nanoplasm

The cape on the black bunny better be detachable.

I will be offering a whole set (one of each item) and then some subsets in March from the States. Will post offer and pricing here once I figure in the various costs.

Picked this up from the post office yesterday. The outer box was pretty big that the clerk at the office decided it would hurt her back if she tried to lift it up to the counter. Instead, she decided the best way to hand me the box is to literally "kick" the outer box all the way to the employee exit, where she can kick it through the door to me. She was doing this with a package that had FRAGILE printed all over the packaging tape. Like others have mentioned, this toy is very well built, with metal parts in all the right places both for durability and stability in assault mode. The shoulder transformation design interferes with downward shoulder rotation, hence the tightness reported by other users. This can be worked around by always rotating the shoulder upwards, sometimes even almost 360 degrees to get to the desired posing position. The gunship can also be configured into firing mode. I found it easiest to pry open the top two pieces of the gunship by wedging finger nails between them. Once opened, there is more handholds to pull down the bottom-middle piece. The flight deck requires a mounting bracket to secure to the back-left-side boom in assault mode. The bracket is included, just not shown in the stock photos. The thumb in the articulated manipulator has very limited movement range, and appears relative fragile. Mine is already showing stress whitening on the plastic. Need to be a little more careful when mounting ARMD-L/R in the future. All the turrets are made with flexible plastic, so there is no fear of snapping them off while man-handling MQ during transformation. For anyone still sitting on the fence, this is definitely a worthy piece for the collection.

Thank you all for sharing the various HLJ experiences. Sounds like I am unlucky getting one of the more fubar shipment. I've checked the outer packaging for signs of customs inspection, there was no "inspected" label by either out-bound or in-bound customs. As far as I can tell, the top/bottom original packaging tapes were never broken (no signs of double taping). The outer box still had the original out-bound stamp from Japan, and the US re-routing postal labels are placed on top of the packaging tapes, so it should be the original outer box from HLJ warehouse. All signs are pointing towards the damage was done at the HLJ outbound warehouse. Which is atypical of Japanese work ethics. Did HLJ hire some less-than-well-trained temp workers for the holidays? You are absolutely right, it's expected to have some bending and creasing of the retail packaging during transport. But I was shocked by the extend of the damaged found on this box, where someone ripped open the packaging and placed the ripped-off pieces inside another toy. I've sent HLJ the photos and description of the outer box, but with their New Year's break and all, this might take a while for them to get back.

See there, now that's the type of anecdotal feedback I was looking for from other satisfied HLJ customers. Thank you for sharing your shopping experience.

I have not checked the actual toy yet. I am afraid of additional handling of the packaging might 'contaminate' the evidence. You are right, most of people has nothing but positive things to say about HLJ, but a few reported serious problem with the quality of the packaging from HLJ, even back in 2007. But if this is how HLJ handles their order (ship the crappiest box they have on hand), I will take my business else where. A lot of people here have ordered with HLJ before, maybe some people had experienced similar problems and gotten final resolution. It wouldn't hurt to seek the advise from the mored experienced others.

Just picked up two packages from the post office (I was out of town when they were delivered), and I was not happy with the one from HLJ. Hopefully the content of the other package is less disappointing.

I couldn't pass up on the HLJ Yamato sale, so I orderd five 1/60 VF-1x and one of the VF-X2 VF-19A figure. But when I got my shipment today, I found the packaging of the VF-19A to be badly damaged as if someone carelessly tried to open the packaging box. The bottom tabs were ripped off completely as seen in the pictures above and they were stuffed into the packaging of a 1/60 valk. Is this something out of ordinary? I live in SoCal, and I've never had problem like these with shipment from Japan before. Although it is my first time doing business with HLJ. What should be the next course of action, and what's the expected resolution on something like this?

Mine is in the mail some where. Is Daruma Seminar supposed to be an after-school learning center?

A guy is selling one of each item from the set for $300 in a different thread. http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=31913 Considering you are getting both Bunnies and Ranka, sounds like a good deal.

Do you have any spares you want to trade? I might be able to hook you up with at least one of the three you are missing. It feels like they don't care much about the accuracy of anything M2 related, or they are trying to retro-con away the subtle differences unique to M2 to make life easier for the franchise manager. Lol, thanks for the prop. Yeah, I still have one more 'sealed in bag' VF-27 beta and one more out of the bag on display. Both are at F&S's booth. Please let me know if you want either one, and I will have it taken off the shelf.

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.

After seeing those pictures, and comparing it with the Chogokin DX MQ, I really can't justify spending 200000 yen on that thing.

SDF:M shouldn't mate with Gunbuster.

明菜 sounds like a vegetable.

They can be found on the secondary market, probably going well over $100USD. Here is an Yahoo Auction 'pre-order'... http://page8.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/h137751441 This new release is even more popular than the previous two based on how fast the pre-orders were allocated.

They are raffle prizes. 800 yen per raffle, the starting chance is 1/25.

How much was the Klan figure?

Alto's VF-25F only had those "boxes" when he first took off from MQ (which was in space, so your theory is probably right). The movie didn't show when they were jetisoned, but they were gone by the time he's fighting inside the MF dome. The movie program book shows the boxes still attached in all three valk modes. It also had CAD drawing which shows the boxes opens up from the side (away from the torso), and house what looks like micro missles. The intake covers for the four aux engines appear to be hollow/solid inside.

Here's what I got at the moment. VF-27beta (fodder version) VF-1S (DYRL Max version) VF-1A (fodder version) VF-1A (TV Max version) $10 for the first, and $7 for each additional unit. US shipping is included with the cost.

VF-2SS VF-25A

Got a VF-2SS (Nexx version) and a VF-25A (fodder version) from set 2. $10 for one, and $17 for both (includes US shipping).

Hikaru convienced Misa it was her obligation to repopulate the devastated Earth.

She was pulled from the first pack I opened.

Macross F in Taiwan theater release? Not happening. The series doesn't even have an unified official name over there. Some people call it Macross, some call it Space Battleship (with intention to be confused with Yamato) , more people call it SDF, but most people just say "Mugs and Screws*, what's that? never heard of it". But if you want to pick up any Macross toys in Taiwan at a decent price (about 5% higher than Japanese retail), PM me and I can point you in the right direction. One Piece's latest movie will see a theatrical release in Taiwan in Feb if it's any consolation. *What Macross sounds like in Chinese.