Anasazi37

I haven't hit them too hard about the new site, but that's next on my list. Some aspects of it are fine, but the big one impacting us is that crazy-long delay as they query their database for item availability, during which you can't do anything but wait. On PO Madness nights, it's the kiss of death. I have no idea why that is so excruciatingly slow. It's not like they're sequencing DNA, looking for exoplanets, or creating Skynet. It's a simple database transaction. Maybe it's a bot countermeasure.

This is starting to sound more and more like high speed trading, a.k.a., frontrunning

Especially when Bandai is focused on Japan. They likely do their production math with the domestic otaku market in mind and that crowd probably isn't very large. There are several threads in the Toys section that have gone round and round on the issue of whether or not Bandai cares about Macross collectors outside of Japan, which then usually leads to international copyright discussions, etc. I don't want to inject any of that here, just wanted to reinforce your point.

This is exactly my situation. I've been looking into personally developing a bot for several months now, off and on, because the few times I've participated in middle-of-the-night PO Madness over the past two years it had a substantial negative impact on my life for a day or two afterwards and I simply can't afford to let that happen. For example, Hikaru 1S PO Madness hit while I was on a business trip, so there I was, hunched over my laptop on a crappy hotel wireless connection at 1:30am, frantically hitting Ctrl+Tab and F5 across many sites, trying to snag one. I couldn't. And I was wrecked for my meetings later in the day (lots of coffee got me through). It was the last straw for me, so my current strategy is to do...nothing. I wake up early enough that if I can't find the item on PO day--even at NY with their infamous wallet-demolishing markup--I just put it on my list of things to grab after release because I'm patient and eventually one will show up on Mandarake, Jungle, or the For Sale thread here. Having a personal bot running during PO Madness would allow me to sleep and maybe grab one, but if it doesn't work, I'm right where I was, waiting to grab one later, which is fine (but generally much more expensive). However, developing a successful bot, tuned to one or more sites, will be a lot of work and, as @Shizuka the Cat says, it will require constant upkeep as the sites improve their countermeasures. It's an arms race, really, which is why I'm still on the fence about it. The sneaker world has been dealing with this issue for years and there are lots of articles and blog posts about sneakerbots (pros and cons). It's worth reading those before deciding one way or the other. I've been having a conversation with Scott Hards (founder and CEO of HLJ) about this for a year and a half now. I reached out to him after I wasn't able to get a YF-19 Full Set Pack through his site, which was the latest in a long string of failures stretching all the way back to the original release of the VF-31J in 2016. I had stepped away from Macross collecting for about ten years and when I re-engaged, I found a completely different sales landscape filled with ruthless frontrunners and scalpers on one end, Bandai's low production numbers and indifference on the other, and stores stuck in the middle taking most/all of the heat because they are directly customer-facing. I remembered being able to jump onto HLJ, easily find what I want, and be done. Not anymore, and what we have to do now is taking all of the joy out of collecting. I'd been a customer of HLJ for a long time, and I guess you could say that I've spent a lot of money there over the years, but more importantly they do pride themselves on customer service, so I thought they might listen to me if I started asking questions about how the process could be more fair to collectors like us. So, I fired off a note to Scott directly, indicating that I was part of a larger group of passionate collectors, and he replied, kicking off a conversation that's still going. I can tell you that HLJ is *very much* aware of our collective frustration and they are looking at ways to help, but they are also squarely pointing the finger at Bandai, who only gives them a limited amount of stock. I threw a bunch of ideas at him, including the option to do a phased PO across multiple time zones, i.e., release a certain amount of stock one hour, then more the next, and so on, so that their global customer base has a fighting chance to get an item during local business hours--a process that could be easily automated. Right now, if you're in the Americas, you're at a distinct disadvantage despite the fact that we're supposed to be one of HLJ's key target audiences, and I made sure to point that out. He said that their team would add my ideas to the pool of options they are currently considering, but that whatever they decide to do, the biggest problem is limited stock and there will be lots of unhappy customers unless/until Bandai increases their production numbers. Since I have this conversation going with him, I'd be happy to pass along a curated set of comments and ideas. If we can get one of the big stores to change how they handle POs, I suspect that the other big ones will follow suit.

