lavinrac

Morning!  So After 5 or 6 transformations of My Sentinel Legioss, I'l a lot less scared to transform it! Still a bit 'fiddly' but overall i think its not bad. Visually.. its a work of art in all modes.

Question: Anyone know when the pre-orders start for the Red Zeta type? I have to have it now that i've fallen in love with this one.

Also, anyone tried nail polishing the joints on the little pilot dude? Not sure it will help since its so rubbery.

Thanks!

N-Y Sent my missiles set today. Decided to go by ferry since UPS for an extra ~$50 on missiles I ordered last November seems silly. I've waited this long. This is the second wave of missiles so I don't think they even held them up much. The Valkyrie will still be here when they arrive.

25 minutes ago, Jade20X said:

Looks like a great Christmas!  I miss the simpler days of childhood and all the awesomeness of new toys on Christmas morning.  Never got a Valkyrie as a kid though--best gift was a Castle Grayskull.  Got a Transformers G1 Motormaster one year which I mistakenly thought was an Optimus Prime upon opening, and I was really let down.  LOL.  Thanks for sharing a good memory.

And same here with Robotech... never had a chance to see the real thing until sometime in the 90s.

I'm so thrilled so many people got a kick out of this photo I shared! Hope it brings back memories for all of you. There was nothing quite so epic as Christmas morning surprises, Esp. When i didn't know for sure if the parents were listening to what i wanted!  I didn't get a chance to take a picture this weekend. Didn't want to into the attic and i got 'stuck' (it was fun) airbrushing an Orguss kit.

1 hour ago, chyll2 said:

@lavinrac you dont owe us anything but if you can humor this request, it will be awesome.

New one In box?  I also dont have any 70's furniture. anymore.

Did you know that 'RoboStrux' next to me was Zoids, rebranded for US in the mid 80's? 

I'll see what I can do this weekend.

9 minutes ago, seti88 said:

 

Thanks for posting that nostalgic image. Brings back the feels bigtime. Grateful for being part of it when other kids may not have been able to get one.

My friend had the Elint Seeker 1/55. I was SUPER JEALOUS... and we. *gasp* played with our toys. Elint was where i found the stub nose that was on my Jetfire.  Before that i thought the US version just had a stubby nose no one else got. Even at that age we were already griping about our missile toys not shooting or being super weak.

5 minutes ago, Agent-GHQ said:

Holy crap man that’s quite a gift for a kid of the 80s! The closest thing to a Valkyrie that I came across back then was the knock offs found at flea market. 
 

Do you remember what year your parents got you this strike valk set? 

It almost HAD to be 85 or 86.The movie came out what.. THIS week in Japan in 1984? I was still watching Robotech and it didn't come out til March 85 according to Google just now. It was bought at Fuji Oriental Market in Palmdale CA. Shortly after i got the Shogakukan Macross DYRL Photo Novels. The shop also had a VT-1 Ostrich, in a glass case, not for sale.  Other than a small anime toy section, they sold food and groceries from Japan. 

2 hours ago, weiser21 said:

 

I bit the bullet and ordered one too. My wife's gonna kill me.

Very little English there and it's too late at 3am to translate. Can you get a new Hikaru Valk monthly with a Dash button? Thats a pretty nice deal!

3 minutes ago, myk said:

That's why I mostly gave up toy collecting.  As I get older I can't justify spending hundreds of dollars on a piece of inanimate plastic/metal/resin or whatever, no matter what it transforms into or how much clothing you can remove off of the figure, but I WILL make an exception for Roy's 1S and come out of retirement  for him, no question...

Constantly questioning. I won't pay $300 in 2020 for a single Valk. Both for OMG $300 for a valk and to not feed the scalpers. I guess i have $300 tied up in a Valk and Armor Just at MSRP tho.  DX 1/48 line seems to be worth i.t. Still. im my last post. that 1/55 with armor. in.. musta been 1985? Was $40. Still in great shape but a bit yellow. 

