sqidd

Looks like your standard PO night. Curious how long it tales to sell the US retailers out. Could be fast due to high demand. Also could be no big deal because scalpers won't be paying the US premium price. It will be interesting to see.

7 hours ago, davidwhangchoi said:

Is this a good pre order

No, I hear this one worships.............SATAN!

I really like the John Wick stuff. But I think it has run its course.

6 hours ago, DewPoint said:

Now that I see that picture again, I really think that something that size should have spring loaded  REAL missiles and projectiles. Because why not?

Fixed it.

3 hours ago, treatment said:

fyi.

https://twitter.com/ARCADIA_Co_Ltd/status/1519199758832726016

 

I feel for them. They have to be pulling their hair out over there in frustration.

11 minutes ago, Slave IV said:

$30 saved per order means you get a free Valk every 8 orders or so. That adds up quick when you have dozens to hundreds of orders a year.

I'll never have 8 Valks.

1 minute ago, no3Ljm said:

Thanks @sqidd. I was currently editing it when you replied.  

Here's the updated one. With all the info regarding 'stress and frustration during preorder nights'.  

 

----------------------------

Yup. This is correct. 

And it's the basis when I mentioned some couple of posts above that if you bought it from Japan directly and use fast shipping option instead of boat/ferry, then you'll get it within a week when it gets released in Japan. But if you bought directly and you still used boat/ferry, then you'll get it a month or two when it gets released. Now, the difference if ever you went with the boat/ferry route, then it's cheaper to get it directly in Japan rather than get it here in the US. You're going to pay more than the Japan MSRP, not to mention state tax and local shipping.

For those still wondering where to get, Japan, US, other countries, how much to save, etc? Here's an example of an item available now to ship from HLJ compared to BBTS which is still in preorder stage.

Riobot Bartley - Y20000

HLJ Shipping Estimates:
- Surface Parcel (4-7 months)  Y2450
- Express Mail Service EMS (2-9 days)  Y3410
- FedEX Priority (2-5 days)  Y3550
- DHL Express (1-3 days)  Y3820

For now let's settle with the expensive shipping method (DHL) to get a total of Y23820. In todays US$ currency exchange that's 186.78.

BBTS breakdown would be $199.99 (item), plus 9.25% (CA tax), with $4 Flat Rate shipping for a total of US$222.49.

Yes, it is practical to get it directly from Japan. You can save more and that's a fact. However, depends on where you are, me for an example lives in US West Coast, that means I have to stay late during preorder. There are members here who lives in the East Coast, in which they have to be up around 2 or 3 in the morning to try to preorder. And not just that, you have to battle ofcourse with Japanese customers and the other people around the world as well to secure an order directly from Japan stores on the time of the preorder. So imagine waking up around 2 in the morning, not able to order, got server or internet issues, or gets cart jacked during order process, it's frustrating and stressful. Be mindful that this is still depends on the product. So far, Bandai products are the mostly sought after during preorder nights.

If you order it from the US for example, you can order it anytime of the day, in a week or so, as long that the preorder window is still open. The other advantage in getting it stateside is when you receive the item with defect, you can easily get in touch with the store and return the item hassle-free. In Japan, it depends on the store where you bought it from. 

Just always keep in mind, as a rule of thumb, the price difference of getting it from Japan versus getting it here in the US, is within $30-50 range. That's $30-50 difference between stress and peace of mind.  

Hope that helps for those who are new in the game and still undecided where to get it.

Enjoy and Happy Collecting!  

Amen to that!

I think the only bogey we have now is what does it look like when there is a PO for something really popular? We may not have to be up in the middle of the night smashing F5. But F5 smashing may not go away.

2 hours ago, no3Ljm said:

Yup. This is correct.

