Bandai 1/60 DX Chogokin Macross 7 Fire Valkyrie

[kanedaestes]

Same. It almost costs me with shipping the price BBTS is charging. The only real difference is I can get it now and not in a few months but that price is too much 

[Chronocidal]

Yeah, it's painfully obvious how much HLJ is overcharging on this.  Just straight up 30%.  To ship just the VF-19 with FedEx would total about $130, with a rough breakdown of $50 actual shipping, $75 duties, and $5 extra handling whatever.  

I've got until April to ship it, so it's staying there for the foreseeable future.  I'll see how much AE wants to charge me to ship it along with my HMR VF-19P, but I am still not keen on using DHL for anything.

[jenius]

We have that thread on store policies, I'm going to start listing my shipping and duty experiences there. If it prices out that HLJ is double taxing everyone, then we can adjust our buying habits until they figure it out.

[Shawn]

At least the good news is that these fire valks are seemingly going under msrp
I picked up one for $187...and with the 15% tariff that comes to $215, which is ok for a DX
I think these will all settle down low to mid 20k range in the future.

 

 

[rsvictor1976]

23 minutes ago, Shawn said:

At least the good news is that these fire valks are seemingly going under msrp
I picked up one for $187...and with the 15% tariff that comes to $215, which is ok for a DX
I think these will all settle down low to mid 20k range in the future.

 

 

Man, and I thought I got a good deal for 31800 Yen. Is that through Yahoo Japan? Does it include any additional seller fees?

[recon]

Some pics of the DX VF-19..Thanks to Kin Fung Chan for sharing

[treatment]

57 minutes ago, recon said:

Some pics of the DX VF-19..Thanks to Kin Fung Chan for sharing

 

 

So I noticed this seemingly unintended byproduct of the neck-cover storage from that pic and from Motoki Hiroyuki's tweet earlier:

https://x.com/Coo3bunchou/status/1981894172102873460

 

 

edit:

check out the mini-video from his tweet also regarding the shoulder-speaker mechanism reveal...

 

Edited yesterday at 02:25 AM by treatment

[Shawn]

3 hours ago, rsvictor1976 said:

Man, and I thought I got a good deal for 31800 Yen. Is that through Yahoo Japan? Does it include any additional seller fees?

You can never kick yourself over that...your deal is very good, compared to the future US release prices!! Consider it a win!!

Using the Buyee proxy there is a 500 yen service fee, then international shipping of course (but usually you bundle it with other things in your private 30 day warehouse)

[Mommar]

9 hours ago, Chronocidal said:

Yeah, it's painfully obvious how much HLJ is overcharging on this.  Just straight up 30%.  To ship just the VF-19 with FedEx would total about $130, with a rough breakdown of $50 actual shipping, $75 duties, and $5 extra handling whatever.  

I've got until April to ship it, so it's staying there for the foreseeable future.  I'll see how much AE wants to charge me to ship it along with my HMR VF-19P, but I am still not keen on using DHL for anything.

The 30% charge is not an upcharge, that is supposed to be based on country of manufacture, which is China, and that is 30%.  It's just that other places are cool and marking it Japan instead.  But the base price they're charging for DHL/FedEx, etc.. they absolutely are marking up now.  I had an Andrew Garfield Spider-Man Mafex figure that was the first thing to ship once HLJ would ship to the use again and the base DHL price was the same as it always was for years (2300 yen), just with the 15% (for some reason on that item) and the small processing fee.  The next week it was suddenly 4800 yen for the base price and when I asked about the change I was chewed out and they refused to respond afterward.  

[Mommar]

3 hours ago, Shawn said:

At least the good news is that these fire valks are seemingly going under msrp
I picked up one for $187...and with the 15% tariff that comes to $215, which is ok for a DX
I think these will all settle down low to mid 20k range in the future.

 

 

Where did you manage to get it that cheap?  $215 is like a normal price.

[MKT]

3 hours ago, recon said:

Some pics of the DX VF-19..Thanks to Kin Fung Chan for sharing

Looking at these pics now, the DX is like the PF Arcadia Kai we never got. 

[Shawn]

I could go resurrect a YJ thread from 2024 in the where to buy section or just post it here and be done..so quick and dirty. This will be my one and only 'where to buy' post to not pollute things too much
https://buyee.jp/item/jdirectitems/auction/j1204987775

sign up for the buyee proxy, pull the trigger on a buy it now

 

or use mercari (through buyee) there is even a 10% coupon right now

https://buyee.jp/mercari/search?keyword=DX超合金 マクロス7 VF-19改&status=on_sale

This one is $154 shipped to buyee with the 10% off, then you just need to get it shipped intl which is about $50, plus the awesome 15% tariff...sorry no getting around that if you are in the US

[rsvictor1976]

1 hour ago, Shawn said:

I could go resurrect a YJ thread from 2024 in the where to buy section or just post it here and be done..so quick and dirty. This will be my one and only 'where to buy' post to not pollute things too much
https://buyee.jp/item/jdirectitems/auction/j1204987775

sign up for the buyee proxy, pull the trigger on a buy it now

 

or use mercari (through buyee) there is even a 10% coupon right now

https://buyee.jp/mercari/search?keyword=DX超合金 マクロス7 VF-19改&status=on_sale

This one is $154 shipped to buyee with the 10% off, then you just need to get it shipped intl which is about $50, plus the awesome 15% tariff...sorry no getting around that if you are in the US

I thought you had to pay shipping from the seller to Buyee’s warehouse and then another shipping  charge from Buyee to you, along with Buyee’s service fees. Shipping to the U.S. wouldn’t be so bad if DHL wasn’t the only option available on most of the site I shop from. Their processing fee on top of the tariff is overkill. I’ve seen the processing fee be double the actual tariff amount. 

