Guyffon

Oh ok, proxy item, guess its bed time for me, but even so I never seen a proxy price of almost 2 times the original price. I guess this valk is really the holy grail (aside from the VF-31A)

Hmmm, why is cdjapan selling HMR VF-4 at 20k or so, thought their initial price was a lot less? Are they going the NY route by marking up different batches? Thought they never did that in the past

6 hours ago, no3Ljm said:

I think they DO care about international markets.  

  Reveal hidden contents

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2018-09-21/bandai-namco-acquires-bluefin-establishes-u.s-toy-company/.137100

Bandai Namco Holdings noted in the announcement that it acquired Bluefin to strengthen and speed up its merchandise sales in the North American hobby collectibles market, to use Bluefin's local business knowledge in organizing fan-oriented events, and to use its existing distribution network.

http://news.toyark.com/2018/09/21/bluefin-acquired-by-bandai-namco-317172

BANDAI NAMCO HD, acquires US “BLUEfin” business Established US toy business company for core fans  The BANDAI NAMCO Group moves to strengthen the market for core fans in North America. On September 19, 2018, BANDAI NAMCO Holdings announced that it will establish a new subsidiary BANDAI NAMCO Collectibles LLC focusing on the high target market in North America.  

BANDAI NAMCO Collectibles is headquartered in Anaheim, California. Established in October 2018, it starts operation in January 2019. The capital is 27 million dollars. Mr. Steve Fujimura will be appointed as president and CEO, and Mr. Kanefumi Iwata of Bandai Namco America will be appointed COO.  

A major advantage of the new company is that it is an importer of the local Japanese toy for establishment and receiving business transfer from retailer NIPPON IMPORTS, LLC. NIPPON IMPORTS is a “BLUEfin” brand, selling products such as figures for core fans.  

The brand of BLUEfin is familiar to fans at large booth exhibitions such as comic and anime expo. In particular, they are demonstrating their strengths with the related character products of the BANDAI NAMCO Group.  

BANDAI NAMCO Collectibles inherits “BLUEfin” brand and continues to deliver hobby related products to fans in North America.

Also, Steve Fujimura, president and CEO of BANDAI NAMCO Collectibles, is also CEO of NIPPON IMPORTS. The head office address of the new company is the same as the current head office of NIPPON IMPORTS. 80% of the shareholders of the new company are BANDAI NAMCO Holdings USA and 20% are NIPPON IMPORTS. In fact, establishing a new company seems to be regarded as an acquisition of BLUEfin related business by BANDAI NAMCO Group, making it a subsidiary company.

With the establishment of this subsidiary, the BANDAI NAMCO Group will be able to acquire the distribution and brands of products for core fans. On the other hand, BLUEfin side will be able to do business with expansive capital and group capabilities.

Japan’s content business is said to have less profit in proportion to the popularity of animation. It is often pointed out that sales can not be provided at the same time as the release of the work, and that the sales are not sufficient. Whether BLUEfin will change that situation, the key to future development will be relevant products. The BANDAI NAMCO Group’s challenge will draw attention.  

 

What I mean is, for Macross, due to the HG shenanigans, they simply can’t “care” for international markets even ifthey want to, unless I got something wrong. Aside from Macross they do care about the international market for their other products.

Bandai learning? I really doubt it, to them this item was supposed to be for the japanese markets only, so I think they accomplished their goals, I really doubt they could really care about the international markets for now

2 hours ago, CF18 said:

The biggest fallout with the VF-31A issue is now some bigger Tamashii shop limited releases are much harder to order from proxy shops, since Bandai seems to now enforce their per-person limit strictly.  E.g. Metal Build FMP M9 was much hard to order than most Macross DX regular releases.

Thought metal build M9 was a p-bandai item, I could easily order 2 from biginjapan, but cancelled after I realised I could order from P-bandai direct from P-bandai Singapore. As for the strike freedom soul blue that came out on P-bandai Singapore, that evaporated in seconds leaving, and the system kept hanging leaving people trying for 3 hours before the offical word that it sold out. Sorry, a lil off topic

On 11/3/2018 at 4:44 PM, onnasake said:

V4 Lightning  is now 17,800 yen on amazon japan.  That didn't take long....scalpers are pre-scalping.   Scalpers gonna scalp, I guess.

With other toylines I collect, the price almost always comes down once it's released and there's enough to go around, but I don't know enough about Macross to make that claim.

My only purchase is the YF-19 which has been sitting around 30,000 since release date and has been readily available.

 

I guess we'll see in March what happens!

 

Well there is the VF-31A that sets the standard for being crazy over priced, but thats because somewhere down the line someone screwed up

No one really knows, but some time back, they said that it will come with

13 hours ago, Lolicon said:

Friend emailed me earlier asking if I got my 31A yet. Told him I've had mine since April. He then cursed NY and wished he had just taken my usual offer to preorder an extra valk for him. 

Another satisfied customer! 

Unless you pre ordered anywhere else than NY, if u had pre ordered for him thru NY, I think you won’t have either your own or his, as NY fudged the order for people whom made multiple orders, sans 2 or was it 3 guys here

Shouldn’t the YF-29 wings be retracted when it has it supers mounted? This way it looks way too wide

1 minute ago, ps99042 said:

Looks like CDJapan is the way to go for preorders now.  Just a bummer you have to pay up front.

