Mommar

Has anybody attempted to remove their speaker fins yet?

On 9/29/2025 at 2:07 AM, Graham said:

At a bare minimum I hope Bandai may consider the folloing changes before releasing the 1/60 DX VF-17S, to make it slightly more acceptable:

1. Shoulder armour resculpted to add the VF-17's characteristic twin micro missile launchers, which were priminantly featured in the anime
2. Complete leg resulpt to get rid of the VF-171's leg micro missile launchers, add the VF-17's gunpod port, make the legs slightly more chonky and add correct panel lines.
3. Make the crotch piece in Battroid mode angle straight down instead of forward.
4. Beef up the arms as much as possible.
5. Remove the hard points from the wings (VF-17 never used external hard points).

The above is probably just wishful thinking and may not even be possible.

To be honest, being a huge VF-17 fan I'd prefer a clean sheet of paper design, rather than them basing it on the VF-171 toy, but I'm enough of a realist to know that is not likely to happen, given the VF-17 is not a fan favourite design.

Hopefully one day we get a better VF-17 sculpt in from either the HMR line or the HG Shortcut Change model kit line.

You realize they're doing none of that, right?

1.31 Regulatory Charges.

7.47 Duties (They marked the item as from Japan, not China, so it's only 15% and they valued the item at $24.90 each)

17 For Duty Tax Processing.

Interesting note about the Duty Tax Processing.  HLJ are overcharging for that.  Based on the size/weight of the P versus a Mafex (and my previous shipment from them) they've also doubled the base DHL price.  

I did the math on the real price.  Total if they did full price and marked from China should have been 91.30.

Well, BigInJapan ROYALLY undervalued that item.  We'll see if DHL catches this.

6 hours ago, VF-Zero said:

Is there even a 1/60 scale Transformable Valkyrie toy without any issues ??? 

The ankles are still a glaringly big one, as is the backpack scratching the canopy.  Intake joint being so limited is a secondary problem that should be corrected as well.

6 hours ago, vladykins said:

I guess my Tread snuck in before they started doing that. Glad I got my second Legioss coming from Amazon US where I prepaid. 

 

I'm not sure Amazon is going to follow through.

2 hours ago, VF-Zero said:

That YF-19 looks awesome, make a YF-19 reissue, Arcadia. 😭

They still need to fix a few issues on it to be honest.

11 hours ago, jenius said:

DHL charge for the 19P from AE was 5200 yen which feels steep but relieved it wants the crazy amounts some have been quoted.

That's total, or without the additional tariffs, etc?

I'm not sure I'm actually going to get my Tread's from Amazon.

Leave it to Bandai to be 0 for 3 on getting a decent looking mode.  It's totally a 171 with an oversized head.  Looks terrible.

I ran across so much hyperbolic non-sense looking around it was hard to discern who actually knew what.  I figured after HLJ shipped my Andrew Garfield  Spider-Man I'd get a clear picture.  I straight asked them about the different charges.  Brought up that AG Spider-Man was being charged 15% but the new Scarlet Spider was 30% and was told AG was made in Japan but SS wasn't... okay.  So then I asked even if that were true why is it that the baseline charging for DHL more than doubled along with whatever that service charge was.  I received a curt reply, they don't make those numbers... and that was it, no more responses.  What Derex and vladykins quoted is precisely what I paid for AG.  Now it would be nearly $100.  So I have no clear picture.

I know Big In Japan has offered to put down COO for the 19P as Japan, don't know what the baseline price is going to be anymore though, they haven't responded to me.

In terms of shipping quality, for where I live in Albuquerque my preference in order is FedEx, DHL, UPS and USPS.  FedEx and DHL are nearly identical, UPS has two stations with their own little fifedoms and it always takes 24-48 hours to ship between the two before they will deliver to my area of town.  I've had multiple packages from USPS reach the substations five minutes from my house completely disappear.  I was already primed to pay a lot more in shipping to avoid that constant headache.

I did my own calcukatuon for shipping an item, don't know what the handling fee nonsense is but either theirbcalculator is broken because the shipping and duty fees are both doubled or Japanese companies have difured out there's enough confusion they can screw us.  Those numbers are not correct.  Duties are 15% from Japan, not 30%, and I priced DHL directly. 

They haven't been charging me a carrier handling fee and 4200 is 30%.

On 9/18/2025 at 10:20 PM, ImChris5115 said:

Quick sketch !

These are the planned super parts?

1 hour ago, rsvictor1976 said:

The new DHL Duty Paid shipping that Nin-Nin is offering costs 10404 yen. The toy itself is 18900 yen. I don't think that new price structure is any better. 

I don't know the base price of the shipping for this toy since I don't know the box size.  I can say the base price for shipping Mafex Andrew Garfield from HLJ was 2200 yen plus 15% of the items price (3300) total and Nin-nin are known to be dirty so it sounds to me like they're frakking you.

7 hours ago, Big s said:

Is the Gambit the same action figure without the metallic and more expensive?

I think the metallic pink was an odd choice on the older one, but the armor bits kinda worked in those colors, but if I didn’t already have the older version, I’d probably get the new one.

Yes it is the same figure in different colors and higher price.

On 9/19/2025 at 9:48 AM, rsvictor1976 said:

It is. I had to cancel my order for the time being though until Japan Post resumes shipping to the U.S. The fees through DHL is insane.

DHL is cheaper wirh the new price structure.

I was curious how that Storm was going to do.  That costume is an odd time-piece.  For me it's special for three reasons.  It's one of Storms Outback costumes, it's how she was actually dressed in Uncanny 275 (and 273), and that was the first costume that got a release from Toybiz back when I was first collecting.

Next update, right now the official word for Rogue is "next Month."  However, AoA Wolverine and Cyclops were both set for the 27th of September and now their official release date is "next month" too.  If things hold that would probably make Wolvie/Cyke the 11th of October and Rogue on the 25th.  But that's a heavily salted guess.

Evidently that Spider-Man is 6.1 inches too so it's not oversized like the IM figures have been in the past.

8 hours ago, Scyla said:

In my monthly Mafex Rogue update HLJ now lists her as an October release.

I wonder what is taking so long? Are the assembly workers stealing all the butt pieces, I don’t understand.

At this pace Jubilee will be out before her, if she is not also delayed.

This is maddening! Is this normal for a Mafex figure being delayed for 6 months and counting?

This and the Heatboys Shredder being delayed and delayed again is driving me crazy. I fear that they will either be in permanent preorder limbo or being cancelled outright.

The only thing Mafex related I'm aware of is the AoA Wolverine and Cyke are due out September 27th.  Anything after that nobody at the Mafex store seems to know yet.

DHL is going to cost 3300 yen plus 15% of the price of the item.  You should be able to easily do the math from there.

Aren't those the same connectors used to attach the guns to the wings of the Legioss?

Do we know what time Storm is going up?  That's going to be such a bitch.

David Dastmalchian as Bison is literally the weirdest choice of the bunch.