[treatment]

As of this posting,  it seems this DX Fire Valk is being heavily discounted to even lower than 22k-yen by 3rd-party sellers at amzn.jp, but only if you are a jp resident:

 

As such and as of this posting time, amz-jp is selling it for 26.644y plus shipping-fees:

https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B0F62BC2MB

 

here's the breakdown if I wanted to import it...

Around US$257 at current exchange-rate shipped.  

I'm still not pulling the trigger on this DX Kai even at that shipped pricing, tho...

 

 

 

Edited yesterday at 10:32 AM by treatment

[mechaninac]

4 hours ago, treatment said:

As of this posting,  it seems this DX Fire Valk is being heavily discounted to even lower than 22k-yen by 3rd-party sellers at amzn.jp, but only if you are a jp resident:

 

As such and as of this posting time, amz-jp is selling it for 26.644y plus shipping-fees:

https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B0F62BC2MB

 

here's the breakdown if I wanted to import it...

Around US$257 at current exchange-rate shipped.  

I'm still not pulling the trigger on this DX Kai even at that shipped pricing, tho...

 

 

 

If it were a Blazer VF-19S/F, then a strong maybe, but a Kai... hard pass.

[Shawn]

9 hours ago, rsvictor1976 said:

I thought you had to pay shipping from the seller to Buyee’s warehouse and then another shipping  charge from Buyee to you, along with Buyee’s service fees. Shipping to the U.S. wouldn’t be so bad if DHL wasn’t the only option available on most of the site I shop from. Their processing fee on top of the tariff is overkill. I’ve seen the processing fee be double the actual tariff amount. 

The intra-Japan shipping is 100% dependent on the seller source. YJ is almost always buyer pays intra japan from the seller to the buyee warehouse.
Mercari on the other hand, is the opposite. Almost all the products on there are intra-japan shipping included. 
Perhaps there is a smaller fee for placing your item on Mercari vs YJ, or they incentivize them in some other way, but that is the pattern I've seen over the years.

[ImChris5115]

 

[rsvictor1976]

42 minutes ago, ImChris5115 said:

 

You gotta love that AI english translation... "It's so cool. It's so cool. It's so cool. I'm so happy. I'm so happy..."

[Actar]

Finally shipped out! I can't wait to get my DX Chogokin VF-19 Kai in hand. Bandai will make the most asinine design and engineering choices one day and implement crazy innovations like finally integrating the neck cover of the VF-19 into the transformation the next. Really want to play with the shoulder mechanism in person, too.

[Shawn]

I sure with they would stop with the 'rotate the hip joint to lower/raise' the legs...I really really really hate this, ever since I first encountered it in the Mospeada Riobot Legioss toy
It always feels like I'm going to break the damn thing with these crazy rotate the leg and pull to move the joint.

stop it!

[Actar]

1 minute ago, Shawn said:

I sure with they would stop with the 'rotate the hip joint to lower/raise' the legs...I really really really hate this, ever since I first encountered it in the Mospeada Riobot Legioss toy
It always feels like I'm going to break the damn thing with these crazy rotate the leg and pull to move the joint.

stop it!

At least there are locks on the 19s. The way they did the 21's hips was atrocious.

[treatment]

hmmm.

still seems to look bow-legged like their previous VF-19Advance and YF-19...

[MKT]

2 hours ago, rsvictor1976 said:

You gotta love that AI english translation... "It's so cool. It's so cool. It's so cool. I'm so happy. I'm so happy..."

I also keep hearing yes.. Yes.. YESSS! Feels like watching the wrong genre.  

[Chronocidal]

Yeah, that's just the natural impact of the insane hip joint Bandai developed.  It gives a pretty good range of motion, but holy cow does the entire mechanism of the hips scare me from all the tiny parts.

Edit; Also, as a preemptive safety measure, you may want to loosen the screws in the hip joints for ease of use.  The YF-19s always came insanely tight, and I know of at least a couple instances where it led to the plastic parts breaking around the screws.  I can only hope that the mechanism is similar enough to be able to loosen it the same way this time around.

Edited 18 hours ago by Chronocidal

[Shawn]

Let's see how these things hold up with applying that pressure in 10 plus years 

The video showed great excitement about the folding parts behind the head in battroid mode. It looks like it might be hard to align with big monkey hands like mine. 

