Paco Grande

17 hours ago, jenius said:

I think it's a factor of WWM and an attempt to test the waters with some known winners... Why WWM started with a new non canon VF-25, I understand less.

I might be able to offer a little bit of insight here. I only started collecting DX Macross figures after the VF-1 figures started coming out because I'm old school and I've only seen the original SDFM, DYRL and Macross Plus. I have not seen anything after that so I don't have much interest in the newer valks. But I ended up buying the WWM VF-25 first release anniversary figure because it was on sale on Amazon locally and because it has a nice colour scheme and the Skull Squadron symbol on it which appeals to me. I also think it's a beautiful valk design. But I didn't really appreciate that until that anniversary edition popped up for some reason. Anyway that figure was a gateway drug for me and I ended up buying the revivals of the VF-25F with super parts and the VF-171EX. I have not received the 171 yet and I've heard it's a pain to transform. But I'm happy with my two VF-25s and it's causing me to start paying more attention to all the new valks after those (which is why I'm in this thread). I'm trying not to because I'm out of display space and these valks are very expensive to import to Canada. And the WWM pricing for retailers outside of Japan has not been great.

Anyway, what I'm saying is that I'm most likely not the only one in this situation so that may have been Bandai's evil plan. Start up WWM and then get people like me buying revivals. I'm also buying the YF-21 of course because I'm a huge fan of M+ but I'm really not happy about the crazy price they are charging in North America. I'm never able to land a purchase on pre-order madness night so I've given up and paying the piper. 

15 hours ago, PsYcHoDyNaMiX said:

YYK payment is upfront. They usually give you shipping estimates at the time of checkout or the option to select shipping later or combine shipping later. ATM the USD to JPY is favorable, so it might be worthwhile to secure payment now rather than later if the reverse happens.

Thank you for the confirmation! I’m in Canada so the Yen is not nearly as good for me. I’ll be paying over $500 CAD for this thing which is about the same as I paid for the VF-1J with armour. I’m still trying to justify this purchase at all. It’s pretty high. 

Anyone know for sure if you need to pay up front for pre-orders at Yoyakunow? I've read their FAQ and Terms of Service and it's still not clear to me. I assume yes, but just checking. And I'm assuming that they don't tell you what the shipping cost will be until the item is in stock? Makes it really hard to comparison shop when they don't tell you the full cost with shipping up front. I have a YF-21 pre-ordered at Amazon.com but the price is high so I'm still looking for one in Japan. But this quarter is brutal with way too many releases so I need to pay later when the item is shipped. 

Some things to note:

For any Canadians out there, Amazon.ca only recently listed the DX YF-19 reissue on their site. I had assumed it was sold out and gone but apparently not. So Amazon.ca may have a pre-order for the YF-21 in a few months. Not sure why Amazon Canada lists so much later than Amazon USA. They also listed the VF-117 reissue recently as well.

Luna Park seems to have an option to pay $50 up front and the rest when they get the item in stock, which would be great for me right now, but you need to email them to do it. I did that, they said they would send me a bill for $50 to secure the preorder and then nothing happened so I gave up. You also need to be an existing customer that already bought something. Which I am. Not sure what's going on there, but I thought I would let people know. That info is a bit buried on their site and not obvious.

12 hours ago, Slave IV said:

Man, I look forward to seeing this setup! Another thing I can’t bring myself to do is spend more for my display than the stuff it’s displaying but if got the means, I want to see it, lol!

I’m pretty sure Transformers is bigger than Macross everywhere. Part of the problem we Macross collectors face is it is such a niche market. People always whine about “artificial scarcity” but if the market was big enough to warrant so many more products, there would be more made. 

It was kinda a joke or figure of speech meaning I’d rather let them rot than to essentially pay someone to take them from me. I get you are getting some money back but I look at it as whatever loss you take is how much you just paid someone to take your toys from you. So yeah, I’d rather give them away to some kids or something or literally let them rot. But like I said, I get it and everyone has got to do what they gotta do. I’m the one sitting in a house that’s literally packed to the brim with boxes of toys so that’s my own heaven/hell. lol!

