Mommar

Yeah, I missed the 1D the first go around so this is a good deal to me. I actually don't even really care about the extra seat parts I just wanted a 1D.

maybe we should start a master list of places it's already been up for pre-order and sold out so people are aware how futile the search is at this point?

Ishop2go is a Hong Kongian(?) shop. But I've checked the others I know of and it's the only one that ever listed the 171.

Honestly I forgot about that one. Even still, none of the attempts have been that great looking/quality. I don't think the Studio Halfeye version looks very good.

I wonder if this VF-4 is going to be crazily in demand like the 171 is? I know it won't be as big as anything from Frontier because less people know about it but other then the old Exparten version this will be the first real release for this thing any of the fans have ever seen.

Actually... this is kind of interesting. Check the AmiAmi page. I think everyone severely underestimated the amount of demand for this particular valk.

When you have to make an announcement on the main page that you can't answer any questions about getting more, you know people have been flooding their inboxes.

If Bandai makes enough of these, they could make a metric ****ton of profit.

Actually, this does make sense you know. Compared to the VF-25, yes, there should be a crapload of demand for it, because it's never been released before. With the VF-25, you had the models first, then the V.1 toys, then the recent V.2 toys on top of that. If you just wanted one for display, you had multiple avenues to get one, and the models offered a much cheaper alternative.

Fans of the VF-171 don't have any options, because this is the only one ever released (not counting the micro-machine versions). Hopefully there will be enough demand for them to release 1/72 kits of this too, as well as the YF-29. I wouldn't count on it, and I'd prefer the 1/60 anyway, but I wouldn't mind having cheaper ones I can build.

So the reasoning why the 171 would be in such high demand makes sense... but if everybody knows this why not make A LOT of them?

pm'ed on ss parts

I think us Western Macross fans live inside our own little bubble. Every once in a while we need to poke our heads out to see that, oh yeah, other people buy these too! People have been asking why did this secondary valk sell out so fast. It's Alto's 171, that's why, and it's freaking bada$$. It's been a while since a Macross show has been this popular. Also, I am happy that Amiami is monitoring the limits. I wish more companies would do this.

While the argument can be made it's Alto's and it's a cool looking Valk that doesn't explain why they waited until after the series and two movies (plus a new Valk from the second movie) before touching on this one. Was it really that popular and Bandai was just stupid about it from the beginning? Did they realize their V1 VF-25's sucked so bad they looked at their original 171 design and realized it blew as well so they waited? If it has always been this awesome to everyone else when are they just now getting around to it?

Actually, I think Macross is one of the few mecha animes where the mecha (VFs) actually look good in CG.

Graham

Considering Kawamori usually bases his designs off of real aircraft I think it makes sense they would look better in 3D then some of the other pretty ridiculous (but cool) designs out there.

I got an order the first time around for the YF-29 from amiami and placed a pre-order with Otacute for a slightly inflated price for a 2nd.

Have you bought things from Otacute before? I've ordered several things before but I've never actually had them send me an item. I wasn't charged, they just never had the item I wanted.

This is the best explanation and most plausible that I have seen so far. Thanks; puts things into perspective.

Unfortuantely a huge portion of that explanantion means we're all suffering now because of Bandai's frakk-ups and promises not kept with the quality of their first releases.

Yeah, but hasn't conventional wisdom been that the only people clamoring for these secondary valks been the minority rabid fans like us? Why is the 171 so popular?

It turns out YesAsia no longer has them available either.

It's not negative. It's fair warning. There's a big difference between listing variables/unknowns to consider versus claiming the sky is falling.

In addition, maybe you and I are lucky enough to be able to waste $200 on a (potential) toy but not everybody here has that option.

I dunno, Bandai produces toys for 10,000 yen less so that's kinda nice... only if you can find them though I suppose.

What's the point of a cheaper item I can never find?

The other thing about ishop2go is that they'vehad their pre-orders up since the very first mention of the VF171 and we don't know if they even bother to check how many items they are alloted. This may wind up just like a BBTS with the YF-29 for a lot of us... except it's a foreign company who took full payment on something and there's no guarantee we will get that back either.

So, ishop2go.com is the ONLY place left with this available. But they are already charging scalper prices. Anyone have any experience with them? This is easily the most frustration I've ever had trying to acquire a collectible. And I've been through Sideshow PPO fires.

But there's no telling if anybody is even looking at what is possible for them to stock/ship. If no one is paying attention they may just be running up huge numbers they can't possibly provide. Either that or they're too expensive for most people to give a go. They had that pre-order up since the day the 171 was announced. No telling how many people have tried to pre-order and just won't get anything.

AE is out now. I was too late... again.

Alright, I can't speak for HLJ, or amiami, or any toy retailers but I can say it's fairly common business practice to have an expectation of units you will receive and try to beat the market by selling them first. When you do something like that you have to be conservative with the amount you sell just in case your normally reliable wholesaler isn't able to get as many as usual and makes it so you screw your preorderers (BBTS). It's entirely possible that all allocations are out... but it's also possible they're not. I love the leap to blind rage, and the defense of blind rage. We also don't know that all production will be limited to the amount of people who preorder. I dunno, seems the anger is a bit early. I preordered my VF-25S like a couple weeks before it came out and now people act like it was impossible to preorder it.

The thing is, if it were one time, like with the YF-29, we'd all wonder what was going on and bummed it turned out that way... like people on this webpage have been. But after that, this new instance has occurred and it's even worse then the YF-29 preorder sell outs. Now it's no longer a fluke, Bandai isn't doing something they should and we're being left in the clutch. That's different.

Hobbysearch's pre-order started today and is already closed as well. I really don't think all these retailers just happened to all have small windows just because it seemed like the thing to do.

I didn't even think to check them. They're already out too? Dang.

The paint job, really. They have their own fast packs in specialized colors too. And not many were made and there were not re-releases so they're pretty rare.

Well, dosn't matter to me anyway. I'm never selling my M's. Max is hands down my favorite and I've wanted a perfect VF-1J since I was a kid and I'd like to keep Max with his wife (take that Macross 7!)

the reissue versions are released at a higher markup and still sell out in minutes--perhaps seconds--because consumers are so desperate.

This is exactly what I was thinking this whole bs under-producing strategy is really all about.

Yeah, I noticed ebay is already filling up with people selling their pre-orders. What a bunch of pricks.

Which is kind of dumb. Essentially they finsihed producing before advertising so they didn't even know what demand would be like before they made them.