Test_Pilot_2

2 hours ago, shazam said:

Deadpool & Wolverine (2024) - Ladypool 1/6 Scale Hot Toys Action Figure 👩💩L

The Lady Katana figure from Toys Era on the right lost some of the top coating of material when I picked it up. 😭At least the new Ladypool figure does not suffer the same problem. 

Ladypool is awesome - get the whole family!

11 minutes ago, ImChris5115 said:

6 barrels Gatling gunpod -  Battroid & Gerwalk mode 

In Crocodile Dundee voice @ all prior VF weapons...

"That's not a Gunpod... THIS is a Gunpod."

It's giving me Aliens smart gun + A10 Warthog gatling gun vibes.

6 hours ago, Major Tom said:

This is on the next level

 

Holy crap.

Now that is cool! Is that a big'ole Hulkbuster in the background? Just saw they have a 4ft tall xenomorph, too. Must... resist.

19 minutes ago, sh9000 said:

Yes.  No but it's best to get an order in earlier than later.  Probably none because it's a TWE.

Nin-Nin Game is offering pay later for anyone that wants to play Russian Roulette with their money and experience:

https://www.nin-nin-game.com/en/dx-chogokin/158528-dx-chogokin-macross-frontier-vf-27sp-super-lucifer-valkyrie-revival-ver-limited-edition-bandai-spirits-.html

Ordered at Yoyakunow - the shipping matter was off-putting, but the customer service, follow-up, shipping speed, and overall experience was awesome. Hopefully, it wasn't because it was my first purchase there.

We'll see.

These two were fun to pose... They're in my new 360-degree hexagon case.

Bandai Robot Spirits:

Nirvash the End; and

Nirvash Spec 2

22 hours ago, rsvictor1976 said:

@Test_Pilot_2 and @Angesdad So shipping issues aside, how was your new Ozma? Any issues with loose joints?

Mine seems solid so far. I'm sure I've been Bandai'd somewhere so we'll see.

Just got it transformed and added all the armor... I did think the hips were super tight, but here at the end the thing is standing on its own holding its weight so I'm ok with the tight joints.

Everything seems ok, anything off is likely my fault. Thing looks bad ass.

Just finished putting this together, but g920 + shifter + stand... going to have some fun racing on the couch with this. Stand folds up nice for storage, too!

1 hour ago, rsvictor1976 said:

Thanks for taking the time to do this. That sucks that it wasn't packed any different than the YF-21. I'm not too disappointed with the shipping cost anymore after comparing the recent YF-21 and Super O release with Mandarake. Was this through DHL Express or UPS Worldwide Express? I've always liked DHL whenever I order stuff from Mandarake, they always come either next day or two. I'm hoping UPS has a similar experience. 

It was originally marked as the UPS WW Saver, but the shipping time was practically overnight... so I think as someone mentioned - something got goofed and instead of saver, they upgraded to warp shipping.

Armored Ozma - you know you think brown shipper boxes are sexy. Got here impossibly fast. Jimmy Johns has been outdone.

Fallout Maximus Power Armor

24 minutes ago, rsvictor1976 said:

Yeah, I figured the extra weight was packaging material. But thanks for confirming.

So not buying this shipping cost right now. Box is same/similar size to the 1/60 YF-21... Maybe even a hair smaller. Packaging was not extraordinary... Shipping cost was substantially higher.

On the flipside, still got my $$$ worth. It got here insanely fast.

24 minutes ago, rsvictor1976 said:

Any chance you can take a picture of the packaging and weigh it? I'm curious if the 2600g shipping weight was accurate.

I don't think it's tied to physical weight as others have pointed out. Some shipping methods equate the size of the box to a certain weight due to volume. After seeing the size of the box in videos, if Yoya wanted to protect the product, they'd have to use a big box, hopefully packed with stuff to keep it from moving or getting smushed if the unthinkable happens. Once it gets here though, I'll share. It's out for delivery right now so crossing my fingers the delivery person is good. At the same time, I purchased extra insurance just in case they're not.

