Lupin The Third

Agreed. The Battroid just looks weird. Clearly an after thought in comparison to the rest. The fighter mode however is awesome. I don't even want to transform mine! I agree with this too. the 171 is a much better version of the mech (in all modes)...but the Yamato VF-17s just look like toys for children to me.

Good call! I think this was my 2nd "official" anime ever. I'd seen stuff like Robotech and Voltron on TV of course, but as far as unedited, straight up anime it would be the US Renditions release of Appleseed and Animeigo's Madox-01 that got me started. Back in the clamshell/hardcase VHS days. Could go for any of these, thought I'd want them all as toys not models. Nah....it's the closest thing to a Euro-Mech so I say run with it! I'd love any/all of the FSS Mech as actual figures, hands down they are the coolest Mech designs ever! The garage kits are great for skilled modelers with tons of time, but the couple plastic kits I've played around with never come out looking even close to the publicity/box shots. A nice large ~1/60 figure series would rock! Or maybe that's too big....not sure of the scale, they'd probably need to be around 1/72 or 1/100, whatever scale would put them in line with Yamato's 1/48. I'm hoping Nagano's recent tease about a new product that isn't a garage kit means they are finally doing this. One release, or lack thereof, that still stuns me to this day are the elf ladies from Lodoss War, Deedlit & Pirotessa I would LOVE a 1/6-1/8 figure of these, preferably by Yamato!

Been looking around a bit trying to find some recent info on Sentinel's Detonator Orgun figure, which got me thinking about other, obscure shows and what I'd want in a perfect world if I could convince one toy company to make my "dream" figure(s). And I almost instantly came up with this..... The mechs of Kishin Heidan/Kishin Corps. For anyone unfamiliar with the series it was one of the early Pioneer shows that threw Nazis, Aliens, and Giant Robots into the mix in a very retro-themed action series. Personally I really enjoyed the brief series and every now and then I see some Chogokin or another with similar styling that makes me wish someone would tackle the series. My first choice would be Max Factory simply because their Big O is beyond stunning and built like a brick. As a fall-back I'd ask Bandai to put any/all of the show's mechs into the Soul of Chogokin line. So just for fun, in a perfect world what non-Macross Mech(s) or Anime figure(s) would you command and from whom?

I was wondering something similar. Is there a way to pad or protect your valk from being scuffed up by the Super Parts?

I'm guessing the bulk buyers are in Japan, where it is late afternoon or early evening when preorders tend to go up, or in Europe where it is early morning. Those of us in the US just get the fun of staying up all night to try to preorder. Which doesn't always work so well for anyone who has a job, school, life and isn't just sitting around all day collecting a government check and not contributing to society. So yeah...it's kind of ridiculous...Basically those of us in the US have the option of staying up absurdly late to try to get a preorder, preordering at an inflated price (ie NY and a couple others), or paying after market prices.

Problem is there isn't always any clue when they are going up. Sure they get announced on Tamashii web but they don't even bother to give a date that preorders are going live, so it is often a crapshoot. Last time however a member here had gotten word from someon at CDJapan as to when preorders were going up. This happened to coincide with Amiami, Hobby Search, NY and if I recall correctly Anime Export sold them about 2 hours later. HLJ however held theirs for a couple day. My advice, watch the forum like a hawk. If you miss out you can usually preorder with NY for only a little bit more than retail, at least in the first few hours.

True, the YF-29 30th Reissue in March kind of came along from out of the blue.

Apologies for misunderstanding your comments. I guess the barrage of attacks the last few days has me overly sensitive and I misread what you were saying. My bad. Let us engaged in the Macross Fighter Acrobatic Sky Dance of Love!

Cool news. Not loving the new design, but then I really didn't like SAC's character design...way too far from the books or Oshii's films for my liking. Still exciting news. I am totally pumped about all the news/teasers about CDProject's Cyberpunk that came out in the last few days!

I am damned if I do, damned if I don't. Lupin has the magical power to make ladies' panties disappear...apparently it also affects the time space continuum of web forums as well. Plus I'm a fairly decent jewel thief also...maybe I should round up the gang and pull off a hesit at the Chogokin factory? Valks for all my forum peeps!

