DX Chogokin VF-17S

[m0n5t3r]

I've been reading through the recent posts and it's just sad that these big companies are trying soooo hard not to give collectors exactly what they want (their apparent business model for repeat business) that they're doing something as blatantly obvious as reprinting a MacF VF-171 and selling as a Mac7 VF-17.  Guess bold-faced lies are the in thing right now everywhere you look.

[Froy]

First DX VF-17 just sold for 18K yen at Mandarake

https://order.mandarake.co.jp/order/detailPage/item?itemCode=1328959891&ref=list&keyword=Macross&lang=en

[PointBlankSniper]

If these are the release week prices, it should be reasonable to expect the price to approach 10k within a quarter... especially when even the jp fans are sharing the same sentiments as we do

[MKT]

These days I'm not feeling so much of buying lacklustre releases just so in the hope for the manufacturer to go on making the ones we want. Not especially when manufacturer can be really tone-deaf to fan sentiments.

At same time, I dread to return to what I think would be the dark days of Macross collecting of.. pre early-2000s?

Feels like the new Macross anime can't come soon enough - at least there'll be some new valks to get excited with, and not bastardised versions of old ones & various vaporwares. As I'm typing this I'm mourning how stuff so many stuff from Delta hasn't got released - chiefly a SV-303.  

  

[recon]

8 hours ago, treatment said:

small production runs of VF-171 cosplaying as VF-17S?

will that really help?

https://twitter.com/De_danaan179/status/2036032691569938654

web-translated:

 

https://twitter.com/Tokyo_Incident/status/2035931211131232436

web-translated:

 

 

 

In other words we got owned by tamashii and bandai for their laziness and cost cutting measures.

[treatment]

gorilla got Bandai'd yet again...

https://twitter.com/MTM_025_8_S04/status/2036367359469064381

web-translated:

😓

 

[Duymon]

Bandai Exec: How do we gently kill off the Mac 7 line withou a huge fan backlash?

Evildoer: we'll release a half-assed VF-17 and say the poor sales killed off the line. Now we have more resources to make the 10837801298th gundam seed Astray

*rage*

Oh well, I'll ship my Vf-17 sometime within the next 6 months with some other stuff to save cash at HLJ since they scalp for shipping compared to other JP shops.

Edited Tuesday at 05:41 PM by Duymon

[jenius]

The dx 19 also sold terrible so it's not just the half-assery that's the problem. 

[treatment]

geezus, Bandai...

https://twitter.com/19721212/status/2036068717369717070/photo/3

 

/facepalm

[PointBlankSniper]

Kind of off topic. This reminds me of the recent SMP announcement. That's Bandai's collector model kit line for classic mecha like brave series and sentai megazords, disguised as candy toys and packaged like retro DXs for nostalgia. While everyone has been begging for reprints, Bandai announced a spinoff line of smaller scale, monochrome, non combining, low parts seperation and articulation kits of some of the most requested zords. Everyone is as pissed as they are confused. JP comments even roasted it as industrial waste plastic lmao.

Back on topic. Bandai could have used production capacity of that unwanted line to make the dozen new parts on a single runner to make the VF-17 look right, and they would lose less money from both product lines. SMP is also made with ABS in their China factories after all. Instead, they are hellbent on incurring ire from every fanbase possible lol.

On a different note, I still don't quite understand what yamato did differently that let their elbow guns line up with the end of shoulder block in fighter, that allows it clearance to be tall enough to have space for two missile ports, that Bandai's 171 based proportions simply can't do nicely, even if they had made new molds for it.

[Bolt]

I can't wait for the renewal version!

[m0n5t3r]

19 hours ago, PointBlankSniper said:

it should be reasonable to expect the price to approach 10k

Silver lining is, at 27k JPY msrp, this could realistically go down to as much as 13.5k JPY... good enough for a fighter mode only 1/60 model? 

[Graham]

I've already put mine up for sale at a loss, but don't care. 🤣 

Took it out of the box for 5 minutes, looked at it and thought "nah, not keeping you".

[Lolicon]

A VF-17 that fails the @Graham test is no real VF-17. 

[treatment]

42 minutes ago, Lolicon said:

A VF-17 that fails the @Graham test is no real VF-17. 

