Bandai DX VF-31

[Zx31]

8 hours ago, no3Ljm said:

Have you tried it on your DX Valks? 

Only on transformers and Bandai model kits so far.

[David Hingtgen]

18 hours ago, mickyg said:

 the Tampo is actually a bit stronger than the regular paint on at least the super parts for the VF-25G I modified. 

That's true of most tampo---I've had parts soaked in alcohol for days, to the point that the plastic started getting brittle--paint long gone, but the tampo printing--still factory fresh...

[no3Ljm]

40 minutes ago, David Hingtgen said:

That's true of most tampo---I've had parts soaked in alcohol for days, to the point that the plastic started getting brittle--paint long gone, but the tampo printing--still factory fresh...

Thanks for this info, David Hingtgen.

Ok. I guess, I'll skip Isopropyl Alcohol and just jump to Lacquer Thinner then.

 

Edited May 24, 2017 by no3Ljm

[Mommar]

Sweet, Nippon-Yasan must have marked the wrong contents for my super parts.  UPS just e-mailed me claiming I owe $203.04 in duty fees.

[davidwhangchoi]

anyone get there 31J super parts yet?

mine are scheduled to be delivered tomorrow. i'll try to post them when they come in.

[F360]

53 minutes ago, Mommar said:

Sweet, Nippon-Yasan must have marked the wrong contents for my super parts.  UPS just e-mailed me claiming I owe $203.04 in duty fees.

how much super did you order? 10?

[Mommar]

2 minutes ago, F360 said:

how much super did you order? 10?

Just the one set.  NY really f**ked up this time.

[sh9000]

On 5/19/2017 at 10:45 PM, F360 said:

were you the only one that didn't get a extra invoice for shipping?

Seems like it.  Maybe a fluke.  Overall cost would have still been cheaper either way.

[F360]

Just now, sh9000 said:

Seems like it.  Maybe a fluke.  Overall cost would have still been cheaper either way.

true, but they might slap you double next time

[F360]

8 minutes ago, Mommar said:

Just the one set.  NY really f**ked up this time.

they really did, that fee doesn't even make sense for only 1 set.  hope UPS can fix that for you, but might require N-Y to resent them a fixed commercial invoice or something 

[sh9000]

11 minutes ago, F360 said:

true, but they might slap you double next time

In my experience, nah.  If they ever did charge extra, it was only a few bucks more.

[Shukenzero]

1 hour ago, Mommar said:

Sweet, Nippon-Yasan must have marked the wrong contents for my super parts.  UPS just e-mailed me claiming I owe $203.04 in duty fees.

Holy cow. Maybe they're the VF-25S Armoured Parts?

[Graham]

Yay, just got shipping notice from NY for my 1st set of Super Parts.

[MAC-X]

NY just shipped my super parts, after I paid the extortion fee extra shipping charge. 

[spanner]

LOL! extortion fee! 

[MAC-X]

13 hours ago, no3Ljm said:

From now on, expect that from NY on new and upcoming releases. Whether it's regular or premium releases. Like most of us here say, NY somehow offers some items lower PO than the other stores but always consider the shipping charge afterwards. So even though they have the shipping calculator in hand, treat that as an estimate from now on and not the actual cost to help for your budget and helps to decide where to buy. Just don't expect good customer service from them. And not just from them specifically. All the online Japan stores. Even if you hear HLJ has good customer service compared to them, but lately it's not the same anymore. Just my 2 cents.

 

It a pricing gimmick. Price the item lower than your competitors but make up the difference from shipping charge. Also, NY's shipping calculator is mostly a joke, and their combine shipping feature a bad joke. Unfortunately for overseas collectors, there aren't much choice beside NY and 1 or 2 others for web exclusive items.  

[IXTL]

NY will request more money for shipping when the item turns out to be larger or heavier than expected but when it ends up being smaller/lighter, don't expect them to refund the difference.

Definitely not an honest business but I guess when there's savings to be had overall and when they offer exclusive items, they will still have customers.

Edited May 24, 2017 by IXTL

[Slave IV]

Haha, yeah they must be criminals for charging the lowest prices for these things. 

[no3Ljm]

To be honest, I already stopped complaining about this online stores a long time ago since we all know that it's still cheaper to get it from them than stateside. It is what it is. Even if we say they do bad business practice, or their criminal for doing so, or they have bad customer service, etc, etc. We basically don't have idea how business are run in Japan. What fees are they paying. Or how much their hourly wages. What kind of taxes they're paying. We complain, because we're the ones who's throwing money at them. We complain, simply because we're not the ones who's running their business.  

 

[Slave IV]

44 minutes ago, no3Ljm said:

To be honest, I already stopped complaining about this online stores a long time ago since we all know that it's still cheaper to get it from them than stateside. It is what it is. Even if we say they do bad business practice, or their criminal for doing so, or they have bad customer service, etc, etc. We basically don't have idea how business are run in Japan. What fees are they paying. Or how much their hourly wages. What kind of taxes they're paying. We complain, because we're the ones who's throwing money at them. We complain, simply because we're not the ones who's running their business.  

