring for a stronger one could be a solution.

[VF8000G]

I'm not sure the legs can even be disassembled unless you want to break the figure.  I'm looking for a solution to that myself, with no luck.  As for the loose ratchet, all I can think of in this situation would be Kiki joint fluid.

Another solution would be scour the web for cheap defective YF-21's (there must be more than a couple on sale by now) and salvage the legs to attach via Delimiter mode.

Edited Monday at 01:36 PM by VF8000G

[PsYcHoDyNaMiX]

8 hours ago, VF8000G said:

Someone else on another forum also just mentioned their YF-21 having a stubbed left foot.  I can safely conclude that this is indeed probably another widespread defect.  As if this figure didn't already have enough.  🤦‍♂️

Pics of the right foot on mine are in the spoiler:
 

Spoiler

 

2 hours ago, Actar said:

I filmed a video of just how loose my YF-21's knees have gotten.

https://youtu.be/wGxk-op1rLA

Seriously, of all its faults, this is the most egregious in my book...

That's horribly loose, like flapping in the wind.

[Actar]

The bizarre thing is that the joints started off tight enough, but got looser the more I transformed and posed it. Bending the knee fully into Gerwalk configuration seemed to have a ton of resistance at first, not sure if that made it worse...

 

[Froy]

Worst case is the ratchet teeth just worn out completely and need a complete replacement. 

[WhatBoutMyStar]

Not uncommon for any figure if you transform and pose regularly for ratchets to wear away over time especially if they are soft ratchets and you are dealing with heavy limbs with diecast parts. Did not experience that though with Macross figures because they're usually more display pieces for me but I've had that happen to a few transformers figures where the ratchets just wore away.

[Chronocidal]

5 hours ago, Actar said:

The bizarre thing is that the joints started off tight enough, but got looser the more I transformed and posed it. Bending the knee fully into Gerwalk configuration seemed to have a ton of resistance at first, not sure if that made it worse...

 

This kind of makes me think it was faulty from the start, giving you all the resistance at first, and then over time the mechanism has just failed.

[ArchieNov]

16 hours ago, Actar said:

The bizarre thing is that the joints started off tight enough, but got looser the more I transformed and posed it. Bending the knee fully into Gerwalk configuration seemed to have a ton of resistance at first, not sure if that made it worse...

 

Time to buy a new one I guess...

[locidm]

On 8/6/2024 at 4:53 PM, locidm said:

I just received mine from EKnightmedia. Two issues:

1. slightly bent antennae near the tip, I can live with this

2. I don't know the proper terminology to describe them, but there are two small fins in the bottom front side of the bird, one on each side. I believe my copy has two left fins. The right one was already popped out when I remove the YF-21 from the tray. When I pop the right fin back in, it doesn't swivel at all like the left one does, which is when I realized I received two left fins. It does fit but the fin would be closer to vertical unlike the other one.

Has anyone dealt with Eknight media before on issues like this?

 

Bluefin finally sent me replacement part, except it’s a nice surprise. Instead of sending me a replacement antenna and fins, they sent me the entire valk instead. They put the valk in the plastic tray and sent it in a shipping box. Yes, the antenna and the fins on the replacement valk were all good. Props to Bluefin. It took a looong time but they delivered. 

[davidwhangchoi]

wow! a whole valk!

[Chronocidal]

Wow, that's wild.  I know Bandai is an absolute pain for refusing to replace individual parts, but I never thought they would go so far as to just send the entire valk.

The crazy thing about this is that now you've got, essentially, a giant spare parts bin in case something else breaks.  Too bad they didn't send you the engine petals though, or it would have actually been a fair piece to display.  

[Radioguy]

7 hours ago, locidm said:

Bluefin finally sent me replacement part, except it’s a nice surprise. Instead of sending me a replacement antenna and fins, they sent me the entire valk instead. They put the valk in the plastic tray and sent it in a shipping box. Yes, the antenna and the fins on the replacement valk were all good. Props to Bluefin. It took a looong time but they delivered. 

6 hours ago, davidwhangchoi said:

wow! a whole valk!

2 hours ago, Chronocidal said:

Wow, that's wild.  I know Bandai is an absolute pain for refusing to replace individual parts, but I never thought they would go so far as to just send the entire valk.

The crazy thing about this is that now you've got, essentially, a giant spare parts bin in case something else breaks.  Too bad they didn't send you the engine petals though, or it would have actually been a fair piece to display.  

I'm surprised you guys are surprised!

That's been pretty standard for my experience with them ever since they were Bluefin, and now actually Bandai Namco. It is apparently easier for them to just send that than open a box and part out something.

The only change here is that they sent him it without another retail box. Last time I had a warranty issue, they just grabbed a retail boxed item and shipped it.

 

 

[MKT]

9 hours ago, locidm said:

Bluefin finally sent me replacement part, except it’s a nice surprise. Instead of sending me a replacement antenna and fins, they sent me the entire valk instead. They put the valk in the plastic tray and sent it in a shipping box. Yes, the antenna and the fins on the replacement valk were all good. Props to Bluefin. It took a looong time but they delivered. 

