Yamato 1/60 YF-19 Toys

Mega Review: Includes all Yamato YF-19 variants

Packaging & Extras: (3/5) First Release
Yamato reused the packaging from their 1/48 VF-1 series for these toys which means the boxes have the same swollen dimensions (37 x 36 x 14 cm) but also include a nice flip-top lid that, when lifted, reveals the toy and its accessories through a clear window. Inside the box, the toy is nestled into plastic clamshells housed in a cardboard tray color-matched to the exterior box. The box art is Yamato’s standard “not-so-good” and the extras felt sparse. Each standard version YF-19 comes with the following:
1) Removable pilot figure
2) Gun (with removable magazine gimmick)
3) Replacement ABS front canards (the POM plastic canards installed on the toy are hard for customizers to paint)
4) 2x Display stand adapters for Yamato Launch Arm Display Stand (1 filghter/GERWALK, 1 Battroid)
In a bag behind the cardboard tray that holds the plastic clam shell you’ll also find:

5) Instructions

6) Stickers

25th Annivesary (3/5)
Though the art was changed the box and its contents were unchanged from the original release though now everything is rendered in black. The toy’s instruction manual has unique art and some of the glamor shots within the instruction manual were also updated to represent this particular toy. Like the toy, the accessories were also rendered in darker hues. The sticker sheet was modified to also allow for a more ‘low vis’ appearance. An additional instruction page was included in the baggy that states the unpainted black canards that come installed on the toy are very strong and if you prefer to use them over the weaker painted versions, you should use the included stickers to dress them up and trim the sticker so it looks better.

Reissues & Prototype Schemes (2.5/5)
For later releases, Yamato went into packaging cost-savings mode. While the dimensions are unchanged, the flip-top lid was eliminated. The interior cardboard tray was left white instead of color matched to the exterior tray. The prototype color schemes look like they are the same box differentiated by stickers but that’s not the case; the orange or blue squares are printed on the boxes. I would have preferred each have their own box art entirely but the squares indicating the version are prominent enough to avoid confusion. The reissue has new artwork differentiating it from the original release. The Weathering version is packaged in the same box as the reissue with a sticker on the outer box and a notice taped to the inner tray. Prototype schemes, the reissue, and the weathering version all come with the same accessories as the original release.

Weathering Release (3/5)
At first blush, the Weathering Edition appears to be a reissue with a sticker slapped on the top of the box but there’s a tiny bit more than that. Inside, the toy is wrapped in plastic to prevent the weathering effect from being ruined by the plastic clamshell trays. There’s also a warning on the top lid of the box that says the Weathering effect is printed on by hand and may be ruined from handling, transformation, and application of accessory parts. The package includes all the standard YF-19 accessories and:
7) Waterslide decals
The waterslide decals are the same markings as the normal stickers (which are also included).

Super Giftset (4/5)
The biggest surprise here is that Yamato was able to include the fold drive and FAST packs in a box with the same dimensions as the original release. The box and its art remains lackluster but this toy retained the flip top lid and interior colored tray. In addition to the contents of the original release, you also receive:
7) Lang Neumann (was it Yang?) co-pilot figure
8) Fast packs (four parts, 2x leg cover, 2x shoulder cover)
9) Fold drive (lights-up)
10) 2x attachment parts for fold drive
11) Fold drive cradle
12) Cover for second seat (to convert it back to the standard edition one seater)
Like the standard releases, the stickers and instructions are housed in the bag behind the cardboard tray and this version of the toy also includes a separate manual for the fast packs and fold-drive. Yamato later made the FAST packs and fold drive available as an accessory bundle so check out my separate review on that accessory pack for a scan of those instructions and a review of those parts. Why not a perfect score? You do NOT get the batteries necessary to make the LEDs in the fold drive work.  You will need three LR44 batteries (they go by many different names by many different manufactures). Later YF-19 toys included loads of additional weaponry and even a basic display stand.

