Bariaburu Faita

When will you be in Japan? I would be willing to show you around Osaka for shopping

They are not easy to get, in quantity. The note on the VF-171 in the picture says that it is limited to 1 per customer, which is not a universal practice but happens often enough for items that are in high demand. Places that sell unlimited numbers of them sold out first. So now places that still have them would be likely to have su ch limits, which limits the number of online resellers can get ahold of.

But it is still possible, and Bandai has a established pattern of producing additional production runs of items that are this popular. But it will take time before a production que opens up in a factory, and more time to start a new production run. There is a light at the end of the tunnel.

Another possibility is that due to the popularity Bandai may release additional color variations. Im hoping for a green CF.

That's basically it. After the economy meltdown and seeing all those VF-22 and Gundam Fix linger in the 50% off bin for like years, all high priced toys are high risk. Bandai is rather conservative in the last few years and prefer to just keep making Gundam, Saint Saiya, One Piece and Kamen Rider.

Now about the Macross DX situation here is some thing that should make some scream:

It was posted a week ago in HK forum. Apparently the VF-171EX is very well supplied in retail stores in Japan and most stores have them at full retail or standard discount. It's probably why Nippon-Yasan can keep selling them at 16000 yen - their staff can still get them from their neighbors at 2000+ yen less. Yahoo Japan Auction search of DX VF-171EX right now shows 40 units with buy it now price near full retail - it is no where near the eBay level scalping.

So how come AmiAmi etc can't get more? Well Bandai probably just treat each store as the same despite bigger market reach by online stores. It is fair in a sense, instead of letting a few big stores getting 80% stocks, each individual store get 24 units. Bandai still don't want to piss off their traditional retail store partners, since it is probably still where most of their income comes from.

Good post, what I foresee as a problem though is that that they doen't build enough time in for the initial release of the item, it sells REALLY well, but then they get "gun shy" about how much to produce for a rerelease because they figure most people already got one, so the cycle continues.

I though Jenius said his friends in Japan were having a hard time tracking 1 down too. If they are so easy to find in Japan why wouldn't places like HLJ just go out and buy more s they could sell them to their customers instead of placing the dreaded skull and cross bones of discontinued on the item page? Seems like no one wins this way customers or retailers.

Chris

As of this weekend, I saw the VF-171EX on sale at normal retail price or slightly lower on shelves. This shortage is mainly for overseas customers, which is not who its intended for. Bandai is the manufacturer, not the owner of the IP. For other Bandai products like Saint Saiya they aggressively promote and sell to overseas customers because they are allowed by the IP owners. I do not think they are at fault for supply outside of Japan to be low.

Does anyone here worked on manufacturing industry? I do, and although mine isn't toys, the whole concept is pretty much the same. My theory is that the DXs shared the same factory or even same assembly line with other Bandai toys line like, maybe, similar stuff like SOC or even radically different SH.Figuarts. Therefore the production must be scheduled accordingly far ahead. And as the line will be used for another product, the production will be stop when it's scheduled to stop. Changing the molds and adjusting the machines are hard, even more so for toys which have assembly and painting by hands ( as you need to "adjust" the workers too ). So you can't just change the schedule or product quantity on the fly. This is also why re-release took months, instead of just mere days after the sales number from pre-order or launching day confirmed that the product is selling well and fans demand more.

One might notice that Yamato doesn't suffer the same problem as Bandai. I'll just point out that toy line variety of Yamato is nothing like Bandai; so they don't have to cram so many different things in tight schedule. As big as Bandai is, I don't think they can afford one factory per each toy line, or even specialized assembly line for each separate toy line. Not in this economy. I'm sure that the designers and everyone involved in creation (NOT production) of the toys are also fellow hobbyists and really care what fans and customers want. But once the design leave the office and entering the production phase, it's all getting industrial there.

Just what I thought based on my experience as human cog in assembly line . And before someone blame Gundam for this, it's the same for Gundam figures too. Model kits are different as they are made by different division in Japan factory, not made in China like Tamashii division figures.

This is true for Japan also. I worked at a Panasonic factory for 5 years. There is large interval between when you make a new product and when you get marketing feedback about actual demand for such product. Overproducing can have catastrophic consequences resulting in whole factories getting shuttered and people laid off.

A possible factor is that its the end of the fiscal year, and tax time is coming soon. In Japan companies are taxed on their inventory. So if they have a large production run that has not sold they will get taxed for the retail value and loose most of their profit. This is a big reason so many companies in Japan are making pre-orders and made to order items so that they have 100% of a production run sold.

You know.. I don't get it.

Is Bandai getting paid under the table to create a shortage of these things? It makes no freaking sense.

Maybe they're just upset that the re-released chunkies got overshadowed by Yamato, and are determined to make themselves into some kind of legend like the original Takatokus? I don't see how that would EVER benefit them though, because they're not making anything off the crazy prices the hoarders quote when they sell these to collectors.

No love for this poor bird in the model section, only hate and discontent:( Hopefully you guys will appreciate it more.

its a resin kit that was sold last weekend at treasure festa. 8 were made and sold out in 2 minutes after the doors opened. its 1/144 scale but a larger 1/72 one will be sold at the next treasure festa in december.

It all intentional. The reason they avoided mass market advertising and mail order, is to keep it isolated to hiroshima. That way they can get an idea of what percentage of the book buying market in hiroshima would buy it. If they advertised it nationwide, other prefectures would buy it and distort the sales percentages. If they made it availiable throught mail order it would be worse. Foreigners would be able to use proxy services and buy issues ment only for hiroshima residents and further distort their sales demographics.

