This was bound to happen...gray market VF's?

[Chronocidal]

I'm currently waiting on a pair from ShowZ, and watching the tracking information.  I'll probably eat the cost if there is any, but will definitely report it here once I find out the details.

[WhatBoutMyStar]

1 hour ago, jenius said:

Did anyone ship to the US from ShowZ? Are we being hit with crazy tariffs?

You shouldn't be paying any additional tariffs if purchased from ShowZ (or their sister store Gundamit). The tariffs are incorporated in their new shipping fees to the US, when it used to be free shipping. ShowZ has worked out an arrangement with the delivery provider where they will use the tariff % rate rather than the flat fee, and ShowZ is paying that in advance on behalf of the buyer. The costs of that are passed along in the new shipping fee (ShowZ may also be eating some portion of this, but I'm not sure). These costs are way lower than you would think because ShowZ (like many Chinese stores have regularly done for a very long time) is under-declaring the heck out of the items, like $10 or $20 for a $200 figure.

If for some reason there are add'l tariff charges, ShowZ has said that they will take care of it for the buyer. So there should be nothing the buyer should have to pay after the item has been purchased and shipped. ShowZ/Gundamit is essentially banking on Customs not having the time, desire, or resources to open up every package and to look them up to see what they're really worth and find out they are significantly under-declared or otherwise misreported. FWIW, many of the shops in Japan like AmiAmi, Hobby Genki, etc. are also listing everything they send as Japan as the country of origin even if they are made in China. Because the de minimis exemption is still available (at least for now) for Japan, this means packages under $800 coming in from those shops don't get hit with any tariffs.

Edited May 18 by WhatBoutMyStar

[Radioguy]

Well, they changed the box too, apparently. Looks like they Photoshopped out the UN Spacy tampos from even the box images, and did a new print run on the box.

Some great comparison images at the link below:

https://www.tfw2005.com/boards/threads/fugu-model-fg-01-god-of-flame-1-60-jetfire.1252186/page-93#post-23371581

[sh9000]

Yeah the box was shown in the beginning of the video that I posted.

[Photogirl]

Disappointed 2nd run FUGU Jetfire had the Macross icons removed, and no heat shield. 
80% ofthe reason i bought it was because it was going on the Macross shelf. 
All the stickers would need to be in white, so i can't make them. 

If anyone wants to swap with a Macross version.....

[Chronocidal]

Would a set of old Yamato stickers work?  I think they included the necessary markings, but I don't know if they were white-backed stickers.

You might try the sale/trade section though, lots of people here bought the first version, and you might find some who wanted the version without markings.

[Radioguy]

18 hours ago, Photogirl said:

Disappointed 2nd run FUGU Jetfire had the Macross icons removed, and no heat shield. 
80% ofthe reason i bought it was because it was going on the Macross shelf. 
All the stickers would need to be in white, so i can't make them. 

If anyone wants to swap with a Macross version.....

I might swap with ya.

[505thAirborne]

When they're finished with "Not Jetfire", I welcome them to build the following. (TV & Movie versions.) 

[sh9000]

My Jetfire cleared customs.  Getting here slowly but surely.

[Radioguy]

10 hours ago, 505thAirborne said:

When they're finished with "Not Jetfire", I welcome them to build the following. (TV & Movie versions.) 

Go back in this thread, and Valkyrie Factory did tease a CF, as well as an Angel Bird. Haven't ever seen them though. They seem to have gone all in as Fugu here on the Jetfire.

[Slave IV]

17 hours ago, Radioguy said:

Go back in this thread, and Valkyrie Factory did tease a CF, as well as an Angel Bird. Haven't ever seen them though. They seem to have gone all in as Fugu here on the Jetfire.

I preordered those around 3 or more years ago. Finally cancelled the order and got a refund earlier this year or maybe last year. Either way, the timeline of those are in years so they gave up on that initial release and moved on to more profitable ventures as we see with the Jetfire release

[sh9000]

On 2/5/2025 at 7:14 PM, sh9000 said:

I hope my VF-1S Jetfire doesn't come in a beat up box.

Happy to report that mine arrived with toy packaging in very good condition.

[Chronocidal]

Can say the same, though they certainly took their time getting it here.  Think it ran close to 20 days in transit, a week and a half of which was just sitting at LAX.

Edit: Double checked, they left on May 14th, arrived May 31st.  They arrived at LAX on the 20th, and didn't leave customs until the 29th.

Edited June 3 by Chronocidal

[sh9000]

If they do a purple Decepticon Jetfire in custom G1 box I might get it.

[Radioguy]

10 hours ago, sh9000 said:

If they do a purple Decepticon Jetfire in custom G1 box I might get it.

Agreed, but I'd take another color first...

[sjoebarry]

On 6/5/2025 at 10:41 PM, Radioguy said:

Agreed, but I'd take another color first...

I’d buy a green instantly 

[Apok451]

Well, they came back and said I had to pay shipping because of tariffs.   $14 for shipping from China isn’t so bad.   So hopefully I’ll have my not “jetfire” soon.  

[Apok451]

It does come with a few autobot tickers, but that’s it.  Damn, now I want something other than those.  Oh well. Overall a very nice piece.  Obviously not the quality of a Bandai or Yamato, I can’t speak to the Arcadia it’s ripped off from.  

