Damaramu

Awesome! I would love to purchase a few if they ever become massed produced!

Hnnng! I love Valkyries in low viz colors! Kudos!

... or if my wife says "You should see my husband's toy collection. It's pretty cool!"

My wife is under strict orders to never mention any part of my collection to anyone. I primarily collect videogames and I do have a small cache of Macross toys. They all reside in my office, which I keep locked up.

Are there any good cutaway diagrams of either gunpod?

Hiya D_Unit.

Yeah, a few months ago I ordered the three Ichibankuji statues of Sheryl, Ranka, and Klan. As chronicled earlier in this very thread, I had some problems with OverDrive resulting in them closing down my account.

Long story short, I did eventually get my statues along with 3 Mac F microfiber towels. It was quite a frustrating experience with them that time around.

Has anyone purchased a clearance Macross item from Over-Drive recently? Their clearance products description includes the following:

"As this item is part of our in stock item clearance sale we will be giving away extras items such as the Macross Frontier Ichibankuji Mecha Set as well as many more items free with each purchase. Don't miss this chance to get the item you wanted at discounted prices! Note offer is valid while supplies last."

Did anyone get these extras and what where they?

I'm really digging this! Personally, I like the "chunkiness"! I don't particularly care for the skinnier looking designs.

The new 1/60's look great right out of the box. I think too many decals make them look busy. If I had my druthers, I'd probably just weather/panel line mine - which I have yet to do.

My VF-1D has been sitting on my desk for about a week in fighter mode, looking pretty. Last night I decided to take the plunge and transform it and.....

All is well!

I popped off the nose and head and carefully loosened the legs up near the intake. I pulled the legs down into the gerwalk configuration and gently rocked the intakes side to side and when there was a bit of room (I could slide a thin guitar pick in there) I popped the legs off successfully.

Looking at the pegs, I noticed no deformities or stress marks. Same with the shoulder joints. I'm not exactly sure what these "knurled" pins are supposed to look like but mine were smooth. The shoulders moved freely with no unusual resistance. They were also stress mark free.

I did notice the hip joints seemed a little...looser than normal. Well, looser than the joints on my Hikaru VF-1S. Nothing too bad, it can still hold a pose well with no sagging or what have you. It's definitely not in the realm of 1/60 ver. 1 looseness!

I guess I lucked out with this one!

So far so good, no problems with my first few transformations. Guess I lucked out!

Yeah, I also bit on the VF-1D from the HLJ sale.

Now, what's this exploding legs syndrome? I have yet to transform mine (displayed in fighter mode atm)

Maybe if you explained to them that it was some kind of misunderstanding, they might make an exception for a loyal customer. No harm in trying. Besides, it that their wacked up email service and that snafu with the tracking number that caused all this to happen.

That is true. I'm the "victim" in this case. They dropped the ball entirely in this deal.

Great to hear that you've received your shipment after all! BTW, love that Klan fig and those tee shirts!

Thanks! I'm glad everything worked out in the end as well. Although, I think I'm probably still banned from the site or what have you.

Those are actually some kind of towels, like microfiber sports towels or something. Quite cool, actually!

Beautiful work! Kudos!

UPDATE:

So I check my work email this morning and saw that I FINALLY got a response from Overdrive. Turns out, yup, my emails were going straight into a spam folder. They checked their records and oops, they did indeed send me the wrong EMS tracking number.

So I check the correct number they gave me and....the package containing the statues (yeah, they had all three!) was sent out on the 17th, and arrived back on the 19th! Apparently, they postman tried delivering it on 19th but I wasn't here (my shipping address is my work address) and didn't bother to leave a delivery notice. I didn't find out about it until today!

Sooooo, today I picked up my package at the post office and this is what I found inside:

And my bonus items?

So yeah, I'm happy I finally got everything, but the email and tracking number snafu has really left a bad taste in my mouth.

That is so messed up in so many ways. If they keep up with this kind of thuggish business tactics, sooner or later, they'll run out of customers.

I hope you get your money back, man.

Oh, definitely getting my money back. I had my credit union do a chargeback.

Ok, if you've been checking out the "WHAT'S CURRENTLY SHIPPING OR SHIPPING ISSUES..." in the Toys section, you might have noticed I've been having issues with OVERDRIVE.

I gotta put in a thumbs down vote for these twits.

In a nutshell:

Ordered all three Macross Frontier Ichiban Kuji statues from their site (Ranka, Sheryl, Klan). Paid for them and EMS shipping. Got all the automated emails detailing the transaction. Got the EMS tracking number which turned out to be bogus. It would come up as non-recognized by the Japan Post site and USPS.com. So, long story short (my message to Paypal as I escalated this situation to a claim):

In accordance to their website policy, I have attempted to contact them numerous times over a span of a week to no avail. I have opened a dispute here (Paypal.com) against OverDrive Inc due to their lack of communication and most importantly for NOT sending the product I paid for. NOW, they have deleted my customer account on their website. OverDrive Inc fraudulently sold me non-existent product, gave me a bogus EMS tracking number, would not communicate with me, and did not ship me anything. They deleted my customer account at their website without attempting to resolve the situation. Bottom line, I want a refund for the ENTIRE amount I paid them.

This is unfortunate as I had ordered from them in the past with no problems.

On the flipside, did a first time purchase from HLJ.com. This is how online toy shopping should be! They communicated (even if it was auto-generated) via email all the way and sent out my VF-1D with a quickness! FedEx got the toy from Japan to Houston in 2 days! I'm hooked!

So yeah, BOOOO on Overdrive! Think twice before you get tempted by their cheap prices, lest you get OVERDRIVED like I did.