9 hours ago, MKT said:

 

Thanks for sharing. I guess the same shenanigans are still happening at NNG then, even if it feels like these incidences have reduced quite a bit during the past 1 or 2 years. 

I think as long as you stick to one-offs, you're fine. Multiple purchases - you're playing Russian Roulette. See a sweet deal where it would make sense for it to ship alongside other items in-flight (even weeks in advance before manufacturer release date) - not happening. Don't count any shipping savings as part of the deal - you won't be able to leverage them regardless of how much sense it makes. Nin-Nin Game customer service won't (or can't) bother to help.

Always purchase with a credit card (if you're in the United States) so you can protect yourself in case they leverage predatory tactics. I say "predatory tactics" because Nin-Nin Game can (and will) leverage it's 10-15 % restocking fee by essentially "floating" "supplier issues" to avoid having to address the root cause of a problem without giving up their "cut" of your money that they've been holding without actually providing the goods. By "floating" I mean they will continue to provide canned responses where they use sympathetic language about the issue but do not offer substantive options of any kind to either get your money back or some form of incentive. In fact, you could pay for an item that they can't (or won't) deliver and they won't issue the bonus points for it until the item ships. At first I thought this made sense because if an order gets refunded and a purchaser uses points from that refund, they're hosed. However, even when I tried to hold on with them and their delays and issues - they offered no realized help, no actual relevant benefit. All they offered were empty words and I was either stuck with losing access to my funds (these aren't/weren't small purchases) for an extended period of time or without getting (or even hope of getting) the goods purchased. This screams a one-sided business tactic to maximize revenue and reduce spoilage/loss with little concern about fostering a good relationship with a customer.

I imagine the only reason my account didn't get suddenly deleted and all my orders canceled is because I've spent thousands and thousands with them recently and they like money like Frito from Idiocracy likes money.

Just protect yourself and do not rely on Nin-Nin Game's goodwill. I hope everyone else has had a much better experience and I'm an outlier. Again, until recently, Nin-Nin Game was one of my favorite merchants. 

1 minute ago, rsvictor1976 said:

When did you preorder your Ozma? I ordered mine on the 2nd, got the “item arriving soon“ status, but still no shipping notice.

June 6th - can't tell you how early in the morning it was, but I was doing the browser refreshing madness bit... Then learned the next day that I didn't have to :P.

1 hour ago, MKT said:

Must have missed your issues with NNG.. what were they again? I'm cautious but mostly optimistic with my experience with them so far.

I haven't posted because I've been trying to give them the benefit of the doubt, but their customer service has been terrible. I've had issues with their delivery system even when I contact them weeks in advance and ask them to combine shipments - they either won't or fail to. This is even trying to use their warehouse. I had it happen once and owned the matter and let it slide, but the second time? I tried way in advance, got their own support person to assert the shipments would be combined, and then they denied they said it. I have yet to find the right combination of secret sauce to make it work as intended, there's always a reason that it doesn't or can't.

I've also paid for items they said they had ready to ship to then learn there was a delay... OK, fine, that happens... So I wait, even until well after their next target date to follow-up and they kept kicking the can because of a supplier delay. Meanwhile, the items appear on E-bay, stateside Amazon, HLJ, you name it... I wait two weeks then ask them again, same canned supplier delay message, no actual update, no alternative options, nothing. They've held my money for months and months at this point.

I've stopped using any payment method except credit card with them to ensure if they play games that I have recourse outside of their customer service - and this has proven the most valuable tool to deal with them so far when things go sideways. Take a close look at their refund/return/restock policies - they have everything to gain and nothing to lose when it comes to canceled/refunded orders.

I ramped up my orders with them beginning mid-last year because I was feeling OK about them, too. I've even posted some of their fantastic deals. Here, recently, they've been a train wreck for me. Hoping it improves because they've landed/will land in the merchant of last resort bucket for me.

I don't know what kind of devilry Yoyakunow is practicing... But I literally just paid for my Ozma and it's being delivered tomorrow. I'll have to admit that it took a minute to get an update on the order, but once the update came in Yoyakunow has been world-class on it.

