WhatBoutMyStar

I believe Mandarake was selling the 31J with the fold projection unit for 16,000 yen unopened recently. For basically around the same price of this revival, you could probably get that version which has been plentiful in the aftermarket as well as the the super parts set. You'd end up being ahead and better off given the extra sound booster which is a very nice accessory. Shame Bandai didn't sell it separately as I would've bought one for each of the other members of Delta Flight.

Don't really understand the rationale behind this when the 31J has had quite a number of prior releases already. If they're going to re-release any of the 31s, it should be the 31A and Arad's 31S given that they are more difficult to find and more expensive in the aftermarket. Perhaps Mirage's 31C in that group as well.

Yes, the gray piece is the cockpit adapter. The transaprent piece with My on the bottom is to adapter for her to stand in either of the valk's hands in battroid/gerwalk, or it can be plugged into one of the ports in the main display base so she can stand on the display stand. I have all of the tiny session figures and they all have these pieces.

If you want a DYRL Strike 1S Hikaru, you don't have much in the way of options that haven't been mentioned already. Even the aftermarket for the HMR version is pricey since they go for 20k yen+ on Mandarake (even more expensive than some very good DX valks like a couple of the VF-31s, which is just crazy to me). Another option is Arcadia, which will be re-releasing Hikaru and Roy's Strike 1S in a couple months and which are still up for pre-order from the online shops in Japan for like 21-23k yen, so basically a similar price as the HMR 1S Hikaru and I'd easily take the Arcadia all day over the HMR even though I like my HMR valks. There's also the Valkyrie Factory KO of the Arcadia and I've seen Hikaru's 1S (non premium finish version without the strike parts) go for as low as $80 shipped from China. I think the strike parts separately go for $50-60. It's a KO, so obviously the build quality isn't going to be on par with the Arcadia, but it's likely the cheapest option available at this point if you want a 1S Hikaru.

tiny little fella - Newage Hound.

Given that Macross is such a small/niche market, I would think most Macross collectors have previously bought from or would be familiar with places like Mandarake, Yahoo Japan, etc. for used valkyries. Even retailers like AmiAmi sell used Macross items. Especially with the exchange rate lately, prices are significantly lower at these places than what you generally see listed on eBay everything factored in, so I'm not sure why someone would go to eBay as the primary secondary market for used Macross items. As far as DX VF-1s on the secondary market, if they're not busted up, the demand still remains very strong for them and I don't recall seeing any used ones going for below MSRP. A lot of those came in sub-20k MSRP like the 1J, Hikaru and Roy's 1S, Max's 1A, etc. The 1D was a couple thousand more. The going rate for all those now are far higher than that. There certainly are Frontier and Delta valks, however, that I've seen go for below MSRP, even new/unopened in box like Hayate's 31J as one.

Someone mentioned Walkure above and assuming the ones at the end in the front row are pink and red, then that would certainly line up for each of the Walkure members' color schemes. Pink = Makina, Yellow = Kaname, Red = Freyja, Green = Reina, Purple = Mikumo.

I'd rather have 1/12 figures of all of the Walkure members given KC has done a pretty good job with their action figures as opposed to VF-1s in each of Walkure members' colors, which makes no sense to me. I'd be very interested though if they put out Hayate and Mirage's 1EX since I highly doubt Bandai or Arcadia would ever release those.

ShowZ has had the KC Jetfire paintjob for months now for even cheaper ($140 shipped, no tax) compared to the $169 price at BBTS not including the $4 shipping and tax. All that said, I don't have the Jetfire or any KC valk but one of my friends has the Jetfire. After handling it, I wasn't all that impressed and I certainly wouldn't pay $190ish out the door for it at BBTS or even $140 at ShowZ.

I must be one of the lucky ones that hasn't had any issue with the legs detaching on any of the 3 DX VF-1s that I have when transforming them, which granted isn't that often and I've only unpegged that lock once (when I first got the 1J) to check out the waist swivel feature only to think, eh not worth it, and never used it again on any of my VF-1s. I can can sway the figure mid-transformation back and forth and it stays locked with the legs attached. The only annoyance I have w/ the DX is the leg fins easily getting moved or falling off. Otherwise, I think they are significant improvement over the older Yamato 1/48 and Yamato/Arcadia 1/60 VF-1s that I have.

That's absolutely terrible, and to me there's no way this is "extremely inconspicuous" or "acceptable" especially given that this is a near $300 figure w/ shipping costs. I don't have this reissue but have the prior Arcadia release, and honestly I'm not all that thrilled with the overall QC of the figure. It's a frustratingly fiddly figure. Count me in as one of those waiting, or hoping, for a DX Fire Valkyrie to replace it.

My friend got the new reissue a couple weeks ago and I recently got a chance to look at it when I was over at his place. I have the previous Arcadia. Don't have the original Yamato. I didn't have mine with me at the time but the new reissue looked exactly the same as mine including color, or at least any visual difference wasn't very noticeable to me. Only difference was some slight joint tolerances in a few spots. But I attribute that to just varying QC along with mine just being older. His also has a stress mark on the right trigger finger like others have reported that problem. Friend didn't notice it before until I pointed it out to him.

I think every DX WWM valk that's been on Amazon US has been discounted/on sale at one point or another, and some by a lot. That includes all of the 25s, Hayate's 31AX, and Max's 29. The 19 is still in preorder status on Amazon, yet it's already been discounted by $30+. I wouldn't be surprised in the least if it goes under $200 on a sale at some point after it's released. Likewise, I wouldn't be surprised to see the 21 get discounted on Amazon at one point or another both in preorder status and also after release, and actually I expect it.

I like my 262 a lot, but it’s not surprising in the least that anything Delta has died off and prices for many of the prior valks have tanked other than something like the 31A. From my experience, fans of the show skew much younger who don’t have sizable discretionary income to spend on expensive figures especially when the Japanese economy isn’t doing too great. Many also aren’t interested in collecting these figures and like the show for other reasons (e.g., music). Older collectors/fans of the franchise, who are the ones with money, and those especially outside of Japan absolutely despise the show and have no interest in anything whatsoever tied to the series other than diehard completionists who begrudgingly buy the figures for the collection despite vehemently hating the show, but they are very small in number. So it makes perfect sense from Bandai’s standpoint not to waste resources and throw good money after bad. Maybe they’ll release some stuff far from now for the 30th anniversary of Delta or something like that, but I’m treating the series as effectively dead and not expecting anything new.

The price of this has dropped down further on Amazon to $164. Looks like Amazon can’t get rid of these things fast enough, as well as other Macross figures.