Anasazi37

I hope they do, although my wallet needs a break. Most of the tooling is already done.

My proxy came through! Woke up to find a confirmation email in my inbox. After processing fees, the total is close to what sites like Yuyakunow are charging. Out of curiosity I checked AE's site this morning, didn't see a listing, and thought maybe they're taking their time, which they sometimes do for TWE POs. But then I read through the last few pages of comments in this thread and saw the blank page on their site. I can't remember seeing that for a Macross TWE item before. This one went FAST. Everywhere.

Tamashii Web Shop only, meaning you have to order directly from the Premium Bandai (P-Bandai) site unless you go through a proxy that orders from them on your behalf. https://p-bandai.jp/item/item-1000204082/ If you click on that link and hit the "International Shipping Available" page, that means you're not in Japan and can't order it yourself. Using a VPN won't work because Bandai checks your mailing address, phone number, and bank info to make sure that you live in Japan. If they don't like what they see, they'll cancel your order and shut down your account. They are hypervigilant and extremely thorough.

In this case, AE acts like a proxy buying service. Presumably they have a small army of local people (or least their names, addresses, phone numbers, and credit card details) and use them to place a lot of individual orders to create their stockpile. They then sell those units on their site at a markup. That is too much of a hassle for the large stores, plus I don't think they want to anger Bandai. AE doesn't seem to care. It's a constantly evolving cat-and-mouse game between Bandai and the proxy buying organizations. The proxy I use has resorted to shipping TWE items to individual homes and then has the packages relayed to their warehouse because Bandai shut down all user accounts that listed the warehouse address for shipping.

This is going to be a Tamashii Web Exclusive, so the usual PO Madness rules don't 100% apply. You won't be able to order it directly from stores like HLJ, AmiAmi, and Amazon Japan. Some stores, like Anime Export, will offer it at a markup, but the number of available units will probably be low and they might cancel your order if you're too far down the list of buyers because they weren't able to secure enough units, so you'll want to act fast. Your other option is to go through a proxy buying service. Their markup is about the same as what you'll deal with at AE, but they buy directly from Bandai for you, so if they confirm your order, you're good to go. They have the same stock issue as AE, where they fill orders as they come in, until they can't. If you're too far back in line, they'll cancel your order. You'll want to place an order as quickly as possible.

I'm pretty sure that every site offering it will ask you to prepay because they have to prepay when they place their orders. Tamashii Web Exclusives are handled differently than regular retail releases. They are meant for individuals, not stores, so stores have to get creative to order many of them.

My wallet hates me right now, given how soon this is happening after the YF-21 PO, but I'm not going to complain. DX VT-1? Yes, please! We usually get a week to prepare for PO Madness, but just a day? That's rare. Just submitted my order request with my go-to proxy. Hope they come through.

And because the impacted VF-1s didn't have this new removable tailfin gimmick, it would have been a major headache for them to fix the problem. The most they did was include decals with the Hayao DX so you could fix it yourself. Having to purchase an expensive TWE VF-1 to get a DIY fix for a different VF-1 isn't really a fix, which is why I ended up creating that small $5 decal set for MW members who needed it.

I thought they included a second tail fin with 100 on it. The product description mentions an interchangeable tailfin for the right side. Bandai really can't let go of that mistake and call it mistake, can they?

Mine arrived today from HLJ. I dropped my 1/72 Hasegawa Q-Rau into the shipment as well. Wasn't expecting it come in a larger box than the 171!

It's been over a year since I started working on Hasegawa-style armaments for the 1/55 VF-1. I set the project aside for a long time, but picked it back up this past week. It's really coming together now. The armaments break down into multiple parts for easier printing, painting, and assembly. They are hollow so there isn't any strain on the wings from extra weight. They utilize tiny magnets for attachment (right now I'm using some blue tack for quick testing purposes). I'm also thinking about making a pylon to hold both RMS-1 missiles instead of having one for each. That would be more consistent with Yamato, Arcadia, and Bandai valks.

There's a whole lineup of DX adapters for the stand and if it can handle the weight of a fully-armored Yamato 1/48, you should be fine. Just be sure to tighten the nuts and bolts appropriately.

They've made a big difference for my displays. I now have options for Fighter, Armored Fighter, Gerwalk, and Battroid. Those last two work with or without armor. Fighter required a separate adapter for each.

