Valk-1S

Thanks Tober. I emailed them a while ago twice using my yahoo account. Then on the 10th Feb using their website interface. And yesterday again using my ISP account. I don't know what they are doing but if they continue like this, they will end up losing alot of their customers. They have to be aware that stores like Amiami and HWJapan are now available to us and they provide discounts as well on their stuff.

Has anyone been having trouble communicating with overdrive? I have emailed them twice to info@over-drive-inc.com and also once on their website. I have an open order with them which I ordered on their old database and wanted to update the shipping address. Lack of response makes you worry but they have been updating their website.

I am just trying them out. Preordered some items with them on Friday. Received standard email to confirm order and yesterday received email telling me my order will be split due to them being released in different. So far positive and I did some checks on the internet before going ahead and people have been positive with them. They only accept Paypal and will only shipped via EMS. If I am not mistaken, they use to offer to Japan residents only and now open to international. Another place I have just tried ordering on Friday is HWJapan. Good discount as well for the preorders I have placed. They are owned by Aoshima so they should be reliable. Again did some review and came out positive. Will ship by both SAL and EMS. They have a point system as well like Hobby Search. If these two places provide good service, you can say that HLJ and Overdrive with face some tough competition for some products. Amiami is currently offering 25% off preorders on Banadai DX products. Their yamato macross items preorders currently about 17%. HWJapan about 20% on the reissues VF-1S with strike parts and unpainted VF-1S.

Highly unlikely in the short term. Maybe in a long time over 10 years from now they could consider. Reason being is that if they do, I doubt sales will do well. One, there's the old 1/48 where some people are happier with the 1/48 as compared to the 1/60. A revised 1/60 had the benefit over a revised 1/48 as the scale match all the other recent releases such as from the Macross Plus and Macross Zero line. For people who want the scales to be consistent they would purchase the 1/60. Market overflooded with different VF-1s, and people have collected a few now while in the beginning, they had none. Also, 1/60 sales did not seem to do as well as the original 1/48. You did not see HLJ having sales when the 1/48 first came out and for quite a while, while for the 1/60 they already had sales on them.

I use both of them and this is what I find with both of them. They both have their good and bad point but I am happy with both of them as they are both reliable sellers and can be trusted on. HLJ Don't charge you until they send out the items. Good you don't have to pay now but bad with the currency fluctuations. So sometimes better to pay now than later or vice versa. They ship out items per order. You more or less cannot add things to your open order, unless you somehow time it correclty and add an item just before they send out your previous order and they somehow process everything together. And if your order is older than 2 months, any available items will be sent out even though everything is not in. I ordered the Bandai Michael and Luca at the same time and they came out a week apart but HLJ send them seperately. Over-Drive Charge you when you place your order. As above, good and bad due to currency fluctuations. Orders will be shipped when everything is in. This is good or bad depending on the person. Can add items to your order. But I find that the additional shipping they add on when you add more items is more than if you place the whole order again with everything in it. Unfortunately as you have paid for the initial order, it's not as simple as to cancel and replace your order as can be done at HLJ. But, Over-drive tend to keep their pricing for items the same while HLJ earlybird is only for a limited period of time and goes back to retail which is more expensive than overdrive. Both pack their items well. HLJ uses a slightly more sturdy box (not by much though) but do not bubble wrap the items. They just fill the box with air pocket bags. Over-drive bubble wrap their items like crazy which gives a lot of protection to their items. All items I have received from both of them came in excellent condition.

I normally don't have a problem with HLJ shipping methods. They will ship based on what your account is setup. If your account has SAL, all items will be shipped by SAL unless they are too big or high priced items. Method of shipping will be overwritten on your latest orders. Let say you had SAL set, then you select EMS for a new order, your account will change to EMS and all items will be sent out by EMS. When you say your item should have been sent by EMS, it is because you selected EMS upon ordering it or is it because when your item was sent out the invoice sent to you shows SAL but at EMS rates? If it's when you order, it doesn't necessary mean they have sent it that way as what I have said above. Check the invoice they sent to you which shows the shipping type and also the cost they charged. If it was the invoice sent to you saying SAL but charging you EMS rates, then you have a problem and need to contact them.

The climate of where you live can also have a major part of whether it yellows faster or not. Izzy, as you live in a tropic climate, not sure whether this plays a factor in the yellowing of your valks. The humidity and heat could be a factor of the yellowing. It can also be due to the batch of plastic they use. The three GQ Impulse Gundam I have, were all stored away from sunlight in their boxes. The Force Impulse turned yellow, while the other two were fine. So far I don't really have yellowing issues with my Yamatoes, but they are kept in the box or away from direct sunlight.