To get back on track as a derailed a bit there. I just got my reply from N-Y and they are ready to change my shipping for a $50 box of Plastic Missiles (just missiles!)  I can have them sent by Ferry, or I can pay $40 more for UPS.. for plastic missiles (Overpriced by bandai, overpriced shipping by Covid/UPS)  

*** What are you guys picking? Is Ferry trackable and just slow as heck? If its not trackable I'd probably pay for UPS. I don't have to have them NOW. but no tracking means i might never see them at all (im my experience) I trust the USPS about.. well none. 

2 hours ago, borgified said:

That is true @skullmilitia.

If it wasn't for the US version and Transformers, I wouldn't have found Macross and the offshoots of the franchise.

Right now I'm waiting for the pre-orders for either the DX DYRL 1s Roy/Max and the upcoming YF-21. If Milia's 1J and the VF-11 gets made, I'll decide then. 

 

Robotech is approved by this child, on Christmas morning with the only gift he really cared about and still has to this day,  who turned into me, now aged 47 and with a massive collection of macross and a reasonable collection of Mospeada:

this kid would not see DYRL in motion for another 3-4 years, or Macross  TV in Japanese for. god.. mid 90's?? Anyhow. I would not have begged my parents to take me to Smith Brothers Hobbies in Lancaster CA (outside Edwards AFB) or Fuji Oriental Market (Palmdale) Or Books Nippan (LA) if not for Robotech... I can't hate it. Now HG on the other hand.. they can **** right off the planet. 

Same as above. they are amazing. I've been shopping with HLJ since at Least.. Well i got married in 2001 and before that. I think my first order from them may've been when i lived in San Diego. so. 1997 or 98. at any rate. they've always been fantastic. I consider them the gold standard. 

• Yes, their current website performs poorly. (I was a web dev until 3 yrs ago.. i could go on.. it sucks) BUT
• They do not charge you for things until they have them in their hands and are ready to ship to you within a couple days. This is a sign of a good company IMHO. 
• They do not overcharge. They do not play scalper games. you will never (so far) pay HLJ $300 for a 150000 yen item. 
• They pack things well. I have never received destroyed merch from them. 
• they are my first line to buy something from Japan every time.
• Did I mention they read and *gasp* ANSWER their email/support?

HLJ is the best.

4 hours ago, Lolicon said:

It's just a human quirk to think that bad things only happen to other people. "I haven't had any issues so therefore no issues exist."

Even HLJ has lost an item I had paid for and stored in PW... and that's only 60 days.

"I haven't had Covid-19, therefore Covid-19 doesn't exist" is a popular one these days  

17 hours ago, peter said:

June of last year right?  I'm still waiting too.  Shot them an email a few days ago, nothing so far.

Nah mine is:

So.. it they had them in hand yet I'd be surprised. But pleasantly. I got those ordered WAY late.

5 minutes ago, HardlyNever said:

Sorry, I misread your post, I thought you asked about SSP the first time.  The only missile sets they have "in stock" are crazy marked up, so I dunno what they are doing for people that pre-ordered a in the second wave.

How did you get DHL shipping from NY?  I've asked about DHL specifically, and they just said they do UPS

You're right. I got it mixed up. The DHL shipments were from HLJ. NY sent UPS. 

5 minutes ago, HardlyNever said:

They've had them for a while, it seems like.

If you're in the US, they won't ship them to you unless you use their (expensive) UPS option.  EMS is detailed to the US, so it seems like they are not even bothering to ship those out yet.

Ferry might be an option, but I haven't seen anyone say they have had theirs shipped via ferry yet.

hmm. I got DHL from them for my SSP a few weeks back. It was $40 but . eh. whatever. I'll email them. Thanks!!!

Speaking of NY and Extra parts, have they received their Missile sets (June release) yet?

Wondering if i need to email them to get them in gear. It seems the polite mails are working for me. I dunno if that is a fluke or not.

