Keiichi

For folks who have already got it in-hand; do you feel there's any danger of causing damage to the valk when attaching/detaching the chest armor?  The way it seems to clip on makes me a little concerned about nicking the plastic it grips to.

3 minutes ago, Kanedas Bike said:

No worries.

Just searched, the authorization is for the full amount, then they release the funds before charging you at the time of shipping.

Just need to get through the security process w my CC issuer.

Thank you!

-b.

Good stuff!  Thanks for posting the info you found, will be very handy for future reference. 

Messer's finally showing up in my order history on HLJ.  What a relief to secure one of these guys!  I missed out on Hayate and missing Messer would have been a harsh one-two punch, haha.

2 minutes ago, Kanedas Bike said:

Interesting.

Just out of curiosity is it for the full amount, more than the full amount (like restaurants) or some portion of the grand total?

-b.

I'm afraid I can't recall exactly as my last order with them was during the 2015 holiday season.  I think it was just like a temporary 100 yen hold that disappeared after a short while, with the full charge appearing only when the item was ready to ship.

For the record their email customer service is always very pleasant, acknowledging receipt of my email and confirming that the card was re-run and validated.

Just now, Mommar said:

I guess we'll see if I actually got one.  CC went through for the Spartan but it was rejected for the 31.  This is what you see when it doesn't go through at CDJapan.

" Another attempt will be made to process your order.If your card is declined again, we will send you a notification email within 1-2 business days.
Do not re-place or cancel your order until then as your declined order will be valid for a week. First press status will be secured during that time. "

I have this issue every time I order with CDJapan.  I suggest calling your credit card's customer service (800 number on the back of the card) and tell them you want to authorize a charge.  The rep will see the charge from CDJapan was refused and confirm that you want it to go through. 

Once you finish with your credit card company, shoot an email to CDJapan with your order number and ask them to re-run the card.

That's always worked for me.

2 minutes ago, mog_kupo said:

http://hlj.com/product/BANN12922

Thank you so much, kupo!  I don't understand how you guys even find these links, I still get nothing when I search on HLJ, so this very very much appreciated.

Was super excited to receive my VF-1A and VF-1J the other day, but when I took a closer look at my 1J, I noticed something disconcerting:

No left head laser?!

Opened it immediately, and to my great relief I found the head laser loose inside the packaging. I figured it was something like that, so I wasn't too worried, but my heart definitely skipped a beat lol. I wonder how that even happened, as the head laser plugs in quite securely.

As long as we're talking about stands and effect parts, etc.. does anyone know of some similarly-scaled buildings and/or landscape options that'd work well with the Hi-Metal R line? I mean, I know it's possible to just scratchbuild a diorama, but some of us aren't that talented.

The Tamashii Building sets could work, though they're a bit undersized in relation to Hi-Metals. The come in both normal and damaged sets.

http://hlj.com/product/BANN05959

http://hlj.com/product/BANN05179

dont mind the off scale buildings

Awesome pictures! Love that city set-up, it totally works with the Hi-Metals in my eyes, especially in that close-up/city-level shot,

Agreed. But I'm just teasing Lolicon since he said, he can now have the entire 'VF-4 Skull Squadron'. Which he bought from Takatoys. And from what you see, there's no available 'green' color. But there's that 'yellow'. And the guy who's using that color is a dead man too.

*snip*

Haha, good point! But the yellow trim is so classic, that I can definitely see a pilot carrying on the tradition (like in Macross TV!). Whereas there is no love for Kakizaki, as you said.

Way too good of a price, had to pick up a second. Good excuse to start applying decals to the first one!

Wait. No love for Ben... er... Kakizaki?

Dead men don't fly VF-4s!

With you there moosey. Mine sat from 25th to today befroe parcel farce decided to charge me for the privilage of uahing my toy.

I still haven't even had the letter with the import charges! A-holes

Yeesh, that UK customs sounds like such a nightmare to deal with. I was fortunate to have the opposite experience; EMS almost always takes at least one week to reach me (which I realize would already be a big improvement for you guys ), but I had my valk in-hand just two days after getting the shipping notice. Hope you are also guys swooshing your valks around the house soon!

Was expecting mine to be used based off the heavily discounted price at Mandarake (the listing didn't specify), so I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was brand spanking new, with the clear protective plastic still in place on the landing lights and inside the gear doors (which I was actually able to open, unlike with the VF-0S ). My first VF-4 and I'm totally in love with it just based off of the fighter mode alone! While I haven't transformed him yet, I am happy to report that all the missiles stay on securely on mine as well.

I witness your historic photos, jvmacross!

Managed to score one off of Mandarake for 20,000JPY! Just got my order confirmation and EMS shipping was 3,600JPY, so overall still a pretty nice discount.

Just got an email from hlj for payment.

Same here!

I am still a little new to this line. I see that the Regult should be out this month, but is there a time of the month that Bandai typically releases these?

Usually it's always the end of the month.

To be precise, the official release date is February 27th.

You can see release dates on Bandai's website (HERE), and as items get closer to release the site gets updated with specific release dates.

28080 yen

Thanks! I would have happily exchanged a dinged box for 3000JPY if given the chance when preordering.

The link now is not working anymore. But earlier when you click the lowest price, the page will refresh and it will say besides the item title "Damaged Box".