This is particularly true in Fighter mode. I designed an adapter for the Archi Stand and had to do some clever engineering to make sure that the back-heavy weight was distributed well and that the arms don't drop down when the armor and gunpod are attached. They don't "peg in" as securely on the Yamato as on the DX when the legs are lowered to accommodate Super/Strike parts.

You also have to hope that the store packs your item well enough to survive the long trip, or at least be okay with some item box damage in exchange for the lower shipping cost. The more time your item is in transit, the higher the probability that something will happen to it. DHL nearly destroyed my VF-25 Alto Full Set Pack, so even express couriers have problems (especially DHL), but my experience with Surface hasn't been great. If your item ends up in a bad position in the shipping container, with many heavier packages on top of it, and stays that way for 2-3 months, it might get crushed unless it's packed well. The few times I've used Surface, as an experiment, the shipping boxes arrived in bad shape, and there was some inner box damage. I know that you've had consistently good luck with Surface, and I tried using it based on your good luck and recommendation, but it hasn't worked out for me. Reputable stores like HLJ, AmiAmi, and AE do pack well, which gives your item a good shot at arriving safely via Surface. Amazon Japan sucks for international shipping, or even just domestic shipping to a package forwarding service so you can use Surface instead of DHL (helpful for large and/or heavy items). There's always item box damage, bent pages on books, etc. because Amazon just tosses stuff in boxes or bags, loose. Little to no packing material. Speaking of package forwarding services, Tenso and Blackship pack well, but you generally have to pay extra for the service. It's worth the few extra dollars to make the box bomb-proof, though.

Same for me with HLJ. I'm waiting on a few more items to come in stock before I ship, but hopefully within 7-10 days it will be on its way here.

Yes, I remember hearing something about this right around the time the first batch was released. Might be more of a general release for the second batch instead of another lottery, but we're talking about Bandai, and they like to torture collectors, so it could be another lottery.

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Accidental repost--deleted.

I honestly don't know. I've only ever seen a price go decrease by a little bit. I found Amazon Japan's description of what's covered, which should help you: The Pre-order Price Guarantee - Amazon Customer Service

If you preordered directly from Amazon JP itself, and not a third party seller on Amazon JP, the preorder price could be adjusted. I've seen that with some POs. If you went with a third party, I think you might be stuck with what you paid. At that point Amazon is just a platform provider.

To the best of my knowledge, we, as a community, have never been able to determine how Bandai manages their general Macross releases. Most signs point to them being limited, not unlimited, though. That tracks with broader "artificial scarcity" trend in the Japanese collectibles industry, and it probably reduces risk for the company. Bandai likely decides to make a certain number of them, based on how much production capacity they want to or can set aside, and distribute allocations to retailers (and now overseas distributors). Their factories make lots of things and they probably can't afford to wait and see how many orders show up from around the world before they start planning a production run. The one exception seems to be Tamashii Web Exclusive (TWE) items, like the Hayao VF-1A DX. Bandai will generally leave the PO page open on their site until a specific date, then produce the number of units that were ordered. They must have an upper limit, though, because we have seen TWE items sell out quickly and then sometimes Bandai will offer a second run at a later date. That happened with the first run of DX Super/Strike Packs. However, we're talking about Macross right now. Gundam and the other significantly more popular and more lucrative franchises might operate under different rules. Unlimited releases might make a lot more sense for them, or at the very least the production capacity set aside for them is probably much higher.

And can withstand a lot of physical punishment from a small child playing with it. They are virtually indestructible.

A few of us we're guesstimating a 55-60% markup over Japan retail price, based on what Bandai has done in the past. Current exchange rate puts it at $240 before shipping, so $350 would end up being about a 46% markup, but then there's state sales tax and domestic shipping. If you go with Mommar's BBTS door-to-door estimate and then add decent courier shipping from Japan for, let's say, $35, to level the playing field, it turns into to a 40% markup. That's...better....

Snagged one at HLJ right at 4pm Japan Time, but their site was definitely straining under the increased load. Figured I would get cartjacked, but somehow made it through. As others noted, HLJ sold out in less than a minute. I was watching AE at the same time and they sold out in about two minutes. That's very unusual. There's usually still some units available the morning after PO Madness because they now charge the Japanese-tax-included price (even to overseas customers) and want payment up front. I gave up on AJ a while back. I think it's been overrun by shopping bots, so they sell out instantly, plus they don't pack things properly for international shipping.