[sh9000]

Nice setups.  I still love the green Joons VF-1J too.

[Apok451]

On 6/20/2025 at 3:07 PM, sh9000 said:

Nice setups.  I still love the green Joons VF-1J too.

He is the old soldier of the group.   Might be a little rusty, legs don’t move so well.  

[Radioguy]

On 6/19/2025 at 9:47 PM, Apok451 said:

Obviously not the quality of a Bandai or Yamato, I can’t speak to the Arcadia it’s ripped off from.

As Arcadia is arguably better in build than Yamato, at least for those valkyries that have been released under both brands in the same scale, you can rest assured it doesn't meet the Arcadia standard.

In my opinion, it's >80% the way to being comparable.

[Radioguy]

Slightly OT, but I will soon be in receipt of a minty fresh copy of the Deluxe stand from the Fugu (which is a KO of the Yamato launch stand), and which I have no need of should anyone be in the market for one...

[Chronocidal]

I don't tend to use a lot of stands for anything, but I was pretty happy to get one with the Fugu version.  I just never could justify the price to get one of the original Yamato ones, but I'm happy to have one if I ever do want to use it for something.

[Radioguy]

I just have some alternative stands already, don't need this one, and don't expect to ever use it. It would just be a shame if someone had a 1/60 Yamato/Arcadia/Valkyrie Factory and needed one while mine sat in a box gathering dust.

[Apok451]

4 hours ago, Radioguy said:

I just have some alternative stands already, don't need this one, and don't expect to ever use it. It would just be a shame if someone had a 1/60 Yamato/Arcadia/Valkyrie Factory and needed one while mine sat in a box gathering dust.

I ordered one of the special edition Gokin stands for it last night.  I mean sure the launch stand looks kinda cool, I thing the wobbly stands from the Bandai ones are better.  After that I just need to make a friend with a 3d printer so I can make an adapter for my 1/48.  I can see my God of Flame on the shelf right past my monitor and it looks pretty.  Some joints are worryingly tight and others could be a little tighter.  I do strongly dislike how they handled the boosters attachment, just seems like there are better ways to do that.  If it hadnt been for the extra missiles and the stand, I would have bought the standard version.  I'd say Im about 90% happy with it, without the stand Id say 95%.

[sh9000]

14 hours ago, Apok451 said:

He is the old soldier of the group.   Might be a little rusty, legs don’t move so well.  

It's still one of my favorite KO 1/55 color schemes.

[Apok451]

1 hour ago, sh9000 said:

It's still one of my favorite KO 1/55 color schemes.

And has weathered the years well I think.  Gun doesn’t work anymore, but I think I still have the sprue with the extra missiles.   

[sh9000]

22 hours ago, Apok451 said:

And has weathered the years well I think.  Gun doesn’t work anymore, but I think I still have the sprue with the extra missiles.   

There's also a Joons green VF-1A and it looks cool.

[Apok451]

On 7/16/2025 at 11:32 AM, sh9000 said:

There's also a Joons green VF-1A and it looks cool.

As I reacall, nearly 30 years ago now, they only had the Js on the shelf.  I bought 2 and sold one to a friend.

[Hiriyu]

Found a forgotten pic of my Valkyrie Factory 1S with the clear covers installed. 

What's the consensus on the quality of these versus the Fugu? Anyone have both?

[nightmareB4macross]

1 hour ago, Hiriyu said:

Found a forgotten pic of my Valkyrie Factory 1S with the clear covers installed. 

What's the consensus on the quality of these versus the Fugu? Anyone have both?

These figures are of good quality, down to the PF style tampo.

During transformation you can feel it is not as smooth as the original.

Overall they are decent figures.

Just my two cents.

[Raikkonen]

Anyone tested the lead levels of the paint and plastics of these knock-offs?

[Radioguy]

11 hours ago, Hiriyu said:

Found a forgotten pic of my Valkyrie Factory 1S with the clear covers installed. 

What's the consensus on the quality of these versus the Fugu? Anyone have both?

Difference? Fugu IS Valkyrie Factory. (Or so we believe). As such, the Fugu is just another VF-1S in a different color scheme.

I do like that we can add a cheap Valkyrie Factory strike pack to the Fugu as a result.

[Hiriyu]

1 hour ago, Radioguy said:

Difference? Fugu IS Valkyrie Factory. (Or so we believe). As such, the Fugu is just another VF-1S in a different color scheme.

I do like that we can add a cheap Valkyrie Factory strike pack to the Fugu as a result.

I was kind of hopeful that the newer ones might have had better qc/production values. The apparent care given to the paint and packaging of the Fugu made me think that maybe the production tools were being used by a different party, but it's just as likely that it's the same backing.

[Radioguy]

6 hours ago, Hiriyu said:

I was kind of hopeful that the newer ones might have had better qc/production values. The apparent care given to the paint and packaging of the Fugu made me think that maybe the production tools were being used by a different party, but it's just as likely that it's the same backing.

The theory was that Valkyrie Factory decided to offer the Jetfire under another name in case they got hammered by Hasbro/TT over it, while VF could continue as a brand unscathed.

What Fugu has shown us, and most especially with v2, is that VF are at least willing to invest in more paint scheme changes, which does raise some hope for more VF-1 variants; maybe even those CFs or ABs which they had previously announced.

I seriously wish they watched a thread like this.