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Darth Mingus

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Everything posted by Darth Mingus

  1. I picked up the GP-01 and 02 ver. A.N.I.M.E. On a whim and that was a huge mistake…ended up with a bunch of the ones from 0083. They just announced a re-release of the GM Custom and Dom Troppen.
  2. if anyone is looking for the GBP set, Anime-Export seems to have some in stock for a reasonable 16,800Y: https://www.anime-export.com/index.php?product=53868 Note that this is the Armour Set only, does not include the VF-1J.
  3. those look promising. let us know when you get them, especially the tips on the legs. they look similar to the flight pose stands which had issues with the rubber they used and how they would potentially take off paint.
  4. Lee Valley up in Canada had the magnifier's that Adam is talking about for about $30 last year.
  5. It also have better articulation in the elbow because it does not have the transformation mechanism. I enjoyed the naked FAZZ and did not mind the armoured one either since I was expecting a brick. I am hoping they take the FAZZ and make a Theta Gundam Ver. KA from Moon Gundam.
  6. I think the official release date is September 2021. I would not be concerned yet.
  7. I just want to preface this with a statement that I do not work for Bandai, I am in no way affiliated with Bandai. But based on what I have seen over the last few years, they are trending towards moving big portions of their business direct to consumer, which makes a lot of sense: The Gunpla lines are produced in 1 highly automated factory in Japan. There has been talk about moving some production out of Japan, but I believe this was met with pushback (maybe the China Red and other China exclusive items are manufactured overseas) Their Tier 1 retailers are the big Japanese retailers (Yodabashi Camera, Bic Camera, etc.). Unfortunately, we have to lump Amazon JP into this list. I say unfortunately because they have extremely predatory practices when it comes to suppliers. Tier 2: Overseas distribution partners, like Bluefin, who run the North America operation Tier 3: The AmiAmi/HLJ/HobbySearch of the world: real, non-scalper sites cannot possibly compete with the tier 1s or 2s in terms of volume This would account for 1st run, retail offerings only. "Unpopular" offerings are done as special batch jobs, made to order, essentially and sold on P-Bandai. People see Premium Bandai and think the kits are premium. In reality, they are not premium, just made to order Originally, P-Bandai was simply recolours, with extra parts, etc... They now do P-Bandai unique kits because it is just easier to manage shelf space. With the sheer volume of gunpla available, I am sure the Tier 1 retailers are pushing back Maybe it was the Tier 1 retailers that said they would not devote shelf space to the F-90, which is why this one went P-Bandai despite a full colour box, new molds, etc. Gundam Base is another outlet for retail kits. When you visit a Gundam Base, you will find pretty much every single retail gunpla kit ever made. When you see kits being made for Gundam Base Web Shop, these are kits they are planning to make to restock the Gundam Base outlets, not for the retail channel. They open it up to pad out the production run so that they do not need to manage as much inventory I started noticing more and more restock kits coming via this channel, rather than the retail channel The Jan 2022 reissue of the HGUC Nightingale tells me that the retail channels do not want more stock for their shelves, probably because of the size of the box, the recent release of Xi vs. Penelope, the upcoming Virtue, etc. This is all speculation, of course. I have no insight into Bandai's operations, just what I've heard from shop owners and recent trends in announcements.
  8. I was thinking the same thing. I said I stopped pre-ordering, then looked at my HLJ account and saw my pre-order there. I think Bandai completely underestimated the demand for the Nightingale. The Re100 was a shelf warmer and the re-release 5 years later was also a shelf warmer. The RGs are smaller and tend to move so I think they devoted lines to produce these things. Seems like the kyrios and dynames are also over produced at this point, probably in anticipation of a rush when the release the virtue.
  9. uggh, it's like they forgot to wipe off the wash. It also highlights the nub marks on this thing. Rick looks derpy as well. Hard pass...
  10. There are a couple of shops around that have stopped offering POs for Gunpla because Bandai cannot deliver. I've heard stories of shops ordering a 100 copies and getting 24. They do eventually trickle in, but there does not seem to be a pattern to what gets released. Thankfully I have 3 good local shops and a couple of reasonable online shops so I have stopped pre-ordering kits. Hopefully, your kits will come in before the re-issues happen, especially the Nightingale, which isn't due to be reissued until January.
  11. Wow, that is fantastic. I am so used to the blobs of plastic from Bandai. That looks better than some third party resin kits.
  12. That’s odd. HLJ is normally complaining to me that I have something in the PWH for more than 10 minutes. Saw that they are doing a second run of the nightingale for January 2022 as a Gundam Base web shop offering. Hopefully that will free up some scalper demand. My local shops usually offer Gundam Base web shop offerings, but I have not checked if there are markups.
  13. Bit more expensive at HLJ: https://www.hlj.com/blow-superior-vr-041h-yellow-type-few76544 https://www.hlj.com/mospeda-vr-052t-ray-type-few76543 https://www.hlj.com/mospeda-vr-052f-stick-type-few76542 7,700 yen each
  14. <rant> I hate that this hobby has gotten to the point where all these frick'n shops think it is OK to scalp products. It seems like only AmiAmi, HLJ and Hobby Search offer this at retail. The rest of them either cannot get supply directly from Bandai and are reselling items they can secure from Japan only vendors, or they are extra scummy and just marking up prices for extra profit! </rant> Back on topic, another scalper (defined as shops that do not sell items at MSRP, as far as I am concerned). I have never purchased from them before, but they had decent prices on other items previously yoyakunow: 34,520 yen https://www.yoyakunow.com/en/robots/3390-dx-chogokin-first-press-limited-edition-vf-31ax-kairos-plus-hayate-immelmann-use-macross-delta.html
  15. The X-Base system was available from Yodobashi Camera in Japan when I visited in 2019 so it was available at retail in the Japanese market, at least.
  16. It is actually called the Live Lance Heaven, the opposite of Deathscythe Hell...
  17. Hulk, Cap and Iron Man are already available: https://www.hlj.com/s-h-figuarts-hulk-avengers-assemble-edition-avengers-bans61292 https://www.hlj.com/s-h-figuarts-captain-america-avengers-assemble-edition-avengers-bans61284 https://www.hlj.com/s-h-figuarts-iron-man-mark-6-battle-damage-edition-avengers-bans61283 Thor is as well: https://www.hlj.com/s-h-figuarts-thor-avengers-assemble-edition-avengers-bans61285 Hawkeye and Black Widow are new announcments,
  18. Back in Mar-Apr timeframe, Amazon put up a pre-order for a new MG without any details, which was strange. No preview, no prototype, nothing. Today, they announced a new project, Gundam Seed Eclipse: https://www.gematsu.com/2021/05/new-mobile-suit-gundam-seed-game-in-development New movie, game, comic, etc. and they finally showed the new MG: Transformable (actually, foldable) and compatible with Striker Packs. Of course, there will be a P-Bandai Expansion Pack: What do you guys think of the design? I kind of like it, it has visual queues from the Freedom in the shoulders and legs.
  19. Love the group shot. I will have to build these one day, hopefully at least 1/2 a well as you did. I never got around to buying any of the Seed kits, but one of my local shops had a Strike China Version that came with all the strike parts so I splurged. Now I have a Black and Red Strike to try to recolor into something that looks... not black and red. I really liked the ZZ Ver. Ka until I built the FAZZ Ver. Ka and saw that they could put a proper elbow bend on a ZZ. Mind you, the FAZZ version does not transform fully, but the elbow articulation is terrible, especially for a modern MG.
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