Isn't the VF-0S with Ghost the fixed version. It came out after the VF-0A Shin combo and I am pretty sure it's fixed.

Was originally told that Overdrive was thinking of doing a set of 3 Ghost at discounted price but they have yet to put this up on their website and may have changed their minds. Tokyohunter is also taking orders on this but you will need to email him for price quotes.

Just put an order on Wednesday and got a shipping reply on Friday. They may have been slow around Christmas and after the new year as they could be short staff and also were closed for a while. SAL varies. I normally get my stuff about 2 weeks when I first ordered from HLJ a few years ago. Now it takes about 3 weeks at least. SAL is budget post where they will ship your goods should there be space on the plane. So it can vary greatly with time. I have heard people only getting their orders 1-2 months time.

They will probably put it up closer to the release date like they did with the Hikaru 1S.

It was a bit hard to press the control panel due to the angle but it's still possible but have to be careful not to push the top of the contol panel which I did a couple of times as you just end up pushing the control panel away from the seat. I also let the glue dry a little bit before attaching the part giving it a more sticky attachment. Didn't try to open it but if it's similar to a 1/48 VF-1, then it shouldn't be too hard. Good luck with your repairs.

This happened to me as well. Like Graham mentioned, try a different glue. Modelling glue are not as strong. I used Zap which is like a super glue. Downside sometimes the plastic turn a bit of a frosty white, but I touch it up with a gundam marker.

The orders were open from 25th November to 5th January. Plenty of time for people to get in to order one. I just managed to get one ordered yesterday, thanks to Overdrive quick responses to my email.

I've just ordered the super packs from overdrive and just managed to get in before the dateline. Orders closes today the 5th January at 1:30pm Japan time as Overdrive needs to order from Tamashi website.

Looks like Yamato slack as usual. I have the VF-0S with Ghost bundled and the skull on the heatshield is slightly crooked like the re-issues stand alone VF-0S.

Why do people keep comparing the 1/72 model kit to the 1/60 DX line. They are two different items. If Bandai made a 1/72 DX perfect transformable toy that look like the 1/72 model kit than fine you have a valid reason to make a fuss about it. The facts is that Bandai has the license and Yamato will not have it for a while. So this will be the VF-25 available in the market. If you don't like it, don't buy it. But the thing is some people who are negative about the VF-25 will end up buying it still and I said some people, NOT all before I get flamed. I think it looks decent enough for myself. To me the VF-25 looks great in fighter mode and not in battroid mode in the anime. When I first saw it, it looked strange to me. The toy fighter mode looks good, but battroid looks funny as well. It's close to the anime to myself as I am not too picky into the details.

Me too. If you are able to get them, I will be interested in it too. Thanks.

This was a QC issue with the reissue Hikaru 1S and 1A. I had two Hikaru 1S and both were missing the tabs as well. I don't think all the reissue batches were affected but quite a few of them were.

Some people have been mentioning that Ranka mother looks like Sheryl. Was wondering whether the queen Vajra could be Ranka's mother since she didn't want it to be killed and also how when the queen vajra may have tried to communicate with her when it extended some kind of yellow glowing light thing to Ranka. Ranka's mother appeared to her then. This could be why Ranka was also called the little queen as being the daughter of the queen vajra. Just my thoughts anyway.

Safest to buy is the VF-0S with Ghost combo. Shin was a 50/50 fix. I remember reading some members having the arms fall off. So you have a chance of getting the Shin VF-0A with the old brekage prone arms.

Have a question in regards to the crooked gunpod for the YF-19. Is the fault of the crooked gunpos the gunpod or the arms. The reason is that, if I know which is at fault, I could order those spare parts from HLJ and then my fist issue YF-19 will have a straight gunpod now in fighter mode. Thanks in advance for your replies.

rick dieck, does angolz ask for payment or payment when they have it ready to send out. Thanks. If they ask for payment later I may place an order with them as well. I manage to get my refund from the person from ebay, but lost about A$20 due to currency fluctuations.

Thanks for letting me know. I don't expect them to release it as well i September unless we hear it from a more realiable source. Working on a refund at the moment. He said he will refund tomorrow and he send me a mutual agreement to withdraw on ebay. Just emailed back to say that I will agree to the mutual agreement upon receiving the refund.

This guy is telling me now, it is coming out in September when he never stated it in his auction nor stated that he doesn't have it on hand in the first place. Anyway, I am getting him to refund me back the full amount including paypal cost should he pay via credit card.