Shizuka the Cat

Hi-Metal R VF-19 Fire Valkyrie is now available for pre-order on Amazon US:  $130

https://www.amazon.com/TAMASHII-NATIONS-Macross-Valkyrie-Hi-Metal/dp/B0CZQKGSQ6/ref=sr_1_9

Hmmm.... I wonder how much difference there is between the Hi-Metal R Fire Bomber VF-19 and the original Hi-Metal Non-R version of the same valkyrie.

I don't own the Hi-Metal Non-R version, so I have no idea how good it was.

Considering the differences between Hi-Metal R and non-R VF-1 Valkyries are relatively minor, I wonder if that is also the case for the VF-19.

Up on HLJ...

https://www.hlj.com/hi-metal-r-vf-19-kai-fire-valkyrie-banc660855

Up on Yoyakunow...

https://www.yoyakunow.com/en/robots/21127-hi-metal-r-vf-19-kai-vf-19-kai-fire-valkyrie.html

5% off in-stock items at HLJ using code WELCOME024

Free US shipping though, at least.

4 hours ago, jvmacross said:

Yes.....so far...every non-SDFM or non-DYRL release has automatically been a WWM release...

Awesome!  No need to stay awake to pre-order from Japan when I can just pre-order from Amazon US.  (I love my sleep)

P.S.

It is a lot easier for me to justify buying Macross toys again, ever since my husband discovered a hobby where he spends way more than me.... luxury watch collecting.   *sigh*   (I am sorry Valkyria that you have 2 parents who are so irresponsible with money)

LOL!  My husband just said that his watches are investments! 

I felt that way about the Yamato Elintseeker until the Arcadia Premium edition was released....  *sigh*

On 4/3/2024 at 8:51 AM, jenius said:

Oof, I'm going to have to go with a WWM release on this one... I'm sure the Japanese sites will sell out instantly and I'm on the east coast and those hours don't work for me!

Wait.... is Basara's VF-19 a WWM release?  

So it will likely be available on Amazon US for pre-order in like 2 weeks?

1 hour ago, jenius said:

I think you're just buying a fold booster, not the DX YF-19. You can select a YF-19 but the price jumps.

Ahhh!  I see now.  Thanks!  I am new to AliExpress.  Wow, thiat site is a bit confusing for me to figure out.

Saw this on AliExpress...

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256805534143813.html

Is this a Chinese knock-off of the DX Chogokin YF-19 original release, plus the addition of a light-up fold booster?

I wonder if it is worth buying at about $70, including shipping to the US....?

42 minutes ago, kyekye said:

https://www.bigbadtoystore.com/Product/VariationDetails/266675?o=2

Although the price is ridiculous, it's now listed @BBTS.

BBTS wants $450 for the VT-1... before state tax and $4 domestic shipping?!

They know that it is 147 yen to the US dollar right now, right?

At current exchange rates, the VT-1 retails for almost $240, including Japan's 10% sales tax, but not including shipping to the US.

Assuming BBTS is able to acquire VT-1's at retail and it costs about $30 to ship each from Japan, I am guessing that BBTS makes about a 67% profit margin on each VT-1 pre-order (of course, my assumptions could be way off base).  Was that the case with all their other DX Chogokin Macross pre-orders?

13 hours ago, dragontype said:

If anyone missed out on the Ostrich.. here you go! (again)

https://www.yoyakunow.com/en/robots/20787-dx-chogokin-vt-1-super-ostrich.html

I do wonder how they went from selling out on pre-order day to now having 17 more available for pre-order?

I don't really see that happen with pre-orders from AmiAmi or HLJ, as far as I am aware. 

6 minutes ago, no3Ljm said:

https://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/forum/13-where-to-buy-macross-auctions-amp-dealers-specials/

Thanks!

Hi guys,

I saw that a couple of Macross toys were on clearance sale at Crunchyroll...

https://store.crunchyroll.com/products/vf-0s-phoenix-roy-focker-use-ver-macross-zero-hi-metal-r-figure-4573102637420.html

https://store.crunchyroll.com/products/yf-29-durandal-valkyrie-maximilian-jenius-use-full-set-pack-macross-movie-absolute-live-dx-chogokin-figure-4573102634733.html

Just in case anyone was interested.

Have a great weekend!

Update:  ERRR, I just noticed that these are the same price or cheaper at Amazon US, so..... nevermind.. My apologies!

3 minutes ago, MKT said:

Regarding NY vs Yoyakunow vs Moehime, my own reading of it over the years is this:

Yoyakunow was started by ex-staff at NY, I think it was mentioned by themselves on their site (that bit of info seems to have been taken down now though) with the name of the person actually given. Someone else online then dugged a bit, and found the Yoyakunow named person happened to share the same first name as someone linked to NY, possible the NY representative director / owner. Whether or not both are actually same person or not is not conclusive, but of course it is enough to set off alarm bells. 

When we browse Yoyakunow site, their ToS is clear and appear to go beyond what other shops normally do, and is pretty unprecedented. They update the customers on what happens on the back end with the supplier for very order – if I’m not wrong, after one puts in a PO on their site, Yoyakunow will then e-mail updates on when they order the goods with supplier, when they actually pay to supplier, when supplier actually confirms payment received by Yoyakunow, when the goods starts shipping to Yoyakunow, and when Yoyakunow actually receives the stock.

So Yoyakunow’s USP seems to be transparency, no doubt due to their open admission of links to NY in the past and the impression portrayed was that they were not the decision makers in NY but staff at other levels that were not responsible for the shenanigans.

Then not long ago, there is Moehime. Based on online conversations at MFC, Moehime started coming online for business a few months after NY’s site went down, but the site itself was registered earlier around the same dates as NY’s last site renewal.

