11.17.08
Yamato GNU No. 002 YF-21
Review: Oh-mega poseable guh-new toy for your shelf
Packaging & Extras (2/5)
Yamato failed when it came to the extras included with their first wave of GNU toys. Recently Yamato announced some improvements to future GNU releases (they’ve upgraded the internal skeleton) and they also announced Super/Strike parts for future VF/YF releases. In addition, Yamato has a GNU stand for future releases but it looks like that will be sold separately. In short, the future looks bright but the present was pretty lame. You only get one gun so no John Woo action for you!
Charm & Collectability (2/5)
I’m still not convinced that there’s much hope for this line to be a dominant Macross force. While I like the size, the YF-19 and YF-21 toys went head to head against Revoltech and just didn’t win by a margin substantial enough to offset their cost (and in many ways they just plain didn’t win).
Sculpt, Detail, & Paint (8/10)
GNU products look extremely clean and the quality is obvious (in comparison to toys made of cheaper plastics). There was definitely a solid effort to capture the battroid mode line art here (which means it’s a bit more cartoony looking than most transforming toys). There are some nice details painted on but overall the toy doesn’t look all that exciting and really it’s just crying out for some sort of weathering job like the oustanding YF-19 toy from this review.
Design (8.5/10)
Yamato seemingly has already acknowledged there was room for improvement in their GNU line by announcing upgrades for next year. Unfortunately, not all the GNU products feature the full GNU skeletons so tweaks to a portion of the skeleton may have no affect future Macross toys. The Yamato Macross GNU toys are amongst those with only partial skeletons because of their slender bodies so some of the coolness of the skeleton is lost (the bodies limit articulation much more so than the underlying skeleton would allow).
Durability & Build (8.5/10)
The GNUs are well built and fun to handle. I did have an issue with the YF-21 leg guards coming off during posing. It’s not that they’re loose or anything like that, it’s just that they slide onto pegs which can easily become unseated. Customizers should probably go about deconstructing this toy carefully… but then again, customizers are the type of people who fix the toys they break. I found deconstruction a bit too easy on the YF-21’s arms, as pictured above. I also managed to scratch off a tiny bit of paint as pictured below.
Articulation: (8/10)
The articulation is good, and this toy is a lot of fun to play with, but there was room for improvement. Fortunately this YF-21 stands fine on its own (always a concern with the top heavy design). When these toys have stands available I suspect they’ll be a lot more fun to play with but in the meantime you can set up some great poses with a YF-19 GNU.
Total Score (37.5/50)
This toy scores 2.5 points above average which is good but not necessarily good enough to warrant its price tags for fans outside of Japan. Sure, if you live in Japan the approximately $25-$30 might not seem like a big chunk of change but after shipping costs that tends to put them in the $40 range in the US and that’s a tough sale unless you are a diehard YF-21 fan. If you can find them in bargain bins you’ll likely be happy with your purchase but you may want to consider saving your pennies for the big 1/60 YF-21 Yamato makes (that toy is sweet).
