Bandai 1/60 DX Chogokin Macross Plus YF-21

[PsYcHoDyNaMiX]

Yes, the transformation on the YF-21 isn't horrible but there are points where it makes you think if the legs are actually going to fit in/out of the bay/under section. Jenius' video and write-up definitely helped when I was working on the YF-21.

I feel like Bandai (almost) did the best they could, but of course in hindsight there are always areas for improvement (longer fuselage/nose-section, fold out latch for bracket free transformation, etc.).

I'm wondering if/when Bandai does a VF-22S how are they going to address the bay doors (22's are a bit different from 21's) without breaking-up the line art too much. A portion of the VF22S's bay door design extends further below what Bandai currently has for the bay door/side leg cover sections.

[Chronocidal]

5 hours ago, PsYcHoDyNaMiX said:

I feel like Bandai (almost) did the best they could, but of course in hindsight there are always areas for improvement (longer fuselage/nose-section, fold out latch for bracket free transformation, etc.).

All aspects of the transformation and proportions aside, I feel like they absolutely went off the rails though.  While they're not what most people would call "significant" departures, there is a rather large pile of details on the original design that they just completely ignored, or purposefully redesigned for no explicable reason.

The worst part of this is that some of these were correct on early prototype pics, and Bandai later changed them specifically to be contrary to every piece of reference material, animated, drawn, rendered, or otherwise.

They just looked that the art, flipped it off, and did their own thing.

[PsYcHoDyNaMiX]

1 hour ago, Chronocidal said:

All aspects of the transformation and proportions aside, I feel like they absolutely went off the rails though.  While they're not what most people would call "significant" departures, there is a rather large pile of details on the original design that they just completely ignored, or purposefully redesigned for no explicable reason.

The worst part of this is that some of these were correct on early prototype pics, and Bandai later changed them specifically to be contrary to every piece of reference material, animated, drawn, rendered, or otherwise.

They just looked that the art, flipped it off, and did their own thing.

If not referencing transformation and proportions... which parts (no need to list all), like the extensive panel lining detail and excessive tampo? The way the underbelly splits into sections? The shelf like feature towards the rear of the fighter mode? I'm curious because the YF-21's design was based on so much anime magic, things were probably going to be redesigned. This is Bandai we're talking about, lol...

Looking at the earlier pics (from the beginning of this thread, first 1-3 pages) a few sections were changed on the colored prototype. One section I noticed was the center fuselage (battroid hood section rearwards where bandai included an airbrake) is wider and more rounder than what was sold for production (more of a pronounced peak/less round, narrow/tapered, sharper). On the back of the forearms, detail was added and opening/nook was created for the (fighter mode) forward beam cannons.
According to the (then) twitter post that it was the 3rd prototype which was shown. The uncolored prototype which appeared in HJweb was from Dec 2023 which reflects more with the final production version. I thought there were older prototype pics prior to 2019 but I couldn't find them when I searched.

I'm sure Bandai had input/oversight (milestone meetings) from/with Kawamori. One of the posts mentioned Tenjin was at one of the meetings as well. 🤷‍♂️

[Chronocidal]

2 hours ago, PsYcHoDyNaMiX said:

If not referencing transformation and proportions... which parts (no need to list all), like the extensive panel lining detail and excessive tampo? The way the underbelly splits into sections? The shelf like feature towards the rear of the fighter mode? I'm curious because the YF-21's design was based on so much anime magic, things were probably going to be redesigned. This is Bandai we're talking about, lol...

See, the parts I'm thinking of are the irritating little aesthetic choices that actually have absolutely no impact on the transformation whatsoever.  They're just shapes and details that Bandai looked at and decided, "No, we're doing something different."

So.. as a fair warning, I'll spoiler it for folks who don't care to hear my rantings about little details.  

Spoiler

For a simple summary, I would just say to look at their HG 1/100 YF-21 kit.  Practically every gripe I have about the details on the DX is correct on that version.  And I absolutely mean "correct" in the literal sense.  They changed things so that they do not match any line art, any animation or any other YF-21 product ever produced in the entire existence of the design.  These aren't "anime magic," this is stuff like specifically changing the planform of the wings and tails (the tails were absolutely correct on an early gray prototype), specifically reshaping the cockpit in its entirety, just generally re-arranging or even omitting certain details when they are unrelated to the transformation in any way.  There is no excuse to change them, and the only potential reason for it is "We liked it better this way."

It's just insanely frustrating to me, because while they are purely aesthetic choices, the aesthetics of the design are why I like it in the first place, and Bandai went and screwed with them.  And I fully recognize, this is absolutely a "me" thing, but it feels like an insult where Bandai just goes and says "Here, we made you a thing you asked for, but we adjusted it because we didn't like the original."  And they're doing the exact same thing with the VF-17S now.

Just the TLDR though.. Bandai changed little aesthetic details that don't impact the transformation.  Are these nit-picks?  Absolutely.  But there is no valid reason for why those details were changed in the first place.  It's just Bandai deciding they know better, and I'm so tired of that attitude.

As for the tampo, while I think it's obnoxious, for what it's worth, I can appreciate these markings more than the slop they threw on the YF-19 (at least these are symmetrical), but I still think they went overboard. 

What's sad?  The worst part isn't even the added markings.  The dingbats went and printed the UN emblem on the left wing cock-eyed.  It is absolutely misaligned on every single picture I've seen of the YF-21, and that is just a bizarre level of incompetence on a product at this price point.  I'm VERY tempted to just strip those off and put fresh decals on to fix it, since I think they're about the same size as the Yamato 1/60 VF-1 fast pack markings.