There is no spoon kicker....there is no spoon.... Like I said in the other thread all that's going on is I'm pointing out the same thing over and over again to people attacking me, they ignore what I actually said instead creating these weird conspiracy theories, attack me some more, and then I rebut. So I will officially drop it for the good of the forum. I hope everyone has the most wonderful of weeks and I love all of you guys.

Honestly I'll just stop posting. All that's going on is I'm pointing out the same thing over and over again to people attacking me, they ignore what I actually said instead creating these weird conspiracy theories, attack me some more, and then I rebut. So I will officially drop it for the good of the forum. Maybe someone can tell the crossover threads.

Me too. Let's lock it up! Nahhh....I'm sure everyone would just prefer I get banned that way they can just attack me without rebuttal! Actually I find it strange that after 4-5 days people are still on me. Seriously just let it the frakk go people! If you stop attacking me I'll stop replying....GASP! What a crazy concept! Hahahaha...that is hilarious. I actually think that's what happened in the RVF thread. They attacked me for "bad mouthing" Bandai...which didn't even occur. I think they were confused about which thread they were posting in. But I like where you are going with this....Super Dimensional Macross Hyper Forum Thread Battle Crossover....featuring Gundam and Hello Kitty!

Just for fun I'll break my no more posts here decision and basically say what I did in the other thread. Let's recap since many of you are unable to simply look a few pages back and see what transpired: -EVERYONE in the 171CF thread blew up at HLJ's handling of preorders and were furious that HLJ allowed up to 10. -I said I didn't believe anyone actually purchased 10, as everything on HLJ seems to default to 10, and emailed them to confirm that because I thought the forum was making an inaccurate claim about HLJ. -HLJ emailed me back and confirmed that they did allow a max of 10 units. -I posted their response and encouraged everyone to let them know that was crap and that they needed a better policy that gave more folks a chance to make a purchase (just like Amiami, CDJ, Hobby Search, etc) -The forum completely blows the frakk up at me and makes all kinds of attacks on my character for no reason whatsoever other than the fact that I was trying to be helpful. I started out trying to defend HLJ, shared what they told me with the forum and encouraged everyone to let them know they handled it poorly, and then got attacked for confirming what everyone was blowing up about to begin with! Stunning, like they say, truly no good deed goes unpunished. Now HLJ is responding to emails and basically admitting they screwed up initially and have corrected the problem now....gee isn't that all I was asking for from the start? Yeah I think it was. There it is...my dastardly plan to point out to a retailer that they did a sucky job handling a preorder and maybe could do better for the customers going forward. So that maybe all of us would have an easier time next go around. Oh how evil I am...oh the shame of inequity. Truly a bastard I am! So yeah, go ahead and attack me some more. I definitely deserve it for trying to be helpful! I hope those of you who attacked me pay $500 for every Valk you buy from now on and they fall apart as you pull them from the box.

