Bandai 1/60 DX Chogokin Macross Plus YF-21

[etnav382]

9 hours ago, jenius said:

That's nice!

Used my wife's employee discount and got it for $193 with delivery tomorrow.

[PsYcHoDyNaMiX]

FYI, hopefully no cause for alarm... the black ring which holds/swivels the right belly plate on my YF-21 had (oddly) split. While I had transformed it number of times in the last year (for my project), I was never rough when handling it. When I transformed it today (I used Jenius'/Scorched Earth video guide as a reference), noticed it was a bit loose and saw the split. IIRC said part previously was not/never overly stiff, just about the same tension/smoothness as the left side. Mine was in fighter mode on the display mount/base for the past two (plus) months.

The black disc on the right side (now) has a little bit of wiggle room, maybe 1mm or less. I can only speculate possible twisting forces from the transforming process caused it to split. The split is nearly the opposite side of the bay door mounting arm. I just hope it's not another VF-171 CF disintegrating black part/plastic issue. Looking at the DX YF-21 I do not see any other black plastic parts which may be under any kind of mechanical forces other than those bay doors swivel mounts (other black parts are either painted blue parts or cosmetic black plastic which experience no mechanical forces). Aside from the black plastic used for the base, display brackets, and battroid brackets.

I had purchased this one from HLJ's PO upon release 6/2024, stored it in HLJ's PW, shipped it (small packet shipped with other items) and opened it for inspection August of 2024, put it back in the box until maybe Feb 2025 and started my project March 2025.

Edited December 15, 2025 by PsYcHoDyNaMiX

[PointBlankSniper]

Yikes, I had thought that piece might have been the one thing bandai made properly by how reasonably smooth yet firm it moved, especially since it was excessively tall compared to canonical art.

Now I'm going to have to remember to be paranoid of that piece if I transform it. This toy is kind of a gift that keeps on giving... 😬

[Sildani]

I've never transformed mine, and I won't. Can't be bothered, and this stuff makes me more paranoid to try.

[jenius]

You should transform it once and leave it forever in battroid to take advantage of its strengths.

Edited December 16, 2025 by jenius

[David Hingtgen]

Mine lives in GERWALK mode, as I feel its one of the few valks with a really neat GERWALK.   (and some unique parts/transformation aspects just for that mode, and not PURELY "half-way inbetween fighter and battroid")  

[MacrossJunkie]

Did some weathering on my YF-21. Battroid mode needs more work still so just fighter for now. 

 

 

[PsYcHoDyNaMiX]

Excellent work! It looks awesome!

[MKT]

7 hours ago, MacrossJunkie said:

Did some weathering on my YF-21. Battroid mode needs more work still so just fighter for now. 

 

 

Just... wow! 

[Shawn]

Care to share any details on how you did this to the YF-21? Looks amazing!
Any in-progress behind the scenes shots?

[M'Kyuun]

Looks amazing!

[MacrossJunkie]

2 hours ago, Shawn said:

Care to share any details on how you did this to the YF-21? Looks amazing!
Any in-progress behind the scenes shots?

I approached it sort of like I was painting one of my Warhammer 40k joytoy figures. I mainly used some citadel and vallejo paints, For the blue surface areas, I lightly stippled Macragge Blue and Calgar Blue with a large round drybrush. Airbrushed some Tyran Blue shade paint which is a darker blue with random movements to help give a bit of a mottling effect. Used some Eshin Grey on the intakes to dirty them up a bit.

Panel lining was done with Tamiya black panel line accent color.

A very highly thinned flat black was airbrushed on for some post shading along panel lines and to give more depth to recessed areas. 

Selectively applied edge highlights were done by dipping a brush into some Fenrisian Grey, brushing some off on a texture palette and running the side of the bristles of the brush along the edges or with the tip of a 0 size brush in places where that method is not viable.

The thruster vanes were painted using Vallejo's metal color line using gunmetal grey and steel and edge highlighted with silver.

To seal everything in, I airbrushed Vallejo's Satin and Ultra-matte polyurethane varnishes. Doing the satin first and then selectively with the matte in certain areas. 

Unfortunately I didn't think to take any in-progress pics.

 

Edited December 21, 2025 by MacrossJunkie

[wm cheng]

ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS!!! @MacrossJunkie, glad to see you are continuing the tradition with such excellent work!

[Radioguy]

$206.62 on Amazon USA right now.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CRK23S71

[Shawn]

That is a great price, skips tariffs (min 15%) and free shipping($50), and is new (not used), with a warranty.

We've finally beaten Japanese prices

[Chronocidal]

1 hour ago, Shawn said:

That is a great price, skips tariffs (min 15%) and free shipping($50), and is new (not used), with a warranty.

We've finally beaten Japanese prices

Amazon's been pretty regularly beating the Japanese prices, partly due to the free shipping and lack of duties, but the heavy discounts only tend to hit on certain releases that they seem to have over-supply of.  I think I grabbed Max's YF-29 for about $175.

The hard part is predicting which releases are going to hit that point.  I don't think I've seen the YF-19 on heavy discount, but I was tempted to pick one up for the better tail mounts.

[Radioguy]

3 hours ago, Shawn said:

That is a great price, skips tariffs (min 15%) and free shipping($50), and is new (not used), with a warranty.

We've finally beaten Japanese prices

As previously discussed, USA warranty coverage may be non-existent now for this particular release. Stunning to imagine, but it should be considered here before jumping on.

That's also assuming it's new...which has also been reported as often inaccurate as well.

[Chronocidal]

43 minutes ago, Radioguy said:

As previously discussed, USA warranty coverage may be non-existent now for this particular release. Stunning to imagine, but it should be considered here before jumping on.

That's also assuming it's new...which has also been reported as often inaccurate as well.

Yeah, that's also something to consider.  They might cover the purchase price for a refund, but you're probably not getting any support from Bandai for replacements.

Not that that's exactly new, but it's kind of wild seeing Bandai's customer disservice on display internationally.

Edited December 30, 2025 by Chronocidal

[jenius]

I feel like you guys have been a part of a different hobby for the last twenty years with all this talk of toy company warranties... Wouldn't that be nice! I usually beg friends in Japan to ask politely for me and if it's been more than a few months since release nothing comes from it anyway. Sometimes I'll get the ThreeZero treatment where they pretend they want to help but it never goes anywhere.

[Apok451]

15 hours ago, Radioguy said:

As previously discussed, USA warranty coverage may be non-existent now for this particular release. Stunning to imagine, but it should be considered here before jumping on.

That's also assuming it's new...which has also been reported as often inaccurate as well.

The one I got was sold as new and unopened.  It in fact was opened and someone who had gotten a broken antenna took the antenna out and sent it back. Amazoon would only return and refund, and bandai responded to me after 3 months saying there were no replacement parts and they would be doing nothing to remedy my situation.  Hopefully you get a good new one, its a pretty sweet one.

[Radioguy]

15 hours ago, jenius said:

I feel like you guys have been a part of a different hobby for the last twenty years with all this talk of toy company warranties... Wouldn't that be nice! I usually beg friends in Japan to ask politely for me and if it's been more than a few months since release nothing comes from it anyway. Sometimes I'll get the ThreeZero treatment where they pretend they want to help but it never goes anywhere.

I've had good luck with Bandai warranties stateside when I've had need of them.