Yes, it is literally reflected on the title, Fuminari have just came back from his KL trip recently and he managed to find some of the Yamato's Macross Plus toys in a few stores. I paid him in advanced and he managed to secure me a YF-21! Sorry, don't have camera for the moment so the pictures are taken from Macross World.

Reupdated: 22-Dec-2004 09:46 - Apparently I was mistaken as my unit is a Fast Pack. You can read it more at this post. Therefore the color of the YF-21 is purple with a slight blue tint, unlike the photo displayed as below.


Here's the YF-21 in Fighter Mode


Here's the YF-21 in Gerwalk Mode


Here's the YF-21 in Battloid Mode

My verdict? The toy is surprisingly light for its construction. A near inspection indicated that the only metal part of the toy was the leg. The rest of the constructions are made from plastic. However, transforming the model is a little tricky as there are a few movable gears in the central joint between the leg, hand and torso which could cause confusion for a newbie. The manual is totally in Japanese but it has great illustration on how to do the proper transformation. However, I still think it would be great if they could put in some English instruction as well as this will greatly help those who cannot understand/read Japanese. This is because there are some instructions that you need to make sense from the picture.

There is still some positive point since the plastic parts have more resistance from scratches, unlike YF-19, another model which Fuminari have bought me a while back. The YF-19 is a little heavier with metal die-cast construction mostly on the torso, legs & arm. However, the transformation isn't as tricky as YF-21 but somehow the fighter mode is a little disappointing because YF-19 used to be the coolest plane in Macross Plus!


Here's the YF-19 in Fighter Mode


Here's the YF-19 in Gerwalk Mode


Here's the YF-19 in Battloid Mode

Since the YF-19 has more steel construction, it has a problem on the paint which can be easily scrapped off! Same thing as reported by Macross World, it seems more like the way it's designed. A little disappointed with the paint job there but hey, you can't have everything!

Overall, YF-21 is quite a good quality toy and could withstand about 5-6 transformation, which is pretty good for me. As for Fighter-design-wise, I'd still prefer to go for a VF-11, which Fuminari is currently owning now. Perhaps once I managed to scrap more cash, I'll try to complete my collection of the 3 planes.

* Official website for Yamato Toys is http://www.yamato-toys.com/
* Official website for Macross is http://www.www.macross.co.jp/
* Credits: Pictures are taken from Macrossworld Toys
* Statistics & history of the Macross variable fighters development can be found at Steel Falcon.