HardlyNever

The line itself is still doing pretty well, it's just they aren't making Macross stuff right now.  Hopefully, that will change in the future, but I'm glad the line still exists, even if they are making other franchise products atm.  Can't get more Macross HMR if the line is completely dead.

Had a chance to open mine and transform it to Gerwalk.  Unfortunately, I have also been Bandai'd:

I have both the split left shoulder issue that the Japanese buyer had (the right shoulder has a similar issue, just not as noticeable), and the head laser issue @Sanity is Optional has.  It's a shame, too, because otherwise the toy looks great.

Neither issue completely ruins the toy (the shoulders still work fine, just look bad).  But we really should not be getting this poor of quality control at this price point.  Sigh... Bandai

22 hours ago, Sanity is Optional said:

One of my pre-orders is with nin-nin. No word from them yet, so I expect they won't fulfill either.

Picked up on Amazon Japan instead, likely will end up a similar price.

Weird, they sent mine out last week without me even asking.

Got here today, haven't had a chance to open it (beyond just seeing the that they actually sent the right thing...).  Hopefully they will send you're soon.

Nin-Nin shipped mine, hopefully will be here sometime next week.

I've started the charge-back process with my CC company.  Never been happier to burn a bridge.  Offering 1 SSP and store credit for a bunch of (overpriced) stuff that I don't want was nowhere good enough, given how long this has taken.

I'll update once the dust has settle (could take over 50 days), but right now they are going to credit my account and do an investigation.

Also got the "we can't fulfill your order" from NY.  Yeah, I'm done with these idiots.  Of course, they are only offering store credit (and 1 SSP).  Still not sure what I even want to do, as there isn't much I want from them of equivalent value.  

I might go to the credit card company and try to fight them for a cash refund, but I'm just tired of dealing with NY.

I will echo the sentiment that this seems like a new low for them.  The "you'll get your product eventually, some day," used to be the silver lining in dealing with them.  Looks like that is gone now.

The Amazon exclusive Storm Shadow is back in stock, if anyone still wanted one.

I've submitted two tickets now for switching to my SSP order to UPS (first was at the beginning of this month), and no response.  Looking at this thread, it seems like even if they respond, there is 0 guarantee they:

A) Have the product in stock at all

and

B) Will ship it out in anything resembling a timely manner.

I'm really considering going the nuclear option and doing a charge back here.  I was holding back, because I'd like to have them as a sort of last-resort option in certain circumstances.  But that this point I wonder if they actually even have SSP.  And I don't know if I'd trust them all with any order.  I'm going to hold off for now, but I think I may have to join the "banned" ranks soon.

Sir, this is a Wendy's Bandai thread.  The thread for the Arcadia YF-19 is here:

1 hour ago, BlueMax said:

Hi all, so I’ve scored some loose Regults... only thing is....they don’t come with Tamashii stand adapters. Does anyone know of any shapeways link that has such replacements?

 

thanks in advance

NVM misread.

3 hours ago, David Hingtgen said:

Found wave 1 at my local Target.   No tags for Cobra Island etc.  Picked up Snake Eyes, my first Classified figure.   

::edit::  Sword is ridiculously soft and rubbery, desperately need a hard plastic replacement so it doesn't droop.   Also, IMHO, the guns look worse in person.  Need authentic uzi or MAC-10 etc.   Would definitely buy a modern "battle pack" if it had real weapons and not sci-fi:

 

The accessories are definitely the weak point of this line, generally.  It's where you really feel the $20 price point.  

I don't mind the "sci-fi" aesthetic that much, but the super cheap plastic and no paint apps really drag the accessories down a notch.

Not really sure why the DX 1/48 thread got turned into the "when I die I want my collection to..." thread.  For my part, my collection probably doesn't even top $10k (small potatoes in comparison), but I've only been at it for a little over three years (for modern stuff).  My son has shown a passing interest in the stuff, but I don't really care a whole lot what happens to it, one way or another.  I bought it for my enjoyment, that's kind of the beginning and end of it, really.

