Bandai 1/60 DX Chogokin Macross 7 Fire Valkyrie

[jenius]

I've been thinking about how the 19P magically gets a 19Kai face and it occurs to me that the 19Kai should have had a screen projecting a singing face all along. That would have allowed them to do a moving mouth and facial expressions to recreate a singer (not that I love that plot). The 19P could have turned on it's projector to create the 19Kai face in the same way... It's just then that Basara chooses to load that program. That's how I would retcon it.

[Bolt]

1 hour ago, jenius said:

I've been thinking about how the 19P magically gets a 19Kai face and it occurs to me that the 19Kai should have had a screen projecting a singing face all along. That would have allowed them to do a moving mouth and facial expressions to recreate a singer (not that I love that plot). The 19P could have turned on it's projector to create the 19Kai face in the same way... It's just then that Basara chooses to load that program. That's how I would retcon it.

Lol. That's a great idea.

Edited October 15 by Bolt

[Chronocidal]

Yeah, it's kind of a natural progression to the active camo/paint they had in Delta.  I don't think we saw anything like it in Frontier on a valk (unless you want to count Battle Galaxy ), but they obviously can project holograms over pretty much anything they like at this point.

[recon]

[PointBlankSniper]

Slightly new packaging look must mean they are locked in to w/e stategy or quality standards this release stands for.

The 17's arm is peeking out from the side. Since it's ready for show, that one's designs are definitely locked in too lol.

[jenius]

That Kai is looking nice and beefy from that angle. 

[twich]

I agree! I just hope that BBTS has this out in customers hands by November.  I know it is released in Japan on October 25th, but with the slow boat shipping, I hope it makes it in time!

Twich

[sh9000]

On 10/12/2025 at 8:11 PM, Mommar said:

I cancelled mine.  I'm just not that curious about the engineering to buy a 1/60 I don't like.

Yep I didn't even preorder this on preorder night.

[recon]

[jenius]

Poor vf-17, looks so frail beside it.

[treatment]

per Heppoko's tweet:  https://twitter.com/simsim5479/status/1980865962858647722

DX Fire-Valk instructions-manual pdf (colored) now up and available:

https://tamashiiweb.com/images/item/item_0000015361_4C6Kwya3_300.pdf

so you can dissect it the  usual MWF way...

 

---

edit/update:

sample page-snap:

 

errr. Bandai still seems to luv making their DX Macross valks look derpy in their instructions-manuals... 

 

Edited yesterday at 05:41 AM by treatment

[MKT]

2 hours ago, treatment said:

per Heppoko's tweet:  https://twitter.com/simsim5479/status/1980865962858647722

DX Fire-Valk instructions-manual pdf (colored) now up and available:

https://tamashiiweb.com/images/item/item_0000015361_4C6Kwya3_300.pdf

so you can dissect it the  usual MWF way...

 

---

edit/update:

sample page-snap:

 

errr. Bandai still seems to luv making their DX Macross valks look derpy in their instructions-manuals... 

 

 

Not surprisingly, many of the engineering from the DX YF-19 has been carried over. The eccentric bendy gun for Fighter mode is kept here. 

I think we have noticed before how Bandai went the Arcadia route for leg proportions. The manual reconfirms the knee gap in Fighter, with leg shortening in Battroid for bulkier proportions.

Earlier pictures seem to indicate Bandai got rid of the shin panel covers. However, the cover is still there but re-engineered into a simpler sliding cover instead of the previous swiveling panel. The previous solution is visually better though - it hides the whole cutout space completely, whilst the new solution hides the uglier parts but the cutout space remains.

 

We get to see how the new integrated neck cover works. Although there is still some back collar showing in Battroid, overall I like how they attempted to solve the previously only partsforming feature of the DX 19. It's in keeping with the innovations they have introduced starting with the VF-19 Advance. (for eg, one feature I feel that's a bit underappreciated is how the front canards elegantly hide into the Battroid back spine)
 

 

Barring any factory assembly QC issues, this looks like it will be a solid release.

 

Edited yesterday at 08:03 AM by MKT

[Chronocidal]

Will give them credit, I think I do like the proportions of this one's nose section better than the Yamarcadia (better shape of the neck/LEX, and it makes the nose look longer), but this thing looks like a genuine frankenvalk.

There is so much Yamarcadia DNA here, I don't know what to properly call it.  So much of this looks directly copied, it's kind of insane.  The landing gear look straight up identical (minus the paint, of course ).  I think they did a bit better with the knee extension, but then again, the Yamarcadia didn't really need the sliding covers for the Fire Valk, just the YF-19.

Bring on the Yamcadai DX!

Though, moreso, bring on the rest of the VF-19 series.  I'm still waiting for someone to make a white and black VF-19F.