And it's the basis when I mentioned some couple of posts above that if you bought it from Japan directly and use fast shipping option instead of boat/ferry, then you'll get it within a week when it gets released in Japan. But if you bought directly and you still used boat/ferry, then you'll get it a month or two when it gets released. Now, the difference if ever you went with the boat/ferry route, then it's cheaper to get it directly in Japan rather than get it here in the US. You're going to pay more than the Japan MSRP, not to mention state tax and local shipping.

For those still wondering where to get, how much to save, etc. Here's an example of an item available now to ship from HLJ compared to BBTS which is still in preorder stage.

Riobot Bartley - Y20000

HLJ Shipping Estimates:
- Surface Parcel (4-7 months)  Y2450
- Express Mail Service EMS (2-9 days)  Y3410
- FedEX Priority (2-5 days)  Y3550
- DHL Express (1-3 days)  Y3820

For now let's settle with the expensive shipping method (DHL) to get a total of Y23820. In todays US$ currency exchange that's 186.78.

BBTS breakdown would be $199.99 (item), plus 9.25% (CA tax), with $4 Flat Rate shipping for a total of US$222.49.

Yes, it is practical to get it directly from Japan. You can save more and that's a fact. But if you're in the US, for example, the advantage you will get is that if you receive it with defect, you can easily get in touch with the store and return the item hassle-free. In Japan, it depends on the store where you bought it from. Just always keep in mind, as a rule of thumb, the price difference of getting it from Japan versus getting it here in the US, is within $30-50 range.

Hope that helps for those who are new in the game and still undecided where to get it.

Enjoy and Happy Collecting!  

 

Great post.

4 hours ago, DYRL VF-1S said:

And how many have white landing gears? 🙂

Two?

14 minutes ago, Mog said:

Nah @Roy Focker, the pink is pretty noticeable:

One half unpainted, the other half painted:

Our phones tend to saturate the pics a bit, making the pink look a little more red than it is in real life.

That pink is terrible.

I think 1mo is highly optimistic at this point.

13 hours ago, Lolicon said:

Most of my modest valk collection gathered in one spot. 

169ish Valks? Yikes!

Quick count I have 95ish 1/48-1/60 Valks. I don't like to display very densely, but it took 80cu ft of cabinet to get them all out of the boxes and displayed. I could display all of yours if I got rid of my Super Robots (not going to happen!).

Do you have a room big enough to get all of your stuff out and on display?

5 hours ago, Big s said:

Watched the last couple episodes of Outer Range. It’s kinda slow, but keeps some suspense. And that one brother on the neighboring ranch really seems to like singing songs done by female singers.

And getting the lyrics wrong!

18 hours ago, wm cheng said:

Are you saying there is a Shapeways figures of these?  I'd love some.

I'm asking, not saying.

12 hours ago, F360 said:

so the bazooka is mounted for "happy mode" only? 

Is that a bazooka in your pocket? Or.............

7 hours ago, Keith said:

After losing the woman dearest to me recently, I have a wholey new appreciation for Anno and whatever it is that personally happened to him that he puts into his works.  I've been and still am lost as of recent, and fully "get" the character of Gendou and his motivations more than I ever cared to. Where many casually write off a villain as casually willing to destroy the world & re-write it to take back someone unjustly taken away from him, I see a hero.

Sorry if that's a bit subjectively dark, but it's a weight I wouldn't wish on anyone. If I ever did meet Hideaki Anno, I'd simply like to buy the man a beer and quietly drink, nothing more.

I'm sorry to hear that. I can't imagine. I'm not much for "the feels" (tough childhood), but losing my wife of 23yrs (been together 31yrs) would absolutely crush me.

-----------------------------------------------

I think the thing that impresses me most about Evangelion is that it's a different series/movies to everyone based on your own life experience. Anno is a genius. 

1 hour ago, Mog said:

Anyone catch Severance on Apple TV+?

The premise sounds like some corporation’s perverted twisting of the whole “work-life balance” idea.

Except they purposely cut off your brain (with your consent), so that your “work” half and your “life” half don’t know anything about each other.

Definitely starts off slow and then twists and disorients you.