I would say that I think, generally speaking, the interest/obsession with toys/models will largely die with "our generation (kids born in the 70s and 80s, maybe early 90s)."  Of course there will be exceptions to this, I'm not saying no one born post 2000 will ever have an interest in physical collectibles.  I just think the market will be ridiculously small, to the point that it will either be even more "boutique" than it is now, or it simply isn't a mass-produced consumer product anymore.

Tying that together, and in an attempt to put things marginally back on topic, it could be that this line (DX 1/48) is the last mass-produced VF-1 line that really advances the design in any kind of significant way (or maybe one more generation gets mass-produced).  While I do believe there will always be a "next generation" VF-1, I do think that we're getting to the point where the advancements are so marginal, and the interest so niche, that the next truly innovative VF-1 design will be something analogous to a "garage kit" today, that is designed by a small indy studio.  And you may have to 3D print and assemble it yourself.

Maybe we're not there yet, but in another 20 years...?  Perhaps.

58 minutes ago, Mommar said:

Ah I see, thanks.  Yeah, I don't hate it, but I don't really like it.  I'd have to see it in figure form before deciding for sure, but I'd probably pass on that design.  

This line is weird.  There is like 25% of the figures I feel they knock out of park, another 25% that I feel are just way off the mark, and the other 50% of kind of "meh."

34 minutes ago, Mommar said:

I'm only talking about six inch.  There's also the Stormshadow like from of the back of the box.  The stupid looking one with the Tattoo.

Can't say I've seen that one, do you have a link?  The only other Stormshadow art I've seen is this:

Which looks ok-ish, but kind of hard to tell with so little to go off of.  I don't see a tattoo in that picture, but maybe that one does have a tattoo, as it looks a lot more v1 inspired.

7 minutes ago, Mommar said:

Which Storm Shadow?  They've shown two.  The stupid looking one with the Tattoo and the remake of the Amazon Exclusive Arctic Stormshadow.

I'm only looking at the 6 inch line.  I've only seen the Amazon Exclusive Arctic Stormshadow.  Is there another 6 inch Stormshadow they previewed?  I haven't seen it.

I basically just want Alley Viper at this point (who has been teased on the poster, but no figure yet).  I'm willing to admit I would probably pay $30+ if needed (assuming it turns out good).

I might get the Stormshadow they showed, but I'm not loving it.  I would prefer a v1 or even v2 based variant.

I'm a casual GI Joe fan, so I only wanted a few.  Just getting the standard release Snake Eyes (not the Pulse exclusive) was a bit of a chore.  

It seems like any of the popular figures are hard to come by.  It's getting exhausting collecting, well... anything it seems like.  I'm used to scarcity with Macross stuff, but $20 GI Joe figures now?  Really?  I know COVID-19 is partially to blame for this, but it really seems like manufacturers are dialing up the "artificial scarcity" factor lately.

15 hours ago, Shizuka the Cat said:

One approach is to use Selenium, a tool that can be used with, such programming languages as Python or Java to automate web navigation.

https://towardsdatascience.com/controlling-the-web-with-python-6fceb22c5f08 documents the use of Python + Selenium to automate homework assignment submission to a school's Canvas web page.  A similar approach could be applied for handling online shopping.

This is what the bot @SpaceCowboy made uses.  It works (it can successfully complete a transaction), it just isn't all that fast, and it is "fragile."  

Just to reiterate:  A bot is possible.  A fast bot is possible.  I'm fairly confident there are scalpers using them.  Making (and maintaining) one is not easy, but if you were doing this on a large scale (or were a group of people doing this on a large scale), the development and maintenance time would be worth it, especially if you live in a part of the world where your individual labor per hour is on the lower end.  Especially if you were doing this to say... scalp a lot of high demand/low supply products.

I'm not trying to discourage anyone from trying this, I was just weighing in with my experience. 