[Mommar]

23 hours ago, rsvictor1976 said:

I thought you had to pay shipping from the seller to Buyee’s warehouse and then another shipping  charge from Buyee to you, along with Buyee’s service fees. Shipping to the U.S. wouldn’t be so bad if DHL wasn’t the only option available on most of the site I shop from. Their processing fee on top of the tariff is overkill. I’ve seen the processing fee be double the actual tariff amount. 

The processing fee is $7.  Those shops are marking it way up to screw you.

[barurutor]

6 hours ago, Actar said:

Finally shipped out! I can't wait to get my DX Chogokin VF-19 Kai in hand. Bandai will make the most asinine design and engineering choices one day and implement crazy innovations like finally integrating the neck cover of the VF-19 into the transformation the next. Really want to play with the shoulder mechanism in person, too.

Apparently T-Rex is involved in the Chogokin VF-19 design (along with a bunch of Yamato/Arcadia classics including the Arcadia YF-19), wonder who did the YF-21?

Edited 14 hours ago by barurutor
add Arcadia YF-19 to T-Rex designs

[Captain Global]

Apparently as @itachi_neko points out, the battroid pilot hatch gimmick is still present. 

I find it wierd it's not present in the manual, just a little easter egg. 

It seems the Yamcadia DNA runs even deeper than I thought. 

https://x.com/itachi_neko/status/1982369012760940786/photo/2

[treatment]

6 hours ago, Captain Global said:

Apparently as @itachi_neko points out, the battroid pilot hatch gimmick is still present. 

I find it wierd it's not present in the manual, just a little easter egg. 

It seems the Yamcadia DNA runs even deeper than I thought. 

https://x.com/itachi_neko/status/1982369012760940786/photo/2

 

Pilot seat does not rotate on the Bandai DX Kai:

https://twitter.com/TakowasaShell/status/1982051807846429098

 

---

 

add/edit:

Heppoko recently tweeted his DX Kai comparo-pics.  Click on his tweeter-links for full-scale of his pics below:

https://twitter.com/simsim5479/status/1982443757107908824

web-translated:

 

https://twitter.com/simsim5479/status/1982443761394483657

web-translated:

 

Edited 6 hours ago by treatment

[treatment]

full-scale fighter-shots at Heppoko's tweet below...

 

https://twitter.com/simsim5479/status/1982436897487290452

web-translated:

 

downscaled sample:

 

[David Hingtgen]

Looks like the nosegear has the same issue as the YF-21, where it doesn't seem to be able to QUITE fully unfold, leaving a kink/gap in the middle of the strut.  

[treatment]

with the gunpod...

https://twitter.com/simsim5479/status/1982444341974208610

 

 

[jenius]

To bad they couldn't figure out an extension gimmick for the grip to make it last flat but, even then, it would have to be nearly lying on the ground to clear the waist area.

[Chronocidal]

Yeah, so, I'm not trusting that example.  That's not being pushed down by the crotch plate, it's not even touching when you view it from the front.  I think that's mostly just user error not understanding how to mount the gun so it doesn't drag.

Not to take all of the blame away from Bandai though, the real problem (on this and the YF-19) is that they expected a nearly vertical grip mounting point to somehow support an angled grip without the gun also tilting downward the same amount.  

The whole issue for both versions could have been fixed if they just.. you know.. planned.  It does look like they've attempted to address this with the Fire Valk, by making the gunpod handle rotate, but we'll have to wait and see how effective it is.

That display though.. that honestly looks like they purposefully mounted it as droopy as physically possible.

And I'm not one to explicitly trust Bandai not to lie with its pictures, but the single picture in the instructions showing the mounted gunpod puts it at no worse a position than the YF-19 or Yamato version.

Over time, I've managed to get my DX YF-19s to display it very nearly level.  Honestly, the main issue?  It's that blasted connection they added so the shield locks into the torso.  I hate to say this, but just like MOST of their Macross products, Bandai is absolutely terrible at understanding the necessary tolerances for the parts they design themselves, and how they have to fit together.  They have never understood the complexities of how to get arms and legs to mesh well in that configuration.  There's never enough room for the parts they design to fit the way they're intended, and it just leads to everything being off-kilter.

In the case of the YF-19, and what I assume will be the same case for this one?  They incorrectly toleranced the distance the arms need to attach to the shield and have it lock in correctly on the rear of the fighter.  What that means is that the when the shield is attached, it rotates the lower arms upward, because the shield is pulling forward on the upper surface.  That, in turn, means the gunpod is forever pointed downward.

It's really easy to fix though.  Detach the shield, and the arms and gunpod line up perfectly fine.  All you would really need to do is lengthen the shield a few millimeters, and the issue would be gone.

In the YF-19's case, you know what I did?  I yanked out the attached neck cover.  Leaving that structure out allows the shield to flex a bit more, letting the arms settle into a level position, and leveling the gunpod completely (you know.. aside from the bent barrel, because they still mounted an angled grip in a vertical arm slot ).

I don't know if the shield on the Fire Valk is attached in the same way, and I doubt it can be, because of the shoulder flaps, but the way to get the gunpod level is probably going to depend on slightly detaching the shield from the arms to let the arms sag a little, and drop the rear of the gunpod lower.

Edited 1 minute ago by Chronocidal