Yes, I flew 6 hours from CA to NY, got a rental car, hotel, drove to the middle of New York state, met the Wise Guys Team, toured the Warehouses, and then did a rewind of all those steps in just 3 days time, all to look at a bunch of model kits from the 80s.
Yes, it was crazy.
And Yes, it was totally worth it.
Day #1 – The arrival
When the plane landed, I noticed this strange Nuclear Fallout in the air… Oh..that is SNOW. Just great. I just left 75 degree weather in So Cal.
What is this stuff falling from the sky?
I made the trip with fellow MacrossWorld member XSToys, he was as curious as I was, even though he is the “Toy” Guy. But he appreciates a lifetime collection as Ron had, so we met up at JFK. Leaving our respective houses at 3am. then all day flights with layovers + losing 3 hours due to the time zone meant it was a crazy snow and rain and slushfilled evening finding the rental car (JFK is HUGE), driving to the middle of New York State to the hotel, with just had enough time for a late dinner. We would engage Wise Guys first thing in the morning!
Day #2 – The Visit
Early up, grab some quick breakfast on the way, and arrive at a very non-descript location in an industrial business park. Am I at the right location? XSToys spots an empty folded TCI box in the front in a recycling pile…bingo!
A minute later Anthony pulled up and introduced me to the other members of the Wise Guys Staff, Victor (WiseGuyVic in the forums) and Joe. Insanely nice and extremely accommodating, with New York accents in full power. We couldn’t meet a more welcoming group of people.
We entered the building into the front office, and I saw a peek of the warehouse out the back door. We introduced ourselves and started talking about some of our collecting history, then XSToys started with his insane toy collecting legacy. I was ‘Yeah XS..this is all really great stuff (I’ve heard his history report a few times)…but uhmm, I gotta go into this warehouse right now or I’m gonna die. A group chuckle ensued and I was GONE.
My side eye view whilst historical introductions were being made…I gotta GO!
I enter and hang a sharp left. This is Victor’s workspace. Victor does the translations of the never ending boxes for the ebay store and for the inventory worksheet. Most of the Macross kits have convenient english text somewhere on the boxes. Many series though are 100% Japanese text, and it was very difficult to inventory these until Victor joined. I joked to Anthony “I knew the day Victor started because I saw the immediate jump in inventory text accuracy in the inventory workbook!” : )
Fresh batch of kits extracted from the boxes. SFD3D, Battletech, and the Arii 1/170 HEWAT lineup-all 4 variants. A few Queads hidden in the background. Yes, we can use a 1/5000 SDF-1 as our temp mousepad in these parts.
To the right of Victor’s workstation there was a nice display setup of some kits…and HEY! Those are my Imai GU-11 Gunpods I’ll be reselling at the SDCon this year to pay for our server costs! Sweet!
My GU-11s! Come to SDCON this year to pick one up and support Macross World!
I noticed the sprue piles below the tables. Some of the kits outer boxes just didn’t make it from Ron’s house (in the attic there were a couple leaks), so these get shucked and thown into the Sprue boxes.
Kitbash fun!I told you…those ARII 1/170 HEWATS were literally fresh out of the case. Here is the case to prove it200 Yen each, 4 variations. 160 per case. Victor’s afternoon is going to be very busy indeed. Case of Macross 1/200 Nichimos in the upper left corner. To the right are some Zeta Gundams, middle are Macross and Orguss, right is a case of NOS Votoms…just wow!A quick glance down the first row. Camera ready, lets dive in. Going to snake down the left side, then back up the right, rinse and repeat per row if you are tracking something on the shelves.Imai’s 1/72 Variable VF-1D rebranded as the Orbot. You should take note of the condition of these boxes. In most ebay type auctions or at vendor tables at various cons, the boxes always tend to be crushed. Revell didn’t spend a lot of money on them, the cardboard is extremely thin for a wide long kit. These here? Pristine. I grabbed one of each for my personal collection.Milia’s VF-1J rebranded as Axoid. Center left is representative of what I was talking about being the norm for these things. By the way-unless you can see otherwise, these shelves are all 2-3 levels DEEP of the same kits, that you are looking at 48-60 of these Changer kits!Arii gets into the game with their 1/100 Variable lineup. These don’t have weird names or paint jobs like the Imai, they are referred to as Veritech fighters, so I imagine these were released after the released of the Robotech the TV series. Remember 2-3 levels deep, so we have about 50 of theseI’m not sure the difference between the 2 box colors(Black and Green), perhaps someone with a bit more knowledge of the Revell kits could chime in. I saw it on the earlier 1/72 lineup as wellMax type on the left, and the remaining Fockers on the right