As far as what vendors can do to combat them (more than they already do, and I think they do some things (see above)), implementing a captcha of some kind would definitely help, but the push back from customers who are not aware of the situation would definitely be a headache.  If they were to ask me, I would tell them to implement it on the most scalped products (mainly the Bandai stuff) on a short term, when they go up for pre-order.  But there are still X number of customers who would still not understand why it is there, and how it (potentially) helps them, and they would definitely complain.  So I can understand why a lot of these vendors don't even bother.  Also, as I said before, I still believe most of the buyers are actually humans, so on our end, our experience wouldn't be much different (we'd just have to fill out a captcha before being told the product is sold out).

31 minutes ago, derex3592 said:

I'm older and wiser these days to where I might pay a small $20-$40 markup on these things to avoid the 7 circles of pre-order HELL.  There's no way I'd ever pay double or more for the DX stuff.  I'm sorry, it's just not worth it to me anymore.  Just my .02.  DX 1:48 stuff is cool and all, and if I can pick it up later for a slight markup, cool, whatever.  If not, I'm not gonna die without it.  My Yamato customized 1:60 V2 collection is still amazing and I love looking at it every day! 

Yup, that's where I'm at with it.  I've collected long enough to realize what I value, and how much certain products are worth to me.  I'm fine with paying up to $250 shipped for a DX 1/48 (I haven't had to pay that yet, but I feel like that is about what it is worth to me).  Anything more than that, and I'll personally feel like I overpaid, and it will hurt my enjoyment of the purchase.  So I just won't pay that much.  

But that is my personal line in the sand, and that is just for this particular product.  I've paid over $500 for an SDF-1, and been very pleased with my purchase, and paid less than $100 for an HMR, and felt a little bit disappointed.  It's all about personal value assessment, and realizing what things are worth to you individually.

1 minute ago, Stranger said:

At this point, I'd rather they just wrap it in shipping paper and let the styrofoam protect the toy so I am not paying $100 for a box! I am going to message them that as a compromise. 

There is a 0% chance they do that.  You might be able to come to some compromise on a smaller box, but I doubt it.

The shipping is always the problem with the Monster.  You can usually find it at a decent mark-down, but getting it out of Japan is costly.  If  you're patient, your best bet is to try to find someone here that is selling one, as they generally "eat" most of the shipping cost for you.  I got mine for $175 shipped from a member on here a few years ago, and I've seen others sell in the sub $200 range (shipped) on this site.

It sounds like you already purchased, though.  So maybe just a word of advice for anyone else that might read this that is interested in the Monster.

Remember, there's like a 99% chance we will be getting a DYRL Roy.  A TV VF-1S Hikaru is also pretty likely.

So if you're weighing paying inflated prices for this release, keep in mind that you'll have 1, maybe 2 more chances at scoring a PO on a very similar toy.  I know some people want every single release in this line, but if not, you've got a couple more chances at scoring a Skull Leader (just sand display-stand) at pre-order prices.

45 minutes ago, lavinrac said:

hmm. I got DHL from them for my SSP a few weeks back. It was $40 but . eh. whatever. I'll email them. Thanks!!!

 

Sorry, I misread your post, I thought you asked about SSP the first time.  The only missile sets they have "in stock" are crazy marked up, so I dunno what they are doing for people that pre-ordered a in the second wave.

How did you get DHL shipping from NY?  I've asked about DHL specifically, and they just said they do UPS

12 minutes ago, lavinrac said:

Speaking of NY and Extra parts, have they received their Missile sets (June release) yet?

Wondering if i need to email them to get them in gear. It seems the polite mails are working for me. I dunno if that is a fluke or not.

 

 

They've had them for a while, it seems like.

If you're in the US, they won't ship them to you unless you use their (expensive) UPS option.  EMS is detailed to the US, so it seems like they are not even bothering to ship those out yet.

Ferry might be an option, but I haven't seen anyone say they have had theirs shipped via ferry yet.

Nevermind.

Bandai: Puts TV Roy up for pre-order

Also Bandai: Reveals TV Hikaru with super parts at event a few days after pre-order

Is that something they would do? I think the answer is yes.