If we remember NY’s last days, they did a lot of aggressive sales on their existing stock – well beyond the usual mark downs. When Moehime went live, folks noticed 2 things - firstly the stock listed on Moehime looked exactly the same as the stocks NY had prior to them going down, plus they also started sales with same aggressive mark-downs on these stock in the similar vein as NY.

Second, people who used e-mail addresses exclusively for NY account registrations started getting unsolicited marketing blasts from Moehime.

The above 2 are huge red flags for me. It may well be Moehime legitimately bought over NY’s stocks for a song, obtained customer e-mail lists in the same package & started things going with them, but I’m willing to bet it’s just NY’s owner just switching to a new name.

I did purchase something in-stock from Moehime recently though, and the whole website experience is actually very reminiscent of NY’s. The feel of the steps in the purchasing process – selecting currency, the gouged-up shipping rates, the confirmation pages, heck even their system for enquiry and contacting them. It all feels very old wine in new bottle.

I’ve never made any PO at Yoyakunow yet, mainly because there hasn’t been a need to yet and also leftover apprehension from NY days – but I am more inclined to try them if I fail at other go-to sites. As for Moehime, a firm no for POs because I’m pretty convinced they are NY 2.0 and will only get something in-stock, somewhat grudgingly if the price is too good to pass.  

 

Thanks for this!

So, since this is not a WWD release, does that mean we should not expect it to appear at AmiAmi or HLJ, for example?

Thanks to web.archive.org, I do see that Nippon-Yasan and Yoyakunow are both in the same city,  Matsuyama in Ehime prefecture.

Yeah, if Yoyakunow really does come from those who ran Nippon-Yasan, I think I will pass on them.  Better safe than sorry.

2 minutes ago, lykiat said:

I got burned by around $1000 from NY, an expensive lesson to put all my eggs in 1 basket. However i did buy the cheaper HMR items from Yoyakunow now, so far so good but they are not my default site to order

I too had a few successful Nippon-Yasan orders in the past before getting burned by them.  Then it was no response to support tickets, no refund, no nothing. 

Burn me once, shame on me. But I am not giving Nippon-Yasan.... errr.... Yoyakunow.com the chance to burn me a second time.

Be advised, as I understand it, the owner of Yoyakunow.com comes from Nippon-Yasan.com. 

Given how I was burned by NY (losing over $200 on a pre-order that never materialized), I personally am staying clear of Yoyakunow.

2 hours ago, wm cheng said:

Woohoo!!!  Thank you @Shizuka the Cat so much - ordered with Giftcards! 

32 minutes ago, borgified said:

Got my order in as well thanks to @Shizuka the Cat!

Hee hee, glad to be of help, even if only a little.

My husband is soooo going to kill me for having 2x YF-21 pre-orders in, one at AmiAmi and one at Amazon US.

But then again, he likes collecting sneakers and watches, so.... I feel no guilt, LOL!

42 minutes ago, wm cheng said:

Woohoo!!!  Thank you @Shizuka the Cat so much - ordered with Giftcards!  Ah, I can relax now that I've got one or not?!?! (or arrives months later)  There seems to be so much Joy that has been lost in Macross Collecting over the years (at least in the last decade).  So does Amazon charge now up front or only when they deliver?

Charges when they ship.

YF-21 is available for pre-order again at Amazon US.

https://www.amazon.com/TAMASHII-NATIONS-Macross-Plus-Spirits-Chogokin/dp/B0CRK23S71?ref_=ast_sto_dp

5 minutes ago, Slave IV said:

Just to ease some of your worry, it typically takes domestic (US) shops 3 months after Japan release to get stock here, which corresponds to about how long it takes for a ferry to make it's way across the ocean and then you probably need to add domestic shipping to the shops and then their own inventory downtimes. So getting it 4 months after release date sounds perfectly normal. I personally wouldn't just because I'd rather save around $100 ordering direct from Japan and don't care about when I get it.

I think that is why Amazon was showing a US expect to receive date of November 2023 vs Japan release date of September 2023.  As such, my pre-order was still 2 months late from when Amazon originally said to expect it.

54 minutes ago, wm cheng said:

So you were able to search for it and it showed up in your search results?  What were your search words?  Were you able to order it through Amazon.com?

I actually had 3 different searches prepared, because Amazon's search engine can be.... uhh... not great sometimes.

My searches were:

"DX Chogokin Macross YF-21"  (sorted by Featured)

"DX Chogokin Macross Plus YF-21"  (sorted by Featured)

"DX Chogokin Macross" (sorted by Newest Arrivals)

I only discovered that Amazon began listing the YF-21 because it showed up on just 1 of my searches, namely "DX Chogokin Macross Plus YF-21". 

It did show up on the other 2 searches later on, but I think that was about 5 - 10 minutes later.... then stopped showing up altogether when it was no longer available.

29 minutes ago, wm cheng said:

Thanks @Shizuka the Cat

Damn, it sold out in 13mins on Amazon.com? 🤬  I thought WWM was the new "civilized" way of paying more to order for us old "farts" that had enough of middle-of-the-night madness.  I wonder if that's why I couldn't search for it - or it didn't show up in the search results, could this be a mistake early posting and another posting with proper stock will appear or am I just so desperate that I'm just grasping at straws.  There are still stock of all the other WWM releases even to this day?!

After the issue with my VF-25G Revival pre-order thru Amazon US  (It is only now shipping, 4 months after release date, despite me pre-ordering), I no longer trust that Amazon can reliably acquire enough inventory to fulfill long-duration or open pre-order windows.  

Knowing that the YF-21 was going to be in high demand, I was religiously refreshing my Amazon search results page, so as to not miss the listing showing up.