True that many of us do buy multiples, but with the way these are being scalped you're really going to go along with the claim that someone buying 10 of these isn't scalping? Ok...who lives in lalaland now? Also did you even look at my other thread? Because the title HAS QUESTION MARKS IN IT YOU TOOL! I was questioning how HLJ could engage in selling habits that would allow for easy scalping. This is a perfect example of the braindead, public-school education level of stupidity that I've been attacked by for the last few days. You people don't even read what is written and suddenly think you're an authority on the subject. My "objective" was merely to point out to HLJ that it was pretty craptastic to allow people to buy up to 10 of these instead of limiting them and allowing everyone a fair chance. That was it...my nefarious scheme revealed for all to see. As to my frak you comment. I stand by it. I've been completely attacked by most of the forum for the last several days for daring to suggest that we point out that a retailer's practices were to our disliking. Now HLJ is beginning to reply to emails about the subject and they are basically saying "hey, we hear you. we messed up and we'll try to do better." That is exactly all I hoped to accomplish from day one. But instead I got attacked by shitheads like you. Wow...none of that is even remotely what I said, implied, or even remotely intimated. I never thought us voicing our dissatisfaction with their handling of the preorders was going to hurt HLJ in any way, shape, or form; nor did I want or have any reason to want hurt upon them. Maybe you should have read some of my comments before replying like an uninformed buffoon? Then you wouldn't sound like the complete imbecile that you do right now. Let's recap since idiots like you are unable to simply look a few pages back and see what transpired: -EVERYONE in this thread blew up at HLJ's handling of preorders and were furious that HLJ allowed up to 10. -I said I didn't believe anyone actually purchased 10, as everything on HLJ seems to default to 10, and emailed them to confirm that because I thought the forum was making an inaccurate claim about HLJ. -HLJ emailed me back and confirmed that they did allow a max of 10 units. -I posted their response and encouraged everyone to let them know that was crap and that they needed a better policy that gave more folks a chance to make a purchase (just like Amiami, CDJ, Hobby Search, etc) -The forum completely blows the frakk up at me and makes all kinds of attacks on my character for no reason whatsoever other than the fact that I was trying to be helpful. I started out trying to defend HLJ, shared what they told me with the forum and encouraged everyone to let them know they handled it poorly, and then got attacked for confirming what everyone was blowing up about to begin with! Stunning, like they say, truly no good deed goes unpunished. So yeah....go frakk yourselves! Especially those of you in the RVF thread who completely made crap up about me and tried to put false words in my mouth. I hope those of you who attacked me pay $500 for every Valk you buy from now on and they fall apart as you pull them from the box. So yeah, go ahead and attack me some more. I definitely deserve it for trying to be helpful.

Totally agree. It looks awesome in fighter mode.

I would like to point out that if you read my initial email to HLJ I contacted them to confirm the quantities they allowed to be purchased. Their employees then informed me that they allowed up to 10 to be purchased. Because their story has now changed does not negate the fact that they said from the beginning that they allowed such large quantities to be purchased. Additionally I cannot help but think that the discussions here, along with those of us who did email them asking why they would do such a thing, DID in fact play a factor in the "correction" he is claiming they made. In fact it is obvious the backlash made an impact because if they had corrected the large orders at the start I would have been informed in that first email response that the 10 unit limit had already been corrected. So your implication here that some of us spazzed for nothing is a bit absurd. No one was speculating anything, HLJ employees outright said they allowed them to be purchased in quantities up to 10! How is it speculation to say that is bad customer service on an item this limited? For the record here is the 2nd email I sent directly to Scott after HLJ employees informed me they allowed up to 10 to be purchased: I'm not sure how anything in that isn't level headed given that HLJ informed me that they sold them in scalper-friendly quantities. So I do not appreciate the less-than-veiled implications. But that's what I get for trying to help out fellow collectors, a mistake I will never make again. For the record this proves that HLJ did initially sell them in quantites of 10 and changed that due to the backlash. So all of you who attacked me here and in the other thread....GO frakk YOURSELVES BECAUSE YOU WERE COMPLETELY WRONG AND ALL YOUR ATTACKS ON ME WERE BASELESS. Bunch of frakking idiotic children. EDIT: Haha....forum autocorrection..hilarious. I'm sure you can figure out what I actually told you to go do with yourselves.