 

Yeah, pretty much and well said. It's the attitude of entitlement that everyone has to do things to cater to each and every different demand or they are cheating us. 

Every business has their niche to stay in business and you have to just assume there are many factors that allow NY to consistently offer the lowest prices on just about everything we want. It's safe to say they have to watch their margins at every step in order to continue to offer the prices they do. So, a whole $3 to cover unexpected shipping prices so they can offer a figure for $30 less than anyone else seems reasonable to me. There have already been many examples that prove even with higher shipping, they are still cheaper than everyone else for almost everything.

Another main thing is the people who complain are the same people who keep buying from them and then complain. It's just getting old and I always skip through all the comments until there are just too many to ignore because it's becoming too distracting to the thread. It's both funny and annoying and I can obviously deal with it but much rather read about the figures and see pictures. 

A few posts warning that an extra charge may be coming is nbd but constant whining about shipping dates and trivial charges that amount to your figure costing $3 more but still $10 less than anywhere else are kinda ridiculous. Anyone who's day is ruined because they had to pay a bit more but still less than anywhere else should just pay more at some other shop to begin with.

Now, getting hit with a $200+ duty charge is excessive but that's not even NY charging it. It has to be a mistake of some sort that should be looked into.

Anyways, hopefully I can take more pictures and see more posted. My parts should be arriving soon and they get here when they do. Nothing to worry about. I'll be putting them in the 31F. 

Edited May 24, 2017 by Slave IV

[IXTL]

For Tamashii exclusives, I'd actually prefer to order them directly and use a forwarding service to ship it rather than go through shops like NY. I do use NY from time to time but I'd rather not since I don't like their shady business practices.

Problem is, the Tamashii Web Store doesn't accept foreign credit cards so one would need to use a proxy buying service and the additional fees for that can be quite high.

[Slave IV]

Here we go...so shady for offering a service that allows us to get a figure not meant for our market easily. How dare them charge something for offering these services! Anyways, it's good we all have options. 

[spacemanoeuvres]

My order for super parts and a VF-31J are finally in process! Wooo 

[chyll2]

Yes, there are a lot of problems in getting this Web Exclusive items from Japan, so I appreciate NY. Even with the additional shipping, I think their cost is still lower when compared to using Proxy sites.

[Sildani]

NY is far better than not having access to the item at all. You'd be stuck with eBay or YJA otherwise, and I reckon they'll cost much more than NY. 

Edited May 24, 2017 by Sildani

[spacemanoeuvres]

I think everyone agrees that having access to these items is better than not.

At the same time, when a retailer says an item costs x, shipping costs y, and the item is released on z. People expect the retailer to deliver on those points. And the notion that "you should be grateful just to get the item at all" is no solace to a dissatisfied customer parting with a significant sum of money.  

I order stuff from NY whenever I can because the items are relatively cheap and in some instances they are the only game in town. That doesn't mean folks don't have legit gripes when they are invoiced for additional monies and/or their items ship out 3, 4, 5 days after release. 

That being said this probably isn't the best place to complain. Most folks here are enthusiasts, and are legitimately happy just to get their hands on this stuff. As others have stated if you have other options, vote with your money and pick the items up somewhere else. Most folks here just want to enjoy the cool new toy(s) they purchased. 

[Mommar]

NY claims the contents of the package were not mislabelled and that it's a clerical error on the part of customs/UPS which I have to deal with.  Yay.

[jenius]

Sounds like the guy or gal at UPS read the value in a currency other than Yen.

[Sildani]

Good point. 

[Slave IV]

1 hour ago, spacemanoeuvres said:

I think everyone agrees that having access to these items is better than not.

At the same time, when a retailer says an item costs x, shipping costs y, and the item is released on z. People expect the retailer to deliver on those points. And the notion that "you should be grateful just to get the item at all" is no solace to a dissatisfied customer parting with a significant sum of money.  

I order stuff from NY whenever I can because the items are relatively cheap and in some instances they are the only game in town. That doesn't mean folks don't have legit gripes when they are invoiced for additional monies and/or their items ship out 3, 4, 5 days after release. 

That being said this probably isn't the best place to complain. Most folks here are enthusiasts, and are legitimately happy just to get their hands on this stuff. As others have stated if you have other options, vote with your money and pick the items up somewhere else. Most folks here just want to enjoy the cool new toy(s) they purchased. 

Exactly! I actually want to hear about the issues people have with vendors because it's useful info. I'm usually the first and loudest when it comes to talking about the evils of corporations and the never ending, unsustainable model of ever increasing profit but I just don't see how that is the case with NY. 

[Chronocidal]

I think some of what people are put off by falls into the "you should know this already" category, since they've been selling Bandai's exclusive super packs for a long time, and never seemed to have trouble before.  If the extra money had been asked for up front, no one would have blinked an eye.  It's just the "Sorry, we were wrong, and need more money to get you the thing you already paid for" factor.

