HardlyNever

29 minutes ago, jvmacross said:

After the SDFM/DYRL releases, I hope Bandai goes into a sort of "VF Works" series (similar in concept to the VF100's series) where they start releasing "DX" scaled non-VF-1's.....they have already started that with the YF-19 and upcoming YF-21, so keeping these releases in their Chogokin line would work too I suppose.  I would think either a DX  VF-11B or VF-19 Kai would be next in line.  However, I wouldn't mind this type of series to be done using their "HMR" scale.

I fee like that might be what VALKYRIE PROJECT is about.  Creating DX versions of the most iconic valks in the Macross franchise.  But they really haven't said much about it outside of just including that logo in some displays, so maybe I'm reading too much into it.

Maybe it only pertains the the VF-1.

5 hours ago, chyll2 said:

what do you think are the schemes that Bandai will not make? I think Angel Birds, Low Viz and Stealth

Honestly, if it isn't a J, A or S variant, I don't think we'll get it in this line.  If it never made an appearance in the TV show or movie, we won't get it in this line.  I think of this as basically a "greatest hits" of VF-1s with maybe a few extra (like Kakizaki) thrown in to fill out the line.

I think we'll get a full DYRL Skull squadron (including Roy).  We'll get GBP, either as a separate accessory, or as a bundle, possibly both.  TV Kakizaki has a decent shot of being made.  Maybe some kind of TV Skull leader package that comes with Roy and Hikaru pilots, and maybe TV super parts?  If TV supers get made, M&M 1Js get a lot more likely; otherwise I don't see them getting released.  Maybe a CF of some flavor.  

That's it.  Of course, I would like to be wrong on this one.

On 5/19/2020 at 5:15 PM, Atheonyirh said:

It's possible. They also might have accidentally put the wrong wing in if they had multiple opened ones. It's worth contacting them to see if that's the case. Seems like an easy problem to fix if that's the case.

Yeah, I contacted the seller.  He was responsive before, but hasn't said anything now. 

I don't really want to put him on blast in this thread yet.  Looks like he sold several of these recently, so if you recently bought an HMR CF from a member here, and have an extra hard point wing(and are missing a non-hardpoint wing), hit me up I guess.

I bought a couple of HMR CFs used.  One is fine, but one of them had been opened, and I got two non-hardpoint right wings, and no left wing with hard points.  Is it possible this is a Bandai error (has this happened to anyone else), or is this on the seller?  I know Bandai messed up with the DYRL Hikaru 1A leg armors, but I don't recall there being an issue with the CF release.

HMR is definitely the line that grows on you as time goes on.  I also think it might be a line that never really gets "replaced" in the future. 

I wish I could get more regults for non-insane prices, when they come up at all.  I still kick myself for not getting more than 1 missile set back when they were on pre-order.  I'm really hoping for some more enemy mecha to fill out the "bad guy" ranks.  I'd probably buy 2 or more of any enemy mecha they make going forward.

37 minutes ago, Bahamutzyro said:

I just have to say, I ordered a set of SSP from Mandarake on Monday.

I received today via DHL in New York. Top notch service. 1st time ever ordered from Mandarake.

I will use them going forward. great service.

Ny got back to me and said they offer other services UPS etc. I replied to them how much to ship via the alternate methods. I have 4 sets on order with them and have already paid 5600 yens to ship to New York. lets see how much they try to charge.

 

 

For my 3 sets, they wanted just over $100 USD for UPS shipping.  I'm on the east coast, but New York would probably be a bit cheaper.

I turned it down, but I'm seriously considering it now.  This is my last outstanding order anywhere, and I kind of want to be done with it.  It feels like I'm paying a ransom, though...

Thanks everyone for checking.  It looks like this is probably another dead end; the fact that you have to open the box and also know that the display stand is original to that toy is kind of a problem to begin with.

It might be possible that 2111861 is on Alto re-issue stands; it could be that it is on all Alto release stands.  It could be that there are several possible numbers that are there, and we don't know what they mean at all.  No clue what is going on with the white dots; or whether they mean anything at all. Without more data points, I don't think we could make any kind of definitive statement.

I was also a little interested in the "Bandai 2011" year on there, but I'm assuming everyone's says that as well.  Do even later release stands say "Bandai 2011" on them?  I know they stopped putting that text on there, at some point.

I stared with this "research" with the hopes of finding a way to tell the difference between initial releases and reissues for Alto and Ozma, especially on the outside of the box, to help people out when shopping online.  Unfortunately, I don't think I have anything else beyond what I posted before, regarding that.  I'm not especially interested in the anniversary stickers themselves; they were just a possible means to an end.  Unless some new info is found, I don't think I'll find a way to tell the difference between an initial release Alto and a reissue, at least on the outside of the box.

