Paco Grande

Man those pics you guys are posting look amazing! I almost bought a YF-19 set on Mandarake yesterday but I heard in a different thread that the DHL shipping for that size box is 8000 Yen and also Mandarake apparently refuses to mark down the value for customs fees so I would get nailed with that too. I’ll have to wait and my wallet will be destroyed another day. 

On 5/29/2020 at 2:56 AM, wm cheng said:

Shipped to North America for 12,238Y or within Japan?  I'm getting 15,306Y for Standard Shipping to Canada.

U.S. citizens don’t pay import taxes under $800 or something. 

Amazon Japan charges the import taxes up front so you don’t pay anything more when you get the item delivered in Canada. They also use DHL for shipping and it’s super fast. Usually around 2 to 3 days. 

Another thing to keep in mind is that they have been refunding my import taxes 100% for months. I’m not sure if a law changed I’m not aware of or if AJ just has a software bug. But around a month after shipment I typically get a refund of 100% of the tax amount. So I’m paying the same as U.S. citizens these days which is awesome. Not sure if that will continue to happen but it’s worth a shot. 

13 hours ago, RedComet said:

Is your VF-1S just a really cool "MP Jetfire" then? 

Could you please delete my quote from your post? Thanks. 

Deleted my post to avoid people feeling butthurt. 

I don’t know for sure but I suspect that EMS and other shipping options will switch to the slow boat just to keep things moving. At least that’s what I hope happens. I don’t mind waiting as long as it’s not stuck in limbo somewhere. In Canada things are still moving but there’s a huge backlog. It’s busier than Christmas time because everyone is shopping more online and they are prioritizing the shipment of protective equipment.

On 4/24/2020 at 10:04 AM, DYRL VF-1S said:

Are you in the States?  If so, the packages will just be returned to them.  EMS isn't shut down everywhere.  For example, if you're in Canada, it's still good to go for the moment.

No I’m in Canada. But Canada Post is severely backed up right now so it will most likely take a while. 
 

Edit: My wife works at Canada Post in the international parcels division and she told me that Japan sent out a notice on Friday stating that they aren’t accepting any international parcels for delivery to any country. Meaning they aren’t going to be shipping anything out for a while. 

NY allegedly just shipped my strike pack as well with EMS. I’m confused because I thought EMS was shut down. We shall see what happens I guess. 
 

And I’m also shocked they shipped this quickly. I was expecting to wait for weeks. 

1 hour ago, Jetreo said:

And now you have to get 4x Strike packs to go with them, like a certain person I know (looks in the mirror).

LOL I was thinking that but I don’t need to have it on all of them. I’m thinking two might be enough. Maybe......

8 hours ago, sqidd said:

 

I only collect transformers normally and I bought the Bandai VF-1S Hikaru and told myself I would only buy the future Roy 1S and be happy with two.

But it’s my birthday later this week so I decided to go ahead and order the Kakizaki. So now I’m looking at getting the whole skull squad..... I think I may have an addiction problem. 

10 hours ago, Foblander said:

Not going to lie. The green on the DYRL VF-1A Kakizaki looks amazing in DX form. Must resist. There is no more space for another DX. Lol

Yup I agree. That green looks amazing. I’m not planning to buy it because I’m trying to limit how many figures I buy this year but I’m tempted. 
 

On a side note I think Nippon Yassan’s price on this is ridiculous. I’ve never used a proxy service but I may have to look into that. 

2 hours ago, borgified said:

Here you go:

https://tamashii.jp/item/12553/

Price: 27,500 yen(Tax 10% included) 25,000 yen(excluding tax)

• Release date: September 22, 2018

Awesome, thank you. I’ll bookmark that site. The only downside is that now I can see how much the stores are marking up the prices. Sometimes ignorance is bliss. 

On 2/26/2020 at 2:26 PM, Sanity is Optional said:

Check on the For Sale forum, or put up a request in the wanted section.

Or buy from Mandarake. NY is not a great option for already released figures, they tend to overcharge significantly.

edit:

Mandarake link, available from ¥24,000 to ¥28,000 for various conditions.

If you prefer something more anime accurate, there's also the Arcadia version here, available between ¥27,000 to ¥28,000.

Thank you very much for the help! What’s the best way to find out the original MSRP?

2 hours ago, Sanity is Optional said:

There is a 1/48 scale YF-19 kit made by Hasegawa you can find. But it's a model kit, not a finished figure. It doesn't transform either.

Thanks for letting me know but I mostly collect for the engineering so a non-transforming figure would not work for me. 
I’ll most likely try to find a DX YF-19. NY has them brand new but of course marked up quite a bit. 