 

yup.

and here's a recent jp-fan reply to TN's own PR-tweet:

https://twitter.com/t_features/status/2034230867384787375

web-translated:

 

Maamo's reply-tweet if you can't see it from the TN-tweet at https://twitter.com/mamochansw1911/status/2036393917730660648

 

Edited Wednesday at 05:45 AM by treatment
added maamo direct tweet

[Bolt]

1 hour ago, Graham said:

I've already put mine up for sale at a loss, but don't care. 🤣 

Took it out of the box for 5 minutes, looked at it and thought "nah, not keeping you".

Not even worth fighter mode ?

[MKT]

6 hours ago, treatment said:

geezus, Bandai...

https://twitter.com/19721212/status/2036068717369717070/photo/3

 

/facepalm

[ArchieNov]

This is probably the first time I feel like selling my valk even before I receive it lol. I'm usually quite open minded about experiencing new valks myself before having an opinion on it, but seems like this VF-17S is just universally disliked. Even hardcore 17S lovers like Graham couldn't like it.

[BlueMax]

Bandai has now had two consecutive flops in terms of sales, both from Macross 7, in the DX line. While this one makes sense, the VF-19kai tanked for other reasons, but definitely quality and looks were not the problem. 

On the HMR side, the VF-0S with Ghost isn't doing so hot either. If my impression is right, most revival reissues aren't doing particurlaly great as well.

The only ones doing well enough seem to be the VF-1 series.

Of course, it could be argued that people just don't want to double or triple dip into products and charaters they already own (give us something new!), but all in all, including the fact that mecha anime has pretty much completely fallen out of fashion, other than perhaps the VF-1 series, I'm worried what Bandai's bean counters will take home from this series of flops and lukewarm sales.

[jenius]

This is a repaint of a toy from 2012 that even then was the worst of the (post original VF-25) DX Frontier toys... letdown was inevitable. At least it doesn't have those disastrous removable wing pegs! 

[Graham]

5 hours ago, Bolt said:

Not even worth fighter mode ?

I was originally planning just to keep it in fighter mode and look at it only with my reading glasses off. 😂 

But, after looking at it in person, I just can't stand it with the completely wrong legs, wrong  backplate, wrong shoulders etc. 

I love the VF-17 design too much to keep this travesty.

On a positive note, I do think Bandai did a good job with the color though.

I will remain happy with my original 90s Bandai 1/65 and Yamato 1/60 versions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Chronocidal]

Hey, at least it's a solid source of spare parts to rebuild some shattered 171s.  

Being entirely honest, I'm not a big enough VF-17 fan to be as spectacularly disappointed as many here.  It is what it is, and I don't mind having a slim 17 to match the other 171s from a "mechanically feasible" point of view.  As iconic as it all is, the scale shown in the Macross7 animation is completely nonsensical.

I'm mostly sad that I probably could have had a couple for much cheaper if I waited.  

What will make me more sad is if Bandai continues to misinterpret their terrible decisions as lack of customer interest, and they just nix their entire 7 line before we get the other VF-19s.

Though on the other hand, maybe that will convince them to finally go back to products that will sell, and we'll get more VF-1s.  It might not be all bad.

Edited Wednesday at 03:12 PM by Chronocidal

[MKT]

Knowing myself I will probably pick this up very much later down the road, purely for novelty or completist reasons.

If Bandai wants to continue the Macross 7 line they should focus on making the rest of HMR Soundforce they showed so prominently some years ago. I’m ok if they skip more DX Mac 7 for HMR versions.

[sh9000]

I'll just pretend in my own headcanon that the DX is a Mark I used in Macross Plus and the Yamato 1/60 is a Mark II used in Macross 7.  Either that or I'll just leave the DX in Fighter mode and display it in diffferent angles.

Edited yesterday at 04:50 AM by sh9000

[PointBlankSniper]

Ain't no way they are done doing M7 and Gamlin dirty. They still need to sell you a partsforming 22 with integral gunpods that drag on the floor, to really seal their bean counters' narrative on popularity of the franchise.

But I'm still willing to believe they are open to waiting a year or so and then coming back with a couple new molds to release a 17D with "minor updates", and then giving the 17S a revival based on that though.

[Chronocidal]

Hey, at least making the 17S first means they can just repop it in red for Milia's version, which I will absolutely pick up just for the novelty.

