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Knightdramon

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  1. Knightdramon

    amiami ?

    Knightdramon replied to talyn8's topic in Toys

    Last time I had an issue with amiami they were great about it. Admittedly, that was February 2011. The MP09 Rodimus they sent me, like the rest of his batch, had very shoddy issues all over. Since I was in military deployment at the time, I got to handle him mid-March and immediately contacted them about it. They responded that many buyers reported problems and offered me half the amount of the figure as re-reimbursement. Haven't used HLJ since 2010 or so, if I recall correctly.
  2. Knightdramon
    Is the colour scheme on the fighter mode the final version?
  3. Knightdramon
    ...and scored!!! Many thanks UN Spacy!!!
  4. Knightdramon
    LOL at the poll; most of the "general" population of MW will only get one, and that's a big if. I do love variety between valks, so naturally I want one, but I'm not sure when or how I'm going to get it. Any more than one, especially at the price it will command, is overkill in my opinion.
  5. Knightdramon
    It's not just with macross frontier. Every line of theirs that features items over 10.000 is the same. Take for instance, SOC. There used to be an abundance in hobby stores [online stores like HLJ] that I could find, in stock or backordered, a catalogue of like two years old of available figures from that line. Even Macross Quarter was available for so long it was marked down to 60% last I saw it available. Same as with the Koenig Monster. Yet in the past few years, their regular SOC releases have crawled down to 1-2 per year, with costs over 20.000 yen that sell out almost immediately or on release day. Even more ridiculous is the Renewal line fiasco. Perhaps Bandai saw fit to release a very limited amount of valks\items in order not to have stores needing to mark things down to 60% to sell?
  6. Knightdramon
    Pretty sure it varies by country, but I've never waited more than 7 days for any SAL shipment. Au contraire, just because my order shipped with EMS, I had to wait 5 effing weeks for it to clear customs and then pay a handsome fee on top of that. Depending on the country and custom duties, it is a world of difference. If I lived in the US where there's no import tariffs on hobby items, you'd bet I'd use EMS most of the time as well.
  7. Knightdramon
    No confirmation on what the price in JPY will be on the bundle, right?
  8. Knightdramon
    90.000 yen? Or 9000 yen? 'cause if it was 90000 yen I'm crying right now...
  9. Knightdramon
    7 is not as awful as it's made out to be. I actually enjoyed it quite a bit. Instead of the old-school pop songs of the SDFM, it has an upbeat J-Rock beat in it. And instead of having a separate heroine for it, the main character is the one that does the singing. And if you do follow the story there's quite a good reason why singing prevails in fighting against those aliens.
  10. Knightdramon
    Besides an actual comparison in weight, height, mass and materials, for which we'll have to wait for the VF171 to be released... My guess is that Bandai's is cheaper because they have the economical power, as a company, to do so. Their high-end products are almost always cheaper than the respective high end items of other companies just because they can manufacture much more. I'm not sure how this goes with the fact that all their preorders are sold out without everybody getting one, but at least in the past, that was the case. Yamato is a much smaller company in comparison and possibly pumps out far less units per release, which drives the cost up.
  11. Knightdramon
    Having watched the entirety of M7, he never really did anything besides episodes 44-45 and the ending battle. Miria saw a little more action throughout the series, yet her VF22S did not transform at all in the series [it only did so on the other special episodes]. Can only speak for myself, but if I have cash when they're available, I'm only getting Max's 1J. No real interest in Miria's.
  12. Knightdramon
    One of the reasons the [toy] VF1J Max was so popular among fans was that there weren't many other iterations of his valkyries. Yamato's 1/60 got his LONG awaited TV1A, DYRL1S, the standart DYRL 1A and THEN the 1J, so people were more or less drowned by his valkyries at that point. Moreover, Max doesn't appear to be as popular in Japan as he is in the US territory, judging by his roles in DYRL and M7....
  13. Knightdramon
    I don't know, young collectors will be skeptical of unloading close to 300 USD on a toy. Seeing as there's constant re-issues, re-releases and v2.0 of many figures, I think that the market is hanging pretty nicely onto the respective collectors...
  14. Knightdramon
    Probably a VF25 Michael's model...
  15. Knightdramon
