Bandai 1/60 DX Chogokin Macross 7 Fire Valkyrie

[aurance]

Hmm, it looks… fine? With a couple trade-offs, if anything it’s a testament to how well Yamato did 14 years ago.

[Chronocidal]

Yeah, the comparison of the neck alignment is interesting actually.  I don't think either looks bad at all there, they're both far superior to the old original YF-19 from Yamato.  I also don't think that photo of he Arcadia VF-19 is doing it many favors, the nose actually looks droopier than it should be.

Animation-wise though, I actually think the Bandai gets closer to the art.  The Yamato looks closer to the YF-19 in general, but I think a lot of the art in Macross7 is closer to the DX profile.

They keep getting so close it's really hard to pick any major benefits between one or the other.  

[ArchieNov]

I just received my 2nd copy of this valk. It has better hip joints, but it has some weird alignment issue in the flap for the neck cover that prevents it from sitting flat while in battroid mode. If only there was a way for me to swap the lower half of my older copy with the newer one, I'd have a perfect valk lol.

[sh9000]

Quite a few available on Mandarake for anyone looking but for me I think I'm still skipping it.

[MKT]

It's kinda weird how DX's front nose in Fighter looks better than Arcadia's for the Kai, but over to the YF-19, I prefer Arcadia's droop over the DX.

[aurance]

I’m curious to see how they’ll do the VF-19F/S. There are two pretty different wing line art shapes. Yamato leaned into one version; will Bandai do the same shape, or the more delta shape? (I’m fine with either, just curious)

[treatment]

review/comparo video (chinese reviewer):

 

sample:

Edited Thursday at 12:37 AM by treatment

[Axelay]

Does this mean there's a Blazer coming?! OMGOMGOMGOMGOMG.

[ArchieNov]

2 hours ago, treatment said:

sample:

They missed sliding up the knee gap covers in fighter mode. I just find it silly how the HMR Fire Valk is a lot more like the Yamato/Arcadia than the DX.

[Chronocidal]

1 minute ago, ArchieNov said:

I just find it silly how the HMR Fire Valk is a lot more like the Yamato/Arcadia than the DX.

Yeah, there's a good reason for that, Bandai just bought up a bunch of the CAD designs for Yamato/Arcadia valks, and reproduced them in smaller scale.

[aurance]

40 minutes ago, Axelay said:

Does this mean there's a Blazer coming?! OMGOMGOMGOMGOMG.

Ohhhh it definitely seems like it!

[PointBlankSniper]

It's not uncommon for Bandai to stick in developmental lore in their instruction booklets. It doesn't really mean they will or will not produce those related units. Y'all are probably reading too much into this one.

[brooklynmacross]

Selling my extra Fire Valk guys. FREE SHIPPING Scroll all the way down to the bottom to see photos

 

[Sokeijon]

Very nice Valkyrie! Have not transform him yet. Just admiring the sleek fighter mode in nice red fire. I don’t like Arcadia glossy red. My only complain is the gap at the middle. And it’s loose no locking mechanism. 

 

[Chronocidal]

You know.. I keep hoping that one day Bandai will attempt to understand literally anything about aircraft, and the reason that things in real life are designed the way they are.

But it is not this day.  

Yeah.  They shoved all of the hardpoints toward the wingtip to the point that you can barely mount any of the weapons they've produced.  You know.. instead of spacing them out like the YF-19 had them.

I know, minor quibble, it's not like the Fire Valk ever mounted any weapons anyway, but it does mean that we'll be stuck with the same lack of space if we get a VF-19P.  I don't know if anyone has complained about this in Japan, but I'd love to post this feedback to Bandai and slap them upside the head to try and convince them to just match the spacing on the YF-19's wings in the future.  

So, yeah.  If you happened to buy at least two YF-19 Full Packs (or maybe two or three sets of VF-171 armor sets?) you're in luck.. you actually have missiles that will fit in all three spots.  

Edited 23 hours ago by Chronocidal

[Arthurius]

Just loving the pics and videos on this.  Would be all over this if i still wanted big scales, but only doing the 1/100, and really happy with the HMR, just that this is a whole new league of a toy, seems much better than my Yamato version i used to have.

[PointBlankSniper]

7 hours ago, Chronocidal said:

I'd love to post this feedback to Bandai and slap them upside the head to try and convince them to just match the spacing on the YF-19's wings in the future.  

I don't think Bandai has any interest in correcting wing molds these days. If they did, they'd have changed the 25 and 29's wings to milk this whole hardpoint with no accecories scheme they have going on with these new designs. Then they'd be able to milk those frontier sound boosters, and the 19kai having hardpoints would almost actually make sense.

The only thing this feedback has the slightest chance of saving are the 19S and 19F however unlikely that is. They probably already have those molds made and the release is imminent, if they ever had plans to release them. I wouldn't be surprised if they figured out the issue on their own and fixed the F/S after producing the kai, from watching marketing crews play with the toy lol. Or they went full Bandai and just deleted the idea of hardpoints on the F/S out of kneejerk and giggles because no fun is allowed where it makes sense lol 

[Chronocidal]

Actually, my suspicion?  Since the F/S have shorter wings, they probably copy-pasted the CAD of the outer wing segment, and those are the hardpoint spacings on the smaller wings.

If we get them at all, of course.  There's literally no reason to throw those three mounts so close together at the tip when the entire underside of the wing is blank.

[MKT]

Or it could just be Bandai started off the project using the VF-19 Advance files as the base & forgot to space out the hardpoints further like the YF-19.

(pic from anymoon.com)

[Chronocidal]

They're even more cramped and further out on the wing than on the Advance though, since I think the Advance used the innermost hardpoint to help hold the boosters on, and you could only make use of the outer two with them mounted, but they still had room for more than a single missile.

[Dayan]

On 11/11/2025 at 9:36 PM, rsvictor1976 said:

I was surprised too about the mark down at launch. Even though it’s pretty bare in terms of accessories,, it’s still a great toy. The range of articulation and the poses it can make is impressive and the flat red hue they chose makes it easily stand out on my display case. The addition of a sound booster will make this toy even more unique. Maybe if you crack it open and play with it, you’ll feel less remorse about buying it?

Well, I wanted one for the collection because I've learned if you don't get the DX releases when available, a majority of them tend to increase in price in the aftermarket.  The only DXs that really don't seem to go up or be popular are a majority of the Delta releases, some Frontier, and now, apparently Macross 7.  To be honest, the only thing that hurts is the fact that it's selling for 10,000 JPY less, but that's just how things are.  I will hold off on pre-ordering the new VF-17 since the nightmares themselves don't seem to sell well, so most likely I'll be able to get it at a discount.  (You can still find VF-171s on the shelf here even now).

[treatment]

On 11/16/2025 at 4:45 AM, Sokeijon said:

Very nice Valkyrie! Have not transform him yet. Just admiring the sleek fighter mode in nice red fire. I don’t like Arcadia glossy red. My only complain is the gap at the middle. And it’s loose no locking mechanism. 

 

 

hopefully you don't have the canard-issue as this guy's:

https://twitter.com/cross_W42S/status/1983164809609916737

web-translated:

https://twitter.com/cross_W42S/status/1986918027196252425

web-translated:

 

 

[treatment]

btw, just saw this tweet...

https://twitter.com/colasvi2/status/1990638418632851523

web-translated:

 

repair-shops in jp seems to be also messing up when fixing recent DX release issues...

 

 

 

Edited 5 hours ago by treatment