[PointBlankSniper]

It really doesn't seem like there are any connection features to accomodate the sound booster...

Also gotta wonder if those shoulder holes are cosmetic or if they are deep enough to hold the 19P's speaker fins.

[PsYcHoDyNaMiX]

1 hour ago, PointBlankSniper said:

It really doesn't seem like there are any connection features to accomodate the sound booster...

Also gotta wonder if those shoulder holes are cosmetic or if they are deep enough to hold the 19P's speaker fins.

 

The ports/holes onto of the DX's shoulders look like they would line up with the sounder booster.

EDIT:
Interesting... it looks like the holes would line up where the HG kit has the sound boosters on the shoulders but the Hi-Metal it looks like it might not use them. I don't own either of those versions could anyone confirm how the sound booster is mounted for either (or both) of those?

HG:


HiMetal:

Edited 19 hours ago by PsYcHoDyNaMiX

[jenius]

I think those holes are just thruster details and won't be used for any attachments and, if they make a P, they'll do new shoulders like they did for the HMR. Maybe they could be anchors for fighter booster attachment? The booster should connect to the back in battroid. Fighter is the mode where fancy engineering would need to be involved if they wanted to avoid attachment parts. We shall see!

[PointBlankSniper]

1 hour ago, PsYcHoDyNaMiX said:

The ports/holes onto of the DX's shoulders look like they would line up with the sounder booster.
 

 

Those are the exact holes I am saying are seemingly even too shallow to hold the fins for the 19P

1 hour ago, jenius said:

I think those holes are just thruster details and won't be used for any attachments and, if they make a P, they'll do new shoulders like they did for the HMR. Maybe they could be anchors for fighter booster attachment? The booster should connect to the back in battroid. Fighter is the mode where fancy engineering would need to be involved if they wanted to avoid attachment parts. We shall see!

That's what I'm getting at, but in the pessimistic direction. Bandai basically looks like they deliberately designed incompatability into this to quietly announce the refusal of making add ons and variants to milk all the groundwork they already put in, because typical Bandai logic...

The HMR telegraphed their intentions with functioning shoulder holes, even though they used the same brand of weird logic to end up with two sets of shoulders on the 19P 🤪

It just doesn't look good on Bandai's part to plan and engineer petty inconveniences into their new molds for both themselves and the customer lol

[Chronocidal]

I mean, there's probably no reason they couldn't use those holes to help anchor the sound booster, but judging by the HMR (and the Yamato VF-19s for that matter) the holes aren't in the right spot for the VF-19P fins anyhow.

I am hoping the final product isn't so sloppily painted though.  I guess they wanted those spots to look like thrusters or something, but they couldn't even get the holes painted black around the inside.  

[MKT]

Another small detail is that in Battroid the gap between the chest cover & nosecone has become more Yamcadia-like, compared to the DX 19. I assume this is due to what looks like more curvature given to the area immediately behind the cockpit in Fighter relative to the DX 19.

 

 

 

Additionally, that odd cliff between the neck cover & head in Fighter some of us were concerned about earlier seems to be gone.

Previous PO pic:

 

New pics as per manual:

[jenius]

I wish they had integrated the covers behind the head in fighter mode into the shield instead of leaving them hinged on the back of the shoulders. Stoked to see there's intake fan detail. 

[Chronocidal]

20 minutes ago, jenius said:

I wish they had integrated the covers behind the head in fighter mode into the shield instead of leaving them hinged on the back of the shoulders. Stoked to see there's intake fan detail. 

Same for the intakes, but those shoulder panels were always intended to be behind the shoulders, so it'd just be going directly against the original animation.

Interesting though, the new photos just make it even more clear that there was some intensive retouching of those early product previews.  The panels divisions are all clearly visible in the instruction manual, when they looked almost completely scrubbed out on the product site.

I kind of wish they had managed this sort of neck cover on the YF-19, but I'm not sure yet whether I like the collar sticking up behind the head.  Hopefully it can stow deeper than their preview images have shown.

Edited 9 hours ago by Chronocidal

[MKT]

2 hours ago, jenius said:

I wish they had integrated the covers behind the head in fighter mode into the shield instead of leaving them hinged on the back of the shoulders.

The DX 19's cover collapsing into the shield was and still is quite cool, even though it didn't work for Gerwalk. I think Bandai can't do the same this time around, because the Kai's side head lasers will be in the way of the cover's extension arms.  

[PointBlankSniper]

I wonder if it will really come out looking like the instructions. The last couple releases showed that the box and manual don't represent the final products lol

[Scyla]

The DX Chogokin VF-19Kai was put into my Anime Export stash today. It is still available for purchase for ¥33000: https://www.anime-export.com/index.php?product=98468