I stopped doing business with Overdrive a while ago for this very same reason. Two separate orders were "completely ignored" (for lack of a better term) by Overdrive after getting my money. The first was for a GPB-1S/Hikaru VF-1J. I paid around $230 for it and after many weeks, I still hadn't gotten any shipping notice. No responses to my emails, no updates to my order history, no nothing. I finally contacted Paypal to get a refund...and miraculously, Overdrive responded to the refund request. In good faith, I ordered a much cheaper item a few months later...a Revoltech Queen's Blade figure. Not nearly as expensive as a Yamato VF-1, but nonetheless I met with the same "thanks for your money, but we'll get around to your order sometime before the end of the decade" lack of response. Twice burned, I'll never order from Overdrive again.

I have no idea what's happened with that particular online store. Many others here on MW have had no problems whatsoever with Overdrive, while others of us have only gotten horrible customer service (if by CS, I mean a complete lack of it).

Well, at least you got most of your money back.

Man, to think I actually had plans to buy that FAST pack set from OD last month. Turns out that they only accept customers who register using paid email accounts, which I didn't have. Whaddaya know? In the end, it was a blessing in disguise.

And it turns even more interesting. Overdrive deleted my customer account on their site. So I escalated the dispute to a claim. Can we add online sellers like this to the blacklist? These guys are operating like swindlers.

Here's what I wrote:

In accordance to their website policy, I have attempted to contact them numerous times over a span of a week to no avail. I have opened a dispute here against OverDrive Inc due to their lack of communication and most importantly for NOT sending the product I paid for. NOW, they have deleted my customer account on their website. OverDrive Inc fraudulently sold me non-existent product, gave me a bogus EMS tracking number, would not communicate with me, and did not ship me anything. They deleted my customer account at their website without attempting to resolve the situation. Bottom line, I want a refund for the ENTIRE amount I paid them.

Unfortunately, they have 20 days to respond to this. Think they will? I seriously doubt it. I'm considering just having my bank do a chargeback. I will never deal with Overdrive again, and will definitely NOT recommend them to my friends.

Yeah, they're on my sh!t list.

Now HLJ.com...damn! I now know why people cry...for joy! I got notifications every step of the way. Everything shipped out quickly. Kudos to FedEx for installing space fold drives on their cargo planes!

If every order from HLJ.com is gonna be like this, they got as a customer 4 life! Now...hopefully they'll get some more VE-1's in. I sorta missed that boat.

It sure does. I picked up a VF-1D, payed via Paypal and got the shipping discount on top of the sale discount. Shipped on the 23rd, arrived today on the 25th. Smooth as silk. Additionally, shipping sale has been extended to the 28th, IIRC.

"Anchored down in Anchorage...." sprang to mind. Dang, that does suck. Hopefully it won't be stuck there for long.

Holy crap, where do you live? Mine went out the 23rd and it's still STUCK in customs.

Shipping via FedEx to Houston, TX.

Someone needs to do a custom of this!

Woot! My VF-1D arrived today! Holy Cow! Shipped out on the 23rd, arrived today on the 25th! Well, HLJ.com has a new fan!

I filed a dispute with Paypal regarding Overdrive. Today, I go to check my account and noticed some new activity. Looks like they refunded all but $8 of my $206. Either they had phantom merchandise and didn't detect it until I placed an order or they figured I was more trouble than I'm worth.

Still, I'm wondering why they're trying to keep $8?

Now remember, children! Safety first: Check your VF's shoulders for traces of explodium, before examining the stability of the leg pegs.

This message was brought to you by the International Foundation for the Prevention of Heart Attacks After A Yamato QC Disaster: IFFTPOHAAAYQCD for short.

Support the IFFTPOHAAAYQCD: Because getting Yamato'ed is no fun.

Oh, I hear ya. I'm probably just going to keep it in fighter mode.

Meanwhile....

10 days have passed by and still no contact from Overdrive. EMS tracking code is obviously bogus and no package. I dunno what's going on with them, but this situation is unfortunate as I had a prior pleasant experience.

So, I'm going to file a Paypal dispute and get my money back.

So, use caution when ordering from them as you may get Overdrived just like I did...

Yup! I've got a VF-1D on the way from HLJ too! Can't wait!

6 days doesn't seem that long really. I'd wait at least 10 working days before filing a dispute. I'd be surprised if your credit card co will let you reverse-charge at this stage. Does the tracking no they gave you have 13 digits?

I've placed lots of orders with OD over the last few years and a few have had slight mishaps like a missing digit from the tracking no. But they've always answered my emails, within 48 hours at the latest. They've also had several problems with their email servers so that might be happening again. I've had some long email conversations with them too - their English seems pretty good - so you could try calling them I guess.

As for that quote on their site, I know some of it at least is true. Doing a charge-back is expensive for a business as there is often a hefty fee involved on top of the charge-back. If you do decide to charge-back they can definitely blacklist you - in much the same way as we have a MacrossWorld Blacklist, so do they and their associates.

Regarding the transaction, I noticed all the statues were available so I placed the order. I got the order confirmation and payment request, in which I paid promptly. A few hours later after posting about the transaction in this very thread, I noticed the entries for Ranka and Sheryl were completely removed (Item Not Found) from their site. I just figured I bought their last copies. I'm beginning to think now that I somehow managed to buy something that was not in stock, but still listed on their site. The Klan statue is still available as far as I know.

Yup, it's 13 character EMS tracking number. It isn't being recognized by the Japan Post site or USPS.com. THAT is the thing that worries me. I don't mind long waits, even for EMS. The seemingly "bogus" tracking codes and complete silence from Overdrive are just sending up too many red flags with me.

The charge was made on my Visa check card issued by my local credit union (ie bank). They're actually really good when it comes to these kind of things.

I suppose I could give them (Overdrive) a call to sort it all out.