Kinda bananas they sent you a whole valk lol. Is the left wing flap at the tip missing, or just happened to have worked its way loose & still within the clamshell?

[Apok451]

1 hour ago, Radioguy said:

I'm surprised you guys are surprised!

That's been pretty standard for my experience with them ever since they were Bluefin, and now actually Bandai Namco. It is apparently easier for them to just send that than open a box and part out something.

The only change here is that they sent him it without another retail box. Last time I had a warranty issue, they just grabbed a retail boxed item and shipped it.

 

 

Im surprised because they pretty told me to frakk off, we are out of the parts and and you are screwed.  I also bought it from the TN storefront on Amazon that they claim to know nothing of.  Whatever.

[davidwhangchoi]

3 hours ago, Radioguy said:

I'm surprised you guys are surprised!

That's been pretty standard for my experience with them ever since they were Bluefin, and now actually Bandai Namco. It is apparently easier for them to just send that than open a box and part out something.

The only change here is that they sent him it without another retail box. Last time I had a warranty issue, they just grabbed a retail boxed item and shipped it.

 

 

can you read the thread instead of acting surprised?  Bluefin always taking care of you is not the common experience for everyone. It's 50-50. There are those that weren't taken care off. Apparently, you did not read Macrossjunky's posts.   

[PointBlankSniper]

Absolute insanity. Seeing that they gimped it of all the fiddly bits presumably to deactivate it from being a displayable unit, yet didn't bother to just yank the fin out and mail it for cheaper is crazy.

Anyway, I'm guessing that they threw in the extra canopy despite all that because they know it's made of the latest iteration of explodium.

[Radioguy]

6 hours ago, Apok451 said:

Im surprised because they pretty told me to frakk off, we are out of the parts and and you are screwed.  I also bought it from the TN storefront on Amazon that they claim to know nothing of.  Whatever.

I remember. Well, someone finally realized it existed as they went through that page to deactivate every PO on it.

3 hours ago, davidwhangchoi said:

can you read the thread instead of acting surprised?  Bluefin always taking care of you is not the common experience for everyone. It's 50-50. There are those that weren't taken care off. Apparently, you did not read Macrossjunky's posts.   

I did, but I am expressing my experience here, and I have had conversations elsewhere where I, more often than not, have heard of the same result. Oh, I had thought that would change once Bluefin was gone, but even now being Bandai Namco I have heard of this result.

I'm sorry that you and some others haven't had the same experience, and I'm not implying you did anything wrong or were undeserving, but, truly, I was not at all surprised he received a new valk.

No acting required.

39 minutes ago, PointBlankSniper said:

Absolute insanity. Seeing that they gimped it of all the fiddly bits presumably to deactivate it from being a displayable unit, yet didn't bother to just yank the fin out and mail it for cheaper is crazy.

Anyway, I'm guessing that they threw in the extra canopy despite all that because they know it's made of the latest iteration of explodium.

Like I said, it would seem that's more trouble than it's worth to whoever handled that claim.

[davidwhangchoi]

1 minute ago, Radioguy said:

I remember. Well, someone finally realized it existed as they went through that page to deactivate every PO on it.

I did, but I am expressing my experience here, and I have had conversations elsewhere where I, more often than not, have heard of the same result. Oh, I had thought that would change once Bluefin was gone, but even now being Bandai Namco I have heard of this result.

I'm sorry that you and some others haven't had the same experience, and I'm not implying you did anything wrong or were undeserving, but, truly, I was not at all surprised he received a new valk.

No acting required.

Like I said, it would seem that's more trouble than it's worth to whoever handled that claim.

i didn't say i had any negative experience with blufin so there's no need to apologize to me.

I am responding to your post that "you're surprised that we're surprised post." implying blufin sends a complete valk instead of parts as your standard experience. Meanwhile there are pages and pages in this thread with blufin not even sending a small replacement antenna for the yf-21 while members waiting 3 months to hear a response from bluefin only to hear they  won't do anything. While some had success getting a replacement antenna. There is not one post here of blufin sending an entire valk instead of a replacement part. This is a first. So i was surprised.

Can you show me on this thread or on the entire Macross forums of anyone getting an entire valk as a replacement from bluefin? When you say it's standard practice for Bluefin to send a whole valk, can you show some past evidence? There are multiple threads on the Macross toys from Bandai Namco.  I've never seen one post till now.  

[Chronocidal]

See, the funny thing, from Bandai's perspective, I can kind of see how this makes.. "sense."

The thought process probably went something like this:

- "What's the absolute minimum factory-complete product unit we can send that will cover all of the complaints of broken parts we've received?"
- "The only way to do that would be to send the entire plane body, and the spare canopy."
- "If it means we don't have to disassemble anything or interact with the assembly line, fine.  Ship it."

It's basically the minimum amount of effort they can give to get you the replacement for whatever part of the valk broke.

Edited 24 minutes ago by Chronocidal