Bandai HG 1/100 VF-31 Valkyries

[KOG Water Dragon]

13 minutes ago, Big s said:

Other companies can, but Bandai models can’t because while other sites carry Bandai kits, there’s an agreement that they can’t ship them to the states. It’s supposedly that American stores can compete with Japanese sites.  Hlj seems to be an exception since they were designed as an English site in Japan. Toys and things are under a different rule, but Bandai models like Gundam, Votoms and Macross kits go under the rule that Japanese sites can’t supply to the states. Macross kinda gets stuck in a mess where there’s the extra harmony gold problem on top of all that for the og series, hopefully that doesn’t cause problems with the movie designs, but who knows.

Anyway, I noticed you mentioned hobbysearch. If you even try looking up Gundam kits or really any other Bandai models on their site, they don’t list them anymore. You have to change the URL to Japan and then they become visible. You can however find Bandai toys easily like sh figuarts or dx toys from Macross and even the hmr stuff, but the model kits don’t appear without that change to the URL

I know of the awkward complicated issues surrounding VF-1 merch being officially sold in the US. Bandai doesn't want japanese sites to sell kits to the US because they want to sell kits through stateside distributors. And the stateside distributors can't carry the VF-1 stuff because of the Harmony Gold agreement. So that makes selling a Bandai VF-1 domestically a no go for the time being.

However. Harmony Gold can't stop people from buying VF-1 kits from Japan, which is why we can easily get the Hasegawa and PLAMAX kits. And since HLJ is kinda sorta being allowed to break the 'dont sell to the US' rule (though they seem to be allocated much less Bandai stock now as a result), it stands to reason that HLJ could sell a hypothetical Bandai VF-1 kit to the US, as long as Bandai gives them stock allocation. And since they can't sell it locally in the US, I don't see why they wouldn't allow HLJ to sell some to the US, since there's no domestic distribution to compete with, because of the Harmony Gold stuff. It doesn't seem like kits imported to the US by buyers (not retailers) violate the agreement. And even if HLJ couldn't get stock and sell to the US, I'm sure there would be other ways to get them. 

But the main thing is, even if the US market had no access to them at all, I doubt Bandai would miss the opportunity to sell a HG VF-1 to the entire rest of the world. And I imagine a robust possibility of people across the world acquiring some to sell to the US through auctions and second-hand sites.

No mistake, I think they'd be hard to get in the US for a while, if HLJ was the only place you could order from in Japan, knowing that it's hard in general to get Bandai items from HLJ anywhere near release date.

[Big s]

27 minutes ago, KOG Water Dragon said:

But the main thing is, even if the US market had no access to them at all, I doubt Bandai would miss the opportunity to sell a HG VF-1 to the entire rest of the world. And I imagine a robust possibility of people across the world acquiring some to sell to the US through auctions and second-hand sites.

I think unfortunately the rest of the world tends to be put into that rule. From my understanding they have a pretty tough time getting these items as well and are also getting mainly Robotech labeled items.

 

30 minutes ago, KOG Water Dragon said:

No mistake, I think they'd be hard to get in the US for a while, if HLJ was the only place you could order from in Japan, knowing that it's hard in general to get Bandai items from HLJ anywhere near release date.

There’s been plenty of people complaining about not getting their preorders fulfilled until later batches. I haven’t had that problem until recently trying to get the Gallus-J from ZZ Gundam. Although only a few months after the initial release they did get another batch and it’s now sitting in my private warehouse. I’m hoping that if the do stuff for og Macross that they will honor preorders quickly when there’s not enough stock. And I hope they at least pump out enough for everyone to get them not too far after initial release 

[KOG Water Dragon]

1 hour ago, Big s said:

I think unfortunately the rest of the world tends to be put into that rule. From my understanding they have a pretty tough time getting these items as well and are also getting mainly Robotech labeled items.