You do not need to pay upfront if you use credit card, it will just reserve the amount but will not charge you till when the item is available

How did you guys search for the one at cdjapan, or hlj, I tried the normal search and nothing, if it wasnt for the good sirs here I wouldnt have gotten one.

For some reason its not yet on sale though ami ami says 3pm japan time, maybe its a typo

some members say nin ni is untrustworthy though I had success buying from them before, oh i just noticed nin nin requires immediate payment, so I’ll pass on that

Yeah i gave away 2 Of the original vf-25 to a colleague and one was a full armour ozma’s to make room for the renewals

9 hours ago, grymg said:

Sucks about the antennas.  Did the VF-19A's ever have this problem?  Because mine come intact with no issues.

If i am not wrong, the advance was packed with the accessories tray over the main toy, that would already help mitigate any potential antenna breakages, while the Yf-19 had the main toy at the top of the box

Or you can do it like this and call it a day

2 hours ago, seti88 said:

My mention of inflation pricing, relates to the natural inflation of goods and services, and not scalper actions. 
i.e. use a hot product to set the base price for future models, after accounting for inflation.

IMO a company as large as Bandai, the aim shld be maintaining growth/sales and keeping the cap on costs of production. 
 

I understand what you mean now, just wish they made more of the kairos so there was no shortage for all collectors that wanted one (or ten) to get them. I do hope that whatever happened to the kairos never happen for another twe item or that said regular release item. A lot of people are still waiting for their kairos at this point and no explanation was ever given as to what happpened

Just now, Chronocidal said:

They might not benefit from the inflated prices, but they absolutely screw with supply to keep demand high, and ensure their runs sell out.

This I agree with, the up driven market went a bit crazy for this valk, until prices around USD 2K have been reported, I don’t think any other valk ever sold for this kind of pricing, bandai, arcadia or otherwise

6 hours ago, seti88 said:

Bandai has so many macross valks to choose from, it would be a shame to spend time re-releasing the exact same valk. They can still address the sales potential by tweaking the same mold, like the auto industry, facelifting.

So am not sure if the vf-19 advance is exactly a cash cow. Would you still want one if you can get the yf-19 instead?

On the 31a, I think bandai has no rush to release an arad or 02 version. Although as a collector I wish they did, but since the demand for it seems so strong, why not reserve it for slower sales period or even ride out on the inflation pricing. 

So, does it seem like bandai has the macross market cornered? 

I do not think bandai benefits from inflated price, they still only get what price they sold ar release, the inflated prices only benefit the scalpers

Looking at the head sculp, I wonder how they make the lasers angle out like that or was there a trick on my arcadia that I missed, mine is in fighter mode all the time so I might have missed that

Can you make the hardpoint that lets you attach dual missles too, as they only give us 2 per box and I think we need more of those

14 hours ago, treatment said:

Another thing.

If you're into Obari-style pelvic\crotch-thrusting poses, the YF-19 is the only valk that can do so.

In fact, once you transformed it into battroid-mode, it's already in Obari-pose in neutral stand.

Without even really trying...

 

Thought the Vf-25 could do that too

Hmmmmm, I feel that the YF-30 n YF-19 can both share 2nd place though

My leg fin issue is different from the rest as the small rudder drops out when trying to fold it for gerwalk or battloid mode, my cdjapan shipping box had the same padding, while my hlj one came in a box that was just slightly bigger than the yf-19 box with no extra padding for the gap between the top of the toy box to the shipping box, thank goodness no breakages so far

Lift the torso, inspect where the cockpit is and make sure it is pushed down towards the spin of the aircraft there should be an audioable click if done correctly, else lift the cockpit and resit it to hear the click, that should solve the issues, not sure why I never had this issue with the VF-19Adv

8 hours ago, kajnrig said:

So, after a few hours of ginger movements and gentle massaging, I got mine into battroid mode and it is a. Lovely. Lovely. Thing.

Next to the other Lovely. Lovely. Thing., of course.

The leg fins did pop off a couple times, both of them, but popping them back into place is easy peasy. The major issue is the thigh joint, as onnasuke and Lancestride01 can attest. And the fix is untightening the screws holding the ball joint together. I just tinkered with mine, taking it apart as part of a natural progression of remedies, but I realized afterwards that Sildani has a nice step-by-step picture guide. You should follow it: http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/topic/41401-macross-maintenance/?do=findComment&comment=1421822

 

Some issues I ran into aside from the above:

1) The black piece behind the head that's supposed to lock everything together... doesn't. Try as I might, I can't get the cockpit to sit any further back and get the peg protruding from there to lock into the socket on the underside of the black piece. It's not a major problem, but it IS an eyesore. (Also the neck doesn't peg securely into the front collar/back of the nose, but it's a super small peg and not noticeable anyway. EXCEPT TO MEEEEEE.)

2) I don't like that the wings don't nicely swivel into storage/high speed configuration. You're just left to adjust them manually, and it's less than ideal.

3) The shield is too tall. If it were wider or shorter, it would look fine. I also don't like that it can't fit onto the back of the arm to accurately recreate the arm cannon pose.

4) The feet still bother me. All around.

5) The wing root tabs were really hard to remove first time around. Now that that's been gotten out of the way, I'm sure they'll be more cooperative in the future.

I too had issues with that back plate not clipping on, and after pulling up the torso to inspect the cockpit, i realised that i did not push the cockpit far enough to hear a click sound which you should,after that, that part just goes in.

My order from HLJ, had head laser intact too.