I wish my recent Nin-Nin Game experiences were even remotely this good. They have been absolutely horrific lately.

1 hour ago, mikeszekely said:

So I said I was biting the bullet, and I did.  Sorry I didn't report back sooner.  It's pretty much exactly as expected... marginal improvements, but nothing amazing; if you couldn't run the game well on an Ally plugged into the wall an Ally X probably isn't running it either.  That said, some of those minor bumps do help.  Like, I can actually take advantage of the 120hz display on a few games now.  But the extended battery life is absolutely worth the upgrade, at least in my particular use case.  At the 15w "performance" power profile on the original Ally I'd fall a little short of getting through my daughter's two-hour dance classes, forcing me to bring a power brick and hope to sit near an outlet in the waiting room or hope to get a playable 30fps at 10w.  On the Ally X at 17w we're leaving and I've still got around 50% left.  It makes the Ally X feel truly portable in a way the original Ally didn't quite live up to.

The other main advantage for me is that there's two USB-C ports on the top now.  It's a minor thing, but it does allow me to plug the Ally X in while I use the Asus 15" portable monitor I have kicking around, or more importantly, my Viture XR glasses.

Speaking of, I had the Viture One XR glasses.  They're basically like sunglasses with thick frames that have mirrors and little OLED displays.  You plug them into a laptop or phone or whatever and it projects a virtual screen in your field of view.  They've been a great match with the Ally- a virtual 1080p, 60hz, 120" display is a lot easier for my old eyes to see than the 7" display on the Ally itself, and I like that I can use for more privacy when I'm out and about.  I like them enough that I offered to get a pair for my wife.  Her response was that I should upgrade and she'd just use my old ones, so yeah, I bought the Viture Pro XR glasses.

Honestly, I wasn't sure I needed the upgrade.  They're still 1080p, but they upped the refresh rate to 120hz, and they increased the FOV so the virtual screen is 135".  So far, nice-to-haves, but nothing earth-shattering.  The display is brighter, but I thought the One XRs were bright enough.  They also improved the electrochromatic lenses so that they get much darker, but the One XRs already had a clip-on cover if you needed to block out more light.

Then I got the Pro XRs in hand.  And I was right about one thing... I don't really notice a huge difference on the screen size.  But the rest is apparently a bigger deal than I thought.  It's not just brighter, it's noticeably brighter.  Combined with the darker lenses you definitely don't have to worry about seeing through the virtual screen, even in a bright environment.  But best of all, whatever they did to increase the FOV fixed the single biggest issue I had with the One XRs- blurry corners.  The entire virtual screen is nice and crisp.  The Pro XRs aren't cheap, but if you game on the go I'd say they're a must-have accessory for the ROG Ally/Ally X/Steam Deck.

XR glasses are the best way to get some bedtime gaming in before racking out...

The biggest benefit of the Ally X is unmarrying the handheld from proprietary overpriced eGPUs.

Snag yourself a dock, a decent GPU, and a powersupply and your Ally X is now a desktop replacement. I would recommend the ADT-UT3G - almost all the performance and very little loss.

My setup destroys Stalker 2 and Indiana Jones.

1 minute ago, Dangard Ace said:

Let me know how that one goes for you, I've been debating buying and building this.

AC6 Handler Walter

Archistands got here. For a Lego-brained DIYer... I'm going to have fun with these. Building and lighting my new cabinet, but once I'm done I'll be all over these. 

Since I got it at a steal risking my life buying it via Facebook marketplace my wife gave me a hall pass.

14 hours ago, rsvictor1976 said:

I just got a message from them that they expect their stock by the end of the week and will begin shipping next week.

I just got notice to pay for shipping. Least expensive option is a little over 9000 yen then climbs to over 12k yen to the US.

Seems steep, but the box weighs 2.6 kilograms?

22 minutes ago, shazam said:

These are super cool, but I'm confident that if I started adding even MORE cabinets... my wife would kill me in my sleep.