Could some kind soul please point me in the directions of a thread that has the ins and outs of ordering through Mandarake? I've never dealt with them before. There must be a thread.  

17 minutes ago, ScrambledValkyrie said:

While I’d be all about a proper TV Super VF-1S bundle, it’s very possible that I’ll have all the pieces in place already by the time Bandai gets around to it. Pilot from the 1J (or a possible 3D print) and super parts now on pre-order. All I need now is the valk itself, which may open up at some point later in the year.

Completely agree. I didn't see a pilot name on the tv show. This is good enough for me! Heck maybe he would have left Roy's name on there in honor anyhow. Who knows. As far as pilot figure.. Sounds like a good excuse to convert a figure from a plastic model to tv Hikaru.. Or recast Roy and then make him a bit smaller.  Could be a fun little project.

Just had the most random thing happen.. So i build GunPla.. and I have a lot of friends who used to be in a club with me but now scattered everywhere.. Right as i have this thread open and like 3 other tabs open to find these Super Packs.. someone wishes one of my friends happy birthday on facebook.. and all the sudden my brain says "He lives in Japan right now."

Great work! It's inspired me a bit, I saw your video a few weeks ago, and again hunted it down just now.. I've got the non-converting 1/15(i think!) scale kits of Fuke and Yellow and thinking of doing similar but I haven't located a good action figure that matches in size. and you know, Covid's keeping me out of stores to research which figure to trash.

Just now, Lolicon said:

Bandai wants to make it as hard as possible to buy their Macross stuff so you'll give up in exasperation and just buy a nice RX-78-2 instead. 

But.. i have about 6 RX-78-2's  They should go ahead and make the Macross like cereal box top prizes.. Buy 10 Gundams and get a free Macross item! (plus $150 shipping and handling)

Thanks! That's helpful. Hadn't thought of Yahoo. Are their Auctions bigger in Japan than US, where it seems eBay eclipses all?

Also your links seem to verify that the costs I just saw on Mandarake are not out of the reasonable range. 

I've never ordered from Mandarake before so I'll have to look into it. Especially considering the weird condition of whether or not things can be shipped right now to the US. 

Holy crap guys! I slept in a bit today.... I've had this thread emailing me new messages for years.. my phone this morning is like  _MEMORY_FULL_  .. OK exagerrating, but i have like a hundred emails. Wow. 

So recap:  I missed the Online Only TWE release of tv Fast packs?

What was the cost? I had to log on the computer and go through the emails cause the mail client on the phone is too tedious to read - AND - deleted messages at the same time. 

NEVERMIND ANSWERED MY OWN QUESTION:  8800.. damn. (I forgot what i Paid for my other supers but it ended up being astronomical due to what I'll call COVID-Shipping. Wow. WOW. (I will still probably buy them if i see them somehwere. I am irrational. This forum is for the insane.   )

I'd LIKE to have these. but it sounds like I won't, and its not going to ruin my world cause I'm still a little mad at bandai about the price of a pretty much entirely plastic expansion that has no transformation or clever engineering. I buy a lot of plastic from Bandai (Gundams) and they are pricing these Fast Packs to gouge.)

Starting the hunt for my unicorn of the toy world.

I have always wanted a complete 1/40th takatoku Orguss Orgroid.

Looking to see if someone is selling one, maybe has a spare they'd sell.

Also looking for info on what these things worth, where to even look.

Does not need to be in box but should be complete and not broken. I take all my toys out of the boxes, transform them occasionally.

Any info is welcome!!!

2 hours ago, crackpot said:

I think you can still get TV Max for much less. 

Ahh maybe i need to look a little harder then.  Initial ebay and amazon and such searches were $275 or higher plus shipping, etc etc. markups. 

Well I got this one at hlj. I love this series and I have the vf-1j in the hikaru 1S. I'm kind of regretting not picking up Max TV now. Ahh well. Doubt it's worth $300-400 to me.