Anasazi37

I've often wondered the same thing. My best guess is that there's an assumption on the part of the manufacturer as to what the consumer will want to work with. Toys, theoretically, should be ready to interact with right out of the box. Stickers are easy to apply, and historically decals have not been included with toys, so it might be that simple. I'd happily pay a little bit more to have sticker and decal versions of the markings included. The Plamax 1/20 VF-1 kits are an interesting anomaly, though. They are most definitely a model that you have to assemble, and I think we all assumed that decals would be included, but we got stickers. Really crappy, profoundly disappointing stickers. If I'm correctly remembering their marketing material, the point was to make the kit easy to assemble and decorate for novice builders. Given the price tag, I wasn't looking for easy. I was looking for quality. They eventually released a set of decals (DX version that more or less matched the sticker sheets for $60) for it. Including both sticker and decals with those kits might have been too costly for Goodsmile/Max Factory to consider, but I would have been fine with it.

Some additional images of the battroid kit, courtesy of Dengeki Hobby Web: https://hobby.dengeki.com/event/1749622/ The close-up shot of the informational sign says "TBD" for both price and release date. No surprise there.

That seems to be the only hack that actually works, apart from using a proxy service.

You also need a Japanese bank account, credit card, and mailing address. Maybe some other things I'm not recalling, too. To my knowledge, no one living outside of Japan has successfully ordered a TWE item from P-Bandai since they put all of these administrative checks in place. When Bandai says "domestic only," they apparently mean it. VPN or header modding will at least let you look at the full product page, which is nice.

Probably the closest we'll ever see to that is the Chunky Monkey ...and with respect to the new Roy fighter kit, I will say that I appreciate Hasegawa's approach of making one DYRL VF-1 kit with 1A and 1S heads and a larger sheet of decals covering all Skull Squadron variants. Seems like a waste to make a new set for each variant, but maybe they're capitalizing on our "gotta catch them all" mindset and it makes financial sense for them to go this direction. We know they've thought of the multiple variants option before--just look at the (highly overpriced and incomplete) DX decals they made for the 1/20 kits.

So on top of their already-super-inflated shipping prices, they hit you for another ¥1750? Not cool. That's the whole point of paying up front for shipping. I'm definitely never ordering from them. I thought Jungle and Mandarake Complex shipping prices were bad, but this is some next level stuff....

1/72 Roy is on the way, too

Looks like a battroid VF-1J is in the works

The only 171 that I have is the CF (agree with you on the color scheme) and I've never transformed it because I'm worried about exploding triangles.

Time to break out @no3Ljm's infamous wallet GIF!

I think we're all waiting to see how many items displayed at the event will actually be released or re-released. My rough count, based on pictures, is at least 35 different items. I started a spreadsheet because there was a lot to keep track of:

I forgot about that option. Well played.

Given how Bandai is jacking up prices for WWM items, I'm surprised the three new Tiny Session valks aren't $169.99 as well.

Clicked the "ship" button this morning at HLJ, so I should have mine early next week. Had to wait until the Nendoroid Denji reissue was available so I could ship everything in my Private Warehouse, which includes an Arcadia Tomahawk. I'm debating if I should make decals for that. Not enough hours in the day and every time I use my ALPS printer I'm basically gambling that it won't break. Discussion for the other dedicated thread.

I'm guessing that it's some kind of proxy-based extension for Chrome that routes the browser's traffic through a server in Japan. Another option is VPN software that does the rerouting for your entire internet connection. If one were to have either capability on hand, one might see something like this for the item in question:

Good point. The customs folks up north like to take a bite out of your wallet when you use a courier service.

Yes, it has. They increased rates several times over the past year, with the biggest increase happening a few months ago. It's rarely cheaper than FedEx, UPS, and DHL these days. Also a lot slower. Regularly takes 1-2 weeks because of limited space on flights and slow processing by customs.

I couldn't sleep last night and happened to be up when the PO opened for these three, so I went to HLJ. Wow, that was a terrible decision. Not sure if it's because a ton of items from a lot of different properties went up for PO right after the Tamashii Nations event, but their site was getting absolutely hammered starting at 4pm JST. I tried to buy them for 30 minutes, but couldn't get to the payment screen (it would keep crashing). I finally gave up and tried again early this morning, remembering that these don't sell out instantly like the DX valks. Completed the order in 10-15 seconds. The experience reminded me to NOT use HLJ when PO Madness is a real concern. Their system can't handle the traffic.

That feature of AE gets me almost every time. I think, "wow, I just snagged the last one!" and then as soon as I log out, the item shows up as in stock. I wish their system, and the ones for HLJ and other sites, were smart enough to prevent cart jacking.

Bandai is still using styrofoam for DX Delta valks, which was disappointing to see when I opened up my Hayate and Mirage 31AX's. Really wish they'd stop. Maybe they'll move away from that with the next set of releases....

There's an existing thread on it that is already three pages(!) long. We're all excited and worried that it will be made. Excited because of the detail, worried because of the likely price.

I'm more than a little annoyed that Bandai might release an HMR Hayao 1A TV before we get one in the DX line. If we get one in the DX line....

AE just opened up POs for the Ghost Set: https://www.anime-export.com/index.php?product=62727 Their price is within one dollar of what I paid through my proxy service, so it's not a bad deal.

The price at AE is within a one dollar of what I paid through my proxy service, so it's not a bad deal.

It's "earth tone"