The problem may lie with Bandai reporting incorrect weights or volume for them, or maybe there's just more metal in these than was expected.  Could even be market fluctuations devaluing the amount already paid.  Actually that makes me wonder.  For people who got asked to pay extra, how many of them paid their original order ahead of time?  Did anyone who paid right at the deadline get asked for more?

Either way though, I'll happily deal with that so I don't need to worry about the extra fuss of proxy buyers or group ordering schemes.  They work great in a pinch, but I remember the early orders for the VF-25 armor packs, and the work Nanoplasm put in to organize all those bulk purchases.  If NY can save folks the headache of having to do the cat herding necessary for a group order, I don't mind a few extra bucks when they underestimate the shipping costs.

At the moment, I'm just curious to see how long they take to get here, and whether the arm panels will pivot correctly so I can mount some reaction missiles on them in the future.

 

Edited May 24, 2017 by Chronocidal

[no3Ljm]

2 hours ago, Mommar said:

NY claims the contents of the package were not mislabelled and that it's a clerical error on the part of customs/UPS which I have to deal with.  Yay.

Yay! Happy to know that, Mommar.  

2 hours ago, jenius said:

Sounds like the guy or gal at UPS read the value in a currency other than Yen.

For sure, they really need to have their annual eyes checked. USPS too since they lost my Figuarts Iron Man Mk6 package.  

1 hour ago, Chronocidal said:

The problem may lie with Bandai reporting incorrect weights or volume for them, or maybe there's just more metal in these than was expected.  Could even be market fluctuations devaluing the amount already paid.  Actually that makes me wonder.  For people who got asked to pay extra, how many of them paid their original order ahead of time?  Did anyone who paid right at the deadline get asked for more?

Since I PO'ed Tamashii Web Exclusives item at NY, it means that I have to pay upfront. And like the rest of us, got asked to pay the extra shipping. I'm sure right about the deadline it's still the same. Unless, you buy the item past the release date. For sure the shipping price has already been changed. 

Now here's a funny part. When I preordered the VF-31J Super Parts, I chose ECO Registered and the shipping cost was Y1440 at that time. Then when it got released I was asked to pay additional Y300. By now, you would've think that they already updated the new shipping cost for the next one for the VF-31F Super Parts by basing it on the 31J's. But after I ordered the 31F's the ECO Registered is just Y1540. When it fact they should've estimated it at Y1740. But since it was just Y1540, I'm pretty sure they will ask again for extra Y200-300 at the time of release. I know, they should've fix it so that they will not ask again when the time comes.

But then again, who am I to argue right? I just only want my Macross Valkyrie fix so in the end I'll just smile and pay while I'm shaking my head.

 

[Ignacio Ocamica]

53 minutes ago, Slave IV said:

Exactly! I actually want to hear about the issues people have with vendors because it's useful info. I'm usually the first and loudest when it comes to talking about the evils of corporations and the never ending, unsustainable model of ever increasing profit but I just don't see how that is the case with NY. 

Well in my case I'm very satisfied with NY. But I'm in South America and NY has an awful overpriced shipping cost to South America. Even with the low preorder price when I add shipping cost it always ends up being much more than with other vendors/etailers. 

For regular items I go with HLJ but for "limited" items if NY is the only source then it's a valid option.

It does help that NY agrees to underdeclare the value of the merchandise so I don't get hit too hard with custom fees. But I always pay U$S80 for EMS packages between 1-2 kilograms when other vendors charge U$S40/50 for the same package. AmiAmi also tends to be on the overpriced side for packages sent to South America. 

[Pedro2k6]

41 minutes ago, Ignacio Ocamica said:

Well in my case I'm very satisfied with NY. But I'm in South America and NY has an awful overpriced shipping cost to South America. Even with the low preorder price when I add shipping cost it always ends up being much more than with other vendors/etailers. 

For regular items I go with HLJ but for "limited" items if NY is the only source then it's a valid option.

It does help that NY agrees to underdeclare the value of the merchandise so I don't get hit too hard with custom fees. But I always pay U$S80 for EMS packages between 1-2 kilograms when other vendors charge U$S40/50 for the same package. AmiAmi also tends to be on the overpriced side for packages sent to South America. 

Thats right...but here in Chile...if I use hlj I have to pay custom fees..cause they declare the whole value of the item...that means 30% of the item + shipping on taxes. In the other hand I don't have that problem with NY. Some math.

HLJ: 300 item + 50 EMS shipping + 105 custom fees= 455 total.

NY: 300 item + 75 EMS shipping + No custom fees= 375 total.

and IIRC HLJ don't have SAL shipping if the item is over 150 dollars.

[Sandman]

Well I just got invoiced extra shipping cost from ny for my second set super parts set. I got invoiced the same amount as my other set which was sent ems (this one was sal). What irritates me is this sat 5 days since they charged me for my first set. My order both went in preparedness in progress at the same time. I wonder how long they will wait to ship now. I'm already delayed a week from getting it.