Lupin The Third
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While that page shows the item being reissued in March it does not indicate that it is going up Jan 8 at 4pm. That's what I was inquiring about; from what source does this 4pm claim come from?
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Where is this info coming from? I don't see anything on Tamashii web indicating this.
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Of course they are reissuing....how else did they expect to make money from the super packs with only 12 people owing the Valk?!?!
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The new trio is Bandai's new marketing ploy. Let's make the gaijin want an entire fleet...then we can laugh at them when they can't even buy one! But I have to agree...that trio make me want a bundle all to myself. Maybe this means Bandai is going to manufacture more than 15 units total?!?!
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This more than anything else. Bandai has almost single handedly made me walk away from toy collecting. Aside from that I'd like to see some of the more obsucre Valks.... VF-2SS (Probably this one the most...just get over it Kawamori!) VF-14 Vampire VF-35 Raven VF-5000 VAB-2 Wrath SW-XAII Schneegans I'd also really, really, really, really like Yamato to reissue the YF-19 Double Nuts and Bird of Prey. At their time of release I was out of collecting and have managed to pick up a Bird of Prey, but the Double Nuts...well, it's almost like that thing is some kind of urban legend now. Last one I saw recently was on Amazon Japan for 120,000 yen!
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Don't know about that...just bought 2 VF-4Gs at retail price...
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Medicom/Hot Toys and all 1/6 scale figures
Lupin The Third replied to EXO's topic in Anime or Science Fiction
As I said I really haven't done much with 1/6 figures; but this one looked so good that I figured I'd give it a go and simply resell it if I was disappointed. I'm not sure which body type they are using on the figure but the poseability is good and the look is excellent. I also like that this is Black Jack from the OVAs rather than the manga or tv series; thus a much darker, grittier version. I've only taken mine out of the box to inspect it as I'm in the middle of setting up a new room for my collection, so I didn't spend alot of time with it. The head and one of the feet had popped off while in transit but they went back on the ball joints smoothly and without having to force them. When I first opened the box I thought, "Dammit this is what I get for screwing with these kind of figures again." But my panic was unnecessary as it all reassembled perfectly. Also the box is beautiful, and includes a printed art insert, both of which I'll be displaying right behind the figure when he goes out. I could almost endorse the figure just for the box; it's got a mysterious, "what's in there" vibe to it that just makes you want to open it and see inside. That said the two interlocking pieces of the box are almost vaccum sealed together, or at least mine were; it took a while to carefully open it as I didn't want to damage the packaging...probably about 15 minutes, no exaggeration. I am really impressed with the look of the piece; he's not inexpensive but everything about the figure looks and feel high quality and is worth the price of admission. The clothing literally looks and feels like clothing; often to me 1/6 figure clothing simply looks like a piece of cloth, if you get my distinction. This looks tailored and professional. Visually this guy stomps the Hot Toys and Medicom Versions released previously. If I hadn't gambled on this guy I wouldn't even be considering the EVAs. I guess 1/6's have come a long way in the last few years. Sounds like good feedback on the other Medicom figures with similar suits and coverings. Maybe I'll "take one for the team" and get the EVAs to find out for sure. -
Haha...going to sell it off to buy your next Valk then huh? At least with Yamato we have a chance to buy at retail; and even the VF-4G's are only about 30% more than retail on Ebay right now. Which isn't too bad if you missed preorders for a limited item that just shipped and certainly nowhere near as bad as paying twice-three times retail before it even releases. And I do believe that if a seller is already taking product and listing it for more than twice retail that they are in fact hurting the brand and the consumer; the manufacturer should send their allotment elsewhere. It's not like Bandai would be selling them to HLJ for less than they did to DouchebagToyHK. So why let someone with no morals whatsoever like that stock you product and screw the fans while you short ship reputable vendors with a proven history and positive customer support. It just baffles me that Bandai seems to want people to have bad purchasing experiences and get fleeced...not exactly the best way to buy consumer confidence and loyalty. Eventually even the most successful businesses can collapse under such arrogant leadership. Nope. No one has put them up yet aside from the one scalper on Ebay.