I keep a chunky monkey in my office and when the summer interns first show up, I ask if anyone is willing to attempt transforming it from battroid to fighter and back. If they can do it in under a minute, they can take the rest of the day off. If they can't, their first project will be the hardest and most annoying one we have on the list. Several have tried and failed over the years. Lots of landing-gear-related injuries. A kid this past summer finally nailed it, probably could have done it blindfolded. His dad gave him an original Jetfire when he was young. He had never heard of Macross. I didn't count that against him.

I started by telling myself that I'd only get the Regult because I didn't have any enemy mecha in my collection and it looked like Bandai did a really good job with it. Then I noticed how nice the Destroids looked. A few years later, this is where I am: Regult Glaug Regult Missile Set Defender Spartan Monster VF-1D VF-4 VF-2SS + SAP VT-1 VE-1 VF-1J Max Super VF-1J Milia Super VF-1J Hikaru VF-1A CF VF-1S Roy Strike GBP with VF-1J Hikaru Missile Effect Set (used with Roy Strike and Max Super) Glad to know that I'm not the only one who has artfully arranged the boxes. And I wholeheartedly agree that the non-transforming entries are the real stars of this line, but the valks are still a lot of fun to handle.

Man, that's tempting

It's too late. Just accept that you're going to get the entire line and start budgeting accordingly. I gave in last year and am much happier as a result.

I think most of us have a portal into that realm in our workshops

I had a lot of fun doing that back in the day. Then life interfered, so I "retired" from printing decals and stickers for about ten years, but I'm trying to help out MW members again on a limited basis. I still have two functional ALPS MD-5000 printers. Ink is harder to find and more expensive these days, but I'm building up a small stockpile.

Nope. Looks like it's still a prototype that has to be finalized.

Well done!

I second that!

3 hours ago, borgified said: Anyone Everyone waiting for the next HMR release from the Tamashii Nations exhibit this weekend? ^^^^This^^^^

I broke down and pre-ordered one from HLJ. I'm thinking that I'll turn it into a Cannon Fodder, maybe display it at work. I've always had a soft spot for the CF and it doesn't get nearly enough love.

I'm setting aside a nice chunk of space in my home office so I can put the Fighter and Gerwalk kits next to each other. I'm also leaving room for a Battroid kit so all three modes can be displayed in sequence. That kit hasn't been announced yet, and we don't know if Max Factory will do one, but I really hope so. It might take another four years, though, and as discussed previously in this thread, it would require all new molds if they want to stay close to the line art (different proportions). Might be too costly....

I was just looking at my unbuilt kit the other day, thinking about when I might try to tackle it. I also have the full line of original IMAI/Bandai 1/72 kits that I need to build (with the forward section that you have to swap out for Battroid mode, the ultimate partsformer). Not too difficult to assemble, but you also wouldn't want to partsform them on a regular basis.

I would love to see it transform, but you'd definitely need a lot of space and probably 3-4 people

Forget the puny DX valks! I want this, which is being created for the upcoming Tamashii event. I’d find room for it in my house...somewhere.

I used it to lift up my Armored VF-25S and YF-29 Durandal Alto with Super Parts, which allowed me to move my YF-19 and VF-2SS to the right and park Max on the left. The Monster is a bit boxed in right now, but I'll figure something out. Also considering some Yeti stand options as more of the 1/48s are released.

This could also be filed under the "how do you display your valks" thread, but my solution to this problem generated by Bandai's 1/48 DX line was to get a clear acrylic monitor display stand through Amazon and put some of my "in flight" valks on it so you can see them in the background. Way cheaper than official display risers of that size and it can hold a lot more weight if needed. For example: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B075WSW2BK/

I'm having the same first world problem with my Max. I had to squeeze him onto a shelf right in front of my HMR Monster.

I saw the same thing the other day when I checked. 33,565 to the US.

Private warehouses and tactical shipping decisions are key elements of my marital survival strategy