 

There’s been plenty of people complaining about not getting their preorders fulfilled until later batches. I haven’t had that problem until recently trying to get the Gallus-J from ZZ Gundam. Although only a few months after the initial release they did get another batch and it’s now sitting in my private warehouse. I’m hoping that if the do stuff for og Macross that they will honor preorders quickly when there’s not enough stock. And I hope they at least pump out enough for everyone to get them not too far after initial release 

You've been pretty lucky I guess. Out of the entire HG 1/100 Macross line, the entire Armored Core VI line, every RG and MG for the last 2 years... I haven't gotten a single pre-order filled at initial release. I did manage to get a stash of 6 VF-22 Max/Miria decal sets, not sure how I got so lucky. I think I got 1 YF-29 Max, 1 YF-21, and 1 Fire Valkyrie way after release. Gundam stuff just never gets filled so I wind up canceling the orders when stock turns up local. I think I got 2 of the Armored Core kits well after release.

And yes, it does look like HG has rights to original Macross characters and mecha worldwide outside Japan. Still, that isn't stopping other companies from making kits, and Bandai had their own 1/72 VF-1 a while back, and I think they are still doing the pre-completed VF-1 toys?

I'll get the Wave 1/100s if I need to, but I'd rather Bandai do a series. Especially since the Wave kits available now are just movie versions.

[Big s]

4 hours ago, KOG Water Dragon said:

Bandai had their own 1/72 VF-1 a while back, and I think they are still doing the pre-completed VF-1 toys?

The new deals with hg came up a while after the Bandai 1/72 kit and most of the og Macross toys get a Japan only label, but the toys are at least available at other sites

[PointBlankSniper]

Most of the stock problems are just the effects of bandai's strategy to feed scalpers rather than customers. Even japanese people take swings at bandai for eternal stock shortage and scalper problems every chance they get. Yet bandai still focuses on jumping between small batch reprints, spam new series and new designs nobody asked for without fulfulling demand, spam pbandai limited runs, etc. They do everything in their power to create stock shortage and raise the value of scalping. Then they blockade cross region retail at the expense of regions with bad distro and local pricing, in the name of combating scalping. But there is no legitimate logic to it, because in reality, they are just giving more power to scalpers by giving them exclusive rights to peddle merchandize between regions. They singlehandedly built the scalper empire, and they will do everything they can to continue to fatten it.

So it's not really an HLJ issue IMO, other than the fact that they are the last one allowed to do cross region retail, so all the symptoms are showing through them. It's just bandai totally not secretly having back channel arrangements or managing the scalper network themselves 😉, and totally putting in all their efforts to stop the scalper industry😉, that they totally didn't have a hand in birthing 😉, and cutting out all the distro and retailers for retail equivalent pricing through p-bandai isn't just another step in their strategy 😉. I totally don't think every individual scalper and scalping retailer is just an undercover bandai staff 😁

Its not going to improve because bandai's priorities are as suspicious as the consistent quality and QC issues of their DX/Metal Build/tamashii lines. Just another thing that even japanese people are openly dunking on them for, and they don't care.

Their games also have some of the most heinous DLC schemes, despite people forgetting that is a thing between every release.

Bandai is run by corporate vampires, so things can only get worse.

[Big s]

54 minutes ago, PointBlankSniper said:

So it's not really an HLJ issue IMO

I’m not blaming hlj at all. They’re told they will get a certain amount of kits, but often Bandai doesn’t quite come through. So Hlj does put their customers ahead of the question on the soonest restock 

[Marcion]

why Bandai didn't want to make 1/72 SCALE of VF31E?

[Big s]

1 hour ago, Marcion said:

why Bandai didn't want to make 1/72 SCALE of VF31E?

Probably more interest in the hg line and cheaper to design since they’re not fully transformable.

[PointBlankSniper]

Bandai almost never completes any line up of a series. Its like their core value at this point.

[Marcion]

5 hours ago, Big s said:

Probably more interest in the hg line and cheaper to design since they’re not fully transformable.

well that suck, or they just lazy to made radar dome on 1/72 VF31E. 

[Big s]

7 hours ago, PointBlankSniper said:

Bandai almost never completes any line up of a series. Its like their core value at this point.

It’s pretty rare. I always hope they won’t give up, but they usually do. They rarely fail to fail in the end

[sh9000]

 

 

[KOG Water Dragon]

Well. Got notice from HLJ that they have a HG VF-31C for me. But I'm in backorder for the 1 DX version and 1 decal set they allowed me to pre-order. Darn.

Local shops, here I come (again).