33 minutes ago, HardlyNever said:

Chances of a Bandai YF-19 reissue any time soon (within the next few years) are incredibly slim.  If you want one, I'd start shopping around now.  They aren't that far above their original MSRP anyhow, so a theoretical reissue (which probably won't happen) wouldn't save you much.  Arcadia might try to make a "premium finish" version of their yf-19, but I wouldn't hold my breath on that, either.  And that would be quite expensive.

A 1/48 yf-19 or yf-21 is basically never going to happen, at least not from a company like Bandai.  That scale kind of works for the VF-1 because of its relatively small size, but a 1/48 yf-19 would be quite large, and would likely be a $400+ product.

Thanks for the info. I’m a casual Macross fan and I didn’t realize the 19 and 21 were that much larger than the VF-1. I only own one DX VF-1S in 1/48 right now so I was hoping to get a 19 and 21 to match the scale. 
I normally collect Masterpiece Transformers so I’m still trying to wrap my head around Bandai’s ridiculous production run policies. Takara will often reissue an older MP when a related new MP comes out which makes sense. 
I still can’t believe how much I had to pay just to get the fast packs and missile accessories for my DX VF-1. 
Cheers!

Hello, sorry for some possibly noob questions. 

Do we think Bandai will reissue the 19 to go with the 21? Or should I just try to get one on AmiAmi, Mandarake etc.? I don’t mind waiting for the reissue.

Also, what are the odds that Bandai would ever make the 19 or 21 in 1/48 like their VF-1? Slim to none?

Thanks!

On 2/24/2020 at 4:55 AM, no3Ljm said:

NY opened again preorder for Super/Strike Packs.

https://www.nippon-yasan.com/figures/28386-super-dimension-fortress-macross-dx-chogokin-movie-vf-1-strike-super-parts-set-limited-edition.html

DX missiles are up for preorder on NY as well for a June release. 5200¥
 

https://www.nippon-yasan.com/figures/29791-dx-chogokin-missile-set-for-vf-1-limited-edition-reissue.html

11 hours ago, nightmareB4macross said:

Welcome to MW! Always glad to have more TF brethren join.

The only parts that are painter are red and black, and that’s pretty much it. The tampons are markings to look out for during transformation.

Other than that, you can transform the VF-1S to your heart’s content.

 

Thank you for the help! I’m going to watch the Wotafa video for the 1J one more time before I transform it. 

Hello all! I received my DX VF-1S recently. It’s my first modern Macross figure and my first Bandai product. I normally only collect Masterpiece Transformers but I’m a casual Macross fan and I really liked the pics I was seeing of the new DX. 

I know you’re all Macross experts and tend to focus on the details and what is or isn’t correct. But as a complete noob I have to say that I’m really impressed with the DX so far. The quality is very high to me and the tampos are all perfect as far as I could tell. Except for that 100 screw up on the tail fin! But overall it’s really well made. The packaging is really nice as well. I really like the matte and glossy finishes on the box. I’m really happy I bought it. 

So I have a total noob question: Is the white finish on the majority of the figure painted or just bare plastic? I’ve seen MP Transformers that don’t look painted but they actually are with a really thin coat which is why I’m asking. I just want to know how careful I need to be when transforming it etc. because I’m really picky when it comes to paint blemishes. 

I haven’t even transformed it yet because I’ve been so impressed with the fighter mode. It’s just gorgeous to me. 

Cheers!

1 hour ago, PsYcHoDyNaMiX said:

I apologize and excuse my ignorance. I was unaware that such an article was written to bring light about such an issue. (Even if I were from China) I wouldn't think it would even be worth the hassle to make such a trip to Japan to stand outside a business before it even opens to procure said items only to bring it back and have it shipped out. Maybe if I made a "vacation" trip there and figured why not buy some and bring it back. Then that would be a one off situation,  but if multiple people thought like that then yes it can be a problem. That's just flaw in the system.  If someone did this as a business incentive even with a store limit would then cause the scalper to look for other stores/sources. And if most stores open around similar times then the chances of being to get to them all earlier would be intense. I'm sure the smarter ones would just find a way to third party or boot leg them instead.

One individual wouldn't be as successful. You can't be in multiple places at once. I guess the only way for foreign scalpers to return a decent profit they would have to band together as a group so they can attempt to buyout multiple locations.  I still don't think that is even worth the effort because then it involves with splitting the profit with others. Some may be successful while others may come up empty handed.

I'm from NYC and I'm in the neighborhood of Supreme. I see sneaker heads standing outside of the business (and others) just to return a profit. A good number of times there's police presence just to make sure things don't get out of hand (which there's been plenty instances). Its not worth the headache.

Thank you for the apology and no worries. 

You’re correct that it sounds insane for people to travel to another country just to buy collectibles to sell back home but the article gave an example of an American doing something similar once a year so I guess it’s happening. 