Hopefully, it doesn’t go off the rails like Lost, and this show actually sticks the landing.

They got an early jump on normalizing the future.

53 minutes ago, no3Ljm said:

Watched it the other day since I missed watching it in theaters. For me, it's up there with The Dark Knight. Highly recommended.  

 

37 minutes ago, 505thAirborne said:

Agreed, this was a movie that could have been cliché heaven and badly timed jokes, the decision to avoid that makes this movie a Top Tier Film. Also this Batmobile here is officially my favorite, still a fan of Keaton's ride then Bale's.

There's a deleted Joker scene you can watch on YouTube, it's a good effort but Ledger will ALWAYS be the Joker. 

I like all of the Nolan movies. Especially The Dark Night. But I have to give a slight edge to this new one. Probably because I really like the style it was done in.

And yes, the new Batmobile is sick!!!!!! I have one big hot rod project in me before I die or stop doing that sort of thing. I've been kicking a wide range of ideas around. After seeing this I'm seriously considering a mid engine muscle car with a electric motor up front to drive the front wheels. It woud be a heck of a challenge. I'm thinking 1000rwhp on 93 octane gas for the internal combustion motor (that's pretty easy) and 500-750 wheel HP from the electric motor up front. Pretty much whatever I could get away with up there and not have it torque steer me off the road.

The Keaton Batmobile is a tie. I like it because it's so over the top.

1 hour ago, MKT said:

Is it due to independent departments not aligned with corporate vision for a big company? Product managers having a lot of autonomy to release what they personally like instead of what fans want? Or they consolidate every potential product into a giant roulette wheel they push every so often to determine what gets released during their product planning meetings? We'll never know, and justify to ourselves whichever reasons that gives us comfort and not keep us up at night.. 

 

Or all of the above.

I agree that bean counting is not the only thing that decides product development and releases. I have some good friends at Ford and you wouldn't believe how much money is gambled on pet projects. Generally it's decided by one person........without the input of the bean counters. The current EV market smoke and mirrors thing is a perfect example. Same thing with self driving cars. Both from a practical standpoint are completely unrealistic (as a large percentage of the fleet). Even Elon Musk will tell you that.

24 minutes ago, MKT said:

Perhaps there’s less enthusiastic response to Boque than expected so far.. and they push out more pics in the final days of PO..

We have a winner!!!

4 minutes ago, MKT said:

I wonder what changed at Bandai. They had no hesitation releasing every type of valk variant from Frontier then; even those from Macross 30 game. My top favorite colour scheme would be the YF-25 & it only appeared for couple of seconds in the movie?

But for Delta, quite a few have been held back.. super parts for some of the VF-31, SV-262 Elvis & Ba variant, VF-171 CF..

Same answer as two posts above.

If they thought they could make the type of money they need to make to green light a project, they would.

The biggest thing that Macross has working against it is lines like Gundam that rake in the bucks. If a company has X amount of time to put into projects it's going to put that time toward the ones that make the most return on investment. You could argue that they could make more money by hiring more people/ investing in infrastructure. But, there is an entirely different calculus for that. For example, I could do more business if I had more people/ infrastructure. But, building that infrastructure and hiring/ training those people doesn't have the right cost benefit ratio unless I plan on dramatically increasing production/sales. Making those big steps in company growth is a massive risk. 

21 hours ago, Lolicon said:

Arcadia give us a 1/60 Monster please!

That would be a shelf space wrecking 25" long!

If they made all of the Destroids and the Zentradi mecha so I could do a big diorama, I'd be in.

I think HMR is the only chance though.

1 minute ago, no3Ljm said:

 So what’s stopped them on making a new one?

 

Probably the same reason a vast, vast, vast majority of choices are made by humans.....................

11 hours ago, Chronocidal said:

Did her pre-order happen before Hayate's released?

My Hayate was delivered 1/12/22 (not sure about release date)

I PO'd Mirage's 31AX 10/24/21