I see it more as me paying a rental fee for having the toy for a while. 

10 hours ago, tekering said:

So don't sell to people in your area!  Sell online, where you can reach a much larger market for your toys.  I've made a decent profit on every Macross collectible I've sold.

I'm not dumb enough to store toys up there.  My attic is just for boxes.

My surplus DX Valkyries are stored outside. 😜

I am selling online. Of course. The low balls are from online buyers. And most of them don’t even want to pay for shipping! Even if it’s less than $20! I often get shipping quotes for buyers and then never hear from them again cause the $18 was a deal-breaker. 
 

Again, the issue is that I’m not able to buy Macross SDFM/DYRL DX figures anywhere near MSRP so I’m usually paying double. Many buyers don’t understand that so they look up the MSRP and work down from there. If I were able to buy them at their actual cost without markups I would most likely be able to sell them at a profit. I don’t buy a huge amount of Macross stuff so it’s not that big of a deal.
 

I actually started buying those VF-25 recent reissues because I can actually get them on sale on Amazon without too much fuss. I have never seen any media past Macross Plus so I never really cared about any of the newer valks. But I now have two VF-25 figures and a VF-171 on order. 

4 hours ago, Slave IV said:

This makes it even worse! Not only are you selling Macross items, you’re doing it at a loss? That’s essentially paying people to take your Macross from you. Can’t fathom the thought. I’d rather let it rot in my attic than do something like that, lol!

I don’t get this either, if anything it seems like Macross appreciates better and more consistently than most other toys lines as a whole. sometimes it takes a while but once items are mostly depleted from secondary market sales, the clearance shelf warmers often become the most valuable probably because there were less of them to begin with and Macross collectors are so few in the scheme of things. 
 

But I get you gotta do what you gotta do. 

Wouldn’t the attic destroy your toys pretty quickly? Mine is hot enough in the summer that it would melt toys for sure. 
I would rather see them go to a collector, even at a loss. 

Anyway I’m not sure what else to say. I will put an ad up and get nothing but low ball offers for months. Eventually I get fed up and take a low offer to get it out of my house. I just don’t have the storage space and I’m more about having money in my account than dusty toy boxes in the attic. 
 

And I have the same issue with Masterpiece Transformers. Mine are always super mint and I can barely give them away. I have one up for sale right now that I paid over $200 for. It’s barely been touched and is mint in box with all the parts etc. I have it up for sale for $100 and the best offer I’ve had after 6 months is $70. So I’m hanging on to it for now. I’m wondering if some of you have not actually tried to sell anything recently? It may be worse than you think out there. Most people are barely getting by so expensive toys are pretty far down on the priority list. 

2 hours ago, grogall said:

I honestly never collect things to have too sell them again. I collect to have them for display. This year I'm getting a new display case from USM-haller wich have enough room for all my Valk's and any future releases....

OK and what does this have to do with my situation? I have a wife and kids and I cannot display my toys in the shared areas of the house. Macross is not my first collecting priority so I have very limited space to display them. So sometimes some have to go to make room for others. To be clear I don’t intend to sell anything. But sometimes I need to sell to make space for something I want more. All I’m saying is that of all the things I collect, Macross depreciates the worst by far and it’s because of Bandai’s ridiculous consumer unfriendly tactics. 

On 2/2/2024 at 1:18 AM, Slave IV said:

I’m with you but more to the point of not being able to grasp the idea of getting rid of any Macross. 

I have sold a few DX valks. I have limited display space and decided to focus on TV only. So I sold my movie figures. My experience is that people in my area are cheap as hell and refuse to pay anything decent for these things. Less than Japan MSRP and I always have to pay way more to get them. So I’m selling at a massive loss which is very disappointing and makes me question my toy collecting. I wish it were easier to get these things closer to MSRP.  I typically pay more than $400 CAD for DX VF-1 figures and I’ll be paying over $500 CAD for the DX YF-21 and if I sell them I won’t be able to get more than $250. 

1 hour ago, borgified said:

@Paco Grande - The other Canuckle connections that I mentioned are in the other site and Face just gave you clue. 

