Anasazi37

Ferry is still an option, but no new EMS shipments to the US have been accepted by Japan Post since 24 April: https://www.post.japanpost.jp/int/information/2020/0423_03_en.html At the time they estimated four months to clear out the current backlog. I've had an SSP set sitting at the Tokyo airport mail facility, with no movement, since 18 Apr. It wasn't returned to the shipper because it cleared customs right before the announcement was made, but several MW members saw their packages returned and then had to pick a different method.

I've bought from them a few times and a several MW members have used them a lot. They tend to have decent prices except for when they know there is high demand, like with the DX valks. In those cases they jack up the price by a lot. Their shipping tends to be a bit more expensive than other stores, but if you're in the US they're only offering ferry and UPS right now (and I think it's only if you ask them for it). Order processing can take some time, too, but my experience is limited to pre-orders, so maybe it's faster if an item has been in stock for a while. MSRP on the Good Smile website, pre-tax, is ¥7000, so ¥7800 isn't bad. With that said, I just checked Amazon Japan and they have it for cheaper with international priority shipping that will probably cost about as much as NY would charge you (¥2,941 for me): https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B07R4TM7Z8/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_U_x_vWa3EbTFCYSXR I just went through the motions of checking out and the price dropped to ¥6680 because they removed the tax. That's probably your best option.

Very true The Gerwalk Strike kit is what motivated me to set up my workshop in the garage and design and build a spray booth large enough to handle the pieces. It's a slippery slope, because once you have the setup it becomes a lot easier to justify purchasing large kits....

I've never seen a Bandai-branded 1/72 variable Hikaru 1J. Does it exist? I know they put out a battroid kit, but you'd think with Hikaru's popularity that they'd make the variable kit, too. When I started collecting these kits about twenty years ago, I couldn't find the Hikaru, so I bought an extra Millia with the plan to just convert it to an Hikaru (including custom decals). I do have the original IMAI kit, which wasn't easy to track down back then, and I'm thinking of keeping that one unbuilt since it seems to be rare.

My 1/20 Fighter kit arrived earlier this week. I clearly have a 1/20 addiction. I tried to plan it so that there are just enough armaments for all three. The two Strike kits are getting four RMS-1 and two UUM-7 each and the Fighter kit is getting four AMM-1. The packaging of the armament sets had to be intentional, so that unless you do what I'm doing, you'd need to buy two per kit. That's low, even by Bandai standards of nickel-and-diming you to death. When the Strike Battroid kit comes out (I'm an optimist), I'll just forgo the armaments and keep the wings folded.

As a kid, that would have made me so incredibly sad to finally get my hands on a Strike Valkyrie or VE-1 and find Jetfire armor inside the box.

You mean mods like these?

The Revell Changers kits were the very first Macross things I ever bought when I was a kid (which I knew as Robotech at the time). When I started to get back into this in 2001 and looked around for something I could afford as a very poor grad student, I found the IMAI/Bandai kits that Revell repackaged for the Changers line. It didn't take long for me to get hooked on collecting toys and building kits, which I'm still doing over 19 years later. I have a soft spot for this one and it's nice to see someone giving it some love in this way. If you haven't come across the 1/20 Plamax kits that have been released over the past year and a half, I think you'll appreciate them: https://www.goodsmile.info/en/product/7226/PLAMAX+MF+25+minimum+factory+VF+1+Super+Strike+Gerwalk+Valkyrie.html https://www.goodsmile.info/en/product/8276/PLAMAX+MF+37+minimum+factory+VF+1+Super+Strike+Fighter+Valkyrie.html https://www.goodsmile.info/en/product/8302/PLAMAX+MF+38+minimum+factory+VF+1+Valkyrie+Armament+Set.html https://www.goodsmile.info/en/product/8904/PLAMAX+MF+45+minimum+factory+VF+1+Fighter+Valkyrie.html

If they start cranking out Frontier reissues with upgrades, my wallet will suffer greatly and the DX VF-1 and HMR releases will have to get spaced out even further because it seems like Bandai only sets aside a small amount of their production capacity for Macross. Yes, I'm still hopeful that we'll get more HMRs. I want the remaining Destroids and all of the enemy mecha dammit!

And SAHRA is basically a warehouse, so that could work if they wanted to do it, like HLJ's Private Warehouse but for the entire network of stores. I think other locations send their imperfect items there for sale online so they don't take up precious shelf space, so purchased items could move the same way. And that's usually imperfect by Mandarake standards, which means someone at some point thought there might possibly be an outside chance that a corner of a box got scuffed in a way that is only visible with an electron microscope. And I will say that SAHRA packs items way better than the other branches, more in line with HLJ, AJ, and package forwarding services, so they clearly have that part of the logistics chain worked out.

SAHRA. A few of us posted on the technique in another thread. If you can't find the exact item you want, find one that is really similar (i.e., different color variant or an earlier release) so the size and weight of the box are the same, then go through the motions of trying to purchase it. At one point you'll see a shipping estimate since items at that branch are ready to ship. With that said, since their only current option for shipping to the US is DHL, you might not see an estimate right now. You'll probably just get the bill after submitting your order. That's already happened to me once.