Charm & Collectability: (2/5) original release, +.5 for reissues, +1 for gift-set & Weathering
The arrival of Yamato’s 1/60 YF-19 decimated the secondary market value of the existing 1/72 YF-19 toys. While the 1/60 toy felt light at only 320 grams in comparsion to the metal-laden 1/72 toys, there was no denying the 1/60 was the superior rendition. The 1/60 scale is 34 cm long in fighter (technically 1/55 scale) and 25.5 cm tall making it the only high-end YF-19 to be a true 1/60 scale in battroid (the Arcadia is only 23 cm tall while the Bandai is a little below 24 cm). Initial sales were weak as the MSRP of 18,800¥ was considered very steep in 2006 and early reviews complained about guns that sat crooked in fighter mode and loose joints. These issues were fixed on the Fold-set bundle released in June 2007 which made it the premier YF-19 toy to own until the release of Arcadia’s toy in 2014. Later non-canon repaints of the 25th anniverary scheme, Bird of Prey, and Double Nuts failed to generate substantial interest with all receiving markdowns. The Bird of Prey and Double Nuts toys enjoyed a very small print volume which helped them hold their value later. In August 2010, Yamato revisited the toy, slightly altering the beige and (allegedly) making tweaks to tolerances to make them less likely to lose resistance. As was Yamato’s fashion at the time, they also released a limited production “weathering” version of the toy, but it didn’t seem to make much of a splash, not appreciating in value until years later. When Yamato released their Mac7 VF-19Kai toy in 2011, demand grew for a 1/60 YF-19 V2 toy and one was in the works when the company was shuttered. Arcadia, a new company formed by a few former Yamato employees, purchased Yamato’s work on the V2 YF-19 and released their version in March 2014. The Arcadia toy is far superior and greatly diminished the value of the original Yamato products. The charm and collectability was further diminished in July 2015 when Bandai released their VF-19Advance DX toy and later their DX YF-19 Full Set and DX YF-19 toys.

Sculpt, Detail, and Paint: (7.5/10)
This was easily the best representation of the YF-19 in toy form until the Arcadia toy was released  in 2014. Due to the lack of paint applications, it looks plain out of the box and you may want to use the included sticker sheet to give it more pop. The pilots are nicely painted removable figures though they were very puffy. The gun looks nice enough but is clearly undersized. The cockpits have a nice painted-on console display and brown seat to give the pilot’s compartment more pop. There are no visual differences between the first release of the toy and the fold gift-set version that followed about a year later. See my separate review of the Fold Drive/FAST Packs accessory bundle for more analysis of those parts.

When reviewing any Macross Plus toy, it’s important to understand that the original designs were hand drawn and shifted proportions from being sleek fighter plans to beefy battroids in a way that can’t possibly be reproduced in a toy with constant proportions. Yamato’s compromises to do as well as they can in all modes make for a fighter mode that is a little thick. The primary weakness of fighter mode was often referred to as the ‘gullet’, or a thickness behind the nosecone near the intakes.

GERWALK mode demonstrates the compromises made to both fighter and battroid modes. The gullet is still problematic and the legs, arms, and hands don’t project the strength of the original design. Fortunately, the angle of the nose will likely obscure the gullet and the legs and arms are thick enough where you’ll still be able to find plenty of poses where you really like the look.

In battroid mode, the figure looks bow-legged. Despite being the correct height, the toy looks lanky. While later toys (Bandai and Arcadia) did a much better job capturing the stocky appearance of the YF-19 battroid, they both did so by making the YF-19 shorter, which may tell us that Kawamori goofed a little on his calculation of how tall the YF-19 should stand. The intakes at the hips have a leading edge that doesn’t agree to the line art. Another issue is a small gap between the nosecone and the upper part of the chest (which is something that was even more pronounced on the Arcadia toy). 

The 25th anniversary scheme was originally going to be a red, white, and blue deco before either production costs or negative feedback led to a shift to black with gold accents. This toy and the prototype schemes received unique pilot figures. This is the only 1/60 YF-19 to include a black gun. Though Excalibur was transliterated to Excalivur, the gold accents and texts are very well done and made me wish the regular Isamu toy had more painted on flare. Black paint schemes are popular (not as popular as canon schemes) but I’m not a huge fan of them as the black often conceals some of the underlying detail of the toys. The ABS canards included have the gold trim which I felt was a significant upgrade from the all-black POM canards that come installed. If you’re concerned about breaking the painted ABS canards, Yamato included stickers that can be applied to the POM canards to simulate the look. Those stickers also have gray UN Spacy kites to support a ‘low vis’ look which is a theme that carries over to the intake fans. While other YF-19 toys have gold intake fans, the fan on the 25th Anniversary is left silver like the housing around it.