If Ages Three and Up aren’t willing to put it on their website for whatever reason, I’m certainly not going to call them and beg them to put one aside for me as Face suggested. I’m not a fan of A3U anyway because they tend to bill you before the release date and then you get your item 3 months later. So I only use them when I’m desperate and have no other choice. 

13 hours ago, wm cheng said:

It is over $500cdn shipped with customs & duties charged by Amazon (I only went that way because I had US gift cards to spend).  I think the Canadian store options are actually cheaper in the end - even though they are pretty crazy prices.

What are the other Canadian store options? I only see the Hobby Bee link so far and it is only $2 cheaper than Amazon.com. You also may have to pay up front for Hobby Bee but I’m not sure. Edit: My bad I went through the checkout process at Amazon.com and it’s even higher than their estimate so it’s actually $32 more at Amazon  
 

I think the price might be better at Amazon.ca but I have not seen a listing there yet.  
 

Also with Amazon.com isn’t there a chance that the price may drop between now and release and they have lowest price guarantee? I wish I could get it on Amazon Japan like I do for MP Transformers. 

I find it odd that the YF-19 is on sale on Amazon.com but it's not there at all on Amazon.ca. Did it sell out faster in Canada or did Amazon Canada not list it at all? I already have a YF-19 but I'm planning to buy the YF-21 so I'm curious what happened there. Obviously I would have preferred getting the YF-21 from Japan to save money but I gave up on preorder madness.

I just bought a VF-25F from Anmazon.ca because it's on sale and the price isn't too terrible. I checked on Mandarake and the shipping was so high that it would have cost more buying an unopened copy from there.

Shipping to Canada from U.S. retailers is typically expensive. Amazon Canada sells WWM figures with free shipping and there is also Ages Three And Up who also have free shipping for items that expensive. Although there may be a limit on weight or package size. 
 

The markup for both retailers will be high so the best bet is still most likely ordering direct from Japan if possible. But as we all know that can be difficult and to get the best price usually involves paying up front. Takara has me tapped out with a gazillion figures coming out in Q1 so I will most likely end up buying from Amazon.ca or A3U and paying the higher amount so I will have the option of paying in June. 
 

What I normally do is try my best to figure out the total shipped price from Japan, the U.S. and Canada and then order from the cheapest source. Unfortunately Japanese stores often don’t tell you the exact shipping cost up front so you may need to take a best guess. 

I knew this preorder was coming pretty soon but I foolishly just bought a DX VF-25 so my budget is blown. Also bad timing because I collect Takara MP Transformers stuff and Takara likes to sell most of their MP stuff for the year during the first quarter these days. So most of my expensive purchases for the whole year are all being paid in the first quarter. My wallet is going to tap out. 

21 minutes ago, Big s said:

To be honest, I haven’t had any problems finding Bandai items. They get a markup stateside, but that’s not the same as a scalper situation. I think the real problem is the markup that I mentioned. It’s a bit higher than it should be depending more on how much the item costs rather than weight or size. An hg kit seems to only be a couple bucks higher, while an hmr in a similar sized box might be twenty or so higher.

I’m not an expert on buying Bandai Macross stuff at all. I come from the land of Transformers where it’s super easy to buy Takara Masterpiece figures at 30% off retail price from Japanese retailers. That’s the norm, not the exception. 
 

I only started collecting DX Macross figures a few years ago and haven’t had any luck with preorder madness so I’ve been buying DX VF-1 figures for a pretty high markup even from Japanese retailers. I’m not used to that so it really sucks for my wallet. With the World Wide Macross thing I was expecting much better prices from stores outside of Japan for eligible items but the markup has been very high. Here in Canada Ages Three And Up are charging around $400 Canadian for DX figures that should be around $250 Canadian. I get shipping costs and the store needing to make some money, but that seems really high. So for this release I’ll be trying again on preorder madness night to try and get one closer to retail but I’m fully expecting to pay over $400 again. 

