protostar8

I stopped ordering from amiami many years ago, but just because I found it easier to cancel elsewhere.

On the price matching---do you know of any other Japanese online retailer that does it? Nippon Yassan has the VF19 for 29.000 yen, I sincerely doubt that anybody that requests a price match will get it. While I do not agree on price gouging on preorders, it can be standard practice on released items. Once your supplier runs out, you need to find another one which might be price-gouging anyway...and so on.

Amiami, NY and probably other japanese websites do not let you cancel orders, even unpaid ones, without any sort of reprimand. Fair play to them, because different countries/businesses might have different systems.

Amiami's customer service used to be great but I think they got too big for their own good once they opened up to overseas sales in the past 6 or so years.

Well, I've had price matching happen before. I won't say a lot about it b/c I don't know if it was just me getting a one time special thing or what? But it doesn't hurt to ask. Their response was kind of rude to me about it, which is why I mentioned it. But overall, screw AmiAmi. That's just how I feel about them at the moment. They are supposedly known for lower prices than HLJ on most items, so I was just calling them out on that. I don't honestly expect them to price match, but that's what the good business practice would be. Alienate a customer over a few bucks??? Nah, bad idea. That's why Walmart doesn't tell you to go suck a you know what when you come in and ask for a price match. It's good business to keep a customer happy in the long run even if you lose a little today (which AmiAmi wouldn't be losing anything to offer it at MSRP, which is WELL above what wholesale on items runs b/c I have a friend that gets a ton of Japanese items wholesale and does group buys, just not this particular item).

Just an FYI moment:

I have only ever ordered 2 or 3 times from AmiAmi, so I have never dealt with customer service. I placed an order for the VF-19 when the second batch hit their store. Now I'm a LONG TIME HLJ customer, so if I order something and decide to cancel, all it takes is an email to them and they cancel it no muss, no fuss (assuming I haven't paid for it yet, never paid for an item then asked to have my money back haha). AmiAmi is more expensive than MSRP on the item (MSRP is 23000Yen, AmiAmi is 24840Yen). They replied back that they do not honor any sort of price matching (which I guess is fine albeit bad customer service and customer retention). But they also said that they don't do cancellations and if I "badly" wanted one, they would leave a note on my account about it. So, in conclusion, I think AmiAmi's customer service is pretty bad. I doubt I'll ever order from them again considering they are price gouging and have bad customer service compared to HLJ.

Joining the ranks! Just showed up courtesy of CD Japan and good ol' slow & steady SAL.

Super gappy out of the box, but it's very obviously due to mis-transformations so I'm not concerned. I have a bad habit of doing things spectacularly wrong when transforming things on my own, so going to wait and see if someone will post up a video guide before attempting the transformation.

Love the matte finish and the shade of tan plastic Bandai used for the fuselage is perfect. I do wish they'd made the legs a little wider to reduce the gap between the shield and legs in fighter (it would make the battroid look a bit more like the Arcadia too, which I prefer), but otherwise I'm very happy with what I'm seeing so far.

009.jpg

Same here, and I think you hit the issue dead on. We were charged the "Small Packet" SAL rate whereas now they're only offering "Parcel Post" rate which is for items that do not fit within the Small Packet size limits. Pretty awesome of CD Japan to honor their preorder shipping quotes, unlike some retailers (*cough* Nippon-Yasan).

But that doesn't explain how AmiAmi and CDJapan have DRASTICALLY different rates on the EXACT SAME services??? That's what I'm wondering about???

So, Amiami and CDJ get some re-stock but no HLJ

They dont want me to get a second one

I'm actually talking to an HLJ rep and they are pretty much telling me they went so far as to delete the item's page b/c they didn't want over-ordering by accident. I can't EVER recall them deleting a page on an item. Something larger is at play here with HLJ.

Btw, it's looking like $240 from AmiAmi with EMS, or $227 from CDJapan with SAL. HLJ would have been the cheapest out of all of them b/c their price was 21850Yen and you could combine orders to save on shipping within a 3 month period thanks to their warehouse. I hate how HLJ seems to NEVER order enough product anymore (this is NOT the first item that I've seen them go out of stock on while other retailers still had it).

Woah, it's cheaper for the item at CDJapan, but the shipping from them is TWICE as expensive as AmiAmi...Anyone have a clue why???

Thanks for posting the AmiAmi link! Nabbed one. Waited 15 years to finally get one (or however long it's been since Mac+ came out)...it's about time I got one. XD

So, if that's the case, what's stopping Arcadia or T-Rex to ask Big West to mass produced their YF-19's Advanced Boosters, when Big West already approved the passed-on design from Arcadia to Bandai to produce their VF-19 Advanced (e.g. the Fast Mode wing bars, etc.)? I know Arcadia/T-Rex can't release the boosters in so many quantities due to Bandai owning the Frontier license, then how come Bandai mass produced the VF-19 by using some Arcadia's design input? Weird legality issues, right?

Max928 is already selling his. Better grab it now. Good luck.

Wow, so how much is shipping exactly from Japan to the US? Haha. That one site someone linked the other day had it for around $185 plus shipping...so that's $60 more for shipping. lol

Does anyone know somewhere that might have it at a comparable price to that $185 + shipping?