As of issue 8, earlier this month big book stores close to train stations were packed with unsold copies. After the cancellation was announced there was a run on issues and most places are now sold out.

didn't shop there much, but still sad to see it go. Yet another specialty toy shop replaced by a generic mass market hobby chain.

Meanwhile, the GUNDAM'S store closes down in Nipponbashi....

http://www.bbb-bike.com/mospeada/index.html

to see the proto mospeada being built step by step

grats! IMHO very lucky. are you looking to trade it for some combination of other ones?

I've got two Sheryl Deculture already just by opening boxes. I don't think it's THAT rare.

It depends on which one. The Sheryl Deculture is a secret and very rare, the Ranka, Cathy, Klanklan, and Nanase Deculture are common. The VF-4 is a secret but only uncommon.

Got my second box today. I'm starting to think the Deculture versions and VF-4 aren't the rarest ones. I now have all six special valks from set 3, yet I haven't seen VF-25F fold, full armor or tornado.

the floppyness in long parts is springy, the polyurethane is flexible unlike normal hard brittle resin. the joints are very solid though, tight and they are made of nylon so should last longer than plastic hinges. It is very impressive in person, highly recommend checking one out.

Seems surprisingly floppy. Every time he moves something in the transformation video the whole thing fribbles and frobbles like it's going to collapse into a heap. Can't say I'm overly impressed. The transformation looks fun though.

They are, but in a smaller scale. at their open house day at the showroom they had people fill out suggestion forms for what they wanted to have made. for the SDF-1, 1/3000 scale was the most likely

I wasn't going to watch the transformation, because I'll never own one anyway, but I love all the CLICKs and SNAPs. I can't understand how Yamato can leave things as they are and not trying to find the way of mass produce this.

From what I can read, Yaco and a bunch of friends decided to do a group buy of the Toynami Regult and met over dinner to hand em out. Most of them thought it was better than they expected. So they are not all his

Mr. Aramaki mentions that he will show it to Mr. Kawamori in the comments section

I don't believe Yaco's involved with these forums. He's in Japan, and is pretty tight with the Mospeada merchandise companies and Mospeada's creators over there.

That he saw fit to buy a whole batallion of Toynami's Regults says a great deal in favor of Toynami's work on this product.

Japanese collectors don't seem to give a 5hit about the term "robotech" being attached to a Macross product... Good for them.

It`s nice to see people posting lucky draws in their box distribution for a change.

Grats on finding such a good price on the VF-4 Graham. But im sad to say it isnt a fluke. Due to the very low popularity of the VF-4 it`s the lowest value secret so far. Even the normal rarity VF-25 tornado and armored variants are worth more, as well as the uncommon deculture variants beating it out in value, and the super secret VF-25 Sheryl deculture worth several times more.

Does not bode well for a larger scale VF-4 toy making enough money to pay off mould costs.

the official Yamato VMF50 stuff seems to be very out of stock. if you dont mind off brand stuff, AZONE international makes a line of generic 50cm clothes, sexy santas helper outfits, victorian maid, shrine maiden, etc,... Sometimes they are listed as 1/3 scale, and range from 50cm to 60cm scale.

examples here: http://dollfieworld.com/112-1-3-fashion

sorry that would require going to the top floor of Volks.

the wall of glass eyes just creeps me out

Anyone in Japan wanna lend a hand =) .. damn girl*holic events had a whole lotta stuff for sale =(

so would this be called "Beast King GoLiger" or "Defender of the Universe Ligertron" ?

Thank you for the link, and thank you to Roger for expending the time, energy and finances on this project. It's an excellent compliment to the recent Mospeada lineart book.

Though, it has raised a question in me: if the people behind Southern Cross were able to persue their original vision of the project, would it have been more successful? (Referring to the domestic market here, mostly.)

in hindsight yes, I think it would have greatly increased their ratings and ability to sell merchandise. The late 80s to early 90s saw a surge in popularity of sengoku era anime and simulation games. as long as you threw in a reincarnation of Nobunaga and his demon army(in power armor) It would probably have done well. But be totaly unrecognizable as what we think of as southern cross.

Thank you Roger! Sent something for your time and effort.

WHAT!!! Why didn't you tell me?

I just found out about it about an hour ago, while looking at YJ auctions. I wish I knew about it earlier.

Comiket 77 winter exclusive shitajiki from circle Henrenkai. Promotional item given to first 500 customers.

Ok, are these blind-boxed like every other recent small Japanese toy, and I'm going to have to resort to ebay to get Grace's green VF-27? (which could be very hard, as my Paypal workaround just stopped working, and I have basically no way to pay overseas sellers now)

buy from someone living near you, several people in this thread have posted what they have extras. I think nanoplasm has an extra VF-27beta here: http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?...st&p=814544

With the pack distribution there is definitely no shortage of VF-2SS.

But there is no love for you VF-2SS fans in the up coming 3rd set.

no Super Armored Pack VF-2SS, its a crime:(

I meant more like a figure/stature/toy or something.

What where? I haven't heard of this at all.

take a look in this thread here: http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?...st&p=796258

Now if they'll only sculpt a flightsuit Grace for the green one... (sadly, that'd be the first piece of Grace merchandise ever AFAIK)

there are a couple hentai doujinshi with Grace in it.

the 1/250 VF-27 beta is supposedly a mass production type, but if you look closely at the head, its a commander type like Grace used.