I think this figure looks fine overall but the balance is concerning for sure. I’m assuming it cannot stand without the stand helping? The legs look really far forward compared to the backpack so it doesn’t look physically possible for it to stand on its own. I love the YF-19 jet mode so I was planning to display this in jet mode with it anyway, but it would be nice if it could stand up without a stand. 

1 hour ago, rematron said:

You have to keep in mind that different types of lenses were used to take each of these photos you put together. Enlarging the front and shrinking the back is a common effect. Look at any of your Bandai Valkyrie packaging and you’ll see it. 
 

Thank you for posting that. This is a well known issue in toy forums. Pictures of a figure show up. Everyone freaks out about the proportions. Then they eventually get it in hand and it looks great. This happens all the time but many people still freak out anyway. 
 

I’m sure this figure is not perfect, but it will look much better in hand. 

On 11/6/2023 at 11:09 PM, Chronocidal said:

I don't think that's quite the same thing.  The money saving in question is related to the fact that they didn't bother to make a second half to the part, and cover up the gaps.  It's really easy to close up those spaces if you make the parts out of more than one molded piece, but that adds both material cost, and assembly time.

It's why so many third-party mod kits involve covers for the hollow parts.

I think you missed the point. We aren't talking about hollow parts that are just unfinished gaps you see on mainline Transformers. We are talking about the molded details inside the limb of a Masterpiece Transformer. There is often cool molded details inside the limbs that you only see during Transformation. Doesn't really matter though. I'm just trying to say that many people dismiss certain plastic parts as being "cheap" but the reality is that they needed to be done that way in order to be molded properly without sink marks etc. Having an ugly gap on a figure because they didn't bother enclosing it with another part is an entirely different issue. 

8 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

Just toys in general. Many Transformers toys these days have this kind of detail in panels and even in some of the hollow areas in arms and legs where they're conserving plastic. I love detail, especially molded detail, so it's a practice I welcome. Of course, if the toy is crap but has a ton of nice detail, it's essentially a gilded turd, so there's always that situation. 😄

It’s a common misconception that companies are trying to save money on plastic by making hollow areas but the reality is that the molding process demands it. The plastic parts must have a mostly uniform thickness for the molten plastic to flow properly. The parts usually require raised areas for plastic flow or strength so Takara and other companies will make those raised areas look like cool mechanical details instead of just boring bumps. I also believe in some cases they just do it for fun or because it looks cool. So what I’m saying is that they are actually adding plastic to a thin sheet to give it strength and help the plastic flow.  They aren’t removing plastic to save money. 

3 hours ago, dtwn said:

Variable Glaug Reddit Link

Photos of his Lego stuff including the Monster, VF-4 and Glaug https://www.flickr.com/photos/95379588@N08/

 

 

Amazing! Great job!

I’m hoping the panel lining is not that pronounced on the final version. And agreed, my biggest disappointment with this figure is also that they didn’t try to integrate the side fillers. I don’t usually use side fillers because I’m a perfect transformation nut. 

19 hours ago, Lolicon said:

The end customer does not care one whit about how much "hard work & effort" went into a product nor do they have any obligation to do so. If a product sucks or does not meet expectations, then it's a product that sucks or does not meet expectations.

That's a pretty crappy attitude to have about your fellow humans, but not surprising. If you truly do not care about Bandai or it's employees why are you buying the official and not a KO? Aren't you the person that paints all their landing gear white or something? You seem very unhappy with these products so I can't figure out why you spend so much money on them. 

Sorry to bother everyone, carry on with your hatred of this toy, even though it's already been established that the YF-21 cannot be made into a toy and look good in all three modes.

12 hours ago, 26662 said:

OMG.  Can’t you just be happy Bandai cares enough to put their blood, sweat, and tears into a 20-yr old franchise (or thereabouts)?  Sweet Jesus, save me from these ignorant, unappreciative hordes.  You honestly believe your shitting on these pre-release images will manifest something better at this point?  Talk about cutting off one’s nose to spite their face.  Look at its construction and design!  These guys worked their ass off to translate 2D images into a miraculous 3D valk.  Go ahead and sit this one out.  I’ll buy enough for the both us us.