Though I didn’t expect it, the Bird of Prey quickly became my favorite paint scheme. The orange POPS while supporting the demonstrator aesthetic the toy was meant to capture. I prefer the creamy white to Isamu’s beige or the black of the 25th anniversary toy. There are other Project SuperNova paint schemes out there that may also look great on a toy but of the Bird of Prey and Double Nuts, this was my pick. The Double Nuts is also an attractive bird and no doubt some will gravitate to blue over orange. This is a color palette swap and nothing more from the Bird of Prey.

When Yamato reissued the YF-19 they decided to try something a little different with the color, making it brighter. I would say now it looks like a glass of creamer with a splash of coffee instead of a sandy beach. In comparison, the Arcadia toy looks desaturarted.

The base of the Weathering Edition toy is the reissue YF-19 so it carries forward the newer color in its base but the gray airbrushing mutes the color slightly. One of the more striking elements of the weathering versions are the panel lines which extends to all lines, even those inside the intake fan area. The weathering effect extends to all parts, top, bottom, and even the internal landing gear bays. I’m not a modeler but I suspect people with experience applying weathering to realistic modelers will be unimpressed with these manufacturer applied embellishments. While Yamato’s 1/48 Weathering Edition VF-1 toys also included some pre-applied decals, that is not the case for the 1/60 YF-19 toy. A common complaint about the Weathering Edition toys is that they just don’t fit in with a larger collection of standard toys. While this may be true, I think it’s a positive thing; these toys will grab your attention, for better or worse.

Design: (7/10)
There is lots of cool stuff to rave about here but there are a few significant issues that really tug this score down.  Pros include:
1) Integrated landing gear. The front landing gear has an articulated tow bar, the rear landing gear descend and then pivot outward for a wider track. All landing gear lock in their deployed position makign the toy easy to move around on the spinning rubber tires.

2) Gun features removable magazine
3) Perfect transformation. I particularly liked how the tail fins slide up along the leg to make them less of an issue in battroid mode. The legs feature collapsing sections to accommodate transformation without additional filler parts. There’s a small cavity filler hidden in the back of the head.
4) Interior shoulder guards that prop the shoulder up in battroid.

5) Removable face plate that expose the battroid’s head detail as seen in the show.
6) The cockpit can accommodate two figures (though the pilots were too big). The second seat can be replaced and concealed.
That’s a lot of good stuff right there! Unfortunately, there are also some shortcomings.
1) GERWALK needs, by its original design, help being held together and Yamato did nothing to prevent it from turning into a floppy mess. This seemed especially problematic to me if I went from Battroid back to GERWALK mode… the whole toy felt sloppy no matter how much massaging I did. If you move the YF-19’s arms in GERWALK it’s almost guaranteed that you will need to re-adjust the back area. Yamato learned from the floppiness of this toy and provided tabs on their future Mac7 VF-19 toys that locked everything nicely together. Those tabs were carried forward to both Arcadia and Bandai’s subsequent offerings for a much improved experience.
2) The toy should have a latch to keep the chest area locked in position for Battroid mode. Moving the arms often requires readjusting the chest area to conceal any gaps you may have created. This issue was also fixed in Yamato’s Mac7 toys as well as Arcadia and Bandai’s offerings.
3) Fighter mode also suffers from poor fit and insufficent locking mechanisms. The pegs at the base of the wings often come free. The connection at the top of the hip, above the intakes, is insufficient, often causing a large gap. The whole thing comes together so poorly that sometimes just pulling out one of the rear landing gear causes the leg to pop free which then causes the whole toy to need adjusting.
3) There are issues with the FAST pack implementation including parts of the FAST packs that were skipped and insufficient locking in fighter mode. See my separate review of that accessory.
4) In battroid mode, the shoulder super parts make it more evident that the interior shoulder supports are insufficient; gravity easily wins out and the shoulders covers become limp.
5) Opening the cockpit requires the nosecone being angled slightly downward.
This toy doesn’t have an intuitive transformation, it’s complicated with seemingly every part of the toy doing something, so expect to spend some time trying to tweak everything just right when you go from mode to mode. With time you’ll know just where to put a thumb or a finger to adjust things… but don’t expect to be a master at this toy with a quickness.  Cool features you’ll find on the Bandai VF-19Advance and Arcadia YF-19 that you won’t find here include missiles stowed in the legs, hard points on the wings, and high speed mode.