I’ve heard that the U.S. is trying to get out of the postal agreement with China because they’re losing too much money subsidizing Chinese small packets. If that happens shipping from China to the U.S. will get much more expensive and that may change things. 

Back on topic, does everyone that owns a Bandai 1/48 VF-1J think it’s worth owning? The only Macross related figure I own is one of those Robotech Masterpiece limited run figures. A Max blue one from around 2004. It’s weird because I actually bought it at the Japanese pavilion at Epcot in Disney World and Robotech is usually considered an outside of Japan thing. 

1 hour ago, Anasazi37 said:

The interwebz led me to this article on the topic, which might be the one you're referring to:

https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/how-international-scalpers-are-changing-the-japanese-toy-production-market

Sounds like Japanese retailers are taking a serious beating from foreign scalpers. I'm glad to see that Bandai did something about it, but that was for Evangelion. Like Gundam, it's part of Japan's national identity and therefore pretty hard for them to ignore. Macross, while still important, is much farther down the list, unfortunately. While we can't pin all of our hopes on the situation changing for the better when Harmony Gold finally loses their distribution rights for Macross outside of Japan on 14 Mar 2021, I'm still optimistic that things will improve for fans overseas.

Thank you for posting that article! Yes, that’s the one I was referring to. 

57 minutes ago, PsYcHoDyNaMiX said:

That's kind of ignorant to say that bandai is doing that just to deter Chinese scalpers. Scalpers exist in every country. It's a lifestyle to them and not solely based on race.

I apologize if that offended anyone. That was not intended to be racist at all. Just a fact that China is close to Japan and has insanely cheap shipping that is actually messing up many industries, not just collectibles. China is not paying their fair share of shipping costs and other country’s postal services are paying the bill. I know this because my wife works for Canada Post. 

Yes there are scalpers everywhere. I’m in Canada and there are many scalpers where I live. I have no idea what their ethnic background is and I don’t really care. I was not implying that all scalpers are Chinese. Not at all. I’m sure there are Japanese scalpers as well as scalpers from many countries buying online. 

I was specifically talking about local buyers in stores in Japan. 

I apologize again. I did not mean to offend anyone. 

37 minutes ago, DYRL VF-1S said:

Yup, the VF-1A is a good example to speculate from.

Thank you!

8 hours ago, Slave IV said:

Macross is a tiny fraction of Bandai's business so they don't produce as much as some of their other more profitable lines. Although the fans are die hard, there aren't as many as there are Transformers fans or Gundam or DBZ... or a ton of other properties. PLus, there is a shitty company called Harmony Gold trying to claim rights to anything Macross outside of Japan and that prevents any official Macross products from being sold outside Japan. If you look at Arcadia Macross products, they are no as hard to preorder because they are mostly reissues and their entire business revolves around Macross so they can devote all their production to it.

Interesting! You mentioned that it wouldn’t be too hard to order after preorder madness but at a markup? So do we know what’s typical for a markup? Is it like Nippon Yassan’s current VF-1A price which is 27,500 Yen? I think that’s around 30%? That’s quite a bit!

Another noob question: Does Bandai do reissues and are they typically easier to get?

I heard that some Japanese collectibles are going up in price just to deter Chinese scalpers from buying as many. Sounds crazy but apparently the scalpers are lining up at the stores in person in Japan, not just buying online. Also foreign buyers don’t have to pay sales tax and on top of that the shipping from China is much cheaper than shipping from Japan. This all adds up to cause problems and explains why there are so many collector items being sold from China. Of course they still have to travel to Japan and back which I’m sure is expensive so this may not be true. 

2 hours ago, Slave IV said:

Hello and welcome to MW! This is definitely the place to be especially on preorder night because it will be very active with people sharing links and their successes and failures, lol!

For AJ, so far, my experience with the last two is that depending on the search you do, you should be able to find the item but it won’t be available to ship to the US right away and it seems like they are all 3rd party sellers. I don’t know if it’s because AJ already put it up and it got sold out that fast with 3rd party already turning the orders they got around for profit or if they are just other vendors with their own suppliers. Either way, if you keep watching the item, the hope is it will eventually be offered by AJ and available to ship to the US. For the last one, the Max VF-1A, that happened at about 6:30 pm jst so late as fu<# over here. 

AJ and NY will have the lowest prices if you can get an order through with them but if you don’t care about those savings, your best bet is to try on all the sites and get it wherever you can. 

It will be easy to get one after preorder madness if you are willing to pay a slight markup. There is also the chance that you can get one at original preorder price from amiami, HLJ or cdj later on or near release IF you are lucky enough to catch a cancellation at the right time when they release it to order again. 

Thank you very much for all the info! I don’t understand why it’s so much harder to score a pre-order at a decent price for Macross stuff. With Masterpiece TF’s you have months to order at a good price. I’m in Canada and our dollar sucks these days so price is becoming more important.