Out of curiosity, what were the damaged box ones priced at?

does CDJapan charge up front?

You can pay later if you choose credit card payment. I think using Paypal requires up front payment.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE let the Delta Squadron DX's be this easy to cop.

EXACTLY what I was thinking!

Very nice to have such a smooth Bandai day. Scored all my wants at AmiAmi with no problem, though if I'd known HLJ would have their preorders open so soon tonight I would have waited for them.

Well, it seems the threat of being blacklisted may have had some effect as EnderWiggen has finally resumed communication. I'm going to remove the explanation I had here for the time being until I see where this goes.

Thank you to the people who PM-ed me with suggestions and encouragement.

Just remembered I never updated this (lol yeah, 5 month later ), so here's what happened:

Bought a VF-0D from EnderWiggen (this exact 0D reviewed here, in fact) with a friends/family payment. He had great communication and shipped the valk out promptly. Unfortunately, the valk was pretty clearly mishandled by USPS (it looked like something VERY heavy had been dropped on the box) and it arrived with a broken wing. I contacted Ender and he told me that since he had insured the package, he would put in a claim and get back to me once he heard back from USPS. I got a letter from the USPS about a week later confirming that the claims process had been started and giving me a claim number.

I would check in with Ender about once or twice a week to see if he had heard anything, and he'd always respond promptly to let me know that he hadn't received anything yet. After about a month and a half of this, I found out a way to contact the USPS Claims department directly, and I inquired with them about the status of the insurance claim. They told me that not only had they cut a check to the mailer (ie EnderWiggen) the DAY AFTER I had received that claim letter over a month ago, but they also confirmed that the check had been cashed.

Obviously, this was pretty disconcerting to hear. So I shoot an e-mail over to Ender and.. no response. Whereas before he'd always respond to me the same day, now he was strangely quiet. After a week or so of trying to get a response from him, I was sincerely starting to worry that something had happened to him, so I contacted the administrator of the website where Ender's 0D review had been posted. He told me that he'd talked to Ender recently and pointed me to Ender's Facebook, which indeed showed Ender was just fine with posts about going to the movies and pictures of plates of food.

So Ender had my money AND he had the insurance payout, while I was stuck with a broken valk. After I forwarded him copies of the USPS info showing that Ender had taken the insurance money, the review site admin posted my story to some Facebook groups while I (being a complete Facebook newb) just posted here. Suddenly, Ender starts talking to me again. Won't go into too much detail as this is already way too long, but Ender ultimately agreed to refund me my money and I sent back the valk. I was out the cost of shipping (which of course he didn't offer to cover despite effectively doubling his money ), but it was infinitely better than being stuck with a broken valk. HUGE props to that review site admin (aka Kuma) for helping me out, as I'm pretty sure Ender would have never spoken to me without the site admin calling him out on Facebook.

I don't know if that qualifies for blacklisting, because I ultimately had an OK resolution, but I would be wary of dealing with someone who tried to pull a stunt like that. Note that he continued to deny having received the insurance payout right til the very end, despite the concrete info I had that he DID receive it (maybe he had a family member living in his house with the exact same name, and HE cashed the check... but I doubt it ).

Obviously my error was using a friends/family payment, but I've never had a bad experience with a MW-er (have always used friends/family payments with MW-ers ) and Ender being a toy reviewer made me think he'd be a good guy too. I'll definitely be more careful about that in the future. Also, I learned that USPS will always send insurance claim payments to the person that initiates the claim. Both the mailer AND the recipient can initiate a claim! So don't let the mailer initiate a claim unless you've received a refund or something from the mailer beforehand.

Anyways, ended up buying a 0D off a surprise restock at HLJ.

HLJ. The part's been photographed on and off of the plane. and emailed to HLJ's trouble dept. I am hopeful and this is why I always get my high dollar stuff through them. Hopefully they will only want me to send them the broken part.

That's good to hear. Yeah, HLJ is the absolute best at handling this kinda stuff, I'm sure they'll take care of you.

Just got my -OS today!

...with a cracked canopy

Oh dude, that sucks! Where did you order from?

My shoddy photo contribution.

Arrived yesterday and I was all eager to take some quick shots of the 0S with the 0D, but embarrassingly I could not for the life of me get the rear landing gear doors open on either one. Still, valk is absolutely lovely and looks great with the 1S.

Will need to refresh my memory on the handling tricks for these guys this weekend (ie re-watch one of jenius' video reviews lol).

Just noticed a factory error on my copy where they accidentally tampo printed the leg attachments!

*snip*

J/K It's just some preliminary detailing. This is easily my favorite Arcadia release so far and it's motivated me to stop slacking and get back to work detailing my valks.

Dude! You had me seriously going there for a second, "That's one hell of a lucky QC error...!"

Very cool shots Saburo and spanner, the 0S is looking so dang nice.

Grats on the new arrivals guys!

Strongly considering getting a second despite the high price tag. That's just how much I like this thing.

Man, just looking at people's pictures (yours included!) is making me wish I'd gone ahead and added a second to my order, especially with the armor on the way.

$19.

Awesome, thanks! Still waiting on one item to come in-stock before I get my payment request from AmiAmi, but this help gives me an idea of what to expect.

Thank you for the pic, Gundam@EFSF!

A bit disappointed with how they did the 1S' head lasers, I'm considering cancelling my order.