Durability & Build: (6.5/10)
It seems that fewer people are reporting catastrophic failures with the later releases of the YF-19 but those failures were never as bad as Yamato’s 1/72 YF-19 toys or later 1/60 VF-0 toys. The transformation process isn’t easy; a fair amount of patience is HIGHLY recommended. That said, this transformation might be simpler than the YF-19 toys that followed it. There are complaints about certain areas of these toys getting loose. The shoulders, hips, and hip/wing connection points can all be problematic and make some modes much less fun.

The 25th Anniversary paint scheme comes with black or painted canards. I highly recommend using the all black canards for battroid mode as the hips can scrape the paint off very easily during only mild handling of battroid.

Articulation: (7.5/10)
When I first reviewed this toy I was impressed but Bandai and Arcadia have since raised the bar in this category. The head isn’t on a ball joint so it can’t be cocked in any direction, but it can spin completely around and angle up/down. The base of the neck is a pivot to accentuate those up or down looks. The shoulder is a rotation point that lets the assembly spin all the way around. A hinge below the shoulder allows the arm to angle out perpendicular to the body. Within the bicep sleeve is a rotation point that allows the forearm to spin in any direction. Neither the shoulder rotation point, the pivot at the base of the shoulder, or the rotation point in the bicep have any ratchets and are loose enough to limit arm poses. The elbow has three racheted angles it can achieve but only allows about 85 degrees of angle at its most extreme point. Hands connect via peg that allows them to rotate completely around. A functional wrist accents an articulated trigger finger, pinky, and three interior fingers molded as one piece but the hand really only looks good as a fist or holding the gun. The hips are awkward affairs. To gain normal forward back mobility of the hip, you must pull the hip outward (it will probably pop off) so you have clearance from the canards tucked directly behind them. There is only a limited ability to obtain a wide stance but the hips can be angled back (point the toes outward). A GERWALK joint below the intake allows more forward leg swing. A rotation point tucked into the knee allows the lower leg to spin all the way around provided the knee cap is positioned properly. The knee allows 90 degree of backward sweep and at least 75 degrees of forward sweep for GERWALK mode when the knee extension is activated. The ankles are limited to foward/back heel movement until the foot is extended fully outward at which point a hinge in the foot allows so left/right angling. There is no twist or ball joint in the foot. Later toys had much improved elbows, hips, knees, and ankles while adding hips. Since the foot articulation is so limited, you may want to use the wing to help keep the toy stable when doing more dynamic battroid mode poses.

Total Score: (33.5 – 36/50)
I gave the more recent VF-19Kai a score of 43.5 which makes me feel the score here is a little too generous but it’s hard to determine which scores exactly should be lower. When I first reviewed this toy I argued it was a good toy but not quite as good as its high MSRP would lead you to expect (a common refrain).   It seems more first edition toys are breaking down at the joints so it probably could be argued I should lower the durability score down but my giftset version is holding up pretty well, albeit a lot looser than when I purchased it. The number one complaint about this toy is that its floppy by design with many moving parts not having adequate latching mechanisms to hold things together in each mode. A toy that’s difficult to transform and doesn’t lock together in its desired mode tends to leave owners feeling unsatisfied; perhaps I should lower the design score. At the end of the day, this isn’t a terrible toy, it was the best YF-19 toy for a long while and a HUGE improvement over its predecessor (the Yamato 1/72 YF-19). If you’re really hungry for a YF-19 toy but don’t have the budget for the Arcadia or Bandai DX releases, and you know this one has some issues and you set your expectations accordingly, you’ll probably be fond of it. If you’re a finicky collector definitely save up and get the Arcadia or Bandai toys.  While I’m still fond of my gift-set, I often wonder how many people would have bothered buying the fold version if Yamato had only included those 4 little super parts in the regular releases… to this day it seems like such a cheap way to make a buck.

NOTE:

September 16, 2007: YF-19 Fold Set Review
November 2, 2011.  Improved content, consolidated separate YF-19 25th anniversary review, increased photo resolution, and added video review
October 21, 2015. Added an HD transformation guide and updated content to reflect the release of more modern Arcadia 1/60 YF-19 and Bandai VF-19Advance toys.
December 23, 2018, Added scans of instructions and stickers, updated pictures and content in relation to Bandai’s DX YF-19 toy.
June 30, 2019, Added 4K Battroid/GERWALK/Fighter transformation video.
Decemeber 22, 2024 Added 4K review and additional details/photos featuring all regular release variants