There are some numbers on the inside of the box, possibly serial numbers for the box, that with enough data and/or info from Bandai, we could possibly work out which toys are which.  I'm not dedicated enough to bother with any of that.  So for now, I'll just have to call it.  I did notice one kind of strange thing, though.  For some reason Bandai put another copyright notice on the display arm (which I haven't noticed in their later DXs).  And this kind of piqued my curiosity, even though it doesn't really help with my initial goal.  There is also what could be a serial number on there.  Does everyone's display arm say "Bandai 2011" on it, as well?

16 hours ago, Lolicon said:

Awesome! Thanks for going down that rabbit hole, especially as I didn't want to rummage through the piles of boxes I have. 

So I looked at a 25F box I had (it was at the top of the pile so no rummaging) which did not have the 30th anniversary sticker, so I'm assuming it was one of the reissues, and it still says 2011.

Thanks for checking.

Honestly, I have a few qualms about relying on the 30th anniversary sticker to date things, but in the absence of anything else, it's probably the best we have to go by in most cases.  I doubt people have receipts and the like from that long ago, and when shopping online you'll be lucky to get a picture of the actual box you're going to buy.

Edit: I continued going further down this rabbit hole, and I'm probably losing my mind.  The only thing I feel comfortable saying regarding initial releases versus reissues is:

If it is an Ozma with a 30th anniversary sticker on the box, it is (probably) an initial 2011 release.  If it is an Ozma without a 30th anniversary sticker, it is (probably) a 2014 reissue.  I've seen enough pictures of boxes with and without stickers for that particular release to be comfortable with that statement.  I'm pretty sure even the 2014 reissue will say "Bandai 2011" in the corner.

Anything outside of that is too hard to tell.  I think the Michael 25G and Luca RVF releases (as well as some other products) also had stickers, but they didn't get reissued, so it doesn't really matter.

For Alto, at this point I don't think any of his releases were supposed to have 30th anniversary stickers on them (side note: the stickers are a mind screw of their own, but that's a separate topic).  I haven't seen enough (any) pictures that I trust of an Alto renewal with a 30th anniversary sticker on the box.  I'm also not sure that he got more than one reissue, as the official Bandai page only lists the 2011 and 2014 releases, while anymoon also includes a 2013 release for Alto.

I'm still digging into this a little more, probably to the detriment of my sanity.  I doubt I'll actually find a way to tell the difference between an initial release Alto and a reissue (again, barring outside documentation), but there are still a few avenues I want to check.

If anyone has a legit Alto renewal with either a 30th anniversary sticker (that came like that), or a non-"Bandai 2011"copyright in the corner, that would be helpful.  Being the internet, those kinds of things wouldn't be that hard to fake though, so I'm still going to be skeptical.

So I ended up going down a bit of a rabbit hole with all this; I'll spare all the details, but what I've ended up concluding is that there is basically always a Big West copyright date on all official Macross releases (Bandai or otherwise), that pertains to the year the show/movie that product is related to came out, which makes sense.  I'm sure somewhere out there are exceptions to this rule, but that really isn't important regarding this.

Then Bandai has their own copyright notice on there, that doesn't always have a year.  When it does have a year, though, that year is when that product was released (as opposed to say, the year that mold was copyrighted).  There doesn't seem to be a lot of rhyme or reason as to when Bandai includes a year on there and when they don't, but they did include a year on the VF-25F renewal that I have.

The catch with all this is I don't actually have any Bandai reissues (of any variety) at hand.  So it might be possible that they don't change anything at all about the box (including the copyright year) when they do a reissue.  So does anyone have an Alto and/or Ozma vf-25 reissue that they know for certain was a reissue , and can they check the date on the corner of the box?

Is there anyway to tell the difference between a first and later release Alto or Ozma custom?  I'm talking about the renewals here (not version one); it looks like there was a first release in 2011, then reissues in 2013 and 2014.  Does the re-issue box say 2013/2014 on it?  Or do they all say 2011?

1 hour ago, nightmareB4macross said:

Well actually my screen name might not be what you think.  Nightmareb4macross begins as Nightmare Before Christmas as I am quite a fan of Mr. Burton’s works. Then it ties into Macross. 

Kinda funny, I'm not really a big Tim Burton fan, but my wife loves Nightmare Before Christmas (I kinda like it too).  Somehow one of my display cases has ended up like this:

24 minutes ago, Sandman said:

Thanks. I don't think i want to bother with a refund. The shipping cost will not make it worth it. $20 seems a little low though. I'd prefer at least $40. Even with $40 it's still a piss off. I don't know am i being too greedy? What does everyone think?