So as of now, what's the cheapest place to pick up one of these?

So what we really need now is that in depth side by side pictorial review of Arcadia vs Bandai! lol

Thanks for all the responses. Still can't decide which I like best, but for that price, I may have to hop on the Bandai one. But then again, $270 yen is about the same isn't it....ugh...hard choices suck!

Is Arcadia releasing another YF-19? Only Arcadia knows. They could reissue their 1/60 version, but won't likely do it for the foreseeable future since Bandai just released their VF-19 Adv.

What would it include? Probably the same array of ordnance as their original release, including fast packs, and stand adapter. Chances for a Fold Booster are slim, unless they choose to do something like a Ghost X-9 and include the booster with it. Otherwise, you'd need to hunt down a Yamato fold Booster -- they are compatible.

Arcadia's YF-19, AFAIK, does not suffer from crumbling anything, but it does have severe weak ankle syndrome due to horrible design inherited from Yamato's VF-19s.

Price-wise, Arcadia's YF-19 was almost 100 USD more than Bandai's VF-19 Adv. And their value has been increasing despite Bandai's new entry.

Look to Bandai to make one in their HI METAL R series of toys, if the line survives long enough. There are also the VF-19 Kai and VF-19S that were produced from their old, now defunct, HI METAL line.

Thanks for the info! So if I go Arcadia, make sure it's an Arcadia (and not their old name) one. I was thinking Soul of Chogokin would be amazing quality b/c I hear people talk about how nice the quality is on them. So is the Arcadia version more in line with Macross Plus in terms of shape whereas the new Bandai one is more like the Frontier Movie (which I didn't know existed until I saw the VF-19 today). lol

How much have the Arcadia's gone up in price. Ebay is NEVER a good tell of true price, so seeing that guy's for $330 seems to be about what it would have cost originally no???

So I've been out of the Macross loop for a LONG time. The YF-19 is my favorite jet of all time, hands down. But I've never owned a transforming one unless you count the SHE kit that I can't build b/c I lack the tools and polycaps. lol

So, can someone give me a rundown on some things? Like is Arcadia doing another YF-19? What will it include with it (fast packs? Fold booster? etc?)? If I recall correctly, the Arcadia's in the past had severe issues with the shoulders crumbling among other things, so did they ever fix this in any of their releases or are all the Arcadia's riddled with problems?

Price wise, how do these compare?

I wish a company would FINALLY make a 1/100 scale version!

I was curious if anyone knows whether the Star GaoGaiGar kit will include the regular Stealth Gao and the Stealth Gao II or if it will only contain Stealth Gao II? I may just buy the normal kit + upgrade instead, but if the Star GaoGaiGar set comes with both then it's the cheaper option. I haven't seen anywhere mention it yet, but I can't read Japanese either.

So any further news on these? Like a release date or something?

Awesome!

Wow, both Cyborg Ninja and Snake are amazing...

We need a transforming papercraft VF-4 stat! lol

I want that Batman so bad. It's sad to think that we may never get it b/c of licensing issues that have popped up.

I also wanted to get the Bleach figures at some point, but if they are going self destruct like a Toynami Alpha, I'll wait to find them clearanced somewhere.

You know what's a better strategy? Dump the license on a company that can actually sell the products they have toy makers create instead of shelfing them only to show other ones that will never see the light of day. Maybe they could give that a try instead of sucking so hard???

You mean the Batman Beyond version

I consider them two different jokers.

But I am tired of this whole realistic take on everything.

Batman Beyond Mr. Freeze was awesome. Honestly, most things in that show were pretty cool. Who wouldn't want a Batsuit that turns invisible???

With the economy taking another downturn this past week, I'll be really surprised to the see next battlepod "leave the dock" and find it's way to retailers. I'm even more doubtful that the 1/100 Valkyries will be produced this year to say nothing of actually being released by Christmas...

Bingo. Toynami is the worst toy company on the planet. I think ANY other toy company could capitalize on the name brand, but instead the poor management at Toynami sits around wondering why they suck at their jobs...b/c everyone from the management up doesn't know how the hell to do their job right.

I want those 1/100 toys big time, but Toynami will likely never release them.

Hmmm, not sure I really dig how he made Bane look. I'm just gonna hope that there is a secret, cooler looking Bane that is in store and this Bane is nothing more than the wimpy non-venom Bane. Bane is really short either way. Hopefully Nolan hasn't let fame go to his head to the point where he makes bad decisions.

Anyone that complains about fake tits is some who has never even touched a pair fake or otherwise in real life.

I beg to differ sir...

They are TBA. But should I'd say, whenever my boss feels likes it 'cus I really don't know.

Thanks for the reply. That really sucks though. I'm guessing they will fall into the "never made" category which really blows!

Apparently, they're 2 different toys released around 2005.

Yamato Zeorymer

Gigabrain Zeorymer

I should have mentioned that I knew about the normal Zeorymer toys. I was just curious about the Great Zeorymer toy that is seen in the first pic I linked and again on the left in the second pic I linked. That's the one I don't know anything about but would love to own.