These are wonderful kits, they are just like their 1/72 larger cousins. I always wondered how Arii could copy so much from the Imai 1/72 version, just assumed it was some sort of mutual agreement in place.Arii 1/48 Nikick (fixed pose) appearing as the Decimax, and the Imai 1/40 Variable Orguss coming in as the Nebo. I get it…you often have to come up with a new name for a new market, but since they are all made up anyways, why a Decimax vs Nikick? Nebo always sounded vaguely aquatic to me.Some large box Dougram rounding out this shelfThis was the Takara Crab Gunner if I recall…memory is not so good on the Dougram stuff, so don’t quote me on that!Oh Vexar, remember when I picked you up at my local K-Mart as a young teen. I knew what it was…it was $20 cheaper than the Imai 1/72 Focker Variable kit at my local hobby store. Some mint versions in the back…yoinked one for myself!Aqualo and Airborne Attackers! And my favorite thing…an SF3D box used to block the window. Only a Wise Guy would do that.Arii’s large 1/5000 SDF-1 makes it across the Pacific into the Robotech lineup. Some of the smaller Arii factories on the right.Arii’s 1/48 Drifand Dal (Orguss Series) looks pretty damn cool as the “Trigon” on the box pic. It transforms into the more compact tank unit as well. What a cool kit.2-pack picks from Arii’s 1/170 lineup. We have random parings of kits grouped into pairs named Robotech Tactical Unit, Recon Team, Allied Forces, Sniper Squad, Ground Attackers, and Search Patrol.Continued from pic above. This wraps up the Revell Robotech section, what a stockpile!Want some small scale Yamato (Star Blazer) kits!? I saw so many cases of these! Ron must have got them in bulk! Each case has 30 different ships, between 40 and 5 each, totaling 240 kits per case. Obviously the 40 were the primary ships…with lesser seen models getting just 5.Break out of each case’s unitsOpening the case you are greeted with thisThe 30 kit lineup. What an awesome concept, for only 100 yen eachAt the end of the first row, we hit Nitto’s SF3D World. When was the last time you ever saw this many NOS SF3D kits in one location? Bonus Crusher Joe and Macross case sitting on the topSF3D Group 1. I remember seeing these being built in the early/mid 80’s issues of Hobby Japan. I always appreciated the real-world like applications of all their ships and weapons.SF3D Group 2SF3D Group 3SF3D Group 4. I remember always seeing the crazy names like Neuspotter, Fledermaus, and Hornisse. What a crazy time machine collection of kits.Shipping Case of 40 for the Macross Diorama with the VF-1J Gerwalk as the primary character. I never thought I’d see actual shipping cases from 1983 still around.The kit mentioned above. These sets were all mixed with existing WWII model assets (I believe, I can’t imagine they would make these for the Macross kits). One day I’m going to try and tracking them down.In the corner stacked up along side one of the racks, I saw a few more boxes. Here is the shipping case for the Arii 1/100 Super Valkyrie. 72 per box at 400 Yen each.The #70 Super Valkyrie box art…And as seen extracted from the case and put on the shelves ready for sale. There are 2 cases worth here…approx 120 kits! Contact Anthony and buy some in BULK-they are pretty nice kits, you could build out any squadron you could imagine.We’ve turned the corner on aisle #1 and working our way back up. HUNDREDS of the Arii 1/100 Metalize series of kits (the are the Arii’s smaller response to the Imai Iron-Type series of kits).Arii’s 1/100 VF-1S FockersI can say pretty confidently that you will never see another set of 200 SDF-1 Kits again. These are the Arii 1/8000 Cruiser mode, pic below. If you didn’t catch that…over 200 of them. More Diorama kits to the right.Build one stock. Build a green Zentradi version. How about Max and Milia variants. Can they kit-bash combine into a larger one i.e. GoLion/Voltron? With 200 you can have some fun.Arii’s 1/100 Mikimoto Box Art series of kitsHow about some Southern Cross 1/12 Figure kits?Remember that empty Nichimo Case from earlier? They’ve been unpacked! There is a great abundance of the 1/200 Defenders for some reason…something like 120 of them, plus another 100 in another case I saw.And remember when I said earlier the kits often go back 2-3 rows? For the smaller Nichimo’s we are 5 levels deep.Abundant Defenders The Max standard fighter box art is awesome-one of my favorite Takani piecesMax Valkyrie Box ArtAnd to round out this aisle, at the top of the end cap is an Arii 1/100 Regult Case, and the 1985 Bandai 1/72 Max Super Valkyrie.This box has made the grand tour from Bandai in Japan to TCI in Denver to Ron at GTC to Wise Guys Hobbies to you seeing it here
Hope you’ve enjoyed our first update since the trip, sorry its taken so long to get uploaded.
PLEASE feel free to reach out to Anthony with if you want any larger purchases, the Wise Guys will make you a deal! Ron was sitting on so much leftover inventory it still make my head spin.
Please visit the Wise Guys Hobbies Ebay store below.