I'm still minorly salty that Yamato never made that one.  

[treatment]

1 hour ago, PointBlankSniper said:

Ain't no way they are done doing M7 and Gamlin dirty. They still need to sell you a partsforming 22 with integral gunpods that drag on the floor, to really seal their bean counters' narrative on popularity of the franchise.

But I'm still willing to believe they are open to waiting a year or so and then coming back with a couple new molds to release a 17D with "minor updates", and then giving the 17S a revival based on that though.

You're not suggesting that Bandai will recolor their existing DX-21 with glued skirt-armors to make Gamlin's DX-22 and then do a PR of it as  "a 3D model created by working backward from the evolved YF-21" , are you?

That will be such a classic Bandai tactic...

🤣

 

 

 

 

[jenius]

I wouldn't rule that out!

[davidwhangchoi]

On 3/24/2026 at 8:46 PM, Graham said:

I've already put mine up for sale at a loss, but don't care. 🤣 

Took it out of the box for 5 minutes, looked at it and thought "nah, not keeping you".

Everyone on Macross World knows Graham is a super fan of the VF-17.

That's telling that he's returning/selling it

[PointBlankSniper]

5 hours ago, treatment said:

You're not suggesting that Bandai will recolor their existing DX-21 with glued skirt-armors to make Gamlin's DX-22 and then do a PR of it as  "a 3D model created by working backward from the evolved YF-21" , are you?

That will be such a classic Bandai tactic...

🤣

I didn't think that far, but that sounds like the way they'd to go. Glued on gunpod skis, while the landing gears are there to dangle for giggles.

Originally, I was thinking they'd design the skirts fresh, by following the same ground clearance specs.

Or they could just tell us they actually designed the 22's skirts first. So when they worked backwards to make the 21. they kept those external dimensions out of equality considerations for how they knew the 22 would eventually end up...

[recon]

On 3/25/2026 at 10:59 PM, Chronocidal said:

Hey, at least it's a solid source of spare parts to rebuild some shattered 171s.  

Being entirely honest, I'm not a big enough VF-17 fan to be as spectacularly disappointed as many here.  It is what it is, and I don't mind having a slim 17 to match the other 171s from a "mechanically feasible" point of view.  As iconic as it all is, the scale shown in the Macross7 animation is completely nonsensical.

I'm mostly sad that I probably could have had a couple for much cheaper if I waited.  

What will make me more sad is if Bandai continues to misinterpret their terrible decisions as lack of customer interest, and they just nix their entire 7 line before we get the other VF-19s.

Though on the other hand, maybe that will convince them to finally go back to products that will sell, and we'll get more VF-1s.  It might not be all bad.

The problem is tamashii which bandai does not intefere with its designs. We have seen so many examples in the case of the metal build line

But credit has to be given to them for the past macross line designs which they did quite well except for  a few isolated cases. This does not seem to be case the recent YF-21 and M7 line which was a disappointment. They could have take a leaf from yamato/arcadia designs, improve it instead of throwing in their own interpretations

Edited 4 hours ago by recon

[recon]

On 3/25/2026 at 6:58 PM, Graham said:

I was originally planning just to keep it in fighter mode and look at it only with my reading glasses off. 😂 

But, after looking at it in person, I just can't stand it with the completely wrong legs, wrong  backplate, wrong shoulders etc. 

I love the VF-17 design too much to keep this travesty.

On a positive note, I do think Bandai did a good job with the color though.

I will remain happy with my original 90s Bandai 1/65 and Yamato 1/60 versions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Am kinda stuck in a dilemma to sell or keep it. I could still deal with the non conformities and irregularities but the battroid and gerwalk modes are just horrible. 

[rsvictor1976]

With all the hate this toy is getting, I wonder if the U.S. stores like BBTS or Amazon will still try to sell it at MSRP.

[jenius]

Usually they have to keep it at MSRP to collect the pre-order money and then mark it down later.

[treatment]

Yeah.

Down to 17,500y if you're a jp-resident.

https://twitter.com/Shota_FASTARC/status/2037329473365004560

Bandai's getting quite the negatives from fans on tweeter and even in amz-jp customer-reviews...

/clarkson's oh no! anyway...