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Haha...yes. I do want them. They are super cool toys and totally beautiful. But the way Bandai conducts their business virtually all of us here either get fleeced, or don't even buy them because they get scalped so high. This is another great example; the toy's release date is announced and within 24 hours a seller has it up on Ebay for twice retail before a single legit seller even take preorders. Meanwhile we can be assured that Bandai will make absolutely certain that Amiami, HLJ, HS, CDJapan, et al (you know, LEGITIMATE RETAILERS) don't receive enough to fill their orders but this asshat on Ebay will certainly get his shipment. It's ridiculous. Also I didn't say these toys suck. It's one thing to spend the ~$150 or so they are supposed to retail for on these; it's completely another to spend ~$400 on them given Bandai's track record with long term durability. I'm not a person who shys away from high end purchases, but there is a huge difference between paying $250-300 for a copy of Panzer Dragoon Saga for the Saturn, $500 for the Neo-Geo Home Cart Version of Mark of the Wolves, or $2000 for a FN PS90 compared to something like this. Those things hold and accrue their value; even when used. Paying 2-3 times retail price for a Valkyrie before it even releases...well that's just silly.
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Love how Bandai wants to make sure scalpers make money. There is no way they couldn't figure out which vendor of theirs this is and instead of sending these asshats units send extra to amiami, hlj, hobbysearch, etc...but no, that would actually protect the consumer. Heaven forbid that Bandai make sure their customers are satisfied. This is exactly why I have made the resolution that I will not pay over retail for these. I purchased the 25F, YF-29, and 3 of the VF-171ex at retail. I will not touch the ones I am missing for inflated prices like this; I don't care how pretty they are. In the end it's a floppy toy that's going to disentegrate.
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I initially passed on it at release, a mistake; in retrospect I'd have bought a hundred copies for future resale had we known how amazing and rare it would be at the time. I was a huge fan of the series but went to E3 and was underwhelmed by it there. The demo kiosks had no one supervising them and there was no way to reset the game; so I was stuck jumping into already played sessions of an RPG with no idea of the mechanics. You couldn't even reset with the default Saturn reset (A+B_C+Start). So I fiddled with it for a while and eventually walked away disappointed with what they'd done to my beloved series. How wrong I was. A friend of mine later convinced me to play it, and loaned me his copy. Being able to play from the start and actually learn how to play I of course fell in love with the game; so much so that the same friend gave me his copy for Christmas later that year. At that time a used copy was around $100-120. It's obviously more now but if you still have a Saturn consider this; spend $200-300 for a Valkyrie that will go all floppy on you with any use whatsoever and may even include bonus exploding parts or buy one of the greatest games ever made which will only accrue value even if you play the crap out of it! Plus Sega announced a little while back that they'd lost the master source code for the game so they'd have to either reverse engineer the whole thing or rebuild it from scratch...neither of which are likey to occur given Sega's current sorry state of affairs (thanks Sammy!). So basically the game has almost no chance of ever being reissued through a download serivce; either in its original form or an HD'ed update as has become popular as of late. It's a real shame, Panzer's eventual disappearance from gaming would be akin to say Macross Plus going out of print forever. OMG WANT NOW! Need to watch Frontier also.
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Agreed...they're just so damn hard to get ahold of at a fair price (ie simply paying Retail plus international shipping...what a crazy concept!). Another awesome Valk that'll be $400 on ebay before it even releases because..... I still need VF-2FS here.
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Sigh....yet another lovely to try to obtain. Maybethe wife would let me collect hot Japanese girls instead, it'd be way easier and less expensive, lol...