Sorry if my post caused confusion. It actually wasn't directed at you. Somehow I've become the bad guy of the forum in regards to Bandai and whenever I say anything that isn't glowing with praise and adoration there are certain members who go after me. Heck in the RVF thread they even started putting words in my mouth and accusing me of bad mouthing Bandai when I didn't even say a single thing negative. I was merely pointing out a perfect example of how someone else can say the same things I do without incurring the same ire from these folks (xrentonx, IXTL, and a couple others). I actually have no problem with what you said. You're completely right. And I know what you mean about the knots in the stomach...though usually for me it's my heart skips a beat when preorders start and we all get into that insane 1-2 hours of refreshing and jumping from site to site to try to find a single damned unit! No worries Loop, we're good. I just felt this was a good example of how others say the same things I do and somehow escape the tinfoil hat accusations and attacks. I figured it was obvious, sorry for the misunderstanding...oh and the poop, there's still some on your shoe. Sorry about that. Wow...that really sucks. It's a real shame that they don't give a damn about your situation. In the US we have it very easy but in other countries it's absurd what customs will do. I guess success has gotten the better of them, and they've forgotten how they got to where they are and their old days of selling model kits from his apartment. I haven't received a response from either email address but they're on break until tonight due to a Monday holiday in Japan so we'll see if they care or not. Actually what has surprised me more than HLJ' s actions are some of the forum members' responses, especially in the other thread I started. I've been collecting for two decades now. I have all kinds of unique items and things that are far more rare than a Valkyrie that Bandai manufactures in the thousands but I have NEVER had this kind of difficult obtaining something. A lot of folks here just want to pawn it off as "well that's collecting so get used to it". I assure you if you saw my anime, game, or my wife's Disney collection they would eat those idiotic words. It is beyond clear that Bandai is manipulating supply by intentionally shorting online exporters to generate a false sense of demand for the figures. Any intelligent person can discern this and make a choice as to whether they're willing to tolerate Bandai treating the consumer this way by paying more than retail or installing a data port in their head to have constant net access for the 45 second window of opportunity to order these. But what isn't acceptable is for a supposedly reputable retailer to directly place product in the hands of people they know are scalping when they could be taking care of their customers. The main reason I suggested emailing HLJ is that if we don't tell them we are dissatisfied they won't change anything. So when they VF-27 comes out again we'll be staying up all night to try to get ours only to have most sold off in large batches to the same a-holes who are going to sell them to us on ebay for $500. The RVF will be the same, the Vajra will be the same, and so on. It doesn't seem too absurd to me to simply ask a retailer to treat their customers a little better and give everyone a chance to order...just like Amiami did, just like CDJ, just like Hobby Search. Maybe they totally don't give a crap, but if we don't at least say "Hello? Over here! I'm a customer and I'm not happy with this." then absolutely nothing will ever change. Then those same people attacking me in the HLJ thread will be the same ones posting obscenities about how pissed they were they didn't get their RVF...

You speak better English than many Americans actually. If Italy ever decides it has too many Valks us Americans will be glad to buy them from you! I would be happy to help you out by taking all those VF-25S Valks off your hands.

Actually opened and displayed my first Bandai Chogokin Valk today. I've got a few but they've been kept stored away in the boxes. Opened the VF-171, kept thinking to myself that the white plastic looked yellowed already...then it occurred to me that the Amber lighting and wall paint color in the room were causing it. Really like that these include a stand, it's all of .50¢ worth of material to include it but already I want something to elevate my Yamato Valks with.

Sorry, misread that. I thought he was saying he preordered from something called vermillion.

Good lord, no wonder no one can get these. The italians hijacked the shipments! Lol.

Ohhh....you must hate Bandai...you are a bad forum member with a bad attitude...why do you have to be so pissy? Haven't we had enough Bandai rage? Bandai in bed with BIG PHARMA? Oh silly tin foil hat people...blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah... Funny how when I say the same kind of things I'm attacked, but everyone else...well they can say whatever they want and it's all good. How interesting... They actually sold out a couple days ago, same night as HLJ actually. Frustratingly they didn't put the word "Macross" in the descriptions so they didn't show up in searches if you included macross. They are legit. But others did have problems with them previously and the prices are awful. They really kind of are a last resort, I merely posted them as an fyi. If you want a Jpop CD or a Korean Drama on DVD there fine, limited stuff they often seem to have a hard time obtaining.

Are these Club M still available?

So in other words you can make false accusations against me but I am not allowed to clarify when you are wrong? Thanks for clearing that up! Apparently I'm also not allowed to respond with a bit of sarcasm over the fact that you CLEARLY STILL HAVE NOT READ MY POSTS. Honestly...how is this so difficult? I have not said a single negative thing about Bandai in this thread. How about you actually read my posts? Seriously is that too difficult for you? READ MY POSTS THERE IS NOTHING NEGATIVE! Pointing at a cat and saying "That's a dog" doesn't make it true because you want it to be...I am stunned that this is so confusing for you. Here, let me go ahead and save you some time by writing your next post for you using falsities as you continue to do.... ...there, xrentonx's "conversations" summarized in a fraction of the word count, now we can all move along with our lives.