I still have all of my v1 Yammies because I tell myself that they have a lot of diecast and look good in Fighter mode (they're all displayed that way). I also missed out on v2 and fixing that problem would be very expensive.

"Biggie Smalls, Biggie Smalls, Biggie Smalls." Like @Kanedas Bike, I almost got in trouble in a Teams meeting when I read this post and started laughing. Mute button saved the day. If you want him to show up faster, I think you also have to mention ferry shipping (ironically much slower) and never having any problems securing multiple copies of toys on PO Madness nights. I quickly gave up on size and font matching about 18 years ago when I first started designing and printing decals for Macross toys and models. Best option is to import a picture of the marking into Illustrator or Inkscape and trace what you need. I only do that for markings where it really matters, though, like modex numbers. Especially for larger toys and models where you can't hide the differences. The set I made for the Plamax 1/20 Strike Gerwalk kit was challenging in that regard.

Large and/or heavy Macross boxes are hard to get past spouses. I tried that with the Plamax 1/20 Strike Fighter kit when I brought it home from the post office, saying it was the kit I already owned (Strike Gerwalk) and I was just moving the box from the garage into the house. She's picked up enough about Macross from being married to me for 14 years that she knows the difference between Fighter, Gerwalk, and Battroid and unfortunately for me the mode is clearly printed on the box. Took a while to dig myself out of that situation....

Well said! I'm working on 13 1/55 customs right now. Not at the same time, of course, but I really want to fill out that part of my collection and the stock ones made by Takatoku and Bandai just never felt detailed enough. The upside to that is they can take a serious beating and still look pretty good. These customs? Not so much, but I don't plan on transforming or whooshing them around too much. Taking a Chunky Monkey apart, modifying it, repainting it, and putting it back together really makes you appreciate the durable elegance and simplicity of the design.

Good catch, @DYRL VF-1S. What's interesting is that the Posting/Collection location is the airport mail facility (TOKYO INT), so there was probably no need to send it along to another location for actual shipment and that's maybe why his tracking looks different than mine (below) even though both packages are at the same location. I'm guessing that both made it through customs and are collecting dust in a warehouse. I know that Tenso takes stuff directly to the airport mail facility and it would make sense that Buyee does the same thing because they're the same company. It also means that someone from Buyee could just go over there and get the package back, right?

I have a SSP set shipped by FromJapan via EMS that's been sitting at the Tokyo airport since 18 Apr. No movement at all. It's a small package, so you'd think that it could get squeezed in somewhere, but no. I have no idea how Japan Post is prioritizing packages (last in, first out?), but if yours is a large one, it might take longer because of limited space on flights. They are promising to deliver everything, even if it takes 4+ months, and losing an EMS package is a big deal. If they do return it to Buyee, you're actually dealing with Tenso and their entire business revolves around shipping stuff to customers overseas, so I'd be surprised if they don't offer to reship. If you open a PayPal dispute, you'll likely get blacklisted by both Buyee and Tenso.

I had to specifically ask them for an alternate shipping method--they didn't offer anything to me, either. Since EMS isn't an option for us, and they're apparently upgrading other people from SAL to UPS for free (I still call shenanigans on that BS), you'd think they'd at least offer UPS as an option to everyone with un-shipped orders, even if you have to pay for it.

They'll happily ship your SSP set via UPS if you're willing to pay an additional $37.

I did hear back from NY about my refund request. They used a lot of words to say something very straighforward: we only did this for select orders, so no, we won't give you a refund. They didn't explain their rationale for the orders they selected or why mine didn't qualify. I think Bandai would be impressed by their level of non-transparency.

You're not alone. Sounds like they've been real jerks to some other MW members lately, who simply asked them to ship items using UPS, FedEx, or DHL because Japan Post was no longer an option. Their experiences led me to move AE to the bottom of my list of online stores to use. The second-to-last straw for me with AE was their inflated price on the TWE DX Hayao 1A. It was at the Nippon-Yasan level of obscene price hikes.

If Bandai sticks to a roughly four-month lead time on Macross releases, I'm assuming within the next few weeks. They usually don't wait too long after news breaks to post an entry on the Tamashii site and the PO date is usually not far behind that....

They had this on display last year at a Tamashii Nations event, so I figured it was probably in the release pipeline. It's pretty random, though. It was popular enough to go through a few versions the first time around, so maybe that's the reason. I picked up the latest version (with incorrectly-printed SMS shoulder marking and corrected part) and the armor for...more than ¥23,000 early last year on Mandarake. Kicking myself a little bit, but at the time there was no way to know that this was coming.

Funny you mention Informed Delivery. I signed up for that over the weekend in the hope that I could see the missing DHL package in the system for exactly the reason you mention (there must be a number somewhere), but no dice this time. I could see lots of other stuff in transit, but not that package. It's still a good idea, though. I'm hoping that it works for my next one.

I agree! It's not a small town, but I guess DHL doesn't think it's profitable to have a hub here. Packages still show up at warp speed, though. And I love the desert.