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Medicom/Hot Toys and all 1/6 scale figures
Lupin The Third replied to EXO's topic in Anime or Science Fiction
Kind of a general inquiry here about the Real Action Heroes line that needs a little background first... So years back I picked up the Medicom Kazuki Fuse Jin Roh Figure (http://kerberossaga....-3-jin-roh.html) from around 1999/2000. It was my first 1/6 Scale figure and I was excited to obtain it but found out that it was awful. I spent close to an hour trying to remove the Kazuki head to replace with the Armored helmet; suffice to say it literally would not come off unless I'd chosen to break the toy. I also thought everything else about the figure was crappy. It was hard to position and while it looked nice in publicity photos in reality it looked like cheap; and I honestly couldn't excape the whole "this is a doll not an action figure" vibe that I got from it. So I stored it away for a couple years and then decided to sell it off. It was a part of the Real Action Heroes line, back in the days before they were numbered I believe (the above linked article says #3 but they are referring to it being the 3rd Kerberos figure that Medicom released); I just checked Medicom's website and can't even find it on there, they only show the more recent 2006 Kerberos figure. At the time I was stunned that people were paying so much for the figure given it's very poor quality, and even significantly more than that for the other Kerberos figures (such as the Dragon ones). That was my only 1/6 scale figure until just a couple of months ago I picked up the ZC World Black jack Figure. This guy here... ...Which is freaking awesome. I don't typically buy 1/6 scale figures/dolls, but this looked really cool. Being from such an obscure favorite of mine I thought I'd take a chance and buy, knowing I could sell it off pretty easily if I dislike it. What impresses me most about it is how close in reality it looks to the marketing shots, something the Medicom Jin Roh failed at miserably. So, all that said, my inquiry is this. I have been looking at the RAH EVA-01 and EVA-02 and they look awesome. My big concerns however are in regards to how closely the figure actually matches what you see in the marketing shots and what is the quality and how easily can the figure be manipulated? For example I was completely excited a couple years back about the beautiful Appleseed figures that Hot Toys was releasing, and had them preordered (with BBTS I believe). Then over on the toyboxdx.com forums some reports came up about the vinyl/plastic/leatherette/whatever the suits were made of were already cracking after minimal posing; especially on the elbow joints. So I ended up passing on those. Given the appearance of the materials that coat the body of the EVA units I could see this being a problem similar to the Appleseed Hot Toys. So any thoughts as to what I might expect with the Medicom EVAs based on other recent RAH figures and my previous two 1/6 experiences? -
I believe that is the base color of the plastic before painting. Didn't someone confirm something to that effect?
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No worries. I will just bill you for my time. And since I'm gaming I'll give you a reduced rate of only $20 an hour! It's a bargain! Haha...very funny.
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Was that the case? Guess I'll be playing Pnazer Dragoon Saga and F5ing all night long.
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Why does everyone think this is going up tonight? I don't see any indication that this is going up for sale/pre-orders tonight.
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2 VF-4Gs for me! (Purchased)
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Possibly. But then everyone argues that Yamato makes and sells less units than Bandai does so perhaps it's a moot point either way. I just did a quick look and both Amiami and HLJ are selling Cavaliers and VF-1S for ~$100 US. But then, as you mentioned, other Yamato pieces are closer to $300 in cost. I don't think cost is a factor though, as Yamato products are obtainable for retail cost, or less, without much effort. In this case the obscurity and price of the Valk may be a factor, but everything else they've release this year can still, for the most part, be obtained for around retail price. Bandai valks do have the advantage of being part of a newer, more in demand series so I wouldn't discount that as playing into the scalping but I don't think Yamato's MSRP is a huge factor. Look at it this way; the VF-4G has never been available and might never again due to it's obscurity, but people are paying the same price for a YF-29 that has now been issued three times. Popularity and newness is definitely a factor but then so too is catering to fans' desires with such a unique release like the VF-4G, especially in a high-end toy market built around predominantly catering to hardcore fans. Haha..lol. Yeah, those damn Bandai Gundam-Gobblers! Yamato has our backs! We should all have a Battle-Royale fight to the death. Bandai and fans in one corner, Yamato and fans in the other! May the best Valk maker win! Honestly though I don't think Yamato wants to "help Americans out". I think they want to make money. Bandai on the other hand almost acts like they're averse to it. But this is a happy thread where happy members are dreaming of Santa sleighing their VF-4Gs across the pond to their loving new homes. So let us not speak of the evil gundam-whores again, lest they sour our holiday cheer.