    Yeah, it's not like I'm arguing for the sake of arguing, it's because we both have valid and good points I can understand the price increase in relation to, say, the VF1 V2.0 to the VF22S to the VF17D. First of all, all three are not the same size, the VF1 has a lot, lot more uses and recolours in and it's the RX-78 Gundam of the macross fame. The 22S is quite bigger and while I don't have the 17S on hand, it's big, more complex than the 22S [meaning more parts] and has die-cast on the internals. So I can see the (sudden) increase in retail. Most of us, including myself, a European, use the dollar in our exchanges and while items have grown more expensive due to the yen, the final price we're quoted in USD does not realistically reflect that raise because the exchange rate is so screwed up. If the exchange rate was more favourable then the price hike wouldn't put that much of a dent in our wallet. Paying 130 usd when I used to be paying around 90 for the same amount in Yen is not cool... Nevertheless, it's a tough time to be a collector, or an importer to be more precise.
  16. Knightdramon
    Sure thing, Revoltech in general has gotten more expensive, Hot toys figures have gotten more expensive, but this thread was specifically about Yamato valkyries and it still stands pretty clear that people quote USD prices, along with the exchange rate, for things that are sold in Yen. 1/48 cost around 14.000 yen before any japanese taxes, non bundled 1/60 v2.0 cost 9800 yen. Across most toy companies I'm getting products from, I specifically find Yamato to be much better off in the case of product received in analogy to money spent and raises across the board. Hasbro went against the rising costs of oil [since we're talking about a US product and no yen relation to the final consumer] with downsizing the figures and essentially compromising their quality. Hot toys went with a big FU to the rising costs versus compromise and basically upped their retail prices by 40-50 USD. Bandai decided to do whatever they want and produce only one-two SOC per year, make smaller SOC specs and have half of them be online exclusives, and drastically decrease their production line put out.
  17. Knightdramon
    While I do get what you're saying about oil and you're correct, the retail price for Japanese figures hasn't risen that much, and you're quoting USD prices for products sold in Yen. As I've said at the top of the thread, retail price [in yen] for, say, the VF19S isn't that much higher than the retail price for the YF21 with fastpacks. But the exchange rate back then was far more favourable to the dollar than it is now. The price of oil has to do with the figures getting smaller, since retailers [at the US, primarily] refuse to buy the figures for a price higher than what they do now, so [hasbro] toy companies have to make do with essentially reduced budget sold at the same price point as before.
  18. Knightdramon
    Graham, any chance for the purple spiritia gun the VF17 and Dokker's VF19S used towards the end of the show being included with the fastpacks OR the VF17D???
  19. Knightdramon
    Bandai's valkyries retail from 14000 to 18000 yen, actually cheaper than Yamato's offerings bar the VF1. It's just that they are so limited AND reissues are scarcer than before AND the dollar is weak compared to the yen AND there's people hogging some of them BECAUSE some others are willing to pay BAD EXCHANGE RATE+SHIPPING FROM JAPAN TO US AND AGAIN WITHIN THE US + PROFIT to the actual seller. Again, the actual japanese prices aren't bad but more than often we're seeing a bad exchange rate coupled with rarity and scalper heaven prices.
  20. Knightdramon
    As I've said on other forums, it's not Yamato's fault. The difference between them in YEN is minimal. The YF-21 cost like 22200 yen or so back in the day, the newest and most expensive VF17 costs 24000 yen before tax. Understandable difference. The difference in the exchange rate is what kills it for many people, myself included. What used to translate to roughly the same price without one decimal [for example, 10000 yen used to be around 95-100 USD or less] now is much, much worse. Now 10000 yen are around 150 USD!!!! That being said, for the difference in quality, build and size, Yamato has pretty decent raises in retail in the past few years. Compare it to Takara's rise in price with each passing new mould Masterpiece [Grimlock 15000 yen, Rodimus 19000 yen, Convoy 25000 yen] I find the 100-200 yen VERY reasonable. Exchange rates and a weak dollar, my friend.
  21. Knightdramon
    The S-type variants of the VF19, VF17 and VF1 [TV version] are being reissued. No such thing for the vf22.
  22. Knightdramon
    If I'm seeing it properly you can place the elbow fillings\guards down since at those poses you're not using the double elbow joint. Plus, the amazing angel voice is sung in a different valkyrie that I'm DYING to have. Overal a fantastic effort and model by Yamato, whichever version you go after.
  23. Knightdramon
    Maybe that's the "official PR answer" instead of admitting about cutting corners.
  24. Knightdramon
    I'm of the impression that the design of the YF19 was chosen for the newest mass produced valkyrie fighter. The "dumbed down" YF21 saw a much, much limited release. It's not the mainline valk.
  25. Knightdramon
    Robotech first part for me, around 1993 or so in Greece, dubbed. And sometimes subtitled. Only thing I remember is the macross transforming and distinctively remember Max's VF-1A and how it had a blue head and was different from the other planes, heh. Much later in 2005 or so I searched around, watched Zero and Plus [OVA] that year. Never lost touch, watched SDFM later, then DYRL, then Frontier and slowly watching 7.
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