Thank you for posting that, it made me smile. I'm a rookie on this forum and I'm pretty shocked at how picky everyone is here. I'm also shocked how much money people in here are ready to drop. I'm used to Transformers fans and there is a huge amount of complaining there as well, but TF fans are so cheap and constantly complain about having to pay "so much" when the prices on TF products are typically low compared to other franchises. I'm a mechanical designer so I think I appreciate more just how much effort is required to produce something like this and also how difficult it can be when there are many constraints put on a project. Budget, etc. I'm sure Bandai only gave their team one kick at the can and there is no more budget to fix anything. The designers would happily work on it for years to perfect it, but that's not how it works in large companies. this design was most likely finished back in 2019 and it's just waiting for Bandai to pick a release date. Looks like they decided to wait for the anniversary next year.

At least you don't have endless posts in here about how they will "wait for the KO". Transformers fans are always waiting for the KO and it makes me sick. Takara Tomy posted a video about their new Missing Link Optimus Prime the other day and people are posting "I'll wait for the KO" in the comments of the video. Just disgusting behaviour imo. The designers work really hard on these figures and they deserve more respect. 

Steering back on topic, I'm not nearly as picky as others on here so I'm just happy this thing exists and I'll finally have a buddy for my YF-19 on the shelf! No, it's not perfect, but it's close enough for me and I can't wait to get it.

16 hours ago, jenius said:

There's not much in ThreeZero's history that suggests they would try to venture into less popular (or enemy) mecha. I think Hi-Metal R is just about our only hope there. It looks a safe bet that both GBP and Super Parts are possible if the sales are good. There is some precedent that these could be sold as add-ons instead of second release bundles. Here's an Eva add-on kit: 

https://www.bigbadtoystore.com/Product/VariationDetails/170715?o=4

 

Thank you for the info. I know absolutely nothing about ThreeZero so it's really hard to tell what they will do. The problem is that if you wait and see if they do enemy mecha before buying you end up paying the late tax for everything. If these still look good, but are smaller and possibly more fun to transform I would replace my DX valks with these. For now I'll wait for reviews of the first release and see how it is. I wish these companies would give us some hints on what their future plans are. I get why they don't, but it makes it pretty hard to decide what to buy!

I'm assuming if these sell well there will be super pack add-ons later? The nose cone folds so I'm assuming they are planning to do the full armor at some point. I don't know anything about Three Zero. Do we think they will only sell armor parts separately or do bundled releases later where you can buy the VF with the armor in the same package?

I currently only own Bandai DX VF-1 figures, but these Three Zero VFs are appealing to me because they are smaller and take up less shelf space than the DX but look almost as good to me. They are also cheaper and will be way easier to buy for retail price than Bandai DX, I assume. It sounds like these will also be good quality with metal joints (fingers crossed). And I'm also thinking that Three Zero may actually make other mechs from the same show like the destroids and Zentradi pods. Bandai seems to have stopped making VF-1s for a while and they don't seem interested in making enemy mechs. Even if they did, they would be massive and I don't think I have the shelf space.

I'm looking forward to some reviews of their first release.

Very interesting find! The prototype markings on Transformers are usually stamped on with ink. They will do a a small run and all the copies will have the same number on them. It's to track which batch they are from in the prototyping process. And they are also typically made with whatever plastic the factory has on hand so they look pretty bad with the wrong plastic colours.

I think you are correct. These copies were most likely made and marked for the trade shows and store displays. They used the correct colour of plastic and they have all the lettering etc. 

Examples of prototype Transformers:

On 7/27/2022 at 10:14 AM, no3Ljm said:

No, since it's TWE release. But yes in the future with astronomical price markup from third party sellers. Say, for example Kakizaki's DX VF-1A for Y144470.  

And that is correct, any TWE item is always pay upfront.

I find that Kaki price totally bizarre. Maybe my fellow collectors in Canada are just cheap, but I took forever to sell my MIB DYRL Hikaru VF-1S and Kaki VF-1A. And for Kaki I ended up selling over $100 less than I paid for it. Buyers here want to pay retail price or close to it for used copies, but it's very difficult to buy them at retail price in the first place so that doesn't make sense.