If you're not going for a full return/refund, it really couldn't hurt to ask for more.  I doubt they would blacklist you just for asking for more (nicely).  I wouldn't count on getting more than they offered, though.

Can't really say what the appropriate amount is, but I just had a similar situation with a transaction with another member here on a similarly priced valk.  Nothing was broken, but it wasn't in quite as good of condition as he initially advertised, and we settled on me getting $25 back, which I thought was fair.  So I think they are in the right ballpark, but maybe a little low, especially considering something was actually broken (but at least glued).

Personally, it wouldn't bother me that much, but I would want a little money back just on the principle.  

In terms of screen-to-toy accuracy, I think the VF-31 is hard to beat.  Not my favorite design, but definitely screen accurate.

Thanks to @BluprinT for the great transaction:

I'd like to give a shout-out to @BluprinT. Shipped promptly and everything was packaged well.  

Not only that, but one item wasn't in quite the condition he thought it was, and he was quick to give a portion of the transaction price back to make things right.  Definitely a great guy to work with.

Something something "parallel thinking"

12 minutes ago, Lolicon said:

Getting the DX back into fighter mode was a Sisyphean ordeal. 

 

Yeah, I like how this one looks (I'm mostly fine with the "over-tampo-ing"), but transforming it is not really enjoyable.  It's not too horrible without the fast packs, but not something I'd call fun.

Trying to get everything to line up in fighter mode with fast packs might actually be impossible.  You can get it "adequate," but actually getting everything to tab in properly is... I've never done it successfully.

Nice job on the landing gear, btw.

For some reason, I'm still optimistic we'll get most of what we're hoping for with this line.  The COVID situation may have delayed things quite a bit, but I still think we'll get the last two destroids, and at least one more enemy mech of some variety.  Probably a few more valk repaints, too.

They might all be TWE, and we'll have to pay more, but I think we'll get most of it, in the end.

19 minutes ago, Slave IV said:

I don’t get it. Even if you pay crazy prices you aren’t guaranteed your shipment quickly. Why not just choose ferry, pay less and kick back, relax and strap on your seatbelt?

I switched my shipping with NY from SAL to EMS before EMS was delayed to the US.  Had I known that was going to happen, I would have just stuck with SAL.  Their UPS option was too much of a gamble for me, because like you said, there was no guarantee when it would actually ship, much less arrive.

I might just break down a buy a slightly marked up one from Amazon Japan, and maybe sell one or two I get from NY next decade when they finally arrive.  But the combination of mediocre execution by Bandai, and NY doing NY things, has kind of soured me on this release entirely.  

1 hour ago, burnout6 said:

You guys might want to check out AJ. I was lucky enough to snag a SSP last week for about the same cost as my pre-order with shipping. Got the DHL shipping notification today with a delivery date of this coming Tuesday. Funny how it will get here before my pre-order. 

 

Seems to be location-specific, even within the US.  The cheapest I can find that will actually ship to my address is ￥14,800 shipped.

28 minutes ago, nightmareB4macross said:

I’m on the same boat. And clearly I bought my set when they were on pre-order of the first round. My Paypal assurances have expired by now. I just hope NY follows through and completes their sales transactions.

I think a lot of us are in this same situation.  I was tempted to pay there $100+ dollar shipping fee for UPS, just so I could be done with them, but I'm not sure even that would ship anytime soon.

This is the last order I have open with them, and I doubt I'll do any pre-pay order with them ever again (and do minimal business with them at all).  Giving them what will probably be a 1 year, interest-free loan is not a business I want to be involved in.

I'm still pretty confident I'll eventually get what I ordered.  I just have no confidence in when it will arrive.

Yeah, it is a lot to take in just getting started.

The Arcadia 1/60 Roy with SS pack is where I started a few years ago, and it is right in your price range.  It's still a great toy, if a little dated.  There are Max and Milia's from that same line even cheaper (if you're not getting the premium finish versions). I'm not sure what it is going for at this point, but you could probably find one at around that price.  There are tons of options with regards to where to buy; I won't get into that here.

You might be able to score an opened/slightly used Bandai DX 1/48 Hikaru VF-1S for something pretty close to that price (you'll have to buy the super parts separately).  

Alternatively, you could play the waiting game and hope Bandai releases the Roy in their 1/48 line sometime soon.  But that is a bit of a gamble, because we don't know when they will release one, and getting one for MSRP is going to be quite difficult.  You'll also have to buy the super parts separately.

Just a word of caution: most of this stuff would have to be shipped from Japan, and shipping from Japan in nearly all forms has been delayed.

The gunpla I ordered from Amazon got returned to sender.  It had been sitting at Nagoyanishi since the end of March.