Edited yesterday at 01:58 AM by Chronocidal

[PsYcHoDyNaMiX]

14 hours ago, Chronocidal said:

See, the parts I'm thinking of are the irritating little aesthetic choices that actually have absolutely no impact on the transformation whatsoever.  They're just shapes and details that Bandai looked at and decided, "No, we're doing something different."

So.. as a fair warning, I'll spoiler it for folks who don't care to hear my rantings about little details.  

  Reveal hidden contents

For a simple summary, I would just say to look at their HG 1/100 YF-21 kit.  Practically every gripe I have about the details on the DX is correct on that version.  And I absolutely mean "correct" in the literal sense.  They changed things so that they do not match any line art, any animation or any other YF-21 product ever produced in the entire existence of the design.  These aren't "anime magic," this is stuff like specifically changing the planform of the wings and tails (the tails were absolutely correct on an early gray prototype), specifically reshaping the cockpit in its entirety, just generally re-arranging or even omitting certain details when they are unrelated to the transformation in any way.  There is no excuse to change them, and the only potential reason for it is "We liked it better this way."

It's just insanely frustrating to me, because while they are purely aesthetic choices, the aesthetics of the design are why I like it in the first place, and Bandai went and screwed with them.  And I fully recognize, this is absolutely a "me" thing, but it feels like an insult where Bandai just goes and says "Here, we made you a thing you asked for, but we adjusted it because we didn't like the original."  And they're doing the exact same thing with the VF-17S now.

Just the TLDR though.. Bandai changed little aesthetic details that don't impact the transformation.  Are these nit-picks?  Absolutely.  But there is no valid reason for why those details were changed in the first place.  It's just Bandai deciding they know better, and I'm so tired of that attitude.

As for the tampo, while I think it's obnoxious, for what it's worth, I can appreciate these markings more than the slop they threw on the YF-19 (at least these are symmetrical), but I still think they went overboard. 

What's sad?  The worst part isn't even the added markings.  The dingbats went and printed the UN emblem on the left wing cock-eyed.  It is absolutely misaligned on every single picture I've seen of the YF-21, and that is just a bizarre level of incompetence on a product at this price point.  I'm VERY tempted to just strip those off and put fresh decals on to fix it, since I think they're about the same size as the Yamato 1/60 VF-1 fast pack markings.

Aside from the things that are "anime magic", yes I completely agree with how Bandai is probably throwing in their own take ("knowing better") and it's sucks that they're doing that. In the end I'm sure it (the DXC YF-21) like many other Macross stuff has go through the final approval of Kawamori (and maybe his team: Tenjin, etc.) for final say, right? It's not like Kawamori comes into Bandai's office only to look at it during the prototypes for a once over and gives a yes/no and that's it. It would be believable Bandai gives Kawamori his own milestone prototype version(s) to take back to his home/office to further study/play with (to do his own homework on) and is in full communication directly with Bandai's team before it goes to the production line. Do we even know if (maybe) it's Kawamori making/suggesting these ("better known") changes to Bandai's team for the macross line? And that's not to say (maybe) Kawamori is aware but just overlooks and passes off these changes? 🤷‍♂️🙄 If so, then that would be sad...

I'm interested in looking at the early grey prototype that you're referencing. Do you have a link or picture? As I've said in the previous post I couldn't find it, but recall seeing something of the DXC YF-21 tease year(s) prior to Bandai's TN2019 reveal.

Yes the markings on the DXC YF-21 are better than the 19's markings by far.

Yea Bandai really f'd up the tampo on the Macross logo for the DXC YF-21's wing and with previous tampo issues (DXC VF-1's 001/100). The Macross logo was correct on the YF-21's prototype displayed at TN2019. We already know Bandai won't own up to it just like the YF-21's antenna issue (how they stated damage was due to the shipping/handling process).

Edited yesterday at 04:17 PM by PsYcHoDyNaMiX

[jenius]

I think Kawamori has very limited ability to do anything and his involvement is largely collecting a fee to say he is involved.

[Chronocidal]

1 hour ago, PsYcHoDyNaMiX said:

I'm interested in looking at the early grey prototype that you're referencing. Do you have a link or picture? As I've said in the previous post I couldn't find it, but recall seeing something of the DXC YF-21 tease year(s) prior to Bandai's TN2019 reveal.

So it was pretty deeply buried in this thread, but I found it.

Unfortunately I managed to schnooker myself into thinking the image I had saved of the tails being correct was something that actually happened.. no, I actually photoshopped that myself as a "what if" to see how much of a difference it made.  

[PsYcHoDyNaMiX]

7 hours ago, jenius said:

I think Kawamori has very limited ability to do anything and his involvement is largely collecting a fee to say he is involved.

That's a very sad thing to hear, but very logical and likely scenario. 😕

6 hours ago, Chronocidal said:

So it was pretty deeply buried in this thread, but I found it.

Unfortunately I managed to schnooker myself into thinking the image I had saved of the tails being correct was something that actually happened.. no, I actually photoshopped that myself as a "what if" to see how much of a difference it made.  

Yea I thought I'd try to comb through the earlier pages of the thread last night for a pic of the grey prototype (because I was interested in Bandai's earlier approach), but got only as far as the 15th page before falling asleep.

LOL... no worries.

[Radioguy]

On 9/26/2025 at 12:42 PM, jenius said:

I think Kawamori has very limited ability to do anything and his involvement is largely collecting a fee to say he is involved.

It's a sad state of affairs, but I'm sure that's true. It's probably also something he'd prefer, if a licensor or related individuals have relations as pleasurable as we do with Bandai.

Frankly, I'd assume our feelings are mostly the same at this point but for the direction of the money.