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<p> Sure at this point those releases are at after market prices, but most of us had to pay that on day one. The Bandai releases are scalped before they even leave Japan, and it's solely because they are short shipping online retailers who cater to foreign consumers. If you haven't seen the pic of the VF-171EXs sitting in a stack on the floor of a toy shop under a discounted Disney toy I'll gladly repost for you but it's been in a bunch of threads and that's what I was referring to. Or just look at Amazon Japan every time a new V2 releases...tons of no-name third party "vendors" selling them while respectable companies like Amiami, HLJ, Hobby Search, Otacute, etc barely get enough to fill 5 minutes worth of preorders. That Bandai wants to make sure that random individuals who grabbed half a dozen at a toy shop in japan to make a profit are the only people making money of their toys is beyond baffling and arrogantly Japanese in a very negative way. Even BBTS got the first V2 release...then Bandai shafted them on the VF-25S, conspicuously right after every Japanese online retailer that ship internationally sold through their stock. In my case I almost ordered my VF-25S from Amiami, but decided not to since I would only save about $20 after the import shipping and just decided to leave my order with BBTS since it was already on file with them...two weeks later it's sold out, BBTS sends out the first wave of notices that they would be unlikely to stock the product, and scalpers instantly shoot it up to ~$300. Bandai seems to go out of their way to alienate consumers from the start. Yamato by contrast actually seems to try to supply a good quantity to everyone to meet demand. Want a Cavalier right now? BBTS has them in stock right this moment and Amiami and HLJ have restocked on virtually every Yamato release from this year at least once. My point was simply that the "vibe" in this thread is, amusingly, completely different. Fans are enthusiastically taking about their preorders; a complete contrast to the Bandai threads. Given what this release is Yamato could easily have kept it exclusive to their online shop, excluded HLJ and others, and we'd all be paying $500+ for these at release through scalpers or proxy buyers. Clearly Yamato has at least some minor appreciation for their customers, even the ones they can't officially sell to because of Harmony Gold's absurd legal actions. So my thanks to them for actually doing what a company is supposed to...selling product to the consumers who want it.
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Notice the difference in tone in this thread than any recent Bandai one... Vf4G Thread for Japanese Web Exclusive item...."Missed preorders the first round. Oh nevermind, [insert vendor] opened up another batch. Ordered! Yay for Yamato. Too bad I won't have before Christmas, but whatever." Bandai thread for readily available Chogokin sitting in unwanted stacks in dirty toy shops..."Amiami has up for pre-order...crap, sold out before I clicked submit! Now HLJ has it up, hurry! crap...sold out again! CDjapan only got 5 units! Crap, this is my favorite Valk ever, why can't I buy?!?! Oh there it is on Nippon Yasan for 250% of retail price and climbing. Ebay sellers already at $400...this thing just went up 5 minutes ago! Crap, carp, crap.....do I pay bills or buy toy? Can I sell my organs to buy a toy? Would the spouse allow that? Arrgrgrgrhrhhrhrhhhh!" Love how Bandai thinks denying foreign consumers the chance to buy their product and making sure that scalpers make a living is the way to keep customers and keep their product lines sophisticated. Thanks Yamato for not acting like Bandicks.
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Yes they tell you up front. And even though they do use bigger boxes than necessary the shipping charges are surprisingly good for the size. Perhaps they get some kind of volume discount with EMS because I was stunned by how little I'd paid for shipping compared to box size the first several times I received orders from them and I order a good volume of items internationally.
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Nevermind. Didn't realize this was already discussed elsewhere. And nice typo VF not VE...lol....
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Just saw this over at Yamato Toys..... http://www.yamato-to...il.php?gid=2130 http://www.yamato-to...p?gid=1&cid=115 October release, 17,640 yen. Option parts included..... Nice to know that unlike Bandai, Yamato actually listens to their fans and has a little respect for the people who pay their bills.